The Holiday Season: A Marketing Opportunity & A PR Necessity

October 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Consumers spent $407 million on Thanksgiving Day 2010, a 28% increase compared to Thanksgiving Day in 2009, according to ComScore, – and that was just Thanksgiving!  The holiday season offers a unique marketing opportunity; one that you can’t afford to miss.  Whether you should launch a holiday PR campaign is not the question, the question is: what should the campaign be?  What are your stories?  What is your focus?  Even during rough times, people and businesses spend money during the holidays.  The forth quarter offers you a unique opportunity to get the word out about your business, service or product.  The holiday season is also a period when the media is looking to run articles and segments on gift giving stories.

Keep in mind that a holiday timed PR push has a number of objectives.  To begin with, and the most obvious, it can drive sales and bring in clients or customers.  It also offers you an opportunity to further establish your brand for the New Year.  Also because this is a time when the media is actively looking for stories, you can gain the credibility and validation that comes from being feature in the news.

When launching a media relations campaign during this time frame, remember to target and focus your pitch so that it fits into the holiday theme.  Keep the various media lead times in mind.  The monthly magazines generally work on a three to four month lead time.  You can sneak some stories in after those dates, but pitch well ahead to be safe.  The shorter lead media outlets (weekly magazines, newspapers, TV and radio) start gathering their holiday gift guide information in October and early November.  With the shorter lead media, you also have a shot at landing a story up to a week or two before the actual holiday.

If you’re starting your campaign in October or November focus on short lead media.  Print publications often develop holiday gift guide sections and TV and radio will generally run segments on holiday gifts, holiday food, dining, clothing… you name it.   Since you’re targeting the sort lead media, your primary focus is going to be local when it comes to print, although don’t ignore the weekly news publications, or, if your story fits, such outlets as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

And don’t ignore the online media.  There are blogs devoted to just about every topic imaginable.  Find ones that target your field and pitch them story ideas; if appropriate, offer holiday giveaways.  Just about every publication has its online counterpart, so pitch their online outlets stories.  In this case if you didn’t pitch the long lead media in time, you have an opportunity to garner coverage on their online publication.  Also, use this time to share your holiday message via your own blog and social media including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The bottom line is that there is no better time to get the word out about you, your business, your product or your service.    Although all holidays offer unique media opportunities, keep in mind that the time period from Halloween to New Year is one that you can’t ignore.  It is a definite marketing must.

In my next article I’ll review how to pitch your holiday story ideas.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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Perspective Creates Reality: How the Media is Prolonging the Economic Mess

October 18, 2011 Leave a comment

We’re fooling ourselves if we don’t think that the media profoundly shapes our reality.  We are what we know and if all we hear and see is that the economy is tanking, that our politicians are useless and that things are getting worse on a daily basis, then in time those thoughts and feelings define us.   I’m not advocating ignoring the facts and viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, but I am saying that collectively we act and react based on what we hear and see.  Watching a continual stream of segments on how the economy is tanking and reading article after article on how there are no jobs and why credit has dried up is going to impact the choices we make and that in turn impacts the economy.

Fearing the worst, individuals are going to spend less, employers are going to take a wait and see attitude towards hiring, and banks are going to tighten their lending practices.  That is human nature.  That is how we work.  We act and react based on what we know and corporations and governments act and react the same as families and individuals.  I know we like to think that CEOs and politicians are above such human frailties and act in sane rational ways, but they’re simply people and they react as we all do.

Consider the stock market.  We basically bet our economy on this system, yet its ebbs and flows can be measured on a daily basis by what news the media is reporting and how it is reporting it.  And I’m not talking about fact-based reporting, but on speculative stories.  If CNN, the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times run a story about something that might happen, or about an event that could have a potentially negative effect, the market generally reacts in a big way the following day, not based on facts or figures but based on emotional reactions. Surely that is an oversimplification of how the market works, but it is a much bigger factor than experts generally give credence to.

