Brandtelling

How does brand journalism change the way you reach customers?

Jeff Vance — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:05:28 PST

[A note from Arthur: Every so often the tables are turned. Jeff Vance has contributed feature articles and editorials to such publications as Forbes.com, Network World, CIO,Datamation, Wi-Fi Planet, Cloudbook and many others. Jeff blogs at Sandstorm Media. Recently Jeff interviewed me about our agency and our Brandtelling approach. I asked Jeff's permission to share the interview with my readers here on Brandtelling.]

Q & A with Arthur Germain – Part II

Arthur Germain, Principal & Chief Brandteller, Communication Strategy Group

By Jeff Vance

If you missed Part I of our discussion, read it here.

JV: It sounds like a lot of your PR job today revolves around tasks that would have been handled previously by internal sales and marketing teams. You dig up good customer stories. You write content targeted to prospects and customers. At the same time, you’ve abandoned some traditional activities, such as going on media tours. Does that mean you’re deemphasizing press relations in favor of customer engagement?

AG: No. It’s true that we’ll get tapped just as often to write case studies as news releases, but I don’t think that means we’re necessarily deemphasizing the press. Part of it is the approach of our agency. We’re a brand marketing agency that does PR.

“Even with contributed content, you still have to be a trusted source for that editor. The personal relationships never go out the window.”

Very often, even for a news release, we ask “where are we linking; where do we want to send people; what’s the call to action?” In traditional PR, we never thought of that. Call to action? There was no call to action. We were giving people news.

Now, you always have to think about how your content will drive engagement, whether that’s end-user or media engagement.

So we have created releases that have headlines like “The Top 6 Help Desk Concerns” or “5 Reasons You Should Move to the Cloud.”

JV: Those sound like titles for stories I’d pitch my editors.

AG: Exactly. The editors love them. With one outlet, they have their graphics team turn them into slideshows – and their readership loves these slideshows. The editors will often contact us asking if we have any of these stories in the pipeline.

JV: That’s almost unheard of these days, editors actively seeking content from PR, rather than constantly fending off PR requests. Instead of being viewed as a pest bombarding them with pitches, you’ve turned the tables and become a trusted content provider.

AG: That’s the goal, and it’s worked out well for us and for them.

JV: We’ve talked about how more and more members of the press are freelancers these days. Do you do anything differently to target freelancer writers?

AG: The freelance trend is a challenge for PR. In the old days, you could pull out Bacon’s, flip to InfoWorld and find out who covers the security software beat.

Today, you can still learn about writers from services like Vocus. They all swear that their information is up to date, but people change jobs so often, and, of course, media consolidation means that it’s tough to know who is where and doing what. It’s very fluid at pretty much every publication out there.

And you as a reporter will no longer cover just the security software beat. You’ll be on the security software, storage, and cloud beats, and you’ll also fill in coverage gaps as needed. If I’ve talked to you about security, and two months later I come back to you with a new security angle, you may not be covering security anymore. There’s no really good way for me to know that.

JV: What about editorial calendars? PR used to be able to tailor their pitches to them, but they seem to be stale pretty much the minute they’re posted now.

AG: Typically, editorial calendars are created in November. They are great for sales teams to sell against, but end up being more or less meaningless by February or March. Let’s say you have CRM on your editorial calendar. Salesforce.com’s big conference, Dreamforce, isn’t until September. If you’re targeting a CRM publication, you can ignore everything on the calendar that comes after the show. The landscape will have changed too much for anything dreamed up nearly a year earlier to still be current.

Of course, where there are challenges there are opportunities. The fluid nature of journalism today has created opportunities for services like HARO (Help A Reporter Out), Reporter Connection and ProfNet. They’re more popular now because they’re timely. HARO has replaced print bibles of who has what beat.

JV: Does HARO change the relationship between you and reporters?

AG: Sure. You’ll say, “I have a story on X. Here’s what I’m looking for. Don’t bother me with this. Don’t call me if you’re a vendor; I only want to talk to end users.” As a reporter, you’ll be more honest and focused when posting queries on HARO than you would have been earlier in your career, back when your sourcing needs were more fluid.

JV: That doesn’t necessarily stop the flood of bad pitches.

AG: But HARO has features that allow you to report someone who constantly sends you off-target pitches.

JV: True, but I find that even using HARO, I still wade through tons of pitches that aren’t really violating HARO’s terms of agreement. They’re not off-target or spam. Rather, they’re just not good, which is part of why I’m doing what I’m doing with my Story Source Newsletter.

Hopefully, I can give people advice about what a good pitch really looks like, along with how to specifically tailor it to me. When I have time, I can offer some individual feedback, and I can also track who sends me what. People who consistently send me good pitches go to the top of the queue when I’m sourcing something.

