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Ask Questions on Your Facebook Page to Get More Comments *

Ask Questions on Your Facebook Page to Get More Comments *

by | Nov 25, 2020 | Customer engagement

How Asking Questions on Facebook Gets More Comments

 

As a business owner, I hope you have made the choice to build a Facebook presence for your business.  It makes sense if you want to reach your target audience, engaging them and making a lasting connection.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to grow your audience using Facebook.  Especially if you don’t have the budget to boost posts or advertise.

However, you can still use Facebook effectively without spending any money.  The most important thing that you do is to increase engagement with your existing followers.  Doing this also prompts Facebook to show your posts more widely.

Do your visitors engage with you on Facebook?

 

Asking questions on your Facebook Page gets more comments

Social Media Engagement Matters

 

As well as signaling to Facebook that people like what you’re posting, high levels of visitor engagement also means that:

  • your readers will believe that you’re interested in them, and that you want to build a relationship with them
  • you’ll build social proof.  If someone discovers your Facebook page and sees you’re engaging with your visitors, they’re more likely to want to join in.

 

There are several different types of engagement, including:

  • People liking your Facebook page.
  • People reacting to your updates on Facebook.
  • People sharing your posts on their page or group.
  • People commenting on your posts.

 

The engagement I like best is when visitors comment on your posts.  When readers leave comments, it gives you an opportunity to learn about them.  They’re not just going for the easy option of clicking “like”.  They’re putting themselves out there and responding to your post.

This article is all about getting more comments on your Facebook page.  The most effective way I’ve found to do that on any medium, is to ask questions.

That sounds pretty obvious, right?  I’m amazed how many of the pages I follow never ask questions.  They never take the opportunity to get me commenting and engaging with them.

If you want to grow an audience of people who feel like they know, like and trust you, then you need to ask questions.  But not just any questions.  You need to ask the right types of questions.

 

Nine Types of Question You Can Ask On Your Facebook Page

Ask A “Biggest Problems” Question

 

It may seem negative asking your readers to share their biggest problems, challenges, obstacles or even fears.  However, you’ll be surprised by the honest responses that come out in the discussion.

You can even ask fairly specific things.  On a parenting page there might be questions such as:

  • What’s your biggest fear as a parent?
  • What’s your biggest challenge raising boys?
  • What’s the biggest problem you have in the area of discipline?

 

These types of questions help you understand your pages followers.  The reponses can also help you choose future content topics for your blog.

You may also find people mentioning problems you’ve written about in past articles or posts.  You can engage them and say, “Here’s an article with some tips on how to overcome that challenge”, driving people back to your archives.

 

Ask A “Question from a Reader”

 

This is a technique commonly used by my friend Samantha Jockel from School Mum.  She’ll often write a post like this:

 

 

Her questions which always start with “A School Mum asks” are sometimes funny, sometimes start debates, and sometimes offer a way in to more controversial topics.  And they often get a lot of comments.

If you don’t have any questions from readers, you might be able to create some by digging into:

  • comments on your blog
  • comments left on your Facebook page
  • emails you’ve received.

 

Ask A “Share a Photo” Question

 

While this won’t work for every type of site, however asking your readers to share a photo or video can be relevant to many Facebook pages.

This could work on many types of blogs.  Here are some I’ve seen.

  • Parenting blogger – “Show us a favorite piece of your kids art.”
  • Food blogger – “Show us the most recent picture of food on your phone.”
  • Travel blogger – “Show us your favorite beach.”
  • Fashion blogger – “Show us your favorite pair of shoes.”
  • Technology blogger – “Show us what you have in your laptop bag.”

 

You may not get as many comments as you would with other types of questions.  But you’ll probably get some really interesting ones.

 

Ask A “This vs That” Question

 

With this type of question, you get your followers to choose one of two options.  It might be something like “Are you a dog or a cat person?”

You can also use this for a yes/no question such as, “Do you exercise daily? Yes or no”.

Be careful if your question is likely to spark a lively debate.  We don’t ask about certain types of topics because the conversation can end up getting a bit negative.

 

Ask A “What are Your Dreams” Question

 

Ask your followers about their dreams and aspirations.  It helps you understand not only what your readers are going through right now, but also what they want to do or become.

This gives you another opportunity to use your readers’ responses to create content that helps them move toward the dreams they have.

