Content Marketing Archives | Jane Tabachnick & Co

Why Your Brand Needs Both PR and Content Strategy

You’ve heard the expression ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’ It is true for your communications, which should include both PR and content strategy.

An ideal communication strategy strives to incorporate all channels to get the attention of stakeholders. This includes using the following types of media: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned or the PESO Method.

PR and content strategy both serve unique and useful purposes for you, work well together, and as a result create greater Roi. Here is how:

PR is Earned media and Content Marketing is Owned Media.

Your content strategy can consist of your website, blog posts, articles, and social media. It gives you a chance to communicate with your audience and share ideas and topics that matter to them. It is also a chance to educate and inform about your brand.

Using the right keywords in your content can help your ideal prospects find you, based on topics, solutions, and products they are already searching for. Your owned media is a key component of your communication strategy as you get to tell your story and craft your communication and messaging your way. You have full control over your content.

Your owned media gives you a chance to communicate directly with your audience, exactly as you choose to, as often as you choose to.

Publicity is referred to as earned media, as it is something that you have to work to garner. With PR, while you have less control over your messaging – the media has the final say on what they write, it is the most desirable form of communication. Getting mentioned or featured in the media gives you free visibility in front of an audience outside your own.

Being written about in the media gives the reader, viewer or listener the impression your brand is endorsed by the media [though technically it is not]. You get a positive boost to your brand by being associated with the media outlet. Think of it as a 5-star review on Yelp or another online platform.

Unlike your owned media, you don’t get to decide when, where, or how often you get publicity. What you can do is be strategic in the media outlets you target and have a consistent media outreach plan.

How Your PR and Content Strategy Work Well Together:

Your owned and earned media complement and lift each other. Consumers are suspicious and less trusting of what you say about your brand, products, and services. They do trust the media. Publicity provides third party credibility to your brand. It also provides authority positioning; someone else, the media, citing you as an expert or talking about your product.

Your earned media makes for great content. You amplify the value of the publicity you get when you share it with your audience.

The benefits of having both owned and earned media are that they [can] help you get more publicity. When a journalist googles you to see if you are a credible source, they will see the content you have put out, as well as any media coverage you have gotten. Together they paint a stronger picture and make you more attractive to the media as a credible source.

For prospects who discover your brand after reading about it in the media, the content you have created will help them learn more about your brand and will be taken more seriously. Your credibility has already been established for them by the media.

2020 PR and Authority Marketing Predictions

Hear from experts: David Meerman Scott, Michelle Garrett, Lisa Fahoury….

I invited a few experts to share their 2020 PR and Authority Marketing Predictions
on my Flash Briefing – The PR Authority Minute

Our first prediction comes from:

David Meerman Scott is a Business Growth Strategist, entrepreneur, advisor to emerging companies, and bestselling author of 11 books including “Fanocracy” and “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.”

[click_to_tweet tweet=”The decade of the 2020s and the year 2020 is about true human connection – David Meerman Scott @DMScott #2020PRPredictions http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions ” quote=”The decade of the 2020s and the year 2020 is about true human connection – David Meerman Scott “]

Listen to David’s entire prediction:

Michelle Garrett is a PR consultant and writer whose work regularly appears in PR Daily, Muck Rack, Meltwater and more.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”As trust declines, organizations will need to focus on building and maintaining their reputations – Michelle Garrett @PRisUS #2020PRPredictions #PR #Predictions http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions” quote=”As trust declines, organizations will need to focus on building and maintaining their reputations – Michelle Garrett”]

Listen to Michelle’s entire prediction:

Lisa Fahoury is a long-time copywriter and chief creative officer at NJ-based content marketing firm Fahoury Ink. [click_to_tweet tweet=”2020 is going to be the tipping point for content overload – Lisa Fahoury @FahouryInk #2020PRPredictions #PR #Predictions #Content http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions” quote=”2020 is going to be the tipping point for content overload – Lisa Fahoury “]

Listen to Lisa’s entire prediction:

Check back for more expert predictions – soon!

