Jonathan Sharp

A Strategic Rebrand for Global Legal-Tech Leader

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 5 months ago

The Challenge
FileMan was an established brand in the legal-tech sector, but a complicated brand architecture and outdated brand identity was holding them back from their true potential.
Managing three separate product brands had become a struggle as they penetrated new international markets, and the customer journey had become increasingly complex.

Our Approach
We ran strategy workshops with the Executive Team, looked at their target audience and marketplace trends, before making a recommendation to simplify their brand architecture, under the new name File Republic. Adding three focused products, ‘Storage’, ‘Security’, and ‘Productivity’ to sit under the new brand.
Distilling their value proposition to the simple and effective “Digital Privacy & Productivity for Law Firms” created an immediate benefit to stakeholders, who were able to envision a future where the product streams could combine to create greater customer value.

Emanating from the workshop were three values unique to the organisation – ‘Bold’, ‘Strategic’ and ‘Collaborative’ – and these were the foundation for the identity brief.
A bold freeform gradient shape was used as the main distinctive brand asset, and headlines such as “Lock up your files. Unlock your potential” and “Advantage so good. It doesn’t feel legal”, were created to disrupt the sector and assist with competitive differentiation.

The Marketing Room delivered the strategy, liaising with key stakeholders, and assisted with art direction, copywriting, communications strategy, and marketing communications planning, all while keeping third-party costs low, utilising our nationwide supplier network.

The Result
Launched to much fanfare internally and within the international legal sector, the strategy behind File Republic has already assisted with:
• Simplifying the customer experience.
• Focusing internal resources on solving customer problems.
• Enhancing their employer brand and attracting talent.
• Enabling customers to explore the entire product range.
• Stepping toward an even more consolidated future.
• Removing the costs associated with maintaining three brands.

Sean Conroy, File Republic Group CEO said “Geoff has quickly become a trusted advisor to our Executive Team, and his strategic brand advice has enabled us to transform our organisation for the future.
Partnering with The Marketing Room has been a catalyst to put in place a brand strategy that has reshaped our brand architecture, product suite, team culture and customer experience.
In only a few months we’ve seen noticeable results and we’re looking forward to growing the File Republic brand in new international markets.

It’s astounding how Geoff was able to grasp the complexities of our market, our organisation, and our product, and translate that into a strategy that ignited such passion in our team from top to bottom.
It’s been a great experience and a partnership that we’re looking forward to continuing”.

If you’re looking for help to achieve long term growth for your organisation we can help.

Ways to use marketing to quickly scale your web traffic

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 1 year ago

Ways to use marketing to quickly scale your web traffic.
The impact of the pandemic on businesses over the last couple of years has been devastating. Still, if there is one silver lining, this has shown us all the importance of being agile and ready to capitalise on opportunities as they present themselves. We are now 3 months into 2023, and now more than ever, having a comprehensive marketing strategy gives you an edge in today’s competitive market.
In this blog, we will focus on how leveraging effective marketing practices can drive more web traffic to your site and help scale your business for the future. Whether you’re a small business or have teams across continents, implementing these strategies can immediately impact your online presence right away.

1. Understand the latest consumer trends and how to leverage them
Holy heck, how can anyone keep up with the latest trends?
Twitter to Facebook, Instagram carousels to Reels, TikTok back to Snapchat, back to static images, for all we know, the next trend will be dial-up internet and yellow pages advertising.
Staying on top of the ever-changing consumer trends can challenge businesses.
The answer is… What you like isn’t important; what your customer likes that matters.
How do you do this?
Write out your current customer journey, where they are coming from, their pain points, and their buyer persona.
You need to analyse your existing points of contact to find out which trends are having the biggest impact on your target audience so you can ensure you get the most bang for your buck when leveraging the latest trends. This also saves money when investing time in the latest big thing.
TikTok takes a lot of time and might not reach your target audience, so do you invest time and money on a tool that is more for vanity than ROI?

