Whiteoaks Team Talk – Session wrap-up

It’s safe to say that the new normal is starting to become… well, normal. We’ve adjusted to new operating practices and are focused on ensuring business as usual, especially when it comes to PR and marketing.

This sentiment was reflected by recent research by the PRCA; according to its confidence tracker, after an initial period of disquiet confidence levels are surging. The PRCA’s director-general, Francis Ingham, says this shock has given way to “a calm confidence in the fundamental strength of our industry”.

But what does this look like? What issues are companies experiencing in the new environment? And how are they adapting their tactics? Where does creative fit in?

These questions formed the basis of our latest Team Talk Session. The informal session was attended by our clients and prospects who shared their own experiences and insights.

Live in the now, think about the future

One of the key themes of the discussion was that it is a critical time for brands and how they present themselves, and talk to their clients and the market. In fact, it’s never been more important to be human, authentic and relevant, something we discussed in our first Team Talk Session.

But it’s also vital that brands look ahead; as we move on how do we keep things fresh, keep the interest of our audiences and keep creativity flowing?

PR remains an effective tool for brands in the current circumstances and as we move beyond. In large part, this goes back to the fundamentals of PR which is building credibility and delivering messages effectively. The brands that are winning are the ones that have had their communications successfully distributed through the lens of a journalist resulting in authentic and meaningful stories being delivered directly to audiences.

The session also covered how PR can be used to unite owned, paid and earned media, elements that don’t work well in isolation. Instead, it’s this combination that drives improved results and, importantly, impact. Earned-led campaigns will drive conversations which can then be amplified across supporting channels.

And when creativity is added to the mix so much the better. Especially now when there’s more of a focus on boosting engagement, humanising communications and ensuring that how brands are positioning themselves now translates into a longer-term strategy.

Used correctly, creativity can drive competitive edge and create a unique experience to engage customers and prospects. It’s about making the audience stop and think, and making brands stand out from the crowded marketplace they are operating in.

Also, creativity isn’t just for B2C campaigns in fact there is a case to be made that this is more important in B2B communications due to the higher risks which are involved. It can also be shown in many different ways and could be as simple as tone or a visual. But a great creative idea, simply told, has more chance of sticking in the mind of the audience.

Out the box thinking

For example, with the massive spike in video calls and webinars in lieu of physical meetings and events, how can PR and marketing professionals fight the fatigue?

One of our clients in the broadcast sector used some out of the box thinking to make its virtual event stand out in light of the fact that the broadcast industry’s flagship trade show, NAB hosted in Las Vegas, was cancelled. ATEME hosted a 24-hour webinar series to maintain engagement with its global customers, with live sessions streamed via Zoom starting in France and moving across the world.

Adding value

PR remains an effective tool for brands in the current circumstances and as we move beyond. In large part, this goes back to the fundamentals of PR, which is building credibility, and forming the nexus around which other elements such as marketing and social media can add value.

In our next Team Talk session on 15 May we’ll focus on the topic of measurement, while also hearing from our clients about their issues and experiences so far. Keep an eye on your inbox and our social feeds to find out more.

By now, I think it’s safe to say that there isn’t a single industry that hasn’t been affected by the current crisis in some shape or form. Although arguably the exhibitions and events industry was one of the first to really feel the impact.

In what felt like a matter of weeks, the global events landscape changed drastically. Probably the most significant turning point was the cancellation of Mobile World Congress in February, a move which marked the start of a ripple effect across the industry. Since then we have seen event cancellations across all industries including NAB, Retail Expo and most recently InfoSec in June.

For event organisers, cancellations cause a great deal of disruption, anxiety and lost revenue. For marketing and PR professionals it’s a similar challenge. Not only do event cancellations come at a great cost to marketing budgets, revenues and sales, but many organisations have planned their marketing campaigns, product launches and strategies around industry events, all of which have been thrown into disarray.

And with organisers unable to re-organise events when we don’t have a timescale for returning to business-as-usual, the question for marketers is: what should they do?

Impact for marketing campaigns

There’s no doubt that running marketing campaigns in this current climate is challenging. Sure you can delay campaigns – in fact according to Marketing Week, almost nine in 10 marketers have already done so – but with the current crisis looking set to continue indefinitely how long should you wait?

