Not just seen, but believed: trust is the new mandate for marketing and comms
Marketing and comms puts most of its emphasis on reach when we’d be better served by putting the emphasis on being believed The lack of trust that’s emerged in American society is pervasive. It’s woven into nearly every institutional pillar,...Read More
Study demonstrates that a trusted brand is a prerequisite for organic and paid search
You can flood the market with paid search ads or dump money into SEO to rank on page one, but if you want people to click, you need them to trust you; the way you build trust is by building...Read More
It’s not the success that makes for a good business story, it’s the setbacks
Those who quit will never know how close they were to success, which is why it’s the setbacks, not the successes, that sow the seeds of a good business story “All overnight night success takes 10 years.” That snappy...Read More
Building a media list for PR is a strategic research process [contrarian view]
Building out a media list isn’t about adding names and emails to a spreadsheet – or pulling a list of reporters from a database – it’s about understanding the people you want to influence There’s an old military expression that...Read More
How can communicators pitch an LLM?
The fundamentals of comms still apply: know your audience, articulate a story, speak in plain language, answer specific questions LLMs are becoming the new “front page.” In the same way Google replaced the news, LLMs seem to be doing that...Read More
The claims PR pros sometimes make of relationships with journalists are mostly BS; here’s what actually matters
The question prospective clients and employers need to ask is: how do you earn coverage when you don’t have a relationship with a journalist? “Do you have the relationships to get us into top-tier publications like The Wall Street Journal...Read More
Machina or ex-machina: ~40 marketing and comms predictions for 2025
If these predictions are any indication, there’s little consensus across marketing and PR about what will happen next year; exciting times are ahead In pouring over predictions I received this year, I had a simple observation: I disagreed with a...Read More
PR tips from a current analysis of 400,000 pitches and 4,000+ reporters
Three reports, including behavioral data from 400,000 pitches and two surveys of thousands of reporters, offer a bunch of pragmatic PR tips for pitching the media Anyone who works in PR and does media relations knows it’s harder than ever...Read More
7 journalism statistics from a survey of 3,000 reporters to improve PR performance
Media coverage is harder to obtain, but journalists are open and candid about what they need – which can make a difference for those PR pros who are willing to listen A while back, Spin Sucks was kind enough to...Read More
What PR does with a media placement counts as much as getting it
Businesses want earned media because it brings third-party credibility, but earning it is just half of the value; you need a playbook for sharing a placement too Merely subscribing to a gym membership isn’t enough to get in shape –...Read More
