Author: Dan O’Keeffe

Founder & CEO

Why Companies Need B2B Content

Businesses in every industry have valuable stories to tell about their products and services. However, many are not utilizing the power of content, and their stories aren’t being heard. I believe it is important that companies incorporate content marketing into their lead generation and sales processes to give customers the information they really want. So, why is content important for B2B businesses? I’ve put together a list of my top reasons.

Quality content builds credibility and authority

Consistent, quality content can help establish your company as a leader in your industry. By writing thought leadership pieces, you are proving your expertise to those who might need your services. Gaining that credibility and authority is important when it comes to strengthening your relationship with current customers, as well as attracting the attention of new ones. The more you write and publish, the simpler it will be for you to convince your target audience that you are an expert in the business subject you’re promoting and selling. Your thought leadership de-risks their buying process.

Buyers are always looking for helpful content

According to LinkedIn, 79 percent of small businesses say that industry specific news and articles are the most valuable pieces of content they look for on social media. 79 percent! This illustrates that companies are out there reading and looking for answers. It’s important that your company is part of the conversation.

The B2B buying journey can take some time

The buying journey for B2B companies can often take much longer than it does for B2C companies. This is because you are building a relationship with your potential customers, rather than asking for a simple transaction. Because the process can often take some time, it is important to stay in touch with prospects throughout their journey. Helpful and relevant content acts as a great touchpoint and provides a way to initiate discussions and ensure loyal follow-up. It also doesn’t hurt that 74% of B2B buyers choose a vendor that’s first to help them with useful content, according to LinkedIn.

Google recognizes quality content

A high SEO ranking is the cherry on top of producing quality material. Marketing is a great way to promote your brand and reach new customers, as well as get recognized by Google, who will award your efforts with a good ranking. You just have to make sure you are publishing quality content consistently. However, while it can be tempting to write purely for SEO purposes, always be sure to focus on writing compelling content about the things your target audience would be most interested in. There is no downside to optimizing your content for SEO, but don’t lose sight of your primary goals when you create and deliver content.

Every B2B company has a story to tell and an audience to share it with, whether it is current clients, prospective clients or industry colleagues. Providing and publishing relevant content can make a major difference in creating a rewarding customer relationship. B2B businesses are embracing the benefits of content each day and are seeing direct results. Make sure your company doesn’t miss out on opportunities that content marketing can provide.

Why your business needs visual content

Regardless of the industry you work in, you’ve probably already heard that visual content is an effective form of communication. Actually, in my opinion it’s becoming the most effective form of communication.

Whether you’re in B2B or B2C, it’s still H2H (human to human). Humans are visual beings, and in today’s world of information-overload, visuals can help your message rise above the clutter.  If you aren’t focusing on visual content for your marketing, social media or email campaigns, it’s probably time to start.

Visuals grab our attention.

There are 1.5 billion units of content generated each day. With so much information floating around online, businesses need to find ways to grab the attention of their target audiences. Using visuals, rather than text, is a much more effective way to accomplish this.

We remember visuals.

Did you know that people retain 80 percent of what they see? This is compared to 20 percent of what they read and ten percent of what they hear. Big difference. If you want your audience to remember what you are communicating, show them using visuals.

Visual content gets more views.

Content featuring compelling images averages 94 percent more total views than those without. It’s also 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than posts with only text. By including an image, you can drastically increase people’s willingness to read, listen or see what you have to say.

Visual content can influence human emotion.

Images, videos, infographics, and other forms of visual content include color that can appeal to your target audience’s senses and influence their emotions. Studies show that colors not only affect emotions, but also influence how people will take action. Additionally, visual content acts as a universal language and can appeal to all audiences and emotions.

To practice what I preach, I’ve included an infographic that brings this message to life.

 

Infographic from Ethos3
Infographic from Ethos3

 

Is Your Brand Utilizing Facebook Live?

