Granville Historical Blog

“So check out who binds forever” – although choosing the right agency is not as far-reaching a matter as choosing a partner. However, a lot of time, energy and money can be wasted with the wrong agency.

But how do you decide on the right communication agency? Which direct and indirect factors should one pay attention to so that the subsequent cooperation is crowned with success?

Self-reflection: what do you actually want?

Before actually looking for an agency, first clarify why and for what purpose you want to hire a PR agency. What are your expectations, what and how much support do you need for what? How much budget can you invest and how long? Also think about what you don’t want (at this point in time). Collect your most important points on the task, current status, background information, goal (group), budget and time frame in a briefing document. This forms the basis for the subsequent pitch process – and helps you not to get lost.

After this self-reflection, it is important to take a look at potential agencies . Which “hard” and “soft” selection criteria should an agency meet?

The price: don’t save at the wrong end

Some selection factors are of course very obvious – such as a good price-performance ratio and the range of products. What services does the agency offer you in what model? Do you receive an “all-round carefree” package or are you billed according to (additional) services? Are there fixed retainers with notice periods or is payment made depending on the project or even based on success?

Even if a low price or a flexible project model seems cheaper and tempting at first glance, you shouldn’t save at the wrong end. Since PR needs time and consistency, pure project work rarely makes sense – among other things because you often have to pay training periods directly or indirectly. In addition, the service providers naturally also prioritize; and customers with whom a long-term and predictable cooperation is foreseeable, therefore usually receive more attention.

Service portfolio: what can the agency actually do?

Of course, there should also be an overlap between the agency’s service portfolio and your needs and wishes. But be also open to new suggestions from the PR professionals. External perspective and experience often help to better assess expectations and, if necessary, to bring in additional ideas – even if this sometimes means that agencies advise against something. Even if nobody likes to hear criticism, a constructive-critical assessment of your concerns brings you more than just being rubbed honey around your mouth. Therefore, listen particularly carefully when the PR experts present their assessment and any counter-proposals. Because a good cooperation is characterized by the fact that the agency is not only a purely executing service provider, but can instead act as a partner on an equal footing. The best ideas thrive in such a constructive environment.

At the same time, you should also check whether the providers can actually keep what they promise. Of course, every agency tries to present itself in the best possible light. However, some overdo it and ascribe to themselves competencies that they do not always have in this form. In other words, all that glitters is not gold; and it makes sense to carefully check offers and providers – apart from melodious phrases.

So see if the offer is realistic at all. Has the agency made the effort to formulate a tailor-made offer – or are there even wrong company names due to copy & paste? Does the agency understand your company, your product and your needs and wishes? Does the agency even have experience in your thematic field?

Small quality check: customer portfolio

(Former) clients of the agency offer a good starting point. Take a close look at who the agency has already worked with. Of course, agencies will always mention the biggest and best-known customer names – even if the cooperation may have been years ago and the customer may still be an unknown startup at the time. Therefore, pay attention not only to big names, but also to thematic overlaps with your own company as well as the timing, type and duration of the projects. Because previous thematic experience not only shortens the content-related familiarization period, but also promises a suitable network of journalists – the be-all and end-all of press work. Instead of the big, well-known agency, a smaller but specialized agency can be useful for you.

If the customer cooperation is only of short duration, you should be taken aback. Because keeping customers can be more exhausting than winning new customers. Frequent short collaborations can indicate that the agency promises its customers heaven on earth in the pitch, but fails in the subsequent collaboration due to the high expectations. It is therefore ideal if you can get personal experience with the provider from your network.

Team composition: People are everywhere

If you have the opportunity, a quick check by the team is also informative. Who and how many team members would you actually work with? Do you only get to know the employees who pitch new customers or also the team members who would work with you? How qualified and competent are all those involved and what would the specific distribution of tasks be?

Keep in mind that the customer pitches and communication are often taken over by higher-ranking colleagues – the actual customer work is then done by junior team members. If you only communicate with senior employees who do not work on the account themselves, but only pass on feedback to the operational staff, this can lead to friction losses: information is lost and quality falls by the wayside.

Do not underestimate “soft” selection criteria

In addition to these obvious criteria, it is in your own interest to take other, indirect factors into account when making your selection: Management and employee loyalty as well as tone of voice. Because such indirect factors also have an impact on a possible later cooperation.

In order for you to receive high-quality results, it is important that the responsible employees can concentrate fully on customer work. The prerequisites for this are confident management and competent staff management. Therefore, try to filter out what the employees say about their agency – either in a personal conversation or through platforms such as Kununu, Glassdoor and Co. Are there frequent changes or do employees leave the agency overnight at short notice? These can all be warning signs for you – because sooner or later such internal problems will also affect customer work.

Also pay attention to how the employees communicate with you and with each other . If they are already abrupt or even rude in the pitch process, this should be a warning sign to you. Especially in the communication industry, which is all about persuasiveness, knowledge of human nature, good manners, parquet security and empathy are a must. Because if someone is already messing around with a potential customer, how does he react to journalists?