It’s as though we want to pretend that in the worlds of economics and politics, human beings suddenly act and react in non human ways.  We want to believe we’re rational grown ups and that the economy is based on facts and numbers and therefore is not subject to fears and fantasies.   That is simply wrong.  Continual doses of doom and gloom causes (guess what?) you got it more doom and gloom.  We are creating a self fulfilling prophecy, but we refuse to see it.  We want to pretend that grown ups don’t act in such emotional irrational ways.  But it’s been shown time and again that they do.

So, what if the focus shifted?  What else would shift?  My bet is quite a bit.  The media’s not going to change; they are convinced that if it bleeds it leads and that’s where they’re going to stay. But what if collectively we changed?

This is where personal public relations, particularly media relations, along with social media and blogging can make a huge difference.  It’s true that PR is used to drive business, but it can also help change attitudes and policies.  It can impact the stories that are covered and can help change the direction that the media takes.  If a story you pitch is covered, another possibly downbeat story gets bumped.  If a momentum starts, then a shift begins.  It’s cumulative, it takes time, but collectively it helps us take some control back.   What if we were to start pitching and blogging and posting good news stories?  What if the media no longer defined our world for us?  Who knows how the world would change.  I say, let’s give it a shot.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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The Value of Online Press Releases

September 30, 2011 Leave a comment

Online press releases are a bit like ants at a picnic.  They are everywhere and can be a bit annoying.  Whereas they do have their uses, it’s important not to confuse online with offline releases.

Traditional (offline) press releases are used to pitch a story to the media.  They are your calling card; a quick way to tell your story and highlight exactly why the media should cover you.  But when it comes to landing media, a press release on its own is seldom going to do you much good.  It’s true that we’ve placed stories by sending out a press release, but those instances are rare.  Chances are you’ve also heard stories of companies that have placed a press release on one of the paid wire services and have gone on to garner national media coverage.  Those stories are also true, but, to be honest, your odds are better of winning in Vegas than of hitting it big in the media world on the strength of a press release.  A press release can be a great introduction, but if it’s not followed up with phone calls and other media approaches, chances are it’s not going to get you far.

The job of the traditional press release is to start a conversation and to generate some initial interest or curiosity.  Online press releases have different objectives.  When effective they can help you move up in search engine rankings, build back links and help drive targeted web traffic.  If you’re lucky they will get picked up by other news sites and blogs.  If you’re remarkably lucky they can result in landing you traditional media coverage.

As I mentioned earlier, they can help with your SEO.  So know what keywords to use.  Use one of your primary keywords in your titles and incorporate other keywords into the content.  Don’t overdo it though.  Be judicious in your keyword usage.  Keep in mind that with online press releases you’re primarily talking to your target audience, whereas with traditional press releases you’re talking directly to the media.  Those are very different audiences.  With online releases, create copy that is as relevant to your audience as possible article content.  Don’t sell yourself or your product or service; offer solutions.

But if traditional media is your objective, sending out online press releases is generally a very ineffective approach.  They can be seductive at first.  Your releases might get picked up by Google or Yahoo or other online sites, which is fun to see, but the chances of that type of exposure leading to coverage in a magazine, newspaper or on TV are remarkably slim.  So keep your objectives in mind when deciding what types of press release you want to utilize.  Both traditional and online releases have their place, but each has a different function.  If your objective is to help increase your web traffic and raise your search engine ranking, online is worth a shot.  If you’re looking to gain coverage in TV, print, or radio, whereas online might help, to be truly effective, focus on the traditional approach.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Gregory, Alyssa. “Publish Your Story to the World.” Photo. SitePoint. 02 Oct 2009. 30. Sept. 2011. <http://www.sitepoint.com/online-press-release-distribution-sites/>

Filed under business, Media, news, Public Relations, social media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Steve Jobs Approach to PR Magic

September 20, 2011 Leave a comment

By branding yourself as well as your business, you set up a two-pronged marketing campaign.  By establishing yourself as an expert in your field, you become the authority, the go-to person in your particular arena.  This type of validation will then extend to your product or service.  People buy what they trust.  Establish yourself as an expert and you won’t need to sell your clients or customers, they will come to you.   People will look to you not only for your product or service but also for you advice, your savvy, your expertise.