While some planned content and events may not be appropriate at this time, organisations shouldn’t cut off all marketing and communication as meaningful relationships can be built and maintained even during a crisis. The key is that content is useful, particularly at a time when many employees are stuck at home.

Where activity was reliant on physical events, marketers need to think instead about whether this can be digitised. Can a new product be launched digitally instead? Can you create your own company event to relay the same content? Can you use social media to amplify and reach the right audience?

Think outside of the box

In the past few weeks alone, we have already seen many companies turn towards video content as a replacement for physical events. This has come in a variety of forms – from pre-recorded webinars to live virtual or digital events. Some are taking advantage of channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn Live to live stream presentations, talks or short events, while others have created their own interactive virtual conferences using virtual event platforms.

This shift is also something that we’re seeing in our own client base. With this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas cancelled, both Nevion and ATEME chose to hold their own events to ensure that any content created for the show was not wasted.

Nevion, the self-styled Architects of Virtualized Media Production, created its own virtual “NABshow”, which it called “Nevion Alternative Broadcast Show – At Home with the Architects”. The concept was to create an experience as close to the real event as possible, combining online face-to-face meetings in the week in which NAB should have taken place, with online presentations/webinars before, during and after the event. The purpose of the initiative was not only to inform customers, prospects and partners, but also to engage actively with them. PR and social channels were used much in the same way as they would have been for the real “NABshow”, i.e. to promote the planned activities but also underline in the market the expertise and experience of Nevion. The outcome was an exceptional week of meetings, and the highest attendance of any Nevion-organised webinars by some considerable margin.

ATEME took a similar approach and launched ‘24h of ATEME’ – a series of live webinars to maintain engagement with customers around the world. The event took place over 24 hours – as a global business this was something ATEME could facilitate – and comprised a series of live sessions which took place via Zoom. Sessions started in France, before heading across the Atlantic to the US East Coast and West Coast, followed by Australia, South East Asia and then finally back to Europe for the finale. Customers could jump in and out of the stream at any time to join the sessions they found most relevant and ask questions in real-time throughout.

The event itself was an interesting and unique concept that helped to unite customers across the globe in the current crisis. Importantly, the event topics were not driven by ATEME but by customers who provided input on the issues and challenges they wanted to discuss, and event topics planned accordingly – an approach which works particularly well in times of crisis.

The future of events

While the cancellation of events provides a huge headache for marketers and businesses alike, it’s clear that not all is lost. Opportunity still exists to engage virtually and try out new tactics that perhaps wouldn’t have been considered before.

What will be interesting to see is whether these new ways of marketing and communications will stick once the pandemic ends. Will virtual events be the new normal as companies realise they don’t need to attend industry events to achieve results, or will we simply just forget and revert to business as usual? There will always be a desire to share information face-to-face, but the impact of the pandemic might just change the format and shape of events not just now but for the future too.

By Mark Wilson, Creative Director

Creativity. The very word fills some with anxiety, while others seek it out and embrace it. The reasons for these opposing views are many; creativity is intangible, ethereal, it means different things to different people, and there’s no formula to follow in order to get it. Yet, everyone desires it.

For me, creativity is about seeing things in an alternative way, presenting concepts in a distinctive light, and at its core, problem solving. It is displayed all around us through the obvious disciplines like art, music, theatre, and through less obvious avenues like cooking, gardening and even maths.

In the communications world, creative ideas are the building blocks for successful campaigns that reach the desired audiences and achieve specific objectives like boosting awareness or lead generation. Here, it’s not just about using imagery or graphics, but about understanding the core message, the single-minded proposition which will captivate audiences and change behaviour.

Creativity is inherent in everything we do — and it’s more important than ever before considering how many competing messages there are out in the marketplace. For example, if you write a about a well-known topic in a unique way or provide a distinct point of view, that’s creativity at play.

While advertising and marketing are built on this concept of creativity, it is not exclusive to these industries, nor is it exclusively in the realm of B2C. Creativity has a vital role to play in PR, social and digital, as well as in the overall B2B space.

