FIR Podcast Network

We’re joined by Matthew Naffah, VP of Strategy at International Data Group, who has has been involved in developing buyer personas for many B2B clients. Personas have been around almost as long as the web itself, but lately they are taking on a more important role, particularly as buyers become more empowered in the buying decision.

Matt tell us about how to get started with building the right personas and understanding the level of details that are ideal, and you can err on the side of including too much or too little detail. He also talks about some of the more common mistakes marketers make in creating them.

Personas are most useful when used in conjunction with buyer journeys and content mapping. You need to nurture, adapt and grow all three elements interactively to optimize the experience for your potential customer base. You’ll also want to heed his advice when it comes time to get your management involved to renew and refund your marketing project too.

Here are some resources to check out:

* A webcast with Rob O’Regan and Matt which discusses content marketing.

* A second webcast with Rob and Matt about opportunity mapping.

* Paul wrote posts for the IDG marketing blog based on these webcasts, leveraging Matt’s expertise in content mapping strategies and how to craft personas properly.

Chip and Gini discuss the basic financial reporting that every agency owner should have ready access to and systematically review on at least a monthly basis.

Knowing the numbers may not be the most exciting part of being an agency owner, but it is essential to understanding the business and positioning it for profitable growth.

In this episode, the hosts explain various financial terms and why specific reports may be useful. They also describe what to look for when reviewing these documents.

Resources

* Spin Sucks Community

* FreshBooks

* QuickBooks

* Bench

Quotes

* Gini: “I will admit that when I started my business, and people were talking about P&Ls, I had no idea what they meant. I’ll admit that.”

* Chip: “If you’re in business long enough, as an agency owner, you’re effectively getting an on the job MBA.”

* Gini, on creatively getting around big companies’ payment policies: “Some of the pushback I get from other agency owners is well, I work with big companies such and such, and they won’t work that way. That’s baloney.”

* Chip, on the importance of getting started using accounting tools: “…a lot of agencies do not have their houses in order with these reports. The important thing is to start getting at least the basics correct. And then you can bite off more and perfect it.”

[read the transcript]

Have you ever compared client onboarding to a digital purchase?

Probably not.

But there are similarities.

It’s safe to say most of us are familiar with buying products online, right?

Everything from books to clothing to decor is all delivered directly to our door.

And it’s not just products.

Most of our services are purchased digitally, too.

We research potential providers on the internet, schedule our calls and meetings with online tools, and use digital signatures to sign contracts over the web.

Suffice it to say, making digital purchases is nothing new anymore.

Because of this, you think we’d understand how odd it feels to buy something and receive a purchase confirmation, only to find nothing happens next.

The customer just sits there with a digital receipt in front of them, unsure of what to expect.

Now, of course, there’s a lot of hustle and bustle going on behind the curtains, but they can’t see that. So, what are customers supposed to do?

The Importance of Extraordinary Onboarding

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about amping up our client services. This week we want to dig more into the onboarding process for clients.

Let’s take a look at the specific actions, mindsets, and processes we use to onboard clients.

From there we’ll dig into what we need to do to go from okay to above and beyond with client onboarding experiences.

The Spin Sucks Podcast

In this episode we’ll discuss:

* Setting client onboarding expectations

* Keeping the process moving

* Ensuring your team up to speed

* Adding some fun into the experience for your new client

The July edition of “The Hobson and Holtz Report” features Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz discussing these stories:

* Have we hit “peak podcast”?

* Google’s trying social media again

* These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2019

* Communicators need to explore new channels for their messages

* You downloaded FaceApp. Here’s what you’ve just done to  your privacy

* Consumers are less attentive to news on mobile devices

* Dan York reports on interoperability, the new Twitter interface, Twitter’s “Live Cut” app/service, the need to go HTTPS, China and smart speakers, and gaming

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog.

The next episode of For Immediate Release will be posted on Monday, August 19.

Links from This Week’s Episode

* Why are there so many podcasts?

