PR professionals are known for being good with our words—but that sometimes comes with the stigma that we’ll say anything to make our clients look good. We always want to position our clients for success, but how do we work around these preconceptions? By building meaningful connections. 

That’s particularly important when working with journalists who are constantly bombarded with pitches. Can you imagine if every email in your inbox was someone asking you for something? That’s why I always go out of my way to build a personal relationship with the reporters I work with. 

If I see an interesting article that they wrote, I’ll reach out with a greeting and attempt to form that connection. That way we already have a rapport if I reach back out to pitch a client story. Sometimes, a journalist will even come back to me because of that initial conversation, appreciating the fact that I complimented their recent work before making an ask of my own. 

My friends at Axios are a perfect example of this type of relationship-building outreach. I caught a trend piece in my daily news scans and reached out to the reporter, telling him I loved his perspective and that I couldn’t wait for his next column. This turned into a conversation, during which the reporter asked who I worked with and if anything was timely. This resulted in a newsletter and exclusive coverage for our client. To this day, I regularly check in with this reporter to say hello or ask if they have any fun vacation plans. 

Building personal relationships is just as important with clients. Getting to know clients on a deeper level allows me to more effectively work alongside them and assist in their growth and success. This can be as simple as starting a client call with “What did you do over the weekend?” or “Any fun vacations planned?” It seems simple, but these non-business conversions build relationships and, ultimately, trust. 

Trust improves our work together and drives tangible results. We become an extension of the client’s team. We know the message they want the world to hear. We know what makes them excited and what they celebrate as success. This comes with time, but it also comes as we open up and have real conversations. 

If you throw a dinner party with your closest friends and you know one of them is lactose intolerant, will you only be serving dairy heavy dishes? No, you anticipate their needs and prepare additional options for them to enjoy. It works the same way when you have a meaningful relationship with a client. Through emails, weekly calls and in-person opportunities, I better learn my clients’ preferences and anticipate their needs. When an opportunity comes across my desk, I can immediately gauge their interest level and how it fits into their larger goals and media strategy. Communications become quicker and more efficient. 

At a previous agency, I became particularly close with the team at a luxury wellness brand. The team and I had a great working relationship and they knew how passionate I was about getting them valuable coverage. Our relationship was so strong that they moved their business to N6A after I started my new position with the agency. We continue to work together to this day, where I focus solely on top tier podcast outreach and have garnered interest from Bloomberg, Men’s Journal and Benzinga. 

I view the PR professional and client relationship as a team, which stems from my decades of being on one. I started competitive cheerleading at five years old and didn’t stop until I graduated from the University of Connecticut at 22. One of the most important skills in cheerleading is called stunting, which are the lifts that consist of two bases, one back spot and a flyer. To properly and safely stunt, everyone must be on the same page and communicate clearly before, during and after the stunt. If someone doesn’t know what’s happening, they can get injured. Having had my fair share of falls, I’ve learned that communication brings the right outcome.

As AI tools like ChatGPT dominate the news cycle, the importance of human relationships are at risk of being devalued. But building relationships and trust doesn’t come automatically. Leading with empathy and compassion is—and will remain—critical to achieving PR success.

The post For PR, Human Connection Still Matters in the Age of Automation appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

Last week, my N6A colleagues and I had the chance to attend DigiMarCon East, a summit of industry leaders to discuss the latest in digital marketing, media and advertising. As communications partners for some of the fastest-growing martech, adtech and ecommerce companies, it’s important for us to keep a finger on the pulse of the biggest trends impacting our clients’ businesses, especially during a time of massive upheaval and transformation across all sectors. 

Based on everything we learned, these are the top trends impacting this space. 

AI will usher in a new era of marketing innovation—if implemented properly.

Over the last few months, generative AI—especially ChatGPT—has unleashed a flood of discussion and experimentation. Its rapid advancement has marketers pacing to catch up and unlock its potential. 

