In today’s volatile market having a good public relations plan is more important than ever before. Today’s consumers are more intelligent than ever – but they’re also more skeptical of new advertising campaigns, products, and approaches. It’s pretty safe to say that the average consumer has been burnt by an illegitimate company on some level at least once – even if only insignificantly. People don’t forget bad experiences.

Public relations focus less on advertising and more on giving valuable information to the public – usually without including a sales pitch. It’s often much easier to educate an individual so that they recognise their own wants or needs rather than attempting to directly sell a product.

In order for your public relations campaign to be successful you have to maintain a high level of credibility. This means either reaching out to the public on your own or partnering with a trusted third-party. You may want to make friends with a local news reporter willing to write articles or simply have your own marketing department write press releases. Other companies host public events – either fun days or informational. All of these things help to bring their name into the spotlight without actually advertising a specific product or service.

Now, you can’t launch a public relations campaign and then sit back to see what works and what doesn’t. You have to carefully monitor every single aspect – from events to simple clippings – to find out which are drawing attention towards your organisation and which are not. Of the ones that are, you’ll want to determine if the attention is positive or negative and then take action to either enhance or correct the image you are portraying to the public.

Public relations can be difficult, but it can also be fun. There’s nothing more rewarding than knowing that the people you reach are walking away with valuable information – whether they choose to take immediate action or not. You’ve left an imprint in their minds and they’ll eventually react!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

Public relations is important to the success of any business, small or large. Public relations defines your relationships with the community, your current clients, potential clients, and even the medial

The art of having a good public relations plan is about much more than having a few well-written articles published in the paper or putting on a great fundraiser or “show” merely to convince the public that you mean well. A good public relations team will identify a cause that the company can relate to and use it to show how much they really do care about the community.

Sure, you want to gain publicity, but that publicity needs to be gained honestly. While you need to have a strong plan, you do not necessarily need to have a ton of money to launch a successful PR campaign.

For example, a friend in the US told a story about her growing martial arts business. They had a very limited budget and no way to get word out about their presence aside from word of mouth. They instead participated in a community run holiday event and dove right into the planning process, even calling other business owners to promote the event and solicit their participation. They not only spread the word about their business by participating in running the vent, but also earned the trust of their local township leaders and fellow businesspersons as well.

Here’s the challenge I have for you today. It’s time to define your public relations plan, no matter now complex.

• First, determine who your audience is. Are you looking to get in touch with other industry members, potential clients, vendors, family members, the government, or someone else?

• Make a plan that clearly outlines how you’ll get in touch with these people. Write out your goals, determine how you want your audience to perceive your business, and figure out what message you want them to hear. This part of the process includes creating strategies for getting your information out into the world as well.

• Finally, make friends with at least one or two members of the media. The local media is best, even if it’s a high school reporter or a small township paper. The more positive media attention you gain, the better.

Develop a strong public relations team and make sure your business is always in the public eye in some sort of positive manner. It doesn’t matter if you’re hosting a charity event or if you’ve won an award – the public should be hearing about you regularly!

Sean

Sandwich List My ~*@+!

Nick Faldo got caught out good and proper yesterday when the media caught him reading a list of pairings and it’s 1-0 to the Yanks in the mind games!

As Captain of the European Ryder Cup Team Nick Faldo is responsible for the PR, operations, marketing and morale of the team.

Sound familiar?

Yup, does it sound like you?

But I bet you never reveal any trade secrets to your competitors like Faldo did?!

You have to be so careful nowadays. One slip and the media and your competition can use it to their advantage.

So what was the list?

Well, firstly Faldo said it was a sandwich list for the players – yeah right! He looked so uncomfortable at the press conference and he handled it very poorly.

Then it dawned on him that he’d better come clean “Ok, Ok – it’s the practice pairings for Thursday’s practice session” he admitted

The list was clear to see with players initials down next to one another.

So, Faldo has revealed a trade secret. The pairings are obviously who he wants to play together when the Ryder cup starts for real but now the Americans know so they can plan accordingly.

So what does Faldo do now?

Does he change anything?

Or does he say “Oh, what the heck. You know the pairings – come and beat us if you can?”

Or is it all a cunning ploy and a deliberate mistake? If it were someone like Jack Nicklaus I’d say “possibly” Faldo? “Nope!”

Sometimes when you are implementing a marketing strategy your competitors will pick up on it early on but what is your plan B should this actually happen?

Faldo is now playing catch up – make sure you don’t have to with your marketing.

Be careful not to leak out any marketing plans or you could pay the price like Faldo might come Sunday when the Ryder Cup champions are announced.

Sean