WHAT'S INSIDE
R E P O N S I B I L I T Y . R E P U T A T I O N . R E C R U I T M E N T . R E A C H .
1 INTRO
4 RESPONSIBILITY
Mastering the Brave New World of Corporate
Social Responsibility
8 REPUTATION
The New Rules of Reputation Management
13 RECRUITMENT
Questions You Should Ask to Succeed with
Recruitment
19 REACH
The Keys to Effective Reach in a Digital-First World
25 WHAT'S NEXT
BUILDING TRUST THROUGH THE 4RS: RESPONSIBILITY, REPUTATION, RECRUITMENT, REACH
56% of people think capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good.
73% of people think companies can act in a way that drives profit and does good for the communities they operate in.
Communications sit at the heart of these
expectations. Businesses need to communicate
how they are navigating these converging
forces of change to consumers, investors,
employees, partners, suppliers, and the public
as a whole—as people decide where they are
going to invest their time and money. Meaningful,
connected experiences are now the holy grail of
communications, and that gives businesses an
incredible opportunity to forge lasting relationships
with their stakeholders.
Capturing that opportunity means raising the bar
for what effective communications and marketing
looks like. It means closing the gap between what
companies say and what they do, and leveraging
the power of creative, consistent, engaging and
trustworthy communications to make a tangible
societal and business impact.
What does that look like in a post-pandemic age?
Building trust also means a new mandate of
collaboration across the entire company. The
converging forces of change are getting too
complicated and intertwined for any single team
or person to communicate a business’s change
journey to its multiple stakeholders. Building trust
with employees, shareholders, customers, and
other stakeholder means managing many moving
parts. Who can do it all? Well, everyone—including
corporate comms, marketing, HR, and finance—
needs to align their strategies to build trust now.
To drive performance. To build reputation. To be responsible for making the world better. To elevate the brand’s communications with effective reach. We call these four crucial areas the 4Rs.
We’re living through a time of breathtaking change. Never have so many forces of change converged in the business world at one time—from adapting to the rise of the stay-at-home economy and the pace of innovation in technology, to becoming genuinely purpose-driven and aligned with stakeholders’ values. What we expect and need from the companies we work for, buy from, invest in, and trust is a growing, complex list. And that's where brand building begins—with trust.
1
REPUTATION. Building a legacy of trust that proactively
protects the brand and resonates with all
stakeholders from investors to employees,
recruits, consumers and influencers.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Owning your brand
narrative. Talking about what you’re doing and
why you’re doing it. Backing that up with data,
stories and insights. Thinking about reputation
building as a proactive communications priority.
WHY IT MATTERS:
86% of people expect CEOs to publicly speak out about societal issues, local community issues, job automation and pandemic impact.
Edelman Trust Barometer, Edelman, Inc., 2021
REACH. Cutting through the digital clutter to connect
with target audiences to ensure that any
investment in crafting communications is
equally matched with investment in ensuring
those messages are seen and heard.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Leverage performance
marketing tactics to improve audience reach
to the people that matter. Setting objectives
and tracking performance in all areas of
communications. Understanding the role of
data and analytics in shaping communications
strategy.
WHY IT MATTERS:
Digital dominates the channel mix; nearly 2/3 of CMOs expect channel budgets to increase in 2021.2020 CMO Spend Survey, Part 2: CMOs Protect Digital Channels
and Martech (for Now), Gartner, Inc., June 2020
RESPONSIBILITY.Demonstrating a high standard of corporate citizenship
in all areas from environmental sustainability to diversity
and inclusion, while upholding a duty to society, local
governments, regulatory bodies, employees and more.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Rising to meet the ever-evolving
expectations of your stakeholders. Knowing where you
can and should make a measurable difference and
focusing your efforts and communications accordingly.
Viewing responsibility as an opportunity and articulating
its role in your business strategy.
WHY IT MATTERS:
9 in 10 executives who worked on sustainability issues reported that investments increased and will continue accelerating along a similar trajectory over the next three years.
Executive Pulse: Sustainability and Business Strategy Converge, Gartner, Inc., February 2021
RECRUITMENT. Recognizing the global emphasis on employee health,
diversity, inclusion and business transformation, and
understanding the expectations of the next wave of talent
in order to shape communications that showcase your
culture and help to attract and retain the best talent.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: Highlighting company culture,
purpose, and vision in a compelling employee value
proposition that is a true reflection of your business.
Amplifying employee voices—at all levels. Leveraging
technology and data in the recruitment process to
attract qualified, highly sought-after talent.
WHY IT MATTERS:
70% of job seekers want to work for a company that demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
How to Develop an Employer Branding Strategy in 2020, The Manifest, June 2020
2
How do you do it? Capturing the opportunity that the 4Rs represent
requires a collaborative, cross-departmental
approach from within a business. It demands a
holistic strategy across the 4Rs, where each one is
considered and communicated in order to build long-
lasting trust with your most important audiences.
At Investis Digital, we have a special
approach to succeed across the 4Rs. We call
it Connected ContentTM. Connected Content
unites communications, digital experiences and
performance marketing that enables a business
to forge deeper relationships with their audiences,
building trust and driving business performance.
TELL IT
BUILD IT
RUN IT
RE
SP
ON
S I B I L I T Y R E P U T AT I ON
R E C R U I T ME
NT
R E A C H
FIND IT
• We help a business tell their brand stories through strategic and engaging content that meets their audiences at the right time, in the right place, with the right message.
• But it isn’t enough to just share content. We also build and run intelligent websites and digital experiences that are measured and supported by our secure Connect.ID technology and 24/7 managed service.
• Lastly, with a great narrative and a site that optimizes the experience, we ensure audiences can find your content through our performance marketing solutions that amplify the brand across all touchpoints.
With Connected Content as a backdrop, let’s take a closer
look at the 4Rs.
3
Pervasive
It’s not just expectations of CSR that have
changed—so has the way brands talk about it.
They’re having an ongoing conversation about CSR
now—one that happens everywhere from websites
to social media, and one that is focused on what
businesses are actually doing to proactively
contribute to society.
