Kirsty Goodlett, Author at Ketner Group Communications

Your CFO Will Ask You To Justify PR: Here’s What To Tell Them

Posted on May 4, 2026 | by Kirsty Goodlett

If you’ve been working in marketing for more than about, say, six months, you are likely dreading this conversation.

You’re in a leadership meeting, and the CFO asks you to justify the line item for PR. How is this monthly, recurring investment actually driving business value?

Don’t fret, we can help.

At Ketner Group, we’ve spent more than 20 years helping B2B tech companies in the modern commerce ecosystem build communications programs that not only deliver business value, but have proven this fact with real metrics.

So let’s dive in. Here are a few questions your CFO, or other finance leader, is likely to ask you and how you can respond.

(Note: you’ll see that we include client anecdotes here. When we kick off new engagements, we develop KPIs early on so that our contacts have metrics in-hand for strategic conversations. You can learn more about how we build KPIs in this blog.)

Why are we spending money on PR instead of demand gen?

This is a common concern, and it’s easy to understand why. Demand gen proves results in a neat dashboard, but PR teams often get a spreadsheet of coverage.

Here’s what to tell your CFO: PR and demand gen work together, not in competition. Demand gen captures buyers who are already looking for you. PR helps move buyers through the pipeline — and, frankly, is often the reason they’re looking for you in the first place.

A prospect who saw your executive SME quoted in Reuters or publishing articles on Forbes arrives to demand gen channels already warm. Case in point: our client Birdzi shared that a single press release generated a half-dozen qualified, inbound leads.

Another client’s VP of Marketing shared that after ramping up PR, page views grew from less than 6,000 per month to nearly 18,000. Inbound leads reached 400 per month. In three years, more than a third of qualified leads tracked back to PR.

We invested in PR before and didn’t see a return. Why is this program different?

I’m sorry to hear that — it’s so disappointing to believe a strategic marketing investment is going to deliver results only to see nothing come through.

What I recommend here is two things. First, try to uncover why the previous program didn’t deliver your desired ROI. Is it because reporting structures weren’t aligned to business goals? Was it a case of the PR partner’s expertise? Was it based on the overall investment?

Second, we often hear this question after a tech company has worked with a generalist firm. These agencies need to learn your market, buyers, competitive landscape and target media, all while they’re working to execute PR campaigns. And that takes time!

At Ketner Group, since we focus exclusively on the modern commerce ecosystem, we know the reporters who cover your category, the analysts your buyers trust and the comms angles resonating with reporters right now.

When Inspectorio came to us after working with a previous agency, one of the first things its SVP said was that the company needed a team to react to breaking news and “interject Inspectorio into the conversation.” In the first six months, we generated 37 pieces of coverage and moved them to No. 2 or No. 3 in every share of voice category.

Can we just use AI instead of hiring an agency?

Honestly? Yes; if someone on your team has PR expertise, time to manage a program and already has existing media relationships. AI will help them move more quickly and could be a decent investment strategy.

If that’s not the case, consider it this way: one KG AS said, “AI works when you know what questions to ask and what prompts to write. AI is like a junior intern, and it’s got to have a great manager.”

If your team is stretched thin managing too many projects, or if you’re looking for expertise in a category you are less familiar with (such as earned media), then it makes sense to invest in help.

For NIQ, journalists at Bloomberg, AP, WWD and CNBC all come directly to our team with inbound requests. We receive as many as 20 per week because of the consistent, credible, human relationships we’ve developed.

AI is great for creating early drafts and doing research, but it can’t pick up the phone and call a journalist it has a close, personal relationship with. It can’t read the room during a high-stakes media interview. It doesn’t offer the kind of relationship in which, when something breaks in your industry at 6 a.m., a reporter texts your team first.

How is PR actually driving business outcomes?

This is the most important question — we love it!

PR builds awareness that feeds demand gen, creates third-party validation to shorten sales cycles and builds brand credibility that compounds over time.

For example, our client GK Software entered the U.S. market with no regional brand recognition and no U.S. marketing team. After about a decade of sustained work, GK has become the No. 1 new POS provider in the world and was acquired by Fujitsu, which chose to keep the GK brand name post acquisition.

For clients looking to track PR in real time, we build quarterly KPI reports that go beyond coverage counts. Take XCCommerce, each month we track share of voice against competitors and break down coverage by type, region and vertical, while calculating combined audience reach. After the first four months, their VP of Strategy and Business Development noted that our results had exceeded his expectations.

Don’t worry, you’re ready for that high-stakes finance meeting

These are just a few of the questions we work with our clients to answer on a day-to-day basis. To us, PR isn’t a campaign or a small part of the funnel. PR is like a lighthouse. Once the lantern is lit, it continually guides passing ships.

