By Bekki Bushnell, Associate Director                

Marketing is in a constant state of flux. Always a trend that promises improvement, advances in automation, encroachment of AI… The list goes on. There is, however, one thing that stays the same, and that’s the pressure to deliver – more often than not tied with doing more with less. More leads, more content, more support to sales. Delivered with more speed and agility. That’s just the nature of the beast.

In our experience, conversations with our clients and prospects, budget (or the lack thereof) plays a major role here. Not just in terms of campaigning, but resourcing too. Tightened budgets likely mean a more junior team tasked with delivery and a lack of support at a more senior level.

Looking at the bigger picture, you have to make sure you’ve got the right strategy in place to deliver an integrated and connected experience – in line with what your prospects and customers are looking for. And with more marketing channels to think about, you need a constant and consistent stream of high quality content to keep all areas of the marketing machine fed, from content marketing, to sales enablement and social media. This often ends up less integrated and more siloed, making the argument for a specialist approach to campaigning, which brings it full circle back to budget.

On a tactical level, keeping up with the latest trends across comms, marketing, social, creative is a full-time job in itself. And yet… it has to be done and has a massive influence on the strategy you deliver on.

But this isn’t a one-way vitriol aimed at the challenges of marketing. It’s a blog about solutions. Like I said, we have open and honest conversations with our clients and prospects and there are a few things we suggest to help them overcome the resourcing barrier.

Here they are:

Siloes are bad – say it with me! Stay away from siloed approaches across different channels. Not only is it a recipe for disaster, but it’s a waste of precious resource (time, effort, money) creating specific campaigns for each channel. In today’s communication ecosystem, you need to talking to your customers with consistent themes and messaging across the channels. Which leads to the next tip…

Smarter integration.  Optimising your resource begins with making them work smarter – through integration. The more integrated your approach to comms, the better. Establish your brand positioning, create your messaging, develop the narratives and create hero campaigns from there, delivering them across channels to maximise your reach and resources.

Compelling content. Your integrated campaigns only work with compelling content. You don’t need masses of content to keep your campaigns on track, you just need a few quality pieces (be that eBooks, articles, audiograms, podcasts, social posts) that are aligned to your audience needs and campaign objectives.

Recycle. Make the best use of your few pieces of quality content. Recycle and repurpose. As comms professionals we do get a bit of content fatigue, but our audiences don’t have that same exposure. So using and reusing assets – tailored for your different channels – is the ideal way to get longevity from your content and make smarter use of your resources.

Don’t stop measuring. Success is largely based on knowing what has worked – understanding which content performs (or doesn’t) for which audiences, on which channels. Don’t just measure at the end of a campaign; keep your eyes on performance so that you can not only replicate success for future efforts, but tweak assets across the lifetime of the campaign to make sure you’re always in the strongest position.

Bridge the gap. Consider where there are gaps in your skills and knowledge, and find a partner that can help. Not necessarily using different agencies for different specialisms, but rather using one partner with the skills under one umbrella who can help you in bringing your campaigns together – whether that’s best practice when it comes to social media, getting creative cut-through or developing compelling content that appeals to your audiences.

This list isn’t exhaustive – and we’re always ready to chat.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more, or subscribe to receive more of our content.

What’s your career background, in brief?

At 19, my career background is understandably quite limited, but I went from a front of house assistant at my local garden centre straight into the world of PR. Before Whiteoaks, I spent a year at a food PR agency, and am now further developing my PR skills in tech.

What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

I would say that my role at Whiteoaks is the most challenging due to being new to the tech sector. However, I love a challenge and it makes it more intriguing!

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be involved in marketing throughout school, so PR was a no brainer as they go hand-in-hand.

What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

In terms of apps, definitely Instagram and YouTube, along with the devices I use them on – my phone and PC.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

To be grateful for every aspect of life, positive or negative.

Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

When I’m able to help a member of my team with an urgent task that leads to progression within a project. It’s a great reminder that we’re all after the same goal!

