Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.

From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.

Meetings Owe the Pandemic a “Thank You”

In the past year we’ve celebrated drive-by graduations from the safety of our cars and shared meals in make-shift plastic igloos in restaurant parking lots. We’ve adopted video conferencing for such diverse purposes as doctor’s visits, wine tastings, family holiday gatherings and worship services. And the COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the way we gather for school and work. How long these measures will be required is unknown, but what is clear is that some of the changes in how we meet and gather are here to stay.

With the shift to remote work, we are working longer days and we are having more meetings each day, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, but those meetings are now, on average, 20.1 percent shorter. The average number of meetings per person has increased 12.9 percent while the average length of meetings has dropped from one hour to about 48 minutes. The report speculates that the shortening of meetings is related to the distractions of the remote work environment and the changing function of meetings.

Our attention spans are being taxed, whether from internet outages and audio echoes, a neighbor’s leaf blower or a child’s question about fractions. Being physically removed from our colleagues has also led us to add more “bite-sized” meetings that weren’t necessary previously, for checking-in with managers and connecting with teammates.

Even after the pandemic subsides, many companies are planning to keep the remote workforce model and others will allow some portion of their employees to work from home occasionally. And companies that now recognize the value of online communication may replace some portion of expensive business travel with video meetings. Daily business meetings are likely to continue to be held online to accommodate workers in different locations, and meeting facilities will need to adapt to become productive working spaces for both the people in the room and those joining via video.

Hiring and onboarding are examples of other processes that rely on meetings, from interviews and contract negotiations to meeting the team and getting familiar with the work. I personally experienced the remote work environment in this context a few months ago. After interviewing over Microsoft Teams and starting the job in mid-November, I have yet to meet any of my colleagues in person. However, through daily team “virtual standup” meetings, and regular check-ins with my manager over Teams, I am quickly feeling like part of the group.

Client meetings are also held over video, allowing me to establish rapport and get up to speed with my accounts. Recorded meetings and on-demand video trainings, specifically the search function available through Panopto (our client), have allowed me to revisit material as needed and review new recordings at my own pace. The effectiveness and efficiency of these flexible tools will likely make asynchronous meetings and video a mainstay of onboarding into the future.

Not only has the pandemic influenced the way we hold smaller, regular meetings and gatherings, but large business gatherings, like conferences and trade shows, have had to adjust their format as well. Following cancellations and indefinite postponements, the industry has reimagined meetings and events with enhanced virtual capabilities, and, with a larger potential audience due to the eliminated travel expense, are equipped to accommodate increased attendance in a digital-only environment.

Even the internationally known Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will be held entirely online this year. As the show’s organizer Consumer Technology Association states, it will be “an all-digital experience connecting exhibitors, customers, thought leaders and media from around the world.”

Registrants will have access to the keynote addresses, virtual tradeshow and a variety of sessions via a video conference or stream. And as with similar events in the new environment, participants will be able to pick and choose sessions to stream or watch recordings on-demand.

Meeting planners expect that even after in-person conferences return, many will offer a hybrid between virtual and in-person experiences to meet the demand. Some people will continue to travel for meetings, especially when a conference is in a desirable location, but some won’t.

Whether for safety or cost concerns or because they feel travel is not a productive use of their time, some participants will choose to attend remotely. Networking and exhibitor demos remain a significant challenge for remote conferences and events but shows like CES will continue to provide the blueprint for innovative solutions to bridge the gap between virtual and in-person attendance experiences.

As we imagine our lives after the pandemic, it is tempting to wish for bygone days, but our world will never be the same. What we can hope is that we take the best of what our ingenuity has created in these challenging times and use that to enhance our future. The ways we’ve leveraged technology and reimagined meetings have the potential to make our future brighter and more productive.

Back to the Basics – Pitches

For public relations professionals, there’s no better rush of excitement than seeing a client appear in a news story. One way to get coverage for clients is to develop and distribute a proactive pitch, which is a great way to secure interest from journalists in the absence of hard news. Pitches succinctly share a story idea or angle that could add value to a journalist’s reporting. But how do we get our clients in front of journalists when they receive on average 500 pitches a day?

