All Posts By

Marijean

Apr 19
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The Value of a Fresh Pair of Eyes

By Communications

A client told us a horror story from her previous job. The team was preparing an annual report. They looked at it and looked at it, making minor edits and proofing and at last, approved it and sent it off to the printer. “When the finished report arrived the last name of a major donor had been cut off!” she said. A total nightmare for anyone in fundraising!

We know how hard it is to see errors when you’ve been looking at the same document over and over. We don’t trust our own eyes to a final proof and dedicate a fresh pair of eyes to content going out to the world. That means an editor and proofreader who has never seen the document before will give it the once-over before it gets published. Errors are caught!

If your team could use extra arms, legs and yes, EYES, Jaggers Communications has a team of people who can give your documents that last, all-important look. It’s worth the investment.

Mar 23
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Marketers: Be Mindful of Mother’s Day

By Marketing, Social Media

There’s an opportunity to earn respect and brand recognition through offering NOT to contact customers and truly, it’s refreshing. The latest marketing bandwagon has brands reaching out offering to allow customers to opt out of Mother’s Day marketing. 

Why is this a good idea?

First of all, Mother’s Day is a tough, sensitive holiday, invented by the greeting card companies and fraught with grief and pain. Mother’s Day, more than many other commercial holidays, really seems to hit a lot of people in a particularly tender spot. Also, after two years of a deadly pandemic, many of us are grieving and a reminder of that isn’t helpful. By allowing consumers to take a pass on the flowers and breakfast-in-bed marketing content brand are demonstrating listening to consumer needs and registering an attitude of caring.

Now, for some cynicism.

If you decide to opt out, know that you’re providing data to these companies, letting them know whether Mother’s Day content is even worth the budget. Perhaps it’s not. Or, they will repackage the content or special offers in another way, on another date, just to make sure they haven’t lost your attention.

Do it anyway.

Consumers like it when brands care, and will remember the first few that ask and offer this opt out option. If an opt-out outreach doesn’t fit your marketing model and you’re moving ahead with Mother’s Day-related content, think about an acknowledgement that this holiday is difficult for some, and be sensitive to how your content will be received before launching it.

What will you do? Will you adjust your marketing plans or social media posts? Will you launch an opt-out campaign?

Jan 06
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2021 in Review: From a Beer Brewed to Pair with Duke’s Mayo to Leadership Changes

By Public Relations

As we begin the eleventh year of business for Jaggers Communications, I can’t help but reflect on our most recent history, the rather unusual past two years. 2020 and 2021 were not business as usual for anyone. For Jaggers Communications and, I imagine, much of the public relations business in general, this is what kind of work dominated:

  • Transitions. It’s always been true that we help clients navigate a change in leadership, crafting the language that communicates consistency, inspires confidence, and reassures an audience that despite (or because of) a change in leadership (or in services), that the show can and will go on, and how. We saw quite a bit of that the past two years and anticipate with the continuing pandemic, impact of climate change, and economic difficulties brought about by the aforementioned, we will continue to provide services related to corporate and nonprofit transitions.
  • Crisis. Ah, yes. There was plenty of crisis work, and not all related to the pandemic, either. We specialize in crisis communications work and while we often get called when the crisis is well upon a client, we are truly thrilled to work with clients to prepare in advance of any crisis which may befall them. It is possible to prepare, and clients are always glad when they’ve taken time in advance to think a potential crisis through.
  • Celebration. It’s not all gloom and hair on fire in the PR world. In fact, we had many reasons to celebrate client successes, then reap the glory as those successes were picked up by national and regional media outlets, increasing their reach and brand recognition. 2021 was a banner year for this and who would have thought a mayonnaise-inspired beer would have been the subject of much of that coverage?

We look forward to seeing what this year will bring, and what surprises might be in store!

 

Oct 19
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When Should Your Organization Conduct a Marketing Audit?

By Marketing

There are a few key stages in which a marketing audit can best benefit your organization.

  1. If you’ve never conducted an audit before, and are unsure how effective your marketing and outreach efforts are, then now is clearly the time to do so.
  2. Are you making a change in marketing and communications staff? If you’re thinking about restructuring, or are at a stage in which you need to hire a new director of marketing, a thorough look at what’s been working and how it aligns with the organization’s goals are in order. It can, as it did in one case recently, inform at what level your new hire should enter the company.
  3. It’s been three years since you last made any changes to your marketing and communications strategy. Every business changes over a three-year period, and the three-year mark is an excellent time to benchmark and set new goals.

But what does a marketing audit include?

This is the process Jaggers Communications employs:

LEARN: We will learn about the organization’s business goals and objectives and the marketing goals and objectives that support the broader goals. We will ask a lot of questions to learn about your customer profile, donors, grant sources, and any other audiences. We’re interested in your long-term relationships, what creates loyalty, and what audiences represent your most recent growth.

GATHER: We will ask for descriptions of all products and services, including information about what has been the marketing focus or prioritization of each over the past three years.

We will ask for access to all available analytics and marketing data for the past three years, your business plan, your milestone tracking sheet, and other benchmark or tracking documentation you have used. We will look at examples of all marketing assets and collateral, including any press releases and earned media.  We will review newsletters, social media accounts, examples of members-only content, and any other forms of communication that were used in the past three years.

REVIEW AND ANALYZE: We will review all of your data and materials, draw conclusions from what we observe, and provide a report that analyzes strengths and weaknesses of your marketing efforts.

If you’re interested in learning more, please get in touch.

Jan 19
Love1

In Crisis Communications, Transparency is Key

By Crisis Communications

The worst messages in a crisis are those that are vague, provide incomplete information, and obscure the full message. These messages invite speculation. No, that’s not even the worst of it: they throw gasoline on the fire of speculation. Worse, still is when that message is posted on social media, where commenters behind the freeing veil of the internet feel empowered to invent conspiracies, to make accusations, and thrive on the attention created by the controversy.

Avoid this in a crisis by stating as clearly as you can what happened and why. If you don’t know something, say so. And then, explain that you’re investigating, looking into it, continuing conversations to learn more and (and this is critical) actually do that.

Sometimes there are legal reasons for not offering full transparency, and for that, make sure that your initial message is cleared with your legal team. Perhaps there is no initial announcement or message at all. This could be relevant in a number of scenarios. But when the time comes when your crisis must be shared and addressed with your community in a public-facing platform, be ready to be as transparent and as clear as you can. You’ll be glad you did, rather than spending your time battling the damage to your brand’s reputation, correcting misinformation, and arguing against untruths on a variety of platforms.

Facing a communications crisis now? Call a professional communicator or PR person if you lack an internal resource to guide you.