John Corey

December 21, 2018 by John Corey Leave a Comment

As we enter the time of year where the temptation to reflect overwhelms our entrepreneurial instinct to look forward, a seminal moment in our history comes to mind. Perhaps even more important than the beers we shared in a grocery store parking lot 14 years ago.

Just over a decade ago, we sat in a conference room and watched a demo of new software that empowered organizations like Greentarget to run quantitative research campaigns. Today, many of these platforms are household names. But, at the time, this was a novel idea within an emerging segment of the SAAS industry. Our reaction to the demo was along the lines of: “We can do this.” Which quickly morphed into “We have no business trying to do this.”

True to form, we jumped in head first, another leap of faith, and discovered that our professional services clients immediately understood the marketing-communications value of data-driven insights. Since that time, we’ve run countless research-based campaigns that have uncovered points of view on everything from autonomous vehicles and tax reform to global bribery and cyber risk. We’re immensely proud of how strong the thread of research-based insights runs through Greentarget.

Fast forward 10 years to last March when the Holmes Report awarded Greentarget its Diamond SABRE award for “Superior Achievement in Research and Planning.” The award, based on our work for our client, Duff & Phelps, was a proud achievement for sure but also a reminder of the responsibility we embrace at Greentarget to direct a smarter conversation.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Greentarget-Duff-Sabre-Ceremony-1024x683.jpg

We believe that industry dialog benefits from the skillful participation of our best and smartest thinkers. We are forever grateful for that seminar 10 years ago; it put us firmly on the road to mastering data-driven thought leadership campaigns. It’s a key element to fulfilling our mission of directing a smarter conversation.

Speaking of data, as we close out another year of striving to cultivate a destination for the public relations industry’s top talent, here are a few statistics that make us smile:

Our team welcomed four new babies this year – with one more to come in early 2019.
An astounding 23 young professionals completed our internship program this year, including the three who graduated to full-time employment. Great things are coming from our newest junior associates: Taylor Craddock, Briana Chernak and Nathan Kamradt. It’s a privilege for us to play a small role in the careers of so many young professionals.
In a major expansion of our repertoire, we welcomed John Matthew (JM) Upton as Greentarget’s first Director of Digital, responsible for expanding Greentarget’s digital capabilities into a full-service offering.
Further deepening our bench strength, Sonja Elmquist and Megan Turchi joined to support our content and editorial capability, while Annie Keller and Sarah Bauman joined our account teams as Account Supervisor and Associate, respectively. All four can already tell you exactly what time the groceries arrive on Mondays and within an hour when there’ll be nothing left but baked rice cakes.
If you didn’t make it to our offices in Chicago this year, you might’ve found us at the Legal Marketing Association national conference in New Orleans. Or at GroPro, an event in New York focused on bringing professional service firms and individuals together to exchange industry best practices and ideas. We also spoke at LMA Tech Midwest, Legal & Professional Services Council, RelativityFest and facilitated a session on artificial intelligence at the PR Council’s Critical Issues Forum in Chicago.
Greentarget’s 7^th annual State of Digital and Content Marketing report dropped this June. And for the first time, we expanded our research to include C-suite officers beyond the general counsel. The resulting reports revealed that, while CEOs, CMOs and others differ from legal executives in some respects (they consume more video, read fewer email alerts and are less obnoxious about explaining the flaws in “Law & Order” storylines), both groups of decision-makers are hungry for better, more timely and more thoughtfully curated content.

We would like to wish you and yours a joyous holiday season filled with ample opportunity to reflect and celebrate what’s most important to you. With deep gratitude for all that was and what is yet to come.

July 25, 2018 by John Corey Leave a Comment

In the age of information overload, C-level officers are turning to publishers for help sorting through the vast quantities of content coming across their screens — to find the information and insights that will help them do their jobs. That’s according to a new survey of C-suite executives, the State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey – Professional Services Edition, conducted by business-to-business public relations firm Greentarget.

The survey asked executives about their content consumption behaviors and preferences, seeking to help professional services marketers better understand an audience that in many cases drives business-to-business purchasing decisions.

The results depict a C-suite in search of expert curation that can help them quickly locate and consume content they find useful.

“The strain of information overload is apparent in our data,” said John Corey, founding partner of Greentarget. “Professional services firms have a clear opportunity to help executives sort through the noise – by carefully creating and curating the most relevant, useful information and delivering it through the C-suite’s preferred channels.”

