What’s the use of a website in the modern world of marketing?

I was sitting in a meeting recently talking about websites. I don’t talk websites very often as I am not a SEO expert or a web developer but do often create content for those with websites. And as we were talking through the what and how of the website, I thought to myself – is a website really needed in today’s world of social media? When we are all a click away from talking to someone on screen, when AI can gather information from across the metaverse and analyse it in minutes and give you its (Ok sometimes biased) opinion? What use is having a website in the modern world of marketing?

As someone whose whole career has been based around communication, of course I think websites are a good thing. They give you an owned media platform to effectively shop window your goods or services, a space to air your thoughts, and of course can help with SEO. And I am the proof of the pudding as I am hosting this opinion piece on my own website.

But the thing I like most about websites is that they are communications that are not forced upon you. They are like the cool kids of comms. Unlike social media which has become a barrage of OPINION said in a VERY LOUD VOICE. Websites aren’t in your face, but more at your fingertips.

So instead of being the salesman that social media has to be – you have 5 seconds, maybe even less, to engage a potential viewer before than person starts scrolling past you- if you have got them onto your website, you have time to really talk to your clients/influencers/potential and current staff, woo them, while finding out what they like (through analytics). Of course you can also highlight your creds through case studies, show your values through your policies and mostly importantly talk about those quirks about your team that make them stand out, leaders in their field, without it sounding like a self promo brag.

So how do you get people to your website in the first place? As what’s the point of having it if no-one is visiting it? Well of course that’s where great content comes into play. Having real insights and value on your site means people will come to learn. Having free tools to use will mean people can try before they buy and of course making your shop window relevant to your customers, not just another me too or look at me, means that people are more likely to enter, and stay in your shop.

It also might just help you define what you want to say on your socials too. Give you another place for the long form content rather than having to delve into LinkedIn Articles (or Pulse as it used to be called), although of course you can always post there too but remember you are feeding LI’s algorithm rather than your own then.

Sure, tease them with content on your socials and other platforms that have a wider reach than yours. Tempt them in with the lure of what lies beyond the home page, but also be constant and consistent in your approach – one blog a year isn’t going to make them come back again and again.

So lesson learnt for me today – remember the value of my website, post more often, be respectful of the O in POEM (Paid, Owned, Earned Media if you haven’t a scoobie what I am talking about). And remember at the end of the day, if you aren’t talking about what you offer to your customers, how can you expect others to?

Picture with thanks to Photo by Junior Teixeira: https://www.pexels.com/photo/semi-opened-laptop-computer-turned-on-on-table-2047905/

Fraudsters, fakes and phonies generating word soup

“Fraudsters, fakes and phonies generate word soup using AI…And they are rubbish.” Wise words from John McCarthy, Opinion editor of The Drum, who in our opinion, often writes wise, great copy.

The world of generated content is not going anywhere fast. Where deepfake Zoom calls seals deals and bots scan your documents to give you an opinion, how can those wanting to create content, really stand out in the crowd?

There’s so much more to wordplay than playing with words. Sure there are a few rules to how to write like using simple language will broaden your readership, not using jargon or trade terminology, ensure it is your own words and not those already penned across the digital universe.

But there is also that golden thread of commentary – which is you. It’s your thoughts, how your experience, your life has formed what you think about that subject – which can’t be computed out of AI, but only progressed in the tiny caverns of your own mind.

Now that doesn’t mean that a PR or comms person can’t tell your story – we’d would be out of a job if that was the case. But really it is your story, all they can do is craft it to read well.

So be loud and proud, have an opinion and shout it from the rooftops. Someone doesn’t agree, don’t be shy, tell them why you think what you do, see if as an opportunity to open a conversation.

We have grown up in a world where opinion has become derisive. Where those who have opinions are seen as the outliers, as the crazies, as the ones standing on the edge. But if we all followed the crowd, were all one of the sheep, we’d all be going in the same direction, all the time.

