Optimize Magazine - Spring 2016

SPRING 2016

IDEAS FOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

JOE PULIZZI Content Marketing Evangelist Reverse Engineers Content Marketing in his new book CONTENT INC.

MORE...

Does Your Social Media Plan Include Instagram? It Should!

The Verdict is In on Custom Publications How To Leverage Your Employees LinkedIn Pages

UR O UT AYSER O V CK AWT CO E CH E ON

V R GNISIDE F I

GREAT GIVEAWAYS FROM THIS ISSUE!

CONTENT INC.

(Cover Story, page 6)

Content marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi reverse engineers content marketing and walks you through how to differentiate your content, pick the right platform foundations, and convert readers to subscribers.

BONUS!

Struggling with how to write great content?

We’ve paired Wall Street Journal Best Seller EVERYBODY WRITES: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

by Ann Handley with Joe’s newest book! “ Everybody Writes gives you all the tools you need to make writing a core part of your life (and it needs to be).”

—J oe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing Institute

JUMP-START YOUR PERSONAL AND CORPORATE BRAND WITH LINKEDIN (Feature Story, page 12)

HOT OFF THE PRESS! The completely revised The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success

by Wayne Breitbarth and New York Times Best Seller The LinkedIn Code by Melonie Dodaro.

WIN A MOLESKINE SMART NOTEBOOK (Cool Finds, page 3)

HOW’S IT WORK? Moleskine and Adobe teamed up on a new Creative Cloud Moleskine notebook, allowing your sketches to be transferred directly into digital format. Draw in the book, take a photo with a connected app, and a vector version of your sketch is sent to your Adobe Creative Cloud account. How cool is that?!

REGISTER TODAY AND YOU COULD WIN ONE OF THESE GREAT GIVEAWAYS! To enter, scan the QR code or visit : hopkinsprinting.com/Spring2016Register

inting .com /opti

WELCOME

Spring 2016

01

EXPERT OPINION Read insights from the following contributors in this issue:

Welcome to the Spring issue 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT HOPKINS PRINTING

1 “Three Musts for Today” Recently, our team has been implementing the use of a new organizational tool to improve our overall effectiveness of what we are trying to accomplish on a daily basis. With so many great company goals and initiatives, we sometimes find ourselves getting “caught in the weeds”, and missing the big picture. With that in mind, we have developed our “Three musts for Today” approach to problem solving and becoming more efficient.

At the end of each day, we determine what we believe are the three things each of us must do the next day to move us toward success. At the close of the next day, we follow up with the team member we are partnered with to make sure we are staying focused and making progress. This has turned out to be a great exercise, keeping us focused on what matters most!

Roy Waterhouse President, Hopkins Printing

Joe Pulizzi The recognized leader of content marketing talks about his new book and six-step process for content development. (Page 6)

2 Political Printing It’s a great year for political printing and direct mail!

With Spring primaries heating up, we’re excited to see that politicians still realize the power and ROI of direct marketing. For our customers who work daily in this world of politics, we are able to produce amazing campaigns that help educate and move public opinion. The Fall is shaping up to be a great time to be a printer as well, with the presidential campaign gaining momentum.

Look Back on 2015

3

2015 was a strong year for Hopkins Printing. We were able to serve, with excellence, our incredible customers, while adding new ones. It’s been said many times, but is worth repeating — the best compliment you can give us is to share our name with your friends and colleagues. We’re always grateful when a referral comes our way; and if you aren’t yet a customer — give us a call and experience the joy of working with Hopkins Printing.

Follow us online

Lee Watts Director of Marketing and Business Development at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP discusses their corporate publication. (Page 10)

facebook.com/HopkinsSolutions

@hopksolutions

Wayne Breitbarth LinkedIn expert consultant and author examines the importance of your employees, LinkedIn pages, along with Melonie Dodaro, number one best-selling author of The LinkedIn Code. (Page 12)

linkedin.com/company/hopkins-printing

Optimize is printed on 100# U Velvet Cover/100# U Velvet Text paper

01 Welcome SPRING 2016

IDEAS FOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

JOE PULIZZI Content Marketing Evangelist Reverse Engineers Content Marketing in his new book CONTENT INC.

02 Insights

Ideas, opinions, news, and trends.

MORE... mize

Discover three new things about Hopkins Printing.

Does Your Social Media Plan Include Instagram? It Should!

06 Interview with Joe Pulizzi

The Verdict is In on Custom Publications How To Leverage Your Employees LinkedIn Pages

R OU UT AYSER KO OV EC AWT C CH EFRON E GIV SID IN

The number one leading content marketing guru gives us insight into his new book, Content Inc.

10 Marketing Case Study

The Director of Marketing and Business Development for the law firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP shares her insight into the success of their custom publication.

12 Engaging Employees on LinkedIn

Executive Editor

Cindy Woods, cmoteam.com Contributing Writers

Tim Sweeney, Cindy Woods

Two LinkedIn experts discuss the importance of having engaged emloyees on LinkedIn.

Design

Production Design

Designlogix

Diann Durham

16 My Working Day

©2016 All Rights Reserved

A communications manager for a 1000+ employee law firm explains her role.

Printed and distributed by Hopkins Printing www.hopkinsprinting.com

Spring 2016

INSIGHTS

NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

SOCIAL MEDIA » Need ideas for your Instagram account?

Check these out:

Instagram Done Right ven if your business doesn’t have an official Instagram account, chances are it’s already on Instagram. With more than 400 million people now using the photo-sharing social network, there’s a good chance people have posted photos of or discussed your brand there. But if controlling your brand image and the imagery associated with it on Instagram isn’t reason enough to create an account, the possibilities that Instagram offers to grow a community—and therefore your business—ought to be. The chance to use captivating imagery to engage consumers, build trust in your expertise, and potentially drive consumers to your website is one you can no longer afford to pass on. Here are a few tips for creating brand engagement on “Insta,” as the kids call it.

