PART 2: Moving forward by looking back

By Clare Porter

The end of one year, the beginning of the next. A time when you would traditionally employ your ‘out with the old and in with the new’ approach to resolutions, diets, wardrobes and general attitude to life.

However, this year, The Bespoke Group is exercising a different tactic. We’re going to hold on to our top 10 most-loved PR and marketing strategies and no, not because we’re a sentimental old bunch, but because these 10 PR and marketing skills, strategies and insights made 2017 the hugely successful year it was for our clients.

Here is our second batch of strategies, which worked wonders for clients large and small, and across the globe and in a wide range of industry sectors.

6. A localised approach goes a long way – The world is undoubtedly a small place nowadays, but localising PR and marketing programmes still achieves better results. For all our clients, we find that by using local partners in Asia, Europe and the US, as well as translating content and ensuring we can offer media outreach in different languages, strengthens our media relations and ultimately, leads to increased sales and superior media coverage.

7. If you’re a proactive PR, you can influence the influencers – Our way of working is always proactive, but the success of this approach was reconfirmed in 2017 when our team took ideas to editors that not only contributed to and complimented their work, but sometimes also helped to shape the features they wrote. For example, in key vertical markets where your technology may not be prominent in an editorial calendar, with the right pitch and clear demonstration of why their readers should care, it is absolutely possible to achieve great media coverage. For our clients Stratasys, Gencell and Ripples, this tactic continues to deliver results in areas such as automotive, aerospace, medical, utilities, telecoms and hospitality.

8. Ability to flex and adapt – Whether your business is large or small, your agency/marcoms team must be able to switch gears and flex with your changing requirements, opportunities and challenges. Our teams are highly adept at this, and 2017 saw them demonstrate this many times. In all cases, it was crucial to support these changes without allowing distractions to stop or delay basic activity to drive sales – retaining a sharp focus on sales is always must.

9. Driving sales from events and tradeshows – In 2017, we supported over 30 events, and our clients’ success at those demonstrated once again that events and tradeshows still represent an excellent platform to engage with the market, prospects, customers and the media. In maximising a clients’ investment in an event and ensuring good market visibility for them before and at the show, there are many things you can do. For instance, many key trade media will run show previews that could include your news. Other activities include organising catch-up meetings with editors, entering awards, creating something unique for the stand or partnering with magazines to do something special for their show issue.

10. Industry knowledge – Time and again, our clients confirm that our knowledge and understanding of the industries they serve is extremely valuable. It’s true, PR and Marketing skillsets are indeed transferrable, but when you need a partner to provide a quick start-up and one that can use its existing network to open up not only promotional opportunities, but other potential business partnerships too, there’s no replacing strong market experience. After 35+ years, we now have an extensive portfolio of b2b and b2c clients whose products include technology and services for Packaging, Commercial Printing, Automotive, Aerospace, Medical, Hospitality, Homeland Security, Utilities, Telecoms and Visual Communications to name but a few!

Happy New Year to you all and here’s to a healthy and prosperous 2018!

You can read Part 1 of Moving forward by looking back by clicking here. If you would like to implement any of the PR and marketing services mentioned above in 2018, please contact us now.