Day 11 – Marketing Arsenal

In the previous section on Word of Mouth marketing, we discussed how public relations is essential to what people are saying or will say about you, your products and your business.   But what is Public Relations?

In general, public relations is anything you do to establish a relationship and connection with your market or current or potential clients and customers.  Specifically, it is the actions of you promoting your products and services by utilizing specific method and means such as writing articles, submitting press release and speaking in public to facilitate awareness and interest in you, your products and your services.

Writing Articles

As discussed in further detail in Chapter 7, Using a Client Newsletter, writing articles is a great way to get your message out and make clients and potential clients aware of what you offer or will offer for their benefit.   If you never tell people what you offer or what you are going to offer, how will they know?

The odds are very slim that a client or a potential client is going to walk into our office and say “Hey, I am thinking that you might be thinking of offering a new way of keeping my business accounting on track. Can you tell me more about what I think you are thinking about?”

In most cases, we would not even know what they were thinking about what we are thinking because we had not been thinking at all because had we been thinking we would have been talking or writing and getting the word out about or products or services.

Writing articles and reading an article should require a small dedication of time.   Preferably the articles you offer to the public are small (around 1,200 words) and that can be read in 15 minutes or less.   As we mentioned in Chapter 7, it may not take you 15 minutes to write the article, or you may have someone else writing a specific topic article for you or you could even utilize one of services that we offer that provide already-written professional level articles for you that are personalized with your name on them to promote.

The shape of your article should center on the need of your client as it relates to your product or service, the specifics of your product or service and how a potential client can get in touch with you.  Your article at this point will target a specific market generating a buzz or a marketing sensation that will carry clients to your door with questions or that are following your lead and looking to you for answers.

Press Releases

We all have seen press releases and know about them but we may just not realize we know what we know.   A press release is something that basically says “stop life as usual and say something about this”.   When watching the evening news, we are in essence watching a series of press releases.

When our favorite television show is preempted for a breaking story – that is a press release.   When we read a book review or a movie review in a magazine, we are reading a form of  a press release.

A press release is information that is provided to the media (television, newspapers, periodical publications, etc.) for  the specific purpose of providing information to the general population.

A press release allows those in a place and a position to share with others the details of our new products or services the opportunity to know more about our products and services.    Our local news organizations don’t just KNOW about a national story, they actually receive a press release coming across the “wire” through fax machines or e-mail to tell them about breaking news or they are forwarded this information from a source that wants them to share this item of interest with others.

What a Press Release Looks Like

Press releases have a certain format that is uniform across the board.   The structure is the same no matter if you are relaying that a staff member has achieved a special award or recognition, you are now “open for business” or that you are introducing a revolutionary product or service.

Every press release should contain the following:

The Source

Published Date

The Words “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”

A Headline

A Dateline

The Lead Paragraph

The Body

A Company Interest Summary

Contact Information

The Source

Because you are using a press release to establish a legitimate promotion of a product or service and not as a “stealth marketing” technique to mislead – you want to include the source.   A source could be your name, the name of your publicist (in-house or hired for that purpose), or your company.

Published Date

This is the date that you are releasing your press release.

The Words “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”

The best use of a press release is to provide information on a product, service, or business that can be promoted immediately.   If you are not entirely ready to go on a product, service or business, it may be wise to delay your press release date so that the interest that will be generated will have a place to direct immediately and also your press release will not sent in a folder or on a desk and run the risk of being lost or forgotten.

A Headline

This is a summary sentence that provides the key details about what the press release is about.

A Dateline

This is the city, state and the issue date of when you are mailing your release.

The Lead Paragraph

This is your introductory paragraph that is meant to grasp the readers’ attention and convey the most essential information first in an interesting style.   It is important to answer Who, What, When, Where, Why while hooking your audience making them want to read more.

The Body

This is where you present your most important information first.   By outlining the key details and then expanding on those with less essential information you are generating the details and awareness about your products and services that you desire for your readers to have and to know.

A Company Interest Summary

At this point, you would provide a brief company biography about who you are, what you do and what some of your products and services are as well as how long you have been in business, if appropriate.

Contact Information

As this section implies you will provide your name and methods that people can get in touch with you via phone, fax, mail,  or e-mail.

When creating a press release it is essential that you include each point so as to increase the effectiveness of this marketing tool.   A media organization uses this information to get a quick picture of what you are trying to say and this short one-page press release can open more doors for you if done correctly and in a timely manner than what you thought possible.  In order to facilitate this, we offer an automated press release service that gets your message out to the target media with less hassle to you.   You can contact us to find out more about this service and how we can help you in this area.

Additionally, a great way to get your message out is public speaking.

Public Speaking

Right up there with snakes, spiders and dying, public speaking is one of mankind’s greatest fears.  In business and especially when building your marketing arsenal the only thing you have to fear is what will happen if you do not do it.

Public speaking establishes the value of your voice.   It is what allows your message of what you, your products and services and your business is about to be heard.    People cannot hear what you are saying if you are not talking and by creating a platform in which you talk about your products, services and your business – you will generate interest for the same.

What Do You Talk About

When speaking in public, it is important that you define what it is you should talk about.   It is impossible outside of a multi-day seminar to talk about all the essential details of you, your business and your products or services, so for the sake of time and not boring your audience to tears – you must pick something specific to talk about.

Some things you could talk about are:

A new product

A new service

An established product that is your “trade” foundation

An established service that has helped to make you a household name

Where Do You Talk

In the previous chapters when we discussed networking and how to build the foundation for your business we recommended that you work with other professionals and people of influence in a variety of settings.   It is in these settings such as group meetings, breakfast clubs or special events by specific organizations that you would be a featured speaker giving a 15-, 20- or 30 minute talk on a selected topic.  You can also register yourself with a speaker’s bureau that can work with you to contract speaking engagements in which you can present your material.

When Do You Talk

Great marketing is the result of well-timed exposure.   When you are speaking in public a wonderful time to give a talk is around the time that you are releasing a new product or establishing a new service.   While you do not necessarily have to talk about these new things, just refreshing peoples’ minds to who you are and what your company is about is a wonderful way to help generate or renew interest that could benefit the introduction of a new product or service.

Why Do You Talk

All marketing is meant to lead in one direction – success.   While success is defined in different ways for various people, most often when a person is successful they will have established themselves as an authority on whatever subject matter that comprises their business.  If you are an accountant, your area of authority could be tax law impacts on business accounting methods.  If you are an investment manager, you could be establishing yourself as an authority on “Baby Boomer Investment Strategies” or as the go-to person for every parent who wants to properly fund college for their kids without breaking the bank.    In the next section, we will discuss more this final stage of marketing and what you need to do to establish yourself as the “best of the best” in your field or professional and in your sphere of influence.

In Summary

Public relations is more than just simply saying what needs to be said or should be said about your business, it is a specific series of processes that are presented in a pre-determined format and accepted by media outlets that will in turn promote what you want promoted.

The key elements to great public relations are influential and relevant articles,  timely and professional press releases and engaging and informative public talks that help you make the most of marketing momentum.

Tomorrow – Authoring and Coaching – Why Establishing Yourself as an Authority Matters