No More Traditional PR! How to Build Your Brand in the Digital Age
Think you know Public Relations? Think again.
Listen Time: 38 Minutes
It’s time to update your PR strategy. Join us on this episode of Smart Route podcast with BLASTmedia President Lindsey Groepper for big takeaways on the meaning of PR in 2024. Her first piece of professional advice? Throw out that traditional PR model – it’s not working for you anymore. Instead, try focusing on these core updates:
Millennial Values Are Reshaping Brand Success
Millennials are redefining what it means to be a successful brand. Authenticity, social responsibility, and transparency are non-negotiables. Brands that align with these values are more likely to earn loyalty and trust from Millennials with buying power – and their influence is only going to continue to grow.
Stop Trying to Measure “Brand”. It’s Silly.
The obsession with measuring “brand” can be misguided. You can’t tie revenue and financial metrics to brand trust; doing so will lead to budgeting mistakes. Instead, invest in brand building and watch your other metrics improve. You can redefine ROI in PR by aligning it with broader marketing objectives, such as customer engagement and loyalty. And those, my friend, are a company’s bread and butter.
Have a Plan: Crisis Communications for Today’s Brands
Effective crisis communication can make or break a brand in the digital age. Before you get cancelled or blasted online for a company misstep, here are the top four things to remember:
- Be prepared with a crisis management plan.
Yes, you need one. Everyone needs one.
- Respond quickly and transparently.
Have a designated crisis management team that can respond without heightened emotions.
- Use digital platforms to manage the narrative.
Talk to your customers where they are – for many, that means social media.
- Learn from each crisis.
Your responses, and consumer trust in your brand, will continue to improve.
Build It, and They Will Come
Updating your PR practices to focus on effective crisis communication, aligning with Millennial values, and redefining how you measure success is going to have a powerful effect on your brand image and longevity. Stop fixating on measuring “brand” and invest in building a strong, authentic presence that inspires and connects with your audience now.
Take control of your brand-building journey. Listen and watch now!
About Lindsey Groepper
As President of BLASTmedia, Lindsey is responsible for overseeing all revenue functions of the agency, including new client acquisition and agency marketing. With nearly 20 years in the tech-PR industry, Lindsey has become a trusted voice in the SaaS marketing community, managed PR campaigns for top brands and helped build the agency with a passion for storytelling. Lindsey is the host of the SaaS Half Full podcast, a member of the Forbes Agency Council, and a featured speaker, podcast guest, and media contributor.
Check out BLASTmedia or connect with Lindsey on Linkedin!
Episode Transcript
Lindsey: I’m Lindsay Groper, President of Blast Media. We are a public relations agency that services B2B SaaS companies exclusively. We got hooked up because we are very proud of the fact that Call Tracking Metrics is a client of ours. When our account team came to me with this idea and said they actually have a podcast and feel like I might make a good guest, I was excited about it.
Brandon Jordan: Absolutely.
Lindsey: We had our initial discovery call together, and I’m excited about what we are going to tackle today.
Brandon Jordan: Absolutely. Today’s topics are all about PR. Lindsay, you have over 15, almost 20 years of experience in the industry. You’re also a host of the SaaS Half Full podcast as well. I had a chance to check that out, and there are definitely some great topics there. Today we’re going to talk about not ignoring PR, how to use PR to create a high-value brand, and dive into that conversation.
Brandon Jordan: Without further ado, the biggest question I have, and that we all have, is that right now everyone is really competing for media coverage. What, in your opinion, would be your top three pieces of advice for a company to get noticed or have their press releases picked up?
Lindsey: Great question.
Brandon Jordan: Mm-hmm.
Lindsey: I think it’s important to take a step back and address where we are in the marketing landscape today because it’s changed.
CTM Peter: You.
Lindsey: It’s tough out there for marketers.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
Lindsey: The last 18 months, or even longer, have been really tough. Specifically, if you are a marketer in a technology company, but generally speaking, when the economy is bad, budgets get tight. Inevitably, one of the areas that gets cut—revenue-generating functions, people, programs, budgets—tends to get cut. We could have a whole other episode on why this is idiotic.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
Lindsey: Unfortunately, marketers have been really challenged with this “do more with less” mandate over the last 18 months, which is hard for anyone.
