Dear  <<First Name>>:

Marketers need to shift from thinking about the trends that were accelerated by the pandemic -- to those that might become semi-permanent. 

The U.S. is six months into this pandemic, and by many reasonable accounts, we’re six months (or more) away from a widely available vaccine. It’s a strange place to be, because while we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel, we’re still uncertain about how far we have to go to get there.

It’s that word again: uncertainty. It means that even when we have a solution, people still have to believe in it. Trust always takes time, and perhaps more here since there’s been so much conflicting information.

This all points towards some sense of permanency. Conferences and trade shows are a good example. The industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. How long can they hold out? How long will it take before people are confident enough to get on a plane and attend a conference again?

It could be a while, even after we get a vaccine. Marketing dollars earmarked for trade shows and conferences may need to be redirected to other areas for years to come. That leads us to the top story in this edition of the Monthly Scripts.    

Yours in marketing and communications,
Frank Strong

PS: Looking for an agency partner with the content chops to build a sound strategy and execute? Give our services a try.

The Must-Read Articles

Every month I peruse hundreds of articles about marketing and public relations. Near the month’s end I analyze those metrics with technology and human judgment to find the most important stories. 

Featured

1) US B2B Trade Show Market Not Forecast to Recover For Years (Marketing Charts) "PwC estimates that the US trade show market will be cut in size by almost two-thirds this year." 

Leadership and the CMO

2) PwC moves marketing under CCO J.C. Lapierre (Campaign Live) “PwC has restructured its communications function to include marketing, as well as internal and external comms." 

Marketing

3) What drives online purchases? (Media Post) Survey says 1. Word of mouth - 68% 2. Online ads - 49% (guessing this is PPC) 3. Email marketing 48%.

4) Why nostalgia marketing is the next big idea for your company (Mark Shaefer) “Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past...an example...using nostalgia to evoke these positive emotions would be coming out with a ‘retro’ edition of a product that evokes childhood memories.”

B2B Marketing

5) Was that a B2B ad? (The Drum) “Have you seen the ad where Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee talks about the Forrester Wave?”

6) Half of B2B Tech Marketing Prospects Consume 11 or More Pieces of Vendor Content (Sword and the Script) “...about half (47%) of B2B technology decision-makers say they consumed 11 or more pieces of vendor content over one year. Some 13% say they consume 20 or more pieces of content, while another 13% consume 50 or more pieces of content.”

7) B2B Marketers Focused on Long Term Tend to Outperform the Competition (Sword and the Script) “....devote 40% or more of their marketing budget to long-term goals.”

Business Development

8) Lost Leads: B2B Firms Fail To Speedily Reply To Queries In Test (Medi Post) “Harvard Business Review reports that B2B brands have a 10X less chance of contacting a lead if they wait more than five minutes to shoot out an email or call to people who show intent.”

9) B2B Sales Cycles are Getting Longer, Study Says (Sword and the Script) 68% of B2B professionals surveyed say it takes longer to complete B2B sales cycles compared to a year ago.

Public Relations

10) New Survey Shows Strained PR pro – Journalist Relationship (Comm Pro) “only one out of 10 journalists 'always' trust the information contained in press releases” 

11) Networking in a pandemic, comms planning, PR ethics (Ep. 142) — (Hanson & Hunt: The Talking Points Podcast) See PR ethics (24:35)

12) The Meaning of Staying “On Message” (Sword and the Script) Messaging is about meaning. It’s not necessarily about word choice. There are 1,000 different ways to say hello – different words, signals, signs and expressions – and yet these carry the same message of salutation.

13) Get a Big Picture of the PR Landscape with these Notes from 10 Industry Surveys (Sword and the Script) ...earned media is still the most credible; exec appreciation and collaboration with PR improved during the Coronavirus

14) Are Embargoes and Exclusives Still Useful in Media Relations? (Sword and the Script)  “52% of PR pros say embargoes are still useful but one in five disagrees; 64% of comms pros still find value in offering reporters exclusives.”

Content Marketing

15) 16 of the Biggest Threats to Content Marketing Success (Content Marketing Institute) Threat 3: Expectations for immediate results; threat 7: Easy, cheap, and fast expectations; and I'd add threat 17: Confusing marketing content with content marketing.

16) How The Economist has tripled the number of subscribers driven by LinkedIn (Digiday) ...by narrowing the focus of what it publishes to that social site [and brands can too].

