Over the last couple of years bloggers have emerged as the new tour de force in the world of marketing. With highly engaged audiences, bloggers can reach and influence thousands of people, tuning them in to new products and services within their area of interest. But who are these bloggers, and how can you include them in your marketing plan? What is a blogger? A blogger is someone who writes about a particular niche (parenting, health, golf – you name it, there’s a blog about it!) and they build up a following by posting interesting articles and photographs. Sometimes they’re highly informed, enthusiastic amateurs, blogging in their spare time. Others are professionals in their field, building a business through the…

Media coverage can work wonders in promoting your business and getting noticed by your target audience. But these days digital PR has a dual role – in helping you move up the search engine rankings. A PR approach will aim to achieve coverage for your company on digital media that’s read by your audience – whether that’s local and regional newspapers or specialist magazines or blogs. It’s about creating brand awareness (the traditional role of PR) at the same time as creating content that’s worth linking to or talking about on social media (the new role of PR). A link from a highly authoritative source will not only place your brand in front of a new audience, it will also…

Getting your business featured in the media can be a great way to generate publicity. But where do you begin? It’s all starts with defining what media coverage would help you most. Businesses relying on local trade will need to look to the media outlets in their region. However, if you offer a service, you could gain exposure in your industry title by offering insightful comment on a topical issue. Becoming known as the ‘go to’ expert in your field can lead to valuable media coverage. Alternatively, if you sell a product, you’ll want to get featured (and photographed) in a title read by your target audience, such as a women’s lifestyle magazine. Once you’ve decided which media you’re targeting,…

Thought leadership is about building a profile in your industry as the ‘go to’ expert on a particular topic.  Anyone who is truly an expert in their field can adopt a thought leadership approach. A thought leader will generate insights – usually articles, videos, Podcasts etc - which help their audience to gain a better understanding of a common problem, or a new way of looking at a particular issue. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming or complex. You could start out by simply producing a series of quality articles, guides or blog posts on topics that will help your audience. From there, you can build up a library of articles and resources which are housed on your website or…