Account-Based Marketing Strategy for SMBs: Learning the ABCs of ABM

Account-Based Marketing Strategy for SMBs: Learning the ABCs of ABM

by | Oct 7, 2021 | General, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution, Storytelling & Branding

Account-Based Marketing Strategy for SMBs: Learning the ABCs of ABM

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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Years ago, I developed what I believed was an innovative sales prospecting and marketing approach by strategically targeting a small wish list of potential dream clients with a highly personalized campaign. I identified the top decision makers in those firms to receive a series of targeted, integrated marketing direct mail pieces and email communications that incorporated highly-focused, customized, and personalized messaging that addressed the client’s pain points, passions, and hobbies. If my sales and research intelligence indicated one of our targets loved camping, my marketing team would research and package a sleek, Top Camping Sites in America book with a special, handwritten note. At the time, we simply called this targeted campaign our top prospects campaign. Today, we’d refer to it as an account-based marketing strategy.

As part of the campaign, we also emailed specific instances of case studies showing our business’s services in action – ones that we knew would help propose a solution for a problem they had. This provided a one-two punch that customized their experience with our outreach, so they knew we meant business in how we customized solutions for their needs. The campaign performed very well with a 25% conversion rate, defined as successfully ascertaining a face-to-face meeting with the prospect.

What is Account-Based Marketing?

ABM is a sustained, coordinated approach that uses personalization to target the decision makers within one account. ABM is quickly becoming a regularly integrated execution to compliment a wide scope lead generation focus, or as I like to call it, the grass seed approach; that is, you throw a lot of seed down and hope some relationships grow and, with proper care and nurturing, turns into business.

Why Use Account-Based Marketing?

Whereas widespread marketing to place leads at the top of the funnel works, hand selecting the cream of the crop prospects and targeting those with a personalized experience can produce better results and stronger clients. In fact, this pivot and integration of focusing on targeting the decision makers within select accounts has become much easier in the last few years with the evolution of new platforms, channels, and tools that enable a deeper understanding of and better access to our clients.

In Demand Gen Report’s 2020 ABM Benchmark Survey, 73% of the marketers surveyed said ABM has led to an efficient use of marketing resources and 37% saw a clearer path to ROI. That’s probably because the developed and targeted client personas are much more inclined to benefit from your service or product, and as such, your outreach and messaging may strongly resonate with them, significantly increasing the lead to conversion time. In other words, you are providing something of value to your prospects. And your approach, cadence, level of personalization, and delivery of this information are key to driving a successful ABM campaign.

Take LinkedIn and Sales Navigator, for instance. Ten years ago, LinkedIn was still in the adoption mode. However, a recent report shows LinkedIn members have surged 900 percent since 2010, increasing from 78 million to nearly 800 million members today. And, with the advent of Sales Navigator in 2014, social sales prospecting and selling have become an effective and cost-effective way of sourcing new business.

With other sophisticated tools, platforms, and automation systems that streamline processes, marketers now have a blank canvas to create a personalized experience of their brand for each client or prospect. Further, when you integrate an account-based marketing strategy with traditional marketing tactics and also consider that many companies have more mature customer databases and tools that provide insights and triggers, the ABM strategy has quickly emerged as a preferred method of targeted business development.

When Should Companies Use Account-Based Marketing?

An ABM strategy can be especially effective for smaller and mid-size businesses that don’t have the resource bandwidth and available tools to integrate a robust and sustained traditional lead generation program. In this situation, it may make better sense to develop a customized strategy by selecting and targeting those prospects where winning one or two of their accounts business would move the needle. But even an ABM campaign at this level needs a scope of resources to support its success, including, but not limited to, research data, content, and creative, and should have tangible criteria to determine return on investment (ROI). And although ABM takes more resources and time for results, it has the potential to time to nurture and make the prospect ready for outreach, it has a much higher potential for return in producing longer-term, better quality clients.

How Should Companies Create an Account-Based Marketing Strategy?

A successful ABM strategy begins with the critical work of developing your client persona, one of six important steps that serve as the pillar of your efforts. Your persona must hit the mark to ensure your campaign is laser focused on the right prospects. But that is just the beginning. There are five other notable steps outlined below for small and mid-size businesses to develop and execute a successful ABM marketing strategy.

