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Home » Archives for Uncategorized

Relevant Expertise May Soon Replace Customer Referrals

January 26, 2021 By Jeff Collard Leave a Comment

Client loyalty and customer referrals have now hit an all-time low, and these types of new business connections are fast being replaced by having relevant expertise in a niche service category.

Even with 2020 past us, we are still living in unprecedented and chaotic times. But, most of all, these are times of profound change. At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we believe we are on the precipice of a revolution as it pertains to how leaders at professional service firms can market themselves. Buyers need to know how to assess service providers in today’s environment. And, sellers need to understand what types of sales and marketing methods will gain the attention of buyers.

Client Loyalty

Buyers stated in a study last year conducted by the Marketing Research Institute that relevancy of services or specialization in a niche category was a key selection factor. This factor has risen 33% over the last two years and will continue to rise. Relevant expertise translates to higher client satisfaction, loyalty and referrals, all of which are at all-time lows. Because it is much easier for a buyer to do a quick web search than it is to reach out to a friend or a colleague for advice or for a referral. The loyalty suffers and is not established if the client does not see you as highly relevant to their current challenges and needs. The old methods will not work in today’s environment.

What is the best path forward? In today’s marketplace, a strategic and customized approach is paramount to success. A modern, digital-fueled content marketing approach is the right mix of ingredients. Traditional methods are not dead. It’s understanding how to balance them both appropriately in varying percentages based on your specific industry or unique needs.

Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing Dominates

Digital communications and marketing have been on the rise for more than a decade, but companies that have not evolved to include some form of digital marketing communications are being left behind. The 2020 pandemic forced many companies to convert to all types of virtualization where digital interactions are now routine. With so many gaining experience and comfort with virtual services, it will only continue to be more prevalent. Having a strong digital content marketing strategy will help aid in staying relevant. Items like Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a digital media kit, and a robust media relations strategy that will help secure articles and placements online will also help with high authoritative backlinks to your website. Podcasts and videos will also fall under this category, to name a few.

The Importance of Industry Specialization

Specialization is essential and considered a real competitive advantage over companies that do not do so. The benefits are obvious. Clients benefit by virtue of specialized service and added value through insights and suggestions. We decided years ago to be an industry niche-based marketing firm and have maintained our commitment to this decision. It’s been our strength in an otherwise uncertain economic environment because our target audience demands as much value out of their professional advisors as possible. We believe that specialization gives this to them. After all, by virtue of serving many organizations and individuals engaged within the same industries, we see challenges and opportunities much clearer than another firm not working in that specific industry category. This brings a lot of value to our clients in the niches we serve. We believe other professional service firms that follow in this similar model will also yield the same successes.

Successful Niche Marketing

Niche Marketing is A Successful Strategy

Differentiation, the most common, and most difficult marketing issue for professional services firms. Competition within the professional services space is fierce, and many industries are incredibly analogous—which makes differentiation that much more difficult. Take an unbiased look at your industry. See how competition saturation, economic or political volatility, and trends and challenges affect your position.

Define your target audiences and what they want. The critical rule here: Don’t guess. Internally generated client surveys and client service programs only go so far. What your clients and prospects say and do varies greatly depending on a variety of factors. Third-party research can help. Once you know the pain points and perceptions, make sure you have a solid plan on what to do with that vital information.

Use your resources and or the resources of your specialty marketing firm to focus your efforts. This involves all of your firm’s professionals, including technical, business development and marketing focused. Is your marketing department at capacity? Is this the time to outsource? Do your business development and marketing teams have the right skills and roles in place? Once you make changes or revise your strategy, do you have individuals that can champion the efforts and see things to fruition?

Understand What is and is Not Working

This tends to be one of the most difficult questions to ask, as the answers can be very nuanced. For example, are you engaging in reactionary marketing (or is marketing more of an afterthought in your organization)? Do you have a strategic plan in place? As mentioned in the beginning of this article, content development will be crucial to help increase awareness and education among your targets. But, it takes time. A realistic timeframe is approximately 3-4 months before a measurable difference can be seen. It’s quite often in today’s world of instant gratification that expectations are not realistic. Don’t set yourself up for failure by having unrealistic expectations from the very beginning.

There are numerous ways to increase B2B lead generation, but the information above will help guide you along the way. Working with an agency that truly understands your specific industry is the way to achieve success and convey your value proposition. Working to ensure that your client loyalty does not suffer is a sure-fire way to remain relevant to your customer base.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

5 Reasons Your Brand Should Partner with Micro-Influencers in 2021 and Beyond

January 19, 2021 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

The influencer marketing industry is on track to nearly double its worth from $8 billion in 2019 to $15 billion by 2022, according to a Business Insider Intelligence report. Showing no signs of slowing down, influencer marketing is increasingly becoming a vital strategy for businesses to build brand awareness, generate engagement, attract leads, and drive sales.

Micro-Influencers Influencer Marketing

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that employs or engages industry-leading content creators, or influencers, to advocate your business and endorse your products or services. The goal of influencer marketing is to increase the visibility of your company and drive your brand’s message to your target audience via a variety of channels, such as an influencer’s blog and social media platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, etc.).

According to HubSpot, 80 percent of marketers say influencer marketing is effective and helpful in growing their businesses. However, it is important to note that an influencer marketing program is only as results oriented and effective as it is managed. When managed properly, it can expand your reach and produce new, unique and positive results for your business.

Understanding the difference between macro-influencers and micro-influencers is a critical aspect of any successful influencer marketing program. Doing so allows you to determine which form of influencer marketing will be most beneficial for your business and the goals you wish to achieve.

Macro-Influencers vs. Micro-Influencers

Macro-influencers are celebrities and other well-known individuals with broad, diverse audiences of hundreds of thousands to millions of followers. There is no denying that macro-influencers are capable of introducing and promoting brands, products and services to a wide-reaching audience; however, this is not always the best influencer marketing strategy for every business. Not every brand has the budget to engage macro-influencers; and depending on your marketing goals and objectives, smaller-scale influencers may be a better fit for your company.

Micro-influencers, on the other hand, typically have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. They have more specific and targeted audiences, and are regarded as experts in their respective niches. Not only are micro-influencers considered to be far more accessible, affordable and authentic than macro-influencers, they also drive increased awareness, fans and followers, engagement, website and blog traffic, leads, and sales conversions for brands and businesses of all kinds and sizes.

While a micro-influencer’s number of followers is smaller than that of a macro-influencer, they have proven to achieve similar, if not better, results for businesses and brands. In fact, influencer marketing trends predict micro-influencers will continue to rise in 2021 and are emerging as the most effective influencer marketing strategy. As such, more and more businesses are realizing the importance and value in partnering with influencers who have smaller but highly engaged followings.

Below, we share five of the top benefits of using micro-influencers, as opposed to macro-influencers, to build brand awareness and boost sales for your business in 2021 and beyond.

1. Micro-influencers have higher engagement rates.

Did you know that influencers with smaller followings tend to have higher engagement rates than influencers with larger followings? This statistic may catch you by surprise, but according to Markerly, influencers with a follower base of 10,000 to 100,000 offer the best combination of engagement and broad reach, with like and comment rates that exceed influencers with a higher number of followers.

Although micro-influencers have fewer followers, they hold a large and powerful influence on their tight-knit, loyal communities and audiences. Micro-influencers are much more engaged and able to interact more frequently and authentically with their followers. Conversely, macro-influencers have such large followings that it is difficult to engage every single follower on a personal level. The more influencers interact with their audiences on a genuine level, the more connected, relatable and influential they become in the minds of their followers.

This is one of the best ways micro-influencers can benefit your brand, as partnering with them often yields more impactful results by helping connect your brand, message, product or service with their highly engaged and responsive followers.

Micro-Influencers Influencer Marketing

2. Micro-influencers reach niche and targeted audiences.

Micro-influencers are seen as industry experts and topic specialists in a particular market, and they reach niche and targeted audiences consisting of people who share the same or similar interests. In contrast, macro-influencers have a much broader audience with diversified interests. Thus, partnering with micro-influencers for brand, product or service promotions instead of macro-influencers is often recommended. Doing so allows you to reach highly engaged followers in a specific niche and easily connect with your target audience, as opposed to getting lost in the masses.