2. Utilise artificial intelligence to maximise customer engagement
While AI can not replace Marketing Managers or Content Managers, it can help them save hours a week.
Utilising AI within marketing strategies can maximise customer engagement, ensuring businesses connect to their target audiences more effectively and efficiently.
AI can help businesses determine which campaigns will have the highest success rate, decreasing time wasted on unsuccessful plans and enabling well-thought-out, high-converting strategies.
The ability to utilise AI means that businesses can now acquire real-time information about their customer base, allowing them to update their marketing plan accordingly and identify any immediate changes that need to be made to reach maximum effectiveness. We recently found a new app that will save hours of our own time editing and uploading podcasts. If you want to start a podcast, we recommend https://www.descript.com/
Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want more time in their day?!

3. Establish a strong presence on social media platforms
With social media taking over the digital space, setting up your company on those channels can be overwhelming.
But don’t worry – taken step by step, it doesn’t have to be intimidating! Your first step is to just get started.
You can choose which platform or platforms to start with, such as Facebook and Twitter, if you’re targeting a B2C market or LinkedIn for a more professional market. Creating content that resonates with your target audience is essential- focusing on interesting and relevant topics to keep followers engaged.
Spend some time exploring your competition’s social media for posts ideas that may work best for you.
Have fun, be creative and play around with each platform’s different tools!

4. Create personalisation through client communications and campaigns
Personalisation is a crucial factor in any client communication, no matter your industry or product offering. It can effectively create connections with audiences and increase engagement around your emails. It doesn’t have to involve a huge overhaul of your current strategy, though – small details with big impacts, such as addressing the recipient by name or tailoring the tone of your emails to fit the individual, are great places to start. Need more ideas? Consider segments tailor-made for specific customer types, automated send times based on recipient preferences and automatic recommendations based on previous purchases. Whichever route you take, personalisation through email campaigns shows that you care about your customers and want to give them the best experience they can get – so make it count!

5. Invest in content creation that is optimised for SEO
Whether you read this or not, this is part of a successful SEO strategy.
If the content is considered “King”, relevant and SEO-driven content is Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran with a splash of Harry Styles.
With great content, you can boost your page rankings, increase website traffic and enhance customer experience by providing valuable insight or advice. Investing in content creation optimised for SEO means that you’ll have the edge over the competition and ensure that your audience can find your web pages quickly and easily.
Boasting user-friendly navigation, helpful information and fresh copy, you can use strategic keyword placement to increase visibility and analytics tracking to analyse performance. Take the plunge today and invest in great content – your website – and search engine rankings will thank you for it!
And a top tip that will boost your website immediately, make sure you have a current and active sitemap on your website. You might not know what that means but Google uses it to find your information.
FINALLY but if you don’t have time to do any of the above, of course, this is our time to give ourselves a cheeky plug and recommend our services but also

6. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and fast loading
When building your website, remember to make sure it’s optimised for mobile!
With a fast-paced business life, people rely on their mobiles to Google, Bing, and Duck Duck Go and upload their lives to social media.
Ensuring that your website is mobile-responsive is essential for success.
A fast-loading website is essential as today’s internet users have little patience for waiting and will likely move on to another if a page takes too long.
Many search engines consider website speed in their ranking algorithm — using a slow site could result in ranking lower in search results! To make sure your site is up to standard, use resources such as Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights to check your score.

If you’ve made it this far, well done you; you are already ahead of the game. Now if you want to chat with one of The Marketing Room experts, where we will give you solid tips to improve your current marketplace position.
We may be the in-house business partner you’ve been looking for all along.

The Power of Recurring Revenue: How Subscriptions Can Transform Your Business

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 1 year ago

We all know that one business that pisses you off as a customer but as a business owner, we get it; we’ve all been there. Profit is low, and the pipeline is dead.

The usual way to increase revenue is to get on the phones, cold calling, warm calling, emailing and sending sms’ to the point of overload.

The problem with this tactic is you burn through leads, and unsubscribes and only offer yourself fluctuating income growth.

What everyone needs is that steady stream of revenue coming in the door, regardless of sales actively.

So, stop upselling, reselling, cross-selling, and overselling and focus on offering subscription-based services.

We hear you already saying, “but aren’t they only for newspapers, magazines and Netflix” well, let’s be honest, who even buys a magazine anymore, so even they need a new business model?

