Making PR work for your business

Many clients do not get PR. They neither understand how it operates or what it can do for their business. The ignorance even extends to some marketing people. One company chairman seeking savings told me that he would cut PR for 3 months and not expect to notice any difference. On the other hand the same people will merrily buy advertising space and exhibit at trade shows with little thought or concern about their investment.

Successful PR demands a continuous partnership between client and agency. The client's primary role is to identify possible news stories. PR agencies are not investigative reporters, they rely on clients identifying stories in the first place and to provide contact details for follow up and approval. New or improved products, important contract wins, staff appointments, financial results, special events, new technologies or processes ... there is a considerable list, but not all, in fact not many, will be newsworthy. This is where the PR agency side of the partnership identifies a 'hook' on which to build an interesting story, one that an editor will pick up. Often a good picture or a striking image will help promote an otherwise ordinary story and gain attention. Good PR is about managing the reputation of the business in good times and bad. There should be clear strategic objectives and a consistent message or theme should run through all communications. It takes time to set up the smooth running of news to the media and switching it off and on will be noticed. Of course there is much more to PR, this blog has merely touched on the client relationship. But a word on media. For most small to medium size businesses it will be the trade press and industry web sites rather than television and radio in the main. One final word and that is not to forget news on the company web site both as a publishing opportunity, client and prospect information and a resource to journalists. It is the company web site where most research starts, so current news and background information can prove of great value. This is where a Virtual News Office can prove of immense value.

On a final note, the partnership between client and agency is vital to a successful PR programme. It also demands a reasonable degree of openess, how often do clients refuse to publish important stories for fear of alerting a competitor - they probably bid on the job unsuccessfully anyway.

A word on White Papers

White Papers, if understood at all in the UK, probably suggest a government consultation document. But in industrial circles, more so I suspect, in America they are recognised as a means of providing a briefing such as introducing a new technology or manufacturing concept. Marketing Sherpa recently reported that "In 2008, 44% of business prospects said they are reading white papers more often than in the past. That’s an increase from the 39% who said in 2007 they were reading white papers more often. More than half of business decision-makers and influencers said they read two to five white papers per quarter." The article continues, "prospects typically download a white paper in the research phase of a buying decision. They’re looking for content that’s highly relevant to their industry or job description, and that addresses one of their biggest business problems or needs. By downloading your white paper, they’re starting a conversation that should help you gauge over time their product needs, interest level and stage in the buying cycle." So why do so few businesses include White Papers within their PR programme? White Papers are a concept we usually need to work hard with clients to accept, as they seem not to be highly valued or understood. And yet a White Paper can be a very influential tool at the research phase of the purchasing process. It not only provides the rationale but stakes your company out as experts, allowing you to capture the moral high ground. Convince a prospect that you understand the business and readers are more likely to value your business as a supplier. Interestingly LinkedIn is now offering the LinkedIn White Paper Campaign targeting professionals who could be interested in specific white papers and proposing these benefits:-

• "Target niche audiences
• Reach professional decision-makers looking for answers
• Engage your audience with relevant content
• Secure up-to-date, actionable lead information
• Contact qualified well-suited customers".

Downloading the White Paper identifies the person as a prospect, so offer a form to capture the contact information then ensure the lead is qualified and followed up with the offer of more specific product information.

Technical Marketing blog is now on ET Express

Starting this week, the Technical Marketing Diary Blog will be published on ET Express, the weekly e-mail newsletter for the entertainment technology market. The blog is replacing the former "One Minute Marketing" feature that for some time now has signed off the ET Express news that pops into e-mail in-boxes each Friday. "One Minute Marketing" was written as a simple briefing on marketing techniques covering a range of topics from advertising to public relations and intended for the benefit of engineers and entrepreneurs without marketing knowledge and with limited time, seeking to promote their products in a competitive marketing place. Articles from this series are still available and have been collated so that they can be downloaded as a PDF booklet from the Technical Marketing web site. Our blog takes a much wider brief allowing us to comment on marketing practice, ideas, new developments, technologies and campaigns. For example recent blog stories have covered such diverse topics as publishing trends, in-bound marketing, Twitter and marketing through the recession. Technical Marketing Diary blog headlines are also published on Twitter.

