February 9, 2022 Comments

Are you avoiding 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 marketing 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 sees the need for better marketing and doesn’t know where to start – or restart – or doesn’t have the internal resources to sustain the effort necessary to create forward momentum. The company may even have exhausted its 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 is when the company owner believes that better marketing will help grow her business and to that end 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 when 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 assessor and judge. 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
Capabilities package
Sales materials
Videos
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.

February 2, 2022 Comments

More successful partnerships?

No surprise – communication is key.

We’ve learned and relearned a couple of things. Honest, direct and informed feedback makes for a smoother, more efficient process. A smoother process often breeds mutual respect. And, with mutual respect, all partnerships can succeed.

Here are two-and-a-half tips to help build trust, foster innovation and achieve more in any successful partnership between you and your creative team, whether they’re in-house, an outside agency, or freelance contractors.

Define.

A professional creative team will guide you through the strategy-building process, but whether you’ve hired an agency, a freelance or an independent contractor, you may want to provide your own creative brief as well. A good creative brief or communications strategy will inform and direct the work at hand. It will answer questions about the project, its audiences, its purpose, its timing and its distribution or end use. Be clear and concise with your direction. Don’t just define the project – website content, print advertising, sales education iBook, inbound marketing; be clear about what you’d like the project to do for your company. Feel free to share the successes and shortcomings of previous projects and campaigns.

Trust.

Once you’ve clearly defined your objectives, explained your company’s vision and mission, and provided information about the intended audience’s culture, let your team employ its skills and talent to create on your behalf. When each conceptual draft meets the communications strategy, or answers the creative brief, you’ll know that you’re working with folks who get it; you’ll feel more confident trusting their professional expertise. And, when their insights and ideas gain your respect, you’ll have earned their tireless involvement and steadfast commitment.

Repeat.

Clearly, communication fosters confidence. When we gather good information, ask relevant questions, define where we’re going – together – and then deliver ideas, content and designs that reflect that conversation, we’ve created one of the keystones to a provable, successful partnership. We’ve heard each other, seen evidence of understanding, and trust that it can and will happen again.

Now, that bears repeating.

To help you communicate the details of your next project, contact us by email for a communications strategy worksheet.

“Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller

January 11, 2022 Comments

RFP go/no go

You’ve received an RFP. Great. Fantastic.

Oh, wait a minute…now what? While helping clients weigh their options, and determining the value of responding to RFPs ourselves, we’ve come up with a few guidelines that help make this process a bit less stressful.

1. Scan for response deadlines. Sometimes RFPs offer flexibility. Don’t allow scheduling conflicts to dictate an instant no thank you response. Before calling for extensions on deadlines or for alternate arrangements for pre-bid meetings, finish the Go/No Go decision process.

2. Scan for scope. Do the services requested fall within your company’s core strengths? If the majority of services requested are peripheral to your primary area of expertise, or would have to be outsourced, this contract may only be right for your company if the industry, or particular client, fulfill other business growth objectives.

3. Scan for contract value. If the services requested appear to be out of line with the contract budget, you may not be the only respondent to notice. If the scope of the contract otherwise appears to be aligned with your company’s core services, feel free to call the RFP contact (often the Contracting Officer) for confirmation of the facts presented. If your understanding is correct, you can choose either to decline or to modify the scope of services or the budget in your proposal. Including a succinct rationale for the revision in your proposal will underscore your professionalism and experience. It may also disqualify your proposal.

4. Scan for client industry, type and location. Do you have set parameters for appropriate clients? Audit current clients for industry, type and location. Edit the resulting list as a guide for business development. Add industries, business types and locations in which you’d like to grow business; delete industries, types and locations that have proven less desirable.

Okay, the RFP captured your interest. Should you respond? Can you respond well?

5. How did this prospective client learn about your company? Compare referrals from a trusted client to contacts made “blindly” through advertising or business directories. One of the comparison points should be the conversion rate (from proposal to signed contract to ongoing client relationship) of other companies contacting you in the same manner. Keep in mind that government agencies and some other organizations are required by law or institutional procedure to request bids from several resources.

