Like a Well-Oiled Machine

There are so many teamwork clichés. “Two heads are better than one.” “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” The list goes on. But we take teamwork very seriously at CMA, especially since developing and executing a marketing plan, for instance, often entails a lot of moving parts. It’s extremely hard to be creative without different sounding boards to bounce ideas off of. For us, it’s three basic ideas that define our teamwork philosophy:

Brainstorming
Last week alone, CMA held multiple brainstorming sessions for different client projects. These sessions are often interdisciplinary, where it’s common for someone from the PR department to contribute to the development of an ad, or an event planner to sit in on a marketing strategy session. We look for fresh perspectives and draw on the experiences of one another regularly.

Quality Control
Every piece, whether it’s a press release, a capabilities brochure or website home page, is circulated to different members of the account team to ensure quality. Each team member takes time to review the material and add suggestions. With this process in place, a consensus is formed, quality is assured and the final product presented to a client is a collective team effort.

Responsiveness
People go on vacations, get sick and take business trips—it’s a part of life. But we never want a client to feel their needs have to wait until their main contacts are back in the office. Prior to any anticipated travel, CMA team members work out who will provide back-up coverage to assist with certain projects. These support people are brought into meetings and cross-trained on time-sensitive projects early on to ensure they can take the reins when needed.

Client service is a huge priority at CMA and the foundation for it is an organized game plan. After all, clichéd or not, TEAM really does spell out “Together Everyone Achieves More!”

Jeffrey Barnhart
President and CEO
jbarnhart@cmasolutions.com

Keeping Things Fresh

It’s August and the summer is still in full swing, but that doesn’t mean you should stop thinking about ways to continuously keep your marketing efforts fresh. Now is the time to evaluate your company’s marketing vehicles, as they are the drivers for increasing your visibility in the marketplace and bringing in new customers. Consider looking at the following areas of your business, so that come September, you can put your best marketing foot forward.

Key messages. Examine your company’s key messages and make sure they continue to accurately represent your company’s brand and products and services. If this has changed, bring together an executive team to determine what has changed and how these need to be altered to help move the company forward. Many CMA clients have taken advantage of our strategic marketing process called Marketecture(TM), which helps companies focus on outside forces that may be affecting your customer base as well as determine key message alterations to communicate better.

An example of a recent logo update for Homasote, the 101 year old manufacturer of building and industrial packaging products made from 98 percent recycled materials, which was the result of a Marketecture session:



Website. Your company’s website is the main information source for your target audience and the destination for all things associated with your business. Do you have current case studies showcasing your products and services? Are there up-to-date testimonials from clients? Does your newsroom reflect all current media placements and press releases? Evaluate how current the information is on your website with an experienced marketing team that can help add any items that will enhance the visitor’s experience, including social media “widgets” and other new media tools.

An example of a website redesign that helped strengthen a client's brand with rotating images and a cleaner design:



Sales materials. Determine if your sales materials truly showcase your company’s products and services. These materials aid your team in the overall sales process and help your company stand out from the competition. A seasoned team like CMA can help you stay current and creative while still making sure your information and visual imagery accurately showcase your products and services’ capabilities.

An example of a suite of sales materials designed for ESI Lighting, a manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting technologies:



Need help keeping your company’s marketing efforts fresh? Send us an email today.

Erin Higgins
Director of Marketing Services
ehiggins@cmasolutions.com