People love to tell others about their dreams, ambitions and hopes for their future.  This type of question often receives a lot of well thought out comments.

 

Ask An “Accountability” Question

 

You’ll find this type of question used in a lot of Facebook groups.  They will often ask things like, “What’s your biggest goal of the week?” or “What do you want to achieve this week?”

This can be a great way to get engagement because it gives you the opportunity to respond to readers later in the week.

I left a comment on a post like this on Monday.  On the Friday the blogger left a reply to every single comment that mentioned a goal, asking, “What did you achieve…?”

I hadn’t reached my goal.  However I got it done ten minutes after he left that comment.  I was really grateful that blogger took the time to keep me accountable.  And I’ll be going back to that page.

If your page involves people trying to build a habit, learn something or become something, you could ask this type of question and then come back to encourage them and help build some accountability.

 

Ask A “Fill in the Blank” Question

 

This is a really easy and effective) type of question to ask.

For a blog such as Better Business Alliance I might ask:

My first blogging platform was __________.

And for a food blog you might ask something like:

The word that describes my diet is ____________.

or

My favorite comfort food is _______________.

 

The beauty of this type of question is that it’s incredibly simple for someone to answer.  They just have to leave one word.

Asking a “fill in the blank” question is often a good way to get someone to leave their first comment.  This is especially true if they’ve been following your page for a while without commenting.

 

Ask A “Question About a Blog Post”

 

When you share a link to a blog post you’ve written, you can add a question.  This will often encourage readers to read your post as well as comment.

For instance, one post I shared a while back on Better Business Alliance was “5 Steps to Developing Your Unique Selling Proposition”.

As well as posting the link to Facebook (which automatically pulled in the title and image from the post), I added a question: “Why You Need to Develop a Unique Selling Proposition?”

My goal was to get people reading that blog post.  But I also got lots of people answering the question.  We don’t normally get many comments on our links to blog posts, but in this case 3 people answered the question.  That particular Facebook post also had a higher-than-average reach.

Hopefully you’ve already tried some of these types of questions on your Facebook page.  The key is to get into the habit of asking questions regularly, and mixing up the types of questions you use.

 

Ask A “What are Your Tips” Question

 

Although people are coming to your Facebook page to learn from you, in any community there’s a lot of collective wisdom.

With this type of question you can say, “I want to hear from you today with your tips” about a particular area.

You may not get as many responses to this type of question as you would to a “fill in the blanks” question. But the responses will be deeper, longer, and more useful. They’ll be valuable both to you and your other readers.

And if you get permission from those who comment which you can do by mentioning how you plan to use some responses as future blog post topics.  Just be sure you give credit to the people who left those comments.

 

Final Tips for Using Questions on Your Facebook Page

 

You need to keep some things to keep in mind when asking questions on your Facebook page.

 

Ask what,who, where, when, how, and why questions on Social Media to get more comments

Always Stay On Topic

 

Make sure your questions relate to your topic.  Occasional off-topic questions can help build engagement, but don’t do it too regularly.  Your readers may feel that your page topic is getting lost.

 

Don’t Ask Too Many Questions

 

Mix up the types of post that you publish.  Share links, videos, pictures, and so on as well as questions.  Facebook seems to prefer this, and it’s likely to be better for reader engagement too.

 

Consider Using Facebook Live

 

Facebook Lives get more reach than other types of post.  So you may want to go on Facebook live and ask your readers a question.  Once your live video is over, it will appear in people’s Facebook feeds as a replay.

 

Be Specific With Your Questions

 

Don’t be too open ended with your questions.  You’re likely to get much better responses if your questions are focused.  You want to make it as easy as possible for people to comment.  If your questions are too open ended they may not understand how to respond.

 

Consider Using an Image

 

Using an image helps your question stand out in people’s newsfeeds.  It could be a plain image, or an image that includes your question text.  Spending a minute or two doing this could boost your engagement.

 

Be as Responsive As You Can Be

 

If people answer your question, they should get a response from you.  They’ve taken the time to respond to you, so take some time to respond to them.  That doesn’t always need to be with a comment.  You might use a “like” or other response, particularly if they left a “yes”/“no” or single-word comment.

 

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Asking questions gets visitors to comment and provide answers

Will You Adopt an Asking Questions Mindset?