Here’s the secret: You must demonstrate why the story idea is newsworthy. It’s a daunting task, but there are several ways you can boost the probability of garnering a response. Below are some tips to keep in mind when assembling your pitch:

The Anatomy of a Pitch

When developing your pitch make sure that it’s succinct, relevant and timely. A pitch should streamline the key messages and verbiage that clients want to be associated with while also effectively presenting the argument for why the story idea is unique. Given the influx of emails journalists receive daily, spend time creating an attention-grabbing introduction that will hook the reporter and spark their interest in learning more about what you can offer. A solid pitch will only stand out if the claims are backed up by proof points, such as experiences or data. If the pitch includes data, it should be from a reliable source that journalists can trust or verify.

Identify Relevant Journalists

Compiling a list of journalists can sometimes be the hardest part of putting together a pitch. Be cautious of who you send a pitch to so you’re not spamming reporters, which can often damage your relationships with the media. Take time to dive below the surface level to uncover whether or not the reporter’s recent coverage aligns with the topic of your story idea. Use Twitter to learn more about their interests or solutions like Cision, TechNews and Muck Rack to make sure you’ve selected the appropriate journalists. In addition, it never hurts to Google them to guarantee that a reporter hasn’t recently changed roles or publications. You should feel confident that the story idea or information you’re sharing will be relevant to the journalists on your list.

Personalize the Notes

To make your pitch appealing to the tailored list of journalists you identified, consider customizing each note. Recent data shows that the No. 1 reason journalists reject a pitch is because of the lack of personalization, so frontloading the work by individualizing each note can save you from the dreaded sound of crickets that sometimes follow media outreach. Whether it’s sharing how your story idea fits into the reporter’s beat or acknowledging a profound article they recently wrote, this will show journalists that you’ve taken the time to consider their work and how your idea fits into their reporting.

While these tips won’t guarantee a response from a journalist or coverage for your clients, they will allow you to feel more confident about reaching out to reporters. Keep these tips in mind the next time you’re distributing a pitch and you’ll be one step closer to knocking the socks off any reporter and landing coverage in the media for clients.

PR Best Practices to Avoid Rookie Mistakes

Starting a new career out of college is often a steep learning curve. While traditional classroom instruction teaches valuable critical thinking, group work, research and writing skills, on-the-job skills can typically only really be learned at work. As someone who is a somewhat recent college graduate, I’ve experienced this trend firsthand. I’ve made my fair share of rookie mistakes and though I’m still far from being an expert, I’ve learned a lot of important skills.

Outlined below are three tips to help new PR professionals cut their teeth on public relations and avoid common rookie mistakes.

No. 1: Practice Email Etiquette

Whether you’re communicating with reporters, clients or team members, a lot of time during the workday is spent reading or writing emails. Due to our dependence on the communication channel, it’s important to understand the basic tenets of email etiquette. Email etiquette plays a huge role in conveying professionalism and ensuring efficiency. A good PR pro knows how to concisely request action without being demanding. Examples might include reminding people of deadlines, offering to help take a project over the finish line, reattaching a document for review, etc. All these practices should be done with a supportive and solutions-oriented tone without sacrificing the expected results.

A good PR pro can also adapt to client preferences (more on that later) to understand when the best time to secure a response from a client is or what their communication style might be (i.e., conversational vs. formal). PR reps should also be able to determine when to “reply all.” A common mistake newer professionals make is to reply directly to the sender, which limits visibility for other team members. Lastly, you should always respond to emails in a timely fashion (i.e., within 24 hours). For example, if a team member sends a request for support on a project, a best practice is to briefly respond and acknowledge the project rather than waiting to respond until you can begin working on the project. Agencies are fast paced and timely responses to email are an important part of keeping activity moving.

