Fractional Consultants Are The Continuing Education Tool Your Brand Needs
07.09.24 I Travis Paul Martin
I’ve long admired industries and professions that have continuing education built into the growth of someone's career. Lawyers need to complete continuing education classes to maintain their bar membership; therapists and financial advisors are no different. Even hair stylists attend hair shows throughout their careers to obtain new certifications and learn about new products and techniques.
But what if you’re in an industry where that’s not the norm? Or if the pace is so fast that you just put your nose to the ground and focus on the work at hand without thinking about what else is out there or if there is a different—or new—way to do something? At the beginning of a recent Harvard Business Review article titled “The Art of Asking Smarter Questions,” the authors stated that this is a key roadblock to learning, specifically as it relates to advances in AI. When you are in a job that doesn’t require new learnings and certifications, they become a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have.
In the world of consumer public relations, one of the biggest shifts over the last five years is the advancement of affiliate PR. The lines between public relations and marketing are blurred.
Affiliate, a function that used to sit on the performance marketing side, is now an integral part in how digital publishers create revenue through their organic content. In turn it became an integral part in how brands and their consumer PR teams work and pitch their clients. Having a deep understanding of how this works brings incredible value into what PR teams can do for their brands. And it’s just a piece of the puzzle, because you still need traditional PR, influencer activations, in person events—the list goes on. The addition of affiliate to the PR mix can feel daunting and strange to even the most seasoned PR professional. It’s a new language to learn, and it changes constantly. I was fortunate to learn a lot about affiliate at my last agency job, but becoming a consultant has afforded me the opportunities to learn and grow my skill set far outside the confines of traditional scopes for clients.
At the beginning of my consulting journey I joined WE ARE THE BOARD , a vibrant community of high-level experts across beauty, fashion, technology, and retail. Part of what I love the most about WE ARE THE BOARD is that I am surrounded by incredible, high-level consultants who leverage their decades of experience in their respective fields AND their innate sense of curiosity to learn more to bring even more value to their clients.
Consultants are not just hired for what’s already on our resume, but also for the potential and willingness and capacity to learn more on behalf of our clients.
AI is a great example—a new technology that touches so many different areas and that can bring value to them. WE ARE THE BOARD has consultants across E-Comm and Retail, Marketing, Operations, Finance, and more, who have all been spending the time learning the in’s and out’s of AI and how it applies to their disciplines. They are experts who can leverage this new learning not only for their benefit but also the client’s benefit by giving them hands-on experience with how AI can be impactful in their field. Through consulting and learning the in’s and out’s of Affiliate PR I am constantly introduced to new platforms like Levanta —a platform that focuses on Affiliate PR for brands selling on Amazon—and Linkby—a performance option leveraging editorial CPC campaigns. Both of these platforms can be a significant piece of the puzzle when developing a brand's consumer PR strategy and it’s the opportunity to introduce brands to new platforms like these and discuss how they might fit into the current matrix of their strategies that make being a consultant so exciting.
Affiliate PR and AI are just two examples of areas that have fundamentally changed certain categories and how I and my colleagues at WE ARE THE BOARD are not just doing great work for our clients but are bringing in experience and education to teams that may not have gone out and found it on their own.
WE ARE THE BOARD connects brands with curated dream teams of highly vetted expert talent to accelerate growth and transform businesses. To learn more about THE BOARD you can reach out to April Uchitel, and if you or a brand you’re working with have questions about affiliate PR, you can book OFFICE HOURS with me!
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