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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, Non-Executive Director

Tell Us Your B2B Tech Story

Is it too early for the C word? That’s Christmas. While we might be experiencing some of the hottest temperatures in history, July is still a key time in the retail industry as plans for the Christmas ahead are unveiled. ‘Christmas in July’ is a common phrase in the market and refers to the festive season’s press events, when major brands and their PR teams showcase products from their festive collection to the media. So, the ice creams are being replaced with Christmas puds!

One online retailer that has nailed this period is Amazon, with its Prime Day or the ‘Black Friday’ of the summer. For retailers with a presence on Amazon, Prime Day could be the busiest shopping day of the season as some consumers, believe it or not, look to bag a bargain, five months ahead of Christmas.

Launched in 2015, to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, the first Prime Day was a one-day-only retail holiday that aimed to overtake Black Friday as the sales event of the year. Originally met with criticism from shoppers over the quality and quantity of the deals on offer, Amazon stepped up its game.  Prime Day 2017 was the biggest shopping day in the history of the company, until it was surpassed by Cyber Monday 2017 in November. So key is this event that Amazon has this year moved the date to 16 July to avoid a clash with the World Cup and extended the sale to 36 hours.

Although ‘Christmas in July’ is not a new concept for retailers, Amazon has shown with Prime Day that it is possible to invent your own holiday and it’s a great example of an annual PR and marketing – and sales – success. Amazon turned what is traditionally a slow news season for the media to the headline story, delivering mass media attention and record-breaking sales. McKinsey & Company describes it perfectly: “In keeping with Amazon’s “disrupter” reputation, it pulled off what other retailers have long tried to do: created a catalytic event”.

As shoppers continue to spend more online, retailers can benefit from technology to make stronger connections with consumers and build or cement their brand reputation faster. And Amazon competitors are waking up, as we’ve seen with retailer eBay announcing deals up to 80% off in the same week as Prime Day – although it has not garnered the same extensive media coverage as Prime Day.

With the World Cup delivering an overall boost to consumer spending and with the final and Prime Day taking place on the same weekend, I hope you have your credit card at the ready!

Who are you? And what’s your job at Whiteoaks?

Hi, I’m Zach (with a ‘h’) – and I’m a Junior Account Executive in Team Aries.

 

What does your daily to-do list look like?

Sorry to be cliché, but I’ve discovered that every day is different from the next! The few constants that exist see me start my day with a cup of coffee and a read through of my emails. I then have a look through all of the morning news stories, and then ensure everything is in place for the day ahead, from co-ordinating the writing schedules, producing client call agendas, to proofreading articles.

 

What made you want to get into PR?

My degree in Creative and Media Writing was a great choice because it allowed me to explore both my creative and journalistic writing styles. However, despite really enjoying inventing my own stories and writing screenplays, a career in public relations became something I wanted to pursue as I loved being involved in a media-facing role that changes daily based on events around the globe. So, 10 days after my final exam at Uni – here I was at Whiteoaks!

 

Who is your favourite brand and why?

This is an easy one for me – Nike. I’m a massive sports fan, and I’d say about 90% of my sports clothing at home is Nike branded. I’d love to say that it’s the high-quality fabric or some other technical reason as to why I feel this way, but a more accurate answer is quite simply Rafael Nadal. The tennis star has always been my favourite sportsman, so I’ve bought Nike (and Babolat) products from a young age as they’ve always been Nadal’s sponsor. Chelsea Football Club is also in partnership with Nike now– which only deepens my brand loyalty. Sorry Adidas.

 

What’s your top tip for someone who wants to get into the PR industry?

I didn’t have any specific PR experience before starting here, so I guess I’m a good example of how getting into PR can be done. However, what also helps is any media or marketing experience that you can get – the more, the better. I would also say having a good understanding of current affairs and keeping up with the latest news stories is always good practice, even if it’s just spending five minutes in the morning on the BBC News app.

 

How do you unwind after a day in the office?

I normally spend my evenings watching either live sports, trashy TV, or whatever Netflix show I’m currently binging on. At the moment I’ve got the World Cup, Love Island, and FRIENDS (on a year-long loop), so I’m able to do all three!

 

What’s your favourite anthem suggestion for Friday’s Whiteoaks Power Hour?

I listen to a wide variety of music, but I’m not sure how my go-to hip-hop playlists would go down in the office. I’d probably pick a proper feel good track like Bob Marley – Three Little Birds. Or anything from Hans Zimmer, which is perfect concentration music.

 

If you could be any character in any film, what would you be?

