Tag Archives: pr client

EMail Marketing

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Improve your image with better emails


The old saying that "Timing is Everything" is true in advertising, publicity and now email marketing.

How do you get better responses to your emails? This is a question we are asked many times by our pr clients and advertising clients. The answer is to make sure your emails are timely. This sounds like common sense, and it is. But think about how many emails you receive daily from customers, clients, and friends, and which ones you open first to read. Even junk emails campaigns use this technique to get you to respond.

An article by Robert Bly gives illustrative examples about this same topic. He mentions that some financial companies use this technique wisely. Another interesting point is to use news embedded into the copy. Make your email or publicity release (the one that goes to clients and potential customers) be somewhat newsworthy by including a current item that relates to your email.

An example was when a financial publisher used a photo of Martha Stewart and the "subject" was "Stay one step ahead of the stock market, just like Martha Stewart…but without her legal liability."

This is clever thinking and good use of publicity in email marketing.

Another good tip by Mr. Bly is to give something away in your email. Not necessarily a product, but information. Provide a tip, or something useful in the market you are in.

Why? Because people expect to receive free stuff on the internet. Knowing this, offer them something of value, and the potential client may read further and contact you for more information about your service or product.

Try these simple tips and then read Mr. Bly’s article for a third tip.

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Getting More Out Of Your Camapign

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Mass media and Online Media


When you take advantage of the tools you have for publicity and marketing you can extend the life of a pr campaign a lot longer. This in turn will get you more publicity for pr clients and increase your product or service awareness.

How do you integrate the two?

One example is to make use of the print or TV campaign and integrate that into your web site. For example, Hardee’s, a known hamburger chain that is owned and operated by Carl’s Jr., made use of a clever TV campaign.

They, Hardee’s, is known for very large, monster burgers. This particular ad focused on their new Philly Cheese Steak ThickBurger. The web site home page was the platform of their new commercial. The commercial could be uploaded to an iPod, added to a MySpace.com page or sent to a friend. Hardee’s invited customers to comment on the TV spot.

This gets their customers involved with the product and gets the word out at the same time. Hardee’s had an email sign up form to become part of their loyalty marketing program, which has benefits.

This is one company that understands integration of publicity, web marketing and reaching mass media. They are one of the few to make this work for them. Other companies shy away from their publicity departments and marketing departments. Keeping them separate. This can only slow your process to gain favorable publicity.

Learn how to make use of these media. It can only help promote your company further.

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Who Is Getting Your Press Kits?

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Do you know the right person?


Sending out press releases or press kits to editors, publishers take more than addressing a label. You need to make sure the person receiving your media kit, or article is the right person.

Depending on the industry you are in, it can be a guessing game. And if you are sending to the trade media, or consumer media make sure that person is still working at the publication or broadcast station.

Finding The Media
There are many sources to locate the right publication and get the name(s) of the individuals responsible to receive your information. You can go to the public library, buy an SRDS (the cost for the subscription is costly), or do some surfing on the web. Another source is Gebbie Press.

Once you find the right person, make sure you spell their name correctly, and then call to verify that reporter, or editor is still working there.

If you are interested in getting TV or radio exposure, you can call your local affiliates. Many times, they will direct you to the proper producer who is in charge of programming.

Again, be sure to write the name of the person, their phone number and email correctly.

After all that research, you need to contact these people and ask if the story is one that will fit their station. It is always a good idea to have someone in the company, or ask your pr client who would be best suited for an interview.

Follow Through
You can send the reporters or producer a letter, which is probably best in the beginning. Then follow-up in about a week to see if they received your request.

A good public relations service is having the media right people in your contact file. Otherwise, it is time wasted for you and your pr client. 

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Make Networking Work For You

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People Knowing People


Publicity is basically the networking of people. Whether they are reporters, publishers, editors or broadcasters, you need to communicate with people.

When your network grows among the media, the more people you meet, the better opportunities you have in getting the story published.

If you are a professional publicity agency, or a pr client, then you need to make your network becomes a priority when establishing  your contacts. If you are in a vertical market, then your task is much easier. If you are in a more general consumer market, then you need to be more selective on the media that you network with. Why? Because you can’t expect to have a very large network and stay in contact without giving them nonsense stories. These people are just that, people. Just like you, they too do not like being sent stories or releases that try to sell a product or a company. Make the content be informative, something that their readers will enjoy.

Another tip, you don’t want to oversell your company, or your pr clients. Too much selling, or pitching, is like the salesman who doesn’t know when to stop selling. Your network of media can become a friendly one. Not meaning a social thing. Why? Because getting too close to the media as a social group puts you in a different perspective. Then they, the media, feel you are only getting their attention to get stories published. Keep your relationship professional.

I saw a journalist who has an article about this subject and offers some other interesting insights that expand on my thoughts. Basically, be honest, keep in contact with your network through eNewsletters, and follow-up as needed.

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Humor In Advertising

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There can be a funny side to advertising and publicity


How do you capture a readers attention, and make it memorable?

There are several methods to use. The shock approach, the factual/informative approach, the serious approach and the humors approach.

We chose to use the humorous approach for this specific campaign for our client, Foundations Financial.

The reason, we wanted to break away from the clutter of the typical institutional ads and show the investors we have something unique to offer than traditional companies.

The campaign consisted of placing two different ads in the publication. In addition, this magazine, Personal Real Estate Investor, has a conference at the end of this month and Foundations Financial will be one of the guest speakers on the panel.

The conference will allow our client the opportunity to meet one-on-one with investors and to get to know Foundations Financial personally at the conference.

When possible, using the two marketing tools of Advertising and Publicity can be very rewarding.

I like to always include the two because the final result is powerful and creates a stronger impact.

It also helps to position our pr client as a forward thinking and progressive company.

Publicity has many different applications. One of those is what I just described. Too often, the two departments of advertising/marketing and publicity work separately. I feel this is a waste of time and money.

So the next time you plan an event, or have an ad campaign running, try to incorporate your overall marketing strategy to get the two departments to work together. You will be pleased with the outcome.

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