We wrapped up an earlier blog on strategic communications and key messages by discussing how to establish support points or proof points for each of your key messages. These support points are the facts that back up your claims, like the pillars that hold up buildings both ancient and modern.
They give each key message substance and context for the media -- whether traditional, digital or social media (and for your other key audiences as well). Remember, it is vital to have a clear, concise and consistent communications platform as part of your communications strategy -- this is the only way to ensure that everyone your company is talking to (by whatever method) -- hears the same message.
Here's what one of your key messages might look like if your company is a technological innovator:
- We have a long history of technological innovation as an alternative energy company
- Our worldwide investments have produced a stream of new and innovative products
Bullet-Proofing Your Key Messages
While this does begin to substantiate your innovation claim, it still does not provide enough information for your key audiences to believe that it is true. They need facts. Here's where we start to add those solid facts to build out the key message. By adding these facts, we now have built a bullet-proof case that supports the innovation claim:
- We have a long history of technological innovation as an alternative energy company
- Our worldwide investments have produced a stream of new and innovative products
- We invented the first portable fuel cell generator
- We sold the first fuel cell to a public utility
- We invented the first solar fuel cell
- We have twice introduced the lightest on-road zinc fuel cell
Now that you’ve developed a solid, defensible key message from your primary determinant attribute, you follow the same steps to develop each of the remaining attributes into key messages. Remember, it's best to have between three and five key messages.
They Are Pillars, Yet Not Etched in Stone
As you move through the process, you will find that some key messages are stronger than others. Don’t worry; that’s OK. This working draft of key messages should be reviewed internally at two levels – for accuracy (of course!) and if there is any other material that can be added to build a stronger case for each message. During this process, support points will be added, dropped or altered.
It’s not uncommon for these key messages to undergo several rounds of review until they have been built into a solid and comprehensive platform. It’s this process in the communications strategy that also gains buy-in across the organization – from the executive suite and through the marketing, corporate communications/public relations departments to the division level and beyond.
Here's an idea whose time has come ... PR 411 is a new website that offers a candid, no-punches-pulled discussion forum for journalists and public relations professionals.
It's a chance to air pet peeves, share the inner most thought about your profession -- or the one with whom you must work with to get your job done -- and sound off. It offers a personal view from both sides of the editor's desk on what really goes on, but may not get expressed in any other channel.
It will be very interesting to see how down and dirty this gets. Ideally, it will foster greater cooperation between the hacks and the flacks, the journalists and the corporate storytellers. At the very least, it will provide first-person commentary on the inner workings of public relations (brand journalism, strategic communications) and those working in traditional, digital and social media.
A few things they promise to talk about on a regular basis (and with the ability to really build out a conversation thread):
- Reporters' top gripes about public relations people (and what to do about them)
- Public relations professionals' pet peeves about journalists (and a few easy fixes)
- Kudos — by name — for story pitches that work (the kind reporters would love to see more of)
- Hall of Shame — anonymous! — for worst pitches of the week (and why they're bad)
They want your comments, questions, opinions and observations. In other words -- What's on your mind as you go about your business of either writing about the news or trying to get your client coverage. Stay tuned at PR-411.com.
In earlier blogs, we discussed the process of leveraging your key strategic differentiation qualities and applying them to your public relations and marketing initiatives. As you remember, we developed a list of determinant attributes for your company -- the characteristics that are important to your customers, yet distinguish your products or services from competing products or services.
By identifying the product or service attributes that your customers use to differentiate among competing products or services, we learn why your customers purchase from you and begin to understand what makes your company unique.
Develop a List of Possible Key Messages
For example, here’s how a tech company’s determinant attributes could be ranked in priority order (#1 being most important):
- Technological innovator
- Strong after sales support
- Products are good value for price
- Strong partners
- Wide distribution network
- Wide range of products
Now, we’ll take your list of determinant attributes and explore how we refine them with factual support to bring them to life and make them real for all of your key audiences -- essentially "unlocking" your key messages.
