Marketing in the new era of authenticity requires a unique combination of selling and journalism—connecting the story an organization needs to stand out with the useful information that will help customers make better decisions and to build trust. The Engagement Agency brings together experts in marketing, journalism, and every type of medium based on client needs to tell the most effective story in the most authentic and compelling way with a clear return-on-investment. The best marketing identifies and tells your story to the people most likely to benefit from your organization.
The Engagement Agency’s Strategic Communications service helps organizations develop effective content marketing strategies to tell their stories in a way that generates measurable engagement by building trust and willingness to recommend.
Stop selling, start helping. That’s the fundamental premise of the Engagement Agency’s strategic communications group, which includes an incomparable team of marketing and content strategists, story tellers, multi-media producers, available on demand, selected based on the client’s needs and potential return-on-investment of their initiatives.
Crystallizing the authentic unique selling proposition. Strategic communications begins with the truth. Any marketing based on a false promise has little chance of sustainable success unless it can create a community so engaged that their passion defies logical thinking—an increasingly risky model at best in a world of increasing transparency brought upon by social media. The Engagement Agency’s team is particularly well-equipped to identify the essential, authentic story of a brand and help clients make sure they define the metrics and processes they will use to ensure delivery of their promises, without which no marketing campaign can provide sustainable results.
Identifying your story. Out of the unique selling proposition and the needs and psychographics of customers and other stakeholders comes a story that gets told in an ongoing way over time that helps, not sells, to targeted audiences, in order attract views, referrals, and to build trust. This can only happen over time by providing useful information that anticipates customer needs, interests, or desires—insights that come from the expertise of editors and data analysts, not marketers or copywriters. The Engagement Agency draws upon expert editors in all areas of consumer and business under the direction of the overall marketing or business plan to create compelling, engaging, useful, trustworthy content that attracts potential customers and helps them make informed decisions.
Target the most likely people. Profile your most likely prospects and then use multiple available database tools to identify the right audience via whatever media makes sense, transparent e-mails with one-click opt-out and/or social media, but always but with a focus on providing appropriately timed useful information or truly meaningful offers.
Telling the story across the enterprise. Unlike most agencies, the Engagement Agency looks at communications across the organization, including external customers, supply chain and distribution partners, communities, and employees to ensure alignment of expectations.
We identify and support the most effective channels for your business, be they:
• Workforce technologies,
• Videos,
• Face-to-face events,
• E-mail newsletters,
• Social media campaigns,
• Enterprise engagement technologies, or more.
Managed outsourcing of talent. Rather than forcing clients to pay the overhead necessary to support top talent, the Engagement Agency draws upon its decades of experience and relationships in all areas of media to bring just the talent needed to address a client’s needs, including editors and producers with extensive experience in BtoC and BtoB marketplaces, both business and consumer content, and every medium.
Enhanced Sales and Profits Through Effective Communications
The Engagement Agency is uniquely equipped to help enhance the results of communications strategies by ensuring they:
• Align with the organization’s purpose and objectives.
• Have clear metrics aligned with financial goals whenever possible.
• Support the overall brand story.
• Attract visitors and/or help inform them in a way that builds trust before, during, or after the sale.
• Enable the sales and marketing team to share information on social media that people trust and share.
• Engage people based on content so that cookies become less necessary.
• Get delivered in the medium and format appropriate for the audience.
• Take advantage of new Enterprise Engagement technologies that enable management of engagement across the enterprise.
• Align with learning, rewards, and recognition, and measurement with the organization’s brand, purpose, and objectives.
• Utilize whenever possible a combination of surveys and behavioral information to provide prescriptive analytics.
The deliverables can include:
• Creation of a formal strategic communications plan with a clear ROI tied to organizational objectives and values.
• Oversight of implementation and measurement.
• Managed outsourcing of content management, development, and implementation across multiple media; analytics; technology; or other engagement solutions, based on client needs.
Senior Advisors
Bruce Bolger, Founder, The Enterprise Engagement Alliance at TheEEA.org.
Bolger has dozens of years in content marketing, having founded the Selling Communications business development company in 1995 and the Sales Marketing Network online service that exists today as EnterpriseEngagement.org.
Allan Steinmetz, President & CEO, Inward Consulting
Steinmetz is a pioneer in internal marketing. As a change management, marketing/advertising communications/branding executive, he has partnered with C-suite and human resources leadership teams to develop strategic brand repositioning, corporate value propositions, and effective internal communications. This includes identifying the corporate culture, purpose, and mission to transform behavior and enhance the company’s image. He helps organizations, large and small, empower their employees to become outstanding brand advocates to improve customer experiences, employee engagement, improves loyalty, and grows revenue. His clients have included Walmart, McDonald's, Fidelity Investments, Little Debbie Cakes, and others for the last 21 years.
Our Content Work
Click here for a recent article on effective practices for Strategic Content Marketing in business development.
Print
Consumer
Along with his partner Gary Stoller, a travel, business, and entertainment journalist, his company produced:
Short Escapes by Fodors
Best Beach Vacations by Frommer’s (no longer available)
Guide to Distinguished Restaurants
Great Restaurants of the World
Business
Enterprise Engagement for CEOs
Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap
Incentive Marketing Association Certified Professional in Incentive Management program
Enterprise Engagement Alliance YouTube Channel
Digital and Videos (B2B)
EnterpriseEngagement.org, a web site, e-newsletter, and social media platform founded in 2009 focusing on the “S” or Social of ESG, otherwise known as Stakeholder Capitalism.
EEXAdvisors.com, a marketplace of Enterprise Engagement solution providers.
RewardsRecognitionNetwork.com, a web site, e-newsletter, and social media platform founded in 1996 focusing on Total Rewards.
BrandMediaCoalition.com, a marketplace of leading brands serving the corporate market.
Training videos on recognition, including an Introduction to Best Practices and Do’s and Don’ts.
Managed Outsourcing Partners
While the Engagement Agency always acts in the best interests of each client based on their needs, including trying to leverage their legacy technologies and other practices when possible, the Engagement Agency’s managed outsourcing partners have invested in elevating their capabilities to meet the growing demand for program design, return-on-investment measurement, support of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles, and educating their teams on the principles of Enterprise Engagement.
EGR International is probably the first agency serving large corporations to focus on an enterprise approach to engagement, i.e., the process of engaging different types of stakeholders and the technology required to manage 365-degree engagement processes. It includes a full-service in-house creative agency that produces face-to-face, virtual, digital, and print media.
Lorandus is a full-service B2B communications company specializing in face-to-face and virtual communications platforms and year-round incentive and recognition services powered by ROI-based strategies, effective design, story-telling, and Enterprise Engagement technologies.
Luxe Incentives is a woman-owned incentive, recognition, and B2B loyalty company that utilizes the latest engagement technologies, programs, and face-to-face events to achieve key business objectives through engaged employees, distribution partners, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategies.
Rufhaus is a woman-owned brand strategy and implementation with extensive branding, design, publishing and social media experience in business-to-business, engagement, travel and leisure, and more. Ruffhaus' DiverCity service supports Employee Resource Groups with branding, social media, and other outreach services.
In addition, the Engagement Agency has relationships with dozens of senior producers and writers in every type of media based on client needs.