3. Micro-influencers are more affordable.

Incorporating a micro-influencer strategy into your marketing mix can benefit your business’s overall budget. Micro-influencers are far more affordable than celebrities or top-tier influencers with millions of followers. This has encouraged many brands to turn to micro-influencers for collaboration.

More often than not, macro-influencers charge thousands of dollars for a single post promoting a product or service, whereas 97 percent of micro-influencers charge less than $500 for a promotional post. Instead of paying a costly fee for a single, short-lived post from one macro-influencer, consider investing in several different micro-influencers to maximize the benefits and longevity of your influencer marketing program. By doing so, you can reach a larger, more engaged and targeted audience that is more likely to have a true interest in your brand and take action on your products or services.

4. Micro-influencers provide more authentic content.

Micro-influencers generally give the impression of being genuine and trustworthy individuals, as they provide their audiences with more authentic and relatable content. They are very invested in the communities they have created, and their followers look to them for honest reviews and recommendations. Because of this, they are strongly motivated to produce creative, high-quality content that impresses their followers as well as the brands with which they work. In doing so, they are able to deliver your brand’s message in a way that will appeal to and resonate with their followers, ultimately encouraging them to transform into potential customers.

Micro-Influencers Influencer Marketing

5. Micro-influencers generate higher conversion rates.

Collaborating with micro-influencers is an excellent way to increase your conversion rates. According to a recent study, 82 percent of consumers are highly likely to follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer. This, in part, goes back to the authenticity factor that we mentioned just above. The suggestions and reviews made by micro-influencers are considered to be candid and sincere by their followers.

A great strategy for this is to create special discount codes or affiliate links for your micro-influencers to share with their followers by way of product reviews, tutorials, sponsored posts, etc. In turn, this will encourage and motivate their audiences to purchase your products or services. As a result, there is a strong likelihood your sales conversion rates will increase.

At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we develop and manage influencer marketing programs for our clients, and carefully research and vet influencers that are the most beneficial for their brands. Contact us if you are looking to kick-off a new or improve a current influencer marketing program for the new year.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Starting from the Ground Up: PR’s Pivotal Role in Building a New Business

December 4, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

So, you launched a new company. Now what? The obvious answer to this question is “sign a client,” or, “build a strong customer base.” But, getting to that point involves a framework of smart choices made within budget. And, if you ask us, one of the smartest and most cost-efficient decisions a start-up can make is adopting a public relations (PR) strategy at the onset of the company’s conception.

To clarify, we are not recommending a fully-integrated, multi-level marketing plan for a start-up or newly launched company as the very first step. Though we’ve been outspoken on the fruitful benefits a fully-integrated marketing plan offers, we understand there is a time and place for everything. And, right now, you are simply trying to launch a company without exhausting your existing, and sometimes limited, resources.

When pathways to funds are narrow, every dollar dedicated to marketing is precious and must be part of an overall plan to achieve brand awareness. Starting with a strong PR plan can be immensely valuable when limited budget is available, but it is important to note that the time to dedicate a budget towards PR for a new company is at the onset. Once a budget is determined, the steps taken to strategically position your new company using PR can be relatively simple. As you kick-off your PR strategy and baseline budget, part of your future roadmap should be preplanning to supplement campaigns and equipping your branding with an enduring budget, both of which can keep your PR efforts on track after you lay the groundwork.

What is public relations, and what makes it so valuable?

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. For businesses with strategic and well-managed PR plans, ROI includes developing reliable trust and authentic engagement with customers, clients, sales leads, buyers, decision-makers, industry leaders, influencers, the media, and other integral contacts, connections and constituencies.

One of the most rewarding and value-driven benefits a new company can achieve from PR is the early development of trust amongst its target audiences. Earned, unpaid publicity as a result of sound PR activations, such as influencer marketing, thought-leadership events, customer and client retention programs, and more, can act as a conduit of trust in a respective industry. All of this typically more cost-effective than other methods of marketing, such as advertising.

When put head-to head with other marketing options, and judged strictly on their individual merits from the perspective of a start-up looking for the value proposition in marketing, PR emerges as the smart and strategic choice.

According to Nielsen, a global marketing research firm, PR is nearly 90% more effective than advertising. It was found that expert content marketing, which is earned, unpaid publicity achieved through PR, lifted familiarity 88 percent more than branded content, such as traditional advertisements or advertorials.

This data may have one asking why PR yields higher trust and more credibility than paid media. When publicity is secured with a print or online news source as a result of PR, it means an independent party has vetted and verified the information they have received through your PR efforts about your company. It also signifies that they have deemed it valuable information for their readers. With advertising alone, a company’s message is not necessarily vetted or verified through sometimes stringent editorial standards, but rather purchased.

That said, we are not against paid media by any stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, uniting traditional PR with advertising can be incredibly valuable. However, in order for advertising to work, there must be an engaging, memorable and repetitious strategy in place. Combining advertising with other marketing components, such as PR, can help when building brand equity; this is because implementing unified marketing disciplines has a record of producing growth and value for companies.

If a start-up company has the available budget at the onset to fund an integrated marketing plan that encapsulates both PR and advertising, we would say such a strategy is more than advisable. But, if a company finds itself with a tighter, more restrictive marketing budget and has to pick between PR and advertising based on ROI alone, we recommend the former.

PR for New Companies

In practice, how will PR help build brand awareness and establish my company’s identity in its respective industry?

PR allows a company to communicate with its desired audiences in a way that creates value and triggers engagement. If done successfully, PR can help create buzz about your company, which will, in turn, translate to new customers and clients, and build fresh relationships in a respective industry. PR can also help bring in liquidity from new investors and create interest from prospective employees.

A start-up’s first goal should be introducing its product or service to the marketplace. When using traditional methods of PR, one of the most reliable platforms to make this introduction to target audiences is earned media.

When using PR strategy to produce unpaid, earned media, a start-up needs to look inward and answer a key question: What is your company doing better or differently than your competitors that uniquely positions itself in the eyes of potential clients or customers? Once this is determined, companies can leverage this information using a consistent PR program.

If you are a business-to-consumer (B2C) or direct-to-consumer (D2C) start-up, it might be wise to consider launching influencer marketing programs, in which influencers are given complimentary product in exchange for the potential of publicity of your company. In this unpaid influencer agreement, your company could send an influencer the traditional “PR Pack,” which is essentially a sampling of your own product, in addition to some marketing materials explaining who your company is, and what it is you do.

If strategized correctly, the influencer would then post about your product or service on their social media channels; blog about your company; name-drop your product, service or company in a podcast; or simply mention your product or service to another tastemaker in your respective industry. Though the latter is more difficult to track, and you may not see the benefits of such an interaction right away, this word of mouth marketing can be highly beneficial for your start-up in the long term.

The value of reaching your publics through their preferred influencers cannot be stressed enough. Your start-up and brand is completely new to your desired target audiences; it is not uncommon for someone to react with initial skepticism when they are introduced to a brand-new product or service about which they have never heard.

Leveraging the voice of influencers not only puts your new product or service in front of your target audiences, but it allows said audiences to trust that it has been vetted by the influencer. In this scenario, PR can also be aligned with media relations, should any news source pick up a story about an influencer posting, writing or speaking about your product, service or company. These two elements (public relations and media relations) in tandem with each other can be extremely valuable for your start-up, given the double-layer of trust through earned media and influencer relations.

Like any facet of marketing, with PR, it is important to create long-term strategies. Make sure to facilitate dialogues and relationships with various influencers within your industry on more than one occasion, and throughout the duration of a year. This will build lasting trust and consistency with influencers and in turn, your target audiences.

Implementing a strong PR strategy can propel the standing of your start-up in more ways than one; positioning your company in the right place and time through PR can attract investors and talented employees.

