Week 3: A Conversation with Serena Ehrlich by Kenisha Wiggs-Frantela

By UCLA X469.21 Student Kenisha Wiggs-Frantela

Guest speaker Serena Ehrlich, Director of Product Marketing at Business Wire, loves knowing how content moves on the Internet and what makes people believe and do things.

During our Week 3 class session, Serena shared her insights for amplifying press releases and understanding current changes in the world of content and influencer marketing.

Amplifying Earned PR and News Releases

When planning your brand’s PESO (paid, earned, shared and owned) marketing strategy, paid content distribution should be a part of your tactical marketing mix. Paid distribution allows brands to:

• Enhance a 1:1 relationship by distributing to a broader audience.
• Get their branded messages found on search engines by journalists and consumers.

Content and Influencer Marketing in 2021

“People are looking for a different story. Reporters could care less about product features,” says Serena. In other words, the press release today is not about products or features; it is about how the content affects the consumer. In today’s content marketing world, brands should understand that:

• People want to hear about customers.
• People want to hear how companies are solving customer problems.
• Media consumption has increased, as everyone is tuned into the news.
• You must find the right format and right moment to pitch your story.
• You can no longer pitch a story or content idea based on your timeline.
• Content marketing is about pitching stories based on the cultural movement of the moment.

Lastly, when it comes to working with influencers, companies should think of influencer marketing in buckets. Those buckets can be a consumer strategy or a B2B strategy. Also, include reporters on your influencer list. One benefit of building influencer relationships with reporters is that reporters are not pay for play. Serena advised that there are roughly 33,000 reporters who are out of work, and they are utilizing platforms like Substack to create newsletter content.