Category: Uncategorised

The question: “how technology affects our lives?” is one that has many answers — not all of which can be covered in one blog. But I will have a go at explaining some of the ways that technology has changed our everyday lives.

Some people argue that technology is making the world a better place, while others say that technology is having the opposite effect. Let’s explore both sides.

For almost all of us, technology plays an invaluable part in our normal day. We use technology from the time we wake up to when we go to sleep. A recent study by Ofcom found that Britons check their phones on average every 12 minutes. This is something I can relate to; I’m woken up in the morning by the alarm on my phone, so it’s the first thing I look at and it’s also most likely the last thing I look at before I go to sleep. This might seem like an unhealthy habit but having a phone that can allow me to manage my life and connect with anyone that I know, regardless of where they are in the world, has meant that I have been able to show friends and family experiences and moments that they would never have seen if it wasn’t for technology. But there are wider benefits, beyond social ones.

Technology has also helped the world in more significant ways than people checking Instagram to see how many likes they got from a photo they took of their dinner last night. Today’s smartphones can be used as health monitors as they can measure your heart rate and tell you when you should be active, among other features. Technology has also helped develop medicine and produce drugs, such as the vaccine for polio, which has seen a drop of 99.9% in the number of cases since 1988. Pacemakers can now be fitted with Wi-Fi capabilities that allow data to be sent from the person fitted with the pacemaker to a certain hospital giving the doctors real-time updates of the individuals condition.

Projects being led by Health Data Research UK funded with £37.5 million via the Industrial Strategy Challenge fund have set up Digital Innovations Hubs with the aim to utilise scientific information and emerging technologies to develop new drugs and devices. This could lead to major discoveries that will impact people’s lives forever, be it longer life expectancy in third world countries or helping people with long-term illnesses experience a higher quality of life.

On the other hand, it can be argued that technology has made the world a worse place. The amount of data that is collected on citizens, combined with cases of cyber-attacks doubling in 2017, has meant some people feel more vulnerable about their personal information getting into the hands of the wrong people. Especially with medical information, highlighted by the NHS WannaCry hack last year that disrupted hospitals and reportedly put lives at risk.

Technology is also impacting on our mental health. It can also be said that even though we can be connected to anyone, anywhere and have endless information available to us, technology is making us as a society more unsociable. A lot of the time people choose to engage with their phones instead of engaging in conversation with the person next to them, which can lead to social isolation, anxiety and depression.

Cyber-bullying is also a much bigger problem than it was 10 years ago, with one in eight young people in the UK being bullied on social media in 2017 according to Ofcom.

There is an app for everything – even to help people with mental health issues with apps such as Calm and meditation apps like Headspace. These apps can give people access to help that they wouldn’t have been able to access before. With a little bit of faith in humanity, you’ll see that there will always be people trying to work against misuse of technology to see that it is used for the greater good. The rise of cyber-crime has been met with a rise in the number of cyber-security firms working to protect personal data and data belonging to businesses.

I believe if we choose not to accept or invest in technology, we will stagnate and be left behind while others embrace technology and reap the benefits of it.

There has been a lot of discussion and debate about the future of PR, but perhaps none so telling as the latest move by Bournemouth University.  From Autumn 2018, the University has announced it will no longer be accepting new entrants to its BA (Hons) Public Relations degree – a move that has sent shockwaves through the PR world.

Speaking as one of the 2011 course graduates, I have to say, the news comes as a surprise. Not only is the course at Bournemouth the UK’s longest-established BA degree in Public Relations, but it has become a hub of PR talent – producing a string of high calibre graduates that are sought after by companies and agencies alike.

And Bournemouth is not alone. The PR course at Edinburgh Napier University is also set to close, while the University of West London no longer offers one. So why are so many universities closing their doors to PR-only courses and what does this mean for our industry?

According to PR Week, the latest ‘State of the Profession’ figures show that just 17% of PR practitioners have degrees in PR or comms, while 57% have degrees in another subject. A quick poll around the office here at Whiteoaks paints a similar picture – only two members of the office have a degree in PR. So, is it just the case that PR degrees are no longer needed?