But did you realise there are one-off high-ticket items offering subscription services now?

BMW now has a subscription service; they are offering customers the ability to switch on and off luxury services like heated seats to get them used to the product and experience while not noticing the $19 a month coming out of their account.

Now think about it, why would BMW worry about a $ 19-a-month subscription? It’s not like BMW need to worry about income, but they have become aware that a set-and-forget constant stream not only stabilises their revenue generation across the year.
While floor sales teams come and go, markets crash, and businesses rely on EOFY sales, the forgettable subscription is here forever.

For a service-based business, you are a mechanic that could offer an oil change or a maintenance subscription.

If you are an online business, you can offer content, support, e-learning and membership subscriptions.
No excuses; find something your customer can subscribe to!

7 Things Every B2B Marketing Plan Must Include

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 1 year ago

Take a moment and cast your mind back.

Back to the 80’s when marketing was simple and was more about sales than branding.
It was a time when you named your business AAA Electricians or A-Z bookkeeping so that you were on the first page of the yellow pages.

When your monthly marketing budget was taking clients out for dinner, and your car had your name all over it to reach more people.

Fast forward to 2023, marketing is a 24/7 beast!

Requiring brand recognition, social media, lead generation, SEO, SEM, CRM’s text messages and email campaigns.

Marketing is hard work and expensive.

In the year 2023, it is vital now more than ever to plan the rest of your year out.

Planning means you don’t jump on the next fad bandwagon and waste precious time. I mean, who has time to waste?

Step one: is where you look back and work out what worked in the past and what may not be working anymore. And with the things you want to continue, look at automating those tasks.

Step two: requires research. Look at new concepts or ideas that might help your business capture a wider net across your ideal clients.

Step three: keep reading this blog, as we have included a list of 7 things every B2B marketing plan must consist of.

7 Things you need In your B2B Marketing Plan.

An integrated approach: Gone are the days of relying on a single marketing strategy. Instead, B2Bs should create an integrated approach that combines multiple methods to create a cohesive message and reach more potential customers. This includes everything from SEO and PPC campaigns to content marketing, social media and email campaigns.
User-generated content (UGC): UGC is essential for engaging with your audience in meaningful ways and encouraging them to advocate for your brand. Incorporate customer reviews, photos, videos and other forms of UGC into your marketing plan so customers can authentically connect with your brand.
Personalisation: With AI technology becoming more advanced, it’s easier than ever to personalise marketing efforts for each customer. B2Bs should take advantage of this technology to create more targeted campaigns that speak directly to the needs of each customer.
Automation: Automating routine tasks like email campaigns, social media posts, and website content can save you time and money while giving valuable insights into your customers’ behaviour. Invest in automation software or work with a digital marketing agency that offers automated services so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Mobile-friendly design: Mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular, which means it’s essential for B2Bs to optimise their websites and marketing materials for mobile users. Your website should be fully responsive, have straightforward navigation and display appropriately on any device.
Social media presence: MORE is more and social media is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience, so B2B’s need to have a presence on these platforms. Tip for newbies though social media is about writing content that resonates with your customers, not just what you like!
Measurement and analysis: Measuring your marketing results is essential for understanding what works and doesn’t. Invest in analytics tools to track customer behaviour across all channels and use this data to inform future strategies. With careful measurement and analysis, you can optimise your marketing efforts for maximum return on investment (ROI).

If you follow our tips, you will have a well-prepared plan to reach more customers, which will reflect on your bottom line.

If it sounds like too much work, we understand, reach out and let’s discuss a way of The Marketing Room being able to take away some of the pressure.

TMR Launches Mining & Resources Division

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 2 years ago

The Marketing Room has created a dedicated division to support the specific marketing and communications needs of the Mining & Resources sector.

The division is led by highly experienced marketer, Andrew Kindon.

The Marketing Room’s Founder, Tahnee Sharp commented, “Our in-house Marketing Manager model really resonates with the sector and the huge number of companies that work in supporting services in mining. Over time we’ve developed a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of the specific demands of the industry and what they need from their marketing investment.