 

I hope this helps you come up with lots of ideas for questions you could ask on your Facebook page to build engagement.  Of course, you don’t have to limit your use of questions to Facebook pages.

You can use questions in Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, on Twitter, or even on your blog.  Let me know if my article has given you an asking questions mindset?  Are your questions getting more comments from your visitors?

 

Design Your Social Media Images to Create Brand Recognition *

Design Your Social Media Images to Create Brand Recognition *

by | Nov 22, 2020 | Social Media

Design Your Social Media Images to Promote Your Brand

 

Are you posting images across your social media pages?

Do you use these images to extend your brand recognition?

Using images on your social media pages is a sure way to engage your audience.  In addition, the way you use logos, fonts and colors in your social media images is an important part of gaining brand attention.

In this article you’ll discover how to make your social profiles and visual content reinforce your brand and catch your audience’s eye.

 

Choose Your Fonts and Colors for Effect

 

The primary visual elements that create people’s perception of your brand on social media are fonts, colors and images.  Your different goals may require different choices for each element.

The fonts available range from bold and loud to thin and delicate.  Where does your company persona fit on this spectrum?

For the majority of your marketing, you should limit yourself to two or three main fonts.  It’s acceptable to occasionally break that rule on social media.

Using creative fonts in your Facebook updates, Havaianas match their print theme and reflect the company’s fun and playful identity.

 

When branding across social media, consistency is key.

Choosing images and colors for your visual updates, you need to consider what feelings you want to evoke.

For example, if you are promoting a contest?  Use bright, cheerful colors.  Are you posting a staff update?  You should use a well-lit portrait and include it in a design with your brand colors.

 

Benefit Cosmetics uses feminine imagery and a consistent color palette.

Beauty brand Benefit Cosmetics does a good job of reflecting their feminine identity on Instagram.  Note the pink and white palette, simple imagery and use of a playful script font.

 

Design Reusable Templates

 

Each social media network has its own optimized image dimensions.  It can be time-consuming to create individual images for each network every time you want to share visual content.  Even creating a single image to share across all platforms can take more time than you’d like.

 

Create image templates that match each social network’s requirements.

The easiest way to reduce your design time and maintain consistency is to create templates for the types of posts you share regularly.  Don’t restrict yourself to one or two types of templates—make several to accommodate a variety of content.  Here are some additional template ideas for weekly posts:

  • Product Tips
  • Event Posts
  • Company Milestones

In the example below San Pellegrino posted a sequence of 10 tips on Instagram.  Their simple template made the tips easy to create and instantly recognizable to their audience.

 

Make your life easier by creating templates for different design types.

Create Complementary Profiles and Covers

 

Consistency is a key part of recognition and success.  Use your company’s logo or a variation of its design for each of your social profile pictures to build your online brand recognition.

Even if you tweak your logo, your audience should still be able to recognize you immediately.

 

Havaianas experiments with fonts in their Facebook designs.

Havaianas experiments with fonts in their Facebook designs.

In the example above you can see how lululemon athletica has adapted a version of its standard red logo to match its cover image on Facebook and Twitter.

The harmony between your profile and cover photos is anchored by graphic elements such as color, text and imagery.  Create a cover photo that complements your profile image.  You can use existing marketing materials or create something new.

If you create a custom cover image and want to ensure that the colors match your profile picture, use a color picker tool to extract the color hex code.  A hex code is a six-digit code that represents an exact color universally recognized by HTML and CSS.

When you know your hex codes, you can use the same colors in your designs over and over again.  This removes any variation or guesswork and provides for a consistent look.

 

Use Watermarks Consistently

 

If you include a logo or other icon with your images, you should create guidelines addressing your logo size and placement.  Doing this avoids appearing sloppy by having inconsistent logo sizes or random logo placement.

In the picture below you can see that the H&M logo is the same size and in the same place on each photo.  Being consistent plays a part in their overall brand recognition.

 

Logo placed consistently on H&M Facebook catalog.

A quick tip:  Don’t place your logo flush with the edge of your photo.  Instead, leave some space around it to make it neater and look more intentional.

 

Let Your Image Do the Talking

 

Up to 90% of the information transmitted to your brain is visual, so it’s no surprise that people respond well to great visual design.

Using pictures as the focus of your updatesgives you a great opportunity to be creative.  When you design your visual content, rely less on your words.  Let your colors, images and backgrounds convey your message.

