At work, money doesn’t buy us happiness. Statistics show there is only a loose connection between the money we earn and job satisfaction. But it is possible to boost job satisfaction through one powerful variable: peer recognition. In fact, peer recognition is so powerful that it can deliver half the engagement of a salary increase at just 5% of the cost. Clearly, peer recognition resonates with us on a deeply emotional level. But why does it create such high job satisfaction, and how can you make it work at your company? What is peer recognition? Let’s start with what peer recognition isn’t. Peer recognition isn’t employer recognition. Employer recognition programs are rampant. As far back as 2012, some 75% of companies already had a program for recognition in place. Peer recognition is different. Peer recognition is the validation and encouragement you receive from other people, especially those you perceive to be credible, such as colleagues. And it’s this distinction that leads to feelings of acceptance and significance. Why is peer-to-peer recognition important in the workplace? Peer-to-peer recognition satisfies a different need than salary. A salary is important for practical purposes: feeding a family, maintaining a home, or saving for retirement. Recognition, on the other hand, hits employees’ emotional needs: the feeling that comes with having a positive impact on the world. Congratulations from the company is a nice benefit. But peer-to-peer recognition tends to have more credibility because it comes from colleagues and friends who understand our situations. Consider the benefits that come with peer-to-peer recognition: Employee engagement: Any form of recognition can help with employee engagement, even if it comes from management. A compliment on recently completed work not only reinforces good habits, but it lets employees know that their work was noticed — and therefore brings social context to that work’s meaning. Concrete productivity results: According to one study, peer-to-peer recognition programs are over 33% more likely to create better financial results for the companies that create them. Employee retention: Peer-to-peer recognition does more than provide emotional validation. It provides emotional depth, especially in deepening the relationships at your company. This leads to longer employee retention and better job performance, keeping employee morale high. In other words, peer recognition for one employee can improve morale for all employees. How to create a peer-to-peer recognition program While employee recognition programs are common at over 75% of organizations, only about 41% have peer-to-peer recognition programs. Why the disconnect? Many companies don’t know how to make recognition feel more organic at the employee level. It’s easier to initiate an employer-led recognition program and call it a day. But what if you do want to go an extra step and include employees in the selection process of these recognition programs? Set your goals and track your results: What is peer recognition without a goal to start with? You need to begin with clear, definable objectives if the program is going to be a success. Try working from an objectives and key results (OKR) template to bring clarity to your planning in the early stages. Involve your employees: You can’t do this in a vacuum. You’ll need a communication plan. But the more you do, the less it becomes a peer-to-peer recognition program. Involve employees at every step. If you’re creating an award, for example, let employees handle the nomination and the voting. Avoid ritualization: An “employee of the month” program is great, especially if you have employees who regularly vote on it. But if participation is low, chances are that the peers at your company won’t value the award as highly as you’d like. Make sure that every peer recognition you hand out is the result of honest feelings on behalf of employees. Announce the program and get out of the way: Whatever style you choose — such as an anonymous award nomination process — make sure that people know about it. Then, get out of the way. Let employees take ownership of the rest of the process through nominating and voting. The more you try to steer employees one way or the other, the less it will feel like peer-to-peer recognition. Peer-to-peer recognition examples and ideas Let’s get concrete about the ways you can thank your team with a few peer-to-peer recognition ideas: JetBlue’s internal award nominations JetBlue created a program in which employees could nominate a co-worker for their day-to-day contributions. Any example of extra effort was welcome. Once JetBlue selected a winner, the company would then share the news via its internal newsfeed and provide the winning employee with award points they could use toward prizes like dinners and travel benefits. The program succeeds because it’s organically peer-to-peer. Colleagues do the nomination. Colleagues get the rewards. And colleagues read about what the winner did to earn it, reinforcing the idea that extra work at JetBlue does not go unnoticed — either by management or peers. JetBlue recorded 14% increased engagement as a result of its recognition practices. A dedicated Slack channel for peer-to-peer recognition Heather Reid, a resource manager, recalled one company she worked at that used an open Slack channel expressly for the purpose of peer-to-peer recognition. Whenever an employee wanted to compliment another, they simply turned to the Slack channel for it. Reports Reid: “It worked like magic for us and encouraged a supportive, appreciative, and closely knit group.” It’s a testament to the power of peer recognition that there were no financial incentives here and no prizes. There was simply a centralized location for employees to compliment each other. Sometimes, that’s