The PR Business Model Approach

August 2, 2011 Leave a comment

The World Book Encyclopedia defines public relations, or PR, as “an activity aimed at increasing communication and understanding between an organization or individual and one or more groups called publics.” That is a good start. A good PR or media relations campaign also informs and educates. If you think about it learning how to communicate, explain and educate the public about you and your company, service or product really drills down to the basics of business. And this is true whether or not you’re looking at launching a PR campaign. Whether you’re launching a public relations campaign or building a strategy for the overall communications, marketing and branding for your business, following the PR blueprint is an invaluable exercise.

Why is PR such a valuable tool?

Simple. Referrals, or the lack thereof, are what make or break most businesses. Business growth basically comes down to that very low-tech, old-as-the-hills strategy known as “word of mouth.
If you have a great product or service, but are unable to communicate what makes it great, who it’s for and why anyone should buy it, you’re in trouble. The basic steps for launching a PR campaign make for a great blueprint for any business owner to follow. Once you’ve outlined these you know what your message is, what your target market is, how to reach your target market and what your primary selling points are.

The Basic Questions To Answer Before Launching A PR Campaign Include:

Who are your target markets?
Why is your product or service valuable?
What problems does it solve?
What value does it offer?
Who is your primary target market?
How do you reach that target market?

When developing a media relations campaign, we then focus on the media outlets, when and how to pitch them and what angle to pitch where. But, even if you don’t get to that stage, simply answering the above questions can be invaluable. We’ve consulted with clients where our focus has been on defining the message, market and brand, without actively launching a campaign.

A successful campaign is based on lucid, crisp, to the point communication. You clearly appeal to your target markets’ wants and needs, and you illustrate how you, your product or your service meets those needs. You also need to throw in a little imagination and creative brainstorming.

Communicate your message in the shortest amount of time with the greatest impact. This is an important business skill, as well as a media skill; because we live in a 24/7 world and we’re assaulted with up to 20,000 images a day. Our attention spans are short – only about 10 seconds – so you need to engage the listener and you need to do it quickly.

For a campaign to be truly effective, it needs to be well strategized and thought out. It is a cumulative process that builds day by day and month by month. I have seen both businesses and careers launched through public relations, but I have also witnessed campaigns that went nowhere. The latter is usually due to ignorance of the process.

Know your market(s). You may have the best product in the world, but if you’ve picked the wrong target audience, or don’t know who they are, they’re needs, what defines them, it’s not going to work.

So, whether you’re launching a PR campaign, or are simply putting together the building blocks for your business, marketing and branding, follow the PR basics and develop your business game plan.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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

Success Secret: Sell Your Value, Not Your Service or Product

March 11, 2011 1 Comment

The clients are out there, you just need to reach them.  And the best way to get them to take notice, is to sell your value not your product or service.   But, before you can present your value, you have to understand exactly what it is.  Your product or service is what is most apparent, that’s what people see, but your value is generally a bit more hidden.  If you own a beauty salon, your service is pretty straightforward, you cut, style and color hair.  But what is the value you’re offering?  You help people feel younger, more attractive, happier, or more successful.  Your value depends on your client, but your value is more the emotion than the actual hair you cut or style.

What is it you’re selling? And I don’t mean what product or service.  Are you selling health, wealth, beauty, success, fun?  What is the value or effect that your product or service offers your customer?  Focus on that.  Sell your value not your product.  This can be trickier than it seems.  I’ve worked with several companies that understood the product they were selling, but not the value.  Take some time and figure out who your target market is and what your product or service truly offers.  What is the core value?  When you’ve figured that out, the next step is to find the best avenue(s) to reach them.

Once you know exactly what value you’re offering your clients, find the unique marketing mix specific to your needs.  Then you’re set to reach and land more clients – now!

Most businesses are looking for clients or customers. The trick is to reach them and then to effectively communicate with them.  Even in a shifting economy, people still spend money, buy products, and use services.  The economy may take a downturn but it will eventually start to go up again.  You not only want to be prepared for the upswing, you want to use strategic marketing and promotional tools now to find your clients and build your business, even during the most challenging times.

Consider all of the possibilities including advertising, direct marketing, public relations, Internet marketing, networking, etc.  Make a list of them as well as a list of how your business can benefit from each.  Pick two promotional avenues to start with.  My favorite approach is a mix of PR and specific forms of Internet marketing, since each helps reinforce the other.  You can create a buzz on the Internet and then launch a PR campaign around the phenomena you created, or you can post your media coverage on the Internet and multiply the amount of potential customers who see it by thousands, potentially millions.

