The Importance of a Discovery Process

Almost, if not all, of Elevate’s projects involve some kind of discovery and auditing process. Rare cases that might not involve discovery and auditing:

• Crisis communications, where we must be hyper-focused on the moment and message at hand. 

• A last-minute social media/marketing blitz where we can take or leave a data-informed decision.

• Honestly…not much else. 

What Happens During Discovery + Auditing

So much goodness! The core tasks during this phase include:

Audience research - This might involve a survey or series of surveys to segmented constituencies. It might also include focus groups and/or 1:1 conversations. The intent of speaking to your audience(s) is to gain key insights and understand perceptions, motivations, and behaviors. We want to understand why they are involved in your company/organization, what messages do/do not resonate, where they live in society and digitally, and more. 

Auditing - An audit can involve print and digital, just digital, one aspect of digital…you get the picture that I am painting. We want to bring to surface what is working and where there is room for growth and opportunity. 

Across channels, we want to evaluate brand + messaging consistency, voice, and tone. Digitally, we want to understand user/visitor demographics, engagement, website traffic, resonant content, and other elements. In print, we want to see what is in your collateral portfolio, where materials are distributed, how they coexist with your digital portfolio, etc. 

Other research that might take place depending on the scope of work:

Competitive Analysis - An investigation of actual or perceived competitors to learn about:

• Social media presence, engagement, and messaging

• Website messaging and user experience

• Digital advertising

• Google rankings

What yields from this work is how similar your organization’s messaging is to others in the space. Ultimately, we want to (proverbially) put you side-by-side with others in your space, strip away branding and identifiers and have YOU stand out. 

Data Audit - This can include sales, enrollment, donor, and/or other quantitative information that allows us to parse out year-over-year and other trends. 

The Outcomes of This Work

The deliverable is a key findings deck and presentation that sets the foundation for the strategy and planning phases of work and will prompt questions including:

• What are your audience personas?

• What are your organization’s key messages?

• Via which channels will you reach your audience(s)?

• How often will you communicate with your audience(s)?

• What types of media will you use? 

• Will you dabble in paid advertising? 

• And more. 

Don’t sleep on this important phase of research and fact finding. Without it, you might be throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.