What's Your Awards Strategy?

Creating an awards strategy can be a valuable piece of the public relations campaign.

It can be a big boost to helping companies build their brand, build awareness and connect certain messages with targeted audiences.

While most larger businesses understand the value of an awards strategy, a number of small and medium sized firms fail to pursue these golden PR nuggets. They either do not grasp the concept, do not allocate the time to professionally fill out forms, or simply do not make it a key part of their marketing efforts.

Winning an award or multiple awards can produce a great number of benefits both outside and inside an organization.

First, it enables you to connect with clients and prospects that you won the award. It "reinforces" current customers that they are doing business with a sound and reliable company. It informs prospective customers that you are a serious and well thought of organization. Someone they should consider as a business partner.

Second, it serves as a great PR and sales tool. Savvy businesses will create a campaign based on winning the award. They will create a news release or news releases based on the award win. They will send those releases to area and national publications and generate valuable coverage.

The business can also create a social media campaign and highlight the award on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. They can post it on their website, blog about the award, and make it part of their email newsletter.

Third, the award has great value within the organization. If several employees took the time and effort to help garner the prize they can be recognized at a company or department meeting. Those employees can be featured in the company's newsletter and highlighted in a poster or flyer in meeting places around the building. The award can be showcased in the main office lobby where everyone can view it. All employees will have another reason to feel confident about their work and their contributions to the success of the company.

Certainly many awards have a questionable feel. Some appear to be purchased and not earned. Yet many are of high quality and granted only to companies that meet certain criteria and survive a rigourous judging process. Businesses need to do a little investigating and determine the key value of each honor.

Organizations who actively pursue key awards can receive the kind of industry recognition that produces great public relations value both internally and externally.

PR Planning 2012

The new year is upon us. It is always a good time to analyze your current PR plan or create a new one.

Companies should review their current public relations plan and determine if it is still in-line with your corporate goals.

Did the firm reach the desired increase in sales and revenue? If so what role did your PR plan play in the process?

Did the current PR effort help establish or re-energize your brand, or did it simply add some publicity for your firm?

Did your brand connect with customers and prospects or did it play a secondary role in your sales efforts?

Businesses should ascertain which portions of the plan succeeded and which did not.

Did social media play a role in the plan and if so which aspects were successful... blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc.

Did your firm run an ad campaign to coincide with the plan? Did it drive traffic to your website or merely remind customers you are "out there".

Did you stage several special events, apply for industry awards, publicize new hires, send out an email newsletter?

The key is to determine what worked and what did not. Adjustments can then be made to include the best aspects of the plan and drop those that placed too great a burden on resources without generating positive results.

For those creating an entirely new plan, the PR effort should be an outgrowth of the business plan. Instead of thinking, "If we could just get some nice publicity we could get more customers,"... think instead of, "Our goal is to grow revenue by 20% by connecting with 100 more prospective clients. How will PR help us to make those connections?"

Once the business goal has been determined then the PR objective can be created as well.

Instead of "getting our name out there" the PR objective or question then becomes "What can we do from a PR standpoint to connect with those 100 prospective customers to help increase sales by 20%".

Sales should help the PR department or PR firm identify who those 100 prospects may be. A program can be developed that touches those prospects and has an actual impact on the bottom line.

Defining Your PR Audience

Most public relations professionals are able to work hand-in-hand with the business owner or marketing department in order to determine the targeted audience they are trying to reach.

This is a very key element to ensure proper messaging connects with the customer base.

However the task of defining that audience, and the related message, can become cloudy especially if the business has multiple targeted segments.

Many high-tech firms face this dilemma. Often their point of contact with customers and prospects begins with general staff, evolves to the CIO, and then includes the CFO and even CEO.

Each of these target groups read and respond in different ways.

General staff may read the industry trades, blogs and online publications, and attend events to find out about the newest trends and hot products.

CIOs may read the industry trades but also look at other publications which are more management oriented. Their goal is to find new products, maintain/hire staff and locate services which make their department more efficient from both a technical as well as financial standpoint.

CFOs obviously have the bottom line financial responsibility for the company. They are interested in what the investment in any new product costs and how it can help save money in the long term. They may glance at the trades but are also interested in financial publications which address many of the issues they currently face.

