These are my slides from the June 2013 Content Strategy Lightning Talk hosted by the London Content Strategy Meetup group. My presentation looks at the data goldmine within most businesses, and how two small businesses utilised this (with my help) to generate great research and insights that allowed them to create powerful PR, lead generation and content marketing initiatives. Hope they are of interest, and further details about one of the campaigns is at http://www.kelsopr.com/pr-case-studies-1. In the near future I will turn them into slideshow with an audio voice-over as they may not be hugely useful to non-attendees without this!

1. Tim Prizeman
Kelso Consulting
PR & thought leadership
consultants
The data goldmine
hidden in your
business

2. Thought leadership ?
Opinion is cheap – facts are expensive !
… and much of it is
as dubious as this
claim I found on the
internet !

3. Data gathering

4. The good news…. It’s not just them !

5. It’s not just them …. It is you!
• Through the website
• Through the cash till
• In the IT system
• In the call centre
• In customer and employee surveys
• In recruitment
• Through online payments
• In the reports your people make onsite

6. So how did two small businesses take
advantage of this….
And what are the lessons for your
organisation?

7. • Outsourced Employee expenses
management
• 3 people in 2001, 90 in 2011
• Acquired many FTSE and blue chip clients
• 100,000s of individual users

8. • Outsourced Employee expenses
management
• 3 people in 2001, 90 in 2011
• Acquired many FTSE and blue chip clients
• 100,000s of individual users
Vast amounts of data from whenever someone
entered an expense claim – for them it was a
waste by product

9. Data mined and analysed it to create:

10. Not just “content marketing”
• Main annual lead
generation initiative
• At pitches won on insights
(not service/ software
features)
• High profile press coverage
• Established GlobalExpense
as the market leader (so
always invited to tender) –
despite larger international
competitor

11. • Management consultants
• About 20 people
• Advise larger businesses and councils on
improving employee and manager
performance

12. • Management consultants
• About 20 people
• Advise larger businesses and councils on
improving employee and manager
performance
Had data from client projects going back 15+
years (and had recently consolidated it on
Excel)

13. Data mined and analysed it to create:

14. Outcomes included:
• Two-month campaign
based on thought
leadership report 50+ items
of coverage including front
page of the Daily Telegraph
and Radio 4 interviews.
• Won “Best austerity
marketing campaign” at
Fresh PR Awards.
• Integrated campaign led to
dramatic increase in sales
meetings at councils
14

15. Lessons….
• Most businesses have data lurking in them
(especially cloud and service businesses)
• It is typically free, and it is a hugely
valuable resource
• When you have data it adds a whole new
layer of credibility to you and your
arguments

16. Lessons
• Don’t just present the data – interpret it
• Highlight trends your data illustrates
(identify trends and find the data to confirm
it)
• Mix your data with external sources to
aggregate up “UK PLC figures” for high-
impact PR
• Don’t be too ambitious at the start – aim to
build with future versions

17. Roadblocks

18. When you get opposition remember…..
You have to keep saying to yourself “petty
bureaucracy won’t defeat me” over and over

19. Hope you are inspired to
find the goldmine of data
somewhere in your
organisation
Part 2 – The data
goldmine available
outside of your business

20. Slides available from:
www.kelsopr.com/blog
www.SlideShare.net