Does anyone else have The Beatles “Here comes the sun” in their heads?
Yes, spring is in the air and we are all excited in anticipation of sunnier days and longer, lighter evenings. It’s the season of renewal and rejuvenation, making it the perfect time to apply that mentality to your marketing efforts.
If you’re energized to take on a ‘spring clean’, we have five suggestions to help you freshen up your marketing:
Audit your content: Take a moment to assess your existing content. Is it resonating with your audience, or have your sales team provided feedback on how to refine it further? Is there content that needs updating or archived. Can you find more recent case studies or gather testimonials from satisfied customers. Consider repurposing successful content in different formats or channels to maximize its impact.
Refresh your brand: Customer preferences, industry trends, and technology are constantly evolving. Spring presents an ideal opportunity to give your brand a makeover or refresh. Evaluate if your messaging, visuals, and tone need updating to stay aligned with your audience and business objectives. Remember, change doesn’t have to be drastic—a style update can breathe new life into your brand.
Dive into your digital channels: Review your website and social media profiles to ensure they’re up to date and optimized for search engines. Remove outdated information, broken links, or irrelevant content that may detract from your online presence.
Clean out your database: Over time, data accumulates in CRM systems, leading to duplicates, outdated information, and inaccuracies. Conduct a thorough audit of your CRM database to identify and eliminate redundant or obsolete records. Update your data management practices enhancing the quality of your database and resulting outreach.
Re-connect with your audience: As everyone emerges from their winter “caves,” use spring as an opportunity to reengage with your audience. Consider hosting an open day or tech event, organizing a webinar, or creating new video content. Launch targeted email or social media campaigns to reconnect with your audience and stay top of mind.
So, there you have it. Five ideas to help you spring clean your marketing and communication efforts! And don’t forget: “Here comes the sun, doo, dun, doo, doo…”!
We live in a media centric and interconnected world. Information is constantly at our fingertips and for businesses, communicating and sharing information is essential.
A discipline intrinsic to successful communication is PR, or Public Relations. Often a profession which is widely mis-understood, PR plays a pivotal role in shaping public perception, influencing stakeholder attitudes, and establishing strong relationships with key audiences.
But what exactly is PR, and how does it contribute to the growth and sustainability of businesses and individuals? Keep reading and we’ll share how understanding and leveraging PR can help you build trust and reputation.
What is PR?
PR stands for Public Relations and is summarised by the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations as follows:
“Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you. Public Relations is the discipline that looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its public.”
Strategic alignment
It’s important to note that public relations is a strategic communications process. Before we create communication plans for our clients, it’s essential that we understand their wider business strategy. We can then develop clear communication objectives to support those goals. For example, if we know a client is looking to grow within a certain geographical market then we can align PR activity with their sales teams’ efforts and target influential publications and journalists in a specific geographical area. Effective and proactive PR is all centred on helping to deliver business goals.
PR in practice
Proactive PR
Traditional PR activities involve securing media coverage for organisations through press releases and other means. These activities include:
Identifying and writing credible, newsworthy press releases
Crafting full-length features on topics relevant to an organisation and pitching them to publications.
Placing comments on articles and features that are relevant to an organisation.
Creating opinion-led thought leadership articles, typically published exclusively in media titles, using the perspective of an individual within the organisation.
Building a reputation as an industry or topic matter expert so that media outlets contact you for your opinion when a related situation arises
A skilled PR professional is not only a talented writer who can capture an organisation’s tone and outlook but also can identify emerging news and create engaging press releases to share that news. They cultivate excellent relationships with the media outlets they target, ensuring clients take advantage of every opportunity for coverage.
In some cases, PR professionals may even create newsworthy opportunities as part of their strategy. This could involve curating a notable collaboration, organising an event, conducting industry-specific surveys, or establishing positive corporate social partnerships. The specific story created and conveyed depends on the communication objectives and the desired outcomes for the organisation.
Reactive PR
PR also encompasses crisis communications and the need to respond to a situation. How an organisation communicates in a time of crisis can heavily impact the brand, so PR professionals carefully manage the narrative during challenging situations to help preserve a brand’s reputation.
Most organisations do not leave these situations to chance, and crisis management forms a core aspect of many organisations contingency planning. From a communication perspective, emergency preparedness involves identifying scenarios and planning for the outcome. This can be as simple as developing holding statements for key personnel. The main objective is to give more clarity and confidence if the situation were to arise. This can ultimately help mitigate potentially problematic stories.
Editorial vs Advertorial
In today’s media landscape there are opportunities for paid content placement. A PR professional can identify these opportunities and create the content, but it’s important to note that this differs from earned editorial coverage. Paid content allows organisations to convey a story that may not be picked up editorially and offers greater control over the message. It does not have to be validated by an editor or journalist before being used. Whereas editorial coverage needs to be earned – it needs to be newsworthy and give insight.