Although we’ve seen the demand for some time now from the industry, it’s been a case of having the right person to lead the division. Securing someone of Andrew’s calibre with industry specific experience has been instrumental in being able to hit the ground running and understanding client’s needs.”

Andrew Kindon has over 20 years of experience in the marketing industry. A former creative, Andrew has since held senior marketing roles with a number of large national and global mining service companies.

“I’ve been a huge fan of the TMR model for some time now, so when I was approached by Tahnee to lead this division I didn’t hesitate!” Our model enables companies to access senior, experienced marketing talent for the1 or 2 days a week which is perfect for our mining & resources clients. Also working inhouse enables our people to develop the relationship and understanding of the business far quicker and deeper than if they were working remotely.” commented Kindon.

To launch the division TMR secured a presence at the global mining conference IMARC in Sydney late last year which was attended by over 7,000 industry delegates.

“It was important that we demonstrated our commitment to the industry and willingness to engage in business conversations with companies that needed a marketing solution.”

From IMARC we secured a number of local and overseas clients who see the TMR model as a wonderful solution. It’s been a brilliant start and we look forward to continuing to grow our clients and team.” said Kindon.

Please reach out to Andrew if you’d like to discuss the marketing for your business.

andrew@themarketingroom.com.au

Mining & Resources Division

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 2 years ago

In order to succeed and grow in the Australian Mining & Resources industry, it is essential for companies to invest in marketing and build a strong brand identity that resonates with their target audience.

Companies that do not invest in marketing run the real risk of losing ground to their competitors and missing out on opportunities to reach their target audience and grow their business. Without a well-crafted marketing strategy, these companies would struggle to stand out in a crowded market, build brand awareness, and attract new customers, talent and partners.

The lack of a comprehensive marketing plan and budget can result in companies missing out on opportunities, and failing to collect valuable data and insights about their target audience, which could inform future marketing efforts and help them to make data-driven decisions. Additionally, without putting time and effort into marketing, companies struggle to reach a wider audience through digital channels, which is becoming increasingly important in today’s business landscape.

In the long term, not investing in marketing can have a hugely negative impact on a mining company’s bottom line no matter where they sit in the mining industry landscape. A lack of brand recognition and a limited ability to reach new customers can lead to decreased sales and revenue, missed opportunities to bid on projects, and reduced ability to attract key personnel when hiring for growth. All this would result in making it difficult for the company to remain competitive in the market.

To meet the unique needs of businesses either in or providing services to the Mining & Resources industry, we created a dedicated division, led by highly experienced marketer, Andrew Kindon. Andrew leads a team of highly experienced and capable marketers focused solely on helping companies in the Mining & Resources industry.

Who uses our services?

Our Mining & Resources Division has identified five main company types who tend to benefit most from our services:
• METS companies wanting to get the competitive edge on their rivals
• Established tech companies from other industries wanting to enter the mining industry
• Small cap miners and explorers leading up to IPO and Small Cap Listed Companies wanting to generate awareness around their projects to help drive investor relations
• Mining service consultants targeting new or larger clients
• Global mining companies who are wanting to enter the Australian mining market

The unique services we offer fall into five key types:

Marketing planning – Create marketing plans that tie to the company strategic objectives and key market drivers
Brand creation – aside from look and feel, we help define and develop a company’s vision, values and goals
Messaging – Define key messages and communication strategies
Digital footprint development – Activate brands across all channels
Content – Create pro-active relevant content and collateral

If you’d like to discuss how we can help your business, please reach out to Andrew Kindon or complete the below enquiry form and Andrew will be in contact.

Adobe Digital Trends 2022 – Retail Focus

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 2 years ago

Adobe Digital Trends 2022 – Retail Focus report, which was based on Adobe’s annual survey, highlights the evolution of the retail customer experience, and emphasises the importance of creating a strong digital customer experience that is, ideally, ahead of customer expectation.

Although digital has been fundamentally present in the past decade, the impact of the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of retail companies. Businesses were forced to rely almost solely on digital and rethink their engagement with customers. Which simultaneously, reiterated the need to be adaptable and agile. The report concludes that companies who can optimise technology and digital data will be able to act on customer insights and therefore “be better placed to achieve customer-centric experience innovation – and sustain business growth”.

