Never Underestimate the Power of PR

I read a guide to Social Media the other day, and it was interesting to note that a lot of journalists and article writers scour Twitter for anything newsworthy. They utilise the medium to discover changes in consumer behaviour, shifting business trends and topics of human interest. This information then provides the inspiration or theme for a story for their publication.

I have been in marketing for many years, covering industry sectors as diverse as retail, software development, the internet and travel, and one of my seminar subjects has long been the marketing circle. I urge my clients to think of their marketing strategy as a circle made up of the marketing methods they adopt, and the importance of filling in the gaps within that circle. Once they manage to get a potential customer or client on that circle, it is important that every effort is made to ensure they don't drop off.

Some of the elements that might make up this marketing circle include the following marketing methods:

Telemarketing;
Direct Mail;
Email Marketing;
Internet Marketing;
Advertising;
Direct Sales;
Strategic Alliances;
Referrals;
Cross-selling and Up-selling;
Social Media;
PR

Ideally, your circle should consist of at least 10 different forms of marketing, and each should refer, feed off and relate to each other. For example, your telephone out-of-hours messaging service should direct customers to your website when your offices are not open. Your website should then take up the role of sales person or advisor, and make it easy for a potential client to engage with you, leave you their details or buy something. If they leave you their contact details, it is only courtesy to follow this up with an email, and then keep the potential client up to date with relevant emails.

These emails may link in to relevant landing pages on your website, or even micro-sites that have been set up specifically to achieve an end result. The responses will result in further emails coming through to you, or telephone calls from interested clients.

As you build up the relationship with each client, emails can become more personalised. These can be backed up by direct mail communications with special offers or promotions, perhaps as part of a major marketing campaign that includes advertisements both locally or nationally.

And so you can start to see how the circle comes together, and by looking at the strategy as a whole, you will identify the gaps where potential customers may drop off.

However, it is also important that whatever steps you take to complete your circle, you remain focused on the success and ROI of your marketing.

All this, coupled with the snippet about journalists scouring Twitter for useful information, brings me to the subject of PR.

No matter how small your business, never underestimate the power of PR. In essence, much of the success of Twitter and Facebook, as a medium for conducting business, is all about PR. The success of Social Media hangs on the building of relationships and engaging with other users. It is about providing information that might be interesting and useful, getting other users to notice it and then start to engage with you.

When I give seminars to businesses, I always tell them to use the press. Look at the local and national newspapers and magazines, and identify the types of story that they feature in their business sections. Remember, these business writers have got to find interesting stories every day, every week, and every month in order to fill their pages. They need a constant supply of information on which they can build their articles. Have a look at trends within the business press: what is happening financially, what business sectors are currently successful or struggling. Then look at your own business. Do you buck any particular trend, are you more successful than your competitors, and if so, why? At a time of rising unemployment, particularly in the 18 - 25 years age-group, are you employing more than usual to meet growing demand for your product or service?

Whatever is happening within your business, talk about it! Be proud of your achievements and broadcast them. Identify a strong feature of your business regularly, a recent success, a story about a member of staff, a charity event that your are sponsoring....anything that you think would be of interest to anyone reading the publication.

Start to send through these stories to the journalists who write for the various publications, and in doing so, cultivate a relationship with them. I do find it interesting that this is exactly the same principle behind using Twitter for business. You post interesting Tweets and people will follow you, and then you build on those relationships. It is strange, though, that so many businesses never consider the press. They will happily spend £100's on advertising in the newspaper, but wouldn't consider sending through a story that might provide completely free publicity.

If you are not using PR as a form of marketing, you want to start now!

To discuss adding PR to your marketing circle, please contact Ian Rutter at Argent Ram Media - ian@argentrammedia.com. A tailored campaign can be put together to meet any budget and any requirement. www.argentrammedia.com