You Received Some Great PR, Now What? How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

Image savvy businesses work very hard and sometimes pay a lot of money to get positive press. However, after you’ve a great story in the media, look for ways to leverage the coverage to maximize its benefit.

I love to sail and was once featured in the Profits & Passions section of the Westchester County Business Journal. It was a great opportunity to build awareness of my business through my hobby – but I didn’t let it stop there.

Start Spreading The News

I added a synopsis of the article to my email newsletter and sent it to everyone in my email database: friends, colleagues, clients, vendors.

You would be amazed at the conversations it sparked, and the connections that ensued. That’s just one way to leverage your press. Here are some other ideas to get the most out of your PR coverage:

1. Create a sell-sheet to mail to your prospects and customers.
2. Put a copy of your press coverage and any photos on your website.
3. Refer to the story in your blogs and on social media sites. Put links to the story on your website.
4. Create a “Media & Press” section in your website. Include links to newspapers, TV, or radio stations in your market or industry. Include photographs, videos and podcasts as well.

Recycle and Refresh!

Don’t be afraid to recycle your press coverage; the more your name is out there, the more apt it is to be fresh in the minds of prospective clients, vendors, and future employees.

The bottom line is, don’t let the public relations end with the story. Use it again and again in any number of ways to get the word out on your business, product, service or event. Click here to view PDF of Profits & Passion article.

If you’re new to search engine optimization, then you probably have no idea what a meta-tag is, or the rest of the SEO jargon such as SERP, page rank, crawling, or spiders.

Here are some explanations about SEO and its terminology:

Meta-tags are bits of code embedded in a section of web pages called the head. This section contains the code to help browsers render your web page correctly. In addition, information in this section helps search engines understand what content is contained in your website. The three primary meta-tags are the page title, keywords and description.

Crawling for Keywords

In the mid-90s two popular search engines at the time, Infoseek (now defunct) and AltaVista (owned by Yahoo!), first popularized the keywords tag, used to determine what topic and content each website page provided. However, spammers began gaming the system by stuffing meta-tags with keywords containing no relevance to the website’s content, and hence meta-tag importance was diminished in determining how high a website would rank in search results.

Content is King

In terms of search engine rankings, content reigns supreme. If you want your website appear to high in search rankings results for specific keywords and phrases, they must appear within the content of your website.

How often keywords appear and how they fit into your overall business message is exactly where a SEO professional can provide real benefit. These professionals can accurately choreograph where and when specific keywords are placed, so that your business can be found by potential customers searching for you.

When you provide valuable content, readers will recognize this and return to your site as the authoritative source for their needs. Providing consistent, valuable content will establish you as a leader in your industry, and provide a reliable source when customers are ready to purchase.

An Opportunity to Promote Your Business

The main purpose of keyword meta-tags is to support content in search results. The description meta-tag has little impact in how well your website is ranked, but does provide an important function: search engines display the text of description meta-tags under the page title in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead of repeating keywords with boring copy, use this opportunity to sell and differentiate your company from other websites on search engine results page (SERP).  As in any advertising sales message, making a creative, compelling argument for your business will do wonders for the amount of web traffic generated from search engines.

SEO ensures your website is found!

Building or revamping a website can be an arduous task, as there are many aspects to address: finding a designer, choosing designs, colors, functionality, hosting options, creating content, hiring someone to write content, program, etc. Often search engine optimization is last on the list, if on that must-do list at all.

Make Search Engine Optimization a Priority

While you’re focused on getting your website up and running, don’t let SEO become a rainy-day task to be put off until later. Later may never come, and you will soon wonder why people are not visiting your new and improved site.

If an objective of your website is to drive traffic from search engines, meaning a search on Google, Yahoo, Ask or Bing culminates with your website high on the list of results, then SEO must be a mandatory part of your initial planning.

It is easy to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours developing a decent website, but what will it matter if no one can find you? Regardless of how fabulous and functional your new site is, the effort will be futile if search engines cannot index your website.

What is Indexing?

Search engines develop automated programs, called robots or spiders that crawl the web searching for content. These automated programs follow links from one web page or website to another, continuously seeking new content. When new material is discovered, the programs index, or save, all information found. Then, when a prospective customer types words or phrases into a search engine, the matching information saved is reported in the results page.

