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.

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.

In addition to the personal challenges and fears that the onset of the pandemic made us reckon with, we as PR professionals had to quickly update our clients’ communication strategies to not only address the issues the coronavirus was forcing all industries to face, but to also find their place in the conversation. 

So how did we do it? I can tell you it wasn’t easy. In fact, I have never felt more challenged and afraid professionally. With marketing budgets on the chopping block, it was more critical than ever to drive business outcomes for our clients. 

To put it succinctly, we adapted. We had to move away from the traditional methods of promoting our clients’ successes and instead laser-focus our efforts on providing much needed strategy and insight to our media partners, who were under incredible stress. Because of the unpredictable nature of the pandemic, we had to be hypersensitive to the ever-changing news cycle and help our clients quickly serve up knowledge that peers within their industry could use. We had to build a new way of doing PR, founded on the concept of strategic elasticity. 

Here’s how strategic elasticity can redefine your communications strategy.

Be hypersensitive to the news cycle.

The world is undergoing one of the most transformative periods in recent history, and it isn’t slowing down. The way people live and companies do business is changing daily. Things that were thought to be true yesterday might be proven wrong today, and everyone is constantly playing catch up. If you want to ensure your business stays relevant, follow the news constantly for relevant micro moments and secure your place in the narrative. 

Become an educator, not a promoter.

Uncertainty is the “new normal” as the pandemic continues to complicate business forecasting across all industries. The media and their audiences are in dire need of experts who can shed light on what’s happening on the ground and who can provide advice on how to tackle the challenges presented. Smaller news items or overt self-promotion is valued less and less, and the best way to generate media coverage is to provide actionable insight that educates and provides value to readers.

Know when to step in or step back.

In the world of strategic communications, every word is supposed to matter. But in the current landscape, there are entirely too many words being thrown around, and many of them don’t actually matter to the issues at hand. This prevents the voices that need to be heard from getting the platform they deserve, especially when it comes to disenfranchised communities of POC and minorities. It’s important to understand which conversations you need to step into, and when you should take a step back and let the most critical perspectives rise to the top. 

Anticipate outcomes but be prepared to pivot at a moment’s notice.

While accepting uncertainty is part of the new normal, it’s still important to forecast potential outcomes from every major event within your industry. Your communications strategy should always include some predictions about what to expect in order to help your peers, leadership, and customers plan accordingly. However, new information is always unfolding, and it’s important to make sure your messaging is updated in real time to reflect the changing landscape, especially when the changes don’t line up with your previous expectations. This will ensure that your target audiences know that you’re constantly monitoring the situation and making proactive decisions to improve.

Acknowledge mistakes and commit to learning and improving.

With many of us making quick decisions to address new problems, it’s inevitable that some of those decisions will be wrong. While it may be easier to stick to your guns and go on the defense, audiences will hold you in much higher regard if you acknowledge your mistakes and show humility. A good communications strategy involves learning from your mistakes and outlining steps to continue building trust and driving improvement. 

We’re not out of the woods yet, and the last two years have taught us that anything can and will happen. If you keep the concept of strategic elasticity at the core of your communications strategy, you’ll ensure that your brand stays ahead of the curve and is seen as a valued thought leader within your industry and beyond.

The post Strategic Elasticity is the Most Important Aspect of PR appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

But how do you go about choosing the right one? You’ve tabbed through dozens of search results and read countless case studies. You’re not sure whether to trust online reviews. Friends and colleagues offer conflicting advice. There’s a lot riding on this decision.

Fortunately, picking the perfect PR agency doesn’t have to be so complicated. Take your top considerations and walk through this checklist. If an agency checks all 10 of these boxes, you have a winner!

1. The agency has been around for a while. 

Longevity isn’t everything, but the ability to last through the years is an indicator of strong leadership, reliable outcomes and a commitment to clients. Ask the agency how long they’ve been in business; if the answer is only a few years, you may want to look for a more established shop.

2. The agency is committed to outcomes. 

They embrace accountability. Where others shy away from measurable results and focus on vanity metrics, your perfect agency works to deliver tangible business outcomes. They’re constantly looking at the big picture, working to get your company where it needs to be today while planning for where it’s going tomorrow.

3. The agency has a proven track record of success.

Those claims of delivering outcomes aren’t just claims: they’ve brought receipts! The agency has case studies that detail big wins delivered for clients. They discuss insights gained from those wins and how they can be applied to help your business.

4. The agency has expertise in your industry. 

The best consumer retail PR agency in the world may not be of much value to a MarTech business. Your perfect agency has worked with other clients in your field. They speak with authority on industry trends and how they can be leveraged to benefit your business.

