A friend in the lead generation space recently made a very interesting observation about public relations. He said he thinks most PR is like taking a match to a newspaper: a flash fire that burns out as quickly as it ignites. What many companies lack is “slow burn” PR. That’s to say, content that throws off heat for a long time.
“Slow burn” PR is a dying craft. Readership is down for most publications, marketers have become distracted by the shiny new object (social influencers), and few businesses have the patience to invest the time needed to build a real relationship with a journalist. But, trendy though it may be, devaluing traditional media – especially daily newspapers – is a colossal mistake. Social influencers and trade publications may reach the right audience for your business, but they also reach the same audience, over and over again. Broad business press helps you awaken an entirely new segment of your (potential) buying population. And the writing – given that it needs to appeal to a wider readership – often helps simplify your messaging (and what B2B company couldn’t benefit from simpler messaging?).
Enter Eloqua CEO Joe Payne and Thomas Heath of The Washington Post.
Way back in April of 2010, Payne and I chatted about possible story angles – after all, Eloqua is not only headquartered in The Washington Post’s backyard, we also help power the revenue engine for many of the biggest businesses in the newspaper’s geography. We kicked around a few ideas, shared them with Jocelyn Johnson of Gravitas PR, who was helping us with PR at the time. Jocelyn helped kickstart the conversation with Heath, and he and Payne took it from there. Back and forth went, emails, lunches, emails, phone calls, photographers, more emails. Yesterday, some nine months after our first internal conversation, the story ran: Value Added: Joe Payne and the (online) art of closing the deal.
Certainly we are thrilled that the 5th largest newspaper in the US told Eloqua’s story to its 550,000 readers, but we are even more thrilled to see this demand generation industry explained in a way that adds simplicity without subtracting significance. Heath’s article is not only an important story in Eloqua’s history, it’s also a landmark moment for marketing automation, Revenue Performance Management and demand generation.
We are confident this feature’s flame will continue to burn for a long time. If you want to blow a little oxygen onto it, please share, comment or tweet Heath’s story.
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