Even if this seems to be a long list and indirect factors are also taken into account: It is in your own interest that you invest some time and resources in advance so that you select the right partner for your communication needs to the best of your knowledge and belief.

It grows and grows and grows, in Europe even four times faster than other digital forms of advertising: video advertising. Marketers should use them – but they have to be able to differentiate themselves from the competition. 

On the go, at home, on the smartphone, laptop, tablet. No matter where: Consumers love streaming, funny spots, tutorials, viral videos, series and films. As demand increases, so does supply. The amount of available videos is unimaginably large and Youtube is now the second largest website in the world after Google . It is becoming increasingly difficult for advertising to stand out from the mass of content and to be noticed by the audience.

The dramaturgy should inspire

Moving images thrive on stories and emotions. Brands should arouse desire and touch us emotionally. Storytelling is on everyone’s lips. Each story has its own dramaturgy, but it works a little differently in each channel. A television commercial usually follows the dramaturgy of feature films, only shortened to 30 seconds: the scenery is described, the tension rises and towards the end of the commercial we experience the dramatic climax with the high resolution. Not only almost every feature film, but also many theater plays succeed this way.

In a world in which we distribute our attention to 15 to 20 different items of content (images, videos, texts) in the news stream in a fraction of a second, a brand has to capture the viewer’s attention at the very first moment. There are two ways of doing this: The product or brand is shown right at the beginning. This at least guarantees perception. This can be an ideal approach to building awareness. However, it is then difficult to tell a really interesting story, to link a content message with the brand or product or even to arouse emotions.

The second way is to get the audience interested so that they actually want to see what follows. Here a different mechanism comes into play: You start with the climax of the story, followed by the resolution, ideally by integrating the brand seamlessly and believably narrative. This gives you real engagement and gives you the opportunity to really influence opinions and attitudes. What sounds unusual at first is not all that new. After all, crime thrillers have always worked according to this formula: you experience the climax at the beginning, the crime takes place. Then you work your way up to the resolution and the motif behind it. What happens in the first few seconds must be so interesting, exciting, amazing or extraordinary,

A famous example that basically combines both is the Unskippable Ads  from Geico. On the one hand, the sender is already clear in the first three seconds. On the other hand, the films are so entertaining, the idea so strong, that you like to keep watching them for a while to see what happens next.

Hit the right note

The musical design of moving image spots plays a major role. On the one hand, the music sets the emotional context of the stories we tell. Imagine, for example, that the Hornbach spot “ You live, you remember ” had a Death Metal sound on it – the emotional effect would be different immediately.

More and more, however, sound also has the task of tearing consumers out of their deep multimedia sleep. We all know it: the television is on, but we no longer look at the screen all the time. We chat with friends on the side, surf on the tablet and still have an open browser window on the laptop. A good sound, however, makes the audience sit up and captivates the audience. Prosieben shows that it can work entirely without sound. Here, at the start and end of each advertising block, only a red background with “Advertising Start” and “Advertising End” is shown on the screen. Completely without sound. The effect is that the viewer looks up from the smartphone because he thinks the TV has switched off or is defective.

Mobile spots, on the other hand, have to work without sound, as users usually have the sound of their smartphones switched off. Studies also show that more than half of users are annoyed by automatically playing online videos with sound, especially in public spaces. So here we are completely dependent on optical stimuli to attract attention. This, too, presents creative teams with new tasks when the well-known rules of the game from moving images, print and posters are blurred and copywriters and art directors have to work hand in hand to create effective creation. Often, text is actually integrated into videos instead of being spoken, for example when Apple summarized its two-hour keynote in 107 seconds or in the spot “#weaccept ”from Airbnb.

Shorter is not always better

The right film length is a hotly debated topic. The fact is that spots are getting shorter and shorter – even digitally: Today, videos should communicate everything in three seconds. But this is too short-sighted in several ways. Because spots don’t work primarily because they’re so nice and compact, but because they’re creatively made and touch people. The “ Dream Crazy ” clip from Nike captivates the audience for a total of 126 seconds, ie longer than two minutes. The story is good because it conveys emotions. Of the ten most- watched advertising spots worldwide on Youtube in 2018, only one was shorter than a minute.

One thing is certain: Online video usage is increasing in Germany, especially among younger generations. There is no guide to the mythical viral. Rather, all aspects such as story, dramaturgy, emotions, sound and length have to work together perfectly to arouse the curiosity of the audience. What works best is always what takes the consumer’s usage situation into account and is tailored to it.

After a well thought-out pitch process, you decided on a PR agency. Congratulation! What do you have to consider now so that you can work successfully with them?

The side effect of an intensive selection process is that you have already put the agency through its paces and can thus better assess where its strengths and weaknesses lie. Since they convinced you, you gave them a leap of faith – and trust is the be-all and end-all of a good and successful cooperation.

Trust: sparring partners at eye level instead of mere execution assistants

If you accept and respect the agency as a partner on an equal footing, you create a good starting point for transparent and constructive cooperation. It is in your own interest to see the PR professionals as your sparring partners and not just as implementation assistants. Therefore, ask the agency specifically for its recommendations and seriously consider them.

