Jim Young

MULTIPLE CITIES

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I was speaking with a prospective (fintech) client who wanted to dive into conferences, particularly in-person industry conferences, and get some PR perspectives--wants versus needs, costs, presence, etc. (we didn't talk about specific objectives or measuring success). I've attended a lot of conferences (from the massive to the intimate) across North America, LatAm, Europe and Asia. I've developed sponsorships, negotiated contracts, crafted mainstage sessions, planned special events, executed launches -- anything to benefit my company or client. And along the way, I've learned that, while very nice to have: ➡ you don't need to be a sponsor ➡ you don't need a booth ➡ you don't need hard news ➡ you don't need a mainstage (or really any other) speaking session But as a PR person attending a conference: ✅ you want a good spokesperson or two ✅ you want a good crop of press, analysts and influencers ✅ you want a conference/meeting room near the show floor (which can require a lower tier sponsorship) ✅ you want a great events manager on hand And on that last bullet, I don't think enough people recognize the importance of a great events manager…how much they put up with, how much they get done and how composed they are -- in the leadup, during, and post-event. And over the years, I'm lucky to have worked with some phenomenal ones. It's a tough job, and if you have a chance, thank your events team! And I'd be remiss if I didn't also thank the PR and content teams working for the actual conferences! #pr #publicrelations #communications #events

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How engaging are your promotions, your #communications, your #PR? Are people tuning IN or tuning OUT? Here’s what happens when you don’t connect w/your #stakeholders: https://lnkd.in/eQsjBf85 #PRtip #WritingTip #MarketingTip

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Sometimes people ask me if Incenter Marketing has a #PublicRelations specialty as an external agency. #Mortgage and #Lending are big areas of focus for us. Here's an example of this in action: https://vid.us/h5xck1

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Considering what's happening in the markets, it's unsurprising that so many friends in the media are engaging financial planners to get some thoughts and opinions for their stories. It's so gratifying that so many of them are using FPA MediaSource to get that perspective from FPA members! In just the past 24 hours, the system has sent 22 queries to #CFPpro members of FPA, including The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Barron's, Investopedia, InvestmentNews, ThinkAdvisor, CNBC, MarketWatch, Fortune, and many others. If you're not taking part, you're missing out! https://lnkd.in/eMJeNS-F Financial Planning Association (FPA) #financialplanning #media

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Looking to make the case for a new DAM? Download our free guide to learn how to make the most compelling case to your leadership team! #DAM #Digitalassetmanagement

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This. 💯 this. All day every day. I always ask for a seat at the table. Not because I’m nosy. Not because I want the tea. But because my role as chief communications officer / PIO / PR girl or whatever you want to call me is critical to the success of our institution. Sometimes our trained PR ears hear things (good and bad) during discussions that we can use to help tell our College’s story. We’re not going to run to the media with what we just heard nor are we going to send an all employee email (yes, I’ve been asked that /accused of those things before). But we will use our expertise to guide leadership, and be proactive and strategic in how we tell that story. PR and comms are not the bad guys. I promise. We want the same outcomes you do, so let us be part of those conversations and decisions. We all win in the end. #PR #PRLife #comms #communications

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PR alone isn't going to help with customer acquisition/lead gen/closing deals. You must amplify your PR results. Instead of securing more, take what you already have and amplify it: ✅ Update your press page ✅ Connect your sales team with PR wins ✅ Boost PR activities on social media ✅ Add PR wins to an email signature

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The evolution of influence - how is public relations changing? The new Notified/PRWeek report examines this very question. We surveyed 155 leading PR pros to learn how to build stronger trust with stakeholders, the best ways to combat misinformation and how corporate storytellers feel about AI in 2024.   Get the findings now: https://lnkd.in/gayFpq9J #PublicRelations #PR #AI

