What challenges currently face your business? An agency should ask this pivotal question, as it gets to the heart as to why you’re looking for marketing and communications help.
We’ve experienced a variety of responses to the question.
The ideal reply is when the client clearly outlines their challenges. This is the best-case scenario. Clear objectives, such as increasing outreach to a specific demographic or industry segments; improving sales lead generation; or making the company website more effective or up to date. This allows the agency to conceive of and deliver highly tailored approaches.
Compare this to more limited responses, such as “we need more sales” or “we want to grow our business.” Replies could also slip into unrealistic expectations, like wanting overnight success or a guaranteed ROI on marketing spend.
In these cases, the agency can ask clarifying questions to understand the root cause behind these desires. For example, if the response about customer targets elicits a response like “We’re targeting everyone”, follow up questions could include:
Some issues will be obvious, while others may lie beneath the surface. A broad range of questions, coupled with probing follow-ups, can uncover challenges that clients aren’t even aware of. It wouldn’t be the first time “hidden” issues are the ones that turn out to be far more pressing.
Most marketing issues face outward. But internal issues are not unexpected. Lack of resources is a significant concern, like arms and legs to execute content marketing and social media or being more consistent with email marketing campaigns. Presently, getting a handle on using generative AI, and how to properly manage these tools, is high on clients’ minds.
Whatever your challenges, be open and honest with the prospective agency. Pinpointing and prioritizing challenges allows the agency to tailor their services and strategies to address specific pain points.
This ensures the proposed marketing strategies avoid predictably common solutions, but rather confront your unique problems directly and effectively. It alters the all-too-easy path of doing generic and ineffective marketing “stuff”.
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!