That is what made Steve Jobs so immensely valuable to Apple.  Love him or hate him, people saw him as the innovator, as the one who changed the field, the one who came up with the most interesting and exciting products.   The one they could trust. Whenever Steve jobs presented a new product, be it the Mac, iPhone or iPad, it wasn’t just a presentation, it was an event; it was an experience.  Journalists would fall over one another to cover it. And it wasn’t simply a tech story; it was a pop culture event.  It would be covered on every type of media outlet from Wired, to the Wall Street Journal, to CNN, to Extra.

Okay, so you’re not Steve Jobs.  But you get my idea.  An effective PR approach is to establish and brand yourself as you brand your business; and branding is perhaps the main function of a successful media relations campaign.  Yes, you want to reach prospective customers and clients, but you also want to establish who and what you and your business are.  Remember you’re not selling a product or service, you’re building a brand that establishes your value in the marketplace.  That is precisely why you need to view PR as a long term process.  It’s impossible to establish a brand in a few months.  It is a cumulative process.  You need to be consistent.  You need to stay on course, particularly during the first six months, which are generally the toughest.

Building a brand comes down to creating a strong narrative, building a strong story that people relate to.  That’s where Jobs understood the process more than most.  The Apple brand came to be an ongoing story with new chapters being added with the launch of each new product.  Jobs established himself first as a wunderkind, then as a visionary, then as a shrewd business leader who could turn a business model on its head and open new markets.  But that legend didn’t simply happen on its own.  It was a well crafted, strategically organized public relations campaign.

As an entrepreneur or business owner, take a page from one of the shrewdest marketers we’ve seen in ages.  Brand yourself as you brand your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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Why Your Customers Can be Your Best PR

September 13, 2011 Leave a comment

Your best stories might not be your product or your service; your best stories illustrate your value.  Where most people get lost when trying to come up with story angles or media hooks to launch their PR campaigns is that they focus on what is important to them, as opposed to what would interest the media.  It’s an easy trap to fall into and one that railroads most public relations campaigns.  So what makes for a good story or pitch idea?  Remember, your focus is on the media and the media’s focus is on their readers, viewers or listeners.  If you can pitch a writer a story that is going to interest their readers, or a TV producer a segment idea that is going to hook their viewers, you’re going to succeed.

But again the most difficult part is being able to step back and come to terms with the possibility that the story that you want to get in the media may very well not be the story that the media is interested in.  So, for now, forget your product or service and focus on your value.  How to you impact people’s lives?  Do you help people make more money?  Do you save them time and effort?  Do you help them lose weight?  Do you make them healthier?  Focus on what you do for your clients or customers.  Keep in mind that your best stories are often your client success stories.  Make a list of clients or customers who have interesting impactful stories they can tell.  You want these stories to illustrate how lives were changed or transformed by working with you or buying your product or service.

Contact the appropriate clients, explain how their stories can help educate and inform others who are dealing with similar problems or issues.

If the stories include before and after photos, make sure to get images that are as professional as possible.  Have your clients sign a release form.

Match the various patient stories to the appropriate media outlets.  For example a story about weight loss, would be pitched differently than a story about a new financial product.

Meet with the clients and review the questions that the media could ask them.  Make them as comfortable as possible with the process.  Remember, these clients are not only telling their stories, they’re representing you and your business.  You want them to be articulate the presentation to be accurate and appropriate.

When talking to a client about the process, explain what would be involved and see if they’d be willing to talk to the media. Keep in mind that often this can amount to free PR for them, so it can be presented as a win-win arrangement.  The media gets a good story, your client can often mention his or her business and you are presented as a solution to a problem.  Not a bad deal.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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How to Maximize Local PR

August 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Whereas I’m a big believer in going national if you have a strong story, there is a lot to be said for regional and local PR coverage.  If you live in a major media city such as Los Angeles or New York, local media placement can be challenging because in a sense many of the outlets in those cities offer a more national slant; plus, simply because of the sheer numbers in those cities, the competition is fierce.  But, even in major cities, if you shift your focus from the primary outlets and concentrate on the smaller more community based newspapers and magazines you can launch a local-oriented campaign.

