• Matter Takes on NewCo Boston

    Matter Takes on NewCo Boston

    Another year, another great NewCo.

    Matter joined a tribe of talented, tech-hungry people last week for the 3rd annual NewCo Boston Festival, hosted by the Mass Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC). During the two-day event, attendees step out of their day-to-day and into the offices of over 70 participating companies to network and learn about the local innovation scene.

    One idea struck our team. Nearly every session focused, accidentally or purposefully, on company culture and how it spurs innovation. Companies today are differentiating on culture. The holy grail is defining and managing a differentiated culture at every stage of growth, from coworking spaces and startups, to established players and PR firms.

    … or brand elevation agencies. See what I did there?

    It’s a tall order. Many entrepreneurs we spoke with insisted they were different in the same words as everyone else. There was plenty of Kool-Aid, but also plenty of passion for business, branding and Boston as an innovation hub.

    If you’re an emerging company, and you want to differentiate, test your story. Boston is the number one startup scene in the country for two-years running, and our ecosystem affords unlimited access to people who can help validate your brand. Reach out. Connect with fellow innovators, and if you’re feeling major NewCo FOMO, we hope to see you next year!

    Check out some of the sessions Matterites attended below, and get in touch with us for a one-on-one about how different your message really is. We have the privilege of working with some of the smartest, scrappiest entrepreneurs in Boston, and we can help you find your place in this bustling, burgeoning scene.

    • Alley Cambridge is a coworking community powered by Verizon. Alley Cambridge Events and Programming Manager Kirby Chin and Verizon Sr. Consultant Michael Sullivan spoke about 5G networks, installing a 5G small cell in the space and collaborating with local startups to develop use cases.
    • Buildium offers a property management solution for real estate professionals. Buildium VP of Product Piyum Samaraweera spoke about the shift toward a renter-centric real estate market, and crowdsourced ideas for a renter-friendly mobile app.
    • Carbonite is a leader in data protection, and one of Boston’s homegrown public companies (NASDAQ:CARB). Carbonite CEO Mohamad Ali discussed the company’s dramatic evolution from a B2C to B2B brand, and learnings over the last five years.
    • Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. Cengage’s leadership team hosted a panel about their culture and how it has inspired innovation and evolution within the organization.
    • CIC Cambridge offers coworking and office space for innovators. The event featured a roundtable where attendees could learn about CIC events, and Senior Relationship Manager Meredith McSorley gave a tour of their flagship location.
    • Essential Design is a leading innovation strategy and product design consultancy. Founding Partner Scott Stropkay and Principal Engineer Kurt Maw gave a tour of their downtown space and discussed commercializing new ideas and products for success.
    • Oxfam America is a Boston-based global nonprofit working to end poverty. Oxfam President & CEO Abby Maxman and Sr. Manager, ICT4D Neal McCarthy discussed how they incorporate technology and incubator-like approaches into their operation.
    • SmartBear delivers software quality tools for teams. Headquartered in Assembly Row, the team led a discussion around the API economy and developing an API strategy.
    • Wellist is a provider of patient experience solutions for healthcare. Wellist VP of Client Delivery Kelly Hall and Senior Manager of Analytics Nikki Vance hosted a session on using data and compassion to understand patient needs and promote well-being.
    • Workbar offers top-notch coworking spaces throughout the Greater Boston area. Workbar’s Head of Community Devin Cole led a presentation about their model, their members and their growth.

    Matter

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  • Startup Guide: How To Create a Customer PR Program

    Startup Guide: How To Create a Customer PR Program

    The next time you pick up a copy of STORES or Entrepreneur Magazine, notice how many stories follow a case study format. A major retailer wants to improve customer experience and invests in a chatbot to help shoppers navigate their store. A small business wants to simplify transactions at the point of sale and invests in a tablet point-of-sale application for checkout.

    Joint PR projects, like case studies, are a great way to get press as a startup, because they demonstrate market demand for your product or service. Think about it. What’s more powerful: talking about how awesome you are, or having a customer do it for you?

    Better yet, joint PR projects benefit startups and their customers. Both win recognition for their technology and initiatives, promote their vision for the industry, improve the visibility of their executives, and increase their brand awareness. We’ve even seen these interactions lead to better customer retention, and more cross-sell and upsell opportunities.

    What makes a good PR candidate? What are the options for joint PR? And how do you “make the ask” to get customers involved? Here’s your crash course.

     

    What Makes a Good PR candidate?

    In a perfect world, a startup could involve all of its customers in PR. But in reality, corporate policy and competitive issues often determine which customers are a fit – and which won’t touch PR with a 10-foot pole.

    First, look for these warning signs:

    • A corporate policy that prohibits mention of technology partners
    • Required review of copy before publication, which journalists typically cannot guarantee
    • Competitive issues that limit the topics of discussion
    • A technical problem with your product or service (like an open support ticket)
    • A signed non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with your company

    Then, look for the signs of a great PR candidate:

    • A happy customer
    • A champion who will help you secure internal approvals
    • Tangible, quantitative results from using your product or service
    • Permission to speak publicly about your partnership

     

    What are the Options?

    Once you have a list of candidates, it’s time to consider their options. Case studies are great, but they’re just one of many ways to involve customers in PR. The key is presenting options for every comfort level: from a simple logo on your website, to a joint speaking engagement at your industry’s largest tradeshow.