Through consistent publicity secured through PR, potential investors can vet the viability of your company. Perhaps one of the most advantageous effects PR has on a new company is making it seem even more established in a given industry. It also enhances its trajectory in becoming a “staple” brand. After all, most investors do not like taking risks with new companies that appear volatile or ones they have never heard of. On the investment front, a solid PR game plan can potentially make a company that has existed only for a few months seem as if they have existed for a few years.

PR is also a great way to attract talent and grow a start-up’s team. Positive publicity as a result of PR strategy can be a huge boost for hiring and getting the right people to seek employment with your company. Similar to investors, the majority of prime job candidates stray away from companies that appear unestablished or are unheard of.

PR for New Companies

Getting started: Implementing public relations strategy as a new company.

It is no secret that starting up a new business venture is tough, and only the top five percent of all new companies last more than 12 months. However, start-ups with PR programs at the onset have a creative and strategic advantage to companies without the strategy and service support from PR agencies to improve their odds.

As is mentioned in places throughout this blog, we would also find it a wise decision to consider implementing a PR program aligned with other facets of marketing, such as media relations, social media or advertising, that comprise a robust strategy and that is vigorously executed through outreach, campaigns and more. But, of course, this is dictated by the budget allocated towards marketing.

The importance of beginning with a PR agency that offers Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat (SWOT) Analysis and strategic planning cannot be understated. These processes help clearly define goals and evaluate opportunities for success within given market(s). Learn more about our public relations services here, and contact us to get started on your plan today.

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: advertising, B2B Social Media, contact us, content building, content marketing, earned media, Inbound content marketing, Inbound Marketing, marketing, Marketing strategy, Meeting your marketing goals in 2020, owned media, Public relations, publicity

Corporate Public Relations and Corporate Branding: A Unified Force

November 19, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

PR and Branding

Today’s marketing communications world is more integrated than ever before. Companies and corporations around the globe are recognizing the true value and efficacy of melding various aspects of marketing communications to maintain a consistent corporate identity and brand message across traditional and nontraditional channels. Implementing an integrated marketing approach helps businesses reach and interface with their publics and target audiences through the many networks and formats they use to find and purchase products or services.

Corporate public relations and corporate branding are two aspects of marketing communications that are key to the success of any business or corporation. While these two marketing components have separate definitions, strategies and campaigns, they are far more effective when planned and executed synergistically to market and promote a business’s brand. The integration of corporate public relations and corporate branding can convert leads and prospects into new sales and clients for your business. Therefore, it is important to understand how each of the two activities operates separately as well as how they integrate and work together as a unified force.

What is Corporate Public Relations?

Corporate public relations refers to the practice of establishing and maintaining communication and relationships between a business or brand and its various publics, such as its employees, clients or customers, key stakeholders, investors, the media, and the general public. It also involves creating and cultivating a positive reputation and public perception of a corporation.

From brand storytelling to media relations to crisis communications, corporate public relations comprises a wide range of responsibilities and functions that contribute to a company’s long-term success.

  • Brand storytelling: Various methods of communication, including press releases, social media posts, newsletters, etc., can be used to disseminate your brand story and messages.
  • Media relations: A corporate public relations department manages requests from the media for information about the company and interviews with key executives and managers, as well as conducts media outreach to garner positive coverage in targeted publications and news outlets.
  • Crisis communications: If a crisis arises, a company’s public relations team is typically responsible for initiating and guiding the crisis plan, crafting a strategic statement or response, providing information to the media, preparing messaging points to address important groups with interest or involvement in the organization, and advising the company spokesperson on how to respond to the media appropriately and in a way that provides the public with the facts of the situation and explains how the crisis is being handled.

Your corporate public relations strategies and campaigns should be designed to communicate your company’s mission statement, values, products or services, and achievements to the media and general public. A proactive approach is paramount when it comes to corporate public relations. Proactive public relations strategies entail researching, vetting and acquiring new opportunities that generate exposure and activate thought leadership for your business and brand.

Some great ideas for corporate public relations events and activations you should seek to secure include speaking engagements, panel discussions, webinars, podcasts, industry awards and recognitions, and third-party endorsements. Securing these types of opportunities will allow your target audiences to interface with your business and gain a better understanding of your brand, products or services.

Corporate public relations vs corporate branding

What is Corporate Branding?

Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the name of a business or organization as a whole, rather than the name of a specific product or service. It creates a unique corporate identity for your business that reflects the company’s mission, values, character, and culture. This is conveyed through visual and non-visual elements, including your brand colors, logos, taglines, fonts, product packaging, professional service descriptions, website and blog content, tone of voice, etc. Every message you communicate, both internally and externally, reflects your corporate identity.

Understanding the importance of corporate branding versus corporate public relations is essential. From a public relations standpoint, corporate branding develops and maintains a distinguishable corporate identity and consistent brand messaging that shapes how clients and prospects perceive your brand. Ultimately, it helps stimulate brand recognition, trust and conversions. To achieve this, businesses must create and implement well-planned, creative corporate branding strategies and campaigns.

Successful corporate branding strategies will connect your brand with your target audiences. Social media marketing is a great strategy to increase the visibility of your brand and reach potential customers or clients. Building a social media presence and plan for your business offers users the opportunity to discover your brand, learn about your products or services, ask questions, and share feedback. When executed properly, this strategy can drive brand awareness, engagement, website traffic, sales, and more. You can learn how to create an effective social media marketing plan for your business in our blog post written May 29th.

Branded content can also be used as a corporate branding strategy and campaign. Branded content is a powerful tool that can deliver true value, insight and customer service to your target audiences. In today’s digital landscape, especially, branded content can be packaged in a variety of formats, including videos, podcasts, blog posts, case studies, etc. An effective branded content strategy or campaign can further your brand story and communicate important information about your business to your targeted customers or clients. In a previous blog post, we shared five tips to writing branded content that can help you better grasp how to generate sales leads for your business and brand success.

Corporate public relations and corporate branding both focus on keeping a company’s corporate identity aligned with its brand messaging. Therefore, they may naturally overlap at times, but the results are maximized when they are used in unison. Integrating the two practices and executing them simultaneously ensures your corporate identity and brand messaging are consistent across all channels, creating a unified and seamless experience for your publics and target audiences to engage with your brand. In addition, doing so generates sales and customer loyalty for your business’s brand, products or services because the more you consistently meet or exceed your customers’ expectations, the more they will trust and depend on your brand.

The Eberly & Collard Public Relations team specializes in integrated marketing communications, public relations and corporate branding. By creating and managing integrated public relations and branding strategies and campaigns, our firm helps drive interest in and promote positive perceptions of our clients’ businesses, key personnel and product or service offerings. Contact us if you’re seeking to generate authentic connections with your target audiences that lead to winning their respect, earning their trust and gaining their patronage.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Why Inbound Marketing Will Be More Important Than Ever In 2021

October 15, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

What is inbound marketing

2020 has been filled with disruption, to say the least. In recent years, disruption in business has typically been considered a good thing. Companies, people and ideas ushering in “disruptive innovation” have been generally defined as positive conductors of growth with the potential to shake up an entire industry.

However, in the last six months alone, people have experienced enough disruption in their personal lives through the various economic, cultural and social issues at-hand. As a result, companies are rethinking the ways in which they make their initial connection with target audiences, but in ways that are not as disruptive or invasive to their daily lives.

At this moment, it is predicted people will leave 2020 feeling over-stimulated and fatigued. So, what does this mean for your 2021 content marketing plan? Tread lightly, and consider growing your organization’s inbound marketing program.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is the practice of growing your company’s prospects, clients and customers by forming organic and lasting relationships through non-interruptive inbound content marketing. While outbound marketing involves an organization reaching target demographics through e-blasts, cold-calls and other marketing techniques that are active attempts at direct communication, inbound marketing allows potential clients or customers to find your company on their own through your company’s web-based content.

The nucleus of inbound marketing is assisting potential customers or clients find your product or service, even before they realize the need for it in some cases. Inbound marketing tools work especially well during disruptive times in business and society; this is because it allows potential clients or customers to make organic initial connections with your organization on their own terms through passive searching.

