The Global Economy is Starting to Reopen – The Guide Below Will Point You In the Right Direction as You Assess What’s Next in Your Marketing Blueprint

It felt as if there were roughly 108 days in April. During this time, you were likely inundated with messaging from marketers giving you advice on what to do during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Our own blog post written on March 23^rd discussed how to engage your audience during disruptive times. The post contained resources on how to perform a quick check on your brands’ public relations and integrated marketing messaging during the global pandemic. But, what comes next?

As the global economy reopens and consumers start to venture out to shop in retail stores and go back to their favorite dine-in restaurants, what are the best strategies or methods for the Business to business (B2B) professional services business community to move forward and adapt to our new normal?

Business to business buyers are usually informed purchasers and have educated themselves on the specific topic or service they are seeking to source for their companies. They are also usually tech-savvy and have often done their competitive homework. The role of the brand manager of a professional services company is to understand this and be effective in helping support the sales team and leading the overall B2B lead generation strategy. This, in turn, embraces the enterprise-level support of the company’s Profit & Loss statement (P&L).

A cohesiveness of this level is often harder than it sounds to achieve. But, to accomplish a harmonized association between marketing and sales, a brand can succeed by becoming an industry disruptor, especially in a time when industry disruptors have an unusual opportunity to make a difference and lead by example.

Some marketers in the business to business professional services realm will seize this opportunity; others will wait out the current events with the hope they can reboot when “things calm down.” Though, it will be the active makers, the doers, movers and changers, those who take dynamic steps now, who build marketing foundations today for a stronger economy tomorrow.

Now is the time, a time when trust and authenticity are truly meaningful.

“Understanding the intent of what information your potential customer or client seeks is the secret sauce to a long-standing recipe in the family of MarCom strategies.”

Discovery & Assessment – Our firm is one of the few full-service public relations firms in the field that requires and provides a comprehensive discovery and assessment process be performed for any company considering our public relations, advertising, digital marketing, branding or integrated marketing services. It is imperative to start with this type of process to navigate today’s competitive market. It can be as simple as creating an informal SWOT analysis, or it can go as deep as developing a complex matrix to chart out your brand’s unique situation analysis, position and needs.

Our team begins by developing a discovery questionnaire that allows us to become familiar with your company, your objectives for growth, the services you offer, and more. We also start conducting intelligence research by performing a website audit, evaluating your current share of brand voice and media coverage, and uncovering your existing digital presence. We may ask you to grant us permission to evaluate your Google Analytics and / or Google Search Console account properties, so we can better understand your existing referral sources and traffic flow.

We then conduct an in-depth Q&A session to review your existing audiences and customer / client demographics. Our team incorporates the entirety of this information into a proposed plan which can serve as a public relations and integrated marketing roadmap for your brand. This is how the strategies and tactile methods see their start and, thus, can be implemented for almost any business to business company.

Multi-Pronged Approach – B2B organizations must deploy a diverse range of marketing channels to reach prospects and convert them to sales. Some that can go unattended include business and industry trade publications and journals, blogs or podcasts, B2B product forums and review websites as well as industry association newsletters and applicable social media channels. It is important to note that not all social media channels are the best for B2B audiences. LinkedIn is one of the most productive business networking sites. But, research has shown that other social media channels can also be impactful, though this varies by industry.

 The voice and tone for messaging can also vary by platform. The one-size-fits-all approach to modern marketing will not work because purchasers and decision-makers today are informed buyers. Account-based marketing (ABM) can help with this. (ABM) combines technological insights from SaaS (software as a service) type products with intelligence from humans to create a tailored approach to marketing and sales. It is a great way to align your sales and marketing strategies and / or teams and it gives you the ability to communicate properly with high-value accounts. This method can often take longer to develop, but the results and ROI it yields are almost always higher.

Personalizing your public relations and integrated marketing strategies to include ABM is a way to approach your B2B business development process, whereas you can treat each prospect company as an individual market.

Industry Positioning via Thought Leadership – The collective knowledge within your company is often your best asset. Key account sales representatives or professional services marketing managers usually understand the needs of your prospects the most. Harnessing the knowledge of these experts can prove to be a powerful tool. The challenge of corralling knowledge from these company resources is often difficult because they are busy with their corporate roles, away on business travel, or attending industry trade shows. Our firm has developed a proven process to gently but surely extract the needed information from these individuals.

