Become a Marketing Guru

Why is Marketing important?  According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, The Importance of Marketing for the Success of a Business, Marketing is the heart of business success.  Marketing is essential to business growth. An understanding of Marketing and relationship building is crucial for delivering a company’s values and mission, defining and “speaking” to the target audience, and establishing a strong customer base.

Marketing vs. Advertising

Advertising is only a small part of marketing.  Marketing encompasses: defining the product, the manner and strategy of sales, conducting market research, manufacture and distribution logistics, public relations, customer support and, yes, advertising.  Marketing is about building a relationship between an organization and its consumer.

Company Reputation

The success or failure of all business rests on the foundation known as Reputation.  Marketing helps companies communicate with their targeted audiences.  It is a way to convey the values and mission of the company.  It sets an expectation that will be delivered to the consumer and when the expectation is met or exceeded—reputation and business grows.

Find what Works

Sounds simple enough, but it requires forethought and strategy.  According to Udemy, The Importance of Marketing: 10 Reasons You Can’t Afford Not to Market Your Business, there are many ways to market and while testing the marketing waters, you will not only build a social asset for your business, but you will discover what really works for your business, as well as,  where to invest your time and money.

Ready to become a Marketing Guru? Give our Marketing Principles course a try!

Recently added to our course library, Marketing Principles explores the ways in which marketing has developed over time. If you want to learn the various facets of marketing and how marketers accomplish their goals, this is the course for you. Discover how to locate the target market, do customer research, identify the components of the product, and promote that product. Gain the necessary tools to market your products and your brand more effectively.

To see the entire course outline click here.

Ready to Sign Up? Go NOW

Watch a free lesson: http://youtu.be/cM6Upqi43tE

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How to Win Great Employees

Did your company make it into Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards? No? Well don’t worry, the New Year is here and what most people do every year is make resolutions.  If you recognize your company needs change this year, make your resolution to achieve a culture that your employees can thrive in.  If you are wondering what kind of culture employees thrive in, the kind that wins awards and has employees singing your company’s praises, then check out some of the perks from the top five companies on the list:

Google was listed as number one according to the Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards.  As reported by employees, some of the perks of working for an internet giant include:  Retiree Health and Medical, On Site Health Care, Flexible Hours, Work from Home, Free Lunch or Snacks, Paid Holidays, Gym Membership, Pet Friendly Workplace, Childcare, Dependent Care, Company Social Events, Professional Development and Training.  These are in addition to the basic medical insurance and 401K or other retirement plan.

Nestle Purina Pet Care Company and Boston Consulting Group employees reported Sabbaticals as one of their many perks.  F5 Networks, developers of network management platforms, offers employees 3 weeks of paid vacation in the first year of employment and “Beer Fridays”.  Most of the top five offer Free healthcare, free snacks and a work from home option.

What is the one thing they all have in common? They all have the desire to invest in their employees in ways that benefit the employee professionally.  Tuition Assistance and Apprenticeships were highly prized benefits.  Professional Development and Training programs are used to provide opportunities for employees to enhance or learn new skills.  F5 company employees believe the company’s training program is a valuable asset. 

While you may not be able to bring pets into work or offer completely free medical to your employees, you can give them something that employees themselves say is more valuable than free snacks: an education.  Helping your employees with professional development is an achievable goal for the New Year.

Knowledgecity.com offers corporate training for Business, Computer Software and Safety Compliance.  With convenient online training courses that can be taken anytime and anywhere, set your resolution in motion and offer KnowledgeCity training to your employees.  We are adding new courses all the time.  Visit our website for a FREE TRIAL.

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Leadership is A Skill You Can Learn

What is a leader?  A leader is a multifaceted style that encompasses more than managing people.  According to Kevin Kruse in an article for Forbes, “Leadership doesn’t automatically happen when you reach a certain pay grade.” (What is Leadership?)  It is a learning experience all its own.

