Frequently asked questions
(and the answers)
Contents
FAQ: Our services
What pricing model do you use?
That depends entirely on your requirements. For some clients we use a fixed retainer, others work on a project basis. A retainer model is generally more appropriate when it is not clear in advance exactly what work will take place when. A project model is suitable for clearly defined jobs. We determine the costs in advance and agree on what exactly we will deliver in return. This avoids surprises.
In all cases, we keep an accurate record of the hours we work and you receive a detailed overview every month if you wish. This way you can see exactly how the budget was spent.
How many contacts will I be dealing with?
We use a fixed contact person for each customer. This person is also the project manager on our side. It is very convenient. Of course, it is possible that in case of heavy workload or failure, colleagues will stand in for each other. This way we guarantee a good continuity of our services.
What is your visiting address?
Since the corona pandemic, we are a completely "remote first" company. This means that we do not have fixed workplaces and/or a visiting address. For in-person meetings, we agree in advance how and where they will take place.
What are the costs for a blog/press release/white paper/...?
We do not use fixed prices. Every assignment is different. For example, a blog or white paper may require an interview beforehand, while in other cases desk research may suffice. Also, a 600-word blog obviously requires less work than a 2000-word one. That is why we are happy to provide a tailor-made quote for assignments.
What exactly are you measuring? How can I calculate my ROI?
For improving our own services
Our measurement tools give us a basis for determining whether a campaign or strategy is working. With these insights, we can make adjustments along the way.Measuring performance
Of course, as a client, you also want to know what it all adds up to. That's why we can draw up extensive periodic reports of our efforts. These contain exactly the KPIs that are important to you.
How do you differ from other agencies?
We can safely say that we are different from many of our competitors. We often approach things just a little differently than they do. These are our main distinguishing features:
Seniority
Veel bureaus werken met junioren. Wij niet, en dat houden we graag zo. Zo hebben al onze contentspecialisten een journalistieke achtergrond met een ruimte kennis van IT-markt. Ook onze projectmanagers en pr-adviseurs hebben ruimschoots hun sporen
verdiend in de branche.
Daarbij beschikken we ook over veel technische kennis, bijvoorbeeld op het gebied van SEO. Zo kunnen we ook de ‘missing link’ zijn tussen marketing en webdevelopment.
Klein praktijkvoorbeeldje? Veel pr-bureaus sturen persberichten uit en/of publiceren blogs, maar optimaliseren deze niet of nauwelijks voor SEO. Wij kunnen met slimme linkbuildingtechnieken zorgen voor meer direct traffic en organisch zoekverkeer, zodat content ook echt gelezen wordt en een positief effect heeft op de zichtbaarheid van je bedrijf.
Focus on creativity
We believe that in a world where content is abundant, you only stand out with original angles. That is why we are always looking for original angles, new connections, sharp opinions and interesting stories for our content production.
Internal processes
Finally, we have our internal processes in place to deliver quality. For example, we strictly apply the "four eyes" principle: all of our work has been checked by at least one colleague.
Flexibility
Our customer's needs are our focus. That's why you won't find any rigid subscription models with us, for example. We adopt a flexible attitude: the customer's request is the guiding principle for our services.
Open dialogue
This flexibility does not mean that we say 'yes and amen' to everything. If we think we can do better, or if we disagree with something, we are honest about it. We are not afraid to disagree. But we are also not afraid to admit when we are wrong. At the end of the day, what counts for us is quality, not being right.
FAQ: Pr
What is PR?
What is covered by public relations?
Why should you use public relations?
IT organizations mostly offer software and services. That's pretty hard to sell, because you can't show something tangible. First of all, this means that your target group must know you. After all, people have to know your brand to admire your products and services. Secondly, you must have a reliable image. You can shout out loud that you sell fantastic solutions, but that does not mean that your target group will believe you. In fact, the Dutch don't believe that at all. But if journalists write about you, it suddenly becomes a completely different story. Because they are seen as more objective. And you can use that to generate awareness and steer your image in a smart way.
What's the difference between pr and marketing?
Public relations is purely focused on profiling a company's image. Marketing is used to increase sales. So it should be clear: if you combine public relations with marketing, you're sitting on a goldmine.
Nice to know: public relations is a lot cheaper than marketing.
In what ways can you use public relations?
