How Marketers Can Use Evolving Tech like ChatGPT, PMax and GA4 with Matt Bowen [Podcast]

How Marketers Can Use Evolving Tech like ChatGPT, PMax and GA4 with Matt Bowen [Podcast]

by | May 3, 2023 | Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Podcast

Joining Amy on today’s PR Talk Podcast is Matt Bowen, associate director of enterprise client services and strategy at Logical Position (LP), an award-winning digital marketing agency. The duo discuss two recent seismic shifts marketers and PR professionals have seen with Google. That is, after talking about ChatGPT, of course. 

As Amy and Matt discuss new developments in AI, Matt sheds light on the ongoing war between Google and Microsoft, leaving us to wonder which platform will be the winner in integrating AI tech with monetization.

Listen on Spotify
Listen on iTunes
Google Podcasts
Listen on Stitcher

Seismic Shift 1: Performance Max

One example of an exciting new integration is Google’s Performance Max (PMax) campaign, which launched in June last year and changed how marketers allocate their budgets. Matt explains that instead of relying on marketers manually dividing up where their ad inventory budget should go, Google uses its data to find the most effective way to allocate the budget to the right audience, maximizing campaign objectives.

 

Seismic Shift 2: Google Analytics 4

The analytics community is up in arms about Google’s Analytics 4 (GA4) — the new analytics measurement tool that will replace Universal Analytics this July. However, Matt and Amy discuss the interesting components GA4 will bring in both privacy and customizable technology, including the raved about predictive audience feature. Using Google’s smart bidding technology, GA4’s predictive audience feature optimizes advertising budgets in order to increase exposure with likely buyers and lessen exposure with unlikely buyers, making for a quicker sale.

 

Advice for Marketers and PR Pros

Amy asks Matt for advice on how PR and marketing professionals can stay ahead of the digital curve. He emphasizes the importance of embracing technology as a tool that can assist us in our jobs rather than replace us. With AI and other technological advancements, we can enhance our campaigns and achieve better results while still relying on our expertise to drive success.

Tune in now to hear more about these updates and better understand what is happening in the tech world. 

Don’t Miss an Episode

If you haven’t already subscribed to the PR Talk Podcast, you can find more great episodes on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and Spotify. While you’re there, don’t forget to rate and review the show!

About the Guest: Matt Bowen

At LP, Matt Bowen works with enterprise eCommerce brands and retailers to implement overarching PPC strategies that lead to long-term growth. His department manages some of the agency’s largest clients, with a managed spend of more than $16 million. Matt is responsible for strategic planning and execution of large scale initiatives to align with clients’ key performance indicators and ROI, including SEM, SEO, social, and email campaigns.

Matt Bowens Headshot

PR Talk is part of the Marketing Podcast Network

The Marketing Podcast Network gives brands that sell to marketers direct access to reach thousands of buyers via their trusted media source: Marketing podcasts. Browse our library of shows and see where your message can be placed to reach prospective customers ripe for your message.

 

This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon

Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.

2023 Marketing Predictions from Recent PR Talk Guests [Podcast]

2023 Marketing Predictions from Recent PR Talk Guests [Podcast]

by | Jan 11, 2023 | Digital Marketing, Digital PR, Podcast, Public Relations

In this episode of the PR Talk podcast, we asked several past guests for their 2023 marketing and industry predictions. Participants include Katharina Hicker, Christopher Penn, Vanessa Neurohr, Adam Ritchie, Emmy Thomas, Jason Falls, Anna Dearmon Kornick and Laura Norup Boyer. Look out for host Amy Rosenberg’s release of her public relations predictions blog post next week.

Listen on Spotify
Listen on iTunes
Google Podcasts
Listen on Stitcher
Emmy Thomas 2023 Predictions

Emmy Thomas

VP of Brand and Marketing at Logical Position

We will see an increase in user-generated video content in advertising, especially on paid social advertising platforms. As we’ve seen with Instagram reels and TikTok over the past few years, video has become the most engaging form of media. For the right type of retailers with the right product, I can see them shifting to a video advertising strategy that feels more in line with organic, real-time content rather than precisely-edited and polished videos. 