As of June, 2016 Facebook reported over 1.71 billion monthly active users. As you can imagine, when the company launched Facebook Live, it peaked the interest of marketers everywhere. Whether you are a B2B or B2C company, these real-time video posts can create real opportunities for your brand to engage with your audience. If your company hasn’t tried using Facebook Live yet, it might be a good time to start.

What is Facebook Live?

Facebook Live videos are real-time video posts that show up in your followers’ Facebook news feeds. Your page can broadcast in real time for up to 90 minutes. While broadcasting, your company can keep track of how many people are viewing the video, read and monitor comments and respond to them directly. Your fans can even subscribe and get notified the next time you start a live broadcast.

Facebook Live can help your brand:

Reach a wide audience.

Video is King, and there are plenty of statistics to prove it. And, Facebook has recently tweaked its news feed algorithm to prioritize live video because of research that shows users spend three times longer watching a live video compared to a pre-recorded video. This means that your brand’s video will show up on more news feeds than a typical Facebook post, and your organic reach will be much higher.

Target the right audience.

Facebook allows you to target who your live stream will reach. You can target by age, gender, language or location, so your video will reach those who are relevant.

Be more human.

Facebook Live is just another tool for you to showcase your brand’s personality. Your audience will get to know your brand better and feel better connected with live video, which will make them more likely to come back to your pages for more.

Understand your audience.

By listening to their real-time reactions and comments, your brand can test new ideas and get immediate feedback. You are also able to see the total number of people who watched at least a portion of the video, along with how many viewers you had at different points in time during the video. This information is helpful to determine when your audience is on Facebook and what they want to see.

Should my company use Facebook Live?

Facebook live can offer plenty of benefits for both B2B and B2C companies. But, with all social networks, it is important to think about where your audience lives. If you have customers, potential customers or industry peers who are active on Facebook, then Facebook Live is a great tool to use to answer questions, hear what’s on their mind and share new information with them.

For example, if your company offers business classes or workshops, you can broadcast interviews with attendees about the best tips they received during the session. As a construction company, you might broadcast a drywall installation or a walk-through of a completed project or building. If you are a restaurant, you can broadcast a “how-to” video of your chef cooking a quick and easy dish.

Live streaming is all about connecting and engaging with your audience in real time. Facebook Live breaks down barriers and creates a connection that traditional marketing cannot. So, go ahead and give it a try!

Why Media Training Matters

If you work in the PR industry, booking an interview for a client is only half the battle. What happens when you send that person into the interview without any media training? Often times, it can resemble an on-air or in-print implosion if they haven’t been adequately prepared for what to expect. Media training is a necessary asset in our trade, but one thing many don’t talk about is how media training can go terribly wrong.

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte recently lost four massive endorsement deals after his scandal in the Olympic Games Rio 2016. Many might look back unsurprised, but how many people would have been able to predict this before it happened…and during his pre-scandal press interviews, no less? Well, seasoned PR professionals could have smelled something fishy, and it wasn’t new doting-dad, Olympic fish Michael Phelps.

As I watched interview after interview with Ryan Lochte before the scandal took place, there was a sneaking suspicion I just couldn’t shake. His responses seemed entirely canned; they were so utterly repetitive that it became very clear to me that he was media trained in the same way that a parent forces memorization on a child with flash cards in the 4th grade. Broken record responses such as, “I felt like a big fish in a small pond,” and “I guess I just matured” swirled about when he was asked how he emerged from his scandalous party-boy reputation from Olympic eras past. I wasn’t buying it.

I get it; even the finest PR professionals in the world can only do so much when it comes to media training someone who’s not grasping it. However, here are just a couple quick tips that come to my mind when working with someone like Lochte.