What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I’m currently re-watching the Kanye West documentary titled ‘jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy’.

Cabin in the mountains or house on the beach?

House on the beach.

By Bekki Bushnell, Associate Director, Whiteoaks International                              

Building a successful B2B tech business isn’t easy. Just ask any CEO or board of directors. This is especially true when it comes to start-ups and smaller companies where traditional roles of sales, marketing, operations overlap and are carried out by one or two people. Not all new businesses have the budget to hire a powerful marketing team from the get-go. In our experience, when businesses like these secure funding, PR & marketing is always on the wish list. However, its sometimes seen as a nice to have instead of an absolutely must-have.

We’re of the opinion (naturally) that PR & marketing is absolutely essential for growth. It fulfils many functions; elevates brand awareness amongst target markets, investors and the media, positions against competitors, nurtures your profile as an attractive employer helping to attract the right staff, and plays a role in supporting sales with lead generation.

We are also of the opinion that employing an agency to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the PR & marketing ecosystem is a must.

Yes, there are objections, as there always will be when it comes to spending money. But here’s why you should do it:

You’re the client. That’s the most important thing to remember. So you can choose the right agency with the right team to meet your needs. Just like you’re not like your competitors, you need to find an agency that does things a little differently – whether that’s having the right expertise in and understanding of your industry, or their approach to delivering integrated campaigns.  That synergy in view points will only help develop a strong relationship.

You’re focused on building your business. Therefore, while you recognise the value that PR and marketing activities will deliver, you don’t necessarily have the time to dedicate to making it happen. Neither does the rest of your team; focused on what you hired them for.

In much the same way, your agency is there to help you. You’ll have access to a team dedicated to help you achieve your objectives. Depending on agency structure, you’ll have media and PR specialists working with you. Our approach is a little different; we have specialists across media, PR, creative, social and content, so you always have the best people deployed in the right places.

Set your boundaries (targets) and get your agency to commit to them. Whether that’s based on coverage achieved, assets delivered, or media interviews secured, work with them to figure out what your objectives should be, map those to your wider business objectives and then get them to commit to them. We think is absolutely essential and another thing we’re passionate about (you can read more about it here).

We also hear from prospects – especially those in the start-up space – that they are concerned about the retainer model. Yes, it’s great that they have that resource, but it’s often unclear what you actually get as part of that retainer. Especially when every pound is under the microscope. Again, we do things a little differently; we’ve left the retainer model behind and prefer to work on a fixed fees for fixed deliverables basis. Putting it plainly, you get what you pay for and you know exactly what that is from the beginning of the relationship. It’s also flexible, so we can easily adapt those deliverables to align to changing needs.

At the end of the day, you need an agency that’s working hard for you, delivering results and impact, and enabling you to do what you do best. Do we think we’re the right fit? Absolutely.

Get in touch to find our more or subscribe to receive more great content.

 

What’s your career background, in brief?

I started out as a design assistant in 2009 after graduating university earlier that year. Since then I have worked both in-house and agency side and enjoy the versatility of design, where it’s been and where it’s going. And now I’m a senior designer at Whiteoaks.

What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

I worked as a waitress for a well-known pizza chain throughout my college and university years and boy was it a challenge! It was always super busy, I was on my feet all day rushing around and the customer base came from all walks of life. So many stories, so little time! I still stand by the fact it set me up for the future in managing expectations – if only step counts existed back then!

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be a designer, so I worked my whole academic life to achieve this.

What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

My phone – I’m lost without it! That and Apple Car Play as my commute can be long when traffic is bad.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

‘What’s for you, won’t go by you’. I’m a great believer in fate and that everything happens for a reason.

Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

Knowing that our team can add our creative flair to our client’s brand, helping them to look and feel better.

What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I don’t get a lot of time to watch TV at home due to a very busy family life so my commutes to work are spent listening to podcasts such as ‘Diary of a CEO’,How to Fail and ‘Time to Talk’.

Cabin in the mountains or house on the beach?