The use of videos also falls in line with paid influencer marketing, which promotes or showcases a product through video by turning that into paid advertising. This type of video content allows advertisers to show rather than tell and is really great for developing trust with buyers before making a complete purchase.

For more from Emmy, listen to her full 2022 PR Talk interview on Where’s the Culture – Marketing Connection?

Jason Falls 2023 Predictions

Jason Falls

Digital marketing thought leader, author of Winfluence, and host of two podcasts: Winfluence and Digging Deeper

We are in an economically disadvantageous situation globally. I predict that brands are going to start spending less on marketing and paid content. Many will start looking for ways to route their budget to more earned and owned efforts to make more efficient use of their dollars. It’s a good opportunity for us in the PR and influence marketing field, but brands are going to be smart with their dollars. 

I suggest looking at micro and nano influencers. More importantly, businesses should plug into their own communities by looking at their employees, customer base and vendor partners to see where there are influential voices. It is a much more efficient way to drive influence, and I believe it will happen a lot more in 2023 due to the economic situation we have found ourselves in.

For more from Jason, listen to his full 2022 PR Talk interview on Influence Marketing.

Laura Norup Boyer 2023 Predictions

Laura Norup Boyer

Founder of Black Bean Industrial Marketing

I have four digital B2B marketing predictions for 2023. To dive deeper into each, please read my full blog write-up.

  1. A Massive change in social media marketing. Twitter is free falling, and frankly, so is Facebook, so expect newer platforms like TikTok to fill the social media power vacuum.
  2. Video video and more video! Editing and publishing have finally become easy and affordable enough for small and medium businesses to do well, expect a lot more of that.
  3. Google Analytics 4 is coming on July 1, and many businesses won’t be ready in time. Make sure you adopt their new system to be positioned for success.
  4. The biggest marketing trend will be AI. The AI tools available are going to change everything for search advertising, content marketing and website development. One way or another, digital marketing is going to get weirder in 2023, so businesses and marketers must be agile in the face of it. 

Our advice at Black bean is to keep your head up and your eyes open, embrace change but never forget your fundamentals: customer experience, brand visibility, and ROI. The way we deliver on those fundamentals may change, but the goal remains the same.

For more from Laura, listen to her full 2022 PR Talk interview on Industrial B2B Marketing.

Katharina Hicker 2023 Predictions

Katharina (Kat) Hicker

Founder of Castleforbes Communications and Co-Founder of The Speakeasy Club

My three PR predictions for 2023 are:

  1. We will see more press conferences taking place in the metaverse.
  2. The social media channels of news outlets will be playing an even bigger role in 2023. PR pros need to rethink what platform they are pitching for. Is it a win if you place a story in print, even a story about a digital business? Is it a win if the story is living on a platform that you actively have to promote? Or is it a win if an outlet dedicates a post about your story on their social channels, the same place you use to promote yourself?
  3. PR will become more global. When we pitch to the media, it doesn’t matter which country or market. We follow what I call the relevancy triangle: your story is either based on the location, the people involved are from the location, or your story is somehow contributing to this location. But businesses are becoming less attached to locations, founders are digital nomads with diverse backgrounds and the contributions that businesses establish are borderless. As businesses continue to have a global mindset, the media has followed and so will PR.

For more from Kat, listen to her full 2022 PR Talk interview on PR Globe Trotting From Germany to Dubai.

Christopher Penn 2023 Predictions

Christopher Penn

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist for Trust Insights, author, keynote speaker and podcast co-host of Marketing Over Coffee

Our prediction is that there will be a flood of new content thanks to the prevalence and ease of tools like GPT-3 from OpenAI and their ChatGPT tool. You can expect that the amount of content marketers will be creating in the next few years will dwarf anything that has come before. That means that as marketers and communicators, we have to work much harder to be heard amongst all the noise. 

