Carmen Hernandez, Author at Konnect Agency

What’s In A ReDesign? Why Your Website Matters

June 25, 2020 by Carmen Hernandez

A company’s website is their calling card, their first impression to customers – and you know what they say about first impressions. Konnect Agency has gone through some changes over the last 11 years, so it was important for us to re-examine the impression our website was making and how it was representing the dynamic services that Konnect Agency offers. Without further ado, we are pleased to introduce Konnect Agency’s gorgeous new website!

No longer just a PR agency, Konnect Agency has morphed into a full-service brand strategy agency taking an integrated approach to all of our campaigns through traditional and new marketing tactics. With the new initiatives we continue to take on as an agency, we needed a fully engaged website to reflect all the growing capabilities we offer, including brand strategy, PR services and digital marketing.

Before we could start the redesign for our website, we needed to fully understand why it is important for a business to have an informative and engaging website.

Customer Driver

It is incredibly important to have something available to connect your brand to your customers at any time, day or night. By having a website, you are making it easier for your customers to approach you when it is convenient for them – which could be 1 or 2 in the morning! Let us explore convenience a bit more.

Convenience

Convenience is a top priority for customers, especially in today’s climate. The more convenient something is the more likely a consumer is to use it. Your website must be convenient to visit, the contact form on your website needs to be convenient to ask questions, the e-commerce setup needs to be convenient for purchase, etc.

Information Provider

By displaying products and features on your website, customers can get the initial information needed to pursue your services. Many customers make purchasing decisions online and their decisions will be supported because of a brands online presence.

Separates you from your competitors

Having a website is important to beat competition. Through modern SEO tactics like content creation, link building or social media marketing, you can stay on top of competition and attract more customers to your business

The WHY behind having a website is one thing, but does it really make a difference if the website is not positioned well? To answer that question, we turned to our friends and experts at StoryBrand to ensure our website was properly telling the Konnect Agency story. StoryBrand is a framework that helps businesses clarify their message, eliminate confusion, and create a story around their customer.

According to StoryBrand, customers are drawn to clear stories that captivate the human brain and help them thrive. Story formulas teach us where to position our products and services to meet our customers exactly where they are in time. It all starts with a character (our consumer), who has a problem. They look for a guide (Konnect) that will understand the problem and put a plan of solutions together that will push for a call to action, ultimately yielding the results need to solve the characters problem.

For Konnect, our story does not start until we are introduced to the characters problem, which is where our website comes in. It was important for us to highlight our solutions as a guide for our customers so we can be the catalyst they trust to put them on the path to yielding results.

Once we reestablished the purpose of our website and how to formulate the story we wanted it to tell, the next step was finding a partner who could bring it all to life. For this, we turned to the creative digital wizards at Operatic Agency. It was important for Operatic to understand the purpose of rebuilding the Konnect Agency website and while they had ton of great ideas right away, it was essential to get a grasp of our background – what brought us to this point, and what has been done before. A scope of work was created to ensure we were all aligned with the work that would be done and from there a steady timeline of creation was put in place.

The key elements we took into consideration while developing the WHY behind our website and the story we wanted it to tell:

Design: Remember what we said about first impressions? The design of a website needs the three C’s – clear, concise, and consistent. Iconography, language, visual language – from your company logo to the images used in case studies, all need to cohesively tell your story.
Content: Most importantly, the content on your website needs to hold your reader’s attention. Content can include copy, visuals, textual, animation, videos, etc. and all formulate into an engaging user experience. Which brings us to SEO…
SEO: It is a must to have your content optimized for search engines – how else will customers find you before your competitors? Keyword associations throughout the website are key to increasing SEO optimization and the different ways in which your customers will find access to your brand.

After months of extensive work and planning, we are so enamored with the way the redesign turned out. We find it to be visually stunning and informative with clear, concise, and consistent content. The Konnect Agency calling card is complete and we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recreating it!