Not necessarily. There’s no denying that having a degree in PR certainly helps, but what I’ve learnt is that it isn’t a prerequisite for getting a job in PR. Instead, employers tend to favour particular skills and attributes in line with their company culture and any relevant work experience gained in a similar position. Of course, that’s not to say there’s no longer a role for the PR degree, just that a number of skills needed in PR – like communications and relationship building – can often be found across other disciplines too.

Instead of signifying what some may see as ‘the end of PR’, what the decision does indicate is a wider shift towards the integration of PR and marketing. In the case of Bournemouth, rather than standing as its own discipline, PR will now be included as an element in a wider marketing degree.

Speaking about the decision, Dr Darren Lilleker, who heads the corporate and marketing communication academic department at Bournemouth University, said the changes were being made “in line with industry trends and the integration of advertising and public relations into a broader communication framework”.

What this suggests is the fusion of three industries – advertising, marketing and PR – a trend we’re certainly seeing more and more among our client base. Long gone are the days when marketing and PR were viewed in isolation. Today, we’re increasingly running integrated campaigns for clients consisting of earned, owned, paid and shared media.

I believe we’re entering a new era of communication; one where the lines between marketing, PR and, to an extent, advertising, are increasingly blurred. The advent of social media and branded content means that no longer can the three disciplines be viewed in isolation.  And as, Paul Holmes, founder of The Holmes report commented “The PR industry will have to adapt to a world in which the lines between paid, earned, owned and shared media are not only blurring, but largely irrelevant in the minds of consumers”.

Our industry changes every day, and not all change is bad. In this new landscape, content is still king – and it’s in this environment that PR professionals have the opportunity to step up and take the lead. The main focus should be on achieving communication objectives through whatever means that might be.

When you’re currently operating from one country with a great PR or integrated marketing agency on board, taking the leap to an organisation that wants to expand to other territories is, well, a big leap. If your company fits or is about to fit this bill, there are some questions to ask yourself.  How do you know when to expand your PR and marketing efforts to complement the business expansion? What are the indicators which tell you that multinational PR and communications is a good use of your time and budget in the short to medium term? This article sets out to help you along that decision-making process.

The two main options

If the following two routes sound familiar to you, you’re not alone.  At a minimum level, you could consider distributing company news to international newswires from HQ and/or working with in-country freelancers. This level of international PR is hard work – translating or approving copy and managing that freelance network – but it’s relatively low cost, low risk and flexible. It may suit some companies at the beginning or test phases of international expansion.

At the other end of the scale, full-service international PR may seem like the next step. This route however best suits mid-to-large sized multinational companies, for many reasons:

• To make it work, you need a local sales team, who can efficiently do the comparative job of your home country’s sales team;
• An office or sufficient operational structure with a meaningful presence in each additional country;
• The time and resource, in-house, to effectively brief, manage and deliver the PR and marketing campaigns; and
• Budget – here, I’d say money does matter to a degree. Your company needs to have ‘enough’ money to allow each in-country agency to focus on making sure your business scales, reaches and achieves company goals in local markets.

Working with us in this way means that we deliver you our International Performance Management (IPM), agency-agnostic approach. There are four different options, from working with some of the pre-selected, independently owned and managed WIN PR Group agencies, one of which is Whiteoaks, to mixing and matching us with other agencies that you may have an existing relationship with.

But, back to the budget.

• For example, if you spend £5k per month in the UK or your home country on a PR and communications agency. A lot of prospective and existing clients tell me that they can allocate around £2k, maybe £3k each for example, for an agency in Benelux, France, Germany and the Nordics. You can choose to do this, but I think it’s simply not going to change anything. It’s not enough budget to deliver the same or similar effect that you already experience in your home country.
• My recommendation is that you need to match your UK or home country monthly agency spend if you plan to expand into countries including those primary key European markets that I mentioned earlier. This also applies to the Middle East, Africa and some of the smaller Asia-Pacific markets
• In the US and larger countries in Asia like China and Japan, I’d recommend doubling that home country monthly budget.