Building a loyal and private community where you can curate people and help focus their attention is going to be absolutely essential if you want to succeed in getting people to pay attention to you. So get ready for not just the content flood but a literal tsunami of new content that will overwhelm anyone who is not producing at volume and curating a community.

For more from Christopher, listen to his full 2022 PR Talk interview on Why You Need Data in Your PR Strategy.

Anna Dearmon Kornick 2023 Predictions

Anna Dearmon Kornick

Time management coach and host of It’s About Time Podcast

Just as the PR industry is seeing an increase in AI-powered copywriting tools, in 2023, I predict your time management will also become AI-powered. There are already some amazing tools on the market, like Clockwise, Motion, Sunsama, Time Hero and others, that can help you take back your time by learning your preferences and managing your calendar. 

I predict that we will see more widespread usage of these tools. Right now, it takes an average of 30 minutes to manage the back-and-forth logistics of meetings manually. You weren’t hired to manage a calendar, you were hired to manage reputations and build relationships. To stay ahead of the game in 2023 and win back your time, test drive an AI time management tool and spend more time on what matters most.

For more from Anna, listen to her full 2022 PR Talk interview on Managing Time Within the Chaos of PR.

Vanessa Neurohr 2023 Predictions

Vanessa Neurohr

VP of Customer Success at Muck Rack

My 2023 PR prediction is that brands and agencies will benchmark legacy metrics with new and or different metrics to continue proving the impact of their work. As we enter uncertain economic times, it’s even more important for PR professionals to leverage data in order to communicate their contributions back to their clients or internally within their organizations.

For more from Vanessa, listen to her full 2022 PR Talk interview on Developing Long-Term Relationships Through Customer Success.

Adam Ritchie 2023 Predictions

Adam Ritchie

Owner of Adam Ritchie Brand Direction and author of “Invention in PR”

The best PR campaigns will involve product creation, and then promotion — rather than promotion only. Start paying attention and you’ll see the signs everywhere. Two of the shortlisted entries in the “Best in Creative Excellence” category of next year’s PRWeek Awards are invention-first PR campaigns: Applebee’s “Saucy Gloss” and MillerCoors High Life’s “Gingerbread Dive Bar.” 

Just this past month, we saw two competing bourbon brands announcing PR campaigns one day apart: Diageo’s “Bulleit Pioneer Project” — which was a content contest — and Jim Beam’s “Kentucky Hug Holiday Pajamas” — which was a set of PJs weighted to give a hug to a loved one from afar. Weeks later, Bulleit’s campaign still hasn’t left the starting line of its press release, while Jim Beam’s invention has earned unique coverage on CNN, Entrepreneur, Men’s Journal and Forbes. 

These are examples of where the bar was set versus where the bar is set. Some PR-minded marketing pros are clearly pushing themselves to come up with killer product/service concepts that drive a campaign. The brands using this approach are making competitors eat their dust.

For more from Adam, listen to his full 2022 PR Talk interview on Invention in PR: Pushing the Limits of Product Promotion to Product Creation.

Watch the full podcast

 

Don’t Miss an Episode

You can access more great episodes by subscribing to the PR Talk podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and Spotify.

This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon

Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.

PR Talk is part of the Marketing Podcast Network

The Marketing Podcast Network gives brands that sell to marketers direct access to reach thousands of buyers via their trusted media source: Marketing podcasts. Browse our library of shows and see where your message can be placed to reach prospective customers ripe for your message.

 

People, Processes and Technology: How Marketing Operations is Revolutionizing Marketing

People, Processes and Technology: How Marketing Operations is Revolutionizing Marketing

by | Oct 26, 2022 | Digital Marketing, Digital PR, Posts

A successful marketing endeavor requires a team of people with very specialized skill sets working together to achieve a common goal. Along the way, they’ll be using a host of complex tools that don’t always communicate well with each other while receiving a sea of data that may or may not be helpful. They’ll also need to use that potentially unreliable or irrelevant data to decide how to adjust their efforts in the future. If this sounds like a big challenge, that’s because it is.