5. The agency has bona fide media connections.

This doesn’t just mean having a big rolodex (fine, Google Contacts list). Your perfect agency has long-running, meaningful relationships with notable journalists at relevant publishers. Relevant is the key word there: these publishers cover your industry and are read by your target audience.

6. The agency is fast and flexible.

They are reactive to the news landscape, moving quickly to contextualize their clients’ work within developing trends. They empower clients to keep pace with their ever-shifting industry.

7. The agency can do more than just PR. 

Press releases and earned coverage are great, but your perfect agency goes above and beyond. Not only can they secure a byline at a big publisher, they have an in-house content team that can help you craft it. They’re not just implementing tactics, they’re a strategic advisor that provides value to your overall business.

8. The agency is the right size for your business. 

A mega agency may not prioritize your business, while a boutique shop may not have the resources or connections to deliver outcomes.

9. The agency has done their research. 

They know the ins and outs of your business at the very first pitch meeting. After all, if they don’t demonstrate that level of personalized service and attention to detail before they win your business, what makes you think they’ll do so after you sign?

10. The agency feels like an extension of your team. 

Their team is responsive, friendly and easy to get along with. You can chat with them about weekend plans, the weird movie you just saw or that recent industry article and how it relates to your business. They clearly prioritize your needs and go above and beyond to ensure your business is moving toward desired outcomes.

The post How to Know Which PR Agency is the Perfect Match for You appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

As the structure of traditional PR comes down, so too do the walls that have historically separated PR and marketing teams. No longer are the two groups siloed, one working to promote specific products and services while the other focuses on improving the reputation of the business as a whole. Together, they’re working toward a unified communications strategy.

Almost half of PR professionals and more than 60 percent of marketing executives believe that their two disciplines will become more closely aligned in the next five years, according to the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

If your business isn’t aligning PR and marketing, it’s more than just an efficiency issue. You’re missing out on a critical step in connecting your communications strategy to your core business outcomes. 

Here are four reasons why PR and marketing should be aligned:

1. Marketing amplifies earned coverage

The new model of PR—what N6A calls Outcome Relations—is built to deliver tangible business outcomes, like completing a capital raise or hitting a sales benchmark. The PR team works to secure earned media results that support that outcome. 

But the work isn’t over once that big company feature is published in Forbes. This is where the marketing team can provide the critical step in connecting earned coverage to measurable outcomes: amplification. 

Maybe they pull a quote from the feature and create a branded graphic to publish on Instagram; maybe they create a paid LinkedIn campaign targeting new leads; or maybe they share the article in an email campaign to your existing clients. 

Once the PR team has earned that big media piece, the marketing team ensures the right people see it. 

2. PR can increase your search visibility

Marketing teams spend a lot of time working to increase the search visibility of their brand’s website, be it bidding on search terms as part of an SEM plan or optimizing organic content to increase rankings.

Effective PR teams can play a key role in that strategy by generating organic search traffic and backlinks.

Being featured in a major publisher will naturally create more search traffic as readers seek out additional information about the featured company. If your business is mentioned in an article from The Wall Street Journal, you can bet you’ll see a significant spike in organic search traffic.

Some publishers may also include backlinks, or links from other websites to your own website, in their coverage. These backlinks are considered by Google and other search engines to be votes of confidence for your site. If a credible publisher is linking to your site, Google figures, it must be pretty credible as well. Up goes your search ranking.

If the PR team is aligned on the key search terms your business is trying to rank for, they can pitch to relevant and credible publishers to drive increased visibility.

3. Joint news monitoring can benefit PR and marketing teams

PR pros spend a considerable amount of time monitoring media coverage for opportunities for newsjacking, or leveraging a major news story to draw attention to their own brand. Content marketing teams, meanwhile, are constantly monitoring social media feeds looking for relevant news and conversations the brand can engage with. 

When PR and marketing teams coordinate, this news monitoring system becomes more efficient.

Let’s say a PR team working on behalf of a cyber security client comes across a story about the data breach of a high-profile company. In addition to pitching publishers on a byline from the cyber security brand’s CEO, the PR team flags the news to the marketing team, who publishes the original article on LinkedIn along with a few insightful tips for avoiding security breaches. 

The well-timed social post could drive significant visibility and help establish the brand as an authority in their industry… all because the PR team was quick to flag the news.

4. PR can boost marketing campaigns

Designing a marketing campaign to increase lead gen or hit a sales goal? Think about how PR can support the effort. A byline or feature in a relevant publication can drive people to your site, then funnel them into the campaign.