enough. How to encourage peer recognition The easiest way to encourage peer recognition is to create an award program where employees submit the nominations. But as Heather Reid’s example demonstrates, it can be simpler than that. You might start small and create a forum where workers can praise each other. Failing that, consider moving on to incentives. You can still create peer recognition meaning with programs that involve prizes from leadership or even corporate points, as shown by JetBlue. The important thing is that the process of highlighting and selecting the right employee to award should be left to their peers. It creates a different dynamic at work when you feel welcomed, appreciated, and recognized. And although effective leadership can accomplish a lot, there’s nothing that can quite replace the feeling of being honored by your peers. Employees can’t recognize each other if they don’t know what other people are working on. Boost transparency and get started with Wrike today.
It’s time for project management professionals to not only think of themselves as the keepers of plans, but also the ones responsible for pulling the very best out of teams. To do so, they need to encourage and enable both pieces of the creative problem solving process: divergent thinking and convergent thinking.
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Navigating the highly competitive job market can be brutal. In a recent Jobvite survey, nearly three in four respondents said they believe finding a job has become much harder following the pandemic. It’s clearer now more than ever how important it is for your resume to stand out. In fact, nearly 24% of hiring managers spend 30 seconds or less reviewing a resume to determine whether a candidate is qualified for a position or not. You quite literally have seconds to catch their attention before your resume ends up in the recycling bin with the rest of the candidates that didn’t make the cut. So, how exactly do you set yourself apart and stand out from the crowd? Highlighting your work skills on your resume is the best place to start. We did some digging and pulled together some work skills examples in various categories to inspire you to revitalize your resume. Important social work skills for the workplace What are social work skills? Social skills, otherwise known as interpersonal skills, are essential in helping us communicate with one another in the workplace. These skills allow us to build relationships, interact, and communicate with those around us in a meaningful and effective way. This includes verbal and nonverbal cues. Social work skills are essential in every job. Whether you work on a team, are in a client-facing role, or are an individual contributor reporting to a direct manager, solid social skills will help you succeed in your position. Let’s take a look at some of the most important social work skills for the workplace: 1. Empathy One of the best ways to interact well with others is to put yourself in their shoes and understand how they feel. Empathetic people can understand how others are feeling and can identify with those feelings in some way. Having empathy is a vital trait, especially for those who hold leadership positions. Being empathetic isn’t something you can force, and it doesn’t happen overnight if it doesn’t come naturally to you. This skill takes a conscious effort to build and will help you forge and maintain stronger workplace relationships. 2. Active listening Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation with a colleague and felt like they weren’t paying attention to a single word you were saying? Or have you ever been chatting with a coworker and felt like they heard you and gave you their utmost attention? The latter is known as active listening. Active listening involves giving someone your full, undivided attention and it allows you to build trust and strong relationships with your colleagues and clients. Active listening requires practice, but it is a skill that can be acquired with proper training and effort. 3. Emotional intelligence At a high level, emotional intelligence refers to recognizing and being aware of the emotions of both yourself and other people. Those with high emotional intelligence are known for being self-aware and can practice self-regulation, particularly in stressful and potentially overwhelming situations at work. Emotional intelligence is critical in the workplace because it contributes to strong, long-term relationships and can help you manage and appropriately tailor your reactions. 4. Conflict resolution According to recent research, 65% of workers experienced conflict with another coworker. Conflict is inevitable in the workplace, which means developing a solid set of conflict resolution skills can help you manage and navigate these situations efficiently. Conflict resolution is the ability to address the root cause of disagreements and devise a solution that works for all parties involved. You can use various techniques to help resolve conflicts, so it’s essential to learn and understand how to address different disputes. 5. Written communication Social skills refer to how we communicate with one another, which means written skills are a must. Some forms of written communication include emails, instant messages, documents, reports, slide decks, and your resume. Using appropriate grammar, proper spelling, and following formatting guidelines will allow you to communicate effectively with others. 