1) Define and shoot for the bullseye with your client profile development.

Using available data, web analytics, past client characteristics, and insights from your sales team, you can create an accurate archetype of your ideal account with confidence.

2) Identify the company’s top decision makers you plan to target and understand.

Outline the problems you will solve for with your strategy. Address a pain point and provide a solution along the campaign journey.

3) Define your specific ABM campaign goals.

Map out what you expect to achieve related to each goal – specifically and cumulatively – using your overall business’s established key performance indicators (KPI’s) for the company or department. True alignment between the business needs and molding your ABM strategy to support your business’s goals are critical.

In a business that has a front-facing sales team, the only way to make certain your campaign is positioned for victory is to collaborate on goals, determine measurements of success, execute customized outreach, and ensure the sales team follows up timely and appropriately with key targets. This alignment is often the hardest challenge, but it is key to ensuring the goals are mutual, the measurement of success is consistent, and the expectations are parallel. Otherwise, if marketing believes increased engagement and deeming an account ready for outreach defines success, but the sales team believes immediate new business makes the campaign a win, this misalignment could cause disappointment and lack of future buy-in by both sides. What will deem the strategy and campaign a success? Close rate? Pipeline? Impressions? Sales meetings? Content engagement rates? Sales cycle length?

4) Create and define the experience with a detailed journey and messaging.

Understanding your client’s obstacles and their level of interest in your product or service will help you determine what content and messaging is presented along their engagement path. Incorporate calls to action through an offering like a free analysis or something that will attract attention and engagement.

5) Debrief, refine, and repeat the campaign by measuring your results through data.

Leveraging data to understand what is resonating with your targets will help you improve your strategies. Understanding content performance as well as how and where clients prefer to receive information allows you to create better personalization and increased engagement that will help you glean when the accounts are ready for outreach.

Bottom line, it’s all about the BOTTOM LINE and ABM helps businesses of all sizes see that line more clearly when they target real prospects that fit within the parameters of their client profile who are more apt to bring you business. With targeting real prospects that best match your business offerings, an ABM approach MAY support shorter sales cycles. Its highly targeted approach ensures dollars are spent more wisely, all the while providing a better customer experience, which as we know, is a key competitive differentiator in today’s business world.

Want to see how ABM can grow your business?

We can help! Get in touch with us below for a free initial marketing assessment (IMA) and from there we can discuss the value an account-based marketing strategy could bring to your business. 

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About the Author

Bonnie Habyan is a Chief Marketing Officer and author with more than 25 years of experience in the financial services and energy sectors. She specializes in brand development, growth marketing, and acceleration strategies. She can be reached at bonniehabyan@gmail.com and found on LinkedIn here.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

10 Things to Add to Your 2021 Content Marketing Strategy

10 Things to Add to Your 2021 Content Marketing Strategy

by | Feb 16, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, General, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution, Storytelling & Branding

10 Things to Add to Your 2021 Content Marketing Strategy

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Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, gain trust and traffic, and convert new customers. If you aren’t leveraging this tactic in 2021, it’s time to rethink your marketing approach and see where you can incorporate content. We’re here to help with some ideas for your 2021 content marketing strategy.

If you’re already implementing a content strategy, keep what’s working for you and improve what isn’t. We know growing businesses may not have the resources to completely reimagine a brand new content marketing strategy. Instead, you can add some new approaches or re-examine old ones. Here are 10 suggestions for ways to better your content marketing strategy in 2021 without stretching your budget.

10 Things to Add to Your 2021 Content Strategy

1. Audience Segmentation

Not everyone who consumes your content wants the exact same thing. By dividing your audience into groups based on where they are in their journey and what they’re interested in that you have to offer, you can create targeted content designed to give people what they like, and avoid sending them what they don’t.

2. Target Your Specific Audiences

To do this, you need to make sure you know your prospective (and existing) customers like the back of your hand. What do they want, what obstacles are they trying to overcome? What makes them happy, and what keeps them up at night? Then, you can understand what exactly they are looking for so you can tailor your content to their needs.

A great way to do that is with keyword research. See what the current demand for your topic is with Google Trends or tools like SEMRush and UberSuggest, and use them to guide what you create.