 The strategy we use is to ensure they have the tools necessary to provide information in a way that is most streamlined for them and their schedules. We develop a set of questions and answers for the company expert, analyst or adviser who would prefer to write content for an industry thought leadership piece or informative blog post in the evenings or while in between conference sessions in their hotel rooms. For those who do not wish to write out their expert knowledge, we often interview them as if we were members of the media, recording and transcribing the calls. Then, our team drafts the article or whitepaper into Associated Press (AP) style and prepares it for final fact-checking before we distribute it to the media.

The other ways we develop our clients’ content depends on the marketing channel, but this provides an example of a solid “best practice” each marketer should make an ongoing action item.

Analyzing the Data & Results – Business to business purchases are usually more complex than the average consumer purchase. Using technology together with proper marketing and public relations methods is vital to a successful program.

 Accountants are about the only people I know who enjoy combing through rows and rows of data to find the missing formula. Thankfully, today there are several excellent solutions that can process marketing-related data and the results derived from successful – and even not-so-successful campaigns – to help adjust the strategies and benchmark progress for adapting and making any necessary changes.

HubSpot is one of the top platforms to use to create a successful data-driven inbound marketing and B2B lead generation program for your business or brand. We are a certified HubSpot inbound agency and work to stay updated with our continuing education and certifications. It is our job to keep up with the technological advancements as the industry changes. This allows us to assist our clients with their own data-based marketing to produce higher quantities of inbound leads.

We utilize on-average eight or ten different marketing technology platforms in conjunction with our services. However, platforms are most results-oriented with people behind them. Our team has developed in-house proprietary processes to evaluate the results we achieve for our clients. We recommend HubSpot as an excellent first choice for any company getting started or for a company that would like to increase their B2B outreach efforts. An example of one of the unique features on HubSpot is dynamic or “smart” content that can be utilized in email marketing campaigns. Smart content is content that can be customized to change based on the specific contact or lead. These can be subject lines or offers to name a few.

The real benefit of these helpful marketing platforms is establishing key metrics to track the progress of your marketing goals. Deciding which metrics are most suited for your specific marketing campaigns involves well-defined marketing goals, from reach objectives to quarterly and annual sales targets. As you identify these aspirations, your metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) should be measurable. Sometimes the algorithms can change and thus the analytics can change, so be prepared to adjust as time goes on as flexibility is ever important.

One of the most common concerns we hear from business to business companies is the fear of a missed opportunity or not understanding what the most impactful way is to spend marketing and public relations dollars, all while yielding the highest ROI and generating success. Each B2B brand or company has its own set of unique needs. Following the above four steps is a sound way to go about developing your strategy.

One thing is for certain; humans are resilient, and markets will rebound. This is the perfect time to adapt to a changing marketplace, and the change itself is bound to create new connections and engagements for your company.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you have or if you would like to discuss our process we’ve named “Effectual Strategy at Work”.

We’re currently living in the era of convenience; everything we could ever want, or need is usually accessible through a one-stop-shop experience. Need a loaf of bread and a new pair of shoes? Why go through the inconvenience of finding a bakery and a footwear store, when you can get both in an expedited manner via Amazon?

In business terms, some marketers tend to seek the “quick-fix” solutions to address their brands’ needs. We have all seen them; there are near-countless marketing support offers found online and through consulting specialists who work in one capacity or another, some being legitimate and others gimmicks. However, most savvy marketing pros agree that while the “quick-fix” promotional tactics and one-time consultants satisfy short-term deadlines, they supply less benefit for the all-important long-term sales and marketing.

In this age of efficiency, and era of infinite lists of marketing action items, strategic marketers focus on both micro-marketing daily deadlines as well as macro-marketing extended views that keep brands on target for the long haul. This can require highly skilled and specialized marketers, unified as a talented marketing team; some would say, an army.

With constantly growing marketing “to do” lists needing accomplished each day – not to mention missed opportunities caused by the “just not enough time” challenge – corporate (or in-house) marketing personnel generate this kind of valuable support by retaining “full-service” agencies.

What is a full-service agency?

A full-service agency is an entirely client-centric concept, where an agency offers all forms of marketing, public relations, and advertising services under one roof. Although Eberly & Collard is a public relations agency at its roots, we also offer digital marketing, branding, advertising planning and creative, media relations, and more. As a client of a full-service agency, you can opt for the agency to handle every aspects of your integrated marketing, or just a few. The full-service agency is entirely flexible in catering to a business’ or brand’s marketing needs and can concentrate on both requirements and creative.