I absolutely love Harry Potter, so probably anyone from those films. Maybe not Harry though, being ‘the chosen one’ would simply be too much pressure. But anyone else for sure. Who wouldn’t want their own wand and go to school at Hogwarts?

 

What’s your ideal getaway location?

Anywhere that’s 30+ degrees and has sand. I went to Barbados when I was younger so would love to go back to the Caribbean. I’m one quarter Grenadian, so probably there.

 

What’s your go-to party trick?

I once opened a bottle of champagne (Prosecco) with a knife after seeing it in the film What Happens in Vegas. Although, I don’t confess to be an expert in the art.

 

And finally, cheesy chips?

Chips, pasta, beans – anything covered in cheese and I’m all over it.

The Data and Marketing Association defines integrated marketing as “an approach to creating a unified and seamless experience for consumers to interact with the brand/enterprise; it attempts to meld all aspects of marketing communication, through their respective mix of tactics, methods, channels, media, and activities, so that all work together as a unified force. It is a process designed to ensure that all messaging and communications strategies are consistent across all channels and are centred on the customer”.

So, while this definition is the holy grail for most B2B marketers, what’s the true key to integrated campaign success?

Traditionally, businesses planned and executed disparate campaigns, using different resource and suppliers for the various marketing disciplines. Today’s communications landscape is incredibly challenging with an abundance of communication channels and audiences’ short attention spans, coupled with an expectation of personalised audience experiences.  Within this diluted backdrop, integrated campaigns have the power to cut through the noise with consistent messaging and content to influence audiences as they go through the sales funnel to drive real business outcomes.

Personalising Personas

The starting point for an integrated campaign is defining the target audiences and creating buyer personas for those ideal customers. With a deep understanding of who you need to engage and influence and what behaviour you want to effect amongst different buyer personas, the platform for devising effective delivery programmes is established.

Related: Unleashing the power of buyer personas and account-based marketing

Audience-Centric Content

When planning the content approach, the objective should be to create assets which will help customers and prospects rather than simply sell to them.  Providing audiences with valuable information (for free) will build trust and more effectively support the sales process.

Content is essential but the mistake many organisations make when developing content is to prioritise ‘what we want to say’ over ‘what our audiences want to hear’.  Campaigns will only have impact if they take an audience-centric approach to the creation and delivery of the content, which engages audiences whilst still meeting organisational objectives.

Related: Good content is good… but why have good when you can have it all?

Consistency Drives Ultimate Impact

The sales funnel is the various stages which a customer will go through before purchase and it is the job of the marketer – and latterly the sales professional – to move people thorough this funnel by creating content to support every stage of the buying journey.

For the marketer, effective integrated marketing is about ensuring all elements of the marketing mix work together cohesively across channels and through the funnel – consistency has the ultimate impact and strengthens the overall delivery of the message.

As a result, marketers talk a lot about top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU) and bottom of the funnel (BOFU) marketing activities. Essentially, these stages cover building awareness about the problem you address, educating audiences about how to choose a solution and proving why your product or service is the best solution both at campaign and strategic levels. This approach also aligns marketing activities with an account-based marketing (ABM) framework, something which are increasingly working within.

To illustrate how this might look in practice, consider a blend of:

• TOFU (Awareness): Prospects will be looking for answers to solve a problem or address a need they have.  Content needs to help educate or offer insight which may include original research, thought leadership press coverage, whitepapers, eBooks and blogs.
• MOFU (Evaluation):  Audiences will know their problem needs to be solved and be exploring what is the best solution is to fit their needs.  The content should demonstrate that the company is skilled and delivers results and could include expert guides, webinars, handbooks and case studies.
• BOFU (Purchase): A purchasing decision is ready to be made and prospects are reviewing what needs to be done to become a customer.  At this stage demos, offers, product and service literature and fact sheets are all useful tools to encourage prospects across the line.

A recent integrated marketing campaign that we executed with Omnico Group generated £12 million in qualified sales and more than 200 pieces of coverage, demonstrating the real business impact this approach can have. This campaign focused on the awareness stage of the sales funnel, using original research to capture the attention of audiences, and was backed up by expert insight and opinion with the goal of moving prospects through the sales funnel. You can watch our client contacts at Omnico discuss working with us here.

If you would like to explore how to expand your current PR programme into one which incorporates other marketing communications methods for improved impact and synergies with your marketing and sales efforts, why not read an overview of what we offer and get in touch? You can book your free one-hour consultation with a senior member of our client services team who will provide you with tailored recommendations to consider.

Hayley Goff, Chief Operating Officer

We are recognised as a top Integrated Marketing Company on DesignRush

Deliver Integrated Campaigns