One VP at a previous client, Plumslice said, “When I met Ketner Group at my last company, I saw the significant impact they made on our bottom line, valuation and exit. When I joined my current company, it was a must to bring them along.”

That’s the kind of compliment we wake up for. Long relationships and big wins are what inspire us each day to do what we do here, and we’d love you to be a part of that too.

If you’d like to talk through your current business challenges and how we may be able to help, we’re always happy to chat. Let’s start a conversation.

A Love Letter to Trade Publications, From a B2B Tech PR Agency

Posted on March 2, 2026 | by Kirsty Goodlett

Dear trade magazines,

From the bottom of our hearts, from all of us as a team, thank you.

Thanks for keeping the lights on, for delivering the news in your part of the world.

Thank you for deeply investigating your market and audience. And thank you for being agile enough to report on a wide array of topics quickly, without ego.

Thank you for sharing your content widely: across print, digital, email, social and even in-person interactions. You find creative ways to tell stories and innovative paths through which to tell them. As you identify new revenue opportunities to keep your lights on, you continue to report truthfully.

Thank you for scouring every analyst research report, every press release wire, and even (YES!) print. You inspire conversations and connections.

Trade magazines, your consistency and dedication to the news are two big reasons our clients generate new leads when they are covered in your publications. We love working with our clients to tell big stories about how the shopping ecosystem is evolving.

Our senior content specialist Dan Ochwat, who has worked as both managing editor and reporter, thanks you too. Dan said about trades, “These are the publications where true execs go to learn and keep tabs on competitors. LinkedIn provides a great space for thought leadership, but it also comes with a fair bit of chest thumping and squabbling.

“Major media is no doubt where our clients want to be seen—the reach and clout are unmatched—but there’s a lot to be said about trade publications knee-deep into the space, often writing on trends months before a national publication catches on.”

Trade magazines, thank you for accepting byline articles. We know how difficult it is to keep evolving your business model. Our commerce technology clients truly appreciate the opportunity to submit thought leadership that tells market trends from the very inside.

Trades, we love so many things about you and we want to thank you for:

Inspiring sales conversations
Helping us reach decision makers
Allowing us to share domain expertise
Connecting us to analysts and influencers who monitor your coverage closely
Improving digital discoverability
Meeting us where we are at and where important conversations are happening, whether in person or online

Trade magazines, do you think we were surprised to learn that 82% report that trade media coverage directly impacts purchase decisions? No, no we were not.

As it gets easier to generate more content with less (looking at you, AI), you continue to do more with less. Your commitment to original content and expert voices warms our hearts.

Trade magazines, thank you for being a daily part of our lives. And for inspiring us to think creatively about the future.

We love you.

Gratefully,

The team at Ketner Group

P.S. Curious to know which trade magazines we’re talking about here? Check out our client coverage to see which publications we’ve loved working with recently.

Identifying The Value of PR: Three Steps Our B2B Tech Clients Take

Posted on September 23, 2025 | by Kirsty Goodlett

“How are our PR activities driving business value?”

One of our B2B tech clients recently posed this question to us. It was undoubtedly a good one. And to answer the question, we took a short and long-term approach.

First, we summarized how we saw PR driving value based on our existing reports. Then, we provided recommendations for updating our processes to align with the company’s new marketing strategy.

In the short term, we compiled our notable annual successes, summarized campaigns in flight, compiled this year’s monthly reports and recommended a strategy for updating our reporting moving forward. For the long term, we discussed ways to develop new KPIs and reporting methods to align with their new marketing strategy. That way, once the new methods were in place, we’d be able to more clearly identify how our collaborative communications campaigns were helping the company meet their overall business goals.

This isn’t the only client we have who has asked us this question.

While our clients most often identify tracking and reporting processes when they set up a communications engagement, things happen. Internal marketing teams change. New products launch. Business strategies shift.

That’s why, whether kicking off a new communications retainer or revising our planning to align to new goals, evaluating reporting processes on a consistent basis is always a worthwhile investment.

Here are three steps we take to collaboratively define and track success alongside our clients.

Step One: Identify Our Goals

The B2B tech companies that have the most confidence in their PR strategies and corresponding results are the ones who have clear business goals that are directly aligned with the goals of their communications campaigns.

For example, one of our clients consistently comes up against five key competitors in their sales processes. Their goal is to generate more awareness than and differentiate themselves in the market against these core competitors. They seek to answer questions like, is Competitor A receiving more media placements? What press releases is Competitor B distributing?

