Marketing folks, like those in every industry, often get caught up in their own jargon. But because words are a core component to executing our jobs, it’s somewhat easier to get tangled up. We throw around words and phrases like, “messaging” and “key proposition,” and “positioning statement.” Unfortunately, it’s easy with all this wordplay to lose sight of the one essential element that will make or break your communications efforts. Read the rest of this entry »
When my eight-year-old daughter this morning presented with the Morning Mystery Ailment, I told her it was all in her head and that she’d better hurry because I would not be driving her to school if she missed the bus. These are the exact same words my mother used to “cure” this horrible disease when I contracted it decades earlier. Of course I knew that she had a math test this morning, the true cause of her ailment. Read the rest of this entry »
Is your Web site a Delta Leader instead of a leader in sales and marketing? If you’re having trouble harnessing the power of your Web site, send it on a date with your public relations team – you’ll get great results!
Today’s online newsroom can be a high-value, low-cost springboard to media coverage. But, nearly 40% of journalists say it’s difficult to locate the information they need on corporate Web sites, according to a recent survey by The Bulldog Reporter. It is exceedingly important to provide appropriate, easy-to-find information for journalists, customers, prospects and investors. Read the rest of this entry »
In my post last week, I discussed how B2B companies can begin to eke out plans for a corporate blog. This week’s installment completes the article and gives some guidance on how to maintain a blog and earn readers once it is built.
Taking a swing
Creating content that meets the needs of a company’s target market is the next step. Each B2B blog is a venue for showcasing a company’s unique expertise in its industry niche. Blogging builds corporate and personal credibility, positioning a company as having few credible substitutes in the marketplace. Blogs also provide a glimpse of what it may be like to work with a company, which helps reduce perceived risk in the minds of prospective buyers. Read the rest of this entry »
Marketers need not be baseball savants to recognize the expression, “If you build it, they will come.” For the past 20 years, executives in board rooms across America have proposed countless ventures by utilizing this maxim, which originally emanated from Ray Kinsella’s cornfield in “Field of Dreams.”
The success of a company’s marketing enterprises is only as great as the number of prospects that see them. This is especially true for the corporate blog, notably one of the most challenging marketing ventures for which to attract an audience.
Blogging is a challenge that companies are not handling well, according to a 2008 Forrester Research report. The study, which reviewed 90 business-to-business (B2B) blogs, determined that most blogs are uninspiring, and almost three-quarters of them don’t receive comments because they don’t engage readers. Further, more than 70 percent of B2B bloggers do not imbue any personal insight or experience in what they write.
Those are only the first three strikes against corporate blogs. Fortunately, with the expertise of an outside B2B marketing agency, blogs can hit a homerun.
While a business shouldn’t entirely outsource its blog to an agency, a company can rely on its outside marketing team to play a vital part in developing and maintaining the blog. From strategy and competitive research to feeding content and monitoring results, an agency can recommend the right elements to keep a company’s blog in line with its brand. Read the rest of this entry »
Our first blog post about Twitter came from Deb Yemenijian, a trusty Schubert PR Exec., almost exactly two years ago (Twitterpated, May 17th, 2007). But, only within the past few months has a true Twitter explosion occurred – jumping to more than 9.3 million users and the third most used social network (behind Facebook and MySpace).
Many Schubert team members have found Twitter useful to build relationships with editors, prospects, clients and peers. I personally have found it a great research tool. Twitter is my new google (in some cases).
I’d love to hear how you are using Twitter – please comment. I’d also like to take this opportunity to formally introduce the Schubert staff who tweet regularly. Join the conversation and follow us!
“Didn’t you say that you had worked with your old agency for almost four years?” I asked.
“Yeah, 2005 I think.”
“Okay. And how many press releases did they do last year?” I queried.
“I’d say eight or so, maybe 10.”
“You mentioned a video you used at a trade show? You have that, right?”
“Sure, somewhere. I think Steve took it on a sales call a couple weeks ago.”
I brightened. “Good.” I knew from investigating their very static Web site that this would be a job for my alter-ego superhero, Digital PR Man! Da Da DADAHHHH!
“But what’s this got to do with our crummy Web site?”
“Everything, good citizen!” I boomed, chest puffed out, hands on hips, cape fluttering in the breeze.
In April American Business Media predicted U.S. trade publications would see and average 19% to 22% drop in business-to-business ad revenues in 2009, a much steeper decline than the 7.3% drop of 2008. And the reality is worse than the numbers make it sound. Nielsen Business Media will stop publishing Brandweek, but may roll it into one of its other B2B titles. Crain’s TelevisionWeek will be available online only beginning in June. And just yesterday we learned that business publisher Penton Publishing is going over to a four-day workweek to help cut overhead. Of course we all know of the demise of the Rocky Mountain News bankruptcies of Sun-Times Media, the owner of 58 newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Star Tribune Holdings Corporation, the Journal Register Company and Philadelphia Newspapers LLC.
So with all these publications consolidating or closing all together, why would anyone bother to hire a PR agency? Because readers, like all matter, can neither be created nor destroyed. It’s an indisputable law of thermodynamics. Not up on your thermodynamics? Read on. Read the rest of this entry »
