How do you ensure your brand story gets heard? What does a multi-channel approach look like in the real world?

As has been discussed elsewhere in our newsletter, how do you ensure your brand story gets heard? What does a multi-channel approach look like in the real world? County Broadband, an exciting fast-growing company in Essex, is securing support to build state of the art full-fibre broadband networks across the region to provide a significant digital boost for consumers and businesses. Here’s a sneak-peak at the multi-channel approach being used to deliver its message and secure support for its new service. At the heart of the communications strategy is an understanding of the story, who needs to hear it and where best to reach the right audience:

• Media relations – engaging ‘newsworthy’ content written and shared with regional newspapers. The local media continues to be highly trusted by readers and is a key channel for reaching the right audience. Remember, good quality photography is essential!
• Community engagement – today people are more in touch with their local communities. Village and parish newsletters are an effective way for County Broadband to build relationships with specific groups in each village. This, combined with supporting local events and sponsorship, helps to build credibility and trust in the brand.
• Social media & blogs – thoughtful blog content with impartial advice is highly valued by consumers and also helps to boost a website’s SEO (more on this later). When it comes to social media, the clue is in the word ‘social’. The purpose is to engage, listen and have conversations. Consumers don’t want to buy from companies which ‘sell, sell, sell’. For County Broadband, this involves offering advice and thought-provoking content on the benefits of reliable, future-ready broadband for the region.
• Website, SEO & digital ads – when consumers read about your brand in the paper or on social media, the next likely step is for them to visit your website which is the modern-day shop window. If the website takes too long to load or the information isn’t immediately clear, they will go elsewhere. Optimising your content to provide the best user-experience is therefore essential. Combined with this, digital advertising is an effective way to promote your messages to key groups and direct them to your website to find out more.
• Print marketing – yes, everything is turning digital but there is still very much a place for traditional print marketing. County Broadband’s array or booklets, brochures, leaflets and letters are a great way of reaching ‘hard to reach’ groups with impactful brand content – especially if they are struggling with slow broadband!

Rob Andrews, Head of Marketing and Communications, County Broadband

“One of the things I have noticed about Genesis is their approach to ensure their client is completely satisfied with the outputs generated against the brief provided.

“As an agency, Genesis does aim to work very closely with clients to ensure they meet their goals from a PR and marketing perspective and this is imperative for a lot of marketing teams like ours, which are trying to take very clear and specific messages to target audiences to sell to and educate their audience.

“Genesis has done this very effectively against our marketing strategy, particularly in its approach to targeting PR campaigns on our behalf. This has been very powerful when winning significant and relevant coverage throughout a variety of digital and print media we need to be seen in.”