As the CEO of a thriving public relations/content marketing agency, I wear a lot of hats — and one of them is business development. Over the years, I’ve seen many trends in our quest to acquire “new business,” the latest being the lengthening of the new business cycle, or the amount of time from the first meeting with a potential client to the “close.” The amount of time is getting longer. In the past when we’ve experienced that, it’s mainly been because the potential client…
So Josh beat me to the punch on his crystal ball for 2018 and while I share most of his sentiments please allow me to take a more global view of the public relations industry as we begin 2018. The last two years has seen us drink water from a fire hose as we learned how to marry media relations, social media, content marketing, brand journalism and all their associated measurements. We have come through the other end well positioned to bring a strategic eye…
Yes, that’s a picture of two of my prized possessions — a Rutgers helmet and football signed by Greg Schiano for my 50th birthday. They are proudly displayed in my office. I have a great deal of respect for the man and what he did for my alma mater’s football program. I could write about how he got a raw deal the last few days, and how I hope he gets a shot to prove that he’s a great college head coach. But this is not…
So, I recently had to work with my daughter, who is working on a project, and coaching her through being on television. And, not to say that CEOs or 17-year-old girls meet somewhere, but the premise is pretty much the same. You want to start with a couple of different basic premises, either the old who, what, when, where and why, and how to communicate those things right off the top, or think about what are the three things, no matter what the reporter asks,…
So, the main reason that we find that content strategy fails for clients is because they didn’t take the time to plan out, not only their strategy, but what their goals and audiences are on the front end. So, if you’re seeing and not getting the results that you’re hoping for, take a step back and revisit a) did I set out goals to begin with, b) do I have audiences that we’re really writing for and c) do I have an amplification strategy that…
First of all, it’s a lot less expensive and time intensive than it used to be. For example, we’re shooting this with about an initial investment of two to three thousand dollars worth of equipment that we don’t have to keep on buying over and over again. Plus, even if you’re looking at an outside videographer, those costs are a lot less expensive than it used to be. I’m shooting this video today, but we’re also shooting three or four other videos that you’ll see…
So, I’m talking to all you fellow PR folks out there when I say, you know and I know that at the heart of it were all storytellers. In the good old days, we told that story through the media. When there were tons of media to pitch, and there were tons of outlets out there. Well, there are fewer media to pitch and much fewer outlets out there, and it’s becoming harder for us. But, technology has enabled us to become our own publishers….
The short answer to that question is no. Small brands and small organizations can be really good brand journalists, but you do have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Number one, do you have the time? Number two, do you have the content? And number three, do you have the manpower? It is a step beyond blogging or driving traffic to a website, or your website. It’s more creating an ongoing relationship with people and your potential customers to talk about brand and what…
Marketers throw around phrases like brand journalism and content marketing almost interchangeably these days, but there is a definite difference between the two of them. Content marketing was born more in the b2b space, and it’s more about folks and companies giving out information, primarily custom information, like white papers or reports or offers. And those are designed to drive you to a landing page ask you to give them custom information about yourself, like email addresses and your job title. And, in exchange, you…
So, “off-the-record” and “embargo” are phrases that have been used historically in dealing with the media. Both of them are sort of losing their place in the 24-hour news cycle. Steve Bannon recently got into big trouble because he thought that he was off the record but never mentioned that to a reporter he was talking to, and what he thought was a personal conversation ended up being the headline of a news cycle. So, off the record is when you’re talking to a reporter…
So this is gonna be a bit self-serving, but I think it will be helpful to people who are considering working with a PR firm. We are just like any other professional services firm. We bill by the hour and we have hourly rates. So, the first way is, we bill you by the hour, with no limit. And, you hope that you’re getting a good value for that. And we know that we can bill as much as we need to over a period…
This is a really big thing for us and for our clients. And, what we say to our clients is, first of all, there needs to be an overarching strategy. And employees need to understand that they can’t go off willy-nilly and be tweeting or posting stuff on Facebook without going back to the main communications head and saying, “hey this is what I want to do,” and making sure it fits into the strategy. The second thing, and the most important thing, is use…
