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Stone's Throw Creative Communications

  • Small and mid-size businesses
  • Corporate entities
  • Professional services entities
  • Life science/healthcare

March 10, 2021 Comments

Since 1991

This year Stone’s Throw Creative Communications will be celebrating 30 years in business. Headquartered in Historic Cranbury, NJ, we’ve experienced so much. From the current pandemic to 9/11 to Superstorm Sandy, we all persevere with a lot of help from each other.

Heritage Park

The engraved stone pictured above can be found in Heritage Park. The park features a fountain with granite pavers commemorating Cranbury’s tercentennial anniversary – yes, that’s 300 years! Dedicated in 1997, the fountain is laid with pavers sponsored by area businesses and families who contributed to the fountain’s construction through a ‘buy a brick’ fundraising campaign. Literally etched in stone, Stone’s Throw is proud to be a small part of the community’s history.

Photography copyright © Deanne Napurano. All rights reserved.

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February 12, 2021 Comments

Marketing your business?

Leverage our customized marketing plan roadmap to get you started.

Spend more time on what works and less time chasing white rabbits. MarketingCare provides smaller to mid-size organizations with insightful feedback and step-by-step recommendations for marketing with impact.

You’ll receive:

•  A one-on-one interview with a marketing professional who knows the right questions to ask to help determine what your business or organization does, the market(s) it serves, where it’s been and where you’d like it to go

•  A brief overview of your company background and general marketing objectives

•  Recommendations for marketing and promotional activities geared to your business’s objectives

•  Step-by-step suggestions for creating presence, softening the market, and building relationships with your clients, customers or members

•  A review of your customized plan with a marketing professional

•  An easy-to-follow guide

Use the plan in whatever way works best for you.
•  Develop your marketing materials and promotional activities on your own.
•  Contract Stone’s Throw for the support and services you need to develop and execute one or all of our recommendations. On request, we will provide you with pricing for creative and other services at no obligation.

“Clients get overwhelmed with the day-to-day demands of running a business or organization. Marketing can become a grinding necessity or is guided by bursts of energetic focus after weeks of neglect. It’s part of our job to help them feel some relief. When that space opens up, we can see clients becoming excited again. Everything begins to click.”

We’ll provide the careful devotion to the details.

For more than 20 years we’ve worked closely with clients in fields that range from professional services to education, and from biotechnology to healthcare. We understand the unique dynamics of working with smaller companies that have the ability to react quickly to shifts in market climate or sudden business development opportunities; you want to work with a team that will help you rise to the occasion. You also value a creative partner who provides checks and balances between planned activities and expectations.

Contact us for information on our flat fee for the entrepreneur and small to mid-size businesses and organizations.

Beyond a marketing plan, how can we partner with you to move your business forward?

For a select number, Stone’s Throw provides virtual CMO support, functioning as the business’s marketing department. As a Chief Marketing Officer would, we initiate and guide marketing plan recommendations and develop communications strategies that align with the company’s overall growth objectives.  As a marketing manager and department would, we also provide the creative services, design and copywriting, art direction, production and programming that bring the company’s marketing plan to life. From broad goal setting, to day-to-day marketing tasks, we work side-by-side with you to build forward momentum. It all starts with a plan, even if that means determining a few loose parameters now, and establishing more focused guidelines later.

Over the course of nearly 25 years, we’ve had the privilege of working with many fine businesses and organizations. Those most successful at engaging their target audiences – and manifesting brand language that resonates with customers– have one important characteristic in common; they understand the power of planning.

Strategic marketing communications for your business are just a stone’s throw away.

Consultation  •  Strategy  •  Writing  •  Design  •  Integrated marketing programs  •  Individual projects

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

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September 16, 2020 Comments

Is going “outside” worth it?

Whether you’ve re-engineered your workforce to meet the changing demands of working during the COVID-19 pandemic or find yourself needing new or different communications than you did pre-coronavirus, where do you begin to determine if it makes greater financial sense to tackle marketing communications projects internally or to tap the services of an outside consultant? Evaluating the cost of a product may be straightforward – adding up the expenses of research, development, raw materials, manufacture, and packaging, for example. Evaluating the cost of services takes a more roundabout route requiring qualitative, rather than quantitative, assessment. If you’re considering hiring creative support from outside your organization, the following ideas may help you determine whether the move will represent true value.

Contract with specialists.