Once you understand what you’re really offering your customer and can effectively articulate it, you’ll be able to define your most effective marketing venues.  Then, you’re set to move forward.  You’re ready to reach and land new customers- now!

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

 

Filed under business, internet marketing, sales, Sell YOur Product, selling Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

PR’s Secret Success Formula

July 22, 2010 Leave a comment

It’s difficult to launch an effective media campaign if you don’t study the media. Stories that are in the news and topics that are being covered can offer you a great launching pad for your PR campaign.  By tying your story into an issue or topic that’s already in the news, you’re pitching a story that you know the media is already interested and are making a pitch that you know is timely and relevant.  Obviously not every story is going to lend itself to your business or your expertise, but if you take the time to truly study the news and broaden the way you define yourself, you might be surprised how many stories there are out there that actually fit.

For example, let’s say you own a nursery.  You know plants and flowers.  Maybe there is a gala at the White House.  You can pitch a story on the floral arrangements that would work the best, or why the choices that were made were the right ones or (better yet) the wrong ones.  Or perhaps you can address the bee crisis.  Bees are endangered and that fact has been in the news.  Are there flowers we could plant or things we could do that would help?  Those are two stories that you could address that are already in the news.  You’re pitching yourself as an expert with specific expertise, not simply as a business owner who wants to promote your company.

When I wrote my PR books, The Alchemy of Success and Spin to Win, I pitched stories on how my books could help business owners learn the nuts and bolts of launching an effective media campaign, but those weren’t the media pitches that landed me in the national media.  I knew that if I wanted to garner coverage in the major media, my pitches had to be sexier, more relevant and come with a sense of urgency.  The best pitches have a call to action.  So, I studied the media for stories of celebrities, politicians and major businesses that were going through some kind of media crisis and presented myself as a public relations and damage control expert who could address how these media train wrecks could best be dealt with.  I covered the gamut discussing such topics as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Microsoft, and the presidential candidates.  I also discussed how various fields such as plastic surgery and the banking industry needed to shift the way they were positioned in the media.  This approach gave me a wide range of topics to address.  I had to move quickly and contact the media when a particular story was in the news.  But the basic pitch remained the same, only the specifics changed.  This approach landed me coverage in a wide range of media outlets including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, the BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC and many other media outlets.

This approach can be a bit more time intensive, but the upside is – it works.  It truly is the closest thing there is to a public relations silver bullet.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, Marketing, marketing strategy, Media, news, newspapers, PR, Public Relations, TV Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Working With Your PR Agency – Realistic Expectations and Avoiding Misconceptions

November 14, 2008 Leave a comment

You’ve hired a public relations agency and are excited, but anxious.  You’ve paid them the first month’s retainer fee in advance.  You’ve signed a letter of agreement, and now you’re committed.  What if they don’t do their job?  What if they’re just smoke and mirrors?  What if it doesn’t work?

agency

You and your agency are a team.  You are working towards the same goal.  And just as there are expectations and demands that you will make on the agency, you too have to fulfill your part of the bargain, if the team is going to work and meet its objective.  The agency’s obligations are to give you the best campaign it can, to come up with the best releases, come up with creative pitches, effectively utilize its media contacts, make follow-up calls and develop an effective and successful campaign for you and your business.  You in turn have only one obligation to pay your retainer fee on time.  But, if you’re serious about this and want the most successful campaign you can have, your list of obligations begins to grow.  These are obligations that you owe to yourself.  This is your business, this is your shot.  Do your homework, be practical, and leave your ego at the door.  You need to learn patience.  Develop realistic expectations and let your firm do its job.  And speaking of keeping realistic expectations, also watch out for misconceptions. ave you done?

Misconception #1:  Some business owners believe that they should never work with a company who represents any of their competitors, or companies in their same general field.  Whereas this may seem to make sense at first glance and I understand that logic, it’s actually not the case.  Sure you might not want to be represented by a company that represents a competitor who is a carbon copy of you; but, working with a firm that is known for representing others in your fielfd can have a huge upside.  Think about it, if the media sees the company as a go-to company for a certain type of story, chances are they’re going to listen when your firm pitches your story.  They’ll have the ear of certain valuable editors and producers and that’s often what you need.  Although that is not a reason to pick a firm, it is also not a valid reason to negate a particular company.