The other problem I have with HARO is that it’s now taking steps to put some walls up between PR and the press. That’s probably a welcome thing for in-house writers, but for me, where 60-70 percent of my business is content marketing, I need those PR relationships. PR reps are the ones who refer me to companies needing a white paper writer or someone to head up a social media content strategy. It makes more sense for me to manage those relationships through my service rather than through HARO or ProfNet.

But when I do use HARO, which I still do, a PR pro who simply follows best practices – who pitches me a story, not a vendor; who stays on target, who backs up their assertions with data, etc. – will stand out, and if I see enough good pitches from you, slowly but surely I’ll form a relationship with you.

AG: Right. Relationships are just as important now as they were ten years ago. We just form them and manage them differently today. It can be more of a challenge today, even with all of the social media tools out there. Part of how we form relationships at CSG is that our goal is to help the press out. We’re not bombarding them with irrelevant pitches. We’re doing our best to help.

JV: Let’s shift gears and talk about contributed content. Often, I get pitches that don’t work for me, but I email back saying “this should be a thought-leadership story under your executive’s byline.” However, that means you have to keep up with which publications takes contributed content, and that will shift as budgets get cut, new editors come in, reporters get laid off, etc. That’s a lot to keep track of.

AG: Yes, but the main challenge is still forming a relationship. Even with contributed content, you still have to be a trusted source for that editor. The personal relationships never go out the window. If you establish relationships with editors, when they don’t accept one of your stories, you can ask why. What could you have done differently? If the relationship isn’t in place, they won’t read your email or take your call. Often, they won’t even say “no.” You just won’t hear from them.

JV: With everyone needing content out there, I’m surprised that more publications aren’t experimenting with unique ways to monetize content for themselves and for writers. Some pubs could afford more and better writers if, say, they accepted something like a pay-for-play sidebar. Yes, there are conflict of interest issues, but no more so than selling ads that run right next to the story.

So long as it’s not intrusive and doesn’t water down the main story, why shouldn’t there be product placement in print? What’s more valuable to readers, an ad or a sidebar with 7 relevant tips or something like that?

AG: I’m not aware of publications doing anything like that, but look at Processor. For new products, you can pay them to write about your new product as part of a content package. It’s how they stay on top of introducing new products, and of course, these aren’t reviews. They just tell you the basics. And it’s nothing they hide or are embarrassed about. This content fills a need and makes them money at the same time.

Similarly, you’ve certainly seen branded journalism. Major brands will say “I don’t really like what’s out there publication wise, so why don’t I put out my own publication?”

JV: When I wrote for Forbes, I was doing so on Microsoft’s dime. They sponsored cloud coverage, and the only way it changed how I wrote the story was that I wouldn’t say anything too negative about Microsoft. I could still disagree with them, but obviously I wasn’t going to write a hatchet piece on them. My articles had a deck that said that the story was sponsored by Microsoft and that was it.

AG: I think you’ll see more and more of that sort of thing as time goes on.

JV: I have one last subject I want to discuss with you before I let you go. When I talk to PR reps, this is the number-one biggest challenge for them: How do you find good end users and get them to go on the record?

AG: It’s important to make it programmatic. If it’s not a priority for your client, they won’t do it. Often, things get bogged down because the client will want to review the story before it runs in the press, and what journalist will let them do that? Those requests, strangely, usually come not from the end user, but from their PR, and what PR agency thinks a journalist will allow them to review a story?

I mentioned earlier that we do media training. Often, the most successful training we do is when we get a chance not just to train and coach our client, but when we also get to work with our client’s client. Part of it is managing expectations, but working with them gives them confidence. They’re not so worried about saying the wrong thing. It’s also important to demonstrate value. Why is it important for them to agree to a case study and press interviews? If they don’t see what’s in it for them, they’ll be more resistant.

You can follow Arthur Germain on Twitter (@ArthurGermain) or read more about his brand storytelling approach at his blog (Brandtelling.com).

Jeff Vance

Jeff Vance has contributed feature articles and editorials to such publications as Forbes.com, Network World, CIO, Datamation, Wi-Fi Planet, Cloudbook and many others. Arthur Germain is Brandtelling's creator and curator.

How does brand marketing differ from traditional PR?

Jeff Vance — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:59:43 PST

Q & A with Arthur Germain – Part I

Arthur Germain, Principal & Chief Brandteller, Communication Strategy Group

By Jeff Vance

I recently had the chance to talk with Arthur Germain, Principal & Chief Brandteller at Communication Strategy Group. Arthur originally ended up on my radar because account execs at CSG consistently send me good pitches. Later, a few CSG-generated press releases caught my eye. They didn’t read like press releases. Rather, they read like stories. I wanted to find out what they were doing differently that made them stand out from other PR agencies.

