Printed mask with company logo

A logo on the mask can make an impression and helps to show the company present. The employees of your company also show solidarity and actively promote the brand. I also had such a mask made for my blog. Examples of providers are www.masken-bedrucken.de and many more. The company offers masks from 9.90 euros and there is even the option of printing FFP2 masks. In my region of Bavaria in particular, these have been mandatory in shops and public transport for several weeks.

I think it is worth having a logo printed on a mask and the price is also ok – especially if it is high-quality masks. In times of the pandemic it shows a good affiliation with the company and if we are honest: masks have now become an everyday item. So it’s a highly visible health investment.

Promotional items – are they worth it?

Promotional items are still very popular in the digital world and are distributed regularly. Masks are also such promotional items. They should generate awareness for the company, its services and products. They can also be used to influence purchase decisions at short notice, especially in retail or at important appointments with B2B customers. In the long run, promotional items are able to increase the image and level of awareness of companies.

Furthermore, promotional items are usually a small but very effective investment. For example, I also had pens and pads printed on me to increase the awareness of my blog.

In order to really achieve the advantages, the promotional item should be selected in such a way that it is not perceived as an advertisement, but as a gift. That is why everyday helpers such as pens, pads and masks are particularly useful. It is particularly good if you combine the positive feeling of “receiving a present” with that of your company.

Conclusion

Promotional items are still very important in the digital world. They are and will remain very important. Masks in particular have become very important in the COVID-19 pandemic and are actually already an everyday item. So you should consider whether it makes sense to print your own company logo on a mask. I’ve tried it myself and I’m very satisfied.

Der Beitrag Printing masks with your logo – is it still worth it? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Videos are trending – in one Study by the BiTS-Business and Information Technology School 1000 test persons aged 18 and over from Germany were examined. A special focus was on learning with and without videos. Over 70% of the subjects were able to absorb content much better with short explanatory videos than with conventional written documents. One way to make videos even better is storytelling.

Storytelling

According to Wikipedia is storytelling: “a narrative method with which explicit, but above all implicit knowledge is passed on in the form of leitmotifs, symbols, metaphors or other means of rhetoric.”

Storytelling is telling stories and conveying business information through metaphors or personal experiences. In short, these are structured as follows: history = figure + predicament + overpowering opponent + desired liberation. So a customer has a problem that is supposedly not solvable and gets into a predicament – he can no longer sort his bills, for example. The overpowering opponent tax office threatens with penalties – but with product XY from your company he can save himself and defeat the overpowering opponent.

I also use storytelling in my lectures and tell my experiences in digitization as a young graduate who faces the seemingly overpowering corporations – with the mission to create agility.

Storytelling always needs the following elements:

1. A hero. This is mostly you and you are “weak” in contrast to your opponent (David versus Goliath)
2. A predicament. This arises from resistance that the heroes encounter.
3. An enemy. A seemingly overpowering opponent (startup vs corporation) stands in the way of the goal and brings the predicament
4. A solution. By a certain product XY.

It is important that we automatically identify with the weaker heroes in a story. Even with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings we stick to the rebels and the rather weak hobbits instead of the overpowering Galactic Empire or the numerically superior orcs.

Video production

Now it is time to produce the video. Sound and image are important – the video should be very professional. It can help to hire an agency here – physical proximity is often particularly good. For example, if you are from Berlin, one would be Agency for film production from Berlin makes sense. If COVID-19 allows, you can also hold face-to-face meetings and gain more insight into production.

In an exciting Havard University experiment professional videos were tested. It turned out that professional videos with storytelling are up to 22 times more memorable than videos without such a story. So it can be worth the effort to create a good story.

Conclusion

Videos are an important part of the marketing mix and should definitely be used by companies. However, not all video is the same – it should touch the customer too. One possibility for this is storytelling – that is, the packaging of products in an authentic story. According to studies, such videos work up to 22 times better than normal videos. So it seems to be a sensible alternative in the marketing mix and it is worth trying it out together with a good service provider.

