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Public Relations: The Changing Global Landscape

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Our CEO, Christine Perkett, was one of 28 global marketing leaders to contribute a chapter for this new book by Kathryn Lancioni.

“Simply put, PR professionals generate awareness of a product and marketers build demand for it. Today, the crossover between these two areas of communication is even more apparent.”Simply put, PR professionals generate awareness of a product and marketers build demand for it. Today, the crossover between these two areas of communication is even more apparent.”

The book covers many global marketing, PR, and communications issues including:

  • Digital Marketing Predictions
  • Public Relations Predictions
  • Global Observations and Industry Insights

“We looked to professionals in the global PR and digital marketing industries to share their insights. Between February 2020 and December 2020, we spoke to practitioners around the globe and asked them to share their insights on the evolving nature of their industry. The professionals come from all facets and sectors of the PR and digital marketing arenas. Their expertise range from technology and health care to crisis management, corporate branding, and digital marketing. Some are industry veterans with nearly three decades of experience, while others are newer entrants.”

Get your copy here.

5 Non-Intuitive Marketing Strategies To Grow Your Marketing Career

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Our CEO, Christine Perkett, was featured in Authority Magazine’s marketing interview series to give entrepreneurs and marketers an inside look at proven strategies you might also be able to leverage to grow your business or career. In the interview, she covers a variety of topics including:

  • What she wishes someone would have told her before she started in marketing
  • Our often-emulated remote working model and its positive effects on the environment and our employees’ wellness, health, and happiness
  • Where she sees the future of marketing headed
  • What a “blueprint” for a very successful marketing campaign looks like
  • A look back at some of her favorite marketing campaigns
  • Marketing tools and technology for more effective campaigns

Read the full article here.

Remember the fun — stay creative. Return to play as a part of work. Most importantly, in this day and age of remote work, step away from the computer. Make self-care a part of your schedule every day and get enough sleep! As creatives, it’s so important because when we burn out, we struggle with new ideas. My best ideas often come to me when I’m running or sleeping and dreaming.


They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway

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Our CEO, Christine Perkett, was featured in Authority Magazine’s interview series about resilient leaders and entrepreneurs. She shares how she started the agency, why we stand out from the crowd, who inspired her, and how she strives to bring the most amount of good to the greatest number of people. Read the full article.

I balanced the naysayers by hiring only senior-level executives, and that gave us a competitive edge. We compete with “traditional” agencies all of the time.


2020 Marketers To Follow

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Our CEO, Christine Perkett, was included in this comprehensive list of strategic marketers to follow, compiled by Rubicly. There are a lot of people – corporate and agency side – to learn from or hire if you’re looking for marketing advice, strategy, and execution.

To keep you inspired, I’ve put together this ginormous list of marketers to follow. For this list, I didn’t pay attention to number of followers. Rather, I curated a list of marketers with talent whether they’re new to the scene or a seasoned professional. Keep your marketing strategy fresh and follow all of these marketers on Twitter and connect with them on LinkedIn.


How Small Businesses Can Stay Engaged When They’re Closed

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The Coronavirus pandemic is awful, no question. But if we look around, we can find a lot of positive, creative things happening as people continue to try and connect with and inspire others. Likewise, while many small businesses are unable to open or have lost clients, they still want to engage with their customers and stay top of mind for the future. But how?

We’ve seen a lot of really creative things happening in the art world, such as virtual museum tours, online Broadway shows, musicians offering free concerts, and more. But small businesses don’t always have the resources that these larger organizations or celebrities do. However, they can get creative with social content. As a Top 100 Champion in the Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends and Smallbiz Technology, we thought we’d share a few simple ideas to inspire small businesses to keep engaging their audiences.

Partner up with other SMBs to create unexpected, resourceful content. Ex: record a Zoom video call between you and another small business owner. Make it fun and memorable; be light-hearted and humorous. Imagine a candy shop owner and a wine shop owner together, and the candy shop owner holds up different types of candy while the wine shop owner recommends wine to pair with it. Not two things that generally go together, which makes it interesting and inventive. Besides, we all know we’re eating more candy and drinking more wine than normal right now.

Get creative with what you offer, even if you can’t sell it right now. A jeweler might offer a customer contest to virtually help design a ring, or vote to choose a “stone of the week” that the jeweler then uses to create a new piece and names it after the customer. Once the jeweler can open again, they can offer the piece at a special price to that customer. Or, a florist might invite followers to name 5-10 flowers on its Facebook page and then create a bouquet of those flowers and share images. When they can reopen, they can offer that bouquet at a special price.

