According to Statista, there were four billion email users across the world by 2020 and 99% of them check their email at least once per day. That’s why if you aren’t leveraging email marketing as a client offering, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Email marketing may not be one of the first things you think of under the rubric of public relations, but it can be an important tool to increase brand awareness, re-engage audiences and repurpose and share original content. Diversify your client offerings…
Read MoreMost clients that come to us for social media marketing strategy already have established brands and social media presences, in which case our role is to help them improve their overall strategy and/or to help take the burden of content creation and day-to-day management of the platforms off their over-stretched hands. In some cases, we get to be on the ground floor as they launch new social media profiles. You’d think it’d be just as easy as setting up a profile, slapping a cover and…
Read MoreIt’s no secret that the last year and a half has brought about a tremendous amount of change, both in our daily lives and in the way we do business. In the public relations world, we’re seeing some common themes as we engage with media contacts. We’re sharing five ways media relations has changed in the last year or so, and we talk about ways you can adjust accordingly. There are more busy news days. In October, I wrote a blog post on this very…
Read MoreAll in all, press conferences should be pretty straightforward. Share the facts. Answer questions. Provide context and insights. Even to the casual observer, White House press conferences have been lacking that normalcy over the last four years, that is, even when they took place at all. Not only was there no regular frequency to them – in 2019, the press office went more than 40 days without one – perhaps worse, it was hard to tell fact from fiction. Very often, questions from reporters were dodged or ignored…
Read MoreI don’t know about you, but it seems like 2020 would have been a much more appropriate year to launch the “ice bucket challenge.” Could there have been a more fitting metaphor for the cold splash of reality that descended on our collective heads earlier this year? And again several times since. We had anticipated being back in the office by Memorial Day, although we never did say in what year. Like many companies, we empaneled what we called our “New Normal Committee,” a group…
Read MoreMedia relations can an extremely effective way to boost an organization or individual’s visibility among key stakeholders. This is particularly true in the area of thought leadership – when the goal is to be seen as the definitive expert on a topic or issue. Like any media relations assignment though, getting the attention of a reporter is not an easy task. The average journalist gets hundreds of pitches a day from PR pros. Yours could be one of dozens that day alone pitching an expert…
Read MoreAs millions of people around the globe have united to support the Black Lives Matter (#BLM) movement, demand justice and fight for equality, against racism and much more, organizations, brands and businesses also have been weighing in to show support. Nike was one of the first with this message on Twitter encouraging all to take part in a positive change. Netflix elevated an important message to its following of more than eight million that stated, “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter….
Read MoreWithout question, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned virtually every aspect of our professional and personal lives upside down. Many PR and marketing professionals have been tirelessly working for weeks now helping guide their organizations and clients through challenges usually reserved for the most severe section of a crisis communications manual. Like many of you, we at The Hodges Partnership have been wondering more and more, “How will COVID-19 impact PR and marketing in the months and years ahead?” To help get some broad sense of…
Read MoreA key lesson I’ve learned over the years – painfully at times – is to be wary of assuming how someone feels about something without asking them. Such assumptions easily can be interpreted as indifference. While this holds true for anyone, it can be especially destructive when the victims are those you know well. This might seem like advice for how to manage personal relationships, but it’s also quite applicable for organizations. A key function of PR and marketing is developing messaging campaigns that resonate…
Read MoreWe’re halfway through the year, making July a fitting time to revisit your goals for 2019. Here are a few tips to ensure you don’t get lost in the weeds executing your strategy, and instead, are able to home in on your big picture marketing goals. What could you eliminate? Answering this question will force you to prioritize your to do list. Are there reports you’re drafting weekly that would serve the same purpose if you delivered them monthly? Be honest with yourself, and your…
Read MoreOf all the venerable questions – paper vs. plastic? the chicken or the egg? Ginger or Mary Ann? – the one that marketers struggle with most is whether to invest marketing dollars in advertising or public relations. Driving awareness through traditional advertising There was a time, not all that long ago, when the answer was more clear-cut. If you needed a campaign to drive awareness by hitting target audiences with a sustained frequency, then advertising was the way to go. Your only limit to reaching…
Read MoreI’m hailing it the most cringeworthy social platform yet. But then again, my mom never let me have MySpace. Plus, it’s the first platform where I am older than the primary target audience, so maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety? TikTok. The what Remember Vine? RIP. And how about Musical.ly? Similar to both those ghosts of app pasts, TikTok is an app for making and sharing short videos. In fact, TikTok used to be Musical.ly until it was purchased by the Chinese company, ByteDance…
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