The most successful branded Instagram accounts aren’t necessarily showing off the products that said company is selling. In fact, many hardly show their products at all, at least not in a traditional sense. Instead, they use lifestyle shots to demonstrate the benefits of products without really pitching them.

Think: it’s not a photo of the credit card itself that gains new subscribers, but the pictures of the places you can go with it.

To mix things up, occasionally work videos into your posts as well.

day in the life: What 1 Abetter way to connect with

E

your customer than an exclusive peek inside your brand’s daily life?

Add 2 Announcements: Instagram photos and

videos to your PR plan. Press releases are so “yesterday!” your products 3 Show in a creative way: Pilot

Pen USA shows photos of handwritten notes and their pens—very creatively! appreciation: Follow 4 Show Starbucks’ lead and give a

shout-out to your followers who are posting cool images on your Instagram account. Fans love it! a photo contest: And 5 Host make a unique hashtag just

for that campaign. You can even make a campaign out of creating the hashtag name!

Want more fun Instagram ideas?

Download our infographic,

15 GREAT INSTAGRAM MARKETING IDEAS Scan the QR code or visit:

hopkinsprinting.com/Instagram

Five to Follow Looking for a road map for creating a better Instagram presence?

Check out these five brands for inspiration.

1. PETCO The key to Petco’s content is that it’s not product related, but is instead generated by its followers sending photos of their pets—in Star Wars attire, in holiday garb, or just mugging for the camera. Because pets love to play dress up, evidently. Petco also runs contests asking for pet photos with certain hashtags and gives away gift cards to weekly winners.

2. GOPRO Maybe not a surprise since their product is a camera, but, again, user-generated content is the order of the day. Incentives like their Photo of the Day contest urge users to send their best images in hopes that it may be shared with GoPro’s audience of more than 7 million followers. It also motivates others to buy a GoPro.

3. SHARPIE It’s just a pen, right? Wrong. Sharpie’s Instagram feed puts shameless brand exposure to the side and shows what can be created when its products are placed in the hands of talented people, displaying artwork done by its users with Sharpies. The only downside: if you don’t have such prodigious talent, it’s mildly disheartening to see the work of those who do.

INSIGHTS

Spring 2016

03

COOL FIND! »

CALLING ALL DESIGNERS AND SKETCH NOTE TAKERS

If done right, your followers will play a crucial role in generating content around your brand. Users of Instagram upload something like 40 million pictures each day. Stage hashtagged photo contests with prizes for winners, share consumer images of your brand on your Instagram feed, and use creative hashtags to assemble photos around certain topics to increase consumer-generated content.

Many businesses neglect the opportunity to rely on partners to drive traffic to each other’s Instagram accounts. Customers, business partners, and suppliers often share similar audiences, so tagging them in your posts can help spread the love and drive traffic between you. Trending hashtags can also help your brand join photo “conversations” and send users your way that might not find your brand otherwise.

Instagram is huge, but Facebook is . . . more huge, and it owns Instagram. Adding an Instagram tab on your Facebook Page enables you to instantly share your Instagram photos to your Facebook fans.

Finally, remember that simply gaining followers on Instagram is generally not the end goal. Whether you’re looking to collect emails or send viewers to a product page for a special offer, use the endless character count allowed by Instagram with your photo to tell a story, and use a call to action that refers followers to the link in your bio that can be updated at any time. n

4. GENERAL ELECTRIC Yep, THOSE guys. GE’s Instagram account does a wonderful job of showing off all the things they do that you didn’t realize they did. Spectacular images of big machines such as locomotives as well as videos of wind turbines combine with inspiring quotes to visually tell the brand story: “to build, power, move and cure the world.”

And the winner is . . .

@MAILCHIMP

The Moleskine Smart Notebook is a MUST-HAVE tool!

The Moleskine Smart Notebook and companion app instantly turn your hand-drawn sketches into fully workable vector files accessible within the Adobe Creative Cloud.

We’ve crowned MailChimp as one of the best B2B Insta’s we’ve ever seen. Through bright but simple photographs, we go behind the scenes at their Atlanta, GA headquarters and live the MailChimp life of fun and goodness! We meet winners of the office baking contest, coffee hour guests, and executive team members such as Dan, the Co Founder and Chief Customer Officer.

We even follow them to sporting events and talent-recruitment days. If you’re looking for great Instagram creativity and inspiration, look no further!

5. AMERICAN EXPRESS Amex focuses on what you can do with the card and displays it via polished, perfect photos of desirable items and locales. It also relies on Amex ambassadors such as professional photographers and has given smart Instagrammers (such as chefs and designers) the keys to its account as part of its #MyAmex campaign to increase audience engagement.

Check out this YouTube video to see how it works:

With the feel of a traditional leather-bound notebook, the Smart Notebook is made of a special paper optimized for digital sharing using markers placed on each page.

Download the free app, sketch, point, and click! It’s that easy. And with your Adobe Creative Cloud membership, you can sync your files to the Creative Cloud and immediately open them in Adobe Photoshop CC or Adobe Illustrator CC to continue working.

ENTER TO WIN THE

MOLESKINE SMART NOTEBOOK TODAY!

Scan the QR code or visit: hopkinsprinting.com/Spring2016Register

Spring 2016

INSIGHTS

NEWS | REVIEWS | IDEAS | OPINION |

TRENDING »

Recruitment Marketing: Marketing’s New Role with HR eing able to connect with today’s Millennial job seekers and drive them to apply for a position with your company is challenging for a number of reasons, but chief among them is that young people today see their careers in a different light than previous generations. In a 2014 Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll, 57 percent of young people said finding something enjoyable or making a difference in society was their top priority jobwise. Millennials, and many Gen Xers, also see themselves moving from company to company throughout their career in order to advance. These viewpoints certainly shape how companies sell themselves to potential employees, and no one knows how to do that better than the marketers inside the building.

