Grow your brand awareness and generate leads faster with three quick wins. By Carrine Greason, Digital Marketing Manager for B2B Tech
Rethink Tech PR and Outbound Marketing: Cut Through the Noise
by Dennie Theodore, Communications Trailblazer and HCI Board Member
Subject lines, tag lines, headlines, ads, and social posts beg you to buy every time you look at a screen, open mail, or drive down the highway. Everyone wants your attention. And they want the attention of your buyers, too. Executives, product managers, engineers, marketers, and communicators—all are flooded with asks. (Yes, HCI is a B2B tech marketing agency and even we get tired of the assault.) Let’s rethink how to cut through the noise and get your message heard by influencers and decision makers, either through the media or directly.
The first step is always to ensure your message is clear, simple, and targeted. The tried-and-true formula is:
- Know your audience
- Acknowledge their pain points
- Offer a fix for their problems
Once you’ve got the foundation in place, it’s time to ask more questions to further refine your impact.
Keep in mind that there are several steps and hierarchies to achieve a sale. Know when you are reaching the influencer for a sale and when you are facing the decision maker. The message at its core might be the same, but with an influencer, you are also building a relationship. This connection point may lead you to a decision maker with the dollars to fund the current project and may also build a long-term relationship over many projects or products.
- Rethink: What data will attract an influencer? How will your product or service make their job easier?
A decision-maker has a different perspective than an influencer. They want to see a return on dollars spent, which means linking marketing spend to revenue.
- Rethink: How will your product or service help the company make more sales or create more leads? How will success be measured?
It takes time to build demand. Fortunately, thought leadership is a strong means to build an audience. Unlike paid media (directly selling your product), thought leadership is a great way to open conversation, show the bigger picture, and build a following.
- Rethink: How can you demonstrate thought leadership? Perspectives, tips, and case studies demonstrate an awareness of the landscape in which your buyers operate. Guest columns in trade publications help readers accomplish specific tasks. Often, you can incorporate a brief example or caption referencing your product in these types of educational content.
There are eight powerful ways you can reach influencers and decision makers through an integrated technology PR and outbound marketing campaign.
#1: Conferences and tradeshows
- Exhibit and announce new products to a core audience of influencers or decision makers
- Build new relationships for new and existing customers as well as partners
- Meet with press and analysts that reach your audiences and develop messages directed at influencers or decision makers based on their readers
- Provide virtual briefings to those not attending the show before or after the event
Considerations:
- Are you a known or an unknown business to the audiences in attendance?
- Do you hope to reach executives (often not on the show floor) or those who influence them?
- Do you have the personnel and the key messages to grasp on-the-fly opportunities at the event?
#2: Press releases
- Announce new and improved products, customers, partnerships, and investments
Considerations:
- Is the message relevant? Will the audience care?
- Have you tested the message before issuing a release?
- Does the message support your brand?
#3: News pitch, with or without a press release
- Place trend stories related to your messaging and piggyback them on current events and trends
- Leverage customer success stories if available or invite the press to interview your customers as they draft their own trend piece
- Trend pieces can be pitched as educational contributed guest columns or written by the media after an interview with your subject matter expert (SME)
Considerations:
- What else in the current news cycle could work for or against your pitch?
- Is your pitch clear?
#4: Opinion pieces and letters to the editor
- Works well for Tier 1 media, like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times
- A letter to the editor is in response to a very recent article and typically needs to be less than 200 words
- An opinion piece adds something new to a current trend or conversation and can be up to 800 words
Considerations:
- Do you have something new to contribute to an ongoing conversation or current market trend?
#5: Virtual press interviews, demos, and tours
- To maintain momentum between industry events, pitch news or trend pieces when relevant and schedule virtual briefings, interviews, or demos
- For more significant news, consider a virtual press conference for your target press
- Before a conference, offer one-on-one briefings to the most important editors under embargo
- After an event, offer one-on-one interviews for reporters who want to ask questions to make their stories unique
Considerations:
- How significant is your news?
- Can you promote your message to multiple editors across multiple media channels?
- Which media require individual briefings versus a conference call briefing?
#6: Podcasts and videos
- Use your company’s platform or be a guest on someone else’s series
Considerations:
- How and why will an audience find your content?
- Is this a one-time deal or available longer?
- Is the main audience the correct audience for this message?
#7: Paid ads, outbound email, paid media, and webinars
- Google Ads, LinkedIn sponsored posts, outbound emails, and webinars create a direct channel to buyers
- Reach your followers or the followers of others
Considerations:
- Will this tactic create leads, brand awareness, or product awareness?
- Are you targeting the buyer at the correct stage of decision making?
- Can this tactic open doors to new relationships?
- Can this tactic warm a lead?
#8: Social media
- Share content generated by your PR efforts published by the media
- Promote thought leadership content you create
- Grow your following organically by sharing valuable information
- Be a part of industry conversations
Considerations:
- Which messages from a published article are most significant?
- Who on your team will respond to negative commentary or reactions?
- How can you leverage conversations your team has over LinkedIn and other social platforms?
Let’s do it together
Is there more you can do? Absolutely—and we’re happy to have that conversation with you!
Are you ready to rethink your B2B tech PR or marketing program? A good place to start is to double check your audience and messaging foundations. Let’s update them if they are out of date and pick the channels where you are most likely to be heard by influencers and decision makers. Don’t add to the noise—offer a specific value instead.
Let's connect.
HCI has marketing professionals in North America and Europe.
HCI has marketing professionals in North America and Europe.