The following post is courtesy of Diane Harrison who is principal and owner of Panegyric Marketing, a strategic marketing communications firm founded in 2002 specializing in alternative assets.
Much has been published about how to write marketing material- whether in the form of websites, white papers, or other media formats. There are numerous examples of these and many tutorials on how to compose your own individual platform of material that suits your needs.
This short piece is merely a guide post, literally, on how to stay on track and focused on your key messaging regardless of the format within which you are building content. If you follow these 4 Cs in the development of each piece within your platform, the end result will be a cohesive messaging system reinforcing that which you’d like your audience to remember.
CONTENT
Developing a strong message that defines what value you bring to the market is the foundation of any successful platform. Do not minimize the importance of this articulation at the start. If you aren’t specific enough to own the descriptors you have chosen over your competition, whatever else you build upon will have minimal impact in setting yourself apart from the rest. Deciding how you want to build this out in the form of the message structures will follow the creation of this key theme.
CLARITY
Defining your company vision and refining the main points that support this viewpoint is what gives your marketing platform the beginning of its brand identity. Be thoughtful and precise in the way this vision is articulated. If I had a dollar for every fund manager who sincerely declared that their fund ‘seeks to exploit market dislocations where they occur,’ I’d have more money than the fund they sought to build. That is not a phrase any one fund can own successfully, given that thousands of funds do just that in one approach or another.
CANDOR
Honesty is truly the best policy, now and in the future. Know the pros and cons inherent in your business, and own them. Integrity and the ability to withstand hardships and deal successfully with setbacks will convince more investors of your value than tooting your own horn about only the highlights of your business experience. In this world of easy fact-checking, no amount of SEO practice can keep your secret skeletons buried for long.
CONVICTION
As the business leader, you should be your hardest taskmaster. Believe in what you are doing and the process it takes to get there, and set the example for your team from the top. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t delegate the work required to achieve it, but the ownership and the commitment drive should be on display to the entire team on a daily basis. If your focus is always about staying on track, small deterrents will show themselves while still being able to resolve more easily. Course correction to keep the whole team on track builds morale and brand buy-in as well.
There’s nothing revolutionary about these 4 C’s, but keeping them in focus while you are creating the marketing content you want to be known by will ultimately produce a stronger brand for you to continue the build out upon.
Leave a Reply