Brandon Jordan: Absolutely.
Lindsey: From a marketing standpoint, a lot of what tends to get cut from that budget is the brand spend. You have your immediate ROI pipeline generating activities and strategies that are still being spotlighted. But when you cut the brand spend, everything suffers. This short-term gain mentality has really been a problem for many brands over the last 18 months, not through any fault of their own. This is what they’ve been told to do. Now, we’re seeing brands that had to cut on the brand-building, trust-building side of marketing starting to invest in the brand side again. They are seeing a lift in all their other activities. It really should never be this brand versus demand; it should be brand and demand, and how they help each other and lift each other up.
Brandon Jordan: Mmhmm.
Lindsey: I wanted to provide contextually where we are because there are, I’m sure, many marketers listening who are excited that they have their brand budgets back. We can start to talk about PR in that way. I’m going to pause and take a breath. I know it’s not the question that you asked me, but I’ll get there.
Brandon Jordan: That’s a great introduction.
Lindsey: I will get there, I promise. But do you all have any thoughts or, with previous guests, are you hearing a lot of this and seeing the same thing?
Brandon Jordan: Yeah, especially transitioning, whether it’s coming out of COVID, the last 18 to 24 months, there’s been a huge shift in focus. Everyone was really focused on short gains. Now we’re getting back to that normal we know. We are seeing a lot of companies really shift and focus not just on their short gains but also on the brand. Let’s get back to what we do and focus on that brand as well. So I definitely agree with you 100% there.
Lindsey: Yes.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
Lindsey: And you did ask me a question, and I will answer it, which was, what are my top three pieces of advice for landing media coverage?
Brandon Jordan: I did.
Brandon Jordan: That’s right.
Lindsey: So, number one is to understand why you’re doing PR in the first place.
Brandon Jordan: Right.
Lindsey: Who are we trying to influence through PR? Typically, it is one of four areas: you’re looking to influence prospects, potential investors, partners, or talent. Depending on where you are with your business and its scale, those priorities will shift over time, and they have different strategies. So first and foremost, it’s about who we are trying to influence.
Lindsey: The types of coverage and stories you’re going to chase are very different if you’re looking to attract top talent versus getting in front of investors.
Brandon Jordan: Okay.
Lindsey: So the number one piece of advice is understanding why we are doing this in the first place. My second piece of advice is to be very clear on your point of view and what you have to say.
Brandon Jordan: Okay.
Lindsey: There’s a lot of noise. There’s so much noise that you can’t really break through it anymore. It has shifted into how we can build trust in what we’re saying. Be very clear on what it is that you are trying to say, whether that is you as a spokesperson, or what the brand stands for.
Brandon Jordan: Okay.
Lindsey: And then ensure everything that you do maps back to that point of view, because authenticity today matters more than it did five or ten years ago. Be very clear on who you’re trying to influence and what you’re trying to say to them. Lastly, don’t rely on press releases to get there.
Lindsey: Some people literally think PR means press release, as opposed to public relations. It’s really more about perception relations now. A press release is still a tool, but it’s a statement of fact. I’m not kidding—if I put out a press release about my daily schedule as Lindsey Groeper, and I put it on a paid wire service, it would get the same RSS feed pickups as your press release about your new product version or your new webinar.
Brandon Jordan: Mm-hmm.
Lindsey: Wire services are good in that they show a moment in time, they’re indexed, searchable, and show momentum and growth. But a wire release very rarely yields press coverage because there are too many of them at any given time. When you get these pickups, it’s just a quick RSS feed to those outlets, and then it disappears. So press releases themselves, depending on the wire, won’t yield stories. They have to be pitched with one-on-one interaction with a member of the media, whether that’s a contributor, editor, or reporter, to provide the story and the context behind it.
Lindsey: If you’re relying on press releases to tell your story, it’s just a statement of fact that won’t get you there. It definitely won’t get you there if you just put it over the wire. What you have to do is ensure you are promoting the story behind the release, providing color commentary, and using the release to back up the story you’re trying to tell.
