As we wind down the clock on 2019, it’s time to saddle up and get excited for what promises to be a unique year of 20/20 vision for our top-ranked PR agency. This is always a great time to meet with clients and start to discuss their marketing and budget plans for the year. Much of this planning is underway and there are some early signs of what we can expect in the new year. So what’s next for the PR and marketing professional in 2020?
Here are a few predictions as to what you can expect to see in 2020.
The Year of the Podcaster
In the marketing realm, podcasts remind me of how social media unfolded and initially came out. We’re close to the peak podcast status, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s something companies can deploy as part of their marketing mix. The art of podcasting is becoming prevalent even in industries who are typically slower to embrace new media. For example, financial services and professional service companies are now jumping on the podcast bandwagon. What better way to connect with your target audience in a long form format?
From a public relations standpoint, whether you’re the guest on a podcast or hosting your own, podcasts are essentially a new vehicle to push relevant information out to your target audience in a fun, mobile format. It’s easily digestible to anyone on demand. This year at KCD PR, we brought on several podcast personalities as clients, such as Women Rocking Wall Street, a Morgan Stanley sponsored podcast dedicated to empowering women in the financial services industry. I’m also currently hosting a cybersecurity themed podcast, Cyber Insiders with the Cyber Center of Excellence on IHeartRadio. As a result of this podcasting explosion, KCD PR has expanded its capabilities for current and prospective clients to include podcast services that focus on how to launch, script and market a podcast platform.
Integrated Communications Is the New Strategic Marketing
The newsroom is shrinking, the blog sphere is increasing, content is king, and website Search Engine Optimization can grow or shrink your business. You always need fresh and compelling content from a third party.
An integrated communications approach is the best way to summarize our service mix for clients. This involves maximizing the mileage out of your PR agency spend. For example, a content marketing piece will have PR value. But, broadly speaking, it’s becoming more important to make sure all marketing activities are integrated and tied together as much as possible.
Social Media Noise Continues – Opens Door for Competition
Facebook is saturated. For business to business, LinkedIn is still going to be one of the great ways to meet and interact with your audience.
However, I’m concerned about the ‘noise’ coming from Linkedin. It’s somewhat turning into Instagram and Facebook. I’ve seen a lot of people trying to be ‘influencers’ by stylizing their posts in a certain way. I’m concerned LinkedIn is being diluted. Perhaps, in 2020 there will be a new social media channel that better connects with a business audience that doesn’t want an unsolicited sales pitch 30 seconds after each connection request accepted.
Public Relations Storytelling
Many keep predicting the death of traditional PR but it’s making a comeback. Given the noise above from social media, and many platforms reducing how you see “likes” – value is becoming hard to rationalize in an agency spend. Good old-fashioned media relations and storytelling can still have a massive impact on technology and fintech PR firm campaigns.
While moderating Fintech Meet the Media this year in New York, it was amazing to hear from the best media in the space explain stories they want to hear about and give tips on how to pitch them. This invaluable feedback speaks to the importance of leveraging communications support that can directly connect a story to an influential reporter that can distribute to your target audience.
Specialized Niche Marketing and Public Relations
There’s more pressure than ever on marketing and PR spends to deliver strong performance. The best way to be placed in a position to succeed is partnering with a PR firm that understand your industry and specializes in the space.
We see all too often a new client approach us that worked with a generalist agency in the past and their main complaint was lack of subject matter expertise. By staying focused in a niche sector, agencies can provide immense value and even audit your existing marketing spend to see where they can add value. Technology and fintech PR clients will really see this unfold more in 2020 as specialization becomes even more important.
Let’s see how these five predictions hold up this year and follow our blog for updates.