We found that:

C-level officers want content that helps them do their jobs. Nearly three quarters of executives say utility is the attribute that most attracts them to content they consume most frequently.
The C-suite relies heavily on email and traditional media. More than half get their content in each of those places every day. By contrast, only 35 percent say they turn to social media for content daily. The clear implication is that executives want help sorting through the vast ocean of content, and they rely on curated email and professional editors to curate the information and insights that matter most.
Email works, but the content needs to improve. Articles, alerts and other email mechanisms still present the best opportunity to reach C-suite buyers. More than half of executives say they get content from email daily, more than any other channel. Only 19 percent, however, consider the content they get in emails “very valuable.”
Social media fails to deliver. The amount of time executives spend on social media is vastly greater than the value they get from it. About a third of C-suite officers say they use social media every day, but only 17 percent consider the content they find there very valuable – and 10 percent say it has no value at all.
Branded publications an opportunity. Executives see value in firm publications, if the publications are planned and executed well. Half of C-level officers say they find value in vendor publications such as PwC’s strategy+business or Berkeley Research Group’s ThinkSet.
C-level officers also like content that’s visual and interactive. Forty-four percent of executives say they prefer to get content in the form of infographics and interactive charts. In-person events also rank near the top of the C-suite’s preferred channels.
Professional services firms must raise their content games. Only 31 percent of C-suite officers rate the content created by those firms as “very good,” and 38 percent find it barely satisfactory.

The report, produced for the first time in 2018, also draws insightful comparisons to Greentarget’s 2018 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey, which analyzes the content consumption behaviors and preferences of in-house counsel.

Compared to their colleagues in the legal department, C-suite officers prefer more visual and interactive content, find email less valuable and are less interested in podcasts. These differences may reflect the unique nature of legal work, which leans on words for analysis of legal concepts as they relate to peculiar sets of facts; CEOs, CFOs and other C-suite denizens, by contrast, more often seek insights and conclusions drawn from large data sets, and frequently demand crisp, bottom-line answers that skip the deep context and reasoning.

The report also breaks down the attributes that executives value most, and least, among various content vehicles. While executives want to read articles that are relevant, educational and timely, for example, when they attend events they prefer an interactive component in addition to relevant and educational content.

June 27, 2018 by John Corey Leave a Comment

Content that’s useful, timely, credibly sourced and delivered through headlines conveying why – rather than what – to read will break through. Law firms have made massive investments in content, mostly aimed at deepening their engagement with in-house counsel. But, for the most part, their efforts are falling short. Only about half of in-house attorneys consider law-firm content “good to excellent,” the same as in 2017, and up only slightly since 2015, according to the 2018 State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey, released today by strategic communications firm Greentarget and consulting firm Zeughauser Group. But the survey also provides clear guidance on how firms can make inroads with their most important readers. For our seventh annual survey we asked in-house counsel not only about their content consumption habits, but also what content they value most, where they get it, and how often they go there. We found that:

In-house counsel want content that helps them do their jobs. More than three-quarters of our respondents say they most value utility in the content they consume – ahead of timeliness (58 percent), reliable sources (56 percent) and compelling headlines (51 percent).
And they want it in the form of articles, alerts and newsletters, respectively. Those are respondents’ most preferred content vehicles.
Email works – when it’s good. Forty percent of in-house counsel say they get information from email notifications every day – but only 25 percent say they find them valuable. That’s a huge opportunity to reach clients and prospects, and to stand out from the noise, by creating email alerts that deliver on the qualities in-house lawyers are looking for.
Traditional media most trusted. Fifty-four percent of respondents go to traditional media (e.g., The Wall Street Journal) on a daily basis for legal, business and industry news and information, and 45 percent find such sources very valuable – far above any other source.
Brevity matters. Nearly a third of in-house counsel value shorter content, while only 5 percent value longer pieces. They also want email alerts to be brief. And they only rank in-depth as a key attribute for a single content category – research reports.
Podcasts show promise. More than a quarter of respondents put podcasts among their preferred content vehicles – ahead of video and perhaps surprising for a relatively new medium. Audio content gives consumers hands- and eyes-free information for their commutes or during workouts. And podcasts are the only medium where respondents say they consider entertainment value – an opportunity to rise above the noise for firms that are willing to break from the industry’s staid conventions.
On social media, more noise than signal. About a third of in-house counsel look at social media every day, but only 11 percent find anything of value there. By contrast, less than a quarter view industry association publications and websites every day, but 43 percent find those valuable.

