How tell stories around sensitive subjects without exploiting them

Sensitive subjects are a fact of life for any brand, this could be anything from breaking bad news to your team, admitting your screw ups to customers or simply creating brand building content around a difficult topic or event like Covid-19.

When emotions are involved the lines between sensitive and insensitive become blurred, here are some of our top tips to help you stay out of hot water, and if done right, will help your brand connect with people on a deeper level -

Put your audience first

When dealing with a sensitive subject this is more important than ever, chances are your audience aren’t a carbon copy of you, so who are they? What content do they consume and enjoy? What are their hopes and dreams? What are their fears and doubts? - Only once you REALLY know your audience can you talk to them in their own language to truly curate a message that resonates on a deeper level.

Don’t beat around the bush

Your audience is smarter than you give them credit for, don’t try and pull a fast one on them or you’ll suffer the consequences. Our advice is to exercise ‘radical candor’ (shout out to Kim Scott, give the book a read!). At Mattr we think self awareness is one of single greatest, yet most under-used attributes a brand can have. If you mess up - come clean. If you’re selling something - admit it.

Simply put yourself in the shoes of your audience and hit their concerns and doubts head on ESPECIALLY when dealing with tricky subjects, just trust us on this one, you’ll thank us.

Keep it human

It's all too easy for a brand to hide behind glitzy graphics, snazzy voiceovers and dramatic footage but ultimately people connect with people so when broaching a tough subject keep your message human and speak from the heart, even if that means being vulnerable in front of your audience.

To allay doubts consider having a spokesperson, or multiple spokespeople to allow your audience to connect with your brand and message on a personal level.

Keep it real

When dealing with sensitive subjects authenticity is key and the easiest way to achieve this is by tapping into real stories and putting real people front and centre of your content. Forget fancy abstract arty creatives and fictional stories with actors and instead involve your customers, staff and everyday heroes to create a ‘bottom up’ rather than a ‘top down’ approach to your comms. Word to the wise though… steer clear of shoehorning your brand and message into this type of content, unadulterated stories will always work best.

Don’t take, give

Finally and most importantly think outside of the box when it comes to your marketing objectives, we get it, you have sales targets to hit and customers to convert but at Mattr we are big believers in good karma. A brand that gives back and invests in its audience will win the heart of that audience… and in turn that audience will one day become customers - and loyal ones too! So think about how you can provide value, whether that be useful advice, pure entertainment, giveaways, charitable donations or simply positive vibes in a dark time… like we’re doing in this blog ;)

BONUS THOUGHT: Stay Silent

Before you finish reading this and rush off to get creating content, just pause for a minute... sometimes the best thing you can do is to do nothing at all. Lush took this to the extreme last year by quitting social media all together but our personal favourite example is the thoughtful marketing pledge from the lovely folk at Bloom and Wild who are campaigning for ‘opt out’ options for email marketing around calendar dates that some customers find sensitive: https://www.bloomandwild.com/thoughtful-marketing-pledge

BBB tips: update your tone of voice, empower your customers and how to bridge gaps between your internal departments

Our latest instalment of Brand, Bitch & Brekkie saw an interesting mix of brands from the world of fintech, HR and charity sectors.

Intriguingly, everyone’s challenges seemed to overlap, no matter the stage of their brand’s journey. Here are a few things we chatted about...

Language is crucial for your brand

A couple of our guests had just come out of their re-brand process and one key piece of advice they gave was to review your guidelines every year so that you could update them as the company grew/developed.

One brand told us that before doing this, they’d kept using the same terms for their service users for years, even though personnel had changed and the brand had moved on to better the way they communicated with their partners, users and donors.

The key to success though wasn’t just updating the guidelines for marketing, but making sure they were being genuinely implemented properly across all teams.

How to empower your customers to be involved in your content

One of the biggest debates round the table was how to use showcase your customer’s stories in your content without it feeling like you’re taking advantage of them (especially when they’re about sensitive subject matters). So how do you reassure them they aren’t just a pawn in a marketing plan? 

We all agreed that much of that was down to trust...you need to put effort in to building a real relationship with your customer so that asking them to be part of your content is something they really want to do. You also shouldn’t shy away from checking in with the customer about the narrative and make them feel a part of the creative process.

And when dealing with sensitive subject matters, transparency is key. But it’s also nice creatively to push boundaries a bit, moving away from a “sob story” towards stories that let the customer feel empowered and proud of who they are.

Breaking down barriers between internal teams

All companies find their departments work in silos. None more so than the tech and marketing departments at high growth scale ups. The shame of course, is working together should breed better work, so one of the questions posed was how to strengthen the relationship between teams. 

One brand suggested turning empty walls in offices into physical roadmaps that work for both teams, to highlight the interdependency of everyone’s tasks, but also allow everyone to physically see how each role and action impacts the other.

For tech and marketing specifically, a really interesting suggestion was to use marketing resource to test the popularity of product features before they’re built - essentially getting feedback from your community and seeing if they like or dislike what you’re building. For the brand who tried this recently, their engagement rose significantly as their community became more invested in their product, and the tech team had full access to the feedback.

Creating channels bespoke for your audiences

Some brands really struggle to build consistency in their content on social. It’s even more complicated when you have multiple audiences who you’re trying to speak to.

One of our brands round the table confessed that they struggle with projecting their brand consistently with customers and new recruits through the same channels, but a solution from another guest was to simply set up separate channels (their example was an Instagram for their staff and another for their customers).

It allows them to create consistent customer content whilst showcasing visuals of their culture, stories and their values as a way to attract prospective employees that are the right cultural fit, all through separating the Insta- channels out. Their channel has worked so well that Instagram’s direct messaging function serves as a function for their HR team, who end up finding the majority of their recruits this way! 

Digital asset and project management tools

And before we go, there were plenty of tools thrown around that help make our brand marketer’s lives a little bit easier. For people who found that not enough people action what’s said in the brand guidelines - try Brand Folder as the ultimate resource for all your teams to access everything brand. 

Another tool suggested was Social HP, which allows you to write content on your colleagues behalf, if they’re bootstrapped for time or don’t really know how to flesh out an idea.

One of our marketers was a huge fan (nee, potential ambassador!) for Monday.com, the project management tool. You may have seen their witty print campaigns on TFL at the minute. It’s great for virtually keeping track on what’s going on, saving you chasing your colleagues for the thousandth time.

Learnt something new? Want to share your own thoughts on building brands that matter? Then why don’t you book a seat to our next Brand, Bitch & Brekkie roundtable, at Riding House Cafe, Fitzrovia.

Email sunnii@mattr.media or give her a ring on 07772343952 for any questions