Our focus will be towards business-to- business (b-2-b) marketing where probably the biggest difference from consumer marketing is the size of marketing budget. But just because budgets are much smaller there is no reason why b-2-b marketing should not be professional. It is tempting for modest sized businesses, particularly in difficult trading times, to resort to in-house solutions. Unfortunately prospective customers can also spot an amateurishly produced brochure or web site and what message does that convey about the company's products and services?

Marketing in the long term

It is tempting when a product has a very long life cycle to cut marketing activity during difficult times. Consider a product that has a large initial capital investment cost but could be expected to last for 10, 15 or 20 years with careful use. What happens when it is time for replacement? In 20 years time the buyer or purchasing team is likely to have changed. Will the new people just look at the label and call up for a quote? Possible, but unlikely. In fact if they have not heard from you in the intervening years they may not even realise that you are still in business. It makes sense to maintain contact with your customer. For a start they can prove to be a very effective reference source for third party endorsement, to be presented as a case study and to tell others about their experience with your product. So it is important to ensure that they are enjoying a positive experience. If it is a product that requires service then your service engineers are the most important ambassadors. Are they? Have they been trained not just to maintain the kit but to reaffirm the wisdom of buying your product in the first case. How often does a service engineer make some derogatory reference to the product where a problem could be presented in a more positive light? Some years ago I had a client in the air-conditioning business who would refer sites as PR leads and without exception I would find their customer unwilling to make a positive statement because invariably the installation was not working to their satisfaction. It is tempting to close a sale and move on, but the ground for the replacement sale can be laid straight away - the old adage that it is more cost effective  to retain and sell more to an existing customer than get a new one. During the life of the product not only might there be service opportunities but the chance to sell accessories and consumables. It is also important to keep the customer informed of new developments, how legislation might affect things and in short give reasons to bring forward the replacement date. Rarely do customers run equipment until it is totally obsolete so they need information and inducements as a loyal customer to plan earlier for capital replacement. It means that there needs to be regular and informative marketing communication supported by a database. Switch off marketing and the customer could soon be lost. Communications may be general - such as an informative newsletter or they could be customised and specific to a particular situation. It is important to keep reassuring the user that not only did they make a wise purchase decision but that they will becoming back next time too.

Time to outsource marketing

We find ourselves trading in extra ordinary financial times. This global recession is no ordinary recession such as many of us have experienced a few times before. Neither is the great Wall Street crash back in 1929 an indicator except it too followed a period of prosperity in America at least. No, this time it is the banking system after years of imprudent lending that has precipitated the crisis and caused governments to inject trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into propping up the banks. Where did these vast sums of money actually come from? Could it be just  another side of the fantasy of the original bad loans. Whatever the cause and solutions the lack of credit is causing businesses to make economies and guess what - marketing is once again the soft target. 

Research by Harvard Business School has shown that it is essential to maintain marketing spending, even more so in a recession and to emphasise core values. “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain customers need the reassurance of known brands.” ... “Economic recession can elevate the importance of the finance director's balance sheet over the marketing manager's income statement. Managing working capital can easily dominate managing customer relationships. CEOs must counter this. Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.”

Tough times call for tough decisions and that may start with a review of the whole business  before making cuts. Think about the options. A business that has grown in prosperous times may have added personnel, facilities, plant, assets etc ad hoc. Simply making cuts across the board will result in a scaled back company no longer operating at an optimal level because all departments are now under strength. Or another approach is to cut the soft targets like marketing, expenses etc and retain all the staff because labour legislation and complexities of actually dismissing people is a tough option. But what are all these people to do when the enquiries start to dry up? 

The assumption that when the recession ends things just return to the previous happy state is dangerous. Smart companies reorganise, focus on what customers need and set up the business to do this effectively. It may need radically changing the way the business works, some product lines and services may have to go for the business to emerge revitalised and even gain market share. So how will customers and prospects know about this? Marketing. Marketing can help too with the strategic planning issues, taking the new business plan forward and implementing a realistic marketing plan. Waiting for the recession to end and then going back to do some marketing is going to disappoint - for the companies that take this route it is they that will end, not the recession. Better to call in marketing expertise that can bring an independent perspective to provide fresh thinking. Outsourcing is also a lower risk option allowing greater and more predictable control over expenditure .. it is worth a try.