Before implementing or refreshing your inbound marketing strategy for 2021, you must first understand the three core components of inbound marketing. Understanding and executing these components are essential for connecting with your audiences in ways that bridge strong relationships and solve their problems.

1. Entice and invite the right people to your web-based content through blogs, social media, podcasts, press releases, and more.

The first and possibly most important factor of any inbound marketing is program attracting the right people, i.e. your target audience, to your organization’s website. How do you get them there? You create meaningful conversations and interest through valuable, solution-based content.

This content can come in many shapes and sizes, so to speak. If you are a financial planning firm, you could write a blog or record a podcast that includes helpful insight into how a portfolio should be successfully managed. While this solves half the equation of inbound marketing, you must also be able to strategically position this content so it can be found by the right people.

One of the best ways to position this content with effective, maximum reach is through SEO optimization. This is accomplished by creating web-based, owned content with specific keywords and phrases that are associated with your company, product, service, and industry. These keywords and phrases should be solution-based and written with your target audience in mind. Building on the previous example, if you are a financial planning firm, your target audiences will be searching for businesses like yours to solve specific issues, using keywords and phrases such as, “how to make a comprehensive financial plan,” or, “financial plan for startup example.” In application, it is recommended to build a much deeper SEO strategy than two simple search phrases, but the idea of inbound marketing is to draw in potential clients and customers with a specific problem they are hoping to have solved via search engine.

With a solution-based strategy, your organization’s content-driven SEO will position your company to organically appear in search engine results for the people searching for and in need of this information.

An overlooked device for the first component of inbound marketing is the humble, handy press release. Typically viewed as a traditional method of providing the media with important news or company updates, the press release has found itself in an interesting position during the digital age. When used as native content, and posted to your organization’s website, it can be as practical as a blog or article to build solution-driven SEO keywords and phrases that attract key demographics to your website.

Earned media placements of an SEO-based press release on publications’ websites or digital issues can also be used as a tool to passively draw desired audiences to your organization’s website. Earned media placements typically garner more trust from its readers than owned media, so make sure the press release also contains backlinks to take the reader back to your website.

A prime way to implement the first component of this strategy, using our examples, would be to start out of the gates in 2021 with a well-written, solution-driven and SEO-based press release campaign. Make sure the basis of the press release is rooted in some sort of solution your company offers.

If you are an in-house marketing director at a software company specializing in cybersecurity, for example, kick off 2021 with a press release about enhanced-security updates your company has made to the product that further solves the problems of its current and future users. Place keywords and phrases that are based on search terms your target audience would be using if they were to find your organization via search engine. Then, post the press release to your website and distribute it to various media outlets your target audience would be reading.

When a potential client or customer is served the press release on your or a publication’s website via search engine, they are met with a much more organic, valuable initial connection with your organization, rather than being inundated by your cold-calls or e-blasts. By using this less-interruptive method, prospects feel they have discovered your organization’s solutions on their own terms.

What is inbound marketing

2. How to engage with an audience acquired through SEO-based content

“I’ve attracted the right people to my organization’s website using tools such as SEO-driven, published content on my website. What now?”

Once potential new clients or customers find your organization by way of non-interruptive means, it is essential to engage with this newly acquired audience in ways that encourage long-term relationships. In keeping with our prediction for 2021, it is important to consider less-disruptive methods of introducing solutions and insights that are adjacent to prospects’ goals. This not only motivates them to become a client or customer with your company, but it helps establish yourself as a trusted consultant with whom they can engage.

There are various ways to engage your audience using inbound marketing strategies. Whichever direction you decide to take, it is important that you lead with solution-based selling rather than product-based selling. If you truly want to capitalize on the non-invasive nature of inbound marketing, you should not direct-sell yourself as a product or service, but rather a stream of valuable information and insight geared to offer solutions for a unique set of problems.

In order to sell your solution, you must first understand the “pain points” of a potential client or customer. Regardless the channel of communication, start off the dialogue asking important questions of the prospect’s business or service, and not direct selling in the first interaction.

To apply this to your 2021 marketing strategy, think about how your organization sells itself on social media channels. When someone follows your company on one or more of the social channels on which you are active, they decide that following your company provides them with some kind of value. They likely found your company’s channels on their own, and it is even possible they were served your content from Facebook or Instagram’s “Explore” algorithm; this algorithm, created by Facebook, performs in a similar manner to that of Google’s search engine algorithm.

Regardless of how they found you, a key demographic is now following your company on social media, making your organization visible to them on a daily basis. Once you are aware of this notion, it is important to understand their needs, and work solution-based selling – not product-based selling – into your daily, weekly or monthly social media content. Though the act of posting social media content lies within the “active” marketing arena, it is typically not considered to be disruptive to your followers. After all, they made the conscious decision to follow your organization.

However, in accordance with our 2021 inbound marketing outlook, you will not want to over-stimulate your followers with frequent, aggressive, hard-sell posting, in the same way you would not want to over-communicate with a lead or attracted party you’ve acquired through SEO-based content on your website.

3. Servicing new business generated through inbound marketing strategies

So, you’ve signed a new client through your inbound marketing efforts – congratulations!

Now the real work begins. In order to complete the triad that is inbound marketing, it is vitally important to continue satisfying new clients or customers through consistent non-interruptive marketing strategies. Nothing turns off a new client or customer more than realizing the company in which they have been interfacing acts in a completely different manner once a contract is signed, or a purchase is made.

Consider incorporating automated support mechanisms into your inbound marketing strategy to assist and request feedback from clients and customers. Surveys, in particular, are a great tactic to install in your company’s customer journey. By asking for feedback from your customers or clients using some kind of automated platform, you are continuing to passively sell your company’s ability to understand the needs of its customers, and react and adapt to new ideas for improvement. If, as a company, you can constantly improve your service through mechanisms such as this, you are proving your long-term value, which will in turn lead to renewed contracts or purchases in the future.

Another non-invasive way of servicing your existing clients or customers is through social media listening. Your organization’s social media followers, some of which are not even clients or customers, serve as an effective tool in feeling the pulse of your target audiences. Become familiar with your follower base, especially the followers who are clients or customers, and provide solutions via social media that demonstrate continued support for your patrons.

That said, make sure the solutions you offer directly to your social media followers are warranted; you do not want to appear “needy” or high maintenance.

As you implement these inbound marketing strategies into your marketing plan for 2021, it is important to keep in mind that the most important aspect of inbound marketing is delivering repeated value to new, existing or potential clients, even if the value is not reciprocated in some cases.

With 2020 drawing to a close, and a promising 2021 on the horizon, many in business are more fatigued than ever with tone-deaf and aggressive marketing tactics. Eberly & Collard Public Relations is a HubSpot Certified Inbound Marketing Agency, which means we guide clients in various industries through the steps outlined in this blog. Whether you decide to implement this strategy on your own or with the guidance of an agency, we hope this information acts as a valuable resource for your 2021 marketing planning.

Inbound marketing agency

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: advertising, content building, content marketing, earned media, Inbound content marketing, Inbound Marketing, lead generation, marketing, Marketing strategy, owned media, publicity, SEO, SEO optimization

5 Tips to Writing Branded Content for Your Business

October 2, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

Writing branded content for your business

The identities of the millions of brands in the global marketplace are as unique as the fingerprints of the billions of people in the world. No matter how similar two brands may be, each has a unique identity, or fingerprint, that makes it distinctive and one-of-a-kind. How do some brand managers strive to have their brands stand out in a crowded market and differentiate their product or service offerings from those of their competitors? While the answer to this involves a complex overview from creative messaging to budgeted output, it all comes down to strategic branding and branded content.

Branding, as defined by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), is the process of creating and disseminating a brand name. It can be applied to an entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names. The process involves producing and communicating creative information about a business’s identity, reputation and what sets it apart from the competition in its specific industry or sector.