PR for building trust
PR plays a crucial role in reputation building and developing trust between a brand and its audience. Through a well-managed PR strategy, trusted third parties endorse a product or business, directly influencing decisions to work with the business or purchase its products. While securing media coverage in print was historically the focus, the growth of the digital world has shifted the emphasis towards establishing an online presence.
Coverage within online media outlets increases online mentions, and having high-ranking news outlets’ direct links to your website builds trust. This also aids search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts by boosting online visibility and showcasing endorsements from others. Ultimately this can help to boost your websites authority score, as your website is referenced and recognised as a credible source of content. As the worlds of SEO, digital marketing, and PR increasingly converge, it’s increasingly valuable to have knowledge and experience across various communication disciplines to ensure all channels are maximised
By understanding the role of PR in reputation management, targeting the right audiences, and leveraging digital channels effectively, organisations can build trust, enhance their brand image, and drive business growth.
In a nutshell, social proof is based around the idea that people make decisions based on what other people do or say.
There’s a reason why Tripadvisor has half a billion monthly users. People are inclined to seek out the opinions and approvals of their peers.
If you’ve ever booked an AirBNB, chances are you read the reviews of previous guests prior to booking. Ratings and reviews feature prominently on AirBNB pages; ‘don’t just take our word for it – here’s what our customers have to say!’.
It’s a commonly used tactic so businesses across all sectors will always strive for your feedback. Just taken an Uber? Within minutes of being dropped off you’ll have received a prompt from the Uber app asking you to rate your driver.
It’s all about building trust and establishing authority.
Social proof has always been a key component of marketing – no more so than in the digital media age, where potential customers can instantly access reviews and ratings to influence their purchasing habits.
This is by no means restricted to B2C marketing, however, so if you’re operating in the B2B sphere and wondering whether social proof should form part of your content marketing – the answer is 100% yes. Ultimately, whether it’s B2C or B2B, you’re still targeting fellow humans.
So, with that in mind, let’s look at the most effective ways to boost your marketing efforts by letting your customers do the talking for you.
Gather customer feedback
A good starting point is to get into the habit of asking your clients or customers for feedback to be used as a testimonial. This can be as simple as dropping them an email or arranging a call to ask for specific feedback on a particular product, service or how they find working with you/your company in general. By building it into your customer relations process you’ll hopefully develop a steady stream of input. You might not use them all but it’s always useful to have a few options on file. Don’t forget to get permission to use their comment for marketing purposes.
Visualize your social proof
Once you’ve selected your relevant customer testimonial, the next step is to create some engaging visuals for social media. A branded graphic featuring the quote and a photo of the customer can go a long way. You can also add the quote and image to the relevant product page on your website.
Pro tip: Did you know videos on LinkedIn can get up to five times more engagement than still images? Elevate the testimonial with a video featuring the client/customer talking about your service. This can establish an even more authentic connection with the audience as it’s the customer speaking directly to them in their own words.
Social media
Before you post, it’s best to share what you intend to post with your client to make sure they’re happy with how they’re being presented. Make sure you @ tag them so they know it’s gone out and they’ll be more inclined to share your LinkedIn post – thus increasing its reach. Remember, the LinkedIn algorithm favors authentic interactions. So ask the customer to share and comment on the post as this will signal to LinkedIn that your post is generating meaningful discussion – and it will ultimately perform better! Pro tip: Did you know that the success of your post is partly based on the number of interactions it attracts within the first 60 minutes of posting? Monitor your post for that first hour and, where possible, reply to any comments to help increase interactions and send all the right signals to the algorithm.
Don’t forget the website
Once you’ve built up a bank of solid testimonials, consider collating them on a designated ‘customer testimonials’ page on your website. Link to it internally from relevant pages and ensure it’s easy to navigate to from the main home page.
Gold for your sales team
if your sales team are out there meeting prospects and discussing your offering then arm them with this feedback. Whether it’s a testimonial slide on a PowerPoint presentation or content in a digital brochure, quotes can often be great talking points and help your sales team do what they need to do – sell!
Media outreach
Strong social proof showcases your expertise. Media exposure helps validate your business. A mix of both is a formula for success.
Pro-actively seeking PR and feature opportunities with reputable publications has multiple benefits:
Increases your audience reach – you’ll appear on the publication website and possibly their social media channels
Boosts your SEO through link building: your website will benefit from a link from a reputable online publication – thus strengthening its authority score and visibility within search engines.
Social media content on a plate: Posting about your feature in a media publication makes for great LinkedIn content and strengthens the narrative of your brand and service offerings.
So, there you have it – the social proof is in the pudding. Get into the habit of showcasing your expertise – through the voice of your customers and clients.
If you want to grow your online audience, start by creating great content.