Let’s say you’re an automated CX brand who’s just published a lead gen campaign built around a PDF download. In addition to budgeting for Google Ads and designing a social media blitz, you pulled your PR team in to support. They’ve been busy pitching and landed a CEO byline with a major publisher, which publishes the day you launch your lead gen campaign. That byline drives a ton of qualified readers to your website, where they’re met with a pop-up offering the PDF resource in exchange for their email. 

By bringing the PR team into the campaign design early and aligning timelines to create a cohesive campaign, you can significantly expand your reach.

None of these things are possible if your PR and marketing teams are sitting in separate departments—or separate agencies—with little to no communication. Aligning the two disciplines from initial outcome development all the way through messaging and campaign deployment is key to optimizing ROI. 

If your PR and marketing teams aren’t working together to drive business outcomes, you’re not getting the most out of either.

The post 4 Reasons Your PR and Marketing Should be Aligned appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

You’ve gone through the request for proposal (RFP) process and landed the new client. Now what? Well, now it’s time to really put in the work if you’re a top public relations professional. You might have wowed them with your pitch meeting skills and ideas, but the next phase in the client/PR professional journey is the most difficult but rewarding one yet – building trust.  

Just because the client signed on the dotted line does not mean they will be around forever. As with every meaningful relationship, you will need to work at it constantly. This means every touch point, from emails to PR strategies, and everything else in between, will need to showcase your PR expertise in such a way that allows the client to feel at ease with your direction.

Trust, in the simplest form, means the firm belief in the reliability of someone or something. When it comes to trust in the PR world, it means having clients believe in your PR campaigns and your ability to execute on them. If you’re still reading this post, you might be thinking, well, I already won the business, so what more do I need to do? That’s the exact mentality you want to avoid, not just in PR, but in life as well. If you perceive it as a fun challenge, fostering trust can be the building block to having a long and fruitful relationship with a client.

Photo by fauxels from Pexels

I’ve outlined only a few ideas you’ll want to consider right out of the gate, but when it comes to thinking about ways to build trust, the sky’s the limit!

Be Transparent

You were transparent with the goals and deliverables during the pitching process. Now, it’s time to take all of those ideas and begin to bring them to life. Before you do, and this step sometimes overlooked, make sure your strategy is in place.

To start, conduct a deep-dive kickoff session to ensure both the client and the internal PR teams are working in lock-step. Then, work on a sound PR plan that will allow the client to view those ideas with clear and actionable steps attached to them. Include a timeline for achieving those set goals as well as how you plan to track progress along the way.

Always Overcommunicate

The plan is in place, your goals are set, and the client is onboard. It’s time to rock and roll. As you work through the execution phase of your mutually agreed upon plan, make sure to communicate and, in all honesty, overcommunicate.

When it comes to new client relationships, provide as many updates and as much relevant feedback as possible. You might have met your fair share of clients that don’t want to be bothered or could care less about how the sausage is made. To them I say I hear you, but also, you’re missing the best part of this two-way street.

The most rewarding client/PR professional relationships are ones that get fired up and excited on both sides. By having an open and communicative relationship, you’ll open the door to better collaboration opportunities and new, fresh ideas.

Show Value

You are now a couple of months into your newfound relationship. You have a clear plan and have been communicating the wins and navigating the pivots along the way. Now more than ever, you need to look at each form of communication as an opportunity to show added value.

Is there a breaking news story that could be transformed into a timely thought leadership opportunity? Are there internal company shifts that your client needs help communicating? While it is essential to execute on the deliverables from the PR plan, your work should not stop there. You should strive to see opportunities for your clients and communicate them both timely and effectively. In time, your clients will trust that you have their interests at the forefront of your daily agenda.

The post How to Win a Public Relations Client’s Trust and Keep It appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

I have spent nearly 70 percent of my professional career, and 30 percent of my entire life, as the founder and CEO of N6A. It has become more than just a job and career endeavor for me.

When I first started our business, it was just before my 27^th birthday. My wife was pregnant with our first child. We had just moved into a new house and had a mortgage to pay. My wife just left her job as a schoolteacher at PS 205 in Brooklyn to go on maternity leave. I had the crazy idea of starting a business despite all the life changes that were happening around us.

For the past 11 years, N6A has become an extension of my life and the most important source of pride and self-accomplishment outside of my wife and three daughters. This captures the essence of a founder’s connection, the connection that a founder has to his or her company. This is the reason it’s often difficult for founders to pass the torch to new operators as their businesses grow and scale.

Luckily for me, it was one of the easiest decisions in the world. Why, you ask? Because we get to keep it all in the family.