Branding

Branded content strives to establish professional and emotional connections with consumers and target audiences. It consists of creating content that engages, educates and entertains the consumer, which encourages brand awareness, recognition and trust. Personifying your business and driving connections through story-driven content is essential when building a memorable and reputable brand. Doing so draws people to your company and helps them distinguish your business, products or services from the rest.

Many people may recognize a brand based upon its logo or colors, but it is the content that truly communicates the personality and values of a brand, along with the quality of a product or service. Brainstorming branded content ideas offers the opportunity to define your brand in more detail than just a logo or name. Whether you are creating a tagline or slogan, blog post, newsletter, video, podcast, case study, or other marketing tool, every piece of content you publish reflects your brand. Therefore, while some feel it is easier said than done, it is important to keep your content consistent across all of your branding materials.

Well-written, consistent content can promote brand recognition, leading targeted customers or clients – whether business-to-business or business-to-consumer – to associate the content with your brand and the specific products or services your business offers. Effective branded content can inform, improve or reinforce consumer perception of your brand and, more purposefully, what it stands for. Furthermore, content consistency can enhance and grow your business by promoting your unique brand identity and making your brand become more recognizable and favorable to your target audience.

Here are five tips to writing branded content that can help you better grasp how to generate sales leads for your business and brand success.

Tip #1: Develop and uphold brand standards.

Writing branded content starts with developing brand standards, which are a set of guidelines on how your brand should be represented and communicated to your target audience as well as the general public. Your brand standards and guidelines should serve as a resource, both internally and externally, offering information and instructions on how to properly use all brand assets. From logos and typography to mission statements and messaging, it is important to align all aspects of your brand, so it comes across in a uniform manner to your targets, and, ultimately, so your brand identity, values and products or services are reflected accurately.

Many ask, “Do I need a brand standards guide?” The answer is a resounding, yes. Once your brand standards have been developed, you can and should utilize and refer to them when writing branded content for your business. By implementing your new brand standards, you can ensure the content being written is on-brand and properly emulates your brand identity. Since your business is built upon its brand identity, upholding your brand standards will allow you to present a consistent and cohesive brand to the public.

Brand standards guide

Tip #2: Communicate your brand story and key messages.

Your brand story and key messages can shape how consumers perceive and interact with your business. Taking the time to craft a creative, authentic brand story and communicate your key messages can influence, encourage and enable consumers to form a personal connection with your brand. Delivering a strong brand story and story-driven content can reinforce your brand identity, values and persona without making your target audience feel as though you are trying to “sell” them on your products or services. Rather, you will be offering real value and insight into your business, which motivates consumers to engage and connect with your content, brand and personnel.

By repeating your story and key messages across all forms of branded content, you will instill your brand identity in the minds of consumers every time they see your logo, visit your website, read your blog, view your advertisements, read your news, and receive your email campaigns. As a result, they will remember your brand and positively associate your content with the products or services you provide, giving your business the competitive advantage it needs to stand out and succeed.

Tip #3: Avoid jargon and focus on clarity.

Clarity is key when it comes to writing effective branded content. Messages can be obscured by jargon, slang and buzzwords, causing the content to be confusing and difficult to read or understand. The goal is to create straightforward and readable pieces of content that are well-written and have the consumer or your ideal client in mind. Your branded content should be catered to your target audience, and you should use natural language to communicate true value through individual thoughts or ideas.

If you keep your messages clear and concise, consumers will gain a better understanding of what exactly you are communicating. Plus, the messages will come across as more powerful, effective and credible.

If your objective is to draw leads and prospects, the goal should include writing genuine content with unparalleled resources and insights from your company thought leaders. To achieve this, put your writing through a phased approach to evaluation and proofing. Given you have a meaningful and grammatical handle on the content, consider beginning with the quintessential outline that takes into account intended content that exudes value and interest, punctuated with well-researched words and phrases to grab the attention of your audience.

Writing engaging content customers can find online is part of the project. Then, it must draw them in within seconds and hold their attention long enough to appreciate what your brand has to say and offer. One without the other does not cut to the chase of results-oriented content.

Tip #4: Maintain a consistent brand voice.

As we touched on earlier in this blog post, brand consistency leads to brand recognition. Thus, maintaining a consistent brand voice and tone is crucial when writing branded content. It is essential to have an established, distinct voice because it makes your brand, products and services highly identifiable to your target audience and the public.

If you are still in the process of building your brand voice, asking yourself the following questions may help you establish it:

  • How would you describe your brand in three words?
  • How will you incorporate those traits into your brand messaging strategy?
  • How will you communicate and deliver those messages to your target audience?

A consistent tone of voice creates a strong brand for your business and positions your company as a trustworthy resource in your field of expertise. If your voice is rooted in your unique brand identity, your content and messaging can grab attention, strengthen relationships and build affinity with your target audience over time. The more consistent your brand voice is, the more distinguishable and trusted your branded content will be in the eyes of consumers.

Consistent brand voice

Tip #5: Optimize your content for SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your target audience discover your content. We recommend optimizing branded content by including keywords and phrases that are unique and relevant to your brand. Doing so will help people find information about your business, products or services when they search online. By infusing your branded content with SEO, you can maximize the visibility of your brand and broaden your audience and reach.

When optimizing branded content, think about what your brand offers and how your products or services can provide solutions to the problems or challenges consumers or your wish list of clients may face. Then, consider the possible, practical words and phrases your target audience might enter into the search engines to find products or services such as yours. Be innovative with your SEO-focused content, and research and include key words and phrases your targets may search online when they are looking for ideas or solutions like the ones your business provides. As you plan your content, you can and should consistently target words and phrases with high search rankings and applicability to your area of expertise. In time, the result will yield content that is easier for your audience to locate.

Incorporating SEO into your content can not only increase search traffic and brand awareness, it can also create a positive brand experience for your potential customers or clients and compel them to make a purchase.

At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we design brand-building programs and campaigns that include comprehensive solutions, strategies and standards; are client-customized; and offer returns-on-investment. Our branding team produces creative concepts that serve as baselines for yielding tangible results via marketplaces in which our clients are attempting to progress their business objectives. Contact us to learn more about our strategic branding services.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

What is the difference between public relations and media relations?

August 26, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

Public Relations vs. Media Relations

If you are a business owner or leader, chances are you have heard of public relations and media relations. These two terms are often thought of as the same thing and may even be used interchangeably. However, while public relations and media relations overlap in certain ways, they possess different meanings and involve different processes and strategies.

For businesses looking to launch a public relations and/or media relations program, it is important to first understand the difference between the two and the ways in which each can benefit your brand or business.

What is Public Relations?

According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between businesses or organizations and their publics. At its core, it involves interfacing with a company’s key stakeholders and target audiences through various channels to shape the public perception of a business or brand. To do so, public relations specialists help businesses craft and share powerful brand stories and messages, conduct market research, identify industry trends, develop thought leadership, and plan and implement effective public relations campaigns.

What is public relations?

In our professional experience, physical, in-person events are one of the most effective public relations strategies for businesses to increase visibility, share key messages, connect with target audiences, and attain new business. Plus, it provides the opportunity for you to place your company, products or professional services in the public eye and allow consumers to experience them in real-life, real-time environments. A public relations firm can help explore and secure opportunities for your brand or business to get involved in industry or consumer-based events. Whether it is a panel discussion, speaking engagement, book signing, sponsorship, business or product launch, private or public activity, etc., participating in events can promote your brand, product line or service offer, and, furthermore, position your company’s personnel as experts within your industry or field of practice.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, most in-person events have been cancelled or postponed until further notice. In the meantime, many businesses have transformed their physical events into digital experiences using online technologies. Virtual events, such as webinars, virtual trade shows, online conferences, and virtual product launches and tours, have become the norm for the time being.

In-person events will eventually return. But, until then, businesses should leverage virtual events and digital opportunities to stay involved, connected and engaged with existing and potential partners, investors, philanthropists, partisans, customers, and clients.

