All Posts By

michael

Dec 09
0

OnBrand Talking Resilience In the Workplace

By | Blog, Social

2020 has proven to be one of the most challenging years for business. Here, at OnBrand we are proud of how we have worked with our clients during this time, supporting them with both strategic thinking and effective delivery of sales campaigns, virtual events, on-site collateral and reassuring content both during and after lockdown.

Not only this, but as a close team we have supported each other through the upheaval and changes into home working and adapted our ways of thinking and working quickly. We often talk about needing to be ‘resilient’ and wanted to explore this further to make a real commitment in 2021. From investing even more in staff wellbeing, taking on board our learning’s from this year and engraining wellbeing into the company ethos. By helping ourselves thrive, we will then be better placed to deliver successful business growth for our clients.

This week, we have a fantastic guest blog from Emma Hossack, the founder of Transforming Minds for Business. Looking at what we mean by resilience and how this impacts business success.

Have a read below:

I am passionate about the impact of wellbeing and resilience in the workplace. Having coached hundreds of clients over the years, I have seen what the mindset can offer in terms of great performance and personal outcomes.

The Oxford Dictionary defines Resilience as: ”The ability of people or things to recover quickly after something unpleasant, such as shock, injury, etc. and the ability of a substance to return to its original shape after it has been bent, stretched or pressed.”

While this definition may describe the ability to ‘bounce back’, what we now know is that resilience is something that can be taught, can be grown and can evolve. The old saying ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ is untrue. Neuroscience now teaches us that we can change, flex and adjust our brains to change our mindsets at any age; they call this ‘Neuroplasticity’.

So why is resilience in the workplace so important?

Resilience is the foundation of our wellbeing, and when good mental health is a priority within businesses the results are clear.

According to Deloitte’s 2020 Monitor Report, poor workplace mental health costs businesses around £45Bn a year, yet for every £1 spent, the return is £5. In 2012, Royal Mail invested £45m in wellbeing and resilience strategies and experienced a £225m return on investment. So you can see, there is a direct correlation between mental wellbeing and performance.

At Transforming Business Minds, we believe that resilience and wellbeing should start from the top.  Leaders that foster an open culture, share vulnerabilities and place real value in wellbeing are more likely to see high performance.

While many businesses develop a wellbeing strategy, few adopt a tailored approach to individual resilience and wellbeing. While blanket strategies may offer short term solutions, understanding where each individual is at in terms of mental health and resilience enables each individual, teams and companies to understand where they are and strategies to bridge gaps and build on existing strengths.

How can I enable my business to thrive not just survive?

There is a fine line between performance and crisis, and as we move into 2021, investment into people has never been so important. 80% of our performance is attributed to our mindset, while only 20% technical ability.

We know that businesses that really understand the needs of their people and are committed to implementing strategies around achieving good mental health reap rewards through low attrition and high profitability.

While wellbeing may well be on the agenda, the key is to really understand where you and your people are from a mental health perspective, and demonstrate investment through a wellbeing programme and coaching programme that is designed to bridge the gaps of each person, team and business. This will not only make your people feel listened to, it may also shine a light on how the people within your business that show high resilience and enable them to lead from the front.

So if building resilience isn’t on your agenda, what will be the consequences to your business as we pick ourselves back up from 2020?

Emma Hossack is a Coach, Resilience Practitioner and Founder of Transforming Minds for Business. They look at how good mental health, wellbeing and resilience is achieved through the whole person approach to coaching. Using the WRAW psychometric tool, it focuses on the 5 pillars of resilience: Energy, Future Focus, Flexible Thinking, Inner Drive, Relationships. Measuring individuals to a cohort of 400 worldwide employees, this robust tool marks the overall resilience levels and is also able to split the measure into resilient thoughts and actions. WRAW is an excellent tool that offers evidence, helps create and drive strategy and measure the success of wellbeing strategy and coaching.

You can also learn more about Transforming Minds by clicking here!

Dec 03
0

OnBrand Supporting Local Charities to Brighten St Albans this Christmas

By | Blog, Events, Shopping Centres

At OnBrand we are great believers in bringing the community together. We absolutely love what Sustainable St Albans are doing to brighten up the wider area and bring a Christmas spirit with their Festive Streets project.

