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Just 31 percent of C-suite officers rate content created by professional firms as “very good,” and 38 percent find it “barely satisfactory,” according to Greentarget’s 2018 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey – Professional Services edition.

Those are disappointing figures – and improving upon on them should be a goal of most PR marketers in the B2B space. That’s why the topics covered at the Legal & Professional Services Council (LPSC) NextGen’s annual Writing with Impact workshop earlier this month struck a chord.

The panel, which included Greentarget’s own Megan Turchi, offered tangible advice on how to improve overall quality of content, with a focus on the written word. The presenters shared best practices and tips on how PR, marketing and communications professionals can make an impact with their writing and (we hope) improve on the percentages mentioned above.

1. Know and Empathize With Your Audience.

Stephanie Reid, marketing and communications senior manager for legal recruiting and development at Kirkland & Ellis, stressed the importance of knowing your audience. We talk about this all the time. Whether you’re writing an email, a tweet, a LinkedIn post, a blog post or really anything at all, you have to stop and think about what matters to the people you’re trying to reach. It should be the first step before writing a word, even before having a prep call. Empathizing with your audience makes it possible to determine the right tone and language and decide which points to emphasize and prioritize.

2. Do Your Homework

Research. Research. Research. It’s important to be prepared before talking to anyone about a new project, a thought leadership campaign, a story mining call, etc. At Greentarget, we often talk to clients who are at the top of their fields or are known experts on particular subjects. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever achieve that level of knowledge ourselves, but doing homework ahead of time can lead to a fulfilling, productive conversation – rather than one that leaves both parties feeling like the call was a waste of time.

3. Pay Attention to Daily Communication

It might be tedious to review emails several times before hitting send, but what seems like a menial task can quickly become a missed opportunity to establish credibility. It’s important to consider a few factors: Does the individual you are working with prefer to communicate in a professional manner or are they more informal (think about their manner on calls)? How do they format their own emails and other communications? Paying attention and mirroring their methods will show not only that you are good at what you do but that you understand the importance of empathy.

4. Establish a Structured Approach

It can be difficult to gather the information necessary to craft key pieces of content – pitches, proposals, client alerts, press releases, social media posts, event invitations, etc. – but having a content hierarchy makes a big difference. That’s according to Kevin Blasko, global head of communications for McKinsey & Company’s Transformation practice. He suggested structuring your everyday communication in a way that explicitly outlines what you need. For example, in an email about a problem you to need weigh in on, bullet out the situation, complication and proposed resolution so that the recipient can easily identify what it is you are asking for so you can ultimately get the input you are seeking.

5. Be Open to Feedback

Crafting content on behalf of others is challenging, especially when it comes to capturing the right tone. Sometimes, no matter how much due diligence you did, your first draft may still get hacked nearly to death by the author. It’s important to remember that no matter how much time you put into a piece, it still has the author’s name on it. Everyone has their own style and tone – and edits are part of the process. Never take them personally, and make sure to review the feedback, incorporate it into future pieces of content and consider asking colleagues or mentors for a second review.

By taking these simple steps, professional services marketers can improve their writing and build credibility. Even the most seasoned writer should constantly be seeking ways to improve and ensure their content is relevant, engaging and compelling – so it’s important to keep these tips in mind as you’re drafting your next email or writing your next article.

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Humanity Rising needed a hand. The nonprofit group, which gives Chicago-area students scholarships for self-directed volunteer service projects, wasn’t telling its story in ways that resonated. Debbie Ferruzzi, Humanity Rising’s founder and CEO, came to Greentarget for help.

In the course of six months, our team not only revamped Humanity Rising’s messaging but also helped Debbie and her team develop and execute on comprehensive marketing and communications plans. In all we spent nearly 200 hours, all delivered pro bono, on Humanity Rising – an investment in time that easily paid for itself in inspiration and gratitude for our team. Here’s how it happened.