“The conversation is much more than an occasional
Instagram post supporting Black Lives Matter,”
according to Collin Cornwell, Investis Digital
Executive Vice President, Connected Content.
“People want to hear what brands are actually
doing to solve problems.”
Far-Reaching
For years, many brands associated CSR with one or two key
issues, often around environmental sustainability or supply
chains. Today, CSR challenges businesses to play an even
larger role in making society better. This ranges from global
pandemic responses, prioritizing diversity and inclusion or
addressing the role of technology when it comes to the
consequences of deploying artificial intelligence without
appropriate human oversight to check against issues such as
bias creeping into AI.
Trust is declining as expectations grow.
1 RESPONSIBILITY
Mastering the Brave New World of Corporate Social Responsibility The world changed dramatically in 2020, and so did our expectations of corporate social
responsibility (CSR). CSR is no longer a tick-box requirement for building a brand; it’s far-
reaching, pervasive and essential to business growth. Companies that master CSR now are
creating a competitive advantage that will cement emotional trust with all their stakeholders
from investors to job seekers.
The business of business used to be business.
Today, the business of business is improving the
state of the world.Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO
Only 38% of people believe businesses are doing well or very well at putting people before profits.
In 2020, 60% of the general population demanded that companies take a stand to publicly speak out against racial injustice along with their diversity and inclusion efforts.
60% of Americans said that they would buy or boycott a brand based on if and how it responds to social protests.
Investis Digital Connect.IQ 2021 Global 100 Report
4
As a result, the conversation is getting deeper and
more substantial, with companies sharing how
they’re taking action to make the world better, an
example being Netflix announcing in 2020 that it
had re-allocated $100 million of its assets to Black-
owned banks.
Where the conversation is happening
WEBSITE: The corporate website is the cornerstone
of any brand’s CSR narrative. What sets businesses
leading the way in CSR communications apart
from others is that CSR pervades the entire site,
from the home page to their investment case
and strategy. For example, in the energy industry,
brands must discuss their commitment to a
sustainable future as part of their transition to
cleaner energy: that’s not about ticking a box, but
about showing how they will continue to exist as
society shifts towards alternative energy sources.
Brands may also feel pressure to enhance their
consumer sites with CSR narratives as the line
between consumer and corporate audiences
continues to blur.
EARNED, PAID, AND SOCIAL MEDIA: Companies
are relying on the viral power of social to take a
stand against racism. To talk about mental health.
To discuss the digital divide between rich and
poor. And they’re doing so in more personal ways,
such as CEOs commenting on racial justice or
climate change on Twitter, or employees blogging
about their own commitment to social change.
Of course, social media is a powerful platform for
visual storytelling, and we’ve seen many instances
of brands rallying around sites such as Instagram
to literally show their commitment to diversity and
inclusion—not once, but all-year round.
To manage this conversation well, businesses need to:
• Examine every aspect of their marketing/communications outreach, from their goals to their analytics for measuring what success looks like.
• Treat CSR like the most important marketing/communications effort they’ve ever undertaken—and align actions and commit resources accordingly.
• Be OK with being uncomfortable and commit to taking brave, bold actions even if that means acknowledging shortcomings or areas for improvement.
Essential
A major shift in how businesses view CSR is underway, from
a defensive reputation management issue—How do I protect
my brand?—to an essential growth opportunity—How do I
maximize my business growth through CSR?
According to Lucy Hartley, “CSR can and should be a
differentiating point—an opportunity for companies to
improve their core business.”
The key is for businesses to be transparent. If you’re going to take a stand against what’s wrong with society, and your past actions are inconsistent with your present-day actions,
own up to it. Commit to doing better and show that you are. But don’t let an imperfect
past stop you from doing what it is right.
Lucy Hartley, Investis Digital Director of Creative Content
5
“It’s time for businesses to support their growth
with a strong story about CSR,” says Lucy Hartley.
“If you tell an authentic story about your purpose-
led initiatives, you can deliver a stronger ROI.”
HOW TO GET STARTED• TAKE STOCK OF YOUR COMMITMENT TO CSR.
Start with assessing what you do well and what you need to improve. Align your CSR priorities with your business objectives and communications goals. All three areas should be working in harmony.
• AUDIT YOUR OWN CSR STORY. How are you talking about CSR across the digital world, starting with your website? What are you doing well, and what do you need to improve? Fortunately, tools exist to help you do that, such as the Investis Digital Connect.IQ website assessment.
• ASSESS YOUR AUDIENCE. Who really has the most impact on your CSR narrative? Do they all carry equal weight? Unless you understand your audience, you’ll run the risk of completely losing your focus and risk appearing inauthentic. Focus on what your audience wants and expects, and where you can make a tangible impact through your actions.
• CREATE A YEAR-ROUND CONTENT CAMPAIGN. Yes, a campaign. It’s essential to create a far-reaching communications approach that covers every relevant touchpoint and delivers against measurable goals such as improvements in customer sentiment.
• BE BOLD. Don’t ride the middle ground. What are the issues and commitments that make sense for you as a business, and how can you make a tangible, positive impact on those? CSR isn’t a one-size-fits all initiative. It should play to your strategy and business strengths in the same way that any other initiatives or policies would.
Corporate social responsibility is a year-round conversation. Take a deep breath. Have a plan. And dive in.
Why? One reason is very clear: we live in an increasingly
diverse world, and businesses whose actions and words
reflect this reality are more relevant to the population they
serve. As a PwC survey of CFOs’ 2021 priorities put it, “A
diverse workforce and deliberate inclusion efforts help drive
better outcomes and elevate growth. Diversity is more than
just doing the right thing—it’s good for business. And driving
business value is always top of mind for CFOs.”
The next generation
Millennial and Gen Z populations connect brands with
purpose, and these generations are increasingly calling
the shots in their roles as investors, customers, and job
seekers. One study found that 75 percent of Millennial
respondents said they’d be willing to take a pay cut to work
for a company that’s environmentally responsible. Morgan
Stanley reports that millennials are 2X as likely as the overall
investor population to invest in companies targeting social
or environmental goals. The same commitment to socially
responsible investing holds true for Gen Z.