In our recent conversation we talked about the disappearance of media tours, what’s replaced them, how brand marketing differs from traditional PR and plenty more.

JV: How do you think PR-press relations have changed in the past 10 years or so?

AG: Many traditional PR practices have disappeared or are disappearing. For instance, in 2000 it was common for us to take clients on media tours. That meant the client came to town (I’m in New York), and we’d go to Business Week, Time and the New York Times. We’d set them up “desk side.” We just don’t do that anymore.

JV: Definitely. In the early 2000’s I lived in Boston, where I edited a couple high-tech magazines. I could have spent pretty much all day, every day on media tours or dinners with vendors. Today, I live in L.A., and while L.A. isn’t as much on the tech circuit as Boston, it’s not far off, especially with Silicon Valley so close, yet I rarely get the kind of in-person meeting requests I used to get pretty much every day.

With so many journalists, editors and analysts working either remotely or as freelancers, a media tour would have to log a heck of a lot more miles to have the kind of reach you used to get from just visiting a few major cities.

AG: Right, and then there are bloggers outside of major cities and just overall media fragmentation. So, today the media tour is replaced by phone interviews or web conferences. What that means is we have to work with clients to train them to speak with media on the phone. We have to teach them not to give “yes” or “no” answers. We have to remind them not to start reading bullet points. These are mistakes they’d be less likely to make in person. Over the phone, though, visual cues are all lost, and that can be a tough transition for executives who thrive on those face-to-face interactions.

You have to introduce a whole new set of skills in media training now. If I have three bullet points I want to get across to you, I have to state up front: “okay, Jeff, I have three things I want to talk about. The first is this; the second is this; the third is this.” Talking in person, I could tap my fingers on the desk, or when I say “my second point is,” I could reinforce that by holding up two fingers. The gestures and body language that we all rely on in face-to-face interactions are useless over the phone, so you have to find ways to replace them, and those replacements should sound natural to listeners.

JV: Judging from my discussions with PR pros and other journalists, the press-PR status quo isn’t really working for anyone. Ideally, how do you see the role of PR evolving and how can PR better work with the press – or is it better to lessen the emphasis on the press in favor of speaking directly to potential customers?

AG: It’s true that PR is changing greatly. However, I classify CSG more as a brand marketing agency than a PR firm.

JV: What’s the difference?

AG: We’re as likely to get tapped to write a feature article or a case study as a news release. This changes how we approach things. Even when we end up writing a more traditional news release, we ask, “What’s the call to action?” We’re always looking for ways to get customers and the media engaged. So, we’ll do things like offer editors slideshows, rather than just bombarding them with pitches and press releases.

JV: So, is the press release dead?

AG: The printed press release certainly is. I remember when I was a journalist I used to have press releases and press packets piled up around the office. That’s not the case anymore.

JV: Even at trade shows, smart companies don’t leave stacks of packets and folders in the press room. No one wants to lug them around. The smart ones leave USB drives, which will disappear quickly.

AG: Sure, and you can reuse them.

JV: Whether the info stored on them is ever looked at or just deleted is another matter . . .

AG: Another thing to consider is the rise of search and inbound marketing, both of which deemphasize traditional press releases. Inbound marketing targets content to customers and potential customers, not journalists. That’s part of why we think of our releases as “news” releases, not “press” releases. There has to be some real news within, and it’s not necessarily targeted only to the press.

This approach also gives us an opportunity to do something that press releases don’t usually do. We use our releases as thought-leadership tools. That is where we feel that we’ve really made a difference. It’s changed how we think of ourselves.

Today, we help companies tell brand stories. And we offer some PR services as well.

JV: Besides writing “news” releases and not “press” releases, what’s the difference between traditional PR and brand storytelling? The cynic in me would say that it sounds like a nifty euphemism. Is there more to it? Does your emphasis on stories mean that you’ll pass on potential clients who really don’t have compelling stories? As you know, all PR agents have experienced a few of those clients in their careers, the ones who just don’t have anything interesting to say, and what they do have to say is in no way newsworthy.

AG: Good question. Let’s look again at press releases. We focus on two categories of news release: the first is a “milestone and momentum release”. For instance, we’ll put out a release if our client just achieved some sort of Cisco certification. Or we’ll write something up if our client has a new customer in the financial services industry.

These are important because they make a statement to your customer base. We’re out there getting key certifications and we have customers. This news validates what the company is doing. It’s hard to make a sale these days if you haven’t done it before, so it makes sense to publicize those milestones.

On the other hand, if our client wants us to publicize something that we can’t classify, we’ll push back. We won’t distribute a press release for some small local event. We may alert local press, but why would you distribute that release globally?