The genuine alternative

For fast-growth, innovative tech brands, that kind of budget is simply not achievable at this mid-point in their lifecycle, but an extra £2k or £3k per month can still present you with options to achieve change. Working with your UK or native country’s PR and communications agency to develop an integrated marketing programme where PR doesn’t mean only media relations, you can for example develop and execute:

• A robust content marketing strategy, which works hard to re-purpose themes and tailor content for other countries local variances;
• Campaigns and targeted problem-solving thought leadership in the trade media and for hand-picked contacts in the broader print and online press in English-speaking countries. Working from the UK to drive a client’s expansion in the US works well here, for example:
  • • We’ve been working with Fraedom, a fintech provider for banks and global businesses, for the last 12 months, developing and delivering thought leadership programmes and research-driven news campaigns in the UK and the US
    • Retail technology and consulting firm, REPL Group, hired us this Spring to raise its profile in creating best-in-class workforce management and engagement, warehouse management and in-store solutions. Just a handful of months later, the company has asked us to expand our UK media relations and thought leadership programme to the US market;
• Local social media;
• Marketing emails and blogs driven from and effective content plan;
• Cherry-picking attendance at events with stands and speaker slots; and
• If your company is launching a product or service or wants to announce its expansion into a new sector or country, then of course there are cost-effective ways to do that centrally on an ad hoc basis with media relations.

Related: How we provide global PR services to clients

I hope that in this piece, I’ve helped you to realise that there is a workable, high performance and cost-effective middle ground to managing international B2B PR with one or more agencies. If you would like to discuss the options in more detail, contact us here.

James Kelliher, CEO

Tell Us Your B2B Tech Story

As we continue to enjoy our sun-blessed summer (surely this weekend is just a blip?) there is a question that needs answering for all of us – how do I make the most of my time off? Now this answer varies depending on personality, lifestyle, job role, but one thing all of us want from a summer holiday is to relax. So, a few of us have put our heads together to provide you with some ideas for enjoying your road to relaxation.

Zachary

In recent years, nothing has quite said summer like The Great British Bake Off. Just when I thought England at the World Cup provided me with all the drama I can handle for one summer, I am ready to go once again. While we all miss Mary, Mel and Sue, I would definitely still recommend strapping yourselves in for a second Channel4 series of this modern classic. Even for a 23-year-old like me, there is nothing like the intense pause just before the Star Baker of the Week is announced.

In terms of summer reading material, I’d have to recommend Bear Grylls’ autobiography Mud, Sweat and Tears. I was given the book for Christmas, but only recently have I got around to opening it and I haven’t been able to put it down. If you are looking for a fascinating insight into how to survive in some of Earth’s toughest terrains while being in the comfort of your sun lounger – this is the book for you.  An inspiring read to spur on a summer adventure for sure.

Mary

With my holiday just about to start, I’m looking forward to filling it with fun outside in this glorious and uncharacteristically hot British summer. After attempting white water rafting and fighting off zombies, I’m also planning to finish off watching Miranda as ‘it’s such fun’ and I’m desperate to see if she and Gary get together. As every day is a learning day, I’m also going to start reading ‘The Gig Economy: Things you should know to make your business grow’ written by Mark Magnacca which explores the origins, role, and future of fractional talent and the benefits to businesses large and small.

Stephen

After recently returning from the beautiful Toulouse, I am slightly embarrassed by my attempts to speak French to the locals. This has encouraged me to learn a new language and is why I have started to use an app called ‘busuu’ to learn how to speak French. The app offers bite-sized lessons in 12 languages and is ideal for learning phrases to use in everyday life, work and travel. The app also makes learning a bit more appealing compared to the old school French textbooks. If you’re on your travels this summer I can’t endorse this app more for learning the local lingo and avoiding the blunt stares of the locals.

Science and technology runs through the veins of my family with my dad being a physicist and my brother studying physics at university. And of course, I am working at the number one tech PR agency outside of London. How these two industries continually evolve and better themselves has always fascinated me and Wired magazine is perfect at keeping me up-to-date with its articles. As an avid football fan, I was captivated by Wired’s recent article on the birth of VAR technology and how it came to play its part at this year’s World Cup. So, if you’re looking to stay on top of the latest science and tech news from your sun lounger, this is the magazine to buy.