According to Luke Bishop, Vice President of Strategic Growth
at Investis Digital, “Gen Z alone are changing the corporate
agenda. Businesses that respond to their values and priorities
with a sustained commitment to CSR are positioning
themselves to grow. Businesses that don’t respond will
become irrelevant.”
For the businesses that make CSR their primary priority, the
rewards are great: by becoming more relevant to the needs
of an evolving society globally, they build credibility. And with
that credibility comes an emotional bond.
That bond forms enduring loyalty, which translates to measurable outcome such as:
• Attracting and keeping the best talent.
• Locking in long-term customer loyalty, resulting in less customer churn.
• Creating long-term shareholder value.
49% of CFOs surveyed by PwC said that they plan to increase employee diversity and inclusion training.
6
As a leading technology communications company, Vodafone is building an inclusive, sustainable digital society. They work with Investis Digital to ensure that its site reflects its journey to becoming a more purpose-driven business.
Historically, the Vodafone IR website was lean and heavily
focused on news, facts and figures. The new site needed to
take visitors on a journey, positioning Vodafone as a purpose-
driven company and highlighting its ESG credentials to a
wider audience, and more effectively across digital channels.
The new website is a testament to Vodafone’s high standards
when it comes to digital communications. Purpose is the
foundation that connects all sections, and rich media
contribute to visualize key information on their investment
structure while making the content more easily digestible.
The home page invites visitors to learn about Vodafone’s
purpose of connecting for a better future and a more detailed
page clearly articulates its commitment to meeting specific
ESG-related performance goals by 2025.
The Connect.ID Virtual Events platform allows
Vodafone to keep an active dialogue with its
increasingly broad audience through an extensive
investor relations program.
The site has experienced tangible user engagement
improvements and Connected Content™ has
allowed Vodafone to embrace a holistic shift in
their digital communications program.
Fostering Social Responsibility Through Digital-first Communications
284% pageviews on the “Purpose and ESG” page
85% bounce rate on the “Purpose and ESG” page
130% pageviews site-wide
208% pageviews on the “Investors” page
7
2
“It takes time to build authority,” Lianna Kissinger
Virizlay, Strategic Group Account Director at
Investis Digital says. “But when you build a bank
of goodwill through positive links and keyword
authority over a period of months and years, the
next time someone Googles your name and a topic
such as climate change, they’re going to start
seeing your narrative, not someone else’s narrative
about you.”
In addition, as Collin Cornwell says, “The best
defense is a good offense. When businesses
create authority around a topic that builds their
reputations, they take themselves out of reactive
mode.” He says that proactive organizations give
themselves ready-made evidence to respond to
threats when they arise and, even better, inspire
employees and customers to rally around the
company.
According to Lucy Hartley, “Always communicate
your position and communicate it well. Repetition
matters with reputation building.”
To build a positive reputation, invest in the long game.
REPUTATION
The New Rules of Reputation Management Brand reputation management is both more complicated and rewarding now. Companies need
to manage reputation issues such as consumer privacy and information security that barely
registered on anyone’s radar screens 20 years ago, in addition to ongoing CSR/ESG/HR issues that
have become even more important since 2020. But companies have more tools at their disposal
to strengthen their reputations. It’s time for businesses to learn the new rules of brand reputation
management. Read on to learn what they are.
Reputation Management Delivers Positive Results
Many businesses associate reputation management with
putting out fires. But reputation management is ultimately
about wresting control of your own corporate narrative and
building corporate goodwill.
How? By combining earned, owned, and paid media to
build a positive narrative. A company that wants to improve
its reputation for, say, environmental sustainability, needs
to create a digital footprint by publishing blog posts and
opinion pieces on climate change, having company leaders
speak at events, and offer expertise for news stories on
how corporations are becoming carbon neutral. Even more
importantly, building a reputation means sharing case studies
and publishing quantifiable evidence about a company’s own
progress; you need to show as much as tell.
Reputation management creates tremendous opportunities for a brand. It’s not just about
responding to a crisis: it’s also about the opportunity to create a stronger connection
with your audience by telling your story.
Lianna Kissinger Virizlay, Strategic Group Account Director, Investis Digital
8
Security and Privacy are the New Reputation Influencers
Once upon a time, managing a reputation was the
province of Corporate PR and Marketing. It still is.
But Corporate PR and Marketing need new allies
from the security and legal teams. That’s because
within the past few years, security and privacy have
fast emerged to shape corporate reputations—
and not always for the better. On the security
front, according to the FBI, since the COVID-19
pandemic hit, hackers have exponentially increased
their activity, causing a 300-percent increase in
cybercrimes over the same time period last year.
A recent hack of Twitter resulted in accounts of
celebrities and business leaders being breached,
resulting in damage to Twitter’s reputation and
widespread embarrassment. A single security
breach can cause a business millions of dollars
and an erosion of trust. Brands are managing a
similar challenge with consumer privacy. Thanks
to increasingly complex consumer privacy laws,
brands are at greater risk to unwittingly commit
privacy violations. Privacy violations cost brands
money (from fines) and threats to public trust.
Reputation Management is Always on
Corporate reputation management is a 24/7 commitment.
Even when businesses follow Rule #1 and invest in building a
positive reputation, threats can surface at anytime, anywhere,
ranging from Instagram activist accounts calling out brands
for bad behavior or negative press going viral overnight.
“Anyone with access to social media who decides to attack
a brand can do it instantly and publicly—whether an upset
employee or an angry customer, and those threats happen
with amazing speed,” says Lucy Hartley. “Those threats are
not only disruptive, but they can cost a business money,
lost productivity, and an erosion in trust.” Hartley suggests
that businesses take an always-on approach to monitor
and respond to threats quickly. Businesses can mitigate the
damage and distraction by planning for threats and dedicating
resources and digital tools to monitor, assess the level of
threat, and respond.
“Not every single threat is cause for a crisis,” she says.