Most marketing professionals don’t talk about the job this way, but the real-world requirements of assembling a marketing apparatus so that all the pieces point in the same direction are daunting. And issues like deciding which tools to use and what data to pay attention to are big obstacles teams must overcome every day.

These inherent challenges are why many organizations have added marketing operations roles that carry broad responsibility to align and optimize their marketing efforts to achieve improved results.

 

What is Marketing Operations?

From a broad perspective, marketing operations govern the people, processes and technologies a marketing department uses to pursue its larger goals. Drilling down a bit, the marketing operations role defines the “how” of a marketing department by deciding issues like how it executes a strategy, how it measures results or how it uses data to inform future decisions.

The marketing operations role can take on many different forms, depending on the size and makeup of an organization or its teams. It could be a dedicated role if the organization is big enough or conducts concerted marketing and sales efforts. Marketing operations could even consist of a team of people. In some organizations, these duties fall to a c-level executive, like a chief marketing officer, chief operations officer or even a chief technology officer. Marketing operations can also serve as a conduit between sales and marketing to ensure the two departments work towards aligned goals.

 

The Elements of Marketing Operations

Regardless of the size or makeup of an organization, marketing operations focuses on how a team can be more efficient and effective in several different areas, including:

 

People

The most important element of any marketing department is the people. Marketing operations establishes critical people-related standards like headcount, roles and responsibilities, outsourcing and budgeting. Marketing operations also identifies employee gaps, forecasts future workforce needs and creates a strategy for filling them.

 

Processes

Another critical role for marketing operations is evaluating and designing the workflows and systems that enable the team to do its best work as efficiently as possible. A process could be as simple as creating templates for repeated workflows or creating automations that eliminate certain types of work. Processes could also include more complex undertakings like project planning and data management. However, the overarching goal is to minimize low-value work as much as possible so people can focus on high-value, high-return tasks.

 

Technology 

Marketing operations also leads in building and maintaining the department’s marketing technology stack. This process involves identifying the tools people are already using and determining if the team has the needed technology in place to execute strategy and measure results. Another important element involves regularly reevaluating technology to ensure it continues to meet the department’s needs and objectives. Common marketing technologies include: data analytics, customer relationship management tools, content management systems or social media management software.

 

Measurement

Marketing work is much less effective when you aren’t measuring your results. That’s why marketing operations is often responsible for identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and the tools and methods the department will use to measure them. While no data source is perfect, marketers must be consistent with the measures they use to judge success, and it’s up to marketing operations to establish those standards.

 

Analysis & Planning

Measuring results is one thing, but deciding what those results mean and how they influence future strategy decisions is another. Marketing operations drive these tasks by moving initiatives through a repeated process of data interpretation, strategy recalibration, execution and measurement, with results judged against previously established KPIs. When marketers repeat this process again and again, incremental improvements eventually add up to impactful results.

 

Creating Marketing Guideposts

Marketers can quickly become misaligned and ineffective without someone leading the way. An established marketing operations approach can fix this by creating guideposts governing how the people, processes and technology interact to achieve the department’s goals.

Gone are the days of stumbling around in the dark, chasing metrics that don’t really matter. Instead, marketing operations aligns the department so that people with different specialties use the right technology within effective processes to pursue impactful results. With those factors aligned, all marketing endeavors become more efficient and effective.

Featured Images courtesy of Headway via Unsplash
Efficient Systems: Why Every PR Department Needs PR Software

Efficient Systems: Why Every PR Department Needs PR Software

by | Oct 12, 2022 | Digital PR, Posts, Public Relations

Before there were media monitoring services, PR pros had to spend a lot of time and budget tracking coverage. Thankfully, plenty of PR software no longer requires physically “clipping” newspapers, listening to the radio to record mentions, or even capturing TV broadcasts with pictures. 

