Developing and using Public Relations as part of your current marketing plan provides a cost-effective method to improve awareness of your company, products, and services. Public relations allows you to stretch limited marketing budgets and, when implemented correctly, has the added benefit of providing credibility to third parties.
Still, while PR is an excellent marketing vehicle, understand that it takes time to build a successful PR engine and the results may not be immediate, making it difficult to assess whether your efforts are successful or need to be modified. With that in mind, you’ll want to do your best before implementing.
To get off on the right foot or to audit your current strategy that is not yielding the results you want, follow these five steps.
1) Develop a press kit.
Whether you’re a product or service company, there are three documents that EVERY media / press kit should have:
- to. Background-This provides the “history” of your business and should include information on when it was founded, by whom and for what purpose, as well as an overview of your offering.
- B. Fact sheet-This acts as a quick reference for key points about your company, such as location (s), contact information, size, markets served, board of directors and / or executive management team, revenue, brief description of the company and offers of products / services, mission statement, key customers, important milestones or awards / accolades, etc.
- vs. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)-This is a summary of all the most important elements of your offering and company in question and answer format, as well as answers to questions that are often raised by prospects, customers and partners.
Also, depending on what you are trying to achieve with the kit, it should include the relevant warranty for product / service offerings, current press releases, and any supporting or value-added materials such as product specifications and white papers.
2) Create a specific media list.
Whether you buy a list or create your own through research, you need to know more than just the name of the publication, the address, and the phone number of the editor or editor-in-chief. Buying a listing or service from Bacons, or similar vendors, provides this level of detail, but can be expensive. Either way, you’ll want to verify that the posts are appropriate for your target audience.
Next, you need to determine who the appropriate contact is, whether it’s an editor, writer, or freelancer, who covers your type of business. You can do a lot of this online and by searching their websites or by calling the main office and asking the receptionist or main operator. Get as much contact information as you can before contacting the publisher, you don’t want to waste your time contacting them.
Be sure to track your communications with each publisher, as well as the planned coverage in each publication, in a database, or on a spreadsheet. By doing this, you will be able to easily manage your efforts and your list.
3) Study the publications.
Gather the current and past issues of the publications on your media list and read them cover to cover. Take note of the audience, recurring columns, topics or story types, as well as who is writing, so you can better design your presentations to fit the post. You should also get editorial calendars to see what future stories pertain to your business. Check issue deadlines and be sure to send your relevant ‘speech’ to the appropriate editor well in advance.
4) Know your editors.
In addition to knowing your publisher’s contact information, there are several other things you need to learn about him in order to establish and maintain a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. Knowing your preferences is key. How do you prefer to receive information? (Believe it or not, some still want it by fax!) What is the best time of day or day of the week to contact them? What are they really looking for from you (that is, what will help them get the job done and get you the coverage you want)?
While you want to keep the lines of communication open and flowing, you should limit your outgoing contact with them to useful and newsworthy items and stick to what is convenient for them.
5) Have a plan.
It is imperative to develop a public relations plan that outlines your goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics for the next six months of the year. After documenting all planned and newsworthy events, launches and announcements, as well as other potential opportunities such as self-written articles, case studies, etc., you will want to create an implementation schedule. Map the opportunities you found in the editorial calendars to your ads and connect them to the calendar. Remember, submissions to editors will likely occur months before a press release is published, so you’ll need to make two entries in separate months for things like this.
Their ultimate goal throughout their efforts to get good publicity is to do their editors’ work for them. Give them information that they can use, that doesn’t require additional work or research on their part, and always think of ways to make life easier for them.