Through their external perspective and diverse experience with different customers, they will be able to give you new ideas that you may not even have on your screen. Of course, this also means that they will sometimes advise against your suggestions. It is not for nothing that wise decision-makers are distinguished by the fact that they accept thought-out and well-founded advice. In addition, inform your agency about (internal) changes and news – even if they are not (yet) directly communicatively relevant from your point of view. The more information an agency has, the better it can assess the situation and adapt to you. Under certain circumstances, she will also draw your attention to facts that you had not considered.

Also avoids micromanagement and unnecessary administrative effort. You don’t have to be CC on every email. This saves your mailbox and your time budget. Trust the agency and thereby give it the freedom to work creatively. Therefore try to keep the reporting effort as low as possible.

Of course, extensive success presentations are nice to look at and make an impression with extensive, detailed Excel tables – but please always question whether it makes sense. Because the more time has to be spent on administrative tasks, the less time there is for the actual PR work. In addition, filling out cumbersome reporting documents is usually not very high on the popularity list of PR professionals. In practice, short lists of successes in clear Excel tables have therefore proven their worth.

Clear communication

It may sound superfluous for a guide to working with communication agencies to emphasize the value of clear communication. However, experience shows that the shoemaker often has the worst last – and communication between client and service provider is not always optimal on both sides.

Both parties should clearly define their expectations, especially at the beginning. What is expected and why from whom in terms of results and working methods? How is success measured? What are the standards? Do you prefer to work with a fixed PR plan or does a more flexible approach with spontaneous ad hoc pitches make more sense for you? What does the agency need from the client in order to be able to work productively?

Unfortunately, the misconception persists that the homework for companies is done by hiring an agency. However, your agency relies on your input and feedback to do its part of the job. It is helpful for them to know exactly who is responsible for what internally within you and how much decision-making power they have. If you have several internal contacts for the agency, a specially set up e-mail alias is also a good idea. If this is always set in CC for relevant email conversations, you can easily and elegantly ensure that no emails are sent to an unopened mailbox even during (unplanned) absences.

For their part, agencies sometimes fail to clearly communicate what is going on behind the scenes. Especially in times when a lot of preparatory work is done and there are few tangible results, the client sometimes gets the impression that there is no work on the other side. In order to avoid misunderstandings, both parties should therefore do each other a favor and coordinate regularly and in a structured manner.

Short info mails for news and additional phone calls (around 30 minutes), for example every two weeks with a clearly structured agenda, have proven effective. Briefly recapitulate which measures have achieved which results, what went well and what can still be improved. In addition, discuss the further joint procedure as well as the concrete steps with the precise distribution of tasks and time management. Finally, a short reference to any administrative arrangements such as vacations and then it goes back to the substantive work.

What to do if it doesn’t work at all

Despite the best intentions, it can always happen that things don’t run smoothly between the agency and the client – partly because of external factors such as idling due to seasonal media cycles, partly because of internal factors such as insufficient communication or loss of trust.

Before you go your separate ways, however, you should briefly analyze what the causes are. Dissatisfaction is often based on simple misunderstandings that are easy to get out of the way. Also consider that every change of agency is associated with increased effort, time and costs and leads to friction losses.

Sometimes a slightly different team composition helps instead, which can lead to new ideas and results. In such situations in particular, it pays off if you have invested not only in the purely content-related, but also in human cooperation in advance. If possible, it is advisable to meet for lunch every now and then. In a personal meeting in a harmless setting, any problems can be addressed and solved more easily than in a fixed meeting context.

However, if it becomes apparent that a breakup will be inevitable, it is important to remain professional. Sometimes working methods or expectations just don’t go together. Then it is in the interests of everyone involved to go their separate ways. None of this is the end of the world and is part of everyday working life. But please always keep in mind that the world is small and you often run into each other again in a different context. Previous unprofessional behavior can later become uncomfortable. Respectful interaction is therefore not only required by decency, but is simply in your own interest.

The sound makes the music

As is so often the case in life, the same applies here as with general collaboration: the sound makes the music. So make sure that there is a respectful tone on both sides. There is always someone else sitting on the other side of the e-mail or the phone. This respectful interaction with one another should therefore run like a red thread through your cooperation. If you keep this in mind and follow this advice, nothing stands in the way of a successful cooperation with your agency.

A study by the BVDW comes to the conclusion that influencer marketing works well for people who frequently come into contact with influencers. Overall, only one in five Germans has followed their recommendations so far.

A study ( PDF ) by the Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) shows that influencer marketing is definitely successful. This is initially good news for advertising companies, which in recent years have increasingly invested budgets in cooperation with social media stars and asterisks.

“Personal recommendations” are the best marketing

It is an old saying from sales psychology that a personal recommendation is the most powerful factor in favor of a purchase decision. So it seems logical to have these “personal recommendations” made by people via social media platforms with whom their followers can identify or who they can get excited about.

Almost one in five Germans has already bought a product because it was recommended by an influencer, according to the study. For men, the proportion is lower at 17 percent, and slightly higher for women at 22 percent. For young consumers between the ages of 16 and 24, the proportion is even much higher at 43 percent.