Another client seeks to understand marketing output. How many press releases are we ideating vs. how many are being put on the wire? Where in the process are we being held up, is it client approval or the press release questionnaire stage?

Yet another client wants to understand their saturation within different verticals, particularly as they identify opportunities for expansion in new markets. How often are they generating placement in retail publications vs. finance? How often are they receiving pickup in general technology publications vs. top tier?

Step Two: Launch Monthly Tracking Processes

Once we identify our communications goals, we work closely with our clients to generate custom KPIs we can track against on a monthly basis. (Step three is to report on these on a quarterly basis.)

Many clients like the out-of-the box reports we deliver using the reporting tool Notified. This tool allows us to track information such as: total placements, publication readership and reach, sentiment, placement region, share of voice against competitors, topics and most impactful outlets.

Combined with our real-time coverage tracking and the ability to easily categorize coverage and activities manually, we collaboratively identify our monthly tracking process.

For example, for the clients referenced above, we respectively track competitive SOV; the number of press releases ideated, placed and published; and the number of placements across verticals (like retail vs. finance).

Step Three: Measure Against Goals on a Quarterly Basis

For many of our B2B technology clients, announcements vary through the year and byline articles do not consistently get published. For example, one client published no press releases all year until they put three on the wire in one month. Another found that the byline articles they placed in Q1 did not publish for months, until they suddenly all went live in June.

Since coverage comes in fits and spurts, we have recommend reporting on our goals on a quarterly basis, alongside quarter-by-quarter comparisons.

Many clients find PR to be a long game, so the more we build reporter relationships and consistently deliver quality resources to media, the more we see coverage increase over the years.

As well, we enjoy seeing clients meet initial goals and then begin to set new ones as the relationships progress! Personally, we love reviewing these quarterly reports for our client relationships that span multiple years.

A Note on What Our PR Reporting Can and Can’t Do

You may have reached this point of the blog post and said to yourself, ok, coverage and activities are all well and good, but what about leads? What about how PR impacts conversions? Great questions.

When it comes to the reports our B2B technology clients generate internally vs. what they expect from their PR agencies, it all comes down to the tools we have at our disposal.

We find that our clients utilize customer relationship management and web tracking tools internally, due to the proprietary nature and day-to-day maintenance requirements of many of these platforms.

As a result, when it comes to correlating communications activities to overall awareness, number of leads generated and number of conversions, we work closely with clients to link information from our efforts to their tools.

Our clients who feel most confident in their communications strategy combine the reports they receive from their tools with anecdotal evidence. Asking a prospect on a phone call, “how did you hear about us?” or including that same question in a demo request form are also great ways to correlate sales to PR.

Keep the Reporting Stories Coming

Looking to read more first-hand stories on PR reporting?

One of our clients wrote first-hand about their processes for correlating communications campaigns to leads.

Another client encouraged us to write a summary of our work together connecting press releases to leads.

And if you’re ready to brainstorm ways you can develop reporting processes that meet your specific needs, you’re always welcome to schedule a call with us!

Celebrating Women’s History Month and Women Who Tell Our Stories

Posted on March 23, 2023 | by Kirsty Goodlett

This year, the theme of Women’s History Month is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.”

As storytellers working for a PR agency and spending a lot of time telling stories, we find the theme particularly relevant and inspiring.

Each year, Ketner Group’s DEI Committee selects a few, team-voted monthly observances to recognize. This year, Women’s History Month is one of them. In celebration, our team is meeting via Zoom this week and each team member will present a short slide on a famous female figure of their choice.

To keep the celebration going, we thought it would be fun share more about the women we’re featuring and why they inspire our work. Here’s what we learned…

Agatha Christie inspires Jenny to connect with an audience

Jenny Bradford, account executive out of our NYC office, said she choose to highlight Agatha Christie, “because her writing has been an inspiration for me ever since I first read her exceptional detective mysteries.

“As someone who loves to write and tell stories for our clients, I always admire strong female wordsmiths and their ability to connect with an audience.”

Agatha Christie, or the “Queen of Crime,” is the best-selling fiction writer of all-time. Her work is only outsold by Shakespeare and the Bible. She wrote 66 detective novels and 17 short stories before her death in 1976, and her play “Mousetrap” is the longest-running play of all time.

Jenny is a big mystery lover, and “And Then There Was None” is one of her favorite books. If you’ve never read an Agatha Christie book, she recommends this New York Times guide to help you identify where to start.

Catherine admires Anna May Wong’s true grit

Our president Catherine Seeds will share more about Anna May Wong during our presentations to the Ketner Group team. Wong Liu Tsong, known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese-American actress to gain international recognition.

