By Francis Moran
Notwithstanding that I have an undergraduate degree in public relations, have worked in the industry for a good chunk of my adult life, and for nearly 14 years have operated a PR agency, I have never held the public relations business in terribly high regard.
My dim opinion of many PR practitioners is all the more acutely refined when I look at agencies.
Most PR agencies follow a well-established, widely accepted and tragically flawed business model. They are shaped like pyramids — and yes, any allusion to Ponzi schemes you might think I am making is wholly deliberate. At the top of the pyramid you generally find one or a few experienced, generally well-connected and usually well-rewarded agency owners or executives. Then the model drops rather swiftly through middle ranks to a thick layer at the bottom almost always comprised of thinly experienced and poorly paid youngsters who do virtually all the work. The top layer is all a prospect sees before retaining the agency; the bottom layer is pretty much all the client experiences once the retainer agreement has been signed.
Read More
This is the next article in a continuing series chronicling the growth path of NanoScale Corporation, a growing nanotechnology company based in Manhattan, KS that is commercializing various advanced materials and compounds for improving indoor air quality, removing pollutants, and containing and neutralizing hazardous chemicals.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
When last we spoke with Vice-President and General Manager Kyle Knappenberger, NanoScale Corporation was gearing up to make the most of a busy event season that included important showings at industry tradeshows as well as its own training and education events to support retail distributors. NanoScale’s senior team, however, has found itself somewhat distracted by the process of onboarding an important hire – a new president and CEO.
“Some of the things you’d like to do from a marketing standpoint … some of those activities have to get put on hold,” Knappenberger said, adding that a new executive will also have his own input to offer, which could put a new perspective on what the company is trying to do and how it is attempting to execute from a sales and marketing standpoint.
Read More
By Alexandra Reid
It’s all over the headlines: B2B businesses are investigating and investing in content marketing en masse.
In fact, B2B marketers are employing an average of eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their goals and are spending more than a quarter of their budgets on content marketing. As a content marketer myself, I understand the appeal and regard it as a superb marketing option for authority-based businesses and for any company for which establishing thought leadership is a critical marketing objective.
But, as I have argued before with regards to social media marketing, marketers have a way of putting the pressure on businesses to adopt (supposedly) new practices. Content marketing done right can be expensive and it isn’t for everyone. Businesses must take a step back, do their research and ask the right questions before diving in headfirst. This is especially important for content marketing because its success rests entirely on the quality of the content produced and how it is shared with the target audience.
If you’re a B2B business seeking content marketing services, here are some questions you should ask, after doing your own research, to ensure you select the right people for the job:
Read More
By Peter Hanschke
I was a panelist at the latest Agile Ottawa meeting where we discussed our experiences with the process and concepts of Eric Ries‘ lean startup methodology. Today, I will share some of the points I made during the discussions.
By the time I got to reading Eric’s book, I was well on my way to using and advising clients and my employers on many of his teachings. Even though he focuses on startups, the principles in general are applicable to larger companies that need to bring new products to market with little investment. Note that larger companies have other challenges to successfully introduce new products quickly with little investment — Clayton Christensen‘s book The Innovator’s Dilemma does a good job of outlining these challenges.
The area I want to focus on is the balance between investment, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and time to market.
Read More
By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Joe Pulizzi, Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, SpinSucks and The Accelerator Gazette.
Five reasons why content marketing is no buzzword
Most people who aren’t involved in the industry on a daily basis may think that the term “content marketing” and the industry came out of nowhere. Joe Pulizzi puts together an interesting list of happenings that may (or may not) change your feeling on the matter.
Read More
-
Putting Ottawa’s puzzle together
June 14, 2012 by Leo Valiquette
In early May, I blogged about the need for everyone in the National Capital Region involved with getting technology to market to check their baggage at the door and work together for the common good. It was a post sparked by my recent discussions with various entrepreneurs and other economic stakeholders at a time when […]
Read more... -
Product marketing vs. brand marketing: Separate your product or separate your users?
June 13, 2012 by Ken Rosen
Cadillac versus BMW, Neiman Marcus versus Macy’s […]
Read more... -
-
Content marketing tips: SEO implications for rebroadcast articles
June 12, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
My colleague Leo Valiquette came to me with a thoughtful question the other day: when the same article is being syndicated across the web, does that have negative consequences for search? While I have some basic knowledge in search engine optimization I was eager […]
Read more... -
The evolution of branding and advertising
June 11, 2012 by Rob Woyzbun
Marketers and their agencies need to shift from “cool tools” and “campaigns” towards an integrated design-thinking approach to products and services — it’s not about social media anymore, it’s about social business. And marketing basics! […]
Read more... -
-
Is it spring time for venture capital in Canada?
June 08, 2012 by Francis Moran
When the Canadian federal government announced in its April budget that it would be kicking up $400 million to help increase private sector investments in early-stage risk capital and to support the creation of large-scale venture capital funds led by the private sector […]
Read more... -
We launch new content marketing service offering
June 07, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
Over the past few years, working first on our own behalf and then with a growing array of clients that turned to us for help, we have refined what we believe is a highly effective process for the development […]
Read more... -
-
Getting the marketing right at an event product launch
June 06, 2012 by Francis Moran
Last time we checked in with Screenreach, the company was dealing with issues at the Apple application store to launch the new version of its Screach application. After coordinating efforts with external organizations and working through the problems at hand, the team […]
Read more... -
Levering the power of teamwork to drive a successful content marketing program
June 05, 2012 by Alexandra Reid
Running a successful content marketing program has many challenges, a number of which Joe Pulizzi expertly cites in his post, 12 challenges that stop marketers from creating epic content marketing. I propose that many of these challenges could be solved if […]
Read more... -
Notwithstanding that I have an undergraduate degree in public relations, have worked in the industry for a good chunk of my adult life, and for nearly 14 years have operated a PR agency, I have never held the public relations business in terribly high regard.
Twitter
Tweets by @FrancisMoranRecent Comments
The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]