If executed properly, AI helps marketers analyze massive amounts of data in real-time and make faster decisions to optimize campaigns. With the ever-dwindling sources of third-party data, it’s important for marketers to harness the power of first-party data in order to increase targeting efficiency and campaign ROI. AI has the potential to execute these robust functions in order to deliver exponential success. 

By freeing up the manpower required to analyze data effectively, AI gives time back to marketers to focus on the creative aspects of their craft. These include developing stronger visuals, drafting compelling copy and building strategies that flex their creative thinking. Most importantly, they’ll be able to do this with a data-backed process, as they will have access to more in-depth and accurate recommendations that will help them fully refine their work. 

Despite the rapid advancements, AI still has a long way to go before it can fully automate core marketing and advertising processes. That means communications professionals will continue to provide core creative and strategic value. 

Brands can’t afford to ignore the creator economy.

Over the past few years, TikTok has brought creators and influencers to the forefront of the industry conversation. While social media platforms and the dominant voices on them have been a mainstay in marketing strategies for quite some time, success looks quite different in the TikTok era. Instead of glossy, idealized Instagram posts featuring carefully curated aesthetics, more consumers are responding to the chaotic authenticity of short-form content on TikTok—which has had social media incumbents like Meta and YouTube snapping at its heels. Short-form video content is expected to generate billions in revenue for all these platforms in the coming years.

In addition to TikTok, brands should be looking toward other companies that are attracting more influencers and heavily investing in infrastructure to utilize them. Amazon, Spotify and Roblox are among the few that are leaning toward this strategy and are expected to compete heavily with the mainstay platforms in the coming years. 

Most importantly, brands need to invest thoughtfully in creative strategies that fit the format of these platforms instead of applying the same formats and calling it a day. Consumers expect brands to cater to their content consumption preferences and will write off those that miss the mark. 

Data mastery is more critical than ever.

The marketing and advertising industry has been roiled with setbacks and budget cuts due to the unavoidable influences of the economy and have shifted focus to smaller, targeted initiatives. This has increased the reliance on martech solutions that offer robust analytics capabilities to optimize campaign performance. Companies in this space are seeing a sharp rise in demand despite the economic headwinds and have the opportunity to capitalize on this unique situation. 

In addition to analytics, technologies like Web3, metaverse and blockchain should also be looked at closely by marketers as immersion, attribution security and privacy are becoming key to engaging consumers. While financials may not allow for much experimentation right now, marketers should still be paying close attention to what’s working with these technologies in preparation for when budgets return to normal. 

The road ahead won’t be any less bumpy for companies in the marketing and advertising space. In fact, it’s likely that new trends will have pros playing defense and chasing the next great opportunity. However, with the right strategic thinking and hypersensitivity to ongoing shifts, growth and innovation will always be achievable.

The post These 3 Trends Will Define Marketing Success in 2023 appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

But it is important for employees to prioritize their mental health in the workplace. That means taking advantage of employer-provided wellness programs and health services. It means taking breaks when you need them. It means checking in on coworkers. Not only does this allow for a more pleasant work environment but can lead to less burnout and increased productivity. 

As we celebrate World Mental Health Day, here are four things you can do to make sure you’re caring for yourself. 

1. Take advantage of wellness programs

As mental health becomes a more relevant topic in company culture conversations, many organizations are creating an internal wellness program or expanding what is currently in place. N6A, for example, has begun hosting bi-weekly wellness workshops where employees can learn about proper breathing techniques, how to optimize sleep, proper nutrition, and more. 

Ask your employer if they currently offer or plan to offer similar programming. Not only does this give you the building blocks to work on improving your wellbeing, it also serves as an opportunity for you to interact with coworkers outside of the typical day-to-day account work. 

2. Ask about health services your employer offers

If your employer offers healthcare coverage, usually therapy and psychiatric services are included. Make sure to call your insurance provider to get a list of in-network practitioners in your area.

If you’re not currently taking advantage of your employer-sponsored healthcare coverage, make sure you sign up!

3. Check in on coworkers

While this only takes a quick ping or email, checking in on your coworkers can go a long way. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the importance of staying connected through tough times. Checking in with one another creates an emotionally safe space that ultimately allows for a deeper level of transparency between one another. 

