Let’s face it – unless you are a big corporation or have some good connections in the biz, most of us are doing our own PR these days, and if you’re like me you don’t really know where to start. What exactly is Public Relations? How is it different than marketing? What is press release worthy vs an announcement on your site or blog? Luckily we don’t have to figure this all out!
Say hello to Marion Williams-Bennett. Marion has over twenty years of experience implementing successful communications campaigns for a range of organizations – from small start-ups to large enterprises. Most recently, she was the Manager of Corporate Communications for Pageflex, a global provider of web-to-print solutions. She now works as a freelance public relations consultant, serving organizations in the graphic arts industry.
Marion has generously agreed to share her vast knowledge with PMC to help us all become better at understanding, then expressing, who we are and what we do. This is the first of a multi-blog series, and it’s an honor to welcome Marion to TEAM PMC!
Creating A Successful Public Relations Campaigns – Where to Start?
by Marion Williams-Bennett
Public Relations is a great way to help your company get noticed and to attract new customers. Like its sister function, marketing, PR uses a range of communications tools to relate your message to your key stakeholders, including prospects, customers, and business partners.
But marketing and public relations advance different business goals. Public relations is used to educate your audience on who your organization is and the value you bring to them. Marketing is used to proactively sell products and services to that audience.
For example, say you sell direct mail services that include print and email. With PR, you can do several activities – presentations, articles, case studies, blog posts – to educate your audience on how marketers are using email and print together to achieve greater response rates in direct mail.
People who hear that PR message and say, “I think I should look into doing this with my own direct mail!” and will think of you as a provider because you were the one that helped them to understand it – you are the authority.
Once they sign up to learn more, you can then use marketing – lead nurturing, email campaigns, special promotions – to get them to become a customer.
PR is a critical tool in helping you to stand out in a crowded marketplace. But before you can start any public relations program, you need to do some reflecting on who your organization is and what services you offer.
This is an important step. It’s also one that is often overlooked by companies because it can be a time-consuming and sometimes difficult process. But the benefits of answering these questions go a long way in making your public relations program – and your business – successful.
All it takes is some thoughtful answers to a few questions:
Who Are You?
Let’s start with a fundamental question: Who are you? Who is your company and what do you have to offer?
These sound like simple questions, but it can be really challenging to answer them, especially when you are a print or marketing 
service provider and the nature of what you are offering is evolving.
I once worked on a public relations campaign with a printer soon after he adopted a web-to-print solution. Initially, he wanted to continue to emphasize his quality, price, and fast turnaround – all the things that had made him successful as a printer.
When I asked him, “What is your business?” He mentioned technology and new services and the goal of successfully meeting the changing demands of his clients. “So let’s talk about THAT!” I said.
He moved away from saying he could provide the lowest price and into promoting the range of services he could create with his web-to-print solution. This new message wasn’t just limited to his marketing and PR; it became part of how the whole company – sales, operations, finance – operated.
Many print and marketing service providers are evolving with new services and acquiring new technology. As you do, be sure that the way you promote your company also evolves and that your message is aligned with the full range of services your organization provides.
What makes you different?
This question is designed to get at the heart of your strengths. You want to define why customers in a certain market would choose your company over a competitor.
For help with this question, think about the sales that you win and why you win those sales. When in doubt, ask your current customers why they choose to work with you.
These conversations can yield valuable information that can help you better define the message for promoting your company.
While you are talking to customers, also see if they will be willing to “go public” with their feedback. You can then use their testimonials in press releases, case studies, and other marketing materials.
Make a Statement
Once you’ve done your work addressing these questions, then it’s time to put all this information together into a compelling statement. You can call it a mission statement, a value statement, or just your reason for being.
Whatever you call it, it should include what you do, whom you do it for, and why you are the best at it. Here is an example:
“Acme Marketing Services provides comprehensive communications services to clients in the financial services and insurance industry. No matter how you want to communicate – print, email, or on the web – we have the expertise to provide the solution that is right for your business.
Your mission statement needs to go beyond your marketing. It should be the reason you open your doors each day, why your employees do what they do, and provide a guide for you to know when you have been successful.
Now that you’ve got your message down, our next post will look at how you take that message out to your target market with a comprehensive PR campaign.
Connect with Marion: Create Communications / EMAIL / LinkedIn / Twitter @mbbennett
