As we make our way through 2023, it is crucial to not only assess your current B2B marketing but also begin planning for the year to come. Yes, that’s right. It may seem early, but taking a close look at your present content and how you and your marketing team (and C-Suite) want to keep moving the needle in the next year are keys to competitively engaging with your B2B contacts through social media.

Maybe you want to use social media to prepare for the launch of a new product line or brand, kickoff thought-leadership positioning for company executives or gain more qualified sales leads.

If your business owners or leadership team want better results from social media efforts in 2023, it is time to create a business to business (B2B) social media strategy that sets your company up for success.

Though, for those of you who know you need a B2B social media strategy but do not have social media marketing as part of your internal wheelhouse – or if you are a bit stressed because in-house resources are scarce – no fear. We are here to assist. Let’s start this plan with a helpful explanation from our ECPR Digital Marketing team.

B2B social media marketing is the process of utilizing your social media channels to market the products and services your business offers to existing and potential clients. Moreover, it is a means to connect, influence and interact with critical leads and prospects.

In this ever-expanding digital age, participating in social media marketing is essential to establish your business and brand as a trusted expert or resource in your given industry and contribute to your bottom line via social media integration with other forms of strategic marketing.

Actively integrating social media marketing with diversified forms of traditional and digital marketing is an essential contribution to your plan’s success. Simply put, using social media to establish yourself or your business as a trusted specialist in your industry is one of the most advantageous tactics to make such content integration efforts pay off.

Step 1: Integrate your B2B social media marketing with other promotional efforts.

The assimilation of B2B social media marketing with supplemental, profile-raising efforts to promote a brand impacts your ability to increase brand awareness and sales. This is so important, it is safe to say that any business not using social media integration in 2023 stands a chance of being left behind the competition as social media continues to influence buyer decisions.

Luckily, our team has provided in this blog article a few creative options for how to integrate social media into your marketing strategy.

Creating social media campaigns around other news, events, launches, and messaging for your business opens the door to social media integration. Sharing social media posts that include a call to action serves B2B social media strategy well. Calls to action as to-the-point as “Comment” drive engagement and brand awareness, while actions like “Register” which include a backlink to the business’ website extend the marketing arm of the business and can evoke engagement.

Now, take this a step further with a little brainstorming power. What about enticing interaction with a more resourceful call to action, such as “Comment with your business pain points about this topic, and we’ll send you two results-focused ideas.” Your “ideas” can then include a creative info-graphic that shows and depicts how your business can solve challenges for the engaged business lead. You will cleverly integrate narrative messaging to open the dialog with graphic communication to showcase your business’s expertise.

Synchronize social media calendars with scheduled email campaigns.

One specific way to integrate a social media campaign with another form of marketing is to use the same topic for social media content and email campaigns in the same week or month.

Since email campaigns are often developed and sent to a business’s list of existing contacts or prospects, they are an opportune way to further integrate messaging via social media content that reaches segments for which you might not have email addresses.

When planning and designing a promotional email campaign for distributing to an email database, it is wise to preplan social media calendars to correspond with your outgoing email. Your weekly or monthly e-newsletter might feature a “big-picture” or larger theme that can be broken down into more specific social media posts with bitesize subpoints during the same judiciously scheduled time period.

Reinforce branding with a double or triple messaging or advertising impact.

Melding social media content intentionally with existing traditional paid advertising or press release campaigns is an additional means of marketing integration. Branding and marketing professionals can emphasize marketing messages by creating social media content that follows the same communication goals as media outlet advertising or company news releases being submitted to editors, reporters and journalists at the same time.

Leave fewer marketing stones unturned, and use the same thought-provoking tagline in a tradeshow or conference advertisement that is simultaneously used in a series of Instagram Reels and LinkedIn static post captions to achieve broader coverage and density of the outgoing brand message. While the traditional ad’s focus will be one-way messaging, your interactional social media content can yield opportunities for two-way dialogs with interested B-to-B segment decision-makers.

