Leading Authorities' Marketing Team Wins Two American Business Awards
We are proud to announce that the Leading Authorities’ Marketing team has received two bronze Stevie Awards from The American Business Awards for The Circuit in the category of Best Newsletter and the Speaking Of… podcast in Communications Program of the Year.
It all started when the LAI team received a postcard from the American Business Awards. While most postcards tell harrowing tales of travel from all over the world, this was a call for submissions of the best, freshest, and most creative endeavors undertaken in the last year by businesses everywhere. From there, the LAI Marketing department set off to submit an undeniably exceptional entry packet. We decided to go after two categories specifically to showcase our top marketing efforts in communicating directly with our exceptional clients in the past year. Our podcast, Speaking Of…, was a perfect choice for the "business to business communications program of the year category." It's a great program in which we interview the great talent we're lucky enough to work with. And, our weekly newsletter, The Circuit, fit well into the category of "best electronic newsletter" (obviously). Each Friday, we send out The Circuit, a round up of the biggest and most exciting news featuring our speakers. The content always changes and ranges from motivational to political, highlighting incredible accomplishments and thought-provoking news.
With the categories set, we chose the best of our podcast and newsletter to submit for each category. After months of waiting for a notification, we finally received word that we came in 3rd place in both categories. Our success both as a company and as a department is due to the wonderful keynote speakers who allow us to share their stories with new audiences. From inspirational speakers like Ben Saunders to political analysts Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, we are beyond grateful for their contributions.
Here are a few snippets from our submission packet…..
THE CIRCUIT – BEST NEWSLETTER
Framed as conversations-starters and quick news for an “in-the-know” audience, The Circuit is a weekly newsletter that aggregates the latest news on our speakers from third party sources, such as news outlets and magazines, as well as social media posts. Up until the development of The Circuit, Leading Authorities had strong and aggressive email marketing capabilities, but was lacking a channel that allowed us to talk with customers who booked with us recently, or requested a less-intense marketing experience. Because of the nature of our business (representing some of the world’s top thought-leaders and entrepreneurs), we are inundated every week with news and updates on our talent (think: new job appointments, television appearances, op-eds in leading global publications, book and movie deals, and more). The Circuit married those two challenges to create a new avenue of communication that allows us to share big news and small news in a conversational style and takes the pressure off of us to “sell,” as we already know this audience is loyal to our brand. Now, we are reaching repeat clients with more content that they are consuming in a new frame of mind—“staying on top of the news” or “being in the know.”
Here are a few of our favorite editions of The Circuit:
The Circuit: Pre-Thanksgiving Party Chit Chat
SPEAKING OF… – COMMUNICATIONS OR PR CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR - MARKETING
Since the birth of podcasts in 2004, we have listened to amazing podcast series that cover everything from the drama on the latest episode of The Bachelor to the latest tweet from our POTUS. People who listen to podcasts are given the opportunity to learn about new topics, crises, and trends. The learning extension does not stop on Speaking Of…, A Leading Authorities' Podcast. Our Content Manager, Maddie Glading, and Video Editor, Patrick Fitzsimmons, began brainstorming new ideas in 2017 for new ways to showcase the wide array of speakers we represent, and Speaking Of... was born. The program features episodes with everyone from social advocates and entrepreneurs changing the rules of engagement to individuals creating amazing opportunities for people where none had previously existed.
Our Marketing team thoughtfully curates a list of speakers that we invite to the video and audio studio in our Washington, DC office, and records these podcasts. Available on iTunes, Speaking Of... has garnered favorable reviews from its listeners, such as: “Engaging content with a variety of innovators. Makes for a great listen on my commute.” Each email we send solely dedicated to the podcast reaches an average audience of 15,000 people across all job functions, garnering an average open rate of 8.11% per email. After each email, we post a corresponding blog with a transcript of the podcast as well as more information regarding the subject. This action allows our Sales team to send out the blog post to clients which boosts the page hits to an average of 267 per post.
With a five-star rating for the first five episodes on iTunes, Speaking Of... provides our existing and potential clients a distinct perspective from authorities in a wide breadth of industries.
Listen to these inspirational speakers telling their powerful stories:
Jake Harriman On Rethinking the War On Terror