Straight to the Point

Volume 4, Issue 3

This Issue's Contents:

The Cure for "Blank Page Syndrome"
One of the most valuable services that we can provide our clients is a cure for “blank-page syndrome” – an excruciating, brain-busting experience which, in the context of business, wastes a company's time.

Success Story (Sienna Homes / Halliday Homes )
After purchasing Halliday Homes (a previous Kaszas client), in mid-2008, Sienna Homes turned to Kaszas for a new online presence that would effectively position its newly-expanded company and leverage the sophisticated website content management system that we had created for Halliday.

Lesson Learned (Living Communications Calendars)
We’ve long advocated the use of “living” communications plans to manage marketing and communications activities. When managing these plans via a date-driven calendar, however, it can be easy to lose track of “the big picture.”

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Marketing Communications Smarts from Kaszas Communications

Fall 2008

The Cure for "Blank Page Syndrome"

– by Maria Ford

"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” – Gene Fowler (American journalist & biographer)

I love that quotation! I think we’ve ALL felt that way about a writing task at some point or another. One of the most valuable services that we can provide our clients is a cure for “blank-page syndrome” – an excruciating, brain-busting experience which, in the context of business, wastes clients’ time and energy.

Some of our favourite writing assignments at Kaszas Communications are ones that begin with nothing more than a vague concept or the spark of an idea. We love the work of understanding to whom the piece is aimed and what it needs to say, then digging into whatever information we can find to research and write the piece. We frequently write by-lined articles, brochures, newsletters, websites, etc. sometimes based on nothing more than a “brain dump” from a client.

Often, a client mistakenly thinks that they shouldn’t call us in for writing help until they have a detailed outline or a lot of previously written information for us to cut and paste into something new. Although we often tackle writing projects that require us to assimilate and summarize a huge amount of available information into something more targeted and concise, it’s painful to see a client struggle to create reams of information simply because they think that’s what we need.

In fact, all we need to complete a writing project for you is your idea. We’ll take it from there – we’ll ask the necessary questions and we have many methods of gathering the required information to get the job done. Call us crazy, but we actually think it’s fun! So next time you’re experiencing the pangs of blank page syndrome – or to avoid the symptoms completely – please give us a call!

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Success Story

Sienna Homes / Halliday Homes

After purchasing Halliday Homes (a previous Kaszas client), in mid-2008, Sienna Homes turned to Kaszas for a new online presence that would effectively position its newly-expanded company and leverage the sophisticated website content management system that we had created for Halliday.

As a builder of custom, pre-engineered homes, Sienna Homes caters to experienced homeowners looking for well-built, environmentally efficient homes. At the time it acquired Halliday Homes, however, its website did not speak directly to these buyers and did not position Sienna as a company able to compete with the larger tract home builders in the region. Meanwhile, Halliday needed to be repositioned as a custom home manufacturer that sells through dealers like Sienna, and not directly to homeowners.

With proper messaging, a more sophisticated web design, and a search-engine-optimized site, we believed that Sienna could attract and impress more home buyers. To improve the site, Kaszas:

1. Prepared a new key message strategy for both Sienna Homes and Halliday Homes. This included updated messaging and positioning for both companies, and guided us as we developed new content for each page each website. The key message development process also helped us devise a new tagline for the company: "A home to feel good in."
2. Performed search engine optimization (SEO) research to identify the current search performance of both companies compared to the most popular search terms used online for engineered homes. Based on our research, we developed a list of prioritized keywords that we included in web copy and website metadata to boost each company’s search engine rankings on relevant terms.
3. Created the structure and defined the functionality of a Showcase/Gallery of homes for each website.
4. Helped design a new logo to better reflect the company’s position and focus on green building.
5. Re-designed the websites and developed new content architectures to make the sites more robust and informative.

As a result of these changes, both companies have received positive feedback on their revamped sites, and the professional look and feel of each site has helped Sienna Homes and Halliday Homes compete online with their larger home builder competitors.

Both Sienna Homes and Halliday Homes now have websites that feature attractive designs and branding that accurately convey each company’s brand and business focus. Users see illustrative home page animations that tell each company’s story in user-centric terms, and can now use a “search” feature on the Sienna Homes site. In addition, administrators are now able to easily update dynamic content which may or may not be shared between the two websites – including homes/gallery listings, downloadable resources and news.

Most encouragingly, both Sienna Homes and Halliday Homes are receiving high volumes of qualified web traffic from search engines. Within a month of the new site’s launch, Sienna Homes saw an increase in search engine traffic and learned that visitors to the new website view an average of five pages per visit. This indicates that the site is drawing in new visitors and keeping them engaged once they’ve reached the website. Statistics have also shown that the home showcase has been Sienna’s most popular section of the website – exposing visitors to Sienna’s messaging and showcasing its best properties.

To check out the new Sienna Homes and Halliday Homes websites for yourself, visit: http://www.siennahomes.com/index.cfm and http://www.hallidayhomes.ca

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Lesson Learned

Living Communications Calendars

While a living marcoms calendar is an excellent vehicle for tracking and planning marketing activities, a lesson we’ve learned is that these calendars run the risk of becoming mere holding-places for individual tactics.

Activity-Based Calendars

Certain marcoms activities - like events, press releases, speaking engagements and webinars - occur at a specific time. A calendar is therefore a useful vehicle for planning these events in advance and ensuring that important upcoming events are not overlooked or forgotten.

But a number of marketing activities do not have a specific date on which they must occur. In our experience, this makes it all too easy to simply list these activities in a marcoms calendar and push them forward each month as other “priorities” come up.

Theme-Based Planning

Listed as individual items, marketing activities are easy to skip over or shift within the calendar. But when items are instead grouped by important company themes, or goals it becomes more difficult to ignore or push them off arbitrarily.

We recently helped one of our clients, who uses our Virtual Marketing Manager services, to create a theme-based living marcoms calendar. Working with the client, we identified a number of areas that were of strategic importance to the company in the coming year.  These included “lead generation”, “company awareness” and “branding and messaging”, to name a few.

These high-level goals or “themes” were then placed in the left-most column of the calendar, replacing the individual tactics previously housed in that area. Using the new layout, we were able to group previously disparate marketing activities under each theme.

Effective Organization

By placing a tactic such as “customer interviews” under the “new services awareness” theme, it tied that activity to a stated marketing goal and made it more difficult to put off.

Furthermore, by grouping activities by theme, it became much easier to identify which activities were higher on the priority totem pole than others. Activities that were found not to fit any of the identified themes were re-examined and some were put on hold as a result.

Lastly, grouping items by theme has made it easier for the client to take an at-a-glance look at its marketing program and identify gaps. Themes with few tactical items are now easy to spot, helping the client take action to ensure that its marketing activities are integrated and covering all important bases.

This is just one example. In other cases, we have organized clients’ marketing communications calendars so that all activities in a given quarter are focused around a single topic or theme. Organizing the calendar by industry focuses is another way that some companies use it.

If you are having difficulty managing your marketing communications strategy, a theme-based marcoms calendar might help you organize your activities in a more logical fashion and ensure that your tactics are tied into high-level company goals. Contact us for more details!

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