Top Five Questions from our Open Office
On 27th November, we hosted our very first open office. We invited businesses of all types to our London office, giving them the opportunity to ask about anything, from branding to content creation right the way through to how best to speak to press.
It was an interesting day and we felt both the Jargon team and our attendees really got the opportunity to learn something from it. Here are the top five questions from the day:
- How do I get into TechCrunch?
Getting into TechCrunch is the ultimate aim for many technology brands. It is by no means an easy thing to do, but the key to succeeding is identifying the story. What aspect of your business will TechCrunch readers want to hear about? Why are you relevant now? European Editor-at-Large of TechCrunch, Mike Butcher wrote this blog last year in which he explains how he wants to be pitched to.
The key here is relevance. Find what is interesting about your business and why it is relevant now and focus in on this. Do so and you’ll increase your chances of meeting TechCrunch’s stringent editorial requirements. We saw an opportunity with one of our clients DOCOMO Digital during the Pokémon Go craze last summer. You can take a look at the piece here.
- How do I start building a personal brand?
Starting a personal brand and then building it is challenging to do on your own. The main thing to focus on is what your brand means. The key is authenticity. If your message isn’t authentic, why should anyone really care?
Consistency is also helpful. If you’re in a busy or competitive space, you need to make sure you have a focus. Being a Jack of all trades is not only difficult to message, but it doesn’t differentiate you from others.
- Where do you draw the line between PR and Marketing?
Ultimately PR and Marketing are moving ever closer. PR has always been a key part of the marketing discipline, but in more cases we are seeing it used as the driving force behind campaigns. Real thought leadership through PR can bring relevance to marketing, and content can be used across the board.
We regularly produce both PR and Marketing content. Although the style is often different, the aim is essentially the same, to bring in business for our clients.
- How do I engage with key influencers?
This was a question we were asked a lot. Our immediate response is how do you define key influencers? Unfortunately the answer isn’t so simple. In communications the key is always relevance. However, relevance to one will be different to relevance for another.
Your approach must always be firstly why should this person care, and secondly how do they want to be engaged with? Some in the media like phone calls, others despise them focusing only on email. There are no real rules, everyone has their way of working, and to succeed in PR you need to know how your key influencers want to be approached.
- When is the best time to get in touch with the press?
The biggest challenge in speaking to press is not necessarily when to send something to them, but making sure you send it correctly the first time. Journalists have a reputation for being slow, but really they are just incredibly busy and don’t have the time to chase you for minor bits of information or images that you forgot to give them the first time around.
If you have everything ready for a launch, there is no reason why you can’t get in touch with a key target just a few days before. Just make sure you have everything that they will need!
