Elate Communications, Author at Elate Communications

Five Tips For Finding the Perfect Comms Agency Partner

Whether you’re still lounging on your holiday sunbed, with a Piña colada in hand, or steadfastly steering the comms and PR ship for your business, it’s important for marketing and comms executives to consider what’s key when on the hunt for that perfect agency comms partner.

Define the Team & Cultural Fit: One time, my agency team thought we’d won the business after delivering a great PR pitch to a tech firm… only to have its marketing director challenge us with a group task to complete in 20 minutes to evaluate our teamwork. Despite feeling like we had lost control of the meeting, we displayed agility, creative thinking, and addressed the challenge well, ultimately winning the business. To ensure a successful PR partnership, meet or speak with the team members who will be running your PR campaign and assess if their skills align with your requirements. Are they resourceful, proactive, agile, and consultative? How will they work with your internal stakeholders? Do they have the X factor you need?
Get Clear on Business Goals: Transparency is crucial; you need to share your company’s real business goals upfront–whether that’s driving sales leads, establishing a better position in your tech category to attract an acquisition, or seeking investment to expand overseas. Define and prioritise the key goals, as they should shape the comms objectives and, ultimately, your PR programme.
Communicate the PR Goals: Be crystal clear about the PR objectives you want to achieve: is it driving more positive industry analyst engagement, or gaining higher media share of voice compared to your competitors? It’ll help you both to know what you really want, and it avoids later disappointments. Include at least three key messages for the PR campaign to guide the agency’s thinking. If you’re unsure about that at this stage, that’s fine, but identify it as a priority to work together on from the outset. Additionally, provide clarity on target audiences and geographic areas where regional assistance may be appreciated.
Reach Measurement Heaven: Indicate how you’ll want to be measuring success for your organisation and its executives. Any agency worth your money should have concrete initial views on measurement criteria, e.g., industry measurement best practice. Ensure alignment from the beginning: you can’t improve what you can’t measure.
Outline Your Budget: Don’t leave agencies guessing what the stakes are here. Be explicit about your budget or at least provide a range. This enables the agency to create a well-suited campaign for you and establishes a level playing field. Budget clarity will also help rule out agencies that might not be the right fit, saving time for everyone involved.

All in all, investing time in to crafting a thoughtful, business-oriented brief that communicates your requirements in a communications partner is worth doing as it will ensure you receive quality proposals from agencies that align with your needs.

That’s because while team fit, culture, and chemistry matter, creating a comprehensive brief upfront will lead you to the most suitable PR partner which really is equipped with the right set of skills to elevate your planned communications blitz to the next level.

Now, get back to your Summer holiday!

In Challenging Times, A Balanced Marketing Approach Is A Priority

by Elate Communications

Bill Gates once said, “If I was down to my last dollar, I’d spend it on PR.” This always made sense–but in the complex business world of 2023 it’s one tip that all scale-up tech business leaders should be following.

Why? In recessions, businesses are tempted to shift their marketing spend to bottom-of-the-funnel activities, as these may drive more immediate results. But while that’s clearly important, savvy marketing leaders, and CEOs, like Mr Gates, also never lose sight of the long-term benefits of maintaining investment in communications.

Here are just four reasons why maintaining a balanced marketing approach is key:

Maintaining Brand Visibility: In a downturn, you may be tempted to prioritise short-term conversion. The problem: this could diminish your overall brand visibility. Even at the bottom of the cycle you need to keep ensuring you remain visible to your target audience, especially those that are not ready to buy right now but may do so in 6-12 months’ time. Consistent brand presence builds recognition, recall and trust, which are vital for sustained success beyond immediate sales.
Gaining a Competitive Edge: While bottom-of-the-funnel activities may yield quick wins, maintaining PR during tougher times will allow you to sustain your competitive differentiation. Authentic thought leadership, ‘earned’ media coverage, solid analyst relations, and peer recognition via success in industry awards, for example, all build your share of voice, help you stand out in a crowded market and ensure long-term growth and market share.
Follow the Money: While bottom-of-the-funnel activities demonstrate immediate revenue, smart investors look longer term too. Therefore, maintaining a sensible comms investment enables tech firms to communicate their value proposition more effectively, build reputation, and keep their potential to funders visible.
Attracting Talent & Partners: In challenging times, the job market becomes ultra-competitive, with talented workers seeking financial and non-financial rewards. They won’t come to you if you’re invisible—and neither will partners (e.g., distributors, SIs or VARs) who are also on the lookout for new potential revenue streams from exciting vendors. PR plays a twin role here in showcasing your culture, values and your technology USPs, and is a core element in helping you attract (and retain) top talent and partners.

Summing up: while bottom-of-the-funnel marketing activities must continue, scale-up technology firms should consider the long-term benefits of investing in comms.