Because today’s marketing teams are experienced at finding the right audience, presenting the brand, telling the story, and converting believers, human resource departments are relying on the skills of their marketing teams to help them recruit the best talent on the job-hunting market. The Global Recruiting Trends 2016 report from LinkedIn Talent Solutions surveyed nearly 4,000 talent-acquisition teams worldwide and found that 47 percent share or contribute to employer branding with their marketing department. Marketers, can you say “job security”?

“Marketing comes with their own skill set, whether it be copywriting or visual elements,” says Megan Wakefield, Director of HR at San Diego-based fitness company

B

Jazzercise. “They are trained to talk to your target audience and engage with them, so it makes sense to get assistance in targeting the right candidate in the correct voice.” The ability to write a job posting that effectively targets the desired audience is not necessarily a skill set a typical HR professional would have, and a job posting is truly an advertisement in a sea of others. The applicable skills of a marketer continue to go well beyond that. Today’s marketing departments can help their HR

colleagues approach recruitment the same way they approach customer acquisition and conversion, in many cases right down to analyzing where the best candidates are coming from. Expertise in mobile marketing, for example, is just one area where marketers can contribute, with 73 percent of Millennials saying they use a mobile device to search for jobs, according to a 2014 report from the Indeed Hiring Lab.

The use of branded content—especially video, which is favored by Millennials— can play a vital role in attracting talented individuals that can both fill positions and fit within the company culture. As young candidates search for career information and advice, delivering such content validates your company as a trusted expert in your field.

From there, it’s about sharing that content in online communities where your target audience gathers, a practice that marketing teams are accustomed to executing.

Effectively utilizing social media can also put your job openings in the right arena to be seen by qualified individuals. Hashtags on Twitter can connect you to industry-specific conversations where candidates are likely to engage with job postings if you tweet them with that hashtag.

Recruitment marketing might also involve the creation of videos in which your company’s employees share the brand story, a highly effective way to connect with a candidate audience that trusts the opinions of individual employees more than any overt messaging from your HR, marketing, or PR departments.

INSIGHTS

Spring 2016

05

5-MINUTE EXPERT »

5-Minute Expert

Your recruiters may have implemented a well-crafted application online, but do they know how effective it really is? How many applicants who start the process actually finish it? Where and why do they abandon the application? Is it too lengthy, frustrating, or just plain difficult to complete? Marketers have experience with converting users—whether it involves making an online purchase, gaining new followers on social media, acquiring an email address, or increasing newsletter open rates. By knowing where you might be losing candidates in the application process, your HR team can close the gaps and convert more of them.

To help drive candidates down the applications funnel, marketing professionals can also help their HR colleagues create a branded career page that not only appeals both visually and in brand voice, but also uses SEO and keywords that help job postings appear prominently in searches.

Only when you’ve garnered the attention of the candidates you hope to attract can you begin to tell them the story of why they might want to work for you. “Candidates today don’t want to just show up and do the same thing over and over again for a company they don’t care about, so explaining why you’re different is important, and marketing people really know how to tell that story,” Wakefield says. “And the context of the role is crucial. You need to tell candidates how the position fits into the company and then how the company fits into the world or the market in a certain way, and telling that story allows candidates to see the meaning in their potential work.” n

Arnold Fishman Design Director, Lipman Hearne, Chicago IL

Q&A with Arnold Fishman How do you approach a logo design project?

Develop a list of questions concerning various criteria that affect the choice of the components of the solution. The answers will put the identity into a defined set of parameters, like the framework of a house. It will keep the client honest about what they are really looking for (since there are hundreds of ways to solve an identity issue, and all could be reasonably correct). It will also keep the designer from making serious errors in judgment or spending huge amounts of time redoing items over miscommunicated expectations.

Are you seeing any trends in logo design?

Complex has been done. A return to simplicity and minimalism, with simple and bold twists on reality, is resonating with consumers. There needs to be a rule: No more swashes. No more orbits.

No more rings!

What should a client expect to receive from their designer?

Define this up front with your designer. The normal deliverable should be a vector-based file, which is scalable to infinity. Typographic solutions should always be delivered as paths and not as genuine typography. (A version of the identity should always be kept by the designer, who holds the initial typography intact as a reference for future needs or for future refreshing.) Full-color identities should be provided, with PMS as a

standard deliverable and with hex colors provided in RGB. Logos should be shown on white grounds, as well as reversed out of color, with a small graphic identity usage guide of all logo colors and variations, font usage, etc.

How much time should a client allow for the design process?

One month minimum, from the time of initial meetings to the first presentation of concepts.

Two to three months total time for small- to mediumsized projects.

What should a designer understand about a company before designing a logo?

The location or locations; the meaning of the company name; how many owners of the company there are; the primary product or products that the client sees as defining the company; what segment of the market the company wants to be strongest in; what type of client character the company wants to have as their ideal customer; how the logo is going to be displayed (print, web, clothing, embroidered, metal, decal, engraved, etc.).

In summary: Identity should be long in wear, which is why identities need to be timeless and well thought out. It’s much better to change website experiences on a regular two- to three-year basis, taglines 5 to 10 years, identities 15 to 25 years or longer, depending on the likely lifespan of the company. But developing a brand’s identity is an investment and should be done right the first time.

06

Spring 2016

COVER STORY

THE GODFATHER Joe Pulizzi is considered

”the Godfather of Content Marketing.”

Interview by Tim Sweeney

That’s quite a moniker to live up to, but as an entrepreneur, speaker, and author, the moniker is well earned. Pulizzi founded the Content Marketing Institute, which has a stated mission of advancing the practice of content marketing and which publishes the bimonthly magazine Chief Content Officer. His new book, Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses, came out in September 2015. Three years ago, we sat down with Pulizzi for a deep dive into the world of content marketing. Now, we figured it was time to pick his brain again for a sort of 2016 State of the Union on content marketing.

Q: Your new book, Content Inc., talks about flipping the script to create valuable content for an audience before creating the product.

For those tied to the traditional approach, wondering where the audience comes from without a product they desire/need, can you explain this thinking to get us started?

