G’day … Trevor here …

Welcome to Reputation OnRamp - thanks for being a valued subscriber!

Aaaah! My writing mojo's back!

The draft for my next book has been lying idle gathering virtual dust for some time now, but on Sunday, I had a rush of blood to the head, got up early, and just started writing (and, what's more, I really enjoyed doing so!).

I don't want to get ahead of myself, but with some 6400 words punched out since the weekend, I feel like I'm 'back' baby!

Coincidentally, three people asked me in passing last week whether I was writing another book. Let's just say those prompts got me me refocused, and the fuse was well and truly lit 🙂 

Are you writing a book currently? How’s it going? Hit REPLY and let me know!

As I write this, I am listening to Luca Brasi, a fiery rock band from the island state of Tasmania, situated off the south coast of Australia.

Specifically, I’m listening to the band’s 2018 album - Stay. It’s a beast! Like any good album, it takes a few good listens to appreciate the exquisite songwriting and playing.

Luca Brasi - named after a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather - has become one of my favourite bands. I was late to the party, only discovering them a couple of years ago. The band is recognised as having a major influence on local musicians in Tasmania.

Check ‘em out, let me know what you think!

How to make the most of today's PR and communications tactical toolkit for your business

If you’re serious about building a credible authority brand that helps you generate sustainable ‘heat’ and momentum in the marketplace, then marketing by itself ain’t gonna cut it: You’re going to need to get on top of your PR and communications game.

Being able to communicate consistently and authentically with the people who matter most to the success of your business is critical to, well, the success of your business :)

You can pitch your wares ‘til you’re blue in the face but if people don’t perceive you to be good at what you do, if they don’t relate to your thinking and your ideas - if there’s no affinity, no connection - then good luck converting them into clients or customers.

Building connection with people in advance of the pitch, and giving them the confidence to refer, or do business with you, requires constant communication in a way that’s genuine and respectful, and that makes it all about them (the audience).

First, build a presence …

Communication can take many forms, from publishing relevant content that demonstrates your professional bona fides, to participating in online conversations, asking questions and sparking debates around relevant topics and issues; being part of other people’s communities, speaking at events on and offline, and curating and sharing other people’s content.

Think of these activities, collectively, as the ‘communications groundwork’.

The goal is to become better known, liked, respected and trusted, front of mind with our audience, and talked about in a positive way in the marketplace.

This will help pave the way to purchase and make your marketing efforts work a lot harder.

The modern-day PR and communications ‘tactical toolkit’ (see diagram above) runs both wide and deep in terms of the array of tactics available to solopreneurs and founders wanting to get their story and their message out into the marketplace.

Be aware though: try to do everything and you’re on a hiding to nothing (and you’ll drive yourself crazy in the process).

Do shit randomly, and in all likelihood likely you won’t get to see the results you’re after.

Let’s unpack the toolkit!

OWNED MEDIA

In the top left quadrant, we have owned media: These are the channels and mediums that you control as a business owner, and include:

• blogs or content hubs

• email newsletters

• podcasts

• online video channels (YouTube)

• branded events, and branded communities

I include ‘premium signature content assets’ in this category - for example, books, magazines, guides and tutorials, whitepapers and research reports - because you, the creator, control their production and distribution (they’re not channels per se).

Also, while you don’t own YouTube, you do own the videos you publish on it - you can take these videos and republish them on your own blog or website, either using the YouTube player, or another tool such as Wistia, or Vimeo. So, in this case, YouTube is shorthand for ‘video channel’.

EARNED MEDIA

The top right quadrant encompasses earned media: Editorial exposure through independent third-party channels. This encompasses:

• traditional media coverage in newspapers, magazines, radio, and television

• interviews on podcasts produced by companies, organisations and individual content creators,

• guest blogging (writing opinion pieces for online publications run by companies, organisations and individual content creators),

• public speaking engagements (in this case, the ‘stage’ is the media, and you’ve earned the right to speak from it).

