Communications Strategy Archives - Page 2 of 4

3 Reasons Why Speaking and Awards Should Be Part of Your PR Strategy

Posted on July 11, 2023 | by Jeff Ketner

Texans love their H-E-B. The beloved grocer was recently named the Ultimate Texas Brand by Texas Monthly readers, who overwhelmingly crowned H-E-B the winner over 49 other iconic Texas brands including Dairy Queen, Whataburger, Buc-ee’s, Southwest Airlines (that holiday scheduling fiasco didn’t help) and many others.

Why H-E-B? It all boils down to an incredible corporate reputation that’s authentic and well-earned. It’s what every company, both B2C and B2B, strives for.

That’s why building a great brand is a cornerstone of public relations. As a B2B retail tech PR agency, our goal is to help our clients break through the clutter and create the kind of brand reputation that can give them an edge in a crowded field of technology vendors.

Speaking and awards play a vital role in this, and they’re an important part of a well-rounded, strategic PR program.

When your company wins an award or an executive is selected to speak at a conference, it sends a powerful message to customers, prospects, investors and future employees.

1. Build thought leadership

Here are several ways that speaking and awards contribute to a successful PR strategy.

Speaking at a key retail event gives your company instant credibility. When one of your customers or company executives takes center stage at Shoptalk, NRF or another prominent retail conference, you gain a captive audience that’s eager to learn about your solutions and how your company can help retailers improve performance.

Every event has its own requirements for speaking submissions, and while many opportunities are free, some are paid. Our team knows the ins and outs of all the key retail events, and we provide expert guidance to our clients as part of their overall PR strategy.

Awards also build thought leadership for your company and its executives.

For example, RIS News recognized Michael Jaszczyk, CEO of our client GK Americas, as one of its Top 10 Movers and Shaker in Retail in 2022, positioning him as one of a elite group of top retail influencers, and our client SymphonyAI Retail CPG was recently recognized as a top 100 IT company by Inbound Logistics, among many other awards.

These are powerful testimonies of a company’s thought leadership and position as a retail tech provider, and we can share dozens of other examples.

2. Highlight customer successes

Retailers love to hear how your company’s solutions have helped other retailers. There’s no better proof point than a customer that’s willing to share their success with your solutions.

Many speaking opportunities are only open to retailers, but it’s well worth it for retail tech companies to nominate their customers as speakers.

Retailers are eager to learn from other successful retailers, and your executives can attend the event and participate in the discussions that ultimately follow successful speaking opportunities. That in turn can lead to follow-up conversations and ultimately help drive sales.

Awards may focus on specific customer implementations, while others, such as the RIS Leaderboard, are based on real-world customer feedback from hundreds of retailers. This kind of recognition builds credibility and guides retailers in choosing possible retail technology partners. It can pay big dividends, too.

For example, when one of our former clients was acquired by a large technology company, the press release specifically mentioned our client’s outstanding performance in the Leaderboard, which was one of our key strategies for building their brand reputation.

3. Demonstrate growth and momentum

Everyone loves a winner. That’s why prestigious awards such as the Deloitte Fast 50 and the Inc. 5000, which recognizes America’s fastest growing companies, are so important. These are highly selective awards! But if your retail tech company is a leader and growing quickly, awards such as these can validate your success and lift you above the competition. We’ve helped many of our clients win these kinds of prestigious awards.

Of course, speaking and awards don’t exist in a vacuum – they must be part of a multifaceted, strategic PR program that includes media relations, content development, analyst relations, social media and other elements. A great PR program must work synergistically with a company’s overall marketing plan and business goals.

So when your company wins an award or secures a high-visibility speaking engagement, shout it from the rooftop!

Incorporate it into your social media and sales outreach, feature it prominently on your website and include it in sales presentations. In some cases, a significant award may be newsworthy enough for a press release.

Put your company in the spotlight

If you’re looking to build a high-impact, comprehensive PR program, the Ketner Group team would love to talk to you! Download our Retail Tech PR Handbook to learn more about our best-practice approach to retail technology PR, then get in touch with us.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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!