Of course it’s evolving; moving away from the rather stereotypical view of creativity in B2B as the use of stock images of business settings, meetings, people working in offices — you know the ones I mean.

The growth of design services and the use of a more creative mindset in B2B is certainly challenging that stereotype. Why can’t business audiences enjoy creativity? After all, end audiences, regardless of context, are still human.

I would argue you can be even more , through the use of personalised messaging and graphics that will inspire, engage and work towards the ultimate goal of unlocking curiosity. This applies to a host of collateral, from personalised short videos, and direct mailers, to digital banners or interactive online experiences. The possibilities are endless.

While there may not be a magic formula for creativity, it’s worth noting that — just as in all forms of communication — whatever you do, needs to have a strong idea behind it, aimed at the right target audience, saying the right things. It needs to be relevant.

I believe all people are creative. It’s not a skill reserved for graphic designers or copywriters. And we should be nurturing this; people have diverse life experiences and perspectives, and therefore bring different views to the creativity table. The trick is how to capture and transform them into messaging and meaning that audiences can relate to. It’s about making it work for you and your objectives, not jumping on the bandwagon.

When thinking about creative campaigns, ask yourself this all-important question — is this the right thing to do or is it just what everyone else is doing?

At Whiteoaks our newly established Creative Department is working hard to transform the fruits of our creative labour into tangible results for your business that align with your objectives. Whether that’s standalone creative concepts or full campaigns, branding, digital or print assets, we’re here for all your PR and content marketing assets.

Get in touch to find out how we can help.

There has been much debate in the PR industry about measurement — mainly because measuring earned communications success has always been complex and often has an indirect influence on a brand when compared with other marketing activities.

Businesses operate in an increasingly challenging environment. Today’s savvy senior executives rightly want to know the business impact a campaign has had and not how many clippings the PR team has delivered.

Measurement is not a myth

First and foremost, campaign success and business impact can absolutely be measured. However, it is important to recognise that it also needs commitment and support from the client to ensure an agency has access to the right tools and information required to complete the analysis. In some cases, this may require an additional investment in fees or third-party costs to deliver the desired analysis. But it’s about being clear about what you are trying to show and importantly how that data is going to be used.

A case in point is our collaboration with Omnico Group; together we identified that our integrated campaign generated £12 million in qualified sales leads. This was achieved by putting the right tracking mechanisms in place across each communication channel (earned, owned, paid, etc.) to highlight the return on investment (which actually didn’t need additional investment just effective collaboration with the client).

Download: Omnico Group case study

Introducing Whiteoaks Insights

Our measurement approach has always been valued by our clients and was highlighted in our recent client satisfaction survey which found that 89% of our clients were happy with our reporting, measurement and evaluation service, However, with the growth in data and reporting tools, there is still the need to evolve in this area.

Today, we are officially launching Whiteoaks Insights which is a dedicated brand for our research, measurement and evaluation services which can be utilised throughout the campaign lifecycle.

Our 360 Framework uses Whiteoaks Insights as standard to identify the business objectives, define the target audiences and create the right positioning and audience-centric messaging before the tactical plan is developed to ensure each campaign meets the broader business objectives.

Clients benefit from using Whiteoaks Insights services by gaining exclusive insights to inform communications strategy, including brand perception analysis, audience-driven intelligence and competitor analysis before embarking on a campaign.

Data-driven research can also provide a valuable role within a campaign creating compelling content and strong news hooks to drive brand visibility and audience engagement. Finally, Whiteoaks Insights can be used post campaign implementation to evaluate brand perception change and audience advocacy.

Measurement as Standard

Measurement has always been at the heart of our approach to PR. Since 1999 we have offered clients tangible results with set performance commitments and formal service level agreements and measurement continues to be a critical part of our mission and vision.

In fact, our approach to campaign reporting is audience-centric and looks at visibility, engagement and impact of the campaign on the target audience to ensure we continue to demonstrate the value and role of PR for B2B businesses today.

If you are interested in hearing more about our Whiteoaks Insights services, please contact us here.