Keep in mind what interests local media are local stories.  You need to understand their audience and their needs.  Their focus is community based.  For example if you are based in or you were born in Boise, Idaho and you’re pitching the local newspapers or TV stations, your tie to that city is your lead.  If you were pitching the Today Show or Time magazine, where you’re from or where you were born is generally incidental, unless it directly impacts the story.

Reference local events and/or partner when possible.  When putting on your own event, use local resources.  Pick a person or a brand that is well recognized in the community.  If there is a local cause you can get involved with, do so.  Connect with causes and charities that directly impact the area.

If you have a personal story that has a local slant to it, use it.  Maybe a story as to how you built your business, or a story about how your product, service or company helped transform the life of someone else who lives in the community.  The media loves transformational stories, so offer them one with a strong local hook.

Study the local media outlets.  Research the types of stories they do, the style they use as well as their tone and approach.  You want to pitch towards their needs.  The more you study and learn about your local media outlets, the better prepared you’ll be to pitch them stories they can use.

Remember to tie in holiday oriented stories and pitches.  Do something fun or different or interesting.  Give it some thought.  Don’t just stick to the main holidays; remember St. Patrick’s Day or even April Fools Day.  But always give your pitch a local slant.  Remember you’re drilling down, pitching narrow, not wide.

And don’t forget to amplify and magnify your local media coverage using social media. Whenever you get a newspaper or magazine story, or a segment on local TV, make sure and place links to those media hits on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites.  And guess what, by posting your story on the internet; you’ve now turned that local story into a national and even international story.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under business, Business Strategy, Media, Media Exposure, Media Relations, PR, social media, traditional media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When Should You Launch A PR Campaign?

August 5, 2011 Leave a comment

If you’re reading this in real time, it’s early August, the talk shows are gearing up and getting ready to start production and the monthly magazines are turning their attention to their holiday issues.  There is no greater time to launch a public relations campaign than now.  But what if you’re reading this in December or early June, should you wait, move forward? What is the best time to launch a PR campaign?

The answer is, it depends on your specific needs.  Unless I’m dealing with a seasonal or holiday oriented product, I seldom decide when to launch by looking at the calendar.  What I focus on are my client’s needs and objectives.  If you have a product, or service that is ready to launch, do it now.

If you’re a larger company and are launching a fashion line or new toy line, your timeline is different, you want to launch in time to hit whatever your primary season is, or your industry’s particular timeline.  But if you’re a newer company, or are launching your first PR campaign, your primary focus should be on establishing your presence.  At this point, forget what the big players are doing, your focus and your intent is different.  If you’re a new clothing line, your PR strategy should not mirror that of Ralph Lauren.  That company is currently on a different trajectory than yours.  It has different goals than yours.  If all goes as planned you could be launching that style of media relations campaign in a few years, but for now focus on your own unique objectives.

That can be confusing, because chances are the feedback you’ll get from others will be based on what other companies are doing.  Remember, right now chances are you’re not competing with Paramount Pictures, Facebook, Harry Winston or Revlon.  You might be playing in the same arena, but you’re playing a different game.  Don’t get steered in the wrong direction.  Chances are you’ll end up wasting quite a lot of time and money.

