B U I L D I N G T R U S TT H R O U G H T H E

RESPONSIBILITYREPUTATION

RECRUITMENT REACH

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

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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.

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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

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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

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“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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.”

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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