Der Beitrag Using storytelling and video production correctly for companies – this is how it works! erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

For this purpose there is the possibility to use so-called ERP and CRM systems. In the following, both types should be explained in a meaningful way. In general, such systems are technology or software that can map processes and data and enable faster processing of processes with the help of automatisms.

ERP systems

An Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) is an IT-supported system made up of software solutions , that supports the management in maintaining an overview of business processes. It can represent, optimize, support and document such business processes in a meaningful way. The aim is to reduce the throughput times of processes and facilitate the organization of work processes in the company. Especially in growing companies, not all processes can be monitored with the help of lists. There are also more repetitions of processes, so that optimization is worthwhile in the short and long term.

in the ERP system is made up of various software modules, such as materials management, financial accounting, human resources or project management. The basis is a shared database that evaluates the data in various ways. The advantage is that the most important modules can be purchased and set up in the first step. In this way, a company can save costs and carry out the ERP system project step by step.

According to Survey on Statista Around 77% of companies with less than 250 employees already use an ERP system and provide significant advantages in terms of speed and efficiency in their own processes.

CRM systems

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a system that enables a company to systematically display relationships with existing and potential customers. Furthermore, interactions can be shown and thus contacts and behavior of customers can be traced.

A CRM system is important as it enables companies to intensify relationships with customers, partners and suppliers and to benefit from them. Especially with a large number of customers and partners, it is hardly possible to keep track of them with the help of lists or your own brain. The CRM helps and supports in dealing with customers and partners. The CRM offers a detailed overview of customers and their activities. The presentation takes place, for example, in the form of a dashboard or individually adaptable lists.

The benefits are better sales forecasts, increased productivity, and more loyal customers. According to Survey on Statista Benefits of over 5000 medium-sized companies under 250 surveyed already employ over 60% of such CRM systems and are planning to constantly expand their use.

Conclusion: find the right system

ERP and CRM systems can help companies to design processes better and more efficiently. A sticking point is the selection and introduction of Software solutions for medium-sized companies . Trustworthy partners can help here. The selection is often complex and ranges from cloud to on-premise (self-managed) systems to commercial and open source systems. It’s hard to find the right system. But the effort can be worthwhile and with the help of a trustworthy service provider, the effort and risk can be reduced many times over. Benefit from more flexibility, more speed, more innovative strength, more competitiveness.

Der Beitrag CRM and ERP systems in medium-sized companies erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

What is influencer marketing

In influencer marketing, bloggers, instagrammers or youtubers, i.e. high-reach opinion makers, are used to strengthen a company or product through an article or targeted contribution. It is primarily about using the trust of the influencer to send a brand message. As a rule, companies pay a sum of money for this or the influencer receives the company’s products for free. Many companies now use so-called influencers.

Why influencer marketing via Youtube, Instagram and blogs is worthwhile

Such marketing can be very rewarding. This has already been shown by examples from the past. For example, Neckermann relies on BibisBeautyPalace, which has more than 4 million followers on YouTube. The influencer debated Neckermann’s offers in her videos and achieved more than 155,000 likes on Facebook for the company.
Levis also regularly uses influencers on Instagram and Snapchat. These post against free products, photos with the products (jeans, shirts, …) of the brand. After fans then ask: Where did the influencer get these great jeans from, the link is posted. In this way, the brand avoids negative criticism due to too much advertising or the abuse of the influencer. Adidas itself often makes use of celebrities or sports stars who visibly wear the Adidas brand.

Registration at SeedingUp.de

But now back to SeedingUp. The first step is to register with the platform. First, after entering the email, various information about the blog or medium (Instagram, …) is requested. I particularly liked that the blogs are being checked. After a few days you will find out whether your own blog will be recorded. This ensures that serious bloggers are on the platform, which also attracts serious companies. As a blogger, it is particularly important to me that the texts are also for companies that I can authentically represent myself. Also especially good for new bloggers: SeedingUp gives a tendency for what an article on your own blog is worth.

My first campaign – influencer marketing via blogs

Now I’ve waited a few days and was excited for my first one Influencer Marketing at SeedingUp.de . My first campaign ran quickly and a company got in touch. I was able to look at the booking directly in the portal and notice that the company already had a clear idea of what the item should look like. This also makes it easier for bloggers to satisfy customers. There is also the possibility to have the text written by SeedingUp for a small fee.