No. 2: Maximize Media Briefings

In public relations, one of the things we do regularly is arrange and staff media briefings on subjects relevant to our clients’ business. Briefings generally translate to editorial coverage and they’re also valuable for relationship building. To a less experienced PR person, this role can feel awkward. They might feel like they’re in the way or that their client can handle the conversation. However, a good PR rep should play an active part of nearly every media briefing. PR professionals should:

Kick things off. At the start of each call or meeting, you will want to introduce the spokesperson and reporter. This gives them an opportunity to clarify titles and align on the topic of discussion before diving in. Remember: Always try to be personable.
Let the interview play out, but pay attention. Don’t be a passive listener. Rather, take notes and track action items. Especially in tech PR, journalists often request data to back up a claim and the PR staffer will need to take care of any follow-up.
Chime in if necessary. Occasionally a PR person will need to step in and make a course-correction. It happens rarely, but sometimes a spokesperson can go for too long on a tangent, or a reporter may stray into areas not agreed upon. If this happens, PR pros shouldn’t be afraid to chime in and get things back on track.
Follow up. After the briefing is over, a best practice is to send a thank you note to the reporter and thought leader(s). Lastly, don’t be afraid to provide feedback to the spokesperson. Constructive feedback will strengthen the relationship and help all parties improve even a strong performance.

No. 3: Understand Client Preferences

Clients value tailored and creative solutions that meet their specific business needs – not a one-size-fits-all approach. To deliver on client expectations, PR pros must understand a client’s industry, its business and its goals. PR teams must also understand how the client prefers to communicate. Assessing and adapting to different client preferences is an art and takes time to develop.

For example, one client might want to be in constant communication. This might look like frequent, short emails or calls. Another client might prefer a hands-off approach, where the PR agency and client connect for a monthly PR call and via email only as needed. Another example is that one client might value quantitative results reporting, while another values qualitative results reporting. Public relations is a client-services industry. PR reps that strive to understand that every client is unique will have a better chance of gaining trust and confidence, and help each client feel like their PR agency is an extended part of their team.

Ultimately, practice in PR makes perfect. Understanding these basic tenets of a successful PR person will be a valuable steppingstone in helping new professionals perfect their craft.

Strategic Planning: Six Steps to New Year Success

As 2020 ends, many of us working in public relations and marketing are in the process of planning for the new year. Given this, I thought it would be helpful to revisit best practices around the analysis of past results and how to best plan for the future.

Look in the rearview mirror

One good way to begin the planning process is with analysis of past activity and results. We hold ourselves to high standards and this means we must have a good understanding of the outcome of our work. We often achieve strong results analysis by examining key performance indicators including:

The number of positive articles generated. Often we’ll quantify the numbers of articles by domain authority or by publications we deem to be top tier.
The number of articles per campaign or announcement. Knowing which campaigns or announcements performed well can be helpful as you look ahead and consider future activity.
The quality of the articles. We’ll ascertain this by looking at message pull-through or assigning and measuring other criteria such as the number of quotes included from an executive.
Growth rates. Many of our client engagements span years and, given our bias for continuous improvement, we strive to drive year-over-year growth in both coverage quality and quantity. Our account leaders are responsible for driving and tracking these results.

The bottom line is that as you begin planning you should have answers to the following questions:

What worked in the past? Why did it work?
How can we build on our success?
What campaigns were less successful and what did we learn from them?
What should we discontinue in the coming year?

Outline goals and objectives

To establish clear and measurable goals or objectives, consider this question that comes from my time working with Pam Edstrom, one of the cofounders of Waggener Edstrom, now WE Communications. Pam was known for asking: “What business problem are we trying to solve?” It is a simple, but important question to consider. You must have a clear sense of what you’re trying to achieve and how it will help the business.

Identify key audiences

Who are you trying to reach? A good plan will include information about the key audiences and the messages that they need to hear and understand. Please remember not all stakeholders have the same needs. They often have unique desires surrounding the promises that they want to see businesses make and keep. For more on this topic, I recommend checking out my blog “Understanding Trust and Why it Matters.”

Think critically

As part of the process, it’s also imperative to take a step back to think critically about the situation in which the company is operating in, especially in relation to the world, industry, and competitors as well as the perceptions of customers, partners and other key stakeholders.

Consider this example that I recently came across in an article about strategic planning in the Harvard Business Review. In it, Deanna Mulligan, the former CEO of the Guardian, recounts her experience at the helm of the company during Hurricane Sandy and how it further shaped her propensity for planning.

