Content and legal marketing, marketing & public relations agency

May

8 ways to get people to sign up for your newsletter

May 16, 2019

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Want the good news or the bad news first?

Let’s go with the good news: Email marketing is incredibly effective for B2B companies and professional services firms.

And now the bad news: Your email list degrades by about 22.5% every year. People change jobs, unqualified leads unsubscribe and others disengage after emails get trapped in spam folders.

I’m no mathematician, but with a churn rate of 25%, if you don’t grow your email list, you’ll be left with just you and your grandma reading your emails in a few short years.

Here’s more good news (you just got served a shit sandwich): There are lots of ways to grow your email list, and I’ve helpfully summarized them for you below.

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Apr

What B2B marketers can learn from my Instagram-famous dancing friend

April 17, 2019

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing , Public relations , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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Last month, I was sitting backstage at The Ellen DeGeneres Show as my good friend danced onstage to the song “Wow.” by Post Malone. While I sat there — both worried and excited for my friend — Rob Lowe casually walked past me a few feet away. At the same time, Will Smith’s “people” were emailing and texting us, along with Good Morning America, Inside Edition, Steve Harvey and many more. A week later, my friend danced on stage with Post Malone and performed in the official “Wow.” music video.

How did this happen? And why am I writing about it on Rep Ink’s professional services and B2B marketing blog?

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Apr

How a former journalist can take your PR strategy to the next level

April 2, 2019

by: Steven Gallo in Law , B2B , Public relations , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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Let’s not sugarcoat it: Journalists and public relations professionals don’t always get along. But, both camps play an important role in the world of communications, and oftentimes one’s job can depend on the other.

If your business is looking to grow its presence and revenue through earned media and public relations, who better to help than someone who’s played for both teams?

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Mar

What’s old is new again: Why earned media is rising in importance

March 19, 2019

by: Steven Gallo in Law , B2B , Public relations , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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As digital media companies like BuzzFeed, Vox and Vice have recently lost web traffic and made staff cuts, The New York Times has grown to a record 4.3 million digital and print subscribers while expanding its newsroom to 1,600 journalists, the largest count in company history.

Wait, I thought old-school news organizations were dying? What gives?

Here’s the reality: In a world of fake news (the actual kind), disinformation, bots and social media echo chambers, people are turning to traditional media outlets more than ever for information they can trust.

So what does this have to do with you, the business-to-business (B2B) or professional services marketer?

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Mar

6 ways to get the most from your public relations agency [updated]

March 5, 2019

by: Michelle Calcote King in Law , B2B , Public relations , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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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 widely differ. There are many, many PR firms out there, and their level of expertise, experience and ability to consistently deliver results varies greatly.

But let’s say you lucked out and hired a high-quality public relations agency (yes, that hyperlink is to us… wink, wink). What’s your role in ensuring the success of the relationship?

It’s pretty significant.

As with most things in life, you get back what you put in. A successful PR initiative requires investment — not just the cost of the PR agency, but your own time and expertise.

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Feb

Why B2B marketers can’t afford to ignore email marketing

February 19, 2019

by: Michelle Calcote King in Law , B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing , Lead generation , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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If you’re a B2B marketer and not taking advantage of email, you’ve missed the effective-marketing boat (sounds like a fun party, doesn’t it?).

To put it in a way your CEO will understand, if your B2B company is not engaging in email marketing — including email newsletters, drip campaigns, lead nurturing emails, prospecting and promotional emails — your client acquisition and retention will suffer.

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Feb

How to get your employees to share your content (and why it’s so important)

February 5, 2019

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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You’ve written thought-leadership blog posts. Designed beautiful infographics. Developed engaging videos. Created valuable e-books and white papers.

You’ve then shared the content on your company’s social media accounts, sent it to industry influencers, promoted it on your email newsletter, sent out a press release and more.

Now, wouldn’t it be fantastic if all of your employees shared the content to their social media networks? “Yeah, right, like that will happen,” you’re thinking. But it’s not a pipe dream. In fact, it’s one of the biggest trends in B2B and professional services marketing.

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Jan

6 questions to ask before you hire a professional content writer

January 21, 2019

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Content marketing , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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High-quality content is rocket fuel for today’s marketing strategies. But the difficult task of finding great writers who can create that content often stalls the marketing rocket before it ever takes off.

Great writers help you effectively communicate your message, drive sales leads and save you the time and frustration that comes with a writer who doesn’t understand your business, strategic goals, voice and tone.

Beyond looking at writing samples, how can you assess whether a professional writer has what it takes to produce engaging, clear and effective content? Ask these six questions to see if a potential writer can deliver the goods:

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Jan

We boosted email click-through rate by 60 percent with this one simple tweak

January 8, 2019

by: Steven Gallo in B2B , Content marketing , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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Email remains one of the most reliable and consistent vehicles for B2B marketers today. In fact, people sent more of it in 2018 than ever before, and statistics continue to show that email marketing delivers excellent ROI.

I don’t care what the haters say. When done right, email marketing works.

If you’re among the many marketers who leverage email, you’re familiar with the never-ending quest to streamline your contact lists, draft the perfect subject lines and increase your click-through rate (CTR). We can often be slaves to these analytics, looking for any little way we can move the needle. (After all, these numbers are a direct and unapologetic reflection of our efforts, right?)

When it comes to optimizing your email marketing, there are countless variables in play. I get that. I want to share one little success we had, with the hope that perhaps it can help you, too.

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Nov

Marketers: It’s time to push back on your bosses’ bad ideas

November 20, 2018

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Marketing strategy , Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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“Behind every bad idea is an executive who asked for it.”

I can feel all the marketers internally shouting “YAAAASSSSS.” I hear you, friend, I hear you.

The above quote — from a recent MarketingProfs webinar by Michael Brenner (best-selling author of The Content Formula and CEO of Marketing Insider Group) — made me stop in my tracks. I thought of the numerous times I’ve witnessed a C-suite executive ask a marketer to do something that I knew wasn’t the right course of action, yet the marketer did it anyway. Heck, I’ve been the one who did it anyway. I’ve always thought, “That’s just the way it is.”

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8 ways to get people to sign up for your newsletter

How a former journalist can take your PR strategy to the next level

What’s old is new again: Why earned media is rising in importance

6 ways to get the most from your public relations agency [updated]

6 questions to ask before you hire a professional content writer

Marketers: It’s time to push back on your bosses’ bad ideas

This Way To Better Content

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