3. Keep Your Content Up-to-Date

As time passes, content naturally becomes outdated. To ensure your readers will still be gaining something from your content, you have to periodically go through and update information. Start with your most popular posts that are six months old or older, then work your way down.

4. Create Content Based On Your Core Values

One of the most important things content marketing does is build your brand. Your audience gets the chance to develop a relationship with your business. With content based on your core values, you can continue to develop that relationship, showing your audience what is important to you and what their experience with your company will be like.

5. Stay Flexible

As you deploy your updated content marketing strategy, stay flexible. Be ready to receive feedback, measure effectiveness, and make tweaks.

On the whole, content marketing requires adaptability. The digital landscape is constantly changing, and new avenues for marketing are always being created. To stay competitive, you have to keep on top of the latest trends and always be ready to adapt.

6. Conduct a Competitor Analysis

Your competition can tell you a lot about how you can improve your content marketing. Take a look at what they’re doing, see what’s working and what isn’t, and integrate the successful techniques into your strategy.

Google has many automated tools that allow you to take a good look at your competition, and other sites (like UberSuggest mentioned above) do, too. No matter what tool you use, your goal is to see what approaches you can start using for your own business. Don’t steal! Just use it as inspiration to fill in any gaps and create something even better.

7. Create High-Quality Content

Regardless of what kind of content you’re creating, you want it to be great quality. Your audience isn’t going to stick around for boring or unhelpful content. While content marketing is marketing, your primary goal is to build trust and offer value. Whether you’re providing entertainment, education, statistics, stories, or tutorials, your content has to give something generous to your audience.

8. Create a Content Calendar

A lot of content marketers take it one piece of content at a time, reactively instead of proactively. However, this can make it really hard to track the effectiveness of your content and to successfully market it.
Instead, create a comprehensive calendar to track and measure all of your activity ahead of time. Plan out what content you’ll create and when you’ll publish it. With a calendar, you will have a well-thought-out, long-term strategy. Plus, when you work ahead, your content will be ready to go when you need it.

9. Try New Types of Content

If you are able, an excellent way to reach new audiences is with other types of content. There are hundreds of types of content out there, and changing up what you’re producing every now and then will help boost your audience’s interest. It also allows you to keep your content fresh and explore new avenues of content marketing. If you’re only writing blogs, try turning some of them into infographics, or checklists and templates you can use as a lead generator (something you offer in exchange for a reader’s contact information). Usually write long-form think-pieces? Try a listicle, like this want. Whatever you do, make it helpful, switch it up, and let your brand personality shine.

10. Final Thoughts

With a great 2021 content marketing strategy, your business can bring in more leads and convert them into loyal customers.

Want even more guidance on exactly how to execute an effective and impactful content strategy? Download our eBook below.

    Download the ebook
    About the Author

    Content Manager and Copywriter Beth McDonough brings nearly a decade of professional writing and editing to the team at &Marketing. With extensive experience in an array of fields that range from entertainment publications to a Fortune 500 energy company, Beth has the ability to produce written content that speaks directly to the needs of a breadth of clients and channel their brand personality into a compelling story.

    About &Marketing

    &Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

    How a Solopreneur Broke Through the Marketing Noise With &Marketing U

    How a Solopreneur Broke Through the Marketing Noise With &Marketing U

    by | Feb 4, 2021 | &Marketing U, Business & Marketing Strategy, Case Studies, Marketing Planning & Execution

    How a Solopreneur Broke Through the Marketing Noise With &Marketing U

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    As a seasoned career and executive coach who launched his own operation after 25 years at Johnson & Johnson, Ken Sher understands the dilemma well. After deciding to leverage his expert coaching and leadership skills to help people find their next job opportunity, Ken realized he needed to sharpen his marketing skills to grow his business.

    Like so many solopreneurs, Ken struggled to find enough time in his day to keep up with the ever-changing digital marketing trends and tools. He described most of his marketing efforts as “doing things as they came up” and felt like his hard work amounted to a “scattershot approach” that lacked consistency. Sound familiar?

    It wasn’t that Ken didn’t know what to do, it was that he didn’t know how to do it. As Ken felt his marketing knowledge plateau, he knew he needed help taking his small business to the next level. When he learned &Marketing was launching a pilot program called &Marketing U that offered the tools, education, and accountability he needed to take his marketing game up a notch, he was in.