Of course, we don’t believe you should be mouthy for the sake of it – or belligerent and bolshie because you can be. We believe you should have principles, have thoughts, have feelings and have a voice. Especially when it comes to your business – what you know, what you are the expert in.

We need to lose our sense of importance, give a damn, but don’t. What you say won’t be reported high and low (unless of course you are the President of the United States, an ex reality star or Greta Thunberg) but if you are lucky it will resonate with someone, might turn into a bigger discussion and generate a business lead/ a business contact or even a friendship.

So delete Wikipedia and ChatGPT, connect your brain and let’s get our thoughts back on the page again.

Pix with thanks to Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán, pexels.com

A toast to the introverts

As I write this, I have the not very PC song, Runaway by the not so politically correct, Kanye West and Pusha T playing in the background. It’s a cracking tune, not only as it is nearly 8 and a half minutes long, which if you are doing something incredibly boring makes time fly, but also as part of its lyrics are “Let’s have a toast to the douchebags…a toast to the scumbags.” Now I am not advocating toasting the douchebags and the scumbags in this blog, but it did make me think those we toast and those we don’t, as well as those who toast themselves, and those who don’t.

I have talked a lot about Linkedin in my posts over the last 12 months and how I feel the personal/professional boundaries have blurred on the platform, and regardless of if you think that’s a good or bad thing, it’s hard to get away from looking at peoples’ views - whether that’s their opinion or from their back garden. However, what is still the same is that LinkedIn, like other social media platforms, does court those extroverts, those who are happy to put their whole selves out there.

So, this blog is a shout out to the introverts, to all those who we know do an amazing job but don’t feel comfortable shouting about it. No, it’s not going to be an Oscars’ roll call of saying thank you to those I personally work with that are underrepresented on social platforms, but more of how those who don’t feel comfortable sharing with their nearest and dearest, let alone their non nearest and dearest on Linkedin, can have a profile without feeling slightly ick about it.

1. Share your successes

We know by association drives the most credibility so talking about work that you have been involved in with the focus on the project is a great way of promoting yourself. Keeping the tone less braggy, “Here’s a great project that wouldn’t have happened without me” and more collaborative “So happy to see this product launched which I have been lucky to be part of the development team on for the last 24 months…” says volumes and is far more engaging to read.

2. Share your teams’ successes/news

Sure, it’s great to like others in your organisations’ posts, but engagement is really measured by comments and forwarding it on. So go on press that Reshare button but don’t just leave it at that but add some value with your own opinion. So back to the product launch above, something like “Having worked in the industry for the last decade, and being a mum of three, I professionally and personally know there is need for this AI baby soother and it will not just revolutionise the marketplace but be your child’s best friend for the next 20 years.”

3. Flag industry events you are attending

It’s always good to let people know you are going to be somewhere, especially if they are potential clients or existing clients. But let’s step away from the “I am attending….email me if you would like to grab a coffee” messaging. It feels as personal as a politician knocking on doors to get votes. Perhaps try the approach, “Next week I’m off to the Regeneration of town centres conference in Timbuktu. Not only do I hope to see lots of familiar faces and new ones there, but I’m interested to see how the speakers address the issue of how regeneration links with social mobility, whether the investment already committed is enough to change the shape of some of these towns and to hear the voices of the local people. Anyone agree? Or what are you looking forward to?” Events always come with itineraries for the day which give you a framework to talk about the issues mentioned and shout out the speakers. You never know they might @mention you back, increasing your profile no end.

4. @mentioning

Which brings me to @ mentioning others and listening to others too. If you have 50 followers but someone you follow has 50,000, making a comment on their post is more likely to be seen by more people than you can ever reach. It doesn’t have to be long, but just relevant and interesting. Likewise, @mention people you want to connect with or who you might feel a post could be interesting to – it makes you look connected, even if you are not.

5. Social karma

And finally, be kind. The more you share others work and give others credit, the more others will do the same for you. Honestly. It is like social karma.

So, here’s a toast to the introverts, who I am not suggesting I will toast on Linkedin as again, there’s nothing more smug that seeing someone having a drink while you are stuck at your desk.