Your overriding goal should be to have your website appear first and foremost in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) the person sees on their browser.

How high your website appears in the search results depends on how relevant your website’s information is to algorithms and programming factors used to rank the comparable importance of your website within the web universe. That rank is impacted by as many as a hundred factors that search engines keep top-secret. It’d be easier obtaining the Coke recipe than cracking the search engine algorithms and programming.

7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Optimizing Your Website:

1. Hiring a writer who doesn’t understand SEO. Content is king. If your content doesn’t support the search terms that drive traffic to your site, you’ll end up having to rewrite the text later, costing more time and money.
2. Hiring a web designer who only works in Flash. Search engines cannot index content of Flash sites, regardless of how fancy, flashy and innovative they appear. This is a major disadvantage, and will probably result in your complete site being recoded in search engine friendly HTML.
3. Hiring a programmer who uses Ajax or other code language that search engines can’t read and don’t recognize.
4. Not including basic page titles, descriptions and keywords in your websites meta-tags. This is SEO 101, but you’d be amazed how many websites don’t incorporate this key information.
5. Going the do-it-yourself route and using free templates offered by your hosting service to build your website. Many times these use frame architecture, which again search engines can’t read.
6. If you’re hiring a SEO firm, check them out.  Get someone reputable with proven results.
7. As mentioned in my previous SEO blog tip, stay away from SEO firms that promise results that seem too good to be true. They may be using use “Black Hat” SEO methods that may deliver short-term results, but cost you more in the long-run.

The vast number of emails I get from SEO companies promising to get my website on page 1 of Google is quite amazing. These firms must not be doing their homework because my website is already on page 1.

Most often, SEO experts who spam your inbox are snake-oil salesmen reincarnated, using unethical techniques to drive search ranking up. If you’re a novice to search engine optimization, you may be tempted to contact one of these firms – especially those who offer an enticing ploy of not charging until they achieve vague result. The problem is that in search engine optimization there is the right way (“White Hat” methods) to achieve good results, and the wrong way (“Black Hat” methods).

Black Hat Methods Can Get You Blacklisted

SEO firms that employ “black hat” methods such as keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaked and doorway pages, link farming, and blog spamming, can indeed improve your search rankings short-term, but these techniques violate search engine terms of service, putting your website at risk of being banned. Search algorithms identify SEO trickery and will eventually blacklist your site from future searches, keeping potential customers from being able to find you. It happens every day, and quite often business don’t even realize it until much later.

Costly fees necessary to reinstate your site’s SEO status and integrity

One day your website appears on page 1 of Google and you happily pay the charlatan’s SEO fee; the next day, your website has been “blacklisted” and doesn’t appear on any search engine. Now that great deal is going to cost you more money, time and resources to correct the damage done.

The first clue a SEO firm may be unscrupulous is the fact they promote themselves via unsolicited emails; if they market their own company by using unethical spam techniques, how ethical will they be in their SEO practices to promote your company? Not very, so remain diligent and discerning when choosing a firm to do search engine optimization for your business website.

Social Media needn't be overwhelming!

Back in the good ol’ days of the web (circa 2004), it was so easy for businesses to market via the internet; all that was necessary was a functional website. But the advent of social media has made a dramatic impact with online marketing— and in a good way. Social media is, for the most part, free, saving many marketing dollars. But just because it is free, doesn’t make it easy or cost-free, if your time is valuable. So before you jump into the social media frenzy, do your research and discover where your time and resources are best spent. A little research on the front end will save you a lot on the back end.

Use the Freebies

1. Use the free sites. Free, online networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great marketing vehicles to post significant news, offers, promotions, and events for your business. For example, a seafood restaurant can promote $1 oysters and ½ price margaritas to loyal Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

Measure results, focus your efforts

2. Track your social media program. See which of the free social media sites are delivering results worthy of your continued efforts and focus; abandon those not measuring up to your goals.

Search Engine Optimization — It really does matter

3. Social media can also improve rankings on Google and other major search engines by building inbound links to content on your website. Learn how to optimize your website to improve how your website ranking, or hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional to do the job for you. Be sure they know how to integrate social media into your SEO program. Many times you can learn some great tips by seeing what your competition is doing and what’s working for them. Google your competition — if they appear on the search engine before you do, check out their site and compare what they are doing and you’re not.