    Throughout the program, Ken gained foundational marketing knowledge and learned how to apply that knowledge to his specific marketing needs through:

    • Honing his messaging
    • Implementing SEO best practices
    • Creating a content marketing strategy

    Today, marketing your brand is more important than ever as people are extremely discerning regarding where they spend their money. This program is great in showing you how to build and execute a marketing plan that is based on developing a winning message, targeting the right audience, tracking the impact of your efforts and leading to increased sales… I highly recommend it to any company who is looking to improve their marketing efforts without the major expense of investing in building or expanding their marketing department.

    Ken Sher

    By tracking all of this in a comprehensive marketing calendar, Ken was able to align and execute all of his efforts consistently. This made it easy for Ken to know exactly what to do every day to keep things moving forward.

    Since enrolling in &Marketing U and working through each of the modules, Ken reported a major uptick in both LinkedIn activity and requests for meetings. He found so much success in applying the foundations and focusing his efforts that his calendar is now completely full, and his business revenue goals are within reach.

    “In less than a month after finishing the course, my calendar is fully booked. The clarity and consistency I received from &Marketing U helped me gain more traction and reach more prospective clients.” 

    Ken Sher

    No individual has the bandwidth to stay on top of the changing trends all the time — yet so many one-person marketers are expected to. We created &Marketing U because we know it feels impossible to stay on top of the best trends and tactics, know where your time and energy should go, and execute in a way that works with the time you have.

    We know a little direction from the right people can go a long way, so we designed this program so help making doing it all not seem so daunting. We have distilled the most effective marketing strategies and tools into bite-sized lessons that make a big impact so that no matter how much extra time or budget you have — you can grow your small business like Ken did.

    If you’re a one person marketing department or solopreneur, we invite you to enroll in &Marketing U. You’ll learn exactly how to create and execute a concrete marketing plan to grow your business for a fraction of the cost of hiring a marketing agency or new employees.

    Want to sample our course materials first? Download our content marketing eBook or watch our webinar where &Marketing U’s team of expert coaches share valuable tips about developing and implementing a marketing program in 2021, specifically for “solo marketer” businesses.

    Enroll Now

    P.S – Know someone who is looking for their next career opportunity? Reach out to our &Marketing U alumni at ken@shercoaching.com and get a complimentary coaching session from Ken.

    About &Marketing

    &Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

    Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

    We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

    6 Ways to Tell Your Sales Training is Stale

    6 Ways to Tell Your Sales Training is Stale

    by | Feb 3, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution

    6 Ways to Tell Your Sales Training is Stale

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    We have learned many times over the years that the collaboration between sales and marketing is critical. When it’s working, communication is strong and results are aligned. When it’s not, fingers are pointed, blame is cast, and the business suffers. With that in mind, we invited our friend and advisor, John Durso, CEO of Brilliant Sales Strategies, to provide some thoughts on how to reinvigorate a stale sales department.

    Even the best sales teams have off days, but when those off days drag on longer than usual, it could be a red flag your sales training is stale. If you suspect your sales team is struggling, check out our list of six signs your sales force is in need of a reset. We even included actionable steps to help them overcome the sales slump.

    6 Ways to Tell Your Sales Training is Stale (And How to Fix It)

    1. Not Doing Enough Research

    Prospecting is like fishing. A seasoned fisherman knows in order to catch a certain fish, they need to get a few critical questions answered first. Likewise, a good salesperson knows the value in getting as much information about their prospect as possible Just like a fisherman needs to know what type of bait to use and where the fish swims, understanding a prospect well enough to know what “bait” (i.e., call, email, in-person meeting, etc.) to use and where to use it is critical. If you suspect your sales team is lacking in intel, here are some tips for researching your target customer.

    • Look up the company’s website and gather information from their About Us and Media pages. You can use this information as an ice breaker.
    • Google the company to see if they have recently been in the news, good or bad.
    • Look the company up on LinkedIn to see who you know that can connect you.
    • Reach out to your network and determine the best person to make an introduction for you (this is ideal), or who will let you drop their name in your correspondence.
    • Once on their LinkedIn page, try to determine their personality profile. This will inform your method and “bait.” For example, most CFOs and CPAs have a high element of calculation in their personality, so they will respond positively to an email that has details, research, facts, figures, spreadsheets, etc. Whereas a CEO or salesperson might have a high element of drive in their personality, so providing them with too much info will backfire.

