Carson and Company

Companies still think that publicity is only for those large companies, or pr clients that have offices all across the country. No True!

The size of your company should not be a factor in developing a pr marketing strategy. What you need to understand is that publicity when implemented correctly, can actually help any size company grow. When you see articles on the larger corporations, like Microsoft, pr clients tend to feel that only “those guys” get all the glory. If you have a solid pr marketing strategy, and your publicity agency is equipped to implement a pr campaign, then you too can be “in the news”.

Just make sure what you offer is newsworthy. And above all, keep your company away from legal issues or personnel issues that can have a bad reflection on your business. For years we have provided pr clients with a host of programs designed to accomplish their goals. Here are a few tip that you should include into your pr marketing strategy campaign.

1- Put together an eNewsletter. This can be monthly, or bi-monthly. Write informative “how to” or “tips” that your customers will enjoy and learn from

2- Get involved in community programs or events. This is what the press are looking for. You can submit your photos of an event your company sponsored or created and invite the press to attend. If they don’t, send photos of the event to the reported covering community stories in the newspaper.

3- Become a guest speaker. Look at local Chambers of Commerce, community and civic groups to see if they will let you speak on topics you know. It makes sense to discuss about your industry. But don’t SELL your services or products. Instead, discuss how your industry, and your company) is improving the area, or helping to change things for the better.

Many other tips can be found in various articles that discuss publicity. One in particular is an online site called Direct. You can also find tips at the PR Insider. And if you want to get a professional group to get your small business noticed, give us a call. We can show you how to make your company grow using publicity. It is an affordable solution for small businesses.

PR Clients can get bad Publicity, or Good Publicity. Which one is best for your company’s public relations?

To get a better understanding, you need to first know how to react to publicity exposure. Whether you are the pr client who is getting bad publicity, or good publicity, you must have a plan that has positive reactions. Being prepared to answer questions is critical in any pr campaign. Keeping personal feeling aside, and keeping a clear focus on business can alter how the media perceives you, which in turn will be how the consumer reacts to your name. Your response can increase your branding position if handled properly.

Let’s get into the good and bad of publicity. For example, Mattel received a lot of media exposure for their toys that were made in China using lead paint. An article in the New York Times describe the situation. As much as this was negative publicity for that pr client, they took too long to respond. In addition, the CEO chose to not accept that Mattel should take responsibility for their non-involvement of the Chinese manufacturer. A positive note would have been to address the issue quickly by mentioning that it is difficult for US companies to keep a strong control over companies in China that you contract to manufacture products. It is known that this country is still in a competitive situation and will switch to cheaper materials even after you contract with them. The lead paint was probably what the manufacturer in China selected after the agreement, because they (the Chinese company) could make a few cents more per toy.

Is this Mattel’s problem? Yes, they should do a check more often of their products. Why? Because the US standards are more rigid and they (Mattel) should become more active with offshore manufacturers. On a positive note, Mattel was quick to provide consumer web sites, and recall centers to avoid any harm to children. That was a positive move. So I ask, was the negative publicity good or bad for Mattel?

Ok, let’s move to Countrywide. As you know, they have been hit hard with the sub-prime loans going “south” in the housing market. Was the publicity bad? Of course. Did it hurt the company? Yes. Is it as forgiven as Mattel’s negative publicity, NO! Why? Because Countrywide had complete control and knew exactly what they were doing and the CEO knew the condition of the market and how they (being the largest in that industry) were actually controlling its outcome. Countrywide within the industry is known to do these poor loans in the past, so it is no surprise by inside industry people and companies. But did Countrywide respond correctly. NO again. They ignored the problem and hoped to be bailed out. That is exactly what B of A and Citibank are doing. Saving their butts. Yet, the CEO, the top executives are all getting their big paychecks, and enjoying life without caring what they have created in the housing market. The company refuses to admit to all the wrong doings, and blame people for the slump. But it is these companies, like Countrywide and all the others who cause the problem, not those who got loans that really should not have been granted loans.

Now you decide, is the publicity and handling the reaction to the negative publicity good or bad for Countrywide. My guess, it is bad. Few will want to do business with them, unlike Mattel; people will forgive them and buy their toys in the near future.

Like an ad campaign, publicity needs consistency

So you ran a pr release last week, or was it last month? And maybe you had an article scheduled to be in a publication, but the editor, or reporter had to cancel, delaying the article for another month or two.

If this is how your publicity campaign sounds, then you need to rethink what you’re doing. It is up to your pr agency, or pr staff to continually develop press releases, pitch stories, or arrange for interviews. It is this on-going effort that makes any campaign: publicity or advertising, become effective and gain exposure. The positive results will follow when you have this concentrated effort in place.

Another pr company, PowerPR, has in his blog today a similar viewpoint about handling your publicity campaign. The title of his blog "Have you published a release lately" parallels my philosophy on publicity.

Whether you are a pr client looking for increased exposure, or work as a pr consultant, consistency and repetition is critical. Another good idea is to have a regular eNewsletter that is published and sent to the media. Don’t go wild sending them an eNewsletter every week, or even monthly. It should be sent just prior to submitting a release or pitching a story. The eNewsletter should also be of good information. It wouldn’t hurt to have a short preview about the product or service that will be presented to the media.

Keeping a flow of activity in your public relations program is how to help get recognition. This will also help build brand identity and awareness.

See Also

• Have a PR plan that is aggressive
  Publicity needs to be on-going

It is time to review the publicity program

Pr clients and publicity agencies are guilty of developing Publicity Plans for the year and forget to review the activity and analyze the results at least every quarter.

