The benefits of content marketing for public relations
Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. This is to attract and engage a clearly defined audience, with the goal of driving profitable customer action. In the context of public relations, content marketing can be a powerful tool for building brand awareness and credibility, and for generating positive media coverage.Read more
Is a Marketing Strategy Just a To Do List?
Despite following strictly every step of the plan, your company is still viable of being on the wrong track and falling off from your goals. Why? Because a marketing strategy does not equate to a series of tasks. Read more
8 Reasons Why Your Business Should Focus on PR in 2022
7 Reasons Why Marketing is More Than Advertising
Most of the time we will use these terms interchangeably, not aware of their separate uses.
On the surface, we may link these terms to a wide range of activities that promote a specific message and expand the awareness of a brand or product/service. However, in order to truly maximize your company’s promotional efficiency and effectiveness you will need to understand the nuances that distinguish these processes from one another.
To provide a more clear picture of what separates these distinct activities, we have gathered the following 7 reasons as to why marketing is much more important than advertising.Read more
The Need-to-knows About Digital PR
Digital PR is a strategically planned activity of using internet-based tools and methods to attain an increase in online presence and visibility.
Components of a Good Marketing Strategy
A good marketing strategy consists of a comprehensive collection of marketing techniques that enables a business to direct its resources towards the best opportunities in terms of increasing sales and achieving a sustainable advantage over the competition.
A marketing strategy consists of short term and long term activities that contribute towards achieving business objectives.
Remember developing a marketing plan for your business shouldn’t be complicated.
To help you generate an effective marketing strategy, here are eight basic components of any marketing strategy.
1. Market Research
An integral component of any good market strategy is market research. To lay the foundation for your strategy you must collect, organize and write down data about the market that is currently buying the products or services you intend to sell.
You should consider looking at marketing dynamics, customer demographics, market segments, target markets, needs and buying decisions.
In terms of products and services, you need to analyze the market to gauge what’s out there now and what the competition is currently offering. Identifying current sales and benchmarks in the industry in addition to suppliers that you will need to rely on will help you build a more substantial base in which you can effectively build a good marketing strategy.
2. Target and Positioning
Any good marketing strategy begins with the identification of a target audience. This is the most important component. There is no point in wasting your time and resources trying to market your products and services to an audience that isn’t interested in what you’re selling.
You should aim to sell to the market segments that will be most profitable for your business. Direct your marketing efforts towards people that are genuinely interested in your products or services. By narrowing your marketing efforts towards your ideal target audience you will greater optimize your time and resources.
Furthermore, defining your ideal target customer will allow you to adjust the overall style of your marketing strategy in a way that suits your target audience. Your content will be more targeted, using language that connects with your customers on a more personal level.
3. Awareness
The ultimate business goal should be to gain the trust of your clients and create brand awareness among your target audience. A combination of traditional techniques like magazines, TV and word of mouth should be paired with online techniques to boost the awareness of your brand.
In today’s digital environment it’s imperative strategies prioritize online marketing. A business must have a website and a blog where you post high-quality content that connects with your audience and generates traffic. Additional visual and audio content like videos, podcasts, and infographics work to further generate brand awareness and leave a lasting impression in your target audience’s mind.
4. Unique Advantages
To win over your competitors you need to offer your target audience a set of unique advantages that your competitors aren’t offering. You need to distinguish your brand by offering your target audience valuable content that they can’t find elsewhere. Creating unique brand offerings will help distinguish your business from your competition.
Aim to identify one or two things that make your product or service different and promote them as much as possible. In doing so you can create more effective marketing strategies that greater reach your target audience.
5. Communicate With Your Clients
It’s imperative to know how and when to communicate with your target audience. You need to strategize the types of content you are making and how you are sharing them. Think about where your target audience hangs out most and utilize the platforms that will best reach them.
The connection you develop with your customers is a key aspect for the success of your marketing strategy. It’s important to promote your products and services as the best choice on the market, but it’s even more important to focus your attention on the needs and wants of your followers. Identify the problems they have and show them how your business offers the best solution to satisfy their needs.
