Your PR campaign should have 4 primary components:

1. Is there a central theme to your content? Does it tell a cohesive story?
2. Are you giving the audience what they want from their point of view?
3. Is there a call to action and is the process immediate and direct?
4. What are your KPIs and do you have a way to measure them?

If you are addressing all 4 of the items above in your PR campaigns, great!  You’re off to a good start. Now let’s drill down to the structure of each individual PR item. Keep an eye out for these common issues found with most failing or inadequate PR campaigns:

Headline
– Does not address a solution to an audience problem, reveal a new opportunity for your audience, or offer a time savings benefit for your audience.
– Does not grab reader attention.
– Is too long. Headlines should be 100 characters or less.
– Lacks a subheader. Subheaders are good for adding detail.

Body
– Lead paragraph has too many buzzwords or jargon. Avoid the fluff, and get to the stuff!
– Does not lead to a direct call to action early in the text.
– Does not include a good quote for context.
– Lacks certain style items such as bold text, bullet points or numbered lists to draw in the eye.
– Is just one giant blob of text. Break it up into digestible little pieces with paragraphs.
– Lacks media, such as photos or videos, which reduces likelihood of social sharing.

Boilerplate/Contact
– Missing details, credentials, background about the company for journalists.

After dealing with all of the above, you’ve launched your PR. You’re done for the day, right? Wrong. You’re just getting started. Now you must measure your results. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Here are a few KPIs to measure:

• Traffic: Did you get a traffic boost, or gain new leads?
• Engagement: Did your primary geographic target audience read it?
• Earned Media: Did you gain good authentic mentions in key publications as a result?
• Social: How much was it shared? Did influencers grab it, share it and help expand your reach?

If you’re not hitting on all or most of the 4 metrics above with your PR messaging, keep working at it. You should always be testing your efforts and refining your approach with each new PR. If you do this consistently, then you’ll eventually get the results you seek.

I hope this helps you in your PR process for your business. If you’re just starting out, launching a new business, or need help improving results for announcing milestones in your existing business, we can help.

Contact Gavin Consulting today at inquires-@-gavinpsmith.com, or click the button below to get started.

The post How to Tweak Your PR for Better Results appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

I’ve also produced print collateral and presentation materials for CINCB, assisted in email list cleaning and segmentation, and assisted with increasing both front-end and back-end server security for better data compliance. I’ve assisted in development of a more comprehensive marketing plan, strategy, and tactics (web, mobile, social, email, content, search marketing) for CINCB to succeed in its target market. We have implemented (and continue to manage) full site hosting, design, security and multi-channel monthly outreach and engagement for both their B2B and B2C needs.

Q: Give us a one-minute history of your business.

A: CINCB has been established for 14 years providing debt collection and credit reporting services for all commercial creditors in the Cayman Islands.

Q: How did you get involved with Gavin Consulting?

A: Gavin Consulting was referred by a friend.

Q: What was the reason that you chose Gavin Consulting?

A: Gavin Consulting provided quality service at a competitive price.

Q: Was price more important than delivery, service, and quality?

A: Pricing was an important factor, however, delivery service and quality were equally important.

Q: Tell me what your experience has been with our products/services?

A: The experience working with Gavin Consulting has been positive overall.

Q: Can you think of a word or phrase that best describes your relationship with Gavin Consulting? Why that particular word or phrase?

A: Great service and quality.

Q: How has working with Gavin Consulting changed the way your company does business?

A: Gavin Consulting has brought online and electronic marketing to the table for CINCB to add to its sales arsenal.

Q: Have you had our competitors knock on your door? If so, what did you tell them?

A: Yes. I am completely satisfied with my current provider.

Q: Why would you recommend Gavin Consulting to someone else?

A: Gavin Consulting is a professional, service oriented and responsive organization who can give your business a professional online profile.

Q: If someone called you and said “Why should I do business with Gavin Consulting”, what would you tell them?

A: Gavin Consulting will get it done!