Joe: There will always be companies that create

amazing products. Some market themselves.

People find them, love them, talk about them, and the company succeeds. Others invest heavily in marketing and attract prospects and then customers. Nothing wrong with that.

Spring 2016

But when I started to discover so many multimillion-dollar, fast-growing companies that started with no products and services at all, it was worth a deeper look. Those entities focused on a particular audience and delivered amazing information to that audience consistently over time.

Those subscribers came to know, like, and trust those organizations, so much so that whatever products and services they launched were purchased. In most cases, the products created were incredibly needed because the audience was so well understood. In many case studies, the audience actually “asked” the company to produce them. What resulted was an organization that never, if they chose not to, marketed in traditional ways. Why? Because they already had access to and a relationship with those people. This model would have been extremely challenging a few years back. Today, it’s possible because there are no barriers to entry for publishing and unlimited access to content for consumers.

Q: Your book outlines a six-step model to follow. At the base of all this is the core knowledge and passion, but there is also a need to generate content, of course, which might not be a skill set all entrepreneurs believe they are blessed with. Any advice for those people?

JP: Of course. Many entrepreneurs aren’t good

at accounting, either. Or legal issues. When they need to print something, they don’t go out and buy an industrial printer.

Those things are outsourced.

Like any good business, we keep in-house what we are good at and passionate about. Everything else, we outsource or find talent. To someone in publishing, this makes perfect sense. For someone not in publishing, it seems daunting, but, in reality, it’s like everything else we have to accomplish as a business.

Q: Content Inc. also addresses “change agents” at larger companies—the people who might be struggling to convert their colleagues from the old ways of marketing into believers in content marketing. Can you give us a snippet of how the book addresses this challenge that many marketers encounter today?

07

Q: So many companies are desperate to create content around their brand these days that they end up creating content that is not useful, almost noisy.

Is it better to post better quality less frequently, or does volume matter? And how often should people be posting?

JP: Your goal, any organization’s goal, is to

create the minimum amount of content with the maximum amount of results. No one should actually want to create more content.

But when you do create, it must be consistent, whether that’s every day, three times per week, weekly, or monthly. I’ve seen all of these frequencies be successful.

JP: The Content Inc. model—or the idea of

building an audience first and then monetizing it— can work for any-size company. For larger enterprises targeting a particular niche, especially a new area or audience base, the model works well to build a relationship with that audience first, get intelligence, and then launch the product. Oftentimes this model can serve like a pilot program—instead of launching the product offering, we can launch a content initiative, which is much less risky. In company cultures that are hard to change, which is just about all large companies, content pilots work best, targeting one audience around one niche. Once we can gain some success in the pilot, then we can go after increasing the budget. In many large companies, they won’t significantly invest in content marketing until they see some kind of success.

Most content marketing programs fail simply because they stop. Consistent publishing is where organizations fall down. They exercise too much campaigncentric thinking.

THE FUTURE Content marketing moves quickly.

Joe Pulizzi offers some insight for small- and mediumsized businesses going forward.

1 LESS IS MORE

More and more businesses are realizing this, so there is a movement away from quantity of content to quality.

2 THE GROWTH OF VIDEO

We are seeing video lengths in all forms, from short, 15-second videos to 20-minute (and even longer) series. YouTube incentivizes longer watch time, so many YouTubers are creating longer and longer videos.

3 THE CHALLENGE

OF CONSISTENCY

Consistently delivering quality content to a particular audience over time might be the greatest challenge going forward. In our Content Inc. case studies, the average time to monetization with content for small- and medium-sized business is 15–17 months, which means if you aren’t patient, it simply won’t work. This is also why small- and medium-sized businesses have an opportunity over large companies, because they often have the luxury of being more patient.

08

Spring 2016

COVER STORY

Q: When a brand has determined its consistent content frequency, what goals should they have for their content? Is it all about click-throughs to their website, gaining followers, and gaining database subscribers?

JP: There are only three goals for content

marketing—generating sales, decreasing costs, or creating happier customers. Now, website traffic and social shares are low-level indicators of success, sometimes even meaningless.

If there is a holy grail metric to content marketing, it’s the subscriber—someone that opts in to receive our content on a regular basis. Once we start growing our subscriber base (the audience), we can begin to measure how those subscribers behave differently. Do they buy more? Stay longer as customers?

Talk more favorably about us? That’s the end game—seeing a behavior change over time in some way.

Q: It seems as though more and more companies are simply sharing content rather than generating original content.

Is that okay? Should we tell people, “Well, it’s better than nothing”?

JP: If you have an influencer strategy to build

relationships, just sharing content is fine. But if you want to position yourself as the leading informational expert over a particular content area, you have to create your own consistently valuable content over time. Success could be possible if we curated content in a certain way, but we’d need to make that package valuable enough for people to want to subscribe to it.

Q: What are your thoughts on how to find affordable, credible content developers for SMBs? Is there a difference between a copywriter and a content developer?

JP: : It can be affordable with the right strategy.

Instead of creating content everywhere, focus on one content type, one content channel, and consistently deliver over time. That might mean you need to hire a journalist, editor, etc.

The most important position you can fill is an editorial role. Getting the raw content is probably a lot easier (much of that can come from employees or customers), but putting it

KEEPING PACE WITH THESE IN PRINT

8

1. Inc. – Inc.‘s content focuses on technology, money, leadership, and ways to grow yourself and your business, with engaging profiles on interesting professionals in the business world.

2. WIRED – Launched in 1993 to cover the digital revolution, WIRED was dictionary thick during the dot-com days.

Today, it reports on business, culture, design, science, gear, and transportation— all with a mainstream feel.

3. Chief Content Officer – Produced

by Pulizzi’s Content Marketing Institute, it’s the first globally distributed magazine devoted to content marketing, focusing on the tools, technologies, and processes used to help marketers learn new publishing tools. Available online and in print; the print edition is free in the U.S.

