Blog courtesy of Bridge Global Strategies

A few years ago in a previous agency position, I had the opportunity to work with a client that was a healthcare startup launching a new technology that represented a major advancement in the treatment of certain chronic diseases. In the healthcare startup world, PR programs often follow a prototypical pattern: the agency and client meet with each other regularly to identify potential announcements for garnering media coverage, usually focused on a few predetermined milestones, such as the publication of data from technical or clinical studies, the official launch of the product and post-commercial partnerships with other industry players.

Such was the approach that we took with this particular client, and the results of our efforts reflected another common pattern in startup PR: pre-commercial announcements received tepid media interest that gradually increased to a fever pitch at the announcement of the launch and eventually waned over the course of successive post-commercial announcements. If the media coverage was projected on a timeline graph, it would almost be a perfect bell curve, with the launch of the new product representing the peak. Unfortunately, client satisfaction also followed the bell curve—the company’s elation of getting positive publicity during the launch eventually turned to disappointment when the media coverage slowed down.

Any entrepreneur that has worked with a PR agency on an early-stage venture has probably experienced this boom and bust progression, which often sours an agency-client relationship. Startup clients often expect that there will be a sustained high level of media exposure throughout the development of their companies. The agency that helps launch the startup ends up getting failing marks, and the client’s disappointment and negative opinion about the agency’s performance often gets projected on the PR industry as a whole—guilt by association. In reality, the failure that most PR agencies should take responsibility for in these situations is not inadequate media exposure; it’s inadequate client education, failing to manage the client’s expectations and lack of initiative in suggesting some of the other vehicles, in addition to media exposure, that can drive visibility.

For decades, businesses were limited to two main options for building buzz, such as advertising and event sponsorships, (lacks credibility); and “earned” media (lacks control). Fast forward to the Digital Age, where businesses have become publishers in their own right, creating valuable content that informs and empowers audiences to make important decisions about their health, personal finances or how to spend their free time. The mass media, which once wielded a “gate keeper” status, is no longer the only route to these audiences.

This idea has become so popular among digital marketers that it has created a whole new buzzword: content marketing. The premise behind content marketing is simple. A business creates online content that resonates with key stakeholders, who discover this content through either organic searching or referral links in emails and third-party websites. The nature of the content must be informative, not promotional, in order to attract and engage a large audience. Some examples would be a branded blog that provides expert advice to people or white papers and eBooks that describe an important industry trend.

As audiences are continually exposed to this content, the business that publishes it begins to establish greater familiarity and credibility among its stakeholders, which can, in turn, foster more meaningful relationships with them.

Many large brands are already making big waves in content marketing. Take Sears for example, which recently launched Fitness Studio, an online wellness resource, where visitors can find content generated by actual fitness experts and comment on or share this content with others. The content is promoted through both traditional marketing channels and in the retailer’s social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Colgate is another household name that is leveraging content marketing: the company’s blog, “Oral and Dental Health Resource Center,” provides articles on oral care written by thought leaders like dentists and other health experts. Similar marketing initiatives have been launched by Verizon, Kraft Foods and General Electric.

Admittedly, the resources that some of these major brands dedicate to content marketing would be unmatchable by a bootstrapping startup that has limited personnel and rigid budget constraints, but great strides can made even with modest investments. There are a lot of consultancies that provide content marketing services, and many of them offer comprehensive programs that include audience segmentation, creating an editorial calendar and content development. When choosing a content marketing provider, however, it’s important to select one that understands your other marketing activities, in particularly your public relations strategy, because content marketing and PR work in unison to achieve common goals. In fact, many PR agencies are beginning to offer content marketing as part of their core services, as ours does. Working with such an agency helps ensure that your messaging strategy is consistent across all channels and that the timing of your content marketing is in sync with your company’s news cycle. Moreover, it allows you to prepare for that inevitable inflection point on your media coverage bell curve by building out your own independent channels for engaging audiences when the media’s interest begins to wane.

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