4. Take a break!

Especially for those that may work remotely, taking a break can feel challenging when your computer is looming in the corner. But it is extremely important to step away from work when possible, even if just for a quick walk around the block. Find time to take off for lunch or grab a screen break, especially during busier days when time seems to fly. 

This list of action items comprehensive. It is just the start of the conversation… a conversation that has a long way to go. 

By acting on these steps, we can establish the need for growth in these initiatives to hopefully ripple to all companies and encourage them and their employees to prioritize mental wellbeing.

The post 4 Tips for Prioritizing Mental Wellbeing in the Workplace appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

Unfortunately, I had the exact opposite feeling after I graduated. That excitement had been replaced with a big fat “Now what?”

Those first few steps after graduating NC State seemed crucial to setting up my long term success and I was overwhelmed with the amount of offers I had to sift through online. While scouring LinkedIn for award-winning PR agencies, I was lucky enough to come across an opening at the Account Coordinator level at N6A. 

As it turns out, N6A was the perfect choice for my first post-collegiate job. Here are three reasons why.

1. N6A has the perfect balance of independence and support.

I was worried that I would end up at a company that didn’t trust their employees to maintain efficiency in a remote setting. That’s not the case at N6A. There’s no hand holding, but there’s also never been a moment anyone made me feel like I couldn’t reach out for help. Heck, before I even had a chance to get started on Day 1, everyone was reaching out to ensure I felt supported and educated. 

That independence can feel daunting (kind of like leaving home for university!), but it’s good for you. With patience and the right people around you, this pathway is designed for you to flourish. 

2.  Everyone is committed to your growth. 

This is true at every level of the company. 

The fabulous Nina, our EVP of Talent Development, organizes regular professional development sessions that have allowed me to build real skills and taught me a lot about the industry. Day-to-day, my Account Managers and Directors are always looking for opportunities to provide teaching moments. And, notably, I don’t feel invisible to upper-level management. I’ve had numerous conversations with our executives that provided industry knowledge I wouldn’t necessarily have accessed through my direct manager. 

Insight and education is extremely helpful when you’re able to compile it from every level, since everyone brings something different to the equation. 

There are also plenty of opportunities for personal development. I’ve learned a lot more about self care in our monthly wellness sessions than I ever did scrolling TikTok.

3. This is what a healthy work-life balance looks like. 

It’s easy for companies to say they put employees first, but it’s their actions that truly indicate priorities. 

At a previous internship, I had convinced myself that I needed to work until 9 p.m. every day instead of telling my boss I needed more time. Based on everyone else at the company, I thought that my job was more important than my wellbeing. It wasn’t—I was just in a place that facilitated a poor work-life balance. 

It wasn’t until I started working at N6A that I realized what a healthy balance looks like. Logging off when work ends is a priority. Meeting virtually with coworkers to chat about something other than work is a priority. Flexing our work schedule around appointments and life events is a priority. My personal experience feels like a priority. 

Having such an excellent reference point for my first job has been critical to understanding my worth. How can you know what you deserve as a professional if you’ve never been given the opportunity to see how good it can get? 

My biggest recommendation for other recent grads looking for an ideal landing spot is to not sell yourself short. I didn’t expect a fancy, big-time NYC agency to be interested in me coming out of school. But the beauty of being inexperienced is that you have everything to learn and nothing to lose. 

So, apply for that great job. Yes, that one.

The post 3 Reasons Why N6A is the Perfect 1st Job Out of College appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

Then a new thought creeps into your mind: what next? 

Funding announcements are an essential part of growth communications for any early-stage business… but their impact is limited if treated as a one-off campaign. Here are three reasons your announcement needs to be supported by a year-round PR and marketing strategy.

1. You need to take advantage of the momentum

You’ve earned features in trade publications, mentions in national outlets, and buzz across LinkedIn and Twitter. This may be the first time your company has generated significant media interest. So why the heck would you stop now? 

