Constant disruptions have resulted in businesses pivoting their operations significantly to remain relevant, and throughout this, digital communications have played an essential role.

Despite this, we’ve found that ‘on brand’, ‘on message’ digital content can be a hard ask for our heavy engineering industry and wider networks who are simply too busy or don’t have the in-house skills.

The thing is, ‘digital’ doesn’t have to be intimidating! It’s here to make life easy – and we’ve developed Pūtātara, our in-house media room facility to demonstrate that.

Pūtātara is the conch shell Māori used to signal a message was coming. Similarly HERA’s Pūtātara, is home to all the digital content and communication tools your business needs, to tell the world about what you do. Its main aim being to provide the support and resources you might expect from a digital agency but with the added benefit of industry insight and messaging.

So, whether it’s getting your head around digital jargon, understanding what communication strategy is right for you, a website refresh, social media content, videos or similar – our team is here to give you the digital skills to help you increase your customer trust, connection and revenue potential.

We want you to do business smarter and view working with us as an investment for long term success. That’s because our support model is focused on giving you the internal skills needed so that eventually you can confidently drive your digital communications without us. Your success, is ours.

We can help with:

  • video content for easy to digest, entertaining and engaging communications;
  • podcasts and other audio content to establish your authority and reach your clients who are always on the go;
  • setting up or improving your website to reach the right people and turn browsers into clients;
  • SEO optimisation so you can build better relationships with your audience, improve customer experience, drive people to your website and increase conversions;
  • social media content and strategy so you know what platforms are right for you and your business goals, and how to leverage them;
  • internal digital content training so your team has the skills to create digital content for your business with tools they have on hand;
  • key messaging so you have a set of powerful and strategic tools to focus your communications on what is important, as well as access to industry wide communications so you can demonstrate you have the finger on the pulse, while amplifying messages that collectively matter for our industry; and
  • copywriting so your communications tell your story clearly and succinctly to get your message across.

Your FAQs answered!

How much does it cost?

Ultimately we’ll work hard to develop a support package that fits within your budget – but research does tells us that digital content requires frequency over time. As such, all our Pūtātara partnerships are built on either a 6, 12 or 18 month subscription model.

Our plan of attack is to perform an initial upfront needs assessment to cost out the required resource and then divide that cost in easy to manage monthly payments.

What happens if my needs change during the contract period?

We carry out a ‘needs assessment’ as a first step for working successfully together. An outcome that falls out of that audit process is the creation of a content baseline that your business needs, and secures the resource required to make that happen.

We totally get that things can change during the subscription period, that’s why we perform regular reviews to ensure you’ve got what you need when you need it. If things change, we work together to shuffle resources around as required.

Why wouldn’t I just use an agency?

Good question – and there are a few reasons why working with us is better!

Firstly, we don’t have agency overheads and are very competitive on price. Because we are focused on securing our industry and its future, we understand that enabling you to innovate in the digital communications space is crucial – with this in mind, we’re open to streamlining our deliverables to give you the most support we can with the budget you have available.

Secondly, with decades of expertise representing and advocating for the metals industry, we have a strong understanding on who you are as a business. That means we can skip past much of the teething issues you often experience engaging and briefing an external agency because we know your industry back to front. It allows us to hit the ground running, as well as align your digital content with messaging across our industry. This means you get to leverage the power of the collective industry voice as well as your own.

We’ve also got no issues adding to what your agency partners may already be doing. We can provide industry insight and research to take their outputs to the next level.

Why wouldn’t I just hire someone to do this stuff?

You 100% could… BUT you would need to also buy the equipment, establish the networks, pay kiwisaver and all the other stuff needed that comes with onboarding new staff.

All the while, you’ll also be missing out on the benefit of industry aligned key messaging and amplification of your work through our channels.

What happens if I don’t have a digital presence such as a website or social media?

Don’t worry! This will likely be one of the first learnings that’ll fall out of taking you through our needs assessment.

Once we understand what your communication goals are, we’ll be able to make a plan so you can get  set up with the right digital tools so that you become a digital content ninja in no time!

How do you deal with confidentiality and IP protection?

We get that sometimes you might have some things that may be a little sensitive or that you may just want to protect.

We’re in the business of making your business hum. It’s why we’re more than happy to have conversations on a case by case basis and work through what steps are needed to make you feel comfortable that your interests are protected.

Is my content, my content? Or will you use it elsewhere?

Fundamentally your content is yours and yours alone.

Suffice to say, if you’re smashing it out of the park we may occasionally ask your permission to use elements of what gets made. In turn, celebrating you and your business with our channels and networks hopefully gets you more business in the door!

I know my business and my customers, how will you make sure the content sounds like me?

We view this as a partnership. Our needs assessment process takes the time to get to know you and your business as a priority.

We know successful content is authentic content that sounds like you – like if people were to meet you in person or give you a phone call! As such, we “check our tone” to make sure it looks, feels and sounds like you every time.

If you’ve posted to our social media accounts, how will we know you have? Will we get to review it?

Good social media management relies on good process. It’s also a place where planning is key!

A calendar of scheduled content built around themes and outcomes drives what we do, and in 85 – 90 % of most cases, posts are prepared ahead of time and are reviewed. The remaining 10-15% is subject to agreed guidelines to ensure nothing untoward ends up on the old bookface!

How on earth do you measure success?

This one is all about your goals. The needs assessment process will walk you through setting and measuring achievable goals.

We check in regularly throughout the terms of the contract to ensure we are seeing movement toward the goals being realised. In a dynamic world like the one we live in, occasionally we may need to adjust course but everything is geared towards hitting those targets!

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HERA Sabre Awards Finalist 2022 - Non-Corporate Associations: Sustainability, innovation and diversity in the steel industry PR and communications.
kim-nugent-2022

General Manager Comms 4.0