Keep in mind, social media integration works both ways. Add links to your B2B social media channels in your e-newsletters, mass email campaigns and on the business’s website. Asking or incentivizing your existing and potential clientele to follow your business on social media paves a direct path to increasing visibility and valuable time in front of your audience.

Fuse social media strategy with brand identity and sentiment.

The next key to integrating your B2B social media strategy revolves around brand identity and how your sector targets perceive and interface with your brand.

Initiating brand standards that stay consistent across all social media platforms, websites, e-newsletters, advertisements, collateral, tradeshow displays, sponsored content, and other forms of marketing allows your clients and prospects to recognize and recall your business’s brand.

The possibilities are limitless, but some of the easiest include adding the company logo to select social media posts, including your mission statement on germane websites, consistent email signatures, and updated social media bios contribute to a stronger brand identity and brand recognition. Your audience benefits from repetition of themes, content and ideas that solidify their understanding of your business’ services and expertise.

Speaking of service, using B2B social media channels as an extension of customer service offers a very practical application of how to integrate social media into your marketing strategy. With the built-in messaging and commenting functions featured on your B2B social media channels, staying responsive and helpful when customers, clients and leads ask questions increases social media engagement and expands the occasions for your business to engage with feedback, solutions and connections.

As an added tip for Instagram for B2B, try responding to posted comments or questions on Stories and saving common inquiries as an “FAQ” Highlight that your audience can access easily from your business’s Instagram profile. Interact with on-brand message objectives always being top of mind.

For another easy social media integration, utilize user-generated content about your brand as reviews and testimonials across social media platforms, websites and in email campaigns. Reshare, repost and offer outright appreciation for positive comments about your business and brand that are posted by your followers or fans.

To see how social media integration creates success and to continue improving your B2B social media strategy, evaluate brand sentiment with a social listening tool and track website traffic and customer conversions originating from social media via Google Analytics. Monitoring and addressing these types of informative stats should be a daily or weekly occurrence assigned to a team member or your public relations and marketing firm. Gauge the results, look for patterns, and maximize or adjust brand-messaging content that over- or under-performs.

If social media integration does as well for your business as anticipated, you might consider expanding your B2B social media strategy and business offerings with a paid social media campaign or community. Pay-for-entry groups on social media create buzz around your brand and can add another stream of connections for your business, while also functioning as a test market for new products or services. Your business’ top customers get exclusive content, and you benefit from a low-risk way to introduce or launch your Unique Selling Propositions.

Step 2: Use Social media marketing to establish your business as a trusted expert and thought leader.

No matter the business or industry, trust factors into creating customers and clients from prospects. Increasingly, even your B-to-B audience looks to social channels to vet your business and establish trustworthiness.

This is why it is important to note that lacking a social presence in 2023 creates a roadblock to establishing trust with at least some members of your business’s audience, and vice versa; implementing a consistent B2B social media strategy sets your business up as a trusted expert and thought leader within your industry.

While consumer businesses benefit from captivating visuals, B2B social media channels need to offer beneficial thought-leadership information for followers and engagement. Essentially, providing enterprising value, exclusive concepts and unequivocal intel opens the door to trust.

Boost demand generation by illuminating and inspiring your B-to-B marketing segments.

B2B social media content ideas that provide expert information in an easy-to-digest format include bulleted main takeaways from case studies or blogs already available in the business’s resource library. To give this kind of messaging the emphasis it needs to produce qualified leads, merge your PR messaging strategies carefully and take your social posts from bland and trite to informative and visionary.

Consistency plays as pivotal of a role as value, though. Longer nurture time for B2B markets means your business must offer the same value and reliability over weeks and months. Posting resources once on social media and disappearing for the following two weeks or months sends a message that your business does not show up dependably. A strong B2B social media strategy employs content plans and calendars that ensure reliable posting schedules from a trustworthy business.

Social media algorithms also favor consistency. In fact, algorithms heavily scrutinize your B2B social media channels to determine if the content is reliable enough to recommend to a target audience. For the algorithm, regular posting builds trust, but the algorithm also demands content topics and hashtags remain related to similar and sound topics so it can determine to whom it can recommend your content.

