The top 10 PR and marketing stories this week:

8 Ways to Make Your Content More Like Personal Conversations
from Savvy B2B Marketing
In an ideal marketing and sales world, we’d all enjoy the opportunity to talk in person with each and every prospect. But the reality of dealing with huge numbers of potential prospects—not to mention the need to focus on those most qualified—make initial face-to-face meetings resource- and cost-prohibitive. We take the next best steps by developing outstanding content and delivering it to the right prospects via the right media formats defined in our outbound/inbound marketing mixes.

Most consumers prefer social media customer service
from PR Daily
If you manage a brand’s social media presence, chances are you’re an expert in customer service. But how is customer service faring in social spaces? According to an infographic from British firm Fishburn-Hedges, pretty well. Sixty five percent of respondents think social media is better than call centers. Meanwhile, only 7 percent believe call centers to be better than social media. See more of how social media is changing customer service in the following infographic.

Five Ways Small Marketing Teams Can Take Advantage of Big Data
from HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog by Rick Burnes
What value do marketers see in big data? Big data promises to make everybody — buyers and marketers — better off. It enables optimized and personalized marketing, which means marketing that’s more useful to the buyers and more productive for the marketer.

Seven Tips for Pitching — From the Client’s Side of the Table
From Ad Age
Over the last month I was given the opportunity of a business-development executive’s lifetime — I got to sit on the other side of the pitch table. And in doing so, I embarked on a journey of discovery full of lessons that I’m guessing some of you in agency land might be keen to hear. Everything below is based on the post-pitch discussions in the client-selection committee. This is my interpretation of what I heard as I listened and guided the evaluation discussions.

Lead Generation: When To Use Registration Forms
from B2B Marketing Insider by Michael Brenner
When most people encounter an online registration form from a company they either don’t know or who they feel hasn’t earned the right to ask for their information, they either abandon the form or they provide incorrect information. Maybe you do the same? One of the biggest challenges in Online Marketing is the over-abundance of late-stage, product-specific and gated content.

The Subject Line Strategy That Gets 541% More Response
from AWeber Communications
It would appear that while creativity and clever writing are very good things in general (and I still cling to the fact that they’re good in the body of a post), they have no place in post titles and subject lines. People want to be told directly what they can expect to find inside, and they don’t have time to puzzle out what an overly creative subject line could mean.

Sorry, Marketers, You’re Doing Twitter Wrong [REPORT]
from Mashable Social Media
Most marketers are tweeting too much on the wrong days, not using hashtags enough and almost never do the one thing that will dramatically boost their retweets — ask for them — according to a new study looking at how marketers use Twitter from Buddy Media. Twitter engagement rates for brands are 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday compared to weekdays. However, most brands aren’t taking advantage of this phenomenon and, on average, only 19% of the brands’ tweets were published on the weekend. If a brand spaced its tweets out evenly throughout the week, then 28.6% should occur on the weekends.

The best day of the week to tweet and update Facebook
from Ragan.com
On Twitter and Facebook, Tuesday is the best day of the week for engagement, according to a new report from Yesmail. Unfortunately, the brands in the study most often tweeted and updated their Facebook pages on days when engagement among followers was at its lowest. Are you making the same mistake?

A Facebook Like Does Not Equal an Opt-in
from Brian Solis
Facebook’s Like button is often confused as an “Opt In” by marketers. All too frequently people who have clicked the Like button are thought of as a captive community where customers have opted in to marketing and engagement. Likes do not represent the actual size of a community, yet many organizations confuse the overall number with actual audience size.  The difference between Like and other direct response triggers is that the Like is an act of fleeting value that must be earned over and over again.

Report: PR pros should not edit their client’s Wikipedia entries
from PR Daily News Feed
Have you noticed an error in your client’s or company’s Wikipedia entry? Don’t dive in there and correct it yourself, according to new guidelines from the U.K.-based Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). “Public relations professionals should not directly edit Wikipedia under any circumstances where they have a conflict of interest and should instead suggest amendments for consideration by Wikipedia’s editors,” the CIPR said in a press release.

On June 21, 2012, the National Association for Business Resources presented the annual Atlanta’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For™ Symposium and Awards Celebration. The awards gala featured Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Monica Pearson of WSB-TV, and Stone Payton of Atlanta Business Radio X.