Capturing Our Imagination

In 2017, Greentarget launched its first-ever GT Cares Grant to expand our pro bono reach and build a deep connection with an organization that truly aligned with our service offerings, our background and the collective passion of our team. Each member of the Greentarget staff sought nominations through personal and social media networks, casting a wide net to find organizations that would match our strengths and push us to stretch our comfort zone. Our Pro Bono and Community Investment Committee carefully winnowed the group to five candidates to take to the full staff for a vote. While each of the candidates was deserving, and each would have been an exciting challenge, one in particular captured our imaginations.

Humanity Rising is a movement to create a better world through volunteer service. By enabling students to choose a cause they feel passionately about, Humanity Rising helps bring awareness to dozens of worthy causes – making it a perfect fit for our team, which has a broad range of philanthropic passions.

Throughout our six-month engagement with Humanity Rising, we assisted with messaging, media relations, event support and digital and social strategy. All of this work came together in a comprehensive PR and communications plan, which included sets of strategic messages tailored to Humanity Rising’s stakeholders: students, individual donors and corporate sponsors. It was important to define a clear message for each group, and we produced versatile messages to be molded and iterated across different types of marketing materials and external communications as Humanity Rising continues to grow. The plan also included in-depth media and influencer lists tailored to the organization’s audiences.

In addition to this plan, we provided press release and media advisory templates, content for sponsorship brochures, a social media plan, draft social posts and strategic guidance on Google Ads and website structure. We also gave support and guidance on follow-up for a conference Humanity Rising attended and developed a job description that led to the employment of a new intern to help support PR and marketing initiatives into the future.

Purpose-Driven Work – At Work

In the end, we left Humanity Rising equipped to more strategically and effectively communicate its mission. They’re poised to execute a media relations plan and develop savvy content. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s next for them.

At Greentarget, doing purpose-driven work isn’t a requirement; it’s a benefit for our team. And from an organization standpoint, we are lucky to contribute to causes we believe in while offering our colleagues unique experiences in both public relations and life. From the United Way of Metro Chicago and Heartland Alliance to the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic and the Cameron Kravitt Foundation to Culinary Care and Barrel of Monkeys, Greentarget has committed hundreds of hours to a broad spectrum of organizations that are working tirelessly to improve the lives of thousands of individuals and their families.

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New relationships underscore increasing demand in agency’s services across earned media, research, content and digital.

CHICAGO, December 13, 2018— Greentarget Global Group, a leading business-to-business public relations firm, today announced the addition of several new clients in the third quarter of 2018. Greentarget will be providing PR services ranging from research projects, thought leadership initiatives, and media relations programs.

Greentarget’s new clients include:

  • Brown Rudnick, a law firm with offices in the United States and Europe that represents clients from around the world in high-stakes litigation and business transactions.
  • Carbon Black (NASDAQ: CBLK) is a leading provider of next-generation endpoint security delivered via the cloud.
  • TransMed Systems, a leading provider of intelligence, technology, and expertise to dramatically improve the process of developing, identifying and matching eligible patients to clinical trials.

About Greentarget

Greentarget is a strategic public relations firm focused exclusively on the communications needs of highly competitive business-to-business organizations. The firm was founded in 2005 to focus on the specific communications issues facing sophisticated organizations that compete on expertise, service and reputation. Today, Greentarget delivers a unique mix of earned media, content, research, digital, analytics and special situations counsel to help clients communicate and influence through normal business cycles and in times of crisis. The agency’s success is due to carefully cultivated talent, specialized capabilities and strict adherence to a client service process called The Greentarget Way. Greentarget’s team of 60+ employees, located in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, offer the entrepreneurial spirit, geographic breadth and depth of experience required to serve leading business-to-business organizations. For more information, visit www.greentarget.com.

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In an ever-evolving digital world, it can be difficult to identify the newest and most effective public relations tools to keep your business relevant and your ideas fresh. Last month, Greentarget attended PRWeek’s PRDecoded conference in Chicago, which focused on how communicators can use these tools to thrive in a digital world. Marketers from technology, consumer goods, travel and hospitality brands presented alongside agency leaders to discuss the latest PR and digital trends.