6. Nonverbal communication When it comes to communication, it’s easy to think about what we are saying, but we don’t always focus on how we are saying it. Nonverbal skills can dramatically impact the way your message is received. Your body language, eye contact, facial expressions, and tone can completely change the message you are trying to deliver to your coworkers. It’s important to be aware of these subtle cues so that you can make sure your message isn’t misconstrued or misinterpreted. Work-related skills for virtual environments You might not be working with your colleagues side-by-side in the same office. In addition to the skills we discussed above, remote work requires some different skills and disciplines. Below are a few competencies that you’ll definitely want to have when collaborating in virtual work environments: Self-motivation: There’s a big difference between in-person office environments and virtual workplace settings. At the office, your manager can simply stop by your desk or quickly check in to see how things are going. While your supervisor can technically do the same via email or instant message, you ultimately don’t have anyone looking over your shoulder 24/7 at your home office (unless you have pets, children, or spouses nearby!). That means self-motivation and knowing how to hold yourself accountable to get your work done are vital to helping you thrive in a virtual role. Adaptability: Adaptability is beneficial in any setting, but it’s a particularly beneficial skill in virtual environments. Whether you’re working with a distributed team and constantly trying to navigate time zones or your presentation gets interrupted due to an unreliable internet connection, adaptability is an important skill to help you navigate the unexpected and ever-changing conditions you may find yourself running up against. Digital and technical knowledge: In virtual environments, employees work remotely and generally rely on several tools to collaborate and tackle their to-do lists. Between project management software, instant messaging, video conferencing, document sharing, and email, there are many different technologies to navigate daily. If you’re working in a virtual environment, it’s essential to feel comfortable using these platforms if you want to keep up with the pace of your work. It’s also worth mentioning that, while you still may be able to reach the IT help desk, you may not receive assistance as quickly as you would in an office setting. That means you might have to do some troubleshooting and problem-solving on your own. What teamwork skills are important for 2021? Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Teamwork skills are a subset of skills that enable us to work well with groups of people (meaning, our teams) to achieve a shared goal or outcome. In 2021 and beyond, as we see a shift toward hybrid work models, honing in on your teamwork skills can help you land your dream gig. Here are the teamwork skills that are important to develop for 2021 and beyond: 1. Reliability Being reliable is arguably the most crucial teamwork skill. Those who are reliable can be depended on and trusted to do their part time and time again. They show a certain level of commitment to their work and colleagues, meet deadlines (or even get work in early), and follow through on any action or task they say they will do. You want to be a reliable teammate so your colleagues and your employer will have faith in you. And the more trustworthy you are, the more responsibility you will be trusted with over time, which may boost your career growth in the long run. It’s even more important to showcase your reliability in a virtual workplace environment through clear and frequent communication. 2. Accountability Accountability goes hand-in-hand with reliability. But beyond being reliable, accountability is all about taking responsibility for one’s work — even when that includes mistakes or failures. There’s no room for the blame game or pointing fingers on teams that work well with one another, which means you have to hold yourself accountable and take fault when necessary. Your teammates will likely think more of you if you’re willing to admit you’re wrong, as opposed to constantly shifting blame or pointing fingers when issues arise. 3. Respectfulness A little bit of respect goes a long way, especially at work. According to Indeed, respectfulness in the workplace reduces stress, increases productivity and collaboration, improves employee satisfaction, and creates a fair environment. You need to respect your team members, manager, and clients to do your best work together. Acts of respect include acknowledging others and calling them by name, encouraging and exchanging opinions and ideas without judgment, giving credit where it’s due, and listening to and understanding your teammates. 4. Collaboration There is no successful teamwork without collaboration. Collaboration is working together with one or more people on a project or toward a shared goal. When employees can work together and collaborate successfully, they can share ideas and come up with practical solutions to complex problems. Brainstorming, open discussions, workshops, and knowledge sharing sessions are all examples of collaboration that lead to great teamwork. 5. Persuasion Have you ever worked with a teammate who insists on working their way, even if the rest of the team agrees to pursue another route? How do you keep making progress on your project or goal if one team member isn’t on the same page? That’s where your skills of persuasion come in handy. Sometimes you might have to persuade a team member to see another point of view and change their mind to benefit the rest of the group. But persuasive skills are more than just getting someone to change their mind and see your perspective — it’s about doing so in an empathetic and respectful way in order to maintain a healthy working relationship. 