DM Magazine September 2021 by Lloydmedia Inc

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A Top Ten Checklist for Powerful Email Results

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Vol. 34 | No. 8 | September 2021

PRESIDENT Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca ADVERTISING SALES Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Gary E. Barnett Dr. Thomas Goldsmith Taylor Goucher Alejo Lopez Ela Veresiu

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A Top Ten Checklist for Powerful Email Results

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Why Workforce Management Is Changing Your Future

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COURTESY CONNEXT GLOBAL OUTSOURCING

Why Workforce Management Is Changing Your Future BY TAYLOR GOUCHER

he construction and foundational components of workforces around the world have fundamentally changed over the last year, and it is critical to understand future trends, strategies, and tools that will help determine success moving forward. Companies must look towards the future rather than staying stuck in antiquated ways of doing business. If they don’t, there will be serious implications affecting their longevity and ability to grow. As a company that has successfully managed a remote workforce for over six years, we have identified several key factors companies should consider when building their workforce of the future: 1. Working environment 2. Measurement and management of performance 3. Robot Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence One of the first things to consider when analyzing the future workforce is the work-fromanywhere phenomenon that has been widely adopted as a result of the pandemic. Companies are now realizing that they can capitalize on talent from across the globe, to facilitate their growth and they don’t necessarily need to be in the same office. Similarly, employees are now seeking a flexible working environment; one that allows them to work remotely some or most of the time. This change in the working environment has had a significant impact on Connext Global Solutions in two ways. Companies that have been unable to grow due to the inability to fill critical open ❱ DMN.CA

positions are now re-thinking the structure of their workforce and partnering with outsourcing firms, like Connext, to help support their growth with remote staff. The largest companies in the world have been doing this for years, and now small and middle market companies are leveling the playing field by using remote global teams. Secondly, the flexible work environment is challenging the way we balance client and employee satisfaction. Most employees want a flexible work environment; however the increased likelihood of distraction, higher potential for internet outage, and general (perceived or actual) lack of productivity is unsettling for clients. So how do you balance the effectiveness of your workforce with the overall satisfaction of your employees? I don’t think we know yet. There are countless studies and reports demonstrating the pros and cons of every possible solution. One thing we know for certain, you must plan for changes in the future working environment and have a strategy that optimizes employee satisfaction and service or product delivery. We aren’t always sure what the best solution might be for our employees and clients, but we plan and commit to what we think is optimal or both, and we communicate the strategy early on to all those involved. A successful workforce, whether it’s in the office or at home, achieves maximum productivity. How do we gauge productivity and performance? We measure it. The first thing companies must do to successfully manage a remote or hybrid workforce is to create

methods to measure performance. This can be in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs), feedback surveys, individual employee goals, or any combination of the like. What’s even more important is the ability to gauge employee performance from anywhere on the planet. While employees wish to continue to work from home, or at least in some sort of hybrid model, employers are cringing because of the perceived lack of productivity, performance, and reliability in a remote or workfrom-home workforce. At Connext, every single one of our three hundred employees is evaluated on three things: productivity, utilization, and quality. Productivity gives us their daily output relative to the task ( i.e, 100 payrolls processed), utilization measures the amount of time spent on each task, and quality provides a score of errors relative to items processed. These aren’t end-all be-all metrics and must be unique to each organization, but they are certainly a good start. Weekly and monthly performance metrics not only give you visibility into what your workforce is doing and how they are performing, but they also unveil techniques as to how to improve as an organization. Many of our clients have designed more detailed KPIs and metrics allowing them to not only improve performance but also tweak and illuminate procedures, which in turn creates a more productive workforce. Additional tools that will forever shape the future of the workforce are robot process automation and artificial intelligence. Automation and intelligence tools are now being used by some of the largest

companies in the world to increase productivity, efficiency, and reduce costs. Automation and artificial intelligence are likely going to eliminate low paying, repetitive task type jobs creating opportunities for jobs that can’t be automated such as customer service and general senior management. Companies need to adopt a digitally transformative mindset and start thinking about how they can best apply automation and artificial intelligence to their business for growth. There is an overwhelming misconception that automation and machine learning tools will eliminate jobs, however most companies can create productivity growth which leads to more, higher paying job opportunities for people. It’s imperative that executives start to analyze what processes can be easily automated to increase productivity and use that as a benchmark to configure their future workforce. There are several ambiguities in the future of the workforce and there certainly will be more as we come out of the pandemic which is why it is critical to start thinking and planning now. What will our working environment look like? Do we need more space or less space? Can we hire people globally? How will we measure performance? What tools will we use to increase productivity? Asking these questions can surely help guide companies as they navigate the challenges of the post-COVID-19 workforce. TAYLOR GOUCHER is COO of Connext Global Outsourcing. SEPTEMBER 2021

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BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

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Can the Right Credit Card Help Your Business Survive COVID-19?