- Sending a press release
- Supply a ready-made article
- Supply a blog.
- Through a case study, also called a customer reference article.
- Pitching journalists. That is, you try to interest them in an interview.
- Organizing a press event. This can be done both online and offline.
What are the benefits of sending out press releases?
We beginnen met iets wat je zal aanspreken: de relatief lage kosten. Bij een goede tekst kun je ervan uitgaan dat meerdere media je bericht publiceren. Daarmee krijg je dus veel zichtbaarheid voor een kleine prijs.
For the SEO experts: sending out a press release can also be a good move for search engine optimization. When organizations go online to search for a solution, you can be found quickly through IT or business media. However, it doesn't help to get your website to a higher spot in the search engines. For that, link building is important. And publishers may want to include the link to your homepage, but subpages are excluded from free publicity (with a few exceptions).
What are the disadvantages of sending out press releases?
Are you a relatively unknown company? Then the chances are pretty slim that journalists will pick up your press release - unless you really have something spectacular to report. And version 3.2.1 of your product is not (sorry, don't shoot the messenger). Besides, journalists obviously don't really get to know your organization. If you receive a lot of press releases in one day, little of the news you have to bring will stick in their minds. Especially since they don't receive the news exclusively, as a press release is widely distributed.
Also know that with press releases, you'll often get fairly small news articles as a result. So do you want your target audience to be well informed about the challenges you can solve for them? Then a press release is not the right tool.
How do you write a good press release?
Journalists are inundated with press releases every day. For good reason, they scan most of those releases cursorily. They don't read the messages from front to back - unless they are stimulated at the beginning to read on. Therefore, make sure in the first instance that you have real news to offer and that the press release is the right vehicle for this. After all, you don't want to bother them with useless news.
Then you come up with a catchy headline and introduction. If that part goes wrong, your press release will quickly end up in the virtual wastebasket. Avoid especially words like "leading supplier" and "unique solution". Journalists get really annoyed by this kind of texts.
A press release is relatively short and to the point (exceptions are possible). Use a logical structure. First report the core news and then elaborate on peripheral issues. A memory aid for this is to keep the 5W's and 1H in mind: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How?
Finally, we give you the tip to use headings. Because: it brings structure to a text and is good for SEO. Are you looking for more tips for writing a press release? Let us know and we will help you on your way.
What are the benefits of submitting articles for free?
In een artikel kun je dieper op de inhoud ingaan dan bij een persbericht. Het grote verschil met persberichten is dat je niet per definitie een groot of erg bekend bedrijf hoeft te zijn. Zolang je maar een interessant verhaal te vertellen hebt wat er toe doet voor de doelgroep van de publicatie.
What are the disadvantages of submitting articles for free?
Not all media accept articles for free. It's also logical that you have to pay for it, because a publisher has to make a living. And that is quite difficult in an advertising market that is dominated by the Google's and Facebook's of this world.
As with a press release, a journalist doesn't really get to know your company if you provide an article. With an interview, he or she will learn much more about your company and that information will stick longer.
In terms of content, an article should be editorially drafted. So it is not about what kind of IT company you are and what kind of IT products or services you offer. It is about, for example, tips you can offer readers, a vision or opinion you want to showcase or how companies deal with their challenges and how they solve them (reference article).
What are paid and earned media in the public relations world?
Many people think of PR in terms of free publicity that you obtain by, for example, journalists writing about you. The biggest advantage of this is that if journalists write positively about you, this is many times stronger than advertising. However, this is only a small part of your public relations. Getting likes, shares, comments and retweets are also possibilities to increase the attention for your company or brand.
Paying for media publications has become increasingly popular within the public relations world in recent years. Unfortunately, the publication fees for most business media are high. However, that is not the case for IT titles. For an often reasonable price, you can have your editorial published. And the best part: you can include several links to subpages of your own website. This means that you can immediately work on your link building, so that your website will be found better in search engines.
Mind you: we are talking about media articles here, but paid media can just as easily include Google Adwords, media banners or Linkedin ads, among others.
Countless PR agencies will tell you not to choose paid media. Logical, because they earn much less from it. At Co-Workx we are big fans of this way of working. We want our clients to be found well in search engines and we want publishers to have their share too.
What are the benefits of case studies?