In the picture below notice how the compelling background image and Twitter icon grab your attention first and work well with the more subtle text call to action.

 

Use icons to replace text in your designs

When you have the perfect picture, sometimes you don’t need to use text overlays at all.   Use clever images to capture your audience’s attention.   In the image below, Ben and Jerry’s used fewer than 10 words in their updates.  They let their product pictures do their talking.

 

Capture your audience’s attention using clever images

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Over to You

 

With over two billion people active on social media every day, improving how you use visual assets is a powerful way to drive more people to your business.

Use consistent fonts and colors and your existing branding to extend your recognition beyond the usual places.  No matter where you post, make sure your audience can recognize you immediately.

Make the most of your visual assets and enjoy creating beautiful designs.  The social media race is on, and responsive and engaging design is your express ticket to the finish line.

What do you think?  Have you used any of these tips already?  Do you have additional ideas to share?   Leave your comments and questions below.

 

7 Ways to Trigger Buying Decisions in Your Customers Brain *

7 Ways to Trigger Buying Decisions in Your Customers Brain *

by | Nov 20, 2020 | Marketing

What Effect Does Persuasion Have on Your Messages?

 

It’s hard to imagine the billions of dollars are wasted on ads that don’t grab attention or motivate people to act?  We have always tried to influence others, with advertising being the modern persuasion method.

Many theories have been developed about the effect persuasion has on our brains and decision making.  We will examine some of the most current data about persuasion science and how it affects your business  in this article.

 

How Effective are Persuasion Messages?

 

The effectiveness of persuasive messages on the brain has been thoroughly researched for many years.  Every day you participate in or create persuasive arguments that you hope will change people’s views, or convince them to buy a product or solution that will change their lives.

Few of these messages will actually grab people’s attention, change their perceptions and cause them to act.  Persuasion ia a game which is often a waste of time and money.

 

How Our Brains React to Ads Predicts their Impact

 

If you further investigate why people like or dislike your messages, you will not get closer to the truth of why some messages work and others don’t.  Only measuring brain responses to ads can shed light on how your unconcious brain reacts to sales messages and predict the impact they have on the brain.

Persuasion science is a new field that can finally provide scientific answers to questions that have puzzled advertisers, marketers, academics and researchers for many years. But while measuring brain responses has become relatively easier and affordable, the real challenge is to make sense of the gigabytes of data generated by millisecond recordings of brain waves, eye fixations, facial expressions and skin moisture.

 

Make your message personal, contrastable, tangible, memorable, visual and emotional to elicit a response from your Primal brain

After decades of research and practice in the field of persuasion science, which is also known as neuromarketing or consumer neuroscience some progress has finally been made.  Researchers have developed a persuasion theory that helps construct and deliver convincing product claims to your intended audience.

 

Persuasion Theory is Based on Brain Science

 

There are many persuasion theories that have been debated for hundreds of years.  Few of these theories are anchored in what actually happens in the brain when people receive a message, understand the appeal, feel emotions related to the message and trigger a decision.

New answers have emerged to help us understand how ads can either influence us or be disregarded within just a few seconds.

 

How do Persuasive Messages Relate to the Brain

 

We have learned a lot about the relationship between persuasive messages and the brain.  It is now understood that the nervous system has two major systems, with one dominating the processing of these messages and it is not the one you would suspect does.

 

Persuasion science is based on the dominance of the Primal Brain

The Primal Brain:  This is the older brain system and is composed of brain structures that are designed to make you safe.  The Primal brain controls your attention and emotional resources addressing your survival-related priorities below your level of consciousness.  You could think of it as the BIOS of your mind, a set of basic instructions that control how your computer receives input and output.  The Primal dominates the processing of all persuasive messages!

 

The Rational Brain:  This is the more recently developed and more evolved part of the brain.  You should think of it as the latest version of Windows or Mac OS for your brain.  The Rational brain acts like a suite of enhanced applications that you can learn, change or upgrade during your lifetime.  This part of your brain helps you regulate some of the responses of the Primal brain.

 

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Persuasion Science is Based on the Dominance of the Primal Brain

 

Because of the dominance of the primal brain in unconcious thought responses, it’s often said that persuasion is an effect which works from the bottom-up.  If you want to optimize your chances of getting results from your ads, you need to first and foremost make your messages friendly to the Primal brain.  How can you acheive this?  To be effective your messages need to use the 6 persuasion factors that trigger instant Primal brain responses.