Likewise, algorithms reward B2B social media channels that spend time interacting on the given platform and engage with other accounts. Seek out other businesses or prospects and like, share and comment on their posts with valuable information. Not only does the algorithm recommend and serve your content more when you engage, but the audiences of those other accounts recognize your business’s enduring expertise. Offer insights on your competitors’ feeds long enough, and their followers may start following your business as a new, trusted authority in the industry.

Develop, earn and benefit from third-party influence.

Another way to capitalize on other business’ audiences and strengthen your B2B social media strategy is to partner with other industry-related brands and social media influencers to share content that achieves a greater and more applicable reach. In this scenario, your B2B social media channels piggyback and combine with the existing trust of the partner brands or influencers. If those brands already exist as trusted experts to their respective communities, your business’s trusting audience expands.

If you think influencers marketing is not for B2B marketers, change the way you think and how you approach the all-important model of influencer marketing. Chances are your competition partners with B2B social media influencers who have infinities of connections you want to share. Any such influencer marketing deployment should be started with a brainstormed and strategic set of goals, objectives and budget.

Merge and diversify marketing deployments to undergird social media content.

The strategy for capitalizing upon B2B social media can be established with overlapping marketing tactics, coalescing into a clearcut opportunity for more heavy-hitting sales leads results.

Your B2B social media strategy should incorporate the previously mentioned methods of connecting the dots between your branding output and business’s return-on-investment.

Building trust and integrating B2B social media marketing with other promotional efforts provide the preeminent strategy for how to manage B2B social media marketing in 2023, which leads to gaining lasting results from your social media efforts for the long haul. Try these ideas, and you’re well on your way to establishing your business as a leader on and off social media.

Do you need a professional helping hand for implementing a B2B social media strategy for your business? Reach out to Eberly & Collard Public Relations to receive in-depth, expert advice from our full-service PR firm and B2B social media agency.

We are often asked, “What is crisis management?” and “What are the stages of crisis management?” This blog article strikes at the core of what to know and how to act.

Here is a crisis: Your business doesn’t have a crisis communication plan in the back pocket. If this is true, it is past time to plan and assemble one, so you’ll be better equipped to manage all potential crises that could be looming.

Don’t know where to start? Let’s begin by exploring strategic crisis communication plans and why every business needs one.

 What is a Crisis Communication Plan?

 In a time of crisis, how a business strategically communicates with its clients or customers, key stakeholders, media members, and general public (A.K.A., crisis communication) directly reflects how the occurring crisis plays out. Additionally, success in these precarious situations is defined by how well the company effectively communicates – immediately and productively – and recovers in the long run. To that end, a crisis communication plan brings order to the chaos by providing a set of guidelines for a business to follow and execute at the onset and throughout the duration of a crisis.

The purpose of any good crisis communication plan is to provide a general resource and guide to company leadership regarding the fundamental tenets of effective communications during times of extreme difficulty, upheaval or calamity. The plan, once developed, also provides strategies for messaging development and management as well as insights for addressing or interfacing with all critical and impacted groups, including social media users and print, online, digital, and broadcast media members during crises.

Why is a Crisis Communication Plan Important?

Given the current volatility of world affairs and the magnifying spotlight placed on companies via social media, more companies than ever are seeking public relations and marketing agencies with expert crisis communication services and the acumen needed for developing and executing effective crisis communication plans. Whether it be an established corporation or an emerging start-up business, an organization’s success is neither definite nor impervious to the consequences often arising from a crisis.

While the mere thought of a crisis for a business or brand may be distressing, developing an effective crisis communication plan can help your company weather the storm of any crisis to better ensure an outcome with less turmoil, fewer mistakes and minimized repercussions.

Ultimately, develop a plan before crises happen.

How to Create a Crisis Communication Plan

The 5 Cs of Crisis Communication

 All judicious program plans for a business should have supportive frameworks, and a crisis communication plan is no exception. Above all, create a crisis management handbook.

Before developing a crisis communication plan, it is vital to first understand the basic principles which provide its support: Care, Commitment, Competency, Channels, and Continuity.

