With all the talk about content marketing lately, it’s surprising how many companies tend to skip right over the “content” part and focus all of their efforts on the “marketing” end.
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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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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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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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Happy Friday! This week has been an exciting one, with the return of HBO’s “True Blood” and the U.S. advancing to the next round of the World Cup, even after a loss to Germany. With all these fun distractions you may have missed some of this week’s notable news in PR, social media and content marketing:
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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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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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In February of this year, LinkedIn opened its platform to long-form publishing through a program called LinkedIn Publisher. Building off the success of its LinkedIn Influencer program, where industry experts like Richard Branch and Martha Stewart post long-form content, LinkedIn decided to expand the opportunity to all members. Initially just 25,000 members were offered the ability to publish long-form content, but others can gain access through an application process.
The application process is fairly simple, requiring simply your name, email, LinkedIn profile URL and two links to examples of professional content you’ve written. I was accepted as a writer within a couple of days after submitting my application, although there is no standard reply time. If you’re not accepted right away, don’t worry. LinkedIn says the platform will be open to all members in the future.
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