Bekki  

This summer, I’ve been challenged by my team members to complete the ‘Couch to 5K challenge’. The journey of self-improvement is officially underway – granted I’ve only actually done one of the runs – but watch this space.

Another thing to be keeping an eye out for is the brilliant work of Oobah Butler, this year’s ‘Content Creator of the Year’ as awarded by The Drum. The young writer garnered a lot of media attention following his TripAdvisor stunt, where he somehow made a fake restaurant (actually just a shed in his garden) the number one rated restaurant in London. He’s done more excellent, quirky pieces of work since, and is a great example of how to inject creativity into your work and shake up existing models.

Into the inbox plops another set of embarrassing security breaches at prominent companies or organisations….

Each morning one of the colleagues in my team sends an email informing us about any significant cyber security news. As a B2B technology PR firm with some significant clients operating in the cyber sector, it is of course essential for us to stay abreast and ahead of the curve, so we can use news of any breaches or security developments to secure opportunities for our clients to contribute to the news agenda.

But as conscientious as she is, my colleague seldom has to look too hard to find incidents in which personal data, passwords, cash or important intellectual property have been stolen by hackers.

On Thursday, for instance, we learned that social media site Reddit suffered a data breach but refused to disclose its scale. The breach was discovered in June when hackers obtained usernames and corresponding email addresses – information that could make it possible to link activity on the site to real identities. Encrypted passwords from a separate database of credentials from 2007 were also taken.

Reddit said it would inform those affected by the loss of historic data but would not be getting in touch with those impacted by the potentially much larger breach – a decision which led to criticism from prominent, independent security researchers. Their PR strategy was just to brazen it out and take a kicking from experts and academics.

Earlier in the week, Dixons Carphone announced that approximately ten times more personal data belonging to customers may have been accessed illegally last year than originally thought, affecting 10 million customers in all. Dixons, however issued an apology and is writing to those affected – a slightly different approach from Reddit, but still very embarrassing, given the massive size of the hack.

Seldom however, is there any news of police success against cyber-criminals, which is why the announcement, also on Thursday, that members of the Carbanak hacking group had been arrested was just as eye-catching as the hacking incidents themselves. This bunch has allegedly been responsible for theft of 15 million customer card details in the US, UK, Australia and France.

It’s heartening for international agencies led by the FBI to score a “success” such as this, but cyber-crime is not going to go away. State-sponsored hacking groups, Advanced Persistent Threats, darkweb vendors of exploit kits, political hacktivists and the traditional teenagers with personality problems are all at it and proliferating for a variety of different reasons.

But when you have a genuinely unique solution that really does tackle an important aspect of cyber security it can be very difficult to get your message across amid all the noise from the big vendors that surrounds any high-profile incident. That, we can say, takes the expertise of technology PR consultancy working with clients including Glasswall and the DMA UK, to ensure their message stands out from the crowd, resonates with the right audiences and adds value to the media reporting.

In just a few months, we approach Google’s 20th birthday and, quite honestly, I couldn’t imagine life without the ability to look up information on a whim. The internet, its search engines, and their gift of quick and easy access to vast amounts of data and information from around the world have changed our society and how we consume content, from the latest news story to updates on your best friend’s cousin’s missing dog (with pictures!). We know it all, because it’s available at the click of a button or scroll of a mouse.

While that’s great for pointless facts like the square root of 657, or the capital of Belize, what about other information? What about news? How does it affect the way we access and read stories that interest and entertain us?

The way we consume the news has changed. Previously, a newspaper contained only the top stories, written with careful consideration and fact-checked meticulously. Now, you can open your phone and flick through thousands, millions, of meaningful or menial articles within seconds.

This infinite capacity for content and unrivalled access is a huge opportunity for us in the PR industry. But we must approach it as both a professional and an everyday consumer of news. Just because the information is there, does it mean it is worth reading? Should we be creating less meaningful content just because it will now be one story in a dozen? The short answer is: no.

