Posts Tagged ‘Coles Marketing’

One common question among friends, colleagues and potential clients is "what do you do?" You would think it's an easy answer, and in some cases it is. For instance, "I am a plumber" or "I am an electrician" are pretty self explanatory.  But, what about "I am in marketing" or "I am in marketing communications"?  It's sometimes hard to boil our type of business down to one or two sentences. In 1985, Coles Marketing started out as a public relations firm.  As growth occurred and client requests changed, we adapted and grew. Along the way, we added media buying services and a creative department. Recently, I ran across a term that will give you a better understanding of how our business has changed in recent years.

A definition of content marketing is below from Wikipedia.

"Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty."

Wikipedia continues with the following information.

"Many content marketers choose to create new information and share it via any and all media. Content marketing products frequently take the form of custom magazines, print or online newsletters, digital content, websites or microsites, white papers, webcasts/webinars, podcasts, video portals or series, in-person roadshows, roundtables, interactive online, email, events."

So while we maintain our roots as a traditional public relations and advertising firm, gaining credibility and reach for our clients.  We also realize the importance of maintaining and/or retaining brand loyalty. At Coles Marketing, we continue to stay on top of the latest marketing trends and adapt and grow with our clients. And in this ever adapting world, we don't mind adding a couple more sentences to our "what we do" explanation.

The Indiana Region of Huntington Bank showcases local non profits monthly on WISH TV.

Click on the logo  to see stories and videos on these special organizations serving our local community:

 Follow Indy’s Morton’s The SteakHouse on Twitter to enjoy local news, recipes and events.

 http://twitter.com/#!/mortonsindy

 This week on mortonsindy, get the recipe for Morton’s Skynny Blood Orange Cosmo.

 Click here to follow mortonsindy: http://twitter.com/#!/mortonsindy

Click on the graphic to the left to listen to and watch patients who have undergone successful bariatric surgery at the Columbus Regional Hospital Bariatric Center.  For more information, visit www.columbusbariatrics.com    Video stories produced by the Coles Marketing team. 

Click on the graphic above to learn how to transplant your plants to soil. Watch a video of Dr. P. as he gives you step-by step directions. Enewsletter and video created by the Coles Marketing team.

I was aghast to learn your Hotmail account can actually sabotage your job hunt or career connections!

Over dinner with some tech execs, DailyWorth’s CEO Amanda Steinberg got the word: “If an applicant applies for a job with us and is still using Hotmail or Yahoo for email, they’re immediately eliminated,” one successful CEO said.

So an uncool email domain can kill your job prospects or career opportunities. DailyWorth’s reader responses to Amanda’s Facebook post ranged from, “Never heard that before!” to an office manager who said she doles out “unofficial demerits” to AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail users.

Bottom line: Employers and business executives are looking for any reason to cull through reams of job applications, says career coach Cynthia Shapiro, author of What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here.

A Yahoo, Hotmail, or AOL email address could signal that you’re not exactly tech-savvy — or not comfortable with change. Gmail (or a personal domain) is considered leading edge.

Maybe you need a digital image upgrade. Gee, mail.

When it comes to hiring a PR agency, there are plenty of reasons to do so — including brand awareness, increased executive visibility and crisis communications preparations, among others. However, according to Aaron Kwittken, there are some common pitfalls to avoid to ensure success.

Here are seven reasons why you should NOT hire a PR agency (interesting!):

1. You want(ed) to be on Oprah: Don’t request, demand, ask or even suggest to your PR agency that they get you on Oprah (or a similar show). The odds of getting on the show are against you. The agency’s time–and your money–would be better spent on activities that yield results via other media. This also sends a huge red flag to the agency that you have no idea what PR is all about.
 
2. You want to spend less time on PR: Many executives think hiring a PR firm means they’ll spend less time on PR. Not true. The company spokesperson should expect to spend up to 20% of time speaking on behalf of the company through a variety of traditional, social and unmediated (conference) channels.
 