Leveraging Your Key Messages
Our goal here is to begin to define a core group of concise, clearly defined key messages that will guide all of your strategic communications initiatives – both internally and externally. These key messages will serve as the framework to convey your company’s mission and business objectives in all facets of your marketing and communications process. This would include:
- Media interviews
- Analysts briefings
- Executive speeches
- News releases
- Bylined articles
- Blogs
- Inbound marketing
- Company presentations
- Company website
- Direct mail and email
- Employee newsletters
- Even your “on hold” message
Drilling Down To Define
The first step in turning this list of determinant attributes into key messages for your company is to look at each attribute and add as many descriptive phrases that support the main point as possible for each one. This list should be compiled in a free-flowing session, with as many phrases suggested as possible. This list may be as short as one item or may include as many items that make sense. Brainstorming sessions can be used to generate these phrases.
For example, as a Connecticut public relations agency that's worked with many tech companies, here's how we might drill down to lend substance for the “technological innovator” attribute. Here's our list of descriptive phrases:
- Many new product innovations over the 40 years we have been in business
- Invented portable fuel cell generator
- Sold first fuel cell to a public utility
- Invented solar fuel cell
- Twice introduced lightest on-road zinc fuel cell
- Worldwide investment in R&D at all facilities
- Plan to introduce micro fuel cells — electrochemical devices that create electricity from hydrogen gas or alcohol – next year
From this list, it is now possible to develop a single key corporate message for “technological innovator” that is based on concrete fact, yet expands that phrase and simultaneously brings it to life:
- We have a long history of technological innovation as an alternative energy company
As you can see, this statement is based on the very first bulleted item from the list above.
Establishing Proof Points
Next, and equally importantly, you must be able to back up your claim, and that is where the other bullet points that were listed above come into play. These “support points” or “proof points” give this new key message substance and context for the media (and for your other key audiences as well). By adding these proof points, your key message now looks like this:
- We have a long history of technological innovation as an alternative energy company
- Our worldwide investments have produced a stream of new and innovative products
This second statement is based on the sixth bulleted item from the earlier list.
There you have it! You've unlocked your key messages and have given them the structure and substance that enables them to be utilized throughout your strategic communications program and leveraged across traditional, digital and social media channels -- while supporting your inbound marketing program. It's a process that takes time and careful thought, but can lead to the level of marketplace visibility you're seeking.
As MediaBistro pointed out today in "10,000 Words," the AP Stylebook (or "the journalist's bible") has a brand new friend in town -- "The Data Journalism Handbook." (And I'm sure many of you are surprised in this day and age that there would be any type of new "friend" for the AP Stylebook -- this is progress indeed!)
Launched recently at the School of Data Journalism (based at the 2012 International Journalism Festival in Perugia), "The Data Journalism Handbook" is a one-stop shop for those interested in learning about data journalism.
But I'm sure many are asking: Data what?
And others are asking: Why?
Let's Start at the Beginning: What is Data Journalism?
Here's how Paul Bradshaw, Birmingham City University, described data journalism in the Handbook:
"What is data journalism? I could answer, simply, that it is journalism done with data. But that doesn’t help much.
"Both 'data' and 'journalism' are troublesome terms. Some people think of 'data' as any collection of numbers, most likely gathered on a spreadsheet. 20 years ago, that was pretty much the only sort of data that journalists dealt with. But we live in a digital world now, a world in which almost anything can be — and almost everything is — described with numbers.
"What makes data journalism different to the rest of journalism? Perhaps it is the new possibilities that open up when you combine the traditional "nose for news" and ability to tell a compelling story, with the sheer scale and range of digital information now available.
"And those possibilities can come at any stage of the journalist’s process: using programming to automate the process of gathering and combining information from local government, police and other civic sources or using software to find connections between hundreds of thousands of documents.
Data journalism can help a journalist tell a complex story through engaging infographics, help explain how a story relates to an individual or open up the news gathering process itself.
"Data can be the source of data journalism, or it can be the tool with which the story is told — or it can be both. Like any source, it should be treated with scepticism; and like any tool, we should be conscious of how it can shape and restrict the stories that are created with it."
Data Journalism Meet Brand Journalism
As another tool, it also becomes extremely important that brand journalists understand the art and science of data journalism as another element in a strategic communications program. And like all useful tools, data journalism can be put to very good use to develop, shape and support a company's key messages in its communications program. It may actually be the most effective way to bring clarity to a concept or news that may be confusing or be difficult to simplify.