Care: A crisis is no time to showcase actions and communication that are characterized by a lack of good sense, seriousness and worthwhile purpose. If your communication fails to demonstrate the proper care the situation demands, innumerable problems will arise exacerbating the crisis at hand. Create a crisis communication plan that meticulously and thoughtfully addresses all pertinent groups and their potential needs. Consider, assess and include your employees, stakeholders and investors, customer or client segments, reporters and journalists, influencers, and all other audiences germane to your business.

Commitment: Illustrate a commitment to resolving the crisis and all its effects, as well as mitigating the chance of its reoccurrence. Moreover, committing to timely and frequent communication with all publics, including those with the power to positively or negatively alter the outcome for your business, is an essential characteristic of effectively handling a crisis. Your plan should lay the groundwork, anticipating and outlining the ways in which you, your C-suite and public relations agency will lead during the crisis versus being victimized or scandalized by it.

Competency: Audiences will render their judgments by gauging how well your company or representatives conduct messaging online and perform in front of the media. If you come across as capable through direct interactions with your audiences and communities as well as competent during interviews with the media, these forms of demonstrated insightfulness regarding all matters of the crisis will increase the chances you and the company will be deemed proficient.

Channels: Knowing where to communicate is just as important as knowing what to communicate. Well before a crisis, conduct an audience analysis. If you think you understand all the detailed specifics about your key audiences, consider if you and your leadership team have unearthed exactly how and where these integral groups tend to obtain their important information. If not, your crisis communication plan should involve an exploration of message dissemination that will actually reach your constituents.

Continuity: When planning and executing a crisis communication plan, clear and sustaining message continuity should be top of mind. For example, if a social media post does not exactly match up with the words of your CEO, audience misconceptions may occur, and your ability to control the narrative will diminish. The spoken and written word should always correspond during a crisis. When it comes to continuity, more C’s play an adjacent role; communications with correctness and consistency will strengthen the trust factor among your audiences, giving them an increased level of confidence in how your business is managing the crisis.

These 5+ Cs should be at the heart of every message delivered to your audiences, especially in a time of crisis. You will only be prepared to do so with an advanced plan developed before a crisis, not during one. It is vital to know and execute these principles while understanding the significance of each. Plan, plan and plan ahead; because, without these pillars, there is no ground on which you and your business can stand during the crisis.

Four Essential Elements of a Crisis Communication Plan

 Now that our foundation is set, let’s explore the essential elements of a crisis communication plan. While not an exhaustive list, the following elements are common themes of the best and most productive crisis communication plans.

Assess potential crises: It’s impossible to foresee every potential crisis looming over your business. However, it is possible to identify universal business threats as well as brainstorm the types of crises that frequently arise within your industry and/or sector. From there, every potential crisis should be assessed in terms of the “what if” scenario, along with a preplanned strategy attached.

 The focus of this portion of the plan should involve an assessment of crisis levels in terms of probable or likely dissemination of inaccurate or negative information that is based upon incidents, consumer opinions, hearsay, or propaganda, and that which can create communication issues and adversely affect the company’s reputation and brand perception. Usually, four levels of crisis are evaluated. Our PR team utilizes the following for most of our applicable clients’ crisis communications:

Level 1 = Most Serious or Most Potential Risk or Impact

Level 2 = Moderate Potential Risk or Impact

Level 3 = Low Risk or Impact

Level 4 = Unlikely Risk or Impact

Choose a spokesperson and create a crisis communication team: Who shall speak on behalf of your business when a crisis suddenly emerges? – You? Your CEO? When a crisis hits, the public narrative wastes no time being formed; therefore, you won’t have a second to waste. Decide and include your company’s spokesperson within your crisis communication plan and be ready to address internal and external groups and the media as soon as possible; and, this means quickly.

Your crisis communication plan must include what we like to call “The Line of Defense Team,” comprising leadership personnel who have been educated in the elements of your crisis communication plan. Each participant should have a copy of the plan accessible at all times with listed or charted individual and premeditated responsibilities.