Adaptability

The nature of digital, combined with the pandemic, emphasised the need for businesses to be agile and vigilant to adapt to their ever-changing environment. However, the need to have a strong solid foundation of skills, technology and organisational structure remains. Businesses need to be able to adapt to customer’s expectations and use technology to execute this. Companies that have quickly adapted to their changing environment and customer expectations have been successful at retaining customers. A prime example is Door Dash, and other rapid delivery services, that were able to meet the need of speed and convenience for their customers during the pandemic. With only “57% of retailers keeping the pace with customers”, companies need to increase their ability to adapt and stay on consumer trends in order to retain their customers.

Blending Online and Offline Retailing Data

The past two years have been explosive for online retailing, and it will only continue to grow. Businesses will be required to optimise digital, as well as offline retailing, to create a strong customer experience. This will require substantial investment in appropriate technologies, data integration and touchpoints, for example digital self-service. In fact, 85% of retail marketers cited digital self-service as the most important tool to meet customer expectations online. Although digital is prominent, brick and mortar stores are still prevalent, and therefore a blended approach is the key to success for customer experience. Home Depot exemplified this as they combined data from both digital and in-store to analyse the customer journey and create their customer experience. They have since increased their net sales by 9.8% year-on-year in 2021. The report suggests that there is ample opportunity available to businesses, no matter what size, to upgrade the customer experience by using their data and technology more effectively.

Marketing Insights

The report highlights how the termination of third-party cookie data would significantly halt the ability for companies to gain insights on customer behaviour. Regardless, gathering, analysing, and acting on marketing insights is the key to understanding consumers and creating a customer experience. Therefore, companies will need to prepare for this post-cookie environment. This preparation will involve implementing sophisticated ways to gather and use existing customer information, and to have a “quality over quantity” mindset when it comes to gathering new data. They will also need to rely on contextual and creative targeting, as well as taking cues from social media audience modelling. Consequently, companies will face a barrier from consumers to share data, and the solution to overcome this, is to be explicit with promising the privacy of their data.

Artificial Intelligence and Employees

The report suggests that to strengthen the digital experience beyond customer expectations, companies need to first focus internally on their employees. By understanding the role and responsibilities of each employee, companies can implement technologies to support them and maximise their efficiency. Artificial Intelligence technologies and machine learning can be implemented to complete rote activities so that employees can complete higher value asks that solve customer pain points and improve the customer experience.

The Digital Trends report calls for companies to focus on upgrading their technology and digital capabilities to not only, maximise their operational and employment efficiency, but to upgrade their digital customer experience, beyond expectations, which will enable them to achieve sustained growth.

Why SMEs need more strategic marketing

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 2 years ago

Marketing is in a very interesting space for SMEs. More businesses are “doing” marketing, but we’re seeing less and less “thinking” about marketing and truly aligning it to business goals.

This is due, in part, to the democratisation of marketing platforms (social media, design, surveys, CRMs) so anyone can create marketing collateral, or place their message on a platform, and feel happy that they see the fruits of their labour. But scratch the surface and all too often there’s little thought into why the marketing tactics have been employed and whether they are delivering on the business goals. And this is why marketing gets a bad wrap.

While marketing tools are now universally accessible, reaching audiences has never been harder. Once upon a time you could advertise on TV, print, radio or outdoor and you were guaranteed to reach a large chunk of your audience. Now with media so fragmented it can be challenging to reach a large audience, so SMEs defer to tactics they know and see other businesses succeed in like social media, eDMs, websites – without truly thinking about whether this is going to directly deliver sales – or whether that’s the role of the tactic in the first place. But marketing has such a huge remit and there’s so many different avenues to be explored for a brand.

SMEs are generally led by incredibly capable people who are experts in their field, but often that’s not marketing. And marketing strategy is not something those out of the marketing field always understand the value of. Don’t get me wrong, some business leaders are incredible marketers, so it’s the ones that struggle that we want to help.