Think of the announcement as a powerful but brief gust of wind. Without a sail—or, in this analogy, an integrated comms strategy—you have no way to harness the momentum. Having a strategy in place and ready to implement allows you to make the most of the moment. 

Your strategy should tie together a number of key PR and marketing efforts, including…

• Thought leadership and executive visibility: Bylines, blog posts, podcast appearances, and speaking engagements demonstrate that your company and its leaders are driving industry innovation.
• Customer and partner success storytelling: Nothing demonstrates the value offered by your brand better than stories about the success of the people and organizations you help. 
• Media relations: The better you know the journalists and publishers in your industry—and the better they know you—the more successful you’ll be in getting your story out there. This requires careful and consistent outreach to the right people.
• Amplification: The work doesn’t stop when you’ve secured that coveted feature story. Now you want to get that credibility asset in front of your target audience using owned channels like social media, email, a company blog, etc. 

Remember, the wind is at your back. So hoist the sail and get moving!

2. You need to align effort with outcomes

All of that media coverage is great, but ask yourself this: how is it helping you achieve your core business outcomes? 

Having a communications strategy in place at the time of your announcement ensures that your PR and marketing efforts are aligned with core business goals. It makes sure all of your team’s hard work is moving you towards the place you want to be. There’s no point harnessing the wind if you’re not sailing in the right direction. 

By business outcomes, I mean those core goals that define success for your company over the long term. Remember, you’re not doing PR for the sake of PR. Coverage is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Building investor support ahead of your next round is an outcome; earning coverage from a top industry publisher is a means to accomplish that outcome.

At N6A, our Outcomes Relations model begins with our clients selecting one or more outcomes from a list of six common categories.

Your business is almost certainly focused on several—if not most—of these outcomes. The thing is, you can’t expect to accomplish them with a single campaign. These are big, important goals that require a consistent, year-round PR and marketing effort. 

3. You need to maintain visibility from your target audience

Brands who have great reputations seem to have a never-ending presence in the media. From feature stories to executive interviews to viral social posts and videos, they’re everywhere all the time. But that kind of media saturation doesn’t happen overnight. 

These businesses maintain consistent media visibility through a steady drumbeat of outreach, content creation, and amplification. 

Look at this from the perspective of your target audience. Let’s say that’s an exec at a potential investment firm who’s had their interest piqued by the coverage of your funding announcement. Over the next six to 12 months, that exec keeps coming across your business in social media posts, media features, executive interviews, award nominations, and blog posts. How much more likely are they to back your funding round when you come calling?

On the other hand, a burst of coverage followed by silence can make your funding round look like a flash in the pan. 

Business growth boils down to consistent execution on the tactical level. Success is defined not only by big leaps, but by careful, methodical steps. By preparing a communications strategy to support your funding announcement, you’ll be sure to maximize the impact of your big news over the long term.

Is your comms plan optimized for long-term success? Let’s talk.

The post Why Your Funding Announcement Needs to Be Supported by Year-Round PR appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

The LGBTQ+ community, while vibrant and thriving, is faced with the resurgence of discriminatory practices, legislation, lack of representation and fear of violence. This is especially true for transgendered people and persons of color within each subcommunity. 

This is why it’s essential for companies to go beyond generalized messages of support and take more care in developing their Pride Month communications strategies. Below are important guidelines for crafting a strategy that connects with the community authentically and, more importantly, validates their existence and experiences.

1. LGBTQ+ audiences are not a monolith 

Many companies make the mistake of using generalized language about equality and pride to speak to the entire LGBTQ+ audience, which falls short of validating the wide spectrum of experiences of each subgroup within the community. Men, women, transgender people, persons of color and other identities experience discrimination in specific ways and desire to have their journeys represented as part of the larger Pride narrative. 

When developing communications towards LGBTQ+ audiences, companies should go beyond the standard “Love is Love” narrative and create multiple pieces of content that speak directly to each audience with authenticity, empathy and deep understanding of their community’s struggles and vibrancy.

2. Inclusive language goes beyond pronouns 

Companies have made significant strides over the last few years in addressing employees and customers by their chosen pronouns, empowering them to embrace their identity. However, there are still vestiges of gendered language in standard communications that uphold the heteronormative framework as the standard. 