As one of the winning companies, Arketi attended the luncheon ceremony to accept the award. This honor is highly sought after by companies throughout the metro Atlanta area. Winners were selected for practicing innovative strategies and represent best practices in industries as diverse as communications, hospitality, insurance and nonprofit.

An independent research firm evaluates each company’s entry based on key measures in various categories including:

• Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions
• Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention
• Employee Education and Development
• Recruitment, Selection and Orientation
• Employee Achievement and Recognition
• Communication and Shared Vision
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Work-Life Balance
• Community Initiatives
• Strategic Company Performance

Click here for more information about the award or visit www.101bestandbrightest.com. Be sure to check out some photos from the event below.

Gary Marcicano of the National Association for Business Resources welcomes attendees to Atlanta's Best and Brightest Companies To Work For luncheon.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed presents the opening remarks at the awards luncheon.

Monica Pearson of WSB-TV 2 announces the winners of Atlanta's Best and Brightest Companies To Work For, including Arketi Group!

The City of Atlanta wins the Elite Award for the large business category at Atlanta's Best and Brightest Companies To Work For luncheon.

Arketi's Best and Brightest Companies To Work For award.

Principals Rory Carlton and Sami Jajeh with Arketi's Best and Brightest Companies To Work For award.

What do Microsoft and the EU have a common (related to B2B marketing)? Both have created serious waves through the BtoB marketing community over the past 30 days in ways that many expect will change the game dramatically for those of us whose success depends on understanding prospect actions and behavior.

On May 26, the EU’s new privacy guidelines went into effect, placing restrictions on how and when websites can use cookies or other tracking methods to monitor visitor behavior.  Essentially, the EU has said “no tracking without opt-in”.  First-time visitors of cookie-deploying sites must be met with a warning and be given the option of not having their current and future visits monitored. That sound of crickets you hear is the vast number of prospects lining up to consent to web tracking!

Then, making things additionally challenging, Microsoft announced that the next version of IE, which will ship with Windows 8, will ship with its “Do Not Track” function enabled as the default setting.  Again, anyone who wants their web behavior tracked can change the settings.  Right.

While both of the above actions have yet to settle in or pass the “real world” test – Microsoft is engaged in debate with advertisers and the EU has yet to build teeth into its regulations – what IS clear is that we’re headed for an environment where managing prospect behavior via web actions will be more difficult.  And maybe that’s a good thing.

Perhaps it’s finally time to make permission marketing the default approach and place interrupt marketing in the historical display case for good.  Looking at traffic and response rates, it would seem prospects are already doing that for us.  For those of us still trying to coax that last bit of value out of marginally interested database entries and web visitors, maybe this is the catalyst needed to spark a true commitment to delivering information prospects want vs. self-serving batch and blast emails and websites.  I’ve not seen a survey conducted in the past eighteen months that didn’t show email responses among opted-in prospects far exceeding general regardless of the campaigns.  Likewise, websites with more prospect-centric information consistently outperform those with a generic sell message.

Does this mean more challenges for BtoB marketers in getting prospects to opt-in to web tracking and email campaigns? Absolutely.  True permission-based marketing is much more than abiding by can-spam regulations. It has to start with a mindset of delivering information prospects really value and lots of self-questioning about how much prospects really care about the information we’re delivering. But a number of successful BtoB marketers have already started capitalizing on the permission-based approach with rich content-based websites and email campaigns that deliver content of value. Maybe we should all thank the EU and Microsoft for providing more than gentle encouragement for the rest of us.

Here are our top 10 picks for the week:

7 Pinterest Tips for B2B Companies
from Social Media Examiner by Mitt Ray
Have you used Pinterest to promote your business-to-business (B2B) company? Many consumer-facing businesses have had a lot of success promoting themselves with Pinterest. A recent study by SteelHouse shows that “Pinterest Users Are Nearly Twice as Likely to Purchase Than Facebook Users.” However, many B2B businesses are still wondering how to promote themselves with Pinterest. Here are 7 tips for successfully using Pinterest for your B2B business.

