Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Getting everyone on the same page can be a daunting task. If you work in public relations, you know people often see the world in different ways, which can make it hard to agree on a strategy.
Talking can help, of course. But according to scientists, certain types of conversations may hold the key to achieving group consensus.
A recent New York Times article highlighted new research that shows robust conversations free of “blowhards” not only help build group consensus, but those conversations can also actually synchronize group members’ brain activity.
A recent example comes to mind: A client was facing a crisis, and I had a clear idea of how I thought the company should respond. But I knew that the legal team might have another perspective.
With that in mind, we scheduled a Zoom call and aligned on a game plan. The call itself lasted about an hour, and it began with a discussion of a reminder of the goals we wanted to achieve. We then moved on to strategy, the pros and cons of implementing it, and discussed how it might help us achieve the goals.
Given this recent experience, I was interested in the article highlighting Dr. Beau Sievers’s research showing why talking helps, how groups achieve consensus, and how it impacts our brains.
Dr. Sievers’s study “showed that a robust conversation that results in consensus synchronizes the talkers’ brains – not only when thinking about the topic that was explicitly discussed, but related situations that were not.”
There is one important caveat, however. If a participant is so strident or opinionated that they don’t let others talk, coming to a consensus is much more difficult, if not impossible. Conversely, groups with mediators who encouraged others to articulate their ideas and then shifted their own were more neurally aligned.
While the study didn’t research the effectiveness of this approach in high-stakes situations, it has some helpful reminders for people looking to drive consensus, especially if they share a common goal. I recommend reading it and practicing drawing out others’ perspectives. You might devise your own informal experiment to see if you can reach a consensus on the next steps within a certain number of discussions.
Finally, you can find the comprehensive research here if you’re interested.
The PR landscape is becoming more competitive than ever. There are more than 54,000 public relations firms in the United States, and in 2022, the industry grew by 5.2%. Given the normalization of remote services, that growth is expected to continue. That makes clients more valuable than ever.
Clients make up the foundation of any PR firm, and business development plays a huge role in supporting a firm’s health.
At Communiqué PR, I have worked on several recent business development projects, helping with research, proposal development, scoping fees and presentation prep. This process can be time-consuming, but it’s crucial to success.
Based on this recent work, I want to elaborate on the two phases of business development and give you six tips for winning the business of a potential client.
Phase 1: Developing foundational materials
Foundational materials include a proposal and scope-of-work document (SOW). The proposal outlines potential goals, strategies and tactics for your client. It’s an opportunity to win them over with your creative and strategic vision.
A SOW creates transparency for the client, providing them a complete estimated breakdown of the number of hours and cost for each strategy and tactic.
These materials show a potential client that you understand their business and industry while establishing the credibility of your brand. They are tangible materials that help your client easily understand the proposed work.
Phase 2: Presenting your ideas
Creating the proposal and SOW is only half of the work. Some potential clients prefer that you present this information. Your audience may include not only your current point of contact but executives, members of their marketing and communications team and key decision-makers.
A presentation allows you to give more detail about your planned PR objectives and provides the audience with a better feel for your firm. It also gives prospective clients an opportunity to ask questions about your work. Nonetheless, presentations can make or break your deal.
Below are some tips to remember when presenting your proposal.
- Tip 1: Make it shine. When pitching, come prepared with a presentation modeled on your proposal. Your presentation should be clean and professional in its formatting, a shining example of future work.
- Tip 2: Summarize your speaking points. Avoid reading word-for-word from your slides. Elaborating on your points rather than reciting them helps establish your credibility. Pick three main takeaways for each slide. Write them down so you don’t forget them, but plan to have a conversation around them. This will make your presentation more natural and keep the audience attentive.
- Tip 3: Practice with team members. Presentations often involve multiple speakers. You’ll want to practice the presentation with all team members more than once. Decide when each member will speak and assign slides to avoid any hiccups. To highlight your team’s knowledge and experience, divide the presentation based on each team members’ expertise. Practicing also creates opportunities to revise objectives, strategies and tactics. During practice, a team member might find a particular point invalid, or someone may come up with a new idea. Adjustments can be made easily when all members are in the same space.
- Tip 4: Keep it conversational. Keep the floor open for questions, inquiries and additional ideas. This information can be helpful if you land the potential client. It also keeps the audience engaged and shows that you value input. Asking questions creates a conversational tone. Running straight through your slides without engaging your audience may cause them to lose interest.