Anna May Wong was the daughter of Chinese Americans who ran a laundry in downtown Los Angeles and grew up watching film crews. She worked as an extra starting at age 13, beginning with “The Red Lantern” in 1919. She faced racism because of her Chinese heritage and was underpaid compared to her white co-stars.

“While I can’t relate to the challenges and racism that Anna May Wong faced as a Chinese-American, I whole-heartedly admire her true grit, determination and desire to keep going – I try to remember that when things get hard in my work life,” said Catherine. “No matter what she was facing, Anna May never gave up and worked hard to cement her legacy.”

To learn more about Anna May Wong, Catherine recommends mobituaries, “Anna May Wong: Death of a Trailblazer.”

Kathleen Hanna reminds Jenna of the importance of expressing yourself

Jenna Jordan, account supervisor based in Austin, TX selected Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer of Bikini Kill to feature.

Bikini Kill was one of the most influential female punk bands and Kathleen Hanna was a pioneer of third-wave feminism through the Riot Grrrl movement in the 1990s. Before “Girl Power” was popular, Riot Grrls made it punk.

Case in point? Kathleen Hanna has been known for saying, “I’m not going to sit around and be peace and love with somebody’s boot on my neck.”

As for Jenna, she says about Kathleen Hanna, “Being an introvert in the communications world, Kathleen’s loud persona is a reminder of the importance of expressing yourself, and that there’s no one definition of what that means. She is all about finding ways to make your voice heard, and that translates in my day-to-day work when it comes to telling client stories.”

Sally Mann inspires me with her portraits

As for me, our VP of marketing working remote from Atlanta, GA, I selected Sally Mann to highlight. Sally Mann is one of America’s most renowned photographers.

Personally, I love the challenge of writing in a specific brand or person’s voice, capturing them uniquely. Mann’s portraits are a master class in capturing someone authentically.

While her work includes portraits as well as landscapes, my favorite (and what she is sometimes best-known for) are the pictures she began taking of her family in the 1980s. These pictures are complex visions of childhood, intimate family portraits that capture the photographed and reflect the mother behind the lens.

A mother myself, I was struck in my research by this quote of Sally Mann’s, “Having children…expanded the parameters beyond the decorative and opened up the tender as well as the political (in the broadest sense) side to my work.”

Continuing to be inspired by women storytellers

The Ketner Group team is lucky to have so many strong women storytellers as members of our communications agency and as part of our client base.

Women’s History Month is simply a month we acknowledge these women formally. The everyday work is in ensuring they (and each person we encounter) is valued each day.

measure success of communications strategy

How To Measure the Success of Your Communications Strategy

Posted on September 28, 2022 | by Kirsty Goodlett

We’re excited to share that our eBook, the Retail Tech PR Handbook, is out now! The handbook dives into several aspects of what makes a PR campaign successful, and a key component is measurement.

Since measuring the success of your communications plans is as important as the plan itself, we’ve included highlights from the chapter below. To read the full eBook, download it here.

How to measure your communications strategy

As a marketer, you know firsthand the challenge of demonstrating communications success to executive leadership. It’s essential to put tangible numbers behind your work.

And, if you’re effective and proving PR’s value, you are more likely to ensure that communications secures its place in your company’s overall marketing strategy. Unfortunately, only 20% of PR professionals are involved in marketing planning.

To ensure that you receive your deserved seat at the table, let’s review two best practices for communications reporting.

1. Monthly media measurement

The most common method for measuring a PR strategy’s success is through media measurement tools, such as Cision or Meltwater.

Each tool has pros and cons, but overall they help you track your company’s mentions over time, while also identifying pickup reach, readership, social impact, keywords and more.

In addition to helping you understand the value of your media mentions, these platforms identify your share of voice in comparison to key competitors. We recommend tracking four to five competitors, which allows you to clearly identify how you stack up in your industry and receive inspiration from competitor campaigns.

By completing monthly media measurement, you’ll be able to evaluate campaign success and keep track of your progress towards your PR objectives.

2. Quarterly Key Performance Indicators (KPI) reporting

KPIs provide a fantastic way to track towards your overall company goals. We recommend identifying your KPIs when you develop your strategy, and then tracking them on a quarterly basis.

Setting quarterly goals, instead of monthly, allows you to account for the peaks and valleys of each month. PR has its ups and downs, with some months having more news than others. A quarterly goal averages out these discrepancies.

When you kick off your measurement strategy, you’ll want to establish KPIs through an audit, which provides a baseline report to identify ideal yet realistic goals.

Some examples of quarterly KPIs include:

Overall number of mentions
Number of byline articles published
Number of press release pickups
Number of data-focused mentions
Competitive SOV

There’s no right or wrong number of KPIs to track, but for reference, a Muckrack survey found that the average PR pro tracked five metrics in 2021.