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he ongoing pandemic has put a particular strain on many small businesses, leaving business owners in need of extra financing as well as new

solutions to help their business transition online. A small business credit card can be a powerful tool in the arsenal of any business owner to help them solve any

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problems that arise between now and the end of the pandemic. A different way to finance essential expenses If you’ve applied for a small business loan, you know that the loan you’ll qualify for will be dependent on many factors including your business credit score, annual revenue and years in business. Particularly for new or very small businesses, it can be difficult to meet these criteria and qualify for the financing you need. Business credit cards, on the other hand, use a different standard for applications. Unlike a business loan, they rely on a personal guarantee — that means even if your business goes out of business you will be liable for your debts. On the other hand, that means business credit card applications rely on your personal financial history, rather than the financial history of your business. For some business owners with a stellar personal credit history, this may be the best option for getting a high, flexible line of credit without having to spend years building your business credit score or collateralize your home. Having a business credit card can also help you build your business credit score, putting you in a better position for loan applications down the line — but be sure to check that your card issuer reports to business credit agencies, as not all do.

Make it easier to build your digital presence While the transition to digital spaces may have been coming for everyone eventually, few people expected it to happen quite as quickly or urgently as it has in 2020. For small business owners, it can be easy to feel like you don’t know where to start when it comes to developing your online presence. Many small business credit cards have unique tools to help business owners start building (or grow) their digital footprint. That includes making it easy to accept digital payments, making sure your business has access to top of the line cybersecurity features, and providing access to a network of information about private and government funding opportunities. Get travel and purchase protections If there’s one thing business owners have learned from 2020, it's that uncertainty is everywhere. That’s why the travel and purchase protections that business credit cards come equipped with can offer some much-needed security and peace of mind. Travel and purchase protections are vital for two reasons: fraud liability and reimbursing you for delays, cancellations and emergencies that alter a planned trip. While an ounce of fraud prevention is worth a pound of cure, knowing that your business has zero liability for fraudulent charges can help you be comfortable taking your banking online. Additionally, flying right now is full of last-minute cancellations, which can easily result in an additional expense no business owner needs. The right business credit card can offer more than just the financial flexibility to help you get through the pandemic — it can also provide peace of mind that you’ll rely on for years to come. STAFF, with data from IQUANTI, INC. SEPTEMBER 2021

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EMAIL MARKETING

A Top Ten Checklist for Powerful Email Results BY ALEJO LOPEZ

hese new times are challenging our worldwide communications programs and are still shaping the way brands and consumers interact with one another. Even so, email is still the channel with the most ROI among all the different digital marketing channels, contributing as much as forty-two times return on investment (ROI) for every dollar spent wisely. The key is wisely. With the eCommerce boom and digital content consumption increased, email marketing is not going away as a key channel any time soon. In fact, email became, again, in front of any digital strategy and continues to bring meaningful results and therefore revenue to businesses. If you aren't using email or you are getting poor results over your email campaigns, it’s time to rethink your digital marketing strategy, start using email and squeeze all the juice of this channel. Let’s take a look at the way we want to go about building a plan that might bring you those kinds SEPTEMBER 2021

of huge returns. These are the elements of a Top 10 Checklist when you go about designing an email strategy and rollout. Some may seem basic or obvious, but you’d be surprised how often they can be overlooked or taken for granted. 1. Define your campaigns strategy based on your business objectives and the impact that you want to reach. 2. Build your own database, know each customer thoroughly and create different segments based on personal interests 3. Use a memorable sender name and configured it with the recommended security protocols. 4. Find the perfect day, time and frequency to send your messages. 5. Don’t ignore or forget about the curiosity gap. Use a creative & Impactful subject lines. 6. Have clear and specific objective of what you need to achieve with your message. To inform? Bring traffic to your

digital assets? Get clicks and/ or conversions? Build each campaign focusing on those objectives. 7. You absolutely, without exception, A/B test all you campaigns. 8. Take much care about your reputation. Measure and protect your sender scoring. 9. Personalize your emails in a way you’d expect to be treated yourself. 10. Successful email marketing can be made simple. So automate it. We highly recommend you base your email campaigns and automation marketing messages on your business goals and the impact that you want to achieve as the most crucial driver. Using a methodology such as SPICED METHODOLOGY your emails strategy will take a different approach: SITUATION: Describe the moment your business is living right now, the pain points and challenges, and the impact you want to deliver to

your customers with your services and your communications ❯ PAIN: Which are the Issues and the Dissatisfaction that are making not possible you give that impact to your customers ❯ IMPACT: Which is the Quantitative impact that you will get if your campaigns succeed. INCREASE REVENUE, DECREASE COSTS, IMPROVES CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE, ETC ❯ CRITICAL EVENT: Which are the critical moments/events, deadlines that you have to address in the following months, what happens if you miss them, how can you email and multichannel communications will help to address them ❯ DECISION PROCESS: What do you have to do? Who else has to be involved in the process to go ahead with it SITUATION: Describe the moment your business is living right now, the pain points and challenges, and the impact you want to deliver to your customers with your services and your communications DMN.CA ❰

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EMAIL MARKETING ❯

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PAIN: Which are the issues and the dissatisfaction that are making not possible you give that impact to your customers IMPACT: Which is the Quantitative impact that you will get if your campaigns succeed. INCREASE REVENUE, DECREASE COSTS, IMPROVES CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE, ETC CRITICAL EVENT: Which are the vital moments/events, deadlines that you have to address in the next months, what happens if you miss them, how can you email and multichannel communications will help to address them. DECISION PROCESS: What do you have to do? Who else has to be involved in the process to go ahead with it?