Specifically, Mulligan wrote that the experience taught her to “start thinking even longer-term: What were all the things that could go wrong, and how could we protect ourselves from them? Also, what could go right if we were poised to seize the opportunities presented?”

These are excellent questions that PR and marketing practitioners should ask themselves as they think critically about their specific objectives and begin planning to achieve them.

Strategies & tactics

The next part of a strong plan should outline the strategies and tactics that the team will employ to achieve the objectives. Many people confuse these terms. To explain the difference, I like to use the following military analogy.

In the Civil War, the Union had a strategy to control the Mississippi River. The military leaders believed if they could do this, they would have a better chance of achieving their goal of winning the war and preserving the union. To successfully implement this strategy, however, there were many specific and distinct steps that had to be taken. These smaller steps were the tactics that enabled them to implement the strategy.

In public relations, a strategy might be, for instance, to place five op-eds on a particular topic. The tactics would include outlining the article, gathering the proof points to support key claims, drafting the article, circulating it for approval, sharing it with the editorial board, etc. The individual steps the team will take are the tactics. A good plan will outline these in a sufficient manner.

Finally, it is important to consider the probability of success when formulating strategies. You don’t want to outline strategies with a low probability of success or ones that will require heroic action to achieve. Strategies need to be realistic and achievable.

Measuring success

How will we know we were successful in achieving our objectives? It is helpful to have a clear vision and alignment around how you’ll ascertain the achievement of your goals. Some of our clients correlate PR with sales. This is not always easy to do, but with the correct processes in place, it is possible to look at the relation between the volume of press coverage and other things such as the volume of traffic to the website or product sales, for instance. Many of our clients have seen that a year-over-year increase in press coverage correlates with an increase in revenue. Other factors have certainly influenced revenue, but there is a correlation that a statistician could help identify.

I hope this serves as a helpful reminder as you take stock of 2020 and think ahead to 2021.

2020 Year-End Results: Spaceflight Inc.

A rendering of Spaceflight’s Sherpa-FX vehicle. Image courtesy of Spaceflight Inc.

2020, despite the challenges it presented, proved to be another exciting and successful year for our client Spaceflight Inc., the leading launch services and mission management provider.

The space industry didn’t go unaffected by the challenges the pandemic presented, yet Spaceflight still executed five launches, introduced a new innovative service, secured major partnerships, and was acquired by Mitsui & Co., Ltd., in partnership with Yamasa Co., Ltd. With a variety of exciting developments and milestones, we maintained a strong cadence of press releases, demonstrating Spaceflight’s continued momentum regardless of outside challenges.

While these unpredicted and unprecedented circumstances weren’t welcomed, they did present an opportunity from a PR perspective. Many industry leaders and journalists were eager to understand how the pandemic would impact the industry, both in the short term and the long term. To demonstrate the Spaceflight leadership team’s expertise and industry knowledge, we developed and distributed several proactive pitches that highlighted its perspective on how the industry would adapt to the challenges presented by the pandemic or what trends would be created from these unforeseen circumstances. This led to a number of interviews, including podcast interviews and articles that highlighted Spaceflight’s thought leadership and understanding of the industry as a whole.

Finally, one of the most exciting and effective strategies we implemented this year was a virtual media tour. Spaceflight announced its new Sherpa-NG program, a family of ESPA-class space vehicles that are designed to minimize development timelines while maximizing flight and schedule reliability and mission assurance. With everyone’s new comfort around navigating video calls and this new piece of hardware, it felt like the perfect time to execute a virtual media tour. Spaceflight is preparing for the launch of its first vehicle early next year, so there was a piece of hardware ready to show to the media. Not only were we able to demonstrate the progress of this innovative service offering, Spaceflight’s leadership team was also able to discuss the vast benefits of this program and the role this type of hardware will play in the future.

Below are some of the exciting results from this year. Congratulations on a successful 2020, Spaceflight!