17) Viacom Reaches Deal to Sell CNET for $500 Million to Marketing Firm (Marketing Dive) “ViacomCBS is offloading CNET Media Group in a $500 million deal with digital-marketing company Red Ventures, which announced the deal Monday....CBS acquired CNET Networks in 2008 for $1.8 billion."

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Email Marketing 

18) You Can't Keep A Good Emailer Down: Firms Are Sending More, Despite Resource Issues (Media Post) “Commercial emails are flooding inboxes this year, with 60% of all marketing executives saying their firms have upped their volume, according to the Fall 2020 State of Email Report, a study by Litmus.”

19) 10 Dos and Don'ts for a Successful Email Marketing Campaign [Infographic] (Social Media Today) “Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rate...emails with a single CTA increased clicks by 371%...email segmentation increases open rate by 203%.” 

Experience: UX & CX

20) How to create a great Design System for your brand (UX Design) "In our digital age, people are more likely to value a feeling over information."

21) Another Reason for Business to Avoid Politics: People are Sick of Politics (Sword and the Script) 55% of adult social media users are “worn out” many political posts

Creativity

22) The State of Creativity (Adobe) "87 percent of creatives believe the events of 2020 will have lasting impacts on creative businesses." 

23) To be creative, Chinese philosophy teaches us to abandon ‘originality’ (Psyche Ideas) “...creativity isn’t conceived as aiming at novelty or originality, but rather integration.” 

24) 'There's Nothing Like a Crisis to Make You Think With Speed and Creativity' (Entrepreneur) “We have stuck to the same playbook in many ways, and it has been met with community and organizational success. So getting people to think differently requires some pushing.”

25) Tips and Best Practices for Using Corporate Stock Photos — and What to Avoid (Pardot) “Often-mocked, and often-memed, stock photography is nevertheless an important part of content strategy for your business.” 

SEO & SEM

26) Search Intent and SEO: A Quick Guide (Moz) Satisfying search intent is a primary goal for Google, which in turn makes it a primary goal for SEOs. When a user searches for a specific term and finds irrelevant information, that sends a signal back to Google that the intent is likely mismatched.

27) How to teach an old blog new SEO tricks (Search Engine Watch) "It’s not uncommon for a site’s organic search traffic to decline over time, the “old blog” problem. This can be caused by technical issues, competitive changes, search engine algorithm updates, or even broad industry trends."

28) Internal Linking for SEO: best practices, strategies, axioms (Kevin Indig) "Internal links are the most powerful SEO lever you control 100% after content."

Social Media

29) LinkedIn Updates Look, Rolls Out Stories, Improves Search (Social Media Today) “Along with the roll-out of Stories, LinkedIn's also revamped its search process to incorporate more of its functions into your search matches.”

30) Facebook launches Facebook Business Suite (Techcrunch) “...a new app designed to make it easier for businesses to manage in a single place their pages and profiles across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.” 

31) Here Are the Most Loved Brands on Social Media Over the Past Year (Marketing Charts) 1. Instagram 2. Amazon 3. Apple (and they aren't even *on* social) 4. Spotify 5. Disney

Measurement  & Analytics

32) Looping Measures of Effectiveness Back to the Creative Team (Webdesigner Depot) “The creative process doesn’t end when a project is approved and deployed as a marketing asset. Looping that asset’s performance metrics back to the design team is pivotal…”

Marketing & PR Technology

33) The 12Ps of marketing technology (ClickZ) "The 12Ps of marketing technology (12Ps) is built upon the tenet that marketing technology is an enabler for marketing. Marketing technology, in and of itself, is not a strategy. The technology offers no value unless it enables a solid marketing strategy."

34) $100 Million M&A for Internal Comms Tool [PR Tech Sum] (Sword and the Script) Internal comms tool SocialChorus acquired by a PE firm; Burton-Taylor digs up revenue numbers; Nexis Newsdesk Simplifies news search; Propel adds broadcast monitoring.

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Sword and the Script Media, LLC is a verified veteran-owned public relations agency immersed in the B2B tech marketplace. We focus on building sustainable and process-driven programs for PR, content marketing and social media. A defining difference comes down to our approach – that marketing ought to have utility. This is because marketing that helps, sells better than marketing that hypes.  

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Frank Strong, MA, MBA
Founder & President
Sword and the Script Media, LLC
www.swordandthescript.com
PR | Content Marketing | Social Media
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