This, of course, is in opposition to the specialty agency, which is an agency that only offers a single marketing and / or advertising service. To draw from a previous example in explaining the specialty agency, imagine if Amazon exclusively sold footwear and nothing else.

Having a full-service agency is essential when executing a fully-integrated marketing strategy.

Many businesses now strive to have a fully-integrated marketing strategy, meaning that all facets of their marketing (advertising, digital, public relations, etc.), are nearly seamless. However, creating and cultivating a full-integrated communication strategy using only a single specialty agency, or multiple specialty agencies, can be nearly impossible. The difficulties of integrating multiple strategies, when each service is handled by a different agency, often creates gray areas that postpone any kind of marketing plan. While synergy among various agencies is indeed possible, a streamlined fully-service agency approach produces efficiencies and effectiveness in terms of output and results in addition to costs.

For example, let’s say you’re a business owner, and you have hired one agency to handle your social media, and another to manage advertising (both buying and creative planning). In this scenario, if you ever wanted to creatively concept, plan and purchase a sponsored (paid) Instagram campaign, who would hold the responsibility? After this is determined, it is likely both agencies would work together on this project, which could lead to additional costs for you.

At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, our advertising, social media and digital marketing departments, and others like the public / media relations team, already work with each other on a daily basis and are just down the hall from each other, making communication completely streamlined. And, not to mention, when working with a full-service agency, you can be certain that each department will be on the same page when planning multi-channel campaigns, which ultimately leads to a cohesive and consistent brand-voice across all media platforms being utilized.What if I’m only interested in public relations, or a single marketing service, for my business or brand?

A commonly held misconception surrounding full-service agencies is the higher cost that comes with agencies offering more than one service. However, one of the clear advantages of a full-service agency is its ability to conform to your business’ specific marketing and media needs which saves time, and time is money.

Are you only interested in one of a full-service agency’s services? In our book this is completely fine. By signing a contract for only one of an agency’s services, you are not simultaneously agreeing to pay for all its services; the true flexibility of the full-service agency is that it can essentially offer what a specialty agency can offer, which is expert guidance in only one area of marketing. Though, as your marketing plans evolve and expand, your full-service agency is at hand to provide additional services, teams and strategies; whereas, a specialty agency can only deliver on the one area of marketing upon which it focuses.

Although public relations has traditionally been the cornerstone of our agency, at Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we are full-service and integrated marketing agency, and are confident in our abilities to service any client-need using any form of marketing. If you would like to learn more about the outcomes a full-service agency can yield for your business or brand, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below, or contact us via the Contact page of our blog and website.

As marketers, we are working with more and more data each day. I would never have guessed seventeen years ago when we started our firm that data and the science and analysis of data would be such a large part of marketing. I find, as a lover of all things technology and as a science major that I really do love the aspects of data and being able to dig into the granular world of marketing analytics. A market analysis studies the attractiveness and the dynamics of a specified marketing area or discipline. This combined with the initial findings uncovered from a brands S.W.O.T (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) can yield the effectiveness of your marketing or public relations efforts.

Yes, there are many, many ways to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and this is a topic that would take several in-depth blog posts to fully cover but I recently read an article in Inc. magazine and it reminded me that many businesses may not have time to read through an in-depth article and could benefit from having a few quick tips to use as a general guideline. So here are four easy and quick ways to do it your self. If you find yourself searching for more and would like a deeper investigation into what is needed to take your brand awareness to the next level, please give us a call or contact us to get started.

Bounce Rate – the definition of bounce rate at defined by Google is “the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave rather than continuing to view other pages within the same site”. If your bounce rate is under 40% then you are in good shape.  If not, then this is an indicator that once they get to your website they thought it was going to be something different or the content and user website experience (UX) needs to be improved. This cold be improved with different forms of messaging, updated site copy or even a website navigation update. Again, these are just quick simple ideas for improvement and may not always be applicable or could be entirely different based on your own brands’s marketing needs.

Organic Traffic from Search – Well, like I said, I could say enough about this specific topic alone long enough that your coffee would get cold. In short, the ultimate goal here is to develop engaging content for your targeted audience. When they are searching for topics and keyword phrases that match your brands product or service offerings you want them to find your website.  You’ll also want to see a steady increase over time when viewing this metric in your analytics dashboard.