    Extra tip: Adding the app Crystal Knows to your Google Chrome LinkedIn experience is critical for salespeople today. This plugin will analyze the language on your prospect’s LinkedIn page and give their opinion as to the DISC personality profile of the prospect, giving you advice as to how to proceed with your communication tactics.

    If your sales team is struggling to understand their target customer and how they behave, they are likely casting their net too wide, fishing in the wrong lake, or using the wrong bait. A smart salesperson understands the need to take a more targeted approach in order to catch the right fish.

    2. Doing Too Much Talking

    If you are presenting your value proposition before learning anything about the prospect, and essentially taking over the meeting, you will lose the deal almost every time.

    In your initial discovery meeting, lead the conversation by allowing the prospect to speak first and explain their business. In addition to the questions you normally ask to uncover if they may be a fit for you, you should ask other interesting questions like, “Why do you do what you do?” and “What motivates you to get out of bed each day?” These questions will yield many clues to their personality and give you guidance on how to present your value proposition to them.

    3. Not Networking

    In today’s world, the excuse that “networking events are canceled so there are no opportunities” no longer works. The world of virtual networking is on fire. There are opportunities to attend virtual networking events almost every day, and the organizations putting them on are getting really good at making them a valuable use of time.

    I recently secured appointments with 100% of the people I did not know on a networking event held via Zoom. This is important to note because there is no way you can get an appointment with 100% of the people you don’t know at an in-person event.

    4. Not Making LinkedIn Part of the End of Every Purchase

    The most effective (and least expensive) marketing tool is a referral. Connecting on LinkedIn with customers who love you is a great way to generate an instant referral business. In your connection request, remember to write a message that addresses why you are connecting.

    For example:
    “Hi Ken, Please connect with me? I am looking to grow my business and knowing how happy you are with my service, I’m hoping you can introduce me to some of your friends who may need my services as well.”

    5. Recycling Emails and Presentations

    Nothing kills an opportunity faster than sending a prospect an email with the wrong company name, especially if a competitor. I recommend taking the time to write each email and each presentation with the prospect in mind. It doesn’t have to be completely from scratch, but care should be taken for each situation. If the prospect feels like they are just a number and are not individual or special, your odds go down.

    6. Your Sales Team Does Not Know WHY Your Company Exists

    If your sales team can not explain WHY your company exists, then there is a lot of work to be done. When given a choice between two companies who are identical in service and price, it comes down to the skill of the salesperson to educate the prospect on WHY they should choose us over them. The message is very powerful.

    A great example is The Monkey’s Uncle, a simple T-shirt shop in Doylestown, PA. They do not outwardly communicate WHY their store exists, yet you instantly see WHY their store exists the moment you walk in the door.

    A normal t-shirt shop’s elevator pitch sounds like this “Hi I’m Derrick Morgan, owner of the Monkey’s Uncle. We sell high-quality t-shirts with old logos of your favorite sports teams and retro concert posters for kids and adults. Want to buy one?” Not bad right?

    Now if we lead with WHY they exist, the pitch completely changes. “Hi I’m Jeanell Morgan, co-owner of Monkey’s Uncle. We strive to always support our community, little leagues, and favorite local causes. One of our biggest passions is the ongoing mentoring programs for the special needs community. We partner with our local school districts to advocate and support students of all abilities and their access to obtaining real life job skills. We are a retro inspired sports boutique. We sell pretty amazing tee shirts from babies to babes, and dudes to dads – this is the most fun your closet will ever have. Want to buy a t-shirt?”

    An easy way to find your why is to first ask your team “What do we do?” then “How do we do it?” Pretend you are a 5-year-old child and continuously ask “WHY” until you get to the answer.

    Getting out of a sales slump takes an active, focused effort. If any of these red flags ring true for your sales team, it’s time for some honest feedback. Remember that even the most seasoned salesperson can find their process and training becomes stale. It happens. The important part is recognizing when it does so you can review your sales process and figure out where you’re getting stuck.