Both sound very appealing, but house on the beach wins!

What’s your career background, in brief?

I’ve had every job under the sun, from retail to selling AV equipment before graduating from university in 2020 – fresh in the midst of the pandemic! I joined Whiteoaks in 2021 and can’t see myself doing anything other than PR now.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

A dancer or singer. Turns out I’m tone deaf and a shameless dad dancer, so there goes that pipe dream…

What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

I can’t live without Google Maps or Waze – as I have zero sense of direction and still shamefully use it to get to and from friends’ houses I’ve been going to for years…

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

Better to have and not need than to need and not have

Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

The culture! Like the heated debates about pointless things or silly trivial questions. My colleague Harry is particularly good with these, having gone round the entire office assigning a Spice Girl to everyone in sight…

What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I recently started White Lotus after many recommendations – and it’s good! Music wise, it’s a real mixed bag from house to rock and indie to country, with a few gigs and festivals I cannot wait for lined up for later in the year.

Cabin in the mountains or house on the beach?

If it’s hot, sunny and there’s a beach bar, house on the beach all day every day.                 

By Bekki Bushnell, Associate Director                            

Everyone is after more. More leads, more value, more return on investment. That’s business. Especially companies with a mission to grow and drive sales. Enter the marketing department tasked with being the business’ strategic partner in all things, from awareness and customer retention to the ever-important lead generation. And therein lies the rub. For companies with ambitious growth journeys more marketing should mean more resource. But often it doesn’t because (and here comes the cliché) marketing departments are required to do more with less. Budgets have tightened significantly with a potential recession on the way which means marketing departments are under even more pressure. So if they do have the spend to recruit, it won’t necessarily be for senior people who can support and / own the lead generation process and content marketing.

Consider that the going rate for a marketing exec in the UK (according to Glassdoor) is £33,720 per year. Cost to company is higher with recruitment fees, the cost of training and embedding the exec, pension contributions, NI… You get the idea.

What if that budget was better spent? Yes, I’m talking about an agency to handle the heavy lifting. I can hear your objections already – It takes time to onboard an agency! Agencies don’t get our business! They don’t deliver! I can’t measure their impact!

You’re not wrong. There are a lot of agencies out there that are like that and don’t deliver on what they promise. But there are benefits of working with the right agency, using what you’d typically pay for one person to get an entire specialist team (account managers, media specialists, designers, writers, social media stars) whose business it is to know your business.

So here’s my pitch:

It takes time to onboard an agency. It really shouldn’t. This is what they do. Even as part of the pitching process, they should have taken the time to get under the skin of your brand, your objectives, your pain points, and prepare to (warning: another cliché) hit the ground running once the contracts are signed.

Agencies just don’t ‘get’ our business. If you’re talking to the right agencies, they will do more than ‘get’ your business. They’ll fulfil the dual roles of trusted advisor and industry expert. They will know your industry like their own and know exactly what to deliver and how to deliver it. At the very least during the pitching process you can ask to see case studies or content developed for other clients in similar industries to get a feel for their expertise and capabilities.

Agencies don’t deliver. Sadly this can often be the case and it gives the PR industry a bad reputation – paying exorbitant fees for time and no tangible outputs. At the very least agencies should commit to deliverables and results (it’s something we feel strongly about and you can read more about it here) because as the client you need to know exactly what you are paying for and what impact it will make on your business.

I can’t measure their impact. Why not? See above. If they are committed to deliverables and results, measuring the outputs and impact across channel and tactic is doable. Provided of course that you’ve provided a good brief, have shared your business objectives, the agency should formulate the best strategy that will deliver against that – all while making outcomes clear and making it easy for you to measure that impact.

If this article resonated – I’m happy to chat about it over a coffee – virtual or face-to-face. Get in touch today or subscribe to receive more great content.

By Ellie Nash, Senior Digital Account Executive 

It’s official. Spring has sprung! *She says with rain rushing at her windows*

With every spring season there’s only one thing to do – CLEAN.

