Public Relations

Gaining and growing awareness of your business is the role of public relations. Causing people to know about your products and services includes a wide array of tactics.

More than a press release, PR is a carefully crafted set of plans to put you in the lead.

From promotions, to events, to community action, to internal communications, we have the right team to help you earn the awareness you seek.

Want to know more about PR? Read our articles for many ways you can undertake or manage your own strategy. Sound like too much work? Call us. We’l take care of the heavy lifting.

Public relations tactics that work

Posted by Cheryl Smithem

This evergreen post was first published on our blog in 2009. We’ve updated it and republished it.

Everybody loves to win!

When we were children, we may have avidly collected cereal box tops or points in order to enter a contest. We also may have colored a picture to send to the local weather broadcast hoping to be selected the “Weather Picture of the Week.” These days with ubiquitous cell phone cameras, many of us submit photos to our local news outlets for their weekly or daily Picture of the Day/Week. We buy lottery tickets and enter contests believing that our luck is great and we will win. We enjoy competing and being singled out as special. 

Each one of us believes that we have a specialness about some aspect of our lives. An entire generation of children have been raised believing that they are special. Psychologists call this Pseudo-exceptionalism. Jeremy E Sherman Ph.D., MPP writes in his post on Psychology Today, “Pseudo-exceptionalism — the unearned conviction that we are exceptional, superior to others because we were born…us.” 

When it comes to public relations for your company, you can use these traits of human nature to your advantage.

People love contests. We are competitive by nature and want to demonstrate our prowess. Look at the success of America’s Got Talent, American Idol and other competitive reality television shows. We get a vicarious thrill rooting for those we favor. Businesses love contests because through contests they are able to increase brand awareness, build their email marketing lists, gain new social media followers, and move the needle of those visiting the brand’s website. Contests can be synchronized to fit holiday schedules and seasonal business goals. They can help you boost sales. 

Contests are one of the oldest ways to bring attention to a company. They work well when piggybacked on current news or cultural trends making the news.  As an example, mother’s day and father’s day contests and sweepstakes giveaways are very popular.

We also like to share our opinions with others.  Whether use use social media comments, consumer surveys or Google Reviews, we crowd source referrals for auto repair, haircuts, new doctors and lawn care.

As noted on Marketing Charts, and from Kantar Media’s report Dimension 2019 “Just one-third (33%) of consumers who rely on advertising for brand information say they trust its messaging, making it the least credible source of information among the options given.”  Most of us rely on friends and family for recommendations. However, we also rely on review sites. “Some 44% of the respondents across 5 markets use reviews for brand information, with 7 in 10 of these trusting the information they find.”

What Brand Information Sources Do People Trust the Most?

Businesses regularly use Google Reviews to spotlight their superiority and Google uses them to help show us companies which are more successful their others. Here’s an example of how one company calls for their social media followers to rate their company on Google.

Survey says!

Conducting surveys to allow your company to announce the results and spotlight your firm’s knowledge of what customers think is a sound tactic. You make the news — especially if your survey is timed to fit the news cycle. BrandSpark is a company that issues brand trust awards which regularly surveys consumers to learn which brands are most trusted. In doing so, they make the news. 

As another example, YouGov and ACI Worldwide surveyed consumers to learn they are “concerned about the security of their financial data when they pay at gas pumps and convenience stores.” ACI Worldwide states that they “deliver electronic banking and payment solutions for more than 5000 financial institutions, merchants, billers and processors around the world.” By conducting this survey ACI signals to merchants their awareness of consumer issues, thus increasing the opportunity for trust from those needing payment and electronic banking services.

Surveys do not need to be national. They can be local. So can contests. Have you used contests, giveaways, surveys or research to help position and market your firm? Tell us about how you used them.

Remember, The most successful marketing tactics and strategies build on human nature and on current trends and seasonality.  

Need help creating a survey, contest or promotion for your business? We’d be delighted to advise, plan or implement a public relations plan for your business.

PR not always about your products, events

Posted by Cheryl Smithem

Note: This article originally appeared on our blog in 2009. We have updated it and re-published it.

Companies that care about their communities and strive to become integral in them gain positive feelings and more engaged employees. They also cultivate a more positive brand.

In an article in Entrepreneur Syed Balkhi writes, “Letting consumers see the people behind the business is a powerful way to humanize your brand. If consumers are looking at just your logo all the time, they might not see your brand as human. So, put your team members in the spotlight.”

