Seven Steps to Creating an Effective PR Plan

I was never big on homework in junior high. Much to Sister Mary Ellen’s dismay, I avoided it like the plague. Hey, I had better things to do! Like eating Cheez Doodles, watching reruns of Sanford and Son and wreaking havoc on the neighborhood with my buddies. Homework was for the birds.

But that was then, this is now. Today, I’m all about homework and espousing the benefits of a good PR plan.

A solid PR plan is fundamental to the success of any PR or marketing campaign. After all, you have to do some proper planning before you dive in and start swimming with the sharks. And if your inner eighth grader tells you to resist and retreat, know that a well-written PR plan will give you the focus you need to reach your target audience and surpass your goals.

A good PR plans includes a situation overview, definition of target audiences, goals, objectives, goals, tactics, budget and timeline.

Situation Overview: Summarize your organization’s current communication situation in one or two paragraphs. What’s happening that make’s publicity a priority?

Are you looking to expand sales? Launching a new product line? Is your organization looking to secure VC funding? Expand your donor base?

Whatever the case may be, jot down what’s going on and why you need publicity.

Target Audiences: Define your stakeholders. Who are your customers? Clients? Donors? Prioritize the list by starting with the most important segment first.

Define what your stakeholders read, watch, listen to, attend and visit online. This will help you create a targeted media list.

Goals: Set and define some specific goals. What do you want to accomplish through PR?

Sample goals may include:

• To generate awareness of our brand and direct consumers to retail distributors
• To raise awareness of our cause, increase donations and secure corporate funding
• Increase bookings with tourists from Philly and New Jersey

Objectives:

Now it’s time to set measurable objectives and define the following:

• The anticipated accomplishments
• Who’ll manage the tasks
• The time frame

Your objective may read something like this:

By December 1, Bill will secure two newspaper mentions and one radio interview about launching a business in an economic down turn.

Tactics: Tactics are the things you’ll do to get publicity. This is your to-do list.

• Write one press release per month
• Pitch individual writers
• Monitor editorial calendars
• Conduct a survey
• Organize a flash mob
• Knock over a liquor store (I don’t recommend this one. Could generate negative publicity)

Budget: How much money can you allocate to PR? This will help you define your tactics and determine whether you’ll be able to hire an outside resource, subscribe to a database or use a press release distribution service.

Timeline: A timeline will help you manage the tasks and tactics included in your plan. If you plan to send out one release a month its best to plan when you’ll write and the release and when you’ll send it out.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Peace, love and powerful press.

The Social Cycle

I hate doing laundry. Don’t get me wrong. I dig clean clothes.  I just hate schlepping my duffel bag of dirty duds down the stairs of my third floor walk-up.  It’s a real drag. And that’s exactly what you’ll often see me doing, dragging my bag down the street.

While spending my Saturday at The Suds and Comfort is not my idea of a good time, it got me thinking.  A social media plan is a lot like a wash cycle. If you jump in without proper planning it’s going leave you feeling all wet.

Here are four steps to ensure social success:

Listen:  Before engaging anyone through social media you need to be a voyeur. Take some time to observe and understand the culture, vernacular, and behavior of the community you’re hoping to join. You don’t want to bust into a community, bombarding your new neighbors with your sales pitch. They’ll see you as a spammer and tune you out. Once they tune you out, it will take time to rebuild credibility.

Participate: Create content that stimulates conversation in your community. Think of yourself as publisher. Publishers create content with their readers in mind. Be a passionate thought leader that educates, engages and entertains. Know your audience and make media that resonates with them.

Implement Metrics:  A word of warning…social media is not just a numbers game. You can have a large number of Facebook followers but are they interested in what you’re saying? Are they returning to your page?  But that’s another story for another day.

Four quick ways to measure your social impact:

• Traffic: Hits to site, followers, friends and fans.

• Engagement:  Click-thru’s, repeat visits, blog comments, retweets, bookmarks, and subscribers to feeds.

• Influence: Increased brand awareness, buzz, mentions, links shared, leads, and long tail traffic.

• Sales Activity:  Map out a time line of social media activity and overlay it with a financial performance chart.

Change and Adapt:  Assess your social media strategy. Constantly evaluate what’s working and where you can implement change. Don’t be afraid to experiment and take chances. Learn from your mistakes, evolve and move forward.