Straight forward enough? Not necessarily…
Creating great content can be both time and cost consuming – and that’s before you’ve even figured out what constitutes great content for your brand. A quick google will soon tell you there’s no shortage of answers.
Ultimately, ‘great’ content engages, entertains and/or educates your target audience (If you can do all three, you’re on to a winner).
For the purpose of this article, let’s fast forward a few steps: You’ve created your shiny new piece of content and it’s approved for publication. Let’s say you’ve produced a case study to highlight a particular product or area of expertise within your business. You post it on your website and share a link to it on your social media channels.
Job…done? Not so fast.
You’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating your case study. Now it’s time to make the content work for you. Here’s how to turn one case study into multiple shareable content pieces.
Infographics
Go through your case study and extract the most valuable insights. It can be key stats, numbers, facts – even half a dozen can make for an impactful infographic design. Use it to grab people’s attention on your social channels and direct them through to the full case study.
Social proof
If your case study contains a quote or input from a happy customer/client; shout about it! It could be as simple as a graphic featuring the quote and their name/title or, time permitting, arrange to film 30 second video clip of them talking about your product/service.
Pro tip: If using a static graphic; include a headshot of the person attributed to the quote. Tag the person and their company in your LinkedIn post and encourage them to both share, like and comment on the post (the algorithm favours these interactions).
Create a video
A case study that is technical in nature, or perhaps describes a specific process/service, can benefit from a video or animation asset. It doesn’t need to capture everything; focusing on one aspect can be an effective way of introducing the product/service to your audience.
Pro tip: Boost your LinkedIn marketing – keep your video/animation to 30-60 seconds and where possible, add subtitles for optimal performance. Oh, and a square video format works best!
Create a deck
Distill your case study into a few slides and use it for your next client pitch, in-house presentation or annual review. That way you’ll always have a concise and presentable summary to hand should you need it.
Pro tip: Save your PowerPoint file as a PDF and feature it on a LinkedIn post. Why, we hear you ask? Because the LinkedIn algorithm loves PDFs and will give your post a boost as a thank you.
Paid advertising
Your infographic, customer testimonial, video or animation can all be used to support audience growth through paid social media advertising. Take LinkedIn for example; there are options to suit all budgets. Select your target audience/region input the length of the campaign. You’ll be presented with a list of prices and the results they’ll deliver – then simply adjust your spend upwards and downwards until you find a budget vs reach that suits you.
Media publications
Could your case study lend itself to a feature in a trade publication? Utilize any media contacts you have in order to reach a wider audience. You’ll also boost your own SEO by having your content feature on the website of a reputable publication.
Send an email
Email marketing is an excellent content distribution tool – so don’t forget to hit send! Share your case study with your database in the first instance. You can also maintain a steady stream of clicks by updating your email signature to feature a well-designed banner that links to the case study. Every little helps!
Create once, distribute forever
By re-purposing and distributing your content across a variety of channels, you can maximize its reach, engage a wider audience and ultimately improve your content marketing output. By turning it into multiple assets you’ll also extend the lifespan of the content, enabling you to spread it out across monthly and annual content plans.
It’s February 24th, 2018. 15 or so minutes have passed since the full-time whistle sounded at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. Rangers have beaten Hearts 2-0 in the Scottish Premiership and 50,000 supporters are filtering out of Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland. Their chants are just about audible from my position outside the Hearts dressing room, located just a few meters away from the famous marble staircase that dominates the entrance hall of the old Ibrox brick stand.
In my right hand: A teamsheet listing the names of the Hearts players who featured in the match. In hushed voices, me and my colleague Phil go through the unenviable process of deciding which players we should feed to the media for the post-match debrief. Then there’s the small matter of waiting for the manager to emerge from the dressing room and what brief to give him before he enters a press room packed with TV cameras and reporters, all keen to get his thoughts on a defeat.
Then there’s the small matter of having to actually convince the players to speak to the media. Trust me, when they’ve just been booed off by thousands of supporters, it’s the last thing they want to do. In my role as Head of Marketing, it’s my job to tell them they need to do it. Some get creative and sneak out the back door, others opt for the element of surprise and burst out, seamlessly transitioning into a sprint down the corridor to avoid you. On more than one occasion, I’ve had to clamber on to the team bus and drag them players off it.
On this afternoon, however, the familiar game of cat and mouse was interrupted by a text message from my wife Lee: “I think my contractions have started.”
I know it’s at least a one-hour drive home. Plus it’ll take at least 20 minutes to get out of the car park due to the crowds. At this point, I’m willing to put the kit man up for media duties if it means getting out of there quickly.
Thankfully, the door swings open. The manager, Craig Levein, emerges.
He stops, sighs and nods. It’s dejected football manager language for: Let’s get media over and done with.
My colleague Phil blurts out: “Sven’s wife’s about to go into labour.”
