Presentation Tip of the Week

David Crystal, a linguistics expert at Bangor University, is this week’s MediaMaster. He’s been studying the new language used by prolific texters. For example, “book” means “cool” – because book is the word that first comes up when you type cool into your phone using predictive text. If a text says someone is in the “sub”, it means they are down the “pub”. When they get a “pint” in, it becomes a “shot” and the “barmaid” is a “carnage”. And if they are really lucky, after a few “shots” they may get to “lips” (kiss) the “carnage”. Oh dear – I’m losing the will to live. Fortunately, Mr Crystal says “There’s little chance many of these words will be incorporated into our language. They’ll likely fall by the wayside.” Fine by me (Dime ax of). The MediaMug Trophy goes to Italy this week (via the Dominican Republic). Martino Garibaldi, a 45-year-old shop owner, disappeared with £37,000 from a family bank account when he left Montecalvo with his mistress. Despite employing detectives to track him down his wife had found no trace of him. Then, a friend watching the popular movie “Natale in Crociera” (Christmas on a Cruise) saw Garibaldi and his mistress in the background of a scene. The movie was shot in the Dominican Republic and his wife has now traced him and launched legal proceedings demanding return of the money. I bet he didn’t even get a fee as an extra.

How to invest in your brand

Kim Stoddart from Blue Rocket Group looks at the process of brand building through marketing and PR.

Commercial success or failure can rest on the way a brand is perceived. Investing in your brand will increase the bottom line and give your company greater longevity.  Marketing and PR agencies will work on your behalf to raise your company’s profile, helping you to communicate with your target audience and improve your reputation. But it is important to understand the basic principles of branding if you are to get the most out of an investment in this area.  

How can press coverage build your brand?

If your company is not a well-known brand it can be difficult to persuade people to use your company. After all, why would anyone want to use your services when there are established brands that they can use instead? If you are a small business trying to compete with bigger companies, you need to make people believe in what you do by building your brand.   This is just one area that a PR company can help with. The public takes its lead from the media. They respect the journalists and publications that provide them with information. The fact that a journalist has chosen to write about your company, markets you in a way that is more effective than advertising. 

How to choose the right company  

Choose people you trust and think you can work with. Although they’re not based in your office it’s still vital you work well together. As more journalists become interested, you may eventually need to work with your PR contact on a daily basis.  Go for a straight-talking company. PR and marketing companies that use excessive jargon tend to be stuck in the past and less effective.  A company with a proactive approach will get more results. In the past PR focused on sending out press releases with company news. This doesn’t work any more. You need to be more creative. Companies need to come up with loads of different ideas to offer journalists. They also need to be selective in who they target. This generates more coverage because journalists appreciate useful information and ideas rather than being sent annoyingly irrelevant press releases. It can help if the company has experience of your sector, but it’s not essential as the skills involved are the same regardless of the industry. It’s more important to find a proactive, creative company than one with experience in your field. Try asking around to get a recommendation to find an agency that gets real results.  

Allocate responsibility

To get the best out of brand-building professionals you need to define your objectives. How do you want your company to move forward? Get them to understand your objectives and explain all the other business development work you’re doing. Then they can devise a PR and marketing strategy that helps you achieve your goals. If you don’t have someone in-house who deals with marketing, someone within your company needs to take responsibility for working with the contractors. They will be the main point of contact and need to be available to answer questions and make sure the press and the public get the right message about your brand. It is helpful if this person has a level of understanding about marketing or how the press works.  

How much does brand-building cost?

PR and marketing companies can have a reputation for being expensive. But you can keep costs down by shopping around. Some are much more competitive and others offer special rates for smaller companies. However, it is always important to watch out for hidden charges. While many companies operate transparent charges, there are some who charge for hidden extras like postage, meetings or even telephone calls.  Offset the cost of marketing and PR against the amount of money they generate in new business. A good campaign will pay for itself many times over.

How does charging work?

In general PR companies work on a retainer basis. You buy a certain amount of time, such as six days a month for four months. Most companies will produce regular activity reports and updates so that you can see clearly how the time has been spent.