I have had the privilege of working alongside some amazing people over the past 11 years. Our new CEO Daniela Mancinelli is a world-class executive and an even better human being. We have been in the trenches together for more than a half-decade now, and she will bring an incredible humility, work-ethic and vision for continued growth that is so vital in today’s business climate. She will also bring a unique connection to our brand that is so rare to find in founder-owned businesses. I cannot wait for clients and employees to see her operate as a CEO.

We also have so many other people supporting us in new leadership roles, many of whom are longtime N6A-ers who truly deserve the opportunity to shine at the next level. There is no better feeling than seeing other people earn promotions from within as a result of their hard work, dedication and appetite for learning.

As for me, I am excited about what the next chapter holds, both inside and outside of N6A.

For starters, we have set up a family office holding company called North Sixth Group, which will own interests in N6A. This will be used as a platform to continue building the N6A brand, expanding our reach and capabilities to better service our clients, and to pursue strategic opportunities.

I will be staying on as Chairman of N6A so I can spend time working with our clients on entrepreneurial and business challenges, and to help our employees through culture and innovation programs.

Outside of N6A, most of my time will go to pursuing other passions, including strategic opportunities and investments aligned with the mission and vision of North Sixth Group, which is to invest in “Passion, Purpose and Progress.” Through North Sixth Group, I also am going to be dedicating time and resources to give back to the people who have supported me and played an important role in my journey over the past 11 years.

I can’t wait to share some of our plans in the weeks and months ahead. Until then, I couldn’t be happier to welcome our new CEO, and to keep things all in the family.

#EmbraceThePace

The post N6A’s New CEO: Keeping It in the Family appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

As entrepreneur and angel investor James Altucher infamously wrote in an August LinkedIn post, “NYC is dead forever.” Many, including Mr. NYC himself, Jerry Seinfeld, came out to refute the claims and stand up for the city that never sleeps and has been through its share of ups and downs. This Silicon-Valley transplant is here to back up the believers and hopefuls. My creds? My team has been working throughout the pandemic with NYC businesses, from essential workers to cutting-edge innovators – their stories speak for themselves.

Among them — and very much not dead — is Alloy, an identity operating system for financial services firms, that closed its  $40M Series B in September (while one of its co-founders was pregnant no less). Throughout 2020, the Alloy team doubled its headcount in order to meet the growing demand for its services, all while building a culture that would be the envy of any top tech firm.

Photo by Jonathan Riley on Unsplash

Despite breakneck growth, it prioritized employee wellness above all, offering new programs including free therapy sessions through Samata Health, a no-questions-asked stipend to be spent on anything from a new monitor to pizza delivery, access to a telemedicine concierge through Eden Health, and remote experiences including cooking classes, a home ergonomics workshop, meditation and drag bingo. They also turned the office snack budget into a monthly Seamless budget.

The next-generation, design and engineering platform nTopology, used by the likes of Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force, also closed its $40M Series C. Its platform is not only being used on the front lines of COVID to help rapidly manufacture testing swabs, but is also being used to make manufacturing more sustainable by helping engineers reduce the number of individual components required to make complex parts such as jet engines. My favorite use case has to be the  pet prosthetics designed on its platform (click the link at your own risk, you may get hit in the feels).

Electric has been instrumental in helping our nation’s critical SMBs transition to remote work with its custom IT solutions. It reopened its $25M Series B in March to raise an  additional $14.5M from high-profile investors Dick Costolo and Adam Bain as it scaled to meet skyrocketing demand. The team answers an average of 11,000 tickets per month for more than 10,000 end users, and is on track to double its headcount for the third year in a row, having hired more than 75 people since the pandemic began.

It’s been able to attract top IT talent by building an  empathetic culture focused on preventing burnout with benefits such as no-meeting Thursdays and mandatory, company-wide PTO the first Friday of every month. While bolstering and growing its internal systems and teams, Electric has also been actively contributing to incredibly meaningful change. Among other initiatives, the company is part of NYTechCares, a program that crowd-sources funds, resources and donations to help low-income students in NYC access e-learning opportunities. Electric has also partnered with The Last Mile, a non-profit organization that provides coding and technology training to the incarcerated population across the U.S. 

Stealth Communications, a 25-year gigabit fiber internet provider for NYC businesses reaching the fastest internet speeds in the entire U.S., according to  Broadband Now, has been working for years to  close the digital divide in its backyard. In addition to providing connectivity for a variety of education institutions, the company was tapped to help build out the infrastructure for several local medical practices to support the bandwidth required for critical telemedicine services, including construction in Chinatown and Midtown to install new conduits. For all the hype, it wasn’t 5G or national ISPs coming to the rescue, it was New Yorkers stepping up to help their own in a time of crisis.

