The surprise caused by Covid-19 and widespread fear has triggered crisis mode in many companies, which are now deciding which expenses to cut. Between lay-offs and budget reductions, there is one thing they cannot afford to do without: their customers.

Now that we are all at home, there have never been so many people online and receptive to being engaged through brands’ various channels.

Whether through websites, social media or email, consumers expect brands not to abandon them and to maintain a sense of online normality that has already been taken away from them in the offline world.

This is an opportunity to upgrade not only the quantity but, above all, the quality of contact with your customers.

What Should You Communicate During This Time of Crisis?

Most consumers are curious to know how brands are dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. How are they managing their human resources, how have they adapted their working arrangements, and even what emotional stance are they taking towards this situation?

With that in mind, it is important to communicate, placing greater emphasis on:

• Light, informative and highly relevant content;
• Not basing every topic on Coronavirus — we all know what is happening;
• Promoting services that are useful to the community;
• Showing an empathetic side, whether or not by creating a persona to respond to the situation.

There are many possible paths to follow, and the riskiest choice is to stop communicating. The moment we are living through is also an opportunity to build a strong connection between brands and consumers, creating engagement for a brighter future.

O conteúdo People are online and brands need to be On aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

Even location was not a problem. Anyone who believed himself capable of handling uppers would set up shop as a master craftsman in Shoemakers’ Street, and anyone wishing to cover the ends of his legs would go to that same street. How happy the marketers of those days must have been…

But, as we know, everything became more complicated afterwards. Contradicting an old social belief according to which all shoemakers do the same thing — make shoes, naturally — the shoemaker João do Ferro, who before turning to soles had been a foundry apprentice and a young man gifted in manual crafts, decided to surprise a customer with a metal toe cap, very useful for urging on a horse and breaking the legs of troublesome people.

The use of this remarkable innovation did a great deal for the owner of the boots, but even more for their creator. Many and varied reasons led dozens of brave young men to seek out João do Ferro as the solution to the weakness of their footwear, leaving Shoemakers’ Street with gleaming metal toe caps all over Lisbon, spreading news and fame of that miraculous shaper of leather based in Shoemakers’ Street.

Before long, the people who truly mattered in the capital of the kingdom could be recognised by the Ferro boots on their feet. Ferro’s boots — or Ferro Boots, as they affectionately came to be known — became a marker of status and, to that extent, an item of the utmost necessity. Owning a pair of Ferro Boots became an indicator of social standing and a requirement for entry to certain pilgrimages and festivities.

While these transformations in the realm of sociology were making History, in the field of Economics a number of dramatic developments were already lying in wait for the fate of João do Ferro, by then better known as João das Botas — João of the Boots — in a clear and definitive acknowledgement of his productive dominance in the field of evolutionary shoemaking.

His success was so astonishing to Shoemakers’ Street that it awakened the hatred of his enemies, the envy of his friends, the suspicion of the authorities, the vanity of his wife and the impatience of his customers. João had watched a great deal of iron melt and knew a few basic truths about life, so he responded to the storm as best he could, continuing to make good money from the toe caps.

But the greatest challenge of his life came one October morning, when, walking down Shoemakers’ Street towards his workshop, he discovered more than a dozen craftsmen in the same trade selling “his” Ferro Boots for ten cents less. He very nearly suffered a stroke, and it almost cost him his soul to realise that his gleaming toe caps had already become commonplace, produced by other hands and paid for by many other feet.

Overwhelmed by despair, he shut himself away at home to brood. His wife thought he had gone mad, but after three days without eating or drinking, João do Ferro — pardon me, João das Botas — gathered the family in the sitting room and whispered that he had had a vision, as exciting as it was terrifying.

Faced with the silence of his wife and the expectant faces of his heirs, he declared:

— “My children, this family has begun a great social revolution. Our toe caps will lead Humanity to great conquests, and the future of shoemakers will be gloriously acknowledged in the centuries to come. We have discovered the secret of evolutionary shoemaking; we are the dissatisfied chromosome that drives life forward and improves it. All this was revealed to me during these last three days of stupor and reflection. But there is something I must tell you now, so that you may prepare yourselves and not be afraid…”

At this point in the speech, a veil of fear passed over the youthful faces of his children and the dark complexion of his wife, but the great João continued:

— “Truly I tell you: I know that we shall never again have peace, never again sleep secure about tomorrow, never again take the lead in this street without looking over our shoulders for danger. My dear ones: we invented competition and were glorified throughout the city, but now we shall become victims of our own invention, because the secret is out in the street and the street is against us. There is only one thing left to us…”

Their terrified eyes begged for paternal mercy. But João of the Iron Boots did not stop:

— “There is only one thing left to us: our name. We have a name known throughout Lisbon and its surroundings, we are the inventors of the finest metal toe caps and we will not allow ourselves to be destroyed by cheaper imitators.