The next step: influencer marketing via Youtube and Instagram

Another important topic is influencer marketing via YouTube and Instagram. The platform also offers options here. The internal dashboard shows that there is also the possibility of running campaigns via video, product tests as well as news and social media. I am currently building up an Instagram channel and will soon be able to run my first campaign. I think that the combination of social media such as Instagram and blog posts can be more than worthwhile for companies.

Conclusion

In general, I believe that the platform is a win-win situation for companies and influencers alike. Bloggers receive serious inquiries and can create high-quality blog articles for businesses. Registration is quick and helps me a lot as a blogger, as I have little time to distribute my content. This can be done by the platform. I’m looking forward to my second campaign.

Der Beitrag My experiences with SeedingUp – influencer marketing for companies erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

What is a digital strategy?

However, before I go deeper into the topic and importance of a digital strategy for the individual areas of a company in this article, I would like to first discuss the definition of the term.

Many often only associate the term “digital strategy” with pure goals in the field of online marketing. This only describes a small part of this measure. Because the term is more about the development of a company towards a holistic use of digital processes. In other words: the digital strategy describes the entire transformation of a company towards digitization. That is why the synonym is often used here Digital transformation is used.

The advantage of implementing a digital strategy is that it enables an effective and trouble-free interaction between the data flow and the maintenance of the information entered into the internal data system. This enables companies to gain a competitive advantage in competition with competitors. Because in this way they can offer their customers and partners a smooth and less time-consuming service. At the same time, this is usually significantly more cost-effective for the company.

What about the application of a digital strategy in German companies?

Although the importance and necessity of implementation can be derived from the definition of the digital strategy, many companies still refrain from investing in this measure. Because even if, as the graphic below shows, 40 percent of all German companies have implemented a digital strategy centrally and at least a little more than 30 percent have implemented at least some of them in individual areas of the company, they still give it more than a quarter of all companies in Germany not to apply this.

But what happens in companies that do without a digital strategy altogether?

In the end, the problem is usually that it doesn’t work without a digital strategy. Instead of investing in this measure, however, many companies develop a kind of “patchwork quilt” in which they line up rows of ideas haphazardly, making it almost impossible to pursue a uniform strategy (see picture).

In the end, this usually results in a poor digital process, as the following graphic shows. Partial areas are then digitized, while others continue to be managed according to old structures and patterns. For employees, but above all for customers, this results in a veritable mix of digitized and non-digitized sub-processes. These can usually neither be traced nor used to save time and money.

But how can a good digital strategy be implemented?

Many companies usually rely on well-known and tried-and-tested methods at the beginning of the implementation of a digital strategy. A digital transformation is usually carried out either by the Cost or benefit leadership derived.

The latter mostly focuses on the quality of a company’s product or service. In this context, the digital strategy at the Utility leadership in particular, the expansion of the offer, a customer-friendly service as well as the targeted addressing of one’s own target group. Building on this, all associated sub-processes are digitized step by step, so that ultimately a holistic digital strategy results.

The Cost leadership however, as the name suggests, its focus is not only on high returns but also on saving costs. Companies digitize individual sub-areas and processes in such a way that unnecessary interfaces are reduced and, above all, existing ones are automated.

Conclusion

Even if more than 25 percent of all German companies seem to think the opposite, a digital strategy should now be part of the pool of measures in every business. After all, a good digital strategy not only promises more agility, but also better competitiveness in the market.

Companies should ideally combine online and offline marketing in such a way that all channels and processes merge into one another. In this way you can always be in an active dialogue with customers, partners and service providers. In the long term, this not only increases sales and profits, but also stabilizes the bond with existing ones or is a decisive factor in attracting new customers.

Tip: Read my book: SMEs in digital change at Springer Gabler or book me for a talk .