Times have changed, and luckily the industry has followed trends by developing software that works as an organizational tool for all the behind-the-scenes tasks, such as: gathering media contacts, reaching out to journalists, monitoring coverage, drawing out analytics, and more. 

Using PR software for all the ins-and-outs of campaign management is highly recommended for any PR pro who desires efficiency. 

 

Using Software in the PR Campaign Process

To explain why PR departments need PR software, I will show how it assists during a typical PR campaign. Let’s pretend my client is opening a Latina-owned vegan Mexican restaurant in Saint Louis, Missouri. With her recipes being culturally based, along with celebrating the history of vegan Mexican cuisine, there are many story angles to work with.  

 

Defining Focus Through Detailed List Creation

The first thing we would do, after gathering the pertinent information, is create a press announcement that shares a glimpse of her story. Then it’s time to consider where it will go — this is when we use the handy dandy PR software — by searching for outlets in specific areas (greater Saint Louis area) that cover our topics (Latina/restaurant/food/vegan). We are using our software to thoroughly define our search to generate a more thoughtful media list resulting in media contacts covering these themes.

Search Bar

Sending Pitches with Stealth

By sending customized pitches to the curated media list through the software, we can track when and where the announcement was sent. Some software shows when media contacts have opened emails, but some journalists don’t allow this capability, and opening isn’t the same as reading. Tracking date and time are still relevant even when tracking open rates to ensure we send follow-ups promptly.

Tracking pitches

Tracking and Capturing the Coverage

After sending the pitches, responses and pick up are coming in from journalists who want to publish the announcement and interview the owner for a bigger story. YAY! But as PR pros, we remember that even when editors say they want to post something, it doesn’t mean it is a done deal until it is published. Thankfully, our software tracks stories that have landed in print, broadcast, or online. Using keyword searches and location tracking, the software can find where the announcement is picked up, who is sharing it, and how many people have seen it — all information we can store for later.

Monitoring Coverage

Providing Quality Results for the Client

Now let’s fast forward to the reporting phase. As PR pros, it’s imperative that we demonstrate the coverage and positive visibility we get from any campaign. Creating a campaign coverage report through the software allows us to input analytics, including: days published, audience reach, website domain authority, and other significant metrics tied to campaign success. 

Veracity’s PR software tool is Muck Rack, which has a new feature that integrates google analytics to compare website traffic to campaigns. This feature could be the new way of showing quantitative results — something that isn’t so easy to do in PR. Learn more about Muck Rack and its new features from the company’s VP of customer success on this PR Talk episode. 

Coverage report

Always Have a Backup Plan

Not only did PR software help open doors for the campaign, but it also made the campaign flow efficiently. While this example highlighted the benefits of using PR software, it still can have some errors. Sometimes the wrong contact is populated or coverage is missed. The software company can address these errors, but practicing backup measures in PR is always good, like double-checking your media lists against the media websites and updating media lists often. Overall, PR software saves time, allowing space for other client campaigns, which is the perfect reason to use it.

 

PR Software Brands

Some popular PR software includes: Muck Rack (learn more here, we love it!), Cision, Agility PR Solutions and Meltwater. With tons of options and more features than I mentioned, it can be hard to choose the right PR software for your needs. On top of that, learning how to use it can be a headache. I suggest asking the customer support team questions about the software’s features, using any available demo options and comparing software prices with the budget in mind. The willingness to put in a little time and money, to save time and money in the end, is an excellent start for a PR department wanting more efficiency.

Featured Images courtesy of Muck Rack and Canva
Why You Need Data in Your PR Strategy with Christopher Penn [Podcast]

Why You Need Data in Your PR Strategy with Christopher Penn [Podcast]

by | Apr 6, 2022 | Digital PR, Podcast, Public Relations

During this week’s PR Talk Podcast, Amy is joined by co-founder and Chief Data Scientist for Trust Insights, author, keynote speaker and podcast co-host of Marketing Over Coffee, Christopher Penn. In this episode, they talk about how to collect and use data in PR.

