A defunct, off-price clothing store chain had one of the best taglines.
While it was once present in 13 states, if you’re from the Northeast, and particularly the New York Tri-state area, you might remember the following slogan from Syms:
“An educated consumer is our best customer.”
Sy Syms created a brilliant message for his eponymous enterprise. And those seven simple words still connect and resonate today. The idea of creating educated consumers should be the mission of any business. Including marketing firms like ours.
It’s been pointed out to us by many of our clients that we ask a lot of questions. It’s true.
Guilty as charged.
As marketing consultants, thoroughly understanding our clients’ businesses, challenges, and goals, and providing the right solutions, is an agency imperative. Honestly, we wouldn’t be very effective at the counsel we provide if we didn’t ask the scope of questions we do.
To us, a deep dive is essential. The more we know about the prospective client’s business (products or services, customers, and competitors) and what the business is trying to achieve (or marketing problems that need to be solved) it allows us to evaluate options, prioritize resources, and make the right strategic decisions the business needs to reach its goals.
We understand asking more questions at the beginning of engagement might seem like a significant investment in time. But the actionable information we collect allows us to craft highly specific action plans that deliver the correct solution set to solve a client’s key issues. It also allows us to execute subsequent initiatives faster.
As a service to anyone engaging with any flavor of marketing, advertising, public relations service, company or agency, we’re sharing the elemental and deeper dive questions we ask of anyone looking to work with us. And we’ll provide the reason why that question gets asked and what we look for when we ask it.
Let’s begin with our first question. There are two, actually…
That’s it. Here’s why.
Usually, the typical leading questions from agencies tend to mirror that of a job interview, and include too much of the following:
And so on.
There is nothing wrong with these questions. They’re valid, and to our mind absolutely required to ask.
But later.
After reading the invaluable Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play by renowned sales and business development expert Mahan Khalsa, we became admirers of the phrase, “Start anywhere, go everywhere”.
That’s the inspiration behind such broad, low-key, and open-ended questions. The meeting should be all you. There’s no formal agency presentation. No Power Point. No computers. Instead, we bring notebooks, pens, and our undivided attention.
We want the client to openly share about who they are as a company, talk about the business (including competitors and alternatives), and disclose what they want to change, fix, and improve. This allows us to gather up as many issues as possible that can be delved into more deeply later in the conversation, with questions that revolve around:
Of course, the objective of an initial meeting is to gather information. But we also ask permission. That may seem like a formality, but it shows respect and gives a clear indication we’ll be writing their responses down.
We’ll be delving further into the questions that help determine client needs in future posts. For now, what questions do you think are vital during a first meeting?
Demanding an innovative departure from predictable product introductions, USG tapped Element-R to help unveil new, patented technology.
We created a high impact event for industry leaders by an industry leader, using several non-traditional elements to make the launch distinctive:
The event achieved the objectives of generating excitement around the new technology while seeding long-term market interest among the 70+ guests from 35 companies. The majority of survey respondents rated the event as outstanding.
In the early days of personalized medicine, few people understood the new science of pharmacogenetics – how medicines interact with an individual’s genes, often causing avoidable side effects. YouScript software by Genelex (now owned by Invitae) was a pioneering technology giving physicians detailed input on these interactions for the benefit of patients.
To gain industry media attention for the relatively unknown company, Element-R recommended a purely educational webinar for the media only. Delivered entirely by an M.D., the webinar effectively informed editors and reporters about the topic – with a bonus: several covered the burgeoning science and the company’s leadership in feature-length articles.
All high-end professional AV and event staging companies show off their best events to attract prospects. Stage Right, Inc. needed to revitalize its digital doorstep and deliver key differentiators.
Element-R created a new, from the ground up website that made the company stand out on two fronts. First, instead of simply showing off glitz, we organized and showcased its capabilities by category, allowing prospects to identify and pair their challenges with a clear solution. Second, we branded and spotlighted the company’s proprietary planning protocols, now known as StageCraft™. Stage Right, Inc. has a modern, responsive site that places its distinctive competencies out front.
When the nation’s oldest senior living community in the U.S. needed to reinvigorate its marketing, Element-R Partners helped Three Crowns Park play to its strengths in a crowded marketplace.
Through a deep dive with residents and staff, we developed messaging that appealed to retirees who don’t want to live in a cold institution or ritzy resort/hotel setting. The new website faithfully presents this welcoming and close-knit community of friendship and relaxed, suburban style living.
To meet a changing world of special education with funding and competitive challenges, the O-School needed to reacquaint its many publics about the organization’s mission and capabilities.
Interviewing staff and multiple influencer groups, Element-R developed a “messaging playbook” that served as the basis for all aspects of its external communication to encourage student enrollment and support funding. The backbone of this effort were two new websites, www.oschool.org and www.bw-center.org, creating a cohesive presence for the School in all of its materials, and bringing it into the 21st Century.
Go bold! Evolved Selling™ software maker Mediafly offers a sophisticated content management and sales enablement solution to organizations worldwide. To really make a statement at its channel partners’ annual conferences, Dreamforce and Sapphire, Mediafly nixed the typical descriptive booth copy, instead drawing visitors in with bold problem statements its audience could relate to.
Together with design partner DoubleTake Design, Element-R developed channel partner messaging and several alternative creative concepts for the booth. We couldn’t have been happier that Mediafly selected this unusual and compelling way to present itself. Traffic was steady at the booths as visitors walked up to say, “can you really solve that problem for us?” The creative concept continues to be used successfully to bring attention to Mediafly’s many capabilities – proving that B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring!