Are Your Publicity Clients Prospering?

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PR Clients need to deliver more

I have written several blogs and articles about involving the publicity departments with the marketing departments. Well is finally catching on. But only in few situations, usually when a company cannot meet its sales goals.

publicity incentivesPublic relations firms need to step-up to their pr clients and request meetings with the marketing staff as well as the sales departments. Discussions about how each is handling their departments to increase sales will open conversations to work collectively. Competition is not going to get less, but more intense, no matter your industry.

We are seeing that end users (customers) are expecting more from manufacturers. For example, when you make a major purchase like an automobile, you expect more than the rebates. You may negotiate for free oil changes, or extra large tires, etc. When you buy furniture, or appliances, you expect the company to provide free shipping, or some other added incentive. One of our snack food clients will be offering an “instant rebate coupon” that is on the package. It is this type of quick gratification that customers are looking for.

At PowerPR, the company’s blog also had a comment about this. The blog titled "Publicity to a PublicCelebrate incentive that wants More". PowerPR’s clientele is mainly in the manufacturing industry, so they see this as a need for publicity people to get more creative with clients to help sell products. They refer to the extras as being “surprised”.

As professional publicity people we need to address issues like this in order to have clients gain more visible and favorable publicity. 

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Let Reporters Find You

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Publicity 101

How many times have you or a pr client tried to contact a customer about an important issuekeeping the press informed only to realize they are out of town? Wasted time? Maybe. More than that is the frustration of not reaching that person.

Now imagine a reporter, editor, or publisher trying to contact you, but you were unavailable. Maybe you were at a trade show, or at a new business meeting, or in a seminar, or just traveling.

At first you would think, hey, they’ll leave a message. Not really. These are reporters who have deadlines to meet. They will pass you up and go to the next person on their list.

How do you avoid loosing the call? Simple, leave a voice message on your phone that says, "if you are a reporter or from the press, please call me at (leave a cell phone number), or leave your number and I’ll call back within a couple of hours.

Make sure that you check your office voice mail messages frequently. And if it is your cell phone that you give to the press, be sure to check that message box often as well.

Being available to the press for a story that you are pitching is extremely important. The media works on their time, not yours. Keeping this in mind should make your pr clients realize that positive publicity can only be accomplished when you make yourself available to the press.

What you should not do is send emails of your schedule to the media. That is a waste of time and the reporters are not your secretaries, so respect them and not bother these media people with nonsense emails.

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Keep the PR Program Active

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Like an ad campaign, publicity needs consistency

So you ran a pr release last week, or was it last month? And maybe you had an article scheduled to be in a publication, but the editor, or reporter had to cancel, delaying the article for another month or two.

If this is how your publicity campaign sounds, then you need to rethink what you’re doing. It is up to your pr agency, or pr staff to continually develop press releases, pitch stories, or arrange for interviews. It is this on-going effort that makes any campaign: publicity or advertising, become effective and gain exposure. The positive results will follow when you have this concentrated effort in place.

Another pr company, PowerPR, has in his blog today a similar viewpoint about handling your publicity campaign. The title of his blog "Have you published a release lately" parallels my philosophy on publicity.

Whether you are a pr client looking for increased exposure, or work as a pr consultant, consistency and repetition is critical. Another good idea is to have a regular eNewsletter that is published and sent to the media. Don’t go wild sending them an eNewsletter every week, or even monthly. It should be sent just prior to submitting a release or pitching a story. The eNewsletter should also be of good information. It wouldn’t hurt to have a short preview about the product or service that will be presented to the media.

Keeping a flow of activity in your public relations program is how to help get recognition. This will also help build brand identity and awareness.

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How To Get free Publicity

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Ask for help

If you have a unique product or a gimmick that needs to get publicity, think about asking for help. The kind of help in this case is not asking your publicity agency, or pr staff to do a lot, just have them send a press release to post that asks for publicity ideas to market the product.

Sounds like free ideas and publicity? It is. Just look at what a couple of attorneys did to market a new watch. The short article which was on Publicity Hound’s Blog this week had a posting of a watch that has the dials divided into six-minute-increments, that is how attorney’s bill you!

