Bridging the gap between content and culture.
Companies across industries hire me to fix their content.
Content is more than the articles in a magazine, and it’s about far more than raising awareness. I advise companies on using content to communicate their identity. To connect with their stakeholders. To bridge the gap between content and culture. I help them convey how deeply they care.
In a time when everyone is inundated with shallow information, the brand who wins our attention is not the loudest anymore—for its voice is only drowning in the noise. You attract the right people by obsessing as much about your content as you do about your products.
I transform communication from aimless to cohesive, from complicated to simple, from ordinary to elegant. But, above all, I make my clients’ content work for them.
Do you communicate how much you care?
Companies that are passionate about what they do need to ensure their content aligns with their values. Or they risk alienating stakeholders.
Benefits
Your content can shape the perception of your brand more significantly than your products or services.
Brand Equity
Exceptional content increases your brand’s value so your customers associate it with higher quality and superior performance.
Customer Retention
Stay in your customers’ minds by creating content they’ll seek even when they’re not shopping.
Word of Mouth
You can’t expect your customers to endorse your brand if you neglect to communicate why they should.
Awareness
The right content attracts the right people. It presents a lower barrier than confronting customers with a buying decision right away.
Competitive Advantage
Competing on price is a race you can’t win. Instead, compete by offering your customers a first-class experience they’ll remember.
Platform Independence
Thriving companies don’t need ads. They create their own publications for a perpetual stream of attention.
Talent Acquisition
The best talent seeks to identify with your culture. To make the leap, learn to communicate your values.
Higher Margins
The greater your brand equity, the higher the price your customers are willing to pay.
Does your magazine satisfy high expectations?
Quality content passes the “Newsstand Test”: If your customers wouldn’t pay for your publication if it was sold at a newsstand, they also won’t read it for free.
Consulting
Due to my experience in communication, business strategy, and web development, I possess a skill set rare in this industry.
Content Strategy
I can help you devise a strategy that gives your company’s communication a cohesive direction. Otherwise, your message might get lost half way.
Thought Leadership
Whether corporate or personal brand, you need to be perceived as leading in your field if you want the right people to pay attention.
Business Strategy
To achieve its full potential, your content needs to be aligned with your business strategy. Make the way you communicate a strategic decision.
Purpose
Purpose-driven companies outperform their competitors by achieving higher market share gains and growing three times faster. What is your “why?”
Communications
Successful brands have in common that their communication isn’t an accident. It’s a matter of professionalism to communicate with care.
User Experience
Users are impatient, and they’ll spend only a limited time on your platform. How you present your content is just as crucial as how you phrase it.
Cost Transformation
Marketing has a tendency to consume more money than budgeted. I can help you distinguish what yields the results you desire and what is inefficient.
Technical Audit
A deep audit of your platform will surface what’s holding back performance, what’s aching your users, and how you can improve your website’s rankings.
Monitoring
Make better decisions by basing them on superior information. With monitoring tailored to cultivated brands, you won’t miss out on what works for you.
Is your content aligned with your brand’s DNA?
It’s easier to teach employees how to write than to teach copywriters who you are. Don’t let those who don’t understand your culture speak for you.
Principles
For your company to move forward, we need to row in the same direction. Let’s make sure our values align.
Excellence
I work with companies that strive for excellence because average is only one step before failure. You hire me when you need someone who pays attention to detail when others have faltered.
Foresight
Anticipating reactions has become vital in an age when needs are shifting and opinions are expressed ferociously. I help your company navigate pitfalls and cater to your stakeholders’ actual needs.
Simplicity
What you do isn’t simple. But your communication needs to be so it can convince your audience within the few seconds they give you. I aim to communicate without overcomplicating or oversimplifying.
Aesthetics
You can’t separate content from design. Before we read, we view. By gauging aesthetics, we subconsciously decide whether we want to read on or look somewhere else.
Does your communication need a new direction?
Ordinary content only works for ordinary companies with ordinary customers. If that description doesn’t fit your business, it might be time to change course.
Use Cases
Companies hire me for different reasons. Here is a list of selected scenarios you might find yourself in.
Appraisals
Appraising content strategy, copywriting, information design, or web development.
Blog Strategy
Devising a blog’s content strategy that makes it stand out and attract new audiences.
Business Strategy
Transforming a company’s business strategy into one that’s fit for the digital age.
Cohesiveness
Streamlining communication and ensuring stakeholders don’t receive mixed signals.
Content Niche
Locating a niche for a brand’s content that aligns with its capabilities and objectives.
Core Message
Distilling a brand’s essence as a foundation for communicating clearly and effectively.
Cost Cutting
Helping companies save money by directing marketing budgets at what is most profitable.