3. The agency is willing to take equity in lieu of cash: I’m all for “growing” with and investing extra time in clients, but PR agencies also have hard costs that they need to cover. Many companies assume that agencies that accept equity in lieu of cash will be more incented because they will have “skin in the game.” This is not accurate. If you really want to go the equity route, consider offering a mix of cash and equity. That way the agency will maintain its focus on you as a real client and you won’t play second fiddle to paying clients.
 
4. It’s the least expensive agency you could find: The old adage “you get what you pay for” is absolutely true. Go with the least expensive agency and you can expect little–if any–attention from the agency’s principals. In addition, the lowest-cost option means you should be prepared to chase down your account rep for ideas, activities and updates, and your account representative is likely to be the least experienced. Keep in mind you will be just one of a dozen or so clients she is working on. So, take a number and good luck. ‘Nuff said.
 
5. Agency fees are on a per media placement basis: If a “smile and dial” factory is what you want, and you subscribe to the notion that all PR is good PR, then go ahead and hire a shop that bills by placement. Be warned, however, that you will likely have to make sacrifices, including the quality of the pitch and the quality and relevance of the outlets being targeted. If that’s what you’re looking for, then what you really need is an ad agency, not a PR agency.

6. The agency is guaranteeing a minimum number of media placements: Similar to my point above, if clips is all you want–at any cost and placed anywhere–then go for it. But strategic PR agencies aim for quality over quantity, always. Volume follows great stories.
 
7. You want media placements in the next 30 days: Any agency that promises hits within 30 days is full of you-know-what. Sure, many agencies have strong starts at the beginning of a client engagement and can hit the ground running, but the agencies that make this promise typically have a list of media that they target over and over and it may not be the kind of outlets that help you move your business forward. Smart, sustainable, credibly-earned campaigns take time to develop and cultivate. You should expect to start seeing media momentum within 60 to 90 days depending on news cycles and story angles.

And if you ARE looking for a capable, experienced agency, you’ve come to the right place! Coles Marketing Communications is an Indianapolis firm serving the marketing, advertising and public relations needs of Indiana companies and government entities for more than 25 years. Check us out!

Whether you’re in marketing, public relations or communications, you have probably heard about mobile. There are lots of different areas when it comes to going mobile, including SMS, web browsing, email, location services and more!

George Bilbrey’s company is in the email business and is focused on the impact mobile has on email marketing and deliverability. They even released the results of a study they did on mobile email habits (“Email on the Move: The Future of Mobile Messaging“), and there were several takeaways and actionable items for mobile and email marketers. 

Here are a few things that jumped out, according to Bilbrey’s article:

• You may need a strategy for tablets. The study revealed a 15% growth in email viewership on an iPad in just six months.  iPads (and, presumably other tablets) are rapidly growing in usage. It’s time to pay attention and experiment with the best practices and tactics to reach your market in this environment. If your subscriber base is in line with this trend, how are you going to adjust and react?
• Mobile readership goes up over the weekend. Relevance is about so much more than just content. The time of day, day of the week or hour in the day you send something can greatly impact users’ behavior and their relationship with your email. With the increase in mobile email readership, people are constantly accessing and reading email. We learned that mobile readership goes way up over the weekend. This is something to keep in mind when planning your email marketing campaigns and when designing your email for rendering optimization. The same email address is more and more likely to have multiple viewing environments.
• Image is everything. The key to your Sender Score reputation is relevance. And I can think of no quicker way to become irrelevant than by sending email that your audience can’t read. Even the smartest of smartphones can be dumb about how it handles images and layout, so test the various configurations and optimize for the devices most often used by your audience. Of course, even in cases where images are enabled by default, travel and dead zones can mean that your email won’t be image-enabled. If your subscribers can’t read the email, they aren’t getting the message. Be mindful of sending email that is so image-heavy that it is useless if images are turned off.
• Ignoring mobile may have real consequences.  If your subscribers are mobile-savvy, and your email isn’t optimized for these environments, you run more than just the risk of missing out on communication. By not reaching customers the way they prefer, your emails will go unread, marked as spam and your messages will be ignored – all greatly impacting your reputation and deliverability. Take a careful look at your subscribers and see how many of them are viewing your email on a mobile device. If your base’s usage is consistent with our reported trends, consider making some changes to incorporate this mobile segment now, to protect both your engagement and your deliverability.
• What about complaints? Most “native” mobile email clients don’t have a “report spam” button.  If you’re seeing an improving complaint rate, is that because more subscribers are reading in mobile clients — or is that because you’ve improved your relevancy?

