Yesterday I listened to the latest episode of The Bill Kutik Radio Show. I'm a big fan and was looking forward to Bill's interview with Jeanne Achille, President and CEO of The Devon Group, another great public relations and marketing firm in the HR marketplace.
So anyway, Bill introduces Jeanne and makes the statement that "The Devon Group is the only public relations firm I know of who focuses on the human capital space."
Really. The many other communications firms that also focus on HR like Carrick Marketing Communications, Eagle PR and BackBone, Inc. don't count I guess. And let's not forget another fine (but el loco los mismos) HR marketing firm Starr Tincup.
And then of course there's our little ol' full-service marketing and PR firm - HRmarketer - who has helped over 600 human resource and employee benefit service providers of all shapes and sizes grow their business buy generating publicity, website traffic, sales leads and improved SEO.
But I digress. Regardless of Bill's faux pas, it was a pleasure listening to Jeanne talk about her years of PR experience and how important quality media and analyst relationships are in public relations and the fact that there's a lot of heavy lifting to do, which is the true point of this post.
Heavy-lifting easy buttons don't exist, but the Staples easy button campaign was and is still brilliant. Everybody wants an easy button, and marketing and PR is no exception.
I can't tell you how many folk I speak with who want an easy button to generate visibility and leads. Push a button and your showered with them.
Just because you think you have cool products and services, a great news announcement or fresh marketing campaign doesn't mean the media, analysts or your prospects will.
And just because they don't doesn't mean they're idiots.
But if that's the way you feel then by all means go ahead and:
- Forget about honing your messaging (I sell paradigm-shifting products and services that speak for themselves).
- Forget about creating a marketing and PR "road map" that includes your key differentiators, competitive landscape, editorial calendar and past and planned marketing and PR activities.
- Forget about building a search-optimized marketing website.
- Forget about knowing who your target market is (your primary buyers, influencers and deal-breakers, which was an important group Jeanne brought up).
- Forget about knowing your competitors and how to differentiate.
- Forget about building relationships with the media (and analysts if you're so inclined) and distributing regular news and "educational" marketing releases.
- Forget about sending search-optimized press releases via Internet wire services like PR Web.
- Forget about generating quality content that HR decision makers and executive management alike prefer to consume over the usual marketing fodder.
- Forget about executing regular direct marketing campaigns to nurture your primary prospects and introduce them to your products and services and stay in front of them with a mix of content and pure-play (thanks, Jonathan).
- Forget about exhibiting and/or sponsoring at trade shows like the ERE Expo, Onrec, WorldatWorld, SHRM and HR Tech.
- Forget about using Webcasts, podcasts and videos to promote your business.
- Forget about social media marketing and developing a strategy and having authentic conversations with your buyers and influencers (what the hell is Twitter anyway?).
- Forget about reviewing your marketing and PR analytics and results - revising and reloading.
Forget about a friggin' easy button. It doesn't exist.
Whether you partner with a firm, or hire your own marketing and PR team, or try to do it all yourself, investing the time and resources in marketing will help grow your business - if you do the hard work.
Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)Labels: content marketing, lead generation, marketing and PR, messaging, social media marketing, visibility, website traffic