6. Constructive feedback for improvement You should be able to offer your teammate constructive feedback to help them improve and vice versa. Exchanging feedback not only benefits individuals and the team as a whole but also adds value to your organization by creating an opportunity for constant growth. Giving feedback requires offering suggestions for improvement in a positive way, while receiving feedback requires listening with an open mind and a willingness to change. Work skills that work on any resume Sure, there are specialized skills for different roles and industries. Engineers add their programming skills to their resume, project managers add project management certifications and relevant skills, and HR professionals add the performance management and HRIS systems they’ve previously used. While there are specialized skills you’ll want to emphasize on your resume based on your industry and role (and trust us, those are important), there are also some work skills that are relevant on any resume. These include: Creativity: Creativity is an essential component of innovation and complex problem-solving. In its most basic form, creativity requires thinking about a problem or task differently and using your imagination to form and test new ideas. Problem-solving: All employers value problem-solving abilities because they want to hire people who can break down problems and develop effective solutions. To showcase your problem-solving skills, you might possess a range of qualities such as analysis, evaluation, decision-making, and communication. Time management: No employer wants to hire someone who doesn’t make good use of their time and will have a hard time getting their work done. Your future employer wants to know that you’ll be able to meet deadlines, effectively use your workday to get tasks accomplished, and handle your workload without a lot of babysitting. Examples of specific time management responsibilities include goal setting, prioritizing tasks, meeting deadlines, and minimizing or eliminating distractions for optimal focus. Leadership: Showcasing how you’ve demonstrated leadership in your previous roles can demonstrate to your future potential employer what type of employee you are. Being an effective leader can increase your advancement opportunities within your organization. Use specific examples of successful leadership on your resume for the most significant impact. So how do you showcase these skills on your resume? Now that you know what work skills for resumes employers want to see, you’re bound to have this question: Where do you put them? Keep in mind that the goal of your resume is to prove that you’re a qualified, no-brainer fit for the role you’re applying for. That’s why your smartest move is to tailor your resume to a specific job. Take a fine-tooth comb to the job description and identify words or skills that are repeated or emphasized. Those are traits that you should be incorporating in your own resume (provided you honestly possess them, of course). The most important skills should go as close to the top of your document as possible, because remember, hiring managers are only skimming for a few seconds. As for where you can work these skills in, you have a number of options, including: Your professional summary at the top of your document A dedicated key skills section where you can bullet out your most relevant abilities Your past positions, where you can demonstrate how you applied your skills in previous jobs Finally, remember that many of your work skills and social work skills — from communication and time management to problem-solving and active listening — will be on display throughout the hiring process and your interviews. So, it should go without saying, but show up on time, respond to messages promptly and respectfully, and treat everybody respectfully. After all, when it comes to your work skills, employers want you to show — and not just tell.
What makes a team effective? A few years back, that was the question plaguing Google’s leadership. When they set out to find the answer, they conducted over 200 interviews, examined 250 different attributes, and studied over 180 Google teams. But they only came up with a few answers. The first variable they identified was psychological safety. According to the Harvard Business Review, psychological safety is paramount. Team members who feel psychologically safe are risk-takers. They’re open to new ideas. They operate on a level that isn’t held back by fear, trepidation, or worry of embarrassment. If it sounds like a magical elixir, it’s because some companies find psychological safety hard to define. As author Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The same could be said for psychological safety. Let’s break down this concept to make it seem less elusive. What is psychological safety? Why is it important? And how can you bring it to how your workplace approaches its daily tasks? What is psychological safety? According to HBR, psychological safety is “the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake.” Have you ever heard a teacher say, “there are no dumb questions?” Then you’ve experienced someone trying to create a psychologically safe environment. With psychological safety, the emphasis isn’t on feeling literally protected. The emphasis is on not feeling embarrassed for spitballing new ideas. Psychological safety also has a strong social component. One definition of team psychological safety is the “shared belief that people feel safe about the interpersonal risks that arise concerning their behaviors in a team context.” In short, someone who feels psychologically safe can: Perform better at work. The science shows a link between psychological safety at work and performance. This includes outcomes. Workers who felt more psychologically safe were more effective at meeting a company’s goals. Cooperate better in teams. This was a proven result in Google’s findings. Simply put, people who feel safe in their team context have more incentive to cooperate and try new