Launchers Get Ready for the Small Satellite Gold Rush—Via Satellite, 1/21/20
Opportunities grow for smallsat rideshare launches—SpaceNews, 2/6/20
Spaceflight Industries to sell its satellite rideshare launch business to Japan’s Mitsui & Co. and Yamasa—TechCrunch, 2/11/20
Spaceflight Industries strikes deal to sell rideshare launch business; will focus on BlackSky satellites—GeekWire, 2/11/20
Spaceflight Industries says sale of rideshare business a ‘win-win’ for all parties—SpaceNews, 2/19/20
Spaceflight, BlackSky Separation Will Bring ‘Focus’ to Both Businesses, Execs Say—Via Satellite, 2/19/20
Firefly Aerospace signs customer Spaceflight for Alpha rocket launch in 2021—TechCrunch, 4/22/20
Rocket Report: A new Starship moves to the pad, Iran’s surprise launch—Ars Technica, 4/24/20
Spaceflight signs deal with SpaceX for future rideshare satellite launch slots—GeekWire, 6/17/20
Spaceflight Gets its First Rideshare Payloads on a SpaceX Starlink Mission—Via Satellite, 6/17/20
Tiny Satellites: Eyes in the Sky, Thousands of Them—Bloomberg, 7/15/20
Spaceflight Inc. debuts new orbital transfer vehicle for satellite rideshare rocket launches—TechCrunch, 7/15/20
Spaceflight Reveals Sherpa-FX Vehicle to Fly Aboard SpaceX Mission—Via Satellite, 7/15/20
Spaceflight planning three Sherpa launches in 2021—SpaceNews, 8/20/20
Benchmark to provide propulsion for Spaceflight’s Sherpa-NG—SpaceNews, 8/4/20
Executive Spotlight: Grant Bonin—Satnews, 11/5/20
Spaceflight Inc. fills out its line of Sherpa orbital transfer vehicles for small satellites—GeekWire, 11/12/20
Spaceflight announces Sherpa tug with electric propulsion—SpaceNews, 11/12/20
Year in Review 2020: Spaceflight-_SatNews, 12/7/20
#SpaceWatchGL Interviews: Grant Bonin of Spaceflight Inc. – “Our ambitions are clearly beyond LEO”—SpaceWatch.Global, 12/16/20

2020 Year-End Results: BitTitan Thought Leadership Extends Overseas

To say the least, this past year has been one of unprecedented change. The phrase “new normal” has entered our daily lexicon, as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly altered how we live, gather, socialize and work. No person nor business has been immune to the change.

Our client BitTitan, a Seattle-based cloud enablement company that is the developer of MigrationWiz and specializes in managed services automation, is no different. However, as a company that specializes in SaaS-based automated tools and that relied on a dispersed workforce prior to the pandemic, BitTitan found itself uniquely positioned to not only navigate some of the changes brought on by the pandemic, but help other companies do so as well.

Working with Communiqué PR since 2018, BitTitan has provided industry expertise and insight through contributed content and thought leadership articles to publications across the tech and IT industry. Last year, BitTitan’s editorial coverage amounted to 91 articles, with 21 percent of those articles falling into the “top tier” coverage category, meaning the outlet achieved a domain authority (a search engine ranking score) of 75/100 or higher.

This year, BitTitan expanded its thought leadership efforts to extend beyond North America to overseas markets in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and India, to name a few. After all, BitTitan is a global company and needs a global audience.

As the year comes to a close, we tallied the results that BitTitan has achieved. In doing so, we found that, to date, our work with BitTitan has resulted in the following:

73 articles published in North America
13 articles published in France
12 articles published in India
9 articles published in Germany
8 articles published in the U.K.

… and another article published in Australia for a grand total of 116 articles in 2020, with just over a week left in the year.

Of the articles in North America, 15 percent were published by top-tier outlets. Twenty-five percent of the articles published in the U.K. were by top-tier outlets, while 15 percent of the articles in France were top-tier coverage.

Yes, it’s been one crazy, chaotic year. But fortunately, companies like BitTitan have been around to help other companies move their workloads to the cloud, mobilize remote work plans, implement digital transformations and continue operations. At Communiqué PR, we’re thrilled to work alongside BitTitan and promote the amazing things they’re doing to a global audience.

You can find links to some of BitTitan’s thought leadership articles and international coverage below.

Moving to the Cloud