What should you look for in a PR partner?

Public Relations isn’t one-size fits all solution. You need to find the right fit and the right personality for your company. A great PR firm for one company might be a nightmare for another. Just, frankly, as a company or its staff might be a nightmare client for the PR firm.

Here are eight tips to help you find the right PR partner for your company.

Tip #1: Define what you consider success before you start talking to a PR firm. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how can you identify which firm can succeed in accomplishing your goal? By defining your goal in advance, you set yourself (and your new partner) up for success.

Tip #2: Decide if your PR need is long-term or short-term. Are you looking to achieve a long-term goal of increased overall awareness of your company, or are you only looking for temporary help on a specific project? Some firms are better at short-term projects while others excel at creating and implementing long-term strategies.

Tip #3: What size PR firm is right for you? There are some excellent big firms out there, just as there are some talented small firms. It comes down to what’s important to you. Would you rather be the big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a lake? A large firm might have a monthly minimum of $10,000 or $15,000 a month, yet you’d still be viewed as one of their smaller clients. Compare that to a smaller firm where you’d be consider one of the larger clients at even half the larger firm’s retainer amount. Another consideration of who you’ll be working with on a daily basis. At a small firm, you’re likely to be working with the company’s top talent but a large firm may assign your small account to less experienced staff.

Tip #4: Find the right chemistry. Not only do you need to trust your PR firm for their professional recommendations, but you need to personally like the people you’ll be working with. Sometimes the strategy is right, but the personalities aren’t. If that’s the case, save everyone the headache and look elsewhere. The key here is to spend as much time vetting the interaction with your prospective PR teams as you do their portfolio and services.

Tip #5: Make sure you’re excited to get started. Did the PR firm capture your imagination and are you excited to get started? If so, that’s a great sign you’ve identified the right firm.

Tip #6: Have realistic expectations. If you expect every story pitched to get media attention or you expect to be on the front page or if you think that you’re going to become a regular on the Today Show, then you’re destined for disappointment. If you’re not sure what is realistic, ask. A good public relations partner will help you understand what to expect.

Tip #7: How will you measure success? Make sure both the company and the firm are judging success the same way. Nothing derails a partnership quicker than disagreeing on how successful a PR campaign is going.

Tip #8: Who will be your point-person? Decide your company’s primary contact for the public relations firm early and invite them be part of the hiring process. Your point person must be someone who is engaged in the process. By having them involved in the beginning, you make sure they have a voice in the selection process and the strategy, which creates a great foundation for your new partnership.

Finally, It’s also worth noting that a good PR firm follows the same process we’ve just outlined when meeting with prospective clients. If a client isn’t the right fit for our strengths and if we’re concerned we won’t meet or exceed the client’s expectations, we’re upfront about it and turn down the opportunity.

Choose Your Own Adventure Story

What stories are you paying attention to? Is it the upcoming Presidential election? How about the Cubs/Indians World Series? Maybe it’s the national anthem protests or the latest Kardashian gossip.

There’s no one correct answer. Whatever your personal interest, that story is going to appear bigger than most others and you’ll be able to recite more facts or updates than any other current news story.

The challenge for any business is to figure out which story will get noticed by the intended audience.

A story about weight loss usually isn’t going to be of interest someone that isn’t trying to lose weight. However, a story about how to help a friend or family member lose weight might draw attention.

People pay attention to different stories or advertising because it fits with their individual life or interests – professional or personal.

Not sure you believe me yet? Answer this: How many signs did you see on your commute from home to your place of work? The answer depends on you. For example, if you’re looking for a new home, you’ll notice “For Sale” signs everywhere. If you’re not looking to move, you likely didn’t see many home for sale signs outside your immediate neighborhood. You only noticed the homes for sale in your neighborhood because you have a vested interest in your own home’s worth and who might become your new neighbor.

It’s subconscious, but when you accept this reality you can take advantage of it. That’s what we do for our clients. We don’t want to talk to everyone, just the right people. It starts with understanding your primary target audience, then decipher where they get their news, and what type of news they want to see. We share your story where it will have the most direct impact.

