CONTENT AND MESSAGING STRATEGY

Small Business Centre • Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation

Douglas Marketing Group, a cross-border, full-service agency is ready to support small businesses to communicate their brand from the inside out. Kay Douglas, President of Douglas Marketing Group, highlights many important steps to defining a marketing plan during a Webinar presentation for local businesses:

“This is a great time to spend in the development of your communications and determine the best way to support your existing relationships and build new ones.” Kay Douglas

Marketing is the art of communicating.

1. What is your message today – how is it relevant.
2. Take the time to look at where you have been, where you are and where you want to be.
3. Great time to assess your past and current messaging and communications.
4. Identify what is relevant for today’s audience.
5. Evaluate what value you can bring to be a part of the solution with relevant information or service offerings.
6. Clearly define your value and identify if a redefine is in order as it relates to your product, service or delivery.

Build your brand.

1. Connect with industry associations, business support, affiliates, memberships, COVID19 support, advisors and especially your clients.
2. Create touch points with clients, colleagues and community to share the value of your best practices, resources and how you can collectively innovate.
3. Strengthen existing relationships – Build new ones.
4. Message and communicate with intention – define what your indicators of success is before you start.
5. Reach out on the phone (people are there) and recognize the new normal is online. Develop active and scheduled communications within your networks.
6. Stay connected with messaging that supports who you are as a brand, what you have to offer and why it is important to the intended audience.

Branding From the Inside Out.

• Develop an overall message that addresses what your clients/customers can expect from organization during COVID -19 restrictions.
• Reinforce your commitment, brand promise and clearly identify your priorities for your clients/customers and for your employees.
• Once this is developed, consider all communications channels to reach your audience with a strategic approach that speaks to your audiences where they are.

Identify Frequently Asked Questions.

• Create responses for the most asked question. Engage employees in identifying some of these questions – important to cross reference client facing interactions and how they will be replaced in compliance as well as back to work plan.
• Ensure your team understands the responses and the importance of communicating these messages in a consistent manner.
• Make the full list of Frequently Asked Questions available to clients on your website.
• Categorize and break out the questions to digestible pieces that can be used to build social content and maintain engagement with your audience.

Engagement

The world is spinning and becoming a voice of support is invaluable.

• Never underestimate the value of a phone call and conversation (person to person).
• People want to talk – listening can be your best way to support and to learn more about what is valuable  to your target audience – remember they are people first who are looking at what to do next.
• Review and evaluate how your service/product offering has changed and identify a plan to keep your clients engaged with your brand.
• This can be a good time to modify or add product or service offerings that better fit the world we will be living in. What worked yesterday may need to be reinvented.
• Package your solutions and make it easy for those you are targeting to navigate through and understand.

Outreach

Creating an integrated approach to moving your message.

1. Have the conversation on every level of interaction

2. Investigate like minded partners that you can develop messaging with that is stronger because of the collaboration and reaches further

3. Content drives action – keep relevant, current and of value

4. Digital/Online/Web

• Video and authenticity that gives viewer a look behind the curtain
• People do not want to be sold to
• Provide solution-based positioning
• Know your audiences and target according to their patterns
• Invite engagement and participation
• Monitor activity – what’s working – what’s not

5. Traditional media – integrated with online

• Intentional and targeted with strategy of online integration

6. Public Relations – must be noteworthy and newsworthy as well as relevantly charged as the front runner for coverage is COVID19.

7. Never underestimate the value of a phone call and conversation (person to person).

To view the full presentation by Kay Douglas, click to download here.