You’ve decided it’s time to launch your PR campaign.  You’re ready to move forward.  Now you need to figure out who your public relations partner in this journey is going to be.  Believe me, it is a journey (and can be a great one) and in the best of cases the PR company that you choose is going to be functioning as a trusted partner, at least in this one arena.  But how do you pick a firm that fits your particular needs?

The first mistake that you want to avoid is to only consider companies that specialize in your field.  You definitely want to consider them in the mix, but what you’re primarily looking for is a firm that knows PR, that knows how to develop and place stories in the media, if they’re good, they can use their expertise and know-how and apply that to any field.  Remember, PR is a communication business, for it to truly work, you need to be able to comfortably communicate with them and they need to expertly craft your message and communicate that to the media.  The following are a few topics to consider and questions to ask, when interviewing a PR firm.

Questions to ask your potential PR firm:
1)  How long have they been in business and which media outlets have they placed stories in?

2) How they would define a successful campaign.  Get a sense of their mindset and how they view the process.  Discuss how you would define success and see if there is a common thread.

3) How do they work when it comes to developing story ideas?  Are they looking for you to do all of the work?  Are they asking you for the story ideas and then simply turning those into pitches or are they a firm that will work with you to develop creative and unique pitch ideas?

4) What do they see as your campaign’s greatest potential strengths?

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Television production used to be pretty straight forward.  You had HUGE, HEAVY cameras three people pushed around.  In the control room you had sliders and BAM! magically the signal went over the air. At home you turned on the set.  Had dinner (families ate together then) and a half-hour later the tube was lit and you watched the Sid Caesar or Lone Ranger show.  It was so cool.

For years we all went to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show and the behemoths of the industry dominated the floor.  Big, sexy, expensive cameras.  Big, gorgeous, expensive control panels. TV sets, big/bigger, gorgeous, expensive. Then the cable and satellite folks emerged with “a better TV experience.”   Once you got tired of over-the-air only shows in they “offered” you 50-100 fantastic channels for $100 a month.  Suddenly our wife could watch HGTV, daughter could watch the gut-buster infomercial, and son could watch Telemundo (he’s practicing Spanish and the skirts are short).  According to Nielsen we started watching more TV - 4 hours, 34 minutes a day in 2006-07.  Not bad for the producers, network, cable operators, advertisers. Nielsen found:

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If you own a company and happen to be interested in expansion then you may have considered offering qualified individuals franchise opportunities to achieve your own business goals. Selling your franchise is much easier than it used to be as a result of the Internet and other means of communication but one of the best ways to sell your franchise remains the same – going to a franchise show or a franchise expo.

Why Choose A Franchise Show?

A franchise show or franchise expo is effectively an event at which franchisors can market their opportunities to the individuals that are looking to invest in a business opportunity. Those individuals are often looking to begin an entrepreneurial career with an established brand behind them. Franchise shows can be beneficial to the franchisor in a number of ways but the main one is undoubtedly the fact that it can put the company in touch with franchisees directly.

No matter how much literature a company sends out or how much it advertises when selling a franchise, franchise shows can be more effective as a direct result of the face-to-face contact with those looking to invest.

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“If I make it they will buy it”

“If I put it on the shelf in a store they will buy it”

“Everyone will want/need one”

“Mine is better it is more unique, cheaper, has more features”

“People will willing pay more for my product/service”

Being in business means you need to believe in your company’s offering.  But what many forget is that no one else will believe it unless you tell it to them – again and again and again.

And that’s what marketing is – its getting people to believe what you believe.   It’s getting people to the point of “I’ll Buy That”.

But most businesses skip over that essential middle part (read Marketing) between producing a quality product service and getting someone to buy it.  Here are some of the questions any business needs to answer before it can be sure of selling the product.

What Am I Selling

• Can you explain what you sell in 15 words or less
• If you can’t then you don’t know what you are selling

Who Am I Selling It To

• 99.999% of all people you meet probably won’t want/need to buy your product/service.
• How do you know who that .001% is

Why Would They Buy It

• Give me three good reasons why they should buy your product/service

When Do They Buy It

• Do they buy it in their sleep, when they drive the car?
• Do they need to think about it first or can they make up their minds the instant they see it (and can they buy it the instant they see it)

Who Is Also Selling The Same Thing

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Recently we were told in no uncertain terms by a client’s prospective customer that she had seriously considered our product but after reading customer reviews on one of the many public consumer review sites.

She addressed her issues to us directly because ours was the only personal contact on the web site.  The others were sales@, customer support@, etc. 

She wasn’t the first prospective customer or actual user to contact us.