"Leadership scholars define a leader as a person who sets attractive goals and has the ability to attract followers, or constituents, who share those goals. Above all, a leader must be trusted and respected. Trust between a leader and constituent’s opens up two-way communication, making it possible for them to realize their common goals." (Marvin Bower, The Will to Lead)

One of the most important aspects of leadership is good communication skills.  Whether it is coaching or delivering performance evaluations, leaders need to have the ability to communicate effectively.  Leadership and communication skills can be taught.  The ability to communicate and build teams is important for emerging leaders to be able motivate groups of people toward a common goal—the goal of the business. 

In an article, Businesses Don’t Fail – Leaders Do, Mike Myatt writes: ”Why do businesses fail? If you’re willing to strip away all the excuses, explanations, rationalizations, and justifications for business failures, and be really honest in your analysis, you’ll find only one plausible reason—poor leadership.”

In our new course series, Management to Leadership, instructor Dena Loverde explores the differences between managing people and leading them.  Not everyone is a leader, but with the skills learned in this course anyone can learn to be one.

Take a sneak peek at the lesson: Leader as Goal Setter, from the course Defining Leadership which will be posted live on our website: www.knowledgecity.com in the coming weeks.

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Increasing Productivity in the Workplace

Highly engaged employees were found to be 26 percent more productive than their disengaged peers.  How does this affect the bottom line for companies? One study found an increase in total returns of 13 percent.  Increasingly employees are looking for value and meaningful recognition that has no price tag.

So what exactly is motivating employee productivity?  Recognition, Opportunity and Relationships.

Recognition: Positive feedback is instant recognition you can give to an employee that will give them a sense of pride.  How does this help productivity? Your employee knows that you appreciate their efforts.  According to the USNews.com article, How to Give Positive Feedback at Work, identify how your employee’s efforts made a positive impact on the team and the organization.  One study suggests that recognizing employee’s strengths encourages their team to thrive.

Opportunity: Giving employees the opportunity to use the skills they have helps them develop and take their skills to the next level.  Encouraging a lifelong learning culture can take your company a long way.  According to the smallbusiness.chron.com article, Effects of Training on Employee Performance, training enhances morale on the job and can even increase employee loyalty—two important motivators of productivity.

Relationships: Leadership is not always easy.  Engaging employees can be a challenge.  The key is finding ways to inspire your employees.  Communication has been and always will be a major component of all relationships from top level management to individual team members.  Open, honest communication must be a priority in business.  Once you have your communication down, how do you get your team to adopt your goals?  According to the study, Management Leadership and Productivity Improvement Programs, management needs to focus on goals that matter.  Management support for Education and Training, Empowerment, and Reward Systems can be used to motivate employees and employees who feel that their leadership cares are more productive.

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Employee Engagement & Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Employee engagement is a workplace mantra.  Managers around the globe are starting to think about how to create a culture where employees thrive and become committed members of the team.  When a company is able to inspire its employees to adopt its goals through engagement, the company will see the benefits in productivity.  One way of doing this is to start with understanding how we as humans are inspired in the first place.  What do we need to become committed and how do employers meet that need?  If you could ask noted psychologist, Abraham Maslow, he might tell you meet their hierarchy of needs.

Who is Maslow and what is his Hierarchy of Needs?

Abraham Maslow proposed in a paper he wrote, “A Theory of Human Motivation” published in Psychological Review in 1943, that people’s motivations are unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires.  He theorized that people are motivated by what has become known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  The hierarchy is depicted in a pyramid that contains five levels.  These levels include: Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Social Needs, Esteem Needs, and Self-Actualization.

According to SimplyPsychology.com, people are motivated to achieve each of the needs in the pyramid.  After people fulfill the needs at one level they move on to the next.  To progress up the pyramid each lower need must be met.  Any time there is a failure to meet the needs at a lower level it disrupts the person’s ability to progress.  Life is unpredictable.  As situations arise these experiences can cause an individual to move back and forth between levels.

According to Maslow, only one in one hundred people ever become fully self-actualized. This is mainly due to our society which primarily rewards motivation based on esteem, love and other social needs.

How Does Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Help Us Understand Employee Engagement?

