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A Critical Roadmap to Accomplishing a Company's Business Goals
Some executives assume that a high volume of media coverage will produce the results their company needs. While this may produce a thick clips binder, it doesn’t always yield results that matter. Both the quality and the quantity of media clips are significant to supporting a company’s business goals.
The key: strategic public relations. This means that PR programs are tied into business goals and resources are allocated accordingly.
“The most successful traditional and online companies give information generously, clearly and methodically - and they do so through their marketing, human resources, and corporate and financial communications,” wrote Connie F. Lamotta in a recent article in Direct magazine. “Integrated communications that present the core values of an organization, values that are worked through systematically and holistically, are the building blocks of that organization's standing.”
In this issue, we’ll discuss how strategic public relations can serve as a roadmap for your company’s success.
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How to Maximize Results from Your Public Relations Strategists
To maximize results, take full advantage of the high-level counsel that your public relations strategists can provide. Use your public relations counselors as your company’s external arms and legs to accomplish tasks – and then ask for more.
Make them an integral part of your in-house marketing team. Provide them with access to your company’s executives. You might consider inviting them to participate in key strategy sessions and staff meetings. Or ask them to shadow a sales executive for a day.
“Today's public relations professionals get a seat at the company's strategy table along with the CEO, marketing executives, lobbying professionals, customer service leaders and human resource management staff to make sure the best possible decisions are made,” wrote Direct magazine’s Lamotta.
Begin by candidly articulating your company’s business goals. Consider the following: In which areas is your company strongest? In which markets do you want additional penetration?
Next, obtain agreement among your company’s executives of your company’s mission. It’s also important that you identify your company’s unique selling proposition and key messages. Then, ask your public relations counselors to formulate a 12-month program that specifically supports those objectives.
Meet regularly. Conduct weekly conference calls to discuss tactics. Schedule quarterly meetings to discuss big-picture strategies. Don’t just call your public relations counselors when there’s a fire. Put a plan in place and follow it.
As in any relationship, maintain open communication with your public relations counselors. Share your concerns and work together to identify solutions.
Open communication helped Thorp & Company maximize results for client Inktel Direct. Inktel is a national provider of outsourced direct-marketing services to Fortune 500 companies.
President Ricky Arriola shared a concern: He felt overwhelmed by the volume of interviews secured. He didn’t have enough time to conduct them all. Rather than reduce the number of interviews we obtained for his company, we shifted gears and media-trained several top executives in Chicago, Baltimore and Miami. Arriola now assigns some interview opportunities to his team members.
“My team enjoys conducting the interviews, and everyone is pleased with the media coverage,” said Arriola. “Our profile has been significantly elevated, we’re getting calls from prospects nationwide, and the burden doesn’t fall on my shoulders.”
Finally, work with your public relations counselors to develop a budget, timeline for completion of tasks as well as a plan for how to evaluate the program’s results by measuring outputs and/or outcomes. The greater the understanding and communication between your company and your public relations counselors, the better the outcomes.
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PEO Benefits from Strategic Public Relations
Several years before one of the nation’s leading Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) was sold, its management team made a strategic decision to begin a public relations program to establish the company as an industry leader.
Thorp & Company began a multi-tiered media relations program that heightened the company’s visibility and helped to attract a buyer -- while also supporting sales. The company’s revenues grew significantly.
At that point, the company was purchased by a Fortune 100 company and faced a new challenge: how to successfully transition customers and potential clients to the new company.
Thorp & Company ramped up its PR efforts to give high visibility to the merger and ensure a successful transition in corporate name and identity. Our program was directed during this transition to several key audiences: employees, investors, customers and referral sources.
That company now contributes revenues to its parent company equal to about one-fourth of the company’s annual gross revenues. It credits Thorp & Company for positioning the PEO nationwide as a leader in its industry and, just as important, establishing it as an expert in its local regions. At this time, the PEO company continues to benefit from a PR program focused on getting publicity where it really matters most to the company: regional business publications.
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In the News
A recent article in PR News emphasized the importance of properly written news releases. “The quality of writing has gone downhill in the last few years,” wrote reporter Matthew Schwartz in a recent article in PR News.