The trending story of the moment is, of course, the UK heatwave. A quick Google news search brings up nearly 16 million stories, with topics spanning from record retail results to haphazard health advice. Pretty much anything can be tied in to this incredible weather, but just because it can, it doesn’t mean it will be adding any value.

The impact that the internet, social media and search engines have had on the PR industry has been profound, and in this digital age, it’s clear that the need to quickly digest and report on the latest news on any given channel is at an all-time high. Content can now be consumed by a global audience within seconds, so when used well, valuable information – especially now in its always-available state – is an incredibly powerful tool in PR, depending on how we choose to work with it.

Even the best, most relevant article, story or message can so easily get lost within the ether. It’s more important than ever that we remember how fickle the internet can be and learn to get the message right. Creating and securing meaningful content that stands out from the crowd has never been more difficult, or when done right, more worthwhile.

Hook, Hampshire, 23 July 2018 – Whiteoaks International, a leading UK-based technology PR agency, has led the launch of a disruptive cyber security start-up to market through a significant branding project, before embarking on a comprehensive communications programme in the UK.

CyberHive was created in early 2018 to provide a new kind of cyber security solution, an IaaS (Internet as a Service) proposition named ‘Trusted Cloud’, which was developed in partnership with the University of Oxford. A server security solution that protects data, Trusted Cloud uses a unique combination of hardware-based cryptography and advances in whitelisting technology.

Whiteoaks was selected following a competitive pitch process to conceive the brand and lead its first integrated marketing programme, incorporating PR, digital and social media and content generation.

In partnership with creative agency Emerald Colour, the teams created CyberHive’s website including all the visual and written content as well as social media channels.

Having launched the business, Whiteoaks International will focus on communicating with cyber security and IT professionals and influencers.

Alan Platt, Chief Operating Officer, CyberHive, said: “We believe that Trusted Cloud is the most innovative and most effective solution to the cyber threats facing all organisations. We selected Whiteoaks to help us launch to market because of its proven knowledge of the cyber security industry and an established record of PR, content and digital work in this area. We particularly liked Whiteoaks’ innovative approach to transparent service delivery and focus on results.”

James Kelliher, Whiteoaks International CEO, said: “Being chosen to work with CyberHive is one of the highlights of our year. It’s not often we have the opportunity to build a new brand from the start. Moving on from here, our focus on tangible results, with set fees for set deliverables, sets us apart from other PR firms. We feel sure that this approach will help the new CyberHive brand increase awareness of its unique solution.”

PR, like many services industries, often has a bad name. It is an inconvenient truth – and one that continues to blight the sector to this day.

The reason, really, is a simple one. Traditionally, PR agencies have charged their clients a monthly retainer, which in effect buys a certain number of hours, with staff filling out and working to a timesheet each week.

Since when, we would ask, has “hours” ever been a metric against which to judge PR success? It certainly falls short when trying to justify that “dreaded” return on investment.

To make matters worse – and perhaps inevitably – the system has often been abused. If the agency were to write a hot topic article, for sake of argument, they would want it to take twice as long as it should do. Once it had been sent to the client for approval, if it needed rounds and rounds of amends, then happy days. More hours racked up on a timesheet, less delivered to the client. And if they use up their allotted hours for the month, then they come to the client asking for more money.

Getting B2B Tech PR Right

By its nature, this retainer-based approach is great for public relations agencies, but less than satisfactory for clients – and that struck us as odd right from our inception as a specialist business to business tech PR agency.

Over the last 25 years, we have become pretty knowledgeable about PR-led tactics, how long they should take and what output they should achieve for B2B technology brands.

As a result, we don’t charge our clients a retainer and we don’t talk to them about hours or timesheets. Instead, we offer set fees for set deliverables, building bespoke campaigns that map to the client’s business objectives. Whether each deliverable takes us two hours, 20 hours or 200 hours, the fee to the client stays the same.

This means, right from the very outset, the client has absolute transparency about what their investment is, and what it is buying. But that’s really only half of the story.

Because we build strategically-aligned campaigns from day one, we set strict performance targets alongside them that link to the tactical plan. For a traditional technology PR and media relations campaign, this could be coverage volume and key message penetration for example, and for social media this would be more tangible engagement metrics as a start.