After the last few years, we’re seeing SMEs struggle to get their businesses up and running again. And the answer is marketing – but it’s the strategic marketing thinking that will really help. But here we have another hurdle – strategic marketers are expensive and SMEs can’t often justify the cost. The Marketing Room is proud to be able to bridge this gap for SMEs by providing part time access to senior Marketing Managers.

The Marketing Room Goes National

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 3 years ago

Following four years of consistent growth, The Marketing Room has expanded and now has a national presence with the appointment of Terri Martin as East Coast General Manager.

Terri brings a wealth of senior marketing and business experience to The Marketing Room and will be charged with the growth of the business on the east coast.

Terri’s career started in marketing agencies and children’s television both in Sydney and London. She then progressed to heading up and running businesses in the marketing, communication, and education sectors. During her time, she has worked with clients from every industry including Microsoft, Unilever, Telstra, Qantas, Lendlease, Invisalign and the big 4 banks to name a few.

“We couldn’t be more excited to have someone of Terri’s stature join the team. We’ve always had the ambition to expand the business nationally but have been extremely conscious of having the right person, and Terri is it!” said Managing Director, Tahnee Sharp.

Providing professional marketing parents with the option of returning to a senior marketing role on a part time basis, has proven to be very popular with the Perth business community. Not only do businesses get access to the talent and experience of their own in-house Senior Marketing Manager, but the Managers also have the support and network of the entire TMR team.

“We’ve had tremendous feedback across every industry, said Tahnee. From law firms, mining service providers, insurance brokers, not-for-profits, property, automotive, retail and manufacturing. They all love the fact we work inside their business and provide a strategically focused professional who ‘gets things done!”

“I just love the model! said newly appointed East Coast GM, Terri.

“When I was introduced to Tahnee and, I just knew this was a purpose driven business that I wanted to be a part of. What Tahnee and the team have achieved in such a short period of time is amazing and I have absolute confidence Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are also going to love the model,” Terri said.

Terri has also had the privilege of running two not-for-profit organisations allowing her to understand the importance of balancing strong commercial acumen with purposeful intent, which she brings to her board position with ADHD Australia.

If you are a marketing professional with over 10 year’s experience looking for a part time role or an organisation looking for an in-house outsourced Marketing Manager, please reach out to Terri terri@themarketingroom.com.au

The Social Room Launches

Posted by jon@themarketingroom.com.au • 3 years ago

Following on the success of The Marketing Room’s innovative model of providing organisations with access to experienced marketing professionals on a part time basis, Tahnee Sharp has partnered with Jacob Dibb to launch The Social Room.

Building on a proven formula, The Social Room provides organisations with their own in-house outsourced Social Media Manager.

“The Social Room will provide businesses with a dedicated Social Media Manager who is backed by an experienced leadership team. The offering is purely organic including strategy development, content creation, customer service and reporting,” said Tahnee.

After receiving continual feedback from Perth businesses for a social media offering that is a true extension of their business and brand, Tahnee and Jacob knew this was the right time to launch the innovative model.

“Social media is all about developing a connection between the business and people. The only way we believe you can truly reflect the brand’s unique personality and tone of voice on social is by being inside the business – listening to customers, talking to the team, understanding the vision,” explained Dibb.

As well as providing a social media solution for organisations who either can’t afford or don’t require a full-time resource, the model also provides tremendous flexibility for talent social media professionals.

“We want to attract the best social talent available so are committed to offering very attractive working conditions. Our people work the hours they want, have a balance of in and out of ‘office’ time, have autonomy yet are still connected to a supportive team plus receive continual training and development,” stated Dibb.

Jacob has done a tremendous job in such a short time building a dynamic team of social media professionals and already being engaged by clients across various industries including Discover Wanneroo (the City’s tourism brand), SKG Radiology, The Raft, Jones and Co Property, Plunkett Homes and Instant Toilets and Showers to name a few”, said Sharp.

If you’re looking for a dedicated social media solution for your organisation, reach out to Jacob Dibb, jacob@thesocialroom.com.au or visit www.thesocialroom.com.au

[ A Strategic Rebrand for Global Legal-Tech Leader ]