A Reflection of 2021
2021 has been a huge year for KMG - we have now worked with over 50 clients, and our team is a crew of 13 talented marketing and communications pros! We continue to be inspired by and learn from the entrepreneurs we work with. On any given day, we are thinking about laser-shooting robots, commercial real estate, quantum computing, pay equity, dog care, work/life productivity and communication, property management, wearable technology - and that is just our average Tuesday! What a gift to be able to learn about all of these different categories and companies.
Another gift that comes with that is what our friends in Venture Capital like to call “pattern matching.” A few key themes have emerged for us this past year which have shaped the work we are doing.
Successful companies are leading with the customer
Whether early stage or established brands, the clients we work with who have real traction put their customer at the center. They have done the work to be clear on who their customer is, what their core pain points are, and how their company uniquely solves a customer problem. This guides all of the decisions they make, from product to customer service to marketing and communications. This also accelerates product-market fit -- when you build from the customer need, you aren’t force-fitting your product into the market. You are simply offering a great solution.
To this end, we have “productized” our brand offerings, with a new brand development package that includes creation of your brand’s mission, customer personas, brand strategy framework, and a customer journey workshop. From there, we build out a plan on how to define and activate your brand. Clients walk away from this six-week exercise with a clear understanding of who they serve, brand positioning and messaging, and a prioritized marketing plan to accomplish their goals.
With the addition of Steve Sack (a digital marketing guru who also teaches at the University of Washington), we are also developing a 90-day test & learn sprint, focused on early stage companies who need strategic and practical support on customer acquisition, understanding their acquisition costs, and trying to figure out the best use of their (often very limited) marketing dollars. At this stage in a company’s development, it can be challenging to find the right resources to fly at both a strategic and tactical elevation, and we are able to fill in those gaps and accelerate learning.
In today’s media landscape, flexibility is the key to success.
The media landscape is getting more challenging by the day. Reporters are overwhelmed, and who can blame them? The news cycle is moving faster than ever even as newsroom resources shrink. With venture funding announcements abound, the threshold for attaining media coverage is higher than ever. We’ve seen a few key practices make the difference when it comes to getting coverage for company news:
Be Flexible. We have seen great success placing stories when we can be flexible with an announcement’s timing and work with a particular reporter’s availability. It also goes a long way in establishing an ongoing relationship between the company and the reporter.
It’s More than the $$$. With so much money moving around the start-up scene, it's the whole story that really counts. The innovation, and the problem companies are solving for, that’s what sets them apart in a crowded media landscape.
Corporate Announcements Can Happen on Days Other than Tuesdays. Christine Hall from TechCrunch said it best in this Twitter thread, and her colleague Mary Ann Azevedo said what we all feel from time to time. Did we mention the importance of flexibility?
With these learnings in mind, we have also productized a funding announcement offering within our PR and Communications practice. We view funding announcements a little differently. We think of them as corporate milestones, and a critical opportunity for establishing a public record, whether a company is just getting off the ground, or building momentum. As part of our offering, we help our clients develop a strategic communications plan, build a custom media list, media train executives, and craft key corporate messaging to drive a compelling business narrative around the news. Our process helps make the most of the milestone, and we’ve had some great success landing stories of record for our clients this year.
We look forward to working together in 2022. Thank you for your continued support of KMG - we couldn’t do it without our fantastic clients and supporters!