Zer0 to 5ive Turns 20! And, Got a Really Great Surprise
By Michelle Pujadas, Founder & co-CEO
Wow! We made it! 20 years, nearly 200 clients, a body of work, peer and client recognition, a whole lot of fun, and many bottles of champagne to celebrate over the years. I appreciate all who have been a part of our journey, and especially those who are still on the road with us.
The 0to5 team, along with some willing co-conspirators, made this video surprise for us – and I LOVE IT!! Thank you all!!
We’re also celebrating our anniversary year with sponsorships of Philly Startup Leaders’ PHL Innovation Picnic on June 27th and the PACT Capital Conference, PACTCAPCON 2019, on September 26th – we hope to see you there!
Last but not least, I’m hoping to get one of my long-term goals – writing a marketing book – at least started this year. We started identifying core go-to-market activities that would increase the opportunity for success 20 years ago with our Zer0 to 5ive Roadmap™. Beyond that, there is an interesting balance of funding, burn rate, product development, market readiness, and that all-important first successful client, among other things. I’ll be soliciting some advice to entrepreneurs and lessons learned from the broader tech community, so would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to email me your contribution: michelle@0to5.com.
For the past five years, Zer0 to 5ive has supported TrialScope with creative and public relations services. In April, the Company expanded Zer0 to 5ive’s role as part of its move to further increase market awareness and excitement, adding website maintenance, media monitoring and media audits to its current PR and creative support.
For the past five years, Zer0 to 5ive has supported TrialScope with creative and public relations services. In April, the Company expanded Zer0 to 5ive’s role as part of its move to further increase market awareness and excitement, adding website maintenance, media monitoring and media audits to its current PR and creative support.
“Because you can’t eat brand equity, and can’t pay a team with it” – Laura Hanly, Digital Marketing Expert and Author, “Content That Converts: How to Create a Profitable and Predictable B2B Content Marketing Strategy”
When done correctly, content marketing can serve as a powerful arm to your overall marketing strategy – it establishes you as an authority and has the potential to increase your revenue and profit. That’s why CMOs at the largest technology companies report that building out content marketing as an organizational competency is the second most important initiative, only behind measuring ROI.
For those still wrapping their head around the concept, according to Forrester:
“Content marketing is a strategy where brands create interest, relevance, and relationships with customers by producing, curating, and sharing content that addresses specific customer needs and delivers visible value.”
The challenge is figuring out how to do it right. As author Laura Hanly explains in her book, “Content That Converts: How to Create a Profitable and Predictable B2B Content Marketing Strategy,” content is not a magic bullet.
Content marketing will not:
- Turn you into an internet celebrity (at least not overnight)
- Make you rich beyond your wildest dreams
And when done poorly, can:
- Harm your brand
- Put off potential customers
- Never pay off (resulting in wasted time and resources)
Hanly stresses the importance of having a consistent strategy for the content that you’re producing, so that your audience is engaged, comes to know and respect you as an authority, and will buy from you when the time is right (because the ultimate goal is sales, isn’t it?) Every single piece of content needs to end with a call to action that can lead to a sale.
Some questions to ask yourself and your team before committing to a content marketing strategy include:
- What is the purpose of our content marketing?
- Who are we trying to reach?
- What types of content should we produce?
- Do we have someone who can produce the content?
- Do we have good ideas about what our content would be focused on?
- Is our market segment interested in consuming that kind of content?
- How will we measure our success?
There are two main types of content you can use: recurring content, which builds a customer base gradually over time, and content assets (such as a whitepaper, a book, a webinar series or a learning workshop) that can be used as near-term client acquisition tools. Before choosing the route that’s best for your business, there are four things to ask yourself (what Hanly calls the Conversion Quadrant):
What’s the intersection between what your customers want and/or need?
Figure out what your customers really care about. What do they look to your company for insight about? How can your expertise intersect with what your customer wants and needs?
What do you want to be known as an industry authority for?
The simplest way to become an authority on something is to say the same things about that topic over and over again. Don’t just chase the latest trend – find the one thing you can focus on becoming known for that will make it easier to develop, market and sell products that your audience will buy again and again.
What is the format in which you produce your best content?
While most people think that its best to tailor your content to audience preferences, Hanly recommends choosing the format that you most enjoy working in – because if you like it, you’ll enjoy creating it, and your audience will like it too.
What’s your quarterly plan?