CTM Peter: Okay.
Brandon Jordan: So I’m hearing three things, right? Focus on who your target audience is. Make sure your message is clear and concise for that target audience. And three, the wire releases alone will not get the job done. Right. You have to maybe use that as a secondary piece and make sure there’s additional effort in telling the story.
Another really cool thing that I’ve never heard before is thinking of PR as perception. Everyone always says perception is reality. So keep an eye out for the perception and make sure you understand and focus on how it’s perceived. That’s really insightful. I appreciate that.
Lindsey: Absolutely. And perception is now instant.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
Lindsey: You know, 20 years ago when we started Blast Media, it was pre-iPhone, pre-social media.
Brandon Jordan: Yes.
Lindsey: So yes, a dinosaur era for those who are listening.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah, a whole different world.
Lindsey: You used to have time to shape your perception. Something would happen that you needed to react to, and you had time. Time was on our side. We could get a group together, craft our message, and control how it was disseminated to the public. Now, perception is instantaneous. How someone perceives your reaction to something happens right away.
Lindsey: Any internal communication is no longer internal. Anything you send internally can be external in a second. If you do not react, even no reaction will have a certain perception. So it is much more difficult today. There’s a lot more pressure around creating this perception because you do not have time to get it perfect. It is a much more challenging world for communicators today because it’s always on, and anything internal can be external with the blink of an eye.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah, that’s great advice.
CTM Peter: Yes.
Brandon Jordan: One of the things that you had mentioned—I have a question based on something you said earlier, talking about the wire release. Is there a point in time in the past where it held a lot more weight than it currently does now?
Lindsey: This is just my personal opinion and that of our agency—no, a wire release doesn’t hold more weight now than it did in the past. There is value there.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah, that’s great advice.
Lindsey: I’m not anti-wire release. But we counsel our clients on whether something even needs a release. Sometimes, if you just put the information on a blog post, we can direct people there or use it in our pitching effort without needing a release. If it is released, it doesn’t always need to go on a wire. If it’s designed to show growth and momentum, maybe you want it out there for a point in time, but maybe you don’t. We don’t need a release to get coverage around a particular item.
Lindsey: There is value in wire releases, but you don’t need them to distribute your release. This raises the question of whether you even need a release. For many brands investing in PR, very little of their coverage comes from announcements. It consists more of op-eds, point of view pieces, podcast appearances like this, interviews, contributed content in trade outlets, quotes in larger trend stories, and customer stories. It’s about leveraging data within your organization or surveys that back up why your company exists. There are many ways to elevate your brand through PR that have nothing to do with releases.
Lindsey: Releases are good for showing moments in time. We write them, distribute them, and pitch them, but a press release strategy alone won’t change hearts and minds, tell a story, or shape perception effectively.
Brandon Jordan: Oh.
CTM Peter: Nice. One of the other things you mentioned earlier was about what the brand stands for, which leads me to my question: What are some of the ways that PR boosts brand reputation in today’s business environment?
Lindsey: That’s a great question because the answer varies based on the generational context of decision-makers and top talent. Today, millennials are the buying decision-makers. They are decision-makers at VCs and PE firms, leading partnerships at companies you want to partner with or resell to, and are VP-level talent you want to recruit.
Lindsey: This generation cares about different things than others, and those differences significantly impact how you need to approach your brand strategy.
Brandon Jordan: Mm-hmm.
Lindsey: Millennials value connection, trust, and purpose. They need to feel a connection with a brand to buy from them, partner with them, invest in them, or work for them. Knowing these are the underlying areas of importance for buyers, partners, and talent, you must look beyond traditional corporate talking points typically focused on earnings or innovation.
Lindsey: To form a connection with this new generation of decision-makers, you need to humanize your brand. This means diversifying your spokesperson bench and leveraging leaders who will resonate with these buyers. This could involve your CHRO talking about mental health initiatives within your organization, elevating the LGBTQ community if that’s important to you, or having your DEIB leader discuss the fantastic things your organization is doing or provide advice to other companies. These stories will resonate with millennial decision-makers.