Listen on Spotify
Listen on iTunes
Google Podcasts
Listen on Stitcher

What Makes the Work Data-Driven

Amy began the podcast by asking Christopher what makes up data-driven PR, since that is part of his work at Trust Insights. He explained, “There is a lot of confusion on what data-driven means; essentially it is when you make decisions with data first. Although you can go through other decision funnels, data should be at the forefront. This means collecting responses from surveys or gathering data from different search engines and using that base to make PR decisions.”

Furthermore, Christopher explained that data is a handy tool for marketing and PR because it helps make better decisions and exceed goals with more automation, fewer errors and deeper insights. His experience with PR led him to notice a lack of measurement in PR work, which he believes is due to “Companies unable to invest money and time in PR measurement.”

 

How to Measure PR Efforts

The two agree that everything in PR can be measured; it’s just a matter of how much investment is available. If using data in the PR strategy, Christopher explained that PR practitioners should first understand their desired outcome. He used an example of increasing brand strength and awareness; this can be tested with continuous data collection like surveys and focus groups around the brand. Once data is collected, the PR practitioner can use it to understand what efforts may be lacking; however, continuous testing can be a lot of work and expense.

He then offered a simpler solution that tends to be overlooked: the use of branded organic search (which is when a person searches a company directly by name). Since this is part of public search data, numbers are much easier to attain. He explained that using discovered data can help set the direction of a campaign by revealing demographics of who is looking and who isn’t. He added that joining data from branded organic search with field market surveys can also give more insight into what consumers are specifically looking for.

 

What Types of Tools to Start With

Using data is great to gauge campaigns, but Amy wanted to know what tools PR practitioners should use to find information using a branded organic search method. Christopher said Google Search Console is an excellent tool in Google Analytics that can be used to figure out how people are interacting with a brand. It shows how a person got to the website through YouTube, a backlink, or an organic search. He explained that if you can compare the numbers of searches between each campaign, you can tie an increase (if there is one) to an increase in sales or leads.

Christopher wrapped up the podcast by explaining how important it is for PR practitioners to use SEO tools, especially keyword/content tools to monitor websites. He said it might seem confusing at first, but using search data could be an easy start for those looking to measure more of their PR efforts to understand what is working and what is not.

Listen now to get the full rundown on how data could change your approach to PR. Also in this episode, learn about Christopher’s time as a tarot-card reader, his experience with AI marketing, and much more.

Don’t Miss an Episode

You can access more great episodes by subscribing to the PR Talk podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and Spotify.

About the guest: Christopher Penn

Christopher S. Penn is a recognized thought leader, best-selling author, and keynote speaker who has shaped the marketing industry. As co-founder and Chief Data Scientist of Trust Insights, he is responsible for creating products and services, creating and maintaining all code and intellectual property, technology and marketing strategy, brand awareness, and research & development.

He is a 2021, four-time IBM Champion in IBM Data and AI, a Brand24 Top 100 Digital Marketer, an Onalytica Top 100 AI in Marketing influencer, and co-host of the award-winning Marketing Over Coffee marketing podcast. His work has served brands such as Twitter, T-Mobile®, Citrix Systems, GoDaddy, AAA®, McDonald’s, and many others.

Connect and follow Christopher on social media:

CHRISTOPHER S. PENN, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF DATA SCIENTIST

PR Talk is part of the Marketing Podcast Network

The Marketing Podcast Network gives brands that sell to marketers direct access to reach thousands of buyers via their trusted media source: Marketing podcasts. Browse our library of shows and see where your message can be placed to reach prospective customers ripe for your message.

 

This episode of PR Talk is brought to you by PRSA Oregon

Throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, PRSA provides members with networking, mentorship, skill building and professional development opportunities – whether you are a new professional fresh out of college or a skilled expert with 20 years in the industry. Check out PRSAoregon.org for more information on how membership can help you grow and connect.