Mapping out your content helps you to be strategic about your production. This should include:
- A clear statement of your “one thing” your company will be an authority on
- Four themes you want to rotate through
- Three topics per theme, including key points on each
- Headlines for each topic
- Scheduled date of publication for each topic
Whichever path you decide to take with your content, if you don’t have the resources or bandwidth to do it right – if it feels like a chore every time you go to write – STOP. This will only result in an inconsistent content cycle with content that feels forced, uninspiring and unlikely to resonate with your audience.
The powerful thing about content marketing is that your assets increase in value over time. Whether it’s a blog, a book, a podcast or a whitepaper – you can always update later to improve it, modify key messages and share it with new audiences to see greater returns on early investments of your time and resources.
Remember – every piece of content you put out under your brand needs to be the best possible representation of who you are. Most prospects will have their first interaction with your brand through your content and just like in dating, you get one chance to make a good first impression.
By: Colleen Martin
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but how about 1,000 hits? Information graphics, or more commonly known as “infographics” are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge that help to present information quickly and clearly. It is hard to ignore the surge of infographics that you see every day in print, online and social media.
From the USA Today Snapshot to Instagram to research reports, infographics are everywhere.
Source: USA Today
Why have infographics become so popular? For starters – they are fun, visually appealing, and a great way to communicate a lot of information in a succinct way. In addition, consumers are bombarded with a massive amount of information on a daily basis and it has shortened our attention spans. In fact, a recent Nielsen Company audience report revealed that adults in the U.S. spend nearly 11 hours each day consuming media.
Competition for consumer attention is fierce and a strong visual will make people more compelled to reader your content and to share it with others. According to a recent article on HubSpot, when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of what they heard three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of it three days later. Additionally, infographics are much more likely to be shared via social media than your standard text article. In fact, Infographics are “liked” and shared on social media 3x more than any other type of content, according to HubSpot.
What’s the Story?
Infographics can be used to support a campaign in a variety of ways – to display survey data, illustrate a trend or timeline, make comparisons, raise awareness of an issue, simplify a concept or process or demonstrate results of research. To be effective, infographics must be focused on your core idea and tell a compelling story. Use a compelling headline that grabs the user’s attention and use images and captions to connect the dots. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need original data to leverage infographics. As long as you include the sources of information, you can also use industry data, trends, and other relevant information to support your idea.
Keep it Simple and Sharable
The design of an infographic is as important as the content. Compelling infographics are well designed, visually appealing, and easily digestible. Limit fonts and be consistent with the color palette. Remember to leave white space. The infographic also has to be easy to view and easy to share. Designing it to be a manageable length and size will make it easier to share and view on social media and other mobile platforms.
Share Far and Wide
Once you’ve created an infographic, you need to promote it. There are many ways that you can share it to increase awareness, visibility and engagement for your business: send in a press release as an accompanying visual; share on social media; post on your website and company blog; or send with a pitch to targeted media contacts.
At Zer0 to 5ive, we love to use infographics in our PR campaigns and we have seen the difference that a well-designed, visually appealing, and easily digested infographic can make in media coverage, particularly on social media. We’ve included a few of our favorites below to give you some ideas on using infographics in your next PR or marketing campaign.
[zlightbox image=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/vigilant-1.png” thumbnail=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/info-2.jpg” align=”left”]
[zlightbox image=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/Unknown-5.jpeg” thumbnail=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/info-3.jpg” align=”left”]
[zlightbox image=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/cengage-1.png” thumbnail=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/info-1.jpg” align=”left”]
[zlightbox image=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/k4-connect.png” thumbnail=”http://0to5.com/wp-content/uploads/info-4.jpg” align=”left”]
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Zer0 to 5ive was awarded a 2012 Davey Award for developing the Active Risk website, www.ActiveRisk.com. The Davey Awards are international creative awards focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small firms worldwide. The 2012 Davey Awards received nearly 4,000 entries from ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms and public relations firms.
Every August, I feel the end-of-summer blues and come Labor Day, I am over them – energized by the Fall sprint for sales, lead gen, brand building and awareness. I love the adrenaline that comes with taking a tally of the year so far, but knowing that there are four great months left to make an impact. Have you ever wondered why there are so many conferences, trade shows and new product launches in the Fall – it’s because this is a great time to re-engage – and our prospects and customers are ready to pay attention. There is electricity in the air.
Last summer, we launched the award-winning Popmoney payments service for CashEdge, but it was the momentum and marketing support that we rolled out last Fall that really made the difference – webinars, HTML emails, ongoing media relations, speaking opportunities, online engagement, demos, etc. The result was literally hundreds of leads, top-tier media coverage and the buzz that comes with the engagement and awareness of an entire industry that was ready to engage and pay attention.