Titles such as “Mr.”, “Ms.” or “Mrs.” are generally used in formal settings without input from the designated persons. Familial roles, such as husband and wife, are also assumed unless otherwise stated. Job titles, such as “chairman”, “salesman”, and “businessman” serve to uphold patriarchal views of certain professions. 

In order to adopt a true culture of inclusivity in internal and external communications, companies should avoid using gendered language to ensure no one feels excluded from the conversation or the audience.

3. Involve your LGBTQ+ employees in the process

There are no people better suited to help develop your Pride Month communications strategies than your LGBTQ+ employees. Messaging drawn from lived experiences will resonate far better than catch-all messages of support. 

Most importantly, you must be open to being corrected when the proposed strategy doesn’t pass the smell-test. Target audiences will appreciate being spoken to by one of their own and this will help foster good will and increase confidence among them.

4. Focus on the issues

The corporatization of pride has become a point of criticism within the LGBTQ+ community, with some arguing that Pride’s history as a protest and advocacy movement is diluted by general sentiments focused on equality. This is especially poignant during a time when homophobia and associated legislation are being brought back to the forefront across the sociopolitical landscape. 

For your Pride Month messaging to really showcase support, it must discuss the issues and challenges that the community is facing specifically, such as the eradication of LGBTQ+ education in schools, trans athlete exclusion from sports teams or the lack of quality representation in media. To earn the community’s support, you must demonstrate thorough understanding of and advocacy for the issues that matter to them. 

5. Avoid “pinkwashing” and take meaningful action 

Companies that take a surface-level approach to their Pride Month communications strategy by offering generalized messages of support without enacting any major initiatives or policy changes run the risk of being called out for “pinkwashing” and losing credibility among LGBTQ+ audiences. In order to show true support from the community, companies should take meaningful action, such as donating to charity, implementing new DEI policies and protections or amplifying LGBTQ+ voices to demonstrate authenticity and solidarity. 

6. Make it a regular part of your ongoing strategy 

Queer people don’t stop wanting recognition and validation after Pride Month. Their identities impact every moment personally and professionally, and there is an increasing expectation for companies to make consistent efforts in acknowledging and supporting their community to earn their goodwill or business. 

Companies should incorporate outreach and advocacy towards the LGBTQ+ community into their standard communications efforts in order to truly foster a connection with them and proliferate the message of equality and acceptance year round.

The post The 6 Tenets of an Effective Pride Month Communications Strategy appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

Despite the many skills that the marketing program at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business has equipped me with, the thought of a real-world internship was daunting. It is one thing to sit in a lecture and learn, but now I had to put my knowledge and skills to use. 

Four months later, I know I made the right decision. I’ve acquired confidence, knowledge and skills that I never picked up in the classroom. This internship is the foundation of my career and I could not have asked for a better company to experience it with. Working at Studios has provided me with the skills and training needed to find my place in the marketing industry.

Here are three reasons this internship was the perfect fit.

1. I’ve done meaningful work and gotten real-world experience.

On one of the first days of the internship, Head of Studios Valerie Leary told me I would be on client calls with the rest of the team. After hearing about some of my friends’ previous internships, I was shocked I would get to participate in client meetings. 

What started as taking notes with my camera off (because I was unsure if the client cared to see an intern) soon turned into presenting a client with analytics for one of their social platforms. It is clear that Studios is committed to fostering my professional growth by allowing me to contribute in a meaningful way.

I have done everything from researching influencers, completing competitor audits, creating and scheduling social media content, updating reports to finding video footage. My two favorite tasks are conducting audits and creating social media content. I enjoy diving deep into our clients and their competitors’ platforms to identify market trends and optimization opportunities. Through an audit, one learns what strategies prove successful in the long term and integrates them into our clients’ content calendars.