Content 2024: What's In and What's Outs

In the stye of Instagrammers across the country, here’s our quick and dirty guide to

#What’s In and #What’s Out when it comes to #Content in 2024.

In

• Content that works hard – across different channels and different audiences

• Tailored content – not one size fits all

• Content that solves problems, that is about outcomes

• Content that shows how you can solve these problems, help the outcomes

• Animated content

• Visual content

• AI facilitated but not 100% AI authored content.

Out

• ‘Look at me’ content

• Purposeless content

• Inauthentic content

• Content that ends with a sell

• Content that begins with a sell

• Content that is someone else’s passed off as your own

• Political content, unless of course you are a politician.

  And remember:

• It’s OK to change your opinion

• It’s OK to say you were wrong

• It’s OK to say you think you are right

• It’s great to have an opinion, but also respect others might have one too

• It’s great to communicate.

Do you agree? What’s your thoughts on what’s in and what’s not?

Image with thanks to Suzy Hazelwood, pexels.com

Redefining the Narrative

We are presently running some workshops with a client to help key stakeholders focus their narratives, understand the difference between personal and professional personas (a fave of mine) and support them in retelling this narrative with media. At the same time, I have been working with a happiness coach. Not to bring positive toxicity to my life, but to raise the bar authentically on being in the now. Based on the six human needs, as outlined by Tony Robbins, of Certainty, Variety, Significance, Connection, Growth and Contribution, the coaching looks at each individual area and how we frame these areas in our lives.

And as always feels like the case – suddenly my world seems to have aligned and I realised how one part of my life resonates with another part. Within our coaching we have been looking at how we look at situations through a different lens – not sugar-coating but stopping and rethinking. So, how the mundane tasks of work are actually the bridge that we build the rest of our businesses on – allowing for the creativity, the fun and the inspiration to happen. The foundations of ensuring we have the money in the bank by invoicing monthly, the right people in the team to support the clients, providing training for those who need it – allows the freedom for us to do our jobs well and take pleasure in them.

This has made me think of how we can help clients reframe their messaging when talking to journalists. Media is often described as the platform to reach the public – asking the questions that their audience want answering and getting the information that they are interested in. This is often where the disconnect happens between client and media and of course, where a good PR and comms specialist can help. A client narrative of ‘this is what we do and why we are good at it’ is often not what the end consumer -the reader/viewer – wants to hear/see. They want is either an opinion on a subject, an education around a topic or a solution to a challenge. This is why LinkedIn recently changes its algorithm, prioritising knowledge, and detail over virality and frequency. Often our clients are experts in their field, but they don’t need to say this to generate credibility, they too need to reframe their outlook - show that credibility and knowledge through their opinions and provide detail and suggesting viewpoints that others haven’t before.

At Antelope, we have a personalised 4x I plan when it comes to comms which asks the following questions about content:

Is it:

• Informative (I didn’t know that)

• Insightful (I hadn’t thought of that)

• Interesting (I am pleased that I know that)

• and/or Inspiring (I wish I had thought of that)?

Followed by how does this content, this interview, this communication make your audience Think, Feel and Do? How do we move them from Awareness of the product/service or opinion, Consideration to engage with it, to Purchase or Engagement with it and lead to Advocacy and Contribution, either by resharing it or recommending it?

Understanding narratives and how we use them in our day-to-day world both whether at work or in the real world outside, and how to be clear in our communication is fundamental to running a business, or a relationship of any sort. And sometimes we all need a bit of help in clarifying it. Surely being clear in what you want to say and understanding the feedback from the conversation is the secret to happiness?

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-of-people-sitting-on-chair-on-stage-6896181/ - used with thanks.

To Blog or not to Blog

So, Apple has released its latest advert, Mother Nature, which aims to showcase what the big tech corp is doing “leaving the world better than we found it”. As it says, “Each of us contributes to that effort in our own way, bringing a passion for what we do best and what we believe matters most”, while “exploring our people’s stories…”. For a company that drives its revenue through new product launches and works on the premise that its audience will want the latest, most up-to-date product as soon as it launches, it could have been a hard dichotomy to communicate.

