[New Post] 3 PR Agency Practices for Delivering First-Rate Service to Every Client

 

Blogs

3 PR Agency Practices for Delivering First-Rate Service to Every Client Lucie Curtis Every company faces a unique set of communications challenges. B2Cs and B2Bs, nonprofits and members of the Fortune 100, healthcare providers and green tech developers – they all have different goals to meet and different audiences to target with different types of content. This fact of PR life is something that public relations and marketing agencies understand better than most. Whereas in-house corporate communicators only have to focus on monitoring trends and pitching influencers within one sector (maybe a few), agencies have to accomplish this on behalf of multiple brands across many different industries. "Agencies have to wear a lot of hats and work in many spaces simultaneously," says Brian Lubocki, an account director at PR Newswire who specializes in agency consulting. "That's why they're always looking to streamline their workflow and find more efficient tools that save them time and allow them to focus on their clients' campaigns." If your agency doesn't have the proper processes in place, it can be incredibly challenging and time-consuming to thoroughly research media lists, tailor pitches, and provide other vital services for every client. Here are three best practices to delight your clients in a consistent and efficient manner. Institute a thorough onboarding process. The first step you must complete before starting to work on a new client's communications strategy is fully understanding that client's needs. Because some clients may not be aware of the full extent of their communications goals, smart agencies have an onboarding guide and specific questions they use to get to the core of what their clients need. "As most agencies know, all clients want 'greater exposure and pick-up,'" says Brian. "However, it's difficult to demonstrate success without first identifying specific goals and defining success in qualitative and quantitative terms." According to Brian, important questions to ask at the beginning are: What kind of impression numbers are you expecting? What are key publications and blogs to your business? Who are the influencers in your industry? What other industries are you hoping to reach and affect? "Of course, agencies will help their clients answer these questions," adds Brian. Agencies should supplement the information they glean from a client's answers with their own independent research of the organization's industry and relevant niche markets. In our latest case study, strategic relations firm Feintuch Communications shares how they were recently called on to support a U.S.-based manufacturer's expansion into international markets. Their client had an explicit goal of targeting earned media in Europe to generate leads and brand awareness. Feintuch researched the client’s target markets and partnered with PR Newswire to scour multiple sources and build media lists for manufacturing, aerospace, automotive and medical verticals, as well as business writers covering this space across all of Europe. Providing a high level of service like this to your clients during and after onboarding will help you build better-informed and healthier relationships that solidify your agency's reputation. Establishing a great first impression is essential for bringing in future referrals. Centralize client, industry, and influencer research into one tool. The intel your agency gathers is only useful if you have access to a multifunctional research tool that makes it easy to maintain and build upon your information gathering. "Agencies understand that it's not enough to have a tool. It must be a great tool,” says Brian. "One with easy-to-use functionality for the entire team and more importantly, good information. Otherwise, they waste more time chasing bad data or figuring out how to get that data, than the time they were supposed to save. And with monitoring, that can make or break the story of whether a client's campaign was successful. " With the right platform, agencies can accomplish a multitude of tasks that would otherwise require more time and be less accurate. An effective multifunctional tool makes it easy for you to: Continuously monitor topics for multiple brands across various media and markets. Create, save and update targeted lists of journalists and influencers for each client. Combine your targeted media lists with the more comprehensive reach of a wire service to distribute clients' communications. Customize your reporting to the client’s needs. Delivering tangible results to clients in an easy-to-understand way is crucial. Most monitoring and targeting platforms have the capability to compile comprehensive reports or clipbooks that are easily shareable with clients. And just as each client has different communications needs, they also have different reporting preferences. Speak with your client ahead of time to find out what works best for them and their stakeholders. This will allow you to customize your report so that it includes as much or as little information as needed; takes into consideration your client's preferences for text, charts and graphs; and is presented in the file format of their choice. If your monitoring platform offers the option, you should also set recurring alerts to help you and your client stay current on the progress of a specific campaign or several campaigns at once. Providing clients access to this information between reporting periods helps them see exactly where they're at in their marketing communications strategy and determine where improvements can be made. It also opens up opportunities for your agency to offer guidance and prove value. "Today's audiences are diverse, multichannel, moving targets that never rest," says Brian. "PR professionals have a very tough job of reaching those audiences. Never has it been more imperative to streamline processes and to grab information quickly and effectively.  Good tools – great tools – are tantamount." Want to learn more about how Feintuch Communications streamlined the way they listen for newsworthy topics, share messages through the industry's largest content distribution network, and report on the effectiveness of their clients' programs – all within a single interface? Check out our case study Feintuch Communications Provides Customized PR Programs to Diverse Client Base or request a demo to see PR Newswire's monitoring and targeting tools in action yourself. Lucie Vietti-Curtis is the program manager for channel and advocacy marketing at PR Newswire. As head of the advocacy program, she enjoys collaborating with advocates on creating thought-leadership content.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click on the following link: Unsubscribe

[New Post] 7 Steps to Fearless Doodling and Empowered Visual Storytelling

 