Lindsey: For CEOs, it’s about getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. If salary and benefits are similar, people will choose to work for someone whose values match their own. One way to convey this is by talking about your leadership philosophy and what drives your winning culture externally, rather than sticking to corporate talk tracks. The modern corporate narrative has changed, driven by these millennial decision-makers, and that’s fundamentally different from where we were five or 10 years ago.
CTM Peter:
I like that. It seems like there’s more of a true approach for human connection rather than just, “This is where I work.”
Brandon Jordan:
Yep.
CTM Peter:
You have to feel like you gel, fit, and relate to those people.
Lindsey:
Yes.
Brandon Jordan:
Absolutely. I’ve seen conversations similar to what you mentioned, Lindsay, where a highly qualified candidate is choosing between two companies. One company is known for humanizing that aspect, and ultimately, that’s the brand that wins out. I appreciate that feedback for those listening. Let’s get rid of the old ways and start adopting new ones. Let’s humanize it.
To play devil’s advocate, Peter asked how PR boosts brand recognition. What generally happens to businesses that neglect or underinvest in their PR efforts? I know that happens as well.
Lindsey:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
Mm-hmm. I mentioned it before. Number one, their demand efforts suffer, right?
Brandon Jordan:
Okay.
Lindsey:
If you’re not investing in that top of the funnel, the bottom of the funnel is going to suffer.
Brandon Jordan:
Thank you.
Lindsey:
You see your demand efforts suffer. You might pour more money into demand and see short-term gains, but it’s not sustainable if you’re not also investing in the brand side. The other issue is losing deals. You versus your competitor—you will start losing deals if you’re not making your potential or current customers feel a certain way about your brand. If those values aren’t evident and carried through, you’ll start to lose. As you said, perception is reality, and we’ve seen it happen time and time again.
My perception of a certain company is that they’re growing, that they have momentum, that they’re innovating, that they have incredible culture and leadership. True or untrue, it might be chaotic internally, but externally, based on what they’re presenting and what you’re seeing, that shapes my perception. We’ve also seen cases where growth announcements or positive cultural aspects are highlighted, yet internally, someone might think otherwise.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
But that’s the perception that is based on.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
So it is within your control. As a marketer, if you’re in charge of communications or have an agency, figure out the story you want to tell. If all you’re after are product features, it won’t suffice. We get leads saying, “We want a PR firm to help announce our products, talk about our products,” but that alone won’t cut it. Or they may want a product feature in the Wall Street Journal, but realistically, finding such a link for an unknown company is unlikely. There are ways to get featured, especially as a smaller brand, but it doesn’t come from just announcing products.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah, that makes sense.
Lindsey:
There’s a significant cost associated with neglecting brand investment and subsequently PR. What’s the cost of lacking warmth in your leads?
Brandon Jordan:
Right?
Lindsey:
It’s immense.
Brandon Jordan:
It’s devastating. Yeah.
Lindsey:
It’s devastating. What’s the cost of failing to connect with buyers?
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
Huge, right? While you can’t ever take a PR spend and immediately tie it to ROI, that was true 20 years ago, it’s true today. If I could tell everyone to stop trying to freaking measure brand, I would. Marketers know this; like we know this, that there is probably 30% of your budget that you cannot tie directly to pipeline or ROI. But if you get rid of everything else suffers, like we know it.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah, therefore.
Lindsey:
But that’s not enough when you’re reporting to a CEO on a board who says, “We need 20,000 leads.”
Brandon Jordan:
It’s your…
Lindsey:
It’s like, we’ll go buy them. You can literally go buy them. They’re going to be terrible and nothing’s going to happen. But if that’s all you’re looking for, like we can purchase it. We purchase leads, but it is not a good long-term strategy.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
One of my favorite quotes, and I’ve said it many times, is that scaling revenue wins quarters, but a strong brand wins categories.
Brandon Jordan:
That’s awesome.
Lindsey:
And I wholeheartedly believe it is so true.
Brandon Jordan:
Write, write that down.
CTM Peter:
Nothing.