“This is the age of information overload,” said John Corey, founding partner of Greentarget. “In-house counsel want content that’s useful, timely, well-sourced and provides lively engagement starting from the subject line. If they want to elevate the conversation, firms have to quickly and efficiently tell in-house counsel what they have to say, why it matters and what law departments should do about it.” The 2018 report went further than in past years, identifying which content types were most preferred by in-house counsel – and what attributes are most valued regarding those content types. Respondents’ top three content types are articles, alerts and newsletters – and in each case, they want that content to be relevant and timely. For articles and newsletters, respondents want content to be educational – and they prefer that alerts be brief. “Drilling down to this level of detail about what is and isn’t working when it comes to law firm-generated content is important – and consequential,” said Mary K. Young, a partner with Zeughauser Group. “Firms can take this information and the related guidance and find ways to stand out and build their brands with in-house counsel, who are, of course, key decision makers within their organizations.” About Greentarget Greentarget is a strategic public relations firm focused exclusively on the communications needs of highly competitive business-to-business organizations. We counsel those who counsel the world’s leading businesses and direct smarter conversations among their most important audiences to help deepen the relationships that impact the long-term value of their organizations. For more information, visit www.greentarget.com. About Zeughauser Group Zeughauser Group is the firm of choice for legal industry leaders seeking to increase their competitive advantage and profitability, enhance market position, and strengthen organizational culture. For more information, visit www.consultzg.com.

April 23, 2018 by John Corey Leave a Comment

The comment came at the 2018 Legal Marketers Association National Conference in New Orleans — and it says a lot about the state of play in a hypercompetitive industry.

“You can be the best lawyer in the world,” one general counsel said. “But it’s worthless if you can’t communicate with me in a timely way.”

The GC was talking specifically about outside counsel responsiveness. But he could have just as easily been talking about the effectiveness of communicating through law firm-generated content. It’s a topic that weighs heavily on law firm marketers, one we hear about every day — and the focus of Greentarget’s State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey.

Of course, content was far from the only topic of conversation among the 1,500 attendees at LMA two weeks ago. In my first time attending an LMA national conference, I got a virtual crash course in the hottest issues facing Greentarget’s law firm clients and the industry itself. Here are the ones that stood out to me:

Relationships Matter for Legal Buyers. From the opening keynote on “The Science of Happiness” to the general counsel panel I referenced above, one message came through loud and clear: building strong relationships between attorneys and in-house counsel is critical. One in-house executive noted that attendees weren’t taking advantage of the opportunity at hand. “I recently attended a legal event with several attorney speakers. I was shocked when, after the panel, all the attorneys were standoff-ish, and rushed out to head back to their billable work instead of speaking with me. It was a major missed opportunity.”
Marketing Is Evolving. At the LMA Northeast Cocktail Event sponsored by Greentarget, I spoke with a marketing leader from a firm in Boston. She was starting to take on more of an operational role simply because she had been with the firm for an extended period of time, was intellectually curious and organized, and had built up a lot of internal support. The next day, the Marketing 3.0 session illustrated how many marketers with these traits have transitioned into a practice-group manager role — a great fit for marketers looking to grow within their firms and take on new responsibilities.
“Snackable Content.” While many legal marketers are focused on creating sophisticated content with the depth to engage in-house attorneys, one GC at a large consumer goods retailer took a different perspective. “I’m all about reading snackable content,” she said. “It’s how our consumer marketers engage, and internally, it’s how we’ve been trained as a company. This is how we digest information best — short, memorable emails and pieces of content with relevant information.”
Importance of Diversity, for GCs and Marketers. The session titled Making the Business Case for Diversity was popular, and I spoke with a few marketers who were glad the topic was on the agenda. One GC from a top retailer shared how diversity is a critical part of their agency selection: “It’s important for our firms to understand our diverse culture and reflect that in their attorneys.” Another in-house attorney agreed: “If we are looking at two similar law firms with the same skill set, a diverse attorney team can make a difference in the selection process.”
AI and Machine Learning. The AI session was one of the most well-attended breakouts at the conference. Whether AI is being used to sift through data or assist with digital marketing plans, it’s top of mind for many marketers in the legal space. We’ve implemented AI for research for several of our clients at Greentarget, and we’re excited to see how this trend grows in the future.
“Misalignment Between Budget and Ambition.” In the Website Deep Dive breakout session, one legal marketer shared her challenges in overhauling her firm’s website. Planning and objective setting are critical to a successful marketing initiative, but some marketers or executives might not be realistic about what is achievable. As a new business lead, I see this issue time and time again — it’s important to understand what is achievable with limited resources.
“Substantive Subject Matter Expertise.” Several sessions featured breakout speakers who shared tips for improving website navigation, layout and content. But I think one GC said it best: “When I’m looking at a firm’s website, I’m looking for substantive subject-matter expertise. It’s not just surface level knowledge — I’m looking for people who understand my business.”

This last point really stuck with me. The ultimate goal of much of the work we do at Greentarget is to position clients as substantive subject-matter experts, to differentiate them for prospective buyers and decision-makers. Clearly, meaningful and substantive points of view are critical to elevating brand awareness and driving smarter conversations.

John Corey

The comment came at the 2018 Legal Marketers Association National Conference in New Orleans — and it says a lot about the state of play in a hypercompetitive industry.

Footer

Connect with us