ideas. Boost creativity, learning, and quality of work relationships. The mutual respect between colleagues that have psychological safety creates tangible improvements in work relationships. This has a noticeable effect on how much creativity and learning each team member is able to exercise in a work setting. What are the four stages of psychological safety? Psychological safety isn’t inherent — it’s something that’s intentionally cultivated and encouraged. Typically, that process is broken down into four distinct phases or stages. Stage #1: Inclusion safety One of our more primordial fears is being excluded from other people. That’s why stage one grants us one of these basic needs: feeling like we’re part of the group. Stage one focuses on the potential for alienation that might result from new contexts. For example, an individual suffering from “imposter syndrome” might feel that entering any new group in a work context could “out” them as not being worthy of making contributions. With “inclusion safety,” however, the individual learns that they are on equal footing with their team members. From a leader’s perspective, you’ll want to establish a sense of equality. An example of this is a TV writer’s room, wherein the “best joke”—the one that gets the most laughs—is the one that goes in, regardless of rank. Writers frequently talk about this being the case at The Simpsons. “All we had to do was please ourselves,” John Swartzwelder, famed Simpsons writer, told the New Yorker. Inclusion safety is all about cultivating that same environment, company-wide. The work, not the social hierarchy, is the true priority. The feeling of inclusion also helps avoid employee overload and encourages each employee to feel a sense of investment. Stage #2: Learner safety Learning can be a surprisingly alienating endeavor. It requires letting go of past paradigms, humbling oneself, and trying something new. It involves going out on a ledge of uncertainty—along with its requisite risks of failure—before finding out what works. For someone to feel psychologically safe at work, they also have to feel free to learn. And since failure is part of the learning process, psychological safety requires separating the perceived connection between failure and personal performance. Learning is inherently a humble mindset. It requires asking questions that feel silly or making silly mistakes. According to LeaderFactor, “Conversely, a lack of learner safety triggers the self-censoring instinct, causing us to shut down, retrench, and manage personal risk.” Stage #3: Contributor safety What could be more deflating than joining a team meeting at work, only to feel you’ve contributed nothing? Contributor safety is the feeling of active participation; that your role in the team wasn’t only necessary but helped the group achieve its goals. According to PredictiveIndex, one of the best ways to cultivate a sense of contributor safety is to highlight an employee’s past contributions. Team members also need to be a part of the decision-making process. If you asked a team for their thoughts but ultimately made your own decision, you shouldn’t be surprised if the team then feels a lack of contributor safety. It’s one thing to offer their opinion — but if their opinion changes the course of a project, it says more about your trust in them. Stage #4: Challenger safety So far, an employee should feel free to join, learn, and contribute to a team. But there’s a final stage to safety. You need the ability to challenge the existing paradigms without being thrown out of the group. On the one hand, a manager doesn’t want a mutiny on their hands. But the Harvard Business Review points to the example of Peter Isenberg, an executive at an investment bank. He noticed that workers questioned his authority less if he listened to their challenges more. “To establish his credibility,” writes HBR, “[Isenberg] adopted a hands-on approach, advising traders to close down particular positions or try different trading strategies. The traders pushed back, demanding to know the rationale for each directive. Things got uncomfortable.” HBR writes that Isenberg was eager to demonstrate his competence to establish authority. Oddly, it had the opposite effect: people didn’t feel challenger safety. But Isenberg eventually learned not to fight the instinct to challenge him. He soon saw how well things could work if he listened: “Once I stopped talking all the time and began to listen, people on the desk started to educate me about the job and, significantly, seemed to question my calls far less.” -Peter Isenberg, to the Harvard Business Review What happened? If Isenberg was willing to listen to challenges, it demonstrated the competence he’d been so eager to display. And it made people feel that their expertise, contributions, and even challenges were valued. Psychological safety was established and team harmony instantly improved. Why does psychological safety matter? According to one report, psychological safety had all sorts of positive effects, including: Increased confidence Boosts in creativity More trust between team members Improved engagement Going back to the Google study, they also found that this sense of safety was integral to the success of their groups. It was the same no matter what that group’s task was. Despite the obvious advantages of psychological safety in teams, only 47% of respondents reported they feel it at work. That means something is amiss. But what’s happening—or not happening—to create this kind of disconnect? How does psychological safety affect performance? In the report quoted above, researchers noticed a 12% boost in productivity when employees felt psychologically safe at work. But how does that work practically? How do intangible feelings of safety translate into better work? Let’s go directly to