by Tim Boivin | Jan 25, 2017 | Blog
The Associated Press named the Cubs winning the World Series as the top sports story of 2016. Aside from the fact that Captain Obvious must have been moonlighting for the AP sports department this year, there are two critical lessons that PR strategists can take from the Cubs championship season to play winning PR.
The author (right) with his son Jeff outside Wrigley Field before Game 5 of the 2016 World Series. Cubs were down 3-1 at this point but came back to win the Series 4-3. They had a plan, and stuck to it.
Have a plan and stick to it
When Theo Epstein became President of the Cubs, he was upfront with the fans. He said he had a plan but the fans would have to be patient. He was confident it would work. For fans (like me) of a team that at the time had gone more than a century since last winning the World Series, that was a big ask.
But Theo stuck to his plan, as he sought to build a “foundation of sustained success.” He focused on building the pillars for future long-term success around younger players the team could develop in their own image, such as Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, and Javier Baez.
A team built with the compass of a guiding philosophy that everyone buys into has a much greater likelihood of winning the World Series. And so it is in PR.
In the haste to generate immediate leads for the sales team, a PR plan is slapped together with lofty and often unachievable short-term goals Page 1 story in the Wall Street Journal, interviews on CNBC or Fox Business News, feature in the New York Times. But without first building the PR plan basics and getting everyone on the team to buy into the goals, those lofty aspirations will remain out of reach, especially if you are starting from a position far back in the standings of your industry.
Basically, you’re trying to hit an 8-run homer to take the lead when you are behind 7-0 in the first inning, instead of think about how to move runners from base to base within your integrated marketing plan to put (and keep the) pressure on to take the lead in your market.
Instead of swinging for the PR fences, start first by looking to hit some singles and doubles. Understand your priorities, where your fans (your prospects and customers) are, what challenges they have, what will interest them. Then build a strong content lineup that gets and keeps them circling the basepaths with you as they tap into your bench for your depth of industry knowledge as they make their purchasing decisions. That’s a proven winning PR strategy.
BUT Adjust on the fly
The Cubs went through some tough times during Theo Epstein’s early years running the club. They lost 101, 96 and 89 games his first three years, as the team looked to unload the bad attitudes, the bad contracts and the bad fundamentals that had jinxed the team for decades. They were progressing, albeit slowly, and adjusting ever so slightly on the fly only when it made sense.
Then Joe Maddon became available to manage the team. Maddon was a proven winner who worked with young players throughout his tenure in Tampa Bay, making repeat trips to the playoffs against much bigger-market teams with much larger payrolls, so the Cubs jumped at the chance to bring him in.
They also added several playoff-proven veteran pitchers, even though their plan focused initially on young hitters. The time was right to go for it all. They were winning, but they adjusted on the fly and got even better.
That’s what your PR team needs to do as well. There will be a lot of swings and plenty of misses as you look to see what scores with your prospects, but once you start making contact with the ball look to adjust the program to get even better. The unique buying personas who may be interested in your solutions may not swing at a webinar, but they may subscribe to your blog or pay attention to a particularly insightful infographic.
Then start going for extra bases with more exclusive, deeply researched thought leadership pieces placed in major healthcare industry trade publications, or white papers distributed as part of an integrated digital marketing campaign. You may want to build on your winning streak with videos or a serial ebook that takes those leads being generated and keeps them coming back for more and more compelling content.
Keep adding to your PR program based on what’s working, and don’t be afraid to trade off something that isn’t working for something new.
Extra Innings
With PR, like any sport, practice makes perfect. But along the ways, bad things can and will happen. Your executive team can lose a key player, your organization may face a communications crisis due to a disgruntled ex-employee or dissatisfied customer, or an industry analyst may criticize your solutions.
Bad things happened to the Cubs, too, late in the game against the Indians. The Cleveland team came from behind to tie the score, sending the game into the 10th inning tied.
That’s when the most disappointing player on the Cubs, Jason Heyward, stepped up during a rain delay and reminded his team how good they were, that they were ready for what happened to them. And that they could win. And they did. The World Series. In my lifetime. I can die a happy man.
By building your PR plan to be fundamentally strong, by not being afraid to try different things to see what works, by leveraging the depth of knowledge on your bench to create strong, compelling content you too can be World Champions, in PR.
by Jodi Amendola | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog
I often tell my clients that selecting a PR agency is much like selecting a spouse. It’s an intimate relationship; we often talk with our own clients several times a day on the phone and email, so we know how important it is for agencies and their clients to “click.”
As for finding this perfect PR match, it’s a lot like real life dating. Sure, an online search can reap lots of possibilities, but referrals from people you know and who know the other party are often the most effective way to find the agency just right for you. So be sure to ask your colleagues, strategic partners and industry editors who they’ve worked with in the past.
After you’ve identified a viable candidate, do your due diligence to confirm it really is a match made in (business) heaven. With 25 years of experience running a successful PR agency, I’ve narrowed this vetting process down to 7 key factors.