“A business that knows itself and its most important
audiences can prioritize a sincere customer service complaint
from a random tweet created by a troll, and act accordingly.”
Plan ahead. Be ready. And be aware. Always.
9
Oftentimes employees simply need some guidance, such as:
• A company launches a new diversity and inclusion initiative and shares hashtags and assets for employees to share on their socials, perhaps even with suggested copy for employees too busy to write their own.
• A business enlists employees to share their own testimonials via the corporate blog or on social accounts such as Instagram.
• A business sponsors a community giveback program, such as a neighborhood beautification project, recruits employees to participate, and gives them tools to record their experiences.
Authenticity Separates the Leaders from the Laggards
Ultimately, actions speak as loudly as words.
None of the four rules of reputation management
matters if a business cannot back its blog posts,
testimonials, and PR with verifiable actions.
As Lianna Kissinger Virizlay says, “If a company
comes to us and asks, ‘Can you help us build
our reputation?’ the first thing we do is ask what
they’re doing. We cannot fix your culture or actions.
But we can identify gaps in your credibility if you
have them and, on the positive side, uncover
positive actions to highlight what you might be
overlooking.”
“Legislators are getting more aggressive about enforcing
privacy laws,” according to Stu White, Head of Product
Management and Data Protection Officer at Investis Digital.
“As a result, more businesses are getting hit with fines and
damage to their reputations for failing to adhere to laws
governing cookie management.”
What’s the answer? Treating corporate security and privacy
as C-level priorities. That means investing in durable
infrastructure to protect a company’s digital backbone.
Making consumer privacy a year-round commitment. And
staying focused on the positive outcome of investing in
security and privacy, such as avoiding disruptions, saving
money, and improving employee productivity. The “best
defense is a good offense” philosophy for building corporate
goodwill applies to security and privacy, too.
Build Your Reputation from the Inside Out
One of the greatest opportunities businesses have now is
empowering employees to become brand ambassadors. If you
build a positive culture and support your people, they’re going
to be willing to tell others about it. That reputation building
happens organically all the time on sites such as Glassdoor.
But businesses can also encourage employees to become
ambassadors, too. And frankly it’s not that difficult.
Employees are willing to write that blog post or be part of that corporate film about diversity and inclusion so long as you are authentic. If you want employees to be a positive voice for
you, then create a great culture that will make people excited to talk about you.
Luke Bishop, Vice President of Strategic Growth, Investis Digital
10
Many times, evidence that builds authenticity exists, but
businesses haven’t taken time to document and share it. This
is why it’s essential that companies attempting to burnish
their reputations take stock of their works. What’s their track
record for investing in employee wellness, diversity and
inclusion, or pricing their products fairly? Are they sharing
that evidence on their corporate site? For example, life
sciences companies involved in developing COVID-19 vaccines
can build tremendous goodwill by telling the story of how
they’ve surprised the world by developing life-saving vaccines
at astonishing speed. A retailer that donates to disadvantaged
communities needs to use its website as a platform to share
the facts about how much money the company has spent
and its impact.
This is no time for any business to become shy about sharing its story.
HOW TO GET STARTED • ASSESS WHERE YOU ARE TODAY WITH
YOUR REPUTATION. Audit what’s going on. What are people saying about you? How well are you using digital channels, including your website? What kind of content are you publishing about your actions and viewpoints?
• CREATE A LONG-TERM CAMPAIGN FOR BUILDING AUTHORITY. Understand all the ways someone interacts with your brand—and we mean everyone from consumers to investors. Every touch point is a place to create positive content on channels where your audience is. If no one knows who you are, then you are defined by the negative PR that arises.
• BE READY WITH A GAME PLAN FOR REACTING TO A CRISIS. When and how one might hit your business can’t be predicted but having the right plans in place can help ensure that you respond quickly, clearly and with a cool head. Good planning can be the difference between turning a crisis into an opportunity and having it spiral out of your control.
• PROTECT YOUR REPUTATION WITH DURABLE SECURITY AND PRIVACY. Consider security and privacy to be the backbone of your reputation.
11
Anglo American has been leading in the mining world for over 100 years, starting out as a small South African business, growing rapidly into a globally renowned mining organization. But the company needed to do a better job sharing a unified message and image. That’s because the company operated 12 corporate websites managed individually by key stakeholders within each region.
Partnering with Investis Digital, the company began with a full
website audit that revealed that the messaging and brand image
had become diluted and needed to be refreshed to represent
Anglo American as the leading mining business that they are. It
also identified that their commitment to sustainable mining was
not well represented.
They began a revamp of the sustainability section of the site, by
featuring new localized images and clearer, more concise content.
To boost Anglo American’s authority in organic search and
help them rank for high-volume mining terms, Investis Digital
developed a comprehensive SEO program, addressing all three of
Google’s primary ranking signals.
Compared to the same six month period prior to implementing
the strategy, Anglo American have seen fantastic improvement in
audience engagement across all key sections.
Establish Authority and Boost Reputation
118% sessions on the sustainability section
113% sessions on the FutureSmart mining section
40% rankings site-wide
127% page 1 rankings site-wide
12
3and responsive recruiting experience, and to do
that, companies need to be more thoughtful
about how they connect with people where they
are with content that speaks to them. Successful
recruitment means a lot more than posting a job
description and waiting for resumes.”
According to Steve Kalupski, creating a successful
recruitment journey starts with the fundamentals
of market research, building personas, and creating
a map of the recruit’s journey with digital marketing
touchpoints embedded throughout the journey.
RECRUITMENT
Questions You Should Ask to Succeed with Recruitment Welcome to the new world of corporate recruitment. Everything has changed. A generation of
empowered job seekers wants employers to do far more than offer great benefits and advancement.
No, they want employers to do much, much more. Like be upstanding corporate citizens. Champions
of diversity and inclusion. Empathetic to the mental and emotional needs of their people.
The events of 2020—a pandemic and a collective global outcry for racial justice—helped usher in this change. But 2020 was not a turning point—it was an accelerant. Let’s take a look at four questions every business needs to ask now to succeed under the new rules of recruitment.
