When I joined W2 Communications late last year, I chose this agency because I’ve been recommending or hiring them for more than 20 years. I’ve said this over and over but I never said why. As a dyed-in-the-wool CXO (from marketing to sales to operations) I knew I could always count on the strategic communications team to provide media coverage and placements of our generated content in ways no one else could – as demand drivers.
Pause for special emphasis on more than 20 years.
Long before I started raving on LinkedIn about how brand is the new demand, long before the buyer journey changed and inbound was all the hype, long before intent signals were a thing, this public relations (PR) team knew that I needed coverage that built and differentiated the brand with rapid response and newsjacking and such, but most importantly needed coverage that doubled as demand generation nurture, sales tools, and channel enablement tools. They always delivered.
I know this may come across as biased but let’s pretend I don’t work here now. I would still say the same – and many of their clients I recommended long before I worked here will attest to this.
Why am I writing about this now? Because the way vendors work with agencies continues to be a problem and that was further proven to me in a conversation I had with a CMO several weeks ago about this very thing. Despite their roots being in PR, they said, “I don’t know why people keep hiring agencies simply to get earned media.”
My response was a simple double-blink before I went into my patented chaotic creative nonlinear explanation about how agencies are only as successful as the guidance and transparency into plans and key performance indicators (KPIs) that clients give them; earned media is critical for third-party validation of vendor differentiation with the new buyer cycle because it can reach all those secret Discords and Slacks where buyers talk and they won’t let in us go-to-market (GTM) types; and a great agency will work with you to create content that meets your revenue generation needs – whether it be for a business development representative (BDR) sequence or a marketing email nurture or even part of a sales playbook to train your direct and indirect revenue teams. Today’s PR is critical to what I call “outside-in” marketing which is a must for revenue generation.
Now, I also got my start in PR and grew up in comms but I have not claimed to be an expert in that area outside of high-level CMO guidance on strategy for at least 12 years. That is why I hired people like the team at W2 Communications. And while my history is primarily cyber, our government, satellite and space PR teams operate the same – though more mission-oriented.
I use the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup example a lot because it’s the best candy in the world and it’s also a great example for many situations where two very different sets of capabilities can and should come together to create impactful deliciousness, or rather, measurable outcomes.
Is it still easy to track these activities directly back to your customer relationship management (CRM) or marketing automation tools? Absolutely not. But I believe everyone has seen the Gartner illustrative B2B Buying Journey from 2019? And, it’s become far more complex since 2019 for some obvious reasons (the COVID-19 pandemic) and less obvious ones with small seismic shifts in the market that have put more ownership into the hands of the buyer.
This tells us several things, even six years later:
- Original lead source is a good indicator for initial top-of-funnel investment but not the end-all, be-all
- You never know what journey the buyer might take before or after hearing about you before they land on considering you
- Often, more often than not in my humble opinion, intent signals come up when a company already has a short list and a buying decision is in process
- Content is queen from PR to content strategy to research and I’ll add that all of those are powerful weapons in account-based experience (ABX)
- The outcomes of the “closed won” win are always touched by marketing somehow if marketing is doing its job and you can’t always quantify the where and why
- Marketing and sales is a team effort and your content team – whether it be a PR agency, a content strategist, or a creative designer – is pivotal in the center of all wins
In my role here at W2 Communications, I own our Fractional CXO services and I also oversee our marketing team and services we provide to our clients. We are always keenly transparent with the importance of the dozens of disciplines of marketing and where they need to fall in the lead lifecycle or buyer journey to get them the best impact – including our PR coverage. And, back to our friend the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, our PR team makes the same recommendations to their clients for their coverage wins for how they can best help them grow.
Now, tell me again that earned media isn’t a critical demand factor. I didn’t think so. I am thrilled that the journey has gotten this complex because it makes marketing and sales more fun; more challenging but also more fun. W2 Communications was built on the tenets of making brand awareness an integral part of client growth and continues to live by its promise.
If your agency isn’t doing this for you, or you disagree and want to chat it out, grab a time on my calendar and I’m happy to dig deeper into the topic with you.