CEOs have the mile high view of the organization. Their goal is to advance the company in line with their long-term growth and operating goals. Many will have to sign-off on major investments in technology. Reaching these executives may involve some industry trades but also more high-end executive level publications and general business magazines.

Some research and solid analysis can help determine each audience segment.

Messages can then be created to connect with each audience at their particluar level.

Tailoring the campaign and message for each of these audience segments is the secret sauce which will determine the overall success of your campaign.

Establishing the P.R. Campaign Objective

Most Public Relations campaigns work best when a well thought objective is established.

The objective should be as tangible as possible.

For example, "Increasing branding and awareness" is surely a goal of any PR campaign but that alone can be hard to measure.

Instead focus on a number or action you want to achieve.

"Connect with a key target audience to sell 50 widgets in 12 months" or "Generate 1000 signatures to add a special proposition on the next ballot" are objectives that can be developed and measured.

In the first example, a business can easily measure whether or not it is selling any widgets. In six months time they should have sold somewhere around 25 widgets or at least have some pending orders in the pipeline.

A P.R. campaign can be developed to generate articles in specific widget trade journals, secure booth space at widget conferences and trade shows, generate speaking engagements at widget events for the company's CEO or spokesperson, etc.

If their is no interest in the widgets the company can adjust their approach. It can refine its sales message and communications strategy.

Perhaps the widget company might have to change the audience it thought would be most interested in this product. It might also have to change the product itself to better meet the needs of their customers.

In the second example a campaign can be developed to educate area residents about the benefits of adding a special amendment to the ballot.

Often this can involve a petition signing event at a local mall or grocery store, sending out mailers to area residents, town hall meetings to discuss the issue, and perhaps running ads in the local area newspaper.

Again if people are hesitant to sign the petition you can make adjustments and perhaps even change the wording of the amendment to help residents better understand the issue.

The amendment campaign is very measureable. When the deadline arrives you have either secured 1,000 signatures or you have not.

Business owners and others seeking a solid return on investment from their P.R. campaign should ensure they create objectives that can be measured.

In most cases the goal should be not just to generate articles but to change the audience's behavior with a positive result.

Baseball and The Game of Public Relations

I was a sports announcer at the outset of my career and had the opportunity to interview dozens of athletes, coaches and managers.

Having witnessed the daily "song and dance" between Major League Baseball managers and the media I found these sessions to be most interesting, even fun, sometimes argumentative, and many times downright volatile.

Managers have the task of not only making out line-up cards, managing the game, and keeping tabs on their players, but also serving as the spokesperson for their team.

A manager can speak for an hour or two with the media before every game. Key topics on players, injuries, lineups and other items are thrown about. Depending on the manager's mood he may even get into a few topics that have nothing to do with baseball.

The beat goes on after the game when the manager meets with the same group of reporters. Some of these are structured into news conferences and become mini-events. Many are televised, some even sponsored by local businesses.

The post-game affair is where things can get a little dicey. Should a team lose a game, the manager will not be in a happy mood. Should the team play poorly and lose, or continue on a long losing streak, the skipper might get a little testy. Some may even engage a reporter in an argument or simply walk away.

Many fans can get turned-off by the manager's abruptness. Some of the more faithful will say, "It's just Tony being Tony, or Dusty being Dusty, or Lou being Lou."

Add some public relations principles to "baseball speak" and one can get a better idea of how a manager tries to perform this daily chore with the media. Remember it starts with spring training in February and doesn't end until the last out in October.

The manager's job is to communicate with basically two audiences. The obvious one is the fans, but the other one is his players.

He must craft messages that satisfy the fan base, confidently explaining to reporters that the team is a real contender in its division. Tickets need to be sold and the team's followers need to remain excited if not confident about their club's chances.

The skipper must also communicate with his players. In addition to converations in meetings and clubhouse sessions, what appears in the newspaper or on a talk show can have a large impact on team performance.

Upset by a close loss a manager can become disenchanted with the efforts of a player or two. Most however won't criticize a player in public. Instead they will try to shift the focus to the play of the entire team.

One player may have left six men on base when he could have easily driven in two or more. A pitcher may have only lasted three innings and given-up seven runs.

The usual refrain goes something like this..."We have to pitch better than we did tonight to win," or "We had our chances, just didn't convert them tonight".