What are your 2020 PR Predictions? Share them in the comments below

2020 PR Predictions Authority Marketing David Meerman Scott Flash Briefings PR Authority Minute PR Predictions

Why You Need to Promote the Media Mentions You Get

Many companies make the mistake of sitting back and waiting for sales and opportunities to come in as a result of the media mentions they get. This is both a mistake and a missed opportunity.

The reason that your media mentions are better than advertising, content you create, or social shares, is that being written about in the media gives you free visibility and instant expert positioning as well as the impression that you are being endorsed by the media. Since people trust the media, for the most part, this provides third-party credibility.

Getting featured in the media is a positive nod to your brand. Media mentions are also the best type of content possible. They are sometimes referred to as earned media. This is because your brand has done something the media deems worthy of writing about. This could be can be anything from successful projects, a unique perspective, the way you are transforming an industry or sector, your methodology….

Let’s face it – no one cares what you say about your brand – but they do listen to what someone else says about it.

Here is why not promoting the media mentions you get is a mistake and missed opportunity:

The mistake – assuming your media mention gets seen by your ideal audience and as much of that audience as possible

It is a noisy world. We are all bombarded with messages in our inbox, online, at the supermarket checkout line.

Imagine for a moment that your company gets featured in the print edition of the New York Times. Congratulations – you just got in front of over 400,000 new people. Of course, not all of them will be your ideal prospect, but there will be a segment that is.

Consider for a moment the following:
only a portion of the 400,000 will read the article
Some of your existing customers, partners or prospects in your pipeline may not see the article or read it

The missed opportunity – not leveraging and amplifying your earned media. Now that you have third party credibility from a recognized media outlet, this may be the best brand asset you have – today and years down the road. It’s news worth sharing widely and often. This includes all of your stakeholders – from your employees, partners, vendors, customers to prospects.

Why You Need Stories In Your NonFiction Book

Our brains are wired for stories. They can create an emotional connection and are easier to remember than text or facts.

Your nonfiction book will be much richer if you include stories in it. You may have a compelling methodology, philosophy or message; the reader will benefit more and remember it longer if you include stories. A rich, textured, multisensory experience with a beginning, middle and an end, is much more enjoyable and memorable than straight theory.

I don’t remember a lot of what I learned in history class, but the stories my teacher shared with us about a historical figure, have stuck with me long beyond any textbook learning. The same will be true for stories you include in your book.

It’s important to carefully select the story or stories you include in your book; choose a story that your ideal reader will identify with, as well as one that showcases your best client work and results.

[clickToTweet tweet=”She Who Tells Stories Rules The World – Why You Need Stories in Your Nonfiction Book” quote=”She Who Tells Stories Rules the World – Native American Proverb”]

Here is how a story can enhance your book:

Demonstrates how the rubber meets the road; your book outlines a message, concept or theory that you are telling the reader about it. Showing is more compelling than telling! Your story shows the reader your concept in a real-life situation, making it easier for them to relate to it.

Allows readers to see themselves in your story; a well-chosen story is relatable to the reader as it helps them walk in the shoes of your client/hero and see themselves working with you.

Provides social proof. Your story shows how you helped a client go from problem to solution easily and quickly, providing proof that serves as a testimonial. It shows that you have done it successfully for the client in your story, and your reader will now know you’re capable of doing it for them.

Demonstrates to the reader you can help them go from where they are, to where they want to be, as evidenced by your well-selected case study. A well-written story will be so real that the reader can taste the result. They will see you as the one who can help them get the same result for themselves.

A well-chosen story is relatable. It confirms for the reader that you understand them and their problem. It shows that you know the solution, and have helped others working with you, overcome their challenges and obstacles.

Remember, as the native American proverb says, ‘She who tells the best stories rules the world.’

This first appeared on She Owns It

authenticity author Book writing writing a book

How to Use Press Releases To Promote Your Book- Infographic

If you have ever wondered how press releases promote your book, I have you covered. Our handy infographic highlights the benefits of using press releases and shows a timeline of press-worthy events that call for issuing a release.