Customers are greedy – Give them what they want

4. Customers are self-centered; they want to know: ‘what’s in it for me?’  Use social media to give customers expert advice, great links, and share valuable information. Don’t hype your business; instead create a dialogue by connecting with the customer. If you have something interesting to say, say it. Create a blog, webinar, or YouTube video to share what you know with your clients and potential clients.

Blogging is bragging!

5. Blogging helps customers find you. Comments on blogs don’t necessarily happen overnight, but your information will come up in an online search which potential clients will read, then click on to check out your website. Twittering and micro-blogging are popular now, but whichever you decide, do it regularly. Consistency wins out over content every time. Post on a regular basis; you may not necessarily get read, but your customers will see you’re out there and are current. And when they need you, you’ll be top of mind as someone to call.

BP Provides A Classic Case Study Of How To Screw-Up Your Brand

As many of you know, I’m a bit obsessive about branding. In my book, Branding Insights for Small Business, I cover the essential components of an effective branding strategy every successful company achieves: creating a powerful brand image, being authentic to the core values of your business and building goodwill with your customers.

It’s never easy to transcend the signal-to-noise ratio that pervades the marketplace and launch your business or product into public consciousness, and there’s that old adage, “any news is good news.”

But what if your company is responsible for the biggest natural disaster in history? That’s a life-or-death question right now at BP. As a horrified public watches images of oil-covered wildlife, ruined coastal areas and destroyed businesses, the petroleum company that once touted itself as a progressive force in environmentalism is now trying to save the tattered remnants of its corporate reputation.

When the President accuses you of “nickel and diming,” you’ve got a image nightmare on your hands

Even BP’s damage-control efforts have backfired — the company poured $50 million into an apologetic public relations campaign, then saw its efforts backfire when reports surfaced that the company was being stingy with cash compensation for people whose homes and businesses were ruined by the oil spill. Even President Obama even got involved, accusing BP of “nickel and diming the folks down here.”

Of course, few of us are multinational executives, who run  corporations operations with such far-reaching consequences. But BP’s missteps provide lessons we can all learn from:

BP spent millions advertising itself as an eco-friendly company, but had three of the largest and deadliest oil-related accidents in the past five years.

- Don’t just say you stand for something — actually STAND something. In the words of a brand strategist who wrote an op-ed for Fast Company: “Pretty logos mean nothing if your actions don’t back up what you say.” Before the oil spill, BP did a great job of positioning itself as an eco-friendly company, but as Fast Company notes, “BP has had three of the largest and deadliest oil-related accidents of the past five years.” That fact has been hammered home as repeated efforts to stop the spill have failed.

- Don’t say anything stupid. This sounds like common sense, but with an army of handlers and highly-paid public relations experts, BP’s chief executive still managed to put his foot in his mouth several times since the disaster. While BP’s share prices dropped by 30 percent and investors lost millions, CEO Tony Hayward complained, “I’d like my life back.” Earlier, he asked a New York Times reporter, “What the hell did we do to deserve this?” Sorry Tony, but when wildlife is dying and people are losing their livelihood by the thousands, people are not going to take pity on a guy who banks $8 million a year — they’re just going to get angry.

- Don’t understate things — be honest. Again, courtesy of Hayward: “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount and volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.” That’s a bit like saying Katrina “only” flattened one city. And it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in oil containment efforts when the guy in charge apparently slept through his geography class.

Those are three “don’ts,” but what about the things BP should do?

That’s pretty simple — walk the talk. As I mention in my book, it’s important that your brand is built on authentic core values of the business. And these values need to permeate down to every department and employee so they know exactly what the business stands for and the promise it makes to its customers.

When BP spent millions rebranding itself as a “green” corporation a decade ago, environmental groups pointed out the company had spent more money on its image than it did on renewable energy resources. And as the story unfolds before us, it’s become obvious BP never took its responsibilities seriously beyond appearance. This is a mistake many companies make with their brand efforts: they superficially believe a marketing slogan and ad campaign will define what their company stands for. And they believe employees, shareholders and customers will simply buy into that myth. But if rumors that BP circumvented safety protocols in its deep water drilling are true, then the public backlash could be passionate and intense.

