Need Sales - Get PR

Over the past couple of months I have spoken to over 100 small and medium sized business owners, and have asked them the same question:

What is the one thing that would improve your company?

99% of the time (the odd man out wanted more donuts) the answer is something along the lines of, “we’d like more sales”.

With a little more digging, it’s clear that the organization really doesn’t have a problem with sales.  Irrespective of whether this is a B-to-C or B-to-B company, or the company sells a product or a service, once in front of the prospective customer (in-person or virtual), they can make the sale with a good success rate. 

 

What it comes down to is a need for business owners to increase the number of prospective customers they can sell to.  Oh, by the way, that’s called marketing.

Marketing can very simply be broken down into three prospect buckets:

• had no idea the company existed, which is why there was no interaction
• have some idea the company exists but doesn’t have the motivation to purchase from them
• have previously purchased (or interacted at a very close level)

OK, so there is a fourth group – prospect knows the company, but doesn’t want to purchase from them – so lets leave those naysayers out of it. They are way too much work to convert.

For the first bucket (never knew the company existed) there is also a good chance that if the prospect doesn’t know the company, then visa-versa, the company probably doesn’t know the prospect.

While instinct may be to purchase a full-page newspaper advert, or place a series of 30-second TV commercials, neither come very cheaply.  You see, the reality is that advertising takes a consistent, extensive budget. Even the lower cost online advertising, if used to any degree of success, needs a sizable budget.

The company can’t turn to direct mail, because you don’t know the prospect’s details.  You could purchase a database, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work.  The company probably doesn’t have a good conference/trade show to go to…. so the options of marketing are running out.

Oh, there is of course public relations. 

You see, the whole world of PR just makes sense.

There’s no database to purchase because each publication (virtual or hard) already hits a pre-defined target audience.

There is next to no production cost required (unlike most advertising).

In fact, so long as you have something newsworthy and of interest to say to a defined group of people, I bet any reader $100 I can find a publication that will want to cover that story… hell, I bet $100 I can find a few publications that will have an interest.

So, the only challenge, is to find something to say that’s newsworthy and of interest.

I’ve yet to find a small to medium sized company that isn’t doing something amazing in this economy. 

So to all businesses out there that need more sales, my message is simple – tell the amazing story.  If you can find the right media that has the same interest as your target audience, you’ll be driving potential customers to your door.

 And as an added bonus, PR doesn’t just hit that first bucket. At no additional cost you’ll be promoting sales in the other two buckets.  Sounds like a winner to me.

Learning PR the Justin Bieber way

Justin Bieber wants you to know he's not the next Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears or Corey Feldman. Even though these celebs probably achieved less than Justin and probably get far more publicity.

The 19-year-old pop star has been making headlines with erratic behavior that includes showing up late to concerts, passing out backstage, threatening paparazzi, wearing gas masks, going shirtless in freezing temperatures and allegedly spitting on a neighbor during an argument.

Bieber hasn't taken the negative press sitting down, and has fought back via Twitter and Instagram rants about fake stories and "countless lies." Now, after being accused of battery, the pop star is striking back again, telling Us Weekly that he's not on the verge of a breakdown, as reports suggest.

Crisis 101 in today’s social media world – the right place to fight negative press is in the same place/medium that it appeared. It’s the simple things that are easily forgotten.  Each newspaper, blog author, social media platform, etc have a following.  If I hear something bad in the LA Times, then I’m an LA Times reader. If I hear it on Twitter, then I clearly use Twitter to get my news.  Justin, mate, only fight negative press where you see it (despite your youth and obvious social media prowess), don’t take the fight to the social media airwaves if it’s not there already.

"The biggest misconception about me is that I'm a bad person," Bieber told US Weekly. Well, no one was saying that (actually), and do you know any bad people that admit to being bad people?  This seems to be one of the worst quotes I have heard in a long time.

It's clear that Bieber (or his team) has grown very uncomfortable with the amount of negative attention that he's been receiving lately, and though he's on the defensive he does admit that he's far from perfect. "I'm young and I make mistakes. That's part of growing up," he told Us Weekly. "I mess up sometimes. It's part of growing up."

I love this!  I think I will use it in my next press interview. 

Yes Mr Business Editor, I know my company did wrong, but you know what, we’re a young company and we messed up – that’s part of our company growing up.