If you’re launching a new product or service, or are a relatively small company and are doing PR for the first time, your objective is to get yourself on the map.  You want to establish yourself and your company.  With that in mind, unless your product is specifically seasonal or tied to a particular holiday, your focus shouldn’t be on when you’re going to launch your campaign but on whether you have your stories, release, media list, bio, pitches and game plan ready to go.  Your focus should be on starting your campaign now.  The media never stops.  They are always looking for new stories.  So, put the calendar away and get ready to launch.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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Developing a New PR Approach

July 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Marketing has shifted dramatically in the past decade.  With the advent of blogs and social media, companies now have different marketing and PR needs.  With that in mind, it’s important to rethink your approach to media relations.  As opposed to focusing solely on traditional PR campaigns or 100% on online campaigns, consider a menu of strategies.   What fits your specific needs can vary, from

1) A full blown traditional PR and social media campaign,

2) A campaign that emphasizes traditional public relations, along with a more targeted online media approach,

3) One that cover a targeted traditional media outreach in conjunction with an online media approach,

4)  A campaign that focuses 100% on online PR

5) A social media campaign.

6) You get the picture, you can mix and match.

Remember what is right for you and your company depends on your specific needs and its budget.  Although it is possible to launch a successful online PR campaign, it is quite different from a traditional media outreach.  The media outlets and the overall approach have to be handled differently.  When launching an online campaign, you’re targeting bloggers, online media, forums and individuals via social media such as Facebook and Twitter.  Your approach needs to be more conversational and more personal in its tone. The traditional media approach is more formal and more press release driven.

This is a PR/marketing world of mix and match, and no one approach is designed to fit all.  Study your prospective clients and customers; review your marketing needs and how to best reach your target market. Now come up with a plan that specifically meets those needs.

Although both traditional and new media PR campaigns can be successful, your best bet is to create a campaign that encompasses both. Whereas some companies have been quite successful going strictly with the online approach, your needs might be better served by adding the credibility of being featured in the news.  A feature in a magazine or segment on a TV program changes how you’re viewed by your clients and prospective clients.  You are more readily perceived as an expert in your field.   People who see your magazine articles and TV segments on social media sites will view you as an expert, as a professional who can be trusted.

A strong traditional media campaign is still imperative to gain the credibility and validation of being featured as a news story.  Yet particularly when starting out, you can achieve your initial marketing goals if you have both a strong online presence and a limited traditional PR campaign.

Develop a media relations plan and campaign that is designed specifically for your needs.  Don’t assume you intrinsically know who your target market is and how to reach them.  Do your homework.  It will pay off in the long run.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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To Phone or not to Phone (pitch) The Media

July 12, 2011 Leave a comment

You’ve come up with your story ideas and pitch angles, you’ve written your press release,  you’ve sent out the email pitches and you’ve placed your release on one of the paid wire services and… nothing!  Not one editor or producer has called  to interview you or write a feature on you.  You’ve done everything right and everything’s gone wrong.  What now?

Time to turn to that small hand-held device that blinks and buzzes and rings (in an endless variety of tones).  Yep, the phone.  While you could pick it up and see if that editor or producer ever read your emailed press release, I can already tell you that chances are 99.9% that your release was never read.  Don’t be discouraged, however. Instead pick up the phone and interest the media in your story, not to try and sell your product or service, but to offer the media a compelling story idea that appeals to them.  There’s an idea.

An effective phone pitch is rarely jazzy or funny (although it can be both) but one that is real and genuine. Your objective is to briefly and succinctly let the media know how and why this story idea will work for them and their viewers or readers.  It’s not the time to try to sell.  Be you when you present the story. It’s best to pretend as though you are not calling someone who’s in the media when presenting this pitch.  It’s important that your enthusiasm is evident in both your voice and your delivery.  You don’t want to sound like a salesperson but like someone who is truly interested in the topic and wants to share it with others.

Review your press release and  break it down into the most important bullet points.  When you’re doing the phone pitch you won’t have time to pitch the full release and you definitely don’t want to read a pitch verbatim  from your release.  You’ll sound like a robot, which will make you less believable.  But do use your bullet points from the release as an aid.  Have them  in front of you and let them guide what  you want to say.  Don’t insist on sticking to a scripted approach.  It’s a conversation and as with any conversation it will ebb and flow and have its own rhythm.

