Public Relations - Start with the Basics!

PAt the risk of sounding boring and repetitive, can I just say that PR is NOT free advertising!  I have lost count of the number of people that have sat in our meeting room and said that they are thinking to embark on a PR campaign because it wont cost them anything, whereas advertising will.    PR is a whole skill in itself, and when carried out well it can be enormously effective.    However, as you will see as we go along, I am a big fan of the ‘drip, drip, drip’ approach to marketing/PR, and I think it is important that all of your different marketing tools work in tandem; so, in an ideal world, the PR supports the advertising, the advertising supports the website, the website supports the social media, and so on (and by drip, drip, drip, I mean that one day you read something about a company in the paper, a couple of days later you see an advert about the same company, a few days later you meet someone from that company, etc, etc, etc, until you appoint them!).

Sticking to PR for the moment, let’s look at what is involved and how best to do it: first, ask yourself what the purpose of the PR campaign is.  Now that might sound a bit strange, but it is a question that I always ask a new client before we get started, ever since I asked the boss of a big, international company here what he would regard as a success at the end of the campaign (assuming he would say ‘a huge number of sales’) and he responded ‘I want to see my photo in a magazine at least once a month’!  Knowing what you want to achieve from the campaign, will help you to define what you are actually going to do; if you want to see an increase in sales, your PR activity should focus on the business and trade media that relates to your products/services; if you want to see pictures of yourself every month, then you might want to talk to the media that will be interested in your hobbies and achievements.   You also need to be realistic – yes, we know that you would all like to be on the front page of Hospodarske noviny each week (imagine my surprise when one of our clients tells us that!) – but unless you are doing something that is headline news, you are probably going to be disappointed.

If you are prepared (and able) to write articles yourself on topics that are likely to be interesting to specific media, then it might be possible to get them published.  But before embarking on hours of drafting, it is worth doing a bit of research first; try and speak to the journalists at your targeted magazine/paper and find out the sort of stories that they would be interested in – better to write about something that they want, rather than what you want!  Similarly with interviews; some journalists are happy to do interviews (but there is no guarantee that such interviews will be published), but they are not going to interview you just because you want them to.  You need to come up with a good reason why you could be just the person that they want to speak to about a given topic… and then make sure that if you get the interview, you give them what they want.

Press releases.  No, not everyone can write a press release.  And yes, everyone will have an opinion (sorry to be rude, but I can often be heard to say that if you put a group of Czechs in a room and ask them to translate ‘please see attached’ the conversation will go on forever).  Quite honestly, if more people worried about the ‘substance’ of the PR rather than where a capital letter should or shouldn’t go, they might have more chance of getting it published!  PRs should be short (ideally one page), the first paragraph should grab the journalist immediately – what is it, when is it, why is it newsy – and you need to include in it a few ‘hooks’ that will ensure that a journalist that receives thousands of press releases on their desk each day, actually reads yours.  Once upon a time there was some research undertaken in the UK which asked what the most popular words were to have in a heading of a PR that would ensure coverage.  The words were David Beckham.  So use the David Beckham technique … try and get into your heading/first paragraph something that you know will grab the journalists immediate attention – more on that soon.

And finally….. don’t forget to monitor the media!!  Not much point in banging out press releases and organizing interviews if you never actually check whether something has been published (no, that is not a joke….!!).

More soon.

Jo

An Idiot's Guide to PR

I have been asked to write a regular article on public relations for one of the English language portals here in Prague (www.pragueconnect.cz).  I thought it would be easy – maybe it will be once I get started properly - but coming up with a topic for the first article – i.e as an introduction – was a bit more complicated.  In the end I decided that the first ‘edition’ should be something along the lines of an ‘idiot’s guide to PR’.  Here is an excerpt.

1.    What does a PR agency do?

That might seem like a strange first question, but I have to say that a good percentage of companies that come to see us do not really know what a public relations agency does.  The difference between marketing/advertising and PR is not always understood, and it is  not unusual for someone to say that they need some help with public relations and then start talking about advertising and other marketing tools. 

Generally, I would say that the term ‘public relations’ relates to the tools that a company can use to promote themselves to the public generally through talking ‘through’ the media – whether print, on-line, radio, TV, etc.   Of course it is a lot more complicated than that, and I will talk more on the subject as we go along, but hopefully that is enough for starters.

2.   Do we [public relations agencies] ‘have contacts’ in the media?

You would be surprised how often a company asks us this, particularly since we have been in the business for more than 20 years!   Bearing in mind the definition above, it would be a little strange if we didn’t have contacts in the media.  However, see next point!

3.   Can we use our contacts to get an article/interview/press release onto the front page of whatever newspaper is requested?!