Am I Treating Recruitment Like a Customer Journey?
The shift to remote working accelerated the adoption of
digital tools to recruit job seekers. But just using digital
tools is table stakes now—81 percent of talent professionals
will continue to use digital recruitment post pandemic.
The real opportunity is to treat recruitment like a customer
journey and align digital touchpoints along that journey
from awareness to employee advocacy. This mindset means
adopting the same digital tactics that successful businesses
have traditionally deployed with consumers, from targeting to
email drip campaigns.
“Reaching job seekers with the right content at the right
time is now an expectation of the talent journey,” says
Lianna Kissinger Virizlay. “This shift was happening before
the pandemic. If you just look at any company’s profile
on Glassdoor, you can see from the reviews how high the
expectations are for potential employers to provide a relevant
Think of how businesses attract customers from awareness to referral,
and act accordingly. No one tries to attract a customer without first
understanding who they are and their journey to purchase. The same holds true with the recruitment journey.
Steve Kalupski, EVP Client Solutions, Investis Digital
13
How Strong Is My Diversity and Inclusion Story?
A few years ago, diversity and inclusion
were an important part of corporate
recruitment. Now it’s essential. The
global outcry for racial justice that
erupted in 2020 has created a mandate
for businesses to demonstrate their
commitment to making society better,
especially in the area of racial justice.
As a PWC survey of CFOs’ 2021 priorities
put it, “A diverse workforce and
deliberate inclusion efforts help drive
better outcomes and elevate growth.
Diversity is more than just doing the
right thing — it’s good for business. And
driving business value is always top of
mind for CFOs.”
In fact, 49% of CFOs surveyed by PwC said that they plan to increase employee diversity and inclusion training.
It’s essential that businesses share their
efforts to address racial inequality on
their corporate sites—not just words, but
evidence of action.
For Gen Z and Millennial job seekers,
diversity and inclusion in the workplace
is a requirement according to a recent
Glassdoor study. Job seekers are
closely examining company websites for
evidence of a commitment to diversity
and inclusion, and they’re reviewing
Glassdoor reviews to see how well
the company’s actions align with their
words. Job seekers are looking for more
than diversity. They want to see how
well companies develop and advance
the careers of a diverse workforce—the
inclusion part.
The recruitment journey mindset also means using analytics more thoughtfully throughout the journey, such as:
• MEASURING CONVERSION RATES: Throughout the funnel, conversion rates range from click-throughs on social to your landing page on company culture, to starting and completing the application process. Tracking those conversions (and their costs) through the funnel will give you a more true average cost for recruiting a single candidate. Just as advertisers need to know how many people click on an ad to measure average costs for a campaign, so, too, should businesses measure how many recruitment ads result in an interview with a qualified candidate.
• LIFETIME VALUE AND ADVOCACY: Do you know the lifetime value of a recruit? Look at metrics such as whether a new hire stays on for more than a year, how often they are promoted, and how effective they are at referring job seekers to your business. Then, assess these metrics based on which channels influenced their application experience. Which were most effective, not only in terms of initial cost, but in terms of the candidates’ lifetime value, retention and on-the-job performance?
Tracking this kind of data is not easy, largely because job seekers don’t
stay conveniently in one channel as they learn about your business. But
a Connected Content approach can help you apply tools we discuss in
our Reach section to help you do that.
14
This shift in priorities means that businesses need to make diversity and inclusion the centerpiece of the recruitment experience.
According to Lianna Kissinger Virizlay, “Black Lives Matter
alone has created a sea change. Businesses need to
show a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion to
every audience, ranging from customers to job seekers
to suppliers. Job seekers are evaluating how well you
tell your story across every single channel to see how
consistent you are. Don’t stop with your recruitment
page. Demonstrate diversity and inclusion everywhere.”
For example:• Share evidence of a more
diverse management team, not just diversity at the new-hire level. Doing so shows that your business is a place where a diverse workforce can grow.
• Include testimonials from employees of diverse backgrounds about what the organization is like to work for.
• Celebrate diversity through events.
• Track your progress toward diversity and inclusion and report it publicly.
• Monitor feedback and questions you receive from employees and job seekers about diversity and inclusion on social sites and Glassdoor and respond to them authentically.
Does Recruitment Reflect My Values, Purpose, and Story?
Diversity and inclusion, which we just
discussed above, is an important example
connecting a brand’s values, purpose, and
story. It’s not the only example. One of the
biggest changes we’ve seen in recruitment over
the past few years is businesses connecting
their company culture more strongly to their
values and purpose more broadly.
YOUR PURPOSE DEFINES WHAT YOU DO.
YOUR VALUES DEFINE WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
YOUR STORY IS HOW YOU SHARE YOUR
PURPOSE AND VALUES IN A COMPELLING
WAY. Businesses are still figuring out how to
connect the three in a meaningful way. And
they have good motivation as they respond to
the preferences of the Millennial and Gen Z
workforce.
Today’s job seekers want more than a decent
salary and perks from their employers. They
value employers that can offer intangibles
such as a sense of belonging and purpose,
as reported recently in a Wall Street Journal
article, “Why Perks No Longer Cut It for
Employers.” This hunger for intangible rewards
manifests itself in many ways, among them
people wanting their employer to practice
meaningful sustainability/ESG.
For instance, three quarters of millennials—
born between 1981 and 1996 and the largest
age cohort in the United States—would take
a pay cut to work for a socially responsible
company. And Generation Z (born after 1996)
“need to see the connection between what
they do and broader social impact” according
to HR consultancy WeSpire.
Job seekers are evaluating how well you tell your story across every single channel to see how consistent you are. Don’t stop
with your recruitment page. Demonstrate diversity and inclusion everywhere.
Lianna Kissinger Virizlay, Strategic Group Account Director, Investis Digital
15
Am I Demonstrating Empathy?