Public relations can involve any number of supplemental strategies and tactics to influence or persuade key contacts to evoke or evolve their ways of thinking, become loyal to a brand, support a cause, make purchasing decisions, or switch from one allegiance to another. How, when and with whom to go about executing public relations campaigns that generate positive results and minimize risks, is a matter of creative and clever planning. An appraisal of intended cause and effect with a seasoned public relations specialist is a wise and preliminary component at the onset.

There are several advantages of public relations. When performed properly, it can build and maintain a positive image and reputation for your brand, generate business leads and sales, and establish a strong online presence, allowing you to further interface and engage with your target audiences. You can learn more about why public relations is essential for businesses in our blog post written May 22nd.

What is Media Relations?

Media relations is an aspect of public relations. At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we define media relations as a professional activity that generates mutually beneficial associations between public relations specialists or publicists and editors, reporters, journalists, industry or public bloggers and influencers, and other members of the media, with a strategic goal of reaching audiences through newsworthy messages and stories of public or industry interest.

According to the PRSA, the function includes seeking publicity for a business or organization and responding to requests and questions from journalists on behalf of the business or organization. Maintaining up-to-date media lists and a strong knowledge of media audience interests are necessities when it comes to media relations success.

When compared to public relations, which uses multiple channels to communicate key messages, media relations is different in that it only uses one, albeit wide, channel of communication, being the press. Companies use media relations in an effort to secure coverage of their brand’s story, and other business or organizational messages, in the news; this can achieve desirable distribution among and cognizance on the parts of targets. Public relations comprises developing key messages and communicating them to or with stakeholders, such as employees, customers, communities, shareholders, and others in order to build relationships and trust.

Media relations requires managing relationships with relevant and appropriate print, online and broadcast media outlets, and strategically communicating your company’s compelling and newsworthy messages, stories, case-studies, and prudent information. This, in turn, motivates media members to share your company news and content with their readers, listeners, viewers, and followers, providing your brand an opportunity to reach and gain exposure to a larger and often highly coveted audience.

Earned media (or publicity) is a media relations essential. It is achieved or secured editorial content regarding the news, activities, thought leadership, etc. of a business or organization that is published by editors, reporters, journalists, and other members of the media as well as industry or public bloggers and influencers. Simply put, earned media refers to the media coverage you earn through effective media relations and outreach. In a previous blog post, we defined and discussed earned media, and included 5 tips to earn media coverage for your business or brand.

Incorporating a results-oriented media relations strategy into your overall public relations plan can bring many benefits to your business. Doing so builds brand awareness and increases credibility and trust among your publics and target audiences. Enlightening members of the media about your business news focuses upon sound media relations, such that magazine editors, television network or program producers, journalists, and others are compelled to report or comminate it to their audiences. This is one of the most effectual means to gaining third-party endorsements and positive reviews for your business, products or services, which influences and increases the positive behavior and purchasing decisions of existing and potential customers or clients.

What is media relations?

Whether you are just getting started with public relations and media relations or have been implementing them for years, understanding the difference between the two and the ways in which each can benefit your brand or business is essential in order to reach challenging business goals.

From business-to-business (B2B) to business-to-consumer (B2C) brands, the Eberly & Collard Public Relations team prides itself in developing, executing and managing strategic public relations and media relations programs that help our clients achieve measurable results toward their communication, sales and marketing objectives. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about our creative and comprehensive public relations and media relations services.

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How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

August 3, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

Google My Business Listing

“Best hotels near me”… “Landscape and garden stores close by”… “Top architecture firms in my area”…

You likely are familiar with entering search terms, such as these examples, into Google to find and research local businesses, products or services. The same is true for your customers. According to HubSpot, 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information. To put that in perspective, almost half the time people utilize Google is spent searching for businesses nearby. So, how can you ensure your business appears in local search results?

Enter: Google My Business.

Google My Business (GMB) is a free business listing that can help consumers in your local area find your business on Google Search and Google Maps. It presents them with a summary of key information about your business, including a description, address, phone number, website, photos, reviews, and more. GMB has quickly become an SEO game changer as one of the most powerful tools you can use to strengthen your business’s local online presence and positively influence the purchasing decisions of new and existing customers.

By the way, even if you seek customers and prospects from other cities and states beyond your business’s close physical proximity, you still ought to utilize GMB to help clearly communicate your locale and contact information. GMB is a top means for posting and promoting your phone number, website address, positive reviews, key messaging, images, and more.

Optimizing your GMB listing brings several benefits to your business. When properly optimized, it can improve your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) and on Google Maps. With a stronger presence in the SERPs, you have the potential to reach new customers, drive traffic and sales, and increase the visibility of your brand or business.

Here are five steps you can take to optimize your GMB listing.

Step 1: Verify your business.

The first and foremost reason to verify your GMB listing is so you can fully manage your business information in Google Search and Maps. If you don’t verify your business, you won’t have the ability to manage, edit or protect your listing. Another reason why verifying your business is of utmost importance is because, according to Google, verified businesses are twice as likely to be considered reputable by users. When your GMB listing has been confirmed and authorized by Google, your business will appear more trustworthy and rank higher in the SERPs.

There are a few different ways to verify your business on Google, such as by phone or email. However, most businesses verify by mail. The “by mail” verification process involves requesting and receiving a postcard from Google. The postcard will have a verification code that you will need to enter and submit from your GMB account. After entering the verification code, you should review your information, make any final changes, and confirm all details are accurate and up-to-date. Once your business is verified, you can edit and complete your profile, add posts and photos, and respond to reviews.

Step 2: Complete your profile and keep it up-to-date.

Another essential element of a well-optimized GMB listing is a complete profile. You should complete every section in detail and include as much local information about your business as possible. It goes without saying that your business name and description should be completed immediately so searchers can quickly learn who you are and what you have to offer.

Did you know, according to HubSpot, 88% of consumers who search for local businesses on a mobile device either visit or call within 24 hours? Thus, adding your contact information, including street address, phone number, email address, website URL, and hours of operation, should be at the top of your profile checklist. You do not want to miss out on visits or calls from potential customers by simply failing to fill out the contact fields of your profile.

Additionally, you should select your business category and service area, as well as upload your logo and other high-resolution photos. This will allow searches to gain insight into the specific industry in which you work, where your business provides services, and your brand imagery. It is also recommended to enable messaging on your GMB listing. Doing so allows customers to communicate and interact with you, which can result in leads, appointment requests and queries about your products or services.

Completing your profile will improve your local search ranking and increase the number of actions that customers take on your listing. After you complete the priority sections of your profile, you can start thinking about the ongoing aspects, including promotional posts and customer reviews.

Step 3: Create a content posting schedule.

An often-overlooked feature of GMB is the ability to share content about your business via posts with photos and links. There are a few different types of posts you can publish. From business updates to special offers to event promotions, you have the option to choose which type of post will best deliver the message you are trying to convey.

One of the most efficient ways to stay on top of your GMB posting game is to create a content posting schedule. This includes plotting out the dates, determining the topics and writing the content in advance. High-resolution photos and linked call-to-action buttons, such as “learn more,” “sign up” or “order online” are highly recommended. These additions can make your posts stand out and drive customers to your website or other relevant sites you want to call attention to.

It is best to post at least once a week as GMB posts automatically expire after seven days. They will remain archived in your GMB dashboard, but they will no longer appear on your listing or be viewable by the public. So, you should make it a goal to post regularly, keeping live content on your listing whenever possible.

An optimized GMB listing will get your posts in front of relevant searchers, offering them the opportunity to learn more about your business, products or services.

Step 4: Collect and respond to reviews.

Once you have a stronger presence on Google and begin receiving reviews, you should always go the extra mile to respond to each one. Doing so shows your business is engaged and responsive to feedback, which, ultimately, helps build customer trust and loyalty.

You should also encourage your customers to leave product or service reviews on your GMB listing. You can request a review in person, on social media, via e-newsletters, etc. The key is to make the process as simple and accessible for your customers as possible.

  • Pro Tip: The “Get more reviews” widget, which lives in the GMB dashboard, generates a link that you can share with your customers, making it quick and easy for them to review your business on Google. It takes them directly to your listing, a review form pops up, and all they have to do from there is fill it out and submit!

