PR Integration – Traditional Media Relations & Digital PR

January 9, 2013 Leave a comment

digital-v-printAs the media world changes more and more traditional publications have gone on to become digital media outlets.  Countless new publications are starting up with only an online presence.  Too often people think of traditional magazines as being true publications and online outlets (unless they are the online arm of such traditional media outlets as the New York Times, Vogue, Men’s Health or People) as basically useless or low rent outlets.  In reality, many online media outlets can gain you more traction and exposure than traditional outlets.  Sure there are some sites and blogs that reach only a handful of people and that’s why you need to do your homework before contacting any media.  But when used judiciously, a targeted online approach can help position you in the marketplace, build your brand and (and this one is really important) get you noticed by some of the major traditional media outlets.

online-newsroomsWhereas traditional media offers validations and credibility, online media offers speed and reach; it is the online media and publications that can get your story up and add to your digital pr strategy as quickly as possible.  This was impossible a few short years ago, but now, via online PR, your story can quickly get out in front of the public.  Combine validation and legitimacy with speed, targeting and reach and you have what I call Integrative PR.

As I’ve written in the past, you don’t want to choose between traditional and online media, you want to meld the two to fully maximize your campaign and your exposure.  For example, we recently placed a client in a number of online publications.  All of the stories were positive and they helped us increase our client’s exposure.  The articles helped the client brand himself and more fully reach his target market.  That was great in and of itself, but we then were contacted by a writer from the New York Times, who read some of the pieces online and wanted to interview the client for a story in the Times.  So those articles were doubly effective, they not only reached new readers, but they positioned the client in a way that interested the mainstream media.

When it comes to launching a comprehensive PR or media relations campaign, the name of the game is PR Integration.  Sure millions of people are online and that number is only going to grow, but the offline or traditional media sill wields amazing impact.  TV, newspapers, magazines and radio not only reach millions; the major outlets are the ones that still hold the star power.  Being featured in the mainstream media, such as the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show or USA Today still gives you the validation and legitimacy that no other form of marketing can offer.

The downside with a strictly traditional media outreach is that it generally takes quite a bit of time to build momentum.  The downside with online public relations is that, although you can get the information out quickly, people are now inundated with so much news that you can often find stories buried.

This is why PR Integration, the combining of online and offline media relations, is not only effective but important.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Kisor-Madlem, Alyshia. “7 ways online media benefits public relations”. Photo. PR Daily. 13 Nov 2012. 09 Jan 2013. <http://prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13116.aspx>

Momorella, Steve. “5 ways online newsrooms will save time and money.” Photo. PR Daily. 25 Jun 2012. 09 Jan 2013. <http://prdaily.com/Main/Articles/11998.aspx&gt;

Filed under Entrepreneur PR, Marketing, PR Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

5 Tips to Creating a Successful Small Business Marketing Strategy

August 30, 2011 Leave a comment

Everyday we are bombarded with news about new apps, new social media sites, and the latest online marketing approaches.  It’s easy to get lost trying to keep up with the latest developments.  It’s also dangerous; you can spend your time trying to stay ahead of the information curve, but fall behind when it comes to effectively marketing your company.  Your main focus needs to be on developing a marketing and PR approach that reaches your target market; sells products, brings in clients and grows your business. 

It’s tough to keep focus when you’re bombarded with information; the myriad marketing options available grow on a seemingly daily basis.   Whereas having a number of choices can often be a good thing, in this case that can cause you and your company to come to a virtual standstill, as you spend the bulk of your time struggling to figure out the most effective marketing approaches.

Strategy Tip #1   Remember, you don’t need to do everything.

You simply need to do some homework, experiment a bit, find out what works best for you and focus on what works.  Just because there are a variety of options available that doesn’t mean you need to utilize all of them.  You don’t eat everything on a menu, you pick and chose, do the same when it comes to your marketing strategy.  You can launch a public relations campaign, start a blog, target every social media site, and launch an online video campaign, ezine, email campaign.  You can also run a pay per click campaign and focus on offline marketing efforts.  Those are just some of your options.  If you try to implement all of those options, most of your time will be spent trying to make sense out of the marketing mix.

Strategy Tip #2 Work on one marketing approach at a time or assign different strategies to different employees in your marketing department.

Especially with online marketing, each program takes attention, strategy, and time.  Watch what your marketing department is doing.  Are they on the same page? Are they too scattered? Get feedback and reports, and manage to make sure they are effectively working each approach, one at a time, or in various organized teams.

Strategy Tip #3 Eliminate approaches that are too cumbersome, expensive or don’t speak directly to your audience from your marketing mix.