The lure of potential growth, scalability, enhanced profitability and market domination fuels the merger and acquisition (M&A) market. Over the last three years the value of global M&A deals has increased year-on-year to reach $3.8bn in 2018 (Statista). And in the UK alone, 9,000 deals took place (Statista). A successful M&A can combine a wealth of collateral, including: people, assets, ways of working, values, branding, technology, IT software, marketing assets and… social media channels.

Once the principles of an M&A have been carefully planned, developing a combined social media strategy might not be a top business priority, but it should be considered. Although social media might have started as a hipster trend, it’s now flourished to become an incredibly important tool in the marketing and business mix. It allows businesses to instantly connect with customers, partners, prospects and employees. We are more digitally savvy and spending more time on social media than ever before (wearesocial). And despite the rumours, we are willing to exchange our data on social media.

Where to start?

There is not a single rule on how to approach combining two social media strategies and infrastructures following an M&A because each business is different. Should the social media accounts remain, merge, rebrand, or completely close all together? Each M&A should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and should align to the wider business direction. But where do you start? Conduct a social media audit to identify which channels you might need to take ownership of and understand the positioning and performance of the channels. You should consider the following:

What social media channels exist? Who has access? What are the passwords?
How well established are the channels? What audience are they targeting? How engaged is the audience?
What is the channel and/or content strategy? Customer service? Brand awareness? Lead gen?
What third-party digital and social media tools are they using? What’s included in the contract? And when does it expire?
Do any employees have brand social media accounts, such as the senior management team or sales?
Do you have a PR and social media policy? Identify if the business owns the rights to the channels or whether they’re owned by the individuals.

Remember your customers

Before making any decisions, think about the short- and long-term outlook, and the customer. Minimise as much disruption as possible for customers and clearly communicate to them what they need to know. Retaining and migrating customers is essential. Don’t be surprised if a competitor runs a paid social media campaign targeting your followers following your M&A going public. This is a common tactic.

Once a new social media strategy has been agreed, consider how it should be communicated internally, to whom and what level of information they need to know and action. Prioritise teams that are directly connected with social media such as customer service, sales and marketing.

Understand the landscape

When considering social media best practice on how to approach M&A, it’s important to understand the limitations of each social media network. This varies considerably from platform to platform. For example, you can easily delete a Twitter channel, but you can’t delete a LinkedIn page. On Instagram you can easily change your name, if it’s not taken, but on Facebook you can’t, you must apply for a name change.

There’s a lot to consider and navigate following an M&A. But remember to keep it simple when it comes to communication, put the customer first, align your efforts with the wider business direction and make sure you know what you can and can’t do on each platform.

Ross Walker, Head of Digital & Social

Why create content? Do you ever stop to think about what the time and resource is for?

In the B2B technology sector, we believe content aimed at the right audiences can increase brand awareness and reputation, as well as play a critical role in helping generate leads for sales teams. It can be used and repurposed to demonstrate your brand’s leadership, skills and knowledge in a particular area. It’s also a way to show your customers and prospects that you understand their professional challenges – we call this ‘Content with Intent’ – and are committed to helping not only overcome them, but also helping them to reach their broader business objectives.

How to make your content work hard

Generating content is only one step in a much larger process. The campaign and the content within it needs direction, creativity, investment and a measurement plan. And more than that, each piece of content needs longevity and the ability to be used in different ways. For example, it’s great to have fresh content on your website but how can you make that blog work harder for you? How does it tie into other campaigns? What about social media? What about a whitepaper or research project?

I’d like to share this five-step strategy to help you get the most out of planning your content, using a piece of proprietary research as an example at each stage:

1. Define your ambitions
Each piece of content, be it an email, webinar, social media post, eBook, blog, video or article needs a purpose. Whether it’s to demonstrate knowledge, drive downloads or boost webinar registrations, this needs to fit into the broader campaign objective(s), which we, at Whiteoaks, define and deliver in a fixed, results-based way. The goals of the campaign ultimately influence your choice of assets, messaging, keywords, and the mix of channels you use.

If we take the example of a research project and working with an independent survey company, as we do, this will allow you to better understand an industry issue and speak to a sample of your target audience. This adds credibility to your narrative and helps position your business as a thought leader, allowing you to apply insight to the raw data.