* Podcast revenue set to pass $1 billion this year

* Google takes another run at social networking with Shoelace

* These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2019

* Google Assistant tapped for moon landing anniversary

* Playing the community game

* ‘Stranger Things’ fans are uncovering an IRL mystery right now (and so can you)

* Rethinking Channels–Chat Is More Than Conversations

* You downloaded FaceApp. Here’s what you’ve just done to your privacy

* Justin Reynolds’ tweet on FaceApp’s terms of service

* Screen size matters: Consumers less attentive to news content on small screens

Links from Dan York’s Report

* Cory Doctorow on interoperability

* The new Twitter is coming (whether you want it or not)

* Why sites that don’t have HTTPS need to get it

* China and smart speakers

* Are you paying attention to gaming?

On Inside PR this week: Open Government, open engagement and open data activists from around the world gathered in Ottawa. So did the grand committee of countries looking at the practices of the social platforms. But it doesn’t matter how many countries come together in one place — Mark Zuckerberg responds to no flag but his own. He was, once again, a no-show.

Also, Gini Dietrich provides practical advice to the PR practitioner on the importance of SEO to media relations and earned media. PR practitioners understand much more than algorithms. And we must combine our media relations expertise with SEO best practices to ensure that we maximize long term exposure for our clients’ content. The cost of failing to do this will be the incursion of SEO experts into media relations.

With so much data available, it can be difficult to determine what information is actually useful to track to measure the success of your communication activities.  What and how to measure in order to best inform your work and demonstrate communication impact is the next topic for discussion on Circle of Fellows. Episode #47 of the broadcast will explore measurement for both internal and external communication activities.

IABC Fellows Neil Griffiths, Jim Shaffer, Angela Sinickas, and Stacy Wilson participated in a panel discussion moderated by Shel Holtz that explored various dimensions of metrics in communication, from measuring communication effectiveness to sharing information derived from data.

The next “Circle of Fellows” is scheduled for noon ET on Thursday, August 15, on “Aligning content strategy with a changing media landscape.”

About the panel

Neil Griffiths, ABC, Chart.PR, IABC Fellow, is Senior Manager, Global Communication & Global Inclusion Lead at ERM, the world’s largest sustainability consultancy. Neil has worked in communication management for 15+ years in public, private and non-profit organizations. Neil is a serial volunteer and has held a number of leadership positions on global committees within IABC, including the inaugural Global Communications Certification Council. Neil was Chair of the 2018 IABC World Conference to be held in Montreal in June 2018. He has been recognized with awards for his leadership within the profession, being made IABC Fellow in June 2019. Together with co-author Deborah Hinton, Neil has published two studies on the current and future state of the communication profession and has spoken on the topic at several conferences. Neil holds the Freedom of London and is a member of the Company of Public Relations Practitioners.

Stacy L. Wilson, ABC – Stacy helps clients get more ROI from their technology investment; specifically leveraging technology for collaboration and communication. She focuses on the people and process sides of intranets and digital workplace, including strategy, governance, usability, content, and adoption. She works for global, Fortune 1000 clients, particularly those with a lot of employees who don’t sit in front of computers; for example, industries such as mining, oil & gas, healthcare, utilities, manufacturing, etc. She is an international speaker and enthusiast of bluegrass music, hiking, food, and whiskey.

Jim Shaffer is a business advisor, leadership coach, author, and speaker. As leader of the Jim Shaffer Group, he helps organizations accelerate results through superior strategy execution. The Jim Shaffer Group creates hard business results by translating the business strategy to the people who need to implement it, aligning systems, processes, and culture to make the gains sustainable. Jim was an architect and leading practitioner of Towers Perrin’s (now Towers Willis Watson) change management consulting practice. He designed and produced the IABC Academy Course, “Managing Change Communication to Drive Results and Value.” Some of his change management clients have included: Abbott, ConAgra Foods, FedEx, IBM, ITT, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Owens Corning, Pfizer, Toyota.