Lindsey:
So you can focus on winning the quarter. You can focus on winning the long game and winning the category. It’s a clear choice.
Brandon Jordan:
That’s awesome. Definitely going to write that quote down.
CTM Peter:
But that’s actually a perfect segue for my question is, you know, PR and brand building in general kind of feel like it’s a more of an undervalued strategy than, you know, let’s say sales. How do you measure ROI when it comes to PR activities?
Lindsey:
Yeah, you can’t measure it. ROI, as it is classically defined, does not work in a PR measurement scenario. So ROI meaning dollars in, dollars out. Right, that’s how we typically measure ROI. It does not work with PR, it does not work with brands in general. But if what we’re is our ROI, if we change the definition of that, is that increasing awareness? Is it gaining trust? Is it lifting some of our SEO efforts? Is it elevating our, maybe it’s our chief product officer as a thought leader and raising that executive profile?
Brandon Jordan:
Mm hmm.
Lindsey:
If we start to define our ROI a bit differently, then PR becomes measurable. The problem with most PR measurement today is that you’re measuring against your own goals. So as a PR agency, we might set a goal to get 20 pieces of coverage this quarter. We meet it, but then the CMO goes into their quarterly business report and it’s like, “Here’s all the things I did to move our business forward,” and PR from that coverage is on its island. It’s not tied to any real business value or objectives.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
So the most important thing to do is to understand how the overall marketing org is being measured. If we’re managed by the CMO or if you’re the CMO managing an agency underneath you, it’s understanding the marketing objectives and how they’re being measured. Then figure out how PR can support those objectives. So if one of the objectives is to increase pipeline and organic traffic by 10%, as a PR agency, you can measure how much coverage you secure contains a backlink to target landing pages, how much contains the target SEO key phrase, and look at domain authority. Strengthening site backlinks helps with SEO and organic traffic.
Brandon Jordan:
Okay.
Lindsey:
So it’s less about just getting coverage, and more about how PR is driving business value. Reframe what ROI means and ensure PR programs are tied to broader business-driving objectives.
CTM Peter:
Help support a much bigger picture.
Brandon Jordan:
It’s cool.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah, so maybe ROI doesn’t initially jump out, right? But as you said, dig deeper, make sure those efforts are tied to broader efforts. It makes perfect sense, and it’s really eye-opening. I know that Blessed Media, you guys are one of the few PR firms exclusive with SaaS, is that correct?
Lindsey:
Yes, yes.
Brandon Jordan:
Okay, that’s big.
Lindsey:
Yeah, we’ve been doing B2B software since before SaaS was a category. So when all software was on-prem, on-disk, we were doing it back then.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah. Yes.
CTM Peter:
Yup.
Lindsey:
But then as this category merged, most of our clients were going to a cloud delivery model. So we just sort of found our niche in the B2B SaaS category.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Brandon Jordan:
That’s awesome. Yeah, I just really wanted to highlight that, knowing our audience, we are obviously a SaaS company. Just wanted to kind of add that to your experience and, yeah, definitely so.
Lindsey:
Thank you.
Brandon Jordan:
My next question, again, a lot of brands today find themselves in the midst of controversy, even in industries you might not expect. How should companies leverage PR in moments where they face unexpected controversy or a full-on crisis? How do you manage that?
Lindsey:
Yeah, so my first piece of advice is to understand it’s not if it will happen, it’s when. I had a conversation recently because I’m on the front lines of bringing new clients on to the agency.
CTM Peter:
Thank you.
Lindsey:
And as part of our PR counsel, we include crisis comms with all of our clients when and if they need it. We’re here, right? Then someone said, “Well, we can take that out because I don’t anticipate needing it.”
Brandon Jordan:
Very strange.
Lindsey:
And I was like, exactly. But no one anticipates having a crisis, which is why it’s a crisis.
Brandon Jordan:
That’s right.
Lindsey:
So it is not if, it’s when and to what degree. And I’ll go back to something I said earlier, you used to have time to react, time to formulate a strategy internally and externally with third parties. Today, that is gone.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey:
So know that it will happen. Have some sort of plan in place, at least with an old-school phone tree, who needs to know next and in what order when this stuff happens.