Conversion success increases with contact frequency

The study further differentiated within the group of respondents. The market researchers wanted to know how often the respondents come into contact with influencers on social media. It was shown that the conversion success, i.e. the purchase decision based on recommendation, increases with the frequency of contact.

Of the 41 percent of respondents who stated that they had contact with influencers at least once a week, almost every second respondent aged up to 45 had already bought a product after an influencer presented it, according to the study.

In the age groups 45 and over, the influence of influencers drops dramatically. That may still be related to the digitization biography and could look completely different in ten years.

Incidentally, the study certainly knows how to surprise, because the assumption that it would be particularly the very young consumers who are most likely to be influenced by influencers turns out to be wrong. Here lies the value of those who have already bought a product because they had previously seen it from an influencer, with 53 percent of those surveyed, and thus above all other age groups, among 35 to 44 year olds. Mind you, this only applies to the group of those who interact with influencers at least once a week.

Advertising as such is not a problem for the respondents

The promotional character of the influencer presentations is not a problem for 72 percent of those surveyed. 40 percent say they have no problem with it, as long as the advertisement is labeled as such.

A study by the M-Science Agency from October 2019 ( PDF ) comes to similar results . In their “Spotlight Influencer”, the market researchers come to the conclusion that advertising activities are expected from influencers. It only becomes problematic for the respondents when influencers only create advertising contributions or advertise products that clearly do not match their main topic. In general, the respondents in this study consider authenticity to be the most important factor.

With 800 million viewers worldwide, the Super Bowl is one of the most important marketing platforms in the world. Brands can use this environment for themselves beyond TV spots.

When the term Super Bowl comes up, most marketeers’ eyes light up. When the stars of the NFL fight for the “Vince Lombardi Trophy”, the annual battle for the best commercials in the world takes place during the commercial breaks. The all-American event thus became the stage for legendary spots like “The Force” from Volkswagen, the premiere of the Old Spice man or the grotesque “Game of Thrones meets Bud Light” mashup from Budweiser last year.

In the USA alone, around 100 million people sit in front of the television every year. In Germany in 2019 – in the middle of the night – 1.42 million viewers watched and got commercials tailored to Germany. Of course, the biggest single sporting event in the world also dominates Facebook , Instagram and Co.

So that brand managers benefit from this highly relevant environment, here are four tips that enable successful engagement:

1. Social rules, mobile wins

200 million Facebook and 150 million Instagram posts, likes and comments were generated on “Game Day” 2019 alone. Everything else is shared around the Super Bowl. If you want to be successful, you have to do your homework. Which hashtags work? Which groups do I tag for additional traffic? Are we more in the crowd with #superbowl # sb54 # superbowl2020 or are there special target groups that can be addressed more directly with specific hashtags? Can we perhaps address the topic regionally or locally?

Just as important: Do your own posts prevail over all content that is displayed under these hashtags? A sensational artwork and a concise style are as central as the story that brands tell through a series of posts. Videos optimized for mobile devices remain a must: More than 70 percent of viewers are on their smartphones at the same time.

2. Walk the whole distance

The Super Bowl traditionally takes place on the first Sunday in February. But the game itself is only the climax of a whole period of time. If you want to get the most out of your commitment, you start early and also plan the time after the event. Facebook, for example – this year for the first time – has been teasing a spot with Sylvester “Rocky” Stallone for months . Like many other brands, Olay and Verizon are also present on all channels with pre-teasers and teasers.

The most exciting approaches make the spot the heart of a communicative ecosystem that combines PR, teasers, landing pages and sales into one story, as for example Olay’s #makespaceforwomen campaign shows.

Planning over the entire distance is important even without a spot. Because the fans buy pizza and beer for the game beforehand and the big discussion begins the day after. Brands that become part of these conversations benefit the most from their engagement. This requires an orchestrated approach that plays out your own topics in a dramaturgically exciting way with many content assets.

3. The right content strategy

The “Big Game” is much more than sport. The Super Bowl is a party – a get-together. The topics that brands can authentically prove in this environment are correspondingly diverse. The Super Bowl meal, the right beer or the right snacks always deserve a story. But the field is bigger: where and with whom do people watch the game and what do they think, who wins? Depending on the brand, the training of the players is also a good focus. And the spots are always a topic of conversation – especially with female target groups.

Topics that are currently becoming attractive can best be identified as “trending topics” using social and search trends. Another option is to fill them with the right influencers. Micro-influencers are valued for their tendency towards greater credibility, their well-known role models bring additional reach.

4. Games to the game

The insurance company Progressive Insurance started a kind of bullshit bingo in 2016: users could use icons to tick off the predictable protagonists of the big Super Bowl spots such as celebrities, puppies or small ponies and win prizes. Progressive accompanied the user through all the spots – without switching one himself.