Brand journalists now have the ability to combine their traditional "nose for news" and the ability to tell a compelling story by leveraging the sheer scale and range of digital information now available. It is a brave new world once again.
It's no mystery that strategic communications almost always begins and ends with a website. If you're a company in business to make money (duh), then you better have a website that works -- and works for you.
By that, I mean it needs to be fully focused on attracting traffic (potential customers and other key influencers, like the media), giving that traffic compelling content to turn them into leads and then having the right approach to turning those leads into sales.
As I have blogged about earlier, there a number of key steps to getting this so it all works together. From the strategic communications perspective that means defining your perfect customer (or personas), focusing on your unique selling proposition (USP) and developing key messages that will serve as the communications platform or "bible" for the company. These messages will inform all of the company's communications from the website to press releases to sales presentations and marketing communications materials.
Mixing Strategic Communications with Internet Marketing
Now those ingredients need to be combined with a solid knowledge of what Internet marketing means in today's age of traditional, digital and social media in order for your company to really stand out from the crowd.
With that in mind, as an official value-added reselling agency of HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company, we've teamed up with them to offer an ebook that can serve as your essential guide to setting up and implementing a successful Internet marketing strategy.
We take you through the process step by step:
- Establishing your initial keyword strategy
- Leveraging social media
- Promoting content online
- Analyzing and refining your strategy
This comprehensive ebook will guide you through every essential step you should be taking to effectively maximize how you market your business on the web -- whether you're an established company with large marketing resources, a startup without any resources or a company somewhere in between.
HubSpot VAR (value-added reseller) and "open" webinars are always great learning experiences and that was once again the case earlier this week when Patrick Shea and Pete Caputo took us through the "State of the Online Marketing Services Industry" report. Some of the results were pretty surprising -- and had dramatic implications.
The goal of the survey was to profile the online marketing industry as a whole and identify what service offerings and business processes were being leveraged by the most successful agencies. Respondents were also probed about their biggest pain points in order to understand what financial, service and operational challenges were most prevalent. The results were culled from 750 survey responses.
I don't want to spend the time (or space) to review all of the data presented -- which was sliced and diced in a variety of ways -- but my eyes and ears perked up when the discussion turned to what services agencies are currently offering and what services they plan to add in the future.
Two Top Fives
Of the current offerings, here are the top five (with the top four offered by more than 80% of agencies surveyed):
- Social media (83%)
- Brand marketing (81%)
- Email marketing (81%)
- Web design (81%)
- SEO (75%)
It's an interesting group, reflective of marketing in the 21st century, and not all that surprising (except maybe for email marketing -- doesn't have the buzz it once had, does it?).
I found the list of the top five services that these agencies are planning to offer in the future more interesting -- and quite the hodgepodge:
- Application development, e.g., mobile (25%)
- Video production (15%)
- Affiliate marketing (14%)
- Media buying/digital (14%)
- Marketing automation (13%)
More Content, PR, Blogging Wanted
Right behind this group comes the powerful trio of planned services that I believe will be the key driver of sales activity based on customer demand:
Why? (I'm glad you asked.) It's because they are all closely tied to creating greater visibility among prospects and then turning those prospects into leads and finally into sales. These are also the ongoing, differentiating value-added services that turn project clients into retainer clients. With that in mind, it's not surprising to see that content creation represents the largest increase in services that these agencies outsource.
Will those agencies see that opportunity and seize upon it? For both clients and agencies, we hope so -- but we'll have to wait until HubSpot's next "State of the Online Marketing Services Industry" report to find out for sure.
If there is one thing I learned at Startup Weekend Stamford over the past weekend, it's that winning this "54-hour, business idea to winning pitch" competition is combination of a great idea, powerful execution and clear, concise and compelling strategic communications.
It's like Crossing the Chasm condensed into one weekend where greatness (and the ability to succeed) in one aspect doesn't necessarily translate into greatness in another aspect -- and the biggest hurdle is convincing a panel of case-toughened investors that the idea has merit. In a nutshell, it's all about formulating a communications platform and then tying that communications platform to the company's business goals.
