If you know anyone at Act-On, you know we care about our customers above all, so you bet your ass we’re gonna make the best podcast we can for our community. And we’ve already hosted two bad MFs. First up, our debut episode featured Jon Miller, CMO of DemandBase, and founder of Marketo and Engagio. What? Yes.

Here’s the video:

Jon Miller of Demandbase on The Rebel Instinct Podcast

In our conversation with Jon Miller, he advises on 3 important steps to ABM.

1. Get the Account Data Foundation in Place
2. Find the Accounts That Matter
3. Engage with the Accounts and the People at Those Accounts
4. Align with Sales to Close These Accounts
5. Measure Based on Quality

It’s all about orchestration, and being NICE. That’s Numbers-driven, Intuitive, Content-conscious, who Executes consistently!

And, what about Jorie Mark, Director of Content for Life Extension, who held previous roles as Head of Social Media at Kroger/Fred Meyer and author of “Bride in Overdrive: A Journey into Wedding Insanity and Back? Yeah, we got her too.

Here’s the video:

Jorie Green Mark on The Rebel Instinct Podcast

Jorie Mark urges us to find the story in the marketing, whether that’s about a peekaboo wedge, or convincing leadership to take big content risk. Take the idea to partner Kroger with Funny or Die, and have Jeff Goldblum bond with grocery employees, or to share the raw photo of a woman who had just given birth in the aisle of the Kroger grocery store. (Play this video ?????? at 7:50 to hear the full story.)

To get to these risky and effective places with marketing moves, Jorie suggests a “patch test” where you try one small thing first, and gain the trust to go further.

Welcome to the Rebellious Future

Join The Rebel Instinct Podcast for conversations that cut through the fluff and get you to the real instinct behind some of the most badass people in the tech and software industries. Coming soon, we’ve got rebellious marketers from Nestle, Starbucks, Amadeus, and tastemakers across experiential marketing, travel technology and the world of user experience (UX).

Don’t miss the next episode. Listen and subscribe in all the places.

A Natural Union Between Marketing and Sales

As a digital marketer, you depend on a range of technologies that streamline the marketing value chain, including software for planning, creating compelling design and content, and delivering ready-to-buy leads to your business. 

Marketing automation platforms, like Act-On, simplify that entire process, through capturing, scoring, and segmenting contacts to empower effective marketing. Act-On helps you do that through creative and replicable program development, nurture programs, and data that allows for reporting, program improvement, and identifying which buyers to send to sales. Your marketing automation solution is your system of action, through which you best engage with your buyers.

While your sales colleagues may also access your marketing automation solution, they’re typically looking for key information about how a particular prospect or customer interacted with your marketing activities and assets prior to their sales outreach. Armed with this contextual information, the sales person can gain a better understanding of the individual buyer’s journey, urgency, intent, and interests, and adapt their outreach to ensure both they and the buyer have the most productive conversation. It’s a win-win across the board.

Even though the information from your marketing automation platform is important for such conversations, your sales team is much more likely to live in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. In the CRM, they can manage a sales opportunity through sales cycles, track the deal, and accelerate closing. The CRM is an indispensable system of record for understanding and taking action on sales stages. The Act-On and Zendesk Sell integration delivers the best of all worlds to both marketing and sales users, looking for a seamless and collaborative experience.

Act-On + Zendesk Sell =  

This is why Act-On is excited to announce an integration with Zendesk Sell. Customers that wish to improve marketing and sales collaboration, as well as performance, can use both solutions as a single experience, getting the best of both worlds.

Particularly, as a Zendesk Sell sales user, the ease of access to Act-On reporting and marketing activities is built into their experience. Not only can Sell users see aggregate marketing activity scores for each prospective buyer, they can effortlessly link to score sheets in Act-On that grant them visibility into the specific actions and engagements that drew in and have nurtured the buyer relationship. These data points include website visits, landing page and form fills, email and SMS interactions, events and social media activity – everything the prospect did along their buying journey. All of this helps marketing and sales teams better understand what campaigns, promotions, events and other activities attracted the buyer, and what has moved them into the funnel.

Beyond the score sheet, Zendesk Sell users can access and view the timeline of activities along the buyer’s journey, which allows them to evaluate urgency, pace, intent, and favored interactions. All of this helps marketing and sales users to better understand the buyer and personalize their own interactions with them. From within Zendesk Sell, users can prioritize buyers based on defined criteria, as well as initiate outreach, build emails through their own branded content in the Act-On platform, and be sure that all activities are tracked and scored.

Ultimately, marketing and sales people can enter engagements with buyers with the wind at their backs. The behavioral data, insights, and reporting allow for smarter, more timely, and more productive conversations between salespeople and buyers. And both can appreciate that their engagements are personalized, on topic, and accelerate the sales cycle. What’s not to like for the buyer and the seller?