Involve your fans. It’s been well-known for quite some time that fans love being involved and noticed. Provide them with new ways to do so. For example, an artist can have fans nominate what his or her next piece of art should be; a pizza shop can let fans pitch in on ideas for new toppings or a weekly special to encourage takeout orders. Here in Boston, the New England Aquarium is doing #virtualvisits videos so fans can watch along as they care for the animals. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles challenged art fans to post photos of themselves at home, recreating their favorite works of art.

We’ve also seen some innovative ideas from local small businesses in our community. One popular sign company created a “Signs of Hope” campaign, which consists of various heart-themed designs of door signs, sold both online and at self-serve kiosks around multiple towns. They are selling on the honor system, something you don’t see much anymore, which is a vital part of establishing the feeling of a trusted community, support, and, well, hope. People remember how you made them feel and evoking positive emotion in your campaign can make a lasting impression.

Another great example we’ve seen is the Front Steps Project. Local photographers are offering families in their communities highly discounted or free (although you can donate an amount you think is fair and which you can afford), family portrait sessions on your front steps or in your yard. They’ll drive to your home, keep a safe distance, and take your photos. My family is having ours taken this weekend, and the photographer is offering us five pictures at an extremely reasonable price. We get to support another small business and do something unique together in this time of home isolation.

As a small business ourselves, we understand the anxiety and frustration taking place as a result of the economic fallout from the pandemic. But if you can, keep marketing and try some creative campaigns that you might not otherwise have explored when things were “normal.” Think about your expertise and what you can offer to others besides products and services. How can what you do tie into helping people through this unprecedented situation while keeping your business top of mind? As long as campaigns are respectful and socially-minded, most people will applaud your efforts and want to support you the best that they can in this uncertain time and as we all recover in the future.

If you need additional content ideas or social media training, give us a shout. We’re currently offering free one hour consulting sessions to hear about your business, your current challenges, and your long term goals – and to provide a few ideas for content and positioning.

Stay mindful, but more importantly, stay hopeful and stay home.

What’s Wrong With My Marketing?

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In the day and age of social media and digital communications, nearly everyone fancies themselves a marketer. And I suppose that in some ways, everyone is – we’re marketing our personal brands: our roles as parents, leaders, authorities and whatever else is hot at the moment. We share our company’s marketing content across social networks. We chime in with something cool we saw on YouTube and suggest our company do something similar.

But not all marketing is created equal. While something may work for an Instagram influencer, it likely won’t have the same success for a B2B company, for example. Yet, here are five things to check in your marketing that can apply to just about any brand:

  1. You’re too self-centered. Social media has brought out the narcissist in a lot of us, but that doesn’t mean focusing on just your company and products will engage an audience. Sure, it may work for Kim Kardashian, but it’s not likely to work for your security product in the same way unless you intersperse other helpful and informative information in between your company and product updates. Your content needs to be about your audience and their needs and wants, not just about you. In addition, you can no longer expect your audience to come to your properties – you have to reach out where they are, across multiple networks.
  2. You lack visuals. Even a B2B brand can and should be using imagery in their social media. Tools like Canva make it very easy to create unique, branded images.
  3. You haven’t jumped on the video bandwagon. Hubspot reports that 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video and that 88% of video marketers report that video gives them a positive ROI. Video can be simple and inexpensive – anything from your CEO speaking to a smartphone camera, to product or program overviews, man-on-the-street videos interviewing people at a conference, or more complex pieces like explainer videos. People tend to engage with and share videos more than text-only content, so it’s a crucial component to smart marketing.
  4. You’re not involving your customers. I’m sure what you have to say is very interesting, but third parties are always more credible, especially if they’re your customers. People want to hear from people like themselves, which is why social media influencers are so popular now. I like how Ted Rubin recently described influencers as possessing “the unique skills necessary to create a community and a willingness to serve the community they build.” (Read: not necessary celebs.) And, brand trust is a fickle thing. However, people tend to trust friends and even a friend’s network who they don’t personally know or, heck, other reviewers (even strangers) on Yelp or Trip Advisor – more than they trust brands. Get your fans talking and sharing for you!
  5. You’re not analyzing. It still surprises me when I speak to prospects who are not measuring their marketing or PR in any form. Marketing well is not inexpensive, so don’t you want to know your ROI? We worked with three new clients this last year that didn’t have anything set up – not even Google Analytics. Reviewing your analytics on Facebook or Linkedin isn’t enough – you must track ROI around what matters most to the brand, such as purchase intent and sales – not likes and follows.  And, the numbers don’t mean much if you’re not analyzing what is happening behind them. Where are your fans and followers finding you? How long are they staying? Where do they prefer to engage and in what way? What’s their buyer journey look like? What content is really driving prospects to the top of the funnel? What content is working with which audience? These are all elements that will supercharge your marketing and differentiate you as a true marketer.