 

Persuasion Science is Based on the Dominance of the Primal Brain

Make your message PERSONAL:  You have to think of the Primal brain as the center of ME.  It has no patience or empathy for anything that does not immediately concern its well-being.  It scans for threats before it attends to pleasure.  Vigilance drives the speed and nature of its response.

Make your arguments CONTRASTABLE:  The Primal brain is sensitive to solid contrast such as before/after, risky/safe, with/without, and slow/fast.  Contrast allows quick, risk-free decisions.  Without contrast, the brain enters a state of confusion, which delays a decision, or worse, stalls a decision altogether.

Make your proofs TANGIBLE:  The Primal brain needs tangible input.  It is constantly looking for what is familiar and friendly; what can be recognized quickly, what is concrete and immutable.  The Primal brain cannot process complexity without a lot of effort and skepticism.  It appreciates simple, easy-to-grasp, concrete ideas.

Make your story MEMORABLE:  The Primal brain remembers little.  Placing the most important content at the beginning is a must, and repeating it at the end is imperative.  Keep in mind that what you say in the middle of your delivery should be brief and convincing.  Don’t go over 3 convincing arguments: your CLAIMS.  The Primal brain loves stories because a good narrative construction is easy to remember.

Make your points VISUAL: The Primal brain’s default sensory channel is visual. The optical nerve is physically connected to the Primal brain and at least 25 times faster than the auditory nerve. Therefore, the visual channel provides a fast and effective connection to accelerate decisions. No other sense is more dominant than the visual sense. It is the superhighway of your messages.

Make your impact EMOTIONAL:  The Primal brain is strongly triggered by emotions.  Emotions create chemical events in your brain that directly impact the way you process and memorize information.  In fact, you simply can’t remember events unless you strong “emotional cocktail.”  No emotion, no decisions!

 

How to Make Your Email Awesome With Great Digital Marketing *

How to Make Your Email Awesome With Great Digital Marketing *

by | Nov 18, 2020 | Customer engagement

5 Ways to Make Your Email More Awesome

 

Let’s begin by saying that email marketing hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years.  However even in 2019, tremendous opportunities still exist to improve your email marketing results.  A late 2018 Email Marketing Industry Report from Emma’s found that 25% of marketers plan to increase their email spending.

The five methods we discuss here will help you reach your potential for customer engagement through the use of your email list.

 

The best digital marketers consider their email list to be their digital nerve center.

Make Email Your Digital Nerve Center

 

There are so many things about Digital Marketing which you are unable to control.  Search engine algorithms are constantly updated and frequently change.   Social Media purveyors also are constantly changing their rules and methods and can even fall out of favor with your customers.

Your email list never changes and it is always yours.   You can leverage your email list to improve your ad targeting on paid social media networks.  The best digital marketers, consider their email list to be their digital nerve center.

 

Email marketing is still is the most flexible, most dynamic way to reach your customers.

Personalize and Micro-target Your Emails

 

Surveys show that 59% of marketers say that email marketing delivers the best return of investment.  Having 6 out of 10 endorse a specific marketing tactic is significant and can’t be ignored.  To be more productive using your email list, other digital marketing tactics come into play.

Social media marketing has changed a lot in the last couple years.  I believe most would now agree that the use of social media is now largely an advertising tactic as opposed to an organic reach tactic.

Email marketing is still is the most flexible, most dynamic way to reach your customers.  When we discuss ad targeting, whether it’s display ads, programmatic ads, social media ads, email opt-ins, email behavior, clicks, opens, etc., can be used to dramatically improve your ad targeting.

If you want to be better at your ads, the best way to do this is to be better with your email and mine your email data.  Roll everything back into your advertising and turn it into a one plus one equals three situation.

 

Get Better Results

 

By personalizing and micro-targeting your email marketing content the results will be more robust and relevant to the recipients and you will reap the benefits from doing so.  That’s why your email list data is so important in deciding who you contact and what they are most likely to respond to.

The people on your email list know you and have asked to hear from you.  They open your content.  They want your content while everyone other door you’re knocking on, you’re trying to get them to allow you to enter.  Your email list is people who have already invited you into their homes.