- Tip 5: Be confident. Confidence is key. Who wants to hire a partner that seems unsure of themselves or their work? Yes, pitching can cause nerves, but don’t let that affect your confidence. According to Psychology Today, people who act confident are perceived to be so. Believe in yourself and your capabilities. Your look can also increase your confidence. Dress for the part and appear as your most professional self. Lastly, be aware of your tone. Studies have shown that speaking in a lower, louder and faster tone can make you appear more confident.
- Tip 6: Follow up. Your communication skills are your first impression, and the follow-up is the last. Make sure to follow up after your presentation to answer questions, send additional items and thank the potential client for their time. This allows them to voice concerns and share feedback. It shows you are enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with them.
Just like a marathon, business development takes practice and preparation. Don’t show up to your race without ever running a mile. Winning clients means doing your homework.
Today’s consumers are inundated with digital marketing at every turn. Increasing customer engagement and breaking through the noise can be a difficult feat for companies to achieve. Luckily, email marketing is still an effective strategy. According to McKinsey, email is the most cost-efficient digital marketing channel and is 40 times more effective for gaining new customers than social media. In a HubSpot survey of 300 marketers, 95% reported their email marketing strategy was effective in 2021. Additionally, people with smartphones prefer to receive brand communications via email.
With these facts on the table, it’s best to keep email-marketing strategies in the toolkit. Email newsletters have evolved over the years and can help businesses stay top of mind with their customers and prospects. Newsletters are an effective customer engagement tool because they are a consistent medium for information sharing. Depending on the content companies include in newsletters and their mailing lists, newsletters are also tools companies can use to grow their brands.
Below are considerations for launching a customer newsletter, best practices and important metrics to track to ensure the best ROI.
Elements to Consider Before Kicking Off a Newsletter
- Confirm the objectives. Before a company launches a newsletter, it’s critical to identify a few important elements. First, what is the objective? Newsletters are helpful tools but are not a one-size-fits-all solution. A shared agreement about the overall business and communication objectives before investing in developing an ongoing newsletter is a must. Newsletters can provide value to readers through sharing company updates, providing helpful information about the organization, and offering solutions to common industry pain points. If increasing customer engagement or promoting services are objectives, a newsletter could be a great fit.
- Know the audience. Hand in hand with confirming the objective of the newsletter is knowing the company’s audience and understanding their preferred communication methods. If a company knows its customers aren’t digitally savvy or have historically low open rates with email campaigns, they’ll want to be mindful of launching a digital email newsletter. Alternatively, if customers are active online, it will be essential for the business to ensure they optimize the newsletter for mobile (more on that below).
- Determine the Frequency. Customers don’t want to be overloaded with content but establishing consistency and being a regular source of information can be valuable to audiences. There is not a perfect formula for determining the email frequency; it will depend on the business, audience and content available. Some companies opt for weekly newsletters; others find that monthly or quarterly cadence works better for their customers. After determining the frequency and rhythm of the newsletter, marketing teams should also play around with distribution timing. According to the HubSpot survey referenced above, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday get the most engagement from email campaigns. Further, emails sent between 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Tuesdays receive the most response and engagement. Weekends receive the lowest response.
Newsletter Best Practices
After companies have determined the elements above, they’ll want to make sure the way they approach newsletter development will yield the best results. Below are several best practices to guide the process and content for customer newsletters.
- Compelling and short subject lines. Having catchy yet informative subject lines and descriptions will help catch attention and encourage readers to open and read the content. This guidance also goes for the email’s subject line and the headlines for each section of the newsletter. A reader might be intrigued by the email’s subject line and abandon the content when they open it.
- Mobile-friendly and flexible template. It’s essential to ensure the newsletter is easily accessible on multiple platforms, so the formatting stays as planned when readers view the content on desktop and mobile settings. If a company has not optimized the content for mobile viewing, for example, the display and format of the newsletter would be complex for the reader to navigate and read when they receive the email newsletter on their smartphone.
- Clear and consistent branding. Branding could include the logo and company name and embedding the links to the company’s social media pages. These elements will let readers make it clear who the content is from and feel connected to the brand. It’s also wise to have clear and consistent fonts, so the content is easy for audiences to read and navigate.
- Diversify content. Some companies follow the 60/40 rule for newsletter content. In newsletter settings, this often means having 60% company and product-related content and the remaining newsletter content focused on industry or customer-generated items. In addition to this guide, companies should include a mix of types of content such as company blogs, external articles – company and industry-focused – eBooks, whitepapers and videos or infographics. And even though the type of content will vary, it’s recommended that the newsletter focus on two to three topics with one main call to action.