Gamification has a long tradition in the Super Bowl environment. Playful approaches make brands more or less ingenious part of the great Super Bowl experience. A few years ago, Verizon’s “Who’s gonna win” campaign illuminated the Empire State Building in the color of the favorite team that was voted live. In 2018 Esurance successfully maximized brand awareness with one million US dollars, which were raffled off for user tweets about the campaign. With mobile optimization, creative gamification approaches offer great potential to involve target groups in the long term – even without your own spot and ideally for the entire Super Bowl period.

And otherwise? The 77 commercial slots for this year have been sold out since November. And the fact that Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg are running election campaigns this year in this traditionally rather apolitical environment should make the subject of content particularly exciting. All in all, the Super Bowl is a very interesting environment for brands that promises discussion potential, topics of conversation and increased brand engagement.

Branding brings brands to life. In which direction will branding develop in 2020, what are the consequences for the design of an effective logo and what should young companies consider when defining their brand design?

Branding is increasingly shifting to the digital. As a result, the brand building process is being redefined. The wide range of digital branding tools creates a variety of ways to cement the brand presence in the real world. The rigid and interactive brand is a thing of the past. This has an impact on the visual appearance of a brand, especially the logo.

Branding 2020 – more real, more interactive and more personal

The digitization of branding will make great strides in 2020. Even if the old-fashioned “analog” branding has not yet completely disappeared from the scene, the digital landscape makes completely new demands on the appearance of a brand. Social media platforms offer brands a large stage on which they can get in touch with customers personally. What was once one-sided brand communication has become interaction in which the brand and customer meet at eye level. Intelligent data analysis tools make it possible to deliver precise information about target groups so that branding measures can be precisely tailored to customers, their wishes, habits and preferences.

Brands are becoming more human

In addition, competition is growing and brands are becoming more interchangeable. Consequently, it pays to focus more on trust and loyalty in 2020 in order to gain an emotional advantage and stand out from the competition. Branding also applies here. Since people believe and love people first and foremost, a successful brand needs a human face. This can be the founder of the company, an influencer or a particularly charismatic employee. People are not interchangeable and give the brand a unique character. They make them more real and more tangible. And just like people themselves, brands appear less smooth and artificial. Since the focus is increasingly on people in branding, the channels are also shifting. Branding 2020 is determined by customer reviews

And your logo?

In 2020, logos will also become significantly more “human” and more soulful. In order to give your logo this personal note, it is above all important to first deal intensively with your own brand personality. Only those who know exactly who they are as a brand can present themselves authentically and trustingly to the outside world. Your brand identity is what makes you distinctive and instantly recognizable for your customers. Show your inner being and give your customers access to it. Your logo can bridge the gap here. There are a number of design elements that rely on emotions and can give your logo more personality and humanity:

• Color: Colors influence the emotions and behavior of the viewer. Each color creates a certain mood. Use the emotional power of colors to send an emotional message. For example, red logos speak to passion, yellow logos appear open and friendly, and blue logos create trust and the impression of seriousness. Find the color that suits your brand.
• Typography: Because there is a person behind every script, they give your logo a personal, individual style that is tangible. In contrast to modern sans serif fonts, serif fonts are also great for telling a personal (brand) story. They feel nostalgic without being clumsy because they connect us to an earlier time, when the world wasn’t that digital. These associations have a powerful effect on brands that use them.

• Nostalgia: Give your logo a touch of the past. In an unpredictable world full of uncertainties, retro logos awaken memories in the viewer that make them emotionally and positively. When thinking about the “good old days”, they feel comfortable and secure. This feeling rubs off on the perception of your brand.

• Hand- drawn graphics: Similar to cursive fonts , drawings made by hand look personal and familiar. They give the impression of being made by a person and thus provide a solid foundation from which to develop a relationship with the brand. In addition, hand drawings are unique – just like your brand. Unedited and imperfect logos are all the rage in 2020. These logos reject the impeccable, perfect look that design programs allow, and lead the viewer back to sketchbooks that have asymmetry, odd lines, and shading techniques like cross-hatch and outline shadows. Brands can use this hand-drawn look to show their authenticity and give their logos the personality that their customers want to see.

Branding adapts to the customer

In the digital age full of possibilities, the customer himself decides where and how he wants to get in touch with a brand. Different channels, technical diversity, the possibility of target group segmentation and global presence make it necessary to design branding activities and design elements of the branding flexibly and tailored to the customer. Flexible, adaptable logos are the future. This no longer just means that a logo adapts to the different screen sizes. Responsive logos are nowadays rather logos that change in size, complexity or also color and design in order to do justice to their environment and the varying customer requirements.

Just like the brand itself, your logo is no longer a rigid structure. Given the many different channels and places a modern company can place their logo in, it’s impossible to have the same version of your logo everywhere without losing something here and there. Added to this is the growing popularity of video content. Videos provide space for animated logo versions. They use the movement effect to generate attention.

Another example is the desire of many users to use smartphones or computers in dark mode. This also requires a flexible logo that adapts to the desired and chosen circumstances of the customer. The customer decides how and where they want to see your logo. You are well advised to be prepared for it with different logo versions.