I’m not talking about getting the Hoover out or scrubbing the floors, instead, it’s giving your socials a big spring clean.

In this blog, I will be sharing my insight into how in as little as three steps you can make your socials go from dull and dusty, to sparkling new.

#1 Find out what’s worked

Before starting any big clean, it’s essential you find out where the mess is. In this instance, we’re talking about what’s worked and what hasn’t on your socials. Take the last three months for example; have you had a carousel post go viral? Or has one of your polls completely flopped?

It’s important to note consistency with this – If you see something that’s worked continuously well, like a certain hashtag, it’s essential you add this into your April content strategy. Likewise, if you keep seeing posts about a particular topic doing badly, you need to start thinking of a new way to position it. Why not try a new style of creative? (GIFS are doing really well on LinkedIn at the moment!).

#2 Use this as ammo

Now you know what’s worked and what hasn’t, it’s time to start working out what tools you need to attack the mess. I’m not talking about a broom, or a sponge, I’m talking about creating a content calendar.

Content calendars are fantastic for keeping you organised and on top of upcoming days and events. In my content calendar I include things like International Donut Day and St Patrick’s Day, but also ideas for new content, based on things that performed well over the last three months.

For example, if you had a post about the benefits of TikTok go viral, why not recycle that content and create a carousel post from it?

#3 It’s time to tidy up

At this point, you’ve got everything in a line – you’ve figured out where the mess is and what tools you need to start working on it. So, now it’s time to start tidying.

Let me ask you … When was the last time you updated your header? When was the last time you refreshed your profile picture? Times have changed and long gone are the days of one-liner bios and cheesy corporate headshots.

Your LinkedIn profile showcases your personality, your personal brand and what you do. So, why not make it fun, colourful, and inviting? I personally love an emoji… Or two.

If you want your content to work, you must ensure your profile is as pretty as a picture! You wouldn’t want to welcome someone into your home with a huge mess on the floor … Would you?

If you need support in giving your personal profile, or business profile a big spring clean, contact our team of social media today.

What’s your career background, in brief?

I joined Whiteoaks as a junior account executive back in 2018, fresh out of university. After a brief 18 months away, I re-joined Whiteoaks at the start of this year as account director.

What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

My first job as a sixteen-year-old was working in Wembley Stadium, selling programmes and merch. It was an incredibly busy job that had you on your feet all day and I quickly grasped the meaning of ‘fast paced’, which has served me well in PR. The perks of free concerts and sporting events definitely made up for it, though.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

A footballer, a tennis player, a cricketer – almost any sportsman!

What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

The camera app on my phone, closely followed by WhatsApp. Often those two are in tandem as I frequently share photos of my cat to people who did not ask for photos of my cat.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

Help others

Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

Being part of a happy team

What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

At the moment I’m watching The Last of Us, which I’m enjoying as I do love a good post- apocalyptic film/series. I’m also watching Shrinking on Apple TV which is fantastic. It’s funny but with heart, and has Harrison Ford, so I would say give that a go if you haven’t yet. I’ve not long finished reading Dave Grohl’s autobiography, so if autobiographies are your thing, add it to your list.

Cabin in the mountains or house on the beach?

Easy – house on the beach.

By Nick Wheywell, Head of Social

When I started in pr and social media, the thought was a brand should only rely on its organic content and social activity to create credibility, and that it shouldn’t have to pay to elevate its status amongst its target audience or its competitors. Paying for that amplification was almost seen as cheating, building a brand should be achieved on the merit of its organic content. Stat!

That’s still the case to some degree today, as a brand needs to see that its organic content is resonating with the audience and that they are creating ‘social currency’ – content the audience deems as valuable and therefore shares with their networks. But a brand can’t rely on organic activity alone. Even if you are a heavyweight in your line of business, other heavyweights are also vying for customers. If a brand wants to stand out in its undoubtedly ever-increasingly noisy market space, paid social needs to be part of its communication strategy. Putting a budget behind your content for paid and organic social media is now seen as standard practice.