After telling those stories, look for the people one step outside your primary target audience that can still influence the decision makers, followed by taking two steps back, and so on. Returning to the weight loss example stated earlier, it’s reaching out to friends and family of someone looking to lose weight in hopes that they can influence the person actually trying to shed a few pounds.

In a professional setting, the equivalent may be a broader case-study type story about how a competitor to your target company benefited from using your 3rd party service or product. The company Executive who may not be as interested in all the details and specifics of your product or service, but they may like the overall result. That Executive may share or mention the story to a subordinate/the appropriate department head that you’ve had trouble reaching directly. When the boss tells an employee to look into something, they usually do. So now you have the opportunity to share the details and specifics with your true primary target client, the person making the final decision or recommendation back to the Executive.

Ultimately, it’s about getting your story heard and noticed by the people most likely to already be interested in it. The more targeted and focused you make your story, the more likely it will have the intended impact.

Wording Can Make Your Idea a Winner or a Loser

The message you convey when naming a company, a campaign or an issue can be the difference between success or failure. Let me share a few examples – and excuse me if some are political.

In Arizona this November, voters will decide if recreational marijuana should be legal in the state (similar to Colorado). The campaign committee in favor calls itself: The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

The campaign’s name does an excellent job re-positioning the argument beyond the traditional drug debate. If all voters begin referring to the issue as a vote on whether marijuana should be regulated like alcohol, my bet is it’s likely to pass.

Here’s another example – the long-running political debate over abortion. The issue of abortion in this country is divided and has been for years, but I would argue that part of the reason it’s so divisive is the wording we use. “Pro-choice” is a positive impression and self-description. So is “pro-life”. It’s not like a debate between “pro-choice” versus “pro-dictating what others can’t do”. It’s not “pro-life” versus “pro-death”. Based on the self-descriptions, there’s no winner or loser between “pro-life” and “pro-choice”.

By comparison, a couple decades ago when “pro-choice” supporters began using and repeating the language “Partial Birth Abortion” during debates and conversations with others, that issue was for the most part politically lost.  Leading to a wave of states passing laws forbidding abortions after a certain number of weeks which is still a resulting issue today thanks to the original language.

Finally, let’s share an example of something as simple as a company name – like the name of my company, 10 to 1 Public Relations. Coming up with a company or product name is a lot harder than most people realize. One reason is that most names are already taken and finding something with a good URL domain is tough. 10 to 1 by itself isn’t memorable, but in context it is unforgettable.  10 to 1 is named after the notion that it takes 10 good things to be said about your company to make up for 1 bad. Since it’s inevitable that a negative story (legitimate or false) will occur, it’s essential to build up a “good will bank” to protect your image.  As soon as I tell anyone the meaning they understand and can recall our approach.

The lesson:  Descriptive wording matters. When you or your company is trying to consolidate support on a divisive issue, or to demonstrate how your product helps solve a problem, you have a much better chance of success if all parties use your chosen words to discuss it.

The case for cookie-cutter style PR campaigns

Many companies think they need to avoid cookie-cutter style public relations strategies. I’ve even been told by clients that one of the things they like most about us is that we don’t do cookie-cutter campaigns.

This might surprise you, but I love cookie cutters and we use them all the time.  Cookie cutters give media stories structure and shape, making it easier for reporters to share your story.

It’s not the cookie cutter that makes your company stand out.   It’s the cookie’s ingredients or the frosting on top of the cookie which make media opportunities unique and memorable.

Let me share a couple examples.

Planning a ribbon cutting event for a new store location is easiest when it follows a cookie-cutter format.  The structure ensures consistency for the brand, and makes it easier for staff from a planning standpoint.  Think of the personalization for the event as the cookie’s frosting.  Partnering on the event with the local chamber of commerce and inviting local dignitaries are what make the event more memorable and newsworthy.