Define your campaign strategy based on your business objectives and the impact that you want to reach. Different customers have different needs. Some services allow you to purchase databases, but we highly recommend not to do it and build your own database. Relate in a natural way with your customers that are minded to connect with you. It has a higher effort, but it paid off Use all your different touch points to collect data about your users and customers, like websites, social media, call centers, or even physical stores. It starts with asking for basic information and then starts to know them thoroughly based on the engagement and interaction with your communications. Build your own database, know each customer thoroughly and create a different segments based on personal interests. As you know, always the first impressions matter; in email marketing, If your email doesn’t stand out and build trust, your subscribers probably won’t bother opening it. Paying attention to your sender name is an essential best practice. Look for an email name that should be recognizable and memorable. Use some of this option and be creative and impactful ❯ Use your Brand Name and add some hint: Keith from emBlue ❯ Name + @ Keith @ emBlue ❯ [Brand Name] + Area : emBlue Customer Support, or emBlue Newsletter ❱ DMN.CA

OBJECTIVE

A/B TEST

Have clear and specific objective of what you need to achieve with your message.

STRATEGY

Define your campaigns strategy based on your business objectives and the impact that you want to reach.

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An attractive name for the communication: emBlue Digest, or emBlue Pulse

And finally avoid using NOREPLY@YOURCOMPANY. It’s like you are communicating that “We don’t care enough about you to check this inbox.” Part 2: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC The other main important part of the sender is the “Security Policies” configurations that are going to give you a higher level of security and to increase the possibilities to reach the inbox. The three main email security protocols are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and complement one another, so implementing them all provides the best protection. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a type of DNS that identifies the email servers that are permitted to send emails using a particular domain name, in this case, yours. It helps the recipient email server identify emails sent using your domain and separate and prevent those spammers that want to use it on your behalf. It is the first level of defence against spoofing. DKIM (Domain Key Identified Record) is an authentication method, which uses email

You absolutely, without exception, A/B test all you campaigns.

BUILD

Build your own database, know each customer thoroughly and create different segments based on personal interests

encryption with public/ private keys. It validates whether the emails are generated from the authorized servers. It is a further guarantee to a user’s email server that the email is legitimate. Think of DKIM as a hidden «digital signature» on your email. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is an additional security level. It complements the SPF and DKIM, and It also adds a reporting function that allows senders and receivers to improve and monitor the protection of the domain from fraudulent email. Are you using a memorable sender name, and have you configured it with the recommended security protocols? There are a lot of messages competing for reaching the inbox, and users' attention gets our emails to be at the top of the inbox as most subscribers will pick the emails they see first, will increase the possibilities to be viewed. Identifying the best time and frequency regarding your different segments is a key part of achieving those objectives. One study conducted by Return Path focused on the consequences of both under-mailing and

SENDER

Use a memorable sender name and configured it with the recommended security protocols.

over-mailing. In short, undermailing leads to missed revenue opportunities, lower lifetime value, lack of inbox presence, poor or inconsistent sender reputation, inability to maintain a clean list and avoid spam traps, and — counter-intuitively — increased complaint rates. The study showed that the primary email recipients (those who accounted for 83 percent of all email reads), were able to tolerate up to about five emails per week from a given sender before their complaint rates increased dramatically., We recommend that at least have one weekly contact with your customers, based on adding value in each interaction. Have you identified the perfect day, time and frequency to send your messages? Email based on the subject line. So it’s along with your Sender Name the first impression for an email. Your recipients will generally only see three things before they decide to open or ignore your message: ❯ Sender name ❯ Subject line ❯ Preheader Provide enough information that hooks your audience and makes them curious. But don’t provide all SEPTEMBER 2021

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EMAIL MARKETING

PERSONALIZE

Take much care about your reputation. Measure and protect your sender scoring.

Personalize your emails in a way you’d expect to be treated yourself.

FREQUENCY

Find the perfect day, time and frequency to send your messages.

the information until they click to open the email. Use some of the now more common methods used by social media with those enticed titles. And try personalization in your subject and emojis. Both have shown to have a positive effect on average open rates. Don't forget about the curiosity gap Use a creative & Impactful subject line. Don't try to achieve all your objectives in the same message, focus each message to one or maximum two objectives. It can be inform about events or promotions, create awareness or Call to action to a schedule a meeting. Be direct and clear with the information and combine an attractive design between images and text included. Remember that an image is worth a thousand words Your emails need to be build incorporating stunning eyepleasing visuals that help reinforce your text copy, creating an emotional connection and driving the expected results. Animated GIFs are also great options to consider, use them if they add value and reinforce your message. Another important hints are SEPTEMBER 2021

AUTOMATE

Define your Successful email marketing can be made simple. So automate it.