  • Spin your talking points throughout various interviews; it offers the audiences of different media outlets new glimpses into who you are, and builds more credibility. You don’t want to risk being perceived as a talking head. (Unless you’re David Byrne, that is.)
  • If you make a claim, do everything in your absolute power to back it up. Lochte lost all credibility by painting one picture in his media interviews, and behaving the exact opposite less than a week later.
  • Believe what you’re saying. If your PR person tells you to say something that you don’t feel accurately represents you, find a way to massage that statement into something that is at least 2/3 accurate. We don’t recommend lying, but saying you’ve matured when you’re still a platinum-blonde-bleached party boy in Rio is the worst kind of oxymoron.
  • Realize that once you’ve said it on the record, there’s no going back. Although, here’s one silver lining in the news world: you (and Lochte) can take comfort in an interesting quote from Jack Warner of Warner Bros. fame: “Today’s headlines – tomorrow’s toilet paper.”

I recently watched Florence Foster Jenkins. Working in PR, one scene particularly amused me. Spoiler Alert: a New York Post critic decimated affluent, yet terrible operatic singer Florence after her volunteer performance at the Carnegie Hall. Her (somewhat) dedicated husband bought every New York Post paper within a mile radius the following day to prevent her from reading it. That was 1944. This is 2016. We live in a highly digitalized world where negative media is transmitted like the common cold. So just remember, next time you have a date with the media, consult a good PR expert for some effective media training first.

Is your website working for you?

I think of a website as a digital employee for an organization. It’s probably the hardest working employee in your company. It works 24/7 to introduce your brand to new people and continue building relationships with them. Its primary role is to clearly deliver the right information, at the right time, to your prospective customers and clients.

Given the heavy load that it carries, why is it that many companies pay their website so little attention? I often find myself visiting a website to find that the information I need is well hidden in a place that doesn’t make sense. Or, it’s like a digital brochure that makes me feel like I’m dealing with a pushy salesperson. Sometimes the homepage is filled with too much content and it’s like being on a first date with someone who tells you their entire life story in the first hour. In each of these cases, I end up moving on to find what I need.

As with the people you hire, you want your website to represent you well, authentically engage your audience and help you build long-lasting relationships with the people you serve.

Here are three things you can do to make your website “Employee Of The Year”.

Think about the people you serve.

Schedule some time with your team to discuss your target audience. Who are you trying to reach? What are their needs and challenges? How can you help them? How will they find you? Sometimes it helps to create personas and give them a name. This keeps them top of mind as you create content and design the website experience.

Create the right content for the right time.

After you identify know who you want to meet and attract, it’s time to think about how to best engage them. Think of it as starting a new relationship. What information do they need from you as they are beginning to search for an answer or solution? You’ll want that content front and center on the homepage and it needs to be clear, concise and compelling. But that’s just the start because there are many other companies who can also help them. In order for you to stand out, they will need to easily find information that establishes your expertise and credibility. This can be answered through blog posts, case studies or customer reviews. At this point they may be ready to take the next step. You’ll want to be sure they can easily contact you or know where to find you.

Design an intuitive experience.

Once you have your content structure, you’ll want to think about the design of your website. First and foremost, you want it to be easy to read and navigate on a mobile phone, desktop or tablet. Go for a clean design with visuals that enhance your copy and bring it to life. Give careful thought to the titles you use in your navigation. Go back to your personas. What information are they expecting to find? Your titles should reflect this content and appear in order of importance from left to right. Anticipate their next steps in the decision process as you determine your subpages and their location. If your website is well organized and easy to navigate, your visitors feel as though you understand them and are more likely to reach out to you.

In the end, you want to make sure that your “digital employee” has everything it needs to be successful. Taking the time to create a website with an engaging visitor experience is a great first step to building relationships with your clients and customers.

Should Your Brand be on Snapchat?

If you’ve been paying attention to the impressive Snapchat stats lately, then you know that it continues to be the hottest social platform and an invaluable resource to a brand’s overall marketing plan. Snapchat averages over 150 million users a day, recently passing Twitter, and brands are quickly beginning to jump on board and create Snapchat strategies. While Snapchat isn’t a great fit for all brands, those with young audiences and compelling visual opportunities should be considering the platform as a way to continually engage their audience. If your brand is thinking about utilizing Snapchat, keep in mind the following tips:

Plan Content. Snapchat is just like any other form of content – it has to be planned. While a lot of posting will be real-time, time sensitive and reactive due to the 24-hour limit on Snapchat’s stories, there should always be enough content planned in advance to ensure that your brand is posting useful content throughout the day on a regular basis.