2. The welcoming company culture made me feel at home.

I quickly learned how important it is to find an agency that values you. The anxiety I felt coming into the internship quickly turned into excitement after just my first day. The welcoming environment, one-on-one calls and email greetings eased me into the position. When I was welcomed into Slack, many people reacted with the party emoji. I was featured in a company email and I got a shoutout during the staff meeting. I was treated as a colleague from the start. 

And this team knows how to have fun! During the last week of January, I helped put together games for N6A Day, which celebrates our founder Matt Rizzetta’s decision to start the company in 2010. I had so much fun putting together a PowerPoint with 2010s trivia. I also helped put together a baby games trivia for a colleague’s baby shower. The N6A team always jumps at the opportunity to incorporate fun into the work day.

3. I’m on the path to the career I want.

Prior to beginning my role here, I did not know where I was headed in my career. I picked my major because I enjoyed the marketing principles and strategy classes I took sophomore year. 

This internship has taught me that I want to become a marketing manager. I am a creative, action-oriented individual. I enjoy brainstorming innovative ideas on what assets to produce, how to share and amplify company news and content creation. I can see myself overseeing others’ tasks, building brand awareness through marketing strategies and ensuring effective messaging and communications. 

This experience extends far past a header with some bullet points on my resume. My time at Studios has provided me with confidence and security in choosing my career. I continue to learn more about how the marketing industry operates daily. 

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to always ask questions. It is much better to pause, hop on a Zoom call and clarify confusion than to stare at your computer without a clue how to proceed. Communicating and asking for help affects everyone’s success. Even though I am the only intern, Studios is a team. We all communicate with each other and help out one another. A team cannot function without one of its pieces. All the pieces need to fit together to successfully solve the puzzle.

All of the time and energy the Studios team has put into my growth demonstrates how much they value an individuals’ pursuit to acquire knowledge. I can’t wait to continue my Studios journey this summer. 

The post 3 Things That Made a Studios Internship the Perfect Fit for Me appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

Great… but what should your business blog about? For teams that may not have experienced content marketers, coming up with blog topics can be trickier than you think. Next time you gather your marketing team or agency, use these four questions to spark ideas. 

1. What do we want to accomplish with this blog piece?

Ultimately, the objective of your blog strategy is to drive business outcomes; you’re not blogging for the sake of creative expression (well, at least not primarily). So don’t let the tail wag the dog: start by identifying specific objectives, then think of blog content that can support them. 

Maybe you need to drive registrations for an upcoming webinar. A blog post introducing key concepts of the presentation could be followed by a CTA to register for the webinar. Maybe your objective is less specific, like trying to drive brand awareness on LinkedIn. Just be sure to set specific KPIs you can use to measure success, like impressions or clicks. 

By identifying a specific objective up front, your team can ensure each blog post is optimized to deliver results.

2. What problem can we help our audience solve?

Your audience doesn’t want to read about how great your company or product is. Their interest in your brand extends only as far as their interest in how your brand helps them. 

Your content team shouldn’t be writing long-form ads. Instead, each of your blog posts should help your audience solve a specific problem they face. Maybe you detail how to perform an essential business task (like blogging!); maybe you explore the impact of a developing industry trend; maybe you describe how your company’s recent funding round will improve the customer experience. 

Start by brainstorming the types of problems your business solves for customers; great blog topic ideas will flow from there. 

3. What does the sales team think?

Nobody knows your customers and the problems they face better than your sales team. So shouldn’t they have a role in developing content to engage those customers? 

Get your marketing and sales teams on a call and have your sales folks review your buyer personas and the typical paths to purchase. What challenges do these individuals and their businesses face? How does your company solve the challenge and how can you best communicate your solution? 

Then have both teams brainstorm blog topics that address specific problems faced by potential customers. Discuss how that content can be crafted and delivered in a way that moves leads along the sales path. 

This process of account-based marketing, or ABM, creates more efficient, targeted campaigns and will increase ROI.

What search terms do we want to rank for?

Blog content is a great way to improve search rankings for your company website… but only if you take a strategic approach. 

Have your marketing team pull the list of search terms your business is trying to rank for, then use it to brainstorm blog topic ideas. But don’t just turn these into product or service descriptions; go back to point 2 and think about the problem facing someone searching for that term. Then create blog content that helps them solve it. 

