The Art of Working with Influencers

Influencer marketing is becoming one of the most effective ways to attract new customers and clients. Indianapolis-based marketing and PR firm Pickett & Associates has been utilizing the power of influencer marketing for years now – for clients such as Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, Main Event Entertainment, Piney Acres Farm and numerous others.

“In order to tap into our primary demographic – parents with young kiddos – for our Waterpark season, we tapped into local Mommy Bloggers. These individuals are very active within the social scene, both online and in person, and we didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity where they could help promote us. By providing them daily admission to experience our park and then have them write about it, we were able to see an increase in ROI. Mommy bloggers would do anything to provide their kids a positive experience and create a memory and we thought what better a place to do that than a fun, outdoor waterpark,” said Lindsay Labas Marketing Director with Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation.

What is an Influencer?

Influencers are local people who are highly active on social media and blogs. They have their ear to the ground, are brand advocates and niche promoters. When they post, tweet or go live, hundreds — and often thousands — of loyal followers take note and listen.

The bottom line is that consumers put value in recommendations from a trusted source more than any print ad, billboard or commercial. Think about if a friend tells you how phenomenal a new local restaurant is, aren’t you more likely to consider trying it out yourself? Well-connected influencers with loyal audiences are that “mutual friend” who can connect your brand with your target demographic, drive traffic to your site and increase your exposure.

Content, whether a blog or social posts, created around your brand by a local influencer is authentic and fuels conversations with their niche audience and often goes further into the audience’s individual network as they share and create their own conversations. An influencer’s recommendation alone can create social buzz.

Did you know 86% of influencers also operate at least one blog?

Why is that important? A couple of reasons.

  • Authentic online stories and articles about your brand with links back to you. Think about how many people do research online before making buying decisions. Just another great way for them to find YOU through a source they trust!
  • Good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing). Yep, we want to fill the first few search results pages with you, so when individuals search for products or services that are in your wheelhouse the search engine results pages (SERP) are filled with your brand.
  • Influencers and bloggers love great visuals. They take great pictures and are often happy to use provided high res brand pictures as well. They are well-versed in tagging images correctly, which means photos of your brand will be sprinkled throughout image search results online.

Compensating Influencers

Yes, utilizing influencers and bloggers to spread your brand message is often less expensive than traditional advertising avenues, that doesn’t mean it’s free. The service they provide is skilled and worthy of compensation. You want your influencers to feel acknowledged, rewarded and appreciated. There are a couple ways to go about compensation.

  • Financially. See what the rates are for advertising on their sites. Create a budget for working with influencers. Sponsor a guide, a blog series or a social series. Make it a partnership.
  • Incentives and Trades. Give them free product to review. Offer event tickets and passes. Have them out for a VIP experience of your brand.

Commission. A percentage commission on sales brought your way directly by the influencer or blogger. Usually identified by a coupon checkout code for special URL link for tracking purposes.

Pick the Right Influencers for Your Brand

Pickett & Associates is a great start! We’ve been working with Central Indiana bloggers for nearly a decade – cultivating relationships, understanding their niches and actively joining their online conversations.

Finding the right influencer or blogger means keeping your ear to the ground, following hashtags, reading their content, researching their social statistics and targeting those that are a fit. Additionally, there are outreach tools that can make the process easier and quicker.

It’s important to select influencers who are passionate about your brand and brand believers. Authentic passion for a product or service shines through in content, no matter a blog, a photo or a video. If they are so-so about your brand, then they aren’t for you.

Bonus Influencer Engagement

You get the most bang for your influencer buck if your target influencers who are continually uploading photos and videos of themselves enjoying your brand, and their followers are liking and commenting away. Kick the action up by offering the influencers a giveaway promotion for their fans and readers. A giveaway that they can facilitate through their own site and randomly pick a winner to share the fun. Or offer a free trial or coupon code through the influencer to entice their readers to give you a try.

Moreover, when the influencer shares a blog, photos or a video about your brand on their social pages, like it, comment and share to your own social pages. This is a big one that clients often miss. A thank-you shout out for their work on your behalf goes a long way and helps to increase the traffic on that specific post as well. It’s a win-win.