The frightening thing is a lot of people posted ideas telling them it was a great way to sell these to other industries.

Granted, it doesn’t take a lot of creativity to see the potential of the market.

What was interesting to me, that people were willing to offer suggestions. Plus, these people and many others reading the blogs  were probably telling their friends about this legal type of watch. That my friends is FREE publicity.

True, this will not work for all products or in most markets. But it shows you that with a little creative thought you can get publicity for most anything, even something as NOT unique as a watch.

Think about it, when was the last time a publication ran a press release on a common item as a watch? Remember, this watch isn’t a unique design, or runs on solar, or has special rings…it’s just an ordinary watch with the dials (the face) broken into six-minute segments. Incredible, but that’s publicity.

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Is Tracking Ad Networks Good For Publicity?

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Know who is seeing you

We are constantly hearing how ad agencies use different tracking methods and use different resources to track the results of an ad campaign. This should also be part of a publicity campaign. All pr clients and publicity firms know that it is important to know how a campaign is doing, and tracking results is one method.

If you are using any ad networks for a marketing or publicity campaign, then you should have the third party be using a tagging or coding process in place.

Using tags properly can help you better understand the results form prospects, potential and existing customers.

One tech author, Pam Stein writes this about tagging: "The network will then generate a tag that the advertiser will implement on the proper landing page(s) of their site. Typically, this is the confirmation page, so that they are able to see transactions produced from the campaign. But it could also be a thank-you page after a consumer registers for a sweepstakes or requests a brochure.

Whatever the goal of the campaign, the page that needs to be tagged is the one that appears once the user has done what you wanted them to do."

She further explains and gives an example of what a typical pixel code will look like when implemented into a page. Working closely with the marketing people and advertising staff in a company will strengthen a publicity campaign. Knowing what each department is doing can further your exposure so as to not duplicate efforts. Remember to allow for changes in a pr campaign. Being flexible is what tracking is about.

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Social Networking and Publicity

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PR people need to watch closely this meida

It isn’t any surprise that a bunch of new words "Social Networking", "Active Worlds" and a host of others are becoming part of the Internet vocabulary. PR people and all publicity companies need to keep in touch with this explosion of how networking is gaining a lot of attention.

Several articles about how social sites, like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and YouTube are now attracting advertisers to tap into this market. If you are a pr client, or have a Public Relations Service handling all your public relations activities, then you need to stay tuned with the markets as they grow. But don’t wait for the market to get saturated before becoming active in it. If you do, you will become one of hundreds of thousands trying to get visible in a crowded market.

iMedia Connection mentions these briefly in a couple of short articles on Promoting Your Brand In new Ways. They are doing a good service to keep us informed about social networking. Another writer, Cory Treffiletti, wrote an article about advertisers looking to cash in on this new media. I don’t fully agree that all of the social networks need to be hammered by advertisers. Such as Facebook, which is mainly a college "invitation" only network. If what Cory says comes true that it will soon allow political advertisers, then it won’t be long before all advertisers will have access to this media.

Notice how much attention this network is getting. Even I am addressing the issue. That’s more publicity for that market. As I have said many times before, Publicity is everywhere, you just need to identify how you can benefit from all the hype.

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Is Your PR Plan Current?

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It is time to review the publicity program

Pr clients and publicity agencies are guilty of developing Publicity Plans for the year and forget to review the activity and analyze the results at least every quarter.

We live in a fast paced world surrounded by constant changes in economy, products, businesses and jobs. Keeping this thought, it is a good idea that you review every quarter the publicity activities that your PR Plan had outlined. Make a checklist to see if the goals and results are in line with the objectives you specified.

If you are working with a publicity agency, then call a meeting with them. Don’t call a surprise meeting; tell them in advance what the meeting is about. Let them know that you want to review the overall publicity program and compare the results. This is also true if you are doing publicity in-house. Give your pr staff time to document and collect what you need to make a clear evaluation.

