Category Archives: Public Relations Service

Marketing a Business with Publicity

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Staying ahead of the competition

It is an on-going struggle to keep a business profitable. For that reason alone, you need to make sure you have a plan that includes all the marketing tools and publicity programs available. Whether you are a publicity agency, a pr client, or a marketing company, you need to implement some of these suggestions:

  • Keep in touch with clients. Sounds simple. How many times this year have you contacted a client just to see how things are? One suggestion is to draft a letter that can be sent to all customers. Ask if your company can be of further service, or if they have any questions about a recent order you sent to them. This can be generic, but the intro and the addressee should be personalized.
  • Flyers or Postcards. Another excellent way to stay in touch. Use flyers or postcards to let your prospects and existing clients know about any new products or services you are offering. Unlike a letter that is more formal, these get read faster and can generate more immediate responses.
  • Internet marketing. Use email to keep them informed. You can convert a postcard or create a flyer that can be sent as an email. Don’t forget about your web site. Make sure it is informative. What, you don’t have a site! And if you do, when was the last time it was updated? Keeping content fresh is important in today’s web marketing.

These are just a few ideas that should help you get back on track. Communication is important. This is another reason why a publicity campaign should be part of your overall media mix.

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Branding Through Search Engines

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Build your image with SEO’s


Traditional branding is something a company, a pr client or advertising agency will do that may include a corporate identity program, collateral materials, and possibly purchasing media.
The media can be print (newspapers, magazines) or broadcast such as radio or TV.

Branding is the building of a name, a product or the overall company’s image. It is the consistent use of the brand in all the different areas of communication. As clients and customers become familiar with the brand, it makes them become loyal to that brand. Therefore, it takes time to build this loyalty among customers and clients.

With Search Branding, we see a new era of marketing and how we use the branding tools. Clients and potential customers now use search engines to seek the information about a product. When you optimize your site correctly, and have a solid web marketing campaign, that should include a good blog site, you will begin to establish a branded image. The buy-cycle is different on search engines than traditional branding, because people now can collect the information they want to make a buying decision sooner. That means you need to get your company listed in several areas so the potential customer feels good about your brand when making the decision to buy.

When people see your brand two, three and four times when searching, they become familiar with the brand making them more loyal to it. So as you can see, by using search engines as Google, Ask.com, Yahoo and many of the other specialty engines, it can make your brand a winner.

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How To Get More Exposure Without Increasing The Budget

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Publicity and Media Buying

We all know that publicity can generate good sales, and most of all establish a positive image/branding.

So why do so many advertisers, primarily the big companies, spend thousands on wasted media. Wasted media? Let me explain my definition of wasted media money.

We all know the publication industry makes money from its advertising. And the most costly ad placements within publications are the back cover, inside covers and specified placement.

Take this test. Pick one of your favorite magazines. It doesn’t matter what industry, the example will apply. Turn the first page. See the inside cover? It is probably facing another full-page ad, right? Or the ad is a spread. Now turn the page again. Another full-page ad, with another facing ad!

This can go on for 5 to 6 pages, or more until you get to the contents page. Now imagine, these advertisers all paid a premium to be in the front, especially the company that bought the inside cover.

Most consumers open the magazine to find the table of contents to see what interesting articles to read. So as you open the magazine, you skip all those colorful ads, and spreads. The winner is the advertiser who bought the placement next to or across the contents page.

The other smart media buyers are those who bought space next to articles, or within an article.

Imagine, if the company that paid a premium would have bought the space next to an article and put the savings into the publicity campaign, the results would be greater all around!

I’m probably going to get hate mail from publishers, but the reality is that the inside covers no longer get viewer ship or create leads as they did 20 years ago. In my book, it is money wasted. Spend more with the publicity and see the positive results.

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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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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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Publicity Tip #2431

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Photos can make a you look better


When you write a release, or better yet, an article to pitch to the media, it is a good idea to include photos.

Wow, what a great idea, bet this isn’t original! You’re right, but read further to learn what I mean about including photos.

Believe it or not, most pitches are only text that the media receive. Just adding good quality photos can make your story become more interesting to the reporter because now you are providing a visual.

This alone needs to be given careful thought. Just as you want the story you are writing to not look like an ad to the reporter, you need to plan the types of photos to include.

One publicist, Joan Stewart, wrote an article on this subject. She gives you about 11 tips on what to look for when shooting photos to be included in your pitch.

What I like about her article, her advice goes beyond what to take for photos. Joan provides tips on what not to do. Such as groundbreaking, or ribbon ceremonies. These are overdone, and unless you are a major real estate developer, or a high profile company, forget these types of stories and photos.

Your publicity campaign and all your public relations activities should be part of the overall business and marketing plan. There will always be some last minute pr projects that your pr client’s need created immediately. It is the master marketing plan that should set the guidelines for all the publicity. Be sure you have a solid database of the reporters, editors and publications you want to target.

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Free Publicity, Does It Exist?

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How to get the most of a PR campaign

GET US FREE PUBLICITY!

These are the words we hear most often from clients. So how Free is it?

Publicity is a powerful method for getting your message to potential customers, but only when you know what you are doing.

