Tag Archives: publicity

What’s New In Marketing?

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PR needs to watch this new media


We are in a fast moving world that sees changes on a daily basis. Once we learn of a new technology, or a new media like blogging, we are quickly discovering another media. This time it is "Viral Marketing’.

As usual this new form has been embraced and popular among young web people. It is the video content that anyone with a cheap video camera and some editing equipment, will post onto a web site. This is not just a fad. Tens of thousands of videos are already in the ultimate Short Attention Span Theatre. These will range from the bizarre of car crashes and Jackass-like stunts to musical performances by classic rockers.

In a business environment, there is gold at the end for them. For example, you are already seeing how this new media is creeping into our homes by the TV commercials from MasterCard. I am sure you noticed their new TV spots that invite consumers to fill-in the blanks on their "Priceless" campaign.

There will soon be more high profile companies using this approach in their ad campaigns.

Another popular viral video that has become one of the hottest is YouTube, based in San Mateo, CA. Last April the YouTube had averaged 6.6 million unique viewers a month. That shows you the power this phenomenon is having. Several other exisit like iFilm. Just type the words into Google and see what comes up.

How does this relate to publicity and your public relations campaign? Well, if you do this right, you can probably get some great publicity for your pr client, or your own company by doing something unique using viral video. I suggest doing something that is legal, otherwise the publicity you get from the press and other media will not be what you hoped for.

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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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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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Marketing and Publicity

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Intergrate these to be successful


Marketing and publicity need to interact and not be treated as separate departments. Often times, marketing directors and pr directors want to do their own thing in a company to show how successful their creative programs are working.

But this can work against you if you do not pool your talents and work as a team. Many times campaigns overlap, as do the different projects within a company.

By using all the resources from your departments, like Marketing and Publicity, you stand a better chance in gaining a winning campaign for your company, or pr client.

For example in marketing 101, you are told to follow-up to customers at least every 90 days. Publicity people also know that communication is important. For this reason, publicity professionals make sure they contact editors and reporters frequently. The old saying, out-of-sight is out-of-mind is definitely true in business.

Another important point- do not cut back on your publicity budget when it is trade show season, or when sales are increasing. Same is true about marketing. You need to do marketing all the time, not only when sales are low.

Getting a story or an article in any publication is rewarding. More so is when you capitalize on this with the marketing people in your company. Using the resources available can gain more mileage for your campaigns than isolating the two departments from each other.

In summary a public relations campaign is just as important as the marketing you do for the company. Have interaction with the two, hold regular meetings to discuss what projects are in the works, and quite possibly you might discover a new path to success.

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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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Getting Publicity By Talking

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Interviews, books and seminars are good publicity tools


Releases, stories and articles as well as interviews can deliver getting your message out to the market. Sometimes conducting seminars can open a new market for potential customers.

Such is the case when our client, Foundations Financial, had two opportunities to present their services by being interviewed on these TV talk shows. Our client was given the opportunity to present (before the show aired, about four days earlier) the five key points they wanted to make that related to the host’s topic. Then the host would have questions relating to these points making the interview successful for everyone. In all, both shows gained favorable pr for our client and they attracted several inquiries for new business.

It seems that reporters and publishers are constantly being hit with press releases and pitched by companies and pr firms to do a story on a specific product or service.

But how many times have you tried to contact a TV show, or a radio show that might specialize in your industry, and offer the producer a representative from your company to speak about a topic that will fit their audience? Probably not often enough.

This media, broadcast, can be an excellent way to get your message out. But you need to understand just like the print media, you need to make your pitch fit that shows profile. You can’t just sell your product/service. You need to position yourself as an expert and explain how the listener (audience) can benefit by using a product/service like yours. Again, this is a thin line that usually the host will control on how much will be about you (your company) and how much will be about the topic in discussion.

Being prepared is important and knowing what to say is critical. So consider all areas of publicity. Don’t limit yourself to one media.

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Cold Calling Is Like Publicity

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Know your prospect and know the media

How many times do you or other companies you know ask their sales people to make cold calls. Or tell them it’s a numbers game. The more calls you make, the more chances you have in getting a sale.

This is a bad method to doing business. Because the reality is that you loose more prospects and probably don’t get past your 5 seconds of intro before the person on the other end hangs up on you. Also, you are wasting a lot of hours making calls that may never buy from you.