Expertise
Do you need an agency with experience in multiple verticals or do you want an agency in a specific market niche such as healthcare IT (HIT)? With the latter, you’ll get knowledge that’s both broad across different niches within that space and deep a combination which uncovers many more messaging opportunities and angles. Such an agency is going to have more relationships with HIT media and digital influencers, along with media experience and skills in national and local markets.
But don’t just take the PR agency’s word for how experienced its team members are find out how long the agency has been in business and be sure to review customer case studies. If possible, seek a conversation or two with the agency’s clients.
Size
It’s amazing to me that some companies, even really small start-ups, think they need a “large” agency to succeed–the “nobody ever got fired for hiring IBM” mentality. I have heard so many clients and prospects describe their experiences working with a large PR agency and their inevitable discovery that the agency viewed them as one of the smaller fishes in the pond. How much attention do you think these companies ended up getting?
There are some companies who start with a small or medium PR agency and then become so big that they do in fact need a large, global partner or multiple agencies and very often, it was the dedication of an independent agency that helped get them there. So when it’s time to hire your next PR agency, make sure to scope out how much personalized attention you’ll get. Ask how many people will be on your team, and their different levels of expertise. Find out their roles and responsibilities and get a good sense of how much access you’ll have to each one.
Location
In the old days before email, Skype, web conference calls and the like, companies largely felt they had to work with agencies in their town or state. But that’s no longer the case. Today companies can communicate and work with any agency in the world, meaning they have exponentially more agencies to choose from. Of course, time zones are a consideration, so you’ll want to seek a PR agency with staff located in all zones. But aside from that, you now have so many more agencies to choose from. So many choices can be overwhelming, so again narrow them down by how well an agency meets the criteria I’ve outlined for you. It really does work!
Range of Services
It’s so much more convenient to work with an agency that offers a roster of services that clients can choose from, either a la carte or integrated. Look for a PR agency that can offer media relations, social media, PR strategy, content marketing, digital marketing, and writing at a minimum. Ask about their connections with video production firms, graphic design and other auxiliary creative services. An experienced agency will either offer these services themselves or have numerous connections on hand they can refer you to and work with on your various campaigns.
Partners
On the subject of agencies working with other creative groups, choose one that can collaborate not compete with your existing agency partners. This is important for integrated campaigns that are executed by multiple agencies to actually work.
Team
Here’s something you might not discover until after you sign the retainer contract with some agencies: very often the high-level execs you met at the presentation aren’t the team who will be working on your account. That’s unfortunate, because experience and compatibility matter. Ideally, at the initial presentation at least one of the people who will be on your team should be there. Do you feel a connection with them? Are they someone you would enjoy working with on a regular basis? Remember this is going to be a close relationship. There are days when I speak with my clients more than with my own husband!
Budget/terms/scope of work
When evaluating agencies you will want to compare apples to apples in terms of services, quantities/deliverables, etc. Are you going to engage in an annual retainer program or a PR project? Will you be billed by the hour or by scope of deliverables? Based on my experience, the latter will get you more value. Teams won’t be clocking out the second your hours for the month are used up; instead, they’ll work tirelessly to successfully execute your campaigns with no limit to the time they put in.
Most PR agencies, if they have hit your top 5 or 10 list, are probably going to be solid contenders. They can all probably write a solid press release and know the nuts and bolts of working with the media. But hone in on how they’ll work with you. Zero in on the fit. Does it feel right? Is this the company that you want to serve as an extension to your own team? As with all other relationships, this comfort level is the key to finding your PR agency soul mate.
by Alex Whitten | Aug 10, 2016 | Blog
Honestly, before I started as a PR intern at Amendola Communications three months ago I knew relatively nothing about Public Relations.
I’m currently studying journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, so while I have had some exposure to PR, I really didn’t know what it takes to work in the field day to day. I only knew how the two fields intertwined.
Add to that the challenges of having a focus on healthcare and health IT and if feels like I’m in a very demanding school when everyone else is off for the summer, simply because I’ve continued building upon what I’ve learned at school with what I have learned here. So here are a few things I have learned about PR since I started my internship.
PR Is More Complicated Than I Thought
Before my internship what I knew about the field of PR is that it includes a lot of press releases and pitch writing. In fact, my desire to learn more about the PR field is what drove me to pursue an internship at Amendola Communications. Boy, did I learn quickly that PR is a lot more than press releases and pitches. Here are a few things I learned that PR professionals do:
1. They manage social media accounts. Can you imagine being in charge of someone’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and more?
2. They create content for those social media accounts, like infographics and videos.
3. They manage websites, and sometimes even manage creating them to begin with.
4. They create, gather and analyze large amounts of data. Then use that data to create strategies to use for everything else they manage.