Announcing the Retail Tech PR Handbook: 3 Key Takeaways

Posted on September 27, 2022 | by Jeff Ketner

Retail technology is evolving at at an increasingly rapid pace, and that’s good news for retail tech companies. According to IHL Research, this acceleration creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for technology companies, as retailers embrace new solutions.

Now is the time for retail tech executives to seize the day and capture attention through strategic PR and communications initiatives.

The question is how?

Enter our eBook! Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the Retail Tech PR Handbook.

As experts in retail tech PR, we wanted to give our clients an all-encompassing resource that covers everything we’ve learned over our 20+ years experience in this fascinating industry.

The eBook is a blueprint on how to create and execute fantastic retail tech PR strategies. And in celebration of its launch, we’re offering three key takeaways below.

1. Do your homework.

Before launching your PR program, assess if your company is prepared.

Some key questions to ask include: What are your PR goals? Do you have the marketing resources and people needed to help manage your PR strategy internally? Are you ready to commit to PR for the long run?

Successful PR is an integral part of your overall marketing mix. Doing your homework will ensure that you’re prepared to dedicate the right internal and external resources.

2. Craft a compelling story.

Storytelling is at the heart of media relations, which relies on convincing an editor to write about your solutions by crafting a strong, compelling narrative. In turn, these editors’ publications influence who will buy your products.

We recommend evaluating your messaging and value proposition for clarity before executing your media strategy. We also recommend selecting a great partner to help you craft your compelling story.

3. Create a PR plan.

PR plans are like driving directions for a road trip: you need to know what turns to take to arrive at your destination. You also need to leave some wiggle room for stopping for gas along the way. Some of those turns and exits will come soon, others won’t happen until much further down the road.

Your PR plan should include PR activities that are built into the plan well in advance to make the most out of long-lead time opportunities, such as trade shows, awards, product launches, research projects and any seasonality to your retail brand.

In addition, your PR plan should incorporate pit stops, or the necessary wiggle room set aside each month for unplanned activities like incoming media and analyst relations requests, company news, and more.

Keep learning about retail tech PR

Ready to learn more about how to create a top-notch retail tech PR strategy? Fantastic!

You can download our eBook here. Happy reading!

importance of pr during recession - exec

Give PR a Seat at the Executive Table, Now and Always

Posted on August 23, 2022 | by Jeff Ketner

It’s been a long, hot summer—and an uncertain one for marketers who are grappling with the impact of an inflationary economy and fears of a possible recession.

Companies are scrutinizing marketing budgets more closely, and CMOs are increasingly being asked to justify their spend. Faced with conflicting data, disappointing earnings report and negative economic news, marketers may have tough decisions figuring out how to allocate their budgets.

That’s when PR becomes even more important than usual, because it’s one of the most cost-effective, credible ways to reach your audience and support your marketing funnel. As one PR agency owner wrote in Forbes:

“Through any time of crisis, there is one critical part of any business strategy that should never be forgotten: public relations.

“Why public relations? Because when so many others aren’t surviving the storm, it lets the public know that you are still standing, communicating and being active, and that you will still be there when things get better. PR is one of the most budget-conscious, effective and resourceful ways to keep your name out there during a recession. The third-party endorsement that PR creates is a voice that carries through and resonates with audiences long after the depression has passed.”

Keep in mind that this was written during the height of COVID-19. Anything we face in the coming months—and economists are deeply divided about the prospects and severity of a recession—will pale in comparison to what we all survived in 2020.

PR helps fill your sale funnel, regardless of the economy

Companies will soon begin their 2023 marketing planning, and PR should continue to be top of mind for a full-funnel sales and marketing program.

“PR has always been thought of as a ‘top of funnel’ contributor,” according to Cision, “but this association does not fully encapsulate the impact PR has throughout the buyer’s journey in today’s digitally-driven landscape.”

That’s because earned media can be used in so many ways in the sales funnel. Content from earned media can be amplified through social media, shared in nurturing campaigns, and used throughout the sales cycle. PR can also help gain the attention of retail industry analysts and other important influencers in the retail ecosystem.