If you’re offering real value, users will stick around to read the blog, boosting your website’s engagement metrics and signifying to search engines that your business is an authority on that subject. That will, in turn, improve your website’s SEO and drive more potential customers to your site. 

Still need help developing a blog content strategy? Contact a content marketing pro at Studios.

The post Not Sure What Your Business Should Blog About? Ask These 4 Questions. appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

Now comes the critical step: aligning that SEO plan with your content marketing strategy. Readers of the N6A blog already know why this integration is critical; but how do you go about activating the integration? How can your landing pages, product pages and blog articles be optimized for search?

Here are six tips you should follow every time you publish new content on your site.

1. Write for humans.

Yes, you want to please those Google bots crawling your site. But your first priority is writing something humans want to read. 

A piece written with only SEO in mind can come out awkward, repetitive, lacking voice and, worst of all, boring. If people who come across the content don’t enjoy it or can’t easily find the information they came for, they won’t stick around. That high bounce rate is going to undo all of the careful optimization work you put in. 

So ask yourself a few questions: What information does this content deliver to my customers? Is that information easy to find? Does the voice sound the same as the voice used across the rest of my brand?

Once you have a human-friendly draft, you can always work back to layer in SEO. Write for people, then optimize for search.

2. Don’t stuff keywords.

You’ve probably heard of keyword stuffing before. It’s an antiquated tactic used in the early days of the internet, when search engines weren’t sophisticated enough to do much more than count the number of times a keyword appeared on the page. 

The smart folks at Google have long since figured out how to teach their algorithms to contextualize on-page keywords. So if you’re trying to rank for “automated customer CX”, you don’t need to repeat that phrase in every other sentence. Perpetrators of keyword stuffing—intentionally or otherwise—will see their search rank go down instead of up. 

The best way to avoid this? Go back to point one and write for humans. If a keyword is repetitive or annoying, cut back.

3. Focus on headlines.

Anyone familiar with HTML—the computer language that constitutes the majority of the web—knows that the size and style of a heading is dictated by something called a heading tag. 

The heading at the top of this page that reads “6 SEO Tips…” is an H1 heading tag. The subhead a few lines up? That’s an H4. The lower the number, the larger it typically appears.

Heading tags aren’t just relevant to web designers concerned with aesthetics. Search engines know that H1 tags are the most important indicator of a page’s content and scrutinize them accordingly.  

What does that mean for you? Make sure you’re getting the most important keywords into your H1 tag… and, preferably, early in the heading. But don’t forget Rule #1: if the heading isn’t readable or appealing to a human, it doesn’t do you any good.

4. Break up copy with subheads. 

Once you’re done optimizing that H1 tag, turn your attention to subheads. The goal here isn’t so much to optimize for search engines (though including keywords isn’t a bad idea), but to optimize for readers. 

Let’s face it: our attention spans on the web aren’t particularly long. We’ve become scanners. Anything that helps break up a page and make it more scannable will likely increase time on page. Remember, good SEO strategy not only drives people to your page but keeps them there; longer time on page and lower bounce rates means higher search rankings. 

5. Don’t forget metadata.

Think of meta tags as instructions written to search engines in invisible ink. The people who visit your website won’t see them but they convey valuable information to the search bots crawling the page. 

When preparing your content to publish within your CMS, you’ll come across metadata fields like page description and keywords. Put some real thought into filling these fields, as they can have an impact on search ranking. 

But be selective: trying to cram too many keywords into these tags can blunt their significance to a search engine. 

As Moz puts it: “Think of your page code as a set of step-by-step directions to get somewhere, but for a browser. Extraneous meta tags are the annoying ‘Go straight for 200 feet’ line items in driving directions that simply tell you to stay on the same road you’re already on!”

6. Share your content on social media.

Whether social sharing has a direct impact on a website’s search ranking has long been a topic of debate. If there is a direct impact, it’s likely minimal. 