Ready to build a few Indy Influencer relationships and increase the visibility of your brand? Let’s chat.

Four Tips: Social Media for Business

We were recently asked, “What are the best practices for using social media for business promotion?” The answer to that, of course, is fraught with a minefield of opinions. That said, if you’re just looking for a place to start, without getting “into the weeds,” here’s a brief list to consider. Four tips for social media for business:

Strategy

A successful social media program begins with Strategy. Businesses need to RESEARCH their competition and industry and then create MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES. That doesn’t mean “we want to raise awareness” … that means, “We want to drive 25 percent of our website leads from social media in 12 months.” Take into consideration Google keywords as topics. From those measurable objectives, businesses need to create a “content calendar” — lots of templates out there. Much like your “to do” lists, if you identify topics and themes and write them down, you’re more likely to act on it and check it off as “Accomplished!”
Story Telling
No one ever built a huge social media following just promoting their product, organization or event. Social media is about engaging audiences with a “story” — whether that is a motivational meme or a video from the janitor. In telling the story, get away from “The Three Little Pigs” (We, we, we) and focus on solving a customer’s pain point.
Be Patient
It takes time to build an audience and see results. The term “It Went Viral” lures some to the false sense that this is a quick and inexpensive boost for marketing efforts. Be prepared for a long-term (12 months is realistic) commitment to the effort.
Don’t Hire Your Niece to Run Your Social Media
Most business owners hire professional accountants and attorneys to provide specialized work. But it’s surprising how many think social media is the perfect task for their niece or nephew home for summer holiday. While this generation is certainly knowledgable in navigating the various platforms, few have the discipline to provide the strategy necessary to make it worth your while. That said, with a content calendar and a mentor, it is a great opportunity for burgeoning journalists, public relations and marketing professionals to cut their teeth.

Key to Successful Marketing: Focus on Solving a Problem

As a Central Indiana communications and marketing firm, we find ourselves listening to numerous entrepreneurs and organizations who want to solve their lead generation, sales and even awareness challenges. Admittedly, there are times when we are mesmerized by a clients’ cool offerings or amazing organizations.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of spewing all the cool features, bells, whistles and innovative widgits that (wait for it) seamlessly provide a bullet-proof solution for the customer or client.

Don’t Fall Into the Marketing Jargon Trap

Seriously. Just say no to this ridiculous jargon … If you are trying to attract customers, you need to think like a customer. Better yet, ask your customers, “What do you need?” “Why do you choose us?” and for digital marketing, “If you were looking for us on line, what words would you search?”

A good sales person knows the secret: Find the pain point and tailor your sales pitch to solve that pain. Your marketing communications should follow suit. If a majority of your materials begin with, “Our company provides blah, blah, blah …” stop. As one of our wise branding gurus has said often, “This is not the Three Little Pigs. It is no time to tell the story of, ‘we, we, we’ all the way home.”

Effective Marketing Communications Isn’t All About You

Believe me when I say this: No one wants to hear you extol the virtues of your product. Customers and clients want to know how your product can help them solve a problem based on their needs. By and large, people think their needs are unique and therefore the solution needs to be unique. A communications message tailored to a unique need is much more effective than a blanket description of your company and product or service offerings. And, more importantly, this needs-based messaging begins building a relationship.

And Relationship is Key

Whether you are a manufacturer making widgets or a not-for-profit soothing the down-trodden, establishing a relationship through messaging is the first step in the sales cycle, in the donation process … in getting people to buy into whatever you are selling.

That said, you’ve got to deliver. You can have the most creative and insightful marketing team in the world hone your message in epic, artistic ways. You can spend millions of dollars on advertising and public relations. But in the end, if you don’t deliver, it’s all for naught.

Unless you’re The Music Man. He found the pain point for River City’s residents: They were worried about their kids. HE had a great solution: A band! The citizens believed and bought instruments and uniforms to be delivered on the Wells Fargo Wagon. He even convinced the doubting librarian. And, even after he couldn’t deliver the ordered items, his PROMISE of a brighter day kept him from being tarred and feathered. And everyone lived in Technicolor, happily ever after.