Ketner Group’s focus on retail technology has helped our clients realize the potential of each of these elements of a well-rounded PR program. Time and again, we’ve seen the power of PR to help our clients gain recognition as thought leaders, increase engagement with prospects and help drive leads.

That became critically important during COVID, when much of retail was particularly hard hit. Our team moved quickly and worked closely with our clients to devise new strategies to reach retailers. We saw an increased emphasis on content and a renewed appreciation for earned media and the credibility it carries.

Our best advice for retail technology marketers: Always give PR a seat at the table

Our retail technology clients realize that PR should always be considered a key part of the marketing mix, no matter the situation. New technology solutions have fueled much of the retail resurgence since 2020, and our clients reaped big rewards by continuing to invest in PR and marketing.

What should be your strategy for PR and marketing in the coming months? Simply this: Continue to give PR a seat at the executive table. PR is at its best when used as part of an overall company strategy, not just an afterthought.

Despite concerns about a potential recession, the outlook for retail remains healthy. After all, consumer spending is steady, inflation is trending down and consumer sentiment is rising.

This is all good news for technology companies. Retailers will continue to seek new solutions to improve profitability, increase consumer engagement, implement new fulfillment models and better manage their supply chains; and that’s just the beginning. A retail analyst friend of mine expects retail technology spending overall to increase next year.

If you’re a retail technology company, you can’t afford to miss out. Ketner Group has specialized in retail technology PR for more than 20 years, and we know retail like no other PR agency.

Looking for a PR partner that knows your business? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you reach retailers and support your marketing goals.

Why to Hire a Retail Tech PR Agency

Posted on January 11, 2022 | by Adrienne Newcomb

When speaking with prospects and new clients in the retail technology industry who have previously worked with a PR agency, we regularly hear that the agency didn’t understand what they did. Often the agency either specialized in B2B technology or in retail, but not both. This is why it’s important to specifically find a retail tech PR agency.

Our friend and advisor Karl Sakas explains this well. He says, “If you needed heart surgery, you wouldn’t hire a general surgeon. If your insurance was good enough, you wouldn’t hire a cardiac surgeon, either. You’d hire a cardiac surgeon who’s done your exact procedure 500 times before. When they have a choice, people tend to hire a specialist.”

With that logic in mind, we recommend that if you’re a retail technology company – whether you provide solutions for the supply chain, eCommerce, payments, or even a vertical specific technologies for grocers or apparel – you work with a retail tech PR agency to drive brand awareness and support your marketings goals.

Here are just a couple of reasons why.

Expertise in retail AND tech

It’s easy enough to find a B2B tech PR agency. A quick Google search retrieves thousands of results.

However, it’s a lot harder to find a PR agency that specializes in BOTH retail and B2B technology. But why should it matter? Simply put, a general B2B tech PR agency is trying to be all things to all people. Meanwhile, a retail tech PR agency knows your industry just as well as you do, if not better.

So, what does that mean? For Ketner Group, that means we live and breathe retail tech. When onboarding a new client, it’s easy for us to understand what the client does and to translate that into terms that retailers and brands understand.

This is especially important if you’re hiring an agency to do content development. If an agency is doing nothing but reading and writing about the industry that you serve, it’s easy to pick up your company’s tone of voice and style to create content that resonates with your target audience – retailers and brands.

Established relationships with retail tech influencers

Beyond having expertise in retail and technology, a retail tech PR agency has established relationships with key influencers in the space. This is particularly important for media and analyst relations.

When working with a specialized agency, it cuts down on onboarding time and the time it takes to gain media coverage. We don’t have to spend exorbitant amounts of time researching and building media lists from scratch. We use our proprietary media lists to customize and build a database of targets for each client.

With most of our new clients, Ketner Group Communications sees media mentions within the first month by leveraging our existing connections with media contacts in the space.

Same goes for analyst relations. We have established relationships with key industry analysts and are able to quickly set up introductory analyst briefings with the analysts who cover your space. Additionally, we help cut through the red tape (i.e. sales people) that solution providers often encounter when handling analyst relations in house.

Start working with a retail tech PR agency today

So, you’re convinced – it’s time to engage with a retail tech PR agency. Look no further.

