Brand & Product Positioning. Content Strategy. Program Management.
PressReader
When PressReader was founded more than two decades ago, it provided hotels, libraries, and cruise ships with the software to print same-day newspapers on-site. The goal? Trim distribution delays and carbon footprints. The technology company has evolved dramatically since then but its objectives remain the same.
Today its digital newsstand offers a single point of access to over 7,000 newspapers, magazines, and eBooks. In addition to a B2C business model, PressReader partners with leaders across education and travel sectors, such as Marriott and Four Seasons, Cathay Pacific and British Airways, and the New York Public Library offering sponsored reading access to their end customers and patrons.
Articulating a new brand voice
PressReader’s marketing team first reached out in the midst of a brand refresh. While their Creative Lab was revisiting PressReader’s visual identity, the team realized they needed help identifying and activating a brand voice to match.
Through a series of workshops with stakeholders from across the marketing, product, and sales orgs we landed on the desired path forward for how PressReader sounds. I developed an in-depth brand book which outlines why the brand communicates the way it does; how to bring that to life across various formats, channels, and even on-page elements; and what else the team needed to know when they were writing on behalf of PressReader.
The new brand book includes visual queues, checklists, copy hierarchies, and more to take as much subjectivity out of things as possible—and make more space for creativity.
The new PressReader voice is clear, creative, calm, and confident.
A SWOT analysis helped to identify where PressReader could stand out in the competitive landscape.
Haley was instrumental in articulating PressReader’s new brand voice and tone. Through collaborative workshops, surveying, and competitive analysis, she aligned our brand platform across PressReader’s umbrella companies and rolled out actionable tools to bring it to life.
Not only is Haley a strategy streamliner, but she’s also incredible to work with—it’s been a pleasure!
— Sandy Young, Brand Manager, PressReader
Establishing an inbound foundation
With a refreshed brand voice in place, PressReader was in the perfect position to increase just how often they communicate with their B2B audiences. The team decided to test inbound marketing, starting with their library vertical. As with most industries, libraries had undergone dramatic digital transformation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic—everything from how their patrons checked out books to how their leadership teams researched new technology vendors had moved online.
PressReader knew they needed to connect with librarians through high-value content in order to build awareness with these customers and earn their trust. By assessing competitors in the space, SEO opportunities and FAQs, as well as PressReader’s own content performance to date, I built a strategic six-month calendar spanning topics that are critical to librarians including sustainable development, community engagement, and media literacy.
Vertical-specific content speaks to decision makers across industries.
Results that speak for themselves
Bringing on a team of contract writers, I was able to scale PressReader’s new content marketing program, developing approximately eight new assets per month which led to:
505% increase in organic traffic to the blog within 1 month and a 957% increase within the first quarter
586% increase in leads resulting from blog visits within 1 month
Over $770,000 in closed sales via inbound within first 6 months of program launch
3,000+ pageviews on a single top-performing article within 3 months of publication
Thanks to the immediate success seen in the libraries sector, PressReader extended their inbound marketing strategy across all B2B verticals, as well as their B2C and partnership business streams.