Go with a less-is-more approach and keep your focus on where you customers or clients truly find their information.

Strategy Tip #4 Begin a basic and effective PR and media relations outreach to offer your company the validation and credibility that comes with being featured in the media. 

Implementing a basic PR campaign can be as simple as writing a press release, and pitching targeted media outlets.  Follow topics that are trending in the media that relate to your area of expertise. Write a one page press release that includes an angle that will serve the media’s needs.  Email pitch and follow-up. Find more details on communicating with and pitching the media here.

Strategy Tip #5 Develop a presence online.

You’re job is to figure out which online direction serves you the best.  Study the various approaches.  You could perhaps benefit from article marketing; perhaps a blog is a good fit, study how you can best utilize social media and what sites work best for you.   Be selective, keep your focus on your market and stay targeted.  Build an individualized promotional campaign that serves your clients and reaches your prospects.  Don’t get lost in the marketing maze.  Stay focused and develop a marketing success formula for your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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How PR Can Help Your Small Business To Succeed

June 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Public relations is the most effective and least expensive way to build your brand, grow your business and establish yourself as a go-to expert in your field.  Whether or not you should launch a media relations campaign should not be the question, because the answer to that is a no-brainer; yes you should.  The real question is how are you going to do that? Your best bet is to bring on a firm or media consultant who can chart your marketing course for you and launch your campaign.  But whatever avenue you choose, the following points apply.

Don’t think that a PR, media relations or publicity campaign comes down to spamming the media with press releases and pitches.  The media is inundated with press releases.  They’re not looking for releases; they’re looking for good stories.  Simply sending out a release is not going to do the trick.

Press releases do have other uses now a days.  They are no longer pitches that you simply send to the media.  With blogs, forums, social media and online press release services you can now use your releases to directly reach your customer.  In fact that is probably the biggest value that a press release posted online has for a small company.  Chances are slim that the traditional media will react to an online press release, but it will help with your SEO and it is a direct way for you to reach customers.  One note of warning, do not post a press release on a blog site or forum in a press release format.  You might want to take some of that information and post in it a conversational way.  But posting a standard press release on a blog or social media site will generally backfire on you.  Your best bet is to comment on blogs, forums, social media sites or forums, but don’t pitch your product or service.  Talk about your field in general. Educate, give some tips but don’t try and sell.

When you do decide to give PR a shot, remember you’re not Google or American Express.  Don’t try to impress the media by trying to launch a campaign or a story the way a huge corporation would. For example, unless there is a truly compelling reason, my suggestion is that you stay away from embargoes and exclusives.  Those are only utilized in certain situations and if you don’t understand the process it can end up backfiring on you.  To clarify, an embargo is an agreement with certain media outlets where they agree not to publish or release a story before an agreed upon date and time.  An exclusive is an agreement to give your story to only one media outlet.  There are times these are important arrangements to make with the media, but chances are you’ll rarely run into one.

Remember that the media world has greatly expanded.  Traditional media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show and CNN still offer you the type of exposure, validation and credibility that no other form of marketing can offer, but that not where PR stops.  Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Digg, blogs, all of these are now a part of the media landscape and ignore them at your peril.  For example, if your local newspaper runs a story on you or your company, post a link to that story on the various social media sites.  This is a way for you to turn a local story into a national story.  Also utilize the power of YouTube.  Shoot a short video about you, your company or your service.  But don’t make it a sales video.  You’re not trying to run a commercial here; your job is to communicate with your prospective clients and customers.  Make a video where you illustrate how to solve a problem, answer questions, add value to the lives of those who watch the video.  If you’re going to use PR to sell anything, don’t sell your product or service.  Sell your value.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under Marketing, Public Relations, small business Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Marketing You

June 16, 2011 1 Comment

Sometimes it just seems as though we should market whenever and wherever possible, particularly during tough economic times.  And now with the array of marketing venues available things can get more confusing than ever.  The promotional choices seem endless including traditional advertising, direct marketing, public relations, online marketing, SEO, social media… the list just keeps growing.

But don’t simply make knee-jerk choices, when picking a marketing program, or building a personalized marketing machine.  When it comes to marketing, you can’t separate yourself from your business.  You want to reach your target market and increase sales, but you also want to present yourself and your company in a specific way.  With an organic marketing campaign, you’re not only marketing your business, you’re marketing yourself. You want your brand to illustrate who you are and what your company stands for.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

One the of reasons I’m such a strong advocate of traditional PR is that it is the best marketing tool available for branding your business.  Nothing offers you the validation and credibility of being featured in the news.  You are positioned as an expert in your field.  Your product or service is presented, not as an ad or a commercial, but as a news story.  But even within the PR arena, it’s important that you figure out:

How you want to be presented
Whether you’re comfortable being the spokesperson
What media you want to approach
What type of media angles you want to use, etc.