2. Perform a content audit
In the process of developing your campaign you need to take the time to find out what content you already have and decide what you need to generate. Again, think about longevity; compelling marketing content can be repurposed for different campaigns, for different audiences and different channels. So thinking long term about how you can get the most out of your assets is key and will provide better ROI.

Building on the research example, while you could just create a report, press release and infographic from the results, but your content audit would first show you what you already have, and whether blogs, articles, podcasts or social media tiles could be used to augment the results.

3. Get it out there
You’ve got your objective, audience defined and content drafted, now you need to get your message out there. Whether it’s a thought leadership or social media campaign, a media relations programme, or a combination, as we’d often recommend in an integrated marketing campaign, you need to plan it, publish it in various channels with UTM links, and keep a close eye on how it’s doing. It’s also important you keep track of where it is — in terms of where it’s hosted, like a dedicated landing page, and where it’s located internally so that sales teams can make use of the insight for nurturing prospects and so other colleagues are informed.

For instance, your research report could be gated content hosted on your website, while an infographic could be ungated and sections from it promoted as GIFs on social media to drive people to the report.

4. Measure it
Measurement is crucial for determining ROI. It also helps you understand what approaches, assets and calls to action are performing best so you can adjust the current campaign. You might change something that’s not working or do more of something that’s working well — and this gives you a foundation on which to build future campaigns.

For a project like a research report, your KPIs could be focused around report downloads or if you host a webinar to discuss the results you could measure registrations for the event. Other typical metrics include unique website visits, time spent on a specific web page, subscriber / follower growth, downloads (for gated content, for example), shares, likes or retweets (for social media), sign-ups and attendee numbers (for webinars), and click throughs from emails. Measuring effectiveness will be easier using marketing automation software, Google Analytics, IP tracking and other tools.

5. Look to tomorrow
Developing a content calendar is a must. This is critical to the planning process, as well as in the content creation stage, as you’ll understand exactly what assets are needed for which campaigns, with associated deadlines. A research report and its associated assets is a good example of populating the calendar with themed content that drives a campaign across a few months and gives you milestones to work around.

Creating a calendar also gives you an overview so that you can easily see where any gaps lie, if there is content that can be repurposed, and makes the whole process more structured. Finally, this makes your content assets work harder over the longer term, which is exactly what you want.

Susan Richter, Marketing Communications Manager

We are living in a time of innovation. The sheer volume and diversity of disruptive businesses being started, invested in or sold is testament to this.

At Whiteoaks we have had the fortune of meeting – and discussing growth strategies with – firms across the globe – from Russia and India, to the US and Australia. It makes tech PR and communications a hugely dynamic and exciting place to work in 2020. It’s true we’ve all been impacted by the pandemic, but moving forward, the focus on growth and success will remain.

With that in mind, it’s important for businesses of all sizes and stages to consider whether communications consultancy is the right strategic support service for their brand – but it’s a particularly important question for businesses undergoing some form of step change or transformation – be it corporate growth, a re-brand, entering new markets, or refocusing and looking at a future post-COVID-19.

The first question any such tech company should ask themselves is “what do I want PR to achieve?”. This may sound a fundamental question, but too often it is ignored by businesses that embark on a PR campaign because they feel they should, or they have been told to by people outside of the company to do so. Worse, it often results in sending out a press release every once in a while to journalists who, with the best will in the world, have never heard of said company, receive (honestly) hundreds of similar news releases, and are therefore are far less likely to report on the announcement.

This creates a vicious cycle.

With no coverage generated, leading to no inbound phone calls, PR can be viewed as a waste of spend, and effectively kill any debate around ramping up budget for some time. For any marketing professional joining these firms, it can be a frustrating experience.

We believe there is a better way, as our credentials explain.

Whiteoaks credentials slideshare template from Whiteoaks International

The starting point for all our campaigns as a B2B Tech PR Agency is to define business objectives – and this is where it gets interesting for fast-growth businesses, as we believe PR should be fundamental to achieving that growth.

We have worked with clients looking for very specific outcomes; building towards a funding round, creating a pathway towards an IPO, entering the US market for the first time or increasing the number of channel partners on their books – and sometimes, all of these goals at once. Each of these objectives would require a very different set of tactical recommendations, using a number of different channels – not just PR. Importantly, by being far more targeted, the ability to measure outputs attributable to PR increases exponentially.