Suggested occasions to use press releases to promote your book:

Pre-publications events include when you come up with your book idea, signing a publishing deal, and getting invited to co-author a book.

Publishing milestones such as a new book release by an established or famous author, the release of the book in print, kindle or audio versions, or a new book series.

Book promotional story angles include local author, book tours -both virtual and live, author interviews, book signing, free chapter give-away, bestseller status, awards, or reprinting of a book.

To get the most benefit from press releases to promote your book, start planning before you even finish writing your book. That way, you will be ready to start your publicity as soon as you have a newsworthy event, even if it’s pre-publication. To prepare, you can draft a basic press release that can serve as a template for all your press releases since key sections of the press release will remain the same. These sections include the ‘about us’ section, which is also known as the boilerplate, the book title, publisher and contact information.

The additional value of using releases is that they can and should be added to your online press room. That way, you let your site visitors know about your book news and milestones and start to build credibility with each additional item you add to the press room.

For more resources to help you use press releases to promote your book, download our Publicity Toolkit and Free Downloadable Media Plan Template. You can also contact us to find out about our press release writing and distribution services.

Related Content: 8 Ways to Promote Your Book Online

book marketing book promotion Kindle Press release for authors press releases public relations publicity for authors self-publishing

10 Ways to Use Interviews in Your Marketing

One of the strategies in your marketing toolkit today should be the interview process. The interview, or a simple question and answer session, can be very effective in facilitating the creation of a variety of valuable customer facing content such as blog posts or profile articles, to content that is strictly for internal company use.

The beauty of the interview process is that you can simply hold a conversation that you record and have transcribed into text. Speech to text software is now built into computers and smart phones, or you can use a transcription service. You now have both text and audio versions of your content. Both versions can be re purposed into additional formats including video and Power Points. You can get additional mileage by extracting short quotes or sound bites to use as social posts and tweets.

What works so well about this format is that most people are comfortable speaking about their business, product or service, than they are writing about it. Most people also prefer being directed and prompted. A blank white page with free range, can be very daunting.

Ask a client to write a testimonial for your business. They’ll wonder what to write about and put it off. Sending them 3 questions to answer about your business is a much easier and more comfortable way for them to respond, taking the guesswork out of it for them.

The beauty of the interview process is that it is a strategically designed set of questions that can help you elicit the story that you would like to tell. Whether you are interviewing a customer a strategic partner or one of your staff, by strategically designing the questions you get to shape the outcome, and can reap the benefits of 3rd party credibility – someone else telling your story and singing your praises.

Download our handy Interview Resource List

Here are my Top 10 Interview Types:

1. Customer Input
Many companies do not take advantage of this simple and obvious activity. Your client will be more than happy to tell you what their biggest challenges are and what they would like help with; then when you offer that solution they’re sure to buy.

2. Testimonials
Clients are usually happy to give you a testimonial however many businesses don’t even ask. Create an easy format with questions that prompt the client’s response, and your clients will thank you. They are often uncomfortable not knowing what to write, so when you remove the guesswork it is easy for them to just get it done.

3. Case studies
This is an underutilized form of content for your business. Case studies are so valuable because they show prospects how you solved another company’s problem, which gives prospects the ability to see themselves in your existing client, and basically try your solution on for size. It is also a form of third-party credibility, which carries more weight than a description of that very same service does in your company brochure or website.

4. Product Research
Interview customers to find out what they like about your products, as well as features they would like to see added. Everyone loves to be consulted and offer his or her opinion. Your customers probably use your products more than your own staff does and have probably already thought of things that could be improved or features that will make your product better. Make this an ongoing each aspect of your marketing and product development and research

6. Industry Insight
Interview a partner or vendor about different aspects of your industry. This can create a thought leadership piece and help inform your customers and your prospects about your industry trends, inner workings and the state of affairs.

7. Interview a Recognized Expert or Thought leader
By interviewing a thought leader, you are giving people access to someone they know and respect, as well as getting the benefit of greater exposure due to your expert’s popularity. This also positions you as a top expert and a peer of the thought leader.

