We’ve all seen extremely reputable, high-quality news outlets post headlines with typographical errors to their social media accounts. How can that happen? Where are the brand standards we’ve come to associate with that organization? Do users no longer care about errors and typos if they don’t actually obscure the intended meaning? What if they DO obscure the intended meaning? Do these sloppier posts erode the brand? Clearly, we have some questions.

In a conversation with several well-reputed colleagues recently, they revealed that they were thinking about hiring “younger” people to run their social media accounts with the assumption that younger users had the inside track to mastery of all things online. The organizations were actively looking for entry-level employees at entry-level salaries so executive team members could continue to focus on operations and business development without having to get involved with social media at all. The inappropriate age prejudice aside, there’s an uncomfortable dissociation between social media and brand communication revealed here. This attitude also undervalues the critical importance of social media to our communications (why entry-level?). Unfortunately, this mindset begins to answer some of our questions above, especially “How can this happen?”.

With a few adjustments to this hands-off and leave-it-to-the-newbies attitude toward social media posts, everyone can be satisfied and brand quality can be maintained, even enhanced.

If we consider post content separate and apart from the act of posting (think publishing), social media can get the careful attention and quality control it deserves. If we ensure that social media managers, especially entry-level hires with little business experience, fully understand the brand and speak it fluently, we can safely use social media to bolster our brands. When hiring inexperienced staff to run social media, go even further: institute a process that supports brand adherence and quality — a process that simultaneously supports social media managers and provides the scaffolding the brand needs to excel on the social media platforms that align best with its brand and its customers. Go ahead and plan posting activity; write posts; and, circulate the plan and the content for review and approval so your organization’s posts aren’t hitting your followers’ newsfeeds before you’ve seen them. Keep a strong connection between social media and your core business builders (business development, marketing communications, sales, human resources…). With a schedule of approved posts, our social media mavens can focus on doing what they do best: getting our brands in front of the most appropriate audiences to encourage greater engagement.

These questions may help you collect and organize the information necessary to write a compelling two-page service sheet that can be used to support sales conversations with prospective customers:

Matter for the front:

What is the brand or marketing name of this service or service package? Be consistent across all mentions. Make it easy for customers to identify it.

What is the primary (or overview) benefit to the customer?

What are the individual features to the service offerings? When describing each, lead with each feature’s benefit(s) to the customer. This is not a technical spec sheet. Talk briefly about why these features matter to the customer.

What are the challenges faced by the type of customer who would benefit from this service? Provide a few sentences about why this service package assists the customer in overcoming those challenges.

Provide something extra. Briefly describe an emotional benefit to the service package, a key insight unique to the customer’s industry, or a snippet from a customer testimonial.

Matter for the back:

Why is your company uniquely positioned to understand the challenges your customers face? Here is the place to review the benefits described on the front in a broader context or pull in your company’s history with this particular service or the customer’s industry.

Cross sell. List other services your company provides and the industries that benefit from them.

Provide an invitation to discuss how this service package may help the customer.

Be sure to include your branding identity/logo, company tagline, call to action, contact information, company descriptive, and trademark and copyright notices as appropriate.

It’s that time of year again. Many seasonal celebrations dot the fourth quarter like the holes in Swiss cheese, making the coordination of schedules more challenging and finishing team projects less likely. Where many of us see this time as providing welcome breaks for refueling, some of us see it as an interruption in the momentum we’ve worked diligently to generate over the past nine months, or as a time to cram to meet the fading year’s goals and objectives. Where do you fall?

Whether traditional, national, or religious, holidays are a part of our shared experiences during the late autumn and early winter weeks. They also offer a built-in reason for business owners and marketers to reach out to clients and prospects. Is holiday marketing part of your business plan? Think about how a few holiday communications may meet your company’s marketing strategy.

Let’s get beyond the holiday card and email. (Although, let’s not forget them.) Will you count down to New Year’s Eve with a cool tip each day that you’ll post on social media?  Will your business sponsor a charity’s year-end festivities or a community playhouse’s December performances?

If you haven’t already, start planning. And, if you need a bit of help, give us a call. Happy holiday season!  Enjoy it all.

Building the character of the creative –

When it comes to ensuring that we create on-target marketing materials, my partner and I have always employed what has been called the Q Strategy.  We build a company backgrounder, craft a communications strategy, and then judge all creative by that strategy before presenting it to the client. We gather most of the information needed for this process by questioning the client’s marketing manager or business development director, and other key personnel or decision makers.