How to create a results-driven PR strategy

The old adage that communications professionals “aren’t good at math” is not a good reason to get PR measurement wrong, or skip it altogether.

When done right, measuring PR ensures you’re able to keep your unique story in the forefront of the news, while tracking against overall marketing objectives, such as lead generation. And it also helps ensure that PR gets the respect it deserves from your company’s executive team.

To learn more about crafting a top-notch communications strategy, be sure to read the Retail Tech PR Handbook. Download here!

From Good to Great: 4 Quick Tips for Writing Superb Byline Articles

Posted on October 11, 2021 | by Kirsty Goodlett

Without a doubt, byline articles are one of the best tools for establishing thought leadership in your industry.

You get the benefit of having an external source, usually a trade publication, validate your expertise by providing you a platform in the first place. And you get roughly 500 words to establish your prowess on a timely topic.

For a technology provider hoping to increase sales and build relationships in the retail sphere, what could be better?

But the commerce tech space is saturated. Your strong competition is likely matching or beating your media cadence. A published byline article is good. A catchy, well-written article is better.

To take your content from good to great, simply follow these quick tips:

1. Craft a catchy title

Consider the homepage of any popular retail publication: they are chock full of articles for readers to peruse. Why would they choose yours? Because they liked your catchy title.

I recommend writing your title after your article is complete. Ideally, your title should describe the entire article. It should also tempt a potential reader, inviting them to click and read more.

Personally, I find lists make great, clickable content. So too do themes, alliteration or strong words. When writing the title for this article, I choose the list format. I used both alliteration and an interesting adjective: “superb.”

My colleague Catherine often incorporates songs into her articles, making them a theme that is included in both the introduction and the title. For inspiration, check out, “We Were Remote Before Remote Was Cool.”

2. Write skimmable copy

These days, our time is only becoming more limited. Your reader expresses interest in your headline by clicking on it, but you must capture their attention within the article to tempt them to read.

Many of us are guilty of skimming content to capture the basic idea of an article, without actually spending the time to dig in to the details.

Consider this analysis by Slate, which completed an in-depth investigation into behavior on their site: most readers only scroll to about the 50% mark, or the 1,000th pixel.

To keep reader attention:

Break up your content into short, readable paragraphs
Incorporate a variety of headers
Add bullet points or numbered lists

3. Match words in lists

By far one of my favorite ways to transform content from good to great is to execute a very simple trick. Each time you list an item within a series, describe it using the same figure of speech.

For example, all of your headers may start with a verb and provide a recommendation, such as the headers in this article:

Craft a catchy title
Write skimmable copy
Match words in lists
Conclude with a strong charge

Or, you may choose to write a list of items that feature an adjective and noun, such as, “our technology solution features a user-friendly UI, simple onboarding process and auto-generated dashboard.”

Either way, matching words in lists consistently results in more pleasing, easy-to-read content.

4. Conclude with a strong charge

We all know that a good conclusion should sufficiently summarize all of your previous content. But as a solution provider looking for new business opportunities, you also want to encourage your reader to keep wanting more.

Unlike a blog post, which can incorporate a promotional call-to-action, a good byline conclusion should inspire your reader to consider a brighter future.

What will their business look like if they enact their tips? What trends will appear in the future they can be better prepared for? Direct them with a clear path forward.

Transform your article from good to great

Placing a byline article with a publication is only the first step to creating enticing thought leadership content that drives your business forward. Once you’re committed to writing, you want to create an article that inspires audiences and sets you apart from your competition.

Thankfully, simple tricks can easily take your writing from good to great, establishing you as a long-term leader in the space and positioning your company for success.

Interested in getting help with your content? We love to work with clients to help them achieve their media relations goals. Get in touch.

Birdzi + Ketner Group: How a Press Release Generated Leads

Posted on April 27, 2021 | by Kirsty Goodlett

We’ve been lucky to work with our client Birdzi on and off for more than five years. Most recently, in the fall of last year, we kicked off a monthly PR engagement to help them increase brand awareness and build on our previous media relations successes.

So far, one of our most successful campaigns was distributing a press release detailing Birdzi’s engagement with their customer Coborn’s. The release helped generate more than half a dozen leads, and solidified Birdzi as a leader in customer intelligence and strategic marketing personalization.

Birdzi, founded in 2010, offers a customer intelligence platform to grocers and is led by Shekar Raman, CEO and co-founder. Gary Hawkins is a strategic advisor.

“I first met Jeff Ketner more than five years ago and became familiar with Ketner Group Communications and their services at that time. I’ve been in grocery my whole life, so working with Ketner Group, which has such a deep history in retail technology, has been a really positive experience,” said Hawkins.

