Internal communications shouldn’t be an afterthought. There is a significant amount of time and effort that goes into creating, implementing and maintaining an effective internal communications strategy. Internal communications may not get the same level of glory as external communications, but it doesn’t make it less important. There are a number of reasons why prioritizing this audience is mission critical to an organization. Let’s start with a key metric for success that continues to grow: employee engagement. Measuring engagement levels among staff can coincide with…
Is your organization on social media? Great! Now let me share some unfortunate news with you: Just being on social media isn’t enough. Your strategy needs to contain a paid promotion budget if you want to reach new (and even existing) audiences. But the good news is, you can reach the right audience at the right time, with the right message if you set aside money in your marketing budget for social media advertising. Here’s how we advise clients to determine a social media advertising…
Reaching the right people at the right time, with the right message is the pillar of a successful content marketing strategy. And with more organizations developing content these days, the competition to reach potential customers with tailored content is fierce. For many organizations, the challenge usually isn’t the creation of valuable content. The challenge is ensuring your content is breaking through the millions of pieces of content shared every minute. It used to be enough, for example, to share posts to your Facebook newsfeed or your…
Social media influencer marketing continues to be a popular tactic for reaching targeting audiences, and it’s a tactic we continue to suggest in our content marketing work. Influencer marketing isn’t totally standardized from creator to creator, which means launching a successful influencer engagement takes time, research and budget. Some creators may work in an unpaid capacity in exchange for free product, but that kind of engagement isn’t as common as it once was. Before you start outreach, we have four pointers for you to keep…
Clients come to us for a variety of reasons – from wanting press coverage for a new product to helping generate awareness for their organization as a whole. Sometimes they know which tactics would move the needle, but more often, it’s not so clear. That’s where a Research & Insights audit comes in. A Research & Insights project is a comprehensive review of an organization’s materials, messaging, audiences and competitors using internal, external and third-party research. The result: a deep understanding of key messages, audience…
Performance data for specific channels will help you gauge how engaged your audience is, based on the type of action they’re taking. However, tracking, analyzing and reporting against a content marketing campaign can be tricky. There’s a wealth of data you can pull from your website, blog and social channels. So instead of leaving your team to guess which metrics are important, use these KPIs as a guide for earned, owned and paid content. Paid promotion metrics Digital advertising platforms have become increasingly informative. Marketers…
To post, or not to post, that is the question. Should you post short, topical posts at a high frequency, or is it better to post in-depth posts with only the most highly targeted information less frequently? The answer lies somewhere in between. What you want are quality blog posts in a quantity that drives traffic to your website, converts that traffic into leads, establishes your brand as an authority and drives long-term results. But, with an increasingly click-free organic search experience thanks to AI…
A public relations strategy is like the stretch of I-64 between Richmond and Virginia Beach No, really, stay with us on this one. It’s never really finished. It’s a work in progress. You’ll always work from Point A to Point B, but occasionally, you’ll take some detours, try new things, evaluate what works and what doesn’t and apply your learnings the next time you travel. A public relations strategy is similar in that you often know your starting point and ending point. And while you…
All too often, we find ourselves getting trapped in the weeds of the day to day and we forget to take a step back to look at the big picture. Big picture goals, of course, aren’t tactical goals like posting on your blog or social channels more frequently. Those are the elements that lead to achieving big picture goals. Instead, think more along the lines of gaining more customers, improving customer-retention numbers or increasing public awareness of an issue in order to secure funding. Here…
If you’re like a lot of organizations, you’re already practicing some kind of content marketing. You may have a blog that you post to regularly, or perhaps you’re active on social media. But despite this activity, do you have a strategy? Are you making progress? And toward what? If you’re not sure, here’s how to refine your content marketing strategy when you’ve already been producing content. This blog post is right for you if you’re already producing content, but your posting schedule and topics are…
Relationships are the name of the media relations game. And if you ask a group of public relations practitioners how they’ve found success in the realm of media relations, it’s not likely you’ll get two of the same responses. This is because at its core, there is no exact science to media relations – what works for one might seem archaic to another. But there is one constant among media relations experts: They’ve worked hard cultivate and maintain relationships with reporters. And while establishing these…
When we talk about media relations, a large part of what we mean is how we work to cultivate relationships with reporters and stay abreast of what they cover and the kinds of stories they are interested in. This often results in pitching story ideas that end up in print, broadcast or radio, and other times, it can even mean keeping clients out of the news. There are many reasons our agency and others still put so much credence into earned media placements for clients,…