What’s more, the robust, reader-centred content needed to generate results in traditional PR, including media relations, should drive the content chosen across the marketing mix, including web content, social media and sales materials. This adds value to the business and increases overall return on investment in PR and marketing communications.

Businesses undergoing a step change need PR to actually deliver for them, but the perceived lack of transparency around what they are getting for their investment can be a huge stumbling block. How does a set number of hours every month help them achieve their strategic goals? Frankly, it doesn’t.

This is why our deliberately different approach of set fees for set deliverables, linked to clear performance commitments underpinned by a formal service level agreement, continues to resonate so well with tech firms.

Working on the business development side of our business, organisations we speak to tend to have had one of two experiences regarding PR:

They have never invested before – and therefore like the certainty that we can offer in terms of transparency and commitment to results. Oh, and if we fail to deliver what we said we would, they get their money back;
Or they have invested in PR before and had a negative experience with the retainer-based approach, for all the reasons outlined above.

I would encourage any company considering PR investment to first ask themselves how it can aid their growth plans, not accepting any set of recommendations until the agency can directly prove a link between what they are doing and the company’s goals. It sounds simple, but PR justified through filling out a timesheet simply doesn’t cut it anymore.

To hear more about the fast-growth tech firms Whiteoaks represents and discuss how we could help your organisation, click this button tell me a bit more about you.

Let us elevate your PR

Bekki Bushnell, Head of Business Development

Measurement. It’s the topic that public relations and communications professionals regularly debate and want to improve – but doing so is a continual challenge.

The softer arguments for investing in marketing of any kind, for a combination or all of the goals of brand awareness, brand development and relationship-building with new and existing customers, are generally accepted.

However, demonstrating return on investment is something that in-house and agency-side communications practitioners still need to justify to their Directors.

First of all, it is almost impossible to set firm KPIs from a PR campaign built around a monthly retainer. If your main scope of work is filling in a timesheet, then deliverables and activity can be mere sideshows. This traditional way of working is one of the reasons PR has developed a bad name.

Fortunately, the tide is changing. As awareness of the need to measure PR output grows, supported by the recent AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework, the adoption of systems and processes to manage marketing communications measurement have increased accordingly.

Platform Adoption: The Marketing Automation Stack (MAS)

Take CRM systems as a first example. They should never be purely the domain of the sales team to log and prioritise leads. They should provide marketers with significant data, which can be analysed to demonstrate the value of and better PR and communications – and ideally, that data should come from both potential and current clients.

In our recent research report, ‘A Perfect Match: ABM and ABS’, 59% of 200 senior B2B Sales and Marketing decision-makers said they use a CRM system to gather, retain and take action on information about both groups. As more and more marketing teams understand the possibilities of automation, the needle is beginning to shift around measurement.

At the centre of any good PR campaign is strong content creation. Content is fundamental to securing opportunities with the media, analysts and other influencers.

So it’s natural, we would argue, that a strategy must demonstrate how this content is delivered in a tailored, relevant and timely way to each audience segment, through as many channels as possible. Integrated marketing is proven to be more effective in terms of awareness, recall and consideration, than single-channel marketing. Not only does this approach increase return on investment, but it retains the consistency of messaging to the audiences, regardless of how they consume information.

Which brings us onto marketing automation software, sometimes combined with a CRM system, or integrated with it. By connecting social media channels, blogs, forms, email marketing and more to a platform such as Hubspot, savvy marketing teams can track leads directly from content created by the PR and communications agency.

Delivering Marketing Leads to Sales Teams

Take our client, Omnico, for whom we launched the first, and now established, Retail Gap Barometer – created to chart the gap between consumer expectations in an omni-channel world, and the reality of retailers to deliver upon them – at the start of our engagement.

Rather than taking the survey data, creating a press release and simply delivering a quality volume of media coverage, our partnership with the client has led to a vast variety of asset creation, including reports, eDMs, sales brochures, eBooks and more. With this approach, Omnico was able to attribute more than £12million in qualified sales leads to our work alone by tracking the campaign through their marketing automation platform.