Image source: pixabay.com

Der Beitrag Importance of a digital strategy erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

In Germany the middle class is strongly represented. More than 99 percent of all companies are among the SMEs in this country and many of them can be attributed to technological Level in addition to pioneers and best practice examples. But how can it be that exactly these companies seem to be changing after all Ordinary methods, such as the introduction of holistic strategies, fail? How can it be that the role models from medium-sized businesses are still like this rigid boundaries between individual departments and areas of responsibility prevalence? Or to put it another way:

What prevents SMEs from Implementation of holistic strategies?

The answer is both, simple and terrifying at the same time: Old fashioned Silo thinking within closed project boundaries.

There is one thing very clear: Project management, in particular, will change due to maturity of digitization will increasingly change in the coming years. Even if that is not a new change, the influencing factors change significant. Because instead of the automation of electronics there is now the Informatization in the foreground. In this context, data should be used in the future after professional processing, using artificial intelligence, everywhere and are available at all times. Accordingly, not only the Conditions in project management change, but also the way how is being worked on. Project boundaries have to be broken down even more in the future because growing complexity requires increased cooperation.

Yes, though This change is clearly predictable, many SMEs still do not seem to have taken enough action. Far too often, conditions prevail as in the following figure, in the case of rigid patterns with little transparency is thought and acted. Instead of information by means of an open flow through the individual areas of responsibility within a project transfer, is shaped in closed departments independently of each other acted by silo thinking.

The problems with project boundaries and a lack of cooperation in medium-sized companies run deep

These The main disadvantage of approaches is that they are successful for Let individual departments derive, but only on a one-dimensional basis Level are really useful. Because silo thinking always means, above all, that the goals of the department and the company do not overlap 1: 1 and thus that holistic economic potential of a company is missed. Solutions are worked out in a productive manner, but often duplicate or are at the expense of other areas of the company. This ultimately results often a battle for budget and resources between individual departments. Low-risk decisions, emergency and isolated solutions are the result. Simultaneously Corporate divisions are increasingly moving away from each other. collaboration practically does not take place, innovative thinking is reduced to a minimum and potential is literally wasted.

But how deep does the breaking of project boundaries have to go at SMEs?

Promoting Cross-departmental communication and collaboration as well as reinforcement from exactly these points, however, not only on a physical level be targeted. Even on a virtual level, new ones are constantly emerging Challenges after significantly more interaction and communication desire. Because especially in virtual project management, Avoid situations like in Figure 2 only when paired with enough transparency with a shared sense of responsibility between the individuals Areas of responsibility of each team member prevails.

That means, that sub-areas are marked out, but no longer rigidly defined have to. Instead of just concentrating on your own areas of responsibility, are also virtually corporate instead of just using holistic strategies department-friendly solutions worked out.

What measures do SMEs have to take to achieve this?

So a Change management, away from the silo thinking, can succeed, must first and foremost trigger point must be set. And that is not infrequently the workforce self. Because silo thinking arises above all in the head of the individual employee, who tries to do his job in the best possible way – and this is exactly where the problem lies: Instead of looking for holistic solutions, is concentrated too much on one’s own area of responsibility.

SMEs must therefore primarily start with their corporate identity and promote the establishment of a uniform culture of values. In this way, employees can be motivated to take off their own blinkers and contribute to a holistic transformation. This can be done in particular through measures such as the increased use of heterogeneous teams or the expansion of community-promoting workshops and further training. But the introduction of an intranet, open office areas and the introduction of agile methods also put people in the foreground and, in addition to promoting trust and motivation, also encourage a feeling of more initiative within the framework of joint solution strategies.

Image source: Pixabay

Der Beitrag From silo thinking to open structures with more cooperation – how breaking #project boundaries can serve as a problem solver for SMEs! – erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

How do you currently see the IT industry? Is it on a growth course or is it stagnating due to the numerous crises of the potential customers of the IT service providers? If you ask me, I often say: I’ve had the feeling for a long time that the IT industry is no longer growing as rosily as it was many years ago.

On the one hand I see that IT consulting companies have some consultants without a project and on the other hand I read again and again that thousands of IT positions are being sought and every company tells me how desperately they are looking for IT experts.

In this article I would therefore like to pursue the question: Is the IT industry close to a recession?

What do magazines and experts say?

The first thing I did was look at the latest articles and magazines. I would like to show you three selected articles from magazines, each of which represents one of the two theses (recession yes / no). Below you will find the six selected articles and the most important contents.