That doesn’t happen in 2017. In 140 characters, Professor Harold Hill would be a gonner. Or a politician. But probably not a successful entrepreneur or executive director trying to market goods and services. Shipoopi!

Need a team of professionals to help you identify your unique solutions and reach your target audiences? We’d love to chat with you about it!

Crowdsourcing is Not a Branding Strategy

Regardless of one’s level of success, everyone likes an affirmation now and then. But when it comes to your branding strategy, we suggest three things: 1) Hire a professional 2) Collaborate with said professional to develop a brand that best represents your company and 3) Don’t ask a group — employees, customers, your LinkedIN connections — that is NOT involved with that process, “What do you think?”

The first two suggestions aren’t exactly breaking news. Most organizations realize the importance of branding. Much time and effort should be spent on this process in terms of assessing your company, your competition, your value proposition and then communicating that through brand messaging and design. Anyone who has gone through this process knows it can be long and arduous, sometimes even painful; but the end result is something that represents the company.

So why, after expending all that time, energy and capital, would you turn to a group outside the strategic circle, hold up the design representing this effort and ask, “Hey, what do you think of this?” Inevitably this question is thrown out there with no explanation to what is trying to be communicated or the long and winding road it took to get there. And you know, when you ask, people are going to tell you how THEY would tweak it or what THEY see.

And suddenly, your months of research, thought and discussion becomes a rorschach test, misinterpreted and second guessed.

I recently witnessed this very scenario while scrolling through LinkedIn. Some well-meaning team member through out six different versions of a new logo and asked, “Which one do you like?”

All I could imagine was the designer and project lead, back in their office, banging their heads on their desks.

To ask such a question, just to get attention to your branding efforts is just a lame gimmick … if you aren’t serious about their input, don’t ask. And if you are allowing them to weigh in, well that’s worse. It’s fine for bands to crowdsource the art for their latest DVD or a retailer to have their followers vote on the next t-shirt design. But throwing all that research, work and the expertise of the professional into the wind? Not cool.

When you are ready to “unveil” your branding, by all means, make it an event. Invite your stakeholders to partake in the excitement. Offer a brief background on the process — people will find that interesting.

But respect the process and the final approval. Give yourself — and your team of experts — some credit. If you’ve done your research and put in the time and effort, you’ve got nothing to worry about!

Why Strategic Public Relations is Imperative to Your Business

We often talk about strategic public relations. It sounds impressive, but what is it, really? Strategic public relations is an approach grounded in research, followed by planning, implementation and evaluation. And it’s how we approach every client project. Allow me to explain why.=

I used to sit through client meetings where the ideas were coming forth like water out of a firehose.

I’d leave those meetings feeling like we’d really accomplished a lot, and I KNEW the client was going to LOVE this great idea!

Six months later, the client was asking, “Why aren’t we seeing more customers/clients/donors/volunteers/revenue?” Stutter, stutter, stutter. Throw out more great ideas, rinse and repeat … which became the communications version of Whack-a-Mole.

And then, I learned the right way to do things. <Enter sub-heading, Old Dog Learns New Tricks>

Admittedly, I came to this profession via journalism; certainly, I was hired because I could write well and navigate the media landscape, because I used to be “one of them.” And for a while, my sole purpose was to garner a “media hit.” That worked for a while … and for a couple of agencies. But then I started questioning myself and my “media hit” tactic. Because despite the media hit, the client was still asking that question about return on investment.

I got serious about my profession. I joined PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) and joined a study group to prepare for the APR exam which I subsequently passed (Read Four Reasons NOT to Hire an Accredited Public Relations Professional). And I realized everything I had been doing wrong. Every PR engagement should begin with research — a communications audit, finding out about their customers, their product, their competitors — followed by identifying measurable objectives (that include an identified increment within a certain time) on which one’s success can be based. The tactics — all those great ideas we used to throw around the table — should be developed solely to support the measurable objectives. Regularly evaluating the project against those objectives may result in a “tweaking” of the tactics … but it’s done proactively and not when the team is in the “hot seat.”