The project encourages homes, shops and businesses to decorate their windows during the festive season, to create a safe way of celebrating and bringing local communities together. 

As experts in retail design, we want to support this initiative and have created a template of a 2-dimensional Christmas star, as well as a more dynamic 3-dimensional option.  

  

Both of these can be downloaded below and have easy to follow guides. It can then be decorated with some materials you may have at home, for example some old newspaper, left over wrapping paper or just get the kids crafting! 

Click below to start downloading. 

Download sustainable star option 1

Download sustainable star option 2

Download sustainable star option 3

We’ve also seen “The Rainbow Trail” that started earlier this week, which is an amazing way to bring the community together whilst raising money for local charities. Check it out here.

It involves creating festive displays, virtual Christmas decorations and Spotting the Red Robin. Just like the rainbow drawings for the NHS over the summer, please look out for the Red Robin in people’s homes.  

Also, keep an eye out for the fantastically Christmas dressed post boxes in aid of charity too. You can do so by clicking here!

So, get decorating and let’s work together to make Christmas in St Albans 2020 a bright, sparkly one! 

Nov 30
0

Build the Best Email Strategy

By | Blog, Digital

CRM systems are amazing! When used correctly they build stronger connections with your customers and ultimately better relationships. 

Maybe you’ve been building your CRM system for a while, or you’ve previously used a database and sent out some emails with limited success. 

We know that email marketing can be massively successful. However, the first thing to think about is the entire purpose of your marketing campaigns. Too often we receive emails, mostly automated, from companies we have agreed to hear from but often don’t know why!  

Alongside other marketing routes, email marketing can start to shift those warm leads into hot prospects and retain existing clients to ensure you can increase loyalty. 

So let’s start with some basics…

Nurture email campaigns. Sound a little strange? 

Essentially, a nurture email strategy is about building long term relationships with potential and existing clients whilst not selling your products or services directly.  

You ask yourself, ‘why don’t I try and sell my business or service to a database that want to hear from me?’

The job of a long term nurture email campaign is to help raise brand awareness by providing useful and relevant information to leads that aren’t yet ready to make a purchase and to maintain a relationship with existing customers to ensure your business remain top of mind. 

We want to create that warm, fuzzy feeling we get when someone remembers our birthday. 

Reputation is king and never more than now, during this time in our strange, economic climate.  

The aim is to create a positive connection between the customer and your brand and to consider customers at all stages of the buyer’s journey. 

So, let’s a minute to talk about the top 5 Golden rules of email marketing that you need to consider when developing a campaign 

Rule number 1: Ensure all emails are personalised  

There is nothing worse than getting an email addressed to:   

Dear <insert name here>  OR  worse – your name is spelt incorrectly 

Rule number 2: Be targeted and relevant to each sector 

There you are, going through the morning email and you open one ( addressed correctly so you know it’s for you!), but find out that the content, at best, is totally unrelated to you. At worst it could be inappropriate and even offensive. 

Rule number 3 : Content, content, content!! 

Following on behind the heels of relevance is content engagement – the ultimate goal is for the email to be open and read but it has to be targeted and tailored. 

The more interesting, relevant and diverse the content, the more likely your chosen group will engage with your business.  

Rule number 4: Be realistic 

Email marketing on its own is very unlikely to fundamentally transform your business. Be realistic with what messages you are going to send and how often. Think about what you want to achieve from this, how you will follow up on open rates and what the message strategy is moving forward 

Rule number 5: We learn from our mistakes 

In line with rule 4, look to create a multiple message campaign strategy and test a variety of creative solutions and message hierarchies for example 

– Subject Line
– From Line
– Body Copy
– Day of Week Delivered
– Hour of Day Delivered 

If you’re not sure where to start, here’s our top 10 things to think about and tick off your ‘to-do’ list:

  • A survey or poll 
  • Recent studies relating to their business 
  • Updates on your blogs and guest blogs 
  • Updates on new products or developments 
  • Give always 
  • Loyalty schemes and refer a friend 
  • Favourable articles about your business
  • News from the top 
  • Behind the scenes look at the company 
  • Information about any loyalty schemes 
  • Upcoming webinars 
  • Quarterly newsletter 
Nov 24
0

Take Some Downtime for a Ted Talk

By | Blog, Digital

It’s a wet November lunchtime. The rain is pouring and you can hear the wind howl around you. It’s time for a break!

Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’re sat in an actual office… If not, you’ve moved away from your makeshift desk to somewhere more comfortable.

Today, instead of scrolling through Facebook or calling the family to check in, why not check out our recommend TED talks to keep you motivated and use the 30 minutes to learn something new?

Ok – so the first one from 2004 is still so relevant. It’s about happiness and spaghetti sauce!

Given it’s almost 20 years old, it’s amazing that it is still totally relatable to today’s marketing challenges and the impact that consumers desires have.

Why don’t you pop your feet up and click here to watch!

Next on the list is from Renny Gleeson, who talks about the broken relationship ( within a customer journey) if you get a 404 page when looking at a website. Truly insightful and reminds us all to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Enjoy this talk here!

Our favourite and the most fascinating is Neuromarketing – the science behind decisions. This reminds of the brilliance of emotional connections and the subconscious decision making.

Click here to enjoy your next TED Talk…

So put your feet up, settle in, and get ready to be inspired and think about you can shake up your marketing!

Nov 19
0

Black Friday Support for Independent Businesses

By | Blog

This year has been hugely turbulent for all retailers…. Whilst Black Friday often starts two weeks before, 2020 has seen an increase in promotional activity by retailers spread throughout the month, which means some deals have been available from as early as the end of October! According to The Drum, there is a predicted 22% decrease in overall Black Friday spend this year, and, due to lockdown, online retailers will be the big winners. On top of this, there is evidence of customer concern for retailers having possible backlogs and delays on December deliveries, leading to up to 60% of people “front spending” for Black Friday as well as Christmas before lockdown even started in early November.

Here at OnBrand, we’ve focused on the positive, with two keys areas aiming to support this unpredictable change in the market and enable our clients to plan more effectively:

Firstly, we are delighted to have been able to help several independent businesses make the move online – meaning small, high street shops have the ability to now offer either full e-commerce or  click and collect in store services. Not only is this a positive, longer term step forward for so many high street retailers, but in turn has increased their multi-channel customer experience offering and overall brand perception.

Secondly, we are creating informative and engaging content for the shopping centres that we work with. This is done through social media planning and ongoing conversations with their customers. We want to reassure customers that once the centres are up and running again there is plenty of fantastic shopping to be done and increase footfall for independent businesses as soon as lockdown eases.

There are many brands that have seen growth and have been positively affected during the pandemic, whether through offering new safety products, or leisure at home products. Lego, for example, had low stock availability on many lines due to early buying in March, throughout summer and then saw another surge as the new lockdown was announced.

Despite being the most challenging year in retail and a change to the normal Black Friday purchasing patterns, we are still very much here to help businesses either look forward to planning their 2021 activities, or simply get back on track after Lockdown 2.0. We would love to hear about how your business may have been positively impacted during this time, and how being online has enabled a new way of working. Get in touch on sayhello@onbrand.co.uk – we would love to hear from you!

Nov 17
0
person using a tablet

Helping St Albans Businesses Beat The Pandemic

By | Case Study, Digital

There may be a global pandemic but here at OnBrand we are constantly looking for creative solutions to help our customers through the challenges, and navigating many into a new online world by developing cost-efficient digital services to businesses.

We wanted to share some fantastic work the OnBrand team have been up to in the last 6 months:

  • We are working with Waterers Menswear on their brand positioning and social media, and have just launched their new website last week:  https://waterers-menswear.co.uk/
  • We have also created lockdown e-commerce services for a Radlett based caterer who was taking orders via WhatsApp/text message and needed a much better platform: Adam Nathan Catering, https://adamnathancatering.com/
  • For local eco nappy manufacturer based in St Albans, Mama Bamboo, we have updated their Shopify payment portal, homepage design and digital advertising campaigns on https://www.mamabamboo.com/
  • Not ignoring B2B professional services, we have updated branding, new business materials and website design for Harpenden based HR experts https://www.practicalchangepartners.com/
  • We are in the process of creating a brand new tiling website for the owner of Verulam and Ebberns Tiles – all to be revealed shortly to give them a new e-commerce channel, as they currently miss out during lockdown scenarios with the showrooms having to close down

We have also supported numerous local walk-ins and enquiries, totalling around 30 different proposals in the last 3 months!