Earned media is invaluable for credibility because it carries with it perceived independent third-party endorsement and social proof.

Building relationships with online influencers and independent content creators for mutual benefit also sits in this quadrant.

When it comes to earned media, I generally recommend a slow but persistent build-up - I call it my Rolling Thunder Strategy. But this will differ from person-to-person as to how ready they are in terms of doing media interviews and generating editorial exposure for their personal and/or business brand.

What I will say though, is that before you go down the earned media path, that you build your base of owned media and social media first - it’s important to demonstrate that you’ve ‘got the chops’ and that you know what you’re talking about!

SOCIAL MEDIA

At the bottom left, there is social media - a crucial component for distributing content and engaging with audiences.

You’ll know the main platforms already e.g. LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and Pinterest.

I’d also include here online communities; these tend to cater for niche topics and interests, and can be very small, or very large. Facebook hosts thousands of communities (called ‘Groups’); ditto LinkedIn.

Reddit and Discord are also hugely popular platforms catering to a diverse array of communities.

There is also a plethora of paid and free membership-based communities run by entrepreneurial individuals and brands - these are often found on platforms such as Circle, Heartbeat, Mighty Networks and Skool.

Be aware that online communities tend to have their own rules, and blatant promotion and pitching is generally frowned upon and will get you kicked out.

PAID MEDIA

Lastly, the bottom right quadrant covers paid media, this is a ‘grey area’ in that it’s mostly the domain of marketing, but there are times, from a PR perspective, when it makes sense to pay to rent someone else’s audience to get our message out there (which is what paid media can help us do).

With the above in mind, PR tactics can involve event sponsorship, community and industry partnerships, advertorials, podcast sponsorships, SEO (for thought leadership, not basic drive-traffic-to-your-website purposes), and social media ads. Partnering with online influencers and content creators in a commercial arrangement also sits under paid media.

While traditionally not the domain of PR, paid media can amplify PR efforts and drive awareness, particularly in thought leadership content amplification.

Planning like a pro 💪

With so many options available to us - content channels and mediums - which ones should we choose?

Firstly, you’ve got to ascertain your appetite to create, publish and promote your own content; how much time have you got personally to devote to this activity, and/or how many resources have you got internally (or via freelancer/s) to help you get your content ‘out the door’?

Secondly, I recommend building a solid PR and communications foundation to start with rather than try and do everything at once. Doing this will likely end in tears :)

This doesn’t mean you can’t do more, but I’m all about building out our communications in a steady and sustainable way to ensure we start working towards making an impact, but not burn us out in the process.

If you’re more advanced and already have established a number of channels, you can always think about how you might grow your digital footprint, if the appetite is there.

Now, you don’t need to necessarily tackle all four media categories – owned, earned, social and paid. I’ve seen savvy thought leaders and entrepreneurs make a name for themselves using just one or two of these categories.

But they tend to be the exception to the rule.

The real power comes from strategically combining a number of the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 channels, without overcooking things and running yourself into the ground.

Answer these 2 key questions:

1. Who makes up my desired target audience group/s and where do they hang out? This is especially important for social media - there’s no point being on TikTok (from a professional point of view) if your ideal client works in a senior position in the accounting and financial services arena.

2. In terms of producing content, what is the medium you’re most comfortable with? If you love being in front of the camera, go for it! If you hate being on video but don’t mind a chat, podcasting is the perfect vehicle; if you enjoy sitting down and pouring your heart and soul into your writing, well, you know what to do - a blog/newsletter combination should be top of the pops for you! This same thinking applies to the mediums you choose to use for social media - you might prefer to over-index on video (‘Reels’) for Instagram, for example, or focus on writing longer posts on LinkedIn versus doing video or live-streaming. NOTE:  It’s natural to ask your audience how do they like to consume content - is it video, audio, the written word? To be honest, people like consuming content in different ways - I’m almost 100 per cent certain your audience doesn’t overwhelmingly prefer one medium over the other two, although a survey will easily determine this. Hence it’s better to go with the modality you enjoy the most.

