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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We made it to Friday! What a week. We enjoyed a quick trip to Atlanta to present to the Legal Marketing Association on media relations, put the final touches on two new blogs for two separate clients, publicized a corporate client’s acquisition, brainstormed names for a new company, wrote a variety of blog posts and press releases, and much more!
Here’s what happened in the world of marketing and public relations:
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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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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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We’re excited to launch a new feature today on INKsights. That’s a Wrap is our Friday round up of some of the week’s most notable stories in marketing, public relations, social media, digital media and content marketing. Our goal is to keep you informed so you can more effectively market and communicate in today’s ever-changing digital world.
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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. 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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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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Google’s social media and sharing platform, Google+, has been around for over two years now. My previous experience with the platform involved joining back in 2011, adding some circles and sitting back only to hear crickets. Since then, I’ve been guilty of putting Google+ on the back burner and going on about my business. Maybe this sounds like you, or maybe you’ve never even considered Google+ since Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have you busy enough as it is. Either way, it’s time to give Google+ its props.
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Writing a press release doesn’t have to be hard. Some writers, intimidated by the thought of writing copy that eventually will be reviewed by professional reporters and editors, make the mistake of trying to “elevate” their writing. Long words replace short ones, sentences become more complex and the message gets lost amid a sea of technical terminology.
By keeping in mind a few simple guidelines, writers can produce shorter, more effective press releases that emphasize clear communication over impressing an editor. Employ these few simple tips, and you may just do both:
Your lead, or opening paragraph, doesn’t have to be fancy or long-winded to get results. It should, however, follow the “inverted pyramid” formula of placing the most important information up top, followed by less important and finally background information. Reporters and editors are busy; don’t make them hunt through your copy to find your news.
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Personas, or customer profiles based on real data, have been around for a while. Although they may seem daunting to compile at first, once you have the information, you have a roadmap to the hearts and minds of your most valuable prospects. Depending on whom you ask, creating customer personas can be a fun exercise or drag on for days, with every answer only leading to more questions. HubSpot recommends this worksheet for painting the perfect customer picture. If you feel overwhelmed by the list of questions you need to answer, try focusing on the essentials:
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