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As my little gift to my valued readers (hi Mom!), I’m going to let you all look behind the curtain this week.  You see, marketing communications strategy, in my humble opinion, is little more than common sense.  And I believe that pretty much any level-headed business person can, indeed, do it himself/herself with just a little thought. 

 

Now, before I get the PRSA, AMA and Venerable and Celebrated Coalition of Independent And Omniscient Social Media Gurus  breathing down my neck, let me say this:  Businesses will always need marketing or PR agencies or consultants.  There’s no time to waste these days, and you’re better off having a pro or team of pros tell your story for you (I know a few if you need recommendations.). 

 

But this ain’t rocket science.  In fact, I’d run far, far away from marketing evangelists, PR gurus and Social Media Think Tanks that believe otherwise.

 

I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when a colleague from the industry sent an announcement to me.  The sender is a well-regarded and experienced veteran of the industry who has started his own company.  The news was that his little consultancy is growing, and that he had added a reputable pro to his team.  The gentleman, being of impeccable reputation and high regard, had built up (as many do) a “VIP list” of peers and contacts, and wisely decided these professionals should hear about the news.  So he sent a short e-mail announcement, a de-facto press release.

 

That’s good PR.  That’s good marketing.  And I’m willing to bet the gentleman, with just a few minutes of research, could make it into great PR—without having to endure a two hour agency PowerPoint about “ideation” and “mindshare” or having to claw through endless hemming and hawing in response to his inquiry of said presenters about ROI. 

 

So I’m going to offer my humble take on the strategic basics a small company needs to “get its story told.”  I talk quite a bit in previous posts about the tactics of distributing your own press release or revamping your own Web site.  This series will focus on building the blueprint for a consistent and durable strategy.  And, for once, I’m going to try to keep it short—by breaking this into a few blogs.  Ok, a few very, very long blogs…. Ok.  There’s nothing short about this at all.  But I still think it’s worth discussing.  We’ll start today with PR.

 

By the way, if my definitions, vocabulary and even content seem too rudimentary to you, you are, indeed a true PR Czar.  Why are you wasting your time on my blog in the first place?  But if it strikes a chord with the small business-folk out there passing the time; if my advice strikes you as common sense; or if you even find yourself saying “this is what I have been doing for years!” then, good for you.  This is for you.  Read on!

 

Public Relations Basics

 

When I refer to PR, I’m talking, in essence, about the free stuff.  I don’t count the “pay-to-play” articles as true PR.  One tends to pay for marketing or advertising, and the payoff in those cases is the right to control the message almost absolutely.  You write your own ad copy.  You make your own direct mail piece.  No editor or conference director gets to tell you you’ve used too many exclamation points there. 

 

But with public relations, your costs range from minimal to none—just time.  Moreover, you get the bonus of implied third-party endorsement.  An article about you written by someone else in a well-read trade pub can do wonders for your brand.  A coveted key note speaking assignment at an important annual convention can introduce you to prospects and investors as an “expert” (a word destined to reach my overused words list soon, but it suffices to make my point here).

 

So how do you get the “ink” without spending thousands on an agency retainer?  Herewith, a few thoughts on building a simple strategy to get you started.

Start by actually having a strategy  We PR-types love to use this word.  It makes us sound smart.  It makes us sound like we can balance books, oversee complex M&A transactions, or single-handedly oversee the turnaround of a massive and floundering bank.  It makes us sound…well, strategic.  (And heaven forefend we think “tactically.”  Only the little people handle tactics, right?  A good strategy always overcomes poor execution and tactical planning, right?  Right?)

 

But there’s something to this.  Just getting ink or speaking spots isn’t enough.  Just putting the intern on the phone with the instruction to “get me into a conference or two and a few headlines” pretty much yields nothing…or worse. I discuss the tactics of getting the word out at length (then again, do I ever discuss anything in any way other than “at length?”) here. 

 

Strategy, as I see it, is pretty simple. 

 

Step 1:  Know YOU.  Know your product/service and capability.  Oh, and be HONEST with yourself.  Don’t just know what you want to be….know what you ARE.

 

Step 2.  Know the people you want to spend money with you, your market.  Know what they do, why they do it, when they do it and where they do it.  And know what they like.  Know what they’re afraid of.  Know what they watch on TV. Know how much they spend.  Hell, know their favorite sports teams.  And if you don’t know…figure it out, and do it yesterday.

 

Step 3:  Know why your market will (not “should,” but “will”) want your product or service.