Surprising to some, tone often trumps “features, advantages and benefits” when it comes to manifesting the client’s compelling story from lists of marketing objectives. Yes, preliminary conversations with clients often center around how a product or service increases the good stuff, decreases the bad stuff, and does it all more effectively and efficiently.  This is necessary and informative.  But clients really come to life, and the story begins to take shape, when we start to talk about tone, personality, and the single most important feeling they want their customers to take away from their new messaging.  In fact, it’s during this part of an input meeting when I often sketch concept ideas and write the first lines of rough copy in the margins of my notepad.

Several years ago, an article exploring this process was published in a few industry publications, including “Creative New Jersey” and the “Art Directors Club of NJ” newsletter.  It was written by Joe Napurano, a very well-regarded art director and co-owner of BallottaNapurano & Co., Inc. (established in 1978).  Joe happens to be my father, as well as a personal and professional inspiration.  Here is the original author’s edited excerpt:

Client relations and the process of creating an ad

During a client-agency creative session back in the 90s I listened intently as my client was describing the “type” of advertising he thought would work for his company.  Later, when I examined my notes, I found his list of descriptive words numbered over three dozen.  Many of them contradictory:  something awesome, something soft-sell, something clever, something technical, something humorous, etc.

What occurred to me is that there are many ways to create effective advertising, but very often it is the character of the ads that gets the client’s nod or the wastebasket.

Over the years, for fun, I’ve compiled such a list.  True, most of it can be chronicled in the Cliché Hall of Fame, but for what it’s worth – use it, add to it, be awesome at your next stalled, input session – or slick, or clever, or shocking, or informative, or solemn, or nostalgic, or tough, or humble:

•  Lighthearted

•  Dramatic

•  Conservative

•  Copy-ish

•  Short-copy

•  Long-copy

•  Lotsa White Space

•  Straightforward

•  Beautiful

•  Atmospheric

•  Technical

•  Institutional

•  Entertaining

•  How-to

•  Advertorial

•  Informative

•  Hard-working

•  Educational

•  Testimonial

•  Expensive-looking

•  Product-oriented

•  Brag and Boast

•  Pun-oriented

•  Visually Stunning

•  Deadly Serious

•  Self-effacing

•  Hyperbolic

•  Hokey

•  Image-building

•  The Business Week Ad

•  Corporate

•  Directory-like

•  Show-stopper

•  Comparative

•  Competitive

•  A Puzzle

•  A Toy Analogy

•  Belligerent

•  Little Guy vs. Big Guy

•  The Nice Guy

•  Shocker

•  Co-op

•  Authoritative

•  Cartoony

•  Comic-bookish

•  Futuristic

•  Old School

•  The Industry Standard

•  Nostalgic

•  Tough Talk

•  The Very Big Photo

•  All Copy

•  The Motherly Ad

•  Special Effects

•  Borrowed Interest

•  Very Big Type

•  All Headline

•  Punchline

•  Bottom Line

•  Return On Investment

•  Cliché

•  Capabilities

•  Double Meaning

•  Patriotic

•  State of the Art

•  The Negative Approach

•  Scare Tactic

•  “We Can Help You”

•  “We Exist For You”

•  Play on Words

•  A Series

•  The Reasons-Why List

•  Guarantee

•  Did You Know These Facts?

•  You Shouldn’t Have To Put Up With This!

•  Emotional

•  We’re Smart

•  Sports Analogy

•  No-Nonsense

•  Handcrafted Quality

•  Our Commitment

•  Slice of Life

•  Executive Biography

•  Artsy

•  Put-up or Shut-up

•  Excellence Unequaled

•  Let Us Show You Why We’re Good

•  We Are on the Job

•  Case History

•  Brand Identity

•  Sell the Sizzle

•  Tongue-in-cheek

•  Don’t Be Fooled

•  Call-outs

•  Coupon

•  Free Stuff

•  Introductory

•  Grainy B&W Photos

•  Journalistic

•  Old World Craftsmanship

•  In the factory photos

•  Everything You Wanted To Know

•  Celebrity Endorsement

•  Animal Analogy

•  Leader of the Industry

•  Industry Pioneer

•  We Invented It

•  We’re Small But Better

•  We’re Big But We Love You

•  Real People

All my best,

Deanne

© Stone’s Throw, Inc. All rights reserved.

Clearing the way for growth

Who are you, personally? How do others get to know you?

Whether we like it or not, studies continue to show that many people make some immediate assumptions about us based on our physical appearance and our sense of style (especially our shoes, apparently).* They understand even more when they hear us speak and listen to what we say. They compare what they see and hear to our actions – how do we behave toward our families? The community? We each shape our personal identities, knowingly or unknowingly, fairly or unfairly, through the choices we make and what we show the world around us.