You need to spend a lot, don’t you?

The good thing is you don’t have to spend thousands or even hundreds to achieve considerable success on social media. A carefully crafted paid social campaign with a clear and focused strategy can reap many rewards, and help a brand surpass the goals they set. It’s important to note that a paid social campaign is never set in stone, it needs to be flexible, and nimble. By monitoring its progress live, you can manipulate it, including the budget, to ensure it’s performing at the highest level.

Strategising and recommending paid social activity for clients is something our social team does daily. Be it standalone social activity, or as part of an integrated campaign with one or a combination of our other practices (PR, Media, Content, and Creative), it’s a tactic we are increasingly recommending our clients do to help create cut-through. It’s the ideal opportunity to get a product, service, or offering in front of a key audience, in the knowledge that through a targeted approach with a clear call to action, the right eyes are seeing the ad and that you are creating every opportunity for that potential customer to engage the way you want them to (website visit, book a meeting, product information, downloading a whitepaper, etc.).

What happens next?

By analysing the results of a paid social ad campaign, you can glean a lot of beneficial data that must be fed back into their social activity, both organic and paid. Reviewing what worked and what didn’t, what generated the most engagement, and how it has impacted the business, allows a brand to capitalise on the effective optimisation of all assets used, and refine upcoming activity based on these results.

If you’re thinking paid social activity could be an option for you, and are interested in hearing how it could positively impact your business, why not get in touch. Our social team would be very happy to jump on a call with you.

By Bekki Bushnell, Associate Director

There are a few age old debates in PR – demonstrating impact is one of them. From this, there’s been a lot of discussion around whether PR agencies really should be guaranteeing results, i.e. coverage. As you might expect, a lot of B2B PR agency professionals tend to believe they shouldn’t be, whereas those more likely to be on the client side usually say the opposite.

What do I think? Should PRs guarantee coverage? Absolutely. Here’s why…

Transparency is key

As consultants, we have a duty to be transparent and give our honest advice on what is going to deliver the outcome for our clients. That absolutely must work both ways. For example, if we have a client that wants to make a big splash about a non-newsworthy story, then we need to acknowledge that objective, understand the motives underlying that and then propose a strategy moving forward that will deliver impact but in a way that we know will work.

Clients look to us for our PR & Media expertise, so if we are proposing the right strategies and working with businesses that trust us to execute them, then why should we not be confident enough to guarantee the result?

Trust your strategy

The point around trust is interesting. We talk a lot about trust in our industry. How can we expect businesses to trust us if we don’t trust ourselves enough to be able to guarantee a result from a strategy that we ourselves have put forward?

If you don’t believe it’s going to work then it shouldn’t be on the table, and if you’re going to ask a client to believe in it enough to put their cash on the line then you ought to do the same.

Define success

In practice, understanding what success looks like needs to start with a conversation and agreement between both parties on what the desired outcome will be and how that will be measured. On one hand it’s impractical to agree things you have no control over, e.g. saying that a specific publication will run your story, but it’s also detrimental agreeing to metrics that are devoid of any meaning, e.g. talking about reach if your client is being mentioned in a story that is entirely irrelevant to the campaign objectives.

Being upfront, transparent and looking at the bigger picture of what you are doing within a much broader ecosystem driving growth are all important things to do.

Don’t stand still

But let’s be clear. PR and communications is not an exact science, and unfortunately things don’t always go exactly to plan. Sometimes the story just doesn’t land the way you think it will or the news gets dominated by something out of your control, among many other possibilities. That shouldn’t be an excuse to not commit to guaranteed outcomes. If you’re quick to adapt and skilled in spotting opportunities that others may miss then you will be able to tweak the strategy, deliver results and apply your learnings from that experience to do even better next time around.

Ultimately, whether you are agency or client side we all want the same thing – for our campaigns to be successful, our teams, clients and stakeholders to be happy and our bottom lines to be healthy. It’s only by being as equally committed to the process as each other that we will achieve that.