July 27th, 2009
Everyone loves something for free. Everyone enjoys receiving an unknown package the mail to unwrap. And in the past, sending a freebie to a journalist was often an assumed part of the PR strategy to secure media coverage. But the days of tightening budgets forces the question, does it actual work?
On the upside, sending a journalist a free product sample, free tickets to your event or a gift can help you stand out from the crowd. These days, an average journalist at a daily newspaper receives hundreds of media releases over email so by sending something in the mail you’ve instantly managed to separate yourself from the rest of the PR pack. You have their attention and if you know how to hold it, you just might achieve success.
On the other hand, many a PR consultant will agree that even the most generous of freebies will not guarantee a story. A journalist will accept your gift, even thank you profusely, but this doesn’t mean they will run the story the way you want them to run it…in fact they may not even run any story at all. In some cases, sending a free product is an important part of allowing a journalist to touch, feel and experience it so they can better understand and write about it. However, when it comes down to it, most of the time there are more valuable things you can invest your time and money in to increase your chances of getting media coverage. These include:
- Researching the media you’re targeting – read the publication over a few months – what stories do they run, what topics do they place importance on, what’s their main audience groups – then put together a story idea that will specifically be of interest to them
- Writing a succinct and interesting media release or pitch
- Building rapport with the journalist. This is done in many ways including being highly responsive and helpful when they require information, pitching ideas that are relevant and offering exclusives (as opposed to offering the idea/media release to everyone). Perhaps the occasional freebie can help to build a relationship with a journalist, just don’t expect anything in return.
July 27th, 2009
There’s nothing like a good PR hijacking. What is it? It basically involves one organisation putting the expense and effort into getting the attention of the public and then another organisation coming along uninvited to share the limelight, usually in a highly amusing way. To get your cunning and creative PR juices flowing check out the following hijacks – the first is a Nandos hijack of a Bruno premier and the second is a rebranding of ATM’s in Sydney’s CBD for Tax Today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIUlpkPKGvA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuRQACV8m3k.
July 27th, 2009
At Square One PR, we live and succeed by the motto that any angle being pitched to the media must offer something that’s for the better good of the community. It couldn’t be more applicable than when working with property developers.
Property developers face numerous public relations issues – it isn’t just about selling the land, although this is obviously the underlying objective of a good campaign plan.
The issue that property developers proactively need to address, is that people don’t just want to buy a block of land, they want to build a home in a safe and interactive community.
There are many ways to create a community and the most common PR practice is to hold family fun days. We’ve all seen them and been to them with their free jumping castles, facepainting and sausage sizzles.
Left to run at a basic level these ‘free days’ usually attract a heap of people chasing a freebie, who might not necessarily be from the estate, let alone the suburb and worst case, maybe not even interested in buying property.
The possibility to create a great outcome from these sorts of days is, as always, easy when you know how, especially with a bit more thought than the ‘standard’ freebie in the park day.
We always recommend the implementation of a lead generation tool, such as a competition where people are required to leave their phone number or email address or better still create a unique competition.
Ideas like these can also be included in the estate newsletter, which shouldn’t just be another sales pitch. Square One PR’s heavy experience in newsletter writing proves that newsletters that offer value to the community and interact with readers are the most successful. Ultimately, this gives developers the opportunity to embed a soft sales approach by profiling features, builders or promotions.
A unique competition or event idea also opens the scope to involve local schools or media, which is the next point.
A new land estate needs to be promoted as a place where children are safe and families are happy with a lifestyle of convenience.
Square One PR works directly with the client to identify any possible opportunities to highlight estate features of distinction, lifestyle factors and convenient or innovative living aspects. We use this information to work heavily with the local media by continually alerting them to new trends, identified through leads or sales feedback plus other stories of interest from new residents.
At the end of the day, people want to live somewhere they are proud of and we can help you build that image.
June 29th, 2009
When tough economic times hit, businesses are often forced to pull money from advertising and marketing and are often left wondering how they will continue to promote their business in a time when it’s actually most needed.
This is where Public Relations can step in – and many small and medium businesses are turning to PR because of the results it can achieve with minimum investment.
More and more businesses searching for alternatives are finding that PR is an cost-effective way to get products and services talked about in the public sphere. PR is gaining ground because of its affordability, reach and ability to convey a message when compared to other expensive tools such as advertising and direct mail.
A basic PR strategy can get your business mentioned in newspapers, magazines and on radio and TV without having to pay advertising dollars. In fact, it’s usually more effective because instead of reading or hearing an ad, your customers are reading and listening to stories that mention your business or product in a highly credible way.
PR used to be seen as an expensive ‘spin’ tool for big corproates, with success only achieved if you had ‘buddies’ in the media. This is not the case today.
Gaining media coverage is not about who you know or what you know, it’s ultimately how good the product or service is and how clever you are at promoting it and it’s a tool that is now accessible to small and medium businesses.
