Location: Based in Atlanta, Sword and the Script Media, LLC is a veteran-owned boutique public relations and marketing consultancy. We specialize in PR, marketing and social media for the business-to-business (B2B) technology community.
Clients by segment: Our clients are primarily B2B technology and SaaS companies including cybersecurity, IT operations, telecom, martech, adtech, fintech and legal tech. We’ve done a little bit of work in insurance, pharma and healthcare, though there is usually a tech component to the business.
Some of our clients are backed by venture capital. Others are sizable and publicly traded mid-market companies with several hundred million in revenue. We’ve also worked with divisions of two different Fortune 500 companies. I’ve also worked extensively with UK companies expanding to the US.
Fixed fee pricing: Marketing and PR in B2B tech is hard work! As such, we’re not the most expensive consultants for hire, but we aren’t the cheapest either. It takes years of experience to develop the knowledge and skills to do marketing and PR effectively. We work on a monthly fixed-fee basis which can range from $3,400 to $7,500 and is structured around a set number of agreed deliverables. We can work on a retained, or, capacity permitting, a project basis.
Clients hire us because have the strategy chops and work ethic to integrate with their marketing and drive business results. We’ll plan, do, measure — and teach — because when clients understand what we do and why, they value it even more.
We do things differently and this site exemplifies it. The professional services we offer can be categorized into the following seven categories listed below.
1. Platform: Research, strategy and counsel
Chances are if you’re engaging us, your organization is new, your product is new, or not satisfied with existing results. Let’s work together to map out a plan based on data. Our research services include:
- Market research including surveys, focus groups and interviews
- Corporate and product positioning and messaging
- Content and PR asset audit and ideation
- Content marketing strategy and team training
- Content playbook development – a plan to repeat and scale effectively
- Win/loss and SaaS churn interviews and analysis
2. Media Relations: Tell your story effectively
Tomorrow, the business and technology media are going to publish reports on a company or companies. Why are some businesses selected while others are not? The answer sometimes boils down to the fact that every business has a story on some level, it’s just that some are better than others at telling it. There are other factors such as the story angle, timing, newsworthiness, and meaningful outreach — but experience can improve your chances. Our media relations services include:
- Media strategy and story-identification
- Relationship building, pitching and outreach
- Influencer relations
- Thought leadership and contributed content
- Crisis communications planning, response and issue management
- Product or service announcements and press releases
- Event support
- Media monitoring and PR measurement
- Strategic use of paid media for earned media results
3. Content marketing: Every company is a media company
Content marketing is different than marketing content because it focuses on utility. By providing authentic, relevant and useful information, businesses build trust and credibility which are prerequisites to sales. But you have to show up and do it consistently. Consistency matters more than frequency. Content marketing drives awareness, build a community and leads. Our content marketing services include:
- Audience development
- Editorial strategy and direction
- Content audit and idea development
- Content repurposing and curation
- Corporate blogging and news site development
- Whitepapers and ebooks
- Case studies and case study program development
- Podcast development
- Sponsored content and native advertising*
4. Social media: Marketing and management
Just like email marketing or the telephone, social media is a channel to engage customers and prospects. Unlike email or the telephone, customers can cheer you on or even vent their frustrations in public for everyone else to see. Social media ought to be thoughtful, meaningful, driven by data and guided by experience. Our social media services include:
- Organic editorial direction and day-to-day management
- Influencer research, identification and relationship development
- Community building and management
- Content curation
- Paid social media advertising (for driving coverage)
5. Internal communications: Energize your employees
As businesses grow larger, internal communications becomes increasingly important. Yet internal communication programs are often an afterthought that’s discovered during a crisis. Next, a well-intended executive suddenly starts showing up in an employee’s inbox to correct or remedy a problem. A better approach is to get out in front of it and consistently engage employees before a crisis emerges. Much like PR and content marketing ought to be integrated with marketing – internal communications needs to be nested with human resources (HR). Our internal communications services include:
- Executive and key leader communications
- Change management; including growth to restructuring and burning platforms
- Employee engagement during financial transactions: IPO, M&A, and divestiture
- Employee influencer research, identification and program development
- Employee opinion surveys, focus groups and interviews
6. Analyst relations: Make the shortlist of vendors
Technology analysts provide a valuable service in boiling down a long list of vendors to one simple chart — a wave or a quadrant. Undoubtedly, those charts drive sales. However, analysts do more than just compile an annual report on vendors – they talk to customers and prospects every day and are often willingly provide additional insights if you know how to ask.
If you’re a new technology company, you are probably trying to understand how to identify and reach the right analysts. If you are an established company, you are probably spending close to six figures on analyst subscriptions and need to maximize the value of that investment. Here is how we can help with analyst relations:
- Analyst strategy: Should you use the usual suspects or the boutiques?
- Analyst identification and relationship-building
- Briefing strategy, presentation and preparation
- Getting more value: inquiry management, events, quotes and contributions
7. Training: Employees are the secret to scale
Businesses often overlook the most powerful advocates they have – employees. Organizations that provide employees with training – a baseline and common sense guidelines — stand to benefit from employees eager to evangelize. We can develop customized seminars, webinars and training programs tailored to the needs of your employees including:
- Social media training for marketing and customer service
- Executive training for social media
- Content marketing training: strategy, playbooks, content plans
- Creating a culture of content
Working Better Together: Marketing Integration
It’s important to integrate programs and services like those we offer above, both with each other – and with larger marketing programs and campaigns. It’s never been a question of which one of these programs are better, but rather how we can meld them because they’ll work better together.
No two businesses are alike and so no two marketing programs will be alike either. Best practice in one organization, may not work well for other. A better approach is to work through a discovery phase and identify the need, the problem you are trying to solve and then develop the strategy and combination of tactics that will deliver results.
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Contact: frank-at-swordandthescript-dot-com