Pro: the economy is declining

I found a first article in focus: “ It is grotesque how the recession is being talked away in Germany “. The content is that Finance Minister Olaf Scholz recently halved growth to 0.5%. Statistically, the growth is also well below the analysts’ estimates. The reasons are the facts that orders are collapsing due to events such as the trade war between the US and China, the currently weak economy in China, the recession in Italy and concerns about a Brexit.

I found another article in the world that confirms the recession in the first article: “Bechtle expects significantly lower organic growth in 2019 “The content is that Bechtle boss Thomas Olemotz says:”We will probably not be able to maintain the organic growth rate of the first quarter in the further course of the year due to the economic situation “- The background is that the manager speaks of a weak economy:”When the economy slows down, we will feel it sooner or later, even if the IT economy has recently been relatively robust ”.

I found another exciting approach in T3N. “ Shortage of skilled workers – IT specialists are too expensive for most companies “. The content is that companies are barely growing because no skilled workers can be found. The current reason is that the majority of applicants are so expensive that they can no longer be used profitably in consulting, for example. The lack of staff thus hinders the growth of IT companies.

Cons: Growth is still at a high level

On the other hand, there are also articles that show the strong growth of the IT market. I found my first article in T3N: “ Digitization – 40,000 new IT jobs in 2019 “. The content is that 40,000 new jobs are being created in Germany and the need for IT jobs is increasing.

Another article is from Heise: “ Skilled labor shortage: number of vacant IT positions at the highest level “. The content is that the number of vacant IT positions has reached a record. According to the article, there are 54,000 jobs and it takes an average of 132 days to hire an IT specialist. Almost 10,000 of the 23,000 unemployed IT specialists were also successfully placed.

One last article can be found in the magazine Computerwoche: “ Software and IT services market grows by five percent “. The content is that the market will grow strongly through cloud and big data migrations and modifications. The article is recommended to focus on trending topics.

Interim conclusion

I think it will stay mixed. In any case, the events of the last few years have had a clear impact on certain industries, but the IT market seems to continue to grow in large parts.

To understand this better and to back it up with numbers, I have another one Article found in IT-Zoom magazine . The magazine quotes a Bitkom study that the growth of IT this year is only 1.5% and that the strong years are over. In general, there are winners and losers in IT. Here are some numbers:

• The software segment is expected to grow the fastest – 6.3 percent to 26.0 billion euros
• The market for IT services was also above average by 2.3 percent to 40.8 billion euros
• The hardware business, on the other hand, showed a slight decline with a minus of 0.7 percent to 25.4 billion euros
• According to expectations, sales with classic desktop PCs (-8.4 percent), servers (-7.0 percent) and multifunction printers (-3.8 percent) will decline significantly

My first conclusion is that our economy is no longer growing as fast as in previous years, but there are still areas of the IT industry that are growing very strongly. However, the following statistics clearly show the decrease in the strong growth.

What is my experience?

My first feeling has now been reinforced by the statistics. I would now like to go into the IT market a little more closely. We learned from the articles that some areas are descending and other areas are growing. But how is my experience as an insider in the IT market?

Pro: IT consulting in the recession – corporate insourcing

My first thought of a recession came when I heard that two large banks in the metropolitan area and also numerous other large companies want to reduce the number of external service providers and even replace them completely and did so on 01.01.2019. Looking at the growth of some IT service providers, I noticed that this trend reversal has actually stagnated the number of employees and sales of the companies for some time and the companies still have good existing business, but no new projects are coming.

Furthermore, I noticed at the last job fairs that although there were still many positions advertised, only very few compared to previous years. My contacts who are currently applying also tell me that companies are only very hesitant and selective about hiring. Allegedly there are currently no direct projects. I believe that IT consulting will enter a recession due to the insourcing of corporations and the high level of competition.

Another trend is cloud migration around Amazon and Microsoft, which primarily affects the hardware sector and even makes numerous jobs obsolete.

Cons: Product houses and open source on the rise

I am currently noticing that the product houses in particular are saying that their own software is selling well and that significant growth is expected. With insourcing, major customers no longer rely on consultants, but rely on external products.

