So the first question is, “how do you pitch?” Are you emailing them, are you leaving phone messages, are you using social media? That usually sets you down a particular path. The first mistake people do when they do any of those is, they are too long-winded — they leave too-long messages, their emails are way too long and they wait too long to get to the point. Make sure in your first interaction with the media, whether it’s a subject line or the first…
One of the things that’s very important is to look at your marketing or PR firm as a partner. And you get really down in the weeds on the day-in and day-out stuff with them. You have those daily calls, or monthly calls or meetings, and those are really designed to move the ball forward on an incremental basis. But, my suggestion is, meet with those firms twice a year, three times a year — block out three hours and really talk about the big…
The first thing you need to understand is: what is lead scoring? Lead scoring is assigning points to interactions you have with the people that are in your email database. And, the best way to keep track of that, is to load your email database into a CRM system like HubSpot or Salesforce. Once you have that set up, you can assign a number of points to each interaction— like, every time they come back to one of your blog posts, or every time they…
The value of the blog question. That’s something we get asked every day. Everybody is so fixated on their websites and their web copy, and that’s important, but remember, at the end of the day, the website is static. What a blog allows you to do is change your content on a regular basis, and then promote it as a way to get people to come to your website. So, the most important thing about the blog is not to be shy about sharing information…
The most important thing to know about working with a PR firm is that the world of PR and marketing, for the most part, is changing every day. And what you used to come to PR firms for, which is primarily media relations, internal communications and crisis communications, well you can still come to us for that, but you can come to us for a whole lot more. So content marketing, SEO/SEM, even the web — you can come to us for that. The most…
You want to start marketing, but you know how to start. And, the first question, instead of asking what type of marketing you want to do, is to really ask who is your audience. And, the best way to find out who your audience is, is to talk to folks, both inside your organization and outside your organization, and then also existing customers. They’re going to be the ones that are going to give you the really good opportunities and give you the insights to…
So as a sports fan, this is a topic near and dear to my heart, because folks are very concerned about the future of ESPN given the fact that folks are leaving cable and satellite and going for over-the-top broadcasts. It’s natural that communities like Facebook, Twitter, I’m surprised LinkedIn hasn’t gotten involved yet, are getting into video in a number of different ways. But they have built communities. They have built in audiences, so it’s natural that content providers of all types, as well…
Your social strategy should be rooted in your communication strategy. Go back to those three to five messages that you decided to communicate to everybody, and go back to the persona so you know who you’re communicating to. That’s your safe place. If you feel like you’re being asked to post things that don’t fit into those communication strategies and personas, then you’re probably not on the right track and you should take a step back, look at everything, and then decide, okay are we…
Amazon, Hulu, Netflix and now … Facebook. Yes, the news is out that Facebook is the latest to solicit Hollywood and other sources for original “TV” programming for the binge-watching crowd. This should not shock anyone. Video, both live and entertainment, is the future for all these platforms as they battle to become what the TV networks were to Americans in the late 20th century. While the over-the-top (OTT) providers like Amazon, Hulu, Netflix and others lead with programming first to generate community, the social channels…
This is the age-old question that PR firms and clients have been dealing with since PR was created. Right? What is newsworthy. What bubbles up to be worthy of news coverage. So, where I would start, would be research. Look at the media outlets that you want your client to appear in. See what they’re covering. See more importantly what they’re not covering. And, see if the news that your client has asked you to create bubbles up to the level of coverage. If it…
So we’ve been talking a lot about this at the Hodges Partnership, because we’re doing a lot of content, at various different levels, for clients. And one of the things that we see that stops up the content drain, so to speak, is the quest for perfection. So, I’m not saying that quality and quantity should be at odds. I’m not saying just pump it out for the sake of pumping it out. But, if you’re trying to be too perfect with your content, odds…
Yes, the press release. The thing that people think they need — and maybe they really don’t need it as much as they think they do anymore. So, our advice on the press release is, do one but don’t lead with it. You’re still leading with the pitch and the press release is back-up. The press release still gives really good background information on the news of the day, how people spell their names, what their titles are and who the media can contact. But,…
