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Public Relations Strategies | Reaching Your Audience

Ashley | Friday, January 29th, 2010 | No Comments »

Successful PR is largely dependent on creating a relevant and focused PR plan. One way to ensure your PR plan is relevant and successful is to create a focused plan. This means that your homework needs to be done. Things to look for when doing your homework:

Your audience. Who are they? Where do they go online? What are some of the problems they are looking to solve? How can you solve them?
Relevant publications. Which publications (online and off) reach your audience the best? What do your customers read? Will they find value in a blog, or prefer to read something in a magazine? Does your target audience read consumer or trade magazines?
Preferred medium. Do they prefer reading to watching a video, or vice versa?

A great way to find these things out is to really reach out to your customers. Way you can do this include:

Primary research: Surveys and focus groups are two forms of primary research, and they can be done for relatively low amounts of money. There are great online tools, such as SurveyMonkey, that creates surveys for your online needs (though this relies on the fact that your target audience is online). Focus groups can often be done for low amounts of compensation or a meal. Customers are willing and able to share their opinions (and many really enjoy sharing them), so all you have to do is simply ask!
Secondary research: This can include things like research other companies have done (usually available to you for a price). The benefit of these studies is that other companies who specialize in research may have a more in-depth look at things, know better questions to ask respondents, and have a wider reach in terms of the customers and participants they can reach. Moreover, they may have more resources available to them to make the study very useful. More often than not, these studies can be expensive, but well worth the investment because of the insights they offer. Another secondary source of information can be census information (for demographic data). With the 2010 census underway, the new data that will be available therein will greatly benefit businesses nationwide.

The goal of primary and secondary research is to really discover where your customers spend their time online, the sorts of solutions they are looking for, and the places they regularly go for information. This can help you to focus your PR efforts correctly so that you do not waste resources or time. Knowing whom to target is the first step in creating a successful PR plan. Once you know whom to target, you can establish where your efforts will be best spent. For example, it doesn’t make much sense to send in your stories or press releases to a consumer magazine if your customers are more interested in trade publications.

Do your homework to create great PR plans. What strategies have you used to reach your audience?

Tags: Knowing Your Target Audience, PR strategies, Reaching Your Audience
Posted in Public Relations

PR Strategies | 3 Ways to Differentiate Yourself

Ashley | Monday, January 11th, 2010 | No Comments »

It’s easy to get lost in the sea of companies that offer the same products that you do. While competition isn’t necessarily bad (and actually encourages consumer spending), there needs to be something special about you to set you apart from the others. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Offer more. This doesn’t mean having more inventory (though that could be a good business move, if it makes sense). It means that you can offer more for the same price or commitment from the consumer. For example, if you want people to subscribe to your newsletters, make it clear that doing so is a great idea. Offer quality tips, stories, etc. in your newsletters to make consumers feel better about their decision to get your weekly emails. Also, offer more in your overall site; subscribing to an RSS feed of your blog or simply returning to your company website takes a time commitment. Make it worth it to your readers by offering all that you can.

Analyze the situation. This can include performing a SWOT analysis of you and your industry. If you find that someone else is offering the same product at a lower price, really consider if it makes sense for you to do the same thing. Otherwise, you’re following the actions of someone else who may have made that move because it made sense to do so in their company. Lowering prices isn’t something you need to follow, nor are promotions. Shopping this weekend I saw two stores next to each other advertising sales: one was having a 75% off sale, and the other an 80% off sale. I don’t think either store benefited much from having an almost identical sale, though it may have encouraged some customers to go into at least one store if they had considered not going into either. This can also tie into being honest: if your promotions are mostly false, customers may not notice, but some may. Seeing a sign for an 80% off sale and seeing one item with that discount may prompt a customer to generate negative WOM. A promotion is, again, something that ought to be done according to what your company needs.

Moreover, analyzing the situation and industry can help you to see where there are holes or ignored markets that could use some attention. For example, a company that offered delivery pizza when there were no competitors probably experienced some great results from having a competitive advantage from being the first in the industry. As history can show, the rest of the mainstream pizza industry soon followed suit by offering pizza delivery. Additionally, the Internet makes it easy and smart to pay some attention to those niche markets that have been ignored. For a majority of businesses, it didn’t make sense to cater to the niche markets’ needs; it wasn’t cost effective, and very rarely created revenue or profit. Now, with lowered risk and costs, paying attention and marketing to those niche markets can be beneficial.

Be there. Offering a better customer experience, assistance, and advice can make a world of difference in the eyes of your customer. So, whomever your customer may be, offer something of value (as stated above), but that can include being more available. This can be through email, in person, on the phone, through social networking sites, etc. Allow conversation to take place, and get involved in it, too. Offer support where it is needed for your company, and try offering it where it isn’t needed but would be appreciated. Try to avoid stepping on toes when it comes to opinions, but know that your advice will likely be appreciated.

Overall, know that you can’t differentiate yourself by simply offering promotions or an awesome product. That may help, but in the long run it is about the experience they have and the service they are given that help to solidify you in their minds. Create a slogan of sorts for the things that differentiate you from other companies. So long are you are truthful, flaunt what you’ve got to let your customers know what they’re getting.

What tips do you have for differentiating you and your company?

Tags: Differentiating Yourself, PR strategies, PR tips
Posted in Public Relations

PR Strategies | Sharing What You Know

Ashley | Thursday, January 7th, 2010 | No Comments »

You may be hesitant to share what you know with others. It’s natural; you’ve worked hard to get to where you are now, and you’ve gone through making mistakes and learning from them. You may feel like you’ve got a competitive advantage over others entering the industry by keeping what you know to yourself, but that may not be the case.

