Tag: Content Marketing
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If You Really Want to Sell Products, Lose the Jargon
Having worked across a number of industries during my career, I feel pretty safe in saying no industry loves it jargon (and acronyms) like healthcare. The general technology industry probably comes in a close second, but for pure technical mumbo-jumbo you can’t beat healthcare. Part of it, I think, is that the healthcare industry is…
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6 Tips for Making Your Customer Success Stories More Compelling
Everyone loves a great customer success story. You can talk features and benefits in the abstract all day, but nothing brings home the concept that those features and benefits will actually solve the problem you’re trying to address than hearing it already did the same for someone else. It’s the ultimate sales tool. Of course,…
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Keeping the Drum Beat Going on Marketing
Summer conjures many images that are symbolic of a slower pace relaxing by the beach, sipping lemonade by the pool or reading a book under the shade of a tree. These relaxing pictures of a simpler time rarely include your marketing efforts, although they can fall into this summer haze if you don’t take steps…
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Honest Question: Have You Got What it Takes to Be a Thought Leader?
Thought leadership is arguably one of the most powerful assets in an organization’s or individual’s public relations strategy. Yet relatively few companies go after the thought leader mantle, even if they have articulate, charismatic, true believers leading their organizations. Often these potential thought leaders are kept preoccupied managing the present or near-future, while others who…
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The Problem with Your Content is You (and Other Content Marketing Truths)
Here’s a valuable lesson for anyone involved in content marketing.Recently, I was chatting with a small group of guests at a party. Then, the other partygoers gracefully exited the conversation and suddenly, I was trapped. I looked right. I looked left. But my efforts were futile. I was officially stuck in a never-ending conversation. Yes,…
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Taking A Measure of PR Measurement
So there you are, listening to the PR agencies you’ve brought in to pitch your business. Everything is going swimmingly, and you think you’ve found your top candidate. Then you do it ask the one question that strikes fear into the heart of nearly every PR professional: what sort of PR measurement tools will you…
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Facts Tell But Stories Sell
“Story telling is the oldest form of teaching,” Matt Cavallo declared when we met on May 23. I couldn’t agree more. Great story telling has always intrigued me. Maybe that’s why I’m in PR. I have always believed that behind every organization is a zealous individual with an epic story waiting to be shared. It’s…
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The Dog Eat Dog Days of PR in the Internet Age: Part One
Who watches the watchdogs? It’s a phrase that conjures the creation of police commissions or intelligence oversight committees. But if you’re a believer in the sanctity of the Fourth Estate (and God knows we need them now more than ever), then the watchdogs who need watching are journalists. And no one watches or analyzes, or…
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Why I (Still) Hate the Term “Content Marketing”
A few years back, I made a minor ripple on the internet okay, make that a very minor ripple when I dashed off a plaintive lament about the use of the word “content” in content marketing. As I noted at the time, the industry couldn’t have picked a more lifeless word to describe using interesting,…