Thought Leadership: The Most Misused Term in B2B Marketing?
from Savvy B2B Marketing
Outside of industry jargon, no phrase is thrown around as lightly as “thought leadership” in the technology sector. In my work developing content for technology companies, the topic of “thought leadership” comes up often. The discussion usually goes like this: “We want to develop a thought-leadership white paper.” When I ask what innovative or visionary ideas the company wants to share, I’m often met with silence. Or am pointed to the insights and visions of others and told to reference those.

Gaining Business Leader Buy-in: 7 CEO personas
from Marketingsherpa Blog
If you want to get the budget you need to buy a new tool or platform, you have to convince the CEO that you can deliver some serious ROI. Kristin Zhivago, President, Zhivago Management Partners, broke down CEOs into seven “functional personas” to help you understand how to work with, and pitch to, your business leaders.

4 Metrics Every Content Marketer Needs to Measure: Interview with Jay Baer
from Content Marketing Institute
You can only manage what you measure.  Setting your content up for success means understanding what you want it to actually achieve before you implement. To tackle the content measurement conversation, I knew I had to get Jay Bear, Convince & Convert, on Content Marketing 360 Radio Show.

Why the Future of Home Page Design is “Funnel Marketing”
from the Sales Lion
As a consumer, when you land on the home page of a website, what do you want to achieve? In other words, what’s your immediate goal? What is it that makes a great home page vs. one that frustrates you and leaves you wanting? Although many answers could be given to this question, I submit we all share one central desire: To find what we’re looking for IMMEDIATELY…without having to think too hard to get it.

B2B Sales Cycle: 4 steps to avoid the wasteful ‘no decision’
from B2B Lead Blog
CSO Insights, which interviews thousands of chief sales officers to benchmark B2B sales best practices, has tracked an alarming trend. Over the past six years, forecast deals are closing at a lower and lower rate, and a dramatically higher percentage are ending up with the prospect making no decision at all. In the technology industry, for example, “no decisions” have jumped from 17% in 2006 to a whopping 26% today. That’s more than one in every four deals!

Media Relations 101: Veteran Tech Reporter Provides His Take on Subject Lines, Press Releases and The Constant Influx of “Bring Your Own Device” Pitches
from Tech Affect by Kate Ryan
When it comes to getting media relations right, there’s nothing like hearing best practices right from the reporter’s mouth. That’s why I recently sent a note to a technology reporter with 20 years’ experience (currently working for a well-known enterprise technology news site) asking him for his personal best practices when it comes to sending over a story idea for an article.

How to Drive Nonstop Traffic to Your Press Releases
from The Publicity Hound’s Blog
When you write a press release, you probably post it to your website. If you have a budget, you distribute it through one of the distribution services like eReleases, PRWeb or PR Newswire. That’s a start. But you’re not done yet. The immediate bump in traffic you see after distributing the release won’t last long. In fact, most people report a drop-off in traffic as time goes by. That’s why you need to continue to drive traffic to that press release so it’s working for you round the clock, every day of the year.

Is data killing creativity?
from  PRWeek US
Jon Vein, co-founder and CEO of Marketshare, pointed out that consumers don’t exist in one channel and that that must be top of mind when evaluating data. He disagreed with Stengel and said brand value and sales are not always driven by buzz. He added that data is no longer a “nice to have,” rather a “need to have.”

Facebook B2B Content Campaign Increases Reach
from Dianna Huff
In May I conducted a Facebook campaign: 31 Tips in 31 Days for Generating Website Leads. As I posted elsewhere, I got this idea from Constant Contact; they did a similar campaign in February where they posted social media tips. I liked the idea of posting tips — especially “graphical” tips. I’ve noticed in my own personal feed that graphics and photos get more Likes, comments and shares than plain text posts.

Your organization’s website is more important than you might think. Eighty-two percent of BtoB journalists say companies without a website are less credible.  Make sure you’re giving them what they need by including contact information, search capabilities, text documents and PDFs. Check out the infographic below to learn all about what makes a corporate website useful to business journalists. For more information about BtoB journalists and how they use the web, download your free copy of the 2011 Arketi Web Watch Media Survey here.

Were you surprised by what information journalists find most useful?

BuyerZone surveyed about 200 B2B marketers and asked them a number of smart questions about lead sources, technology and more. Then they released a killer infographic (see below) that the busy BtoB marketer can easily digest.

There is also a longer 20 page report (that does read very quickly) for those who like more thud.