Develop the plan as a workflow with each leader’s scope of responsibility clearly explained to encompass pre-crisis plan management and maintenance as well as activities and duties to handle during the crisis. Aspects of anticipated post-crisis administration are also wise to incorporate into the plan. These prewritten, general action items and timelines are intended to help your business leadership assess, address and attempt to resolve communication issues in regard to projected incidents.

Know your audience: Your audience is more than those who regularly comment on your Instagram posts. Companies commonly approach crisis communication with an exclusive focus on their customers and communities, showing little regard for their employees and other internal stakeholders. When developing and executing a crisis communication plan, make sure no stone is left unturned when identifying and communicating with your audience.

Identify your audience groups regarding whether they have direct or indirect interest versus influence. Consider your various audience types in terms of their “interest” or “influence.” Depending upon the type of crisis, select segments will hold general interest in the crisis and its related information, though with minor applicability for gains or losses. At the other end of the audience spectrum, a highly relevant group will not only have interest; they will also possess a great deal of influence over how they handle, address or speak about the crisis.

An individual crisis will require an assessment of segments and their figurative or actual stakeholder positions in comparison to potential positive, negative or neutral influence. This is integral to making decisions about how closely to interface with the segments and how often communications are required.

Develop consistent and succinct messaging on all channels: Nowadays, companies disseminate information via an expanding variety of communication channels (e.g., social media, onsite messaging, broadcast television, press conferences, emails, etc.). While having and employing different channels of communication is an essential part of an effective crisis communication plan, developing consistent and succinct messaging across said channels is just as important.

Execute the Crisis Communication Plan in a Time of Need

The cardinal rule of crisis communication is similar to medical operations. “First, do no harm.” Kick off your plan immediately.

When it comes to executing a crisis communication plan: timing is everything. Companies that create and maintain crisis communication plans in advance of being needed will be in a better position to control the public narrative.

Implementing your plan involves the opportunity for you and your company leaders and agency to prevent ineffective, unfavorable or detrimental responses to serious crises. Moreover, appropriate crisis communication procedures inspire or beget the trust and confidence that are vital in a challenging situation.

The 24-hour news channels and nontraditional media, vlogs, blogs, and social media can propel a news story or cycle that makes it critical for organizations to actively prepare for crisis communications.

An actual crisis often involves a volatile combination of public reaction and gossip or hearsay. This form of destabilized information makes it essential to give careful thought, albeit expedited, to information that will be stated or distributed, before making public releases or comments. This refers to the gamut- from social media posts to news conferences.

Evaluate the environment into which statements or information should be introduced, so your plan’s drafted messages can be further crafted and shaped to fit the problem or disaster.

Ask these critical questions at the onset:

• Is my crisis communication plan’s primary lead up to date about the matter and beginning to deploy the workflow?
• Which intel is critical to convey to prompt appropriate public responses in terms of the crisis?
• What are the opportunities for successful communications, and how can they be managed and maximized?
• What are the messages to be delivered prior to, during and after the incident?
• Are there obstacles to efficient crisis communications, and how can they be minimized?
• How might/will the media cover the news related to the crisis, and what are the ways in which to work with reporters?
• What questions can be expected from customers, vendors, employees, the public, media members, etc. throughout the situation?

Schedule the first and quick phone conference or meeting with your crisis management team to begin dissecting and dealing with the state of affairs. Rate and review the crisis situation to determine if your prewritten plan’s list of initiation items for management and communication is viable based on the present conditions.

Your plan’s pre-drafted message templates and statements should be finalized as necessary to address emergencies or other timely communications. Move forward with specific statements that could be needed to address individuals, peers, colleagues, or family members of impacted or potentially affected persons, to follow possible statements to and for the media and general public or suitable communities.

In the moments to days that follow, work through the “response” section of your crisis communication plan with the help of your leadership colleagues and public relations agency. From notifying the applicable parties and stabilizing the physical setting to activating your team and their workflow, stay calm and be focused.

What are Examples of Business Crises?

Let’s consider Pepsi and the infamous Kendal Jenner commercial that tried to settle racial injustice and police brutality with a simple can of Pepsi.