SUBJECT

Don’t ignore or forget about the curiosity gap. Use a creative & Impactful subject lines.

to include ALT description text in your images. It not only helps people with visual impairments but also helps if your HTML does not render. Also, the ALT text make your ESP feel more comfortable with your emails and increases the chance to reach the inbox All you efforts should not be left to chance. Using A/B testing ensures you choose the messages with the best options to get the results that you are perusing. With A/B testing you can test and see the most important factors of your campaign, Subject, Sender, and even the message is better to use data, not your gut feeling. Running an A/B test is a relatively easy process and it helps you improve every part of your email campaign. It allows you to send randomly a different variation of the same campaign to two or more different samples of recipients. Are you A/B testing all you campaigns? Although more than 91 percent of the users read their emails daily, more than 76 percent say that one of the main reasons to unsubscribe from their email list is receiving too many emails for a brand with irrelevant content. As we said before, our recommendation is to

VECTEEZY.COM

REPUTATION

send at least ten emails monthly, that is, more than two emails every week, depending on the business and the level of engagement of the users. We stress the importance of building a strong sending reputation. Your sending reputation gives you how mailbox providers (ESPs like Gmail, Hotmail, etc., and corporate emails) judge your mails, and it is driven by how your subscribers react and engage with your messages. If your users are engaged with your messages, your sending reputation will increase, and your messages will be more likely to reach the inbox. On the other hand, if you have a lot of spam complaints, unsubscriptions, and unread, you will be more willing to go to the spam folder. There is no single recipe or score to reach an excellent sender score across all mailbox providers, but there are some tools and tips you can use better understand your sending reputation. 1. Understanding your statistics trend: It is critical to understanding how your overall reputation is changing, your opens, clicks, bounce, complaints. We at emBlue have created Sender Scoring, which

gives you a general idea of your campaigns engagement and let you know if you have an optimum behaviour overall your campaigns. 2. Check your Dedicate IP or IP Pool: Identify the best setup option for you. It can be a dedicated IP or a Shared IP Pool; it depends on the volume of your daily emails and the ability to increase your sender score reputation. 3. Increase interactions: Build different kinds of campaigns based on your user's engagement and treat Power Users (those with a high engagement) different than your cold users or never-open users. 4. Test your HTML Deliverability: Use the best practices when you design your emails, combine text and images in your email, use the correct HTML encoding. Take considerable care of your reputation. Measure and protect your Sender A study conducted by Econsultancy found that 74 percent of marketers say targeted personalization increases customer engagement rates and increasing 6x transaction rate. Although subject personalization gets a 26 percent more likely to be opened, we invite you to think ahead of the subject and also personalize the email content based on user interests. You can automatically personalize your emails, with the last item viewed by your users in the last email campaigns and on your website. You have different options to personalize your email, such as the Last Item Viewed, Last Category, Cart Abandonment, or any other "event" on your website that you want to use to personalize your messages. Personalizing is worth all the effort that you put on: ❯ Giver customers a new and personal experience. Understanding your subscribers is all brand's marketing goals makes your emails an enjoyable and exciting task, providing positive emotions. ❯ Improves engagement. Humanizing your communication will give much more appreciation because each subscriber will feel that your brand responds to their needs. DMN.CA ❰

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EMAIL MARKETING Personalization increases shared value, and both sides win. Make your emails more impactful and relevant. People are being bombarded by tons of emails every day. When you personalize emails, you are squeezing all the potential of this channel. How do you expect to be treated? One of the hottest trends these days is marketing automation, and now more than ever when every business is looking for optimize time and expenses. When you automate your communications not only optimize your expense, but are giving a better customer experience. As the name suggested, automated communications is sending out messages to your customers automatically, based on different events or triggers as schedule or by action made by customers in your different digital assets. You can automate one-time event email or a complete drip campaign according to each customer journey.

Automated messages according to date and time The exact moment in which the communication should be sent is predetermined by a specific date and time. Some Examples of automated scheduled messages are: ❯ Unique sending with established date. ❯ Messages on special and recurring dates such as birthdays, anniversaries, and events, such as Mother's Day. ❯ Monthly recurrent messages such as credit card statements or insurance policies, also they can have an attached document if necessary Automated messages based on a specific event or customer journey. Messages triggered automatically according to certain events that the user can perform on any digital asset like a website, a pop-up banner, or even in another email. These actions activate different customers Journeys executing different messages like email, push notifications or SMS.

TORONTO BUSINESS

It’s not enough just to know these Top Ten Checklist best practices and the types of emails you can send, or even brainstorm ideas about possible campaigns. It’s really important to be clear about your business strategy and how email and automation marketing

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can be integrated with the other marketing actions to get the best results for your business. Have in mind always your customers to give them a unique experience to bond your audience, and build up a real message focused on your customers engaging them thoroughly with your brand. Following these 10 steps, we assure you that you will approach to: ❯ Save time sending campaigns. ❯ Segmenting and have a granular approach to your customers ❯ Be more relevant through messages personalization ❯ High access to metrics ❯ Increase your ROI How you choose to communicate with your clients can be the difference between increased conversion and the spam folder. ALEJO LOPEZ is Country Manager of emBlue, an email marketing automation platform.

