Professional service firms are constantly looking for new ways to communicate their brand to their target markets. The marketing and public relations industry is constantly finding new ways for professional service firms to not only stay in front of their markets, but more importantly, engage them. Below are several trends to watch and take advantage of in 2015.
- We live in a visual world. Did you know that 63% of the people in the world are visual learners? That being said, press releases with images and videos get up to three times more engagement and impressions than plain text. Images themselves contain very powerful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools. The use of multimedia, such as infographics, in releases will soon become popular. Additionally, this saves reporters time from having to look for a picture or ask for one.
- Coverage has changed. Studies have shown that sharing editorial content increases trust with your readers. No longer are we measuring marketing by the number of placements received in publications, but by the number of shares, comments, tweets and story views that a release or post receives. Take advantage of the many tools your social media profiles and your blog posts already have, and simply share.
- A call to action. Getting in front of your audience is one thing, but getting them to take a directed action is another. Including call-to-action items, such as “Tweet This” or “Like Our Page”, encourages readers to become involved in your news, thus increasing visibility. There are many sites that can help increase your shares, such as clicktotweet.com. This free service allows you to embed a preset tweet for the user and encourages sharing of your news.