6. Promotional Tactics
Once you have created your marketing strategy, you must decide which marketing activities will ensure your target audience knows about the products or services you offer, and why they meet their needs.
Aim to execute a combination of tactics such as various forms of advertising, public relations, maintaining an online presence, promotions and an effective point of sale strategy. Remember every action you take must align with your marketing strategy in order to be effective and convert customers. Aim to limit your activities to those methods you think will work best with your target market.
7. Monitoring and Evaluation
This is a key component of any type of strategy and something a lot of businesses overlook. Take the time to analyze how your strategy is performing in practice. Surveying customers, tracking sales, leads, visitors to your website and percentage of sale to impressions are all worthwhile tactics to consider.
Any successful marketer will continually review the status of their marketing strategies against their set objectives. Doing so will ensure ongoing improvements to marketing initiatives and benefit future market planning.
8. Marketing Plan
Once you have finalized your marketing strategy, draw up a marketing plan that outlines how you intend to execute the strategy and evaluate its success. Your marketing plan should be excessively reviewed and if necessary updated to respond to changes in customers’ attitudes and broader economic forces.
Fundamentally, all good things take time and a successful marketing strategy takes not only time but commitment as well. When developing your marketing strategy you must be ready to invest in order to reach your business goals. Focusing on the finer details of a good marketing strategy will allow you to develop a logical, effective plan that will lead your business to success.
10 Characteristics of a Good Marketing Consultant
Marketing is a competitive game that requires carefully planned and well-executed tactics in order to be successful. Misinformed decisions often result in wasted time, resources and energy something businesses cannot afford in the current climate. A marketing consultant has the ability to look at your business and identify where the problems lie, realize where the opportunities exist, and how to create marketing that your ideal customer will respond to.
Choosing the right consultant for your business can be challenging, so take the time to consider what really makes a good marketing consultant.
To help you and your business make the right decision here are 10 characteristics of a good marketing consultant.
1. Devotion to listening and attentiveness
Consulting is so much more than the simple process of a business acquiring advice from a consultant. A good consultant will take the time to learn everything they can about their clients, listening attentively and remaining patient as they listen to any issues, requirements and goals.
Only after listening to their client will any successful marketing consultant recommend effective changes to a business’s operations. A marketing consultant that pays attention to their client not only understands their point of view but also develops relationships based on trust
2. A willingness to learn and grow
A good marketing consultant will offer expertise in a wide variety of marketing specializations. The best consultants are continually expanding their capabilities within new areas of digital marketing, social media and public relations to deliver clients more effective marketing strategies. They understand the rapidly changing environment, and never miss the necessity to evolve or risk becoming professionally obsolete.
3. Understands value
A good marketing consultant recognizes the value of great content and understands how to leverage content marketing to grow your business. Generating relevant content for your target audience is indeed a reliable, cost-effective, and successful tactic to grow your traffic and boost conversions. For a successful content marketing strategy, you need to know who your audience is.
Good consultants are able to clearly define your target audience; helping you create more personalized content that is relevant.
4. Trustworthy
One of the biggest priorities of any marketing consultant working with a new client is establishing trust. Trust is built when someone knows they are getting what they expect, every time.
Establishing trust with your clients can be difficult as most clients are result-driven and need to see the end result before recognizing any positive outcomes. So, it’s important marketing consultants prove their contributions are worth more than their cost of hire.
A good marketing consultant will have a network of connections that promote their professional activities and achievements. Businesses’ should take the time to analyze consultants’ previous client tributes, website testimonials and LinkedIn endorsements to greater understand what they can offer.
5. A creative out of the box thinker
Good marketing consultants have the creative skills to come up with innovative campaigns and tactics that attract audiences in a new way. They work with staff to understand the business first, and then develop a marketing strategy that gains attention.
It’s hard to be creative when you’re doing the same thing every day which is why an independent marketing consultant can generate new ideas businesses may not have previously thought of. A good marketing consultant will work to weave businesses’ brand stories in a way that appeals to the market and gives an advantage over competitors in the same industry.
6. Adaptable to ever-changing circumstances
A good marketing consultant should be able to integrate new information and draw conclusions from it, switching from the detail to the big picture. Being able to respond to change with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to achieve targets is a key competency. Learning to embrace technology and live with ambiguity and uncertainty is the necessity of any marketing consultant.