Companies are increasingly relying on open source. According to a Bitkom study the use of open source grows over 7% per year. This requires the increasing quality of the open source solutions. The winners are on the one hand freelancers who adapt open source products for the end customer and of course the open source providers themselves.

Furthermore, highly specialized knowledge advice, for example on big data, will always be needed. Consultants as an extended workbench will no longer be so often in companies, but specialized knowledge service providers will always have a place.

Conclusion

It is obvious that the IT market is no longer growing as fast as it was in the previous years, but is still growing very strongly. Some areas of IT, such as classic IT services or hardware, are more threatened and, according to forecasts, are even shrinking. It is now important to recognize the trends around the cloud and software development and to position yourself for the future, because the opportunities are still there.

Der Beitrag Is the IT industry in recession? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

Reading tip: Agile IT service providers

“Please coordinate agility with customers”

The disadvantage was that we were tied 1: 1 to the interests and guidelines of the customer with regard to working hours, home office and place of work. But I often see promises on the websites of consulting companies: company events, home office, flextime and modern workspaces. But then I hear from my IT consultants friends:

We have flexitime, modern workspaces and home office but that is not possible because we have to adhere to the customer’s guidelines.

Statement from the consultants

Internal agility and NewWork: often many possibilities

Consulting companies offer great company events and also have really great offices. Flexitime and home office are also permitted internally without restriction in almost all cases. The problem, however, is that you are always bound by the customer’s guidelines and therefore has no leeway to use it. The reason is as good as always: “The customer said no” and going to company events often means that fewer hours can be allocated to the customer. So the question remains: How do I create an agile corporate culture when all employees are not on site and you are bound by the customer’s framework?

Reading tip: Consulting 4.0

Internal digitization: often many possibilities

The internal software tools and hardware are really very good at many companies. You can scan travel expenses and receipts directly or even get a company credit card and expenses. However, in addition to the great Macbook from the consulting company, you also get the customer’s laptop: a mostly 12KG heavy brick with Windows 7. Please use this every day and also work on the customer’s tools. So the question remains: How do I design modern digitization when I am tied to the customer’s software and hardware?

Reading tip: Advice 4.0

Now the central question remains: How can a consulting company be agile and digital internally when everything has to be coordinated with the customer?

Agile-Unternehmen.de

Conclusion: adapt customer contracts

My recommendation is that the individual consultants should be close to the customer and be allowed to make decisions independently with the key account manager. The account manager is the advocate of the customer and the employees. He knows the customer and speaks his language, but also defends the consultants.

The internal teams such as HR, internal IT and travel management support the consultants in their work and provide great services and products such as laptops or Office 365.

The task now is to untie the knot of agility and digitization. The board helps the account managers to negotiate new work options such as remote work and flextime as well as their own hardware at the customer’s premises. It is important to loosen contracts and attract exciting projects and customers. Due to the rather supportive activity, the board has enough time to forge strategic partnerships and to attract new and modern customers.

Photo credit : Business photo created by yanalya – www.freepik.com

Der Beitrag Can a consulting company also be agile internally? erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

My idea is that you form a team to copy the product Scrum meaningful and well developed. It receives requirements and feedback from a technology board. The product is customized for customers by special teams.

example : Think of it like a laptop. You provide the laptop with basic settings and the special teams install certain software on the laptop depending on the user and use it to adapt the laptop.

The Technology Board

The Technology Board consists of the architects and the lead developers and negotiates with those responsible for the customer which functions are necessary. It is important that the product as a central platform can be adapted by the respective special teams, which I will explain in a moment. There is also a representative from each special team on the board.

Specialization in industry and DAX companies

Now you are forming a unit for special industries such as automotive, which adapts the product to the requirements of the industry and has industry know-how. Each branch has a department head and has various small squads (2-5 developers) with key account managers for each customer, who adapt these individually to the customer. Internally, the squads exchange industry know-how.

For DAX companies, I recommend directly specialized units that adapt the product directly. In my experience, DAX companies often have such special requirements that they cannot be compared with other customers or the industry.