The homemade, natural look will predominate in branding 2020. With all the digital perfection, people yearn for the imperfection of hand-drawn logos. The unlimited technical possibilities of the digital world also make it necessary to come up with a flexible, adaptable logo in 2020.

Each of us is inundated with tons of emails, posts and messages every day. The consequence? We just skim most of the content, a lot gets lost in the crowd.

Nowadays you can access any knowledge at any time. It is no longer necessary to attend seminars or the like in person, to look for regional customers or to pull out the city map for navigation. Much of this can be done online. In the course of the last few decades, more and more innovations have emerged: the Internet, e-mails, websites, messenger services such as Whatsapp or social media. Each one has had a noticeable impact on our communication and thus the transfer of our information. Everyone wanted to be represented everywhere and to have something ahead of the rest. In the 21st century, a flood of information has arisen that no one can grasp.

So how can you ensure that your own website or your company’s website and its content do not get lost in the crowd?

How can we counter this?

uniqueness

A lot of information that we want to pass on to others is already available online. Pretty much all industries are represented several times, so that advice is often repeated. This makes it more and more difficult to stand out from the competition. So what can you do about it? Could the design be made significantly different? Can I use more videos? Could you look more personal than other agencies ? Look for aspects that others in your industry are not addressing and then implement them consistently.

scope

Due to the steadily increasing flood of information, we can remember less and absorb less new knowledge. How can you do it justice? Reduce your content to the essentials. Use multimedia content such as images, videos and animations. Why? Visual content is more memorable and attracts interest faster. Also repeat important messages: The more we perceive things, the better we memorize them.

impression

“The first impression counts” – have you heard that before? This saying applies not only to people, but also to content. In our digital world of today, we constantly get a first impression, for example when we visit the homepage of websites, the profile page on social media or look at the cover of a book. The first impression decides whether we spend a longer time with the person, the product or the company or not. So make sure that your content is always appealing and inviting. How do you do that?

unit

Make sure that you use all elements of your corporate identity (colors, logo, slogan, story , graphics) equally on all channels. This means: If your company is characterized by the colors blue and white, you should stick to this color scale. The uniformity must not be lost even in small features. Large companies like Apple sometimes go into great detail so that the exact time 9:41 is always displayed on all product photos. Even at this seemingly insignificant and very detailed level, there are no exceptions or coincidences.

Use

Would you read a book that had a white cover with no text at all? Probably not. The only question is why? One of the reasons for this is that your interest is not aroused. There is no text to suggest why this book should be read. Conversely, this means the following for content: You have to make the benefits clearly visible . Use the so-called hero section (the top third of each page) on your website and the description or bio on Instagram on social media and mention the benefits for which people should follow you. The earlier the benefit becomes visible to your prospects, the longer they will deal with the content.

design

Nothing plays a bigger role in our perception than design. It’s a good indicator to see how accurate, detailed, and precise a company is. Why can you say that? If companies use an individual design that is tailored to their needs, this shows value and precision. It is therefore worthwhile to focus more on design and aesthetics – especially since we can use these things in such a way that we always leave a professional and unique impression. If a company does not have a coordinated CI, it can make a bad impression on the outside world. Therefore, develop a specific design guideline to avoid such mistakes and thus give a positive impression. And remember: Information can be copied much faster than your brand identity, which is visible to others through your CI.

channels

Our means of communication and thus the transfer of information are subject to constant change. A few decades ago you had to rely on the daily newspaper to view job advertisements. Today such information can be called up in a few seconds. Go ahead of your time and deal with current communication tools such as messenger services, social media and podcasts to make your information visible and understandable for everyone.

Conclusion

It is therefore crucial that content is prepared in such a way that it can be consumed as easily and quickly as possible – snackable content is the keyword. The focus should therefore be on presenting information briefly and concisely in such a way that it appears primarily useful, relevant and interesting to others. Therefore, increasingly use multimedia content such as images, videos and animations and present them accordingly on the platforms. Ensure uniqueness by developing a CI tailored to your company and applying it everywhere.

With over half a million business start-ups all over Germany every year, it is really not easy to burn yourself into the many heads out there. But it is already feasible.

To build a brand that works, you have to combine what you know about yourself, your target audience and your competition with your personality. This is the only way to create your very own style and attract the people who celebrate it. It’s good that one of the basic elements for successful branding is a consistent corporate design that works across the entire brand, is very clear. That online marketing should be in line with the rest of the brand, too.

But in order to create a brand that rises like a phoenix from the ashes, logo, font and color must not stop there. Branding is more than that. It’s about credibility, authenticity, positioning and a great experience for your audience.

Sounds like something you absolutely have to have, doesn’t it? Well then go!

1. Create positive experiences

The customer is king and he doesn’t want that to be missed. As soon as the appreciation flutters, the focus shifts to the other end of the world and you lose sight of customer needs, the customer and trust are also quickly lost. And without customers, any brand is worthless.

Even with the impolite or aggressive, it pays to go the “royal road”. Often it is these pessimists who later become your most loyal customers.

