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The Road to Good PR

Guest post by: Harvey Farr

Article Overview: Good PR is such an elusive process that many organizations have either a limited understanding or a total misunderstanding of what it is and how to get it. How can you get something, when you don’t know what you are trying to get? Hopefully this article will help clear the air as to what good PR is and how to get there.

The Road to Good PR

I don’t know of a single company or organization that doesn’t want to increase sales. Do you? Probably not. That is why virtually every company does marketing and public relations in some form or another in the hope that they will get new customers or clients and retain existing business as well.

When you look at the typical marketing or PR campaign, they all tend to look alike. While there are numerous variations and nuances, the underlying theme in all marketing is “our company’s product is better, so buy from us.”

This is said in uncountable ways and through numerous marketing vehicles from paid advertising to direct mail to websites to e-blasts to billboards to publicity – you name it. The slogans, approaches and budgets vary greatly, but the message is the same. Buy from us.

And who can blame companies from saying this? A company is in the business of selling a product or service and they want people to buy it. What better way to convey this message than to just come straight out and ask for the sale.

The problem with this approach is little thought goes into why people buy a particular product or service over another. There is little understanding of what motivates people to make a purchase. Is it price? Sometimes, but not always. Is it quality? Maybe, but debatable. It is customer service? Perhaps.

But it doesn’t take a lot of thought to convey messages that your company, organization, product or service is the best. Further, the problem is that everybody says they are the best. Why should someone believe you? Because you run a TV commercial?

That is why public relations or PR, is such a critical element in the marketing process. Good PR takes thought. It takes an understanding of the sales process. It takes some understanding of psychology. It takes more than a catchy jingle to get peoples’ attention.

What too many organizations don’t understand, or refuse to accept, is that sales are a multi-step process. We all want the sale today. We all want the new client today. We have sales figures to report. We have our bosses to please.

Unfortunately, in today’s over-informational age, making a sale is not so easy and not so quick. Just with the internet, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, any person can investigate ANY product or service in a matter of seconds and make a determination whether they want to do business with a company or buy a particular product. Proof is easy. Go to YouTube and type in any product with the word “review” next to it. Up will come dozens of videos from people who purchased the product and who will not be shy to talk about how great it is, or what a rip off it is.

A few bad YouTube videos, and there goes your advertising right out the window.

We will engage in a more in-depth discussion of the PR/sales process in future articles, but there is one point I want to get across in this introductory article, and that is people want to feel good about the company they do business with and the products they buy. Is this obvious? It should be. People want to give their money to companies they believe deserve their money. People want to patronize companies they feel have tried their best to produce the best products and stand behind their products. Nobody wants to feel as though they were fooled or duped into buying something.

How do people feel good about a company? That is where good PR comes in. With a strategic PR campaign that understands customer needs, a company can develop and project a personality that customers want to engage with. The sales process is a relationship. Companies want (or should want) to keep customers happy so they buy more products from them, tell their friends about them and go on YouTube with glowing reviews. In a way a sale is like dating. You want to make a good impression so you get a second date. If a company is in business for a one night stand, they will either be out of business soon, or spend countless amounts of money trying to get new customers.

Stay tuned for future articles on how your company can reach out into the marketplace and start developing relationships with your customers and future customers.

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Article Tags: marketing, PR, public relations, sales



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