As marketing options simultaneously expand with today’s technological advances and narrow with new safety concerns, it’s challenging for all but the largest organizations to employ a full team of talented specialists in design, copywriting, photography, programming, illustration, and animation. One approach to curbing costs while keeping your competitive edge is through utilizing staff managers who are free to engage supplemental outside creative or contract marketing consultants who pull in team members as needed. In that way, your organization can leverage high-quality resources while staying lean and nimble.

Consider the actual money spent.

Contracting with outside creative talent can actually be less expensive than handling the same work internally when considering the actual cost of internal labor. According to Creative Business: “Most commonly, internal department cross-charges only accommodate actual payroll expenses with a small factor thrown in for overhead expenses. When all costs—salaries, benefits, and overhead—are included, studies have shown that charges for outside creative vendors actually average about 5% less than the same work done internally.” What’s more, creative fees often account for only a fraction of total costs of any marketing effort. Consider, for example, the cost of copywriting and design for an advertising campaign compared with the costs of the media space buy (paying for placement in online and print publications).

Do you have the in-house talent?

Some marketing communications projects require special know-how, some don’t. When it’s important to your business, the scales may tip in favor of engaging an outside resource. Many can attest to the experience of using available, well-meaning internal staff that winds up being an expensive choice in terms of failing to meet marketing objectives and missing opportunities. It also deflects internal staff from the jobs they’ve been hired to perform. “When effectiveness is critically important, hiring an outside specialist is always the least expensive and most productive alternative,” according to Creative Business.

Can in-house staff perform well under the extra strain?

Consider disruption, deflection, and squirrel chasing. When staff is already working at or near capacity, even a small assignment can clog the machine. We’ve seen situations in which the overworked employee simply gives the project her least attention and effort; she resents the imposition. We’ve also seen more enthusiastic responses in which the overworked employee drops her routine duties in favor of the special project, gumming up the works of the department. Unless your staff has excess capacity, think about bringing in an outside resource.

Do you want to retain more control?

Years of reports from many clients reveal that it’s just tougher to control marketing projects internally because management faces obstacles assigning tough deadlines or giving critical feedback to team members who have taken on special projects outside of their usual duties – forget navigating through office politics and disagreement around ultimate responsibility. “When you absolutely, positively have to have it done, your way, and on schedule, hire an outside vendor.”

Do you need a little objectivity?

If you’re looking for someone to stroll into the middle of your challenges and throw open the window to let in the sunshine, it may be hard to find that kind of perspective within your team. Working very closely with a product or organization over time may create blinders that you and your team no longer sense. An outside creative partner can help bring much-needed objectivity to your marketing communications and create fresh brand language that resonates with your target audiences.

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April 23, 2020 Comments

A message from Deanne Napurano

It’s a scary time right now. A lot of people are suffering. Our focus, like yours, is on keeping ourselves and the people we care about – our communities – healthy and safe. A lot of our clients are suffering. As they pivot to set up efficient and remote workspaces for employees, they are making hard decisions about laying off or cutting back employees and employee time. They are cancelling all kinds of contracts from building maintenance to marketing communications, which is the business we’re in. Some businesses are moving forward with their communications as though it’s business as usual.  Others are taking a good look at what their gifts are, what their strengths are, and framing their communications so people can hear that they understand that we are all in this together…so people can hear that they plan on responding appropriately to support their clients, customers, and community. They are working hard to be here for the long run even though we don’t know what our state of commerce will be after this pandemic.

If we can give any support or advice to the clients who have turned to us for marketing execution (writing and design) or marketing strategy (consultation) over the past three decades, it is that you be extra careful not to appear tone deaf (we know no one is), but look carefully at your language. People are making decisions now based on how their partners, vendors, and colleagues are responding. They are making decisions based on the experiences they’re having right now with, and the pandemic response narratives emerging from, the people who provide services to them and their businesses. So we say, if you haven’t reached out to the people you do business with, do that. Do that. It’s not the time for marketing as usual…or worse, radio silence. And, as you reach out there’s every reason to think about how your bundle of services or products can support folks, if not now, then for where we are going to be a few months down the road or next year. I wish you all well and I hope you stay safe.  I’ll see you on the other side.

Listen to Deanne’s message

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April 1, 2020 Comments

Curbside marketing communications services are just a stone’s throw away

We hope that you are doing well. These are extraordinary times and we’re all doing our best to take care of each other while keeping our spirits up. As we all adjust to stay-at-home status and try to ensure that we’re keeping ourselves, our families, and our communities safe and healthy, we’re all also being hit hard logistically and financially.