The post Client Success Story: Cayman Islands National Credit Bureau appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

Content marketing is the best way to encourage inbound sales.  With proper use, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors.  By providing a shareable resource for your customers and improving your online reputation, your business will build trust. In return, you build your inbound marketing and lead generation.

You may not think so, but there’s plenty to share with your readers and visitors. Whether it’s information about your company, your products and services, your people, your process, FAQs, news or events, there are plenty of angles to approach in generating fresh content quick and easy. Have you hit a wall and need to get those creative content juices flowing again?

Here are twenty (20) ideas you can use right now:

Your Company:

1. Write favorable articles about your business
2. Give a monthly business recap
3. Send out a message from the CEO
4. Talk about recent awards or nominations
5. Share company history or milestones

Your Products/Services:

1. Case studies or client success stories
2. Highlight new services
3. Share deals and discounts
4. Best practices or tips

Your People:

1. Interview with an Executive
2. Team member blog posts
3. Customer feedback or reviews

Your Process:

1. FAQs
2. Before and after stories
3. How-Tos/Guides

Various Types of Content (more than just articles):

1. A poll
2. A Survey
3. Stats
4. Infographics
5. Evergreen (old posts that can be condensed, re-purposed, or recycled)

We will help your company develop your content marketing strategy, as well as create and integrate your content across all relevant channels (website, emails, social media, ads, etc.) to ensure that you super-serve your target audience and convert.

Give your content marketing a boost.

Contact me today to see how I can help you grow your business.

The post Content Ideas For When You Feel Stuck appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

1. Understand Who You Are Talking To.
2. Turn Tweets Into Conversations.
3. Every Picture Tells A Story.
4. Twitter Polls.
5. Stay Current, Relevant, and Reply.
6. Monitor and Measure.

Contact me today and I can help you improve your social conversations.

PS – Here’s the link to the full Adobe article: Six Tips for Engaging in a Social Conversation

The post 6 Tips for Engaging Social Conversation appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

Listening is about both learning and adjustment.

Marketing and media can sometimes involve just a large fire-hose approach of one-way messaging. That can only get you so far. If you listen to your audience and customers, you’ll be able to improve your offering. That’s engagement. Engagement means that you’re listening to your customers, absorbing their feedback, and making the necessary adjustments that make them more happy, involved and loyal.

Management is more than just being the director telling people what to do or how to do something. You have to be willing to listen to the input of those on your team, as they are on the front lines of your business. For that matter, there’s an old adage of giving a listen to even janitors or secretaries in the business. Why? Because they often see what you can’t in terms of office culture. Never discount anyone in the building when it comes to listening. You’ll be surprised what you’ll learn in the hallways as opposed to a board room or office.

I recently read a great article recently on HBR about this very topic.  They reveal 4 tactics for improved listening:

1. Ask questions and promote discovery.
2. Engage and support those involved.
3. Be cooperative rather than competitive.
4. Be a willing participant. Make suggestions and give feedback.

Here’s the link to What Great Listeners Actually Do. It drills down into the true art form of listening. I think you’ll find it as interesting as I did.

The article also reveals the 6 levels of listening. Are you applying these principles to your listening abilities? Are your managers truly skilled at listening, learning and adjusting for improvement?

On what level do you listen?

Update December 2020: The author reached out to me this month with a new, updated version of the HBR article and so I thought I’d share it: How To Be A Better Listener: Tips & Stories. I think you will find it equally helpful.

I can help. Contact me today to find out how.

The post The Art of Listening appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

These include:

• Self-knowledge
• Cultural sensitivity
• Interpersonal skills
• Linguistic ability
• Motivation to live abroad
• Tolerance of ambiguity
• Flexibility
• Patience and respect
• Inclusiveness

To be a good global leader, you also have to have the right mindset. You have to shed your biases and preconceived notions about how things work when you leave your home country. Going abroad means adapting yourself to your new environment. It also means not to default to the familiar when making decisions within your firm.