It’s results from projects like these which prove multi-channel marketing can have a demonstrable benefit in generating sales opportunities for B2B brands. Encouragingly, our research found that 89% of both professional groups agreed with the statement that their company’s marketing efforts have a positive impact on sales efforts and lead generation.

Evolution not Revolution

Armed with the impact and measurement of our work for Omnico and other clients, we have been able to put metrics against our work which grab the attention not just of the sales and marketing teams, but the boardroom too.

And it is a key starting point for us with prospects and clients. The question “Do you use a CRM and marketing automation system?” has become one of the first we ask senior marketers and PRs at our first point of engagement. It can fundamentally alter the capabilities of and deliverables in our campaigns and moves the conversation from one of coverage volume to sales leads – right from the start.

By Susan Richter, Head of Marketing Communications

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

We all know content plays a critical role in your PR and marketing strategies – forming the foundation for audience engagement and ensuring the right messages resonate with the right audiences. But what about when it comes to events? Your events calendar is most likely full of exhibitions, seminars, roadshows and conferences. Do you consider a content strategy to be vital here? Does it influence your tactics?

The answer to both questions should be yes.

These events are not isolated instances. They should be tied together by an overarching strategy that supports the marketing and PR goals of your business. In the same vein you need to ensure your content strategy does the same thing; joining all events together with a unified theme across the visual representation, presentations, collateral and event communications.

Whatever that may look like, by developing content in advance, you can use it to feed into activities, guiding sales teams on the ground, providing insights for spokespeople to deliver during presentations, and supplying valuable information to customers and prospects pre, during and post-event.

Strategy: setting the tone with theme and narrative

A good starting point is to review the objectives for the business and the marketing strategy for the year – and develop a theme aligned to these goals and the audiences you need to engage and influence. The theme then helps you develop your narrative, what you want to say and how you want to say it. In its simplest form, this all about storytelling; taking the audience on a journey, by capturing and keeping their attention with a valuable message that resonates.

The narrative will inform the tactical selection and determine what types of assets are needed and what they need to accomplish. Importantly, it’s not just about setting the scene at the event with the right messages, your narrative needs to stretch across the lifecycle of the event.

Relevance: the heart of your assets

The permutations of content are endless, from social tiles, infographics, blogs and emails, to eBooks, whitepapers, guides, top tips and video snippets. But what remains the same is the value they bring to your end audience; the content needs to be relevant, demonstrate that you understand their industry, their challenges and have the solutions to address those issues. More than that, your storytelling needs to engage readers and be less about selling to them and more about helping them solve their business problems. This in turn will build trust with your brand and keep it front of mind when an opportunity arises.

Tactics: delivering the content

Your content assets will vary from event to event, dependent on the aims of each. To illustrate an example, for the launch of a piece of propriety research, you could use a news release to generate industry coverage supported by interactive social tiles to create awareness across digital channels and use select statistics for a direct mail campaign to prospects, to tease the upcoming launch and drive registration to the upcoming event. The research report could then be exclusively launched at the seminar during speaker presentations and interest captured (a lead generation opportunity) to receive a full copy. Finally, post event you could stage a webinar based on the key findings and supported with a series of blogs to continue to recycle the asset.

If the aim of your event is to further amplify your messaging, increase awareness and win share of voice at a busy show, you could use your narrative to create hype based on what you’re doing on stand and use interactive pieces of content like live demos and video, supported with social promotion live tweeting and blog content. Post event, you could release an exclusive eBook based on solving an industry challenge that’s linked to the key concerns for prospects.

Related: Event Series – Turning an event into a prime media relations opportunity

Related: Event Series – Getting the most out of your social media strategy at events

Related: Event Series Webinar – Redefining event marketing: Plan for success

Follow-on: moving beyond the event

The great thing about the assets you create as part of your content strategy is that they can be used before, during and after the event. They can be repackaged and re-purposed, and used for related (or follow-on) marketing and social media campaigns. Whether that’s giving prospects access to a hero piece of content, such as an eBook or whitepaper, or inviting them to a webinar or podcast and carrying on with a blog programme, your event content strategy can help you achieve the results you’re after, reinforce your messaging and guide prospects through the sales funnel.