ONLINE 4. SocialMediaExaminer.com – The world’s largest social media-marketing online magazine, delivering daily, original articles to more than 430,000 email subscribers.

5. Copyblogger.com – Delivers original, weekly content that teaches people how to create online content.

6. ProBlogger.net – Started by blogger Darren Rowse in 2004, it helps other bloggers learn the skills of blogging and features more than 7,000 articles, tips, and tutorials.

7. Moz.com – The Moz blog features posts to help you with your SEO and online marketing, written by the likes of cofounder Rand Fishkin.

8. Relevance.com – Features datavalidated guidance to digital marketing leaders. Relevance.com’s publication section delivers insight on content promotion and distribution.

together in a coherent story is challenging.

So find the editor first. Look at some of the leading trade publications in your industry. You’ll find many people there that don’t work directly for the publication. I would start there.

Q: When we chatted with you a few years ago, you spoke about the importance of tailoring content for print and online, even if it’s rooted in the same original content.

How has that strategy evolved in recent years? And what are you doing specifically with Chief Content Officer when you take that content to the online space?

JP: Print, today, is like a trade show that all of

your customers are at, with no competitors. It’s such a great opportunity right now. We have to remember that we aren’t creating a blog or a print article, we are telling a story. How we tell that story comes later. So we want to first figure out the story and, secondarily, figure out how we will tell that story in print and online. Sometimes they work together, sometimes they don’t. Generally, we will tell a detailed story in print and then edit that story specifically for the web (usually more how-to related, while print is more focused on strategy).

Q: Three years ago you said that print was offering a bit of an opportunity because less mail was being sent as companies gave up on direct mail, etc. How do you feel about that today? Are there areas of print marketing that you feel brands have abandoned and are missing out on opportunities because of it?

JP: I feel the opportunity is even greater today,

even though more and more brands are seeing this opportunity, like Airbnb and Uber. Airbnb launched a print publication called Pineapple and has since suspended publishing. Not sure why they stopped, but this is a great example of a brand not following through with a customer promise. I love thinkMoney magazine from TD Ameritrade, a magazine that goes to heavy traders. They found that subscribers who receive the magazine trade five times more than those that don’t. Fantastic.

Q: You also spoke to us a few years ago about Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithms placing more of an emphasis on

Spring 2016

social media-generated content—meaning companies needed to develop a “social play” to make it into the search rankings. Google is constantly evolving in an effort to make search functions more useful to users, so where are we now in that world? Are you still focused on the same strategy?

JP: Even though some people think that social

media plays a direct role, nothing is proven. I think the play is this: more people share your content, more people engage in that content, more people write about that content and link to that content.

Links, we know, help your search rankings. So, in and of itself, there is a social play there. I would focus on sharing content to build subscribers in social channels to then try to convert those people into email subscribers, which we have more control over.

Instead of creating content everywhere, focus on one content type, one content channel, and consistently deliver over time. That might mean you need to hire a journalist, editor, etc.

Q: You’ve spoken in the past about being able to create content that is specifically targeted to consumers. What kind of advances have you seen in recent years in the ability to first identify different types of consumers and then target them with content?

JP: What’s changed so much over the years

is the cost of acquiring an audience. Literally, all audiences are accessible online. Finding communities online where your customers are at has never been easier. Using tools such as Google Trends to identify what your audience may or may not be searching for is at your fingertips. n

09

ADVICE FROM JOE

We asked Joe Pulizzi for his best professional advice. These tips sound simple enough, but he says No. 1 changed his life. Maybe it will change yours.

1

2

rite down your W goals and review them EVERY DAY. Make it a habit.

Set particular times to respond to email. Don’t be in your email every minute of the day.

3

Focus on what you are passionate about and outsource the rest.

REGISTER TODAY AND WIN JOE PULIZZI’S NEW BOOK CONTENT INC. Scan the QR code to enter, or visit: hopkinsprinting.com/Spring2016Register

10

Spring 2016

CASE STUDY

OBJECTING TO A CUSTOM PRINT PUBLICATION? OVERRULED! Think it’s too expensive and too old-fashioned to produce a company newsletter or magazine? One law firm argues otherwise.

By Tim Sweeney

f law is not your profession—or at least something you have a very keen interest in—the idea of reading a publication filled with articles written by attorneys might seem like the perfect cure for insomnia. But for Atlantabased law firm Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, publishing a quarterly magazine has proven to be an excellent marketing tool, providing value to clients, aiding in pitch presentations, and educating readers about the firm’s various areas of practice and office locations.

In 2009, in an effort to display credibility, authority, and expertise, the then-marketing director for Smith, Gambrell & Russell thought it was a good idea to get something in the hands of clients that highlighted the firm’s thought leadership. Trust the Leaders was born. Lee Watts, the current Director of Marketing and Business Development, was a bit skeptical of the practice when she started at the firm in 2013. “This is my fourth firm, and it’s not common for firms to do this,” she says. “My gut reaction when I started here was that it was crazy, considering the cost and time spent on it, and I wondered why they weren’t doing it digitally. Now that I’ve been here, I get it. For law firms, there’s always that pressure to add value, and this is another way to do that.”

Trust the Leaders has a mailing list that is 12,000 strong, the bulk of which are business owners and in-house attorneys for other companies. Additional copies are distributed around the firm’s various offices for attorneys to share with clients or potential clients.

I

The goal is to publish each quarter, but, with all the writers being attorneys and trials often getting in the way, they usually produce three issues per year.

Though the magazine is also produced digitally so that it can be easily shared, Watts says people love the hard copy because they believe digital would only get lost in the shuffle.

Lee Watts Director of Marketing and Business Development

A magazine committee (including an editor) consisting of marketing personnel and attorneys kicks off the production of each issue by deciding on a theme, usually based on areas the firm is trying to communicate to the market, then determining how that story can be told. Once topics are chosen, they decide who is best qualified to write about them by emailing attorneys and asking for recent success stories. “From there, we sit together, look at what we have, and spend a great deal of time editing and proofreading,” Watts says.