Come up with the most compelling aspects of the story and lead with those.  Introduce yourself and let the producers or editors know that you’d like to give them a story idea.  Be polite and respectful.  Before starting your pitch, ask them whether or not it is a convenient time for them to talk. If they say it’s not a good time, thank them and ask if you can email a release and call at a later date.  Find out when would be a good time, thank them and get off the phone.

If the answer is yes, start your pitch and keep it concise.  Remember you don’t have to tell your whole story.  You want to hit the highlights, the points that make it interesting. And you want to illustrate why this story is a great fit for the particular media outlet you’re pitching.    When to make your pitch, how to pitch national versus local and how to leave a voice mail pitch will be covered in my next article.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

 

Filed under Build Your Business, business, Marketing, Media, PR Campaign, Press Release Writing, Public Relations Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PR 2.0: Succeeding in the New Media World

June 14, 2011 Leave a comment

When it comes to distribution and media outlets, PR has changed dramatically.  Mailing used to be the standard way of sending out information (actually it’s not a bad approach now a days, since everyone is getting so adept at hitting their keyboard delete button). But on the whole mailing in many ways has become archaic.  The number of media outlets and what defines a media outlet has also shifted.  Yet the basics of PR, which include defining your objectives, defining your stories, learning how to present your stories, defining your target market(s), and creating a media contact list that reaches your target market(s), remain the same.  Although the distribution channels have changed, and the internet has redefined who and what the media actually is, the public relations basics remain constant.

This truly is a situation where the more things change, the more they remain the same.  You still want to reach your prospective customers, you want to tell a compelling story, you want to give a call to action, and you want to demonstrate your value.  None of that has changed.  That is all as it always has been.  Yet, while the core basics remain the same, it’s true that just about everything else has changed. Mailing a release to editors and producers and making follow up calls is no longer the sole name of the game.  It is still a part of the process, but only a part, the media relations terrain is constantly evolving and the changes have made the process more intricate, not less.  Placing a press release on one of the paid wire services is not going to meet your public relations objectives.  Anyone can write what they consider to be a press release and send it out to a number of contacts and place it on a wire service.  The trouble is just about anyone does, so most of those releases remain totally ignored.  They might end up on some websites, but most of the time, little more than that will happen.

Many business owners think because there are the paid wires, blogs and social media sites that they can now effectively launch their own campaigns.  That sounds good in theory, but a do it yourself approach generally backfires.  Your best bet is to hire a company or a consultant who knows the terrain and can run your campaign for you.  In a sense this truly is the Wild West when it comes to PR.  There are those marketing experts who will tell you that they know exactly where PR is heading, but they’re all making educated guesses.  It’s a rapidly changing world.  Whereas social media and blogging have actually made traditional PR more important than ever, and as the internet and new communication devices evolve, the process of media relations itself is continually changing and evolving.

For example where you still want to pitch mainstream media in the traditional way, the following is an approach that would have been impossible only a few years ago.  Many high profile media outlets have added a box on their site that reports on various blog posts to the site.  One approach is to write a blog referencing a specific article from one of the magazines or newspapers that you’re interested in getting coverage in; then link your blog using a trackback link.  A trackback is a way of request notification when somebody links to one of your blog posts.  You can then submit it to Technorati.com.  Technorati will report it and the publication will link to you.  That was not a possibility a few years ago.   Whereas that can be valuable, and worth a shot, keep in mind it’s not the same as being interviewed by or featured in said publication.

In the world of PR 2.0, the internet has revolutionized how media and publicity campaigns are run.  The most effective PR approach is one that includes traditional public relations, blogging and social media.  The media world is no longer as clearly defined as it once was.  Social media sites and blogs have become as important as newspapers and TV outlets.  Make sure that you don’t confuse social media with online marketing.  Social media facilitates communications and conversations between people – it is not the practice of social marketing.

By understanding the new media world and combining your social media strategy and blogging with a traditional PR campaign you can create a powerful three-pronged 2.0  approach which results in more followers, more buzz, more customers and more business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under business, Media, Public Relations, Target Market Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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