Being empathetic to the well-being of employees is one of the most important topics in recruitment
today. The pandemic has taken an enormous toll on the emotional and mental well-being of people who
are hunkered down in their homes managing their professional and personal lives. People have dealt with
multiple sources of stress: the possibility of catching the virus, the possibility of being furloughed or laid off,
and life under extreme confinement (sometimes with children at home with schools closed)—to name just
a few. The same holds true for future Gen Z job seekers, who have been scarred by a massive disruption to
their college experience and face an uncertain job market.
These factors are causing employers to put more of a focus on being empathetic. According to a LinkedIn
special report on the future of recruitment:
As candidates and customers look for companies to take stronger stances on social issues, recruiting
leaders will increasingly focus on employer branding—and will see it in a radically new light. Instead of
showcasing the company’s products, perks, and office amenities in polished marketing materials, they’ll
publicize what the company is doing to support employees, customers, and communities in times of crisis.
According to Luke Bishop, “We’re witnessing a huge
mindset change in how businesses think about
recruitment because of Millennials and Gen Z.
Companies need to think beyond how they convey
the value of a particular position they want to fill
or the financial benefits the company provides.
They need to sell the value of the entire company,
including the role that the company plays in
making society better.”
Most websites we’ve studied through our
Connect.IQ analysis articulate policies toward
ESG and sustainability, and nearly all share a
statement of their values—but only 62 percent
explain their purpose, and only 4 percent quantify
how they fulfill their purpose.
How do you make them better? Tell a story about your values and purpose and make them easy to find. There are so many
ways to do so, including:
• Unleash your employees on your blog to tell their stories (only 44 percent of companies we studied in our Connect.IQ report have employee blogs).
• Share examples of your values and purpose in action. Use video.
• Post employee testimonials on social media.
• Updates on your formal programs around giving back to your community.
Tell a story about your culture. Your purpose. Your values. Job seekers will respond.
16
From partnerships with nonprofits to employee assistance
programs to small acts of kindness, the actions
companies take—the way they show up with empathy—
will shape their employer brand for years to come. To earn
trust, employers will also be more vulnerable, holding
themselves accountable for shortcomings and being
transparent about their plans to address them.
According to Luke Bishop, “Employers are learning how to
be more mindful to their people, and they need to talk about
how they are doing that so that job seekers understand the
progress they are making.”
For example, companies should put more emphasis on:
• PUBLISHING RESOURCES to help people learn about how to manage self-care.
• CONNECTING EMPLOYEES with each other to discuss self-care and mutual support.
• HOLDING ONLINE WELLNESS EVENTS such as seminars from speakers on topics such as mindful living and meditation, or online yoga breaks and sessions with nutrition specialists.
• SHARING anything about their formal benefits and employee programs that make wellness care more accessible and affordable.
Offer these and many more options that demonstrate
mindfulness—and talk about what you are doing so that job
seekers appreciate what the employee experience is like at
your company.
HOW TO GET STARTEDWith Connected Content, a company creates a
compelling brand narrative and shares it by treating
recruitment like a journey. We suggest the first step
in the journey is doing an audit of your employee
recruitment from top to bottom, including:
• How will recruitment support your company’s ability to achieve business goals? How will you measure your progress?
• How will recruitment help your company be a better corporate citizen? How will you measure your progress?
• Who are you trying to recruit? Where are they, and what matters to them?
• How effectively does your recruitment follow the journey that your ideal job seekers follow?
• How well does your recruitment reflect your culture overall?
Investis Digital can help you get started—and then manage a world-class recruitment program all the way through.
17
Attract and Recruit Top Talent and Increase Visibility
Working with Investis Digital, the company focused
on in-depth research, stakeholder interviews, and
cross-team workshops to understand the needs,
objectives and composition of the digital team at
Rolls-Royce, and the motivations, interests, and
ambitions of the people they wanted to hire. From
this, Investis Digital then helped develop a new
employee value proposition, created new content
and web pages and introduced a selection of new
video and animation assets to engage key audience
groups.
To further break through the noise and reach
these future candidates, they created an omni-
channel campaign—Race Your Code—that
challenged potential applicants to test their coding
and development skills in a real-life robot race.
Partnering with a robotics start-up, the campaign
tapped into the love of coding, challenges and
on-the-fly development we knew our potential
applicants held, pitting applicants against one
another and the Rolls-Royce
team. The races were promoted
internally and externally, across
social media and the Rolls-
Royce website, with applicants
taking part virtually and all races
live streamed over Twitch—a
favored platform for the talent
the campaign aimed to recruit.
The results were impressive.
Over the course of the 2-month
campaign, we saw more than
200 race applicants, nearly
50,000 unique campaign
video views, and over 200,000
campaign page sessions.
Rolls-Royce is synonymous with world-class engineering across the globe. But, as its business becomes increasingly digital and data-driven, it needs to attract exceptional people with the relevant skills to keep pace with its focus and ambitions. That means reaching a new type of candidate: one who may never have thought that Rolls-Royce is the place where they can find the career they’re looking for.
200+ race applicants
48,000+ unique campaign video views
200,000+ campaign page sessions
12% conversions driven by Facebook
18
4REACH
Four Keys to Effective Reach in a Digital-First World Reach is essential to a Connected Content approach—not only because it is one of the 4Rs, but because
it supports/overlaps the other three elements too. Reach amplifies the content that builds trust—without
an effective reach strategy, a brand’s narrative gets lost in a sea of digital signals. This is especially true at
a time when online usage has skyrocketed with people spending more time at home during the pandemic.
All those eyeballs glued to their screens creates a larger addressable audience—but a lot more digital
clutter. Here are four ways to create effective reach in the digital-first world.
Build a Foundation on Your Website
Many businesses think of reach from the outside in. Reach is far
more powerful, though, when you make your website a content
powerhouse worth visiting. This means knowing what you want
to say—which, in turn, requires that you master fundamentals of
content creation such as researching your audience and developing
content optimized for how your audience is searching for it.
According to Lianna Kissinger Virizlay, “Oftentimes I see businesses
wanting to amplify content with performance without first creating
the foundation for the narrative they want to share. Connected
Content means ‘telling it’ before trying to get people to ‘find it.’”