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Examples of automated messages by triggers or events: ❯ Remarketing: According to the previous purchases of a user, you can automate the sending of an email after the purchase offering discount in other product. ❯ Abandoned Cart: Messages reminding and encouraging users to finalize their purchase on an abandoned cart is a great boost. ❯ By customer interest: Knowing user's interests you can plan an automatic communication with relevant content according to those interests. These submissions can be triggered with user and password information when registering on your site.

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GUIDE

The Animal Gua rdian Society

t’s been over 30 years since Kathy Asling found an old puppy on the street. She 8-weekAs an animal immediately called possible link to rescue group the pup’s every in her local newspaper. owners and ran an advertisement microchip pets. You cannot we know how important it is to predict what will A reporter who Kathy to write happen in the saw the ad called future so we always advise a cover responsible pet an appointment Although no owner story. owners to for was ever located, procedure. It’s better this quick and painless 5 minute make calls to adopt the she received almost puppy. (or less) to be safe than 200 options sorry. With other adopters and conducted She instinctively screened out there, we also expensive prospective know that home visits. Kathy not to proceed but had names decided on with micro-chipping many pet owners decide and provide a loving numbers of several families she a home price. That is why their pets because TAGS initiated home to a dog. felt would saving of the a cheap way to The next day she local shelter and a good amount microchip, visited started ‘match of people who had making’ by contacting the The revenue goes toward money (instead of paying $90 called her looking and up). a good cause the need through to adopt. The Animal Guardian – helping dogs & cats in Society. How We Use Your Money 100% of your donations goes to helping the program as we animals in our have far is the veterinary no paid staff. TAGS’s largest expense by bills. We want are healthy, and to be sure that sometimes this all our dogs means expensive or surgeries that medications cost hundreds or even thousands In addition, all TAGS dogs are of dollars. spayed and microchipped prior to adoption. or neutered, vaccinated to receive some While TAGS is donations of dog fortunate purchasing quality food, we also spend Identifying the dog food to feed need for someone money Other expenses to our dogs in of good dogs from to step up and include the production foster care. save the lives being put to death, and promotional created the name of training, educational material. The Animal Guardian Kathy and her daughter To donate visit of 1987 the first Society (TAGS). Durham Region our In March org based or see our donationwebsite at www.animalgua Kathy set out to meet with individualsrescue was formed. rdian. information at https://www.ca guide her into Canada Helps nadahelps.org/e developing a program who could mentor and n/dn/13492 integrity and ethics that would operate that would promote with our community humane education and find homes to for displaced animals. Vision Statement Perhaps the most relationships with difficult task in the early days ❯ To sustain the was creating operation of our Animal Controls. a foreign word, program and Rescue in those continue to serve and the constant days was and protect the from death and our community. animal citizens research labs becamestruggle to save animals of emotionally and ❯ To never see a task that proved physical draining. any animal abused, to be this was not the It soon became abandoned unwanted. or evident that job for one person. left ❯ To continue Kathy needed Now 30 years help. to provide medical later and thousands homed, she has care and training animals in our of dogs successfully yet care. to rework closely with to stop! Kathy and her corps ❯ To construct of volunteers a shelter that will animal shelters, community to provide safe housing humane societies, for animals until improve the lives permanent homes and the of canine ❯ To ensure that Today, TAGS is a charitable non-profit citizens. our shelter offers are found. not receive any a centre for learning and education organization and government funding. to does public donations ❯ To see no animal our community. We are entirely for funds. Other reliant on put to death in TAGS needs other than monetary municipally run shelters because donations, pet care items like they are overlooked beds and blankets, good quality dog of space. or due to lack leashes and collars, food, dog We also need other ❯ To encourage winter coats, dog those items toys, etc. The Animal Guardian like building materials and dedication to animalswho profess their love and services. Society’s microchip to take a stand a popular tradition, participate in the to educate and offering inexpensive clinics have become pet owners in the ❯ To see the day cause of rescue. Toronto and Durham microchip services for when rescue will no longer be necessary, as all Region area. animals will have 2 safe, loving homes. 2021 GTA Giving Guide

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GUIDE

The Animal Gua rdian Society

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foundationmag.ca

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905-263-TA

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GS (8247) The Anim al Guardian Society

Guide

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The Animal Guard ian Society