“It’s always fun to talk shop with Ketner Group and it’s a great pleasure to work together, whether as a client or collaboratively on industry projects–like when I appeared on a KG Connects webinar as a guest speaker.”

We couldn’t agree more! In fact, just this week our CEO Jeff Ketner and president Catherine Seeds loved talking with Gary and Shekar on the latest Retail Perch episode! Their discussion centered around the important role PR plays in a startup’s overall business plan.

Crafting PR that demonstrates grocery excellence

Last December, we kicked off the Coborn’s press release project with Birdzi. Coborn’s began working with Birdzi in 2016 and has since deployed a robust loyalty program based on understanding of customer data and insight-driven personalization. When developing the release, we wanted to detail the long history between the companies and highlight the successful collaboration.

Comparing new, digitally engaged shoppers on the Birdzi platform vs. shoppers that are not, Coborn’s saw a 355% increase in customer retention, 16% increase in trips per month and 23.7% increase in spend per month. What a success!

After setting the story’s stage with a big impact, we detailed Coborn’s MORE Rewards program, which provides Coborn’s shoppers with personalized savings and experiences. There aren’t many grocers, particularly regional grocers like Coborn’s, who are executing such a robust program. We knew sharing strong details and examples would appeal to the media.

Once the release was drafted and complete, we put it on the wire and completed personalized pitching to journalists.

Grocery industry pick-up inspires prospects

Our goal of creating a strong story that truly resonated with the media was a success. The Coborn’s news was picked up in six publications: Chain Store Age, Progressive Grocer, RIS News, The Shelby Report, Supermarket News and The Wise Marketer newsletter.

The articles demonstrated Birdzi as a leader in customer loyalty and directly generated interest from other regional grocers. Birdzi received more than a half dozen leads through their website and LinkedIn, with prospective customers interested in implementing some of the same strategies as Coborn’s.

“When you imagine an ideal outcome for a press release, your dream is that the news drives interest from prospects, but you don’t often expect as many leads as we saw with Coborn’s!” said Raman

“Not only did the news drive leads, but the coverage sparked conversations with our broader network, including friends, partners and current customers. Coborn’s is a perfect use case for grocery innovation, and we’re thrilled to tell their story with Ketner Group.”

Continuing to tell innovative stories

While the Coborn’s press release was a great success, our work as communication professionals is never done.

Birdzi has a steady queue of customer stories to tell for the coming year, and we already followed up the Coborn’s press release with a story of how Birdzi customer Harps launched a mobile app to drive engagement. That release saw similar results, with seven unique pieces of coverage generated.

Looking to master your communications strategy as well as Birdzi does? Reach out to us today to discuss how we can help you craft a strategic PR program that creates thought leadership, brand recognition and a few leads along the way!

Analyst Relations 101: How B2B Tech Companies Benefit From Analyst Briefings

Posted on February 23, 2021 | by Kirsty Goodlett

When we ask b2b technology companies about their approach to analyst relations, their replies are all over the map.

Some companies have a deep well of opinions alongside an advanced strategy, long history and serious investment. Others haven’t even dipped their toe in the water.

No matter the existing approach, the good news is that developing and deploying a basic analyst relations strategy is not only quite straightforward, it offers serious long-term value.

Analyst briefings scheduled twice per year with a company executive can improve a tech company’s go-to-market strategy, product roadmap and lead generation.

Let’s dive in.

Why you should invest in analyst relations

The first thing to know about analysts is that their M.O. is to be industry experts.

Whether an analyst works for a big firm that touches many industries (such as Gartner or Forrester) or a niche firm devoted to a specific sector (such as RSR or IHL Group in retail), analysts typically get their start by working in their field. Take a look at a retail analyst and you’ll likely see they held an executive position with a retail organization.

Once they transition to a career as an analyst, their job is to understand the industry, players, challenges and solutions, and explain this via reports. To gain this insight, analysts complete briefings with tech providers and end-users alike.

When you should schedule analyst briefings

The perfect time to schedule a briefing is when you need expert advice.

Pivotal moments during a company’s history such as before a company/product launch or rebrand, during executive transition, or after completing an annual strategy are all perfect times to seek outside perspective from an analyst.

Once you’ve established a relationship during a pivotal moment, you’re ready to nurture that relationship through recurring annual or biannual briefings.

Analysts will be able to provide perspective that impacts strategies such as:

Company go-to-market plan
Content marketing plan
Product positioning
Product roadmap
Sales strategy
Investor pitch deck

Who should staff analyst briefings

The best practice is to schedule analyst briefings with one or two company executives who can offer high-level insight into overall strategy. With this in mind, a CEO is a natural fit. If a CEO is not available for analyst briefings, a marketing executive can also often speak to overall strategy such as go-to-market approach, product marketing and solution set.

