This month has been all about the sort of creative thinking that is beyond ChatGPT et al – finding new hooks, trailblazing new ideas, getting on top of SEO
October kicked off with National Techies Day, but it’s not tech that sits behind the success of IBA PR efforts in October. It’s been a demonstration of the power of the team’s lateral thinking to deliver client messaging and help them own the theme across multiple formats – no ChatGPT or AI in sight!
This monthly round-up features pre-event support being a key focus of our current work (sign of the time of year!), to the power of cultivating a rock-solid relationship with a journalist, and the true SEO power of thought leadership when you think ahead of an emerging theme.
Let the prospects know you’re coming!
In last month’s web blurb, my colleague Caitlin talked about in-person events being back in full swing and highlighted the important work we do for our clients post-event. Well, this month we’ve switched gears to focus on the pre-event countdown.
Our business management client is attending an industry event with a partner and together they will be holding a session on how to bring that elusive B2C customer experience to your B2B customers. That’s a really engaging topic so we drafted a blog for our client’s website to provide the hook to generate interest around this speaking session. I can feel a by-liner coming on!
A CX event is on the agenda for our Contact Centre client, and we are busy drumming up interest with a drum roll of social media to inform and spread the news. And as we approach the end of the year (the shops are already full of seasonal decorations!), a brand new blog for their website is also underway to provide all the nitty-gritty details on how our client’s technology will play into customer experience strategies next year!
The importance of journalist relationships can’t be forgotten
Trust is one of the most important aspects in PR and Marketing, so building relationships with journalists can be one of the most powerful tools within a PR pros tool kit. When a journalist trusts you and your client, you can become their first point of contact when they look for new thought leadership pieces and feature contributions.
For our business management software client, we had already done the groundwork on cloud hot topic when we identified an opportunity to pitch an article on said topic and they snatched it up! Then a couple of months down the line, the same journalist reached out to us directly to see if our client has any more thought leadership articles for their next issue. What’s more, this has come in a brand-new publication for our client – a real cherry on the cake!
Media spread
Many journalists work across multiple publications now, so building up that rapport with them can be incredibly successful and lead to placements across a range of different publications. This was the case for one of our aerospace and defense client’s articles that we first pitched and placed with a top title in 2022.
Shelf life!!!
That journalist then got in contact with us to tell us that they were launching a brand-new industry magazine and that our article would be perfect for this and asked to publish it in the inaugural issue. Not only does this show the true power of building trust with a journalist, but also acts as a reminder that some content has a long shelf life.
Practice what we preach – taking ownership over a new industry theme
Central to all our client campaigns is Owning the Theme coupled with powerful SEO to help drive traffic to their website. Well in October, we have led by example. The team was aware that Industry 5.0 – humanizing the tech takeover – was resonating as a hot topic, but nobody was talking about PR 5.O.
Everyone was talking about Generative AI and ChatGPT and its clones. So we set about owning this important marketing theme by drafting and placing our own thought leadership article on the impact PR 5.0 – you may remember our original blog!
Getting top spot!
The article placements boosted our SEO rankings – but were we prepared to see our article top ranking Google when you search for ‘PR 5.0’? No way! Google it and see for yourself if you don’t believe me.
We don’t want to say “told you so” but this is the brand awareness and power of SEO you can achieve by identifying themes before they become mainstream It’s all about original thought – and something generative AI will never be able to lay claim to.
We may be edging closer into Winter in the UK but our PR instincts aren’t going into hibernation any time soon!
Sam Walker is PR Executive at IBA International
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