Communicating a Clear Message
Some ideas never got past the initial pitch stage -- only 12 ideas were chosen out of 48 presented at the Stamford Innovation Center on Friday night -- so having a clear message and then being able to deliver it in a compelling manner in 60 seconds was the first hurdle that these entrepreneurs needed to clear.
Next, the 12 winning "pitchers" had to enlist a team that combined design, technology and business skills in order to shape the idea into a business. Teamwork was the key here, with the ability of team members to listen to and communicate with each other vital to moving the concept into the business world. Some teams stumbled, some moved ahead relatively smoothly ... Friday night, all day Saturday and into Sunday.
Finally, just when the teams had been at it for nearly 48 hours, the team leader/s had to make a four-minute presentation to a panel of investors and an audience of 150 at the UConn Stamford campus. The investor panel was fresh and ready (they had been there for only an hour); the presenters were tired and wired, but ready for the final push.
Having had the privilege to mentor most of these teams over the three days, it was very heartening to see how all of the teams pulled it together at the end with final presentations either really hit the mark or just missed it. Some ideas that originally sounded like they had merit just didn't sound that compelling when finally presented, while other ideas that didn't sound that interesting suddenly did. What all of the winners had in common from a strategic communications perspective was that they all really told an engaging story about the problem their idea addressed and why it was unique when compared to competitors or perceived competitors.
And the Winners Are ...
For the record, the winners of Startup Weekend Stamford were:
- First Place: MyStuDebt -- A user-friendly web-based platform for students to manage and repay their student loans
- Second Place: BeBeautiful -- An online clothing exchange
- Third Place: AgriComm Weather -- An aggregator of weather data for commodity traders
In addition, two crowd prizes were awarded to:
- The Love Squadron -- Online dating advice (“your personal wingman”)
- Risknicity -- A social site for automobile insurance
It will be interested to see how fast these companies take off and how fast (not whether) they tie their communications programs to their business goals.
I'm very excited to learn that I will be an "embedded" public relations mentor at Stamford Startup Weekend this coming weekend, where I can really roll up my sleeves and become part of an entrepreneurial team. In case you haven't heard, this is an intense, 54-hour web-business concept to finished pitch competition that will be held at the Stamford Innovation Center March 30-April 1.
During this weekend-long, hands-on experience, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if their startup ideas are viable. Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees bring their best ideas and inspire others to join their team. Over Saturday and Sunday, the teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas, practicing LEAN Startup Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday evening, teams will demo their prototypes and receive valuable feedback and awards as judged by a panel of experts. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds (designers and developers), while the other half have business backgrounds.
Present at the Birth of a Startup
I find this particularly exciting because I'm a big believer that public relations needs to be presence at the very birth of a company. Yes, of course, the idea must come first, but then how that idea is crystallized, differentiated and communicated is at the very core of startup success. The whole idea behind PR and today's strategic communications is to:
- Create visibility for the company
- Generate traffic leads and sales for the company's product or service
- Help create revenue
- Help attract investors
What better place to lay the groundwork than at the birth of a company? And what better way to ensure that it achieves all of those four bullets than to be in sync right from the start with the founder's vision -- and to have the direct input on shaping how that vision is communicated to potential employees, business partners, customers and investors?
I can't wait to hear those pitches on Friday night and then be present at the births of some of the newest technology companies in Connecticut.
If you want to read more about Stamford Startup Weekend, check out the latest issue of the Fairfield County Business Journal.
There's still time to register if you are interested ...
After a round of media calls over the past week for a variety of clients, I'm going to revisit a couple of earlier blogs -- Communications Strategy: How To Master the Editorial Thought Process and Communications Strategy Tips: Understand the Newsroom -- and add some additional thoughts that reflect the reality of today's journalism.
While it's no mystery that newsrooms are shrinking -- or have disappeared entirely (as have entire newspapers), it's actually surprising how hard pressed today's journalists are to sort through, evaluate and then report the news.
Simply put, with smaller staffs and the 24x7 news cycle, the reporters that remain have a very hard time doing their jobs well. It's a case of too much news, too few people.