A Global Leader also knows the difference between diversity and inclusion. The oft tossed around buzzword “diversity” is used by many companies or institutions in an attempt to portray themselves as global or representative of a broad spectrum of participants. A noted scholar in cross-cultural communications at Thunderbird School of Global Management taught a basic premise for future global leaders to remember:

“Diversity is the reality, inclusiveness is the challenge.”

In your pursuits abroad, whether with a multinational corporation or as a budding “expat-preneur”, be mindful of the culture and the individuals with which you work. Remember to be inclusive and open-minded in your approaches and listen to all points of view, even those that may be completely foreign to your own. If you ensure inclusiveness, your co-workers or team will remain empowered and engaged.

By the way, this interesting infographic on the term “expat-preneur” recently caught my attention. Again, note the use of the buzzword “diversity”, but that’s not enough. Always remember to be inclusive. Enjoy.

The post The Growing Ex-Pat Workforce and the Importance of a Global Mindset appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

Gavin Consulting delivered:

1. A branded website with relevant content that reflected the expertise of the owner and adequately established trust and authority for the Cayman healthcare industry.
2. Content & Social media marketing
3. Branded collateral – business cards, flyers, banners
4. Launch event to introduce CHCC to the Cayman professional community
5. Ongoing content/email marketing support to help CHCC super-serve its client & subscriber base.

Don’t take our word for it. Here’s a recent Q&A with Barrie Quappe on her experience with Gavin Consulting.

Q: Give us a one-minute history of your business.

A: CHCC opened in early 2016 and had a very tight opening timeline. With Gavin Consulting’s holistic approach to getting our name out in the healthcare field in Cayman, we held a major opening event by the end of March/first of April. All of it quickly made us the known go-to source for health care facilities and their practitioners to help with their government healthcare requirements.

Q: How did you get involved with Gavin Consulting? What was the reason that you chose Gavin Consulting?

A: Gavin Smith was previously known as a committed professional. That coupled with his recent work demonstrated someone who could deliver our imaging in our tight time frame and it would be impressive – not ‘cheap’ or tacky. Plus, through watching the growth, expertise and philanthropic approach of the owner of Gavin Consulting for both business clients and nonprofits alike, we knew we would get the same caring and supportive professional work, delivered in a very timely fashion.

Q: Was price more important than delivery, service, and quality?

A: Price was crucial due to fact that CHCC was a new launch. However, so were our deadlines, excellent service and the great first impression we needed to make. They were all important and once our needs were assessed, GC delivered.

Q: Tell us what your experience has been with our products/services?

A: Timely, dedicated and informative feedback has built a trust that can only help this mutually beneficial business relationship grow. That and frank discussions on ideas and product going forward. Very resourceful!

Q: Can you think of a word or phrase that best describes your relationship with Gavin Consulting? Why that particular word or phrase?

A: Powerful. Delivery, timeliness and frank discussions provide us with the supportive marketing service we really need as a new business.

Q: Have you had our competitors knock on your door? If so, what did you tell them?

A: Yes, and all I said was I have someone who really works for me right now.

Q: Why would you recommend Gavin Consulting to someone else?

A: For the same result I have received, delivered on time, within your desired budget – plus they answer follow-up questions in a timely fashion.

Q: If someone called you and said “Why should I do business with Gavin Consulting”, what would you tell them?

A: Why do this on your own? Hire a true expert who is up on the latest and won’t up-charge you because he could. Don’t waste time and money – just ask Gavin Consulting to help you meet and even plan your goals.

We help many businesses of all sizes with a variety of marketing and management needs. We are particularly proud, however, when given the opportunity to help launch a newly minted business in a community. Congratulations, Barrie and Cayman Healthcare Consulting on a successful first year in business. Here’s to many more!

The post Client Success Story: Cayman Healthcare Consulting appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

We cannot stress enough how much content marketing is vital to your business. In the information age, it is important to position yourself as an authority on the subject matter, service, product or process that you represent. This greatly improves your chances of standing out in the noise of traditional and online marketing.

