Public Relations is the process of supplying information to media
that you don't control in hopes that they will run that story for
their audiences. It also includes broader areas like public affairs,
promoting of products and evens, and influencing opinions.
Your job as a publicist is to *earn* media coverage by supplying
information that is factual, interesting, timely and (especially)
newsworthy, so that journalists will believe that your material will
be of interest to their audience.
Publicity is not advertising, since you don't pay for time or space.
It can have far greater impact than advertising, because it carries a
message of implied endorsement by the media which runs your story.
Because of the fact that you don't pay for the information to be
publicized, you can't control what is actually said about you and
your company. Therefore, if you have any desire to control the
publicity your company gets, I recommend that you work to provide a
steady stream of interesting, newsworthy stories that reporters and
editors will want to run with as few adjustments as possible.
It Takes Work:
A lot of people think publicity happens magically or that
opportunities simply come to you. They don't realize there is effort
behind it. They don't know that reporters can do whatever they want
with the information you divulge. They don't understand all of the
behind-the-scenes conversations, relationship building and groundwork
that must be laid to get your message out into the world.
PR is about making contacts that lead to other contacts that lead to
opportunities. The stronger your relationships are with the media
and other key players, the better chance you have of controlling your
message and getting the coverage you want. In this way, PR is like
sales once removed. Instead of selling a product, you are selling a
concept - of their using your information and ideas in their media.
You are the emissary for those ideas. And, if your pitch is
compelling and your manner professional and courteous, you have a
fighting chance.
PR's All About Relationships
For some reason, there's a false perception out there that the way to
get publicity is to write a catchy press release then send it out to
thousands of editors. Under this perception, the more editors you
get on your list, the higher your probability of success. While this
may occasionally be true, in most cases, PR is not about scattering
your message to the four winds, it's about carefully seeding your
pitches with the right people, the people who control the media you
most want exposure in, with specialty pitches designed just for
them. In other words, it's all about relationships.
In sales there are many strategies that stress the idea of
collaborating with the customer. Since PR is arguably a sales
process (selling the media on covering your story instead of someone
else's,) PR success rates increase considerably with your ability to
collaborate with your customer - in this case, the editors,
journalists, and producers who control access to the media audience
you are trying to reach.
These gatekeepers are more likely to choose to cover your story if
you develop a relationship with them and work to understand their
needs. This means knowing their deadlines or production schedules,
being highly responsive, getting them interviews with the right
people and providing the right information at the right time.
Timing's Important Too
News is about timeliness, and PR fits right into this model too. A
story can be red hot one week and totally uninteresting the next. It
helps to set a timeline and create a comprehensive project plan so
all aspects of the campaign are covered. For example, if you are
launching a product, you have to synch up with product development,
sales and marketing to make sure all of your disparate efforts will
come together at the same time.
Product development must set their schedule so the product can be
delivered by the time your long-lead publicity hits so people can
actually buy the product. The sales team has to be on board so that
they are speaking the same messages to the customer. Marketing
materials must be ready when the product is available and be aligned
with PR messages.
I can't tell you the number of times that I've had to sit down with
product designers and manufacturing teams to give them my now famous
speech, which goes something like "I know that you're facing some
challenges right now, but let's look at the facts - we've already met
with 25 different editors and pitched this product to them, and
they're already working on stories that will hit on x date. Plus
we've got advertising hitting on that date too. It really wouldn't
be good if our product wasn't on the store shelves on that date, will
it? So delaying the launch is not an option. So now what do we have
to do to hit our ship date?"
Today's Assignment
What's a course without assignments? So, in order to help you get
free publicity to build your business, each day of this course we're
going to give you several assignments. Some can be done in a moment.
Others are worth far more thought. We encourage you to complete these
assignments because they'll help to create the foundation for all of
your future PR work.
Almost everyone has a good idea of the media that could change their
business just by running a single story. It may be your industry's
trade magazine, the local newspaper, or the Oprah show, but it's out
there.
Make a list of the "most desired media" for your company or product.
If you need ideas, look around your office. What's sitting there
right now waiting to be read? Remember, if you read it, your
customers likely do too. Don't forget the TV, radio, and Internet
news sources you use too. Plus, you should call three of your top
customers. Ask them where they get their information about your
industry and new products in it.
As you do this, be careful that the most desired media you select
really does apply to your company or product. You may personally be
enamored with getting on the Oprah show because you've heard that
it's a great way to sell products. But Oprah's probably not
interested in featuring your lathes and your customers are probably
working at the time of her show, so it wouldn't matter even if you
did get featured.
In the end, you should have a list of 3-10 media that make your "most
desired" list.
Now, let's flesh out that list. Your next step is to gather contact
information for your most desired list. You'll want contact names,
addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and fax numbers for each.
The best way to do this is to call the media company. Tell the person
who answers the phone that you're with a ________-type company (tell
them your industry, not your company name) and want to know the name
of the person who covers that beat. Then go deeper and ask for their
direct line, email, etc.
As you do this, don't forget to research the columnists that write in
your industry's trade journal. They often make decisions about what
they want to cover independently of the editors, so you may want to
include them in your target list.
Finally, go through your company and find out if anyone in your
employ has an existing relationship with any of the people on your
most desired list. You may be surprised at what your marketing
department has already done or the fact that one of your machine
operators plays on a softball team with one of the key contacts. Make
special note of these factors as they may come into play as we pursue
this process further.
Resources:
Here are a few additional articles that may help you to dig deeper
into today's subject matter:
Building A PR Plan From Start to Finish: Relationships With Media
Networking With The Media: Give If You Want To Receive
How To Talk To A Reporter At A Social Gathering
www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com for free TIPS & get the CDs!
Posted By: Pam Perry
Monday, April 25th 2011 at 8:04PM
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