CLIENT
Decode Media
PROJECT
UX Research, UX Design
PROJECT
March 2020 – Present
Helping an agency nail its clientele so that it
could not just survive a pandemic, but thrive.
When COVID-19 hit, Decode’s director Tiani realised the vulnerability of her agency when her one retainer client threatened to cut their hours.
Decode had no strategy to attract and win new clients, leaving themselves exposed
In a fight or flight response, Tiani wanted to firm up her agency’s future by creating a new digital marketing product tailor-made to attract her target clientele: arts and community organisations.
How might Decode attract new arts and community clients with a marketing solution that works for them?
Getting close and personal with the Decode client
I conducted user interviews with 6 marketing decision makers from 2 radio stations, a theatre company, a magazine, a non-profit and a film festival.
Arts and community decision-makers are:
- Time and money poor
- Recognise the importance of marketing but feel overwhelmed
- Lacking in key knowledge areas (specifically digital and metrics)
- Yearning for marketing help but don’t know where to start
“I’ve got some money put aside for someone to do some marketing and promotion but I don’t know what tell them to do”
Our persona: Carla, the time-poor festival director
Carla, a founder and festival director of a dance festival, helped us put ourselves in the shoes of the Decode client.
Carla’s obstacles:
- Overwhelmed by new technology and marketing in general
- No money to hire an agency, no time to learn to market herself
- Apprehensive of working with others, but once trust has been gained is loyal
Some of Decode’s current clients
Capitol Theatre, Melbourne
Cambodian Children's Trust
City of Sydney
Creating the honey to attract the bee
Now that we knew the unique pain-points and needs of the Decode client, it was time for us to create a tailor-made marketing solution that would convince them to hire Decode.
Redefining our problem
In the process of talking through our solutions we realised that a lot of the solutions were:
- Too expensive
- Too difficult for us to implement
- Not the direction Tiani wanted Decode to take
The process of ideation made us realise that we didn’t need a new marketing product – we just wanted to find a couple of new retainer clients.
A plan to attract retainer clients
We decided on the 4-phase model of engagement with Decode that leads potential clients from not knowing Decode all the way to through to hiring on retainer.
Overcoming the perceived money issue
We realised the biggest hurdle for us to overcome was arts and community organisation’s perceived lack of budget for marketing.
Decode’s services could be cost neutral
Arts and community organisations do spend money on marketing – but they often spend it poorly. By performing an audit of their marketing expenses, removing wastage and consolidating the budget, we could show the organisations they could afford Decode.
Our 4-Phased Client Aquisition Model
- Attract: A free digital audit of the organisation with a reflection on gaps in marketing strategy
- Inspire: A detailed marketing/digital plan outlining what Decode would do for the organisation, and how they could afford it
- Trust-building: Implementation of plan including production of marketing collateral (websites, branding), implementation of a marketing stack (CRM, email marketing, automation), and the creation of marketing campaigns
- Retention: Optmisation and maintenance of the marketing strategy on retainer (our goal!)
Benefits of this approach:
- Encourages organisations to engage with a free hook
- Chunked work which can be sold individually or as a package, or added on later
- Sequenced in a way that leads an organisation from awareness of Decode through to hiring on a retainer
Show me the retainer clients, baby
Tiani was awarded City of Sydney funding to provide digital audits and digital marketing plans (phase 1 and 2) for two arts organisations pro-bono.
If these clients engage Decode to implement their plans, we know that our strategy is well on its way to working.
Potential clients