 

Boost Authenticity with Personalization

 

Every business is just a collection of people, and we trust people more than we trust businesses.  Our trust in people over businesses is growing and becoming more true.

 

User Generated Content Lends Credibility

 

In the Instagram age, we can use User-generated content is often used to provide interesting, trust-worthy images and content to humanize your emails and persuade your subscribers to take action.

The more personal and trustworthy your emails are, the better your results will be.  By using names and being specific in your emails making them personal and human, you make them relatable and memorable. This simple step will certainly get a much higher response rate than an email which is impersonal and generic.

 

Email is one of the most testable forms of marketing

Always Test Your Emails

 

The fourth way to make your email more awesome is to test, test, and test.  Email is one of the most testable forms of marketing.  If you’re sending emails, you should be testing.  But where do you begin?

Only 11% of email marketers today always at least A/B test their email, so about 1 out of 10.  Testing isn’t that complicated to do.  We should always be testing and that we should never send an email without a test included.

 

Email Results are Testable

 

Sometimes that doesn’t work.  But that’s probably the optimal idea.  Email is, in my estimation, the most testable form of marketing ever devised.  Email data is the easiest to track.  At some point in this age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, testing will no longer be optional.

 

Study Benchmarks, Then Ignore Them

 

The fifth way to make your email more awesome is to examine benchmarks, and then ignore them.  There are more email benchmark data than any other kind of marketing benchmark data.  However, benchmarks will only tell you so much, and if all your care about is averages, you’ll always be an average marketer.

All of the email services publish similar email data.  A simple Google search will find the average email open rate, average click-through rate, average click to open rate according to different industry types.  If all you care about is averages, you will never be anything other than an average marketer.

 

Make Your Email Unique

 

To truly stand out you have to do something different with your email.  The best tests that you can perform pit something normal against something which is not normal.  Not a small change, but a major change.  It’s amazing how often really unusual emails work because they break out of the box that most email marketers build around themselves.

 

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Success is Much More Than an Email List

 

Let’s first examine how you can grow your email list beyond a typical signup form.  There are several different strategies that we’ve used successfully.  One is social media.  We’ve had some success with both paid and organic social media.

Using different engaging content, putting that out there on social media with a link to a signup form because everything ends at the signup form.  Because we always end up using a signup form, there are different ways to drive people to your signup form.  You can also use referral bonuses.

 

Practice Email List Hygiene

 

Email list hygiene is an important point to consider.  It’s not the size of your list that matters, you’re better to have a smaller engaged list.  This matters not only for results, but also from n email delivery point of view.

Email delivery systems will look at your open rate.  Partly to make decisions about how your email is treated.  The higher you keep your open rate, the better your email will be treated.

 

Re-engagement Emails can Revitalize Your List

 

If your emails have gone unopened, it may be time to send a re-engagement email.  The re-engagement email simply questions whether someone who has not been responsive would like to continue receiving your emails.

This email acknowledges their inactivity and asks them to verify that they want to stay on your email list or take an action that gives you new information.  This engagement helps you to improve the relevancy of what you are sending to them.

 

Over 50% of our emails are opened on a phone

Don’t Forget Mobile Technology

 

A final point I would like to make is that over 50% of our emails are opened on a phone.  I would encourage everyone to design emails that work well on mobile platforms.

We’ve reached the point where we probably should be designing for phones and then adapt them to tablets, laptops and desktop computers.

 

How to Bring Discipline to Your Sustainability Initiatives *

How to Bring Discipline to Your Sustainability Initiatives *

by | Nov 17, 2020 | Sustainability

Why Your Business Should Embrace Sustainability

 

Sustainability has become a part of life for many companies.  For many, it’s simply a matter of meeting demands from customers seeking socially responsible goods and services.  For others, it’s about addressing pressure from stakeholders or pursuing their own corporate values.

For still others, business sustainability is a strategic responsibility, especially those in a resource-constrained environment.  Whatever the reason, sustainability is sufficiently pervasive that defining it and executing business programs, products, and practices with an eye to their environmental and social implications has become a demanding managerial exercise.

 

Sustainability Identifies Opportunities

 

For some, sustainability has identified opportunities that they might have otherwise missed.  Whether it was to cut costs, reduce risk, and generate revenues.  Consider the multinational consumer-goods company Unilever, which changed the shape of deodorant to use less plastic in packaging and created a concentrated laundry product that sharply reduces its use of water.

