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Are You Dissing Public Relations?

Written by: Bob Kelly

Article Overview: Hopefully not because you push hard for to reach your sales, marketing or organizational objectives and you really need the help of your top external audiences.

Are You Dissing Public Relations?

Please feel free to publish this article in your ezine, newsletter,
offline publication or website. Only requirement: you must use
the Robert A. Kelly byline and resource box. Word count is
665 including guidelines and box. Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

Are You Dissing Public Relations?

Because you push hard to reach your sales and marketing
objectives, you need the help of your top external audiences.
If you leave a star player sitting on the bench, you could be
the loser.

Look at it this way. Because you push hard to reach your
sales and marketing objectives, you need the help of your
top external audiences.

If you agree, what are you doing to insure their support? At
the least, you need to prioritize those key target audiences
and work them hard from the top down because few of us
can do them all at once.

When I say work them hard from the top, I mean start by
monitoring carefully how members of that most important
target audience feel about your business. You must interact
with them and ask a lot of questions.

Notice any negative feelings? How about misconceptions
that need fixing? Any inaccurate understandings of your
products and services? In short, ANY perceptions about
your business that you need to alter?

With information like that in hand, you can set your public
relations goal. It could be as simple as this: clear up that
misconception, explain away that inaccurate understanding,
or respond clearly and positively to feelings of uncertainty.

So, with your goal all set, what's next? Right! You select a
strategy. Since you have only three choices, it will be an easy
decision. Create opinion (perceptions) where none exist,
change existing opinion, or reinforce it. Let the goal you
established guide your strategy selection.

Now you go for the meat on the bone, your message. And it
will need to be a specific and compelling message that clearly
and creditably lays out, for example, why the rumor is dead
wrong, or why that belief about the company is not only
inaccurate, but unfair. In brief, the message must be both
crystal-clear and very believable.

But even a first-class message does no good sitting on a
shelf. It needs aggressive communications tactics to carry it
to the eyes and ears of members of your key target audience,
whose behaviors you wish to alter.

Fortunately for all concerned, there are dozens of
communications tactics available to you. They range from
emailings, speeches, press releases and face-to-face meetings
to broadcast interviews, consumer briefings and open houses
and a lot of others.

But the moment of truth arrives when you remonitor how
members of your key target audience NOW perceive you and
your business. Again, you must ask plenty of questions while
attempting to highlight how, and if perceptions have been
altered by your communication. What about that frighteningly
inaccurate perception of your business - better than before?
And the specific misconception that most of your products
are made in South East Asian sweat shops. Any improvement
there? And the small number of interviewees who had never
even heard of your firm. Has that number been reduced?

If insufficient progress is noted, remedies include a heavier,
wider and more frequent use of communications tactics. As
would a review of, and adjustment to your message content.

The prize remains the same. Altered perceptions leading to
desired behaviors that directly contribute to the success of
your business.

end

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has authored
245 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:www.PRCommentary.com

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