the source. A 2018 report on Humble Leadership and Psychological Safety found that this safety was essential for encouraging everyone to be at their most creative: “A work environment that is safe to take interpersonal risks and express new ideas is critical for follower creativity because the environment can motivate and increase one’s willingness to show creativity… -Frontiers in Psychology Someone who feels safe taking risks feels safe making contributions. That can apply to any type of project — creative or otherwise. A screenwriter throws out a funny line of dialogue. A mid-level manager floats an idea for a new ad campaign. An IT expert suggests changing a company’s digital infrastructure. Some of these will be bad ideas. But without a level of psychological security in place, the good ideas will go out with the bad ones. However, the benefits of psychological safety go beyond that. Feeling safe to contribute also inspires employee engagement, participation, and team trust. How to create psychological safety at work It’s easy to see how feelings like comfort and security can make the work environment a better place. But it’s also important to ask how to do it. Here are some ways you can create psychological safety at work: 1. Ensure leadership is humble No one feels safe around a tyrant. The 2018 report on Humble Leadership and Psychological Safety found a direct connection between a humble leader and psychological safety. Peter Isenberg showed this principle in action: by listening to the input of his employees, Isenberg didn’t prove himself unknowledgeable. Instead, he proved his competence as a leader. This built trust and the result was a better work environment for all parties. 2. Share knowledge Simply put: unless you’re working on the Manhattan Project, don’t keep secrets. The same report above identified “knowledge sharing as one potentially important moderating factor” for creating a sense of safety. By encouraging knowledge sharing, you’re helping people feel like they belong. The more they know about the project and its objectives, the better they’ll feel about making contributions. 3. Reward initiative A simple word or two of praise for taking the initiative can be enough. The most important thing is that someone should feel validated for having shown initiative. It can be dicey to test out a new idea or ask a new question. It inspires feelings of fear — what if people laugh at it? Learn to reward the act of initiative alone, regardless of the outcome. 4. Encourage the idea of “no bad ideas” Sure, some ideas will work better than others. Some might not work at all. But in a teamwork environment, the only bad idea is the one never voiced. The freedom to fail — to say the wrong thing — is just as important for psychological safety at work as the feeling of success. How to create psychological safety in a remote or hybrid environment Many of the same principles hold up for a remote/hybrid work environment. But when a worker is remote, their psychological safety needs can increase even if you’re doing an otherwise stellar job of team management. A good remote manager will make psychological safety a bigger priority to ensure everyone feels like they belong. 1. Make time for interpersonal connections Teams’ psychological safety doesn’t just happen in a vacuum. And it’s easy to take one-on-one conversations and eye contact for granted when you’re in an office. When someone is working from home, it’s harder to get a gauge on them. Do they feel like they belong? Do they feel psychologically safe? You can’t find out unless you make time for these interpersonal connections. Make a solid commitment to this. Open a Slack Channel that’s only for the “personal stuff.” Set a calendar reminder to ask how someone is doing. With remote work, small gestures can go a long way. 2. Don’t check in too often Resist the urge to constantly look over the remote worker’s shoulder. Trust, after all, is a two-way street. “Humble leadership” occurs when you give someone free rein to complete a task. Feel free to set big goals with realistic milestones along the way — otherwise, let your workers know that you trust them to deliver. 3. Empower them with information One of the best ways to ensure your remote team feels equipped to do their jobs is to confirm that they have all of the information, tools, and resources they need to succeed. That can feel increasingly challenging in a remote environment as updates and comments can get missed or lost in the shuffle. Centralizing your team’s communication and project management in a platform like Wrike will boost transparency and ensure that everybody can get their hands on what they need. Reduce fear and improve performance Psychological safety in teams isn’t an exact science. But it’s not something that’s totally out of your control, either. If you want your team to be both happy and high-performing (of course you do), then fostering psychological safety at work needs to be at the top of your priority list. Sign up for a free trial of Wrike to see how it can help you boost safety and comfort with every new project.
Design studio management can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. As a design studio manager, you need to keep processes streamlined and deliver your best work. Here are 3 common hurdles in your design studio and how to proactively overcome them with the right design project management tools.