Google My Business Reviews

Research shows that positive reviews make 91% of consumers more likely to use a business, and the average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a local business. Consistent and quality reviews are invaluable. So, don’t be afraid to ask for and, more importantly, respond to customer reviews.

Step 5: Evaluate Google’s upgraded GMB profile promotion.

Google recently rolled out an “upgraded” GMB profile promotion, which adds the Google Guaranteed badge to your profile, for $50 per month. The badge adds an interest factor to business listings on which it appears. So, if you are looking for ways to stand out among your competitors, you may want to evaluate this promotion and keep your eyes peeled for any updates as they become available.

GMB is an essential tool for businesses that want to improve their local search ranking on Google. There are many benefits of an optimized GMB listing. It is one of the best ways to improve your local SEO, increase your online visibility, and provide new and existing customers with valuable information about your business. Contact us to learn more about how we help our clients with search engine optimization and digital marketing.

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The Unlocked Potential of Instagram for B2B Companies

July 21, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

Instagram’s permanence as one of the key elements of a multi-channel or omni-channel marketing strategy is not undocumented, to say the least. Through a quick Google search using the term “Instagram for businesses,” one can find about 7.9 billion search results; when amending the term to “Instagram for B2B business,” however, results drop significantly, causing some to wonder, should business-to-business (B2B) companies be using Instagram?

If you ask us, Instagram is one of the most accessible ways to reach valuable audiences – even if that audience includes other businesses. According to a recent study, there are more than 25 million businesses on Instagram. Additionally, 71 percent of all businesses in the United States use Instagram. Now, it is unclear in these statistics what portion of the 25 million business accounts are B2B companies versus business-to-consumer (B2C) or direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. However, it should not (and does not) matter; through the aforesaid statistics, the notion of B2B companies not being on Instagram is simply baseless. B2B companies that could be your next customer or client are using Instagram, and they exist as an audience that needs to be unlocked through a strong social media strategy.

Before we delve further into how to leverage Instagram for B2B companies, we would be remiss if we were to not address one of the common objections to the platform we have heard all too often. It is not false that Instagram’s audience is younger. As of June 2020, the average user of Instagram (whether a personal account or operator of a business account) was 30 years old. Instagram undoubtably is the chosen social media platform for millennials and millennial owned-and-operated companies. But, these facts should not scare you away from using the platform for your business.

Millennials are currently the largest generation in the nation’s workforce, as they likely will be for another 30 years. The very youngest millennial is 24 years old, meaning the vast majority are well into their 30s, approaching their 40s, and beginning to occupy key roles of important companies. So, millennials are no longer a possible target audience to reach for your business – they are, in some ways, the primary target audience. And, what better and more immediate way to reach these younger audiences, now occupying decision-making roles at their companies, than on a platform in which they are familiar?

Beyond adapting to the current media landscape and adopting new methodology to connect with key decision makers, grow your businesses and increase sales, Instagram for B2B companies to immediately inject their target audiences with key information in an extraordinarily cost-effective manner. After all, it doesn’t cost budget to create an Instagram business account and manage its content.

We could go on and on about the value Instagram holds, and will continue to hold, as a key element of each of our clients’ marketing strategies. However, instead of telling you more about the ever-rewarding elements of Instagram, we thought it would be best to illustrate how to use Instagram for B2B marketing by taking a look at a few companies who we believe are leveraging unpaid social media content the right way on this essential social media channel.

  1. HubSpot

HubSpot, a software company that provides other businesses with valuable tools to implement and track marketing campaigns, conduct sales, manage customer service, and more, is a B2B company with a strong and creative presence on Instagram.

In the simplest of terms, HubSpot’s primary service is data collection and Customer Relations Management (CRM). Though, this service is not what keeps customers and clients; there are many B2B companies that provide similar, if not the same, services. For companies such as HubSpot to have a competitive edge over the competition, its leaders find ways to create added value both for their current and future customers.

Instagram is a highly useful tool for this very purpose; it can offer current customers an added value element, essentially offering its services at no cost in a way that is concise and easy to digest, and it shows future customers the quality of work that can be theirs if they used HubSpot’s services.

HubSpot’s use of Instagram Highlights, which can be created using specific topics / genres to archive Instagram Stories that would typically disappear in 24 hours, is especially unique. By posting easy-to-digest, helpful tips that come packaged in creative graphics, HubSpot is delivering to its current customers value-added insight. This additional insight does not cost the customer a penny and is just as accessible (if not more accessible) than scheduling a meeting with a representative from HubSpot. For HubSpot, this extremely helpful function offered to their followers, current customers and future customers does not negatively affect revenue.Instagram for B2B In addition to HubSpot’s strategic use of Instagram Highlights and Stories, their organic (i.e. unpaid) posts are also a great case study in how B2B businesses can utilize unpaid social media via Instagram. Throughout their feed, HubSpot creates helpful, creative and encouraging content that does not sell their software, but promotes their brand as a whole. The Instagram content is also highly relevant, and not over-the-top promotional content in a less-than-ideal economy.Instagram for B2B

  1. Jamestown

Another good example of a B2B company leveraging Instagram to retain current contracts while attracting new tenants, is Jamestown, a national real estate investment and property management company. Jamestown’s unpaid Instagram content creation gives potential clients and customers a look at their brand DNA without having to read a mission statement filled with detectably insincere and promotional marketing content.

In all industries whose work primarily serves the so-called “built environment,” sustainability has been, and will be, a major deciding factor for new business. Jamestown appears as a company committed to sustainability as soon as their profile is opened. The user’s eyes are first drawn to their Highlights, where one can view all the steps Jamestown has taken, via their Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility

Report, to ensure their properties are sustainable in ecological and community-based contexts. This is an especially attractive and effectively positioned selling point for companies looking to have aligned views with the people in which they do business.Instagram for B2BJamestown’s Instagram also tells a story of how a B2B business that exclusively sells an in-person experience is operating in the middle of a pandemic, when it is recommended people spend their time away from other people in enclosed spaces.

So, how does a commercial real estate and property management company continue to generate revenue and attract new tenants in this socially distanced economy? The answer can be easily uncovered by spending just a minute on their Instagram feed: they do not promote product or service; they promote culture.Instagram for B2BAfter a quick scroll, you can easily find that Jamestown is profiling all the wonderful work their tenants are doing – don’t you want to be a part of this culture of innovation by becoming a Jamestown tenant? This is the question Jamestown is hoping you are asking yourself.

In sum, Instagram is a great platform to let others know your company culture without needing to set foot in an office.

  1. Eberly & Collard Public Relations

Our continued use of unpaid Instagram for B2B clients lies within our own success on the platform. At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we use Instagram for many of the same reasons as the previous examples, but it primarily allows us to provide our current and potential audiences with samples of our expertise in a concise, bit-sized chunks.

The amount of work that goes into each case study we publish on our website is rather immense. The case studies are very thorough and involve various creative processes, such as packaging our data into unique, visually appealing graphics that must be informative, but are not fatigue-inducing.Instagram for B2BThough these case studies are many times viewed by users organically entering our website, whether through google or another search engine, Instagram allows us another channel to deliver this information to potential clients. And, since these case studies are often lengthy, Instagram gives us a platform to creatively package and deliver them to our followers in a way that is not inconvenient for them to view and is rewarding in some way.

We like to think of posting bite-sized versions of our case studies in the same way an ice cream shop thinks about offering samples; it’s low risk (you won’t go broke giving out ice cream samples) and the reward can exponentially increase revenue (new, and possibly returning, customers or clients). So, take some time to show prospects and customers the top-of-the-line service you’d be able to offer them through creative, succinct Instagram posts that offer a look at what your business can do for them.

  1. Gensler

Gensler’s Instagram feed and Highlights illustrate a trend we think all engineering, planning and design firms should adopt. Every step of the design-build process involves a great deal of collaboration that can rarely be created without an in-person element. However, we live in challenging times, and successful businesses must adapt.