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t’s been over 30 years since Kathy old puppy on Asling found an the street. She 8-weekimmediately called possible link to the every in her local newspaper. pup’s owners and ran an advertisement A reporter who to write a cover saw the ad called story. Kathy Although no owner was ever located, calls to adopt the she received almost puppy. 200 adopters and conducted She instinctively screened prospective home visits. Kathy but had names decided on and provide a loving numbers of several families she a home home to a dog. felt would The next day she local shelter and visited started ‘match people who had making’ by contacting the called her looking the to adopt. Identifying the need for someone of good dogs from to step up and save the lives being put to death, created the name The Animal Guardian Kathy and her daughter of 1987 the first Society (TAGS). Durham Region In March It is our mission based rescue was to Kathy set out to companion animals provide re-homing and medical formed. meet with individuals care to displaced and guide her into education, behaviour to support the community developing a program who could mentor and in areas of humane counseling, the integrity and ethics that promotion of ownership, and that would promote would operate with the needs of animals.responsible pet our community humane education and find homes to for displaced animals. We welcome your To donate visit feedback and Please feel free our website your questions. to contact us org or see our at www.animalgua General information with any questions or comments donation information rdian. about our program https://www.ca you at Canada Helps nadahelps.org/e or volunteering: have. tagsinfo@animalgu n/dn/13492 ardian.org foundationmag.ca

Telephone: 905-263-TAG

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2021 GTA Giving

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// 11

MARKETING RESEARCH

ISTOCK/ELENABS

New Study Explains How Time Influences Consumer Behaviour

BY ELA VERESIU

ow does the past, present, and future interact to influence consumer behaviour? A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research considers how time is a key structural component of our lives and its resulting influence on market activities. This research was undertaken by York University’s Schulich School of Business Associate Professor Ela Veresiu in collaboration with Assistant Professors Thomas Derek Robinson from Bayes Business School, City, University of London and Ana Babic Rosario from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. In this conceptual article, the authors introduce the concept of “consumer timework” to capture how past experiences and future expectations impact consumer behaviour in the present. Overall, the authors show how time is a cultural consumption resource. “Time is a key structural component of our lives and of the universe. It is therefore no surprise that consumers engage with the multiple orientations of time — the past, the present, and the future — in their daily consumption choices and activities,” said Dr. Veresiu. For example, some consumers treasure heirlooms from past family members and enjoy heritage-themed experiences, such SEPTEMBER 2021

as high tea at Toronto’s historic Windsor Arms Hotel. At the same time, other consumers engage in sustainable consumption, such as buying second-hand clothing at Value Village thrift stores and installing solar panels on private homes to fight future-facing environmental degradation. The co-authors argue that the increased speed and complexity of social change today creates multiple ways of interpreting how the past, present, and future relate. In other words, individuals find it increasingly more difficult to anticipate their life trajectory from the past into the future with so many rare and unforeseen events happening not only on a larger scale, but also at a much faster rate. The COVID-19 pandemic is one such recent example. In response, the co-authors identify four consumer timework strategies individuals engage to regain control of time, and therefore their lives through consumption, which they term: integrative, disintegrative, subjugatory, and emancipatory. The scholars theorize the integrative and disintegrative consumer timework strategies respectively as consciously harmonizing or rupturing the flow of time from the past into the future via consumption activities. As an illustration of the first strategy, consider how consumers now want to trace their own

ancestry and genealogy through DNA databases like 23andMe to better understand their own past and feel connected to their ancestors. Alternatively, assistive reproductive technology (ART) like In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a powerful example of the second consumer timework strategy, whereby consumers attempt to take control of their own and their immediate family’s future. The co-authors theorize subjugatory and emancipatory consumer timework respectively as enforcing or disrupting temporal hierarchies of power through consumption practices. For example, self-tracking health apps, such as MyFitnessPal, SleepCycle, and Fooducate constitute a form of subjugatory consumer timework, since individuals pursue personal goals that are in actuality not defined by them, but rather by an algorithm. Regarding the final strategy, using virtual reality devices to envision alternative futures and future selves is a form of emancipatory consumer timework. Consider as illustrations MAC Cosmetic’s Virtual TryOn online service that allows consumers to instantly swipe over 800 makeup shades on photos of themselves at home or Uniqlo’s Magic Mirror that allows in-store shoppers to see their future selves in different colours of a clothing item before making a final purchase decision.

“Our work directly responds to an observed decline in theoretical contributions in the marketing and consumer research. In this paper, we not only realign existing ideas on time and consumption, but also offer detailed future research directions,” said Dr. Veresiu. In a follow-up piece intended for the Journal of Marketing, Dr. Veresiu and Dr. Robinson will tackle about how marketing managers and practitioners can leverage this framework to make strategic decisions when designing goods, services, and experiences to reflect and support different facets of consumer timework in order to achieve brand- and firm-related goals. In the meantime, the consumer behaviour-oriented article is available in full online. ELA VERESIU is an Associate Professor of Marketing and the Marketing Area PhD Program Coordinator at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Her research, which focuses on understanding and promoting consumer diversity and market inclusion at the interplay of identity, technology, branding, and institutions, has been awarded the prestigious Sidney J. Levy Award and the Ferber Award Honorable Mention, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Consumption Markets & Culture, and Marketing Theory, and featured by, among others, CBC News, The Conversation, and The National Post. DMN.CA ❰