Another example would be if your company hosts special event or training session where it flies in winners, resellers or employees from different parts of the country.  Create a template, or cookie-cutter style announcement about the event.   Take a picture of each attendee standing with the President of the company.  In the background of the photo have a logo or some local imagery (an example of local imagery would be the HQ building for the company or if the event is in Arizona do it outside with cactus or other local images in the background).   Send that photo to the hometown newspapers of each attendee stating that: employee X of CITY attended a special meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona where they met with the company President.

You can send that same cookie-cutter style announcement to 100 different small town newspapers and each one would have a chance of being picked up as a news story.  Local media won’t care or realize that the cookie-cutter was used 100 times. They only notice the ingredients and frosting— someone from their hometown earned a free trip out of town and received special training. Plus it’s a lot easier than trying to write 100 unique news releases!

The fact is, cookie cutters work.  And I’m more than happy to use them if they get my clients positive media attention that helps them achieve their goals.

Focus Helps You Hit the Bullseye

How many “things” does your company offer?  How many different customers are you targeting right now?  Chances are, it may be too many.

The more niche and focused a business can be, the more successful that business is likely to become. After “owning” that niche, it is significantly easier for a company to add on to its expertise and offer even more. Think of Amazon, which started as an online way to buy books. Only after it began to “own” that industry, winning a huge market share, did it expand into offering other products.

I also share similar advice to our clients. The more focused your services and the more identifiable your potential customer, the more likely you are to grow.  Think about it… if you’re trying to sell to every business in the U.S., that’s more than 28 million businesses (according to stats from the SBA in 2010). Alternatively, if you’re only trying to sell to law firms, there were only 47,563 law firms serving the U.S. in the year 2000 (according to the American Bar Foundation).

When trying to focus your sales team, 47,563 is a much more approachable number than 28 million.  In addition to focusing your sales team, it also allows you to focus your R&D teams on products and improvements that best fit the legal industry. As you build a reputation within the legal industry, you’ll find that potential customers will soon seek you out as well because of your specialty.

But once you “own” the legal industry with your product, think of all the other markets that follow the similar business model that can be your next target audiences, such as accounting firms or insurance agencies.

So if you want your business to grow, follow Amazon’s book by starting off focused on being the best in your vertical and expand from there.

The Cleveland sports curse is over! What now?

I grew up in Cleveland and went to college at Kent State in Northeast Ohio.  I still have family who live there and I’m a steadfast defender of the City and loyal Cleveland sports team fan (along with the Arizona teams where I’ve lived for the last 16 years).  You can imagine what I’m going through as the Cavaliers won the NBA championship in dramatic fashion. It’s the first championship of any major sport for the City in 52 years—my entire lifetime plus!  Reading the social media from childhood friends of their excitement brought smiles to my face, but those smiles turned to awe as I watched more than 1 million Cavs fans take over downtown for a celebratory parade and rally.

Back in May of 2014 I wrote a blog titled: Confessions of a Cleveland sports fan and how it relates to your business. In it I talked about the importance of not reinforcing a negative impression despite the comfort it might represent.

Here’s the thing…. once the excitement fades, what is a Cleveland supporter supposed to do now?!?!  How do we write the next chapter of our story?  Uncomfortable?  Yes.  But man, I’m so glad we have no choice but to start re-writing our Cleveland sports narrative.

How to generate media coverage when hosting your own customer conference or training event

Celeste Gwyn - Anna-Melissa Tribune TX (3)

Back in July of 2014 I wrote a blog titled: How to get media coverage at an industry trade show and other conference and exhibitor tips.   That was for when your company attends or exhibits at a conference hosted by someone else.  But what if you’re in charge of the conference, hosting it for your users or customers? Earning some media coverage is likely easier than you realize, but it helps if you view your conference as several mini-events rather than one big one.   Allow me to share an example from just last week.

