Content and legal marketing, marketing & public relations agency

Jul

Developing your marketing strategy: why an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach is more important than ever

July 15, 2014

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Reputation Ink INKsights Developing your marketing strategy why an all-of-the-above strategy is more important than ever

Don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket

Remember when traditional marketing was dead?

It was only a couple of years ago that everyone from the Harvard Business Review to Forbes magazine was trumpeting the demise of traditional marketing and public relations strategies. In a world of social media and online marketing, they contended, old-school tactics for connecting with customers just wouldn’t cut it.

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Jul

8 common mistakes lawyers make on their blogs

July 10, 2014

by: Reputation Ink in B2B , Content marketing

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I’m an attorney, and I’ve been blogging for more than 10 years. I’ve started several blogs over the years, including ones on law school, the Atlanta Braves, the business of baseball, career advice for aspiring sports professionals and the business of college sports. Now I work with attorneys and law firms on blogging and social media strategy as part of my job as a content marketer, and I find many legal blogs have the same common mistakes.

You aren’t writing for a specific audience

I have a law degree, and I practiced law for four years, yet I still don’t understand many of the law blogs I read. For most of you, your audience is clients and potential clients. No matter how sophisticated you think your clients are, if they’re not attorneys they aren’t going to understand legalese. In fact, even if they are attorneys, if they don’t practice in your area they likely still won’t understand you.

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Jul

6 things to look for in a content marketing agency

July 3, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing

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Before you even go down this road, the first question you should ask yourself is, “Do I really need to outsource content marketing?” From Moz to HubSpot, there are plenty of useful tools and platforms to accommodate in-house marketing teams in publishing and promoting content. But remember, quality is king when it comes to content.

According to a report by the Content Marketing Institute, the biggest challenges b2b marketers face are lack of time and producing enough content. Combine that with the fact that most in-house teams are more focused on strategy and project management than writing, and outsourcing may seem like the ideal solution, given you find the right fit. Here’s what to look for in a content marketing agency:

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Jul

Working with PR agencies: hold the fluff!

July 1, 2014

by: Reputation Ink in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing , Public relations

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Fluff belongs on your dessert – not in your press release!

Working with a professional public relations agency can offer significant benefits for both large and small companies alike. So much so, in fact, that USC’s Annenberg Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center reports that 95 percent of all large public companies and nearly half of all small private companies rely on outside PR/marketing counsel.

In selecting a public relations firm with which to work, however, companies would do well to remember three words: Hold the fluff.

In media parlance, “fluff” is the term for the flowery language and effusive frippery in which some publicists drown their copy. Rather than simply stating the facts and letting their client’s product or project speak for itself, some PR reps seem to believe that applying a thick coating of hyperbole to their prose will catch the eye of that jaded reporter and score their client a primo placement.

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Jun

How to hook a journalist on your press release from your email subject line

June 26, 2014

by: Reputation Ink in B2B , Public relations

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I recently participated as a panelist in a webinar by BusinessWire for public relations professionals who pitch to journalists covering sports. I was asked to be a panelist because of my experience as a sports business analyst and reporter for outlets such as ESPN, Forbes, and Comcast Sports Southeast. However, I also brought something to the table the other journalists on the panel did not: I’m also a public relations professional.

Before the webinar, each panelist was asked to think of three things public relations professionals should know before pitching to journalists. I think all three of us on the panel immediately went to some version of advising people to only pitch us content relevant to our reporting and our platform. I would conservatively estimate 60 percent of the pitches I receive are on topics or story angles I would never cover for any of the outlets where I report.

A larger problem I discussed, however, is that I miss pitches that are perfect for my reporting because I simply can’t read every email I receive. That’s why it’s imperative to hook journalists from the subject line of your email.

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Jun

Six ways to get the most from your public relations agency

June 24, 2014

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Public relations

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If you’ve ever worked with a public relations agency—or any consulting firm or professional services provider for that matter—you know that the outcomes can vary widely. There are many, many PR firms out there, and their level of expertise, experience and ability to consistently deliver results varies greatly.

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Jun

Growth hacking: what established companies can learn from startups

June 19, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing

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As previously outlined, content marketing isn’t a fad. Times have changed for marketers and will continue to do so almost daily. Following the successes of startups like Pinterest and Twitter, today’s savvy (or just plain broke) marketers are turning to growth hacking instead of traditional marketing techniques.

Growth hacking is defined as using conventional and unconventional tactics to grow a user base startup-style. Some examples you may be familiar with include Twitter’s “Who to Follow” prompter and Dropbox’s rewarding more storage space to users who invited friends to use the platform.

But these tactics aren’t just for startups. They’re actually the new MO of marketing. And at the core, they’re all about knowing who your customers are, where they reside on the web and what motivates them.

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Jun

Beyond the press release: 5 tactics to add to your PR toolbox

June 17, 2014

by: Reputation Ink in B2B , Marketing strategy , Public relations

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It’s one of the most overused sentences in the communications industry:

“Let’s do a press release!”

The press release is perhaps the best-known public relations tool. As a result, it tends to be the first option that comes to mind when a client or company wants to get the word out about their latest project or initiative. But there are a lot of other tools in the PR toolbox that may be more appropriate – and effective – depending upon your situation, your topic and your communications objectives.

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Jun

Even an introvert can learn to create conversation

June 12, 2014

by: Reputation Ink in B2B , Marketing strategy

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Some people are blessed with the gift of gab. If you’re not one of those people who can walk into a room full of strangers and strike up a conversation, however, you need to master the art of the icebreaker. You can use some visual as an icebreaker – a company logo or perhaps a lapel pin – or you can put in a little time and research your way into an icebreaker.

Some icebreakers are visual

Some icebreakers are visual. Lou Imbriano, President and CEO of TrinityOne, a marketing strategy and business advisory consultancy, has it easy when it comes to icebreakers: he has three Super Bowl rings from his time spent as chief marketing officer of the New England Patriots. They’re big, they easily draw people’s attention, and everyone wants to hold one. He doesn’t have to look for conversation, it finds him.

I lucked into my own visual icebreaker when I created a logo for my work as a sports business reporter and analyst. It was a real photograph taken of me for my book on Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement that a friend with graphic design capabilities turned into my now signature logo.

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Jun

Death to lorem ipsum: why content must come first in website design

June 10, 2014

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Content marketing

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As website content writers and strategists, we’ve been involved in many projects that go like this: An information architecture (the organization or structure of the site) has already been developed, wireframes created, page layouts designed, colors chosen, photos taken and “lorem ipsum” (industry standard “dummy” text) placed throughout. And that’s when we get a call. Our assignment is to write the copy (the text on the page), which will be “flowed in” just before the site goes live.

While this is an incredibly common way to build websites, it’s not the most effective. As Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing with Web Standards, once said, “Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.” However Zeldman also said, “‘Content’ doesn’t mean ‘having all the copy.’ It means knowing what the site is about, what kinds of information it will present; it also means knowing something about the intended users and what they might want to be able to do on such a website.”

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Developing your marketing strategy: why an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach is more important than ever

8 common mistakes lawyers make on their blogs

You aren’t writing for a specific audience

6 things to look for in a content marketing agency

Working with PR agencies: hold the fluff!

How to hook a journalist on your press release from your email subject line

Six ways to get the most from your public relations agency

Beyond the press release: 5 tactics to add to your PR toolbox

Even an introvert can learn to create conversation

Some icebreakers are visual

Death to lorem ipsum: why content must come first in website design

This Way To Better Content

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