Offer Exclusivity. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and blogs, Snapchat does not use hashtags and is less searchable. Give people a reason to follow you and to continue following you. How? By offering exclusivity to something they can’t get anywhere else – not even on your other social platforms. Previewing new products, hosting contests and giveaways and sharing behind-the-scenes content are a few ways to keep your audience coming back for more.

Abandon the Hard Sell. There’s a time and a place for hard selling, and Snapchat is neither. Rather than pushing your product or service, be authentic and engaging. Social media marketing has blurred the lines between social interaction and advertising, but Snapchat’s main user group, Millennials and Gen Y-ers, can see right through hard selling and often are turned off by it. Find a way to connect to your audience on a deeper and more genuine level.

Tell a Story. It’s called a Snapchat Story for a reason. Be sure to utilize the 24-hour limit with memorable and useful stories that truly capture your brand’s personality. With Snapchat stories, you have the opportunity to create “mini-episodes” where each post builds on the last. Use geofilters, stickers and other Snapchat features to tell your story in an entertaining way. Plan these out ahead of time and get creative!

The biggest takeaway? Humanize your business. There is plenty of opportunity on Snapchat, and brands are just beginning to scratch the surface.

Can Old Ideas Become New Again?

Recently, O’Keeffe relocated to newer, shared office space in Over-the-Rhine. In a word, our new space is way cool. That’s two words, but you get it. The space is an open-floorplan renovation of a turn of the century weigh station serving the canal freight traffic that once sailed what is now Central Parkway. The giant scales are still here. Like I said, way cool.

The first week in new space shared with another creative group, we all gathered for lunch in the central meeting area to introduce ourselves, and get to know each other. The other folks are a creative group comprised entirely of very talented and successful Millenials. I’m thrilled to be among so much energy.

While I am not a shy person, I found myself conversing with professionals young enough to be my grandchildren, as we all shared our backgrounds, schools attended, degrees, and experiences. Yes, it’s still Cincinnati, and high schools were mentioned before universities.

Needless to say, my curriculum vitae is significantly longer than theirs simply because I have been doing this 40 years longer than they have. I was quite surprised that, to a person, they all showed a great deal of interest in my agency experience, and asked very interesting and probing questions. As lunch came to a close, a young lady said, “Wow. I wish you had been here when we first started the company. We were all fresh out of college, and didn’t know how to do anything or how the business world works.”

What an amazing statement. Consider its implications. What is the balance between the way things were done in the good old days, versus today’s digitally connected world? Are the principles of marketing communications somehow different today than yesteryear? Is the late David Olgilvy, hailed as the Father of Advertising, and his seminal work that became the textbook on the fundamentals of good communication still valid today?

The short answer, yes, now more than ever. The only difference is that we have more channels available than ever before to communicate with our audience. As content marketers, we can learn a lot from the legendary Mr. Ogilvy, whom I had the pleasure to meet in person in 1972. Here are a few of his guiding principles:

He was one of the pioneers of information-rich, what he called “soft sell” that didn’t insult the intelligence of the prospect.

Ogilvy believed cleverness doesn’t sell products and services. Original thinking in marketing is great, but not just for the sake of being witty or clever. If you aren’t thinking about connecting with your audience, building trust and selling your products or services when you sit down to create content, you need to reexamine your motivations. Don’t just create content to get credit for being clever — create content that will be helpful, insightful, interesting and connects with your target audience.

Learn the language of your audience, and write in their vernacular.
It is vitally important to research and understand how your audience thinks, speaks, and searches, so that we can use that language in our headlines, blog posts, sales letters, and e-books. The better we understand how our readers think, the better we’ll be able to connect with them.