Ketner Group Communications has specialized in retail tech PR for over 20 years. Our deep understanding of the industry makes us experts in retail tech content development and brings with it established relationships with key retail tech influencers – both media and analysts.

Ketner Group speaks your language and knows your target audience. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you drive brand awareness and support your marketing goals.

media relations helps your startup startups

Six Ways Media Relations Can Help Your Startup

Posted on March 9, 2021 | by Jeff Ketner

Ketner Group has worked with dozens of B2B technology startups, and we often see familiar patterns in how they approach PR and media relations.

Startups naturally spend their first few years building their technology and team and ensuring the success of early customers. However, as a company wins significant customers, receives additional funding or begins seeking investment, PR ultimately becomes a priority.

Media relations is often the starting point for creating a larger communications program and engaging with a PR agency.

Why is this element of public relations so important? Here are several reasons why.

Media relations helps companies hone their story

Storytelling is at the heart of media relations. After all, media relations involves telling your company story in order to convince an editor to write about your solutions, which in turn can influence prospective buyers.

Stories must be easily understood, believable and persuasive. That’s why we always recommend that startups evaluate their company messaging and value proposition before engaging in media relations, to ensure they’re accurately communicating their story.

PR agencies like Ketner Group can provide the expertise you need to help you get ready to tell your story to the world.

Media relations demonstrates market acceptance

The very nature of startups is disruption—taking a fresh look at solving business problems with new, innovative technology. But how does the technology work, and what benefits does it really deliver?

Media relations is a critical way to validate your technology, as it gives you the chance to tell stories about your vision for the industry, the challenges your solutions address, and how customers are using your products. Because these stories are told by outside media, they gain credibility.

It boosts your market profile

Over time, editors and writers will turn to your company as a resource for articles and reports, creating more opportunities for media coverage and boosting your company’s overall presence. A well-honed media relations program can give you a competitive marketing advantage, too.

A key index of media relations performance is share of voice, which represents a company’s share of earned media coverage in a given month. By “owning the conversation” through a larger share of voice than competitors, companies can increase their marketing presence and punch above their weight class.

We use Cision as our preferred PR platform, and its share of voice reporting provides valuable metrics for measuring the effectiveness of media relations.

It supports fundraising

As startups raise funding, media relations can help attract the interest of investors and provide an important source of validation. Articles and press releases about customers are particularly important, as they provide external proof that goes beyond your investor deck.

It influences lead generation and sales

Clients often ask the question, “will media relations help generate leads?” As my colleague Mariana wrote in a recent blog, the purpose of media relations isn’t lead-generation, but it can help influence lead-gen and sales when considered as part of a well-rounded communications program. We’ve seen plenty of examples of this.

When one of our clients announced a major implementation of the company’s solution by a well-known top 10 retailer, the CEO quickly began hearing back from other retailers the company had been courting. In this case, one highly visible customer win opened doors for our client.

Companies want to know what technologies the leaders in their industries are adopting, and it can ultimately help influence their purchase decisions.

Media relations supports your exit strategy

A retail analyst friend used to introduce us to tech startups by telling them if they work with Ketner Group, they’ll get acquired. If only it was that easy!

Over the years many of our startup clients have undergone successful acquisitions, and we’re proud to have played a supporting role. Media coverage and share of voice can help attract the attention of would-be acquirers. When one of our retail software clients was acquired, the press release referenced an industry awards program that boosted our client’s reputation and visibility in the market. That program was one of the key elements of our PR program.

Media relations is a key strategy to supporting your startup overall

Media relations plays a vital role in your PR strategy. However, media relations should never exist in a silo, as it is only one facet of public relations.

As you consider establishing a media relations program, be sure to evaluate all your other communications channels, too—website, social media, content, blogs, paid media—in order to make sure you have a well-rounded program that’s firing on all cylinders.

That way, your startup will get the most out of its investment in media relations and every other communication channel.

Need help with media relations?

We’re experts in media relations, so if you’re ready to kick start a media relations program or just want to make sure you’re on the right track, we can help.

