PR - does it work?

[top-click]

Hi All,

I want to try a bit of PR in my marketing mix - we have done some great stuff recently for a whole load of clients - had new biz wins, and have a lot to say about the industry we are in.

As a small and growning business, I want to be able to test the water and get some pointers - and not spend thousands of £'s on a camapign that may or may not work.

Any ideas from you PR people?

Regards
Rob

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[Amber]

PR works (well, I would say that ;) ) as long as you have something which is genuinely newsworthy to talk about, and target the right publications with it.

In order to know if it's really going to work for you, you have to take a step away from your business and ask yourself whether what you have to say is likely to be of interest to other people, or whether it's just of interest to you, because it's your business. For example, the fact that a business has gained a new client is rarely of interest to anyone except the business owners and shareholders, so the typical newspaper probably won't be interested, although a trade publication might be, depending on the nature of the client and industry.

Of course, I say this not knowing what kind of angle you're thinking of using, so feel free to take with a pinch of salt :)

[10 Yetis]

Echo Echo Echo - Me Echo-ing Amber's comments... :)

I look at campaigns that span the whole marketing area, i.e. direct mail, telesales, press ads, PR and alike and I have always found that if the story is good enough the PR element will always kick the arse out of the other marketing areas in terms of response rates.

Things to remember though; you cannot just go for it once and expect to get the type of coverage that will get you in the nationals. You have to test the water a few times and steadily increase your profile in the media, be it trade, regional, national and wider. This is where PR people can really help as they can, identify opportunities, write the releases for you, distribute them for you and give you strategic advice.

The other area where PR people can help is that they should have good contacts in the media that can get your business's foot in the door. This will hopefully allow you to stand out against the thousands of other stories that get sent to journalists every day.

[Marina Stone]

Your market is competitive, as you may well know!

If you would like to tackle PR I would approach this via your customer successes as a result of using your services.

I have had a look at your website and in your ‘scenario’ section you already have the start to writing a press release. There are two areas you could target with each customer.

1. Regional newspapers. This would be in the region of your customer. Local papers are always happy to report local successful companies, work through your customer success to promote your business and how you helped.

2. Publications dedicated to your customers trade. e.g. your ‘scenario 1’ talks about a financial business and it's success through using your service. Ideally, you would need to approach a customer with a story to tell apart from the service you provided, but the release needs to include your name and the impact you made on their business.

Other businesses in the same trade will get the feeling you specialise in their trade which is an advantage.

Also you could look out for features within your own trade magazines. Give the publication a call, speak to them and get involved, you have nothing to loose. PR in my experience is about getting involved, find angles and don't be shy!

I hope this helps

Marina

[Richard Glynn]

Here’s your pointers:

1.Buy Amber’s book (obviously)

2.Check out what kind of information your competitors are sending out to the press. If you like there style – use it as inspiration for your own releases. You might even be able to use the same angles for a different sector.

3.Personalise your news releases for different media. Think ‘what do they want to hear?’ not ‘What do I want to tell people.’

4.For ‘what is newsworthy’ think biggest, best, first, most, newest etc.

5.Keep your eye on hot topics in the news relevant to your sector (www.newsnow.co.uk and Google news) and respond. Be controversial if you’re feeling brave (Top-Cick Blasts Government Legislation, Top Click Warns that Small Businesses are losing more than £10 million a year - through poor Internet Marketing) but get your facts right if you do.

6.Know your media contacts (www.mediauk.com )

7.Dovetail with other marketing priorities and activities. Don’t just get media coverage for the sake of it. e.g. On your website you guarantee Google first page rankings. So consider; “Top Click Celebrates 500th Client in Google First page Ranking.” (needs a bit of work but you get my drift)

8.Consider a media competition (e.g. win three months consultancy) Swap the value of the prize for editorial coverage.

9.Offer local business associations an exclusive added value offer (resist discounting because it devalues your service) – and then launch it.

10.And then celebrate the 100th person to redeem the offer?

11.Andy rightly commented that you shouldn’t expect huge amounts of coverage from just one release (although you might always get lucky). Devise a plan which aims to send a minimum of two news releases out a month. You won’t. But it’s nice to have something to aim for.

12.Consider external advice. PR people ‘just write press releases’ the same way accountants ‘just add up numbers’. Trust an expert while you get on with what you’re good at.

Good luck with it.

Richard

[top-click]

Well thanks everyone - there's some great advice there, and thanks for the offers that have arrived via PM!

I wasn't expecting too much, but what I have seen here has inspired me to give PR another go!

Thanks again

Rob

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[Richard Glynn]

Another quick one for you.

Publish a Top Click: Search Engine Site Ranking Secrets Revealed.'

(Good value print available at www.sensecreative.co.uk or www.printing.com)

Make it available for FREE and use it as a data capture exercise. Double up with a news release to announce the offer.

[top-click]

Hi Richard - thanks for that,

We don't actually get involved with search engine rankings, we get clients to page 1 of Google and the other top engines guaranteed within 3hrs, irrespective of the rankings of their site!! through a commercial transaction.

But I take your point!

Regards
Rob

[Rob]

Rob,

One area of PR which I don't see on your site are testimonials. Whilst not PR is the strict sense they can help prompt business and establish credibility.

You have a section on clients and senarios so you could include customer testimonials/endorsements there, but include a few on your home page to immediately grab visitor attention.

Approach past clients and ask for quotes which you can use. If they are satisfied with the results then they should be happy to provide a comment.

Ask them to be very specific e.g. 'By using Top Click we increased our sales by 31% which resulted in extra sales of 6,784'. Wherever possible use their full name and website (which will be an incentive for them to quote).

[Greg]

Here you go.... press release hints and tips at http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/99323/press_release_hints_and_tips.php

[daveashton]

Call and we can trade! (changed my adds as you know to $ from £ and it has alll gone strange)