Act-On continues to build our marketing automation platform and our work with key technology vendors like Zendesk to deliver increasingly powerful, scalable, and adaptable solutions to our customers. The Zendesk Sell integration with Act-On is a win-win for Act-On, Zendesk, and our customers and market. Empowering marketing and sales teams to perform and succeed is in our combined DNA.

Talk with us about the opportunities this integration opens for you.

While rubbing elbows with top analysts has benefits like better sales and improved brand awareness, building relationships with and securing support from these experts is no easy task. If attracting new leads is enough of a challenge already, try impressing industry analysts who have seen it all and have strong opinions about where the market is going. Even if you have a solid product development strategy in place and offer great value to your customers, you can bet these industry analysts will have a thing or two to say about what you can do better. 

However, even if you’re not at the top of your game, you should still strive to build and improve analyst relations. Connecting and working with these experts over time can better prepare your team to talk about your product and rep your brand in a way that makes you truly stand out. More importantly, these relationships will equip you with valuable insights that you can leverage to shape your overall business strategy in a way that propels your brand forward.

Luckily for you, here at Act-On, we know a thing or two about establishing a good rapport with industry analysts and are thrilled to share our knowledge to help you do the same. 

Keep reading to learn how to build and improve analyst relations. 

Demo Your Product to Build the Case for Your Brand

While there’s no secret sauce for getting analysts to notice you, one thing is for sure: you’d better be ready to talk about and show the value of your product when they lend you their eyes and ears. After all, you don’t want to let years of networking and relationship building go down the drain simply because you were not prepared. 

When you land a coveted interview spot with a top industry analyst, you can bet they’ll want to dig deep to learn all about your product, your company’s long-term plan and vision, and what it is that makes your offerings unique compared to your competitors. You’ll also have to be ready to provide a demo and discuss the following in your presentation. 

• Key Differentiators: You probably solve for a similar problem to other solutions on the market. To make your product or service stand out, you have to highlight how it is different and better than your competitors’ solution. 
• Value: Don’t forget to discuss which customer pain points your solution solves for and how. 
• Potential for ROI: Purchasing new products or services is a difficult decision for any company, regardless of size, so you have to demonstrate how your offerings will help improve your customers’ bottom line. 
• Product Development Strategy: Without giving away all your secrets, discuss how you envision your product evolving in the future to better serve your customers. 

Each product and company story is unique, so you’ll probably have many more things to add to your discussion with analysts, but focusing on the key aspects above is a great starting point.

Secure References and Testimonials From Happy Customers

While you may have a great rapport with your contacts at the leading firms, chances are they’ll want to cast a much wider net when it comes to gathering information about your product. And who better to tell them about why your product is valuable and unique than your current customers? 

It’s true. Nothing speaks volumes about the value of your brand and product quite like happy customers. Therefore, identifying and cultivating relationships with brand ambassadors can prove to be an effective strategy when it comes to demonstrating the power of your product and the credibility of your brand.

Leverage the Feedback and Insights You Receive

An analyst’s job is not only to evaluate your product for their clients but also provide you and your customers with insights and advice on where the industry is going and what product features pack the most punch. So, while they may have many great things to say about your product or service, they may also have thoughts about what you can do to make your offerings more valuable and competitive.

Nobody wants to hear that their product just isn’t where it needs to be or that their competitors are many steps ahead of them when it comes to product development and innovation. My advice is to make the most out of this feedback by leveraging it in a way that helps you improve your product development and marketing and sales strategies moving forward. They’re experts in the market for a reason, after all.

For example, we have gained a lot of valuable insights from participating in interviews with analysts and undergoing rigorous evaluation processes over the years. Our team’s commitment to leveraging this information to improve and innovate our platform has not only helped us better serve our customers with more powerful and accessible marketing automation; it’s also empowered us to land a coveted “Visionary” spot on the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management. None of this would be possible if we didn’t take the feedback from our customers and industry experts to heart.

We hope this blog helps you build and improve analyst relations in your industry. In our experience, combining a great product with helpful customer service and engaging marketing can do wonders, but you have to be willing to innovate and take analysts’ outlook and advice to heart. 

If you’re able to continue improving and evolving, you’ll probably end up on some pretty impressive lists. We’ve been following the advice above for years now, and we’re back on the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for the third year in a row.

Download the report to learn why Gartner considers us “Visionary” in our space!

Well, it’s not so much a secret as it is a recipe for getting coverage (at least that I know of, but if you have the secret, by all means, please shoot me an email). Press releases are the staple of PR content and serve as a sort of megaphone to extoll your company’s achievements, progress, and other major milestones. Whether you’re publishing them to your website’s pressroom, pitching to journalists for a feature, distributing via newswire, and/or sharing on social media and in email newsletters, press releases are your statements to the public. How you craft and put them out into the world matters.