8. Interview Staff

A staff interview can create content that introduces your staff and the role that they play in your business. This personalizes your business, provides insight into who a customer or vendor will be working with, and helps deepen engagement with your brand. This helps create greater consumer confidence, as people buy when they feel they ‘know, like and trust’ the company.

9. Interview Yourself
The interview format works very well to generate content more quickly, so why not use it yourself, wearing both the interviewer and subject hats. If you decide to keep your finished piece in an interview format, no one needs to know who the interviewer was, however you can also turn the interview content into a general article.

10. Interview to create a book
This one is possibly my favorite. Use an interview format to create a book. Many professionals, entrepreneurs and the public in general are interested in writing a book, yet it’s a daunting project that often gets put off repeatedly for that very reason. Using a strategically designed set of questions, it’s easy to create the content for your book through an interview. Your book can be published keeping the interview format, as I do with the books that I publish for my clients, or you can turn your answers into prose. Either way, it helps you get your book written much more quickly and efficiently so you can reap the benefits of being a published author.

The interview format is incredibly versatile and can be included in your marketing and content toolkit to help you create the variety of content that are required in today’s marketplace. Using interviews in your marketing can help grow all aspects of your business. The value of the interview format can be clarity. Simple questions, answered directly. I recently interviewed a colleague who runs a unique marketing service, for a profile in an online magazine. After reading the published interview, one of her prospects commented,

“Now I really understand what you do and the value of your service.”

That is the power of asking the right questions. Ready to put interviews to work for your business?

Note- this article was written using an interview format [I interviewed myself using a speech to text software] then edited the text for the final article.

Download our handy Interview Resource List

This post first appeared in Business2Community

book creation book writing content creation Content Marketing content marketing toolkit customer experience customer service free resources ghostwriting interviews Kindle Marketing Publicity Tool self-publishing writing

5 Ways to Promote Yourself That Don’t Feel Icky

Mom used to tell me it’s not polite to brag.

And no one likes a braggart!

The funny thing is that people often assume that some who brags a lot is very confident and outgoing, the fact of the matter is that they may actually be insecure and seeking outside reinforcement.

Ok. So you don’t want to be seen as a braggart.

If you don’t share your company’s offerings, your accomplishments, successes and milestones, how will your prospects and clients know about them? How will you share your gifts and service with more of the people who need them?

If a tree falls in the forest…

You do need to get the word out and promote yourself and your services on a regular basis. The great news is that there are ways to do it that won’t make you feel icky or a braggart.

5 easy ways to toot your own horn that won’t make you feel uncomfortable:

Talk about your business in the third person – a simple mindset shift
This is a common problem for soloprenuers. A simple trick to remove feeling uncomfortable about promoting yourself is to think of yourself or your business as another entity, a third party. Think about how much easier it is to share a friend’s accomplishment with others. Treating your business like that friend, makes it easy to talk about your business without holding back or feeling discomfort.

Make the customer the hero of your story
Focus your marketing and content on your client’s success stories [with their permission]. You solved their problem successfully. They are now raving fans. Create a case study, blog post or press release. If you focus on the client, the content you create will feel less like you are being self-promotional. It will also be something that the client will naturally want to share with their audience, garnering your even more mileage and visibility!

Be a customer educator and advocate
Offer great tips and information that will help your audience – both prospects and clients succeed. This will naturally position you as a knowledgeable resource, which will attract people who need your services. Don’t be afraid to give away your best content.

Just calling yourself the expert isn’t going to do it these days. Positioning yourself as an educator and an advocate for your customers success should be your major focus. When a prospect feels you are the source of valuable information, and they know you truly care about their results, then they will be the ones calling you the expert. – Jack Mize

Let others sing your praises – it carries more weight
It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you. Prospects trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews and the media; these sources directly influence purchasing decisions. Have an active plan for gathering testimonials, getting media mentions…and display them prominently on your website, marketing materials…

When someone asks what you do, you can quote a customer…For example, “Clients say we solve their ___ problems quickly and affordably”

Make it easy for others to talk about you
There are many great plug ins and tools that make it easy to share content from your website or blog. If the share buttons are always available next to your content, your audience is more likely to help spread the word, as it’s almost effortless. I love the Social Warfare plug in as it gives you many options to help people share your content including customized social media images, pre-populated tweets and posts.