Four Steps to Makeover Your Media Room

I’ve been poking around a lot of online press rooms lately. Interestingly enough, they all seem to fall into one of three categories: bare bones, yesterday’s news or robust resource.

The bare bones media room is like a pizza box at a Weight Watchers convention—empty. If you’re lucky, you’ll find contact information for a media rep, but that’s usually about it.

The yesterday’s news media room is like a day old danish—stale. The news is outdated and the page feels frozen in time.

Now the robust media room, that’s a different story, the robust media room is like a Porsche 911—fully loaded.

So, “Gentlemen, start your engines” and check out these four steps to get your media room up to speed and on the right track.

Provide Comprehensive Contact Information

Journalists are always under deadlines and juggling multiple stories. They don’t have the time or the patience to be searching around your press page for contact information. Make sure to include the name, phone numbers (office and cell), and email address for an accessible PR contact. You should also provide a general contact option such as press@organization.com for less pressing issues.

Offer an Extensive Press Kit and Multimedia

Provide your company history, executive bios, board list, high-resolution logos, photos, head shots, awards, links to recent media coverage, videos and podcasts. The easier you make the journalist’s/blogger’s job, the more likely they are to write about you.

Share Information on Your Industry or Cause

Want your press room to become a destination for journalists and bloggers? Then offer more than just information on your company or nonprofit and provide information on your industry or cause. Use tip sheets, fact sheets, polls, and surveys to make your case.  For example, let’s say you’re a PR person for a major airline, you could compile a fact sheet of the latest consumer trends in flying: how often the average person flies, the percentage of passengers who do not check baggage, etc. Why not create a tip sheet on how to save on airfare? Go beyond the pale and provide journalists/bloggers with the all the ammunition they need to write a story.  They will soon start to see you as an industry resource rather than a PR rep for your organization.

Create a Calendar of Events and Speaking Gigs

Journalists and bloggers often attend trade shows, conferences and seminars. Why not create a calendar of executive public speaking appearances along with the conferences and trade shows you’ll be attending.  You never know…a journalist/blogger may decide to attend your session or swing by your trade show booth for a chat.

The Joan Rivers’ Guide to Better Branding

 

Can we talk? Whether you love Joan Rivers or worship the quick sand she walks on, you’ve got to give her credit —she’s a survivor.

I first saw Joan doing stand up at a Boston comedy club about ten years ago. I laughed so hard that by the end of the night my cheeks hurt. While I had a lot of laughs that night, I hadn’t thought much about Joan, until recently, when a friend recommended I watch Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. The documentary captures a year in the life of the comedienne while looking back on the highs and lows of a career that spans four decades.

The film made me realize that Joan is much more than a comedienne. She’s a marketing maven. In fact, Joan can teach us all a thing or two about marketing, perseverance, and the power of laughter. So here goes, the Joan Rivers’ guide to better branding.

Be Unique: Joan has a personality all her own. She says what she wants, when she wants.  She’s earned a reputation, for better or worse, as a loose cannon. But that’s what people love about her. She’s one of a kind. How would you describe your brand’s personality? Understanding your brand’s core personality traits will help guide all creative and strategic marketing decisions. It will also help you develop a clear and consistent voice for social networking. If you don’t know your brand’s personality, start surveying your customers, clients or donors.

Target a Specific Audience:  Joan loves the gays. “Gays were the first ones who found me, in the Village so I feel very akin to them and very connected,” says Rivers.  Today, Joan starts every live show by asking, “Where are my gays? In return, Joan has a gaggle of gays at every show.  So what’s the lesson here? Know thy audience.  Whether your targeting soccer moms, stock brokers or evangelical ministers is irrelevant.  What matters is that you choose an audience and study them like a book. Learn their nuances. What are their common bonds? What inspires them? What keeps them up at night? Learn to speak the native language and spend time wherever they congregate.

Be Ubiquitous: Joan is omnipresent. Recent sightings have included a new TV series for Oxygen, hawking jewelry on the Home Shopping Channel and a Super Bowl spot for Go Daddy. Did I miss anything? The point is, Joan doesn’t rely on one marketing method to reach her audience— and neither should you. Adopt a strategic marketing approach that incorporates multiple touch points. Think PR, social media, word of mouth, print, web advertising and direct mail.

Experiment: Joan Rivers is like an inflatable punching bag. You knock her down and she bounces back up. She’s had her share of success and failure, just like the rest of us. But what’s admirable about Joan is that she’s not afraid to try something new. There is no magic formula to executing a successful marketing/PR campaign. The trick is to take chances and dare to be different. Need some inspiration? Check out this PR pitch from the CEO and COO of CodeWeaver to New York Times technology columnist David Pogue. Pogue said it was one of the best pitches he’s ever received. I think it’s genius.

And last but not least, keep on laughing because as Joan say’s “If you don’t laugh you die.”

Ten Steps to Better Brainstorms

A bad brainstorm session is like a bad date; it leaves you feeling a little unsettled. While I haven’t been on a bad date in sometime, I’ve been to my share of bad brainstorming sessions—chances are you have too.

But don’t give up hope kids! By following these ten suggestions you can run brainstorms that nurture new ideas and cultivate creative thinking.

• Expand Your Guest List: Marketing and PR types don’t have a monopoly on creative thinking.  Invite the receptionist, the guy from the accounting and the intern—in other words, anyone who will add value and contribute to the conversation. Six to ten people is ideal.

• You’re Invited: A good evite should not only provide background information on the challenge, but also immediately stimulate creative thinking, so participants arrive to the brainstorm with a preliminary list of ideas.

• Location is Everything: Find a quiet, relaxing spot where you can arrange the seats in a circular fashion, so everyone can see one another.

• Plan Your Menu: Snacks make people happy and help maintain energy levels.

• Establish Ground Rules: A brainstorm is a judgment free zone—that means all participants need to need to check their attitude at the door. Creativity and radical ideas flow freely here.

• Timing is Everything: Limit the length of the brainstorm to forty-five minutes.

• The Write Stuff: Assign a scribe to write down every idea on a visible whiteboard.

• What’s the Problem ?: Describe your central question/challenge to the team at the beginning of the session.

• Go with the Flow: If the creative juices begin to run dry—navigate the team toward a new direction.

• Wrap it Up: Once the session draws to a close build consensus around which ideas are worth pursuing.

One final word of advice, if you’re the boss you may want to assign someone from your team to facilitate the brainstorm. Your employees may be more comfortable sharing ideas with a colleague.  Did I miss anything? Send me your ideas and suggestions. prguyonline@gmail.com

 

Essence of Brand

Listen up kids! Today we’re talking about brand essence. No, it’s not a new fragrance from Calvin Klein or the latest scent from Yankee Candle. BTW have you checked out some of those Yankee Candle scents? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my place smelling like an orange creamsicle.

Brand essence is two or three word phrase that defines a brand’s core values and attributes. While it may be short and sweet, this mini-maxim establishes a cosmic connection with everyone it touches. It s succinctly summarizes a brand’s fundamental nature while giving it voice and personality.

Powerful examples include:

Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance
Disney: Fun Family Entertainment
Starbucks: Rewarding Everyday Moments
Hallmark: Caring Shared

The words should be simple, powerful, and permanent. Much like a person’s core personality traits, a brand essence statement encapsulates the most important qualities of a brand such as:

• A distinct set of benefits that are meaningful to the customer
• Competitive differences
• A promise of value
• A pledge of reliability, caring, and assurance

As the world becomes more digital and impersonal, it’s vital that your brand be built upon a foundation of emotional truths consumers can feel and embrace. A clear brand essence statement strengthens consumer loyalty and helps navigate every decision and communication influencing brand perception. It will bring a new level of clarity and definition to your brand by connecting you with consumers on a profound level.

Six Steps to Add Some Gaga to Your Marketing Mix

Lady Gaga is a force of nature.  One billion plus views on YouTube, 6.4 million fans on Facebook, and 3.8 million followers on Twitter. The most Googled image of 2009, Time Magazine’s 2010 artist of the year, and Fast Company’s most creative business person of 2010. She’s a marketing maven, a social media strategist, and a worldwide phenomenon.

Love her or leave her, the girl’s got it going on! So let your freak flag fly! Check out these six steps to add a little Gaga to your marketing mix.

Embrace social media: Create a content rich website that shows your personality and engages your audience.

Gaga is a social climber of epic proportions. Her home turf (www.ladygaga.com) is a robust site, chock full of chat rooms, photos, exclusive videos, merchandise, tour information, and downloadable music.

Limit your social network & keep it consistent: Choose two or three social networking sites that you’ll update on a regular basis and stick with them.

Fans can get their daily dose of Lady G on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. As for consistency, Gaga tweets about once a day, sometimes every few hours.

Be authentic: Think of social networking as a cocktail party. Make friends and play nice. People do business with people they like.

Gaga keeps it real by engaging fans as though they’re her best buds. During a NYC performance, Gaga tweeted “The team of doctors and nurses who saved my dad’s life came to the monsterball, one of the best nights of my life performing for u. Rejoice NY.”

Establish a tribe: People join tribes, ancient and contemporary, to feel connected and part of something bigger than themselves. Harley Davidson and Apple have built their empires by cultivating tribes.

Gaga’s tribe has been described as cult-like in their devotion. She refers to her tribe, affectionately, as “ little monsters” and has adopted her own internal sign language known as the ‘monster claw.’

Focus your marketing on a particular audience:  If you’re everything to everyone, then you’re nothing to anyone. Create a narrow focus and infiltrate.

Gaga refers to her target audience as “An army of outsiders – All of the weird kids, the artistic kids, all the bad ones. And I love that, because that’s who I was. It’s our own little world.”

Tap into the power of PR: A wise man once said, you pay for advertising but you pray for PR. PR gives a business or person the credibility of a third party endorsement.

Face it, Gaga knows how to make heads turn. She wears outrageous clothes, makes controversial comments, and buys pizza for her little monsters while they wait in line to pay homage to ‘the Lady’. While her counterparts make news for bad behavior, Gaga makes press for partnering with Polaroid and Virgin Mobile.

Don’t Interrupt Me!

The writing is on the wall my friends, interruption marketing is on its way out. But like an aging actress, its not going down without a fight.

Interruption marketing is the idea of getting consumers to stop what they’re doing and pay attention to your TV/radio spot, print ad, direct mail campaign, voicemail, or email blast.  And while interruption marketing has enjoyed a long and prosperous run, its days are numbered.  Today’s savvy consumers have figured out how to beat interruption marketing at its own game. They’re subscribing to satellite radio, using spam blockers, and watching commercial-free TV.

So what’s a marketeer to do? Start creating content.  Think about it, everyone goes online searching for content and information, so why not provide them with what they’re looking for? Social media is about delivering useful content at the precise moment a consumer needs it. The internet has turned what used to be a controlled, one-way message into a real-time dialogue with millions.

Content can come in many forms:

• Blogs – A personal website written by someone who is passionate about a subject
• Podcasts – Audio content, does not require an iPod, you can listen to one on an MP3 player or on your computer
• Videos – Video content, vlogs
• Webinars – Online seminars that may include audio, video or graphics
• Whitepapers – Research and survey reports that offer valuable content

When properly executed, content stimulates word of mouth, builds search engine optimization, and drives traffic to your website. It can be forwarded, Tweeted, bookmarked, posted on Facebook, and shared on LinkedIn.

The Sweet Smell of Success

Need evidence? Take a whiff of the recent Old Spice campaign.  The ad execs at Widen and Kennedy ( the Nike guys) created a series of 180 personalized videos with former football hero Isaiah Mustafa as the Old Spice Guy, dressed in a towel, standing in a bathroom, directly responding to Tweets and blog comments from fans.  In just seven days the videos generated 40 million views and increased  sales of Old Spice Body Wash by 107%. Talk about spicing things up.

Three social networking sites where you can share content:

LinkedIn is the de facto b-to-b networking site. In today’s professional world people change jobs and locations constantly. By connecting on LinkedIn you have a permanent online Rolodex that never goes out of date. As a member, you can build a profile and invite colleagues and constituents to join your network. The key to LinkedIn is to join groups where your clients and prospects gather.

Twitter is a virtual water cooler. It’s a micro-blogging site that gives you 140 characters to tell people what has your attention. Think of Twitter as an idea bank rather than a place for conversation. Twitter is a great place to meet people, build digital relationships, and follow industry leaders.

