How to take your digital PR to the next level with content hubs
How we successfully bring expertise to the market for technology expert Axians
As a first step, we have developed a “post-PR” communication strategy for the group of companies that formulates these and other objectives. This includes, for example, the integration of technology partner communication, demonstrable tracking based on a database and the training of in-house experts for the social media world (primarily LinkedIn) in order to position them there as experts.
To achieve these goals in the best possible way, we agreed to create an Axians-branded magazine based on data, equipped with strong tracking and marketing automation and with a strong visual focus on the know-how of the experts and the associated ambassadors. "Digital Chiefs ” was born. This now had to be networked with in-house topics and a coordinated PR plan. In addition, guidelines for expert and news articles had to be defined, a social media strategy with associated KPIs (key performance indicators) had to be set up and a certain amount of native advertising had to be integrated into the magazine.
This means that the magazine is supported in part by native advertising, social media campaigns and also by SEO measures that are carried out every month. However, this was only a supplementary part. The main function takes place via the survey of experts who have their own profiles on the Content Hub and distribute the messages and articles on the social web in their own interest as social ambassadors.
The visual appearance, with its own fonts and appealing design, also makes it possible to keep readers in the magazine for a long time via the so-called halo effect and to guarantee excellent retention times. But what does this mean? The halo effect means that PR messages are most effective when they appear in an appealing environment.
All best practices inspire with great results
The magazine's results are impressive. The experts are becoming increasingly well-known in the market as thought leaders in their subject area. More and more employees want to position themselves there and have a source for corporate communications. The first hires have also already been found who work at Axians and have been inspired by articles on the corporate vision.
As an agency, we have placed numerous other best practices for such corporate magazines on the market. It is crucial to find the right strategy. A magazine does not necessarily have to be an expert-based magazine. It can be thematically closer to a brand, it can be purely related to a product area or it can be created solely to attract new customers, for example.
It is important to define the right strategy together with the corporate communications management, to focus on realistic goals (not to proceed according to the waterfall principle, but according to agile tactics) and to provide such a hub with an appropriate technological database. Even more important, however, is the opportunity to recognize that such a hub, when set up correctly, can save corporate communications significant amounts of money if it is integrated into corporate communications rather than being a separate island project.
In such a case, a content hub proves to be a crucial building block that brings together the topics of PR, digital agility, employee ambassadors and data efficiency. Other examples of such hubs are metaMinds, Digital.Now, Mittelstand Heute and cancom.info, all of which are operated by well-known companies on the market.
You can find more information on this topic here. We will also be represented as an agency at the 2022 Communications Congress in Berlin in September. There we will go into more detail on the topic of “Content Hubs”, including in a separate speaking slot.
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