Category: I’m a Bo$$

Collectively, we can completely agree that representation and inclusivity remain prevalent issues in today’s business environment. Many talented individuals are frequently overlooked because of bias mindsets as well as discriminative practices and policies that are in place; often minimizing the equitable distribution of opportunities. Not only do these mindsets and practices tend to pose a significant impact on BIPOC, but they equally affect certain gender, cultural and social group minorities.

When hiring or creating a team in the workplace, representation and inclusivity of all sorts should be considered as it is the pathway of equity and diversity. Undoubtedly, the implementation and management of equity and diversity within a business and the workplace possess numerous undeniable benefits. Various studies have shown that retaining a diverse team not only increases competitive advantage but can also aid in better market intelligence, team and customer engagement.

Are you considering your equity and diversity team strategy for your business? Here are five proven benefits of maintaining a diverse team within your business.

Attracts Committed Talent

People often want to be apart of a team that considers their unique ideas and differences along with shared values. Not only does an inclusive work culture attracts qualified talent of diverse cultural and social backgrounds, but it brings together individuals who are committed to your strategic plans.

Fosters Creative & Innovative Ideas

A diverse team comes with multiple viewpoints, ideas, skills and knowledge that can be beneficial to a business’ strategic goal. Though multiple viewpoints can seem daunting at first, posing a vast variety of skills and knowledge contributes to a rich generation of creative and innovative ideas. These ideas can manifest into quality as well as valuable product and service offerings for your customers.

Minimizes Potential Conflicts

The unfortunate lack of diversity has significantly played out through various controversies that have impacted the reputation of many businesses. When inclusivity and diversity exist within a team, an array of cultural, social and market intelligence is present. Such intelligence aids in collective thinking as well as greater decision-making processes, minimizing potential conflict as well as legal issues that may arise.

Increases Engagement & Productivity

When inclusivity and diversity are embraced, teams often feel valued and empowered. This sense of morale can further lead to engagement and a rise in productivity levels. Ultimately, the more productive teams are, the more profitable or successful a business is in achieving its strategic goals.

Creates Competitive Advantage

Customer’s as well as the public have increasingly been interested in a company’s business practices. Being inclusive and diverse fosters positive brand awareness leading to high brand value. Having high brand value attracts loyal customers as well as top talent, creating a competitive advantage over competitors.

Times are still very unpredictable and it’s easy to feel stuck as entrepreneurs. The pandemic has went on longer than we expected and we don’t know when the end will be in sight. We just got out of a lockdown for the 2nd time here in Toronto!

Here’s 5 tips to pivoting to monetize online:

1. Upgrade your site and get your systems together to make your site visitors have a smooth and good experience on your site. Be sure your CTA’s (call to actions) are clear and will encourage people to buy from you

2. Be active on social media. Engage with your audience. Use reels and go live often. Post often to keep them hooked in! Place your link in bio and offer a freebie or code as an incentive for your community to buy from you

3. Network to make new connections. Most of the time it’s not what you are selling but who you know. Connections will lead to success in your business. Collaborate and partner with other businesses online. Go live with them to cross-promote

4. Join FB groups with your niche. Post and share in those groups often. Do a mix of adding value and making promo posts so that you’re not being sale-sy but you are contributing to the community also

5. Run some FB and IG ads. If you are just starting only run posts that are about brand awareness then retarget those people who engaged with you to get another set of ads that you are selling something they want or that fits their interests. I suggest you start at $5 a day. If the ad isn’t performing well and you aren’t making sales after 5-7 days then shut it off

Your brand will thrive with the right marketing in place. Almost every business owner I know has said marketing has been one of the hardest parts of business!

Influencer marketing can help you get ahead during these times of a crises since almost everyone is shopping online and you can utilize social media influencers to get more eyes on your business.

Here’s some things to keep in mind when working with influencers:

*Check their engagement and activity. If it looks like they are using several engagement groups or buying likes and followers then move on! Even lower engagement with an organic account is better than higher engagement that’s fake

*Send them a DM asking if they want to collaborate and follow up with an email
Ex: “Good morning! I found you on ______. I just followed you. Do you collaborate with brands? I would love to collaborate with you and send you a ton of my products for free in exchange for promotion on your page!”

*Be clear on your terms. Have a contract ready as well. You can do a trade collaboration for a certain amount of posts, highlight saves and reviews. Just be sure that you send products(always cover shipping, many influencers get duped with brands trying to scam them to pay for products on discount and shipping but still want brand promotion) equal to their rates. Their rates should reflect the amount of followers and engagement rate that they currently have for their account

* If the collab went well, keep them on your list to collaborate with them again but next time pay them a fee on top of the free products to compensate them for their work to promote your brand
*Request a certain amount of high quality photos to be used for marketing purposes as well

* This tip isn’t required for you to do but I know personally when I do influencer work, that I appreciate when brands actually use the content that i give them and re-share my posts that I promote for them on their feeds. If you value your influencer, be sure to post their content created for your brand on your feed and in stories!

Any questions? Post your questions in comments below⬇️

I made a blog post 5 Steps to starting Influencer Work to share anout the benefits of influencer marketing and how to get started.

Here’s some more tips on how to collaborate with brands:

• Make your feed esthetically beautiful to look at. Some influencers create themes and presets (Ex: a theme of patterns posted. One meme and one photo for example) but you can also simply post professional content with clear photos to make your feed appealing to your audience and brands
• Reach out to brands that are no more than double your following and request  to collaborate. Send them an an email with your media kit. Be professional, warm and kind!
• Tell them your rates and accept a trade collaboration with products in exchange for rates if you’re just starting out. Give them your address to send the products and be clear about how many posts you will do, what your ideas are around creating creative content to attract your audience to their brand (photography shoot settings, different kinds of videos such as unboxings) and offer a certain amount of extra photos that includes their brand items so that  they can use it for promitional use
• For hotel collaborations, the smaller boutique hotels often want you to develop a relationship with then first. Follow their pages, engage with them, message them every once and a while to keep on touch. Do this for months before you plan to visit there
• Your rates to promote the hotel will be in exchange for their rates for a room to stay at the hotel
• Hotel collaborations in general love it when you have more to offer other than your social media presence. Photography skills, bloggers, YT channels for reviews, skills like teaching yoga if it’s a retreat spot and if you’re certified, offering workshop sessions (if you have that experience), offering your products/gifts/offerings to the staff or other guests
• If their daily rates are higher than your collab rates the other incentives come in handy to level the trade value. If your extra services are higher than the trade then you can always charge the hotel for those extra services. Lastly, always tip the hotel and partners of the hotel that you’ve used their services after your stay!

Post promos for brands in feed and  stories with their tag

 

Create a collabs folder to save promos in highlights

After a successful collaboration, reach out to the brand again after a period of time to propose a paid collab

💎Get email templates to reach out to brands and hotels

💎A template to create your media kit template in Canva

💎Tips about creating an asthetically appealing feed

💎Pointers on how to increase your engagement rate

💎What to charge and what you’re worth based on your SM page

Influencer marketing collaboration kit

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