Facebook profiles are for people. Fan pages are for business. It’s actually against the Facebook terms of use to use a personal profile for business. Once you create a fan page you can engage fans (your clients and prospects) by sharing information on webinars, conferences, and research studies. Make sure your postings are relevant and informative. Post consistently and be patient. It may take time to grow your fan base.

Six Steps to Pump Up Your Print Ad

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BBDO founder David Abott believed that while styles in print advertising may evolve superficially, the enduring principles are based on human behavior, and therefore remain the same. In other words, while trends in type, color, and borders may change, the elements of a good ad are timeless.

Here are six-steps to get your ad noticed now:

Capture the reader’s attention like a stop sign and direct it like a road map

Have you ever watched someone flip through a magazine? They generally spend about two seconds scanning each page. In order for your ad to break through the clutter, the reader needs to know exactly where to direct their attention. Create an unmistakable focal point followed by a clear road map to lead the eye.

Things to keep in mind:

• Americans read from left to right.
• Most readers look down after an illustration or photograph – place your headline below the visual to take advantage of this tendency.
• The reader’s visual journey ends in the lower right hand corner. Make sure to place your contact information there.

Make an emotional connection

The best way to enter the minds of your target audience is through the heart. Ads that present powerfully charged emotional stories are the ones people remember most. Don’t write a book, but if you want people to talk about your ad, give them a story they can share.

Write headlines that offer a reason to read more

Advertising maven David Ogilvy claimed that five out of six people read only the headline of a print ad. Increase your odds by writing headlines that capture attention and provoke interest. The best headlines state a benefit, arouse interest, or break news.

Things to keep in mind:

• Appeal to the reader’s self-interest by offering tangible benefits.
• Break news that inspires the reader to delve into the text.
• If you want the visual to be the focal point, keep the headline simple. If you want the headline to be the focal point, keep the visual simple.

Use pictures to attract and convince

In his book Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising, Paul Messaris writes, “Photographs come with an inherent guarantee of authenticity that is absent from words no matter how authoritative.” Seeing is believing. If the headline is not the most prominent feature of your ad, then the image should take center stage

Things to keep in mind:

• If cost is not an issue use color photographs to attract greater attention.
• Green and blue attract the most attention.
• Subjects looking directly at the reader are more effective than an off-center gaze.

Make text legible

Everyone is suffering from information overload. Make your ad simple and easy to read.

Things to keep in mind:

• Short paragraphs are less daunting.
• Subheads tell your story to glancers.
• Give readers several points of entry into the text.

Test Before, Measure After

You only have one chance to get it right. Test to see if the ad connects with your audience through field-testing. Ask relatives, friends and associates if the ad speaks to them. If you don’t get a positive response, go back to the drawing board.

How to test your ad:

• A toll free number with a dedicated extension to distinguish calls generated by the ad.
• A web address with a dedicated landing page.
• A coupon or code identifying the publication.

Ten Steps to Get Your Blog Noticed Now

www.prguyonline.com

I hate to burst your bubble, but just because you build a blog, doesn’t mean they will come. Trust me, I know from whence I speak.

In fact, the original quote comes from the Kevin Costner flick, Field of Dreams. Costner is wandering through a cornfield when he hears a voice whisper, “If you build it, he will come.” Costner builds a ball field where he plays catch with the ghost of his deceased Dad. A little corny, (pun intended), but a tearjerker nonetheless.

Back to blogging…….

So you’re the new kid on the blog. You have a styling home page, have crafted some killer copy, and you’re ready for more traffic than the 5 Freeway. Trouble is, no one knows you’re alive in cyberspace.

No worries. You can change your fate, and become the talk of the town in no time. Word of advice, patience is a virtue when it comes to blogging. It may take a little time to build your audience and find your voice. But keep the faith and you’ll reap the rewards.

Ok, here’s the list. Send your additional suggestions to prguyonline@gmail.com.

• Offer RSS and email subscription options

• Add your blog URL to your email signature

• Register with Technorati and Google Blog Search

• Comment on other blogs

• Join a few blog directories- blog catalog, bloggeries, some are free others will cost you. http://www.best-web-directories.com/blog-directories.htm

• Write about Google

• Guest post on other blogs

• Use links and trackbacks

• Syndicate your content on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

• Add Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Twitter widgets to your blog