Focus on the great work you do, and how you can solve problems and provide solutions. There are folks out there who really need your help and you are doing them a disservice by not letting them know about your services and solutions

Related Content:

How to Use HARO to Get Press

authenticity introvert pitching the media PR Strategy public relations Publicity self promotion Social Media

Your Customer Experience Equals PR

Customer experience is a part of your PR. A very important component.

Studies have shown that there are two types of customers who talk about your brand and your business – ones that are raving fans and love you and those who are very unhappy with you or the experience they’ve had with your company.

What is the experience people have with your company?

Your customer experience equals PR for your brand

A few examples – Let’s start with the happy experience

Fat Witch Brownies, make the yummiest brownies I know. I like to send a box of their brownies as a gifts to help celebrate happy occasions and to thank business colleagues for referrals or other generous actions.

I had recently ordered a gift box of brownies to thank a business colleague for his help on a project, when they didn’t arrive at the recipient’s office, I found out that I had used the wrong address.

I called the Fat Witch and asked if there’s a way to check on where they had delivered my order to, and if there was a way to get them rerouted. I fessed up that I had made a mistake with the address. They said no, unfortunately they couldn’t trace the package, however they would gladly send the brownies again and only charge me the shipping. This had been my mistake, and yet they were willing to share some of the cost to resend my package.

Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. Source: HBR

The bad customer experience

I went online to use Haiku Deck, a presentation software that I had been using for awhile. After spending over an hour creating a new presentation I saved it and went to export it. A window popped up telling me that to export it into Powerpoint, I would have to upgrade to the paid version for $9.95. This was a new requirement, but I was fine with paying to use their service – that is until I completed payment and returned to my work area on Haiku Deck only to find that my hours worth of work hadn’t been saved.

Yes, technology is great when it works.

I was extremely frustrated, first about the the loss of time, but also that I had just paid and was now left with nothing. I contacted customer service whose response was that I had done something wrong. They had tested the software therefore I had done something wrong.

95% of dissatisfied customers tell others about their bad experience. Source : Dimensional Research.

Time lost in creating the presentation. Time lost talking to customer service. Not a happy camper. Now the mere mention or thought of Haiku Deck brings up the unpleasant experience, which is now imprinted on my brain.

71% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide good service. Source: Forrester

Now back to how customer experience, and particularly customer service is part of your PR.

Public relations by definition is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public.

Consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews, and the media – in that order. Consumers make buying decisions based on recommendations online reviews and companies they read about in the media.

If your if your customers are going online and writing about you, posting on social media, or making recommendations to friends and family, what are they saying?

Remember, like me your customers remember the excellent and exceptional experiences and the terrible ones, and that’s what they will talk about.

I know which experience I want my customers to have and what I want my customers to be talking about.

The Fat Witch, has a made me even more of a raving fan. I just had to go and tell a few friends on social media to show my appreciation.

customer experience customer service PR public relations Publicity Social Media

Kenneth Cole Uses My PR Tip to Score Big Press- You Should Too!

It’s so much fun when you see your PR tip put to good use… and getting results- Publicity!

Just a quick note to share with you something exciting.. and to encourage you to take advantage of this free tool, if you aren’t already and get set up for more Publicity today!

I am talking about Google Alerts.

Google alerts have been part of my PR tips and toolkit for as long as I can remember. If you have done any of my trainings or been on my list for awhile, you have probably heard me recommend them! It is one of the best free tools you can use to track PR, build a media list, get pitch and content ideas….