JV: Yet, you see plenty of those releases out there.

AG: Right, or you see releases that say “we have a new version of our software under development.” Who cares? Is it available? Why are you telling me this?

JV: Half of my communication with PR is spent saying “that’s not news,” or “there is no story here.”

AG: Now, some of those releases are news, but to a very specific audience. If you’ve moved your offices, that matters on a local level, but not to a wider audience. Rather than using a shotgun approach of distributing a press release for that kind of news, we set our sights on the right audience for the news.

The second category of news release, and the one we prefer, is the “thought leadership release.” This type of release allows our clients to really showcase what makes them special, their approach or process.

Next week, in part 2 of this interview, Arthur and I discuss surprising ways to package content for specific publications, how services like HARO are changing press-PR interactions and what Arthur believes is the number-one challenge for PR.

Jeff Vance

Writing Something of Value

Mark Kindley — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:58:34 PST

I happened upon a gratuitous slam about the shallowness, i.e., valueless-ness of marketing in an article in the New York Times recently. Gratuitous slams on marketing are ubiquitous these days. It’s almost taken as a given that marketing is shallow and has no inherent value. Obviously the New York Times editors didn’t think a slam on marketing required two sources to substantiate.

While I was a journalist, which covers most of my career, I never questioned gratuitous slams on marketing. Most journalists assume that marketing is basically crap. That marketers typically get paid more than most journalists, only adds a touch of resentment to that unexamined opinion. Now that I’ve crossed over to the dark side and am writing marketing material, it seemed appropriate to examine the value of marketing.

Having seen marketing from both sides now, I would have to conclude that an awful lot of marketing is crap; but then so is an awful lot of what gets passed off as journalism. My mini-epiphany was the realization that the source of all this shallow prose within both disciplines is the same: Writers who don’t understand what they are writing about, but have to write something anyway.

At its most basic level, the point of writing anything is to communicate something of value. That is equally true in journalism and marketing.

But here’s what happens to both journalists and marketers. They have to write something. They have a deadline, and they have done very little or no research. So they just start writing what they think their editor or client wants to hear.

I’ve done it. I admit it. I’ve also heard managing editors on deadline tell writers, “Don’t get it right, get it written.” But that kind of writing is neither very good, nor very satisfying. That’s when the over-writing starts: hyperbole and clichés and the kind of gosh-oh-golly prose that wraps shallowness in fake enthusiasm. Lots of exclamation points and capitalized words that are not proper nouns are red flags that the writer doesn’t know what he or she is talking about.

A lot of that kind of writing gets passed off, both as marketing and journalism. Good marketers, however, like good journalists research their subjects until they find something of value to communicate in their writing. If there is no value to communicate, there should be nothing written–certainly not published. Editors should enforce that principle–more than they often do. Likewise, a good marketer needs to have the discipline to not write content that may sound good but says nothing of value. It cheapens you, and it cheapens your field. And it doesn’t actually do your client any good, either. It goes without saying that if your client has nothing of value to write about, you should drop that client.

The good news–for any writer–is that holding the line on the value of what you write increases your value over time whether you are a journalist or a marketer.

Mark Kindley

Mark Kindley is editorial services director at Communication Strategy Group and has over three decades of experience as an award-winning journalist and business analyst. Arthur Germain is Brandtelling's creator and curator.

How can you stay creative?

Arthur Germain — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:24:22 PST

Creativity can be a challenge for anyone. It’s not an industry-specific or job-specific challenge either. I came across this terrific explainer video from the folks at Explainia and TO-FU Design that shows 29 simple ways to stay creative. I particularly like No. 27 — my office tends to be a bit messy and I always feel more creative and energized (and sometimes a few dollars richer) when I clean it up!

29 Ways to Stay Creative

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Arthur Germain

Arthur Germain, Principal & Chief Brandteller of Communication Strategy Group is the curator and main blogger for Brandtelling, a blog about Brand+Storytelling.

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Let me tell you a story

Arthur Germain — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:58:57 PST

There may be few more powerful words than these six:

Let me tell you a story…

From the time you were very little to whatever age you are now, a well-told story holds unimaginable power over you. Stories have heroes and villains, challenges and solutions, happiness and sadness. But most of all they are compelling. We listen, we relate and often we retell the stories we’re heard.

As we close 2011 and enter 2012, think about brand storytelling and how it can work for your brand. Think about your stories of triumphs and failures and how it has shaped you and the brand you represent.

And share those stories.

Storytelling Is Overlooked in Workplace Design (forbes.com)
What’s the inciting moment in your story? (brandtelling.com)
It’s Not About You; It’s All About Your Customer (brandtelling.com)
How well does your team represent your brand story? (brandtelling.com)