If you’re scheduling an analyst briefing around a newsworthy event, you also may consider inviting executives related to the news. For example, if you’re scheduling a discussion about an upcoming product launch, invite your CEO and director of product.

How to schedule an analyst briefing

If your company is not investing in a paid, ongoing relationship or specific analyst project, the most likely way you’ll engage is via one-off briefings you schedule once or twice a year.

Analyst firms offer 30- or 60-minute briefings with non-clients; tech companies can request these briefings via an analyst firm’s website.

Once a briefing is requested, analysts can confirm or deny the briefing. The reason an analyst will schedule a briefing with a non-client is to gain a better understanding of their industry.

With this in mind, you’ll want to do your homework. Only request briefings with analysts that are a good match to your solution, and when you submit a request specifically share why the briefing will be valuable to them.

Extra credit! How to build long-term relationships with analysts

At the end of your analyst briefing be ready to discuss next steps. Analysts want to keep learning about their industry, so ask if they are open to continuing the relationship by connecting with you via email or social media.

If they’re open to sharing contact information, use it sparingly and be sure to provide value when you get in touch. Include analysts when getting out a press release on big company news, but don’t add them to your general newsletter blast unless they specifically ask to be included.

Make analyst relations a core part of your strategy

Companies are always at risk of becoming echo chambers, full of employees who have worked together effectively for so long that they struggle to develop unique points of view. Analyst briefings address this challenge directly by offering expert industry advice that deviates from the norm.

Creating a strong analyst relations strategy, even if it is minimal, ensures that your annual company plan and pivotal campaigns skillfully meet the market and prepare you for long-term success.

Next up: we’ll dive into how to make the most of analyst briefings in part two of this blog series. Stay tuned to learn how to create a great analyst briefing presentation.

Get help with your analyst relations strategy

Ready to execute but need help? Ketner Group offers analyst relations as a core part of our communications services. Reach out, we’d love to talk shop.

Music City Update: 2020 Delivers Joy if Not Expectations

Posted on November 3, 2020 | by Kirsty Goodlett

I can’t imagine a single person who would say they thought 2020 turned out like they expected. I certainly can’t.

After launching our Nashville office last August, we had big plans for this year. While it hasn’t turned out like we expected, I am grateful to say that the year has provided joy nonetheless.

I’m proud of our team for what we’ve accomplished and in that spirit, I’d like to celebrate some of the notable successes from this year, which include working with Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN), OhanaHealth, Origami Day, and launching the NTC Marketing Peer Group!

Welcoming 36|86 Festival and LaunchTN to the Ketner Group fold

One of our very first KG Connects featured LaunchTN’s Van Tucker, now interim CEO, who joined us in June to share how to use radical candor to achieve business goals. After launching the Nashville office at 36|86 Festival last year, we had developed a nice partnership with the organization, which helps make Tennessee the most startup friendly state in the nation.

Little did we know that that event would spur an even more long-standing relationship and that just a few weeks afterwards we’d kick off working with LaunchTN to support 2020’s virtual 36|86! Together, we increased awareness of the event with media, generated coverage and increased buzz.

With an incredible roster of speakers, we were able to ultimately secure coverage in publications across the nation and Tennessee. Some favorites? WWD wrote about a session by Ian Rogers, chief digital officer at LVMH. Gil Beverly, chief marketing and revenue officer of the Tennessee Titans, was interviewed by The Startup Life. And Van Tucker herself bylined an article for Retail TouchPoints on how retailers are coping with COVID-19.

“As a speaker for KG Connects, I experienced Ketner Group’s creative thinking, enthusiasm for their work and master organizational skills,” said Tucker. “Not to mention, they’re just fun! I knew they would make a wonderful partner when it came to our media relations for 36|86 Festival and ultimately LaunchTN overall and my instinct was not wrong. We’ve been thrilled by the output of our work together and pleased that they equally consider Tennessee the perfect place for launching a new office.”

Capturing coverage for OhanaHealth

We also had great fun this year working with Daniel Oppong, founder, OhanaHealth. When we initially spoke with him about his desire to do a media relations push around the next iteration of the company, we were excited to hear him talk about how the news sat at the intersection of three incredibly powerful themes from this year: healthcare, accessibility and employment.

Daniel is dynamic, driven and talented, so it’s no surprise OhanaHealth is primed for connecting top talent with health companies poised to make a meaningful impact post-COVID-19. We were thrilled to help the company generate coverage in local and trade publications alike.