Reading tip: Spotify model

Conclusion: the advantages

The advantages are obvious: The stable basic product provides you with a marketing component. Then adapt the product to specific challenges in the industries. This makes sales easier for you, as customers immediately notice: “This service provider understands my problems and speaks my language”. The more know-how you build up for each branch, the easier it will be. Furthermore, you rely on tailor-made solutions for DAX companies, which offer a lot of potential in terms of sales.

Credit: Business photo created by yanalya – www.freepik.com

Der Beitrag IT product house – this is how you scale your software erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

I feel the same way. I blog out of whim and see how much time I still have in addition to work and private life. But how can you plan that? This is possible with the help of agile elements.

Agile planning: in a nutshell

I understand agile planning to be a vision, target definition or the setting of framework conditions. So, depending on the meaningfulness of a project, you have to do the following:

• a vision e.g. we enable car sharing for customers,
• Goals, for example, we create a CarSharing app for iOS or
• Framework conditions, for example, we improve the car sharing offer in the company with this team for 3 months.

The planning often runs through rough milestones and what is measured at the end: What did we get done? But how can such elements of agility be incorporated into blog planning?

Reading tip :

• agile management
• OKRS – the management method

Agile content planning

For a blog, it is important to offer users meaningful content for a topic. I therefore recommend defining an overall topic or vision for the blog first. Mine is, for example: agility in digital transformation. So it combines the topics of agility and digitization.

Now, as with OKRS, certain sub-topics / goals must be defined on the basis of the vision. I recommend using categories for this. I have the main categories in the blog:

• digitalization
• Work 4.0
• Digital leadership
• Agile organization
• Articles for students
• Careers in IT

Now it is up to you as a content or marketing manager to fill them with articles. So you ask to write articles that fit into the categories.

Why should they do this? Readers want to be fully informed and Google will only rank you if you have a certain density of keywords on the page. For example, you only rank in Work 4.0 (search strength 12,000 per month) if you have written at least 30 articles on the topic. On the one hand, you have enough content so that Google assigns a keyword to your domain and, on the other hand, enough content so that a reader stays on your site for a long time.

Google digression: Google assigns global keywords to every page. At some point, Google will recognize from your articles that it is, for example, a blog for an aquarium. Your articles will then rank for aquarium keywords even though you don’t use the keyword at all. Google then defined you as an expert on this subject.

As a marketing manager, you would now simply have to communicate these categories in the company and guest authors and employees simply provide random articles that underpin the categories. In the end, you only measure: how much content I have per category. This means that your blog does not become too wide (too much content in all directions) and offers readers who want to find out more about a specific topic, e.g. digital leadership, enough content so that they stay on the page for a long time and even contact you at the end.

Digression: reader behavior: The best always wins on the Internet. For almost every keyword you will find a person who dominates it. I am always told that with Work 4.0 and related keywords you can always find my blog on page 1. So I seem to be dominating this keyword. Experience has shown that successful bloggers rely on 1-3 keywords and try to dominate them strongly. When you do that, you generate real leads.

It is also important that you link your articles internally. The reader should therefore have the opportunity to learn more about certain points that he would like to understand more precisely. So make sure that you also scatter the articles widely.

Example internal linking: You are writing an article about the use of software in the workplace. You describe that cloud-enabled applications are particularly useful for virtual teams. An article on virtual teams or cloud computing would be perfect as a reading tip. Another example is the impact of software use in the workplace, which leads the reader to another article on technostress and health in the workplace.

Conclusion

With the help of this planning, I don’t need an editorial plan or rely on schedules. I just write with the aim of filling my categories with as many good articles as possible and have clear topics in the blog. Whenever I write an article, I ask myself beforehand: Which category does it pay into? If not, then I’m just not writing to this one.

The advantage is that your blog has such a clear focus and is considered an expert blog for a keyword. This is usually how you generate the most leads. Of course, these are not all tips, just a rough overview. Of course there is still a lot to consider, such as

• Cluster articles sensibly,
• Overview / column articles,
• Keyword density of the articles and much more.

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Der Beitrag Company blog: How to plan content in an agile way erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.