Before you go, here are two ideas to consider:

#1 - Review/audit your current efforts

No doubt you’re already communicating with people using some of the above channels - if you haven’t done so in a while, I recommend reviewing what you’re doing currently to see what’s working and what’s not.

Reviewing is light-touch, informal with a focus on recent performance; for social media, this might include:

• checking recent post engagement,

• looking at follower growth,

• making minor adjustments to content or posting schedules.

Auditing is more comprehensive and structured, and involves analysing long-term performance and trends; such an undertaking might include:

• Evaluating overall strategy alignment with your commercial goals

• Looking at consistency of brand visuals and tone of voice across all channels

• Comparing your performance against that of your competitors

• Identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement

• Reviewing audience engagement patterns

With the above out of the way …

#2 - Phased approach as part of a plan

For many of you, taking a phased approach to aggregating the channels and mediums necessary to grow and communicate with your audience, and the industry/community in which you operate, more broadly.

CRAWL - This phase is foundational; an example of what it might look like —

• Establish a fortnightly podcast, focus on LinkedIn and experiment with Instagram OR …

• Establish a weekly email publication, focus on Instagram and experiment with TikTok

• In terms of earned media, podcasters and event organisers, for example, might come calling to see if you wanted to do a podcast interview or speak on a panel or deliver a presentation. These are great opportunities to extend the reach of your voice and connect with new audiences.

WALK - This phase is about building upon what you’ve already established (make sure you have established your base before advancing further); for example —

• Add another owned channel and a third social channel i.e. record your podcast in audio and video; this will give you more bang for buck.

• Take the article you write for your email newsletter, and re-publish on your own website (blog) or alternatively another platform such as Medium.com so you can continue to share over time (if you’re sending your emails via Beehiiv or Substack, they provide you with a page to archive your articles, essentially a blog, so no need to publish to Medium) … plus you might consider also publishing as a newsletter article on LinkedIn.

• Essentially, phase two is about taking things up a notch by giving you more longer-form content to repurpose into bite-sized chunks and share across social media.

• I’d definitely consider at this point taking earned media a little more seriously; in the CRAWL phase, any earned media was inbound and opportunistic; in this phase, we want that to continue, but we should start being proactive in terms of reaching out to selected mainstream and micro-media outlets to see if we can secure interviews or submit an opinion piece etc. Nothing crazy, just start building up to it if you’re keen to gain some editorial exposure.

RUN - You’ll probably need help and support at this third stage; this is all about building a well-oiled PR and communications machine; it’s multi-channel, using a solid mix of the above channels and mediums, and taking things to the next level in terms of building your profile and reputation. Take what you’ve already done and build upon it. Here are a couple of thought-starters —

• Write a book that positions you as a genuine expert or thought leader in your space; repurpose its content across multiple mediums and share widely (there are individuals and agencies who can help you do all this)

• Build greater visibility for your ideas and your insights through a proactive podcast guesting campaign - again, there are agencies dedicated to doing this work.

I’ll leave you to ponder these ideas.

Remember, diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks! You need to do what’s right for you and your business, but the more purposeful and intentional you can be in getting out there and communicating more deeply and effectively with clients, customers and others, the easier it will be to grow your leads and sales.

Thank you for making it this far! I’ll leave you with this quote, sourced directly from this morning’s issue of Brian Clark’s Further newsletter …

In case we haven’t met yet …

Hi, I’m Trevor. I help purpose-led business owners become clear and confident in how they leverage PR, content and digital communications for profit, impact and legacy.

Would you like to discuss how I can help you in a coaching capacity to build your profile and reputation as a trusted and credible expert or thought leader in your industry? CLICK HERE TO BOOK A NO-OBLIGATION 30-MINUTE ZOOM CALL