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation to learn what we can do for you.

stewards of the future webinar tameka vasquez

How Marketers Can Be Stewards To the Future

Posted on February 2, 2021 | by Ketner Group

For the first KG Connects of the year, we were delighted to have Tameka Vasquez — strategist, educator and futurist — join Catherine Seeds to discuss the importance of being what Tameka calls, “stewards to the future.”

In her day job, Tameka serves as a global marketing leader at Genpact. She also just recently jumped back into the world of academia as an assistant professor at St. John’s University in New York. She started her work in futurism because, as she describes, “everything in the world is just made up, and we have the power to make up something else.”

Read a summary of the webinar below, or if you’d like, watch the full webinar on-demand through Zoom.

What is a steward to the future?

Tameka often uses the phrase, “steward to the future.” To her, it’s a literal phrase.

She explained that a steward is a person who takes care of passengers on planes or cruise ships during their trip. The same concept applies to marketing, according to her, marketers need to think, “how do we use [marketing] to navigate people from the point of where they are today to the future?”

A futuristic remix on the four Ps of marketing

Most marketers know the four Ps of marketing — place, price, product and promotion — as well as how important this is for organizations. However, in future-work, Tameka takes a different approach to this classic method.

She puts forth the following:

Possible: what is something that can reasonably happen?
Plausible: what is feasible given what we know right now?
Probable: what is likely to happen?
Preferred: what fits expectations and ambitions?

She stated the importance of these future four P’s, especially for marketers, because, “there is a high degree of uncertainty and there are a lot of contextual instances where you have to apply these four p’s.”

Applying futuristic thinking to marketing plans

As part of her work as a futurist, Tameka has to think, “What does it mean when we say the future?” She continued, “that could be 2021, it could be 2030. Whatever that marker of time is, you can then decide what the story that you want to tell about the future is. How do we use the attention that we have in the moment to give people a view of the future?”

Using 2020 as an example, she described how we needed to meet the moment by educating people on COVID-19 best practices while also thinking about how current events allow individuals and organizations to reimagine what the future could be.

“If 2030 was a time where certain things were possible, 2020 probably accelerated that path where we now need to think about those things far more intentionally,” she explained.

Getting comfortable with discomfort

The future means change, and change is very uncomfortable for many. Especially when those changes run counter to organizational planning. Tameka says that while strategic planning is never really going to go away, we can factor change into our planning easier than we could in the past.

She said that, “we have the capability to be social listeners in a way that we just hadn’t historically. While you’re in this space of planning, you also need to be in a space of listening.”

When it comes to meeting business goals, Tameka explained that it’s still possible to apply futurist thinking. The trick is to focus on KPIs while, “making slight pivots. The plan doesn’t get thrown out the window, you’re slightly shifting.”

Learning more about futurism

Futurist thinking isn’t the easiest to jump into. Tameka’s preferred method for learning is to look at what brands are doing beyond the product or service.

“I really want people to look at how certain companies have captured the moment and how they’ve used the sentiment of the time to better position themselves,” Tameka said.

She used the example of how Twitter has been able to respond to the moment where trust and transparency are critical. She said that Twitter has been creating features that improve transparency, such as flagging questionable information. This does two key things simultaneously: it demonstrates Twitter is rising to the moment while also showing what a future of transparency might look like.

Tameka also shared some great beginner resources:

Prescient2050: Free resources that will help get you started learning and using the tools of strategic foresight and shaping your future.
Brookings Events: A nonprofit that conducts in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems.
Futures Festival: An event that highlights principles of inclusion, plurality, and collective participation as a means to how we can move toward challenging the status quo and move toward preferable shared futures.

Want to keep talking future?

There is a lot to discuss when it comes to futurism. If you want to keep the conversation going, reach out to Tameka on her website, follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn. Reminder: if you want all the insights from the webinar, you can watch it on demand.

Join us for our March webinar to discuss B2B content!

KG Connects is moving to a bimonthly schedule for 2021. Join us in March for a discussion on how to create B2B content that puts Netflix to shame. Sign up for free.

The Art of Inclusive Communication

Posted on September 25, 2020 | by Ketner Group

This month for our KG Connects webinar series, we dove headfirst into the power that communication holds in helping businesses become more diverse and inclusive with Kia Jarmon.

