How I can
Help you
Image courtesy of Louis Hansel
Image courtesy of Kanishka
Media Relations
I will speak and regularly engage with trade and business media on your behalf. My role is to keep in constant contact with the media to educate and inform them about your products, services or proposition – enough to interest them into writing a story about your business.
If you’re a supplier across the hospitality and leisure industry, looking to do business with either or all of the following: restaurants, pubs, bars, out of home (OOH), cafés, B&I, contract caterers, leisure & attractions or retail operators, then I’ll be talking with them regularly about your business. If you’re a hospitality or leisure operator looking to communicate to the trade or business media, then once again, I will be calling and liaising with them for you.
Press Releases
Do you have an official statement you want to communicate across trade or business media? I can help. Generally, across the hospitality and leisure sectors, this comes in numerous forms. For example, a new contract you’ve won with an operator. I can’t state enough how powerful it is to shout about your new contract win successes. Why? Because the likelihood is an operator on your target hit list will be reading this story across trade media. We want them to think.
“Shit, they must be doing something right to have won that contract, let’s make contact with them to discuss how they can help our business.”
Other forms of supplier press releases come in the form of acquisitions, crisis statements, new product news, award wins, accreditations and announcements around the latest ground-breaking innovations
Image courtesy of Heather Gill
Image courtesy of Merritt Thomas
Feature Commentary
Also known as forward features. These are the editorial calendars created by publications to plan content coming up throughout the year. They usually comprise a list of topics with descriptions, deadlines for submission and publication dates.
I hold all the feature lists for 2021 for all B2B trade publications across hospitality and leisure. If you’re a B2B supplier, feature commentary opportunities relevant to your business will form part of the plan I create for you.
Why are features as useful for PR as news? While news stories are timely and report on what’s happening now, features are planned in advance and are usually longer in format, more detailed and researched by the publications editorial team. In addition to focused themes, such as technology, compliance and driving loyalty, they also regularly focus on current trends and popular topics for the industry. Most importantly, if you’re a B2B supplier, they allow you to have a valuable share of voice amongst your competitors, who undoubtedly will have targeted the same features, whilst giving you a vital platform to sell your products or services.
Thought-leadership
Without doubt the most valuable form of communication across hospitality and leisure for B2B suppliers. Why? Not only does it drive serious awareness of your proposition with operators, it also has the power to position your spokesperson or people within your business as notable experts in their field. Additionally, it gives you the opportunity to own a narrative across your discipline. This will not only put you front-of-mind with your target operators, but also with key journalists. When delivered well, the business then becomes the go-to resource for both operators and journalists.
My job is to create engaging and at times provocative thought-leadership content on your behalf. It could include best practice on a particular topic for the hospitality industry or informed comment on an issue they currently face. Ultimately, it will clearly demonstrate that you understand operators and their issues, addresses these issues and concerns, but most importantly, solves their problems.
For example, if you’re a tech supplier to the hospitality industry, great thought-leadership content will demonstrate to operators how you help them drive operational efficiencies to increase revenues. It could also showcase what makes your tech industry leading. I’ve included some great examples of thought-leadership pieces I’ve had published – head over to the ‘Work’ section of my website and have a look.
Image courtesy of Feast
Image courtesy of Brook Lark
Emerging trend reports
Imagine as a B2B supplier to the hospitality and leisure sectors, being known for having your finger on the pulse when it comes to current industry trends. Powerful stuff hey – and especially if you’re in the tech space. My clients in the know absolutely understand the power of creating engaging content which provides operators with the upcoming trends and insights which will shape their business to drive performance efficiencies in the near future.
Brands that are able to identify emerging trends effectively have an advantage over competitors. A good trend report will be able to track shifts in the conversation surrounding important industry questions that are shaping specific narratives. As a B2B supplier our goal together is to provide operators with an actionable understanding of how topics evolve over time and become a trend, together with educated insight into the future of those ideas – hence emerging trends. However, the clever part for B2B suppliers, comes from aligning those trends to your brand, product or service.
I will work with you to create content which showcases emerging trends by identifying and answering six key questions:
1. Major narratives in the discussion
2. Niche narratives in the discussion
3. Major trends apparent in the narrative over time
4. Which trends are growing and which are slowing down
5. Insight into what these trends mean for hospitality operators
6. How to implement these trends as a hospitality operator across your business
Whitepapers
Every B2B hospitality supplier should give serious consideration to creating whitepapers, irrespective of whether you’re selling a product, service, technology or methodology, because eventually, you will need one. Whitepapers are especially powerful if you’re a supplier looking to sell a relatively new product or service which could be seen as complex or expensive.