Remember, nothing is free. If you have an in-house person, you are paying for that pr director, or manager to spend the time to write, distribute and meet with reporters.

Hiring a publicity firm has basically the same costs.
When you place an ad into a publication, or run a spot on radio or TV, those are controlled forms of media which can become costly for smaller companies.

When you get a release or article published, in comparison, it didn’t cost anything to have that visibilty in that, or those media. The cost was in the preliminary stages of developing the article and getting it to the right media.

Knowing how to write an article, or a press release (these require different writings) is critical of getting something published. Reporters and editors want to publish stories of interest and be informative for their audience.

I spoke about distribution before. This is also important. Shot gun mailing to all media will not do you any good. Targeting specific media will help to control the distribution and makes follow up more productive. Use the Internet news media whenever possible. Here you can modify the press release or articles and use keywords in the body of the information. Using a professional pr firm can help a public relations campaign become more successful, because they have the contacts and knowledge to get these published.

Bottom line. Is publicity free? I guess It all depends on what you consider free.

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Getting Listed With Search Engines

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Publicity is everywhere, even on the net

Just about every traditional (brick and mortar) company has a web site. Beyond the fact that you need to have a web site today to be recognized as a real company doing business, clients and customers want the ability to gather information or place orders via the web.

With that said, we need to now see how publicity coupled with marketing can make good things happen.

Web sites are only as good as the marketing that supports it. Just because you have a site doesn’t mean it will be picked up and listed at the top with the major search engines. It requires strategic planning and implementation to make things happen.

To begin, you need to have the site optimized. That’s an overused word, but it still needs to be said. This alone is not enough. The SEO’s are battling again for power and that means more challenging times for web masters and programmers. You now need to include a plan that includes “back end marketing”. This can be a series of things like a blog site, eNewsletters, and above all a strong publicity plan.

Yes, publicity is a major element in getting listed higher. There are two methods used to see a sites value. Page Ranking and Site Listing. Page Ranking shows how you are rated (ranked) on search engines, like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Alta Vista to name a few. It is based on a scale of 10. Sites with anything in the 5+ ranking is excellent. Even with a 3 you are doing fine. Remember, that there are over a billion pages, and several hundred million sites. Even in any vertical market, there are at least several hundred thousand sites.

Listings are where you are positioned on that search engine. Everyone wants to be on the first page of a listing, and not further than the third page. But again, with hundreds of thousands of sites, not everyone can be on top.

Once you get there, you need to be more aggressive with press releases, keywords added and updated, keep daily blogs going just to maintain a solid position (listing) with the engines. No guarantees can exist. The only way to stay near or at the top is to have an on-going plan.

A couple of our clients are getting their time in the spotlight. Partition Specialties now has a solid listing using several keywords such as modernfold, tate access floors and skyfold. They are listed with the various SE’s in either a #5 or #12 position with Google and Yahoo, MSN, etc. That’s out of 1,500,000 other web sites in a specialized industry. We are using several marketing tools with the publicity to maintain this.

Foundations Financial in only 6 weeks got a high PageRanking with Google of #3. We are using the blog site and a lot of publicity releases, TV interviews and links on the site to gain this positive momentum. Keeping this will be an on-going battle that we plan to win. Within a few more weeks, they will enjoy the high listings as many of our other clients do.

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The Costs Of Publicity

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In-House or Outsorucing?


Companies are always faced with keeping overhead costs low. The first area that gets cut is the marketing and publicity budget.

So how does any company justify cutting these areas and maintain a constant campaign?

One solution that most pr clients and marketing clients think saves them money is to do all the work in-house. But does this really save money, or does it cost you (the client) more in the long haul? Let’s take a look.

To go in-house, you need to hire a marketing or pr director. Typically this person, if professional, and knows what he/she is doing, will have a salary of about $80,000 per year. An assistant would cost $40,000 a year as a starting salary. These figures can be more depending on their experience.

Now you have someone to do the entire writing, planning, meeting with reporters, publishers, coordinating marketing and pr activities and sometimes designing the sales and marketing materials.

Let’s just say this person, for now, needs to do a few releases. How are you going to distribute them? Do you do send them one at-a-time to the handful of media? Or do you go through a news bureau like Bacon’s. Well, Bacon’s costs about $3,000 per year membership and then you pay per release on top of that. In addition, the select few that are to your favorite media, need postage, envelopes, and what about the follow-up?

On top of the distribution costs, we need to again look at this person you hired. They need medical coverage, you need to pay the FICA costs and provide space for them and a phone line. The phone bill will now increase as well. An article that supports my viewpoint is called "Debunking the myth that B2B marketing is cheaper in-house", by John Elliott.

In addition, the person may not have the close contact relationships with the different media as your pr firm.

Ok, did you save any money? Most likely not. The costs when added together are probably more than a moderate publicity campaign for the year would have cost. And you can be sure that the outsource company will get the job done because they won’t be interuppeted with daily problems associated with an in-house publicity person.

No matter how many times we see this happen, it just seems that clients need to learn from their mistakes. Hopefully this brief lesson will give pr clients and public relations service companies the chance to see what really is best for them.

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