Marketing companies usually put together a quote for specific materials such as a website or brochure. They will also quote you a price for market research projects.    

How much is PR worth?

Weighing up the value of press coverage is difficult. A feature in a national newspaper may get you 15 new clients, so it can be seen as being worth that amount in new business. But what about all the other people who read the article and are now more likely to become a customer in the future? Also how do you put a value on the way coverage makes your name more recognisable?  One way to gauge the value of press coverage is to compare it to the cost of advertising. For example a full-page advert in The Sunday Times costs in the region of £56,000. But, this is not a fair comparison as press coverage is more effective. Anyone can advertise if they have the budget, but for press coverage about your company to appear, a journalist has had to decide that your business is worth writing about – it shows the journalist respects your company.  Also press coverage tends to reach a larger audience than advertising. People read articles, but often flick through adverts, so more people will read an article in The Sunday Times than an advert.  

Can PR increase direct sales?

It’s well known that effective advertising can have an immediate effect on sales. Last November, Sainsbury’s most successful Jamie Oliver television adverts caused some stores to sell out of the products featured within hours. Can PR have the same impact? News stories can influence people’s behaviour. A press recommendation is the next best thing to a word-of-mouth recommendation. The public respect the opinions of their favourite paper or magazine and a positive article about a product or service will inevitably create direct sales as readers are influenced by the review.                    

Stay committed

Brand management requires a long-term commitment. It involves regular evaluations including surveying customers and employees for feedback. The odd mention in the press is useful and can create direct sales, but to grow a brand successfully you need to build on this momentum with regular high profile coverage in publications your target audience read. 

Kim Stoddart is managing director of media relations company, Blue Rocket Group. To find out more, visit www.bluerocketgroup.com alternatively contact info@bluerocketgroup.com or call 01273 779 196

Kim Stoddart, managing director of Blue Rocket Group on what PR can do for your business and when is the best time to start a campaign. 

Commercial success or failure can rest on the way a company is perceived. Effective Public relations (PR) will increase the bottom line by generating direct sales. It will also add validity to a company and its services and help improve brand positioning. But when is the best time to use it? And how can you ensure you get the most out of your campaign?   

So what is PR?

PR is a way of building a company’s profile and looking after their reputation through the media. If you are not a big name, it can be very difficult to persuade people to use your products. Even if you have a recognisable brand, you need to maintain a high profile so customers don’t forget you. PR agencies work with journalists to ensure a brand receives positive exposure in the press.  Whether you are looking to create a buzz around the launch of a new venture, or aiming to grow an established company, PR can play an important role.   

Launching a new product/business:

PR will generate a buzz around a launch. News stories and features will inform potential customers about a company’s products and services. A creative campaign will also generate excitement and create demand. A PR campaign needs to be strategic and in line with your business development requirements. To promote a launch you need more than just a press release. You need to meet journalists’ needs by offering them interesting and useful materials like case studies, features and high quality images. You also need a comprehensive strategy. This takes time. It is important that you begin planning the PR campaign months before the launch.   

Attracting new business or investment:

PR will help your company grow. Press coverage can attract new customers or encourage investment. Look for a campaign that targets the sections of the press that potential clients read. If you are a company seeking investment, target the business pages of the nationals and the investment trade magazines and websites.   

Ongoing campaigns:

Your company is not going to have something to announce every week. But you can still get coverage because PR should not be restricted to just company news. This is why it is essential to work with a creative agency.  More than 60% of national newspaper journalism is PR driven; journalists are always looking for content and the right approach will achieve consistent results.   

Tips on employing a PR agency:

You can conduct a PR campaign in-house. However, if you have the budget, you will get better results from employing the services of a PR agency. A good company will generate maximum exposure for your company. An agency will be more creative than an in-house effort, and they will have a wider range of press contacts – resulting in more coverage.  PR does sometimes have a bad reputation and unfortunately in some cases this image is deserved. Choosing the right company is vital – make sure you know what you are going to be getting for your money.  

Choose people you trust and think you can work with:

They may not be based in your building, but you’ll find yourself regularly on the phone to your PR Company. As more journalists become interested in your brand you may end up working with these individuals quite closely. 