 

With that setup, “marketing” or “PR” or “advertising” or “marketing communications” or “corporate story telling” or “brand advocacy” or whatever else you’d like to call it, is simply this:  the effective carrying of step 3 to your market.  It’s letting them know about the service or product they will want to purchase, and why yours is the best.  And that brings us to Step 4, another starter from the All-PR Cliché Team:  The Key Message.

 

To me, The Key Message is the one sentence you want your prospect or investor to be able to spout about your brand, as they understand it from your branding.  It’s the sentence that will drive them to strongly consider your brand when the time comes to make a purchase. In marketing or advertising, you get to control how it comes out.  In PR, the editors or conference directors do.  But in ALL cases, your key message is utterly worthless if it doesn’t come out of the RECIPIENT’s mouth after you’ve “told your story.”  In other words, your message has to be clear as crystal, and consistent.  Your targets have to hear it, understand it, remember it and, hopefully, act upon it.

 

Of course it’s not all that simple, and I’m pretty sure Wharton isn’t too worried about the mass exodus from its graduate programs now that I’ve revealed the secrets of business strategy.  However, many of the bad marketing programs I’ve seen forget or disregard these steps.  Many of these “initiatives” lose sight of the roadmap or strategy by falling in love with the tactical stuff.  They get caught up in having a newsletter or blog, just to have one.  Or they really, really want a cool new logo or tagline.  But they forget to tie these things back into the key message.  A pretty color doesn’t always sell.  An effective message does.

 

Pick your channels/vehicles  With PR, the goal is to pick the “channels” or “vehicles” that fit your market best and most effectively.  Who is going to tell your story, and, even if they do it in the most optimal fashion, will it be effective?  This can be Web sites, blogs, print pubs, social media forums or groups, trade conferences, audio seminars and a thousand similar venues.  Where will the most prospects be gathered to hear your message?  Where will the prospects most likely to act upon your message be found?  Which conferences or publications carry the most clout or have the most influence on your prospects?

 

Tie your key message into the things readers and attendees want to hear about.  The next thing to remember with PR is that having a product or service—even a good one—is rarely newsworthy in and of itself.  Remember that the media isn’t here to sell your product.  Readers don’t pick up trade publications to read the advertising (well, not usually).  Professionals don’t spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to attend trade conferences where the “content” is a thinly-veiled pitch.

 

The trick to PR therefore, is to tie your Key Message to the everyday content the readers of the publication want to see or the conference attendees want to hear.  And it’s not as hard as you may think.

 

An example: 

 

The Key Message—XYZ Widgets offers the most inexpensive Loan Origination Systems on the market, and they ain’t half bad, either.

 

The Vehicle—Super Mortgage Readers Weekly (home to 10,000 mortgage lending readers and likely prospects for XYZ Widgets’ star product)

 

The Angle—While the SVP of Sales or Product Development would probably love a story in the venerable publication about why, exactly, XYZ’s products are easily and clearly the best, he or she probably ain’t gonna read that story in this publication.  So we need to tie what the readers are reading (and willing to pay to read) to what XYZ is hoping they’ll be saying about their products. 

 

These days, the bad economy and failing market doesn’t seem to be doing any favors for mortgage lenders.  It certainly doesn’t encourage lots of freewheeling spending.  At the same time, Super Mortgage Readers Weekly seems to be reporting about another half-baked, Beltway-nurtured mortgage regulation with legions of unintended consequences each and every issue.  Lenders are struggling to figure out how they’ll ever be able to revamp their processes quickly enough and effectively enough to keep compliant, much less competitive.

 

So instead of pitching a piece of collateral, why not pitch a story about some of the smaller lenders who are keeping up with the draconian new requirements of lenders by using cheap and flexible technology?  If one or two of the little case studies just happen to be customers of XYZ, that’s not a bad thing, is it?

 

What is bad, however, is pitching the story as though XYZ is the only cheap solution to the issue.  Implication is key.  You’re not writing collateral.  You’re pitching a story for someone else to write.  You want your product to be the implied solution.

 

One article or one conference do not a strategy make            Strategy, as you know, is a long term approach.  PR just doesn’t work unless you use it consistently, and repeatedly. Your message should appear in a few important and useful publications, and over a period of time.  The human mind is not the sponge some make it out to be.  People don’t memorize every article they read—even the good ones.  But if they see several stories discussing a real solution (cheap and flexible technology, for example—not JUST XYZ) to a real problem (changing regulation and its impact on my operating environment); and if they hear practical tips on choosing a technology (NOT just ways to choose HIS/HER technology) from an “expert” at the annual conference, they might just get the message.

 

I could go on and on about this stuff.  I’d love to hear from you on it as well!  In the meantime, I’ll be back next week (or so), when we’ll do Part II—DIY marketing communications strategy.