I am afraid that this is also a regular assumption, and, sadly, if it was that easy, no-one would need us (plus every paper would be full of rubbish - bear in mind that most journalists receive hundreds of press releases and interview requests every day!).   Having ‘contacts’ does, however, mean that we can discuss articles, releases, interviews with the journalists in question, etc, and, in turn, they can tell us what they are interested in writing about.  There are very few journalists that, just because they are friends, will automatically place something in the paper for us.

4.   Who is the best person to handle the public relations for a company?

Another frequently asked question, to which I usually respond ‘who is the best person to handle the accounting, legal, IT for a company?’  You wouldn’t normally trust these things to someone that has absolutely no experience in the field, so why trust your PR to such a person….?  But if you don’t have such a person, then use an agency, in the same way that you go to an external supplier for other professional services!

5.   Should we use a PR agency/person?  We don’t really have anything to talk about….

You may be surprised, but most companies/individuals think this, and actually they DO have something to talk about – but that is where the PR expertise comes in.   Nearly every company that we deal with worries that they don’t have enough interesting news to carry out a PR campaign, but then we start discussing what they get up to each day, and endless possibilities spill out.   

6.   I have tried doing some PR before but have not had any results, so why could an agency help?

Many smaller companies have told me this over the years.  And I always respond that PR always works… it is what has been done that doesn’t work!

I could go on… and in the next few articles I probably will.  But for now, I hope that the above is enough of a taster to start you thinking about how you might use PR to support your business, and then read on to see how you, yourself, can start to get results!

Jo

ANTISOCIAL MEDIA

Earlier this week I spoke at a workshop for American MBA students that specialize in marketing.   Being of a certain age, I prefer to chat about life and work rather that talking my way through a power point presentation, and because the agency has been going for so long and we have seen so many changes, I usually talk about how PR and marketing worked in the early days after the fall of communism and then compare it to how things work now.

The students can never quite believe that when JWA first started we didn’t have computers, mobile phones, internet etc.. and actually, in Czechoslovakia when I first arrived, even calling out of the country from a landline was an all day challenge; but that is another story.     In this latest workshop, however, by the time I got to what we are doing today, I had had quite a few questions fired at me and I suspect that some of the students thought that I was making my whole speech up!

It was when I got to social media, and my general concern about the use of social media as a marketing tool, that they became the most incredulous; one of them even asked ‘if you don’t like social media, then what do you DO for your clients?’…. to which I responded, of course, that even twenty years ago we did actually manage to carry out marketing and communications campaigns, and a lot of what we do now is just a more developed version of what we did then.  She definitely didn’t believe that!

The thing is, as I keep on saying, we in the Czech Republic operate in a place where marketing and communication is still not widely understood, and where many companies would rather get someone from their own team - usually the most junior or least knowledgeable person (or, in the case of an SME, the boss will take it on themselves) - to ‘do’ the marketing, rather than spend any money on outside help, with the end result that it (marketing) doesn’t work.  And they never see that it is not the marketing that doesn’t work, but what they are doing. 

So imagine the damage that can be done when you give these same people a Facebook/YouTube/Twitter/whatever tool to play with – so much easier and cheaper to work with than, say, preparing a brochure or advert, or trying to get a press release written and published!!  And so much more damaging…

My friends are always surprised (amazed?) that I actually do know quite a bit about social media and in some clients’ cases we use it quite a lot; but we use it with extreme caution, using a copywriter to prepare the text and so on, and ensuring that what is being said is in line with the client's overall marketing strategy at all times.   But one thing you can be sure of.. you are never going to find me or anyone in our team posting photos or comments on Facebook or tweeting about what we had for breakfast, or any of the other things that I am now addicted to watching on my Blackberry!  And then wondering what on earth makes people feel the need to tell the world what they are doing at any time of the day or night?  Don’t they worry that people might think they have nothing better to do (for example work…??).  Or am I just anti-social?

Jo

Life in the PR lane

I subscribe to an on-line PR newsletter – it is American and it seems to me (being old and battered) that most of its readers are quite young and fairly new in the PR world, so I usually just scan it and think that they haven’t seen anything yet!


Today, though, there were a couple of very interesting postings; one was the result of an annual survey that ranked jobs based on stress levels. Apparently, last year PR came in as the second most stressful job of all, and there is now some disappointment that it has dropped down to seventh (below serving in the Military (!), firefighting, etc… oh and event coordinator! Blimey.)