Maintaining brand visibility, gaining a competitive advantage, attracting investors and attracting/retaining top talent/partners are four reasons why–but a balanced marketing approach that encompasses both short-term gains and long-term sustainability is always the basis for success when the economic headwinds are uncertain.

Connect with us today to see how we can help restore your marketing balance.

PLANNING A SUMMER OF GENERATIVE AI-ONLY MARKETING? THINK AGAIN

by Elate Communications

The power of ChatGPT (and the like) has been spoken and written about everywhere and by everyone. And by now, we’ve all heard about the good, bad -and of course ‘the ugly,’ like the warning from global tech leaders that the technology could lead to the extinction of humanity.

How very like Star Trek that sounds.

However, putting aside the existential risk to humanity for now, what about the impact on tech brands, marketeers and senior comms professionals? For sure, AI is set to impact the way we all work as marketers, as it presents both opportunities and risks.

As other PR experts also say: there are risks around accuracy, bias, copyright, danger and ethics – but we’re advising clients and partners to embrace the technology, as there will be a raft of comms / PR areas where it can add value.

However, on the content development and social media side, ChatGPT and its competitors, whilst helpful on research and initial copy development, simply does not possess the human context, emotional punch and the authentic creativity of an experienced human writer – or a truly sentient being!

That means you, your team and comms agency partner must remain very much involved. You still need to work hard to create solid thought-leadership copy that a) stands out b) cuts through the noise and c) articulates what makes your brand and solution unique and compelling.

Despite the pressure to cut costs, delegating this important content activity to AI just won’t cut it.

To see why, download our Free 12-Point Comms Guide for ambitious and growing tech firms to get a better perspective on planning an effective B2B high-tech software and services comms programme.

We are still learning about how AI can help the PR profession, but we’d be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences, so do get in touch. In the meantime, have a great summer planning your PR programmes!

ELATE SECURES GREAT CLIENT WIN IN THE AI B2B TECH SPACE

by Elate Communications

We are delighted to say that we’ve been appointed to support the UK and European PR for H2O.ai, a leading Silicon Valley based AI technology software company. We’re excited to help the firm communicate the commercial benefits of a strategic AI and ML approach to digital transformation amongst enterprise European CIOs and business function heads.

Stay tuned for more new client wins!

How to Sprint Towards a Successful ‘PR / Comms’ Business Relationship

by Elate Communications

On my run this morning (boy it was Brass Monkey weather today!), I thought about sharing some tips on how to ensure a successful ongoing client / agency relationship. There are always ups and downs in these arrangements, as it’s of course partly linked to personal chemistry, but here are some of my key points for new, and even the more established PR, comms & marketing professionals, and agencies, on how to keep things positive and mutually successful for 2020.

Plant Solid Foundations:

Providing upfront clarity is important. Getting a clear brief, ideally a written one, but a verbal one could work too, on what the business actually needs is key. Beyond providing the key elements of the PR/comms brief, being clear on why the business needs support and what the business goals are, is required. Is it, for example, about customer acquisition, investment, executive profile, geographic expansion or more likely a combination of connected goals? Be honest and upfront, to avoid nasty surprises down the line.

Active Listening:

From the beginning, and throughout the relationship, it’s important that both parties listen, really listen, to each other. This is not only about building trust, and demonstrating understanding, but will enable the agency team to acknowledge, capture and integrate those ‘golden nuggets’ in to the programme. Otherwise, these ‘magical gems’ could remain hidden, unsaid or worse still, said but unheard. Likewise, agency consultants are providing advice that should be well thought-through, so brands should listen carefully, and seriously consider the advice.

Keeping It Fresh:

After the honeymoon period is over, that’s when the real work and fun begins. The ongoing programme, linked to a clear plan, concise messages and agreed measurables, kicks off in earnest, but is partly dependent on contact, content, collaboration, chemistry and creativity. Frequent contact with local and global teams will help trigger thinking and ideas, so build that into the schedule. Content is still king, so ensure that there is a plan and process of identifying and building the smartest content from the most eager executives. Collaboration with the broader team is key, as this will often inspire and spark ideas, but be frank about what will work in your region. Chemistry and creativity are big issues, so more may follow here, but separately…

Marathon Not A Sprint:

Linking ‘rather clumsily’ to my morning run, both sides desire a long term business relationship that is mutually beneficial. Both honesty and realism are key, from the outset. When it works well, it’s great, and we’ve all witnessed it work well, and indeed less well. However, don’t shy away from contentious areas such as budget, mission creep, message challenges, KPIs, choice of agency partners or less than enthusiastic spokespeople / executives, as this all can be addressed.

If we all collectively strive to move in this direction, this will help set us all up for a sustainable and successful long term and valuable Communications relationship. Jog on!This is a work in progress for everybody, even us, but it has served us as a good directional guide.