STOP WASTING MARKETING TIME & MONEY

• STOP WASTING MARKETING TIME & MONEY
• There is one element of marketing that could make a huge difference to your business but is largely forgotten by business owners. It’s a small detail that could make a big difference and enable you to gain more business with less effort. This is something we use for clients in my marketing and public relations business and it’s also a skills development course on our on-line marketing resource (Underdog Marketing).
  
  It’s so simple but often overlooked. Plus, this concept is taught in the University Master of Marketing degree, but we have re-formulated it to suit small business needs. There are six elements that must be included in any marketing plan to give you the greatest chance of success.
  
  We have called it CRISSE©
  
  In every marketing plan, include communication with people in these six categories;

Customers
Referrers
Influencers
Suppliers
Society
Employees

Customers – most businesses focus on customers and clients, which is fine, but there are five other areas that can greatly increase your market share and public profile

Referrers – clearly, people who can refer business to you. Current and past customers, friends, networking affiliates, etc. Market to them and ask them for their support I referring business to you.

Influencers – different from referrers, these people actually wield influence to the way people think of and interact with your business. Your local Mayor or President of the Chamber of Commerce? They may not be a customer, they may never have used your business, but they can influence other people’s feelings about your business; market yourself and your business to them in a positive manner.

Suppliers – this is possibly the most under-utilised segment. Suppliers interact with you regularly and have the capacity to refer and influence business. Don’t see this segment as JUST a supplier; she them as a partner in promoting your business.

Society – if you work in the community, support charities, or have a philanthropic role, then market that as a positive component of your business. I don’t mean outright bragging and showing off, but allow this part of your business to be a marketing tactic. Many customers and potential customers, will value a business that cares about it’s community.

Employees – can be your BEST ambassadors. Internal public relations will be the subject of another blog, but never treat your staff worse than your clients. Treat your staff as valued and empowered people. Share your (appropriate) fears and your dreams with them; tell them and show them how they can help you, and they will take that message far and wide. Treat them badly and they will take that message far and wide too.

Marketing isn’t just about paid advertising. In fact, that’s only one small tactic of a competent and wide-reaching marketing plan. You CAN market your business on a budget and reap huge rewards. CRISSE© is just one leading-edge strategy.

For more, sign up for free up-dates or join global members of the Underdog Marketing Challenge – a 12-step mentored marketing program that’s interactive, on-line, dynamic and it WORKS! You can easily develop great skills to increase the market share of YOUR business and sky rocket your profile.

Good luck implementing this simple tip. Another hot tip is to join Ecademy where 200,000 professional business people meet - check my profile for more details. Cheers, Penelope

Pure PR: KEY AUDIENCES KEY TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

Pure PR: KEY AUDIENCES KEY TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

KEY AUDIENCES KEY TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

Unlike Bridget Jones, PR people don’t “just fanny around with the press releases". Dealing with the media is only one element of public relations and being single-minded about this will be a big mistake for your business.

As a public relations consultant, I know that PR can be a bit of a minefield, and media relations is the most common area of misunderstanding. In order to operate and grow your business even more successfully and for you to have a great image and reputation, I’m happy to share with you some simple things to remember.

WHAT PUBLIC RELATIONS IS NOT!

§ free advertising
§ pretty women giving out samples
§ lunches and cocktail parties
§ editorial coverage that can be bought with advertising bookings
§ being good at dealing with people
§ a solution to a problem
§ the same as advertising
§ publicity that can be measured in column inches

PUBLIC RELATIONS IS –

§ what every business needs
§ qualified and professional communications
§ an opportunity to inform, influence & change attitudes
§ one of the most powerful tactics in your marketing strategy

PUBLIC RELATIONS IS HOW YOU ‘RELATE’ TO YOUR ‘PUBLICS’.

Every business has ‘key audiences’ to whom they must relate and interact – these are your ‘publics’. Who are yours? Make a list from the headings below because your key audiences are the people you need to be impressing. They will include –

· Staff
· Ex-employees
· Contractors
· Suppliers
· Customers
· Past customers
· Government departments
· State and county authorities
· Board members and other stakeholders
· Regulatory bodies
· Unions and Industry Associations
· Sponsors
· Special interest groups (ie: the disabled)
· People in your building or immediate area
· Visitors to your website
· Anyone to whom you gave your business card
· Anyone to whom you sent a letter
· Anyone who has anything to do with your business EVER!

Note that I didn’t include the media?

Many people think public relations is only about column inches and media attention. The media relations component of public relations is the most high profile, but it’s only one element. Public relations is how you project your image to anyone – and how your staff and colleagues project the company image - and how your key audiences view your reputation.

