PHPR

Going Viral

2009-05-19T11:39:00.004+01:00

When viral marketeers can make scissors and used frying oil fly (not together), it's time to re-visit how to capture the online imagination. No daft YouTube videos here: just solid inspiration and food for thought to get your business moving. Check out: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/135/made-to-stick-getting-your-ideas-to-fly.html?partner=homepage_newsletter

And once you succeed, don't forget to blog about it, write a news article and distribute online, post comments on all your social media, include it in your newsletter, and tell everyone about it. And hey, if you feel like it, go on: make the video and podcast.....!

Online Directories

2009-05-15T15:31:00.003+01:00

Every month or so we check out the searches that potential clients might use to find companies like us. For example, one of the searches we run is on PR + Edinburgh. Although we work for clients all over the UK, clients in Edinburgh reduce travel time (and we're always keen to reduce our carbon footprint) and we do see them face-to-face more frequently. That allows us to have deeper relationships with the key people involved. We do use collaborative working tools and webcams for conferencing. But full-on PR consultancy demands a close working relationship with the only other person involved in the business who has a 360 degree vision remit: the MD/CEO. We're the people that spot the problems and build the strategy to maximise the business reputation.
This time, during the monthly SEO trawl on PR + Edinburgh I noticed some of the more successful business directories (i.e. coming up on Google p1 searches of PR + Edinburgh) are taking their company details from bizwiki.co.uk. We were represented on bizwiki.co.uk, but the details were basic to say the least. I quickly rectified that and look forward to seeing fuller listings appear on multiple sites. I'm all in favour of sites that save us time and effort and Bizwiki.co.uk looks like a handy tool for UK business recognition online. Check it out!

PR: Spin or Substance?

2009-04-28T16:45:00.000+01:00

There is a hang-over from the overt spin-doctoring practiced by political parties that has tainted PR with a reputation for white-washing unpleasant truths. That may be possible for a while in politics, but Churchill's point still rings true today: You can fool some of the people all of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
There's a world of difference between public sector PR, which is fighting off media interest, and commercial PR, which is usually fighting for media coverage.
But it's all too easy to get coverage in either the public or the commercial sphere when things go horrendously wrong.
PR is not very effective as whitewash - or greenwash. It's never a substitute for fixing things. But it’s a great tool when you’re in the middle of fixing things, because it allows professional communicators to inject extra clarity into what can become a conflicting and confused scenario. The discipline of clarifying the key objectives, defining the key audiences, and crafting messages for each audience (including staff), and delivering those messages down multi-channels will stand an organisation in good stead long after the incident has passed, although they will do much better in the first few critical hours of a crisis if there has been regularly reviewed preparation, training and practice for potential disasters.
You don't need to practice for every conceivable disaster. A very experienced PR practitioner should have an understanding of the media approaches and the common underlying themes and help you build a broad base to adapt for most scenarios.
PR is not the solution when something goes wrong: speedy and effective remedial action is the only lasting solution, but PR is the best communications tool to communicate that there is a rememdy being applied. Good communications gradually evens up the bad messages with more positive stories and helps restore something that can’t be bought: some people call it buzz, but I call it the confidence that comes out of faith in a future.

The Magic of Integrating PR, Marketing and Sales for Business Success

2009-04-24T16:02:00.002+01:00

Research shows that PR boosts sales and marketing by up to 50%.
But 50% of zero sales and marketing is still zero.
You need to get PR, sales and marketing working together to boost business brilliantly.

Trouble is: sales, marketing and PR have become so complex, they have evolved into different disciplines, where the people are all trained and accredited separately by different institutions. Each practitioner knows a little about the others, but often views them as competition for the promotional budget, instead of an ally to deliver better results.

Go round the marcoms (marketing-communications) professions and you'll find it's a classic case of asking a man with a hammer what the solution is. 9 times out of 10, the man with a hammer will suggest a nail. So it is with sales, marketing and PR professionals.

The sales man will point out that without sales, there is no income, but few salespeople would relish selling if they were not backed up with good marketing communications materials. And most would find their job a lot easier against a background of reputation-enhancing, profile-raising PR to drive traffic to the sales channels on and offline.

The marketing man will demonstrate that without researching the market, finding the right niche in terms of features, market, packaging, distribution and price, you can have great sales teams but no-one will know anything about your offering.

And PR people will argue that without a reputation, you can't trade effectively (just look at what happened all those years ago when Gerard Ratner claimed his products were c**p).

And of course, they are all right.

But what's interesting is that, with the advent of online PR, the distinction between PR/marketing/sales is breaking down.

Traders can directly interact with their buyers online. Especially if they can create content that actually interests people. That's opposed to reeling off lists of features & benefits expressed in the second person in a forlorn hope than one might strike a chord with a potential customer ....