German pharmaceutical company Bayer expects to save more than $10 million a year with a resource-efficiency check it developed to improve operations by using by-products and reducing wastewater. Global chemical company DuPont has recorded $2 billion in annual revenue from products that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and another $11.8 billion in revenue from improvements in nondepletable resources.

 

Why Do Some Struggle Over Sustainability

 

To better understand the challenges that companies face with creating value from sustainability.  We worked with sustainability groups to identify managers to collaborate on analyzing their programs.

What we found is that companies often have more initiatives than they can effectively manage.  The sustainability movement is flexible, including everything from environmentalism, resource management, corporate governance, and human rights.

Some managers in different regions may be enthusiastic about their efforts without taking a company-wide perspective.  In most cases, their efforts are too fragmented to create much value, either for the company or for society.

 

How Sustainability Provides Solutions

 

Thankfully, that kind of problem’s solution is well known.  We found that if they applied performance management principles to their sustainability initiatives most companies would benefit.  Companies must keep their sustainability programs focused, set specific goals, create accountability for performance, and communicate the financial impact.

 

Where To Focus Must Be Agreed

 

Getting leadership attention to sustainability initiatives is one of the biggest challenges companies face.  In a recent report for the United Nations Global Compact, 84 percent of the 1,000 global CEOs surveyed agreed that business “should lead efforts to define and deliver new goals on global priority issues,” but only a third said that “business is doing enough to address global sustainability challenges.”

 

Why Do Some Fail To Focus

 

The problem at many companies is often one of focus.  Two-thirds of companies in a representative sample from the S&P 500 have more than 10 different sustainability focus topics.  Some have more than 30.

That’s too many, making it difficult to imagine how a sustainability agenda with more than 10 focus areas can break through and get the necessary buy-in from leadership to be successful.  If top management doesn’t prioritize, then departments won’t either.

The result is fragmented, decentralized, and not aligned with one another or with overall top-level goals.  This slows the social and environmental impact but also the economic value.  A recent McKinsey Global Survey found that companies having a unified strategy and no more than five strategic priorities were almost three times as likely to be among the strongest performers.  Both financially and on measures of sustainability.

Coca-Cola, for example, has set for itself a strategy it describes as “me, we, the world,” which is it’s approach to improving personal health and wellness among the communities in which it operates and the environment.

The company reports making material, tangible progress on metrics related to three specific areas of focus: “well-being, women, and water.”  The company does not ignore other issues such as climate change and packaging, but it has made it clear that this is where it wants to lead.

 

Why You Need To Analyze Your Value Chain

 

To develop your priorities, it’s important to start by analyzing what matters most along the entire value chain.  You can accomplish this through internal analysis and consultations with stakeholders, including customers, regulators, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

This process should enable companies to identify their sustainability issues with the greatest long-term potential and thus to create a systematic agenda.  You don’t want to create a laundry list of vague desirables.

 

One Company, BASF Maps it's Sustainability Priorities

After consultations, BASF, the global chemical company, put together a “materiality matrix” exhibit which is shown above.  This chart ranked the importance of 38 sustainability-related issues, based on their importance to BASF and its stakeholders.

This type of exercise helps companies to recognize the important issues early and get internal stakeholders to agree on what will create the most value.  Their focus needn’t be mechanical but should instead reflect discussion on the strategic, reputational, and financial merits of different efforts.

 

Set Specific Sustainability Goals

 

After completing your initial analysis, the next step is to translate this information into external goals that can be distilled into business metrics. These goals should be specific, ambitious, and measurable against an established baseline, such as greenhouse-gas emissions.  Your goals should have a long-term orientation and be integrated into your business sustainability strategy. Finally, the intent of your goals should be unmistakable.

One company stated as a goal: “Reduce the impact of our packaging on the environment.”  From a different company came a sharper version: “Eliminate 20 million pounds of packaging by 2016.”

Along the same lines, “reducing emissions” is a vague and almost meaningless phrase.  It doesn’t say by how much the company should reduce emissions, by when, or compared with what benchmark.  The approach taken by another sustainability leader is stronger and more specific: “Reduce 2005 CO2 emissions by half by 2015.”