// 12

DIGITAL

Picking Up Speed. The State of Digital Maturity BY DR. THOMAS GOLDSMITH

he Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship’s newly released report, Picking up Speed: Digital Maturity in Canadian SMEs and Why Increasing it Matters, was created in partnership with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Scale-Up Institute - Toronto, and with support from Xero, a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses. For any firm working with SMEs or looking to help them scale up or even initiate their digital and online marketing efforts, the information revealed in this brand new report can provide a guideline for creating its own business model and strategy to engage this part of the market. Here’s what the report reveals and what insights it brings to the table for ad agencies, consultants, eCommerce platforms, content marketing specialists and digital-based services providers. Ultimately, a company’s digital maturity hinges on its successful use of technology. While not every technology is relevant to every business, a range of them almost certainly are. Almost every company could benefit from use of a foundational technology such as having an online presence. Important bridging technologies, such as cloud computing, or customer relationship management, might not be applicable for everyone, but they can have big impacts in terms of transforming internal operations. Advanced technology uses, such as AI, big data analytics, or the Internet of Things, might only be relevant to a much more select group, but even then, these technologies are likely to be useful to a much larger number of companies than those already deploying them. Finally, cybersecurity is not the sole concern of large corporations or banks with large financial assets. It is instead something that every company (and individual) ❱ DMN.CA

needs to be aware of and only increases in importance as digital maturity increases. Foundational Technologies Foundational technologies such as social media use, having an online presence, and selling goods and services online are often the starting point for SMEs to increase their digital intensity. These technologies are generally customer facing, though they can feed into back-office functions, such as through analyzing data from social media or eCommerce. Almost every company could benefit from use of a foundational technology such as having an online presence. The use of these digital technologies is driven by consumer demand. As of 2018, over 91 percent of Canadians aged 15 years and older were using the internet. Of them, 84 percent bought goods or services online, spending $57.4 billion.84.04 percent of Canadians also used the internet in 2018 for finding information about goods or services, the 6th highest rate in the OECD. The pandemic has only served to accelerate the use of eCommerce, with online sales up far more than in-store sales across the board, with growth far outstripping pre-pandemic levels. Yet despite these demand side factors, Canadian companies as a whole are not at the digital frontier when it comes to increasing the rate of adoption of these foundational technologies. As Figure 14 shows, as of 2019 Canada was solidly mid-table in the OECD for businesses with a website or home page, lagging behind the leader Denmark by just over 12 percent. When it comes to businesses using social media, it is a similar picture with Canada behind the leader Norway by just over 15 percent. Canadian small enterprises, in particular, are lagging in their online presence. As of 2019, 17 percent of small enterprises have no web presence at all, and only 74

percent have a company website versus 91.5 percent for mediumsized enterprises and 95 percent of large enterprises. There is a smaller gap between small and mediumsized enterprises when it comes to social media use — 55.4 percent to 64.4 percent respectively, though both still significantly behind large enterprises with 74.8 percent having a social media account. Not only are there gaps in the baseline adoption of technologies, but also in the strategies around how they are used. Data from the March 2021 Environics survey commissioned by the Scale Up Institute Toronto shows that small enterprises are using social media

for more basic uses compared with larger companies. For example, companies with 10-99 employees are three times more likely to report that their social media use is not designed for actively engaging with new and existing customers, verses companies with over 500 employees. There is a mixed picture in terms of industries which have no web presence (Figure 18). Across the board, small enterprises lag behind medium-sized enterprises. This lack of web presence harms enterprises when it comes to selling products and services CONTINUED ON page 13 SEPTEMBER 2021

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Picking Up Speed. The State of Digital Maturity CONTINUED FROM page 12

online. One area where SMEs are using the web in high numbers is in their procurement. 67.7 percent of small enterprises ordered goods or services over the internet in 2019, along with 77.4 percent of medium-sized enterprises and 81.3 percent of large enterprises. Despite this, only 22.5 percent of small enterprises receive orders or make sales of goods or services over the internet. SMEs are apparently adept at making purchases online though not enough are taking advantage of the internet to make both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales. Recent analysis highlights some of the trends in online sales during the pandemic. Though, as noted earlier, there was a substantial growth in eCommerce during the pandemic, this was not matched by large numbers of enterprises shifting online. Indeed, in 2020 just 9 percent of Canadian businesses of all sizes made 60 percent or more of their total sales online, up just 3 percent from 2019. Businesses majority-owned by women reported a higher increase in companies that made at least some of their sales online in 2020 compared to all private sector businesses, though were also more likely to have reported a drop in revenue of 30 percent or more in 2020 compared to 2019 — speaking to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women despite higher levels of digital adoption.96 When it comes to proportion of online sales than in many other digital technology areas there is less of a distinction between SMEs and larger companies. There is almost no difference between enterprises with 20 to 99 employees and those with more than 100 employees in proportion of sales made online in 2020, with the smaller companies actually 13-07-04 10:43 AM having a slightly higher proportion making more than 60 percent of their sales online — 9 percent versus 7 percent. The full report is available from The Brookfield Institute. DR. THOMAS GOLDSMITH is an independent researcher and policy consultant collaborating with the Brookfield Institute. Tom works with innovationfocused organizations to help them understand public policy, and create coalitions and partnerships to help build an inclusive innovation economy in Canada. Report created in partnership with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Scale-Up Institute – Toronto, and with support from Xero, a cloud-based accounting software platform for small businesses.