- Keep it concise. If the company is sharing a plethora of content, consider staggering it to make sure the newsletters aren’t so excessively long that they lose the reader’s attention. The word count of each section will vary based on the call to action. Constant Contact has a helpful post that details how word count and the call to action are connected. This post outlines that newsletters with 200 words, or 20 lines of text, have the highest email click-through rate.
- Include links. The desired call to action will inform the links a company includes in its newsletter. However, providing links to the company’s original content can help readers learn more about a topic. It can also help the company drive traffic to the website, blog or desired location.
- Share the newsletter on other channels. In addition to adding links and buttons to the company’s social media, companies can increase engagement and performance of the newsletter by publishing it on their website and sharing it on corporate social media channels. Having the newsletter on these platforms will be another touchpoint for potential customers to learn more about the company and engage with the brand.
Metrics to Track
With all marketing campaigns, tracking metrics and adjusting content and process is essential to ensure the newsletter is a valuable resource. The specific metrics and KPIs to measure the newsletter’s success might vary depending on the company’s objectives and resources available for the newsletter; however, core metrics to track, according to HubSpot, include delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate and forward rate. There are also many great marketing platforms to develop and distribute newsletters (e.g., HubSpot, Constant Contact, Drip, etc.). The right fit will depend on the company’s objectives. When possible, it’s best to leverage a platform that can interact with the company’s CRM.
At Communiqué PR, we support a variety of clients with the development and distribution of their newsletters. We’ve found this resource to be a valuable tool to amplify content to engage with employees and customers and increase overall brand awareness.
Does your company have a newsletter? What practices have worked for you? For more information or help kicking off an employee or customer newsletter, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].
It’s been almost a year since TikTok hit a billion users, and the site’s growth shows no signs of slowing. More recently, HootSuite’s Social Trends 2022 Report finds that TikTok will become the most important social network for marketing. This is partly because TikTok has experienced a 1,157% global user base increase from 2018 to 2020.
In response to TikTok’s growing popularity, other prominent social media sites have released their own short-form video platforms. Facebook introduced “Reels” in September 2021, Instagram came out with “Stories,” and YouTube debuted “Shorts.” While results across these sites have been mixed, YouTube saw a boom of 5 trillion views in January 2022.
How has the popularity of short-term videos affected marketing? According to HubSpot’s 2022 Video Marketing Report, 85% of marketers say that short-form videos are the most effective social media format. The report also found that short-form videos have the highest ROI of any other social media marketing.
All of this makes short-term videos a powerful way to connect with your audience. Here are a few tips to make the most of your short-form video marketing:
- Authenticity – Creating authentic content can lead to deeper connections with followers. Consumers value genuine and authentic brands and want to support the ones they trust. There have been cases where a company or organization wasn’t fully upfront about their content and faced colossal internet backlash as a result. In late 2021, Kum & Go and influencer Kyle Scheele went viral for a TikTok campaign that was not initially disclosed as an ad. Short-term videos should prize authenticity above all else. Consumers can and will hold brands accountable.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges – While challenge hashtags are nothing new, they remain an essential tool to promote visibility. TikTok has found that Branded Hashtag Challenges (BHC) garner a 5% median engagement rate compared to <1% with other platforms. For example, Chipotle has had a few successful BHCs on TikTok with the #LidFlipChallenge and #GuacDance. The company currently has over 1.3 million followers on the platform.
- Be Active – Short-form video trends have rapid lifecycles, so staying current is vital. While viral trends can last for months, most only last a few weeks. If you share videos based on out-of-style trends, viewers will see you as disconnected, and the videos lose their marketing value. Staying current with trends helps content reach a larger audience.
To have a successful short-form video marketing strategy, you don’t need to go viral or have hundreds of thousands of followers. You just need the right followers. The methods above can help your organization gain a foothold in short-term video marketing and grow an audience.
For more information on marketing and social media trends, check out these blog posts:
It’s no secret that PR professionals spend a great deal of time developing thought leadership opportunities for clients. As a result, we’re often left with an abundance of ideas and content. However, things don’t always go according to plan, and we’re often left with these questions:
- How do we ensure content reaches the right audiences?
- How can we capitalize on opportunities available for powerful thought leadership bylines?
- What should we do when journalists don’t bite on a compelling proactive pitch?
To address questions like these, PR professionals should follow the four R’s – repurpose, reshare, reformat and rethink. These four strategies will help ensure that you maximize developed content and deliver results for your clients.
Repurpose content for other outlets
If you have a client with active blog content, repurposing that content for earned media placements is a great way to reach new audiences. Many outlets accept syndicated content, and there are several benefits to repurposing a client’s content, including enhanced visibility, increased website traffic and a reinforced thought leadership stance.