Did you know that 64% of B2B companies surveyed across industries have a formal marketing plan? Gone are the days of crossing your fingers and hoping your product or service sells itself. To stay competitive with the rest of the market, you need to have a B2B marketing plan in place to increase and convert as many leads as possible. We know that creating a marketing strategy and mapping out your plan can be challenging and complex. There are so many tactics to use, channels to get up and running, and ways to approach your marketing strategy when speaking to various audiences. Not to mention that, in today’s world, digital marketing is paired with offline marketing efforts, which adds more layers of complexity to your overarching strategy. That’s why we’ve broken down everything you need to know about B2B marketing, including how to organize your B2B marketing plan, top strategies to consider weaving into your plan, and how Wrike can help you execute your B2B marketing strategy with more organization and less stress. First, let’s start with the basics and define what B2B marketing is. What is B2B marketing? B2B marketing, or business-to-business marketing, refers to the marketing of products and services from one business to another. In B2B marketing, the buyer is a business, or more specifically, the decision-makers who have purchasing power within that business. For example, companies who create software products like team-wide communication tools or accounting systems market their product to other companies. Wholesalers also engage in B2B sales. They purchase products from one business in bulk and sell them to their consumers, like store owners. B2B marketing targets the needs of an entire organization and not consumers at an individual level. Simply put, the organization becomes the customer, which means the marketing strategies need to be tailored to that specific audience. Businesses might be looking for ways to help their teams become more efficient, tools to make their work easier and more manageable, or industry-specific products and services their teams simply can’t live without. How to organize a B2B marketing plan You can organize a B2B marketing plan in many ways, depending on your goals and what you want to achieve. Understanding the B2B marketing funnel is one way to create a clear and solid B2B marketing plan. The B2B marketing funnel maps the buyer’s journey from prospect to customer, using various channels and messaging along the way until the prospect converts. You can organize each function of the B2B strategy within each stage of the funnel to ensure you’re hitting every step. The typical B2B marketing funnel can vary, but we’re focusing on the following six-stage model: Awareness: At the first, widest stage of the funnel, you’re trying to pull in potential customers by bringing awareness to your products, services, and solutions offered. Within this stage, you should include all activities that enable you to reach prospects. This might consist of paid advertising, social media, and search engine rankings. Interest: At this stage of the funnel, your primary focus is to increase interest among the audience that you attracted in the awareness stage. Prospects may learn more about your business and offerings through your website. This stage creates an opportunity for your business to develop a relationship with prospective leads and start building a sense of trust. Consideration: You’re now working with prospective customers who may end up purchasing your product. Activities that fall under this stage should include utilizing email marketing to provide more information about your products and offers. Targeted content is crucial, and you can nurture the relationship with free trials, resources like guides and case studies, and more. Intent: If the prospect reaches this stage, they have demonstrated that they’re interested in purchasing the product or service. This provides an opportunity to prove why your product or service is the best one on the market. Convince the prospect that they’re making the best choice to give them that extra bump to complete a purchase. Evaluation: At this stage of the funnel, your prospective buyer is making a final decision about whether or not they want to purchase from you. This is the last chance to hook the prospect, and sales and legal often jump in to help close out the experience. Purchase: The transaction is complete! You’ve signed a new customer. With these funnel stages as a framework to organize your marketing plan, you can then set clear goals you want to achieve, determine what resources you have, and identify the marketing channels you’re going to focus on. For example, awareness and interest are often cited as the key components needed for lead generation. So if you’re looking to bring in more leads, you’ll likely want to focus on these two stages of the funnel and identify which channels you’ll start with to support them. Speaking of channels to focus on, let’s take a look at the top B2B digital marketing strategies you should consider that fall within various stages of the funnel. Top B2B digital marketing strategies B2B marketing happens both offline and online. In our increasingly connected world, digital marketing strategies are crucial when it comes to supporting your overall marketing plan. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of B2B digital marketing strategies to choose from to complement your offline efforts. Here are the top B2B digital marketing strategies we see companies lean into: Develop a company website: A company website might seem like a no-brainer, but did you know that over 80% of buyers visit a company’s website before making a purchase? Your website is an entry point for prospective buyers to learn more about your business, what you have to offer, and how to get in touch with you to complete a purchase. Your digital presence is a simple and easy way for prospective clients to share your business with the key decision-makers within their organization too. Expand your digital presence through search engine optimization (SEO): According to Hubspot’s 2020 Marketing Mix Report, 36% of sales and marketing leads result from SEO efforts. Your business needs to be