Right now, we are looking at how we can support Sustainable St Albans by using our experience in retail to create window displays and decals for local independent businesses, as well as providing downloadable Christmas decorations to local parents and communities to display.

We thought this might give you a real-life flavour of how OnBrand have been steadily helping out and invite local businesses to get in touch to see how we can support you and your business moving forward.

Nov 17
0

Be a brand, not just a logo

By | Blog

‘I don’t need a brand, I already have a logo’

We often hear small businesses say these words and feel an inward ‘nooooooooooooh’

The question I’ve asked is “Tell us about your brand”

Not just their business. Not their growth trajectory and sales plans. This will come, of course it’s absolutely essential.  But their brand.

It’s the first question that we ask and in our opinion it’s the most important. So if you take nothing else from this post, it is this:

YOUR BRAND IS YOUR BUSINESS

Why?

Without a clear brand, there is no marketing. Marketing gives you the tools to deliver the message of your brand,but if you don’t know what your brand is then often your advertising will miss your target audience.

Put simply – banging out a load of Facebook ads is unlikely to give you the long term sales and growth that you need. Don’t get me wrong, you have to market through all channels but please think beyond the advertising.

And it’s not just marketing, branding is important because it increases business value, gives employees direction and motivation, and makes acquiring new customers easier – and we all know that last one is the biggie!

So now we’re all agreed that brand is everything how do you go about working out what your business brand is?

It’s worth looking at your own shopping habits and those of your friends to see why you buy the way you do.  Is  there some family loyalty to a certain department store or has your favourite celebrity endorsed a face cream or sometimes do you buy something without even thinking about it?  Research suggests up to 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious.

Princeton scientists have also been researching the emotional impact of marketing and say that first impressions form in less than a second https://instapage.com/blog/emotional-marketing.  So no pressure!

It’s also worth looking at how some of the big businesses are doing it.  My favourite brand at the moment is Aldi. For those who’ve never been (or are hardcore Waitrose and will never switch!), it’s like the new, much better version of Morrison’s but the products are almost identical to the real deal.  However, outside of their business model and ability to reduce prices, the way they have created their brand values, tone of voice and therefore their marketing is what has cut through.  Their core beliefs are around: simplicity, reliability and responsibility. Their logo is a beautiful reflection of this but the values come directly from the business.

So what else do you think about when you hear the word ‘brand’. Perhaps a slogan?

macbook

Nike Just do it, Apple Think Differently and McDonalds are Lovin it.

Do you think Nike just did it?  No, absolutely not.  They spent years developing a brand personality for the business, identifying their audience and creating a unique point of view. As the brand has evolved, Nike associates its products with star athletes; hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. It’s not actually the trainers that sell; people are buying into a brand.

In this day and age we obviously can’t ignore social media – when a tweet from Kylie Jenner leads to snapchat losing 6% of its company value (equating to $1.3 billion) it shows you really can’t afford to.

But think about all the social media influencers there are – they only associate themselves with brands that resonate with them, who have the voice and values that they can connect with.  This is the fundamental of branding – big or small. Without this, it’s impossible to get a clear view on what your business is, who to market it to, how to market it and how to cut through the clutter and junk of the world of social media.

“So how does all this impact my small business?” I hear you say?

Take a minute to imagine your product is a beautiful red vase you are trying to sell. However, someone down the road is also selling a red vase; it’s not quite the same, but from the outside it looks similar.

Branding is about the need to differentiate you from them. How to get your vase to stand out. How to get people to love your vase and how to get people to therefore buy your vase.

A great brand creates trust, loyalty and an emotional connection. The more you know yourself, the more consistent you are, the greater the brand trust. Trusting a brand is at the heart of all of this. If you know your brand and are clear about what you value, this will in turn make it more likely to develop an emotional connection with customers.