– Kelly Michelson

The Speed of Change

April 16, 2020 by Carmen Hernandez

As we’ve learned over the past month, nothing prompts change as fast as a global pandemic. In a matter of weeks we’ve seen governments around the world make and implement life-changing decisions, companies go into self-preservation mode and people prepare for the worst by stocking up on supplies we may not have realized were essential until now. Change – a word that people don’t typically do well with or welcome in their lives – is being thrust upon us.

And, much of this change has me thinking. In our line of business, being forced to change is not something new. Media and communications have been experiencing drastic changes for decades. However, the marketing engine of many businesses has been less than willing to adapt to those changes and now it’s suddenly catching up to them. As recently as this week, I was speaking with someone who was telling me all the wonderful things their company was able to achieve through events and sampling in 2004 and the easy media recognition they were able to garner with little to no expenditure. What immediately went through my mind is, yeah 2004. That’s 16 years ago. Boy, do I miss those days. At that point, Facebook was not yet for the masses (it was founded in 2004 but only open to students with a .edu address). Not until 2006 did it become available to the public, and even then it took a couple of years to become completely mainstream as a marketing tool. Instagram was introduced in 2010 and gave birth to the modern-day influencer. So, here we are over a decade and a half later in a world that is being altered practically overnight and we should not be talking about what worked in 2004.

If you hadn’t been paying attention to digital marketing before now, then the fact that worldwide traffic to online entities is quickly approaching an increase of 40% due to shelter in place orders should be enough to force you to get with the program. And, what you’ll find is that Facebook is all pay per play and Instagram (acquired by Facebook in 2012 for a jaw-dropping $1 Billion) is following suit; people are starting to embrace Tik Tok (founded in late 2016 in China and rolled out to the world in 2017) as a potential new frontier for marketing and advertising, and in-person meetings have been replaced by Zoom. The way we communicate with people and reach the customer has changed forever and will continue to change and adapt. So adapt we must.

As marketers, we understand the need to embrace change and constantly adjust to the new way of doing things, and sometimes we take brands with us kicking and screaming because we know those who don’t evolve will be left behind. Truly successful brand campaigns (before COVID) are paying attention to the entire customer awareness funnel. They are taking a 360-degree view of where they can build their raving fan culture. It’s no longer enough to reach someone once at a sampling event or be newsworthy for a moment. In this day and age, a brand needs multiple touchpoints and the support of various opinion leaders to be successful. Content, whether from the brand or from creators, needs to be the driving force and requires a sound digital strategy including social media, website, e-mail, advertising, etc. Most importantly, this content, and everything the brand has to offer a customer, has to be perceived to provide VALUE.

The biggest change that has taken place in the past few weeks is that this last piece, the value you offer, has become the foundation for any brand to survive. It’s no longer about a full tactical approach (although I’d argue that getting fully up to speed on digital and e-commerce is crucial). It’s also about how marketers see their customers as humans and how much we are willing to do to make real connections with them and give them what they want and need. So, not only is it that something that worked previously won’t work today, it’s very likely it won’t work in the near future or it won’t work in the same way. Marketing as a whole is forcing us to be extremely agile and flexible to be successful. It’s my suspicion that we’ll be seeing changes that happen much faster and even more drastically so that what we did in 2004 will seem downright quaint. The winners will be those who are willing to change and possibly forget what worked in the past. So, let’s do this together. Let’s be daring and adventurous and create meaningful ways to do business for the long haul.

A “Temporary Normal” Demands New Marketing Tactics For the Long Haul

April 16, 2020 by Carmen Hernandez

The impact of COVID-19 is far-reaching and unlike anything we’ve experienced before as marketers. And, as we take stock of how it is impacting business, we observe that many were not prepared for the direction commerce has taken. A key factor in adapting is the ability to develop contingencies to mitigate loss, most of which are found online. As an agency supporting businesses in consumer packaged goods, franchise and lifestyle, we’ve spent years anticipating how the growth of digital channels will impact business, and even so we are struck with how quickly, practically overnight, digital marketing has become an imperative.

