pr public relations

Public Relations (PR)

Public relations - Building good relationships with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good "corporate image," and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
Let's talk a little bit about the Public Relations (PR) function and how it should be a critical element in your marketing plan. We will also take a look at a few examples. What is Public Relations? Public Relations, or PR, is the overall term for marketing activities that raise the public's consciousness about a product, service, individual or issue. In short, PR is the management of a company's public image that helps the public understand the company and its products. Public relations is most effective when it is viewed as a strategic management function supporting the business goals of the organization. PR can use all the same communications tools as in other areas of marketing. A healthy public relations strategy must permeate all aspects of the business. The PR mechanism itself exists in all organizations--whether formally managed or not. Every communication to the outside world (and even the world inside your organization!) creates an impression, causes an emotional reaction, or makes a statement about who you are and what values you hold dear. Managing those impressions, reactions, and statements should be taken seriously by operating within a carefully planned, executed, and measured PR strategy. As the Marketing Plan comes from the Business Plan, so must a Public Relations Plan come from a strong Marketing Plan. Your Public Relations program should be planned, executed carefully, and measured to ensure success. Publicity: An important part of PR

Publicity also aims to create interest in a person, product, idea, organization, or business establishment generally through the generation and placement of favorable stories in the news media such as newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio. Unlike advertising which relies on purchasing power to get a message across, publicity relies solely on the quality of content to persuade others to get the message out. Good publicity helps journalists find and report legitimate news that is important to their audience. Anyone can buy advertising space but not just anyone can earn the respect of media in order to establish an effective PR campaign.

The primary tool of publicity is the press release, or news release. How to write press releases and manage effective PR campaigns A very important part of any PR plan is gaining press coverage. The first step in getting media attention is to establish and build a database of press contacts and editors of industry journals, magazines, and trade publications. Maintaining relationships with these press contacts is very important. Often these press contacts will let you know about upcoming features within their publications and ask you to submit materials such as press releases and articles. This type of working relationship is important because it can often lead to press coverage that money can't buy. For the cost of a piece of letterhead, photo, envelope, and stamp you may be able to get exposure greater than what you could get from thousands of dollars worth of advertising. It is equally important to write effective press releases and send them out to media contacts on a regular basis. As with advertising or any other type of marketing communication, creating an attention-grabbing headline that crystallizes the information in one sentence usually makes the difference between a press release that gets read and one that gets tossed into the waste paper basket. Once you've captured attention with an effective headline, you need to get to the main point immediately (describe the "who", "what", "when", "where", "why", and "how") and then provide more detail deeper down in the press release. Once you've established the fact that the information is relevant to the reader (usually an editor or producer), then they will read the details to learn more and determine whether or not your release is worthy of them covering. Although editors will usually edit the information to fit their needs, writing effective news releases is a very important step in gaining publicity. These days, video news releases are also becoming popular, but there is no substitute yet for tried-and-true written news releases.

Some examples of publicity through the issuing of press releases Writing feature articles You should also consider writing your own articles and submitting them to editors so they may publish the article(s) in their publications. This is a highly effective PR tactic that not only helps others identify you as an expert in your field, but such articles also serve to educate your market, increase the visibility of your company, and may be an excellent way to find new customers for your business.

Feature articles with brief bio at the end establish the credibility of the author as a professional and promote the business.When you write a feature article, make sure the content matches the editorial slant of the publication and custom-tailor the article to the publication's readership. Also, never submit an article to more than one industry publication at a time. Most publications require exclusive material and if the article manages to get published by more than one competitive publication, you have probably just burned bridges with the editors of those publications. Sometimes, however, publications will allow you to retain the copyrights to the article and will print the article on a "one time reprint rights" basis which would then allow you to submit it to other publications on the same terms. Make sure you know the rules of the publication first and ask for the Author's Guidelines before you begin.

An article written and submitted to a trade journal which subsequently published it. Most times you will be able to have a short biography or contact information section at the end of the article. This is a useful tool that can act as a "miniature advertisement". Be known as an information resource within your industry Once you start to become known as a subject expert and a source for industry information, authors may choose to interview you for story background or even feature your company or your products by writing their own editorial about you. In such cases, authors or editors will contact you and ask you to provide information or background for the article. Getting mentioned or being quoted in a major industry article can be a great boost for you and your business. It is highly desirable for editors and authors to contact you to get information for articles they are writing and when they do, it is a sure sign that your PR campaign is effective. In these cases it is important to work with the editor to provide as much accurate information as possible. FOR MORE PLEASE VISIT GOOGLE

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing - Direct communications with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting or enduring customer relationships.

Direct marketing usually is carried out through telephone (telemarketing and telesales), direct mail (brochures, catalogs, flyers), direct-response broadcast advertising (television & radio), online computer shopping, and cable television infomercials and home shopping networks.

There are many benefits of direct marketing--both to buyers and sellers.

Customers enjoy the convenience of direct marketing as they do not have to battle traffic, find a parking space, or shop through stores. Often they can simply order from a catalog using the telephone or while shopping online and never even have to leave their home as good are shipped directly to their doors. Buying through direct marketing channels is also private and easy and does not have to involve a face-to-face interaction with a salesperson (being a sales and marketing professional myself, I find it hard to believe...but many people do not place a high value on dealing with sales people). Direct marketing can also offer a wider selection of products while making comparison shopping easier with greater access to alternative or competing products. Finally, direct marketing is immediate and good can be purchased immediately in the exact desired configuration. In short, direct marketing can be fun, save time, offer a broader selection, allow comparison shopping, and allow the individual to direct-order customized products.