So if we start meetings with a question it’s only apt that we finish this with a few more:

  • Who is your ideal customer?
  • If you are an existing brand, what do your customers and prospects already think of you?
  • What is your company’s mission?
  • What makes your brand unique?
  • What is the personality of your brand/what words describe your brand?
  • What are the greatest benefits of your products or services?
Oct 30
0

10 signs your website needs attention right NOW

By | Blog, Digital

If ever there was a time to make sure your website is running to the best of its abilities, it’s now.  With the country in and out of lockdown, the success of your business relies on having an online store-front where your customers can easily shop from, or engage with your services, even when they’re unable to get out and about.

So, how is your website working for you right now?  No idea?  No problem.  We’ve put together a list of 10 signs it may be time to think about giving it some love….

1) Your website pages load…ever….so….slowly….

Does your website seem to take longer than others to load?  Did you know that recent research from The Daily Egg  showed that just a 1 second delay in page load times can cause an average of 7% loss in conversions!

2) Updating your site always seems too complicated

Ever wonder how your competitors seem to be making frequent changes to their marketing messages, whereas you feel like you need a triple degree in computer science just to change an image?  Sounds like the back-end of your website is outdated.  Welcome to the 2020s where you can have the back end of your website built in a user friendly way, so that once it’s ready, you don’t need to keep asking (and paying for!) a tech wizard to make your changes…you can do it yourself!

3) Your site doesn’t reflect your brand personality

If you feel like your site is a bit ‘out of the box’ and doesn’t truly reflect who you are as a brand, now’s the time to give it a refresh.  Your homepage is your online ‘store front’ and if it’s not resonating with your audience, you’re likely to lose them.

4) You have a high bounce rate

A high bounce rate (40% or higher) could be a sign that the design of your site needs a little TLC. Confusing navigation, poor image quality or slow page load times are just a few examples of what could be causing you issues.  Our team of expert web developers often run audits for brands and businesses to help uncover any underlying problems that need to be addressed.

5) Your site isn’t optimised for mobile

Think about it. How often do you visit websites on your mobile vs. your desktop?  Over half of the world’s internet traffic now comes from mobile devices.  If your website is stuck in the desktop dark ages, you 100% need to prioritise making sure your customers can navigate your content from their mobile.

6) Your Google ranking is less than impressive

SEO should never be underrated.  If you’re undetectable on google under the main search terms relating to your brand/business, you need to do something about it now. SEO issues are common, but what many don’t realise is that they can be solved fairly easily by someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to content, design and userbility (Enter Stage Right: OnBrand 😉 )

7) Your homepage is a bit…blah..

Your homepage needs to immediately capture the attention of your audience from the moment they arrive on your site.  If it doesn’t, you’re at risk of both your crawl-rate and the number of pages your visitors view significantly reducing.

8) You have poor conversion rates

Does your website provide plenty of conversion opportunities?  Do you have email sign-ups and enticing Call-To-Actions?  If you have a great product or service but your site isn’t driving sales, perhaps it’s time for an audit to work out why people aren’t converting and at which stage they’re exiting.  Once you’re armed with this insight, we can then help you work on the areas that need addressing…KA-CHINNG!!

9) Your site isn’t secure

If your website URL doesn’t start with https:// it means that you’re not following security protocol, and it could be causing serious harm to your SEO.  This is an easy one to fix, but a big deal!

10) You need new functionality

When was your website built?  Do you feel it’s a bit of a dinosaur in comparison to others you interact with?  Web technology has moved on a lot in the last year or so, so it’s important you stay on top of the latest tools to drive your business forward; think, eCommerce checkouts, online booking functionality, and custom web forms….of course, OnBrand can help you sort any of these, and more!

Has this list given you food for thought?  If it’s got your brain whirring in overdrive thinking about all the different things you need to address across your website, panic not.  Our expert team of friendly web developers can help you hatch a plan to get everything optimised for success.  Get in touch for an informal chat: sayhello@onbrand.co.uk

Oct 26
0

SUCCESS! How we increased organic REACH on our client’s instagram account by 2548% in just 3 months

By | Case Study, Social

Earlier this year, an Essex shopping centre came to us, as they had BIG plans for their Instagram, and challenged us to work up a strategy which would:

  1. Evolve the look & feel of the grid, creating premium & professional content that would resonate with their audience
  2. Increase reach and engagement by:
    • Engaging with their  community not only on their own page, but within the wider local Instagram community
    • Posting insta stories which highlight our retailers’ offerings, in a fun & engaging way.
  3. Grow their follower base, focusing on an audience within the local community

These challenges were RIGHT up our street and so we, of course got ‘to it’ straight away…

Our Approach

Challenge 1: Evolving grid content…

Whilst previous content had been informative, when it all sat alongside each other, together on the grid, it lacked an aesthetic ‘flow’ which prevented it from looking premium.  With our new approach we ensured we incorporated bright and bold imagery with colours and tones linking across each piece of content. Additionally, we added branding to each post to help raise the centre’s profile and give it a professional ‘sign off.’