What makes content marketing effective is that it allows businesses to show off their expertise, and even their products, without coming off as overly promotional. In addition, content can be recycled, re-purposed and re-used across a variety of channels without having to reinvent the wheel daily. We encourage all of our clients to include a content marketing plan and tactics as part of their overall integrated marketing communications strategy.

Feel free to use these categories and criteria to judge the effectiveness of your content marketing, or modify them to suit your needs:

1. Content is on brand – Make sure that your content aligns with company voice while using appropriate tone for both audience and purpose.
2. Information design and writing standards are professional and effective – When presenting your content, ensure that you have properly formatted and edited your information. Eliminate spelling and grammatical errors, check for readability and make use of the right titles, headings and text in a consistent and effective way. Don’t forget to include related graphics that support your content.
3. There is an appropriate level of substance and context – Always provide content with the right background information that is both useful and substantial to your readers and customers. Do not just give content, but also give guidance. Guide your customers through clearly stated actions and next steps.
4. Content is effectively focused on the audience – Know who your target audience is and deliver to them and them only. Focus on their needs and not your own. It’s not about you. Always be seeking to meet customer needs or answer their questions.
5. Content is well organized – Ensure that navigation to your content is easy to find and follow. Organize your pages logically to reflect user task flow. Keep your page content, paragraph and sentence hierarchy apparent.
6. Content is current and relevant – Always provide information that is up to date and relevant.
   

Need help with your content marketing? We will examine your business, customers and goals to help you define a clear marketing strategy. We’ll include relevant content marketing and other essential tactics that are appropriate for your needs.

The post Content Marketing Sample Checklist for Results appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

In this visual from Visual Capitalist, check out the mammoth empire of Jeff Bezos. Bezos is rapidly closing in on becoming the richest person on the planet. His acquisitions and investments are among some of the most well-known entities used by millions. In his down time, he is in a race to space against Elon Musk’s SpaceX via his own aerospace firm, Blue Origin.

What can we learn from this infographic? You can glean insight into Bezos’ strategy and structure for growth through investments and acquisitions. Have a look:

The post Visualizing the Jeff Bezos Empire appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.

Original article posted on ProgrammaticAdvertising.org.

Gavin P. Smith (MBA, MGM) is an experienced international media consultant, serial entrepreneur and founder of Gavin P. Smith Consulting who has had a prolific career touching upon many aspects of digital marketing from web design and e-commerce to SEO, display ads and social media strategy.

He not only advances countless marketing strategies, but also uses his skills for the benefit of America’s veterans.

After losing his father in 2008 to Acute Leukemia, Gavin learned that the water at the Camp Lejeune Marine base in Jacksonville, NC was contaminated with benzene and other dangerous toxins that led the premature death of his father and other veterans, spouses, children and civilian DOD personnel through decades of exposure.

Soon after this discovery, Gavin created Civilian Exposure, a nonprofit organization building awareness, accountability and assistance for Camp Lejeune victims and educating all who were exposed so they may find proper help and guidance. He also served as a member of the CDC/ATSDR Camp Lejeune Community Assistance Panel, where he collaborated with various government agencies to promote continuing scientific studies, research and corrective measures for civilian employees and military personnel at the base.

With over 100 other military bases currently on the EPA Superfund Site list, Gavin’s ultimate goal is to help members of all U.S. bases to receive the resources they need to cope with the effects of their exposure. He invites you to reach out to him if you share his mission of healing and helping America’s civilian DOD workers and veterans.

Given his extensive and multi-faceted experiences, we were very interested in hearing his opinions on programmatic advertising. So, he took the time to share some of his thoughts with us:

Programmatic Advertising.org: Thanks for your time, Gavin! In your opinion, how is programmatic advertising – the growing prevalence of marketing automation, data mining and the cloud – changing the world?

Gavin Smith: We now have a tremendous abundance of data at our disposal, and we need to be able to analyze and make sense of it.  It is very hard for one person to do this without help. I believe that as marketers, we need to see the forest for the trees and utilize the mounds of data we have to understand and create the big picture. If we don’t, we are missing some revelations in the data that is right in front of us.