Last week I attended a convention 100% coordinated and hosted by one of our clients.  Held in Las Vegas, it was attended by nearly 12,000 home-based independent resellers. Yes, you read the number correctly.  There would have been more attendees, but they sold out two months early and there was literally no way to fit in more people.

Let’s get into how to generate media coverage.  The easiest mistake is to put all your focus on getting local media to attend your event or putting out one press release expecting everyone to care about your event.  Let’s be honest… Las Vegas reporters aren’t going to care as they see conferences all the time.  Even if they did cover it, the local Las Vegas TV audience wasn’t our target market.

Yes, of course, you should distribute a press release about your conference and send it to your target media outlets.  But if you treat it like every other press release it will get covered like every other press release.  If the conference is a super-big deal to your company, can you distribute more than one release to make sure those same reporters realize something big is happening?  For example, maybe you can do a general release about the event right before it starts, and a day or two later you can do another release highlighting that you introduced a new product at the conference, or a special guest presenter or event that occurred during the convention.  Include a photo from the event whenever possible.

What most companies forget is that they can also generate media coverage by focusing on your individual attendees.

If it’s a training conference, it’s a good bet that you have attendees coming from numerous cities. It’s also likely that your training session presenters come from different cities across the country.

Take photos of your individual presenters while they speak to your attendees, and send the photo with a caption to the newspapers in their hometown.  The recommended caption should highlight the presenter… something like Joe Schmo of Cleveland led a training session about underwater basket weaving at the national conference for COMPANY in Scottsdale.  COMPANY is the leading provider of waterproof yarn and Schmo is a regular user of the products.

You’ll be shocked how many of the small-town newspapers will run the picture and caption of a hometown individual being recognized as a leader.

For the client convention last week, we literally distributed three Corporate press release, and more than 40 individual presenter photo caption releases.    Some of the photo releases were delivered to the hometown papers before the presenter even left the stage (sorry for bragging… we are pretty proud of that one).  The client is already seeing coverage from the effort, and the presenters are thrilled for the free publicity in their hometown papers.  An added bonus is that those same presenters are going back to the company to thank them for getting them in their local newspapers.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

A PR Confession

Excuse me if this comes out wrong, but I have a confession.

For nearly 20 years, I’ve worked in public relations. I’ve seen a ton, and I’ve done a ton.  Over the years I must have placed hundreds, even thousands of news stories for clients.   Yet every time a client story runs… I still get excited.  Sometimes more excited than the client.

You know the saying about how the sausage tastes good until you see how it’s made?  Reverse the process and that’s what it feels like when I read some of the stories that we’ve helped place.

The process is the hard part.  Some people get scared by it, but it’s my favorite part of the job.  How do you help make a clearly negative story less threatening to a company’s future?  How do you get what started as a small yet positive mention into a larger feature that will be re-shared for years?

It’s one of the reasons I love my job so much.  The story’s end result doesn’t always showcase the strategy, time and energy put in behind the scenes.  It’s why some of my favorite stories aren’t necessary the same favorites that my clients may cite. It’s also why a client sometimes can’t understand why I get more excited about some stories compared to others.  But maybe I’ll just keep that secret to myself.

Which Legacy Do You Choose to Forget?

What legacy do you choose to forget, or simply to ignore?  As I write this, Kobe is playing his last basketball game as a pro. Media are praising his career. There are lots of celebrity tribute videos and he’s taking his victory lap of interviews in closing his 20-year career.

But do you remember Kobe’s original story?  The one created June 30, 2003? 

As a 19-year-old new player in the league with a wife and six-month-old child, Kobe Bryant arrived at the Cordillera Lodge and Spa in Edwards, Colorado where he allegedly raped a hotel worker.  He admits to adultery with a female hotel worker but denies the woman’s claim saying it was consensual.  After Kobe’s attorneys attacked and blamed the victim, she ultimately stopped cooperating with prosecutors and the charges were dropped.  She settled for an undisclosed amount of money.

So how did we get to today’s version of the story where everyone is praising him?   How does a person or a company repair and move past the early pages of a tarnished legacy?

