As a water authority, your mission is to provide everyone in your service area with clean, drinkable, useable water that meets the standards for safe water set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
We don’t have to tell you that. The information we do have to offer, however, is all about your relationship with your audience and how you can better serve the people who rely on you to produce and distribute safe, high-quality water.
In recent articles, we’ve addressed:
- How Your Water Authority Can Improve Audience Communication
- 3 Ways Marketing Can Boost Your Water Authority’s Communication Online
Communication with your audience is one of the most important aspects of your daily operations, aside from your leading mission to supply people with clean, safe-to-use water. Communication with your customers and the general population in your service area matters because no one can inform them of the condition of their water, its impact on their health, and the status of your water authority and infrastructure quite like you can.
Communicating with your audience means serving them with more than just water. It goes beyond providing facts and stats about the water you produce. It can mean providing tips for tips for reducing water waste and increasing water intake, suggestions for how to help take care of your system’s pipes and drains, fun facts about the history of your authority, engaging lessons about how your collection and distribution process works, and so much more.
To enhance the ways your authority serves your customers and audiences, check out these interesting tips:
#1: Increase or Improve Your Reach Digitally
From improving your website design to maintaining active social media pages and using email marketing options, there are lots of ways to communicate with your audience through digital avenues.
Website
If you’ve read our previous articles in our Water Authority Marketing series (How Your Water Authority Can Improve Audience Communication and 3 Ways Marketing Can Boost Your Water Authority’s Communication Online), you’re probably sick of hearing us talk about how important your website function and design is for improving communication with your customers. And here we are talking about it again. It must really be important, huh? After all, your website is likely the first place people will go if they have questions about your water authority.
Yes, it is crucial to create a website that is visually appealing, UX-focused, and information-packed for the benefit of your customers and to enhance your ability to reach your audiences. Creating one is not necessarily a difficult task, especially when you partner with web design experts like the ones at M&R Marketing.
A knowledgeable team of writers, designers, and web developers can ensure your site:
- Is designed for mobile
- Is easily navigable
- Has a well-thought-out user experience with an attractive and easy-to-follow user interface
- Is ADA compliant
- Is visually appealing
- Is accurate in general content and specific information
Plus, we can work with you to think through all the ways your website can boost your communication efforts with your audience, whether that includes adding a News and Updates feature, a Newsletter feature, or a resource page (or pages) to your site.
For more information on web design, check out our Definitive Guide to Website Design.
Social Media
If people aren’t turning to your website for info, chances are they are hoping to find answers to their questions through your social media pages. From a Facebook page to an Instagram or LinkedIn profile, you can utilize your social media accounts to provide important notices, crucial PSAs, event announcements, and more.
Managing a single social media account can sometimes feel daunting, let alone managing multiple. But broadcasting your messages on your social media pages is a quick, easy, and effective way to increase the likelihood of your audience seeing what you want to communicate. After all, with 5.04 billion people in the world on social media, the chances of your audience being on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn to see and digest your messages are high.
For more information on social media, check out our Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing.
If account management seems too difficult or overwhelming to keep up with, try partnering with a team of social media experts who can expand and improve your reach without having to do too much on your end—your digital experts will handle it all on your behalf. All you have to do is provide the info, and we’ll take care of the design and posting.
Email Marketing
Email marketing—or in the case of your water authority, email messaging—is another tactic to reach your customers and improve how you feed your important messages to them. Email marketing tools send your announcements to your audiences’ emails on a regular basis and according to the proper schedule for your authority. Emails can be sent once a month, twice a month, once every two months, once a quarter—whatever schedule you prefer or require!
You can optimize your emails by presenting easy-to-read, easy-to-digest content within a visually appealing design that your customers can easily open and peruse. Fit multiple announcements into one email without overwhelming the reader or losing their interest too quickly—all you need is an understanding of the most effective email marketing layouts that best serve readers (or partner with a team that does).
For more information on this topic, check out our Definitive Guide to Email Marketing.
#2: Increase Your Reach Outside of the Digital World
Just about everyone is online these days, and a lot of people are online a lot. However, that doesn’t mean all your focus should go toward digital forms of communication. There are plenty of ways to reach your audience and better serve your customers through tangible forms of communication, like providing your messages in print form that’s mailed out or hanging posters in strategic locations.
In-Mail Print Pieces
From newsletters sent in the mail along with the month’s invoice to postcards or flyers mailed out to customers in your service area, print pieces are an excellent way to make sure your messages are put out into your community. There are several options to utilize when it comes to print, including:
- Newsletters—Similar to an eNewletter sent through your email marketing, you can send a printed version to your customers who still receive paper invoices in the mail. Printed newsletters require a different design than eNewletters, but the messages can be the same. Stuff your newsletters in the envelope alongside the monthly invoice to save on postage and boost the likelihood of them being opened and read.
- Flyers— A flyer is less content-heavy than a newsletter. Flyers are best used to communicate one or two message topics at a time and are usually sent to your mailing list on an as-needed basis. Changing your service fees soon? Moving office locations? Announcing a new website? All of these topics and others are perfect to communicate through a flyer that is mailed out as part of a direct mail campaign.