The final thing that we do is offer all clients a formal service level agreement that simply states; ‘if we do not deliver what we said we would, we give you money back on a pro rata basis’. If we miss our coverage target by 10%, for example, the client gets 10% of their total fee back.

We believe this is a better way for clients to engage a PR agency, one that puts the pressure on us to be proactive and drive the campaign forward. It provides the client’s business with complete certainty in terms of investment, activity and results, and if we fail to perform, you get a proportion of your money back anyway.

Experts in the Technology Sector

Since 1993 Whiteoaks has focussed on the tech sector, almost entirely in the business to business environment. It’s in our DNA. Whether managing more than a dozen PR agencies across the EMEA region for multinational clients such as OKI, to launching disruptive Fintech or cyber security firms to the UK market, we know what success looks like, and we know how to deliver it.

Our approach differentiates us, but we believe our work is second to none. With an unrivalled network of business and tech journalists, analysts, bloggers, vloggers and industry influencers, and an expertise in leveraging social media content on the right platforms for our clients, we ensure their businesses cut through the noise, building brand awareness and generating sales leads through targeted and impactful integrated marketing campaigns.

At the heart of both traditional PR and social media is good content – and we know all about good content. Our expert team of skilled content creators – with decades of experience covering B2B tech – draft everything from press releases to technology articles and technical whitepapers. This guarantees a high level of output for our clients as they know each time they receive a piece of copy, it has been written by their own, dedicated content creator who understands the tech landscape and their specific messaging inside and out.

We’re fortunate to have a raft of B2B clients happy to discuss the great experience they have had working with us in case studies, whether for Tech PR, Content, Digital services or in integrated marketing campaigns. To start your journey towards a better PR experience, please contact us here.

Bekki Bushnell, Head of Business Development

Deliver Integrated Campaigns

When car phones and cell phones that weighed as much as the contents of my handbag were created, the sole purpose was, whisper it, just for making and receiving phone calls in the car and on the move. Motorola’s DynaTAC 8000X phone first reached consumers in the Autumn of 1983, winning the race to sell the world’s first commercial cell phone. When Sir Charles Dunstone and David Ross founded Carphone Warehouse in 1989, prices reduced and the market was about to explode.

It would be almost 10 years before SMS technology arrived and revolutionised the way we could communicate with each other on the move, and whisper it, without talking to each other. In December 1992, a young UK test engineer used a PC to send a Merry Christmas SMS on the Vodafone network to a friend’s phone and we all fell in love with the text.

After this, innovations abounded, with multiple phone manufacturers, network operators, smaller phones and longer battery life. Everything almost changed in 1993, when Research In Motion launched the Blackberry, with email capability, SMS, a web browser and Blackberry Messenger functionality all built in.

Then, everything really changed. On 9 January 2007, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone at the Macworld convention and on 20 June 2007, the first iPhone was released in the US.

Today we have the iPhones and Android smartphones that we know, and mostly love. A number of research studies all show that we spend significantly more of our time using apps, mainly social media apps, than we do making calls or sending texts. They are our cameras, our navigation tool and the way to stay in touch with everyone, whether it’s on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook messenger, VoIP calls or Twitter.

This week’s news that the walkie-talkie – first invented in 1937 – may be making a comeback because we’re impatient with poor mobile phone signal connections or the “coldness of texts”, may seem far-fetched at first. But, not when you realise it’s Apple backing the comeback and in a very 21st century way. Apple is launching a walkie-talkie app for the Apple Watch in the autumn, so you can tap, record and send instant audio messages to friends also with the watch. The receiver’s watch will chime and play the message when it suits them, with a tap option to respond. The concept takes the ‘voice note’ capability in WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger a step further, as both of these functions are more passive in the way they alert the receiver – and require the app to be open to play and send audio notes.

I wonder if, aside from not being an Apple Watch owner myself, the Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Apple Watch voice notes could be signalling a desire for more personal communication? After all, we’ve become so used to communicating by tweet, text and email, especially when you consider that for Generation Z this could be all they’ve predominantly known. Plus, whether you love or hate them, the likes of iPhone’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo Alexa are making some of us more comfortable with voice technology.

