Know Where You Stand and Where You're Going

The world of communications is evolving at a rapid pace. It makes sense, then, that your organization, the way you work and who you target has also changed. Before you embark on new brand strategy or a communications plan that reflects these changes, you need to know where you are, where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and potential obstacles along the way.

Your brand is more than a logo or a name. It lives in the minds of your current and prospective customers, partners and advocates. It’s the experience they get when interacting with your organization. It’s the trust they feel, the value that is perceived, the choice that leads to preference. A brand’s value proposition is the starting-point for all marketing communications, and understanding that proposition starts with market research.

Making smart decisions regarding your organization’s brand requires a mix of information: a clear (and objective) understanding of the value your organization provides, close monitoring of how your brand is perceived, analysis of your position and a sense of your audience’s motivations and decision making process.

CG&A recently worked with the Jane Addams Hull House Association to help the organization revitalize its messaging and branding to align the legacy of Jane Addams with the vision for the Association’s future.

Through key stakeholder, community and beneficiary market research, we learned how people recognize the organization, the level of awareness among the community and motivators for involvement with Jane Addams Hull House Association. Overall, the market research shaped the brand messaging and drove recommendations for future communications with stakeholders and community members.

CRM: Taking Customer Relationships to the Next Level

If you saw the September issue of Wired, you would have noticed the glaring headline on the front cover "The Web is Dead.” There’s certainly some truth to this headline, but the Web is far from being dead – it’s evolving. The way we use the Web is changing – and quickly. We no longer use it to simply obtain information; we use it to get things done.

Long gone are the days when the Web was used primarily for browsing – today it’s used for posting videos, creating content, building and managing relationships and countless other activities. So, how can you use this infinite tool to manage relationships with your customers?

Enter customer relationship management (CRM) applications. CRM integrates informational and behavioral data, technology and marketing communications across all audience touch-points. While not all CRM applications are web-based, many good ones are. Companies can benefit from CRM with three major marketing functions:

Customer Retention
One of the most fundamental marketing rules is that the cost of acquiring a new customer is much more expensive than the cost of maintaining a relationship with a current customer. A CRM application helps improve customer retention by tailoring communications to customer's behavior. The data collected with a CRM application can be used to better understand, target and communicate with your audience.

Lead Generation and Tracking
Of course, getting new customers is also important. Whether you’re looking for funders, customers or partners, a CRM application can help you drive, track and evaluate leads. According to an article by Marketing Profs, “Some industry benchmarks suggest that leads must be continuously ‘touched’ before they close. Around 80% of leads close only after five contacts; in some cases, that number is closer to 9-11 touches.” By tracking interaction between your company and a lead and collecting important information about them, a CRM application will help you nurture leads and ultimately increase the return on investment for your lead-generation efforts.

Manage Marketing Campaigns
Once a lead has been qualified, a key function of marketing is to convert that lead into a customer. Qualification is a key stage to converting leads, and this stage becomes much easier with a CRM application. Using data to segment existing and potential audience groups makes for more accurate and cost effective marketing. This wealth of data is the best way to target the right audience with the right information.

Finding the appropriate CRM application for your organization is the first step to decreasing marketing costs and increasing revenue. Here are a few areas you’ll want to consider when choosing:

• Offers turnkey programs that can ease the workload by creating timely, personalized campaigns
• Allows for campaign adjustment in real time so your team can tweak campaigns based on testing and analysis
• Provides a customer analytics dashboard for your team to easily access overall customer data with a glance

As with any communications initiative, it’s important to develop strategy first and then determine the right technology to help accomplish your goals. What information about your clients is important? How do your customers like to receive communication and how often? How does your organization track leads? CG&A has helped numerous clients develop a customer relationship management strategy to help them effectively communicate with current and potential customers with measurable results.

Measuring Social Media

2009 was a trial run for many companies experimenting with social media. In 2010 we realized that social media was here to stay and, according to a study from Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club, business leaders now expect it to have a direct impact on their bottom line and are investing accordingly.

One of the biggest challenges for organizations has been how to measure results in a new communications landscape.  In a time of abundant options and a scarcity of experience and answers, business leaders need a way to assess program performance across many new and evolving communications platforms.

Social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are hot topics among marketers; however, measuring their impact is not yet standardized and poses a challenge for many organizations. It is difficult to justify investment in any communications channel without tracking and measurement.

CG&A has developed an accurate and impactful reporting and analysis process for social media programs. Using this process we can assist organizations in their communication channel investments in order to help drive results.

Measuring engagement, reach and influence is all very important because it gives insight into brand awareness and perception. But the analysis can’t stop there. If you want CG&A to tailor a measurement plan to your organization's social media efforts, contact us today. Here is a useful article regarding measurement and analysis from Mashable, check it out.

CG&A has been helping clients such as Gift of Hope, Rush University Medical Center and the Illinois Office of Tourism measure the impact and ROI of social media by tracking not only the quantitative data, but engagement and influence levels as well.

Changes at CG&A

With the industry still experiencing the effects of the recession, CG&A feels incredibly lucky to have expanded during this challenging time.  Over the past year, our team has experienced significant growth, enabling us to continue to provide a wide variety of services while maintaining the highest of standards. We recently hired an Office Manager,  Marketing Director, Senior Project Director and Digital Media Manager.