Many businesses in New Zealand find it most cost effective to manage their own marketing communications.  Different factors can impact on this choice, such as your level of creativity, the audience you are targeting, your budget, the size of the campaign, and the communications tools you need.  A marketing professional can add value to your business in a variety of ways depending on your objectives.

Things to consider when deciding if the time is right for outside marketing help:

1. Starting out
If you are a new business it may be more cost effective in the long-term to hire a professional to ensure you have everything covered.  Eg.

• Branding – colours, logo
• Digital presence – website, social media
• Launch campaign – direct marketing collateral, newsletters, flyers, brochure
• Media coverage – the story you want to tell through editorial or advertising.

2. Diversion from your core business
If you find you’re spending more time marketing your business than making sales then look at contracting a marketing professional to handle this side, so you can get back to what you are good at.

3. When your budget exceeds your marketing effort
If you’re spending or anticipate spending a large amount of money on your marketing campaign you want to minimise the risk – nothing can be 100 percent, if you feel uncertain of your capabilities, look to hire a professional.

The types of marketing professionals you may need include:

Marketing communications or advertising agency
To take a big picture overview of all your marketing communications.  They will advise, strategise, and carry out the delivery of your marketing.  They can also advise on editorial or advertising opportunities.  A good marketing communications company will have contacts with online and offline publications.

Graphic designer
To help with logo creation, advertisement creation, branding to give your marketing communications a polished look.

Copywriter
To assist with text or copy for advertisements, media and other campaigns, they will ensure your message is succinct and clearly communicated.  Some copywriters specialise in website copy.

Digital marketer
To plan and strategise your online communications, they will make the link between your on and offline presence, messages, and branding.

Website designer and developer
Sometimes this may be one and the same person, separately the website design will create a concept that ties in with your branding and the developer will build your website.

How to choose your marketing expert:

These four steps can help with your choice when looking to employ a marketing professional.

1.  Look at your business goals
What marketing objectives will help achieve your business goals?  For many businesses this directly correlates to sales.  Research the companies in your area, or go national to ensure the professional you choose will help meet your business goals and make a list.

2.  Determine the skill set required
Are you after someone that can create a campaign, help with a rebrand, brand your new business, get you online, write copy, liaise with newspapers, or design advertisements?  Once you have looked at your business goals and marketing objectives you will be able to narrow down the type of marketing professional you need, add these to your list.

3.  Review your budget
Your budget may dictate the level of support you need.  Do you need a specialist, what level of expertise is required to meet your objectives, can you hire an employee? 

4.  Research and meet
Review your list and make time to check out the website and social media profiles of those on it.  Do any sit particularly well with you, or not?  Fine tune your list to make a shortlist of three that you can then set up a face-to-face or phone meeting with.

The services offered by a marketing professional will directly impact how you achieve your goals.  As with any business investment, a marketing professional will add value to your business as you grow.  To get in touch with an expert contact Kite Communications.

Have you ever been caught off-guard either in talking to a key influencer or a journalist, and asked something you know about, but can’t quite communicate effectively? You end up stumbling over a few ahhhs and umms and then launch into a rather long-winded explanation. The result is that you don’t come across at your best and your key messages are lost. It becomes an opportunity wasted.
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How can you learn from this? It really comes down to being prepared and doing a little practice. Being ready to respond to issues facing your business means having small messages or soundbites in the back of your mind. Knowing what the issues are that face your business is a good start and from there you can create key messages around these issues. Turning these into succinct, short and powerful key messages, are turning them into little sound bites.  

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY YOUR ISSUES

In one marketing communications job I had many years ago they had an issues register that was looked at once a week and discussed with all concerned. You can take this approach further to create a spreadsheet that not only notes issues, but also projects, which you have on the go.

STEP TWO: CREATE THE SOUNDBITE

From here you can develop three concise key messages that will form the backbone of your soundbites, of your FAQs and media releases. When I say concise, I really mean it! Keep these short, I know it’s often really hard to do but it can directly affect your media pick up. If these key messages are too long, they get lost.
Here’s some interesting facts to think about:

• The average length of a print soundbite is 27 words
• The average length of a soundbite is nine seconds – about the size of a tweet
• The average number of key messages reported is three
• The average length of a TV news story is one minute and thirty seconds.

This doesn’t give you much time to tell your story, or to get your messages across. The consequence of this is the need to keep your messages short and memorable. Once you think you’ve got your soundbites to a manageable length it’s time to practice.

STEP THREE: CREATE PERFECT CONDITIONS BY PRACTICING  

The best ways I have found to practice are to start in front of the mirror, where you can see yourself delivering the message. If you’re tripping over your tongue while at the mirror stage, your message still needs some simplifying. The final stage is to rope in a colleague and have some mock interview practice. This forces you to be put on the spot and you can clearly see what messages are working, what isn’t and what hasn’t stuck in your memory.

It sounds like a bit of work and it is. But it’s also a very valuable safety net. How you’re perceived in the media can have lasting effects. Take your foot out of your mouth and move it in front of you. Pull the key messages from your expert knowledge and take charge of the conversation, leaving a journalist, or business contact knowing in no uncertain terms, where your business stands on the issue in question.

Now you’re all ready for action – get started by making that issues list and tackling each issue one at a time. And we're here to lend you a hand if you'd like it.