A few highlights? TechHR series covered the launch and featured a Q&A with Daniel. Local publications did the same, with the Nashville Business Journal publishing the launch and Urbaanite doing a feature on Daniel.

“On top of delivering fantastic and measurable results, Ketner Group was exceptional to work with,” said Daniel. “They took the time to get to know me and OhanaHealth’s PR goals, then designed and executed an intentional strategy that put the story I wanted to tell (with OhanaHealth) in front of the right journalists, which ultimately led to it being read by thousands of people.

“I didn’t really know what I was in for, given that it was my first time formally working with a PR group, but our engagement exceeded my expectations and set a really high bar for what’s possible when working with the right PR group. I’m a big fan of Ketner Group, and not only would I recommend them to other companies, but I hope I get to work with them again.”

Don’t forget our work with Origami Day!

Missed the news earlier this year? We had the pleasure of working with Origami Day to help them create a communications plan.

“Quarterly long-form content was a huge victory in fixing bottlenecks in my business,” said Samantha Lane, time management coach and creator of Origami Day. “Knowing that ‘batching’ is an effective way to accomplish more with less, I was already creating content around monthly themes. However, Kirsty helped me see the value in zooming out to quarterly themes and long-form pieces of content.”

Launching an NTC Marketing Peer Group

Another exciting effort this year? We became members of the Nashville Technology Council! We were thrilled to become a more integrated part of the technology community here in town, so when we learned that they didn’t yet have a Peer Group for marketers we thought, well, what a better time to start?

Through the course of this year, we’ve had the pleasure of working with NTC and others in the community to kick off this group, which will seek to help members connect, learn, grow and give back. I’ll be joining the committee as a co-chair alongside some other wonderful members including fellow co-chair Lane Harbin, director of marketing at Campaign Monitor.

Our very first event kicks off Friday Dec. 11 at 11 am, more details are coming soon!

Nashville is still growing

COVID-19 is not slowing down the growth Nashville has been experiencing over the past few years. In fact, we continue to see announcements regularly that are signs of the city’s opportunity for big impact. Just last week, the New York Times’ announced it is opening a Nashville bureau.

And Amazon’s head of worldwide economic development, Holly Sullivan recently remarked, “We don’t want to be the last tech company to announce a corporate office in downtown Nashville. We’d like to welcome other tech companies too so we can really build that robust diversity within the Nashville area.”

These continued stories inspire us and remind us that we’re just where we should be.

How to Adapt Long-Form Content Into a Wealth of Resources

Posted on July 28, 2020 | by Kirsty Goodlett

Your time is limited. There’s no need to put extra hours into projects when simple tactics can help you get more done.

It’s the dream right?

When it comes to content, this dream is easy to turn into reality. By creating one long-form piece of content–whether an eBook, whitepaper or research report–, you give yourself a base to work with. Simply adapt that content by editing it down into a wealth of resources that extend your reach and allow you to achieve a wide variety of goals.

The long-form content adaptation equation

To adapt a piece of long-form content into a variety of resources, follow these steps:

Write one long-form piece of content.
Incorporate three custom graphics.
Publish it as gated content on a landing page.
Create three abstracts for three byline articles based on the content, pitch each abstract to a unique trade publication; write if picked up. If your bylines aren’t placed, publish these articles to your blog and/or as LinkedIn articles.
Create and pitch two-five proactive pitches inspired by the content to targeted media.

Once you’re done, you’ll have created the following pieces of content:

One long-form piece of content
Three custom graphics
One landing page
Three articles

5 simple steps for adaptation

Origami Day: why this content plan works

Earlier this year, we worked with Origami Day to help them create a communications plan. During our sessions, we discussed what Samantha Lane, time management coach and creator of Origami Day, refers to as a “content extraction plan.”

As an organization expert, she encouraged us to share our strategies for repurposing long-form content with the world. Thank you for inspiring this blog, Samantha!

“Quarterly long-form content was a huge victory in fixing bottlenecks in my business. Knowing that ‘batching’ is an effective way to accomplish more with less, I was already creating content around monthly themes. However, Kirsty helped me see the value in zooming out to quarterly themes and long-form pieces of content,” said Samantha.

“This was such a good way to stretch ideas even farther and increase efficiency even more. I love being able to set four themes for an entire year, write four long-form pieces, and use those for 12 months’ worth of value for my customers. Not to mention, it’s a great foundation for anyone considering starting a blog or writing a book.”

Let’s talk content

Ready to give the content adaptation plan a try? If you’re having trouble getting started with long-form content on your own, we offer a free, thirty-minute consultation that may help your wheels start turning! Just contact us.