A great PR team is an essential component to any brand emergency, but it’s just as important to remember public relations is only half the battle — if a company’s actions don’t support its brand image, sooner or later that fact will be exposed, and the results could be catastrophic. Just ask Arthur Andersen.

Many have heard the marketing term U.S.P. or Unique Selling Proposition, but I would wager most don’t have a clue to its inherent value when marketing your business.

The term Unique Selling Proposition was originally developed in the 1940s by marketing guru Rosser Reeves, which he defined as the ability to communicate a distinct and unique benefit a product offers a consumer which only that specific product or service or brand can provide.

Business owners, often just assume their customers will understand what makes their business different or better than the competitors, and overlook the USP. When carefully nurtured, however, an U.S.P. will provide your company a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Rosser Reeves maintained an effective U.S.P. needed to accomplish the following four objectives:

1. It must make a specific proposition to the customer: “buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
2. The proposition must be unique or “perceived unique” by your customers – something your competitors don’t have or offer and would not be able to imitate easily.
3. It should be so compelling and relevant to your ideal customers that it entices them to try your product or service because it addresses their needs, fears, frustrations, or desires.
4. It must be simple and easy to articulate and communicate so your customers quickly understand that your product or service offers them unique benefits.

An excellent example of an effective USP is the famous “Got Milk.” The campaign repositioned milk, a universal staple in practically all households which had been maligned as an unhealthy, antibiotics-filled food to avoid, to the opposite: comforting scenarios of milk and cookies, as well as a nutritional drink appropriate at anytime.

The campaign stuck in the customer’s minds and was carried into the grocery store aisles while milk consumption rose dramatically. Genius!

The fact that the campaign fostered numerous copycats with Got Fish? Got Fleas? and Got Freud? only added to effectiveness of the original USP. Even President Obama’s campaign slogan of “Got Hope” mimics the original.

A strong USP (or lack thereof) for your business can be the driving force behind the success and failure. Is that really something you want to leave up to assumption? To occur haphazardly? Or instead, will you take a proactive, deliberate approach ensuring correct positioning of your product or service exactly where it needs to be for future success.

“Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.”

Avinash Kaushik

Social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) is in vogue among connected consumers and many companies are hoping to capitalize on this marketing avenue to promote their business. I was curious to know how effective (or not) social media has been for other marketing aviation professionals — are they truly walking the walk, rather than talking (tweeting) the talk — I recently posted the above quote on LinkedIn to learn what experiences my colleagues have had using Social Media.

Troy B. reported, “Frankly, we’re loving it. . . When I reach someone who buys an airline ticket, parks in on-airport parking, purchases food, beverages and a magazine, brags about our WiFi and speedy screening lines, and plans to do it again soon — all based on info I’ve tweeted — I start to like the results.”

However, some are not 100% confident in this colleague’s social media experience.

“… there are a great many people who have learned the hard way that the medium is far less benign that was first assumed,” said Ronald K. “A lesson of both teenage sex and social media is that both are best done with adequate protection in place.”

I agree social media can often be impulsive, not to be taken lightly with its implications, and often times regrettable, not unlike teen sex.

And also concede that as a customer service tool, social media may well be worth the time and effort, especially for brand/image sensitive businesses. However, many of my own clients are in B2B space, and I hesitate to recommend Facebook or Twitter as a marketing tool because it is hard to quantify its effectiveness. I know from experience placing an ad for these clients will make the phones ring, and public relations will build awareness.

Steve E. said, “If you compare dollar-to-dollar spending, I’ll take social media over standard media any day as the immediate discussion that ensues is direct and instant and something that far exceeds anything standard advertising has to offer.”

But how well will social media generate new businesses as compared to traditional media is the question I need answered before recommending social media to my clients.

Allow me this hypothetical:

Using traditional marketing tools, say I run a 6-month, $10,000 advertising campaign for a client in a trade publication reaching their target audience. Assume this campaign generates 100 leads and the client closes 10. The cost per new customer acquisition is $1,000.