In the recent weeks, companies have realized the importance of digital marketing as their audience has largely shifted their time and wallets to online. This major change in consumer behavior has led us to examine the ways we can help our clients approach social media, digital marketing and influencer partnerships to ensure these new sales funnels grow and develop into permanent solutions. Some key principles to consider:

It’s Time to Get Personal

As humans, we are changing how we view the world almost overnight. As marketers, these personal changes are forcing us to examine our role in helping businesses evaluate their message and lay the foundation for what’s next. More than ever, we need to put empathy, values and service to others first. The formulas we used prior to this pandemic will not work. People are seeking out brands that make them feel connected and valued as customers, so how you speak to a customer who is dealing with personal struggles associated with their new normal is more important than ever. We help clients identify brand narratives, messaging strategies and digital content approaches that consider consumer mindset and the true value you can offer.

As events continue to unfold and the foreseeable future appears to include more staying at home, it becomes increasingly crucial to focus on the emotions we are all feeling and building content that connects people around our shared experiences. Hiring influencers to deliver your message, developing video content or creating live content opportunities are all ways you can transition into meeting the needs of your audience. Combined with a refresh of existing content through editing and creative graphics you’ll be telling a new story in no time.

Now Is the Time to Try Something New

We know customers can be found online, and we can reach them through a relatable and honest content strategy that will live on a website, social media channels and digital ads, but once we reach them, we need to understand what they want and how they will behave. Now is the time to explore how different approaches and tactics might impact your long-term customer relationship. If your organization previously put token efforts into digital channels because you had built your connection to your customers offline and that had always seemed to work, now is the time to revisit and invest in your online presence and refining what works there. That could be as simple as giving your website a slight refresh to make messaging more current and reduce e-commerce friction or giving your social media content a new perspective supported by paid ad strategies that will drive visibility. Konnect has experience with helping brands develop a purposeful approach to building new customer touch points and we can help you determine what will work best for your brand.

While your brand may already be active online, are you really considering how these activities are driving your customer to make a purchase? Awareness may be solid but developing a stronger connection to sales is the trickier part for brands that have been built for grabbing customers in stores. Now is the time to address the many ways your customer can find you though SEO, e-mail marketing, social media advertising, display advertising, testing new audience targeting methods, etc., and when they do find you, make sure their experience is optimized. Now is the time to address your wish list of e-commerce tactics including setting up an e-mail marketing program, customer support chat or add to cart optimization to ensure that your website to matches or exceeds the in-person experience of shopping at a store.

Extend Your Reach Today for The Future of Your Business

With social distancing affecting our view the world, what we do today to reach our customer can add up to a new insight or innovative way of doing business as events continue to unfold. Developing new approaches and shifting to digital marketing should not serve as an emergency solution, rather it should be looked at to develop long-term value for your business, even if the world eventually gets back to normal. There is great potential to reach your audience in new places by expanding your view of various digital channels (streaming, podcasting, radio), ad formats and targeting methods (demographics, geography, retargeting and remarketing) and exploring where your customer is actually spending their time.

Ask Us How We Can Help You?

While there are many ways you can develop new digital marketing efforts, it’s not a one size fits all approach. As we’ve pointed out, making sure you’re offering your customer value is the first order of business and determining what your true value is may be the biggest hurdle. Additionally, a concept designed to bring in new customers may vary from how you will interact with your existing customers. Offering a personalized approach is our strength, and we can develop a unique and applicable set of tactics for your brand. Our team is always available to provide counsel, brainstorm or simply chat about whatever your distinct issue or opportunity may be. We’re happy to connect via phone or video any time you need us.

How Your Company Can Make Headlines in a News Slump

July 9, 2019 by Carmen Hernandez

The summer news cycle can be a slow one. Unless your company is announcing a c-level hire, funding raise or new product, reporters are difficult to get ahold of. And who can blame them when the days are hot and the Fridays are short? Luckily, public relations professionals have a few tricks up our sleeves to keep our clients in the news no matter what season it is.