Choose a straight-talking company:

PR also has a reputation for being vague and using jargon. You will get better results if you choose a company that uses plain English and is upfront and honest about what they can do for you.  

First meeting

When you approach a PR company they will usually suggest a meeting to find out more about you. After this they will produce a proposal outlining ideas for a campaign.  The proposal should show you the approach they will take to publicising your business. If their ideas fit in with the way you want to be presented it shows they understand your business and its needs. 

Creativity and focus

If you are a smaller company you will have less news, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be written about. The days of press release driven PR are over and agencies have to be more creative.  It is also important that your agency is focused on strategic and proactive activity.  Pinging out untargeted press releases will attract journalist’s attention but not in a positive way. Receiving irrelavant press releases annoys journalists and can actually put them off writing about you, or at worse write a negative article.  

Help your PR company to help you

The more you help your PR agency, the more successful the campaign will be. Here are some tips on how to work together to get results:  

• Think about your target audience and how you want them to see you. Then your agency can work out how to get the message across.
• Show your PR agency what other marketing you are doing so they can project a consistent message.
• Have regular meetings and expect regular updates.
• Tell your agency what response you have from individual articles. Then they can repeat past successes.

 Anyone can advertise if they have the budget, but when a journalist writes about you it is a stamp of approval because they have considered you worth writing about. This is why PR has up to ten times the value of advertising. When you consider that the cost of a full-page advert in The Sunday Times is around £56,000, the value of effective PR cannot be overstated.  Whether conducting a PR campaign in-house or outsourcing, there is never a bad time to start. The key is to define your objectives and make sure all efforts are focused on these goals.  

Kim Stoddart is managing director of media relations company Blue Rocket Group. To find out more, visit www.bluerocketgroup.com alternatively contact info@bluerocketgroup.com or call 01273 779 196

Whatever happened to memorable adverts?

 Kim Stoddart, Managing Director of media relations company Blue Rocket Group looks at the challenges involved in communicating through the mass media.                                                          

Many people myself included, feel nostalgic thinking about advertisements from the past. I don’t know why but the series of ‘I’m a secret lemonade drinker’ R Whites lemonade ads that ran from the early Seventies, particularly sticks in my mind and it used to be my favourite drink as a teenager. Today’s adverts just don’t seem as memorable. But many media theorists believe this is down to a change in our culture rather than a lack of creative advertisers.  The way people interpret advertising has changed over the years. A mixture of over-exposure to advertising and a rise in investigative journalism has given the public a more cynical attitude towards adverts. This poses a problem for companies wishing to communicate using this medium.   

So, what’s the alternative? 

Adverts can still be effective; but they work better as part of a larger marketing campaign, which backs up the messages you want to communicate. Getting people to trust the company behind the product is increasingly important. There are many different cost-effective marketing strategies that can be used alongside advertising to help with this. 

• Media relations – best described as the next best thing to a word-of-mouth-recommendation, except you are potentially hitting thousands of people, rather than just one or two. This is an effective way of getting journalists to write about you or your products positively. It is an excellent method for adding validity to what you sell and building trust amongst potential customers. People trust the judgement of their favourite publications so a positive review can work wonders. A strategic media campaign can help your business grow in the way you want, by building your reputation and brand amongst the people that matter.

• Newsletters - can improve relations with existing customers and help maintain a relationship with anyone that has ever used your company’s product or services. New customers can be prompted to visit a website and sign up for a newsletter through associated advertising, or media relations campaigns.

• A corporate website - for many businesses, especially those targeting other companies, their website is their most important marketing tool. It can put forward the image you want to project and support the key messages of your advertising campaign.

 Whatever combination of methods you choose, remember evaluation is crucial. You need to get feedback to find out what is and isn’t working, this will help you improve your future strategy. Producing graphs of the immediate affect adverts and press coverage has on sales will allow you to work out what’s most cost-effective for you. Measuring the affect on your reputation is more difficult, however potential customer surveys and one-to-one interviews can be revealing.  The importance of a strong reputation cannot be underestimated. If you can get a large number of people to improve their opinions of your product then this will result in increased sales and a more stable future.  Kim Stoddart is Managing Director of media relations company Blue Rocket Group.  To find out more, visit www.bluerocketgroup.com, contact info@bluerocketgroup.com or call 01273 779 196.