Even once you pick a marketing approach, such as media relations, you need to tailor it to meet your specific needs.

ADVERTISING & DIRECT MARKETING

So, let’s say that PR is part of your promotional mix, an integral element in your marketing machine, what other forms of marketing are you going to utilize?  There’s advertising, but that can get expensive, and if you’re going to give it a shot, you need to commit to giving it some time (actually you need to commit some time to any form of marketing to see if it actually works).  If advertising is in your marketing mix:

Where are you going to advertise?
What image are you going to put out there?

Direct marketing is another avenue, but again, does that type of marketing truly suit your type of business?  If you have a restaurant or a spa it very well could.  It might not suit another business as well.

INTERNET MARKETING

Finally, we come to the wild world of the internet.  Here you have article marketing, online advertising, blogging, social media, ezines, etc.  The trouble here is often it might look like you’re moving forward, where in fact, very little is happening.  You could have a couple of thousand followers on Twitter, but is that converting into actual business?  Also, with such approaches as article marketing or blogging, are you comfortable writing?  Is that one of your strengths?  On the net content is king.  If you are posting information, you want to make sure that it’s accurate and that it says what you want to say, how you want to say it.  There are those who will write and post for you and that can often work, but make sure that you are keeping your voice and your point of view, otherwise you’re losing control of your message, which means you’re losing control of your brand.

Some people thrive online and have fun posting blogs, commenting on other’s blogs and posting on the various social media sites.  Others find it intrusive and intimidating.  If you are one of the latter, that doesn’t mean you should avoid blogging or social media, but that you should either have someone do it for you who you can carefully supervise, or that you should come up with a system that takes no more than an hour a day.  So although social media is the buzz-of-the-day maybe you’re someone who hates the net, but loves the phone.  Cold calling could still be your most valuable marketing tool.  This entire marketing puzzle is best solved by focusing on your strengths.  Yes, there will be marketing arenas you’ll be leaving out, but that’s okay.   You’re life will be simpler, your approach will be streamlined and, you’ll find, your personalized marketing machine will work much more effectively.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under Branding, Business Strategy, Marketing, Public Relations Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Truth About Content Marketing

September 21, 2010 Leave a comment

Content marketing has become a new buzzword.  It’s spawned its own cottage industry; there are content marketing courses, experts, books, etc.  According to Wikipedia,   “Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.”

That’s great and although I’m a big believer in content marketing, an important point to realize though is that content marketing existed well before this term was coined and well before the internet became such a dominate force.  At my firm our focus has always been on content, on valuable information that the public and the media can utilize.  Good public relations firms have been utilizing content marketing for decades.  The concept is not a new one. It’s only the spin that’s different.  Similarly, media relations experts have been building and developing brands  long before the term “branding” became such a catch all term.

The emphasis on the approach, style and content are really not new, what is new is the mode of distribution.  Social media, blogging, online marketing.. those outlets are relatively new.  Still, they are the channels of distributing and disseminating information, they are not the information itself.

The new mantra is that “on the net content is king”, but in reality content always was.  Whether writing a press release, a white paper, or an article or pitching a TV segment, developing a good story and creating strong content have always been the bottom line.  An effective PR campaign has always depended on strategic content development.

The shift is in the medium(s).  Now you can deliver content via the traditional press outlets of TV, magazines, newspapers and the radio, as well as via blogs, vlogs, social media, and email marketing.  Using this combined approach a company can grow a business, build a brand, and develop a strategic reputation-building approach.

But keep in mind that a standard pitch or sales laundry list does not qualify as effective content.  The job is to solve a problem, offer a solution, advocate a new idea, or reveal a new way to approach a problem. You want to be inspiring, thought provoking, and offer cutting edge approaches and effective solutions.  You can discuss what’s new and what’s next, but the bottom line is that your content is useful and speaks to your target market.  How can you make your customer’s lives easier, happier, more time effective, more cost effective? Offer anecdotal stories that illustrate these points.  In this case content means value.

So, yes content marketing on the internet is an extremely important marketing tool, although social media and blogging are relatively new mediums, the basics of creating impactful content that tells a good story and offers value to the reader is as basic as marketing itself.  Content has always been king.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

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How To Identify Business Opportunities

August 14, 2010 1 Comment

Chances are you’ve been focusing on your prime business opportunities for a while.  Or at least what you think are your primary opportunities.  The trouble is business owners generally get locked focusing on what they see as their primary markets and seldom look at other opportunities.  Sometimes that means looking at ancillary markets that could possibly bring you new opportunities.