This can be compared to publicity. It isn’t a numbers game in sending out a flood of press releases to media that are not interested in your product or service. Be selective. Know your media. Contact the reporter, the publisher and send them a press kit with a cover letter. You can do this as an email if the publication you are contacting accepts this form of communication.

By choosing a limited number of cold calls that you have identified, you should know about that prospects company, the products they are already buying (from you or a competitor), know what they need then make your call. And that call should start off with a question. Asking them to help you with a problem. Make it relate to their situation and your product or service.

This may not be exactly the way to make a call to the media. But think about it, you call them not knowing anything about the publication, or you haven’t done your homework to see if your product or service will be a featured subject a few issues from now, or maybe it already has been written about.

Contacting the media is not a numbers game, nor should your sales department think it is either.

Target marketing is the best solution and that applies to your publicity as well.

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Getting The Word Out

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Branding is important so is blogging

All companies are fighting for the same thing. An Identity.

Without this, you can’t be visible, you will have a difficult time selling a product or service, and it will be very difficult to stay in business.

Today’s competitive market (in all industries) is looking for better and more efficient methods to creating this identity.

The word "Branding" has become a popular term in our business language. This is what an identity is for a company. Although branding does encompass more than the traditional identity program. All businesses need to have a serious look as to how they are perceived by customers, competitors and the media.

When developing a branding program, you need to look at all aspects of the company. When you have placed a true branding program in place, you then need to get that image, brand into the marketplace.

Doing this can be done in several ways. I strongly recommend that companies include with their Publicity Campaign a business "blog site".

Blogging is more than a term; it is now part of our daily lives. Even more so in business.

A good blog site will consist of RSS feeds to attract news about your industry, and market. It will also be created in a fashion to reflect your image–BRAND. In addition it needs to be monitored and produced by a professional blog company that knows the "back end" of the marketing. Doing a blog is only one small part of blogging.

Writing and using links, images, keywords, phrases and many other unique techniques can be a very productive site to make a company gain visibility and brand recognition within 90 days.

So be careful before you just plunge into a blog site. Make sure you work with people who know the techniques of the business side. These are the people who can make things happen for you and your company.

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Where is Search Going

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Search Engines Build Momentum

Search engine marketing is not something that just happens by chance. It is an art, a science, and a lot of work.

Many clients think the old ways of adding meta tag descriptions, or key words and submissions to all the search engines will get results. Not true anymore.

The search engine (SE) battle to be the biggest and best is heating up again.

More companies are finally realizing they can build an ecommerce web site while maintaining a traditional storefront. With this attention, the SE’s are getting more sophisticated on how they list a web site.

I saw an article by Kevin Ryan titled "Search and the Brand". He mentioned a lot of interesting things, besides the awards stuff for this event.

For example, at the Advertising Week event, Mr. David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americans, pointed out a study that was completed in December of 2004 showed 92% of consumer electronics and other computer purchases. This is only one category. But it illustrates how consumers are using the net for more ease of purchasing. That means they will be using SE’s more often to find products, companies and places to make purchases.

HP saw their click volume increase 45% and the transactions increased 65%.

At this Advertising Week event, it was noted that keyword purchasing hit an all-time high as well. Some advertisers were now purchasing odd words, like "possum". Popular words such as "automobile" or "Honda Element’ are still expensive.

So what’s the other solution to fighting this marketing battle? Try "street smart marketing". By this I mean it’s time you have a plan that includes a blog site with back end tie-ins. Publicity should be part of that overall plan. Together, these become powerful marketing tools and can build a brand name within a few months.

Publicity in all places

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Your Mission Message

I was wondering this afternoon if any companies have taken publicity to another level.

Well I think I found one.

I saw Dan Janals‘ blog that spoke about the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas using publicity at, and what I call, the next level pr.

He mentioned that when he purchased water from the hotel (Wynn’s own brand) it tasted so good that he complimented the worker on its fresh smooth taste. The worker’s reply was "does it make you want to gamble?’

According to Dan, he thought "now that’s a mission statement!" He also realized all of the workers and the different sections of the hotel (registration, restaurant) all gave you the feeling of wanting to be there. That in turn will get people who enjoy the gaming part want to stay longer.

Then as he entered the elevator, he noticed all the buttons had names of the floors, like spa, casino, rather than First Floor, etc. This is another way of re-enforcing their mission statement…which is all connected to their BRANDING.

You will notice more and more that building a brand has become essential in building a successful business.

Make sure you include with your publicity a branding program. It’s the smart way to do business.
 

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