discoverable. The internet is filled with websites and companies offering similar services, so it’s necessary to utilize SEO tactics that will help your website rank near the top of search results. Harness the power of social media: How many times do you check social media throughout the day? How many social media channels do you engage with regularly? If your answer is “a lot” to both of those questions, you aren’t alone. Social media isn’t just a time suck — it’s a purchasing tool. Over 80% of C-level and VP-level B2B buyers use social media to influence their purchase decisions. Even though it might seem like social media is the place to target individual consumers, you should know that businesses are utilizing this channel too. And if you aren’t sure where to start with your B2B social media strategy, LinkedIn is the most used and trusted channel, reporting an 86% usage amongst B2B professionals. Give pay-per-click (PPC) advertising a go: It’s not enough to get in front of your current audience — you’ll want to get in front of new audiences too. PPC campaigns are paid campaigns where advertisers only pay when people interact with their ads through impressions or clicks. In the 2020 B2B Content Marketing report, 61% of B2B marketers used pay-per-click advertising in the previous 12 months, making it one of the top three choices for paid distribution channels. Commit to email marketing: When executed correctly, email marketing has an unbeatable return on investment (ROI). One 2019 report suggests that the ROI for email is $42 per dollar spent. And if that’s not convincing enough, Content Marketing Institute reported that email is one of the top three free content distribution channels B2B marketers use. These are just a few of the B2B digital marketing strategies you should consider building into your larger strategy. The specific choices you make will depend on the number of resources you have to allocate, your digital maturity framework, and the priorities of your business. In addition to the strategies mentioned above, let’s talk about some more specific (and popular) strategies. We’re breaking down B2B influencer marketing, B2B content marketing, and a B2B marketing mix, as well as how you could build these efforts into your strategy. What is B2B influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is all about promoting your business and products or services by collaborating with influencers. Influencers build a level of trust and connection with their audience members, which makes consumers open to the idea of making purchases based on their recommendations. Simply put, B2B influencer marketing leans on well-known people with large followings to share marketing and brand messages with a broader market. Brands generally pay influencers to promote their products to their followers and encourage them to take action and purchase the product for themselves. In a survey of 300 B2B marketers, 96% of the ones who engage influencers feel that their influencer marketing program is successful, so it’s worth considering adding some level of influencer marketing to your strategy. What is B2B content marketing? Content marketing plays a significant role in B2B marketing. In fact, 59% of marketers believe that blogs are the most valuable marketing channel. B2B content marketing isn’t merely about generating content or posting on a blog — it’s about creating content that’s valuable, relevant, consistent, and inspires action. You can use B2B content marketing to expand your audience, emphasize your brand, and drive leads to your business. Forget the days of pumping out content for the sake of publishing and focus on creating content that’s useful and actionable for readers. With B2B marketing, it’s essential to understand who your ideal audience is. You also need to know what type of information your audience needs and how you plan to promote your content and get it in front of your audience. What is a B2B marketing mix? The origin of the marketing mix dates is attributed to Jerome McCarthy’s introduction of the 4 P’s in the 1960s. We’ve seen the original 4 P’s expanded and modified in a few different ways throughout the years, but the 4 P’s still hold to be most prevalent when thinking about a marketing mix. The B2B marketing mix allows you to create a unique selling proposition (USP) and determine how best you fit into the market. B2B marketing mix is sometimes thought of synonymously with the 4 Ps: Product: Goods or services Price: The amount the consumer pays Place: Where the marketing of the product occurs Promotion: Level of advertising involved The 4Ps don’t have to be defined in any particular order but should be defined in relation to one another as part of a holistic strategy. These elements, or pillars, should be defined to help you maximize the impact you have and satisfy your customers and your business. With the 4 P’s, you’ll be able to lay out a more effective B2B marketing strategy. Why use Wrike to create business to business marketing strategies As you can see, a lot of work and information goes into building and executing effective B2B marketing strategies, and Wrike has all of the features you need to manage this process with ease. With Wrike, you’ll be able to: Take advantage of instant insights and optimize your ROI with real-time data Plan and manage your marketing campaigns in one place Use our campaign management template to manage campaigns from start to finish Adopt a marketing campaign calendar and ditch spreadsheets Create centralized, steady streams of content with our editorial calendar template Streamline your team’s collaboration and communication so they can focus on executing the strategy Are you ready to elevate your B2B strategy and start seeing a huge ROI? Sign up for a free trial of Wrike today to help you get started.