How to make your business stand out from the crowd 

As the threat of global recession looms large many small businesses are looking to reduce their overheads and marketing activities are often the first to be cut. But rather than just reductions businesses should think about how to make smarter use of their marketing budget to generate a high return on investment.  If, as predicted, competition is going to get tougher over the next few months then this is not a good time to fade into the background. Companies need to rise above rivals to attract customers.  Media coverage is a particularly cost-effective way of getting the right messages to your target audience, especially if you’re a smaller brand that needs to raise awareness. A well-managed media campaign can have a much greater impact than advertising and at a lower cost.  

How can the media help?

Positive media coverage provides the next best thing to a word-of-mouth recommendation; the difference being that you are getting your message across to hundreds or thousands of people rather than just one or two.  Strategically placed advertising can be useful once your brand is established. But unless your target audience is already familiar with your brand and the benefits you can offer, it’s unlikely to lead to high level sales or to pay for itself.   Press coverage is a good alternative for companies that need to communicate the benefits of their product or service and enhance their credibility.  People often put a fair amount of trust in the publications they read and respect the journalists that provide them with information. For this reason being positively featured in editorial has much more weight than advertising and can be a more cost-effective technique.  

Standing out from the crowd

The right kind of press coverage will help your company stand out from the crowd. However, not all publicity is good and a campaign needs to be strategic if it is going to be effective. You need to start by working out the key messages that you need to get across. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about what will matter to your audience, not just what you want to tell them.  Once you’ve established your key messages you can work backwards and look at how you can create a story idea that is going to fulfil a journalist’s agenda as well as allowing you to communicate these messages.  

How to take a targeted approach

The days of press release driven PR are over. Instead it is important that your activity is focused, targeting the publications and pages that your potential clients or customers are likely to read on an individual level. Take time to get to know these sections of the press, become familiar with their needs, and only offer story ideas and news that is relevant to individual journalists. This targeted way of working will have a far greater impact than a blanket approach, as you are helping the journalist to envisage where your company will fit within their publication.   Sending out untargeted press releases will grab journalists’ attention, but not in the way you were hoping for. Journalists receive hundreds of news stories every day, if not thousands. If you send them irrelevant information you will simply be adding to their workload and they will not thank you for it. At worst, unfocused activity can potentially damage your relationship with the press, and put them off wanting to write about you. At best, your press release simply ends up in their deleted email folder. 

How to approach journalists

• Do your research. Only speak to journalists that are likely to write about your company. Research previous articles and their history to work out what might interest them.
• Be strategic. Make sure that you are familiar with each individual journalist’s work, what information would fit into their pages and the sort of stories they like writing. Don’t be too salesy in your approach. You need to offer journalists an idea which is relevant and important and doesn’t just talk about how great your company is.
• Come up with great story ideas. Devise story ideas that will fit a journalist’s agenda and make a compelling read.
•  Give your story wider context. Look at why your product or service matters. What problem is it setting out to solve and how will it affect people and the wider society or economy. This could be the basis of a story idea. 
• Start with an email which sets out your story idea. Only send this to one journalist at a time and tailor it carefully.  
• Don’t overload journalists with information. They are busy people and you need to get to the point, quickly.
• Make life easier for the journalist. What can you offer them to accompany your news or idea? Hints and tips, case studies or pictures will all help to make your story more appealing. 
• Stay current. Get up to date with newsworthy topics in your industry. This will help to give you ideas that will interest the press.
• Don’t leave voice mails. It is much better to talk directly to the journalist and leaving a message will make you seem like you’re pestering if you keep calling back.

 Kim Stoddart is Managing Director of ethical media relations consultancy, Blue Rocket, (www.bluerocketgroup.com). To find out more contact info@bluerocketgroup.com or call 01273 779 196