What our team learned at the conference is that when it comes to navigating this fast-paced environment and staying relevant, it really comes back to one thing: cultivating relationships. To understand the newest digital platforms, what they measure and how they can impact business, it is crucial to remember that the end user of all these platforms is a person. PR professionals have a natural edge here. We talk a lot at Greentarget about how PR professionals are the “keepers of the lost art of media relations.” Public relations professionals are by definition relationship people. Here are some ways that focusing on relationships gives us an edge in the digital landscape and equips us to keep up.

Reinvention

In the conference’s opening session, “The Leading Disruptor,” Matt Maloney, founder and CEO of GrubHub, stressed the importance of being open to change, revisiting your business plans at least every six months and encouraging your team to keep up with new tools and trends. Accurately defining your company narrative and remaining aligned with your vision will give your team the room they need to push the envelope and grow with the business.

Storytelling

It’s no surprise that the words “content” and “narrative” were thrown around repeatedly across all sessions. The problem has become that there is so much content to consume and even more ways to consume it. We ourselves took aim squarely at the problem in Greentarget’s annual State of Digital and Content Survey, highlighting the issue of information overload. DeLu Jackson of Conagra challenged us to spend more time listening to, monitoring and engaging customers and clients to craft more meaningful content to answer the question “What are we solving for?” in his session titled “Producing for Your Customers.”

Attention

How do you attract someone’s attention and get them to “lean in” to your narrative?

“When content is abundant, attention is finite,” Charlie Hart of RXBar said in his session titled “The Price of Attention in a Digital Age.” Hart showed how the mechanics of the human brain discern what information is worth our attention: be clever, mysterious and seductive. Challenging your audience to think is the best way to earn, and keep, their attention.

Sandra Stahl of Jacobstahl Marketing Communications used the example of Wendy’s in her session, “Relationships Remain the Center of Digital Communications.” She offered one of the company’s most recent campaigns, creating a menu item from a fan’s tweet, to show how the company has succeeded by noticing—and monetizing—their users’ attention.

Humanity

At the core of any digital strategy is understanding and building a relationship with your target audience. While one of the biggest challenges that marketers face is keeping up with the rate of evolution and change in technology, no matter the new digital platform, people remain the constant in this changing landscape, Stahl said. People are looking for the same thing from digital marketing and communications that they want from any other interaction: a relationship.

The PRDecoded conference validated the notion that building and maintaining relationships remains the most important component of our job as communications professionals, while providing an exciting, fresh look at how PR is evolving in the digital age. Building trust across multiple platforms and adapting to change daily is no small feat. But it’s also what we do best. Being in the center of the digital age allows us even more opportunity to showcase those skills.

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If you’re lucky enough to have seen Hamilton, the Broadway megahit penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, you’ve likely listened to the soundtrack every day since you saw it, daydreamed about the Hamilton Exhibition opening next year in Chicago and stalked Miranda’s Twitter feed incessantly. Or maybe that’s just me. Through a combination of good fortune and slight obsession, I’ve actually seen Hamilton three times this year. But beyond the romance of the theater and the beguiling Hamilton score, I found striking connections between Alexander Hamilton’s practice of public relations and the work we do at Greentarget. Here are a few lessons we can take out of Hamilton’s PR handbook: 1. Thought leadership has always been, and always will be, essential. Hamilton knew his voice carried weight. The Federalist Papers – a collection of essays written by Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison promoting the ratification of the U.S. Constitution – was the product of a content strategy created to influence the course of history. At Greentarget, we believe true thought leaders have an obligation to participate skillfully in the conversations that matter to their clients, especially as they seek to burnish their reputations, attract talent or achieve a higher purpose. Hamilton was largely driven by his pursuit of a higher purpose – but he was also ambitious, and his thought leadership elevated his personal brand, fueling his ascent to an essential role in the first presidential administration. 2. The importance of directing a smarter conversation. While Aaron Burr repeatedly advised him to “talk less, smile more,” Hamilton couldn’t help himself. He never shied away from an opportunity to “drop some knowledge,” and as a result he was often able to shape public perception of important issues. To be a true thought leader, an organization must consistently deliver insights and intelligence that inform business decisions for its key audiences. We sometimes encourage our clients to assume they’re “the smartest in the room” and capitalize on any opportunity to offer their unique perspective and elevate the conversation. 3. The significance of media. Hamilton relied heavily on newspapers and pamphlets, partly because they were among his only means of distributing his ideas. But even with the changing media landscape of the 21st century, traditional media is still a go-to source for executives and business leaders. Greentarget’s 2018 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey shows that 54 percent of in-house counsel surveyed go to traditional media (e.g., The Wall Street Journal) each day for legal, business and industry news and information, and 45 percent find such sources very valuable – far above any other source. And Greentarget’s new survey of C-suite executives, the State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey – Professional Services, found that more than half of those executives get their content from traditional media every day, and 75 percent find it very valuable content for business and industry news and information. As PR pros work to keep up with the ever-changing media landscape, I invite you to view Hamilton through the lens of your work. Consider what he knew about shaping public perception by contributing to a smarter conversation, and remember that, though we take pride in finding new and exciting ways to distribute our clients’ messages, the tried-and-true methods still resonate. And, while it’s true that we may not be in the business of deciding “who lives or who dies,” at Greentarget we certainly believe you can tell your story.