Watch the video here

Shortly after this commercial went live, Pepsi and Kendal Jenner faced severe backlash for trivializing the social issue. Nevertheless, Pepsi wasted no time by quickly pulling the ad and offering a statement of apology. While some negative sentiment may still reside, Pepsi’s overall crisis communication plan highlights the timeliness and sincerity needed for preserving the integrity and reputation of a brand in the face of a crisis.

BP Plc., on the other hand, did nothing of the sort. When an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, resulting in the deaths of 11 people and an environmental disaster, BP Plc. was slow in responding to the media, taking three whole days to verify and relay the cause of the explosion. Moreover, BP’s top management failed to address stakeholder and public concerns in a timely manner during the fallout of the crisis. Consequences? — A brand reputation tarnished and in need of restorative action.

If you want to have a say over the narrative and emerge from a crisis with your brand reputation intact, develop and roleplay your crisis communication plan well before a crisis presents itself. Then, deploy your plan – modifying or customizing it as needed – at the moment you become aware of the situation.

Conclusion

Threats are everywhere, surrounding everyone and everything, including companies with renowned success and rock-solid reputations. While it may not be a miscalculated commercial or an environmental disaster, a crisis can hit your business at any moment.

An effective crisis communication plan derives its framework from the five Cs as explained in this narrative and comprises all the essential elements with no stone left unturned. Do not put off until tomorrow what you and your business can do today to become prepared and properly equipped to manage a crisis and its ensuing chaos.

Contact our public relations team to learn more about an effective crisis communication plan specific to your business and brand.

Influencer marketing, just in the U.S., is estimated to surpass $4 billion in 2022. With these numbers exponentially growing, it is safe to say that companies are picking up on influencer culture’s effectiveness and consumer impact. With this in mind, it’s important for company marketing teams to know how they can stay up to date with new influencer marketing trends, especially with the branding benefits involved in the newer and burgeoning styles of video and audio content.

What are Influencers, and Why are They Important?  

The idea of influencers revolves around popular public figures or celebrities being paid to endorse a business’s products or services, with the goal being to expand brand awareness and key messaging throughout their industries and among the customer or consumer followers or fans who admire them.

In this space, influencers are typically categorized as either micro-influencers or macro-influencers based on their respective reach. Micro-influencers are typically those with 1,000-100,000 followers, while macro-influencers capture audiences ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of followers.

While it is important to consider reach in deciding which influencers to use, the value of influencers comes from their recognition as experts in their fields. Being held in such high regard creates trust in these creators, resulting in endorsements regularly increasing marketing engagement, presence and effectiveness. Whether the marketing objective is engaging with business-to-business prospects or reaching business-to-consumer targets, influencer marketing is a significant strategy marketing managers should maximize in 2022.

Leveraging Podcasts through Influencers

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, podcasting as a media outlet, has exploded with 80 million weekly American listeners, per Buzzsprout. The format’s ever-growing presence, combined with its ease of access, makes influencer marketing through podcasts a seemingly untapped gold mine.

Podcasts are unique in that they attract extremely loyal listeners in incredibly niche audiences. One example is that of industry trade shows, being one of the categories sometimes under the radar. Trade shows often host podcasts for business audiences to convey information about specific events, news and information for and within specific industry trades. These podcasts can help drive event registration as well as interest or sales for the trade show’s exhibited products or services.

Appropriately contracting influencers in this category of industry-specific podcasts can be extremely helpful for a company. Retaining influencers for trade show and other business-to-business podcasts can involve benefitting from the influencers’ third-party and positive commentary that includes key mentions or insights about the contracting company and its unique selling propositions. The same can be true of business-to-consumer events and podcasts.

As these podcasts are primarily funded by sponsors, similar to radio, they incorporate branded messages into their episodes, creating a perfect opportunity for paid influence. However, while radio sponsorships only occur live, podcasts are recorded and posted on streaming services, meaning, your company’s message stays in their segments for good.