This September, we are preparing for the launch of a major innovation in healthcare, the launch of a new brand for a client, a new day in cash handling, new solutions for food safety and the ongoing drum beat of HIV/AIDs awareness and testing.
I can feel the excitement in the air and the sense of urgency ramp up as business closes its doors on the summer, customers and prospects send their kids back to school and Fall begins.
by Katie Cannon
Creating a website can be a fun and inspiring project, but can also become a headache if the right steps are not taken. Having an online presence is more important than ever. With more individuals beginning the buying cycle online, an easily findable, informative ans functional website can make a world of difference.
At Zer0 to 5ive, we find developing an effective website is a tightrope walk between creativity and delivering up to the standards mandated by your client. Remember you have been hired by your client and the ultimate creative vision is their’s. This does not mean you cannot be creative or engaging. Communicate the client’s key messages in a professional, yet original and innovative way will help set your site apart from the millions of other .coms in the space.
Here are a few tips I have learned from experience that can help you take your website development to a new level:
• Connect with your client. Get into their mind – what are they looking for? What image and message do they want their website to convey about their company? Connecting with the client from the start is crucial – getting on the same creative page as your client will save you countless headaches down the road and make each stage of design, development and implementation a breeze. Ask them for sample art, photos and other sites to draw inspiration from
• Luckily, there are millions of new Web 2.0 features available for free to no cost. Investigate what features and widgets would help you best achieve your client’s goals. Think about what you can provide to your client that will keep visitors engages. What can you present that will make your client standout in the marketplace? How can you help give your client the WOW factor? Consider social media, embedded videos, click to chat, rss feeds blogs… the list goes on and on.
• Your home or landing page is the first page a consumer sees and without engagement, site visitors will quickly abandoned the site. This is why creativity is so important. Being able to engage or interest the visitor immediately will go a long way. Think outside the box and have fun with the design. Yet, keep in mind that the website should still come across professional, clean and innovative.
• Communicate with your client. Make sure you understand what they want and how they want it done. Website development is a long process – not having a set communication method will only make the process longer. A timeline is crucial during the site launch preparation. Have weekly update meetings to ensure you and your clients are on the same page and creating a friendly repartee with clients can help plant the seeds for future working opportunities.
• Keep it search-friendly. Now-a-day’s an overwhelming number of consumers search through today’s major search engines. If you are building your site in an outdated language implementing other elements that impede search engine rankings, your site will be impossible to find, this means you are missing out on some major dollars! Come download our FREE SEO white paper to learn more about how you can garner visibility on search engine result pages.
• Provide ongoing customer service – it’s all about the experience, and working well together. Your job is not done after launch. A good web-development team will continue to be on hand to assist with any potential bugs, upgrades or staff difficulties.
• Double check all of your work! No website should ever be launched without making sure all your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed! Use all the resources available to you to proofread site content. Provide internal links to appropriate pages and be sure that every page can be found every time.
If you understand the importance of communicating and connecting with your client, then you should have no problem designing and launching a website together successfully!
Katie Cannon is a Marketing Strategist ant Zer0 to 5ive
Try as I might, I couldn’t resist clicking on the link last week that seemed to be showing up everywhere I turned. It felt like every other tweet on Twitter included a link to B.L. Ochman’s post debunking the six myths of social media. I tried to avoid it because it felt, to me, like yet another post aimed at stirring up debate in the social media echo chamber.
I was correct in it being a hornets’ nest for the Twitterati. Where I was wrong was thinking that I should try to avoid it. B.L. wrote a great post that sparked more than 95 comments on BusinessWeek.com. One of those comments was mine (once you’re sucked into the conversation it’s hard to escape):
Mike Maney, Feb 19, 2009 3:58 PM GMT
“While maybe not perfect (on the pricing), B.L.’s take on the involvement required to do social media right is spot-on. It’s not only tough to do well, but it takes time as well. The issue I have is that social media is (and should be) just one component of a larger communications strategy. And that’s where the discussion of campaign pricing and involvement falls down. Companies should be looking at pricing/commitment in the context of their overall programs rather than silo’ed campaigns.”
There’d be no shame in thinking the basis of this post was about debunking social media’s six myths. However, there’s a bigger lesson to be learned from B.L.’s post. My comment above — a 20-second, brain-to-keyboard thoughtburst — is this morning the featured comment in the “In Your Face” column now running on the front page of BusinessWeek.com. What started as a quick dash of commentary turned into visibility for the 0to5 brand. Was visibility what I was trying for? Not consciously. I was simply adding what I thought might be good fuel for the conversation.
Do you use your expertise and experience to advance conversations happening within your sphere of influence? If not, what’s holding you back?