De IT-pers publiceert content die organisaties moet helpen bij al hun IT-dilemma’s. En hoe kun je ze beter helpen dan te schrijven over hoe andere organisaties hun uitdagingen hebben opgelost?! Een case study, ook wel referentieartikel genoemd, kan dus op de nodige aandacht rekenen van de pers en hun lezers. Het is een mooie manier om jezelf te profileren en te laten zien wat je in huis hebt. Het kan zelfs als een magneet voor nieuwe klanten werken.
What is the biggest drawback of case studies?
Some IT journalists occasionally call companies they have written a reference story about. Not every project turns out to be equally successfully in the end. As you probably already know, negative news scores significantly better than positive news. So you get the idea: when a customer is not so satisfied after all, they sometimes go crazy on a journalist. All positive PR is thus converted into negative PR.
What is the biggest advantage of arranging interviews?
If you are a journalist and receive press releases every day, at some point everything starts to look very similar. But nice, interesting interviews with spokespersons of companies do stick. And if it turns out to be a strong spokesperson, they will call him/her more often to ask about his/her opinion on a specific subject. This in turn generates free publicity.
What is the biggest disadvantage of arranging interviews?
Sometimes a spokesperson turns out not to have a good story. Journalists remember these situations better than if they did have a good conversation. So what happens next time you have really interesting news? Exactly, then journalists are more likely to slam the door on you. They are then also less likely to pick up your press releases.
And oh yes, also important to mention: not every interview leads to a publication. That means you put a lot of time into it and don't get any results out of it.
What does pr cost?
Dat is een lastig te beantwoorden vraag. Een pr-bureau kan heel duur zijn. Ze zitten bijvoorbeeld in een fancy kantoor of maken deel uit van een internationaal concern dat hoge uurtarieven hanteert om zoveel mogelijk marge te maken.
Natuurlijk zijn er ook pr-bureaus die normale tarieven hanteren. Maar omdat de IT-markt geen hele eenvoudige sector is, liggen kundige pr-adviseurs niet voor het grijpen. Dat maakt dat pr voor de IT-branche duurder is dan voor bijvoorbeeld de modebranche.
By the way, don't focus too much on the hourly rates themselves, but ask especially how much time an agency expects to spend on PR activities such as writing a press release or article or pitching interviews.
Om even een grove schatting te geven: voor circa 2.500 euro per maand, kun je al de nodige resultaten behalen met pr-activiteiten.
FAQ: Lead generation
What is email marketing?
Email flow
Een goede e-mailmailflow bestaat vaak uit een opeenvolgende reeks van verstuurde mailings, in een strategische volgorde en met een specifieke opbouw. We noemen dat ook wel een ‘e-mailflow’. Een veelgebruikte strategie voor zo’n flow is het volgen van een opbouw die (grofweg) overeenkomst met een typische customer journey. In een blog hebben we enkele tips voor een goede e-mailflow op een rij gezet.Marketing automation
Een goede e-mailflow is vaak niet statisch. Via marketing automation voeg je de nodige intelligentie toe en speel je in op interesse bij individuele ontvangers. Denk daarbij aan het versturen van een mailing naar iedereen die een eerdere mailing niet of juist wel geopend heeft, of op bepaalde links in de mailing heeft geklikt. Zo’n aanpak vergroot de kans dat je doelgroep mailings ontvangt die voor hem of haar relevant zijn en passen bij de fase van zijn of haar customer journey. Ook kan zo’n e-mailflow zelf onderdeel zijn van een grootschaligere marketing automation-campagne. Denk aan de bezoeker die zijn of haar e-mailadres heeft achtergelaten in ruil voor bijvoorbeeld een whitepaper of e-book, en vervolgens mailings ontvangen die het specifieke onderwerp verder uitdiepen.FAQ: Content marketing
What is content marketing?
What's a good example of content marketing?
What are the benefits of content marketing?
Why would a company choose your organization if they have never heard of you? And can hardly find any information about you? It is therefore crucial that your target group gets to know you. This is possible with content, you generate awareness with this.
You want to connect with your target audience. They should start to see you as a reliable source of valuable information. In other words: show with content marketing that you are an authority in your field.
Why is trust so important? Very simple: it makes it easier to convert a prospect into a lead. And convert a lead into a customer more easily. But content marketing also helps to retain existing customers. With a good content marketing strategy, prospects become customers, and customers become ambassadors.