- Postcards—Postcards are usually even less content-heavy than a flyer and are best at communicating the most important elements of the message you need to provide. For instance, let’s say you are gearing up to transition from one office location to another. To effectively communicate this to your customers so they’ll know where to start going for in-person service, your postcard might include the main message, “We’re Moving,” your new address, and your start date. You can possibly squeeze in a few more bits of info, like what the customer can do at the new location (sign up for service, pay a bill, transfer service to a new address, etc.). Still, the main objective of a postcard is to provide a high view of your overall message.
There are plenty of other ways to utilize print in your water authority’s communication efforts, and the pros at M&R can help you develop the most effective strategies to reach and serve your audience.
Posters
With the right design, content, and placement, a poster from your water authority can powerfully communicate your message to targeted viewers.
For example, if you want to encourage the kids in your community to drink more water, you can partner with the school district(s) in your service area and request permission to hang posters that promote the health benefits of consuming water above the water fountains in each school. When a student stops by for a drink of water, chances are they will notice the sign and take a look at the information presented before or after they are finished at the fountain. Plus, students behind them in line (or even students lined up near the fountain for non-fountain reasons) can spot the poster and read all about how drinking more water is the right choice to make.
Posters require an eye-catching design in order to get noticed. Plus, they need to have information included that is easy to digest quickly. At M&R, our graphic designers and copywriters understand the delicate balance between design and copy to produce an attractive and effective poster.
There are so many ways your water authority can incorporate physical, tangible marketing strategies into your communication efforts to benefit your customers. Reach out to M&R Marketing to learn all the various options and to optimize the tactics you want to implement.
#3: Evaluate (and Possibly Redo) Your Branding
Your branding is both your water authority’s “face” and your “story.” It’s the group of elements that come together to say, “This is who we are, what we are, and what we do.” It is the thing that helps people understand the organization they are interacting with.
It’s common to think branding is simply your logo, but several elements come together to create your water authority’s brand, including your:
- Logo
- Brand colors and fonts
- Mission, vision, and values
- Tagline(s)
- Brand voice
If elements of your brand are outdated or do not represent you the way they should, it may be time for a rebrand. Executing a rebrand is a highly effective way to improve how you present to your customers and how your customers interact with your organization.
When considering a rebrand, think through your brand elements and evaluate your options to update:
Logo
Perhaps your logo includes a font that was on-trend at the time but has since fallen out of style (think serif or cursive fonts). Or maybe your logomark is too busy or your logo colors are too loud. Whatever components have dated your logo, it is a wise choice to revive it with a redesign. From a total logo redesign to a partial one, giving the face of your water authority a lift so that it no longer looks old or worn out can significantly change how your audience sees you and interacts with your brand.
Brand Colors or Fonts
As mentioned in the above point, colors and fonts can come and go over the years. While bright, loud colors and funky fonts were popular in the 70s, 80s, and even the 90s, people have since preferred softer, more muted colors and simpler sans serif fonts to represent their brand. And brand colors/fonts go beyond the logo—they should be incorporated into your web designs, print pieces, and more. So, if your colors and fonts are out of style or date you too much, all your collateral will be inherently out of style and dated, too. Reselecting your colors and fonts can significantly enhance just about everything you use to communicate with your audience.
Mission, Vision, and Values
As a water authority, it’s probably rare for your mission statement, vision statement, or values to change too much over the years, considering your mission is and will always be to provide clean, safe-to-drink/use water to your customers and service area. That’s probably not changing. However, if there are outdated elements to any of your statements or current values, it may be worth revising them and publishing the updates wherever you see fit (on your website, social media profiles, Google Business Profile, etc.).
Tagline
Do you have a tagline for your water authority? If so, how old is it? Does it need an update? Taglines can be created with the intention to be evergreen, but even evergreen taglines can become tired. And if your tagline’s not evergreen, it’s definitely worth considering an update. If you feel as if your tagline could stand to be updated to communicate a newer message to your audience, think through new taglines to start implementing (or hire a creative team of writers to create several options that capture who you are and what you want to communicate) and improve your message to your audience.
Brand Voice
Your brand voice is the tool used to communicate your mission, vision, values, and messages to your audience. It’s the expression of your water authority’s personality; it’s the tone that is woven into content and design. Brand voice can range from playful and clever to serious and to-the-point or anything in between. However you want your audience to think of you, your brand voice will do the most to set the tone.
A rebranding for your water authority can seem like a daunting task, but the process can be smooth when you partner with a skilled marketing team that understands just how crucial your brand is. At M&R, our designers and copywriters can capture exactly who you are in both the visual and non-visual elements of your brand so that you can best present yourself to your customers and overall audience.
For more on branding, check out our Definitive Guide to Branding.
While You’re Focused on Serving Your Water Authority’s Audience, Let M&R Focus on Serving You: 478-621-4491
M&R has been providing marketing solutions to water authorities since 2015, improving branding and communication strategies and tactics to help authorities best serve their customers. If it’s time to enhance how you reach your audiences, talk to M&R about practical, strategic tactics to start implementing.
Contact one of our business development managers today to get started!
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Related articles:
How Your Water Authority Can Improve Audience Communication
3 Ways Marketing Can Boost Your Water Authority’s Communication Online
A Definitive Guide to Email Marketing