Schwartz added: “Rife with misspellings and typos while the real news tends to be buried underneath flowery quotes from the CEO, press releases are a sore spot for many communications executives. Too often they’re crafted by committee – with no regard for AP style, or any style for that matter – and pushed down to inexperienced PR executives who have no background in journalism.”
The article included a case study of a well-written news release and the media coverage that it generated. The release, written by Thorp & Company’s David Schull and Yolanda Balido, resulted in the publication of feature articles on the front pages of The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s business sections and other local media outlets.
Schull was quoted as saying that “good PR teams have a formal editing/style system in-house for all press releases. Before putting pen to paper, Thorp & Co. executives outline the content for the release, come up with an execution plan and then ask: What’s the news?”
To read the entire article, click on this link.
In a recent article in Practical Accountant, reporter Jeff Stimpson wrote that marketing and public relations are “perfect together, if accountants realize the differences between the two methods of getting the word out.”
Stimpson added: “Patricia Thorp, president of Thorp & Company, a Miami-based public relations firm that has represented accounting firms from national to professional staffs of two, acknowledges that both marketing and public relations for firms hinge on bringing in business and enhancing revenue, but she believes that CPAs need to recognize and understand the differences between the two to use either effectively.”
Thorp outlined the most common misconceptions of PR that accounting firms, like many other professional services firms have, including:
· Assuming that hiring a PR firm will immediately bring new business. “Much of a general PR campaign helps raise awareness, create a brand, or close a sale,” Thorp said.
· Believing that regional firms don’t deserve national media coverage. “Those firms should be reaching out to the national trade press in the niches they serve,” she said.
· Hesitating to participate in networking and speaking engagements. “At bigger firms, you may have those who’ve moved up through the ranks and are technically brilliant, but who don’t know how to network a room or give a speech. But those are skills, and they can be learned,” Thorp said.
To read the entire text of the article, click on this link.
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Software Company Succeeds with Strategic Public Relations
New Generation Computing (NGC) currently relies on public relations to support its business goals and sales initiatives. Thorp & Company is helping NGC market its sourcing software to retailers and manufacturers in the sewn-products industry.
Thorp & Company began by determining which executives - CEOs, CIOs, or MIS managers - make IT spending decisions. We conducted an informal audit to determine the public's perception and awareness level of NGC. We figured out which publications NGC's targets read most and developed a targeted list of media contacts.
Next, we developed separate messages and storylines for retailers, manufacturers and analysts to support each of the company's product lines. In addition, to maximize the company's participation at trade shows, we developed media kits and communications materials and conducted interviews with the journalists in attendance. We focused on securing positive publicity in a narrow group of vertical industry-trade publications. For NGC, these are where visibility matters most.
"Thorp & Company's media and analyst relations program has significantly heightened our company's visibility and raised awareness of our products," said Alan Brooks, president of NGC. "We've received a number of inquiries from potential customers."
NGC currently uses its media clips to support its sales activities. For example, the company includes quotes from its media clips in e-mails it sends to prospective customers. "These e-mails are getting good responses," Brooks said.
Thorp & Company has secured articles for NGC in numerous trade publications, including Executive Technology, STORES and Chain Store Age. NGC's executives have also conducted interviews with the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, USA Today and The Christian Science Monitor, as well as analysts with firms including AMR, Gartner and Forrester.
Like NGC, more companies are realizing the benefits of implementing strategic public relations programs. "Businesses are turning to public relations over advertising," wrote INC. reporter Nicole Gull in a recent article. Gull cited studies indicating that companies are expected to increase their marketing budgets 11 percent this year. Moreover, 71 percent of companies surveyed plan to invest in public relations. Only 56 percent plan to invest in advertising.
Today, more companies are competing to communicate with customers across an increasing number of media outlets. In this cluttered media landscape, PR can provide a significant competitive advantage. Moreover, PR carries greater credibility than advertising. This credibility is significant in light of the heightened scrutiny of companies that resulted from recent corporate scandals.
"Successful brands are built with PR, not advertising," wrote Al Ries and Laura Ries in their book, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR. "Advertising can only defend brands that have been built in the mind by public relations." The Rieses cite companies whose early marketing efforts were led by publicity, including Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Body Shop and amazon.com.
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