    Here are some of the options we present to clients when designing a customer program:

    • Logo on the website
    • Testimonial or case study on the website
    • Joint press release
    • Joint interview with the press
    • Joint speaking engagement or award

    You know your customer’s time is valuable, so when presenting these options, be clear about the process, time and effort involved. A testimonial may require a brief call and 20-30 minutes to review or approve a quote, while a press interview may require a longer prep call and 30-40 minutes with a reporter.


    How Do You “Make the Ask”?

    This is the number one question we get from clients implementing a customer program, and rightfully so. Sales and customer success teams are the gatekeepers. If they don’t feel supported in introducing PR to their customers, there is no customer program.

    To start, ask yourself, “what’s in it for the customer?” Free publicity is an easy sell for smaller customers and emerging brands, but not so much for Fortune 500 customers.

    For your larger customers, joint PR can be an opportunity to establish themselves as thought leaders in a specific industry. Do they want to be known for embracing digital transformation? Are they eager to show off a new research facility where your technology is being used?

    Incentives are also helpful in securing customer participation in PR. Consider offering a product or service discount, setting up an awards program for customers or even submitting customers for external awards, recognizing their progressive thinking.

    Once you’ve identified the benefit, you can “make the ask” in several ways:

    • Welcome letter. Create a letter welcoming new customers. Use this letter to introduce the customer program and build their interest in participating in the future.
    • Email template. Create email templates for sales and customer success teams. Use these templates to introduce the customer program or specific opportunities, like a video testimonial or speaking engagement.
    • Case study library. Collect customer case studies or testimonials on your website. Use this library to reassure customers who need an example before committing.
    • Email intro. To your PR team. We’ll take it from there.

     

    Want to learn more about customer programs? You know where to find us.

     

    Matter

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  • Everybody Grab Your Brand Buddy

    If any one word could lay claim to the zeitgeist of the last decade, it’s “community”. Obviously “community” has been a core driver of human behavior for millennia, but the past ten years have championed the term as the essence of not only how we market ourselves, but how we operate our businesses. As of a few years ago, it stopped being enough to have a good product; you also had demonstrate how your product, or your profits, benefited the community at large.

    This can be an overwhelming idea to startups or brands in crisis, who often suffer from a lack of exposure (or worse yet, an abundance of negative opinions). How are they supposed to break through the gut-wrenching, face-melting din of modern media and transform into an instinctual, essential part of customers’ daily lives?

    I’ll tell you what: you’ll get there a lot faster if you stop thinking about “community” and start thinking about “collaboration”. Having a good product and community benefit at heart isn’t the secret anymore; you have to demonstrate how your brand fits alongside the brands that have already established themselves with your audience and can draw a clear line between the product they offer and the betterment of mankind. So how do you find them?

    1. Build a customer profile. Build several, for that matter. Marketing, advertising and PR agencies have been doing this for decades, and there’s a damn good reason for it. Building a profile for your ideal customer allows you to envision the nuances of their daily lives, including the types of brands that are so essential they’ve basically become thoughtless reflexes. Your goal is to be so well-known that no one thinks about you at all.
    2. Figure out why their chosen brands are essential. For many of them, the reasons may be far from practical. Dive deep into your lizard brain and analyze how the brands in your daily life deliver comfort and validation. Understanding your customers’ emotional needs will make it easier to see how your product, service or idea can double-down on the real, intangible benefits those other brands deliver.
    3. Realize that it’s 2016 and brands = media. That means thinking like a journalist. Brands used to live entirely at the mercy of the media and what it chose to expose, but now the relationship is different. Brands’ best shot for long-term exposure is collaboration with media to produce meaningful content, hence the meteoric rise of guest columns, sponsored posts, brand journalism and content marketing. While you’re thinking about the brands your customers consider essential to daily life, explore which media they consider essential too. Consider that media relationships are the brand relationships you covet, and thus, the onus is on you to create the informed, unbiased, interactive content – with input from independent influencers – that media will want to provide to readers.
    4. Read their quarterly and annual reports. I don’t care how you feel about 30 pages of pie charts and long-winded mission statements. These reports not only deliver much of the transparency that millennials and entrepreneurs crave, they give you an immediate idea about where the brand is expected to go, and how it plans to fit in customers’ ecosystems, now and in the future. You’re not looking for a firework. You’re looking for a satellite.

    Successful brand partnerships are now a critical part of strategic exposure and long-term business growth. They don’t just burgeon one-off ideas – they establish positive associations, pool resources and allow brands to continuously learn from each other. If you’re looking to get your business off the ground, make sure at least one member of your team is dedicated to exploring partnerships, not just investors, with great potential. Too short on time? Here’s a partnership to kick things off.

    Vanessa Boynton

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  • Enterprising Thoughts on Marketing

    Earlier this week, I led a workshop on marketing for a group of entrepreneurs from Boston’s North Shore at Salem State University’s Enterprise Center.

    Its always great to get out and interact with new people, particularly those who have taken the leap to chase their entrepreneurial dreams and start a business.  Having spent most of the past six years running or co-running my own small business before joining Matter, I looked forward to sharing my personal marketing experiences from my own business and some SMB client experiences, and not just talk about the theoretical aspects. (more…)

    Matter

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