Boys: off to the workshop at once. Work faster and use less leather.

Wife: spread the cry through the streets. Assure the people that Ferro Boots are made of steel — others promise, but I deliver. We shall sell our victory more cheaply. History has only just begun, and the competition from those donkeys only makes me more determined to crush them. With toe caps or without toe caps, however the customer wants them.”

Everyone knows the rest of the story.

Paulo Fidalgo
CEO of Marketividade

O conteúdo The inventor of competition aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

I teach my children that the greatest proof of intelligence a human being can give is to stay alive. And the more difficult the circumstances or the greater the risks threatening life, the more critical the value of intelligence becomes, both individually and collectively.

I firmly believe that we are born to survive for as long as possible, making full use of our biology to the limits of what is possible, including everything we are capable of feeling, thinking and believing.

I see a multitude of friends, acquaintances and simply fellow members of Humanity genuinely distressed by the pandemic, trying, according to their intelligence and resources, to escape its most devastating consequences.

I want to tell you that I suffer with all those who suffer and lose family members, and that every piece of information about the misfortune of others adds to my own fears and uncertainties.

But collective survival cannot be secured without individual survival, and neither tears nor feigned serenity will carry us through the tunnel of misfortune and keep us safe from tragedy.

We can and should stay at home because it appears to be the most intelligent strategy for preventing the spread of Covid, but we should already begin imagining solutions in case this strategy proves unsuccessful.

For reasons that are not relevant here, I suspect that the pandemic situation will become considerably worse and last far longer than our poorly trained patience will be able to endure.

Weak leadership and majestic silences may imitate a wisdom that does not exist and a courage that cannot be detected, but they will have little effect on the virus of social despair among those who are going to lose everything, even if they retain what matters most — their physical lives.

More than politicians, it will be business leaders who determine the fate of the Country. Frankly, there is little to expect from politicians, lost as always in their soliloquies and the pirouettes of puppets. But we all depend on entrepreneurs and their companies, because without an active society and a resilient economy, all that will remain is poverty and hopelessness, which ultimately leads people to abandon the Country.

Paulo Fidalgo
CEO of Marketividade

O conteúdo Learning from Machiavelli to fight covid-19 aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

Taleb wrote about the idea of a “black swan” event in a 2007 book, before the events of the 2008 financial crisis.

Taleb argued that, because black swan events are impossible to predict due to their extreme rarity and have catastrophic consequences, it is important for people and companies to assume that a black swan event is a real possibility and to plan accordingly for such a circumstance.

Later, Taleb used the 2008 financial crisis and the idea of black swan events to argue that, if a system fails because of such an exceptional and catastrophic cause, despite the severe consequences it may ultimately become stronger and more resistant to the catastrophe of future black swan events.

He also argued that a system that is balanced and insulated from risk becomes more vulnerable to catastrophic losses during rare and unpredictable events.

Taleb describes a black swan as an event that:

1. lies beyond normal expectations because it is so rare that even the possibility of its occurrence is undetectable;
2. has a catastrophic impact when it occurs;
3. is explained retrospectively as though it had actually been predictable.

For extremely rare events, Taleb argues that standard probability and forecasting tools, such as the normal distribution, do not apply because they depend on large populations and historical sample sizes that, by definition, are never available for rare events.

Extrapolating from statistics based on observations of past events is not useful for predicting black swans and may even lead us to make decisions that leave us more vulnerable to such phenomena.

The inability to predict black swans is only tragic because such events can have such serious consequences. If they were inconsequential events, despite being unpredictable, they would obviously be far less interesting.

A key aspect of a black swan is the fact that, because it is historically significant, it generates disproportionate interest in understanding it, with a multitude of observers attempting to explain it and, after the event, speculating about the ways in which it might have been predicted. Unfortunately, according to Taleb, this retrospective speculation does not help us predict black swans.