    If you want to learn more ways to identify sales technique areas of concern, and ways to get the team back on track, reach out to John Durso of Brilliant Sales Strategies and schedule a short virtual meeting JDurso@BrilliantSalesStrategies.com

    About the Authors

    John Durso, a student of the Disney Institute of Business Excellence, he holds a degree in Organizational Leadership from Eastern University, and through his 22 year career in banking he has helped hundreds of small businesses and nonprofit organizations become more successful in their company culture, leadership development, and sales.

    About &Marketing

    &Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

    Our Top Five Tips for Tackling Social Media in 2021

    Our Top Five Tips for Tackling Social Media in 2021

    by | Jan 27, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution

    Our Top Five Tips for Tackling Social Media in 2021

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    2020 was an eventful year, for better or worse, and to say it changed the way we communicate with other people is an understatement. Although we don’t know what to expect this year, we do know that it will continue to be critical to build great relationships with your audiences — and one of the best ways to do that is through social media. Here are our top five 2021 social media tips to implement this year.

    Our Top 5 2021 Social Media Tips

    1. Build Organic Relationships

    Over the past few years, people have become more and more suspicious of advertisers. They don’t trust companies they don’t know, and they are constantly worried they might be taken advantage of. Many people are worried about the protection of their privacy and fake news.

    This year, your top priority should be building a trusting and organic relationship with your audience. They can tell if you’re trying to trick them into trusting you, so sincerity and honesty are essential.

    Most customers trust the testimony of other people more than advertisers. Ninety percent of consumers believe recommendations from people they know, and seventy percent believe other consumers’ opinions. Regardless of if they know them or not, input from other consumers is more trustworthy to most people than anything an advertiser has to say.

    By building genuine organic relationships, you’re making your brand more personable and creating a human connection with your audience. They will feel like they can trust you more if you are focused on the relationship more than the sale. Look at it as an opportunity to collaborate and communicate with your audience.

    2. Use Influencer Impact

    No matter what platform you are on, content creators have a massive impact on their own audiences, including influencing the companies they patronize. Take advantage of this pull and work with influencers. Find a creator whose content is related to your brand and have them promote your product and be an enthusiastic ambassador for your company.

    Many growing companies hesitate to try and implement an influencer or brand ambassador program because they don’t think they have the budget for the heavy hitters, but as time goes on it has become clear that micro influencers cost less and carry just as much weight thanks to their highly engaged audiences.

    However, be careful to vet who you choose to work with. Make sure any partnerships you create are with people who embody your company beliefs and values.

    3. Create Live Content

    Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and lots of other platforms all have live streaming options now, and they want those capabilities to be used. Live streaming has become more popular than ever, as users search for a way to feel connected while isolated.

    Live video content is a great way for you to engage with your audience in real time. Host Q&As, product launches, behind-the-scenes, interviews, and more. No matter what you’re streaming, live content makes your brand appear more personable and allows your people to really get to know the people behind your brand.

    4. Speak Out About Social Issues

    Between COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, social issues are at the forefront of many consumers’ minds. The Q4 2020 Media Insights Report from Merkle found that fifty-six percent of consumers have no respect for companies that are silent on important issues.

    Acknowledge the significant issues your customers are facing and show your support. With meaningful and educational content regarding the topic as it relates to your business, your audience will see that you are concerned about real issues. While impartial used to mean professional, it now runs the risk of coming off as tone deaf, so choose your causes and your stances wisely.

    5. Diversify Your Social Media Presence

    By now, most brands know they have to utilize the biggest social media platforms simultaneously to have the greatest impact on their audience. Although new arrivals come and go every year, you can rest assured your time is well spent establishing a substantial presence on them on the core platforms. They aren’t going anywhere.

    The effort you expend to develop a relationship with users on different platforms is extremely worthwhile. You can reach different audiences depending on the platform you use, and each site has its own features and can showcase a different side of your brand personality.

    Depending on the type of content you are posting, you can decide which platform it is best suited for. For example, long videos should go on YouTube, but you can also post shorter ones on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Don’t be afraid to post a piece of content on more than one platform, either.