One way to broaden your perspective is by looking at sub-markets in your arena that are poorly served. Perhaps these avenues could represent a new market. Consider looking at your client’s clients.  Are there services or products that they might need that you could supply?

Is there something in your field that’s missing?  Maybe it’s something that others think could never be addressed.  Well, what if with some creative thinking there is a way to address it and help solve a problem that others haven’t thought of.

Look at your industry as a consumer.  What would you change?  How would you do business differently?

One of the most interesting approaches is to let new business opportunities find you.  You’ll never know all the opportunities that are out there, that’s just not possible.  But what if you get your story and information in front of prospects, potential clients, opportunities that you don’t even know are out there?

This is one of the most amazing benefits that traditional public relations can bring to your business. Whether you choose to hire a public relations firm, a PR consultant, or launch a media relations campaign on your own, by garnering media coverage in newspapers, radio and/or TV, your story and your business can be showcased to prospects, investors and possible business opportunities that are perfect for you.  Most of these you’d never know existed.

Via the press you’re presented as an expert, one of the tops in your field. The real plus to this is when a prospect calls it’s a completely different conversation than if you instigated the conversation through a cold call.  When they call you, it’s a completely different conversation.  As a business owner you couldn’t ask for much more.

So, start looking for new business opportunities, shift your prospective, look at your field and your business as a problem solver.  What problems are out there and how can you make money by solving them?

Perhaps most important, position your business so your opportunities can find you.  Even if you’ve never tried PR, try putting your toe in the water, give it a try.  When your phone starts ringing, you’ll know you’ve made a strong business decision.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, PR Campaign, traditional media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How To Get People To Buy Your Product or Service

August 11, 2010 2 Comments

So you’re done.  Your product is finished.  It’s ready to go.  The design and packaging are complete and the website is up and running.  Or… you’ve opened your store; the grand opening day has arrived.  The streamers are up.  Everything is complete.  Well, almost everything.  All you need is customers.    But, no worries, they’re coming, just give it a minute or two.  All you have to do is wait.  You keep your eye on the door, check your email, stare at the phone.  If you stare long enough it is bound to ring.   Silence.  You begin to hold your breath threatening the universe; you won’t exhale until at least one client calls.  Maybe a wrong number, at this point that would be nice.  Besides, you saw the film, you know the drill – if you build it they will come.  Right?

Okay, exhale now.  Maybe it’s time to rethink things.  It could be that creating the product, making the film, publishing the book, opening the store, or (fill in the blank) is just one step in the process.  Think of it as one chapter and one chapter does not a book make. So, now what?

How about driving traffic to your site, or bringing customers to your store?  That would probably make life a bit more comfortable and sleeping a bit easier.  But, how do you do that?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but happily, there is an answer.

1st) Figure out who your target market is.  Who are you selling to?

2nd) Find out where your target market finds its information,

3rd)  Create a marketing budget to reach your market,

4th) Study the myriad ways you can use your marketing budget. Is advertising an approach that will work?  Direct marketing? Public Relations? Blogging? Social Media?

5th)  Develop a realistic marketing gameplan.  For example create a marketing mix that includes traditional PR, social media, and article marketing.  That’s a formula that will give you the most bang for your buck, reach your target market and drive customers and or clients to you.

Now you not only have your product or service, but you have a realistic, workable marketing gameplan.  Now you can launch your business, land customers, make money – and actually sleep at night.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, Business Strategy, selling Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Experts Solve Your Toughest Business Problems

June 10, 2010 Leave a comment

Want to learn how to attract more clients, make more money, turbo charge your marketing campaign, and have your clients come to you.  Brand builder/communications expert, Ann Convery, best known for her Speak Your Business in Thirty Seconds or Less, has asked me to join with her in her upcoming teleseminar series.  We’re kicking it off with a free one-time teleseminar entitled: Impossible Inquiries—Superb Solutions! Join Ann and me, along with business experts Patrice Barber, President of Taylor Made Small Biz and Beverly Bergman creator of the Money Matrix Hourglass™.  I’ll be addressing how to use traditional PR to build your business, how to meld PR and social media and how to use article marketing to create an inbound marketing machine, which has clients come to you.  Learn more at: http://www.impossibleinquiriessuperbsolutions.com/

Filed under Authors, Branding, Build Your Business, business, internet marketing, Marketing, marketing strategy, Media Relations, PR, small business Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

The PRSBA Marketing Secret

March 5, 2010 Leave a comment

What can small or mid-sized businesses do in order to effectively build their business and grow their customer base?  Perhaps more importantly what can they do without paying an arm and a leg in a challenging economy?  How about implementing PRSBA?  No, this isn’t a Small Business Association off-shoot.  PRSBA is an anagram for public relations, social media, blogging and article marketing.  It is the ultimate organic formula for creating an effective and powerful inbound marketing campaign.  Inbound marketing is where your clients and customers find and contact you.  PRSBA is an authentic, organic form of marketing which was tailor-made for the internet.