Similarly, affiliate marketing with podcast influencers has become a popular practice in this space. By incentivizing creators to promote your service or product, in exchange for a percentage of business or sales received, influencers often go the extra mile with acknowledging your brand multiple times to increase their take from the partnership. Or, influencers can be funded with a one-time fee in exchange for an agreed type of endorsement or positive opinion or perspective they communicate.

From a marketing standpoint, affiliate marketing is not only the most common form; but, it is the most effective, with 29% of all podcast listeners saying they have used a promotion they heard about during an episode, according to a study by NCSolutions.

In a different lens, influencers can also be paid by companies to do guest appearances on industry or topic-focused podcasts. Having a guest influencer on an already existing podcast with a substantial following can further enhance a message’s effectiveness. While some podcast producers or hosts may not prefer to interview a business’s marketing executive (some do, and some do not), influencers are desired guests on podcasts because all parties benefit from their presence. Both the guest and the host show draw viewers towards one another while they promote conversation about your business.

Adding Virality of Short-Form Videos with Influencers

Those who work in the media industry have become aware of short-form video’s rapid growth since its inception into social media in 2013. Yet, it took years, until the boom of TikTok, that marketing teams began to use the style as a tool to promote themselves through popular creators. Since the concept has been spread to other platforms, it is bigger than it ever has been with a 2022 marketing trends survey, conducted by HubSpot, finding that 30% of marketers who use social media plan to invest in short-form videos.

TikTok and Instagram are the two largest platforms where short-form video marketing often occurs through the implementation of influencers. These influencer video applications’ marketing sphere can be centered around business-to-consumer marketing and/or business-to-business marketing. When well-managed and monitored by your public relations agency, influencer videos can easily create tenfold return-on-investment.

On both video-oriented platforms, sponsored collaborations dominate the business-to-consumer game. Popular influencers often sport merchandise or show off using consumer goods and products as they either create content around current trends or simply provide short testimonials or reviews geared toward the consumer or e-commerce follower audiences.

For a business-to-business approach, this style of influential videos is all about industry savvy influencers creating short video blogs or “vlogs” about their own positive experiences with specific products or professional service providers. The created videos and vlogs can provide real-time influencer insight on specific aspects of products or services for businesses, which has the power to intrigue business professionals who are decision-makers about purchasing products or procuring service providers for their businesses or the businesses for which they work.

Affiliate marketing, also, is seen as extremely effective in these areas through special influencer-based UTM codes and the announcement of special promotions or offers with calls for action. When influencers post content about your business or brand, you should ask or require them to include a UTM code to track any conversions or sales they induce. The premise is a pay-back or payout in the form of a small commission for each conversion they generate. This can be an event registration for a tradeshow or other event, or it might be a product or service purchase brought about and linked to the influencer’s created content.

The upside to these two specific platforms is their algorithm-based targeted content. While on other platforms, you must research how to attract certain audiences to your posts and account, TikTok and Instagram Reels constantly showcase new material to viewers based on what they interact with, who they follow and what kinds of content they regularly pay attention to. Meaning, that if you choose influencers correctly within your industry, others who look at similar content will more likely be shown or delivered this influencer and your brand.

All of this is only as good and results oriented as your or your agency’s management of your business’s influencer marketing program, strategy and agreements.

Connecting with Online Communities through Live Streaming and Influencers

Live broadcasting, or live streaming, is also accessible through various digital platforms and has become one of the highest grossing mediums available. When your influencers broadcast or stream content about your business or that which makes your organization distinctive, the interest and click-through rate exponential increases.

What the live streaming community offers that other media formats don’t is real-time interaction between influencers and their audiences, which creates a stronger bond and allows more information to be presented for those interested. This exchange makes the application of this format handy when promoting an event and/or a brand, product or service.

Seen especially in younger audiences, Grin found that some audiences on YouTube are influenced more by popular YouTubers than by celebrities.

Allowing your audience an insider or third-party view of an event or tradeshows, a sneak peak of a new product, or how a professional service is performed and yields benefit creates a sense of interest or intrigue and engages them to learn more.

For many event marketing teams, hosting an onsite livestream which features influencers as guests or hosts can provide this effect. Influencer-based live streams offer expert analysis of not just the event itself, but the products or services being showcased at the event, which can draw in viewers or attendees based on each influencer’s following.