The finished content, including most of the artwork that appears in the publication, is sent to an outside publisher. Smith, Gambrell & Russell shares artwork responsibilities with the publisher, but the content is well baked when the firm sends it to them.

My gut reaction when I started here was that it was crazy, considering the cost and time spent on it, and I wondered why they weren’t doing it digitally. Now that I’ve been here, I get it. For law firms, there’s always that pressure to add value, and this is another way to do that.

Spring 2016

The magazine‘s database has grown significantly over the years, and feedback has been very positive. “We get people emailing us on the issues covered in the magazine and complimenting us,” Watts says. The firm’s attorneys will often bring issues of the magazine when pitching for new business, especially if they are talking about a topic that will come up in the meeting. “If they are pitching environmental topics, they might bring that issue and leave it behind for the potential client,” Watts says. Relevant articles have even been added to the back of a pitch or proposal. “The potential client will be reading copy and then see this colorful article at the end,” she says. ”There’s been no talk of stopping it, so our attorneys realize there is value in it.”

Marketing efforts around the magazine include driving traffic to the firm’s website (currently the focus of a redesign), tweeting story links, and

building the firm’s database.

Recently, Smith, Gambrell & Russell started an entertainment practice, so that was the theme of the last issue. “We looked at things like art galleries and sports and entertainment businesses in different cities and mailed them a copy of our publication to spark interest and hopefully add them to our database,” Watts says. “Then we can send them additional information about our firm.”

The magazine has also spurred additional content marketing efforts by the firm.

A blog post or client alert about a relevant current event or law news is written by attorneys.

From there, the marketing team dresses it up and distributes it to the database. Those emails can be segmented so that the news reaches subscribers to whom the topic is relevant. In the future, Watts would like to create podcasts done by attorneys. The firm also conducts internal and external “Lunch and Learns” aimed at educating other attorneys or outside attendees about specific topics.

Recently, the editor of the magazine recorded a YouTube video discussing the upcoming issue. The video was shared on Twitter and emailed internally to get firm members thinking about clients who don’t receive the publication. “It worked great. A number of our attorneys replied, asking us to add their clients to the mailing list,” says Watts, who adds that much of her job is spent on internal communications. With five offices covering multiple legal areas, many of the firm’s attorneys aren’t aware of all that the firm does.

“That,” she says, “was the reason for the YouTube video. In the future, I’d like for each issue to have its own marketing campaign with a video.” n

11

WHAT I’VE LEARNED Lee Watts has learned a lot about publishing a magazine since she first started at SGR. She took stock of what she’s picked up along the way and shares it here.

1

GET ON THE CONTENT TRAIN

If there is a way to create content and establish yourself as a thought leader, you should do it. It doesn’t have to be a colorful, high-end magazine, but if you can brand yourself in an area, you can’t lose.

REPURPOSE

2

Often, one of our attorneys has already done a webinar, presentation, or client alert on a topic, so we ask them to turn it into an article. There’s content all around, but it’s important to ask, “How can I make this into something else?”

3

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

Whatever your area of expertise is in the world, write about it. Let people know what your opinion is on topics and comment on them.

4

DO WHAT YOU DO WELL

In some cases, we spend hours on editing. Our lawyers bill a lot of money per hour, so we have to focus on what is the best use of everyone’s time. Do what comes easily to your organization and look at what you can outsource.

12

Spring 2016

SOCIAL MEDIA

Engaging Your Employees on LinkedIn Want to expand your company’s brand footprint on LinkedIn? Your employees just might be your best resource.

Two LinkedIn experts share advice on building your brand on LinkedIn. (Check out their websites for additional free resources.)

WAYNE BREITBARTH

MELONIE DODARO

Author of The Power Forumla for LinkedIn Success • LinkedIn Trainer • Speaker • LinkedIn Expert/Consultant

International #1 Best-selling Author of The LinkedIn Code • LinkedIn Expert • Consultant • Keynote Speaker

Featured in Forbes, NBC, American Express OPEN Forum, Fox Business, and WIRED

Featured in CBS Inside Edition, Huffington Post, ABC World News, Wall Street Journal, New York Times

www.powerformula.net

www.topdogsocialmedia.com

TAPPING INTO YOUR NETWORK n all likelihood, your company has a branded Company Page on LinkedIn, complete with a spiffy banner, job listings, a well-written description of your products and services, and occasional posts on topics that your followers are interested in.

That’s a start. Like Facebook, however, LinkedIn now shows us only what it thinks we want to see, meaning that, unless you pay for results, many of your connections/followers never view what you post as a brand. The good news: To increase brand reach on LinkedIn, you don’t have to look far. Your employees can collectively touch more people and are more believable as brand advocates. In fact, the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer found that the credibility of employees has increased 20 percent since 2009, well above trust in CEOs and PR departments.

I

To tap into this in-house network, start by educating your employees on the importance of their own online profile and how that filters back and forth between company and employee, says Wayne Breitbarth, author of The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success.

“If employees aren’t educated, they think the company is telling them what to do with their own profile,” he says. “Employees need to understand that their LinkedIn profile is part of their brand. Someday they will likely need to switch companies, and they may be evaluated on the depth of their LinkedIn profile, which is their résumé on steroids.”

Most of the companies Breitbarth works with seek to use LinkedIn to increase sales and find talent. By using LinkedIn’s platform to publish content from company thought leaders—the CEO, VPs, or R&D—or to

share important industry news, you can drive brand awareness and become a company other professionals trust and learn from. “In recent research I was conducting, I found that there were 250,000 posts about the lumber industry on LinkedIn,” Breitbarth says. “Who would think that? Previously, those people would not have been connected other than via their industry association.”

To unlock the potential of your employees on LinkedIn, start by enlisting what Breitbarth calls the “love-this-stuff” people within your organization to act as a sort of social media broadcast team.