Kia is an entrepreneurial solutionist who intersects communication, culture, crisis, and community, most specifically through her leadership with MEPR Agency – a boutique communications and community engagement agency founded in 2006.

Defining diversity, inclusion and accessibility

To begin, Kia defined concepts that are essential to driving change.

While diversity is about differences, inclusion is about experience. Inclusion involves fostering an environment that is safe and welcoming regardless of experience.

When moving from diversity to inclusion, what’s often missing is equity. Before establishing true inclusivity, historic wrongs need to be made right. Policies and processes of change must be underway in order for a community to advance.

How do companies start diversity initiatives?

When working to achieve diversity and inclusivity, there must be commitment from leadership in order to enact change. Then, companies must look externally to an expert that can help point out blind spots, and operationalize and implement practices.

It’s important to recognize visible things that are missing from an organization – whether the answers are a who or a what. For example, when employees had to work virtually because of COVID-19, many companies didn’t assess the access employees had to the right technology and connectivity.

What’s more, knowing that conversations around diversity and inclusion will be difficult, it’s helpful to start small. Consider this moment as a time to adapt, and truly listen.

Establishing goals

As communicators and marketers, setting goals is second nature. For diversity and inclusion efforts, businesses should look at goals in two ways: visually and anecdotally, which might not be measurable. Trust is a metric that’s hard to quantify, but absolutely important to the process.

Start with a conversation – Discuss the internal and external climate with employees. Whether this is as a one-on-one or in a large group, as formal training or a book club, current events constantly affect the work environment.
Ensure goals are embedded into strategic plan – Goals that involve diversity and inclusion should be embedded within the company’s growth plans. If it’s not written down and assigned, it won’t be managed, measured and achieved.
Be explicit – Lay out how you want your teams to look, and ensure that they are reflective of the communities you serve. Remove “cultural fit” from your hiring vocabulary, and instead focus on “cultural add.” Often, it’s not an issue about finding diverse talent, but keeping them.
Work together to re-evaluate company values – Discuss as a whole how the business moves from conversation to putting efforts into practice. Ensure you’re held accountable. The processes often takes a long time, as you’re reevaluating company values.

Developing external communications

Lastly, Kia pointed out what’s lacking in inclusive external communications. Media needs better visuals that accurately capture our society. Share images of what might not be considered “traditional,” such as a nonbinary person or someone with a prosthetic, and ensure you’re using actual voices. Most importantly, these efforts must be authentic and true.

When looking to understand other communities, Google is your best friend, as it can provide information into classes and resources that may even be provided locally. Nielsen and Pew can also serve as great data sources.

Catch this webinar and the next!

To learn more about Kia’s perspective, be sure to catch the webinar on demand!

Next up: A peek inside the New York Fashion Tech Lab

Technology and innovation is critical to the fashion industry. In October, we’ll host Jackie Trebilcock for a look inside the New York Fashion Tech Lab and how it empowers women-led tech companies. We hope you’ll join us! You can register here.

How to Create an Awesome B2B Podcast

Posted on August 3, 2020 | by Ketner Group

90 million Americans regularly consume podcasts. And B2B podcasts are an increasingly key part of that.

Listeners tend to be educated, affluent and loyal – the exact audience most B2B brands want to reach.

That’s why we were fascinated to talk with Clark Buckner, co-founder and partner of podcast consulting agency Relationary Marketing, for our July 2020 KG Connects webinar. He gave us the scoop on why B2B podcasting works so well and shed light on his five-step process for how to develop a great B2B webinar.

Does B2B podcasting work?

Yes, B2B podcasting works well for three reasons:

Podcasts are intimate – When you listen to a podcast, it’s a real human speaking directly to you about something they’re passionate about and you’re interested in. It establishes a sense of shared experience that supports the idea of an established relationship.
Podcasts are accessible – In the car, at work and especially streaming from smartphone on any number of apps, podcasts are a versatile medium for sharing and consuming high-quality content.
Podcasts are passively consumed – While listenership has taken a small hit during pandemic as fewer people commuted, they’re still popular to consume while doing other things like going for walks, doing a workout or cooking dinner. Really, any time away from a screen provides both a captive and passive audience for podcasts.