2. Keep your promises

If it says “I’ll deliver the desired graphic by 4pm on Thursday”, it would be fatal not to do that. Because we all know: Once the reputation has been ruined, success is as if it were erased and the downfall is postponed. Time management and concentration are essential. Nothing is worse than paying you 220 euros an hour for overlooking or forgetting important information. And that’s only because you’re doing Larifari and everything is rushing.

It also doesn’t hurt to deliver more than agreed. It doesn’t have to be big, but if the customer isn’t expecting something, a smile is guaranteed. Just like the memory of you.

3. Be present and available

If you want to be influential, you have to be respected first. And that doesn’t happen if you are never available. Make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. Because let’s be honest: if we are interested in a product or service, nothing is more frustrating than the fact that nobody can be reached.

As soon as you become careless, it will fall back on your brand and your credibility faster than you can say “I am believable”.

4. Be a resource

One of the most powerful ways to connect with people is to help them. But you have to want it from the bottom of your heart! We often have it in our urine when generosity is fake. Be honest and they’ll trust you.

This also applies to your service. Give your prospects useful information that will help them understand your industry and what you do. Without hiding facts or falsifying the truth – depending on customer needs.

5. Build relationships

Ask your customers for feedback so you can make your product even better. And if they give feedback, respond to it . You can also include them when it comes to suggestions and ideas for changes or innovations. If they are allowed to participate, this not only strengthens your business relationship, but also brand loyalty.

Speaking of attention and reach: If you want more of it yourself, don’t be afraid to contact people who can support you. Take the time to look out for influencers, mentors, and industry peers.

6. Stay human

Do you want your brand to appear human and accessible instead of cold and distant? Then relax a little and show yourself to the world. Be funny, be thoughtful, be clumsy, be yourself – people can sense this and will feel any situation with you.

It also becomes a game changer if you give your brand a face. People need a face they can relate to. And if it’s a speaker or a mascot. Good as well! The main thing is a brand face.

7. Take the lead

“Most of the time, people don’t know what they want until you show them,” Steve Jobs once said. While people know what problem they have and that it needs urgent resolution, it is up to you to show them how to solve their problem or meet their need. Please refrain from using the old-school-in-your-face sales methods. Nobody likes them, everyone hates them. You are the reason potential customers will pull away.

Also keep in mind that when you buy something, you usually get a few remorse. So it is better to support your customers in making their decision comfortable by confirming it.

8. Be original and authentic

There is absolutely no point in copying someone. Because you don’t have to address his, but your target group; respond to the interests of your people. And with your style! That’s why you can let the freak out and decorate your brand with your personality. Because it is what makes a brand unique and what makes unknown customers into customers.

Be original. However, if you lack creativity, invest in mentors and experts. Because think about how well you can present yourself to the maximum if you are only satisfied with what you can do with your own hands.

But don’t overdo it and put everything on a usefulness test. Sometimes the uniqueness wanders into nonsense. And then we have adhesive tape that smells like lemon or business cards that give the pants an unwanted shape in the most impossible places.

9. Speak the language of your target audience

If your customers are using technical jargon, let your eloquence speak too. If not, there is little sympathy for talking to your target group like this. Make it as easy as possible for them to understand you by using the same jargon. But only as far as your authenticity gets.

The thing is, your audience will grow and change over time. To stay relevant, grow with them. Adapt your brand, including the language, to the new circumstances.

10. Bring really everything into your brand

In order to be effective, your brand has to run through every fiber of your actions. Don’t leave anything unbranded here and be consistent in the same way. It doesn’t matter which medium you use – from imagery to message, from print to product.

And always keep an eye on the whole. No matter what you offer your customers, it always has to serve your brand and not distract from it.

It’s a special year and not just because of Corona. Why sales events, charity campaigns and gift gifts are important and what else you need to consider for your marketing strategy in the Christmas business 2020.

Not business as usual. The Christmas business 2020 will be different due to the corona crisis – but not necessarily worse. For example, the crisis increases the impulse for many customers to want to invest in a reward for themselves at the end of the year . So economically difficult times do not automatically have to go hand in hand with lower customer spending. That is just one of many lessons that can be learned from the crisis.

For those responsible for marketing, it will be crucial to recognize the changed needs of customers and to adapt the offer accordingly. But if you just want to reissue last year’s marketing strategy, you might be left out.

Together with You Gov, Facebook IQ carried out an extensive study on usage and shopping behavior in 31 markets in order to understand what customers are particularly interested in in 2020. The basis of the study includes surveys with over 1,500 participants and observations from past economic recessions.

The results provide five basic insights for your marketing strategies.

The new customers are here!

When stores had to close during lockdown, more people shopped online – and stuck with them. Mobile online shopping has increased by more than 50 percent worldwide, especially among the financially strong Generation X population cohorts and baby boomers. Anyone who is reducing points of friction in the customer journey, optimizing their web shop for mobile first and giving new customers attractive discounts can benefit from this trend.

Self-giving is the trend

What should you give? Fortunately, this question does not apply if you know the recipient very well: yourself. Treating yourself to something is a way of staying optimistic in difficult times and rewarding yourself for hardships. Affordable luxury items such as ice cream, chocolate, lipstick or nail polish are particularly popular in times of recession. 74 percent of Christmas shoppers worldwide say that they are looking for gifts for themselves.