    Regardless of where you spend your time, remember is to use all the features they offer — especially the new ones. Stories, reels, and lives are all great ways to connect with your audience and are favored by the Instagram and Facebook algorithms.. Take advantage of that by riding the wave of favoritism while it’s there.

    Successful marketing requires adaptability, so don’t keep using old strategies. Cruise through the unpredictability of 2021 confidently with these tips to optimize your social media usage and create genuine connections with your audience.

    These are just a few of the high level ways to execute a stellar social media game plan for 2021. For a much deeper dive into every platform, their recent changes, and what to pay attention to this year, download the &Marketing 2021 Social Media Playbook for below.

    Download Playbook
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    About &Marketing

    &Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

    8 Tips for Generating PR for Small Businesses

    8 Tips for Generating PR for Small Businesses

    by | Jan 12, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, General, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution

    8 Tips for Generating PR for Small Businesses

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    Have you ever wondered how stories surrounding companies, leaders, or business topics get covered by the news media? No matter how it gets communicated to you – via TV, social media, or online news – it’s likely that whatever news you’re consuming was strategically placed there by a public relations professional.

    PR can be a powerful tool in the communication toolbox to establish credibility, build trust with and engage your audience, create brand recognition, and position your company and its leadership as a thought leader. But it can be tough to know when news really is newsworthy. And even then, where do you start? Here you’ll learn how to tell if your news is newsworthy and how to create a strategic and research-backed approach to getting coverage for your company.

    8 Tips for Generating PR for Small Businesses

    1. Determine Whether Your News IS News

    Do you have something new and interesting to say? Do you have a unique perspective on a trending topic? Do you have news that is timely? Is there an unmet need you’re solving that you want people to know about? If the answer is yes to any of these, then you should consider PR for your business.

    The question then becomes whether your news is valuable and compelling enough that a broader audience (i.e. people outside of your organization) would find it interesting. Here are a few things to keep in mind when evaluating if your news is indeed newsworthy:

    • Timeliness: Does it impact or reflect current events? For example, COVID-19 is a topic that continues to dominate the news cycle for obvious reasons. Can your news somehow be tied to COVID-19? If so, look for reporters and news outlets that have previously covered similar news stories or written COVID-19 articles for your industry.
    • Location: Does it impact your local community? People that live and work in a specific area want to know more about things in that area, as it affects their daily life. Can you tie your topic to a local community? If so, targeting media outlets that cover that specific region would be a great way to secure interest.
    • Human interest: People like learning about people. Is there a leader in your organization that has a relevant or relatable story to tell? If so, this person should have a unique perspective, quality or angle that brings value in some way to the audience you’re targeting.
    • Impact: Will your topic have an influence on the audience you’re reaching? Will this topic matter to them?

    When evaluating whether or not your company news is news and trying to generate PR for your small business, remember to think of it from the point of view of the audience or stakeholders you’re trying to inform. Of course YOU think your news is news, but will anyone else be interested?

    2. Set Concrete Goals

    This can easily get overlooked, especially when timely news or an announcement arises and you need to act quickly. Start by establishing clear objectives for your PR activities. What are you trying to do? Build brand awareness? Position your product in the market? Demonstrate credibility as a thought leader? Amplify an announcement? Secure interest from VCs? The clearer your goals, the easier you’ll be able to measure the results.

    3. Identify Target Audiences

    Once you identify the goals you want to accomplish through spreading the word about your company’s news, it’s time to shift focus to the audiences that will help you accomplish these goals. Who are you trying to reach? What spaces do they hang out in, and where do they go for information? What voices and sources do they trust

    Take the time to think about how you identify your target audience. Is it geographically, by age or gender, or maybe by interest or industry? PR for small businesses often succeeds because of a strong focus on the exact right audiences for that piece of news. It’s critical to spend time getting to know and understanding the audience you’re targeting, as this will help you identify 1) how to reach them and 2) how to develop strong messages that will get them to act.

    4. Develop a Strategy

    So once you know who that ideal audience is, how can you reach them? If your goal is thought leadership, consider bylined articles or speaking engagements. If your goal is to build brand awareness or position your product in the marketplace, pitch reporters to get earned media hits in publications or podcasts. If you have a corporate announcement you’re making, consider developing a press release and pitching it under embargo to prospective reporters.