Anyone who is a fan of the TV series, Mad Men, can conjure a mental picture of what the ad business looked like in the late 60’s and 70’s. I’m here to tell you Mad Men is accurate in their depiction of the social interactions of that era.

The principles of modern marketing communications were also created during that time, and remain the same today. Great marketing is a direct communication between your brand, and your customer. You will learn what your customer is looking for in your product or service, what makes an emotional connection and what doesn’t, and the language that will resonate with that customer if you take the time to listen. We simply distribute these messages through exciting, new digital channels.

Why Things Catch On

At O’Keeffe, we have a propensity for working hard and playing hard, and sometimes doing both at the same time. Just take a look at the Ping-Pong table in our new office and you will get the picture (although, we have been working too hard to actually play a game yet, as of late). One way to do both is to pick up an inspiring book regarding your professional industry, and hone your business skills while soaking up the rays at the beach, flying to your next summer vacation (or business trip destination), or while curled up under a tree at your favorite park.

I had the pleasure of meeting the Director of Growth at Snapchat via one of our clients a few months back, and he passionately referred a book to me called Contagious (by Harvard Marketing Professor Jonah Berger). As eloquently spelled out in the book, word of mouth can move mountains, and when it comes to picking up a new book, there’s no better call to action than an adamant reference from a friend or colleague.

I’ve been burning through the pages (yes, I still prefer flipping pages over a Kindle – I’m old fashioned in some ways) and even taking notes. (Yikes! Nerd alert!) The purpose of the book is to shed light on the underlying psychological and sociological processes behind the science of “social transmission.” I was hooked at the start. What makes you choose to pass along that particular YouTube video? Why do you tell five friends about a specific news story? What products do you think are “sexy,” and do you even know why?

Some people would think you have lost your mind if you told them you could convince them to pay $100 for a cheesesteak in Philadelphia, where cheesesteaks are a dime a dozen. Well, according to this book, Howard Wein, of W Hotels fame, did just that. He did so by using ingredients that created a buzz: a fresh, house-made brioche roll brushed with homemade mustard, added thinly sliced Kobe beef, marbleized to perfection; then he included caramelized onions, shaved heirloom tomatoes, and triple cream Taleggio cheese – all was topped off with shaved hand-harvested black truffles and butter-poached Maine lobster tail. To make it more outrageous, he served it with a chilled split of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

I don’t even eat red meat and my mouth appears to be watering.

In a nutshell, Contagious explains through compelling case studies how six principles of contagiousness (including social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value and stories) are behind why things catch on in our society. Thought I was going to share more? You’ll have to do the work if you want to capitalize on Berger’s trade secrets.

What books have you buzzing? I also polled some of my colleagues to see what books have them working-while-playing with intriguing business books this summer…

Annie Beard: Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I like it because in PR, our job is to make ideas and our clients’ stories stick. This book offers a ton of success stories, such as the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of “the Mother Teresa Effect”; and the elementary-school teacher whose simulation prevented racial prejudice. It’s all about how to successfully communicate your ideas.

Nancy Parrott: Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi. I liked it because it’s comprehensive and includes case studies. My big takeaway is having a framework for writing and presenting a content marketing plan that is easy for clients and those outside of the communications field to understand. I can explain how a content strategy can help them achieve their business goals, without using a lot of marketing buzz words that mean nothing to them.

Dale Justice: Reputation Rules by Kellogg School of Management professor Dr. Daniel Diermeier. Diermeier does an excellent job of explaining how to use reputation as a key strategic element with real-life business scenarios – from Mercedes, BP, Toyota and others, and the consequences that occur when companies place quarterly earnings over company values.

Dan O’Keeffe: Scaling Up by Verne Harnish. It is a favorite among members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, which counts more than 10,000 members globally, and was founded by the book’s author, Verne Harnish. So, this is a book written by a business leader who can talk the talk, and walk the walk. Additionally, the book is well written, and is supported by ample graphs and charts to explain Harnish’s principles.