How do I start a B2B podcast?

Clark uses a tried-and-true formula when helping his clients launch a great B2B podcast:

Content design
Invite/preparation
Recording
Production
Publishing

When viewed in a list, it’s easy to assume that each stage should be given equal consideration.

That’s not a wise approach.

Brands considering a podcast have intrinsic challenges. It’s labor intensive and rare to have all the right technology and skills internally to produce a great podcast.

Luckily the barrier to entry to podcasting has gone down as the space has matured (thanks largely to the wild success of the Serial podcast, recently acquired by The New York Times).

It’s now easier and more affordable for agencies and brands to work with a company like Relationary than to do it alone. But first, they need to master step one – content design.

What’s the first step of launching a B2B podcast?

The first step of launching a B2B podcast is content design. A lot of companies get caught up worrying about technology or guests or who will host it… all undoubtedly important questions, but not the first thing to worry about.

Clark recommends focusing exclusively on five elements of content design before stressing the small stuff.

Goals – What does success look like for your podcast? Be specific about one or two goals that a podcast can uniquely achieve for you. Brand awareness, lead generation or helping existing customers get the most out of your platform are all good options. Given that you’d need 10,000 regular listeners to even consider selling ads, B2B podcasting is about relationships. Sell the mission and a belief in your team and company as trustworthy and capable partners.
Target audience – Most B2B companies have highly targeted audiences. Will everyone in your consumer base pay attention to or be motivated by a podcast? Will prospects at different stages of the funnel be more interested that others? Once you know what the goal of the podcast is, you can define the audience and figure out what matters to them most.
Episode structure – Will you do one-on-one interviews between a company employee and a guest? Will you have an independent podcaster lead these conversations instead? Or do you plan to only interview internal experts? You could also develop a narrative structure and tell stories of great case studies or have people you’ve helped record themselves telling a story. Options are limitless, but pick one that will work for you and stick with it.
Episode frequency and length – How many interesting conversations can you really lead? How much time will you dedicate to the podcast and how much time do you expect your audience to give? Think of podcasts like a TV show, with seasons. Figure out each season’s episodes ahead of time and stick with a standard cadence and episode length. You can always change it up for season two.
Title/marketing – Like any form of branded content, podcasts need to be promoted to attract attention. Figure out how you’ll recruit listeners and what kind of resources are available to bring in new listeners. Podcasts are far easier to produce than ever before, but without additional promotional effort on top of it, you’ll be sitting on great content with no listeners.

How do you go from plan to production?

With this foundation, it’s relatively easy to go through the rest of the steps as long as you have access to the right network, skillsets and technology.

Step 2: Prep

Figure out who you’re going to have on your podcast and how you’ll prep them to lead a conversation that serves your company’s goals. It’s great when your guests are the kind of experts who can talk at length about a number of interesting ideas. It’s your job to let them know what you need from them, and have a plan for keeping them on track.

Step 3: Record

Unsurprisingly, the environment you record in matters. Surprisingly, the tech doesn’t matter that much. It’s far more important to have a great environment. It’s better to use basic headphones that come with a phone and be in a quiet, confined space than use an expensive mic in an open space such as a kitchen.

Case in point: Clark usually has an office to record in, but working from home during the pandemic, he uses his closet.

Step 4: Produce (i.e. edit)

You’ll never get commercial grade quality from the raw footage you record. To polish the final product, work with a partner or invest in technology that offers sound editing and also content editing.

Don’t over-edit. You want it to sound human. Breathing sounds may feel awkward at first, but it’s elements like this that give podcasting it’s personal touch and relationship power.

Step 5: Publish

At this stage, most brands will send the final product off to their marketing team, creative directors or communications agency to help promote the material and drum up interest.

Like we said before, if people don’t know the content exists, they can’t listen and become loyal brand fans and customers.

Let’s talk about podcasts

If you’re interested in launching a B2B podcast or getting more visibility for one you already produce, we’d love to help you do it. Check out Clark’s full presentation or shoot us an email to set up a free 30-minute consultation.