TREAT PUBLIC RELATIONS LIKE THE 'PRODUCT' IT IS
Public relations (PR) is a highly effective and powerful promotion tool, a must for the marketing tool kit of any serious Concrete Promoter, and provides the best marketing vehicle for companies or organizations to establish and support their honest identity with prospects, customers, and other stakeholders.
By investing time, creativity, and imagination, it is relatively easy for Concrete Promoters to generate and share real news about their organization or firm, garnering higher share of voice and positioning their company or organization in a positive light in the marketplace of ideas.
Media Asks: WIIFM and My Audience?
Though it looks cynical in print, the world listens to one radio station: WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?).
Often when Concrete Promoters use PR to advance concrete markets, they get so excited about the marketing message they are trying to share they forget to take into account what the media requires: Real news, relevant to the interests of specific media audience segments.
This can create a serious problem, says Michael Fischler, founder and principal coach and consultant of Markitek, who wrote a great article for the MarketingProfs.com newsletter titled The ‘Product’ Called Public Relations.
The problem Fischler discusses is not how to write better press releases, though as last week’s post suggests, press release mastery supports PR success. The serious problem develops, according to Fischler, when promoters fail to understand the nature of the marketplaces they are dealing with, and fail to deliver the ‘product’ media marketplaces want.
The PR ‘product’ you provide for the media – whether by phone or press release – is information. But beware: It is a buyer’s market. Your competition – direct competitors and competing material options – is also vying for free print, broadcast, and online publicity.
Because PR establishes/reinforces trust and credibility and provides higher return on investment than any other marketing communications vehicle, contention for free publicity is extreme.
Most publications and radio and television stations are short-staffed and give priority to breaking news and editorial calendar articles. This leaves very little opportunity for time-strapped staff to do the necessary legwork to follow up on story suggestions businesses or organizations provide – no matter how compelling or newsworthy the story is.
Editors and reporters process the information you and your competitors provide in many ways, but start by asking these questions:
- What’s in it for me?
- What’s in it for my readers/listeners/viewers?
Concrete Promoters who use PR successfully customize their PR ‘product’ to meet the content and form requirements of each media outlet they contact, making sure business editors and reporters get only business news … trade media receive information only on the industries/markets/materials they cover … housing/real estate reporters get information pertinent to residential construction and development … commercial real estate reporters get information pertaining only to non-residential development and construction … urban affairs reporters receive only information appropriate to their area of expertise … education reporters get only education-related information … and community and general assignment editors and reporters receive only human-interest stories and community-oriented information.
Savvy Concrete Promoters create and maintain an up-to-date list of the newspapers, radio and television stations in their area, along with accurate contact information (mailing and email addresses and telephone and fax numbers) and contact each media outlet to determine the editors or reporters to whom they will send information about their company’s activities. These savvy promoters also verify the correct spelling of names, ask about media deadlines, and inquire how each media contact prefers to receive information … mail, e-mail, phone, fax, or email link.
This upfront legwork is time consuming, but provides solid return on investment. Because of the time constraints described above, first priority is often given to well-written press releases able to fit readily into a publication – or to be transferred to news copy or a teleprompter – with little or no editing.
Leverage This Reality: Media Loves Concrete Construction
News about construction is especially interesting to media gatekeepers, because – based in part on the success of This Old House, Hometime, and HGTV – the gatekeepers believe every media consumer is a “sidewalk superintendent.”
Since concrete placement is one of the first visually-interesting activities on a job site, print, television, and web-based media outlets are especially open to PR advances from Concrete Promoters.
PR lives up to its billing as the key power tool in a Concrete Promoter’s marketing toolbox when it is treated as a ‘product’ and customized to meet the content and form requirements of specific media outlets (what’s in it for me and my audience?).
As the father of Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson maintains, “A marketing plan that does not include public relations in its marketing mix is not going all out.” Wield your PR power tools as often as possible.
To comment on the posting, click HERE. Please include the phrase “PR as Product” in your subject line.