Is content marketing suitable for IT companies?
What content types are there?
You can use many different forms of content to spread your message. Think of customer stories, white papers, web pages, (long copy) articles, newsletters, brochures and blogs. Or infographics, videos, e-books, magazines, social media posts and podcasts.
What type of content best suits your target audience? That again depends on your objectives and target group. If you are not sure of your case, let an expert inform you. Because it would be a shame if you spend a lot of money on content that ultimately doesn't catch on.
What should I pay attention to when creating content?
Know what's going on within your target audience. One way to find out is to see what frequently asked questions are on Google. Also know that some content inserts are very popular. Think of the 5 tips, the 7 best practices or the 10 best examples.
But… do you want to do exactly the same as your competitors? Or do you want your content to stand out? Because sometimes it is truly necessary to show your unique self.
How do you choose topics for your content?
Let's repeat it again: by knowing your target audience. Our advice is to pick one topic and create multiple pieces of content for it. After all, it makes no sense to go from one piece of content to another without recycling some of the existing material. So turn it into sort of a campaign and adjust your other marketing activities to this as well. Because repetition ensures that your target group will actually believe your message.
Can you generate leads with content marketing?
Absolutely! Some content is more suitable for creating awareness, but others act as a magnet to generate leads. We repeat it again: the condition for this is that you know your target group well and that you know how to develop distinctive content. Also make sure that the content is offered to your target audience in multiple ways and through the right channels.
What are the right and best channels for distributing content?
The answer to this question, and you can feel it coming, is not that simple. Because again: it depends on your objective and target group.
We can give an example. You can of course place a blog on your website and promote it via a newsletter and your social media channels. But you also want it to be found through search engines. That is why you will always have to write the text with the SEO rules in mind.
Because writing a blog sometimes involves blood, sweat and tears, you naturally want to get the most out of it. So consider other options as well. Such as posting a rewritten version of the blog in the media through free publicity or paid options.
In this way you choose paid media (you pay for the placement), earned media (you earn the placement) and owned media (which you manage completely yourself).
How much content do you need to develop?
Well, this is another question that doesn't have an unequivocal answer. It really depends on the business you are in and the size of your company. We can tell you that some continuity in the content is important. But we think it's actually more important that you put a lot of energy into the distribution of content than into the amount. Because: if no one reads your content, it is of little use to you.
How do you measure the results of content marketing?
It's pretty easy to find out how many people have read/heard/seen the content. Think of website traffic or figures such as the open rate and CTR that you can generate from your mailing or marketing automation tool.
You can also see how often a social media post has been shared or liked. In the online media you can request the figures from publishers, collect them via specific clipping services or measure yourself with free tools such as Hypestat.
However, it is more difficult to determine how your image has changed because of content marketing or how much more exposure you have built. To find out, you need to do research. And then we are suddenly talking about completely different amounts. It's up to you to decide if you think it's worth it.
Why is content marketing for B2B complex?
Why is content marketing difficult for IT companies?
Not everyone involved in the purchase of IT solutions has a technical background. Is your content too complicated? Then a business target group will definitely drop out. After all, they want to know how a solution can help solve their business challenges. Then you should not get bogged down in technical details.
Is the content too general? Then the seasoned IT person thinks you don't take him/her seriously. They do want to know everything about bits & bytes. So you will have to know exactly who you are targeting and what their level of knowledge is.
How important is SEO for content marketing?
If you want your content to be found organically by search engines, you will need to develop the content with search engine optimization rules in mind. You then have to take into account, among other things, the title of your article, the subheadings, multimedia elements, the questions that the target group has about the subject in question – because you have to tailor the content to that – and provide both internal and external links. This advice is rather short-sighted, because SEO is quite complex.
FAQ: SEO
What's SEO?
What's the benefit of SEO?
SEO ensures good position in the search engines on relevant search queries. Check. But: what does that actually get you? The answer: a continuous flow of relevant visitors to your website and/or your content!
With SEO you create a positive visibility for your company, your website and/or a specific landing page with your target group. With products and solutions that are relevant to your target group, or with answers to pressing questions and help with challenges. Oh, and a nice bonus: search query research gives you a clearer picture of the needs and challenges of your target group.