There is some good info that marketers should read, but here are some highlights:

• Using a CRM system as part of your B2B lead generation effort is smart and generates results
• Using a marketing automation system (like Pardot) also generates results
• Working to ensure Sales and Marketing are in alignment within B2B organizations again, generates results

Some solid info here is likely to make you rethink a few things within your own approach to marketing. We encourage you to check it out.

So, what did you think? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.

This spring, we gave in to our son’s desire to include Munich on our European itinerary. The reasons he wanted to go were perfectly clear to me (if not my husband).  You see, I spend a lot of time thinking about persona and brand promise. So I knew that the image of ‘engineering excellence’ and ‘precision’ that goes along with the German culture was something our mechanically-inclined son would relate to. It’s in everything they do, and is personified in the automobiles they make. One favorite, made in Munich, is BMW.

As BMW gives factory tours, has a very cool delivery space and showroom called BMWWelt, and has a museum, we just had to go. For some reason, however, it never occurred to me that I was expanding my marketing horizons!

An entire section of BMW Museum is dedicated to the BMW Brand Promise.

I realize my little point-n-shoot camera didn’t nail this photo, so allow me to reprint a portion of the sign:

BMW’s brand identify is perceived and experienced above all through design…
Every BMW design communicates the brand values: dynamism, sports character and elegance.

It goes on to talk about personality, tradition, and influence… all key components of a successful brand identity – a brand promise.

What is a brand promise? It’s a commitment to your customer. It’s a definition of how what you offer matters to your key constituents.

So, what happens when you want to expand the notion of who your customer is, and what it is that matters to them? Generally, you begin listening.

Arketi has highlighted of late a focus on listening, so it’s been top of mind. Of course, I had to find out how BMW has incorporated ‘listening’ into their latest campaigns. Here’s what I found:

BMW has utilized social media tools to better listen to their customers, and gain more clear insight into the success of their Story of Joy campaign. What they heard, according to JD Power, was not a negative response to a tweaked message, but instead a positive response from a new customer! You can read more about it in the white paper, here.

If you’re truly committed to your brand identity and incorporate it in every aspect of your company – from employee communication to design to marketing and community development – you, too can have the kind of success that BMW experiences.

Who knew an avocation on vacation could relate so directly to my vocation?

So: where do you think I should go next for my great infusion of branding education? What brands inspired you on your last trip?

This post first appeared on CommPro.biz and can be viewed here.

Here are our top 10 picks for this week:

Can you hear me?
from RepMan
One should NOT engage with an audience until one first listens to their wants, needs, hopes and dreams. By not listening first and engaging second, these firms are committing a fundamental mistake. Today’s strategic communications begins with listening (ongoing listening also dictates the myriad twists and turns a campaign makes along the way).

7 Ways to Increase Your Blog Visibility With Social Sharing
from Social Media Examiner by Janet Aronica
Are you looking to drive more traffic to your blog content? Social sharing is critical. But how can you make your content as shareable as possible? Follow this process, and consider the following 7 tips.

Make room for data
from BtoB Magazine
The rise of Big Data has complicated direct and digital marketing as never before. While new technologies have increased marketers’ understanding of their customer and prospect databases, the amount of data flowing into those databases is overwhelming the technology—as well as marketers’ state of mind.

Social sharing closely matches SEO
from BtoB Magazine
Facebook and Twitter link sharing is closely correlated with how prominently a website ranks in Google search results, according to a study by search analytics software company Searchmetrics Inc.

Compounding The Return On Your Content
from My Three Cents by Ken Makovsky
Last month, a survey of 329 senior executives in North America — by digital consulting firm PulsePoint Group and the Economist Intelligence Unit — found that an astonishing 84% of senior execs in North America reported improved marketing/sales effectiveness as a result of investing marketing budgets into social media initiatives.

DMA finds direct-mail response rates outperform digital
from BtoB Magazine
While direct mail has been marginalized in favor of digital channels in recent years, direct-mail response rates outperform digital programs, according to a report from the Direct Marketing Association.

10 ways brands should use images online
from Ragan.com
With the $1 billion acquisition of Instagram and the meteoric rise of Pinterest, it’s clear marketers are paying more attention to images and how people share them online. How might a brand use images to encourage follower feedback, promote social sharing, and drive Web traffic? These 10 tips are a solid place to begin or review current photo-posting strategies.

