Hook PR Group featured in Chamber of Commerce news

Hook PR Group recently added two storytellers experienced at developing promotional content that allows organizations throughout Delaware to reel in more clients. James Diehl, a longtime Sussex County journalist, and veteran editor Pam George have joined the fullservice communications company, which is based in Georgetown. Hook PR Group helps businesses and nonprofit organizations promote their products or services in new, exciting ways. The group’s core focus is on a concept known as content  marketing, a cost-effective way of promotion that’s ideal for organizations of all sizes.

“We’re talking about simple strategies, such as an online blog, a newsletter or even a feature-style press release that lets a business or nonprofit group tell its customers, ‘We want to provide you with thoughtful  information that is useful to you, the consumer,’” George says.

“At every speech I give, I suggest one of the best ways to create great Web content is for companies to hire a journalist, either full or part time, to create it,” says marketing guru David Meerman Scott,  bestselling author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.” “Journalists are great at understanding an audience and developing information that buyers want to consume.”

In addition to Diehl and George, Hook’s talent includes PR consultant Larry Nagengast, bilingual  journalist Patricia V. Rivera and business writer Annette Silva. All are journalists who have worked most or all of their careers in Delaware, making them uniquely-suited to serve the local market in a way no  other marketing company can match.

George is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in such publications as US Airways Magazine, Fortune, Men’s Health and the Christian Science Monitor. She is also the dining editor of Delaware Today magazine. Diehl worked as a writer and editor at The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md., before serving as managing editor for two separate Sussex County publications. He specializes in in-depth reporting, creative copywriting and public relations.

The company offers free brainstorming sessions, time spent with local business leaders to discuss how to better get their name and their message before the general public. Through its affiliation with Delaware-based BilCom Inc., a translation company, Hook PR Group also offers clients the opportunity to
reach the ever-growing Hispanic population with materials written in Spanish. A menu of services and
special packages are available at www.hookprgroup.com or by calling 302-858-5055.

“Just about every small business has a great story to tell, but they struggle to get their message out, to make their presence felt in the marketplace,” Diehl says. “At Hook PR Group, we tell the story and position it properly.  Then, to put it simply, we get your audience hooked.”

Georgetown Chamber of Commerce newsletter, Vol VI, Issue 12

The concept is described as content marketing. It involves researching customers’ challenges and learning how to help them be more productive. It means if you want to sell a product, you need to identify the target markets – and grasp people who need your product.

“Content marketing is all the marketing that’s left,” says Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of Seth’s Meatball Sundae Book Tour. During a 2008 teleseminar with Joe Pulizzi (founder and chief content officer of blog.Junta42), Godin said that the new marketing is about giving your customers the resources to trust you. “They [your customers] become a
fan of yours because you teach them something that makes them feel better about the world.”

Today’s new marketing is an even bigger revolution than the industrial revolution because people only need access to ideas, not access to large amounts of capital.

Here are five key points about content marketing from the seminar, as summarized by Pulizzi:

• Understand that the old way of marketing is talking consistently at customers. New marketing is about connecting with customers.
• Attract the chosen few. Traditional marketing was about the number of hits, calls, etc. you could generate; new marketing is about who’s doing the calling or visiting your Web site. If 12 people are coming to your blog, but they are the right 12 people with large amounts of buying power, that’s what matters.
• Develop great content for your audience. If your product solves their problems, they’ll talk about it and tell others.
• Figure out what information your audience desperately needs (e-books, blog, surveys, white papers, etc.) This is the heart of new marketing.
• Tell an authentic story by living an authentic life (i.e., Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ CEO, really does love coffee). In the new marketing world, you can’t fake it. You have to share your passion.

Pulizzi says the future of marketing is not about tempting customers or conning them into buying more; it’s about communicating a message that says, “Regardless of whether you buy from me or not, you need this information. Enjoy!”

Annette C. Silva, who lives in Seaford, Del., is Hook PR Group’s business development coordinator.

Newt Barrett, founder of the marketing consulting firm Succeeding Today. Succeeding Today (www.succeedingtoday.com), is a lead thinker in this new way of communicating with customers.

The idea is simple. If your service is of value to people, and you’re an authority on that service, then use your knowledge to inform and add value to your customers. Rather than shouting, bragging and trying to drill information into your customers’ heads, build a relationship with them that creates trust and establishes you as a leader.

Barrett offers six tips for this refreshing, cost-effective means of reaching your customers:

1. Become customer-centric. Find out just who needs your services most; then learn what their problems are and what would solve them. This knowledge will become the base of all your customer communications.

2. Focus on the customer by creating a Web site filled with valuable content your customers use. You, as the authority of the service you provide, become a trusted source of information. Barrett considers your Web site to be the most important sales tool you have, so position yourself as the expert, not the salesman.

3. Start a blog. Blogging allows you to engage in two-way dialogues, shows that you are authentic and is another venue in which you can establish your knowledge.

4. Refocus the tone of your newsletter (or begin publishing one) to be informative and helpful, offering advice and solutions.

5. Always direct your customers to your Web site because that’s where the meat of your message lies. The amount of information available to your customers is infinite on the Web, so use it effectively.

6. Rely on a content marketing professional to convert your message into the
relevant, value-loaded information you want to pass on to your customers. Well-written copy that flows nicely and keeps your customers reading, free of grammatical, stylistic or punctuation snares, instills even more confidence in you, the authority and source of the message.

Marlene Taylor, who lives in Knoxville, Tenn., is a business writer and a regular editorial
contributor to Hook PR Group.