    After you’ve established the audience you want to reach, this is when you’ll create a targeted media list with outlets and reporters to contact. Research the outlets and reporters who speak to your target audience and have covered topics similar to yours in the past. Check out the list of tools below that can help do the research by identifying outlets, reporters, and contact information!

    While earned media is the more traditional approach to PR, there are also other ways to obtain coverage. The PESO model (paid, earned, shared, and owned media) is a widely used strategy for thinking about segmenting your approach. This graphic by Spin Sucks, a professional development and training organization, explains the model well.

    5. Create Key Messages and Pitch Note

    Now you’ve got your goals, audience, and strategy lined up. It’s time to outline the actual meat of the news you want to share. Think about the top three points you want to make, focusing on the critical pieces of information your audience should walk away with. Develop a key message document that lays them out with supporting, data-driven facts. You yourself what the research is telling you. What is your customer’s problem and how are you solving it?

    After you know the most important points of your story, develop a pitch note that you can use and customize in your media outreach. The note (which you’ll send via email) should be brief and highlight the most interesting and valuable information. It’s important to customize each pitch note to the specific reporter you’re reaching out to.

    How do you customize? Check out the recent articles they’ve written, their social media accounts, blogs, etc., and refer to something timely in your email. Think about a way that they could uniquely cover your story based on their style or what they typically cover. Don’t forget to offer the opportunity for the reporter to interview and speak with your spokesperson!

    6. Prep Spokespeople

    You’ve offered outlets the chance to speak to someone at your company, so what happens once they say yes? Hopefully, before you pitch, you have identified the relevant subject matter experts that will tell your story and share your messages. Get that spokesperson ready for potential interviews through a media prep session. Focus on best practices for delivering key messages and speaking with reporters. Remember to go through your key messages, and don’t hesitate to request that the outlet send the questions over ahead of time if there will be an interview involved.

    7. Execute Your Plan

    Congratulations! You’ve laid all of the groundwork to execute effective PR for small businesses. Now it’s time to execute, and in order to do that, you’ll need some key supporting materials:

    • One-pager for spokespeople with key messages.
    • Media list of targeted reporters (including both traditional media, podcasts, and blogs). Use this larger list to pull from for targeted outreach around specific topics.
    • Prepped third-party spokespeople to help tell your story from an outsider’s perspective.
    • An editorial calendar outlining pitch ideas for milestones or announcements you’re planning for, as well as “evergreen” topics. Align those with any special events or themes you see happening within the outlets you’re seeking to pitch.
    • A social media and blog cadence for owned content on your website to serve as a channel that supports your news.

    8. Monitor & Measure

    Once you begin pitching, how do you know your strategy is effective? In order to measure the success of your PR campaign, you have to identify some metrics and figure out how to score them. The first step is to establish KPIs (key performance indicators). These can include coverage, reach, sentiment, and social media engagement, to name a few. PR efforts are well-known for being tricky to quantify and measure, but setting goals up front and what will be used to measure them will help

    PR Tools for Small Businesses

    Below are a few tools every small business should have in their PR toolbelt.

    1.To research outlets and reporters, build media lists, monitor coverage, try

    2. For media monitoring services, test out:

    3. To connect reporters with subject matter experts and sources, sign up for HARO.

    PR, and more specifically media relations, is a critical part of any business’s communication and marketing strategy. And while the thought of pitching the media might seem daunting, the above tips can help guide the process. Just remember, it’s important to evaluate your news to ensure it’s of interest to the people you’re trying to reach!

    Having a coordinated marketing plan is critical as a foundation you can use to build on with a PR strategy. For help creating and executing your 2021 marketing strategy, download our workbook

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    About the Author

    Rachel Gormley is a seasoned project manager with experience in strategic communication, public relations and event planning. An effective communicator armed with strong organizational skills, she can see a project through successfully from inception to completion, managing the fine details and ensuring seamless collaboration across workstreams. Rachel works hard to build and maintain strong client relationships. She takes pride in immersing herself in her clients to understand their needs and to make the recommendations that are best for their business.

    Rachel graduated from Drexel University with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and a Minor in Marketing.

    About &Marketing

    &Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.