Alternatively, the client contracts to develop and monitor a social media program. We spend on average one hour a day building their network, making posts, responding to queries and, at the end of six months, the program has also yielded 10 sales. Assuming $100 per hour is charged (social media needs to be monitored by qualified staff, thus a higher per hour fee), then the cost to the client is $13,000! (5 hrs/week over 26 weeks = 130 hours x $100/hour). This is significantly higher than traditional advertising.

Granted, one can argue with my numbers in my hypothetical example, but to do social media effectively, you have to commit to high level of time management, and you also need to highly capable people managing your social media programs (otherwise more harm than good may be generated). With these facts in mind, social media may not be the holy grail of marketing as many proponents suggest.

Social media has a definite role in marketing, such as customer service and company announcements. But as an effective sales generating tool, I remain skeptical. I continue to encourage my clients to wait before they act impulsively and regret it.

Much like I advise the teenagers in my life.

The days of paying a huge monthly cable bill for a pre-packaged bundle of shows you don’t watch may soon be over, and just about everybody realizes it except for the cable companies.

Consumers no longer need to be at the mercy of cable companies, paying for stations and programming they don’t watch. It’s time for cable companies to realize that their business model has been rendered obsolete by a company that is renown for putting the entertainment industry on its head; Apple.

With the iPad, Apple may soon revolutionize how TV is delivered, much like it did with the music industry. Apple is promoting content through its iPad bookstore where publishers can use it as storefront to deliver content. This approach is similar to Amazon’s Kindle, but goes far beyond Kindle’s limited scope as a single use tool for reading. Through the iPad, consumers will not only be able to download books, but also movies and TV programming.

Cable companies are no longer the only source of on-demand content, as in years past. With the advent high-speed wireless delivery, consumers can find the programming they want, when they want it, through a variety of VOD (video on demand) services. The Wall Street Journal reports Hulu, YouTube, iTunes, are just some options consumers are navigating. Netflix is staying abreast of the changing dynamic of content delivery. They changed the video rental business by not adopting a bricks and mortar business model to compete with Blockbuster, which is close to becoming bankrupt, but instead incorporating a low-cost, convenient mail/internet process.  Interestingly, Netflix is also moving away from physical delivery of DVDs by mail to streaming movies and video directly to game consoles and devices, bypassing cable boxes entirely. In addition, the video provided includes a depth of content (director interviews, plot analyses, criticism, reviews) not available through cable access.

The issue isn’t content, but delivery. The days of must-buy bundles delivered by cable companies is on the wane. Victim of the new kid on the block iPad, whose flexible, portable, interactive access to broadband web, provides a far richer experience. The Harvard Business Review notes the iPad and a good internet connection is all the consumer needs for their entertainment.

Can the cable companies reinvent their business model and remain relevant to in this dynamic industry? Or are they doomed to go the way of music industry, where fans took advantage to purchase — or steal — one hit single off an otherwise mediocre album. Why buy the whole package when you can get only what you want, when you want it?

Roger Bannister’s name may not be a household name, but still turns heads at road races and track and field events as the first man to break the 4-minute-mile barrier way back in 1954.

Why should we lowly marketing gurus care about a 4-minute-mile?  Because they told him it couldn’t be done. They – doctors and scientists and even his fans – said it was impossible. To which Roger Bannister said, ‘I don’t think so.’

Actually, I don’t know exactly what he said, because I was barely walking, let alone running, in 1954. But as a small business owner and a consultant, advisor, marketer, and cheerleader for countless others, I know what happens in the pit of my stomach and to the hair on the back of my neck when they tell me something I want to do is impossible. I turn defiantly away and figure out how — exactly how — I can get the job done, on time and on budget. And so should you.

Do the work. Then do some more. Research, reinvent, reduce, remake and realize your impossibilities. Visualize your success. This is not new-age hogwash: it’s science.

Roger Bannister was systematic and methodical in his approach to achieving the impossible. He devoted countless hours to research, theory and practice. He immersed himself in the study of human physiology. And where he took his physical being, his mind followed. He used mental imagery to visualize success, and in doing so, reached his goal of being the first to break a 4-minute-mile.

What’s your business goal? Do you have a strategic plan to reach it? Or did someone, somewhere, tell you it was impossible?