Therefore, when you give out a business card, answer the phone, write a letter, respond to a complaint or issue a media release, you are engaging in a form of public relations. When it all goes pear-shaped, that’s when you need crisis communication – an under-utilized form of image and reputation saving.

(On the Crisis Communciation point, for a simple, on-line checklist to assess your crisis vulnerability go to http://www.underdogmarketingchallenge.com/ and undertake a simple, tick-box survey. Click on Crisis Management. It's confidential, we don't record the information, and you will receive an instant crisis assessment rating - and it's totally FREE).

So it pays to recognize who are your primary and secondary ‘publics’ and develop a strategy around communicating with them. Further, public relations is not about ‘telling’ people something, it’s about developing their awareness, influencing and helping others to form opinions.

The late Frank Jenkins, a well known British PR teacher and author, said this; “Public relations consists of all forms of communication outwards and inwards between an organization and its publics for the purpose of achieving specific objectives concerning mutual understanding”.

Public Relations professionals have a two-way attitude to communication whereby they issue information but also feed it back. PR people often are required to counsel business on public attitudes, needs, expectations and concerns. Unlike advertising, which primarily is communication one way, usually designed to sell a product or service, public relations seeks to inform and, in turn, be informed.

For example, apart from being good public relations, customer satisfaction surveys are an ideal way to show consideration and caring and receive valuable information. However, the information must be acted upon otherwise the ‘public relations’ element could get tarnished.

For more a 12-step mentored marketing program that includes extensive PR skills development, visit http://www.underdogmarketingchallenge.com/ . The 'Underdog Marketing’ book will be published soon. Reserve your copy on the website.

If you want more free advise on public relations visit http://www.pronlinetools.com/. If you want to increase your market share and are looking for cool tools and unique information on marketing, internet marketing, brand awareness and public relations, visit

http://www.underdogmarketingchallenge.com/ and sign up for FREE up-dates. Or, to REALLY skyrocket your business, sign up as a member of the Underdog Marketing Challenge.

Have a great week. Cheers, Penelope

Public? Relations? What the...?

I am often asked what public relations actually is. Most people think public relations is media exposure but that's only one element - the media relatons bit. Media exposure is one thing (dollop of Paris Hilton anyone?.....well, that's just OVER exposure) but public relations is how you 'relate' to your 'publics' - yes, you have publics too, it's not just a playground for JLo and Madonna. Public relations is not the domain of the rich and ridiculous (altho that does help when you want to gain more exposure).



Public relations is about your image, reputation and credibility. You can dress for success all you like but if everyone hates you then you have a public relations problem.



Think Good Public Relations: Tom Hanks, Oprah, Mother Theresa, World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Richard Branson.



Think Slightly Dodgy Public Relations: Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, Eminem, virtually any sitting Politician, movies about Cajun country (a la 'Deliverance'), cruise ships.



Think BAD Public Relations: Lindsay Lohan, Tom Cruise (of late), Heather Mills, Scientology, Japanese whalers, Exon, oil companies.



PR is such a great thing because you CAN turn bad PR in to good PR (and vice versa) - who thought Bill Clinton would have got out of THAT one? In fact, his PR was way better than Monica's - how does that work? Great spin doctors! Image, reputation and credibility.



It's very easy to get a bad name, Heather Mills, and very hard to get a good one, Heather Mills. The problem with Heather is that she IS a whinger and no-one likes rich whingers - but mostly because the public never really saw another side of her (unless they watched dubious movie sites, alledgedly). But lets give her the beneft of the doubt. She maintains she was doing charity work long before she met Paul McCartney. But no-one knew anything about it because she had no PR cache. She had minimal image and zero reputation and bugger all credibility (that's not to say she WASN'T credible but she had no PR track record to speak of).



Along comes Paul, and she's thrust....er....impaled upon......er.......flung in to the spotlight (which she hates, achem). The profile started to gain momentum and all people really saw was her basking in his ambient light and being MRS McCartney (and Stella not liking it one bit). The marriage was too short-lived for her to do anything really meaningful and then - voila - pitchforks at 2 paces as they thrashed around in ignominious, well-past coitus interruptus disharmony - and the fangs came out and she whinged endlessly and that's all people saw - plus the "gold digging bitch if she can't live off $50 million she didn't earn" - not good PR, in fact bad, bad PR - and she's having a hell of a job convincing anyone of anything different than that viewpoint. Dancing with the Stars wil NEVER compete with a picture of Princess Diana and a land mine - and let's not forget those pictures of Diana hugging children with HIV/Aids- very, very memeorable - very, very good PR. Sorry Heather, you'll never win. At least we have memories of Britney being FABULOUS and many people want to see her return to that triumph - that's good PR gone dodgy heading toward bad but being catapulted back toward good.



So if you can't be good, be careful!