In case you’re in need, we continue to provide communications support to our clients and have added some extras that may be helpful at this time:

  • Writing and editing for public-facing COVID-19 messaging
  • Complimentary consultations via GoToMeeting/computer video
  • Free project planning and estimating
  • Preferred pricing
  • Curbside pickup for copy and design (it’s actually delivered via email or secure online portal)

Please stay safe. We look forward to seeing you soon.

ideas-and-news 1 Minute Read (0)

March 20, 2020 Comments

We hope you are well and staying safe.

We’re already seeing communications needs being dramatically affected in response to COVID-19. Some of our clients are rethinking investment in tradeshow materials, for example, but are reinforcing public-facing messaging about their commitment to employees, clients, and community. We know that even if the vehicle for the conversation is changing, the importance of your voice remains vital to your business relationships.

We remain here to help. As the focus of homebound employees narrows to essential client, customer, and patient work, outside resources may be more useful than ever. We value your trust in us. Below, we’ve listed a few areas in which we can provide support, but if you’d just like to strategize a bit over the phone or via video conference call, we’d be more than happy to talk with you.

Consultation, writing, design for:

  • Website messaging/content
  • Social media planning and content
  • Email messaging and development
  • Blog planning and content
  • Online advertisement/announcement
  • Press release writing and submission
  • White papers and thought-leadership materials
  • Employee and member communications
  • Questionnaires and surveys
  • Staff training course creation via learning
    management platform

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March 11, 2020 Comments

What am I?

Once you’ve identified any disconnects in your messaging (see “Are you avoiding a marketing audit?”) and any missing tools in your marketing toolbox (see “Are you missing key marketing pieces?”), it’s time to develop a communications strategy. We need guideposts to ensure that our messaging stays on track and is exposed to the right audiences in order to help meet your business objectives.

To do that we go back to a questioning strategy. One simple and fun technique that we’ve used successfully is to ask “If your business were an animal, what kind of animal would it be and why?” Sit with that for a minute. You may instantly see a fox running nimbly over a forest floor, smart and quick. You may see a seal gracefully thriving in waters too cold for other species. The idea of the fox or the seal may better help you visualize your company’s brand and help you assess whether that brand is manifesting in your communications. Don’t limit yourself to animals – use whatever works for you. Whatever you do, can you liken it to something even more familiar? Think about how that metaphor speaks to your customers’ needs. Keep bringing it back to your clients. Again, keep your ideal customers in mind. How does this speak to them?

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February 7, 2020 Comments

Do you have the stomach for a marketing audit?

How do you know where you are and if what you’re doing is in alignment with what you’re trying to achieve? We recommend an audit – not a financial audit – but an audit of your current practices. And I know that some people think that they don’t have marketing practices to audit, but they do. (See “I don’t do marketing”.)

When we’re called into a prospective new client, we typically walk into a scenario in which the firm owner or company leadership see the need for better marketing and don’t know where to start – or restart – or don’t have the internal resources to sustain the effort necessary to create forward momentum. They may even have exhausted their internal team already and cracks in performance are beginning to show, either because the internal resource is crying uncle or opportunities are being missed.

A scenario we encounter less often: the company owner believes that better marketing will help her grow her business, and she’s been marketing the firm herself. She doesn’t want to invest more money in marketing, or any money in marketing, but she believes she’s willing to invest her own time in the process.

And, still, another scenario is that the company leadership does not believe that they need to improve their marketing efforts, but internal forces (sales people, business development folks) are demanding some kind of action or support.

In all of these situations, we ask the same questions in order to quickly audit the company’s marketing status. We ask questions that inform our internal judge and assessor. But first we ask them to show us or tell us what they’re currently doing to market the firm. Let’s list what we’re talking about so you know what to put out on the table in front of you.

  • Your company name
  • Your logo
  • Your tagline, if you have one, or often-used “brand” language
  • Website
  • Social media accounts
  • Advertisements
  • Email marketing
  • Letters and communication to clients and colleagues
  • White papers or blog posts
  • Etc.

All of this should be collected and put out in front of you in some way.

Now, we ask:

What do you do? What markets do you serve? Who is your ideal client or customer? Describe her workstyle, education, type of business or industry, etc.