When I took this new-found information back to my then-employer, I was admonished that, “Clients won’t pay for research. They don’t want to spend that money on a strategic plan.”

Shortly thereafter, I found myself launching Pickett and Associates and developed a tagline, “Strategic Approach. Measurable Results.” And clients do spend money on research and a strategic plan. These days, everyone needs to validate their worth and justify return on investment.

It doesn’t work for everyone. Occasionally, we find our selves being put in the position of “an order taker” versus a strategic partner. It’s not our favorite thing. And, honestly, it’s silly to spend money outsourcing a strategic marketing team if you’re ignoring advice gained through research and marketing expertise. Those are difficult conversations to have with clients, but ones we have from time to time. It’s just part of doing business.

There’s no doubt that creativity and great ideas play a big part in public relations and marketing. But to ensure the bottom line results clients desire, the engagement must be approached in a strategic way. Is your communications team providing you with a strategic plan? If not, it may be time to sit down and have a chat.

Why I Wish my Plumber Was my Client

The hazard of being a PR and marketing professional is that you find yourself constantly stepping out of normal experiences and viewing them from a business perspective. I find myself cringing at cashiers sharing the intimate details of their lives. “#Customer service fail,” I think to myself. “Someone needs to tell her when a customer asks, ‘How are you?’ they were just being polite.”  Or when I pull up to a client’s office, and view it from a potential customer’s eyes and see weedy flower beds and discarded trash in the parking lot. It doesn’t paint a picture of the ‘subject matter expert’ people are following on social media.
Likewise, I don’t hesitate to tell companies when they are doing an awesome job. Which is where my plumber enters the picture. I wish my plumber was my client – or more clients were like my plumber – because he’s doing everything right.
As a long-time customer, the company has my email address through which I receive season tips and offers. It was recently that I received one of those which reminded me that my disposal wasn’t working, and I needed them to come out. I clicked on the “call us today and receive a 20 percent discount” number, and the phone was answered by a helpful, courteous person who set up the appointment “between 3 and 5 p.m.”
Not to point any fingers, but UNLIKE my cable company, 3 to 5 p.m. begets a call at 2:30 to confirm a 3 p.m. appointment. And, even though I need a new disposal, and I write a $400 check, the pain of that purchase is mitigated by a plumbing professional who takes the time to explain some care and maintenance that will maintain the life of the new addition. He also cleans up his mess, throws away his trash and talks about how much he loves his job and respects his boss. As a customer, this makes me feel like I made a good decision hiring them.
I was also impressed with the plumber’s use of technology. He looked up the estimate for the new disposal plus labor on an iPad, I “signed” off on the work and a receipt was emailed to me before he cleared the driveway. This is says to me, “This is a reputable company that has invested in both its people and technology.”
Lessons learned?
  1. There’s just no replacement for good customer service. I’m a repeat customer
  2. Be consistent in your customer communication. Their weekly information reminds me they are there when I need them
  3. Invest in technology – and a good Customer Management System – regardless of your line of business
Simple lessons … not always so simple to implement as successfully as my plumber. Something for us all to work on!

Blogging for Business: Four Things to Know

Blogging is nothing new. I’ve been doing it for business for about 10 years now. Today blogs are an essential component of our content creation services and provide an optimal way to tell a brand story, reach potential clients and position one in the market … but it wasn’t an easy entry.

I recall clearly when the notion was raised that I should be blogging for a client. I believe I said something along the lines of , “Why don’t I just go into the bathroom and talk to myself?” At that time, my impression of “bloggers” was sort of like “vanity publishing”: not much readership and mostly for one’s own ego. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to grasp the reality that blogging had enormous potential.