Consider how you learned what it is you know now, though: did you have a mentor to guide you along the way? I certainly did, and he encourages me to share what I know, because in the end, my helping others helps me. I also feel pretty good when someone emails me a question I can answer and they reply appreciative for my time and insights. I may not always know the right answer, but I can certainly share what I think could be best for their situation and inquiry.

Giving something away and helping someone else will most certainly help you in the long run; it is like an investment in someone else that will come back to you in the form of them helping you if they can, or others who can see your helpful nature. A customer or visitor who is able to get something from you for free will remember you and may come back to you when they need something more, such as your product or services. This is a great way to start the sales funnel (which is what some marketers and sales folk define as the process through which a customer makes a sale); though your end result doesn’t have to be a sale, this can be the start to a relationship where you’ve been able to gain trust by giving something of value away. Know that building relationships is a large part of public relations, and with the tools available to us online, it is easier to do so. Getting in touch with customers and being there to provide assistance, knowledge, and tips when they are needed can benefit you and the customer.

Sharing what you know can also help to position you as a leader in your industry or area of expertise. You can share what you’ve learned, and people will in turn come to you, asking for advice or an answer to a question. Positioning yourself as a leader can also help to gain trust from others in your industry. Networking with them is also an important part of PR; we rely on one another to help advocate each other’s content and to get assistance when we too need an answer to a question.

Here are a few ways you can share what you know:

Through a blog. This is perhaps the easiest way to do so. Blog regularly and share content that you know will be beneficial to others to know.
Through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This may be a good place for you to share your blog content. The integration of these tools makes it easy to share it once, but have it posted in all three places. Make sure you evaluate if using these tools will be beneficial to you and your company or brand; if it doesn’t make sense to use them, don’t. Know where your audience goes and work that into your PR planning.
Through your connections online. This involves some work and some reaching out to other bloggers, people on Twitter, and others in your industry. Be honest and get to know them. Follow what they write, and work together with them. Share with them what you know as well, and offer to help them where you can.

What are some ways you share with others?

Tags: Paying it Forward, PR strategies, Sharing What You Know
Posted in Public Relations

What is Crowdsourcing? | A Brief Definition & Overview

admin | Monday, November 2nd, 2009 | No Comments »

Crowdsourcing is a somewhat self-explanatory term, but knowing the meaning of the two words that makeup the term (crowd and sourcing) does not really explain what it actually means. Looking at the word, one might be able to gather that crowdsourcing means sourcing (or gathering) something from a crowd or group, or that it deals with outsourcing, which is ultimately correct. However, it is a little more specific than that. Crowdsourcing is a sort of tactic that companies can use (though it is not limited solely to company use) to supplement tasks that would normally be dealt with in-house. Among some of these tasks: idea/brainstorming, software and product solutions, to research and development strategies.

While open-source tactics have been used for years in the tech industry, the arrival of blogs, social media, and greater numbers of consumers on the Internet, crowdsourcing has become easier to carry out. It has also become easier to gather larger crowds for more input. All the feedback, ideas, and solutions that consumers have to offer can be economically smart as well as a smart tool to use to generate publicity and PR. BNet put it beautifully: “The idea of soliciting customer input is hardly new, of course, and the open-source software movement showed that it can be done with large numbers of people. The difference is that today’s technology makes it possible to enlist ever-larger numbers of non-technical people to do ever-more complex and creative tasks, at significantly reduced cost.”

Here’s (briefly) how it works:

A company defines a problem they need a solution for. Depending on the severity of the issue and whether or not s sort of ‘prize’ needs to be offered, companies can opt to use a social media tool to implement the open-source call for help. For example, companies can use Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn, among other tools such as a forum, email, or a wiki. They then ask for help, and hope for some responses. Consumers or people who are simply looking to release some of their creative energy can give ideas, help create programs, or offer solutions, among other things. Companies can offer a cash prize for a program or solution they implement, or can offer some sort of advertising for the solution creator. It really depends on the company and what sort of solution they are hoping for in terms of quality, timeliness, and range of submissions.

Some pros: This method of ‘sourcing’ can save significant amounts of money, time, and other resources. Research and design can take time; with crowdsourcing, information that would normally take much longer through surveys, focus groups, and other marketing materials can be offered, for free, from people who are passionate about your product or company. This can create a stronger sense of belonging where consumers can say they were a part of a new product release or a new venture. Having others who are not employed by the company can also save resources and increase productivity. Furthermore, when you are able to get many, many minds together, ideas and creativity can really flow. This is a great way to increase the pool companies can take talent from, without having to hire new employees.

Some cons: These people that participate are not employed by you. As such, you are not able to really control them. There is a risk of releasing some important information for a crowdsourcing project that may result in a crisis for the company. Ensure that things that can (and really should) be done internally are kept that way.

To expand on that, BNet again comes to my aid: “Indeed, while they may not ask for cash or in-kind products, participants will seek compensation in the form of satisfaction, recognition, and freedom. They will also demand time, attention, patience, good listening skills, transparency, and honesty. For traditional top-down organizations, this shift in management culture may prove difficult.”

So while contributors may not require a monetary compensation, this sort of outsourcing can require a lot of time and effort. No matter how big or small, it seems crowdsourcing can help get some ideas on the table and perhaps even find a solution.

Tags: Business, managerial strategies, outsourcing public relations, PR strategies, PR tips, Public Relations Strategies, What is Wisdom of the Crowds
Posted in Business