Create an Infographic

Infographics are fantastic visuals that help you showcase a process or a problem/solution scenario. What problem does your product or service solve? How can you visualize it in a compelling way? The media loves infographics that easily explain what we’re conveying to them in our pitches, and (if they’re visually appealing enough) are a great image they can add to their articles. If it’s a great infographic, the SEO from the article will help in search engine results and your company can run social media ads to extend the life of the article, increasing the number of eyeballs that come across it.

Commission a Survey

Whether you’re a franchise, an iPhone app or a food product, you have customers. And, like most people, your consumer probably loves talking about themselves. Leveraging a survey that dives into your consumer’s habits, backgrounds and preferences can be extremely valuable to your business and reporters, too. For instance, if a survey finds that 87% of your customers turn toward your product when they’re looking for a mood boost, you can learn how to scale your marketing to better target customers and conduct media outreach to health and wellness reporters. While surveys may come with a price tag, the ROI can be invaluable.

Take a Stance

Reporters love people who are willing to go against the grain and speak their mind. From a PR standpoint, we like to keep this focused on a company’s industry, as opposed to politics or religion. For instance, has a competitor recently gone public through an IPO? What do you think it says about the future of the industry? Do you think innovation should focus on customer acquisition instead of product development? How does that stack up next to your peers in the industry? Think of the status quo in every situation in your business and mull over where you agree, where your opinions differ and why. Reporters love a hot take on a fiery topic. But be sure to consult your publicist first!

Apply for Awards

Research the types of award you’d like to receive based on your area of expertise. Common examples include Best Places to Work, Entrepreneur/CEO of the Year and Product of the Year. Winning an award may not slot you for the next cover of Forbes, but it will put your company on the map for trade publications and can increase your chances of securing future features.

-Emma

The Power of The Influencer

June 25, 2019 by Carmen Hernandez

Working at a social media and PR agency, you get to work with a lot of great influencers. I found this influencer news in the media very interesting and wanted to share! Amazon has decided to take full advantage of the popularity of influencers to create Amazon Drop. Now many companies already use influencers but Amazon is now creating an entirely new brand letting the influencers have control of the partnership to drive their new campaign in the fashion space. The concept is: street style influencers will drop limited edition fashion collections with Amazon. The catch is, you don’t know when they’re going to drop the new line –plus, they are only available for 30 hours! The pieces they are selling are affordable and designed by your favorite influencers. To kick-off this campaign they used: Paola Alberdi. Other influencers committed to the campaign so far are: Sierra Furtado, Emi Suzuki, Leonie Hanne, Patricia Bright. From what I can tell, Amazon’s digital marketing plan includes only working with influencers over 1 million followers. They even have a form to fill out if you are interested in being a part of their new campaign. Better start working on your social media following! What influencer do you think Amazon should partner with next? Will you be picking up any of these stylish pieces?

Amazon Drop changes the influencer partnership game because of the control it’s letting influencers have. In partnerships, typically the brands give influencers the products to promote. Letting the influencer start from the concept to execution gets them more interested, engaged and enticed to promote it authentically. The influencer and brand, in the end, know their branding and audience best and partnering together should be beneficial for both parties. The partnership between an influencer and brand isn’t simply a business transaction, but rather provides an opportunity to gain a genuine relationship with the influencer and their audience. With this in mind, choosing the correct influencer is very important and that’s where Konnect Agency is perfect for the job!

Overall, brands should start thinking more about personalized partnerships like this because of many benefits such as: potentially driving down the cost of a partnership, gaining a more personal relationship with an influencer, influencers potentially being more flexible to contract terms because of their personal investment, gaining back more impressions, selling more product, gaining more buzz, etc. This type of partnership is beneficial for the brand and influencer. I hope to see more brands go this personalized collaborative route in the future.

-Amanda D.