Gensler is utilizing its unpaid Instagram Stories and Highlights to showcase to their B2B clients exactly how well they are adapting to this new way of collaboration, by highlighting the fact their employees’ capabilities are not suppressed from working from home, but rather, enhanced.Instagram for B2BHow could you apply something like this to your own business? Show your clients and customers it has been business as usual by encouraging employees to take pictures of their at-home workspace, tagging your company’s handle and then adding their WFH experiences to your company’s Instagram story.

This gives potential customers or clients an idea of company culture. By visibly empowering your employees by highlighting their capabilities to produce at a high level from home, you are showing key target audiences that nothing, not even a pandemic, can slow your company from delivering high-level products or services.

  1. General Electric

Though some may only know General Electric (GE) as a manufacturer of home appliances, GE’s scope of work extends far beyond a home’s kitchen, and into aerospace, power grid solutions, healthcare, and more. So, B2B sales are a very important and large revenue stream for the company.

As COVID-19 began to ramp up in late-March and early-April, many feared the effects the virus would have on production and the supply chain. Numerous companies that are essential to the U.S. power grid, aviation, etc., were worried some of their suppliers would not be able to produce and deliver vital products.

General Electric, however, made its message of resilience and persistence clear via their Instagram channel. In viewing GE’s Instagram feed, the company has been focusing on the ways their employees have continued to make innovations in manufacturing throughout the pandemic, especially as it relates to healthcare and medical devices.

If you are a manufacturer or supplier, Instagram can be an easy-to-use tool for your company to show your partners and current customers you are still working around the clock to deliver on orders. GE wanted to make clear through their unpaid Instagram content that nothing could slow down their innovation, even while many are working from home.Instagram for B2BUnpaid Instagram for B2B companies can be a gamechanger in the cost-efficient economy we are currently working in right now. This organic content, which can be created in-house or by a fully integrated marketing agency, is a relatively low-risk, low-cost way to attract new business, and retain current business.

Instagram is no longer a novelty social media platform for lifestyle, travel and consumer brands; it has fully cemented itself as the most influential social media platform for businesses across the globe, some say, even more so than LinkedIn. The reason being? LinkedIn helps individual people connect, but its functionality is not very friendly for businesses. Instagram allows businesses, made up of people, connect with other businesses and people, in a streamlined, and sometimes intimate, manner.

Contact us when you are ready to make a strategic difference in how your business utilizes tools such as Instagram. At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we guide our clients on an upward trajectory to uncover and harness the power of both paid and unpaid social media to turn internet website voyeurs into real customers or clients.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: advertising, B2B Social Media, contact us, Instagram, Instagram for B2B, marketing, Public relations

Earned Media: Beyond the Press Release

July 8, 2020 By ECPR Team Leave a Comment

Tips for Earned Media Success

The press release continues to be a tried-and-true method of communicating to the media. In fact, more than 70% of journalists want to receive content from brands in the form of press releases and news announcements, according to Cision’s 2019 State of the Media Report. However, the press release is just a starting point for earned media success.

You may be wondering, “What is earned media?”

Earned media refers to the unpaid, organic publicity generated through word-of-mouth, press coverage, social media mentions, interviews, product reviews, and other various methods. One of the most effective ways to earn media coverage for your brand or business is to pitch a press release or story idea to the media. But, what many people fail to realize is that a well-crafted content or story pitch is just as, if not more, important as a well-written press release.

What is earned media

Most journalists receive hundreds of pitches and press releases each day, many of which will likely be ignored or cast away. So, how can you hook the media’s attention and stand out in the sea of pitches?

Here are five tips to cut through the clutter and increase your media pitching success.

1. Keep it clear, concise and compelling.

Journalists are inundated with large volumes of information daily, including more email pitches than they have time to read. Given the competition for attention in a journalist’s inbox, your pitch needs to be as clear, concise and compelling as possible. Two important factors that determine whether a journalist will read and respond to your pitch are: (1.) your subject line and (2.) the length of your email.

Create a strong subject line to compel a journalist or editor to open your email, and summarize the most important and interesting information in the first sentence of your pitch. If your lead-in piques their interest, they will likely read the remainder of your pitch. That is, as long as it is straightforward and succinct.

Your goal should be to provide the most information in the least amount of words. A general rule of thumb is to keep your email pitch under 200 words. A common pet peeve among journalists is a pitch that consists primarily of buzzwords, so make sure it is plainly written and free of jargon or fluff. If your pitch is too long and complex, journalists will quickly give up and move on to the next.

2. Make it visual.

Offering more than just a press release in your pitch can result in more earned media coverage. A great way to catch the eye of a journalist and illustrate the news you are pitching is to incorporate high-quality visuals, such as photos, videos, infographics, diagrams, etc.

These types of visuals can enhance your story by providing more information and context without overloading your pitch with text. If you can provide journalists with accompanying assets, they will view their job as halfway done and be that much more motivated to cover your story.

Go that additional step for your outgoing pitch by researching and gathering data to back or substantiate your story idea, news information or the quotable thought-leader you are pitching. Combine the data in the form of statistics, and showcase the numbers in a colorful pie chart, bar chart or possibly through a line graph, pictograph or histogram. Visual interpretations make otherwise dry data more appealing for the editors to whom you are sending the pitch concept.

3. Personalize your pitch.

According to Muck Rack’s Annual Journalist Survey, a lack of personalization is the No. 1 reason journalists reject pitches. Many factors play into why this is commonly the case. One factor being that journalists too often receive copied-and-pasted email pitches that have no relevancy to their beat or reader interest. So, the obvious question is, how to ensure your pitches are perfectly personalized and avoid rejection?

It is critical to research and study the sections of the publication or media outlet prior to sending your pitch email. Journalists will appreciate those who take the time to learn and gain a solid understanding of the beats they cover, their writing style, in what they have interest, and the types of sources they tend to seek. Once you have done your homework, you will then be able to tailor your messaging to each publication and journalist.

Every pitch should be uniquely written and individually sent to each journalist you are pitching, rather than sending a mass email to multiple recipients. While it may take some extra time to personalize your pitch to each specific journalist, the results will be worthwhile.

4. Engage on social media.

Relationships are key when it comes to pitching the media. It is best to make an introduction and foster a relationship before asking a journalist to publish your press release or story. Social media offers a fantastic opportunity to connect and build relationships with journalists prior to pitching.

When you see a journalist who is on your target list has written a new article and posted it on social media, show you follow and support their work by liking, commenting on and sharing it on your own social media channels. The more often (yet appropriately) you do so, the more likely they will take notice of your engagement. Then, when it comes time to pitch the journalist, there is a good chance they will recognize your name when it pops up in their inbox. Ideally, and in turn, they will read your email and consider sharing your content with their readers and followers. If the journalist or editor chooses to publish your news, make sure to show your appreciation by thanking them through social media direct messages, email or a handwritten card in the mail.

5. Think outside the box.

Last, how can you go above and beyond the press release to garner the media’s interest? Attempt to come up with creative, unique ways to help journalists visualize, engage and connect with the news or expert analyst you are pitching.

For instance, if you are announcing the launch of a new product, consider sending samples to the media so they can experience the product first-hand. Though, seek permission first to avoid a possible return or dead-end shipment. Another idea, offer an exclusive interview with a company thought-leader who can share insight regarding industry trends, topics or statistics. If you are announcing an event, you could invite a group of journalists to participate in a press tour or attend a media event or press conference that is part of the schedule.

In addition, if you are pitching a professional services firm, a creative idea would be to offer a case study to an editor or journalist about how a specific professional service generated market change or sector results for a business or its customers.

Whether it is a product sample or a unique perspective, offering something out of the ordinary will benefit the journalists whom you are pitching and encourage them to cover your story.

Think outside the box to garner the media's interest

The truth is that pitching is a process. It takes time and tenacity to achieve earned media coverage. Working with a public relations agency can help make the pitching process not only easier, but also more successful.

At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we specialize in media relations. Our team of experts helps brands and businesses craft compelling media pitches that result in earned media success. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about our strategic and results-oriented media relations services.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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