Additionally, according to Entrepreneur, “numerous studies show that the higher a company’s CSR score (the more it is committed to volunteerism), the more pride employees have in their organization — and in their job — and the happier and more satisfied they are with their job and company.” Such positive feelings are important to individual and company perceptions.

Go beyond earned media

Many people fall into the mindset that PR is only about gaining earned media placement for a company’s products or news and events. Public relations go so far beyond simply getting an outlet to carry your news. The best PR tells a story. It intrigues. It inspires. It elevates.

There is other side of publicity sharing information about your leaders and staff to humanize your company.

Create depth and dimension with unique stories

As an example, a local video production company has a photographer who is interested in documenting a small social business which is taking medical supplies to Ghana. Supporting the project and assisting her in obtaining donations, or shipping them or storing them demonstrates a real commitment to a cause created by the team member. Sharing information about the photographer’s search for funding and the skills that he will use to document the project can support the cause and expand the image of the company in the minds of consumers.

I’m not suggesting that you exploit your staff or their good works, but that you seek opportunities to offer information that really opens up what people think of your team and your firm. Being in business means being a part of a larger community. Demonstrating how you and your associates do that gives depth to your individual and personal brands as well as lifts the perception of your firm.

Gaining earned media is more than just telling us that you’ve just hired a new Director of Marketing. Give your staff opportunity to volunteer and be involved. Identify causes the company wishes to support. Then go out and do good works.

We are all more than just our titles and functions. We are the people who make up the company, not the human resources. So, share the interesting information about those who are the life of the company.

Photo credit: Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

PR Important Dates and Holidays

Posted by Cheryl Smithem

This article originally appeared on our blog in 2008. We’ve updated it with the information and examples of how you can use holidays, national observance days and more in your marketing and PR strategy.

Keep up with annual holidays which may impact plans for your company’s public relations and marketing.

Annual holidays and observances are natural PR hooks

PR pros plan our client’s calendars, social media strategy and other activities around holidays and important remembrance events. We also utilize important anniversaries as hooks for our client’s PR messaging. Contests and promotions can be built around holidays and observances. Read our article on contests and promotions. 

For years there have been Labor Day sales, Columbus Day sales and other types of promotional events tied to government holidays. When many people are off work they look for activity and shopping has always been something people do when they have a block of time. Though with the advent of online shopping’s explosion, new holidays like Prime Day have been concocted to drive online shopping into targeted channels.

American Express® defined Small Business Saturday to encourage and recognize the predominant form of US business — small businesses — and the resulting adoption of this single day has driven many campaigns across the United States.

Don’t overlook significant corporate anniversaries

If your business has been operating for a long time, say 100 years, and you’re coming up on that significant anniversary (or even 50 years) developing a pitch for the media or sending a media release about how the firm has reached this unusual mark could potentially land you some really cool mentions.

Using this same example, you could build an entire month of social media strategy around the number 100, recognizing your best 100 clients; or giving prizes to 100 customers across the course of the month. Brainstorm with your team to develop ideas on how to recognize and honor those that helped achieve longevity in business.

Here’s a link to the calendar of American Holidays as recognized by the US government, but these are only the ones recognized by government. 

Wacky holidays, national observances can used in your marketing

For example, July is national ice cream month. When planning your social media calendar or your marketing plan for the month, you can use this as well as other unusual observances in your content strategy. Find a way to tie them in with promotions and ads to piggyback on buzz which is being created across social media related to the observance. Don’t forget to use the official hashtags in your posts.

Time and Date provides a very long list of all kinds of unusual holidays. BrownieLocks.com has been around a long time and I’ve referred to their list for years. 

You will also want to check your local events and holidays as well. Is there a significant date in the history of your town? Or how about an important event that is associated with your town?

In the Charleston area in August, many people remember the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo. That tragic storm gets people talking: about hurricane preparedness, the storm’s impact on their lives and structural soundness of buildings and much more. If you’re a home builder or building supplies provider, you could build a very informative educational campaign around the lessons learned about being prepared by interviewing locals, getting insights into what’s different in the building codes and more that could be used in blog posts, social media activity and in-store promotions.

Using Google My Business you can keep the public informed about your openings and closures around legal holidays such as New Years Day, Memorial Day and all the legally recognized holidays. Google My Business even prompts you to update your hours in the weeks prior to an important holiday. 

Let your messages be informed by date driven PR

With creativity you can have fun and grow your business and even gain some new media attention.

Need assistance planning your marketing strategy to tie in with holidays? Give us a call at 843.628.6434 or use our contact form to get in touch.

Photo by Tobias Zils on Unsplash