 

Build Internal Support For Your Sustainability Goals

 

It is important to build adequate internal support to meet your goals.  Our analysis found that the companies that excelled at meeting sustainability goals made sure that they involved the business leaders responsible for implementing them from the start.

One global manufacturer announced in 2010 that it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020.  To reach their goal, they set up energy assessments and energy-management plans, established global programs to optimize procurement and building standards, trained and developed internal “champions” and coordinated best practices, and began to use renewable energy where possible.

They communicated their early wins internally through a newsletter and regular conference calls.  Four years into their ten-year effort, the project is already net present value positive.

 

Encourage Sustainability Innovation

 

Setting ambitious external goals motivates your organization.  It also forces resources to be allocated and promotes accountability.  An analysis of companies that are part of the Carbon Disclosure Project found that those that set external goals did better when it came to cutting emissions.  They also had better financial returns on such investments.

Stronger goals, seem to encourage innovation.  People may feel more motivated to find ways to meet them.  Lack of goals is a sustainability killer: “What gets measured gets managed” is as true of sustainability as it is for any other business function.

And yet that is not happening.  An independent analysis of S&P 500 companies suggests that as of this writing only one in five S&P 500 companies sets quantified, long-term sustainability goals.  Half of the companies do not have any published sustainability goals.

 

Communicate Sustainability’s Financial Impact

 

Despite growing evidence of the value of investing in sustainability, many executives still have doubts.  Senior management gives sustainability lip service but not capital if they do not see financial benefits. “Sustainability metrics can seem like random numbers and don’t do much,” one chemical-industry executive told us. “For our businesses, sustainability efforts have to compete directly with other demands, which means that financial impact is key.”

Nearly half of the research participants reported that the pressure of short-term earnings performance is at odds with sustainability initiatives.  A constructive response is to make the case that sustainability can pay for itself, and more.  This needs to be done rigorously, reinforced with fully costed financial data and delivered in the language of business.

 

Make Sustainability’s Business Case

 

This is much easier said than done.  At Intel, although business leaders were interested in saving water, they saw little financial justification to do so: water was cheap.  Advocates of the initiative were able to calculate that the full cost of water, including infrastructure and treatment, was much higher than the initial estimates.

Saving water, they argued, could create value in new and unexpected ways.  Because of those arguments, Intel went ahead with a major conservation effort.  The company now has a finance analyst who concentrates on computing the financial value of sustainability efforts.

Making the business case for sustainability might sound like an obvious thing to do, but apparently, it isn’t. Only around a fifth of survey respondents reported that the financial benefits are clearly understood across the organization.

 

Measure Sustainability’s Savings

 

Sustainability initiatives can be difficult to measure because savings or returns may be divided across different parts of the business.  Some benefits, such as an improved reputation, are indirect.  It is important, not only to quantify what can be quantified but also to communicate other kinds of value.

An initiative might improve the perception important stakeholders have of the company, the better to build consumer loyalty, nurture relationships with like-minded nonprofits, and inform policy discussions.

 

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Create Sustainability Accountability

 

The top reason that respondents gave for their company’s failure to capture the full value of sustainability is the lack of incentives to do so, whether positive or negative. According to the United Nations Global Compact, only 1 in 12 companies links executive remuneration to sustainability performance.

While 1 in 7 rewards their suppliers for good sustainability performance. Among survey respondents, 1 in 3 named earnings pressure and lack of incentives as reasons for poor sustainability results; 1 in 4 named lack of key performance indicators and insufficient resources.

 

Exhibit Good Sustainability Practices

 

In this area, a number of companies exhibit good business sustainability practicesfrom which others learn.  Some are strong when it comes to tracking data and reporting indicators, tracking carbon emissions and energy use, monitoring water use and waste, and recycling.

Adidas demonstrates one useful approach.  The sporting-goods company breaks down its long-term goals into shorter-term milestones.  Its suppliers, for example, are given strategic targets three to five years ahead, as well as more immediate goals to encourage them to focus.  The effort makes it very clear what is expected of suppliers for the current year.

The beer company MillerCoors does something similar.  It tracks and quantifies progress in ten areas, ranging from water to energy to packaging to human rights, using its own sustainability-assessment matrix.  The idea is for MillerCoors to understand its performance, in quantitative terms, in areas that are often difficult to quantify.

 

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