When business-to-business events, conferences or exhibitions take place, livestreams are one of the most promising ideas for enticing new clientele or attendees to register. Many tradeshow and event organizers have to market their event’s benefits through associations and businesses whose members or personnel have attended in the past to validate the events worth for others to register and attend. In the influencer space, these trusted individuals can provide an even deeper level of event approval to an effective audience, persuading their followers and fans simply based upon their involvement in the sector and event via verbalized or shown experiences.

Tips for Video and Audio-Based Influencer Marketing Strategies

While employing these formats of video and audio media with an influencer can help expand the reach and visibility of your company, the most important part comes with properly executing your social media influencer marketing strategy.

Here are a couple key tips on how you can start making your influencer marketing campaign more effective.

Limit Scripting but Guide Soundbites: Whether it be demonstrations, sponsored messaging, or product videos for marketing, a common mistake many companies make is over-scripting for influencers.

While tempting to write exactly what you want them to say, these types of scripts restrict the creator, making the message feel ingenuine and out of character to their audience. Allowing influencers leeway to use their own voice and style in creating sponsored messages, reviews, tutorials or commenting often results in higher levels of audience engagement.

However, giving your influencers a messaging guide is essential. This can include what tone to use, what points and topics should be covered or a length estimate. Create a list of important soundbites, being concise, clear language and subject-matter you would like for them to incorporate into their content. Provide message and brand standards to ensure proper and correct information is shared, which also helps avoid inadvertent content that could confuse the audience or conflict with your objectives.

Appoint someone with a true and seasoned understanding of influencer marketing on your staff or with your marketing agency to work closely with and oversee your contracted influencers.

Participate In Trends: Influencers who participate in popular social media tends while showcasing your brand, and integrating popular captions at the time of creation, automatically sets the algorithm of the platform to favor their content, especially on Instagram and TikTok. In accurately researching popular trends, your influencers can create content around the topics and captions they should use, leading to more people likely seeing and following your business or brand.

Any given social media site normally contains an algorithm which determines what an audience is shown. These complex equations take into account a user’s interests and learns preferred topics over time through providing new content and achieving either positive or negative responses. While this cycle helps in targeting specific audiences, within these spaces virality is also key to the algorithm.

While the topic of influencer marketing geared to generate visibility of positive online content can involve a significant amount of time and energy, the payoff can be extremely rewarding to businesses when properly vetted and managed. Some companies make mistakes because they either lack awareness of popular influencer trends or how to incorporate and oversee them, or, they simply try too hard to play into a specific topic versus facilitate an innovative, yet macro-view, of influencer content.

The aid of influencers and public relations agencies can add much needed leverage to these styles of podcast and video campaigns because of their extensive platform-specific knowledge on what is captivating or entertaining to their followers and fans.

A great example of this type of influencer-based knowledge comes from TikTok’s ‘Sounds’. While many marketing teams or companies would need to spend extensive time researching which sounds are popular at a specific time or how they could incorporate them into brand messaging, creators have an innate ability to understand and customize them across their respective platforms. This brings about a natural flow of persuasive information about the products or services and brands for which businesses are seeking promotion.

The introduction of influencers into any marketing campaign can feasibly produce more engagement and interest in your products or services because of the community built around the trustworthy creators. To stay relevant and provide authentic content which is also effective, it is important to have awareness surrounding current media trends like short-form videos, podcasts and live streaming as well as how to apply and monitor these trends to appeal to your audience. Even if influencer marketing, videos and podcasts are not the forte for some internal marketing teams, this is no reason to avoid adding them to an annual integrated marketing plan. Public relations firm services can provide the tools necessary to develop and perform successful influencer marketing campaigns to grow and benefit your company and its levels of influence.

At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we develop and manage influencer marketing programs for our clients by carefully researching, acquiring and managing top influencers that are the most beneficial for their brands. Contact us if you are looking to kick-off a new or improved influencer marketing program. Learn more: www.ecpr.com.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.