Media Relations — A Tale of Two Clients

Full Disclosure + OCD

We must admit it. We're obsessed with generating "ink" for our clients. But we're finicky how we generate that press. Our reality is we have two clients: the ones that pay our bills (corporations) and the ones who don't (media). Of course our bias is toward our paying client but we serve the media with respectful attention.

We possess a genuine concern to help editors deliver content that's insightful to readers. We believe this genuine care is why we build lasting relationships with editors and reporters in various industries.

Which is why we created InkPath for clients who want to choose the path to great Press.

Why Social Media?

Our clients want to involve social media with their PR and/or marketing endeavors for two reasons:

1. Their competition is doing it; or,
2. They want to beat their competition to doing it.

While those are valid reasons to conduct social media they are not the basis of sustainable social media campaigns. According to a U.S. study conducted in 2008 (we know that isn't completely recent, but still applicable), 85% of marketers use social media to 'engage' their customers. If engagement is the primary reason to use social media, how do you actually engage customers? Or tougher yet, how do you engage prospects? Well, it certainly isn't shoving product or service news down their virtual throats.

Challenge/Solution Approach

Our social media campaigns utilize a challenge/solution approach. We are not fans of pushing products on Facebook. Nor are we followers of throwing "me, me, me, look at me" content onto Twitter. But we do view YouTube as a valuable social media tool when used appropriately. And when we utilize LinkedIn for a campaign we have a proprietary process for getting target audiences - even specific people - engaged.

We try to stay ahead of the curve on the technology, of course. A new breed of location-aware (GPS services on mobile phones) social media, such as MyTown and Foursquare, are becoming critical for B2C marketing. Inevitably B2B marketers and communicators will need to address these location-aware services before their competition does. But it's a good thing we're PR people first, because we value content above all else. We know that if you deliver content people need then people will respond with their attention.

Results in 90 Days! (No, really.)

We know. We know. This sub-head sounds like an empty infomercial promise for a new belly reduction system built from anodized steel. Well, our promise is to get you fat. Fat with results. Typically we can ignite a social media campaign, with qualitative and quantitative results, within a 90-day period. Upon evaluation clients can scale down or up based on proprietary data and results. The best part, for many clients, is our ability to use social media to generate and capture leads.

Humbled to Learn the Obvious

Do you know what two hundred years of experience has taught us? If you can't sell your service, solutions or products you don't have a business. So why did it take us so long to learn this? Well, let's say we always knew it but now, more than ever in a challenged economy, we feel it.

Our clients are under more pressure today to sell, sell, sell. We thrive on relieving that pressure for them.

Our solutions and strategies for bringing products and services to market generate the elusive demand our clients desire.

End results of our work? More deals closed.

Break Through. Engage. Sell.

After careful research and analysis, we develop break-through-the-clutter campaigns to support sales force to engage potential customers, propose/present and convert business.

These sales support campaigns involve all types of disciplines —fused based on client objectives — to generate real financial results.

Whether it be our text messaging program Drive2Sell(TM) to deliver key news to your support staff, a microsite so your sales force can engage distributors or razor thin targeting of a specific segment, we help you help your sales force convert business.

With our eye always on helping executives and their sales force generate more revenue, we adhere strictly to our clients’ proprietary business, positioning and branding plans but are always, gladly, pushing the envelope.

Critical Situations — Bring it On

When You Can't Sleep

You've tried different approaches – traditional and non-traditional – and nothing is working. You might be downtrodden, unsure of what to do next and are under severe pressure. After countless meetings, picking the brains of colleagues, knocking your head against the desk... nothing. You may not even sleep at night. That's when you call us.

We listen. Carefully listen. Then we think. Then we create.

Innovation. Fusion. Sleep Therapy.

One Fortune 100 client put it: "I guess I am looking for something totally off the wall, because we had clearly faced the wall and couldn't break through or go over it." Under these circumstances we believe in searching for – and finding – the innovative methods and technologies to solve the problem, mount the challenge and fulfill the opportunity.

This often requires the combining of the tried and true and the cutting edge. Each project of this nature is one of a kind, requiring the solution to be a new creative approach that works and de-clogs the quagmire. Then, as our killer ideas ignite excitement and campaigns, our clients can finally fall asleep. Because they know they have best solution in action for their challenge.