7. Well presented
A good marketing consultant will present themselves with respect and dignity, demonstrating a hard-working mentality to their client.
A well-presented consultant leaves a good impression on others, which is appreciated by all. They look presentable every day, which helps demonstrate a marked difference in their confidence.
Furthermore, a well-presented marketing consultant will look at a challenge with excitement rather than apprehension, offering clients realistic timelines for completion of work, even when that timeline is contrary to what the client wants to hear.
8. Always willing to go the extra mile
Often businesses produce content without a clear picture of who they intend to target. A good marketing consultant takes the time to research your respective market and construct valuable content based on demographics and market trends. They track gaps in the market in order to create opportunities for your product or service to meet the specific needs of those gaps.
9. Goal Oriented
A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a business is achieving key business objectives. A good marketing consultant understands and applies the appropriate KPIs for your business allowing them to measure the performance of key marketing strategies and adjust them if necessary.
10. Strong Work Ethic
Part of a good work ethic is commitment and dedication to the job. A good marketing consultant knows how to focus on the task at hand with no distractions and usually work until they achieve the client’s goal successfully. Adopting a meticulous approach to their work ethic, they are reliable, professional, flexible and above all places an emphasis on quality.
There are plenty of marketing consultants on the market claiming they have the practice, means, and strategy to improve your business’ current marketing plan. But with so many consultants available, it can be overwhelming and daunting to separate the good from the bad.
If you’re considering working with a marketing consultant, they should possess a majority, if not all ten of the characteristics above. Fundamentally, a good marketing consultant has respect for your business, your time, and your point of view.
3 Ways Small Businesses can use Digital PR
Digital PR is used to build brand awareness in the form of immediate communication, strengthening your business’ exposure and search engine optimization. Small businesses can leverage digital PR through an assortment of online channels to help drive website traffic and improve search engine rankings. Ultimately to get your business’ message out there and build a stronger presence online, consider our three-step approach to digital PR.
1. Link building
A simple digital PR technique for any type of business is the process of link building. Link building occurs when other websites link back to yours. This is a relatively simple digital PR technique that helps search engines like google determine whether your website is a valid source of information. The creation of high-quality content that thinks outside of the box and truly connects with readers will help with link building. Aim to connect with influencers who are at the forefront of your relative market. Offering them a free service or product to try out and review will optimize the probability of generating links back to your site.
2. Repurpose old content
Content that you and your team produce that relates to your expertise can always be reused. Markets change rapidly and it’s more than likely there are current trends worth mentioning, so it’s worthwhile to update older blog posts and content and make them current again. This is another great technique of digital PR for small businesses and a lot of the time it only takes a few tweaks here and there.
3. Optimise social media
Few tools are more powerful in a digital PR campaign than social media. Through social media, you can connect with both customers and influencers, analyze your competitors’ strategy, and continually engage in conversations about your niche. Aim to not only write and publish quality content but continue to promote it through social media channels. Content that provides valuable information worth sharing and discussing will likely be promoted by others as well.
Remember social media is a powerful digital PR technique for any type of business. Unlike traditional PR, social media gives you the opportunity to converse and communicate with your target audience where they are most comfortable. Take the time to listen to their wants and needs as they will allow your business to offer products and services they haven’t been able to find up until now.
Digital PR’s overlap with SEO has become an important aspect that can be leveraged and synergized to create maximum impact for small businesses. When it comes to search engine optimization, there’s you, the search engine, and the searcher. Optimize your content through digital PR techniques like link building, repurposed content and social media so that search engines show your business as the top result for searches of a certain keyword.
The rising influence of spatial marketing
Now, that is a little over the top, but it’s not too far from the truth and when you read this, you will see why.
10 Tools to Improve Your PR
Public Relations is a multifaceted process that involves a variety of roles and requires hours of planning. For many startups and small businesses, this discipline operates as a one-man show–or falls to the wayside. But, it doesn’t have to be this way! Today we’ll look at several tools to improve your PR and turn your one-man approach into a synergetic PR department.