And nowhere is that activity hotter than on the front page of Google. Almost all major purchases nowdays start with a Google search online.

Despite being a small agency, since the start of this year we've been getting clients onto the front page of Google's natural search results with a combination of PR, journalism and marketing techniques. What's interesting is that the results have been persisting, sometimes for months. And clients report their website ratings have also been boosted on Google.

PR and the truth about 'free' publicity

2009-04-20T15:47:00.004+01:00

I keep finding people equate PR with 'free' advertising in the media. While I can see why, the trouble comes when they think a few press mentions will perform the sales, marketing and PR miracle all on their own.

In truth, you'll get some sales enquiries sparked by media coverage, but many small businesses fail to use the coverage they do get to boost their sales and marketing.

Research shows that PR boosts sales and marketing by up to 50%, but 50% of zero sales and marketing is still zero.

Just like winning an award, where you can claim to be an award-winning business for life, getting good media coverage allows you a major claim to fame forever.

What's better than getting good media coverage (online & offline)?

Getting lots of it! That creates a real buzz that builds business success on and offline, provided that the marketing shapes up to the hype and the sales process is effective.

But what's even better than lots of media coverage? Multiplying it!

We always tell people to give their PR coverage 'legs'. Make the most of any coverage you get by using it in all your marketing materials. It's so simple to lift a short attributed quote or phrase from the article (like they do in West End shows - "the solution" Joe Bloggs, The Times).

Why not lift a quote and:

Put it up on your website
And on your email signatures.
Add it to your social media profile.
Blog about it.
Include it in your newsletter masthead or credentials piece.
Add it to your sales proposals and letters.
Pop it on the back of your biz card, on a card at reception: anywhere you can.
Include a link to the article or programme online and when the link breaks because the piece is archived, take the link off, but keep the quote.
And online PR coverage of your news, if you've included the right search terms (but not too often) will ensure that the search engine keep sending you targeted new business enquiries long after the initial buzz has settled.

If it all sound great, but you haven't got the time the time to do it all, that's where we help.

Budgeting for PR

2009-03-30T11:15:00.008+01:00

Have you ever wondered how you get from the small business to the large business marketing effect? If you have the vision to accelerate out of the end of this recession, understanding the synergy between sales, marketing and PR and budgeting for them, will enable you to do just that: accelerate your business.

We work with businesses of all sizes and over the last 22 years. I've noticed the main difference between the smaller and the larger business is that many small to medium businesses don't think they have a marketing budget. And they rarely admit to having a sales or PR budget.

In reality, most small businesses have made a substantial investment of time and money.
If you add up all the money and the time you spent in the last 12 months on any of these, you have the makings of your budget:

the website,
taking a 'special deal' in a directory or an advertising feature,
your membership subs & meeting fees plus time for attending networking events,
the online directory listings and forums, plus social networking sites,
writing sales proposals
PowerPoint presentations
responding to sales enquiries
encouraging referrals from customers or complementary businesses
signage for a building or vehicle
maybe some Pay Per Click experiments?
or a promo item?
marketing materials - folders, leaflets, brochures?
a mailing list?
email flyers?
a newsletter?
a blog?
photos, videos or podcasts?
local sponsorship in kind?
stalls at trade fairs
other sales, marketing, PR promotional activity

Chances are you have already made a fair investment of time and money in some aspect of the golden promotional trio: sales, marketing and PR. But you may be struggling to know what's effective? The standard advice is to monitor what works, then do more of it! And of course there's a lot of truth in the saying: "you can't manage what you haven't measured". But it's easier said than done.

If you ask customers at the point of sale how they heard of you, most people will stop after one answer: probably the most recent thing that brought them to you. Now that is an important clue, but would they have bought if you hadn't come recommended (word of mouth, or in the media, or online)? Would they have bought if your website was out-of date or the branding wasn't attractive and the brand values consistent?

In most cases the 'buy' decision is a complex balance between:

Your profile and reputation (PR), plus
A clear understanding and attraction to what you are selling (marketing and branding) plus
A good sales process to ensure lots of referrals and to clinch the deal efficiently.

Plenty of people will offer clever tools to monitor what works for you, but you'll only really find out by talking to customers and getting their feedback on all aspects of your sales, marketing and PR.

Plus you'll pick up invaluable feedback and ideas for developing your products and services in response to demand and for new markets.

More about the golden synergy between on and offline PR, marketing & sales next time.

New site

2009-03-27T17:58:00.002Z

You may not see the difference, but this is a new site for PHPR. It now has a nice new integrated blog facility. Under the bonnet, the whole site's been re-developed by shopfitter.com to be search engine-friendly. Watch this space ...