“These employees don’t see this as work, love the content for their own personal brand, and usually have lots of connections,” he says. “And if those people are getting branding traction, make sure it’s shared in a company newsletter, because that next group of people will soon follow.”

Spring 2016

Having a president or CEO who believes in the potential of a substantial LinkedIn presence also goes a long way toward the rest of the company taking the efforts seriously. Breitbarth worked with The Howard Company, a point-of-purchase display manufacturer in Wisconsin, whose president, Doug Watson, understood the value of a strong LinkedIn presence. “He told his sales team, ‘This technique is a home run, and we’re going to do it,’” Breitbarth recalls. “There are 20 percent in the room who will love doing it, and another 20 percent whom you’ll likely never get onboard. The key is to get that middle 60 percent. By having a meeting with me there and their president there, employees knew it was important.”

Finance and similar departments within your company may be slow to share and post employer-related news, so focus first on outward-facing employees in sales, customer

service, and marketing. Getting the rest of your employees to create professional profiles with good photos would be an added victory.

Breitbarth says creating a Company Page on LinkedIn that you can load with great marketing information is a no-brainer, because that will land at the top of a Google marketing search. But when LinkedIn did away with the Products and Services tab on Company Pages in 2014 to, in their words, “focus on areas of the product that most benefit both companies and [their] members,” Breitbarth says the Company Page lost some of its value.

“From a business-development standpoint, the proper development of employee profiles is an eight or nine importance-wise,” he says. “Unless you’re a company with a half million followers, your employees likely have a lot more connections when you add them all together.

By getting your employees to partake in some activity on your Company Page by liking, sharing, or commenting, the company content gets forced into more feeds.”

13

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THE POWER FORMULA FOR LINKEDIN SUCCESS

by Wayne Breitbarth

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Spring 2016

SOCIAL MEDIA

To increase brand reach on LinkedIn, you don’t have to look far. Your employees can collectively touch more people and are more believable as brand advocates.

LEVERAGING THE PERSONAL PROFILE There’s another reason urging your employees to create a strong LinkedIn profile makes good business sense. “At the end of the day, people don’t want to do business with logos; they want to deal with people—the individuals within organizations,” says Melonie Dodaro, Founder of Top Dog Social Media and international number one best-selling author of The LinkedIn Code.

“So it’s about leveraging your individual profile to grow and build relationships.”

If used correctly, your personal LinkedIn profile is a fantastic marketing tool for both you and your employer. “What people forget,” Dodaro says, “is that LinkedIn is still a social network, so you need to be social.” Often asked by individuals she addresses at speaking engagements why they don’t seem to get sales leads from LinkedIn, despite accepting connection requests and sending requests to others, Dodaro tells them the

UP YOUR GAME ON LINKEDIN Wayne Breitbarth offers five suggestions and one request you can make to your employees in order to help them build a better profile and, in turn, create a consistent brand message on LinkedIn.

2. KEYWORDS – Don’t expect your employees to show up in a search unless you’ve given them a list of 5 to 10 of the most searched terms for the company—products, services, brands, etc.

Encourage employees to place them in the right spots on their profile.

1. A PROFESSIONAL PHOTO – Bring in a photographer to take professional headshots of your employees. Remember the importance of a first impression; the photo is the first thing people see when they view a profile.

3. STANDARD COMPANY DESCRIPTION – Provide one succinct paragraph to be included in the summary section of their profile and two or three more detailed paragraphs to be included in their current job description area.

4. MEDIA OR WEB LINKS IN THEIR PORTFOLIO – This is a great place to show off company videos, slide shows, photos of your organization’s best work, products, and customer testimonials.

5. CONNECT THEIR JOB TO YOUR COMPANY PAGE – If your company logo isn’t showing up on each employee’s job entry, they’ve added their job prior to your business having a Company Page with a logo, they’ve selected the wrong company, or they’ve not selected a company when adding this

Spring 2016

key is to move those new relationships forward.

“Don’t just stop at making the connection,” she says. “Build the relationship.”

That begins with having a LinkedIn profile that suits your current goals. The beauty of a LinkedIn profile is that it is static, so you can (and should) alter it based on your situation. A professional searching for a new job might want to highlight recognitions, awards, and expertise, but a sales professional or account manager hoping to attract new clients is better off with a client-focused profile.

“That sounds counterintuitive, because people think this is their professional profile, but your clients are only going to care about how a relationship with you benefits them,” Dodaro says.

To enhance credibility, she recommends creating a profile that informs people about who you are and why you do what you do. “Think about your ideal clients and what problems they have and what solutions you have to solve those problems,” she advises.

Testimonials should be results oriented, not just a message about how great you are to work with, because that likely doesn’t relate to the client’s goals. Recommendations are also crucial, because they provide a high-level social proof.

“The reality is that, when people are unsure of what decision to make, they look at the decisions other people have made. That’s called social proof,” Dodaro explains. “The other thing about the level of social proof you can have on LinkedIn is that people can write their own testimonials on their websites, but on LinkedIn there’s a clickable link to the person who has written the testimonial or recommendation.”

job to their profile. To fix that, the employee can edit that job entry and select the correct Company Page.

6. SHARING, LIKING, OR COMMENTING ON COMPANY STATUS UPDATES – This can be difficult to monitor because it’s ongoing and not a one-time profile change, but the more it’s done, the more sets of eyes your company updates are seen by.

When you’re ready to establish new connections, use a personalized message that explains why you want to connect. “Most connection requests are from people who use LinkedIn poorly, and they are a huge risk,” Dodaro says, explaining that the recipient can either ignore you or hit the “Spam” or “Don’t Know This Person” buttons, both of which will trigger a red flag with LinkedIn. Once you get five of those, your account goes into permanent restriction mode.

LinkedIn also offers a number of organizational tools that surprisingly few professionals rely on. For example, a built-in CRM allows you to set up tags and group your connections by those categories, such as by business or by region. As you look to take connections offline, you can even create a sequence of events and add tags, notes, and reminders of when to follow up as you carry out your leadgeneration plan. LinkedIn also has powerful advanced-search functionality that allows you to find people under a variety of search parameters and save those searches. Later, LinkedIn will even tell you when there are new people in that search.