Following these five basic guidelines can help you stand out as a marketer and continually get better. Just like the phone, social media channels don’t make everyone a good communicator just because they have access. It takes strategy, thoughtful presence, and consistency to do marketing right.


Branding Lessons From Political Slogans

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What does a “Great America” mean to you? 

A generic political slogan like Trump’s “Make America Great Again” can be so appealing because you get to define it for yourself, vs. a politician telling you very specifically what to think. It opens up possibilities for everyone. Trump fan or not, like many celebrities and artists, he’s a great marketer.

Take, for example some of these less generic presidential campaign slogans. They don’t leave a lot of room for interpretation:

  • “Who but Hoover?” – Herbert Hoover
  • “Forward with Roosevelt” – Franklin Roosevelt
  • “I like Ike” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • “Win with Warren” – Elizabeth Warren

It may be surprising that Trump did not use his name in his slogan like many candidates. Meanwhile, his 2020 presidential campaign slogans used to-date are not as open but do play on the successes he’s had: 

  • “Keep America Great”
  • “Promises Made, Promises Kept” 

What can your brand learn from examining these political slogans? We extract several lessons to keep in mind when branding your next marketing campaign:

  • Identify your target audience – are you trying to appeal to a niche, or open up and appeal to a wider population?
  • What can you learn from your existing fan base to shape your next slogan or tagline? Ask your customers what they like best about your product or service and use this feedback to shape words and images that appeal to them.
  • Know the pain points and use a little FUD – Trump played upon pain well, appealing especially to voters across the US who felt like their place in the world was being threatened. He played upon this fear and made them feel like he understood them better than any other candidate.
  • Keep it simple – Trump uses very simple language and leaves a lot up to interpretation. When your audience can easily understand what you’re saying, their brand recall will be stronger.
  • Puff your chest – there is no doubt that Trump is a positioner. He is practically the epitome of “fake it ‘til you make it,” given his reported financial background and history. No matter. He says what he wants people to hear and believe, and for him, it works. Now, in the “real world” we have to be more careful – false claims and failed promises will come back to bite you. But take a look at what you’ve done for customers, what declarations you’ve fulfilled, and use them in your campaigns and tag lines. Better yet, let your customers do the talking for you by having a campaign slogan or tagline contest. Often, our customers open our eyes and have the best, most practical viewpoints of what our products or services really do for – or mean to – them.

Marketing inspiration is all around us. Today’s political climate is no exception and can offer a lot of lessons – and raise some questions – about how to best connect with your audience. Examine them in the light of what you need to accomplish and you may breathe some fresh air into your messaging.

Top Social Media Influencers to Follow in 2020

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Planable named our CEO, Christine Perkett, one of the top 50 social media influencers who are raising the bar for social media marketing in 2020.

“Every marketer out there knows the feeling of drowning in information. And that’s where social media influencers come in. They come with a great feed – clean, relevant & with powerful opinions – giving us exactly what we’re looking for. That’s why we love them.”

Christine Perkett | LinkedIn & Twitter

Beyond being an amazing marketer, Christine stands for what’s right. She uses her platform to bring awareness to important causes and political events. Follow her if you’re looking for diverse topics.

Read the full article, here.

13 Predictions for Content Marketing In 2020

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Social Animal shared 13 predictions from experts on everything that has to do with content marketing and included our CEO, Christine Perkett’s, insights. She talks about the importance of video, Corporate Social Responsibility and “less fluff, more meaning.”

Read the full article, here.

Top 25 Expert LinkedIn Tips From The Pros

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When used properly, LinkedIn is a platform for establishing your credibility with like-minded professionals, giving you the ability to form business connections and build brand awareness. To help you make the most of your membership on the work-oriented social networking platform, FitSmallBusiness asked experts, including our CEO Christine Perkett, to share their LinkedIn marketing tips to help grow your business.

There are plenty of smart points in this article to help you leverage the platform for career growth, branding, sales, marketing & more.