Unqork, the leading no-code platform designed to support mission critical enterprise applications, actually minted itself as one of NYC’s newest unicorns when it announced its  $207M Series C in October. Not only is Unqork now valued at a cool $2B a mere three years after its founding, but it also increased its headcount by more than 100% in 2020, now up to over 350, and tripled ARR for the third year in a row.

Unqork joined in the fight against COVID by helping leading municipalities use its platform to engage their populations and help track COVID. As a result, New York City successfully deployed a management hub in March that enabled the delivery of over two million meals to residents, accepted donations of essential medical supplies, and allowed NYC residents to self-report how they were impacted by COVID-19. That’s in addition to the total transformation of enterprise application development it is helping to usher in with customers that include Goldman Sachs, Liberty Mutual, Pacific Life and John Hancock. Opposite of dead if you ask me!

As Dustin Hoffman said in Midnight Cowboy, “Hey, I’m working here!” or something like that. The point is, NYC was a powerhouse of business and culture in 1969 and it’s still true today, 51 years later. NYC is not only alive and kicking, it’s helping to usher in the next generation of technological innovation that will impact the world for decades to come. This city has survived through the worst of history, and it will survive this pandemic. So, go ahead and cancel that Zoom funeral, we’ll be here.

The post Don’t Call it a Comeback, NYC Never Left appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.

While COVID-19 has impacted virtually every sector, the retail industry was amongst one of the hardest hit. As retailers reevaluate marketing efforts and scrutinize budgets, it is now more important than ever for communication teams to ensure that decision-makers grasp the value of earned media. 

Earned media, simply put, is the act of an influential third party advocating for a brand to its audience. The author controls the messaging, and is not paid for the endorsement. The source of the “free” publicity might be an editor at a retail trade publication, podcast host, fashion blogger, broadcast reporter, or even a customer sharing a tweet on their personal experience.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Once credibility is achieved via any of these earned media channels, brands are left with an incredibly powerful tangible asset that can be leveraged as a tool by numerous internal departments and divisions. In fact, 57 percent of consumers in the U.S. trust what they hear from friends and family the most when they discover a new product, and around one-third of U.S. shoppers prefer new product information they find from Google searches. Whether retailers are aiming to boost sales revenue, entice investors, or improve existing market share in relation to competitors, earned media results play a key role in supporting end-result achievement.

While strategy development aligned with business outcomes can be a complicated or difficult task to put into action without the necessary expertise of a skilled communications team, or additional resources and tools, here are three tactics that retailers can easily implement into their PR strategies immediately:

• Borrow Customer Trust – The pandemic has forced many retailers to shutter doors and quickly embrace ecommerce; those that placed significant value on face-to-face customer interactions faced the challenge of digitizing relationship-building, as well as creating virtual loyalty. Earned media placement in well-aligned outlets benefit retailers when teams pinpoint key customer demographics. By identifying the specific media and influencer targets that customers trust and have developed long-term loyalty toward, brands benefit from essentially generating borrowed trust through the endorsement of the third party. 
• Rebrand Sales Executives as Thought Leaders – Earned media serves as a tool for brands to position internal representatives in front of influential publics through commentary and interviews. Press conversations with executives, employees and salespeople on targeted podcasts, regional news sites, or trade outlets, position employees as thought leaders and influencers tied to a specific brand-approved subject matter, point of view, or regions, and supports building credibility among target customers.
• Share, Share, Share and Then Share Again – Once press coverage is secured, retailers must ensure that relevant departments across the brand take full advantage of that valuable content. Depending on the business goals and intended outcomes of the individual retailer, the asset might be leveraged by individuals or teams within marketing, sales, finance, customer experience, social media, or HR. Earned media mentions, links, logos, images, and quotes can then be shared with audiences through advertisements, email newsletters, social media posts, blog content, physical brand collateral, or included in messaging, employee biographies, and in email signatures. 

While other forms of media — including paid-through advertising or sponsored content and owned-through blog posts or graphics — certainly play an important role in their own right, earned media shines as the most cost-effective, high-impact and efficient category within the media landscape for retailers. When masterfully leveraged to its full potential through a robust media strategy, earned media can position retailers with massive customer experience opportunities in this unprecedented time.  

The post Why Earned Media is Crucial for Retailers in the COVID-19 Era appeared first on N6 Powered by KRMA | Fully Integrated Digital Marketing.