Stay Organized like a PR Professional

June 25, 2019 by Carmen Hernandez

While working at a fast-paced public relations agency can look easy and seem glamorous, the reality is that there can be a lot of chaos happening behind-the-scenes. Juggling clients and editors, securing placement opportunities, attending conference calls and in-person meetings, compiling reports, monitoring the news, and maintaining cohesive strategies can be overwhelming. If we’re not organized, we end the day with an overflowing inbox, post-it reminders covering our monitors, and clutter all over our desk. The best way to combat this stress is by staying organized.

As someone who is constantly reinventing my organization routine, here are some of the practices that have worked the best for me:

Mastering the To-Do List

Start your day off by writing down the tasks you have to do. Once everything is listed out, highlight and prioritize the three to six most important tasks to complete by the end’s day. As you complete each task, cross it off the list. Now let’s say you get to the end of the day and you haven’t completed everything on your list… SHOCKER! Well, it happens to the best of us. It’s OK if you don’t complete everything on your list; in fact, we never finish a to-do list because there is always something to do! There is no shame in rolling it over to tomorrow’s list as long as those smaller to-dos aren’t going to affect a colleague’s workflow or client deliverables.

Calendar Blocking

Another method that works for me is calendar blocking, and it’s very simple. It’s essentially taking the to-do list and setting aside time on the calendar for the task, meeting and/or social event. Rather than seeing your day ahead on a list, you’re viewing it in batches of time. These can be done in 15-minute intervals or every hour block to totally co-ordinate the day ahead.

Trade in the sticky notes on your monitor for calendar reminders

Setting calendar reminders is a great way to stay aware of action items, announcements, and deadlines. The most important part is to make the calendar reminder before you risk forgetting! If an editor has a deadline and needs information by next Friday at 9:00AM PT, set a calendar reminder! If you’re submitting a client for an award and the deadline is on July 10th at 12:00PM ET, set a calendar reminder! If you submitted a byline and the article is expected to publish in their August issue, set a calendar reminder! The truth is, we just can’t remember everything and visual clutter on the desk can be just as stressful — clean space, clean mind.

Go mobile!

Another way to stay organized, especially for teams, is using cloud-based or online services like Quip, Google Drive, Asana, and Slack. This is especially helpful for jobs that require you to travel and work remotely. It’s a great way to ensure that goals and priorities are aligned across the team. It also allows you to keep priorities on the top of mind keeping your to-do list at the ready wherever, whenever. At Konnect Agency, we have teams scattered across the states in different time zones and utilizing these tools allows us to be flexible and stay connected, even when we’re not at our desk.

Schedule Your Outgoing Emails

If you’re pitching editors on a different coast or international time zone, there’s no need to get up at 4 am in order to ensure your pitches are at the top of their inbox. Instead, compose the email in advance and then schedule it to go out on a later date and time. By delay-delivering your email, you’ll have the opportunity to edit later if needed and allow the email to arrive at an optimal time, which reduces the chances your email being missed. You’ll also gain back control or your time and manage your schedule accordingly.

Own Your Inbox

With emails from clients and editors popping up in our inboxes at any time of the day, creating a system can help us stay organized and not feel overwhelmed. For me, in my inbox, I have a folder for each of my clients along with sub-folders for individual client initiatives and opportunities. While I’m going through my emails, should I find something that warrants an action item, I flag it. I also find it helpful when I color code my emails, so I know where projects stand. While every email provider offers different features, you just have to find one or two that works for you. I also find it helpful when I take the time to look through my emails at the beginning of my workday when I create my to-do list and at the end before I leave the office. You’d be surprised what you might have missed when you’re looking at your inbox with fresh eyes!

Staying organized isn’t always easy and it sure doesn’t happen overnight, but once you find a system that works for you, it pays off tenfold in regard to owning the job, not feeling overwhelmed and staying on top of everything! Don’t be afraid to try new methods or evolve your current ones. Happy organizing!

-Yvonne