What is it going to take for your business to succeed? Everything. You must use every club in the bag. Public Relations (PR) is a club that resides in the proverbial bag of each and every business owner. Few ever take the time to learn how to use it, to their substantial detriment. Are you using yours?
Let’s face it – publicity is a beautiful thing. Okay, free and favorable publicity is a beautiful thing. It creates awareness, the first step in getting the phone to ring. It also builds credibility – a key for getting orders.
What is PR? It’s a term generally used to describe efforts aimed at utilizing the free press – newspapers, trade journals, radio, television – to create awareness and influence what people think. It is one of the four essential components of marketing. The other three are advertising (paid exposure), sales promotion (incentives to purchase) and selling (person-to-person).
Your marketing stool needs all four legs – each sound and strong. If you’re like most small businesses, your PR effort is weak at best, largely ignored as an important and effective means for driving growth. Can you afford to continue this way?
Read this article, give copies to your staff, and get your PR effort in gear. It’s neither hard nor costly – compared to advertising, promotion and direct sales.
Again, you should employ PR to do the following:
Introduce your company, executives, products, services, concepts and ideas.
Influence what the public and media think about you, your company and products and how they interpret developments at your company.
Most small and mid-size companies suffer from a lack of coverage and, therefore, limited awareness. PR efforts, then, focus on getting attention – and mention. Other companies have enjoyed prior coverage but wish to modify impressions. Every company, however, should stand ready to proactively influence how the media might cover events such as layoffs, relocations, ownership changes, lawsuits, fines or arrests. Bad press can kill a business and career.
To be sure, PR is more than a press release. By all means, the press release is an integral part of a PR campaign. But a press release alone does not a PR campaign make. A successful publicity campaign should include the following:
The Story: An interesting story or newsworthy event that is of interest to a meaningful portion of the audience of the media outlet you target. For more on this see the accompanying article titled “You Can Get Press Coverage …”
Press Release: A concise and articulate descriptive summary of the story; a summary of supporting information; where additional information may be found; and relevant and credible interview sources. For more, see “How to Write a Press Release” herein.
The Verbal Pitch: A script of what you will say when you talk to a writer or reporter. A concise summary of the story and three reasons the media outlet’s audience will be interested.
Supporting Material: Corroborative and supporting data (third-party) such as photos (digital and hard copy), samples, related articles, additional interview sources, references, etc.
List of Media Targets: Should include all media outlets with editorial profiles that match your target audience. The list should contain the name of the organization, name of the appropriate individual, circulation, website address, phone number, fax number, email address, mailing address and preferred communication method. A lot of work may be necessary to compile this data, but once you have, it will be a valuable asset.
Distribution Method: A dependable and accountable means for getting your press release directly into the hands of each target. As with any direct marketing effort, it’s essential that the effort be addressed to a specific individual, not just the organization or department. Beware of press release distribution services that indiscriminately spew your release to hundreds of untargeted media outlets with little or no results.
Follow-up and Follow-through: Sending the initial press release is just the start. First, you must confirm that the target successfully received it. This may take some doing. Keep in mind that media persons are very busy and inundated with stories and deadlines. Also, just because they don’t initially respond or run a story doesn’t mean your pitch has no interest. Don’t be afraid to resend, remind, re-introduce and sell the story – all while being respectful of their time and who they serve (their audience, not you!).
Track Success: You want to know the effect of your PR campaign. You also want to use “mentions” in your marketing efforts. Media placements are a validation of your business/product. For more information see the accompanying article titled “How to Monitor What the Press Says …”
If you’re committed to growth, get committed to a consistent and effective PR effort. Few small and mid-size companies have one. It’s an essential leg to your marketing stool and a powerful and low-cost way for you to set your company apart.
These experts generously contributed their expertise to this and all the PR-related articles in this issue:
Peggy Striegel, Striegel & Associates, Broken Arrow, OK
www.striegela.com
Sarah E. Flynn, Willcaro Communications, Delray Beach, FL
willcarocomm@bellsouth.net
William J. Comcowich, President/CEO, CyberAlert, Inc., Stratford, CT
www.cyberalert.com
Todd Brabender, Spread The News Public Relations, Inc., Lawrence, KS
www.spreadthenewspr.com
This article originally appeared in The Business Owner Journal, the periodical of choice for owners of small and midsize private businesses. All rights reserved, D.L. Perkins LLC. © 2012.
This publication is intended to provide general information on the subject matters covered. It is sold and distributed with the understanding that neither the publisher nor any distributor or advertiser is engaged in providing legal, tax, insurance, investment or other professional advice. The advice of a qualified professional should be sought before any reader applies a concept presented herein to his or her particular situation or business.
D.L. Perkins, LLC is solely responsible for this content.
