How to manage effective Internal adoption of a brand management platform - pt3

1. Your initial roll-out plan
2. Product demo or training session ideas
3. Key points to include when introducing the platform
4. Your ongoing engagement plan & evaluation

Click here if you want to have a quick recap of the areas that were covered in part 2.

Your initial roll-out plan

Once you’ve carried out internal testing and you’re ready to launch you’ll want to launch the brand management platform to a wider audience. There are a couple of ways that you can approach the launch depending on your organisation and strategy needs;

1. Phased roll-out
2. Big bang

Remember your internal testing team? These members will be your platform advocates that represent different teams. They will play a crucial role in adoption and engagement within your wider audience.

Phased roll-out

Our recommended roll-out plan is covered in 5 steps.

1. Plan order of teams for phased release of the platform, two-three week cycles are recommended to give you time to monitor and respond before the next team comes on board.
2. Communicate the roll-out plan across the organisation through identified channels. If you plan to run online training sessions, publicise dates in this plan.
3. Communicate with the first team to advise on the benefits of the platform, how to access the platform, how to use the platform, how to get help, how to send feedback. We recommend building excitement by communicating with your audience over a period of time.
4. Monitor usage and respond to queries from the first team.
   1. Make any necessary adjustments as required.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 above for each team.

Create a set of common questions and answers from the feedback. Circulate and publicise. These can be added to the brand management platform for easy reference.

Big bang

This is where the platform is rolled out to the entire audience all at once.

1. Design an engagement and training plan. This may entail making sure user manuals are created (at BrandStencil we can help you with these), using your advocates to run user training workshops, having ‘How to’ videos etc
2. Map out your communications strategy. It’s a good idea to build excitement through staged communication over time. Make sure that you clearly detail the points highlighted in stages 2 and 3 above.
3. Have a post-launch communications strategy to maintain excitement and keep the platform at the forefront of your mind.
4. Monitor usage during the rollout. Identify teams/user groups that may need extra support and the reasons they need more support.
   1. Perhaps the templates aren’t suitable and they require one that is slightly different.

Product demo or training session ideas

Here are a few ideas to help plan your product demo or training sessions;

1. Run a few online demos for people to attend, this is the most cost-effective way of publicising the platform.
2. Record the demo and make it easily accessible across the organisation.
3. Create a set of simple videos for key tasks like; making artwork from a template or finding the right template.
4. Run a series of in-person demos, this could be as simple as setting up a laptop in a communal area on set, publicised dates. This is great for getting on the ground feedback.
5. Create a set of common questions and answers from your sessions. Circulate and publicise.

Key points to include when introducing the platform

When you introduce the platform either in a product demo or in other communication you should always include the following to make it successful;

1. The rationale behind needing the platform - the problems and challenges we faced
2. Benefits of the platform for the individual - what’s in it for me?
3. Benefits of the platform for the organisation - what’s in it for us?
4. Benefits of strong brand consistency - this is a benefit for the organisation but should always be articulated to help educate people on why brand is important
5. Real examples of the benefits with mini case studies and quotes from users
6. Where to access the platform - what are the routes?
7. How to use the platform - overview of main features
8. Where to get help and send feedback - online help centre, sending help requests
9. Tell us what you’d like - ask for feedback and ideas for improvements

Your ongoing engagement plan & evaluation

Once you’ve rolled out the platform you need to continue to encourage people to use it.

1. Create a comms plan to continue to publicise benefits, adoption across the organisation, and where to send feedback and ideas.
2. Monitor usage on a monthly basis for adoption metrics. For example
   1. How many resources are created?
   2. How many assets are downloaded?
   3. How many people are logging in?
3. Follow up and feedback on suggestions from users.
4. Canvas opinions from users through surveys or interviews to help plan new templates and improvements.
5. Identify ideas/issues and discuss them with your brand management software provider to resolve them.