However, in my humble opinion (and the reaction is definitely divided), what a triumph it is. Not only does it highlight exactly what Apple is doing when it comes to sustainability, but it does it in a truly engaging, original and softly, softly promotional way. I would expect nothing less tbh.

And although the advert has caused much discussion already, one the most interesting things for me was the length of the advert – at around 5.25 minutes, it is long. Now where Apple go, many follow. And although I am sure some of this will be cut and carved for use elsewhere, I did wonder – ‘Is this the return of long(ish) form content?’

For us, nothing replaces real thought. Now I know that long form can be interpreted as between 1000-8,000 words, but there has definitely been a shift in modern communication to a line or two or a video upload as an easy alternative to having to think, construct and create. Yes, there is a place for 280-character thoughts - if anyone is still using X? And of course, now we have Threads for those who want to extend that comment to a para or two. And there is certainly a place for video, especially as a quick and impactful way of introducing a point and for those that interpret visually rather than via the written word. But to get into the nitty gritty of things, there needs to be a little more meat on the bones for me. Imagine a Ted Talk that lasted 30 seconds. Or Martin Luther’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech being two minutes instead of 17. Or The Handmaid’s Tale being only 1 series or One Hundred Years of Solitude a novella. You get the idea. That doesn’t mean that you need to stretch out content for the sake of it, although if you take the rule of seven as gospel, repetition is the key to embedding a message.

One of the most asked questions we get asked is how long should a commentary piece be? Sometimes this is dictated by a magazine - normally around 800 words. But if it isn’t, it should really be how long it takes to tell your story, without losing the plot (and the audience) along the way. For some this might be 400 words, for others 4,000, dependent on the subject, the argument, and the point of view. For one, I miss the written word, the sense of being able to lose myself in copy, in being taken on a trip into someone else’s mind, to be guided into their opinion. And if the Apple advert does one thing to influence marketing, I hope it is a sign that long form is coming back to a platform near you.

Creating a personal brand in a corporate world

So, I have a secret to share. I am naturally a shy person and that my outgoing nature is definitely learnt behaviour rather than a natural flair. Which is why PR and comms is the perfect world for me as instead of having to front out campaigns myself I can write and author from A Another.

And I know I am not alone. In my years of working in comms, the times I have heard stakeholders telling me they don’t like to post on socials, don’t feel comfortable ‘being out there’ and would prefer someone to take the reins when it came to advocacy. And then there are the ones who are comfortable sharing their successes on socials, but somehow forget to frame it in the context of teamwork, or mix up the personal with professional.

So how do you create a personal brand in a corporate world? Stay authentic while still toeing the company line? Be true to your values while embrace those around you?

Today’s world is very different than it was 20, 15 or even 10 years ago. Rightly so, companies are embracing diversity which means different voices representing an organisation is a great way of showing the breadth of expertise and personal experience a company has within its workforce. Which gives us all the opportunity to create our own personal brand.

Step 1: Define your brand

Just as you would a product or a service you need to understand what you want to be known for. Take your value base - what gives your work purpose - and your expertise- what you contribute to your workplace - and you probably have it right there. So it could be that you want to be known for being the expert in children development for those in a pre-school setting, but also feel strongly about the right for women to be given the same opportunities as others when returning to work post maternity. These could be the pillars of your brand.

Step 2: Refine your audience

Who is it you want to influence? The audiences might be multi-faceted – so clients, stakeholders that influence your industry, and of course the internal client - your colleagues and other peers. Think about what it is that connects you to these audiences, is it the same thing or does your brand need to have different strands to reach different audiences?