SHARE YOUR COMPANY CONTENT Once you’ve made a new connection, Dodaro recommends building a bit of social capital before turning on the marketing or sales charm.

Send a follow-up note thanking the person for

15

accepting your request. From there, follow up with a white paper (or similar) that your company just wrote, before messaging them a week later to set up a call. “One of the biggest mistakes people make is they are collecting connections and not building relationships,” Dodaro says.

“Your network equals your net worth. You own your profile, so spend time nurturing it and growing it. It’s about connecting on a personal level and building rapport.” n

REGISTER TODAY

TO WIN!

THE LINKEDIN CODE

by Melonie Dodaro

Scan the QR code to enter, or visit: hopkinsprinting.com/Spring2016Register

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Spring 2016

What your proofreader will need to begin your project

MY WORKING DAY

My Working Day “Scribes” for Hire

Word count – Word count is more reliable than page count in determining cost and turnaround time.

Lori Baxter and Hannah Comerford of The Scribe Source Proofreading and editing were once professions largely consigned to the book-publishing industry. But with the ever-increasing volume—and value —of content across nearly every industry, the proofreader-for-hire is growing in demand. Here’s a look at how Lori Baxter, Owner of The Scribe Source, and Hannah Comerford, one of the team’s proofreaders, have responded to this need.

M

ost companies today are aware of the call to develop dynamic, quality content to engage their audience.

But it may not be as well known how a professional proofreader can contribute value to that process.

Our goal as proofreaders and editors is to remove obstacles between a client’s message and their audience’s comprehension of and engagement with that message.

Inconsistencies and mistakes, even when minor, can distract readers and easily lead to disengagement, potentially undermining an entire content strategy.

back up to reread the text for a better understanding, or even worse, leave your site.

Our work every day consists of removing “speed bumps” like these, increasing the likelihood that your message gets through and the audience cruises through to engagement.

Content of all shapes and sizes One of the things we love about our work is the variety of projects we see.

On any given day, you might find us editing training materials, proofreading a digital magazine, developing website content, or reviewing K–12 science curriculum.

reader with an anecdote or practical example, or—perhaps most commonly—simplify for clarity. A lot of rewriting is done at this stage, either by the author or by us, if requested.

Copyediting (sometimes called line editing) is the middle stage of the process, when the details of a text are looked at carefully. Are name spellings, job titles, and URLs accurate and up-to-date? Are sources cited correctly? Grammar and punctuation used appropriately?

Section headings formatted

It’s sometimes possible that, for whatever reason, a glaring mistake has gone unnoticed throughout the entire editing process until final proofing. We once proofread a 200-page corporate report that twice used the word “lavatory” in place of “laboratory.” None of the company’s internal editors caught the mistake, but I’m confident the executives whose names were attached to the report were glad we did!

For example, it might seem unimportant that your website content switches from first-person to third-person pronouns when talking about the company. But the inconsistency will likely give the reader pause, even if subconsciously.

If your content also alternates between discussing your “Extended Service Package” and your “Essential Service Package,” the reader may pause again, trying to guess if these descriptions are for the same package or two different ones. You now run the risk that, instead of responding to your call-to-action button, your audience will scroll

The people who hire us are just as varied: PR and marketing professionals, training managers, web designers, business owners, and a score of other content producers who want to be sure the messages they’re distributing are as professional, accurate, and effective as they can be.

The difference between proofreading and editing Clients come to us at different stages of their project. Content editing (or developmental editing) is for early drafts of the text, where we might advise the author how he or she can strengthen an argument, engage the

consistently? This is where a lot of “speed bumps” are removed.

Proofreading is the final stage and should be completed after design and layout. In addition to checking for typos that may have snuck in during the production process, a proofreader checks for mistakes in headlines, image captions, page numbers (including page references throughout the text), and other elements that are not usually added until design and layout. n

Deadline – Factor in whether you’ll also want final changes rechecked after insertion into the layout.

Style guide of choice – Does your company or industry have a preferred style guide?

Choices include Chicago Manual of Style (our top pick), AP Stylebook, APA, MLA, The Gregg Reference Manual, or perhaps your own internal guide developed over time.

File or hard copy of the proofs to be marked – While most content and line editing is done in Microsoft Word using the Track Changes tool, proofreading should be completed using the post-design proofs of your publication. This will likely mean a hard copy or a PDF file that incorporates Adobe’s Comment & Markup tools.

Our Favorite Grammar Nerds Even the best proofreader gets stuck from time to time. Where do we turn when we’re stumped?

•G rammar Girl – Part of the Quick and Dirty Tips series, Mignon Fogarty offers down-to-earth advice on a multitude of grammar questions, often marked with quite a bit of humor.

•T he Chicago Style Q&A – If a topic is not explicitly stated in The Chicago Manual of Style, it’s likely been asked of their editors at some point. We’ve even submitted our own questions and received prompt responses.

•O ther Experts – If it’s an industry-specific term, we might seek out a well-respected source for an industry glossary or consult with friends, past colleagues, or even former professors with experience in a particular field.

•B usinesswritingblog.com – On matters of professional courtesy or formal business correspondence, this blog by Lynn Gaertner-Johnston is a great resource.

Looking for a place to connect with other professionals?

Check out the Editorial Freelancers Association at www.the-efa.org.

CALENDAR SHOWCASE Each quarter, Hopkins Printing produces and distributes a quarterly calendar and notepad that have been designed for Hopkins Printing by one of our talented design clients.

MAY

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W ed 4 11 18 25

T hu 5 12 19 26

F ri 6 13 20 27

S AT 7 14 21 28

June S un M on T ue 5 12 19 26

6 13 20 27

7 14 21 28

W ed 1 8 15 22 29

T hu 2 9 16 23 30

F ri 3 10 17 24

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