A mistake companies make when implementing a pr campaign is the lack of patience. Because things are moving fast, we tend to feel that publicity runs at slow pace. Publicity is not something that happens overnight. Nor are the results. Unlike running an ad, which can be monitored and scheduled for print, a publicity campaign requires patience and planning. Working with the media and all the different editors, publishers and Internet pr services can be rewarding when the plan is given its due time to get the results.

After reviewing the results of the pr plan, discuss with the staff what needs to be changed in the PR Plan. Keep in mind to not make a 180-degree change, unless drastic changes occur in your industry or economy. Make changes that will best achieve the results you want. By keeping your focus on the original objectives will allow your plan to go in a positive direction to gain positive pr.

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Personalize Your Message

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Publicity is not generic

If you received a birthday gift from someone that said "to whom it may concern", or Occupant", you would probably dismiss the gift and be rather upset with the sender.

Well, if that were true, why would you send a publicity release, or a press kit and address a reporter in an email with a generic "subject" title? The best way to have press releases, or pitching a story viewed is to personalize it to the reporter, or publisher. Yes, this takes more time but the rewards to get published are greater.

Your public relations campaign should appear more personalized to the recipient. This means more than the name of the reporter or editor or publisher’s name on the envelope, or email address. Just as you would send a gift and personalize a note on the card, why not do the same to that media contact? If you have to ask why, then you obliviously are not getting the message I am making.

All industries are hit with hundreds of pubic relations agencies sending out thousands of releases every day. To make you stand out, use a personalized cover letter (do this even when sending it as an email), include good photos that tell or describe what the release is about, and make the press release, or story be informative, not a sales pitch.

These are just a few tips for any public relations person to follow. If you are a pr client, then make sure the people who implement your publicity campaign use these tips wisely.

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Are Your Photos Funny or Serious?

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Photos are important for publicity

Before you send out that press release or article to the editors or publishers of a magazine, make sure you analyze the photos. This means to make sure the photos are:

  • Not boring
  • Has a visual that is of interest
  • Captures the mood you want
  • Is creative

These are a few tips to consider when submitting photos in any publicity campaign for pr clients.

Another tip is to make sure when you include people that the photos are not showing a smiling person if the release, or article is of a serious nature. A book titled "How to use Photos and Graphics in your Publicity Campaign" sums up a lot of the mistakes publicity people make too often. Whether are in the publicity industry, working for a pr firm, or happen to be a pr client doing your own stuff, this book could help. It is not telling you things you probably don’t already know, but it will keep you in line with the things to look for when including photos with your pr campaign.

In addition, you need to consider different angles of the subject. Of course, if the release is about a product, there are only so many ways to shoot it, right? Wrong. Be creative, but not too creative. The purpose of the photos is to help visually get the message across and offers the publisher, or other media, an option to use when publishing the release or article.

Just like a good ad has more potential of being noticed and read, a well written release with good photos has a greater chance of being published.

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Is Your Copy Worth Reading?

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Good pr copy

We live in a fast paced world, not having enough time to read a good book or a complete article. Maybe that’s why blogs are popular, what do you think?

Ok, let’s look at how to get people, like editors, publishers, reporters and your audience to read your copy. It doesn’t matter if you are writing a press release, an article for a magazine, copy for your web site or sales materials. These all need to follow the basic steps of writing clear and concise copy with enough flare to keep the interest of the reader. Your pr clients will at first want more fluff. Following the basic rules will get you more results.

I came across an article titled "Seven Steps to Writing Copy Your Market Will Actually Read". The title alone gives you the feeling that there is some value to reading it, right? Well, that’s the point the author was making.

Daphne Gray-Grant outlines her seven rules in easy to follow language. Most of which is common sense, but in today’s competitive industries, we cannot take things for granted.

A couple of tips are to use short, two-syllable words over three and four-syllables. This she adds is true with sentences. Keep them short. I like the fact she addresses what "short" means. It is about 14 words.

For publicity writing, make sure to eliminate cliches from your press releases, story’s and any letters to editors, or reporters.

Use these tips and maybe you will begin to see positive results.

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