With that said, let’s go over the basics:

Always Include the Press Release Essentials

Press Release 101, the basics of the basics. There are countless articles that harp on writing the perfect headline, addressing the five W’s, and why you as the PR pro should include your contact information. Without regurgitating what we’re pretty much already nodding our heads in agreement on (you are agreeing that a great headline is important, right?), I’m going to summarize.

Every press release must include the following:

• An informative and interesting headline that answers the question, “Why should I care?”
• Well-written and direct copy following AP style guidelines without grammar errors or fluff
• A dateline (yes, AP style)
• An impactful first paragraph that delivers on key takeaways (Who, What, Where, When, and Why)
• A clear call-to-action at the end that directs readers to the specific page on your website that prompted the press release, such as a product webpage, event registration, landing page to access a report, etc.
• Boilerplate (aka your company’s “About” section) copy that includes a link to your website
• PR contact information for convenient follow-up

Ask “Is This Newsworthy?”

When considering potential press release topics, ask yourself, “Is this newsworthy?” and give yourself a true and honest answer.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but just because you want your business featured in publications does not mean your story will always be impactful enough to get your business in these publications. I completely understand how frustrating it can be when a newsworthy story angle around the office is scarce, but that’s your opportunity to seek out thought leadership coverage with contributing articles and expert interviews.

So, before you start writing your press release: Ask yourself (and your team) if this is hard, actual, audiences-will-care-about-this news. If you hesitate, then sprinkle this news into a different, relevant pitch to leverage and skip the press release.

Some examples of newsworthy press releases include:

• A new product feature or service offering
• High-profile partnership or recognition
• Prominent C-suite appointment (usually best for local press)
• Exclusive insight and findings into the industry
• Upcoming momentous event

Understand Your Audience to Deliver the Perfect Pitch

No, “everyone” is not an appropriate response. Recognize who your primary and secondary audiences are; they’re the ones you want to answer that “Why should I care?” question with your headline because they’re who you’re speaking to.

Journalists always have their readers top of mind, as we businesses do with our customers. Your press release will only make it to your target audiences (outside your own inbound marketing efforts) if you start by pitching to journalists whose readers will actually care about your news. Does the publication attract your ideal prospects, and do the readers expect news from your beat? Are they familiar with your business (or your competitors)? Has this journalist written on the topic before — and recently? Do they engage with your same industry circle on social media?

If not, don’t pitch to them. A surprising 44% of journalists reported that the #1 thing PR professionals could do was to better understand their target audience (1). Before sending your press release pitch, research the end consumer of the content and know who you’re pitching and what they find interesting. When 75% of journalists say less than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant or useful, yours that is intriguing to their readers will stand out.

Include a Quote from a Top Representative at Your Company and Make It Count

Yes, usually it is the CEO because the quote needs to come from a public-facing representative of the company. However, if you’re talking about a new tech product, the CTO may be your best bet. For instance, as a marketing automation provider whose customers are marketers, our SVP of Marketing is often quoted.

While keeping the messaging of the quote as professional as possible, it’s important for it to also be recognizable as a quote. The test goes: Can you tell, without the quotations, that it’s a quote? If so, great! If not, you’ve got some work to do in framing the quote.

These quotes are the best opportunity to highlight what may otherwise seem too subjective for a press release. Don’t just repeat what’s already been said or insert a hollow exclamation. Your quote(s) should provide depth and insight into your topic from a trusted source close to the news. A strong quote really drives home the “Why should I care?” question and helps your odds of having your press release picked up.

If it makes sense for the press release and you can keep it concise, I’m a big believer in including two quotes: one from a company rep (like the CEO) and one from a customer or involved third-party. If you’re launching a new product and have a customer using it in beta, get a quote (or write one and get approval) from them. If there’s a partnership involved, provide a quote from your company rep and theirs.

Multimedia Assets Are Your Best Friend

We always talk about the importance of visuals in every facet of content marketing and storytelling — and press releases are no different! Most published articles have at least one image, but journalists don’t always have the time to track down the right imagery for every piece. Make their jobs as easy as possible by providing them with visuals that accompany the newsworthy content. Imagery (and video, especially) go a long way.

What’s more, I highly recommend creating a shareable media kit folder (via Dropbox or Google Drive) that houses the press release’s multimedia files in addition to the press release, company logos, and (depending on the press release) headshot of the representative quoted.

Pitch, Promote, and Publish Your Press Release

Get your news on every available channel and pitch it immediately upon release to your relevant media contacts (remember: know your audience; help their readership). Newswires serve their purpose, but only 3% of journalists rely on the newswire, so why should you (2)?