Angela Sinickas is the founder of Sinickas Communications, which has worked with companies, organizations, and governments in 32 countries on six continents. Her clients include 25% of the Forbes Top 100 largest global companies. Before starting her own consulting firm, she held positions from editor to vice president in for-profit and government organizations and worked as a senior consultant and practice leader at Hewitt and Mercer. She is the author of a manual, How to Measure Your Communication Programs (now in its third edition), and chapters in several books. Her 50+ articles in professional journals can be found on h...

One of the biggest challenges that many agencies face is how to fairly compensate employees. Talent is the heart and soul of the business, so you want to ensure you’re doing everything you can to keep your performing employees around.

At the same time, you’re running a business so you need to make smart decisions that will ensure sustainable profits to keep the doors open.

Some agencies turn to COLAs (short for Cost of Living Adjustments) to try to ensure that salaries at least keep pace with inflation.

However, this approach has some drawbacks that Chip and Gini discuss in this week’s episode.

Whether you choose to use COLAs or not, you’ll get lots of useful insight from listening to the discussion.

Quotes

* Gini: “Transparency and communication — it’s almost like that’s what we do for a living for our clients. So maybe we should do it internally as well.”

* Gini, on non-monetary compensation: “I always do things for my team. I try to go the extra mile and give them experiences or gifts that they wouldn’t necessarily buy themselves, but that they want.”

* Chip: “Ultimately, when it comes to compensation, the goal is to make your employees feel appreciated.”

* Chip’s bottom line on COLAs:  “I think that that they are the easy way out and not the smart way out.”

Resources

* Drive by Daniel Pink

[read the transcript]

If you’ve spent any time with the Spin Sucks team, you know all about the PESO model.

No need for me to go into detail about how you should use it.

I won’t talk about how owned content is the foundation of your efforts.

Nor will I discuss how your expertise and your search engine results are both enhanced by earned media.

I won’t even talk about how paid media can help you up your game, improve what’s already working, and how you can seem more human and authentic to your audience.

No, no. No need for that.

Instead, today we’re going to take some time to take a closer look at how to combine earned and owned content and how you can get the most out of both.

Of course, each element of the PESO model works fine on its own, but integrating them in a strategic communications plan is when the magic really starts to happen.

The Spin Sucks Podcast

In this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast you’ll learn:

* How to connect your efforts into an integrated PESO model

* How to choose keywords to bolster your efforts

* Ways to divide your ideas into usable categories for content

* How to create large amounts of content

On this episode Glenn Gaudet is joined by Jon MacDonald, Founder and CEO of The Good. Jon’s firm focuses on conversion rate optimization. The Good has unlocked results for some of the largest online brands including Adobe, Nike, Xerox, Easton, The Economist, and more. Jon regularly contributes content on conversion optimization to publications like Entrepreneur and Inc. He knows how to get visitors to take action.

In this podcast you will learn about:

* Converting site traffic into customers

* The importance of metrics like Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

* Keeping tabs on bounce rate and shopping cart abandonment

* Understanding who your customer is and why they are visiting your site

* Helping the customer understand how you are solving their need

* Why it’s hard to read the label from inside the jar

Connect with Jon via email at jon [at] thegood.com

In today’s episode, we examine different ways you can supercharge your website content by using some time-tested strategies that we may intrinsically know but don’t always talk about.

The first reference is from an article in Entrepreneur Magazine about three big mistakes one consultant made when building a new site. The mistakes all revolve around not understanding a basic tenet: B2B requires quality, not quantity. He chose AdWords keywords that were too general and ended up spending money on clicks that didn’t generate any real leads. He didn’t understand that buyers need prompting to get further into his content and needed ways for potential customers to actually talk or chat in real time with someone who can get them more engaged and further up the marketing funnel. We suggest all sorts of improvements, including having a FAQ and using different content types, to increase engagement.

The second piece is from Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, who was our guest way back on episode 12.  He talks about the importance of using serialized content to capture more attention. We need to understand that generating demand is all about cultivating and nurturing your potential customers. Start with a content audit to see what material you have that can be collected and serialize. Also examine some of the leading sites that Brenner talks about in this post. Paul has plenty of other great suggestions that he mentions in this episode, and you might want to also buy his book to get further details.