When most people think about marketing, they
think advertising
When most people think about marketing, they
think advertising. While advertising is a part of marketing, marketing
is much bigger than advertising. There are lots of different marketing
methods floating around out there, and the challenge as a business owner
is figuring out when it's appropriate to use each one and the best way
to use it.
Public relations, or PR, is the art of
getting someone else to write or talk about you or your business. Preferably
in a favorable manner. Traditionally, "someone else" was the media. In
this day and age however, someone else can also be a blogger, a freelance
writer, an e-zine publisher or even an owner of a big Web site. For purposes
of this article, I'm using the word "media" to refer to all of those folks.
PR is also being able to get yourself
on a big talk show to talk about yourself or your business, or writing
your own article that's published in a desired outlet. (Not your own newsletter
or Web site.)
PR is one of my favorite marketing methods,
but it can also be one of the more frustrating ones. Even when you do everything
right, you still might not get the publicity you want. Or for that matter,
ANY publicity at all. When a PR campaign doesn't work, you can find yourself
wanting to pull out all your hair in frustration.
Even with that in mind, I do believe most
if not all businesses can benefit from some type of PR campaign. But before
you launch into something that could end with you becoming hairless (and
investing in a sizeable hat collection) ask yourself the following questions.
1. Do I need to see results right away?
If you do, better pull out your wallet and pay for some advertising. PR
takes time. And it's not guaranteed. You might not see your article for
weeks, months or ever, and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it.
If it's immediate gratification you want, don't look for it in a public
relations campaign.
2. Do I have the time to consistently
devote to a public relations campaign? We're back to the time issue. PR
not only takes time to see results, but you also have to take time to make
it happen. Either you have to do it or you have to pay someone else to
do it. If you do it yourself, you'll have the potential of garnering the
equivalent of thousands of dollars of advertising for little or no money.
But it will cost you some time. If you pay someone else, you'll save time
(which is a good thing, I'm a big believer in outsourcing) but it can get
expensive. Worse yet, you STILL might not get any coverage for your money.
3. Do I have enough perseverance to run
a PR campaign? PR is about follow-up. It's about sending story idea after
story idea to the same reporter before one finally connects (and maybe
it's the tenth one). It's about sending a little note or letter to the
same editor for as long as several years before you get a bite. It's about
reminding your contacts you're out there until one day they realize they
need you.
If you're willing to court the media,
develop relationships and do whatever you can to make their lives easier,
the rewards can be huge.
4. Do I have newsworthy events happening
at my business? (Newsworthy is something media personnel feel would interest
their readers.) Or, if I don't, can I create them?
I'm not talking about making things up
here. But there are things you can be doing to make your business more
newsworthy. For example, you can do a survey and publish the results. You
can tie a feature of your product or service to something that's currently
happening in the news. You can hold an event. You can research a newly
published study that relates to your product or service. There are countless
ways you can transform aspects of your business into newsworthy story items
-- the creativity exercise below can help you come up with your ideas.
5. Do I want to build my credibility?
Develop my status as an expert? Then get that PR campaign off the ground.
Nothing builds your credibility or expert status faster than having other
people say you know what you're talking about.
6. Do I want to augment my other marketing
efforts? Public relations definitely plays nicely with the other marketing
methods. You can be building your long-term expert campaign with PR and
building short-term customers with advertising. Or you can turn your community
relations strategies into PR campaigns. It's a great way to get the most
bang out of your marketing time and dollar.
Creativity Exercise -- How can you use
PR in your business?
Grab some sheets of paper and pen (I like
the fun gel pens myself) and get ready for some brainstorming.
Start by listing everything you do or
sell. Then write out all the features or descriptions of your products
or services. For instance, if you have a book, what is your book about?
What does it offer people?
Now see if you can turn those features
into something newsworthy. Is there a time of year when people are interested
in your services? (Accounting and tax season). Are there any studies you
can dig up? Is there something in the news that ties into your product?
Can you turn an aspect of your business into a human interest story? (Something
like fitness tips for busy people or parenting tips for single parents,
etc.) Write everything down that comes into your head, even if it's silly.
See if you can come up with 50 story ideas.
Now look at what you wrote. Can you find
a few in there that you think would interest the media? Congratulations
-- you just came up with a PR campaign.
bio: Michele Pariza Wacek is the author
of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers
two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting
marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting
new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can
be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com.
Michele Pariza Wacek
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