// 14

CONTACT CENTRES

Work-at-Home Agents on the Rise

ISTOCK/ TERO VESALAINEN

How to Secure Payments, Improve CX BY GARY E. BARNETT

or most consumers, the idea of handling a transaction or conducting business through a call center brings a reassuring sense of security and confidentiality. This is especially true with larger, more established brands; customers trust that stringent regulations, employee background checks and oversight processes are all in place to protect consumers’ personal information. However, the pandemic has forced many contact centers to shift to a remote working model, which has created new security challenges and vulnerabilities. With agents now handling transactions from home or in other remote locations, data security is top of mind for many. According to a recent consumer survey from Semafone, 40 percent of respondents said the increase in customer care agents working from home has impacted their trust in the security of their personal payment information (PII). The way sensitive customer data is processed during call and contact center engagements has changed drastically due to the pandemic — opening consumers up to the potential of greater security risks. However, with the right tools in place, businesses can seamlessly overcome the challenges and risks associated with securing remote payments. Understanding the challenges faced by contact centers Among the most prevalent issues facing remote service representatives are data security risks, including the potential for improper storage of sensitive payment or credit card information. Given it is nearly impossible to secure the home environment it creates a scenario that’s a recipe for potential disaster. When you add in that ❱ DMN.CA

call center agents can be operating from their personal devices it opens up a whole host of potential vulnerabilities, including unsecure network connections, ransomware and phishing threats and more. Other factors such as roommates or family members being present while sensitive information is shared with a representative increases the chance for unauthorized individuals potentially seeing, hearing and recording customer data. The challenges don’t stop with security risks, as the customer experience (CX) can also be greatly impacted. The inability to secure payments can result in a disjointed customer journey, which can lead to a customer being directed to a different channel to complete a transaction. It’s critical to keep customers in the channel of their choice, or within the channel they are currently communicating during a transaction to provide a seamless and frictionless experience and avoid negative brand impact. Leveraging security and compliance to improve CX When secure solutions are in place, improvements to customer experience are automatically elevated. According to a report published by PwC, 86 percent of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, which is a testament to the financial benefits that come with providing a stellar experience. CX continues to be an important factor, not only from the perspective of customer retention, but also for maintaining a competitive advantage in a given industry. What many businesses may not realize is the correlation between PCI DSS compliance and a positive CX. Businesses that neglect to maintain PCI DSS compliance open themselves up to increased risk of data breaches and financial liabilities. These

risks have a direct and negative impact on brand credibility and reputation, as well as the consumer experience when PII is compromised. Payment security and achieving PCI DSS compliance continues to be a growing challenge for businesses across all industries. However, there are solutions that can ease the burden, protecting both the business and consumer, while also providing a competitive edge. The integration of secure data capture solutions that help with PCI DSS compliance are becoming an absolute must for securing remote payments and enhancing the overall CX. These solutions offer many benefits, but perhaps the most important is a seamless payment experience. One critical component of a seamless experience is staying within the payment channel of the consumer’s choice. With so many payment channels available today, solutions that allow customers to stay in constant communication with service representatives in the channel of their choice, throughout a transaction are a must. Additionally, with secure payment solutions, consumers enter their credit or debit card data, which is then directly routed to payment service providers (PSPs) for processing. Agents are never exposed to payment data and it never enters the business infrastructure, reducing the risk of data breaches while adhering to PCI DSS requirements. Securing payments with the right tools With increased expectations from today’s consumers, businesses need to be omnipresent and ready to communicate and transact seamlessly across any channel their customers choose. It’s not enough to boast secure payments across one or a few channels. To remain competitive and provide

a superior CX, businesses must secure transactions on every channel, at every potential touchpoint. To enable a successful and secure omnichannel payment strategy, businesses need to integrate solutions that will keep payments flowing across all channels while reducing the risk of fraud. For today’s workat-home call centers, this means eliminating the possibility of data entering the business or IT infrastructure to begin with. If data isn’t held within the network, it can’t be taken from the network. With cloud-based solutions that include data masking capabilities, businesses can easily achieve this level of security and PCI DSS compliance. Furthermore, these solutions provide the flexibility for service representatives to work from anywhere, while seamlessly integrating with existing CRMs and PSPs. The end result is a customer and agent experience that is both swift and secure. This technology makes it possible for the service representative to focus on what matters — the customer — giving them full confidence in the privacy and security of their personal information. As more businesses and contact centers evolve their hybrid workplaces and adopt remote working, secure and robust solutions will become even more important as agents will be able to work from different locations more freely. Enabling frictionless digital payment experiences will remain a top priority for businesses moving forward. Especially as workplace flexibility continues to evolve, security can’t be sacrificed for flexibility or the CX will suffer. However, with the right solutions in place, agents can improve productivity and provide the best CX from anywhere. GARY BARNETT is CEO of Semafone. SEPTEMBER 2021

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