A decade later we’ve become BFFs with not only blogging FOR clients, but collaborating WITH industry bloggers. So, let me share four blogging for business basics:

  1. When using blogs as a tool to improve your SEO (search engine optimization), use keywords, bulleted or numbered lists and original content. Do NOT think you can just use the exact same blog from a vendor partner, even if you credit them for that. Google is not your English teacher … it’s beyond plagerism. Google will signficantly “ding” you for this practice. Link to the pertinent areas of your website, and optimize your titles, tags, etc.
  2. Make your blog visual — use photos and infographics. As important as the words are for SEO, you want people to read it … and we all know folks are more inclined to do that if they are engaged by some visual interest.
  3. Use blogs to establish yourself as a subject matter expert — a way to set your self apart from the competition in a very crowded and noisy market.
  4.  Utilize social media to spread your message. There’s no point writing a blog and then just letting it languish about. Sure, someone MIGHT search for the topic and find it, but why not put it out there for the world to see? (Click here for step by step “how to” instructions)

Get it? Cool! Too busy to do it yourself? Set up a free consult and let’s see what we can do for your business!

How to Post Your Blog to Social Media

So, you’ve created a blog … better  yet, you’ve created several blogs. You’ve posted them to your website. Now what?

It’s not rocket science. It is time consuming. That’s why about 60 percent of Pickett and Associate’s business is social media strategy, management and implementation. But let me give you the “inside scoop” — then you can decide if you want to play DIY or delegate. Here’s the deal:

  1. Write a few words of introduction to the idea of the blog; make it catchy, enticing. SOLVE A PROBLEM! OFFER A SOLUTION!
  2. Use the specific blog link, not just the blog page. then you want to cut and paste www.pickettandassociates.com/publishing-blog-social-media NOT www.pickettandassociates.com/blog. Why? You want readers to go right to that blog; theoretically, there’s a purpose in that blog that you’ve identified in a communication plan and/or editorial calendar.
  3. If you are using Facebook or LinkedIn, once you paste that link, a post is generated with a photo and the beginning of your blog; at that point, delete the link you put in there. If no photo is auto-generated, upload something appropriate (and talk to your web person about why that’s not happening).
  4. If you are using Twitter, shrink the link. We prefer ow.ly but you can use bit.ly. Either are super easy — just paste the long link and it generates something shorter.
  5. Schedule it! If you are using Facebook for business (which you should be) … (tell me you aren’t using a personal account, please!), you can schedule several posts at one time through Facebook. You can also use a service like Hootsuite and post across multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. (Other than the ease of having them all in one place, there’s an “ow.ly shrinker” built in.) There are tutorials galore; don’t be afraid.

See, I told you it was “easy peasey.” But if you decide to delegate, we’d love to hear from you! We love working with businesses and organizations of all sizes and budgets!

Websites: Template or Custom Design?

by Clay Mabbitt, SitePotion

Over the last year or two, I have more clients approach me about working on a website with the idea already in mind that they’d like to use a WordPress theme. For the
uninitiated, a WordPress theme is an already fleshed out design for a site that you buy and swap out your logo, copy, and images.

I certainly get the appeal. The demo versions of some of these themes are very attractive (often because they’re using amazing photos that may not be available for your own site). You cut the design costs substantially. Still with most themes being priced under $50 it seems like an amazing value. I think that price tag is what pulls people in, but the number can be a little misleading.

Most popular themes try to include all the bells and whistles that every potential website owner might want. No one site would use all of those modules, and you end up with a lot of moving parts you don’t need or understand. This makes the learning curve to understand how to put your own logo, copy, and images into the site much higher. Which brings up an important consideration: If the point of using a theme is that the coding is already done, why are people still reaching out to me (a programmer) when they want to use one? Why don’t they just install the theme and start putting in content themselves? It’s because with all the extra features and customization that theme developers have put in, the back end has become very difficult to use. A true layman usually can’t make sense of it.

Secondly, you undoubtedly are expecting to gain some business from your website. That means you will need someone to do the appropriate research for keywords, meta descriptions, etc. that optimize your site for searh engines. And you need content generated by someone who understands those search engine algorithms  as well as updates content regularly and tweaks for the changes that come over time. All in all, it’s never going to be a $50 … or even $500 … proposition.