We live in a fast paced world surrounded by constant changes in economy, products, businesses and jobs. Keeping this thought, it is a good idea that you review every quarter the publicity activities that your PR Plan had outlined. Make a checklist to see if the goals and results are in line with the objectives you specified.

If you are working with a publicity agency, then call a meeting with them. Don’t call a surprise meeting; tell them in advance what the meeting is about. Let them know that you want to review the overall publicity program and compare the results. This is also true if you are doing publicity in-house. Give your pr staff time to document and collect what you need to make a clear evaluation.

A mistake companies make when implementing a pr campaign is the lack of patience. Because things are moving fast, we tend to feel that publicity runs at slow pace. Publicity is not something that happens overnight. Nor are the results. Unlike running an ad, which can be monitored and scheduled for print, a publicity campaign requires patience and planning. Working with the media and all the different editors, publishers and Internet pr services can be rewarding when the plan is given its due time to get the results.

After reviewing the results of the pr plan, discuss with the staff what needs to be changed in the PR Plan. Keep in mind to not make a 180-degree change, unless drastic changes occur in your industry or economy. Make changes that will best achieve the results you want. By keeping your focus on the original objectives will allow your plan to go in a positive direction to gain positive pr.

See Also

• Making your publicity plan work for you
  Keep a clear focus on the objectives

Photos are important for publicity

Before you send out that press release or article to the editors or publishers of a magazine, make sure you analyze the photos. This means to make sure the photos are:

• Not boring
• Has a visual that is of interest
• Captures the mood you want
• Is creative

These are a few tips to consider when submitting photos in any publicity campaign for pr clients.

Another tip is to make sure when you include people that the photos are not showing a smiling person if the release, or article is of a serious nature. A book titled "How to use Photos and Graphics in your Publicity Campaign" sums up a lot of the mistakes publicity people make too often. Whether are in the publicity industry, working for a pr firm, or happen to be a pr client doing your own stuff, this book could help. It is not telling you things you probably don’t already know, but it will keep you in line with the things to look for when including photos with your pr campaign.

In addition, you need to consider different angles of the subject. Of course, if the release is about a product, there are only so many ways to shoot it, right? Wrong. Be creative, but not too creative. The purpose of the photos is to help visually get the message across and offers the publisher, or other media, an option to use when publishing the release or article.

Just like a good ad has more potential of being noticed and read, a well written release with good photos has a greater chance of being published.

See Also

• How to get more out of your publicity campaign
  Keep the attention by using creative photos

Get more traffic using these tools

No matter what your clients or pr agency says, you cannot have a successful pr campaign if your web site isn’t visible to the search engines.

So what does all this mean? By working with your pr staff, or your publicity agency, and the marketing people and the web IT department, you will see positive results.

Now let’s talk briefly about your web marketing. Maybe you do not have a web marketing or IT department, or your web designer doesn’t do marketing for web sites. No matter what your situation is, start building links to your web site. First, let me remind you that the site needs to be optimized for any site to gain credibility and ranking. If you are not sure how to optimize the site, contact me and I will give you a FREE analysis of your site’s optimization.

In previous blogs, I have addressed the two types of links. They are:

• ONE WAY links. This is when you ask someone to have him or her place a link to your site on his or her site.
• RECIPROCAL links. These are the type of links that you exchange with another relevant web site. Basically, you are linking to each other’s site.

Remember that it is always best to link to a high-ranking web site. And it is more critical to link to a site that is relevant to your industry. If not, then you are defeating the process and the search engines will penalize your site.

Some other web marketing tips:

1- Do Not link to too many sites too fast. For example, Google wants to see a slow progression of links built

2- Try to get about 5 or 6 new links per day

3- Make sure your keywords are relevant and placed into the text (body) of your message and into your title pages

If you want to learn more, contact me.

See Also

• Web Marketing–How To Do It Right!
  Publicity with web marketing creates results

I was reading an article by Robert Kelly and he pointed out that PR sometimes doesn’t show as much in return as does the brochures a company produces.

Part of the problem that Mr. Kelly points out is that PR is a team effort. I agree with this. Too often companies ask a PR or Advertising company to put together a campaign. What typically happens, the company doesn’t implement the campaign elements into their own organization.

How can you then expect a campaign, or program to become successful if the company doesn’t have its employees support the campaign elements.

Pubicity needs to start within a company. A team effort is just that. Everyone working towards that same goal. Both the company and the PR or Advertising Agency that was hired must all act upon the same goals set forth.

This may seem very elementary, but it is a problem that does exist. Companies and PR firms are too often pointing fingers at each other when the campaign isn’t working. What should happen is a careful monitoring of the campaign with constant communications between both parties.

This will create a successful partnership and campaign when everyone works together.

It cannot be said enough that you need to know who the media are. I don’t just mean their name, which of course is very important. What you need to do is find the type of media that best suits your pr objective.

For example, if you are seeking another round of funding, or want to attack potential buyers, you should concentrate on "financial media". If you want to get the attention of dealers, or distributors to represent and sell your products, then the trade publications in your industry would be chosen.

Simple, right? Well, not really. Finding the right media sources to target is where the challenge begins. But that’s another subject we can discuss later.

An interesting article I came across the other day can help you organize your pr campaign. The article addresses these specific issues:
Planning, Media Tactics, Execution and Follow-Up.

The article provides a simple process to follow, even has questions to ask yourself about the target media, such as: Who does this program affect? Who should receive this message? What is a common denominator for members in this group(s)? What core values and objectives are shared? What benefits are expected for these individuals? Who has the ability to reach and influence other audience members?

Your story or release might not have all the answers to these questions, but it causes you to stop and analyze your approach to the media. You can never stop learning about how to reach and target your media prospects. So continue the learning and check out Four Elements of Effective Media Relations and other articles.

See Also

• PR Glossary