A Rude Awakening

Digital marketing (and marketing in general) is a relatively new concept for TelNet. Prior to 2018, all new business was sourced through an indirect agent channel and there wasn’t an in-house team to develop leads, launch campaigns or manage the corporate website. While there were plenty of “slicks” that pitched our products and services to agents, they were filled with telecom jargon, lacked a clear point of view and looked very outdated.

I needed to simplify the brand messaging and content production process in order to build out an extensive library of digital campaigns. But first, I needed a team to help me do it.

Team Building and Process Development

Creating a successful digital marketing funnel is not a one-man job. And pulling together an agile creative team with the right mix of skills, experience and attitude is not an easy task. It took me about a year to bring together the right people. The final lineup included a graphic designer for all animation, asset creation and document design; a visual designer for web design and development, with an emphasis on UX and UI design; and a digital content producer for social media management, copywriting and video production.

The content production process is fast-paced and ever evolving. When starting a new campaign, we’ll meet to brainstorm and map out projects, deadlines and responsibilities. Typically, things start in the hands of the content writers. All written content is reviewed with the subject matter expert or product owner, and then passed along to a graphic designer. Once a piece of content — say, an eBook — has been fully vetted, it gets published and added to the landing page that was also being developed behind the scenes. Whether it’s a document, an ad or an entire email campaign, it’s a group effort to get it out the door.

Over the lifespan of a campaign, we’ll make adjustments as necessary based on stakeholder feedback and analytics. It’s all about quick execution, rapid experimentation and candid feedback. We’ve become the human equivalent of a content production machine.

Nothing But a Good Story

We’re all inundated with marketing and advertising these days. In order to differentiate our brand and make sure we were being heard in the market, we had to communicate in a way that was clear, concise and easily digestible. (Not to mention engaging and relatable. And that’s hard to do in telecom.)

I came across the StoryBrand Framework pretty early in my marketing career, and it’s helped us transition our message from feature-heavy, jargon-laden geek speak to a noble hero’s journey. Let me explain.

Pretty much every superhero movie you’ve ever seen follows this formula. There’s a main character with a big problem who meets a mentor-like character. This guy has been there and done that, so they lay out a plan and call the protagonist to action. Meanwhile, we’re all hoping the hero avoids certain death and wins the war.

This sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

You’re probably wondering how any of this relates to marketing. Well, you see, your customer is the hero of their own story and your brand is the guide along their journey. (It’s very important not to get these two confused; your brand is not the hero.)

Here’s how it applies to TelNet: Our customers are modern professionals struggling with ineffective and frustrating communication technology. But that’s where we come in. With over 20 years of industry experience, our empowering, cloud-based solutions simplify the way they communicate and collaborate. Boom.

We’re just here to be the empathetic authority who can help people make work a little easier. And that’s the message that has gone into each and every social post, eBook, blog, video and email.

Content With a Personality

You can’t promote a campaign without content. You can’t develop content without a brand identity. And you can’t have a brand identity without a story to tell. The TelNet story is one of evolution, of adapting to meet the needs of a new generation of the workforce.

Lead generation and revenue growth will always determine marketing’s success. But if you don’t have a solid narrative foundation to build upon, you’ll never be able to build the relationships that turn into business.

We may have built the brand for TelNet. But the story was, is and always will be for our customers.