It was vital that we created content that not only looked great, but resonated with the client’s audience and was, of course, relevant to their offering.

Having run our client’s facebook and twitter social platforms for a while, we had insight into the content themes and topics which resonated with their audience.  We used this insight to help us plan each post, ensuring each piece of content also related back to shopping centre and its retailers.

A key take-out, for Instagram,  is that it’s vital to think ‘consumer’ first and ‘business’ second.  Why? If you think about it, consumers scroll through their feed at speed and you have less than a second to grab their attention.  If your content is too business-centric, it’s likely to pass the consumer by.  If, however, you use imagery and content themes that appeal the consumer’s needs, wants or passion-points, you’re more likely to grab their attention.  You can then add your comms message into the copy once they’re engaged.  Simple when you know how, hey?

Challenge 2: Increasing reach & engagement…

One of the main client objectives was increasing reach and awareness of the shopping centre within the local community.  This objective was tied closely with engagement, as in order to truly reach the locals, it was important to be engaging with them….after all, Instagram is a social platform!

Our main strategy to achieve this was to raise the shopping centre’s profile by following local businesses and people and doing daily outreach, where we would look for conversations where it seemed natural for the shopping centre to comment on outsideof their own grid.

We followed local hashtags and dedicated time each day to joining in the local conversation so that we would reach and engage with as many people as we could, particularly those not yet following us.

It wasn’t long before we noticed a huge increase in conversation and other local pages tagging the shopping centre….scroll on to see the incredible results!

We also started posting daily insta stories for our client in order to further reach the community and ensure the shopping centre was always top of mind, appearing at the top of users’ homepage on Instagram.

We created a series of branded and eye-catching templates which encouraged the client’s audience to interact with them….

Ultimately, the new story content formats:

    • Drove engagement with the local community – giving their audience fun, added value to interact with
    • Enable the centre to support their retailers in a more engaging way
    • Allow the centre to show how the strive to be a part of the wider local community

Challenge 3: Growing a local follower base…

Our final challenge was to grow a local follower base for the client.   Our strategy for this was really based on the success of the content we were producing and our success at engaging and reaching the local community.   Why?  Our logic is, if you are authentically engaging with your audience and creating relevant content that resonates, the follower numbers will look after themselves….and they certainly did in this case….scroll down for the results.

The bit you’ve all been waiting for: the results…

Well, it’s fair to say, the new Instagram strategy was a success.

We ran the new strategy for 3 months before looking at the results compared to the previous 3 months and this is what was achieved:

Pretty chuffed, doesn’t come close.

There are few things we love more than driving results that deliver for our clients.  If you’d like to discuss how we can do the same for you, get in touch to arrange a friendly chat with our Social Media team!

Oct 19
0
success story written on a chalk board

Success Story: Developing Brand and Comms Strategy for St Albans based HR business ‘Practical Change Partners’

By | Case Study

Whilst 2020 has been a bit of a topsy turvy year so far, we have to say that, we’re also incredibly lucky that it’s brought us some incredible new clients; one of which is Practical Change Partners, an HR Solutions company based in St. Albans.

We first met HR gurus, Claire and Jo, the owners of Practical Change Partners way back in January at a ‘Jelly’ networking event where they introduced themselves and told us how they had been finding it a struggle to articulate their business proposition.  At the end of the event, Emma offered to help them work through their business storytelling over a coffee at the Slug and Lettuce (which happens to be just opposite our office FYI….we’re always very happy to take prospect & current clients out for a coffee/cocktail to discuss their marketing challenges!).