Mr Levein nods. “I’ll be quick.”
True to his word, we were out of there in no time and I was able to whisk Lee off to the hospital for the birth of my first son, Isak.
Football has been such a big part of my life, both privately and professionally, that it was almost inevitable that I find myself in a football setting at the start of such a big life moment. Secondly, the arrival of Isak – and later my daughter Emilia – is one of the key reasons why I find myself here at Project Neon today.
I’m Sven and, if you’re still with me after that mammoth intro, you may be interested to know that I’m the Team Lead here at Project Neon. I work with the team across all our clients, and together we ensure we deliver a first-class marketing and communications service.
My journey here, to borrow a phrase from Bilbo Baggins, has a bit of a ‘There and back again’ feel to it.
Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish father and Norwegian mother, I moved to Stavanger at an early age and grew up here in the Norwegian oil capital. In short, I had a fantastic childhood. As a kid of the 80s, I got to grow up in a world without social media: It was friends, outdoor play, football, Nintendo 64 and MTV Europe as the default background soundtrack to my homework.
Aged 15, me and my family left the fjords behind in favour of the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Calgary, the oil boomtown in Western Canada, was to be my home for the next four years as I completed high school and spent my winters on the world class ski slopes of the Rockies, a mere one-hour drive from the house. Leaving your friends and school behind at 15 is tough but it turned out to be a life experience that I wouldn’t change for the world.
A return home soon beckoned, albeit this time to my other home – Edinburgh. Four years of journalism studies at Edinburgh Napier University followed. In June 2009, I found myself holding a degree – but with no real desire to be a journalist!
I soon bid farewell to my colleagues at Biddy Mulligans Irish Bar (a great bunch of colleagues, might I add – so much so that I ended up marrying one of them.) My first step was a role with a media monitoring company. Now, this was old school media monitoring: We got every local print newspaper in Scotland delivered to us every week and, armed with a list of client names and key words, we would sit at a desk with a highlighter and pick out every mention of them – or topics they were interested in. Next, we’d manually scan in every page, upload and tag to an online system and then send to the client as part of a weekly monitoring report. It was tedious and tiresome, but if nothing else, it greatly improved my reading speed and eye for detail!
A few years as a Content Creator at a Marketing Agency followed before, in 2015, my part-time role with Heart of Midlothian Football Club turned into a full-time position as Digital Media Executive.
What followed was an 8-year rollercoaster. I eventually moved up to a Head of Marketing role, leading on everything from Season Ticket campaigns to the design process behind selecting new kits, managing our full digital media output, producing social media content, arranging and running press conferences, leading fan experience initiatives and – oh, the small matter of editing the 68-page magazine we published for every home game. It was long hours and no weekends – and no shortage of travelling. Mainly around Scotland, mind you – but there was the odd perk. Playing in European competitions meant first class travel: Private airport terminals, private luxury planes and police escorts through the streets of Istanbul, to name but a few.
I learned a lot. Not least the importance of protecting the legacy and values of a brand – in this case, 150-year-old football club. People change banks, cars, jobs, partners – even gender! But you never change your football team. It’s a sense of belonging and for many, it’s part of their identity. We had supporters living across the street from the stadium, and ones living in in far flung places around the world – it was our job to keep them connected to one of their big passions in life.
I also got to experience football during Covid. Every game was played in front of an empty stadium. We even pumped fake crowd noise through the speakers in order to add some atmosphere (it ended up sounding like static whale song). It was a bizarre, downright depressing year – with cardboard cut-outs of fans jotted around the stadium. You could hear every kick of the ball, every word exchanged between players. And when a goal was scored – which would typically prompt the stadium to erupt with noise – there was silence bar a few muted cheers from the players.– for several months, we were limited to 1 hour of outdoor time per day (beyond your garden). A strange time to live through – and thankfully one my kids won’t remember.
That neatly brings me back to my children. Scotland was great for us, however, I always had a desire to return to Stavanger. And with my wife being from Shetland (basically halfway between Scotland and Norway), she was also more than keen to explore life in the Nordics. There are few places in the world that can rival Norway when it comes to standard of living and raising a family, so we made the decision to put the wheels in motion for a move.
Thankfully, a door opened itself at Project Neon and I returned home, family in tow, in May 2023 – almost 22 years to the day that I left for Canada. I have family here and, thanks to the power of MSN Messenger in those early 2000s, I’ve never lost touch with my old network of friends over here – we’re as close now as we were in those early days crowded round a TV for a 4-way game of GoldenEye on the N64.
The past 12 months have been a learning curve, going from football to working for an agency with deep roots in the Oil and Gas industry. It’s been fascinating so far and, surrounded by a great team, I’m excited for what lies ahead.
Plus, I still have my beloved Viking FK for my football fix…