The other posting that I liked, and that is a reaction to this survey, talks about the highs and lows of working in PR, which are listed as follows, with my own commentary in order to expand and explain a bit to any non-PR people reading this:

"I love the intensity of helping media connect with others and providing them with information for stories; I hate that if someone can’t come through on an interview, it’s my reputation on the line."

Jo: Don’t we just know this feeling! Never, ever, think that just because an interview has happened, it is guaranteed to be published. If you don’t give the journalist something interesting to write about, it aint going to happen!!

"I love the sense of accomplishment when I see a feature story on the front page of a top media target that I made happen; I hate when a client acts like it’s just an everyday story placement."

Jo: Ah, yes. Two months of persuasion and the article finally comes out.. only to be met by a question ‘what happened to the interview that you mentioned would be done for xxx?

"I love the sense of completion when all interviews are done and information is sent to the reporter; I hate the lack of control over the final product."

Jo: Note: if you don’t want to risk that a journalist gets something wrong, then don’t speak to them in the first place.

"I love helping a company clean up and simplify its message; I hate it when they don’t listen."

Jo: No comment.

"I love the peace of mind of having a crisis communications plan; I hate when a company doesn’t understand the value of drafting the plan until a crisis strikes."

Jo: And so say all of us!

"I love telling people I work in PR; I hate that no one outside of the industry understands just how difficult it is."

Jo: Anyone reading this now: we work in the seventh most stressful job in the world!!!! Feel for us!

TV Addict

TV ADDICT


I have had all sorts of ideas for blogs that I have been desperate to write over the last few weeks, but have just not had the time. Sometimes, when I am sitting in meetings, a flash of ‘good blog’ passes through my brain, but unfortunately it is usually accompanied by a rude word or complete dismay that I absolutely couldn’t publicize such a thought since the person giving me the idea is a client! (Any clients reading this...that is, of course, a joke…!).

Thinking about some of the conversations that I had today, though, I thought that I would develop my thoughts by writing them down.

Being in an office full of women, we have spent quite a lot of time today discussing the fact that this is a big weekend for those of us that watch UK TV; the Strictly Come Dancing Final. And whilst most of us agree that Harry has to win (I am sure I don’t need to explain why), there has also been some discussion about Jason’s ability to work so hard! And, in particular, some of his expressions: I particularly like his “It is not the destination that counts, it is the journey”… but my real favourite, by far, is ’Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. Couldn’t we all use this saying in our own business environments? Certainly in the service industry, generally, and in PR and marketing in particular, this could almost become our motto; after all, the results that we get for our clients, are nearly always down to the preparation…

This also leads me to a favourite saying of my old boss, which was ‘this job is all about attention to detail’. I used to think that if he said it once more, I would punch his lights out.. twenty plus years on and I say it to my team all the time! If you think about it, though…. wouldn’t you say that preparation, combined with attention to detail, are two of the key answers to being successful in just about any job?

Another favourite TV programme of ours is ‘Dragons Den’. If you don’t know what this is, in a nutshell; four of the most successful (and richest) self-made entrepreneurs in the UK listening to a very lucky person that has been given the chance to pitch an idea for a new business, or an existing business, to them, with a view to them investing into the business; normally the pitcher says words to the effect of ‘I am looking for a GBP 100,000 investment into my business, and in return I will give you [the extremely successful and rich entrepreneur’] a 20% (or so) share in my company’, and then follows this with a short overview of said company.

One of the reasons that Dragons Den makes such great TV is that the investors can sometimes be quite brutal, and the people pitching are often… well.. idiots! Here they are, with an unbelievable opportunity to pitch to people that could change their lives, and they blow it by lack of preparation (failure to prepare), being too greedy, or having a completely ridiculous idea. I tell you, given that same opportunity, I would march in and say that I am looking for a couple of quid for a 50% share in my company just to get one of them to go for it! Imagine where we could all go with an Alan Sugar (or for those Czech readers) Petr Kellner, as our 50% shareholder. Blimey.

So that leads me to a new saying, that I hope that Jason would be proud of: never underestimate the value that a successful person can bring to your business. Listen, learn from them, and reap the rewards. (One of the blogs that flashed through my head earlier today.

Jo

THE HIDEOUSNESS OF FLYING!

Now, this is not particularly related to business, but it is something that I have been pondering for a while, and since it probably affects us business travelers more than others, I want to ask this question: am I the only person that is suffering from an affliction brought about by the hideousness of air travel today?

My nearest and dearest think that I have turned into a bit of a nutcase, as right now, the minute that I have to start contemplating a flight, I get into a mild state of panic that can really only be described as ‘air rage’, and that definitely starts to build the minute I set foot inside an airport.