Blogs

7 Steps to Fearless Doodling and Empowered Visual Storytelling Jamie Heckler From extending your brain power to increasing audience engagement with your content, we've discussed all the amazing reasons doodles should be a part of your work life and content marketing. If you haven't started doodling at your desk just yet, consider it my personal challenge to you for 2016. Here are some steps to get you started. Step One: Decide to Do(odle) It For Yourself Let's get real for a moment: You will not become an amazing visual communicator overnight. It will take some practice. But there's good news: even your absolute worst and most hideous doodles can still be useful. Research has shown that every time you bring your scribbles to paper, you're helping your brain more effectively absorb new information or solve a problem. So take the first step by committing to make the effort. Step Two: Start with the Familiar, Doodle Your Words It's important to remember that doodles don't have to be complicated, or even involve pictures. Start by doodling words. In your next meeting – or while listening to a podcast, webinar or live event – try taking some visual notes. Start by simply writing words and phrases onto a sheet of paper. Now for the super-technical, brain-extending doodle-y part: Identify which words are most important. Bold these words by tracing over them a second or third time. It's very meditative and dare I say "fun." Create order by separating your ideas. Divide your page of words and phrases with lines. Super straight lines are overrated – straight-ish works just fine. You can also squiggle it up, dot and dash like crazy, go nuts! Draw a border around the most important phrase. Notice how your eyes now start to drift toward that part of your notes. It's unadulterated doodling magic. Consider how the ideas are related. Visualize the connection between these words and phrases by drawing lines. If it's a process, show the flow through each step by adding arrows. Don't be scared if things start getting messy. You're helping your brain to literally see how these ideas come together. Problem solving isn't always pretty. Congratulations, you're doodling! Step Three: Expand Your Doodle Vocabulary When you learned to read and write, you started by learning your ABC's. Well, there's also a visual alphabet. It's just as simple, and you've probably drawn all of its elements at least once in your life. As Sunni Brown shares in her book, The Doodle Revolution, these 12 elements of visual language are the building blocks to every picture imaginable. So let's start drawing some words. Pick a word or idea from your list and think about a simple image (like an icon) that would best represent it. As you visualize the image in your mind, observe how it is a combination of elements from the visual alphabet. Once you've mentally broken it down into these smaller pieces, you're ready to doodle your image by drawing each of these elements together to assemble the larger image. Step Four: Make Muscle Memories As with any skill, practice is important. Keep in mind that your goal is to better communicate your ideas through visual aids, not to create artistic masterpieces. From my recent discussion with pro doodler Scott Torrance, he explains, "It's not about straightness of the line, but confidence. The doodle reinforces your thinking. If the doodle is unconfident, it conveys an uncertainty to what you're doing. Similar to if you can't convey a thought in a sentence or paragraph. Drawing an idea makes me think differently about it and makes you look at an object differently. Establishing muscle memory is vital [to drawing confident doodles]. It requires practice." After you've finished a doodle, take a moment to review it with fresh eyes. Study its overall impact. Without being too critical of your drawing skills, determine whether it is effectively representing the ideas you want to communicate. If you were to create another doodle about this very same idea, consider if there is a better visual angle or approach you could take. This mini workshop presentation by Mike Rohde, author of The Sketchnote Handbook, offers more tips and inspiration as you practice.   Step Five: Share Your Doodles with Others If the idea of sharing your doodles makes you nervous, I assure you that's normal. Think back to the beginning of acquiring any new skill and you will likely observe some trepidation. My advice is start with low risk situations and keep building on your progress by broadening the circle of sharing. Torrance further encourages, "Just having the confidence to share what you've drawn will set you apart. People are generally very supportive. It's very similar to public speaking. You don't have to be a fantastic public speaker to progress or get audience support. Your audience is likely to be more forgiving and compassionate than you are of your own work." Kelly Kingman, a seasoned graphic recorder at live events, echoes this sentiment and recommends a "do-it-anyway" approach to getting over that fear. "At your next meeting, just go up to the whiteboard and start taking notes, and challenge yourself to add a little icon to each idea. Share your visual note taking experiments with colleagues to bring them up to speed on meetings and conferences. Draw out some of your ideas the next time you give a presentation. You’ll be amazed how much people appreciate even the tiniest amount of visual communication, even if you think your attempts look awful. Your bravery will inspire others to try, too." Step Six: Polish Your Process When asked what advice Torrance has for beginners, he offers these two apps as the best hacks for creating more polished digital doodles. If working in an analog manner with actual paper and pencil, the CamScanner app turns your smartphone or tablet into a digital scanner for quick and easy digital conversion. Using a stylus, the Paper app helps you create refined digital doodles and includes shape buttons for drawing perfect squares, etc. The company also offers a more advanced digital drawing app called Pencil. Step Seven: Incorporate Doodles Into Your Content Marketing With their unique ability for visual disruption and subconscious engagement, doodles can enhance your storytelling in ways polished graphics won't. That said, doodles won't always be the right visual solution – read my earlier post "Incorporating Doodles in Your Content Marketing Strategy" for more information. Once you've established your skills and confidence, it's time to start sharing your visual communication with your audience. But just as you would ask a colleague to proofread a written article, be sure to get internal feedback before hitting the "publish" button. Incorporating even simple multimedia components into press releases and other content can make a dramatic difference in terms of effectiveness. The key is knowing which mix of visuals, formatting, distribution and reporting will work best for your audience. Check out Press Releases that Stand Out in the Digital Age for more visual storytelling and content creation tips. Author Jamie Heckler is the Senior Creative Manager at PR Newswire. Follow her on Twitter @jamieheckle for more #design, #PR & #marketing updates.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click on the following link: Unsubscribe