Similarly, your company’s identity – how it’s perceived by customers, vendors and the community – is in great part defined by its look (branding), its language (communications) and its actions (behavior). It should embody your company’s mission and values. It should also have a memorable visual component and a clear voice.

When you see your company’s logo, read its tagline and core messaging, and review its print and online content, does it all reflect your company well? If it’s no longer in sync with where your company stands today (or where you’d like it to be tomorrow), perhaps it’s time to refresh or recreate your company identity.

Begin with a review.

Take your company’s temperature. Are all your key team members on the same page? A fairly quick way to find out is to ask your team to describe the company’s identity. Then, ask your clients about their perceptions of your company. You can accomplish both tasks with a short electronic or printed survey. Then tally up the results. Where do things gel? (Does everyone see your company as a trusted industry thought-leader?) Where do you find disconnects? (Does the executive team see the firm as a fresh and responsive problem-solver, while a few core clients see the company as an aging, albeit wise, traditionalist?)

Define your company vision.

How long has it been since you went through this process? Talk with your team about your company culture, your motivators and your goals for the future. What business are you in, and why? We find that asking these questions during a workshop-style meeting can yield very good results. Whether we help you facilitate the meeting or not, talking about what defines your business typically uncovers hidden obstacles and new thinking, and can clear the way for more than a new logo – it can clear the way for growth.

Develop a communications strategy.

What’s your business’s history? Who are your clients? What do you do for your clients that no other provider does? Building a strategy begins with asking the right questions and being brutally honest with your answers.

Keep your customers in mind.

No matter where the process of recreating your company identity takes you, ensure that everything you do focuses on your clients and partners. Test your results by asking: Will our ideal client understand our message and tone – immediately?

Case study: New Jersey law firm

Working with a well-regarded, ninety-year-old law firm, Stone’s Throw was able to help guide the process of rebranding, beginning with garnering communications strategy planning feedback from each member of the executive team. We then distilled the team’s contributions into a communications strategy summary that was used to build consensus and set guidelines for the creative. With the strategy approved by the executive team, we worked with a smaller marketing committee to set priorities and keep things moving. In so doing we worked closely with the law firm’s marketing director to create a new company identity, including logo, stationery system and collateral materials (firm overview brochure, practice area brochures and more). We helped foster understanding and enthusiasm among the entire staff by writing and designing communications that clearly explained the new company identity, how it would be implemented and why. Making the link between a new company logo (the company’s public face) and the company’s evolved culture and attitude toward its clients enabled the staff to rally behind the new identity.

* Studies cite height, weight, posture, grooming and clothing as some of the first filters people use to assess someone’s competence and trustworthiness (among other qualities).

© Stone’s Throw, Inc. All rights reserved.

That can be especially true for marketing, sales, and communications materials. One project that often slips to the bottom of the to-do pile during prime time is the hardworking case study.

Sales teams love case studies because they help prospective customers visualize the benefits of working together in a real-world example. Case studies serve as testimonials, services run-downs, and, if well-crafted, compelling advertisements that help elevate your reputation. They also provide plenty of opportunity for repurposing: launch them as blog posts; send them as emails; make them available as PDFs; print them and package them with leave-behinds and proposals; and, of course, serialize them across your social media accounts and newsfeeds. Case studies show off what your company does best.

If we’ve inspired you to create a couple new case studies for your team, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Develop a template that reflects your brand and key objectives. Following your own style guidelines will help unify the look and feel of the case studies, fortifying your brand and core messaging.

Focus on the primary customer benefit of working with your company. Don’t shy away from the emotional impact of the project. Help readers understand why saving time was essential to your customers because with more time they could focus on improving service to their customers, for instance.

Decide which is most important: the customer industry or the bundle of services your team delivered. Direct the case study into that lane so you and your sales team can get the most use out of it. If you want to employ it with both audiences, write it two ways and create two different studies. Don’t try to accomplish both with one; you’ll muddy the intention.

Break the story into a few major categories.

Answer the questions:
• What was the problem, challenge, or assignment?
• Why were you brought onto the project?
• What was your unique approach to finding a solution?
• How did the customer benefit?
• How did the customer’s customer benefit?
• What details made a substantial difference?
• Why is this case study of interest to anyone else?

Ask every contributor the same questions. If you’re getting information from different resources from inside your company, provide each with the same short questionnaire. This way, you’ll find it easier to create similarity between content flow and depth of detail.

We can help.

If the timing isn’t right for you to start work on your case studies, we’ve got you covered. In short order, we can get you geared up with shiny new case studies that your team will want to use. Send us an email or give us a call.