Programmatic Advertising.org: What systems and ways of thinking do you think are being completely disrupted by the emergence of programmatic buying? By digital advertising in general?

Gavin Smith: Now, it’s like we have a new data-driven guerilla marketing warfare at our fingertips. You can do competitor analysis and, using that data, use programmatic buying to target that competitor wherever they are, whoever they are – in social media discussions, web page blogs, news articles – all by having the right digital ad buys to “be there” in real time.

Programmatic Advertising.org: How is this affecting our culture? And – is this for better or worse?

Gavin Smith: Programmatic is increasing competitiveness and causing marketing (which usually is an afterthought for many companies) to become front-and-center, instantaneous and rapidly expansive. Analysts are needed more than ever as we become more data-driven. Data needs to be sifted through and understood, and all of the insights need to be utilized to reach the customer.  Unfortunately for us, as consumers, our culture is changing to where ads are now in our face everywhere, no matter what. It potentially creates clutter that can inhibit our overall user experience.  If not used carefully, programmatic ads can backfire.

Programmatic Advertising.org: Wearable tech is really starting to take off this year – we’re seeing everything from iWatch hype to mood-changing clothing, activity monitors and beyond. Do you have any favorites?

Gavin Smith: I really like the wearable mesh/Wi-Fi networking materials that are being incorporated into clothing and other objects in general. This will dramatically increase hot-spot connectivity and access.  Plus, self-monitoring wearable tech in the health space is already becoming a leading game-changer. Cisco had a great blog post on this topic.

I was privileged to be a participant at the annual Future in Review (FiRe) Conference in 2013, where I met Dr. Leroy Hood, one of the leading scientists involved in systems biology, P4 medicine, a variety of biotech start-ups, and notably the Human Genome Project.  His keynote presentation, which created quite a bit of buzz, discussed the rapidly growing movement called the “Quantified Self”.  This movement involves how technology is meeting with the demand of those who wish to self-monitor and use wearable tech to make data-driven decisions to improve their own daily health. This represents yet another opportunity to exploit direct-to-consumer, real-time targeting when the consumer wants it.  This will produce even more data generation and we’re going to have to sift through that data and consumer feedback in real-time. I’m sure marketers out there are already salivating at the thought of this, plus “internet-of-things” and other vectors to the consumer for even more personalized, direct marketing messaging. It’s fascinating stuff.

Programmatic Advertising.org: What excites you about the future of digital advertising? What are you looking forward to?

Gavin Smith: I get excited about the convergence of all forms of media and technologies that continue to expand ways to reach the end consumer.  It creates a whole new set of issues around how to tie all of this technology and marketing together effectively, such as how to interpret all of the data coming in from all of these data points.  It’s not just radio, TV, billboards and email marketing anymore.  It’s about getting to the consumer through every conceivable channel and vector path that we can create to help enhance their lives.

Programmatic Advertising.org: Let’s play devil’s advocate – what are some of your concerns about the future of digital advertising?

Gavin Smith: Burn-out is always a consideration.  At what point do some of these digital advertising methods wear out their use?  For example, customers can only take so much email marketing before they get tired of it. The same holds true with social media.  In the lifecycle of products and platforms in general, there is a period of novelty, a period of growth, a period of peak and a period of decline. We see it all the time with platforms that come and go. Traditional radio has been fighting decline with the advent of satellite, streaming and mobile apps for music delivery. Traditional TV is having to fight to stay relevant when today, people can get their shows through streaming, direct to consumer, individual channels, apps and other outlets.

Programmatic Advertising.org: Thanks so much for your time Gavin!

Would you like to learn more about Gavin and his work with Gavin P. Smith Consulting and Civilian Exposure? Reach out and connect with “Gavin P. Smith” on LinkedIn, Twitter @GavinConsulting, or email.

The post Gavin’s Interview with Programmatic Advertising.org appeared first on Gavin P. Smith.