It is not so long ago that I made the decision that if I have to work this hard and need to travel quite a lot in order to keep all of our lovely clients happy, then I am going to do it in some style. In fact, those of us who were regular flyers with Czech Airlines in the days before they started to turn into Aeroflot, didn’t have to try very hard, as our loyalty to good old CSA earned us all sorts of privileges, including the ability to be upgraded on most flights and be able, in some cases, to eat and drink ourselves into a state of such euphoria that we didn’t need much persuasion to get back onto another one of their flights more or less straight after departing from the previous one. My own partner, in fact, was often heard to ask for seconds and thirds of their rather splendid dinners, a wish that was always granted and was often met with an offer of half a bottle of cognac to wash down the fifteen bottles of wine that he had already consumed… Well. Those were the days.

Now, of course, the airlines think that we all want to fly as cheaply as possible – when I recently complained about Easyjet (don’t even ask), I was asked ‘what do you expect if you are only paying peanuts’… the thing is, I don’t want to pay peanuts! I just don’t have any option as the only way I can get to where I want to go is on the low cost airlines!

Recently we have been experimenting with a number of different airlines in order to get across Europe, but for some reason, the minute they see me, it all seems to go horribly wrong. I have had the Spanish inquisition in Madrid, where I was nearly refused entry to the boarding gate as I didn’t have a visa for the Czech Republic (eh?).. narrowly avoided being put in an Athens jail because, when checking in for a Czech Airlines flight (one of the few that still exists), the Greek Gestapo officer on the check in, whilst acknowledging that I did, indeed, have a Czech Airlines gold card (sigh) decided that it wasn’t actually a real one (do what?) - a comment which I deemed worthy of a slap - and have been thrown off the plane for having a boarding pass dated the day before (yes, off the plane… went through passport control, the boarding gate and boarding before anyone noticed!) – and this, after being charged to put a bag that is supposedly ‘Easyjet friendly’ into the hold… and then it never even travelled.

Am I alone in thinking that flying by private jet is getting more and more appealing? Anyone fancy sharing a flight to Malaga now and again?

MARKETING/PR DOESN’T WORK… YES IT DOES! PART 1

I have lost count over the years of companies coming to see JWA and starting the meeting with the statement that ‘they have tried marketing/PR, but it doesn’t work’. Usually these are SMEs where the person overseeing the marketing is the owner/managing director, and they are very nervous of spending the money without being ‘hands-on’ to what it is being spent on.

One of the problems when persuading companies that it makes sense to work with an agency, is that, to the outside world, there are no real rules involved. So, whilst these same people would probably listen to, and follow the advice of, their lawyer/accountant/architect/similar if they were coming to them for advice, since ignoring that advice could land them in all sorts of trouble, when it comes to marketing and PR… well, they are all experts, even if their own training is in accountancy, law, architecture, etc! The result being, of course, that they are loathe to want to listen to or spend money on someone that IS an expert in the field, and they would prefer to believe that it is the marketing itself, rather than their OWN particular marketing, that doesn’t work.

If you are thinking to embark on a marketing/PR campaign, it really IS worth at least talking to an agency before you start – all agencies will meet for an initial consultation without charging you a bean. And you might be surprised about the amount that they will charge you to go forward, compared to the amount that they will save you. And then consider the following:

• Advertising does work. But you need to be sure of who you are targeting, whether you are using the right advertising medium and whether the advert itself is getting the right message across. Don’t just embark on some advertising because someone offers you a great deal, or the editor is a friend, or because you, yourself, like to read that particular magazine or newspaper!! It is a bit more complicated than that!

• Not just anyone can write a press release or article, and, no, it is not just a question of giving a friendly journalist a call and asking him/her to place a press release on the front page of the paper! There is a real skill in writing a press release that generates attention from a journalist (who receives hundreds of press releases a day!) and just because you find a topic interesting, it doesn’t mean that a journalist does. If you want to get out in the media, an agency will advise you on the topics that specific media are interested in at any given time, will prepare your press release in a way that will get attention and will write your article so that it is interesting to read. And then, if they work really hard, you might get some coverage. Not because the journalist is a friend of the agency. But because they have given the journalist something that he can use.

• Direct marketing… well, that’s easy and cheap, isn’t it! But how many times do you, yourselves, open a letter, or read a newsletter, look at the first couple of lines and put it in the bin or delete it? Do you really want to spend money on printing, envelopes, postage and time for 99% of the recipients to bin what you have sent them? Don’t just think that because you can write, you can carry out a direct mailing campaign… it is more complicated than that!

Does any of the above sound familiar... I haven't even started!  What about what happens when the marketing actually does work... and then you fall at the first hurdle when the customer walks through the door... More on that in Part 2!

Jo