Ultimately, the key purpose of a whitepaper is to generate leads or to position your business as a leader in your market space. In the B2B space, its job is to influence the decision-making process of current and prospective customers. It should clearly demonstrate to the reader that a certain position is the best route to take for their business, or that the solution you are advocating is best for their particular problem or issue.
Image courtesy of Adrien Sala
Image courtesy of Toa Heftiba
Case Studies - video & print
It’s a well-known fact – today, case studies are more powerful than traditional brochures and sales collateral. Why? Because a picture is worth a thousand words. When done well, the stories you share paint pictures and evoke emotions. People connect with stories and there’s no better method of storytelling in business than using your customer’s voice in a factual, no-fluff, data and results driven approach to showcase your brand, product or services.
I approach creating content for case studies in the same way, irrespective of whether for video or print. I will tell your story, firstly interviewing you and then your client, to ensure we build a narrative which is both captivating and engages your target audience. It will paint a positive, thought-provoking picture of the project, however, most importantly, the solution(s) you provided as a supplier, backed by stats, facts, insights and the results you achieved. Head on over to the ‘Work’ section of my site and take a moment to read the Harri case study for Radisson Red – the results speak for itself.
Testimonials - video & print
In addition to case studies, testimonials are one of the most important pieces of content. Client testimonials don’t just help to position your business in a positive and reputable light, they are also hugely effective in explaining how beneficial your product or service can be. Importantly, they can be enough to earn the trust of prospective clients visiting your website, reading your sales collateral or pitch documents and in e-shots. It’s a creative way to share a statement made by a client who was satisfied with their experience, who can then provide assurance on your behalf about the quality and value of the product or service you provided. A good client testimonial will include the client’s brief and how your product or service provided the solution.
I’d work with you in the same way I would on case studies, first interviewing you to obtain the brief and then your client to create the narrative.
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Image courtesy of Dragne Marius
Blogs
Blogging and posting relevant content is an incredibly useful tool to increase traffic to your website and to your products and services. It’s also a great way to promote your videos, podcasts and interviews, which can then be shared on social media to reach a wider audience to build a community around your posts. The important part, which is where I come in, is the quality of your blog posts. A blog provides great content for not only your audience but also for your website. With the help of SEO strategies like keywords, titles, meta descriptions etc, blog posts become a powerful tool for gaining visibility for your business. Additionally, every new blog posted adds a new page to your website, which immensely helps with SEO, because it gives Google and other search engines a reason to re-crawl your website to find new content to index.
Website copy
I can’t stress enough how important it is to create high-quality website content. Your audience is visiting your website with specific intentions or goals in mind. During each visit the quality and value of the content presented can determine whether the visitor stays or leaves. Website content will also shape whether that visitor returns in the future to become a customer. Content quality will also determine the website’s success with discoverability on the web and in search engines. Quality content helps to attract the right audience to your site and engage them to take the required action. Creating valuable content not only benefits the visitor reading, but also your websites’ search ranking.
High quality website content has the potential to yield tremendous results. My role is to create content which promotes brand awareness, loyalty and visitor engagement. I will focus your content on what makes your products, services, business and website unique and valuable to the visitor over your competitors. Ultimately, I will create content which provides your visitors with what they want, need and expect.
Image courtesy of Kanishka
Image courtesy of Joseph Gonzalez
Award copy
I have written numerous award entries over the years on behalf of my clients and pride myself on winning a prestigious Catey Award for a leading client in contract catering. Creation of award content is hugely time consuming and can prove difficult and stressful if you’re not absolutely focused on the criteria for judging. Writing a winning award entry is about making a compelling case to the judges and convincing them that you should win. That takes time – sometimes as long as three months, to source evidence, style and a winning angle. It starts with detailed research and the collation of important supporting evidence across stats, facts, insights, interviews, testimonials and imagery.
Advertising: Negotiation &buying, plus content creation & design
I have been negotiating, buying, creating content and advising clients on advertising design for over 20-years across trade and consumer media. I am listed as a media buyer across all trade hospitality and leisure titles, and as such, have enormous media buying power. If you’re a supplier and especially if you’re in the tech space, advertising should form a crucial part of your strategy and plan – especially across digital media. Put simply, advertising will build a preference for your product or services over competitors’ to drive those all-important sales.
I will discuss your strategy and objectives with you and advise if advertising should form part of the plan I build for you. Head on over to the ‘Work’ section of my site to see examples of ads I’ve created on behalf of clients.