Help your customers find what they love. You can use polling ads as a starting point for personalized recommendations. AR technology makes it possible to try out products before purchasing them, for example by placing AR camera effects on a selected sofa in the room.

Customers open up to innovative products and services

Changed living conditions due to current restrictions have made customers curious about new solutions, for example food delivery services were increasingly used, and new hobbies created new needs. The joy of experimentation also affects the Christmas business. Worldwide, 64 percent of those surveyed want to try out more new products during the Christmas season than during the rest of the year.

You can take advantage of this trend if you use interest-based targeting on social media. With eye-catching ads such as stories ads on Instagram and Facebook, you draw attention to your offer and can emphasize benefits, quality or low prices. Offer live advice because new users are looking for orientation.

Values ​​are more in demand than ever

Customers want companies that are clearly committed to a good cause. This attitude intensified during the corona crisis: 82 percent believe that brands should make a positive contribution, for example by offering free services. 47 percent of internet users worldwide state that they no longer use a product or service because a company has violated values ​​that are personally important to them. The motto is clear: do good and talk about it. Think about charitable activities and give your customers the opportunity to donate money using the fundraising and donation features of Facebook and Instagram.

Crisis drives Q4 sales events

Black Friday, Cyber-Monday and other discount battles will grow in importance this year. Increased financial worries increase the awareness of cheap offers and discounts. In Germany, 25 percent of those surveyed want to wait for promotions, discounts and offers before accessing a desired product. In other markets peak values ​​of up to 40 percent are achieved. With timely preparation, the sales event will be a success. The Facebook study recommends adapting to customer shopping preferences and accelerating the buying process through automation and machine learning.

Christmas 2020: The Marketing Guide for Your Business

Many more insights for your Christmas business can be found in Facebook’s free marketing guide on the subject. The 35-page guide “The Facebook Christmas Bundle 2020” analyzes the effects of the corona crisis and the changed behavior of individual target groups. Recommendations for action for your own shop appearance and the e-commerce strategy up to the party make it an informative read.

In order to inspire new talents for your company, you invest in a number of marketing channels. But how well do they work? Performance marketing measures channel performance and gives you answers.

The job is great, the job advertisement looks great, the offer has the best conditions for applicants. Just check quickly before the release, send it with one click and … no reaction.

The publication of job advertisements is now rarely associated with an automatic flood of applications. Suitable prospects for the job are few and far between and many companies are faced with a shortage of skilled workers. What to do? You have to draw attention to vacancies and work on their online visibility – and this is exactly where performance marketing comes in.

This approach is becoming more common in recruiting and is a great way to measure whether your channels are performing well. In addition, you can check whether you are using your budget correctly or whether you should split it up again. Because with performance marketing you can measure, check and optimize (fail) successes !

Know your target audience

Before you decide on the right channels to draw attention to your company and vacancies, you should first know who you want to address and reach. Therefore, give enough thought to your target group, their characteristics and how they differ from other groups. Record your findings in writing and create personas and requirement profiles in the team.

This is how you use performance marketing correctly in recruiting

There are now a number of measures to measure and evaluate the performance of individual channels and to optimize performance. The methods are always aimed at increasing the visibility of your job advertisements and your company on the Internet in order to draw the attention of promising candidates to you.

A distinction can be made between free measures such as search engine optimization (SEO) or social media marketing, and fee-based approaches such as search engine advertising (SEA) or affiliate marketing. Regardless of whether you place paid ads, work with sales partners or draw attention to your company via social networks, you should decide individually which tools are right for you, depending on the company situation and your goals.

Choose the right tracking metrics

So once you know your target audience and have chosen the right channels, it’s time to choose the metrics that you should check regularly. Depending on the company, recruiting situation and goals, you should decide individually which key performance indicators are particularly exciting and meaningful. The following four key figures give a rough overview of which KPIs can be tracked in performance marketing :

• Page impressions : The page impressions show how often a certain page has been viewed by interested parties. If the number is particularly low, then you should think about how you can increase the visibility of this page.
• Cost-per-channel : This refers to the costs that are incurred for certain channels. You can also use this key figure to see whether your expenses are actually worthwhile. If the costs for certain channels are particularly high, but the traffic is comparatively low, you should consider investing in another channel instead.
• Click-through rate : The click-through rate (CTR) calculates how often a link or banner is clicked compared to the total number of views. The lower the click rate, the more optimization potential there is.
• Bounce rate : The last key figure, the bounce rate, provides information about the number of people who view a page and then leave it again. If interested parties leave a certain page after a short time, the bounce rate is correspondingly high. Then you should try to work on the design, structure or content of this page and to optimize it.

In addition, there are of course many other important key figures in performance marketing that you should select and use individually. It is always important that you generate exciting and necessary data for yourself that give you information about the performance of your channels.

Which instruments in performance marketing are the right ones to draw attention to your company and to vacancies? You can find more information on this in our new whitepaper “Performance Marketing in Recruiting”.