How does PRSBA work?  First and foremost, you need to define your business.  You have to develop a succinct message that speaks directly to your target market and customer base.  Once you’ve developed your pitch, you’re ready to launch.

PR: It’s time to learn the basics about launching a public relations campaign.  Either do some homework to learn about the process, or work with a consultant.  You don’t have to shoot for the cover of Time, or Oprah.  It can be a limited local campaign.  What you’re aiming for are a couple of targeted articles or TV segments, a few media placements which will give you the validation and credibility of being the news.

SM:  Now comes the social media aspect.  Discuss your media placements on the various sites. Talk about them on Facebook, Tweet about them.  Use any number of social media sites to magnify and amplify your media coverage.  Through social media you can turn a local story into an international story.  Use this as an opportunity to connect to and relate with others.  Start discussions, ask questions.  Use your media coverage as a way to connect, not as a sales tool.

B: Now blog about the media coverage you’ve received.  Not in a bragging sense, but share the information.  Talk about the story, discuss the message.  Use this as an opportunity to connect with your readers.  Turn your blog into a different kind of PR vehicle; use it as a way to build Personal Relationships.  Your media coverage is important.  It helps legitimize you and your company, but the primary purpose of your blog is to connect with and communicate with your readers.  Don’t use it to sell, but as a way to forge new relationships.

A: This last step in the formula is Article Marketing, one of the most effective ways to offer your clients, customers, prospects, and the general public useful tips, secrets and information about your industry and your particular field.  Here content is king. Again, this isn’t about selling but about informing, educating, relating and communicating.  Post these articles on your site and on other appropriate article sites.  Write articles on a regular basis.  Build your content.

That in a nutshell is the PRSBA system.  The combination of these marketing approaches can create an inexpensive, incredibly powerful inbound marketing machine for you and your company.  You can change the order around, but to have the full impact, implement each step in the process.  This takes, time, thought, creativity and ingenuity, but, if you follow the steps in this system you and your business can successfully grow and compete with your biggest competitors.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under PR Campaign, social media Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Surviving the Marketing Maze

November 12, 2009 1 Comment

In the current business worlds, it appears that marketing is steering the ship, but not in the usual sense. In the past, having marketing drive your business meant just that, your marketing drove business to your company. Your PR and advertising reached your target market; it sold products, brought in clients and grew your business. Now having marketing drive your business, generally means jumping on the marketing treadmill in an effort to keep up with each of the latest marketing tools, which generally results in driving your business around in circles.

With the advent of the internet and social media, the myriad marketing options available grow on a seemingly daily basis. The dizzying number of choices often cause businesses to come to a virtual standstill, as companies struggle to figure out the most effective marketing approaches. The mistake many companies make is to decide to try every option available. The decision is often made out of the fear that something will be left out of the marketing-mix. So companies start a blog, target every social media site, launch an online video campaign, an ezine, an email campaign and continue with their offline marketing efforts. Most of their time is spent trying to make sense of the marketing mix, than reaching clients. That is not an effective marketing campaign; it is a marketing train wreck.

As a business owner or marketer, the most effective way to launch an effective campaign is to take a step back, study your business. View your company, product, or service as a customer would. Now use that as your guide. That is your marketing north star. Does having thousands of Twitter followers across the country or in Europe or India really help your business? If not, fine, eliminate that from your marketing mix. Go with a less-is-more approach and keep your focus on where your customers or clients truly find their information.

When devising your marketing plan, you want a public relations outreach to offer your company the validation and credibility that comes with being featured in the news. You may or may not benefit from traditional offline advertising, but you definitely do want a marketing presence online. You’re job is to figure out which online direction serves you the best. Perhaps it’s article marketing, perhaps it’s blogging, it might be social media, but don’t get caught in the trap that you have to do them all. Be selective, stay targeted. Build an individualized, well-thought-out limited, marketing campaign that serves your specific needs, and watch your business grow.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2009

Filed under business, internet marketing, Marketing, marketing strategy, Media, Media Exposure, Media Relations, PR Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

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