However, if you choose to syndicate content, it must match the audience of the outlets you pitch. For example, if you secure a placement with a business publication, but your target audience works in human resources, your content won’t reach the right people. As a result, even though you earned a syndicated placement, the content won’t connect with readers, which weakens its impact and the success of the article.
This is why you should always research publications before you pitch as it ensures you’re offering syndicated content to the right places, creating a lasting impact that can improve visibility, audience reach and website traffic.
Reshare thought leadership content as digital newsletters
It’s likely that customers haven’t seen all of a client’s earned media placements. However, it’s still essential that clients maximize the content and offer multiple opportunities for customers to read it. Resharing byline placements in a digital newsletter is an excellent way for already-developed content to reach new eyes.
Newsletters can be a powerful content-sharing source. Eighty-one percent of B2B marketers say their most-used form of content marketing is email newsletters, as the content is delivered directly to customers. However, clients should ensure they’re strategic with their newsletters. Recent research shows audiences are more likely to open emails and click through if they receive fewer than five newsletters a week.
By leveraging newsletters, clients can reinforce thought leadership positioning and strengthen relationships with current customers who may not be active on other platforms like social media or blogs.
Reformat content for social media
If you’re struggling to come up with creative social media copy and content ideas, revisiting already-developed content is a great place to start. By leveraging previous articles, blogs and newsletters, PR professionals can save time typically spent brainstorming social media concepts. In fact, 82% of social media marketers say they reuse content across social media channels.
For example:
- Twitter: Turn a thought leadership idea from a pitch or article into a thoughtful tweet. This will not only strengthen a company’s position on a specific topic, but it will reinforce the client as an industry thought leader in an easily digestible and shareable way. Don’t forget to throw in a compelling hashtag, as tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement!
- Facebook: Turn a list of thought-provoking findings from an already-developed article or pitch into a Facebook post. This will help boost engagement and replies on the platform while providing followers with content they may have missed.
- TikTok and Instagram: Take an article, blog post or proactive pitch and develop a TikTok or Instagram video that highlights the main findings. For example, PR professionals can research the latest viral dance trends and incorporate the most critical points from a thought leadership piece into a routine. This allows companies to reach a broader audience and create a new way for followers to engage with content.
Rethink proactive pitches as thought leadership content
According to a recent survey, 48% of journalists receive between 1-5 pitches daily, and 13% get over 20 per day. As a result, proactive pitching doesn’t always get the responses you were aiming for. However, PR professionals shouldn’t get discouraged or simply move on. Instead, get creative. In what other ways might the content elevate the client?
A staggering 71% of industry decision-makers say that less than half of the thought leadership content they consume gives them valuable insights. This leaves a significant gap that PR professionals can fill with compelling, already-developed content and ideas.
If a proactive pitch campaign isn’t delivering the anticipated results, consider developing the pitch into an article for the client’s website, blog, social media and newsletters. The valuable information is still shared with target audiences and industry decision-makers, reinforcing the client’s stance as an influential thought leader in their respected industry.
This is important: 65% of audiences say thought leadership significantly improved their perception of a company. So, the next time a proactive pitch campaign doesn’t go as planned, consider how the content can be repackaged to position your client as an influential thought leader.
The four R’s
These are just a few ways PR professionals can capitalize on already-developed content and deliver results for clients. When campaigns don’t go as planned or you’re up to your ears in content, just remember the four R’s – repurpose, reshare, reformat and rethink – and put together a strategy that supports a client’s goals and reinforces them as a powerful industry thought leader.
The Public Relations Network (PRN) recently welcomed Tokyo-based Custom Media into its network of international PR agencies. Communiqué PR has been a member of PRN for 10 years. During that time its clients have benefited from in-country PR expertise around the world. We are thrilled to now have a top-notch PR team in Japan we can partner with on behalf of our clients.
Custom Media is an award-winning bilingual, digital integrated marketing, content-creation and strategic communications agency that offers its services to clients that range from luxury real estate and major hotels in Japan to prominent consumer brands, educational institutions and B2B SaaS companies.
Over the past years, Communique PR has worked with PRN member agencies on behalf of a number of clients including BitTitan, Delta-Q, Interroll and others. It has been valuable and cost-effective for our clients to have access to like-minded, boutique firms in specific countries to help execute one-off projects or ongoing campaigns.
Given the importance of the Japanese market for many of our clients, we are excited Custom Media CEO Robert Heldt, and his experienced team of PR and marketing professionals are now part of PRN.
Read more about it on PRN’s blog here: Tokyo-based PR agency, Custom Media, joins Public Relations Network.