Why does that client prefer to work with you? What makes your relationship work? As we ask these foundation business questions, we look and read the current marketing materials against the answers. Do the answers to your questions appear in your marketing materials?

Ask further: What feedback have these materials garnered? Do prospective customers respond to any of your marketing tools? How? How are you measuring the success of your marketing materials?

Right away you may be able to see where there’s accord and traction, and see where there’s a disconnect. That should begin to give you insight into your next steps.

This is something that any business can do for itself, whether you’re a solopreneur or run a fully staffed team: audit your marketing. Do this audit and be honest with yourself.

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January 3, 2020 Comments

New year, same old issues?

The New Year sweeps in with lots of hype: a rose-colored-glasses look back on the last year and heaps of often-unrealistic expectations for the year ahead. If you like to have a fresh starting point once in a while, January gives you a boost. But, if January 1st feels like just another day, dragging with it all the same issues that plagued December 31st, how do we conjure the wherewithal to get through the winter, let alone meet our marketing and business goals? 

Like most of us, I know that the New Year is both a state of mind and a calendar date. I’m not going to wake up on New Year’s Day with superhuman energy or to find that a marketing version of the shoemaker’s elves has done all my work. I can choose to see that life is chaotic and challenging, joyful and satisfying, and try not to deny any of it. That translates into planning for 2020 marketing activities, too.

Even if you only know the broadest or most general goals of your organization, you can easily identify a few promotional tools that will move you in a positive direction. Of course, that’s the [deceptively] easy part: Once you know the people you serve and understand where they get their information, meet them there with your brand, your know-how, and your compassion. The rest may seem hazy or even overwhelming; the rest is all about the how.

“Break it into pieces” may be the best advice I’ve ever heard about anything. If I make no other resolution for the new year, I vow to default to a “pieces” view when issues become too cloudy, complex, or challenging. That’s especially true for marketing.

You’ll be able to get more done and be better understood when you focus on single, well-articulated ideas. Break your bigger ideas into smaller parts. List smaller pieces of the larger initiative. Make flow charts and lists to your heart’s content, but try to narrow your energy to one piece at a time. If overhauling your company website is on the horizon for 2020, the very idea can shut you down before you start. After you segment the project into a list of to-dos or an itemized spreadsheet (we all have our preferences and organization SOPs), isolate one piece at a time. A website redesign, for example, may include steps like a content audit of the existing site (what works and what doesn’t), an audit of the host’s performance, and identifying an outside design partner to help realize your vision. That’s a lot to wade through. With the “break it into pieces” approach, confining your efforts to the content audit first (and alone) may greatly reduce the overwhelm and provide data that will help redefine other steps, potentially lightening the overall weight of the project.

Whether you’re looking at January as a month of brave new days, or seeing it as the same-old-same-old, I hope that when you break your goals into manageable bits, you’ll move mountains.

Deanne

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March 13, 2019 Comments

Starting out on social media?

Starting out, we at Stone’s Throw often coach clients with smaller and medium-sized businesses to use social media initially as a way to demonstrate vitality, interest, and enthusiasm by showing activity on social media platforms. Let the world see your public face – especially if your potential customers use social media. Ensure that your posts are consistent with your brand image and messaging, and please make sure that you have a system for post approvals, monitoring, and responding.

If social media advertising will indeed add value to your marketing efforts, there are a few terms you’ll want to know:

Awareness ads: Paid social media advertising is a way to create energy and push your posts into the newsfeeds of your selected audiences. These ads are often referred to as awareness ads; they boost awareness by allowing audiences to see your ad (“impression”). Awareness advertising is often the least expensive of social media placements.

Conversion ads: To encourage your audience to take some kind of action (visit your webpage, make a phone call, complete a form, etc.), social media ads have to work harder and typically cost more. They require the user to move from a passive audience member to someone who takes some kind of action. This is often referred to as conversion.

Engagement rate: Most social media platforms use metrics to describe the types of interaction your posts generate. Engagement rate refers to the number of likes, shares, and comments your posted content receives.

Hashtag: You can supercharge your posted content by tagging keywords with a hashtag (#) – what some of us used to call a pound sign. When a # precedes a word or phrase (without any word spaces), the social media platform sees the phrase as a searchable keyword. This can be especially helpful when looking for people talking about a particular marketing issue online. #smallbizmarketing

Should your business advertise on Facebook or LinkedIn? Here are a few things to consider.

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Stones Throw, Inc.
Cranbury, New Jersey

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