Relax.  You signed with the firm five minutes ago, and you’re already scrambling for the lifeboats.  I have had clients begin to panic within days of signing because we hadn’t yet placed them on the cover of Time magazine.  You may not have a story placed for awhile.  One of our most successful media relations campaigns began with a three month drought.  We were unable to place a story anywhere for the first few months.  Then it completely turned around.  We placed the client on national talk shows, news shows, and radio programs, as well as in major national magazines and major newspapers.

Whether they’re specialists or generalists, what it comes down to is whether the company you choose knows PR and whether you feel they are a good fit.  Communication is the name of the game.  You need a firm that understands your story and has the savvy and know-how to pitch it effectively.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

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Create Your Own Economic Upturn

October 10, 2008 Leave a comment

How to Stay Positive in an Economic Crisis
You can’t control the government, you can’t control Wall Street, you can’t control the media and you can’t make it so that it’s always a sunny summer day. But, when times are tough and those around you are singing doom and gloom, you CAN control on how you act, feel and react. It’s said that you control your life by controlling your reactions to life. And economic downturns are times to keep that thought at the top of your list.

So, your thinking could go something like this: times are tough, people aren’t buying, the cash flow is drying up. Best horde the money you do have. Hide it under your mattress and pray that things will get better. Now that’s a fun way to live.

Or, your thinking could go like this: this is a slower economy, most people do feel nervous and weary, but they still buy. This is a time when perhaps you change your marketing message to meet the current needs, but it is precisely the time to go forward. If people are going to be more frugal in how they spend their money, you want to make sure that your product or service is the one they think about during these times. You know life has ebbs and flows and you know how to utilize both. You see this as an opportunity to market, launch an effective PR campaign and grow your business. Change your perspective, become proactive, launch an effective, targeted PR campaign and create your own economic upturn.
Two ways to approach the same situation. The choice is yours.
Copyright © Anthony Mora 2008
For further information visit:
http://www.AnthonyMora.com

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Making Money in an Economic Downturn

October 8, 2008 2 Comments

Recession. Economic downturn. Tough economic times. Makes you want to hide under the covers until the storm passes, right? Maybe, but that’s the wrong approach. Let’s move from fear to facts. A number of studies show that companies that continue or increase their marketing and public relations efforts during tough economic times consistently outperform those who slash their marketing efforts during rough times.

Just Another Great Opportunity to Brand Yourself As an Expert in Your Field
Think about it. If most companies are reacting in a turtle-like fashion and hiding in their shells until the sun comes out again, there’s less competition out there; less companies are launching PR campaigns, fewer are reaching the public with effective marketing efforts. Suddenly you have media outlets that are looking for stories, particularly some good non-doom and-gloom stories. If you’re a savvy business person you know this and understand that this is precisely the time you can have a greater impact and get a bigger bang for your buck. So, look at tough times as your chance to reach your target market and build your business

The Most Powerful Marketing Tools and Strategies for your Business during an Economic Downturn

1) React Quickly: You know when times are tough. When people are arguing on the media whether we’re in a recession or not, I’d say chances are we’re probably there. And if not, at least marketing-wise act as though we are. Football has its two minute drill. Put in place marketing and PR drill for these times. Take action.

2) Develop stories that are appropriate for hard times. How can your product or service be positioned so that you can create a PR pitch that fits the tone of the times? Come up with a cost-saving story, a stress-reducing story, a feel-good story.

3) Write a one-page press release on the story that fits. Make it easy-to-read. Write a catchy (but not overly-cute) headline, add bullet points. Be clear, concise. Give the media the story they’re looking for.

4) Find the emails and snail mail addresses and get your release out to the media. Send it to all of the appropriate media outlets. Don’t only focus on local or regional media outlets. Go national. Make it a trend story idea.

5) Make follow-up calls. Don’t think because you’ve written a compelling release, sent it out to the appropriate media, that your job is done. Call. Be polite. Be professional, but make sure that the media has received your release and that they understand your pitch.

Do the Above and you have a great start for the Promotion of your Company
Now start coming up with other follow-up ideas. What else can you offer the media that you can tie in to the current economic situation? Remember these don’t have to be doom and gloom stories. They can be about how to relax, how to save money, or even how people are still being extravagant, even during tough times. Be creative with your stories, but get them out there. While your competition is hiding, make your move.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2008
For further information visit:
http://www.AnthonyMora.com

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