Marketing Campaign: 4 Top Tips to Generate Demand
from Fearless Competitor
As demand generation is all about managing marketing towards customer’s interest along specific stages in their decision making process, it is important to understand what that process is. Taking the time to study your customers’ habits is invaluable, through feed-back forms, focus groups and even conducting questionnaires in the field.

4 Ways to Create Content That Sells
from Social Media Examiner by Marcus Sheridan
In this article I’ll discuss 4 ways companies can create blog content to bring in more sales. Adapt the principles here to your industry or niche to get more business with your company’s blog.

5 Integrations That Will Amplify the Power of Your Lead Nurturing
from HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog by Magdalena Georgieva
In this blog post, we’ll explore some ways in which lead nurturing relies on and impacts other marketing elements, and exactly how you can take advantage of these optimization opportunities.

Arketi Group’s B2B Marketing News has been named the third best B2B blog of 2012 in The Best of BuyerZone series, which highlights great business blogs and sites on the web. BuyerZone, an online small business resource center, ranked B2B Marketing News #3 for its dynamic content and expert contributors.

In the article, BuyerZone applauds Arketi’s strong mix of knowledgeable contributors with diverse BtoB marketing and PR thinking, saying, “The Arketi Group stands out from the rest of the blogs because their blog is genuinely a group effort. As blogs have become more visual, Arketi has responded, by including videos, webcasts and infographics.”

B2B Marketing News is also recognized for content that packs a punch. One reader said, “One of the best things about this blog is the amount of killer content – in blog, video, and podcast form. I love the weekly roundups – unlike many company blogs, it isn’t totally self-serving; they share the best third party information as well. Definitely worth an RSS subscription or follow.”

The Best B2B Blogs of 2012 highlights blogs that provide valuable tips and expert advice on B2B hot topics, including, lead generation, sales, lead nurturing, marketing and more. Winners are nominated by the public, then reviewed, selected and ranked by BuyerZone’s editorial staff. Each blog was ranked on content freshness, blog age, social media presence, and engagement with readers.

To read more about the Best B2B Blogs of 2012, visit here. To view a social media news release, visit here.

PR professionals know that their clients measure their success by the number and quality of media relations hits received. This is just how it is and always be. Media coverage is truly the “end all be all.” I know I am always looking for ways to improve my chances of getting clients included in stories.

As I mentioned in a previous post, “Getting Ink”, learning about your clients industry and truly understanding their business was a key element.  In this post, I’ll go into a couple of other tactics I learned through a recent media relations event. And no, stalking was not one of them…but it sometimes seems like a good idea.

In the first of a series of twice monthly conference calls on various media-relations topics, Jeff Vance of Sandstorm Media hosted a discussion on how to “Supercharge Your Pitches.” In the call, Jeff gave some insight and tips on how to break through and get your pitches noticed. While there were several tips given, I found the following tips to be the most useful:

• Know Your Reporter – When pitching a reporter at a specific publication, start by searching for their most recent articles to get a feel for their writing style. See if you can pick up on a pattern of their writing style. Does the reporter write about controversial topics? Is he/she very technology focused? Do they like to use anecdotes to make a point? Take notice of these things and then try to incorporate them into your pitch.
• Most Popular Articles – Along the same lines as the point above, take a look at the most read or most popular articles on a publication’s website. Many of the publications call out those popular articles out and again, you can take a cue from the topics and writing style to see what is resonating with the publication’s audience. Jeff noted that if your client could have fit into an article that has already been published, then just pitch a new idea on the same topic. The key word being new. The publication will certainly want to continue to write about popular topics so if your client fits, just come up with a new angle.
• Build A Relationship Through Twitter – Many reporters are on Twitter nowadays so Jeff suggested to follow them to make sure you’re staying in the know about what they are discussing. You might also see that they enjoy kayaking or that they are an avid Braves fan. This information can help you to personalize your pitches to help cut through the noise.

There is no magic formula for getting media coverage (If there was I would be all over that) so instead PR professionals need to continue to evolve with how the industry is changing. Reporters are no long reliant on having news “pushed” to them. They can pretty much search for anything that will help them with a story. Hopefully, these tips will help you come up in that search.