Paulo Fidalgo
CEO of Marketividade

O conteúdo Understanding the Black Swan – Are we prepared? aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

An SEO strategy consists of a set of best practices that help pages to be indexed by search engines. In addition, SEO strengthens the credibility of an online presence because users tend to click more on organic results than on advertisements, as they are perceived as carrying Google’s seal of quality.

In an SEO campaign, Return on Investment (ROI) is higher, both because of the lower cost and because of the trust conveyed to consumers, which can ultimately translate into sales.

SEO techniques aim to increase the number of visits and conversions, improve rankings in Google searches, and reduce the cost of SEA campaigns and sponsored links.

Marketividade Has Gathered 5 Basic SEO Tips:

Select keywords

Choose the most relevant keywords, giving priority to long-tail keywords — search terms consisting of four or more words.

Simplify the content

Readers appreciate texts that are easy to read, for example through the use of headings.

Choose longer texts

By exploring topics in greater depth, you create valuable, high-quality content.

Use keywords, synonyms and grammatical variations

As long as the writing remains appealing, informative and natural, using terms related to the topic is important to help the content be found.

Write for users, not for search engines

When users identify with the content, this can lead to conversion.

O conteúdo 5 tips for writing SEO-optimised content aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

The sacrifice of one’s life, demanded by the challenges of fate or wisely offered in exchange for immortality, is today regarded as absurd… and rightly so. In truth, opportunities in which life can be exchanged for any other human or social value, however highly esteemed, are exceedingly rare.

In a World dominated by media culture, these archaic notions of heroism no longer make any sense, above all because the contemporary concept of the hero requires the individual to survive and to remain available to tell the story to the Media.

This means that the media hero is not necessarily the author of the historic feat, but must necessarily be the protagonist of the narratives that can be constructed around that feat in the media.

We must admit that this is a far more accessible and democratic form of heroism, practically within the reach of almost every ordinary person, at least once in a lifetime.

Paulo Fidalgo
CEO of Marketividade

O conteúdo Heroes of the sea on dry land aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

These techniques can be applied to the production of different types of text, always with the ultimate goal of supporting Marketing and Sales strategies and generating interest among the target audience.

Copywriting is a set of techniques used by a specialist in producing persuasive, creative and engaging texts — a copywriter. These techniques can be applied to the production of different types of text, always with the ultimate goal of supporting Marketing and Sales strategies and generating interest among the target audience.

A copywriter plans and develops content focused on conversion. To be a good copywriter, it is not enough simply to write well; it is necessary to master vocabulary, understand the weight of each word and recognise how it will impact the audience. A good copywriter is someone who can anticipate the emotion their words will provoke in those who read or hear them.

There are many people with excellent writing skills, but not all of them are comfortable capturing other people’s attention and persuading them to take action. A copywriter is not a novelist; they are a literary influencer.

The final product of a copywriter’s work is called copy, a text that can be applied to many different formats, including advertisements, website content, social media posts and brand content in general. Ultimately, all of these texts should be interesting, attractive and persuasive in order to generate conversions and sales.

Being a copywriter is about more than developing engaging texts; it is about giving the brand a “voice”, with an attractive personality that will be recognised by all its customers and followers.

The CTA (Call to Action) is one of the main elements that should be included in the copy. It is the CTA that encourages the reader to perform the intended action, such as buying a product, hiring a service or subscribing to a newsletter, for example. By using a CTA, the copywriter can capture the user’s attention and encourage them to follow the instructions given. But simply writing “Buy now!” is not enough.

There are several writing techniques for encouraging the audience to take action, but some things make certain texts more attractive than others.

For example:

1. Buy now!
2. Take advantage of a 30% discount. Today only!

Which of these do you think would make you buy more quickly? Probably number 2, because in addition to telling you what to do, it also informs you that you need to make the purchase today in order to benefit from the promotion.

More than simply offering promotions, the copywriter should work with the truth. There is no point in claiming that there is a discount if, in reality, the price remains exactly the same as always.

Honest and open communication will allow the audience to develop a higher level of engagement and greater trust in the brand’s products and communications.

Being a copywriter is not an easy task. You need to be knowledgeable, deeply informed about the subject you are developing, creative, and also have an understanding of marketing and the business itself. Above all, a copywriter should be someone who is genuinely passionate about what they do.

And you — have you already found someone like that?

O conteúdo Copywriting: The art of influencing through writing aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

While brands are finding it increasingly difficult to attract a significant number of visits on Instagram, users are also being exposed to an ever-growing amount of content.