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The declaration came in a room full of marketers at the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) Summit a few weeks ago in Portland, Oregon. And it drew nods from the crowd. “The audit, as we know it, will be gone in five years,” said Ed Kless of Sage, a business management solutions provider. Kless was talking about the impact of technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence, which are already reshaping the industry. Against this backdrop of surging disruption, the AAM Summit’s theme was fresh thinking – with a focus on trends, tools and best practices to make accounting firms stand out regionally and nationally. Here are a few of the conversations and topics that stuck with me after I left Portland:
  • Make Accounting Marketing Personal. In the opening keynote session, comedian and former CPA John Garrett discussed how accounting firms can differentiate themselves by letting their personalities shine through in their marketing. For an industry constantly focused on numbers, audits and processes, this makes sense. By humanizing their organizations (and talent) through networking, community relationships and creative thought leadership, firms can rise above the noise.
  • Evaluate and Optimize Your Marketing Technology Stack. No matter the size of the firm, investing in the right marketing technology can yield incredible benefits. In the “Building Your Marketing Technology Stack” session, two firms (one with an annual revenue of $250 million, the other $5 million) shared how they invest in technology to optimize their marketing. These firms understand how syncing brand awareness, customer nurturing, conversions and analytics are critical to growth.
  • Online Reputation Matters in the Accounting Buyer Journey. The session “Online Reputation for Accounting Firms” introduced some powerful research. For example, 33 percent of prospective accounting firm clients will read online ratings, said Kat Kocurek from Inavero, a satisfaction survey provider, and more than half of prospects referred to a firm will research it online. This reaffirms that the days of relying on relationships and handshakes in the buying process are long gone.
  • Hyperlocal Marketing Matters. However, when I spoke to marketers from smaller accounting firms in Michigan and Virginia, they told me that building local relationships is still critical. Incentivizing accountants to network and build community relationships remains a key part of the hyperlocal marketing strategy.
  • Business Development Is Everyone’s Responsibility. For many smaller firms, getting the partners and accountants to support marketing activities can be critical to growth. One session covered how gamification and simple incentives like branded giveaway items could encourage accountants to network with prospects in the community.
  • Diversify Content. I also spoke with many marketers looking at developing new thought leadership content to engage their audiences. There were a few firms even exploring the notion of podcasts. In one session, the speaker described how podcasts provide engaging information for target audiences hungry for insights.
  • Long-Term Thought Leadership. If your marketing team is thinking of building a thought leadership platform, it’s worth the effort to think ahead — how will that platform evolve in three to five years? In “Winning in the Market for Ideas,” a former Big Four marketing chief emphasized the importance of building a thought leadership campaign over the course of several years to keep up with evolving preferences in the marketplace.
The accounting business, like so many others, is subject to the same disruptions and evolutions buffeting the rest of the business world. Firms that will win out are the ones that will build aligned sales and marketing approaches and ultimately apply fresh thinking to the changes that are rushing through the industry.
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