Some of the most valuable and sustainable skills in the content and PR world for future marketeers
I applied to switch my role from Categorization Specialist to Content Marketer at iPrice out of my then passion – marketing.
The content marketing team is well known to garner a record of more than 200 (and still counting) free publications especially from top media like Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, Nikkei, ZDNet etc., including Channel News Asia and Business Insider SG which I happened to handle directly back then.
Here are the following things learnt:
1. Google is the most important platform that could save you thousands(or more) dollars
When you are a small company just starting, Google is your saviour.
As shared in a Forbes article featuring Andrew Prasatya, Head of Content Marketing(SEA) at iPrice, Google search is the platform to look for relevant key contacts for the distribution of contents. This includes: identifying the right journalists in the top media, reading their past publications to understand their interest, getting their public contacts information and more.
When it comes to content creation, utilise publicly available data on Google and turned it into exciting content. One key example is the Map of E-commerce, where they rank top e-commerce players based on their web visits, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers etc.
It’s a very well known knowledge that PR costs a lot of money, but just by utilising the free search engine, you can create one of the most shared e-commerce content and get in touch with world-class journalists, for free.
2. Social media is more than what you think
While you’re busy reading the posts from people you followed, a content marketing team in SEA is using it to build some of the most life-changing connection.
Utilise social media like Twitter and Linkedin to get in touch with editors and journalists. A report from Triggertrap showed journalists is the largest category of Twitter’s verified users.
With the right approach and useful content, connections with relevant journalists are possible, especially in a world where most try to stay up to date on the latest news and data.
The article published on Forbes also highlights social media as a platform to share the love. Whenever one of the studies is published, the team will mention and tag the relevant journalist as a sign of appreciation.
3. E-mail pitching is among the most overlooked skill
Good emails make differences.
That’s one of the most valuable things I’ve learned in the team.
It’s what I would describe as a very similar skill to negotiation. While doing the distribution for our contents, I’ve learned that one email pitch can make or break my rate of publications. Not only a good email subject, opening lines and body are important; it’s also crucial to make it personalised.
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Journalists receive hundreds of emails pitches each day; it’s not easy to stand out but not impossible, either.
Most of all, always put the interest and benefits of the other person first.
4. Creative and critical thinking goes a long way
You can have access to the most valuable data and connections ever but still, run the risk of producing bad content. On the other side, you can turn public data that everyone has access to some of the most interesting contents.
For instance, the SEA delivery experience content released by the team highlight the pain points of delivery services in the region. The usage of very simple metrics like length of delivery time, star ratings and type of feedbacks turning into a comprehensive data-driven infographic require a good level of creativity.
While working within the team, criticality on ideas and exploration of creativity are always practised.
These two skills eventually become the seed that grows the team to produce more and more interesting contents.
5. Foundation of great teamwork – compelling direction, strong structure and supportive context
The three key aspects are inspired by an article on Harvard Business Review.
The team of 10 is very diverse with five different nationalities, each with different backgrounds and age groups. Despite that, everyone is able to focus and work towards a clear goal without disengaging anyone.
It’s also composed of a strong structure where there’re roles like ideation experts, PR and marketing specialist, designers, analyst and leads that oversee and support everyone. As a result, the team is built on the basis of diversity in knowledge, perspective and skills, which help to promote creative thinking instead of groupthink.
Last but not least, everyone is supportive and open for critical feedback to improve. It’s also widely practised in the company the concept of agile, where retrospective is regularly done to recognise good, bad and actions to improve what’s not well.
The dynamic and teamwork nurture in the team deserves credit for bringing the team to where they are now – an environment where everyone can thrive that eventually bore impressive results.
6. Trust and support from upper management
If you’re looking to gain free publications in a fast and short time, this sharing might not be relevant to you. Though I entered the team in the middle of when it first started three years ago, I can fully testify it indeed has been a long journey to get to where it’s at now.
Other than a great team with the correct strategies, one of the most important factors I personally think driving the content marketing team is the trust and support from upper management.
Since the company practice agile and focus on creating the right environment without all the corporate baggage, it’s very easy to seek out help from “the bosses”, which include even all the C-Levels. It can be tiny but significant. For instance, it is asking your CEO whether he can help to connect you with some relevant industry figures.
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Building the team requires long but definitely rewarding efforts. Often we might encounter some unexpected difficulties and challenges in achieving the goal. Without support from higher management and a company culture that believes in your decision and willing to support consistently, it does make a huge challenge to grow.
To conclude
As I finished writing this article, it articulates clearer to me that a great result is compromised of individual hard and soft skills, teamwork and thriving company culture.
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Image Credit: Caroline Attwood
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