Quotes are an essential part of thought leadership. You’ll find a PR agency may use them as a stand-alone asset or in a press release as valuable collateral to provide unique insight that can push the envelope more so than contributed content. They’re also great support to thought-leadership initiatives by helping to build credibility for individual spokespeople.
That said, there’s an art to creating a strong quote that earns media interest. We typically find quotes spokespeople draft themselves are either too promotional or too timid – basically reading as vanilla.
Here are a few examples of quotes that push the envelope on behalf of our clients.
“Whilst social media was the cool club we all wanted to be in ten years ago, the original promise of some of those platforms to connect the world and create a better society haven’t materialized in the way we had envisioned. Facebook turned into just another way to bombard consumers with ads, often eerily personalized due to data practices that have now come under pressure from privacy regulators and civil rights groups….We believe that social media networks, with news feeds powered by algorithms that consumers don’t fully understand, have contributed to the polarization of society. Furthermore the failure of Facebook in particular to address fake news, hate speech and online bullying have further created an unhealthy environment, exacerbated by the dopamine fueling social validation that helps drive engagement that research has shown to have consequences for mental health. The lack of action addressing these issues has made it an easy decision for us to halt our ad spend with Facebook, joining many of our customers including Vans, Starbucks and The North Face. We continue to encourage marketers to shift dollars away from social advertising to initiatives that foster direct customer relationships such as loyalty programs.” – Richard Jones, CMO of Cheetah Digital
“This funding round is a testament to the continued belief of our investors in the future of LogicGate and what we’re building. ,” said Matt Kunkel, LogicGate’s CEO. “Combined with Emily Heath’s addition to the board, the investment underscores the fact that the market is ready for a flexible GRC solution that helps risk, compliance and security professionals make strategic, informed choices every day.” – Matt Kunkel, CEO of LogicGate
“Atlassian’s acquisition of Halp is yet another proof point cloud giants are recognizing the importance of taking a conversational approach to getting work done, highlighting the importance of a conversational user interface. However, Halp does nothing more than change the location where service agents are addressing help tickets. There’s nothing about the approach that Shifts Left. To truly take a transformative approach to addressing helpdesk tickets, actually reducing the number of tickets a live agent has to troubleshoot, organizations need to combine a conversational user interface with AI. AI can answer questions ranging from a company’s location to pricing information about its product without having to involve the support team at all. Furthermore, the more questions and answers in its knowledge base, and the more automations the AI is capable of executing, the more time AI can save human representatives, creating even more ROI. Without true AI, the technology is just a shiny veneer.” – David Karandish, CEO of Capacity
What makes these three quotes stand out? They’re not vanilla – they’re hot and spicy. Here’s what I mean by that.
They say something
We have a running joke in the office about common cliche quotes. After all, how many times have you read about a CEO being “humbled and honored” to receive an award? Or “thrilled” to announce their Series A round? These types of quotes are obvious assumptions anyone reading a piece of news could make. Of course anyone receiving an award feels honored and humbled. Of course a CEO who recently secured funding is thrilled. Avoid these generalizations and look for unique ideas instead. For example, Matt’s quote affirms LogicGate’s product-market fit.
They move the conversation forward
What’s the purpose of a quote if it’s just a reiteration of fact? A great quote always answers the “So what?” of any topic, providing industry insight that might not be found anywhere else. Let’s look at a section of David’s quote about Atlassian’s acquisition of Halp.
“Halp does nothing more than change the location where service agents are addressing help tickets. There’s nothing about the approach that Shifts Left. To truly take a transformative approach to addressing helpdesk tickets, actually reducing the number of tickets a live agent has to troubleshoot, organizations need to combine a conversational user interface with AI.”
While Atlassian’s acquisition of Halp was widely publicized because of Atlassian’s big name, David’s commentary explains why the acquisition didn’t actually promise a greater user experience or a better product. It’s an industry-specific insight others weren’t offering, which made David stand out.
They provide insight not being shared elsewhere
Take a look at this section from Richard’s quote above: “Furthermore the failure of Facebook in particular to address fake news, hate speech and online bullying have further created an unhealthy environment, exacerbated by the dopamine fueling social validation that helps drive engagement that research has shown to have consequences for mental health.”
The fact that the CEO of a martech company made this statement is unique because social media is part of the marketing mix and you’d expect he would preach that it needs to remain so. But, Richard’s contrarian view was unique to that of other martech providers, making him stand out.
Each of the components listed above is essential to securing media placement for a quote because they’re among the hardest types of coverage to generate. In our analysis of the top 25 of the SaaS 1000, just 2.28% percent of all coverage was quotes. Though hard to garner coverage for, it’s not impossible.
And, that’s what your SaaS PR agency is for – to help you create content that pushes the boundaries. For more information about how BLASTmedia can help your organization create hot and spicy quotes, contact Lindsey Groepper.