In fact I just made a new video for you about how to use Google Alerts – and hadn’t had a to post it yet when… I saw this headline on Time Magazine’s website:

Kenneth Cole Replaces Man’s Stolen Bag After Learning of Theft From Google Alerts read the full article here

I got so excited. Kenneth Cole’s team is using Google alerts as I recommend…and they used the alert to take action, resulting in some great publicity. Free tool. Free Publicity! How exciting!

This is the kind of PR tool that works for you, no matter what your company size.

I want to make sure you benefit from Google Alerts and maximize this PR tip and get more publicity – I show you how in this video:

It shows you the best way to set up your alerts… and how to use them for the most return on your time.

Update: I have found Talkwalker alerts discover more content than Google Alerts. They are also free- same set up recommended.

free resources Media Mentions PR PR tip Public Relations Quotes resources

The #1 Skill to Master for Successful Publicity and Content Marketing

I started to write this post about the importance of creating a great pitch or headline for your press release, and I realized a its just as critical to be able to craft a compelling concise email subject line or blog post title.

As Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”

A great pitch or headline can also make all the difference in your business. Consider this. In our age of information overload, we scan article headlines and email subject lines and decide in the flash of a nanosecond it takes to scan the letters and words making up our opener, if we are going to open it right away, or perhaps not at all.

The #1 skill to master for successful publicity and content marketing, is the ability to craft a great and concise pitch.

As you can see, while great pitches, compelling press release headlines, and email subject lines are key to getting media coverage, this goes beyond Publicity. It impacts pitches to new prospects, partners, investors, journalists and potential partners.

When a journalist, or you yourself, scan your in box, it’s the subject line and possibly the first line of copy that gets seen in the preview window. It’s got to be attention grabbing or it gets deleted. It’s that simple.

In addition to being attention grabbing and compelling people to want to know more, it has to be short and communicate your message in as few words as possible. I know, no easy task.

Your existing email newsletter subscribers and blog readers already know and love you, and yet, they too may be ignoring you – only because of a less than compelling headline amongst a sea of headlines or subject lines in their inbox.

You can think of your headline or subject line as a tough gatekeeper – that can keep you from being in direct communication with your dear/cherished audience. It’s your job to charm the gatekeeper.

How Twitter [X] Can Teach You to Pitch Better

X, formerly known as Twitter, with its 140-character constraint, is a great way to hone your writing skills. You have to say what you need to say within the proscribed character limit or be cut off mid-thought, which is not a good option and can look unprofessional.

Sometimes, getting the words to fit into your tweet is trial and error. Sometimes, a bit of compromise. It can be done successfully, as there are over 400 million tweets sent daily, as well as people who have built massive followings by honing the art of communicating well within the word limit.

Google cuts off news headlines and articles, at 70 characters, so your press releases, blog posts and article titles display best within that even smaller number.

Ready to master the art of concise headlines and pitches?

First of course, you need a story idea. Then, to tell it within 70 or 140 characters, you sometimes need just a bit of help coming up with other words – synonyms or alternate ways to say the same concept or idea.

My favorite tools are the excellent old Thesaurus and the more updated version – Visual Thesaurus– which is actually an online interactive thesaurus and dictionary in one. It’s pretty, fun to use and very useful.

Other tools I find helpful are:

Wikipedia – under any given topic, they have related topics or ideas. This works as a brain jumpstart for me, sometimes giving me just the new word I need.

Photo libraries – sometimes the images that come up for a keyword search provide new ideas and ways I hadn’t yet thought of to voice my idea.

You may have to try a few to find what works best for you.

There are some other cool headline tools out there – watch for my list of them in the next week.

In the meantime, remember – a pitch or a headline is meant to be an irresistible invitation to read more. Its not intended to tell the entire story. In this instance, being a tease is a good thing!

In case you were wondering – My subject line for this post is 52 characters so that it would work well on Google, As an email Pitch, A press release headline, or on X!

It also has another success factor in it. Do you know what that is? Post your answer below. I’ll be giving a prize to the first person to get it correct!

book promotion Content Marketing headlines pitching the media public relations Publicity Tweet Twitter writing