What opportunities does SEO provide for IT companies?
The IT sector is par excellence an industry that deals with complex issues. The lightning-fast technological developments make a lot possible, but also raise questions. Which solutions are suitable for my situation? Or more scary: what is the best firewall for the SME? Or more broadly: how do I get business value from the enormous amount of data my company has at its disposal? What is the use of IoT for my company?
The challenges affect not only technology, but also business. Especially now that services are digitizing at a breakneck pace.
SEO is the connection between all these challenges and the answers and solutions that your organization can offer. It provides insight into what your target audience is struggling with, and what questions they have. It also ensures that this same target group knows how to find you if you have the right answers and solutions.
Content is a powerful tool for providing answers. Sometimes it is a technical white paper about an IT solution, other times a case story or an animated explanation. With SEO you ensure that your content reaches the right target group and the right people recognize you as an authority in the market. SEO also ensures a constant flow of visitors to your website and your content. Isn't that great?
What is the advantage of SEO over SEA?
SEA stands for Search Engine Advertizing, or advertising within search engines. With SEA you pay for a place in the search engines. A place that is clearly different from the 'organic' search results. Many visitors recognize the paid spot as an advertisement, and that makes it less valuable.
Unlike SEA, SEO aims to get a good spot in a "natural" way, without buying ad space to do so. This offers a number of advantages:
Long-lasting results
Unlike SEA, you can achieve long-term results with a relatively small SEO effort. While an SEA campaign may attract visitors, each visitor costs money. A place in the organic search results through SEO provides a 'free' stream of visitors. One that, moreover, can persist for years, long after your SEO effort is complete.
Beneficial ROI
This one is related to the previous point. Because investments in SEO can pay off over a long period of time, the ROI is generally favorable.
Better insight into your target group
Through keyword research, you gain insight into the problems and issues that your target audience is struggling with. This is not only beneficial from a marketing perspective, but can also provide new insights that will improve your products or services.
Note: SEA is not "worse" than SEO. The power of SEA is that you can attract visitors in a relatively short time on a campaign basis to, for example, a landing page. These two disciplines are therefore a good complement to each other.
What tools do you employ for SEO?
Content, content, content
Content is the foundation of everything we do. This is no different for SEO: content marketing is the most important 'driver' of our SEO efforts. Both quality content on your own website and on blogs and third-party sites can improve your company's position in search results. We are therefore happy to work with both. Thanks to clever tricks, we also link the content on your own website to the content in the media wherever possible. We also know exactly what content needs to be and optimize it where possible. Thay way, the content scores high in relevant search queries.Technical optimizations
Good website technology provides a solid foundation for good SEO. We can examine the entire website for points of improvement and where necessary - in consultation with web developers - implement (or have implemented) improvements. We can also ensure a good internal link structure, so that the right pages can be found easily.Linkbuilding
Links are still one of the most powerful quality signals for search engines. They determine the value of your content and web pages to a large extent by the quantity and quality of the referring links. Those links don't come naturally. Building and maintaining a powerful link profile takes a long time. We can help you with that or even take it off your hands completely.
Is SEO a costly discipline?
I already have a good position in search engines. Does SEO still make sense?
Your position in Google is constantly changing. Not only does the algorithm change regularly, but also your competition. SEO is therefore not a one-time activity, but an ongoing process. Even from a good starting position it is important to continue working on good positions in search engines on relevant search queries.
How? For example, by continuously spotting new promising keywords. Or by further optimizing good scoring content. By ensuring that the website remains technically up to date. And by developing new content that is optimized for both visitors and search engines.
Do you give guarantees on positions in search results?
I regularly get offers from vague individuals and companies for links and placements on blog sites. What should I do with these?
How do you provide link building?
We have several methods for this. For example, we can strategically incorporate links to pages in blogs and/or press releases. We can also generate links through guest blogs in the media. Now, it is true that editorial websites usually do not allow links to commercially oriented web pages.
This is often possible through paid media placements. However, we are extremely careful in this regard. We make sure that the placement does not have a spammy character, because that can cause a penalty in the search engines. In the end, paying for backlinks is an activity that search engines discourage. We also assess the media via special tools on authority, value for SEO in general and added value for the total backlink profile. This also allows us to determine whether the placement is valuable and the amount requested is realistic.