All it took was Coffee and a chat…

At the end of the meeting, we identified that their main challenge was defining succinctly how they had helped HR Directors with organisational change and people challenges – they tended to arrive to complete one task and continue working across all HR and change areas of the business, which was tricky to explain in an elevator pitch!

We’re pleased to say that Claire and Jo felt in safe hands and enlisted the services of the OnBrand team to help them develop their comms and marketing plans.

The Approach: Looking through the eyes of the Consumer…

We needed to help Claire and Jo get their comms right, so that businesses could easily understand their offering and feel assured that, working with them, would mean working with two highly experienced HR professionals.

We really like the idea of positioning Claire and Jo as the ‘glue’ to help fix the gaps in the HR Director’s day to day delivery – whether through being in too many meetings, not quite having the right team to deliver, or simply needing experienced HR professionals to take on the challenges and get board level buy-in to deliver new data systems, leadership training or recruitment programmes.

Next, we established that the overall reason for businesses to invest in the services of Practical Change Partners; it became clear that this was, ultimately, to achieve accelerated business success.

Once we had defined the ‘what’ and why’, we decided there was a need to break things down even further in order to make their offering as consumer friendly and easy as possible to digest.

With this in mind, we created 6 core product areas to explain each separate HR discipline that Practical Change Partners could help with so that businesses can easily identify which area of their specialism is most likely to help them.  Sometimes it’s about putting yourself in the shoes of the consumer and working out what they need to see and understand, in order to make an investment decision.

Finally, we redefined their proposition from a general sounding ‘HR & Change Solutions’ to a more end-goal focused ‘Joining the dots on your HR strategy: We turn complex people challenges into accelerated business success’ – elevator pitch = nailed!! 😉

Once the positioning was agreed and we had clear consumer-friendly content pillars, it was time to get busy bringing everything to life across the Practical Change Partners marketing channels.

  • We updated their website from a simple 1 page brochure style structure to bespoke pages and site navigation that promoted their 6 core product areas, with an improved customer proposition and journey for prospects arriving at the site to understand what they could deliver, past success stories and high profile customer testimonials to reinforce their expertise and delivery
  • We updated plug-ins, created SEO improvements and developed more detailed editorial copy to improve organic page ranking, as well as engaging content
  • We created a 1 pager PDF as a new business tool, plus a rebranded PowerPoint deck that could be used for client proposals and further explanations of the company proposition.

Practical change partners website

Then it was time to tell the world….

  • We then moved on to social media strategy, creating brand content pillars, rebranding the LinkedIn company and personal pages, and developing a content plan that could easily be delivered alongside their day to day client work.

The Results: Drum Roll Please….

LinkedIn followers grew from 431%  (and counting!) in just the first month!

That’s not all though, we’re pleased to say we now have the pleasure of working with this dynamic duo on a retained basis on their new business growth strategy – right now, we’re focussed on helping them target  specific industry sectors using things such as past case studies, customer testimonials and topical introductions…busy busy!

2 More Happy Customers…

Here’s what Jo from Practical Change Partners had to say about working with OnBrand….

“We are a relatively new business, and one of our challenges was how to get clear on our brand proposition so we could explain our products to potential clients.  On Brand helped us explain our offer and develop our brand, collateral and contact strategy.  What has worked really well is their ability to chunk the work into straightforward and logical steps while challenging us to take brave steps forward.  Together we have tackled website content, LinkedIn following and direct marketing in ways that work for us from a time, cost and confidence perspective.  

 I would highly recommend them to any business looking for a fresh, innovative way of creating the right brand messaging.  Experts in their field, they are challenging, positive and encouraging and we have been really happy with the progress we’ve made.”

We’re pretty chuffed to be working with Practical Change Partners too…

OnBrand Director, Daniel Graham says,

“We’re delighted to broaden our local St Albans client base, particularly in the B2B sector, and Practical Change Partners were one of our first new local clients as soon as we moved our agency to St Albans. They are a delight to work with as their marketing partner, and we look forward to helping them expand their business over the next year”

So there you have it.   Another St. Albans success story.

If you’d like to be our next success story, get in touch for an initial chat….drop us an email: sayhello@onbrand.co.uk or give us a call on 03333 220022……(and, importantly,  don’t forget to tell us whether you’d rather meet for coffee or cocktails 😉 )