Effective reach means first doing strategic research on the
fundamental issues that define your content: your audience, the
competitive landscape, and your industry, to start. Doing that
requires data: your first-party data, third-party research, social
analytics, and search analytics matched against audience intent.
Google remains the top arbiter of audience intent. From there,
building reach means optimizing content for SEO, using the metrics
that matter to measure your success, and tapping into effective
remarketing to personalize content for returning site visitors.
Fortifying the website is all the more important as the industry
gravitates away from the use of third-party cookies to personalize
content for audiences across the web. As Google recently noted,
“first-party relationships are vital.”
19
Own the Funnel and Be Adaptable
In early 2020, Clubhouse did not exist. It’s now
leading an explosion of social audio apps. For
brands trying to figure out where to amplify their
story, keeping track of constantly evolving apps
can be bewildering. But not every app or platform
matters equally to every brand in their quest for
reaching the right audiences at the right time.
Instead, it’s essential to align reach strategies with
the sales funnel. Achieving awareness on the hot
app of the day may be exactly what your brand
needs—or not. It depends on how each digital
touchpoint plays into a Connected Content strategy
for building awareness, converting customers, and
building relationships.
“Social media can be very seductive,” says Lianna
Kissinger Virizlay. “But more is not always better.
The question is how does social help you move a
potential client down the sales funnel?”
According to separate studies by Google/CEB and
SiriusDecisions, businesses are usually 57 percent
of the way through their journey before they talk
with a salesperson, and 67 percent of that journey
is completed through digital channels.
The challenge is to align content at every stage of
the journey with paid and organic reach tactics.
“The whole process starts with understanding the
entire customer journey,” according to Samantha
Kermode, Senior Director, Strategic Development at
Investis Digital.
Companies that map the customer journey understand
their audience more completely, and they deliver stronger results
such as improved ROI. Samantha Kermode, Senior Director,
Strategic Development at Investis Digital
Be Flexible and Agile with Content
The evolution of content marketing has changed how
businesses think about reach. Businesses now need to
think on two levels: anchoring their thought leadership with
substantial content on their sites while distributing content in
far more nimble ways.
On the one hand, the content that businesses publish and
optimize for findability on their sites is getting longer and
more in-depth as businesses align their ideas with more
complex web searches. The average blog post is nearly
60-percent longer than it was in 2014, and businesses report
that longer-form content generally performs better.
Long-form thought leadership creates a foundation for reach
on the website. But long-form thought leadership takes time
to create, and at a time when people consume content at
digital speed, brands also need to complement long-form
with short bursts of content ranging from Instagram Stories
to TikTok videos.
Steve Kalupski says, “Five years ago, reaching an audience
with content meant that brands might take weeks or months
to create and then distribute content. But today businesses
need to pepper their reach strategy with micro-content and
be comfortable with the fact that their audience will dispose
of it after they consume it.”
According to Steve Kalupski, amplifying a narrative requires agility and a willingness to create imperfect, quick-release content—sacrificing perfection for relevance.
R E A C H
20
She agrees with taking a funnel approach with
organic content, too. “In a perfect world, your
content would follow the funnel effect,” she says.
“Most of your content would fall under awareness
and consideration. From there, you would provide
useful resources that answer more in-depth
questions—not information about your product,
but content that stays focused on the audience
and their questions. By the decision-making step,
you might want to provide more content about
yourselves, such as customer case studies.”
These tactics are adaptable due to ever-changing
consumer behavior, as the pandemic has taught
everyone. During the pandemic, some businesses
pulled back their paid social spend only to regret
it as social enjoyed a surge in usage. This trend
presented—and still presents—a huge opportunity
to gain additional audience reach and, in most
cases, at a reduced cost while still recording solid
performance in select verticals.
After understanding your audience’s journey, you need to align
the right reach tactic to move them along the journey.
“Think about reach in context of the sales funnel,” Lianna
Kissinger Virizlay says. “Fill your awareness at the top and
go for broader reach. Spend to achieve broader reach based
on the size of the audience and other variables such as the
competition and industry and competitor set and audience.
And what is your goal as a business? Is it corporate reach?
Consumer reach? Recruitment? At the top of the funnel,
reach is broad. But at the bottom of the funnel, reach is
smaller and more appropriate for your business.”
According to paid media experts at Investis Digital, some of those tactics from a paid media standpoint often look like this:• PAID SOCIAL: Social media promotion is often referred to
as a top and mid-funnel audience tactic.
• PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA BUYING: Programmatic media buying involves real-time ad bidding on banners, native content, and video advertising across a vast ad network designed to reach and influence users at the right moment in the buyer’s journey. Programmatic campaigns can be top, middle, and bottom funnel targeted depending on the audience and campaign strategy being employed.
• SEARCH: Search represents the bottom of the funnel for many advertisers and is often the work horse of reach performance due to the nature of the channel (it reacts to users asking questions, and thus there is always a need) and the inferences we can make as a direct result of what we may already know about the user from previous interactions as well as current behavior.
Here is a visual depiction of those and more tactics provided by Investis Digital:
C H A N N E L / TAC T I C AWA R E N E S S C O N S I D E R AT I O N D E C I S I O N A DVO C ACY
PROGRAMMATIC
VIDEO DISPLAY
SPONSORED SOCIAL
NATIVE ADVERTISING
PAID SEARCH
EMAIL WORKFLOWS
21
Pageviews: Total pages viewed
If you see a drop in pageviews, your content is not
resonating, which is why this metric is crucial. This
is especially true if you see a drop in pageviews for
deeper pages beyond the home page. In fact, an
increase in home pageviews but a drop in deeper
pageviews means that visitors are not digging into
your site for more information as they should. Dig
deeper. Match pages up to the same time the year
before. What pages are losing traction? Did you
sunset any pages? Is the time on page or scroll
depth affected by the decrease in pageviews?