It all comes back to the tech industry’s current goal: building frictionless technology to help us find, do or buy faster and more easily. And voice has strength: it conveys emotion, reduces the potential for ambiguity and probably takes less time overall. For the moment, Apple Watch ownership is still not mainstream, but as always with Apple, it is creating the shape of things to come….

Buyer or marketing personas are now common terms in the B2B sector and it’s likely that your company devises and executes account-based sales and marketing strategies around them. But why are they so important? How much do you know about them? And how can you use them within your integrated marketing campaigns?

Is it just more marketing jargon?

Quite simply: no. Buyer personas are highly useful, reality and category-based representations of your ideal customers. In fact, a key point is that they are not just useful to marketing folk. Rather, they should also help sales, product and services teams to bring to life the ideal customer your business is trying to attract. They should help you think like and attract prospective customers, as well as retain existing clients. They should filter throughout the business and be used as the basis for the development of new products and services, as well as sales and marketing campaigns.

Guess who?

Without personas, you’ll be using any customer insight from Google Analytics and Client Services teams, social listening and market research output combined with lists of target customers as a ‘best guess’ basis for the products, services and content that you think your audiences want. And experience shows that without a full set of customer profiles, you’re more likely to revert to developing ideas based on what you know best (your company) or what you would respond to, instead of the information your audience is actively seeking. Personas are most powerful when regularly reviewed, updated and shared across the business – and so take things to the next level.

By layering personas on top of all the information I’ve just listed, your understanding of a persona will now be much deeper. You’ll ideally glean additional information by profiling and surveying your existing customers. What is their job title? What are their responsibilities? What are their goals? What fears do they have? What are their demographics? What are their challenges? What are their buying, media consumption, social media usage and communication preferences? When collated and analysed, this combined data will help you define your personas, of which there may be several or only a few.

It’s also beneficial to understand the typical lifecycle stage of each of those personas. For example, are they only just aware of having a business problem which needs addressing? Or have they already started the evaluation process for a solution to that problem? Or are they at the purchase stage?

Personas make for powerful audience-centric content and PR

For PR, social media and digital campaigns to align with the broader marketing campaigns, having defined buyer personas will – as a first step – allow specific messages to be developed for each persona.

It is only at this stage and with this depth of knowledge that targeted content should be mapped, created, and then delivered at the right time. And of course, delivery is absolutely critical. The adage of communicating with a target audience seven times to achieve memorable impact still rings true but in today’s noisy market, it is imperative to select only the channels which you know your prospects and customers will consume. Whether for personal or professional purposes, today’s buyers expect – and will respond – to this focused approach to communications.

Establishing a link with Account-Based Marketing

Buyer personas are the precursor to the now widely understood B2B Account-Based Marketing (ABM) framework. At Whiteoaks we define ABM as the way to categorise, build relationships and target companies or accounts into prioritised groups rather than on an individual leads basis. An ABM strategy covers multi-touch and multi-channel which is implemented throughout a company to achieve goals based on high-value, location or sector-specific account.

In practice, this means selecting a multi-channel, content-rich campaign for each of your buyer personas within the account-based marketing framework. Which of your buyers in each ‘account’ are most active on LinkedIn? Are others likely to consume weekly trade newsletters which explore the nuts and bolts of technology? Or are they more likely to subscribe to daily news digests from BBC? Where does another set of ‘accounts’ and personas look for thought-leadership content – and do they start their search for it on Twitter or their favourite trade blogs? If you know, you can ensure your marketing and PR investment is accurately attributed to achieve the most impactful campaigns.

Related: A Perfect Match: ABM and ABS – research by Whiteoaks International

But, why?

A rich, multi-sourced understanding of your ideal customers will enable a more powerful strategy, making best use of all the marketing tools available, including webinars, PR, social media outreach, content marketing, email campaigns and blogs, leading to precise targeting and more accurate measurement. What you learn will feed into your next campaign or plan and so you should be able to measure and demonstrate the power of your investment more thoroughly each time.

Suzanne Griffiths, Managing Director

Tell Us Your B2B Tech Story