5. They set up and do research for interviews.
6. They even help train people on how to do interviews if they don’t have experience.
7. They manage any sort of PR crisis, or as I’d like to think they’re the firemen and women that put out the fires.
8. And you know they manage press releases and story pitching.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Managing all of these aspects of PR is too much for just one person to handle. To make all those social media posts roll out smoothly and assure that everything is meeting its deadline takes a team of professionals to make a company look like a PR pro. It really does take all the teamwork of the “A Team” to make sure the PR machine is running at full capacity. I can’t stress enough how important it is for everyone who is my age and in college to learn how to work in a team, as much as we all hate doing assigned group projects. It’s more important than you’d think, and very much an everyday occurrence in the working world.
It Also Takes a Wide Range of Skills
When I started studying journalism my professors told me that companies are looking for people who are well-rounded, with many different skills and abilities, rather than someone who is only trained in one thing. It really helps in the working world to know a lot about different things such as different forms of media, different computer programs and more. Now I don’t mean everyone should go out and become a jack of all trades and a master of none. You can be a jack of all trades and a master of some, but don’t spread yourself too thin.
It’s Not Impossible to Start a Business
During my time as an intern I got to sit in on calls and meetings. During them I couldn’t help but be inspired by the people I met or spoke to who had started their own businesses. It was amazing working with people who were so excited about what they were doing and so ready to get their businesses up and running with a little help from Amendola Communications. It made me realize that starting a business isn’t always a bust and that it can be a huge success.
The Healthcare System is a lot More Disconnected Than You Think
During my internship I quickly learned that most people are under the illusion that anything involving their health, such as their medical records with their primary care physician and their health information from the last time they went to the emergency room, are all somehow connected and easily accessible among different doctors and nurses, simply because we now have computers and electronic health records. Most of the time, we couldn’t be more wrong. From what I’ve learned it’s actually very difficult to transfer information between doctors and emergency rooms and elsewhere. I’ve also learned that people are purposely creating programs and companies to help correct this issue.
It Takes One Angry Person to Cause a Healthcare PR Crisis
At one point during my internship I helped one of my supervisors make a vlog about “How to Handle a Healthcare Media Crisis.” At the moment, I understood the topic but I didn’t realize just how important it was. Until someone close to me had a medical emergency where something went wrong. Obviously they were angry and about to go on a social media rampage, when a lightbulb went off in my head. I immediately thought “this is what the vlog is about, this is why it’s important.” In our world of social media, all it takes to damage a healthcare or health IT’s reputation is one angry Facebook post to trend. Trending happens so quickly, and as stated in the video, most healthcare or health IT companies don’t even get a chance to comment on what has happened before it is too late. This is possibly one of the most important things a PR team handles.
In Conclusion
As my internship starts to wind down due to school starting I’m glad I was able to learn so much about PR, along with building upon what I already knew, from Amendola Communications. Going back to school I feel like I have a much better understanding of the PR field, and even my own field and how to interact with PR even better. In addition I now know more about healthcare and health IT than I had ever expected. At school I feel like I’ll be able to give some good insights to my fellow students about how we will be using what we’ve learned, and what we need to prepare for once we all enter the working world.
Overall, I’m happy that I got the opportunity and experience of being a PR intern at Amendola Communications. It really made me feel reassured that what I am studying and learning at school is very important and what I really enjoy.
(All GIFS courtesy of GIPHY.com)
by Administrator | Dec 1, 2015 | News
IT veteran is latest creative talent to join agency’s “A-Team”
Amendola Communications, a nationally-recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare technology public relations and marketing agency, announced today that Michelle Ronan Noteboom has joined the agency’s team of creative talent in the role of senior content and account director. Noteboom will manage and provide PR and marketing content for multiple high profile national accounts to drive brand awareness and introduce new programs, products, and services.
Noteboom spent seven years as an independent contributor for HIStalk and HIStalk Practice writing under the name of “Inga” and leading the online publication’s explosive growth in sponsorship support. She was also a freelance writer and marketing communications specialist for various healthcare IT publications and vendors, including Healthcare IT News, HL7 Standards, The Health Care Blog, healthfinch, and HCS. Previously Noteboom spent 22 years in healthcare IT sales and sales management with Misys Healthcare Systems. She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Texas State University.
Agency CEO, Jodi Amendola said, “We have always made it a priority to hire top talent but Michelle’s celebrity-like notoriety is a huge win. We are very excited to leverage her industry acumen, superior writing and strategic input. She will make a great addition to our team of seasoned HIT PR and marketing pros. Our clients are ecstatic.”
“I’ve long admired Jodi and her team of professionals, who are among the best in the healthcare IT industry,” said Noteboom. “While I have loved being a freelancer, I am excited for the opportunity to learn new skills and grow my expertise with the help of the talented Amendola staff, who have impressed me with their commitment to delivering outstanding content and marketing and PR services on behalf of Amendola’s prestigious client base.”
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team”, visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Media Contact: Jodi Amendola, CEO, Amendola Communications | jamendola@ACmarketingPR.com
