3 Essential Elements for a 21st Century Business

Running a modern business requires much more than management and planning. Technological advancement has steered 21st Century enterprises down a path of digital exploration, the likes of which we have never seen before. A few short years ago, the embrace of digital technology was a choice. But, unfortunately, that is no longer the case. 

Emerging technologies combined with existing business applications facilitated by computing are changing how we do business, how a company communicates with its clients, and the interaction between customers and information. There are many aspects to this, including traditional advertising, financial management, and the paperless office. 

But as the second-decade paces on, some of the most crucial aspects of modern business incorporate advanced technologies, such as: 

• Strong Brand Identity
• Marketing Strategies
• An Established Web Presence

Brand identity caters to consumers, clients, and employees by clearly defining your vision via various media. The backbone of a business, marketing strategies clearly define short and long-term goals. At the very least, you need to establish a web presence since more consumers turn to online assets for company information and buying decisions. 

Strong Brand Identity

Developing a brand identity is not as simple as people tend to assume. This vital task requires the talents and skills of highly motivated people. As a multidisciplinary task across a design agency, it incorporates the gifts of the technical and creative-minded alike. Skills from multiple backgrounds, such as marketing, design, art, and finance, integrate to develop a brand identity.

The importance of brand identity cannot be understated. As a means of corporate distinguishment, it is a crucial tool that can extend across all areas of your company. On the face of it, brand identity helps to inform consumers of the quality of the service or product offered through logos and slogans. 

Strong brand identity plays to the subconscious at a deeper level by using Jungian archetypal symbols to communicate a message and influence emotion. Examples of Jungian archetypes used as brand identity in advertising include:

• The Rebel: Harley Davidson
• The Lover: Gucci
• The Magician: Disney

While the symbolic aspects of a brand are significant for external communication, the discipline will also assist internal vision and goals. You can adopt rigid and consistent brand assets to be used internally as a means of inspiring employees. Such assets include colors, slogans, taglines, typefaces, and print collateral such as business cards and letterheads. 

Marketing Strategies

A clear vision and quality service or product are vital for business success, but they don’t matter without acutely defined marketing processes to accelerate business and, therefore, accomplishment. Various marketing strategies suit different business types, but the main ones used are paid media, direct sales, point of purchase (PoP), and public relations (PR).

Paid Media

Traditional communication channels between the company and consumers, such as paid ads, are tried and tested to reach a broad audience. Whereas marketers traditionally used print media, TV, and radio in the past, you should include online methodologies such as pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing (SEM) that relies on the practical implementation of search engine optimization (SEO).

Direct Sales

While the technique of direct sales is around 60 years old, it is more relevant today than it has ever been. Large corporations such as Avon, Amway, and Vorwerk operate via the multi-level marketing paradigm, which you can easily incorporate into an online marketing strategy via affiliate marketing. As of 2020, more than 80% of brands operate some form of an affiliate program.  

Point of Purchase (PoP)

Marketers can easily make additional efforts to maximize sales potential by promoting different products via a direct appeal. Commonly known as “impulse buys,” you can capitalize on a consumer’s willingness to purchase your products with additional packaging coupons, eye-catching POS displays, and popular 2-for-1 deals with “shelf-talker” tags. As a result, PoP sales can increase revenue by up to 20%.

Public Relations (PR)

It is common for companies to regulate PR campaigns, but from a marketing perspective, there is a difference. Marketing PR relates directly to earned media and not publicly stated appraisal of a business by its staff. Essentially, marketing PR is unsolicited, organic advertising such as word-of-mouth, product reviews, and customer testimonials by genuine consumers who use your products.

The above list relates to traditional business strategies that are still relevant in today’s markets. Current methods include influencer marketing and social media platforms. 

Social Media Campaigns

The advertising power of social media is exceptional. With audience engagement alone, you can establish trust with consumers via communication and feedback.

Influencer Marketing

In addition, the 21st Century has created a new type of marketing strategy; influencer marketing. Influencers are online celebrities across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Influencers typically reach millions of people within a specific demographic and can be leveraged to promote a product through paid promotion or earned media.

Social Media Marketing

Platform-specific advertising tools are crucial. For example, Facebook allows for laser-focused advertising that a specific audience will see; This reduces the wastage issue associated with TV and radio advertising where there is no control over the rotation of ads, demographic appeal and audience viewership.

An Established Web Presence

Web presence extends beyond a website, but if you incorporate brand identity and marketing strategies into your overall infrastructure, you boost your chances of establishing a solid web presence. For example, social media, video marketing, and paid search ads work as an interwoven method for branching your relevance in a given sector across the web.

An online presence best accompanies digital assets and marketing. Without an online presence, you will miss out on potential advertising, sales, and engagement opportunities. Currently, 97% of people search for a business online before engaging with it. However, 70% of SMBs don’t incorporate SEO into their websites, and even fewer, local SEO.

SEO is essential in establishing your web presence as you need to be searchable, findable, and relevant. Additionally, different methods such as blogging can help boost your search engine results page (SERP) rank for display to a potential customer, client, or employee. Therefore, a website and digital marketing are vital tools for capitalizing on business.