Brandon Jordan:
That’s right. Yep.
Lindsey:
For those of you listening who are like, “What the hell is a phone tree?”
Brandon Jordan:
Ah…
Lindsey:
I just need to back up and explain. This is the little world that I grew up in there.
CTM Peter:
Any…
Brandon Jordan:
Ah, yeah.
Lindsey:
So just think about this. If school was canceled, you had been given a list at the beginning of the year, your parents were given a list…
Brandon Jordan:
That’s the phone tree.
CTM Peter:
Questions?
Lindsey:
That literally had in order, this parent’s to call this one, this one’s to call that one. It was called a phone tree.
Brandon Jordan:
Yeah.
Lindsey: Yeah, but in crisis comms, at least understand in what order people need to receive information and who’s going to be involved, just know that that’s going to happen.
Brandon Jordan: You know, yeah.
Lindsey: And the other thing with crisis is you certainly cannot plan for all. But if you’re a technology company, you will have a data breach.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
Lindsey: Like it’s going to happen. So you can be proactive in some of your crisis strategies.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
CTM Peter: Yeah.
Lindsey: There’s always things that you can’t prepare for, but you do have likely scenarios that could happen. But, you know, gone are the days of saying nothing, because information is going to get out and people expect a response.
So ensure that you are responding in enough time. I will say, whoever the spokesperson is, do not let him or her do it on their own, because very rarely is your first emotional response the best response. So while speed matters, ensure that you have a team of folks who are part of that crisis team that can work with you on that first initial statement. But it is going to happen and you do need to have some sort of a plan in place because the information is going to get out and people not only expect it to be quick,
They expect you to be transparent and they want to know what you’re going to do to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Brandon Jordan: It’s awesome. Yeah. So, and I completely agree. And it kind of ties to a point that you mentioned earlier when you said you were talking about communication and, you know, expect, even though even if it’s internal, expect it to be external. And same thing goes with, you know, being prepared for that crisis, have a plan in place, have a team, be quick, but also be strategic as well. So that’s amazing advice.
Lindsey: Yeah.
Brandon Jordan: Yeah.
Lindsey: If I could add onto that too, is think ahead. So a lot of the more crisis moments that we’ve seen, at least in the technology industry over the last 18 months have been surrounding reductions in force, unfortunately. And it is shocking to us how many brands hadn’t thought through that internal goes external thing.
Brandon Jordan: Okay.
Lindsey:
So that’s what that is, which just sounds so archaic. But oh, whatever, Brandon, you had never had a phone tree in your life.
Brandon Jordan:
It doesn’t. It doesn’t.
Brandon Jordan:
See, we’re a call center software. So when I hear phone tree, I definitely identify with it. Maybe not in the same way, but…
Lindsey:
No, you’ve never had a phone tree.
Brandon Jordan:
Ah, that’s hilarious.
CTM Peter:
Well, Lizzie, I’m a veteran of life here, and when you said phone tree, I knew exactly what you meant.
Lindsey:
No, there was no mobile. Anyway.
CTM Peter: It’s greatly appreciated. Two things I’d like to throw out there. One, is there anything that you would like to plug?
Lindsey: I would like to plug.
Brandon Jordan: I think.
Lindsey: Well, first I apologize. I used to curse words. Sorry for those that are listening. If that was offensive, I just get going and it happens. So we’re gonna like to plug. Potentially because this was a labor of love for our agency, we just released a e-book that is all about modern public relations. It has a lot of, well, not some of what we covered today in it, but it is, uh, you don’t have to put your email address in. This is not lead gen. We’re not going to come get you. It’s download it.
Lindsey: um But you can find it at blastmedia dot com if you want to take a look. It addresses some of what we talked about, that modern corporate narrative, sort of the new PR infrastructure that’s required, um and just sort of defining what is modern PR versus digital, traditional, non-traditional. So I guess that would be, if you want to check it out, please do.
CTM Peter: Well, thank you for sharing that.
If you need more of the conversation or have any other requests, feel free to let me know!