Don't Expect the Media To Know Your Story
With that in mind, it's important from a strategic communications perspective to expect that these reporters probably do not know much about the company they are being contacted about or the products and services it offers. Obviously, there are exceptions to this "rule" for global brands and household names, but even when I ran the Fujifilm account at Edelman, not many reporters knew Fujifilm for more than the green boxes of film in the dump bins at Wal-mart and their digital camera line. And they were "much, much more than film."
That said, newsrooms today are a far cry from the "good old days" when media companies had research departments (and researchers) and reporters had time to gather facts, reflect on them and then thoroughly research their stories. (And newsrooms, like the one I learned in at Newsday, seemed as large as football fields.) Today, that prep time has been reduced to what seems like nanoseconds (and that real estate has been reduced too, often to a back yard rather than a football field).
Faced with that reality, today's public relations professionals and brand journalists come smack up against the same dilemma that was summarized so brilliantly in the classic McGraw-Hill "old man" (or "grumpy old man") ad for their business publications:
- I don't know who you are.
- I don't know your company.
- I don't know your company's product.
- I don't know what your company stands for.
- I don't know your company's customers.
- I don't know your company's record.
- I don't know your company's reputation.
- Now -- what was it you wanted to sell me?
PR in 2012: How To Get the Media To Hear Your Story
How to get past this hurdle? Have a compelling story, know the reporters that cover the company's industry and have spokespeople that have been properly prepped and can deliver their key messages clearly, concisely and calmly so the reporter understands the company, what its news is all about and why it should be important to the reporter's readers. It's really not much different than the "good old days," but there might be some more educational time spent during an interview with a reporter than you may have come to expect, but this is time well-spent if you are truly engaging the reporter in the conversation.
One of the essential steps in a sound strategic communications program is to define your company’s “key messages” or “communications pillars.” Ideally, these should naturally flow out of the steps of your
communications audit and
developing your USP (unique selling proposition or point).
The primary goal of this step is to formalize a core group of concise, clearly defined key messages that will guide all of your communications initiatives – both internally and externally. Developed in close harmony with your company’s key management and communications teams, these key messages serve as a framework to convey your company’s mission and business objectives in all facets of the marketing and communications process. This would include, for example, media interviews, analyst briefings, executive speeches, news releases, bylined articles, company presentations and other communications tools, such as your web site, direct mail, employee newsletters and even your “on hold” message.
By creating a defined set of messages that are closely aligned with your company’s business goals and then using them as a foundation for all your communications activities, you have taken the first step toward creating your own distinctive brand. Simply put, it's the platform for brand journalism at your company.
The consistent and thoughtful implementation of these messages across all of your key audiences will help ensure a clearly articulated market position for your company. Depending on your company’s mission and business goals, these key messages may remain consistent over a long period of time or may be revised as you introduce new products and services or as the competitive landscape changes.
The 'Fingers on a Hand' Rule
As with determinant attributes, it is important to create a list of key messages, which may be as short as one or as long as a dozen items. Our recommendation is that the list contain between three and five items. Why? It’s like going shopping at the food store. If you have a list of three to five items (milk, bread, eggs, cheese, orange juice), you will most likely remember them without writing them down. (This is the “fingers on a hand” rule – one finger for each item, so five fingers for five items). If the list grows larger than five items, it becomes very hard to remember every item without writing all of them down (now add soup, coffee, tomatoes, grapes and crackers to the original list – see what I mean?). And since we are defining these key messages to use them and not get bogged down in the process, it’s easier if you don’t have more than five to remember.
To summarize, here are the five reasons you need to develop key messages:
- To communicate better with your key audiences in terms they will understand and embrace
- To create highly effective communications quickly and easily by following an approved “roadmap”
- To gain executive buy-in and their commitment to participate in communications initiatives more readily, including social media
- To ensure that all company personnel communicate clear and consistent information about your company (the “all singing from the same hymnbook” analogy)
- To leverage a strong marketing and communications strategy as a key component of your overall business plan -- and one that maps to your business goals
Five reasons, just like five fingers; see how the "Fingers on a Hand" Rule can come in handy?