Step 3: Destination

Why do you want your personal brand to be seen? Where do you want your brand to be seen? How do you want your personal brand to be seen in 5,10 and 15 years? All these questions are key to understanding how your brand should evolve. So if your personal brand is about work winning, then your proof points and validation needs to be tailored to this. If it is around acquiring talent, or showing yourself as talent, then this requires a slightly different strategy. If you are an owner of a company and your end goal is to be acquired, then your personal brand is not about how great you are but how you have grown the company to what it is today. Understanding the why, what and how can help you plan, evaluate and redirect your strategy.

Step 4: Validation

Like with any other brand, you need validation. Making claims without proof points will not help your brand be credible. Using case studies, client testimonials, awards won or shortlisted for, and team shout outs all help bring more voices to recognise your brand. Remember too that others are more likely to support your brand if you support theirs, so interact with others on social media, provide endorsements on LinkedIn for those you felt did a good job too and you will find your followers, your posts will start to generate momentum too.

Step 5: Refine your voice

And here’s the important part. Refine your voice. Be authentic and tell your story, linking to your values, but remember you are representing your company, and have a voice appropriate to that role. If you are part of a team, acknowledge that your successes are being part of that team whether it be part of a client team or an internal team which in turn will help amplify your voice and add credibility to linking to those around you. And pick out the parts of your brand that make you stand out. So if your brand is around supporting women back to work and you have recently returned to work, it doesn’t mean sharing baby photos on your LinkedIn account, but perhaps sharing the journey of how returning to work and balancing work/life and how supportive your company was in that transition.

Finally, to truly build your own personal brand, you need to embrace it and feel comfortable in it. If like me, this doesn’t come naturally, create a professional persona for yourself - like Beyonce’s Sasha Fierce or Lady Gaga - who you can shout about their successes while still reflecting the light of success.

Bring your whole self to work? Really?

Let me explain. When it comes to corporate communications I believe that the devil is in the detail – the detail being that it is corporate comms not personal comms. That if you are representing a company, normally on a company related platform – ie their website, possible on their social media or even if on someone else’s platform – eg in a publication – it will be as they feel your level of experience or expertise might be interesting to their readers. And there is another clue there – it is your expertise that they are interested in. And in the majority this means within your chosen field. Now of course I am talking B2B comms here – which is what we do here at Antelope – not B2C which of course is a different ballgame altogether (although I am not sure whole, whole self is appropriate there either).

I was listening to a celebrity interview on podcast the other day – it was with a celeb who has a larger than life persona – physically, behaviourally and verbally. This is a man who had become ‘famous’ from reality TV which is probably the closest you are going to get to bringing your whole self to work if there was ever an example. However, what he was saying, which isn’t the first time you will have heard this, is that he has two names – one for TV and one he was born with. And what he reveals about himself depends very much on who he is at the time – so if he is on TV, he is larger than life, dressed to the nines and with a whiter than white smile. If he is at home, he is, like us all, in his tracksuit bottoms, eating Cheerios out of a bowl.

Which brings me onto social media and how many are confusing this ‘bringing their whole self’ on LinkedIn. Creating a personality behind a profile is great. Putting a bit of colour into the posts about who you are and what you do, super. But whole self…

It feels like we have forgotten the relationship we have signed up to at work – one which is professional as well as personal. One where normally we are paid for providing a service to others, and that people trust and rely on us to do that. So, knowing that I am often walking through the bluebells in my local wood, or that I am juggling life and work, isn’t something I want to share with my ‘network’. Sure, I might want to tell my close colleagues about these things, or talk through with my line manager – but everyone else? And what about that whole self who sometimes doesn’t act or live up to what I want to be. Is social media my confession box to not feeling 100% myself?

This isn’t saying I don’t think we should be authentic at work, or feel like we need to hid things from others – not at all. It is around audiences and understanding that social media is like talking at a conference, to a mix of delegates – some you might know well, some you might work alongside, but a lot of them that you know through association, or you don’t know at all. So, like in that conference talk, make it personal, be yourself, tell a personal story but relate it back to what they might be interested in, your role, the value to them.