She won’t be the last.

The Internet and Web technologies have changed the way public relations professionals interact with others and in fact have changed the definition of publics.

Today your publics are online.  Having a visitor friendly web site is simply part of the cost of doing business.  PR should be part of the team that has inputs to and develops/maintains the site but only part of the enterprise-wide team.

However, most site visitors view the company web site as the starting point of their search…not the end.

There is literally a world of opportunities to find out about you, your products and yes your customer support.
 

Being Involved

Public relations people have to be more than just aware of the information options, they have to be involved with them…all of them.

Teens, tweens and millennials can hardly recall the pre-digital days.  Gen Xers and boomers have found the benefits of being online.  They don’t simply use the Internet as a means of doing business or staying in touch. 

The IP (Internet protocol) address is their doorway to the world of news, information and entertainment.

It means that PR pros have to open up to think beyond the 1 : many activities to efforts that help the company interact with prospects and customers. 

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Over the years hundreds of highly respected professionals, analysts and educators have developed comprehensive and sometimes complicated descriptions of public relations and corporate communications.  There have been heated discussions regarding the separation of public relations from advertising, public relations from marketing and the role public relations should play of the organization.

What is most counter-productive has been public relations desire to distance itself from the distasteful task of actually “selling” the company, its propositions, its products, its technologies and its services.  If it doesn’t help perpetuate the company what value does it serve…regardless of the definition?

We recently read one of the clearest, most concise and easiest to understand descriptions of public relations.  It stripped away all of the rhetoric and all of the lofty philosophy…”effective public relations is simply applied common sense.”

Common sense says that a company must achieve sales and must produce profit if it is to survive.  If it doesn’t survive then it stands for nothing and is worth nothing.  Done properly public relations adds value by employing people, by providing a return to shareholders, by supporting our governmental institutions and by delivering product/service value to customers.

Common sense says that for programs to be successful they must be founded on business objectives, not “PR” objectives.  They must focus on the company’s brand equity, not on individual products.  This branding activity must extend beyond media relations, charitable giving, legislative relations and other niches. 

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1. We all know that a brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; what might be less obvious is that each time somebody meets you they unconsciously create images and ideas about you which operates as a ‘your unique brand’. Companies spend large amounts of money to develop a brand because a positive brand influences how consumers will respond to their product.

As a professional or entrepreneur our success will be dependent on self leadership and our ability to influence others. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) taught that to influence requires ethos, which gives us the English word ethic and means character. Our ethos is like a brand, the symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service.

Some people seem to naturally exude their ethos as a personal power that causes people to trust and be influenced by them; but can this personal branding be cultivated or developed? Most certainly yes! And in this article I will share some of the key factors in developing your brand of personal power and professional influence.

When we influence, we alter/affect someone else’s perceptions, views, beliefs, attitudes, decisions thus alter their actions. So the first question to ask yourself is, “do I have permission to influence others?” If you are not sure of your answer consider this – because each person will unconsciously create images and ideas about you, you are already influencing their perception! The question should now be. “How do I want to influence others and what brand do I want to project?”

Research has shown that people are positively influenced by people who are: trustworthy (honest), forward looking, confident, competent and inspiring. Each of these traits can be developed an enhanced and the payoff is increased personal power and influence.

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Cal Ripken has been inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame - not so much for his baseball numbers as for the fantastic brand he created. Cal’s career batting average is not even close to .300, and he did not average more than 25 home runs or 100 RBIs a season.  Yet he is one of the most popular, memorable, and most marketable players of recent history.  Why? 

Throughout his 21-year career, Cal Ripken has been a living example of what marketers need to do to build a successful brand.  For Cal, building his brand came naturally.  It flowed from his love for the game.  Let’s look at the incredible, almost textbook branding lessons to be learned from Cal.

Stand for One Thing
You can’t be all things to all consumers.  It never works.  You have to carefully determine what you are selling, and I’m not talking about whether you are selling software or accounting services.  What is the soul or the vision behind what you are selling – what are you asking your consumers to identify with emotionally?  

Hundreds of baseball players are selling baseball skills, but that doesn’t turn them into a popular brand like The Iron Man.  Throughout his career, Cal was always selling RELIABILITY and DECENCY.  Consumers identified with his blue-collar work ethic and “bought into” his brand.  Day in and day out, everyone knew what they were getting from Cal.

Clarity of Message
Once you have determined what it is you are selling, you need to make sure that this is clearly communicated through all that you do - from your PR and marketing messages to your people on the street to the products and services you provide.  Not 9 to 5.  But 24 hours a day!

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