The other reasons a WordPress theme may cause some headaches:

  • No easy button. Ironically the more “idiot-proof” a developer tries to make a theme, the more complex controls it ends up having. (I assume there are exceptions to this somewhere, but I’ve never seen one.)
  • No such thing as an easy tweak. It might only be a few lines of code in a few places that need to change, but anyone you bring in needs to identify how many lines need to change and where. Ever try to read code someone else wrote? It can be an amazing time sink.
  • Don’t forget the updates. Theme developers regularly make these down the road, and you can’t afford to ignore them
  • Hacker magnet. Popular themes can be a convenient target for hackers because once they identify a vulnerability in the theme, they can target every site on the web that uses that theme.

I certainly won’t say that a custom theme is never a viable option for a website, but I will say that they never cost just $50.

Debunking Three Myths of PR

I am often surprised at the perceived, somewhat-magical powers of public relations professionals. Poof! Call a news conference and have every station attend! Poof! Make that ugly legal issue disappear! And while you’re at it, can you write something that doubles my earnings this year?

Granted there are a number of things with which a public relations professional can assist a business or non-profit organization. But there are also a number of things that they cannot do. And the key, my friends, is the “wisdom to know the difference,” to quote the Serenity Prayer. So, allow me to bestow some of that wisdom on you by taking you through these three myths of public relations.

  • All we have to do is call a news conference or pitch this story to the media! Yeah, not so much. First of all, the days of “calling a news conference,” unless you are someone of high profile with something interesting to say, are over. I’m not sure if they were really even there to begin with. Nonetheless, the press cannot/will not/should not be summoned to hear about your awesome new product, award, tremendous accomplishment, etc. Secondly, let me make one thing really clear … and if you remember nothing else from this article, please remember this: It is not the news media’s job to provide you with free advertising or a forum from which to tout your organization. Today, the media is looking for content that will engage audiences who have many, many more choices than ever before. It may be hard news or an investigative piece; it may be soft news or a feature. They are walking a delicate balance of being objective reporters who must adhere to management’s call for bottom-line results. The key to making a connection with a reporter is to make your business or organization a subject matter expert and offer interesting and timely topics and opinions over the course of time. It’s a relationship. And that’s where a PR person comes in handy.
  • Make that issue disappear! Okay, really? Ever see a dog working frantically to cover up his mess in the backyard? There’s no real disappearing, and I don’t care how much you pay for “reputation management,” that stink is going to linger. A crisis is never a matter of “if” but “when.” Be prepared with solid messaging and proactive crisis management – again, this is where a PR person can really help you work through potential crises and what you want to say. Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth. And tell the truth. Quickly. The issue won’t disappear, but it won’t be quite as stinky for quite so long.
  • Show me the money (and the ROI)! Do I look like Jerry McGuire? Nevermind. But it’s sometimes difficult to connect the dots between a company’s return on investment on public relations, but it’s not impossible. It’s also not cheap. It starts with a strategic public relations plan that includes research, planning (including defining measurable objectives), implementation (the strategies and tactics) and evaluation. It’s important to obtain initial research like customer surveys (of all your clients, not just the happy ones), communications audits, etc. before the PR fun begins. No, that survey you did three years ago won’t work. You think you know your clients and don’t need to ask them what they think? Good luck with that.

Another important thing research provides is the information necessary to create messaging that will resonate with your audience – potential customers, donors and, yes, the media. This messaging should also be reflected in all of your marketing efforts, from website, social media and presentations to collateral materials (which is how a lot of us PR pros end up overseeing marketing efforts or working in tandem with marketing as well). And you should be willing to use as many evaluation tools as you can, from Google analytics to Facebook Insights to paid monitoring services that not only track where your company appeared in the press, but the perceived value of that placement. Another survey after 12 months helps measure your progress as well. It may seem like unnecessary minutia, but (trust me, here) it’s the difference between success and disappointment.

If you decide to hire a public relations professional, think of them as a “trusted advisor” – like you would an attorney or accountant.

That means they aren’t there to tell you how wonderful your business, product or organization is; they are there to provide thoughtful, objective advice based on their education, experience and expertise. Typically, an hourly rate of service (in the Indianapolis market, $125 an hour seems to be the average) is determined for a certain number of hours per month along with an anticipated scope of work that goes along with those hours. Your strategic communications plan follows and, “Voila!” you’re on your way to a successful relationship with a public relations professional.