By Hazel Butters

March 27th, 2012

Read all about it: why tech PRs must be avid readers

Read all about it: why tech PRs must be avid readers

I have a pet peeve (well, more than one actually, but there’ll be other days and other posts.)

As a communications, content and PR consultancy, we spend our time advising clients on how they need to target certain audiences, understand their challenges, opportunities and pressures, discover how they think, work, live and process buying decisions, and finally how they act on those decisions. What we, our clients and their customers read, clearly plays an important part in making sense of all of that.

So I am amazed when anyone who works in any role that is vaguely related to tech PR doesn’t have a desk swarming with newspapers, magazines and trade journals. Yes, there are online news channels, digital publications, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google alerts, blogs and the whole social media alphabet from Badoo to Yammer. But surely if you’re targeting storage managers, data centre specialists, IT directors, venture capitalists, business owners and other senior decision makers, then you really need to have a desk that is covered with relevant content – much of which is still in print.

This is where I come to my pet peeve: magazines that aren’t taken out of their wrappers and just sit in piles. If you’re not interested in the publications that your target audiences are reading then you’re simply not interested in the press or the audiences that read them, and you can’t provide knowledgeable advice to clients if you’re blind to the content swaying the buying decisions of their target audiences. Not interested in Datacentre Solutions? Completely unmoved by Computing’s analysis? Really don’t care what the charming Jason Stamper has to say in the latest Computer Business Review? Well then, go and work in an industry you are interested in.

If you work in tech marketing or PR it’s not good enough simply to subscribe to the relevant press and following them on all possible social media outlets. You need to rip open that cellophane wrapper and get reading. Your job – and your reputation across the tech PR industry – may just depend on it.

By Hazel Butters

March 15th, 2012

Tech PR Viewpoint: Starting with a niche is more logical than original

Tech PR Viewpoint: Starting with a niche is more logical than original

Somebody has to say it. Facebook was not the first, or only, company to begin life in a niche. Yes, it did benefit from incubation at the founders’ college (Harvard), but a few times over the past month I’ve heard people highlight the fact that Facebook started in a niche as if it was the only company ever to have done so. Facebook started where its founders happened to be – Harvard – which was a very logical place. It then broadened out to Columbia, Stanford, and Yale (again, logical), then to other Ivy League colleges (still making a lot of sense to me), and on to Boston University, MIT and New York University (ditto), before fast-forwarding to global domination and 845 million users.

I have to admit I am getting a little worked up here. I know it’s really no big deal, but there are a few serious points I’d like to put out there:

1 – If you’re a start-up, you must logically start wherever it is easiest for you to reach your shiny new customers. If you start selling a service and have a crowd of, oh, let’s say Harvard students, all around you, then it makes more than perfect sense to start selling your idea to those students. Finding other relevant audiences that are going to leap at your idea and adopt it is just the next logical step. As my grandmother would have said: “That’s just ruddy common sense.”

2 – Hearing people say that “Facebook started in a niche” as if such a thing had never been thought of before just makes me feel old. When I first worked in tech communications the shining example of a company that exploited a niche was PeopleSoft (waaay before it was purchased by Oracle in 2005). PeopleSoft already had the whole client/server thing going on when so when it released PeopleSoft HMRS then ‘client/server + HR software = a niche’

3 – It’s just good practice to have well-defined distinct audiences. Unless you happen to have a whoppingly huge marketing budget that allows you to communicate your company’s products, services and mission in life to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the English-speaking world (or whichever region you want to conquer), then you must have a considered and methodical approach to audiences you want to target with messages that are relevant to their lives – personal or professional

4 – The use of the word niche can mean so many different things to different people. To me niche doesn’t indicate a narrow market, it means a well-defined audience. And I think any company selling anything should have a well-defined audience for each of its products or services, whether it’s a start-up selling just one thing to a set audience, or an established company with several different business lines targeting distinct audiences with different demographics, reasons to buy and price points. Call them niches if you enjoy saying the word. (I don’t like saying it, mainly due to the very different pronunciation between UK and American English. ‘Audience’ however, sounds the same on each side of the Atlantic).

Of course the flip-side of targeting a well-defined audience can be equally as frustrating as reinventing the niche. When asked about their target audiences, clients will sometimes say: “We’re going to target all verticals” or “We don’t have a specific job title or role to target with this product because it’s relevant to everyone” or “There’s no specific demographic that we’re targeting with this service.” As frustrated marketers are known to say (while banging their heads repeatedly into their keyboards), targeting everyone is as good as targeting no-one. You need to start somewhere.

So pick an audience. Target them. Be relevant to them. Understand their needs, challenges, opportunities, price points and the things that keep them awake at 2am. Clearly define a distinct audience. Just like PeopleSoft did with client-based HR software…

By PromptBoston

December 9th, 2011

Voltage: Flavors to inspire the tastebuds (and press release writing)

Voltage: Flavors to inspire the tastebuds (and press release writing)

There are many reasons why Prompt Boston loves being at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square: hundreds of innovators and early stage companies working in close proximity; the opportunity to host free tech marketing workshops and attend industry events; easy access to institutions such as MIT and NERD. As a high tech and green tech PR, copywriting and content strategy firm, there’s a wealth of ideas, things to do, and people to meet.

But there’s another reason: Voltage, a coffee shop with a difference. At first Voltage looks unassuming: white walls showcasing art pieces, wooden chairs, concrete floors. But the coffee, especially the flavored lattes, are nothing short of spectacular. Our current favorites are the ‘Paper Plane’ (cardamom and rosewater), and the ‘Atticus Finch’ (burnt sugar and vanilla). Though this morning’s fix was another hit – ‘Beyond the Sea’ – it’s made with homemade caramel and salt. The mixture of caffeine, fabulous flavors and a calming environment makes it an ideal location to write – whether it’s a press release on enterprise storage, an article on software testing or a newsletter article on iPhone games.

We’re also fans of Voltage’s background – it’s independent, founded by artist and businesswoman Lucy Valena, who secured a loan from Sam Adam’s ‘Brewing the American Dream’ fund. Coffee funded by beer – two of our favorite things working in harmony.

You don’t have to take our word for how great Voltage is – earlier this year Boston magazine named it Boston’s best coffee shop.

If you’re in the Kendall Square neighborhood and looking for a caffeine-adventure for your taste buds, we couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Look around – one of us may be near you, writing a news release whilst trying a new flavor.