Susan Richter, Head of Content

Tell Us Your B2B Tech Story

Read our eBook, ‘Making the Most of Industry Events’, and click here to download.

Events eBook for B2B Tech Marketers from Whiteoaks International

Events are an excellent way of reaching your customers and your prospects — that’s a given. But they also represent a prime opportunity to engage with journalists and play a crucial role in the media relations mix, enabling you to build relationships and generate positive coverage.

That’s not to say you need to move away from the traditional tactic of setting up interviews for key spokespeople — but there are a number of alternative creative approaches you can use to interact with the media, introduce them to your spokespeople and brief them to ensure your business is getting the right messages in the right publications read by the audiences you need to influence.

Make it compelling

Much like how a content strategy guides your narrative and approach to events, your media strategy should dictate what you do at an event. Engaging with the media can be a powerful tool for your business, but the key thing to remember is that you need a reason to get them there. Journalists are news driven and looking for strong opinions and compelling content they can use to shape the news agenda.

If you have major news with significant industry impact such as an M&A announcement, for example, then going down the route of setting up exclusive pre-briefings with top tier press is absolutely the way to go. Briefing key contacts in advance ensures the journalist is well prepared and they can develop their story to publish as the news is launched at the event. The coverage will quickly amplify the story and adds additional credibility to the announcement.

But you could take that even further and host a press conference live from the event to officially announce the acquisition, with an interactive media Q&A facilitated by a leading industry commentator, to provide real-time comment and reaction to generate immediate hype and coverage.

You could also look to broaden your horizons by hosting a roundtable event structured around a key industry topic or the release of a piece of research, bringing in not just your own spokespeople but independent influencers and customer advocates and using this event within the event to own the agenda. Providing media with access to independent speakers gives an additional hook to attend and a greater pool of opinion for the journalist to access. This type of event could easily be tagged to an existing forum to save costs, including venue hire and travel for spokespeople.

Related: Event Series – Content comes first: reviving the lost art of event storytelling

Related: Event Series Webinar Summary – Redefining event marketing: Plan for success

Make it creative

A company’s own flagship event can sometimes be ruled out from a media perspective, with clients concerned about mixing customers and prospects with media attendees. However, creating a dedicated press track gives the opportunity to give journalists access to the most compelling content, for example, keynotes, customers and future looking technology updates. Arranging an exclusive lunch with the CEO or a site visit to a nearby customer for a chance to see a real-world implementation in action adds a different element to the agenda.

Of course, if you’re not going to have strong news for every event, you need to find creative ways to get that engagement and ensure you’re getting the best mileage out of your PR budget. The question is, how?

Consider hosting a breakfast briefing, taking place before the event, close to the venue. The two main elements here are making it easy for journalists to attend and giving them something of value once they are there. This could include views on upcoming trends, strong opinions on the industry or commentary on the future of the business.

Then of course there’s hosting casual drinks on stand or inviting journalists around for a swing by.

The value from these sorts of engagements is two-fold; first, while you may not have news to share, you’re still getting your spokespeople in front of journalists for an informal chat about the show, the industry in general and upcoming trends. Second, the conversation goes both ways. Just as journalists are discovering more about your company and your take on things, even on an informal level, your spokespeople gain an understanding of the journalist’s view of the industry, the future and what topics they are currently writing about or interested in.

These types of meetings are likely not to yield immediate media coverage, but they can help shape future engagements and provide ideas for future content and thought leadership opportunities.

Related: Event Series – Getting the most out of your social media strategy at events

Related: Event Series Webinar Summary – Redefining event marketing: Plan for success

Make it count

The success of your event is a culmination of months of hard work, but it doesn’t end there. Regardless of the engagement, whether a formal interview, a meet and greet, casual drinks or a press conference, it’s important to follow up with journalists, thanking them for their time, checking if they have all the information need – and you’ll be investing in that relationship for the future.

Charlotte Causley, Account Director

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

Read our eBook, ‘Making the Most of Industry Events’, and click here to download.

Events eBook for B2B Tech Marketers from Whiteoaks International