6. Does the prospective client’s RFP process match your company’s standard process? How much customizing will the proposal require? What investment will you be required to make to deliver a quality proposal package consistent with your company’s image? (Employee time, resources, expenses, etc.)

From this point, you can either trust your instincts and your understanding of the project and its demands, or, if you’re still not convinced, use a simple rating process to help tip the scales.

Rate the following statements from 1 to 5 based on their accuracy. Award a 1 for statements that are not at all true and a 5 to those that are absolutely spot on.

__ The timing is right.

__ The services requested speak to your company’s core strengths.

__ The budget allows for the smooth and timely completion of all service requirements, advancing the client’s objectives, and providing positive revenue for your company.

__ The potential client requesting the proposal would be a good match with your company’s mission, culture, philosophy, industry focus, defining values, etc.

__ The RFP makes sense. It asks for information in a way that reveals good things about the potential client (intuitive, articulate, complete, industry-savvy, process-oriented, etc.)

__ Your company can follow its standard process for responding.

Once you’ve given each statement a rating, add ’em up.

A total of 24-30 means the RFP in question should likely get a green light. The client and scope of work sound like an excellent match for your company and its services. You should take the next step, which is to read the RFP thoroughly to ensure that the opportunity is as good as it appears at first blush.

A total of 20-23 may mean you need to dig a little deeper. RFPs that score in this middle zone may either require considerably more work to prepare, or require your company to make requests for alterations in budget, scheduling or approach. If alterations are not possible, or if they’d put your proposal at a disadvantage, RFPs with this score may not be a good match.

A total score of under 20 means there are too many red flags. These RFPs may not be worth pursuing unless special issues are at play. If you choose to say no thanks, be sure to decline by letter unless otherwise directed.

Let’s get good things done. Give us a call or drop us a line. We would love to hear from you.

December 8, 2021 Comments

“I don’t do marketing.”

Do you market? Some business owners see marketing as something to be sidestepped as bourgeois or unflattering: “I don’t want to give the appearance of looking for customers.” Even as they protest, they make clear what amounts to a marketing strategy. How do we come to that conclusion? Marketing is a broad term describing our efforts to make our prospective customers aware of our services or products, and help convince them that we are an unparalleled choice for those services or products. It’s not a prescription for strategy or tactics, which are very specific to each business. For those who want to refrain from the optics associated with crass commercialism, as in our opening example, they may choose to focus on community projects, conferences, open houses, awards, and scholarships, rather than broadcast and billboard advertising. Anything that you use to develop business or sell your wares can be called marketing. Given that description, is it easier to answer the question, do you market? No? Perhaps you get all your business from word of mouth and have a constant stream of assignments and purchase orders from one mega-customer, certainly you aren’t marketing, are you? The truth is, if you’re in business, you’re marketing. The moment you have an interaction with a customer, you’re marketing with the very tenor and quality of your communication. The way you greet each other is marketing. Your business name is marketing. It’s all part of your brand, which is the bedrock foundation of marketing. Knowing that it’s all marketing will empower you to ensure that your marketing (perhaps previously unintentional) is in alignment with your business objectives.

November 30, 2021 Comments

Do you have to choose between social media ease and content excellence?

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.

November 16, 2021 Comments

How to write an effective sell sheet

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.

October 26, 2021 Comments

Why are brand style guidelines so critical for your business or organization?

By Janice Mondoker, Director of Design Realization

A brand is a valuable asset and consistency improves brand recognition. In the past few months I’ve come across several companies and organizations that did not have style guidelines in place. There are multiple benefits to setting standards for how to display your brand look and feel. Deviations can confuse, contradict, or erode your brand, diluting the impact you’ve worked to achieve. Using style guidelines is a way to ensure that your brand image is presented with the quality you intend.

To start, catalog your logo, brand colors, typefaces, sizes, and preferred placement. Do you use an approved one-color version? Stacked or horizontal? One or two pages of general guidelines will help reinforce your brand mark and keep other team members on the same page.

October 19, 2021 Comments

Plans for holiday marketing?

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.

September 13, 2021

Telling the client’s story

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

August 10, 2021 Comments

Revisiting your company identity

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).