Highlighting EDI and issues like menopause, the struggle for working parents juggling it all of course should be talked about widely and openly and often real people’s stories create connections and help others. And I am not for a minute suggesting we stop these campaigns. But I am suggesting the mindless diarisation of daily live on professional networks isn’t really of interest to anyone but those who are posting it. And perhaps they need to a real break from work to rediscover their whole self again.

Cost of Comms Crisis

However, marcomms can be even more precarious in a cost of living crisis. Financially precarious as some senior stakeholders look at budgets and see it as a line to cut. However, in our 30+ experience, when things are tight, it should be the time when you increase your presence, shout louder to your audience and differentiate yourself from your competitors – which of course is what marcoms can do for you.

Marcoms can be a big investment – not just in terms of budget if you are employing an external agency/consultancy – but also in terms of time and effort – those consultants will need your expert input. Yet it can also have a massive return on investment, if strategically planned and implemented.

1. Align your marcoms with your sales strategy – we wrote in detail about this here, but it still amazes us how many organisations undertake comms for the sake of comms. And even if they do have a central marketing function that has a communications strategy, many of their senior stakeholders go rogue rather than support this strategy.

2. Really find your gold dust. When budgets are squeezed communicating how clients/potential clients should be choosing your business above your competitors is essential. In recessionary times, business normally slows but it doesn’t stop, which means there will still be business to be had but might be harder to win.

3. Which leads to key messages communication. Relook at your key messages, do they need to be refined? Is value more important to communicate? Think about the context of the marketplace you are communicating to.

4. Don’t be scared to acknowledge challenges ahead but use these challenges as a platform to show how your organisation can help with the solutions. Many companies know their problems, the issues ahead – however, finding solutions to these challenges will be where they might need your help. Illustrating how you can help might trigger that conversation, that becomes a lead and a new client.

5. Communicate past experience. If stakeholders are more cautious with their finances, they will want to ensure more than ever that any budget they do have will be spent well. Therefore, communicating examples where you have added value to a client’s organisations, showcasing credentials and testimonials to endorse your work will reassure clients old and new.

We all know that you need to invest to grow, but many don’t see the investment in communications as part of that growth strategy.

Image courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@freestocks with thanks.

Aligning your comms and content strategy with your business plan

So, I started at the beginning and asked about their business plan. What were they trying to achieve? And how did they see their comms fitting into that? The colleague replied that they hadn’t thought about how comms related to their business plan, they didn’t need massive growth as they already had a capacity issue and in fact thought of comms as something they should do, rather than what it could do.

We live in a world where we have communication tools in our arm’s reach often 24/7, where we are given the option to communicate by telephone, by text, by social media platforms and by emails amongst other routes, where the world and its wife has a profile, many building their own personal brands. Communication is an expectation. Yet why do we do it? Obviously on a personal level, we often do it to educate others about what is going on, find out information or impart information. And the same is true of B2B communication, but with the underlying principle that it needs to have purpose – what are you trying to achieve? Who are you talking to? Where will you find them? How will you engage them? And how does that relate to your company. Or to put in marcoms speak:

- Comms objectives: how do your comms fit with your business strategy?

- Target audiences: who are you looking to promote your business to?

- Customer journey: where do you find them and how do you get them to engage with you?

- Key message communication: what are the key things you want to say to them?

- The comms bridge: how to say those key things in an interesting say to make them interested in your company

- Content calendar and schedule: repeat, repeat, repeat until it resonates

- Evaluation: checking in at each point to what works, what doesn’t, when and how.

Of course, this will look different for those with different starting points or objectives. If it is about growth and finding the maximum number of potential customers you might want to look at cross sector marcoms or linking events to comms so that you have capacity to meet audiences who are not known to you presently. If it is about credibility, then it could be about profile building within socials, PR and thought leadership. If it is about attracting talent to your organisation, it could be both of these things but with different key messages.

Communication is essential in any business – whether that be internal to your team members – or external to clients, stakeholders within your industry or an Another. However, communication without purpose is like shouting in the rain – it might feel good at the time, but no-one will hear you. And of course, if no-one can hear you, then you’re talking to yourself.