ARE YOU SPOUTING BS AROUND PR?

Many many people in business don't understand PR - or public relations. They can mistake it for 'press relations' which is just one took in the PR toolbox or they simply think 'that will be too expensive' and they don't want to spend that money.

In a world where many people can 'track' and can use 'KPIs' and can 'measure' the world of PR is like knitting fog. And those who get very hung up on 'tracking' and 'outcomes' are often so focussed on results that they forget one of the most basic principles in business and that is that effort equals reward in most cases - and some of that effort will be worth it and some will not.

Don't get me wrong. It's useful to have some eye to your data to see what's delivering success and what's not, but doing this without giving something a real serious effort means you often dart from one thing to another and then to another - and nothing really sticks. For example you can have one viral post which gets a million views (fantastic) but you make no sales at all. And you can have another which has just 20 views and you make ten sales. So which has been the most successful? It simply depends how you measure success. Is it the visibility or is it the sales? Or is it both?

The truth is PR is like gambling and trying to do it with a degree of common sense. Yet you won't win all of the time. The alternative is to do nothing, nothing at all and see what happens. That means no website, no social media, no blogs, no networking, no speaking, no media engagement, no signage on your premises, no telephone calls, no email marketing, no, no, no. All of these activities make up your PR mix. Just stop all of it and see what happens, let business come to you without you making any effort at all to be 'out there' or to seek business.

Your PR (or marketing) mix is very much up to you - it doesn't mean that someone like me needs to be part of it. You may belong to four networking groups in your community and you are active on LinkedIn and that provides you with enough enquiries to fulfil your goals. Nothing wrong with that.

Your PR mix may involve paid for ads on Facebook to sell your widgets, you belong to one networking group and selling via your website. Nothing wrong with that.

Doing nothing, for the majority of us is not an option.

People tend to come to me and talk about PR and there are few things they will say which will instantly tell me that it won't work - they simply don't get the 'press relations' part of PR and it won't go well. So I ask you: would you express any of these sentiments? If so, then I'd stick to other PR tools:

*How many sales will I make? - no idea, media coverage gives you more visibility but I cannot control your sales process, how good are you at selling?

*What will the ROI be if I invest? - no idea, I can guarantee to make you, your brand or product visible but I can't guarantee how many sales you'll convert.

*I want all of your activity to be tracked against some KPIs - move on from me and use a bigger PR agency and accept that the monthly retainer will be far more. I keep my prices reasonable by not offering these tracking services which are on average ￡1,000 plus VAT per month and I'll have to pass that cost on.

*I want to see anything before the media prints/broadcasts a story - no, no, no. You do get to sign off a press release but if you are not paying you never get to see what's going into print. No journalist has time to seek approval by committee and they are allowed, by law, to take any information from a press release and use it as they see fit as long as it's not untrue.

*I want a story to go to the media every week - in most cases, this won't work. Most businesses rely on local press and no local news editor wants to write about the same company or person week in, week out. I won't do this as a matter of routine.

*No one read stories like that any more (because I don't) - the assumption that everyone else receives or reads news or stories like you do is frankly stupid. It is very arrogant to assume that people consume content as you do, or not. There's an audience for anything and everything, it's about tapping into enough of it for your business to survive and thrive.

*It's all about digital these days - it's both. There are opportunities for both and you are daft to ignore digital coverage. Recently a would-be client said this and then admitted that he does not social media at all. How do you compute that?

*It's too risky for me - starting a business is the biggest risk anyone will take. You've already done the hardest thing but PR is a risk because it speaks to all of the moving parts in your business and requires them all to start moving together.

*The media is dead - no it's not, it's different and it inevitably attracts a much bigger audience than you can hope to.

*I want guarantees - then buy advertising space and I can help with that too but forget press relations in the editorial sense because you'll never be satisfied.

Want to discuss any of these with me? Let's have a chat, [email protected]