Instagram Stories can be an excellent Digital Marketing tool for helping a brand stand out from the competition, as it is one of the most effective ways to establish close contact with followers.

To achieve this, it is necessary to use strategies that help increase views. Instagram Stories provides tools that make communication more attractive, enable interaction with users and, consequently, strengthen the brand’s credibility and trust.

How to Increase Instagram Stories Views

Understand the Features

To engage your target audience, content needs to be presented in a creative, attractive and interactive way. It is therefore essential to understand the features Instagram offers for Stories, such as questions, quizzes, hashtags, locations, GIFs and mentions.

Ask Questions and Create Quizzes

Users enjoy sharing their opinions. Therefore, whenever appropriate, asking questions or creating quizzes is an excellent way to generate more interaction and build closer relationships with users.

Use Hashtags and Locations

Using hashtags and location tags can increase reach. Avoid overly generic hashtags and locations or those associated with a very high number of posts, as this can reduce the likelihood of your content standing out. This technique is important for reaching other users who may be interested in your content.

Post Regularly

Post regularly — around three times a day, so as not to overwhelm users — in order to maintain a constant presence in the Instagram Stories bar.

Go Live

Live videos enable direct dialogue with followers and help strengthen contact and proximity with them.

O conteúdo How to increase Instagram stories views? aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

The former will be primarily responsible for preserving the company, while the latter will ensure its development and growth.

The cooperation required between these two types of powerful animals within the company is a demand that must be addressed with intelligence and a practical sense.

Of course, circumstances will often dictate which should prevail — prudence or energy — in the governance of the company, although ideally both should exist in the exact right proportion.

The fundamental problem of management is therefore one of proportion, and since that proportion must be fairly precise in order to avoid harmful dynamics, governing an organisation becomes even more difficult.

If company governance is excessively marked by prudence, opportunities for growth will probably be lost, ambition will cool, or the most dynamic employees will leave.

Conversely, if governance values energy above all else, excessive risks may be taken, more sensible opinions may be disregarded, and people may come to believe mainly in what they want to see, without taking threats or false expectations into account.

The problem of achieving a balance between old donkeys and young horses can only find a stable solution through the demographic stabiliser — a quantitative factor — and the promotion model — a qualitative factor.

Demographics decisively influence the balance of power because, if the number of old donkeys is disproportionate to the number of young horses, the organisation will tend towards cultural conservatism, and the rule of prudence will eventually prevail at the expense of a dynamic of growth and ambition that would otherwise promote expansion and the satisfaction of younger executives.

Conversely, if the leadership population is made up predominantly of young horses, displays of energy and creativity become fundamental values, potentially reinforcing a vision of the company as a rapid-growth project, with less consideration given to profitability and consolidation.

The promotion model, meanwhile, introduces into the internal power structure a balancing mechanism that operates over time, capable of correcting or reinforcing the predominance of one type of leader by accelerating the influence of one group over the other.

It is therefore fundamentally within the promotion model that the question of balance is decided, because professional advancement ultimately becomes a way of legitimising the replication of the type of leader the company wants to have in the future — more old donkeys or more young horses.

Paulo Fidalgo
CEO of Marketividade

O conteúdo Old donkeys and young horses aparece primeiro em Marketividade.

Today, social media is essential for any business. Using this communication tool is fundamental to an effective Digital Marketing strategy.

Brands use social media to build closer relationships and engage with their target audience, strengthen relationships with partners, find new professionals, and promote and sell their products or services. Through this channel, brands can gain the trust of their target audience, improve results and increase conversions.

Discover 5 Advantages of Social Media for Companies

Increase brand awareness and visibility

The Internet breaks down geographical barriers, meaning that a brand’s social media pages can be visited by users anywhere in the world.

Build closer relationships with customers

Social media enables companies to build closer relationships with customers through the exchange of comments and messages in real time.

Convey a positive image

By regularly creating relevant content on social media, brands can interact with their target audience in a personalised way, helping to build a positive reputation.

Increase sales

By implementing an effective Marketing and Communication strategy on social media, companies tend to improve their results and increase sales.

Increase online traffic

A brand’s social media channels can direct visitor traffic to its website, strengthening its credibility and relevance in the eyes of search engines — an essential factor for any online project.

How is your brand adapting to this reality?

O conteúdo Social media: Yes or yes? aparece primeiro em Marketividade.