What changes are you considering to your email program to take advantage of mobile technology? What risks do you see emerging as smartphones and tablets continue to proliferate?

Are you tired? Not because you didn’t get enough sleep last night. Not because you are stressed in the workplace. But are you tired – of tired words?

“A Rant: Ten Tired Words and Phrases That We Can Live Without,” by Gene Marbach, notes some particularly tired, clichéd and overly-used words and phrases, used particularly by practitioners in the communications business. 

“In our business, the hip can become mundane fairly quickly; however, some expressions just refuse to go away. Let’s make the world a better place at least from a language standpoint,” Marbach says.

Some to stamp out: 

1. “At the end of the day” – We all go to bed, as should this phrase.
2. “It is what it is” – What else could it be? Gone!
3. “Thought leadership” – A particular favorite among PR firms currently. Just count how many times this one gets used (or abused) during your next meeting.
4. “Going forward” – Going nowhere.
5. “Synergy” – Thought this one died with the ill-fated merger of AOL and Time Warner. Apparently not. It appears to be staging a minor comeback.
6. “On my plate” – I usually have too much food when I’m at a buffet and not at work.
7. “Bandwidth” – Still hear this chestnut, which I suspect came into vogue during the telecommunications boom. What’s wrong with “I’m busy. Go away!”
8. “Space” – Play in the space. Sit in the space. Dominate the space. This one should be “lost in space” permanently.
9. “Crave-able” – A particular favorite among food companies.  Is this really a word?
10. “Win-win” – Let’s lose this one, shall we?

What are your contributions? But make sure to add to the list because actions speak louder than words. Well, don’t get all bent out of shape about it! Let’s blaze a new trail of fresh, new phrases; they won’t be able to hold a candle to the cliches. (I could go on, but I won’t.)

As a public relations professional, I send several news releases a week; and I always wonder — Will my news be used? Will the release make it into the hands of the right writer? Will the news be interesting enough to our local television producers to make air? Or does the release fly out into the news release abyss and never return?

Kevin Allen has an article highlighting some of the top reasons a reporter will delete your press release. According to Allen, here are a few ways to guarantee that a reporter will absolutely not read your press release, or discard it quickly:

• Send it to their personal email. You don’t want to be bothered at home and neither do reporters. Sending them messages through their personal account is like calling their home phone or knocking on their front door. It’s intrusive and annoying — don’t do it. (Unless, of course, the reporter has instructed you to contact him in this manner; then by all means do it.)
• Include the phrase ‘For Immediate Release.’ [which I do! Uh oh!] I delete any messages that have the phrase “For Immediate Release,” because I’ve simply never read a good press release that includes it. If you disagree with this, by all means, let me know — just don’t use my personal email.
• Fail to personalize it. If you don’t want a reporter to read your press release, just send the text of the release as the body of the email. At the very least, PR pros should acknowledge that they know the reporter’s name and his or her work and that they sent the press release because they had read the journalist’s stuff and know what he or she covers.
• Include a ton of copy and don’t hyperlink. I’ve seen several press releases that, instead of having hyperlinked phrases, include full, clunky URLs. This makes you look as though you don’t know what you’re doing and that you have trouble using email. Also, good pitches needn’t take up a full page. Pare it to the essentials, and I’ll know right away whether it’s something I would cover. Don’t make me read through a bunch of boilerplate nonsense before I get to your point.
• Include a typo. As soon as I come across a typo in a press release, I discard it. End of story. If you can’t bother to spell-check or proofread your pitch, how can I assume you’ll get the facts straight?

I’m sure there are countless more tips on how to attract — and annoy — today’s reporter, producer or other intended audience with your news release. But, with so much information out there to gather and absorb, you might as well start making some changes to make sure your release gets released.