Perhaps the bigger PR question should be – can Justin continue to get quality media coverage without causing problems?  It’s clearly difficult to continue to attract positive media coverage. Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears et al know the problem and went the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ route… even if it includes unflatering pictures, drunk driving and theft.  What will Justin do and how will that effect his still intact ‘good boy’ image.

p.s. If anyone has any tickets for Justin’s upcoming tour my 5-year-old daughter wants to know!

The Science of Persuasion in Public Relations

If you’re in the business of public relations, then you’re in the business of persuading people.

This happens at two levels:

1 - the wider PR practice – the reason for media interaction and coverage is so we can reach an organization’s PR goals. In essence we’re persuading the target audience to act in a way that is congruent with our objectives.  Most often for the clients we represent this is persuading a group of people in a set geography to purchase a given product or service.  Of course, when we move into crisis communications, then this objective is often to change the perceived opinions a group of people have about an organization.

2 - at the day-to-day level, if we’re a PR pro that interacts with the media to gain coverage, then we are simply trying to persuade reputable journalist to listen to our message and include it in their reporting.

Either way, we’re in the business of persuading.

So, wouldn’t it be great if we could increase our persuasiveness?

As it turns out, there is quite a considerable amount of scientific research that can make us more effective atpersuading others.  It is scientifically validated and often doesn’t cost us any money to implement. 

Want to know what the 6 main drivers to increased persuasiveness are?

To sum up – they are:

• Reciprocity
• Scarcity
• Authority
• Consistency
• Liking
• Consensus

I could write about them for a long time, but better still, watch this fantastic video and in under 12 minutes you’ll have mastered how to ethically increase your persuasiveness.  A much needed skill in the world of PR.

How good are you at persuading?

The number one thing to learn before a press interview!

We see a lot of interviews, as consumers of the media, by working in the industry and because we represent companies - speaking for them, or supporting them.  

An interview is one of the most powerful PR tools available to us.

If done correctly interviews can build brands, educate the target audience and lend credibility. If it’s not carried out successfully it can bring a shudder to those involved and will likely want to be forgotten about as soon as possible.  Of course in today’s media scene that is going to be hard.

So what is the one most important thing to achieve in an interview?  Quite simply - to get your message across.  Sounds easy and if messages and sound bites are practiced, it can be.  But wait, what if the interviewer isn’t going to pitch up the questions that allow you to stay on topic?  As any good PR pro will tell you, the interviewee needs to master the art of bridging.

Bridging used to be a more advanced technique taught to the experienced interviewer, but due to the changing media landscape, we’ve recently changed our stance of this and require all our spokes people to understand, practice and gain experience in bridging.

Bridging is a simple technique that allow you to effectively transition a questions to deliver your key message, while moving away from sensitive or other questions you don’t want to answer.

It entails listening to the interviewer, acknowledging the question and then before answering the question, ‘bridging’ to an on target topic.  The words or phrase used to bridge are easily learnt, and if used interchangeably, will come across as fluid:

• I’m very glad you asked me that…
• That’s a very important question, but even more important is…
• Before I answer that question I think I should say that…
• That’s a very good question I think I should say that…
• That’s a very good question, and I will answer it in a minute, but before I do…
• I think what you meant by that question is…
• I don’t have the exact details, but what I can say is…
• You might say that, but… 

A new practitioner will often think that bridging will come across as staged. If rehearsed before trying it for real it rarely will.

The one thing to beware of is using this technique too hard and coming across as a politician… but then again, it’s pretty easy to not act as a politician.

Happy Bridging.

An early look at Super Bowl XLVII Commercials

Every year the Super Bowl brings commercial excitement.  This year spots are selling (30 seconds) for $4m.  Lets take the opportunity to watch what happens at Super Bowl time, which brands can communicate effectively and what crises arise.

It’s early yet, but there are two stories to follow:

1 – Taco Bell (headquartered in Irvine) have already pulled their Anti-Vegetarian commercial due to pressure groups.

News story here. 

A copy of the commercial here. 

2 – VW have a solid history of winning ads at the Super Bowl – you’ll remember the Star Wars commercial from 2011 - here.

Here is what looks like the new hit for 2013.

What do you think?

What is your favorite past Super Bowl ad?