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It might sound obvious, but press releases are for ｊｏｕｒｎａｌｉｓｔｓ. Yet, they’re often pulled in different directions. The growth team wants it for biz dev collateral. Marketing wants branding and SEO. Executives may want to promote products and people. Investors want to show market traction. A press release 𝘤𝘢𝘯 serve all these purposes—but only if it fulfills its primary mission: 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞. Why? Because media stories offer the third-party credibility that satisfies everyone: growth teams, marketers, executives and investors alike. So, as PR pros, our top priority is crafting press releases that get journalists (and their editors) interested. Here’s how: - 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞.” The headline, subhead, and first two paragraphs matter most. Avoid jargon. Tell a story. Highlight outcomes. You have 30 seconds to grab a journalist’s attention. - 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭. Your company news isn’t the story. Think of your announcement as the entry point, not the full picture. It’s the “why now” that gets a journalist to stop and pay attention. The real story lies in the broader impact: how your news changes the game for your customers, reshapes your industry, or highlights a pressing trend. Journalists aren’t writing about you; they’re writing about the significance of what you’re doing in a context their audience cares about. - 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭. What does a reporter need to “sell” this story? Will their audience read, share, or engage with it? [Know their audience!] Is it clear and compelling enough for an editor to greenlight? -𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧. Can your grandparent understand this story? Is it accessible, emotionally resonant, and relatable? The press release is just the beginning. When done right, it opens the door to earned media that amplifies your message and drives real results.

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I'm suddenly reminded of my early career days when the “final” steps in the publishing process still involved red pens, proofreading marks, deciphering tiny, near-illegible scrawls in margins, resolving conflicting edits between departments and finally hyper-focusing to get the job done as deadline drew near. Sometimes the editorial process is messy and requires us to practice diplomacy (and at times, a little tough love). But association publishing is a team effort, and to this day, there still is no better feeling than getting a finished product out the door. #editing #writing #editorial #associations

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PR is sales. Plain and simple. If your BDRs or AEs were constantly rescheduling meetings with a potential customer, you’d likely lose the lead. Reporters are no different. As an executive, you need to work around the reporter’s schedule. Not the other way around. Prioritize this and you’ll build relationships and gain coverage. VC: corporate.bro

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A 5-minute litmus test to determine your company or protocol's North Star messaging. Ask your co-founders, CTO, CMO, etc. to dash off a three-sentence explanation of “what we do as a business what we hope to accomplish.” Ask them to give it no more than 1 minute of thought. Then, compare. The difference in answers might shock you. 

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This week I’m  reflecting on what happened 📅 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 📅 at G2 We had our first virtual Executive Advisory Board Meeting of the year. I feel super lucky that I get to sit in on all of these calls, it’s basically a master class in marketing from some of the top SaaS CMO’s and marketing leaders.  While the discussion covered a few different topics, the one that I was most excited about was customer retention. We asked this group how they’re approaching it at their organizations, and I wanted to share a few tactics that came up, my takeaways and a few places where customer marketing can plug in: 📚𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿ing 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 📚 Before I worked here I was a G2 customer, and  my question for my CSM (shoutout Lauren McGrath) was always “Can you share some examples of how other customers are doing this?” My takeaway here is I'm going to approach all customer stories with a “how did they do it” approach to make customer stories work harder for both new and existing customers. ✉️𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁) ✉️ Focusing on getting your customer segments right and hitting them with the information they need when they need it is a great way to impact potential churn. But I think the key here is making sure the comms you’re sending are super relevant to them and actionable. When we’re working on customer nurtures here I always keep the “show me you know me” mantra in mind. ⏰𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 ⏰ This is one of my fav plays for customer marketing and I'm glad to hear other companies were thinking about this. Being able to flag when a customer is shopping for one of your competitors with intent data to predict potential churn feels like a super power. If you're interested in this, Anna Niles and I just did a webinar where we shared a few plays -- let me know and I can drop the link! But my ultimate takeaway from this conversation is a reminder that customer retention is not just one team’s job. Across the board everyone agreed that cross functional alignment and shared goals were the ultimate key to successfully impacting customer retention. Would love to know, how are you approaching customer retention in customer marketing at your org?

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Broadsheet Communications client Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive, shares insights on Google's delayed cookie phase-out. The move, now postponed to 2025 pending regulatory approval, promises to reshape the $600B online advertising landscape. Bannister emphasizes the balance between consumer privacy and revenue for content creators. "The delay will benefit the ad industry by giving it more time to get ready for Google’s changes, said Paul Bannister. “People’s privacy is important and so is revenue for publishers who create great content for those people."" Read more about this significant shift in The Wall Street Journal's latest piece: Google Delays Cookie Phase-Out Following Regulatory Pushback

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