To understand how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs relates, we need to see the bigger picture.  Let’s start with Gallup’s “State of the American Workplace”. According to the report published last year, only 30 percent of employees are engaged.  Another 52 percent are disengaged and 18 percent are actively disengaged. What exactly does that mean?  It means that 70 percent of the American workforce is not committed to their organization’s goals and values.  They are not motivated to contribute to the organization’s success.  These workers are emotionally disconnected and less productive.

According to an article in Forbes, “Surprising, Disturbing Facts from the Mother of All Employee Engagement Surveys”, the leading factor that influences employee engagement is the relationship the employee has with their managers.  Choosing the right leaders significantly impacts the workforce.

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” —Sam Walton

According to a study by Delloitte.com, “Global Human Capital Trends 2014—engaging the 21^st Century Workforce”, 65 percent of executives rated “overwhelmed employees” as an urgent need that must be addressed.  The “always on” employee was built by mobile technology.  We are always connected 24/7.  The new “workaholic” lifestyle just increases with seniority and income.

In addition to employees being overwhelmed, some other reasons for disengaged employees are: workload is too high, companies that do not invest in talent development, no advancement opportunities for high performers, non-inclusive culture, transitions in leadership.

“People leave managers, not organizations.” —Anonymous

The key to engaging employees, motivating your team, and increasing productivity in the long run is to invest in your workers.  Re-design the position, add benefits that matter, change the work environment and develop your team and leadership.  It is not always easy to re-engage a disengaged employee, but people aren’t motivated by the bottom line.  They are motivated by the things that meet their hierarchy of needs.

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Business Word Processing

“Word processing refers generally to the creation, editing, formatting, storage, and output of both printed and online or electronic documents. Word processing is undoubtedly the most-used business application for personal computers…”  

Encyclopedia of Business and Finance, 2nd ed. | 2007 | Young, Ray

Word Processing involves understanding how business documents and correspondence are formatted.  It is a skill that is used to enhance the effectiveness of business communications.  From letters to agendas, forms and presentations; word processing keeps the business world moving.

View a Sample Lesson

From our Business Course:

   Business Word Processing—This lesson focuses   on keyboarding techniques.  You will learn tips to good keyboarding as well as the correct finger placement for keyboarding.  Also includes some keyboarding drills.

KnowledgeCity Presents: Business Word Processing

Course Description: 

Learn the standards and etiquette for: professional documents, emails, correspondences, and reports.

This course starts with an overview of Microsoft Word 2007, continues with a description of the skills required for effective word processing, and progresses to more in-depth applications of word processing.

This course also touches on the process of compiling career portfolios, writing business plans, and more advanced topics such as using mail merge, designing newsletters, and editing with proofreader marks.

Learn to correctly format business correspondence, use templates such as: invoices and reports, and create a company newsletter. Click the thumbnails to see screenshots from the course.

Visit www.knowledgecity.com for this and other great business courses!

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Need Training? Stay Up-to-Date on Our New Course Offerings

KnowledgeCity has a new LinkedIn Showcase Page.  To keep up to date on all the new courses coming to KnowledgeCity over the next few weeks log in to your LinkedIn account and follow us.

Some of our upcoming courses include:  Microsoft Excel 2013: Introduction, Microsoft Word 2013: Introduction, Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud: Introduction, and Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud: Advanced.

Do you need to learn how to use the new tools in Excel?  Would you like to restore an old family photo?
Do you want to learn how to communicate effectively with your team?

If you are looking for courses to update your skills, or even if you are wanting to learn something new, KnowledgeCity has courses for everyone.

For a quick and easy way to stay connected to all the latest and greatest courses we have to offer follow our New Courses Showcase Page on LinkedIn. This page will let you know what courses are in the works, what courses will be available in the coming weeks and alert you when a new course is available on our site.

If you need to train your staff in a cost effective and efficient way, look to KnowledgeCity.  With over 7000 training videos, expert instructors, administrative and training needs analysis tools, and the convenience of 24/7 access from any location or device; KnowledgeCity is your solution.

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