The proliferation of 24x 7 TV sports networks, radio talk shows, Internet blogging, Twitter, and more are cause for most managers to deal with specific player performance issues in private. They will meet with the player either well before or well after a game. Always behind closed doors, with no media members in sight.

One may say the manager's duty is that of a team psychologist. They want to keep their club on an even keel. Calling out individuals in print, on radio or television can lead to a problematic clubhouse. This is where some players may question their role and future with the team. A lack of confidence can have a negative impact on the field.

Managers must think through these messages before they speak and consider the impact on both of their audiences.

At the end of the day managers are judged on wins and losses. Those that win get to keep their jobs. Those that continually post losing records are forced to seek other professional endeavors.

The best managers, in nearly all cases, are the best communicators. Like a good public relations professional they understand the daily media grind and understand how to use these vehicles to motivate both the players and the fans.

The Differences Between Public Relations and Advertising

As a St. Louis Public Relations professional, I am often asked by business owners, "What are the differences between PR and advertising?"

Comparing the publicity aspect with a typical ad campaign, the main difference is that with advertising you, the client or business owner control the message.

This differs from publicity where the newspaper, magazine or medium actually controls the message.

For example, businesses running ad campaigns can decide when they want their ad to run, how big they want it, and what copy or words go into the advertisement.

In an ad campaign you can target small publications or large ones, television stations, radio stations, billboards and an entire host of possible advertising vehicles. You simply choose the one that best fits your objectives, your audience, and your budget.

There is no filter in advertising. Your audience gets your message directly, exactly the way you created it.

Publicity differs in that you are sending news releases and other materials to editors and producers in hopes of generating stories about your cause or business.

You have no control if an editor will run your news items, or when they will run it, or how it will be used.

An editor may wish to do an article about your company but decide to hold onto the story information until a later date.

They may wish to use your news as part of a special section, run it in conjunction with other companies in your specific area, or use you as a resource for a round-up type article on a particular topic where a variety of executives are interviewed.

The editor may also choose not to discuss the same key points you outlined in your news release. They make take the story in an entirely different direction.

Experienced business owners and public relations practitioners understand the nuances between publicity and advertising. They realize the final message may differ from its original intent when an article is published.

For others, understanding the differences between advertising and public relations can help you determine separate messaging strategies. It can make both your ad campaign and your public relations campaign a lot more effective.

Public Relations and Small Business

A St. Louis Public Relations professional, I am often asked if public relations can work for a small business.

The answer is "yes".

Even on a lesser scale, the basics of creating a PR campaign for a small business are virtually the same as creating one for a large corporation.

It involves analyzing your business goals and determining what type of objective you would like to achieve.

Is your goal to increase hits on your web site, build greater trust with your customers and prospects, develop community awareness, or to simply let the marketplace know what products and services you are selling?

Once you establish your goal then you need to identify which audiences you need to reach in line with your objective.

Are your trying to reach other small business owners, presidents of larger corporations, a very select business to business audience, selected consumers, or the general public at large?

After you identify these target markets the next step is to develop a strategy and the tactics necessary to reach them.

This is accomplished by creating a mini-campaign for each audience within the overall PR plan.

For example, let's say your overall PR goal is to influence 30 new prospective customers to engage with you and your sales staff with the hope of turning them into clients.

One of your target audiences could be widget makers. Your objective with widget makers is to create 10 of those 30 prospective engagements.

Your tactics would then include developing a myriad of activities to build relationships with 10 widget makers.

Those activities could include hosting seminars for widget makers, manning a booth at widget trade shows, speaking at widget conferences, securing articles about your firm in widget publications, emailing newsletters to widget makers, developing a blog about widgets, connecting with widget makers through LinkedIn, etc.

Once the campaign is launched it needs to be analyzed and adjusted as you go along.

Focus on those tactics that work the best and provide the greatest return on investment. This is especially important for small companies who are usually on a limited budget.

Remember to keep it measurable. This is where a number of small business PR campaigns run out of steam.

If you plan to hit the 10 widget maker mark in six months, you will need to create 5 engagements within the first 90 days. Should you hit or exceed the 5 mark after 90 days you will feel confident that your campaign is on track.

Connect only with one or two widget makers in the first three months and you might have to adjust your strategy.

Whether your PR budget is $5,000 or $5 million the basic strategies of a public relations campaign remain the same.

It works for small companies as well as large ones. The first step is to create a goal and get started.