Sellers also enjoy many benefits of direct marketing. It is a great tool in customer relationship building as it provides direct communication with customers. Direct marketers can also gather a great deal of information about their customers that not only enables them to provide addition value through new products and services, but it also allows them to more precisely target who likely customers are. Direct marketing also can reduce costs (minimize overhead of retail space, utilities, etc.) while increasing the speed and efficiency of the operation. In short, direct marketing allows sellers to customize offerings, create ongoing relationships directly with customers, preserve privacy, and constantly adjusted to improve response rates.

---

Some examples of direct marketing

Television Infomercial

Direct Response Television Advertising:

Those "dreaded" infomercials on television have proven to be effective and consumers have been receptive to them. Infomercials are a 125 billion dollar industry in which nearly two thirds of Americans 16 and older will have seen a direct response television ad (2002 data), translating to 136.2 million viewers. One in four American viewers says they have purchased an infomercial product, most often by calling a 1-800 number to order. Sales have more than doubled in the last five years. A successful infomercial product can generate more than 40 million dollars in sales in just three months. Retail sales generally come soon after, and on the average, are 4 to 8 times greater than television sales.

---

Catalog Marketing:

Catalogs save time, appeal to those who are fearful of shopping due to crime rates, offer convenience, allow leisurely decisions, offer privacy, often offer toll-free telephone numbers to place orders, and allow comparison of quality and price.

Branding

No discussion of marketing is complete without at least some discussion of branding.

Today's modern concept of branding grew out of the consumer packaged goods industry and the process of branding has come to include much more than just creating a way to identify a product or company. Branding is used to create emotional attachment to products and companies. Branding efforts create a feeling of involvement, a sense of higher quality, and an aura of intangible qualities that surround the brand name, mark, or symbol.

Successful branding efforts build strategic awareness where people not only recognize your brand, but they also understand the distinctive qualities that make it better than the competition. Branding is more important today than ever due to ever-increasing advertising clutter, media fragmentation, the commoditization of products, and the seemingly limitless choices we are offered in just about every product category. As marketers, we need to work hard to ensure that we are offering our customers strong brands that are clearly differentiated and that offer clear, real value and unique benefits. The need for branding has never been greater.

Here are just a few benefits you will enjoy when you create a strong brand:

• A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.
• Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion-- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.
• A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium.
• Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.
• Branding will help you "fence off" your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category.
• A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.
• A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. A brand impresses your firm's identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products.
• Branding builds name recognition for your company or product.
• A brand will help you articulate your company's values and explain why you are competing in your market.

Personal Branding & Career Development Personal Branding/Career Development

So you have a pretty good understanding of how you are going to market your products and services by now, right?

Let me ask you a question.

What are you doing to market yourself?

I have a deep interest in personal & professional development. I venture to guess you could get more satisfaction from your career and your personal life than you are getting right now. I also believe that many organizations could benefit more from their people by simply taking more of an interest in employee professional development.

Your most important customers are your employees

Businesses should invest in employee skill development, job satisfaction, and morale while investing resources into customer satisfaction. A study by Industry Week that defined the 100 Best Managed Companies shows those companies invest more than their competitors in employee training and benefit plans.

Involve your employees in your business. Provide them with clear goals and an understanding of their roles. Empower them by giving them the training and autonomy to perform their tasks. Reward them with recognition other than just cash. Treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers. Loyal, involved, long-term employees discover and learn new ways to cut costs and improve quality which in turn enriches the customer value proposition.

Marketing, branding and...career management. Huh?

Continuing to develop both personally and professionally should be approached in a similar fashion to any sales and marketing campaign. If you are a professional marketer and you are unhappy with the current state of your career, shame on you! Create a plan starting today that will enable you to successfully market yourself and advance your career. This can be done both inside and outside your organization.

There are many similarities between marketing and career management. Good career strategy also involves a personal branding effort.

Much as marketing professionals study their markets, evaluate the products or services they offer and then design marketing campaigns, so too should all professionals examine the product and market of their careers.

Personal marketing campaign

Career management begins by designing a "personal marketing campaign". A personal marketing campaign is a career strategy whereby strengths and weaknesses are identified and then tactics are devised to communicate those strengths to effectively sell the product--the person, are steps are taken to overcome weaknesses-professional development.

In a traditional marketing campaign, a marketing plan is thoughtfully designed and carefully implemented. Benchmarks are defined, measurements are taken along the way and results measured before, during and after the campaign. Only then can one evaluate whether or not their plan is working.

Personal branding and personal marketing involve the processes of bringing clarity to your core purpose, your unique attributes, expertise or perspective and then communicating those consistently to a clearly defined market who will benefit from the unique value you offer. Career benchmarks are defined and measurements taken at pre-defined intervals. Only then can the professional track if their career is progressing according to plan.

Career management is nothing more and nothing less than marketing yourself by fully understanding your unique value and fully understanding who can benefit from that value and then delivering it to them.

Identify your strengths, design a career plan, understand the market for your skills and abilities, and endeavor to continuously develop both personally and professionally. Find ways to help others achieve their dreams and goals by applying your knowledge, skills, and abilities and you'll see your own dreams start to come true.

Never stop expanding your professional horizons.