EVERY STORY NEEDS A PLOT
DISCOVERY
ANALYSIS & ARTICULATION
Sometimes we become so familiar with something, so entrenched in the detail that we can’t see what’s what. Let’s start by taking a look at who you are, what you do, why you do it and who you do it for – but with fresh eyes.
This first stage is about understanding the nuts and bolts and how they fit together.
Don’t worry; I’ll do the heavy lifting. I’ll guide you through all the different areas we need to look at and extract all the detail – gently of course. I’ll then add to it with my own research to widen the perspective. I’ll help you identify the value in...
“what you do”
...so that we can tackle the question...
"why choose you?"
COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
CONTENT
Your products and services in isolation have no value, they’re “worthless”; nobody really cares about them…
And yet – I hope – you have happy customers who are grateful, satisfied and happy to sing your praises.
There must be something missing here.
When your communications don’t work it’s usually because they aren’t connecting you, your brand and your products and services to what your customers really want. I’ll analyse all the detail from the Discovery stage and give you what you need to fill that gap.
I’ll identify and articulate themes and concepts from what I’ve learned to produce a compelling and emotive narrative. This will encompass:
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Your customers’ context,
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The problem(s) they’re trying to solve; or put more positively, the aims they’re trying to achieve
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The undesirable alternatives
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The benefits and desirable outcomes to be gained by the way you do things differently.
From this story or argument, I’ll then highlight the main areas that represent the most value. These are your value propositions; they frame the value that the customer holds in ways that are relevant to your brand. Essentially, they are things that you propose to the customer that have value.
The narrative and the value propositions together position your brand and give prospective customers ways of understanding and feeling reasons why they would choose you. The brand positioning gives us ways of describing the products and services as part of the story.
Stop thinking of strategy as an output, a thing that you can have, and start seeing it as an approach, a process.
I’ll help you change the way you look at marketing communications planning so that you’ll always make decisions strategically and make all your communications work hard towards your business goals.
I’ll help you adopt a more logical and disciplined approach. You’ll feel more in control and you'll have useful criteria for judgement that enable you to make more confident decisions more quickly.
As a result your communications will be:
Customer-centric
Aligned with your brand positioning
Joined up
Authentic
Consistent.
Crucially, with measurement at the heart of it all, you’ll have the ability to see the ROI of different activity, which means you can increase efficiency and reduce wastage. In other words, get more bang for your buck.
The job of marketing communications is to form new relationships and reinforce existing ones. What better way to start than to have a conversation? Your communications strategy creates the touch points and “talk points” when your brand has the opportunity to say something interesting and get noticed. The analysis and articulation stage provides a set of propositions and messages that are about things that your prospects and customers care about. So now it’s time to marry the two and write content that will kick start the dialogue.
I’ll give your brand it’s voice, making sure it has the right personality and tone. If we’re revitalising or evolving your brand, rather than starting from scratch, I’ll make sure to keep what’s already working and mould it into the new content.
Depending on what your communications plan calls for I can provide you with copy and content for the many different channels you might use. For example:
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Website
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Blog articles
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Email
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Social media
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Newsletters
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Print materials such as brochures or case studies
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Advertising and direct mail
While the tools and pieces themselves will vary in nature, the main aim remains the same. I’ll help you express the propositions and messaging in themes and concepts that connect with what your audience cares about; with copy that talks to your customer in the right voice.