Learning your whole story from internal knowledge-keepers
By Linda Forrest
One of the attributes that inmedia is quite proud of is that with our agency, we feel that your whole story gets told. Because our vertical teams (meaning clients aren’t sold by the highest executives in the company and then work is actually implemented by a junior team) are involved in client engagement from the outset, everyone on an account has a thorough understanding of our client’s story and business objectives well beyond the scope of today’s news release.
But how do we come to understand a client’s whole story? Even before we’ve signed on with a new client, we typically will do some research into the media and analyst opportunity for a company so that when putting together our proposal, we have a reasonably accurate 35,000 foot view of the company’s media and analyst landscape – what publications and firms are covering what aspects of the company’s space, whether competitors are being profiled in areas where this potential client could be referenced as an expert resource and so on.
Then, at the outset of a client engagement, we undertake intensive briefings with a company to learn about the company history, the balance of its marketing activities, target vertical markets, information about the company’s technology platforms/products, competitive differentiator and so on. At these briefings, it is immensely beneficial to have multiple perspectives and viewpoints from within the company in the room. And here’s why.
By including in the conversation team members from sales, marketing, the executive suite, the technology knowledge-keepers, and hands-on account managers, we can ensure that we are in fact getting a company’s whole story from multiple perspectives. Tactical implementers may be privy to information that the executive suite is not and vice versa. As such, these sessions not only benefit us but can offer visibility internally as to company alignment, marketing and sales objectives, customer pain points, purchasing decision makers and influencers and so on. Our inclusion in this exercise enables us to ensure that the materials and campaign that we develop is suited to the right target audience, includes the correct key messages and will best tell the company story well beyond an immediate news hook. Perhaps, given a particular client’s circumstances or media market, the best approach is not news release driven but instead would be better served by an ongoing campaign of bylined articles. Or maybe a series of speaking opportunities will best meet the needs of a company looking to establish thought leadership in their particular space…
The only way that we can truly know what tactics and program will best suit a particular client is to have this in-depth understanding and then build a program that will help that company meet its marketing and sales objectives. In order to do that, we feel that it’s important to build a well-rounded understanding and that requires the cooperation and input of a range of knowledge-keepers.