Pitch your press release to journalists

I like to see who’s been talking about the press release topic in the past few months, covered our competitors, and has shown interest in our news in the past. It’s a lot of work, but having a media database like Cision, Agility, or Muck Rack makes this a lot more manageable. In fact, 65% of journalists would rather receive customized press releases segmented by product, industry, or theme, rather than one mass-audience distribution (3). For instance, I have different media lists for different types of press releases and then segment the media lists further for relevant messaging.

Submit your press release to participating publications

Some publications are great about submitting your press release (either by form or email), and if you follow all the above tips, you can likely get your press release featured. I maintain a list of publications for easier coverage, and I highly recommend creating your own list for quick reference.

Publish your press release on your website

Every organization’s website needs a pressroom to house media coverage and press releases. For one, you own the link to your press release — plus it helps drive more traffic to your website. Housing your press release in your own press section of your website creates more engagement opportunities through email newsletters, social media, etc.

Share your press release on social media

Never underestimate the power of social media. Share your press release on your company’s various social media handles, and encourage your team members to share as well. (This is especially easy with Act-On’s Advanced Social Media Module.) Include your multimedia imagery to give the social posts extra umph, create a few varying versions, and piggyback off a few trending hashtags.

Press releases require great writing, thorough research, and deft distribution techniques — all of which requires a great deal of time and skill — but the pay-off can help get your business and offerings in front of your target audiences while also increasing brand awareness. Plus, they help you build brand credibility by getting featured in media publications. If you want to see how it’s done, visit Act-On’s pressroom to learn more!

In today’s world, having an elevator pitch ready at all times allows you to seize the moment and take advantage of those spontaneous opportunities to tell your target audience what you’re all about. In other words, an elevator pitch is a perfect way for you to market your brand on the spot — no matter where you are.

A strong elevator pitch is essential because it provides a strong backbone for your messaging and serves as a launching point for the rest of your marketing efforts. Furthermore, it empowers every single member of your organization to serve as a brand ambassador so you never miss an opportunity to rep your brand.

Still not convinced that now is the time to refine your elevator pitch? Whether you already have an elevator pitch that just needs a nice polish or are starting completely from scratch, these strategies will help you craft a message that makes your brand shine.

Identify What Makes You Special

Unless you’re lucky enough to be the sole vendor available to meet the needs of your consumer, chances are your competitors will probably have similar things to say in their own elevator pitch. If you truly want to fuel your demand generation machine, you need to focus on what makes your organization different and better — and why it makes total sense for your customers to choose you over other options.

Keep in mind, this is also an opportunity to mention areas where your competitors fall short and you excel. For example, if you typically have customers migrating to you because they were dissatisfied with the level of support they received from a competitor, you’ll want to mention your commitment to customer service. Your leads have likely come across these critiques in their own research, so addressing this fact will reaffirm what they already know and bring them one step closer to converting into loyal customers.

Remember to Highlight Results

Even if you’ve managed to pique the interest of your target audience, your leads will want to make sure they’ll be getting the best possible return on investment. Therefore, you should highlight results that back up your claims to show that you’re the real deal and gain the trust of your target customers.

Depending on the message you’re trying to convey in your elevator pitch, these are just a few of the results you might want to highlight.

• Customer Success: Do you have a customer who has seen exceptional results from your product or service? (Bonus points if they are in the same vertical as your audience members.)
• Industry Stats: Do you have any statistics to show how your target customers are benefiting from your partnership? Or do you have any percentages that show how you’re excelling in a specific area in comparison to your competitors?
•  Value: Do you offer customers more bang for their buck? If so, how?
• High Retention Rates: Demonstrating that you have what it takes to keep customers happy can speak volumes, especially for customers looking to avoid the cost of switching vendors in the future.

Keep It Brief and Make Sure It Rolls off the Tongue

Although your elevator pitch is supposed to serve as a foundation for your overall brand messaging, you don’t want to give all your secrets away at once. Instead, give your audience just enough to keep them wanting more, and then let the rest of your nurturing efforts continue to tell your story in a way that is easy to digest and remember.

If you want to encourage members of your organization to spread the word, your elevator pitch must be easy enough to remember and recite when the perfect moment arrives. The last thing you want to do is to lose credibility with your audience because your team members don’t seem like they know what they’re talking about.

Make Sure to Relate Your Pitch to the Rest of Your Marketing Efforts

A solid elevator pitch serves as a great introduction to your brand, but your marketing and sales efforts don’t end there. Every savvy marketer knows that to convert your target audience into loyal customers, you have to invest time nurturing new contacts and providing them with a unique and targeted experience.

Your goal should be to use relevant website content, outbound messaging, social media, and other marketing efforts to support and elaborate on the claims you made in your elevator pitch. The perk is that since your customers already have an initial understanding of what you do, they’ll be more likely to engage with you as you take them on this journey.