Click Through Rate – I bet you have heard of the term “sales funnel” or “customer journey”. These terms were originally derived to explain the process a lead goes through when interacting with a brand from initial inception to actual purchase. It visually can be thought of as a funnel. We often use the term “from consideration to conversion” to describe the process. The strategy is to guide them toward that conversion. Today’s consumer wants help and guidance through this process and will go elsewhere if we do not support them in this capacity. You can set up segments in your analytics program to monitor the flow-through behavior throughout the stage.

E-Commerce Conversions – Today, you can employ marketing automation software to use cookies and track the “journey” your site visitor takes. Where do they go after they leave your site, what are their purchasing habits. Mapping this unique path across every touchpoint can hep you better understand the unique needs of your customers as well as use built-in triggers or automation to direct them along the patch and to take desired actions. Just because a blog reader or site visitor did not purchase something today does not mean that they should or did not have a good brand experience. They may return again at a later date and purchase based on the experience they had today.

I hope these quick tips were useful for you and a means to at least get you started asking yourself the right questions. You should always be thinking of ways to benchmark your success and be flexible enough to challenge the way you are currently marketing. Our firm enjoys the challenge of creating new opportunities and successes for our clients’. Call us to learn more about our process and how we get started working with new clients.

Branding can be defined in a few ways across marketing disciplines, but our firm describes branding as the touch-points through which your company is seen from your customers’ or clients’ perspectives. At Eberly & Collard, we work with brands to help define a set of brand standards for our clients, so they, and, us, on their behalf, can use those standards as a baseline guide for marketing communication.

The purpose of branding is to simply and easily help your customers understand what you have to offer and how your specific product or service is different. But this is not only a USP (unique selling proposition); it is the combination of all the ways your brand can communicate what it stands for and provides. A case study that showcases our branding work can be found here.

We take the responsibility of branding for clients seriously, and this is why we are honored to be recognized as a top Branding Agency on DesignRush.

Thank you, DesignRush, for including our firm in the list this year!

One of our industry colleagues and good friend Julia Molloy, who founded the BOLD Summit (Business of Luxury Design) event is taking her master class training and intensive courses with 18 CEU’s to a region near you. Are you running a small interior design firm and having a difficult time keeping up with the work load in your firm? Need to make key decisions on how and when to grow your team? Are you ready to polish up your client experience and attract more of your sweet spot clientele? Well then, this is what you’ve been waiting for! BOLD Logistics is an extension of the BOLD Summit and essentially picks up where the BOLD Summit left off.

Registration is now open and full details of the event can be found here.

Eberly & Collard was lucky enough to be able to take part in the launch of this inaugural event in Las Vegas in 2014 and it was a huge success. We have enjoyed seeing the BOLD Summit grow and are now looking forward to the new BOLD Logistics series.

Here are Some Quick Tips to Guide you for Getting Started with Public Relations

Like most businesses, the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months. It’s already almost November, and many of you are probably still shaking your heads wondering when and how best to enact those 2019 marketing plans you and your team put into place.

As new products or services are introduced or projects are completed, often the primary challenge is to tell the brand’s story, so it reaches the maximum targeted audience- all while working with specific budgets to achieve strategic sales results.

It can be daunting if you do not know where to start; but, by following the simple steps below, you can be well on your way to achieving well-qualified leads and quantified sales.

We hope you have found these tips to be helpful. The next step is implementation while there is time remaining before year end results reports are up for review.

Eberly & Collard Public Relations believes how you are perceived by your clients, customers, investors, subsidiaries, stakeholders, peers, the media, and other integral groups is what makes them purchase your products or services, offer their partisanship support, and, ultimately, helps fulfill your budget and revenue objectives.

Our service model begins with a constituency-based approach to all aspects of public relations and integrated marketing. This is accomplished by thoroughly examining our clients’ target audiences’ decision-making processes, purchasing behaviors, product / service opinions, and brand awareness levels.

This is the premise upon which we enact comprehensive integrated marketing programs for our clients, complete with quick-acting, creative and strategic campaigns to communicate product or service and business stories.

If you or your company leaders seek to be regularly quoted as through-leaders and experts in the publications and websites your customers, clients or prospects read…or your products or design projects are missing out on promotion or publicity, contact us for an assessment of your integrated public and media relations needs.