Average Session Duration: Average length of a session
A drop here also means that your site is not
resonating. Several problems could cause a drop,
and they don’t necessarily have to do with bad
content. For example, you might be optimizing
for less-relevant keywords. Or your paid media is
targeting the wrong audience, resulting in people
visiting your pages and finding content that is not
relevant to them. We know content takes on many
forms. Are you assessing your content the same
way in regard to the session duration?
According to Paul Headley, Vice President of Digital Strategy
and analytics at Investis Digital, “Keep close tabs on customer
behavior online. Where are they online? Where are you seeing
increases or decreases in dwell time on your website? How
does that data differ by type of buyer? This is an opportune
time to test and re-assess your current digital efforts. Rerun
a site crawl, conduct your content gap analysis, and start
addressing those deeper web pages that could use some extra
love. Assess whether your current digital strategy is reaching all
your target audiences.”
It’s important to remember that even though your business
might experience ups and downs during the post-pandemic
recovery, audiences are still there, they’re researching, becoming
more informed, and holding on to all of that demand until they
can make sense of what’s happening. Businesses must stay
persistent, so they are top of mind when customers are ready to
buy again.
Measure What Matters
We’ve seen an explosion of tools to measure the performance
of reach. They all have their place. But with the increase in
tools comes the potential for confusion. Which metrics really
matter, especially for a business that practices Connected
Content and uses reach to bring customers to their website?
This problem is especially acute when it comes to reporting
website performance metrics. Here are the three metrics that
you should really pay attention to when you examine the end
game of reach:
Users: Total number of site visitors
Everything starts with your audience. If your site experiences
a decline or increase in users, every other metric you measure
will be affected. Your site should experience an increase in
users year-over-year through content that attracts traffic
organically combined with paid media tactics such as paid
search. If your user traffic is declining, then challenge your
team to dig deeper into other metrics that could lead to
the source or sources of the problem. There could be many
culprits, such as a website redesign that results in search
engines not indexing your site as before, or a change in your
search spend that has hurt traffic volume. At any rate, treat
user traffic as a top priority.
Businesses must stay persistent, so they are top of mind when customers are ready to buy again.
22
The Value of Year-Over-Year
Finally, regardless of the metrics you examine,
make sure your team reports year-over-year
metrics, not month-to-month. For a senior
marketer, year-over-year is a truer measure of
how well your site is performing. Month-over-
month metrics can be influenced by seasonal
issues, the launch of a campaign, a major news
announcement, and a host of other factors. Year-
over-year as a comparable time period should even
out those variances.
BOTTOM LINE: challenge your teams to look deeper and use these metrics together and not in isolation.
Other Metrics Matter—But Not as Much
By contrast, other metrics on your site, while important, are
not as crucial to a senior marketing executive to know as
the three above. Consider, for example, bounce rate, or the
percentage of sessions where there was no interaction with
the page. There can be several reasons for a high bounce
rate, and not all of them are negative. For instance, a high
bounce rate could result from your site doing an efficient job
of delivering content to a highly targeted audience. In other
words, your audience has quickly found what they wanted
and moved on.
In addition, bounce rates need to be examined in combination
with other red flags. For instance, a high bounce rate
combined with a decrease in session duration is a much more
serious red flag than a high bounce rate in isolation. This
is not to say that bounce rate is trivial—far from it. Rather,
bounce rate is better left to an analytics team to track and
analyze so that the senior marketer can focus on the red
flags that matter most to them.
23
The content hub now created the opportunity for increased
visibility of awareness and consideration content. The initial
pages resulted in 592,308
organic impressions and 9,351
organic clicks in the first 5.5
months of blog publication.
Not only did a full-funnel
keyword strategy mean more
visibility in the SERPs, but it
also built a larger Connected
Audience to retarget across
various paid media tactics.
The iconic Russel Athletic crew neck sweatshirt has taken off in popularity since its founding, but unfortunately, queries related to this topic were inaccurately showing other brands as the sweatshirt inventor. Russell Athletic needed to take ownership of relevant search terms to be properly recognized as the Inventors of the sweatshirt in the digital age.
Investis Digital began with extensive keyword
research so that the team could understand the
intent behind each search term and why search
engines were rewarding some content over others.
They created new content to align the Russell
Athletic brand with search intent. Since the
search terms were highly competitive, Investis
Digital ensured the content was authoritative by
supplementing it with images, galleries, infographics,
and video tutorials to stand out against competitors.
In addition, this combination of assets helped
to naturally acquire backlinks over time. Finally,
from a promotion perspective, they amplified
the messaging by running a paid social campaign
to drive traffic and introduce the brand to new
audiences.
The end product was a series of high-quality
content posts that set the foundation for a content
hub that will support diverse content experiences
on RussellAthletic.com for years to come.
Maximize Reach to Bolster Brand Perception and Drive Website Traffic
460+ page 1 rankings from Google
590,000+ organic impressions
500,000+ unique users reached on Facebook and Instagram
24
As we noted at the outset, mastering the 4Rs means managing all four in a connected fashion. We call this approach Connected Content.
Connected Content drives everything we do. We unite compelling communications, intelligent digital experiences and performance marketing to help more than 1,600 global companies build deeper connections with audiences and drive business performance.
Now for an important question: what should you do next to get
started taking ownership of the 4Rs together? The answer is
simple: begin with your website. Your website is your home base
in a digital-first world. It’s the one place where you will always
have the most control over your own narrative. All the elements
of a modern brand—Responsibility, Reputation, Recruitment, and
Reach—converge on your website. We suggest you first audit how
well you measure up to the 4Rs on your site and work from there.
Fortunately tools exist to help you do that. Our own
proprietary Connect.IQ analysis evaluates thousands of
IR and corporate websites, measuring the effectiveness of their
digital presence. Using our Connect.IQ methodology, we review
what they do well in telling their story, and what they can do
better based on 300 criterion—ranging from the strength of their
investor case to how well they articulate their environmental,
social, and governance (ESG) story. Connect.IQ is the only
analysis capable of helping you assess how well your brand
measures up to the 4Rs.
Learn more about Connect.IQ here.
Contact Investis Digital for more information about Connected Content.
Success is yours to have!
25