In particular, DIY options like the Square One DIY PR Pack, which provides instructions, tips and templates to help business owners identify and create PR opportunities in their business, are becoming one of the most popular choices for small-medium businesses wanting to promote their business. Why? Because with a very small investment and a few dedicated hours a business can be well on its way towards free media coverage.
June 29th, 2009
As the economic environment forces many businesses to revaluate their marketing and sales planning, PR tops the list for affordable options but not when an expensive long term retainer is the only option. We explore other PR fee options to help you through the tough times.
It is true what all PR practitioners preach. PR is best served long term and by a passionate professional. What they don’t say is that there are, or at least, should be other options.
At Square One PR we know that the marketing dollar can get a little stretched, which is why we offer a range of options to suit your current requirements and budget.
The Square One DIY PR Pack was designed as a resource tool for the PR novice, giving business owners or marketing managers every possible PR explanation, template and tip to create, implement and manage a successful PR campaign. The pack also comes with a free half hour consult with a senior consultant and a media list to get you kicking.
The Square One DIY PR Pack Chapter guide is perfect for those who are looking for a confidence boost with more information on a specific topic – for example, wondering how to communicate with a journalist in 2009? You’d simply purchase the “Submitting Stories to the Media” chapter and you’ve got your confidence back.
We also offer the Square One DIY PR Pack One Page PDF, which gives those looking for a quick refresher all the information they need to confirm that they’re on the right track and carry on with their PR efforts.
For those who lack the time or inclination (or both) to research and implement a PR campaign in house, Square One PR has also developed the bi-monthly retainer option to split the cost of a monthly retainer in two. The bi-monthly option means every second month is active, which is perfect for smaller business that generally have more specialised media, allowing time in between contacting relevant journalists and also allowing more time for business news to develop. The added benefit is that even in the “off” month, we will still handle any incoming media enquiries meaning you never miss an opportunity.
And yes, of course we also have the full retainer option for clients who enjoy the fact they can handball the whole campaign, from creative planning to reactive quoting, to us and we will passionately and proactively handle all media related activities (and usually more). This service wouldn’t be complete without a monthly activity report, all media clippings and a media gallery at the end of the campaign to show you what we achieved.
We are passionate about PR and achieving results in the media. We thrive off the challenge and enjoy the diverse nature of our work, whether it’s explaining PR to you and your colleagues, workshopping ideas, acting as an account assistant as you implement your own campaign or reporting to you what we achieve on your behalf. PR is for every business, you just need to select how it works best for you.
June 29th, 2009
Increasingly many great business concepts develop into franchise business frames, and so more and more individual franchisees and group franchise owners are coming to us confused and overwhelmed about how to implement a fair PR campaign.
The first time we were faced with the franchise challenge, we were working for an individual franchisee who gained head office approval to conduct local PR and was allowed to engage in state and national media strategies, as approved.
There was a snag. Other individual franchises were seeing another franchise owner’s name in the media and suddenly they also wanted a piece of the cake. It didn’t matter that the individual alone was footing the full bill for the greater benefit of the brand – a swathe of franchisees just wanted to know why they weren’t getting their name in the paper too.
Consider this, why should one individual owner be responsible, in both time and money, for growing the entire brand? The answer is they shouldn’t.
We do believe that individual franchise owners can and should engage in PR if they are not getting support from their organisation and they have the appropriate approval but they should only do it in their local area, targeting local papers and radio stations. However, a strategic group effort with franchise PR works so much better for all involved.
Now consider this, a franchise group decides to take on a national PR campaign – how the heck do you manage and implement such a huge scope and make sure every individual franchise is getting fair coverage nationally, complemented with local coverage where they need it most to survive?
PR is already a tough enough subject to understand at the best of times, so we introduced the Square One PR Franchise Workshop series.
We run two different types of workshops, one gives each individual franchise owner the knowledge to run the Square One PR DIY campaign at a local level and helps them understand the objectives and benefits of a successful PR campaign.
The second Square One PR Franchise Workshop explains PR to all individual franchise owners so they understand it, why they would use it, how it benefits them individually and as a franchise group, how it will be implemented, what to expect from a PR company and what commitment is required from them. This workshop works best for raising awareness with individual franchise owners who may not fully understand the value of PR to their individual franchise and the group.
For all individual franchise owners to gain actual value from PR, the plan needs to be implemented at a local and national level but it can be overwhelming to handle in house with everyone wanting a piece of the cake NOW!
At Square One, we can help any type of franchise achieve media results by doing what we do best. We start at square one to create a strategic campaign plan (which may include a workshop to involve all the parties), and then we are able to consistently promote the organisation on a national scale as well as co-ordinate local angles to support individual franchises. We’ve got experience and proof that in the world of franchises, everyone can enjoy a piece of the PR cake!
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