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.
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)
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7 comments:
I'm a big fan of HRMarketer, which makes sense as we've been a client for years. But there's another way to look at Bill's diss. From his perspective, I can't imagine that he purposely omitted any of the fine firms that you mentioned, including HRMarketer. So he must not know of PR agencies which focus on the HR space and if that's the case, then it seems to me that the PR agencies need to do a better job with their own public relations.
I'm sure you're familiar with the expression that the cobbler's kids always have the worst shoes and the dentist's kids always have the worst teeth. Could the same be the case for PR agencies? Perhaps you're so focused on delivering great service for your clients that you sometimes forget to deliver the same for your own organization.
And that is a valid point, Steven. Appreciate the objective perspective to a highly subjective reaction!
Kevin
What an awesome post and thank you for the kind words. We love HRmarketer and recommend you all to every client we have. It was great to see you, Mark and Jonathan @SHRM. See you @HRtech.
Best,
J. William Tincup
Principal
Starr Tincup
Are you Social? Look me up on JPIE, Starr Tincup, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, TalentBar, RecruiterEarth, RecruitingBlogs, and/or HRMToday.
We're the best human capital marketing firm in the world!
Steven Rothberg is right. I am ignorant of all the firms you mention, except for Starr Tincup, which I always considered a marketing firm, rather than a PR agency, likewise HRmarketer (especially considering the name). No intention to disrespect anyone, except whoever first came up with that foul expression.
@Steven Thanks for the kind words. For the record, we do for ourselves all things we do for clients. (We run direct marketing, PR, blog, podcast, exhibit, etc.) We hope that makes us credible practitioners. So it's our intention for this cobbler to have some pretty nice shoes :-)
@William Great to see you @SHRM too (even though I can throw a stone and hit you from my house), and congrats again on taking back the office from the Interns and launching a great new website. http://www.starrtincup.com. 'Also an example of cobblers with great shoes!
@Bill Your podcast (sorry, I've got to call it that) is a very meaningful contribution to my professional upkeep in our industry. I applaud your broadening the definition of community. We look forward to HR Tech and I hope we get the chance to say hello.
@All John Sumser's Top 100 List of Recruiting & HR Influences is an ongoing project and the first place where the real but unseen mental barriers dividing the segments of the "HR Community" have been forcefully challenged. Noteably, John's has profiled Kevin Grossman, William Tincup, Jeanne Achille, and Bill Kutik among others.
It's a must read for me: http://www.recruitingblogs.com/top-100
Oh but it would be so nice if there was an easy button! But you're right. Marketing is hard work and it's never finished. There is always more to be done and changes and improvements to be made. There aren't substitutes for hard work, time and dedicated resources.
I just listened to the podcast. Bill Kutik does a nice job with these and has quality guests although I'd like to see more people from the benefits/wellness side of HR where a lot of technological innovation (and growth) in the HR space is taking place.
In spite of Bill's acknowledgment in his comment above that he indeed was not aware of other marketing/pr firms in the HR space, I'm still a bit frustrated. As a leading analyst in the space Bill should know better. And as the founder of Fisher Vista, LLC (the owners of HRmarketer.com as well as HRVendors.com, SeniorCareMarketer.com and ShirleyBoard.com) I feel the need to elaborate on my frustration. I mean to do so in a respectful manner. I hope it does not come across any other way.
By just about any yardstick, HRmarketer is one of the largest and most respected marketing/pr firms in the human resource marketplace. The company has worked very hard to achieve this status and recognition since its founding nearly ten years ago. Since 2000, HRmarketer has worked with over 700 HR software/services and employee benefit vendors (paying clients) and touched thousands of other vendors and HR decision makers through it's various online and print directories, web site properties, white papers, eBooks, research reports, articles, Podcasts, Webcasts, newsletters and blogs (the blog consistently makes Top HR blog lists).
The HRmarketer Services Group, a full-service agency, offers more products and services than any other firm in this space including direct email list rentals (80,000+ opt-in HR professionals), lead referral and advertising programs, webcasts, podcasts, media and analyst relations, web site and blog development, content development, SEO, pay-per-click ad management, creative services, etc, etc, etc, etc.
The HRmarketer.com SaaS application has transformed marketing and PR in the HR space by allowing hundreds of HR vendors to launch and manage quality marketing and PR programs who otherwise may not have been able to do so. As someone once told me, HRmarketer.com brings marketing and PR to the masses :-) This has been good for the industry.
HRmarketer's president, Kevin Grossman, is a respected thought leader and influencer in the HR space and has hundreds of "followers" on his various social networking profiles. He's everywhere.
HRmarketer also supports the broader HR marketplace by exhibiting at conferences and by writing plenty of sponsorship checks to a whole host of people and organizations throughout the industry. HRmarketer is a good neighbor.
My goodness HRmarketer twice sponsored and is a regular exhibitor at Bill's HR Technology Conference.
So why Bill was not aware of HRmarketer as a major full-service marketing and PR firm in the human resource marketplace is odd.
Hopefully, after Kevin's blog post and these exchanges, Bill will have a better understanding of HRmarketer and recognize HRmarketer's place in the HR "community" he speaks of and maybe even invite HRmarketer onto his radio program. I think his audience would benefit and I know Kevin would love to participate.
If I sound a bit defensive, my apologies. I'm quite passionate about what HRmarketer and the fabulous group of talented (yet humble to a fault) people behind the company are accomplishing in this space and yet, in my opinion, do not get the attention and recognition they deserve and have earned.
Mark Willaman
Founder
Fisher Vista LLC
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