An important component comes down to unswerving, ongoing public relations.  Rebuilding legacy and changing a story doesn’t happen quickly, it happens through consistency.

Part one is taking a public position and standing your ground. Kobe acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife, but always insisted it was consensual. Instead he let his lawyers do the attacking and talking.  Since he said nothing new, it limited the number of stories on the subject.

Equally important, in the months and years that followed, no new public allegations were made.  Think of it this way. I heard a story about a person trying to recover from an addiction.  The first time someone leaves rehab, their friends will often support and stand by them.  But if they relapse many of those same friends won’t be supportive the second time around.

As far as we know, Kobe didn’t relapse.  In the years that followed he didn’t give the media any excuse to bring back the Denver accusation to remind the public.  And of course, he kept winning and championships were on the line so no one wanted to rock the boat.  Now, an entire generation has no idea the rape allegation ever occurred.

All that said, in today’s media climate I’m not sure he’d be able to escape the initial media onslaught, never giving him the time or opportunity to recreate his legacy.   The NBA did little or nothing at the time, but in 2016 it would be hard for the NBA to not take a hard stance at the onset.  Just ask the NFL in light of the many assault incidents such as Ray Rice and others.

Ironically, I’m also currently watching the Golden State Warriors win their 73rd regular season game—a new record.  During the same game, their MVP Steph Curry surpassed 400 three-pointers in a single season. Shattering his own impressive record from last year which was just under 300 three-pointers.

By all accounts, Curry is obviously a great player and has that good-guy on and off the court image.  I would expect his legacy of today will remain his legacy tomorrow.  Ultimately it will depend on his future performance, but also his on and off the court actions and how he’s perceived for those actions.  Just ask O.J. Simpson, Lance Armstrong or Bill Cosby what it’s like going from “hero” legacy to “villain” legacy.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering… Kobe scored 60 in his last game and the media can’t stop gushing and praising him.

Swim or Sink

When it comes to public relations, a lot of companies have good intentions.  They say they are going to put out two or three positive message press releases each month.  Everything starts out great, but they get busy and deadlines start to slip.  Three releases a month becomes one, or even none. The slip isn’t planned, but it also isn’t punished.

It’s a lot like exercising.  Some people love exercising and working out.  They plan their schedules around their work out times.  I’m not one of those people that love working out, but I do swim laps three days each week.  I’m not fast, but I’m consistent.  For the last four years I have swam the exact same distance, the exact same way.  I swim one mile non-stop, which is 33 laps there-and-back (66 lengths).   While that distance may seem impressive to some, it’s really not significant to a lot of swimmers.   A swim team, for example, does several miles in a daily practice.

Unless I’m travelling for more than a couple days (which is rare), there are zero exceptions to my three times per week rule. Why?  Because the first time I make an excuse like it’s too cold, or it’s raining or I have somewhere else I’d rather be, I’ll use an excuse every time I don’t feel like swimming—which is pretty much every day.

This past December I swam on a Thursday night around 7:30pm.  I swim outside (I live in Arizona) and even though the pool is heated it can still get cold, especially after the sun goes down.  The temperature was in the 40s and there was a fog as heat came off the pool into the air. I often use the swim time to think about my day or come up with ideas for my client.

But on this day, as I was counting down the laps until I could go home, I began wonder how many miles I’ve swum.  Based on 3 days per week for at least 50 weeks each year, that’s an estimated 150 miles each year.

I’m not saying that to brag—like I said, I’m not fast and to other swimmers a mile isn’t impressive.  I know that.  But I couldn’t help feeling proud of the cumulative total.  I also couldn’t help but to recognize that my swimming approach mirrored my PR approach.  A consistent and steady effort can lead to big results over time.

One mile isn’t going to get you in shape, just as one press release isn’t going to earn you a reputation as a go-to expert resource to a reporter.  Only as those miles, or press releases, add up will they pay off. And they only add up if you don’t take days off.