Customer Experience
Improving the customer and user experience so people will crave to come back.
Design Decisions
Assisting in crucial design decisions that match your stakeholders’ refined taste.
Disruptive Strategy
Inventing disruptive strategies and protecting companies from disruption.
Editorial Staff
Building editorial staff from the ground up to guarantee exceptional content quality.
ESG Communication
Communicating a brand’s ESG efforts to satisfy its stakeholders’ shifting needs.
Expertise
Fostering and communicating a company’s expertise to achieve thought leadership.
Finding Purpose
Determining a brand’s higher purpose that all stakeholders can align with.
Governance
Overseeing marketing departments and agencies to ensure consistency.
Information Architecture
Composing an information architecture that smoothly guides users to their destinations.
Positioning
Positioning a brand or its content to secure a sustainable competitive advantage.
SEO Problems
Solving technical problems and increasing content quality for better rankings.
Social Media Strategy
Conceiving a social media strategy that retains a brand’s dignity.
Sounding Board
Enabling executives to make better decisions by acting as their sparring partner.
Strategic Analysis
Analyzing business strategies by employing tools such as SWOT, PESTLE, and Five Forces.
Technical Analysis
Scrutinizing a platform’s technical foundation to increase performance in vital areas.
The Extra Mile
Setting higher standards for communication and inspiring teams to exceed expectations.
Upmarket Positioning
Moving a company upmarket and helping it attract cultivated customers.
Making your content work for you
First session free
The first 60 minutes are risk-free and without charge.
Transparent pricing
Fair rates based on value, not willingness to pay.
Sincere partnership
One advisor instead of being transferred yet again.
Independent advice
No affiliations with agencies or other service providers.
Good question.
I’ve answered a few questions in advance that might be on your mind.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please email your questions to a@alexanderhetzel.com.
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Is this for us?
- My approach differs from what many other consultancies and agencies do. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth your time, just that they typically work towards different goals. My objective is to elevate your brand and communicate to your stakeholders what you excel at and how much you care. It is also my job to ensure the consultancies and agencies you’re already working with have your best interests in mind. If you find previous advisors cared more about reaching arbitrary numbers than preserving (or increasing) your brand equity, thus putting your brand’s survival at risk, you’ll find that working with me differs from what you’re used to. I suggest you give it a try—the first hour is free—, and then you’ll see how working with me can benefit your company today and in the future. In hindsight, you might be happy someone pointed out the details others have missed.
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Why should we hire you?
- If you’re asking what distinguishes me from other consultants, I’d say it’s not so much about what I offer as it is about how I work. I know many companies are dissatisfied with consultants and agencies because they view their clients as just another project. They run the numbers, give advice, move on to the next. I, on the other hand, try to soak up the culture of the company I advise—acting with the same responsibility and caring as much about the company’s future as someone who owns it. I go to great lengths to ensure it’ll thrive not only today but for centuries to come while preserving its heritage and values. If that’s something you’re interested in, we should talk.
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What does the term “content” entail?
- It’s still a common misconception that a company’s content only comprises the articles in its blog. Content is every piece of communication a company releases. From the front page of its website to each product description and business letter to the privacy policy—every company produces numerous pieces of content daily. And the quality of this content determines how stakeholders perceive a brand.
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Why would aesthetics matter in our industry?
- Aesthetics is not about a specific look but about the pleasure products and services elicit in us. For different products, another design or style might be appropriate. But what they all have in common, whether it’s shoes, nail polish, beauty treatments, hotel experiences, tax advice, tiling, screwdrivers, or even screws, is that they sell better when customers are delighted with them. And customers will pay a premium for delight—yet not for the mere utility of your products or services. Aesthetics is vital when dealing with sophisticated clientele who appreciates design and culture but by no means limited to this target group. Feelings drive buying decisions regardless of socioeconomic status, and aesthetics largely determines how your customers feel about your company.
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Do you offer marketing or web services?
- My consulting doesn’t encompass typical marketing or web development services. I’m an independent advisor who helps companies devise communication strategies and make the right decisions. You might still need marketing personnel or an agency to carry out routine tasks. In my experience, it’s rarely beneficial to let a marketing agency determine your strategy, as the proposed measures might not always be in your best interest. That’s why you need a consultant who doesn’t implement the measures he recommends and is not affiliated with any agency.
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Will we need to inform our agency?
- Some agencies don’t respond well to oversight. And since I often work at the intersection of companies and the agencies they hire—cutting costs and scrutinizing proposals—, you might be concerned how discreetly I handle my client relationships. I don’t give out or publish client lists, and I don’t talk about my work without prior written consent. Unless you inform them or wish that I work as a meditator between you and your agency, it’s unlikely they’ll ever find out.