But sharing on social certainly has an indirect impact. Social sharing in general can raise the visibility of your brand and drive higher engagement rates. Sharing any particular piece of content increases site visits from loyal followers who can boost page-specific, SEO-relevant engagement metrics like bounce rate and unique pageviews. 

So share that blog on Twitter and Facebook. You’ll see long-term benefits. 

None of these six steps on their own provide immediate virality and millions of views. But following each one consistently over time can be the difference in publishing away in obscurity and getting your content in front of potential customers. 

Need a hand building your content marketing strategy? Contact a Studios expert today.

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What can the PR and marketing industries do to increase gender parity at the executive level? 

Daniela Mancinelli, CEO of N6A: I think that over the past decade, we have made some serious strides in starting to break the glass ceiling, but lasting change can only come if senior leaders in the industry make this their highest priority and show the way. 

We must commit to transparent and objective recruitment and performance evaluations, recognize the value of diverse leadership styles, and actively mentor, coach, and prepare women for leadership roles. We need to create an honest and open culture that can have mature conversations about gender and diversity bias, and we must be willing to lead by example in making parity and diversity in career advancement a key organizational goal. 

I sincerely believe that if all industry CEOs pledge to make this a priority, we can make a difference, one person at a time. In the words of one of my favorite authors, James Clear, “Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine.”

Nina Velasquez, EVP of Talent Development at N6A: It’s important to continue celebrating more women today in leadership roles. But the fact remains that people who identify as female and gender-neutral continue to face an uphill battle in the workplace. 

The businesses that make the effort to take a good look at their employee diversity will realize there’s still a lot of work to do to embrace gender and BIPOC inclusion. 

We know increasing gender parity is the right thing to do from an ethical standpoint. Why is it also good for business?

Trisha Larocchia, Chief Client Officer at N6A: The most successful businesses take into consideration people’s different lived experiences. I think it’s important to take your whole self to work and that the best business decisions are made when you have different voices and opinions coming to the table with ideas. You don’t get that when you look around a room and everyone looks and sounds exactly like you.

Jacky Agudelo, SVP at N6A: According to USAID, “Achieving gender parity in the workplace could add as much as $12 trillion to the global economy.” When one of us wins, we all win.

Daniela: Gender parity is not only necessary, but also a must in the evolution of any industry and organization. Talent and leadership skills have nothing to do with gender and having the right people in the right roles will always lift productivity, drive innovation, and lead to social and economic advancement.  

Angelea Elenis, Intern at Studios: Female leaders serve as people that those younger than them emulate and become. The phrase “anything is possible” holds a lot more meaning when there are people just like you living your dream.

What about N6A/Studios’ culture has empowered so many women to reach leadership positions?

Trisha: Flexibility, empathy, and never ending trust and support. As a mother of two, any day can go off the rails pretty quickly. Knowing that I never have to feel guilty for not being able to be two places if I’m truly needed at home is a huge relief. Everyone is willing and able to jump in if needed and feeling that level of support on a daily basis makes it a great place to work and lead.

Angelea: Seeing so many women in leadership roles at N6A is inspiring. Representation is important. Watching all the female leaders flawlessly execute their responsibilities and win clients is more than impressive, it raises my confidence that I too can be successful as a young woman in the business world after graduation.

Nina: We’re proud of our DEI commitments but know that we’re just scraping the surface. We have a lot of work ahead and continue to push for true equality in everything that we do as a company.

What message do you have for the next generation of female leaders working to break into PR and marketing?

Jacky: Be your biggest cheerleader. Only you know the time and efforts you’ve given to strengthen your work product—which is essentially what makes you unique! Celebrate your wins and use challenging moments to rise above.  

Trisha: I’m big on finding your “people.” I’m lucky to have some amazingly strong people in my corner—some women I’ve known since childhood and others that I’ve connected with throughout my career. We wear many hats in each other’s lives: cheerleader, counselor, support system, comic relief, and so much more. It runs the gamut, but knowing you always have someone in your corner to support you makes your biggest wins sweeter and your inevitable lows that much more bearable. I would literally be nowhere without them!

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