PR Marketing in Tough Times
PR Marketing in Tough Times
1. Look after your customers. In good times standards may slip and negative opinions are formed that went unnoticed. These become more critical issues in a recession - when every customer counts. Redouble your efforts to ensure all customers are happy and communicate we those that aren't and find out why!
2. Focus on value not price. It is much better to add value to the overall package by including additional elements such as service and focusing on the factors that make your offering truly different to competitors rather than simply lowering prices.
3. Audit the promotional mix. Promotion is often the most costly element in the marketing mix. If you see this as a cost then it will be very tempting to take the axe and chop, chop, chop. But if you see promotion as an investment then you will see slash and burn approaches as harmful to your medium and long range interest. Examine carefully which elements of the mix are of greatest value to you. PR will almost certainly be near or at the top this value/cost analysis.
4. Advertising – retreat to quality. Look at the promotional channels you use. Which of these are core to you? Which reach the highest numbers of target customers? Which have reliable certified circulations? Which have built in response channels and the highest potential yield. Cut the ones that don’t fit this criteria.
5. Exhibitions, sponsorships and promotions. Now is the time to look very seriously at these large ticket items – do they deliver serious customers, or just generate the warm glow of goodwill?
6. Change the PR focus to promoting products and capability over corporate communication. Much of corporate communication tends to vanity, passing itself off as awareness creating, brand building and positioning. In tough times it is better to focus on messages about product or capability that have strong calls to action and that will produce name and address leads and enquiries. Intelligent use of the web is key to this process.
7. Make PR the lead communication activity. PR has the power to sneak under the buyer's radar in a way that advertising and other 'in your face' promotional tools cannot. It has reach, value and credibility. More than this, it has an investment effect that other channels lack. People store facts and messages from PR for decades and this shapes their perceptions of companies and brands. For these reasons it is wise in hard times to maintain PR momentum.
8. Reinforce your web presence. The web is a hugely empowering force for your prospective customers. It is where the active enquirer, who is intending to purchase, looks for information, screens the various offerings and decides to shortlist suppliers. For this reason, when others may be neglecting their web presence, it is a good time to improve your web presentation and present your best face to these crucial buyers. Product reviews, case studies, white papers, opinion pieces, blogs, podcasts are all potential tools to use.
9. Differentiate. Having differences between your product and others that buyers value is the key to avoiding being seen as a commodity product. Emphasise good practical design that has user benefits over mere style. Stress the aspects of quality and service that extend the usefulness and value of the product.
10. Negotiate the best deal you can. Whether it is advertising, exhibition space or any other promotion, negotiate the best deal you can. Make it plain that you have a budget so the seller knows that they are not wasting their time, but that you want to maximise the impact for the money you spend.
Five Things You Should Not Do
1. Don't expect something for nothing. Yes - negotiate hard with suppliers - but be reasonable and have realistic expectations.
2. Don’t forget lapsed and customers and lost orders. Now is the time to renew contact, bearing in mind that clients may well be reviewing suppliers to find better value and performance.
3. Don’t withdraw into the bunker. Maintaining a positive attitude - and an active approach - will enable you to find and exploit the PR opportunities that do exist.
4. Don’t neglect networks. This is the time when the real network of colleagues, professional associates and old friends can provide leads to new business and unconventional opportunities to work together.
5. Don’t forget to communicate. Keeping up the releases, the blog, the newsletter and professional network connections maintains visibility and gives you prominence when others have withdrawn.
PR Marketing in Tough Times - To learn more about this author, visit Adrian Maguire's Website.
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Ten Things You Should Do
1. Look after your customers. In good times standards may slip and negative opinions are formed that went unnoticed. These become more critical issues in a recession - when every customer counts. Redouble your efforts to ensure all customers are happy and communicate we those that aren't and find out why!
2. Focus on value not price. It is much better to add value to the overall package by including additional elements such as service and focusing on the factors that make your offering truly different to competitors rather than simply lowering prices.
3. Audit the promotional mix. Promotion is often the most costly element in the marketing mix. If you see this as a cost then it will be very tempting to take the axe and chop, chop, chop. But if you see promotion as an investment then you will see slash and burn approaches as harmful to your medium and long range interest. Examine carefully which elements of the mix are of greatest value to you. PR will almost certainly be near or at the top this value/cost analysis.
4. Advertising – retreat to quality. Look at the promotional channels you use. Which of these are core to you? Which reach the highest numbers of target customers? Which have reliable certified circulations? Which have built in response channels and the highest potential yield. Cut the ones that don’t fit this criteria.
5. Exhibitions, sponsorships and promotions. Now is the time to look very seriously at these large ticket items – do they deliver serious customers, or just generate the warm glow of goodwill?
6. Change the PR focus to promoting products and capability over corporate communication. Much of corporate communication tends to vanity, passing itself off as awareness creating, brand building and positioning. In tough times it is better to focus on messages about product or capability that have strong calls to action and that will produce name and address leads and enquiries. Intelligent use of the web is key to this process.
7. Make PR the lead communication activity. PR has the power to sneak under the buyer's radar in a way that advertising and other 'in your face' promotional tools cannot. It has reach, value and credibility. More than this, it has an investment effect that other channels lack. People store facts and messages from PR for decades and this shapes their perceptions of companies and brands. For these reasons it is wise in hard times to maintain PR momentum.
8. Reinforce your web presence. The web is a hugely empowering force for your prospective customers. It is where the active enquirer, who is intending to purchase, looks for information, screens the various offerings and decides to shortlist suppliers. For this reason, when others may be neglecting their web presence, it is a good time to improve your web presentation and present your best face to these crucial buyers. Product reviews, case studies, white papers, opinion pieces, blogs, podcasts are all potential tools to use.
9. Differentiate. Having differences between your product and others that buyers value is the key to avoiding being seen as a commodity product. Emphasise good practical design that has user benefits over mere style. Stress the aspects of quality and service that extend the usefulness and value of the product.
10. Negotiate the best deal you can. Whether it is advertising, exhibition space or any other promotion, negotiate the best deal you can. Make it plain that you have a budget so the seller knows that they are not wasting their time, but that you want to maximise the impact for the money you spend.
Five Things You Should Not Do
1. Don't expect something for nothing. Yes - negotiate hard with suppliers - but be reasonable and have realistic expectations.
2. Don’t forget lapsed and customers and lost orders. Now is the time to renew contact, bearing in mind that clients may well be reviewing suppliers to find better value and performance.
3. Don’t withdraw into the bunker. Maintaining a positive attitude - and an active approach - will enable you to find and exploit the PR opportunities that do exist.
4. Don’t neglect networks. This is the time when the real network of colleagues, professional associates and old friends can provide leads to new business and unconventional opportunities to work together.
5. Don’t forget to communicate. Keeping up the releases, the blog, the newsletter and professional network connections maintains visibility and gives you prominence when others have withdrawn.
PR Marketing in Tough Times - To learn more about this author, visit Adrian Maguire's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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