In this episode of the Dear BAMf podcast, we speak with April Conyers, Head of PR at Postmates. April specializes in marketing strategy, online marketing, social media, and media relations. Before joining Postmates, she was Vice President at Brew Media Relations. In this episode, April answers some tough marketing and PR questions from our listeners, including this one about leveraging product data:
Dear BAMf,
I'm at a B2B-focused startup, but thankfully I get the benefit of having a lot of data that relates to how people spend their money online for clothing and retail marketplaces. My data team is also great and will fetch me any data or metrics that I asked. For my question, how best to leverage this data? It's not too interesting to look at how many times a person hovers over a certain sweater before adding it into a shopping cart, and shopping isn't in the"saving the world" category. So I'm hard pressed to think of what data would be compelling, any ideas?
Listen now to hear how April advises this writer to move forward.
Postmates is so well known that people use it as a verb. April graciously gives her explanation of the widespread business saying, "Postmates is a on demand delivery platform. Meaning we can bring you just about anything, whether it's prepared food or retail items, convenience items, drugstore items; you need it, we can bring it." When asked of the most unique delivery she has heard of, April doesn't hesitate to tell Beck about the time someone delivered champagne and a pregnancy test.
April shares her pride in handling the pandemic pivot with grace, saying, "This whole year has been a wild ride and I think I'm most proud of being able to meet the moment." April explains how Postmates had to stop all initial plans and adjust towards the new normal. This came in the form of supporting local restaurants, BLM, and a host logistical pivots that made 2020 different than any year prior.
Niching down is April's first word of advice for telling her favorite stories. She says, "If you're looking to place a story, you can chose that one reporter who is going to be the person that you target for this. Gone are the days where you put out an announcement and you blanket 15 publications." Dedicate yourself to one story at a time. For more tips on telling better stories read, "5 Tips for Telling Better Marketing Stories in 2021".
April reminds the listener to get specific with data saying, "Break it down based on just how people interact with your shopping site." April looks at specific trends, like how many items people put in their cart to understand the customer experience on the website. She encourages the listener to make a connection to the shopping experience and current events saying, "Data is undervalued. If you can tie data to a current trend, that's powerful."
We are all BAMfs (badass motherf*ckers) according to us, but sometimes even BAMfs need help. Dear BAMf is an advice column-style podcast that lets you anonymously hit us with your hardest marketing and PR questions hosted by Founder & CEO of BAM Communications, Beck Bamberger.
Have a difficult PR or marketing situation you can't figure out? Drop us a line at Dear BAMf. Your submission will be entirely anonymous.
Catch our next episode on Monday, April 19 and subscribe to Dear BAMf on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.