Alternative Strategies Blog

Choosing The Right PR Agency

By William Lopez

If there is one industry that has become overly saturated these days it is the field of Public Relations. It seems that PR Firms are cropping up faster than weeds, and the process of sorting through the slush to choose a public relations company of quality can be a daunting and overwhelming process, to say the least.

This article offers you 5 helpful tips that can hopefully make the journey of choosing a PR Firm or a publicist a little bit easier and more streamlined, so that you can get the most bang for your public relations buck, and actually see a return on your investment.

Five Tips For Choosing The Right PR Firm For You

1. Size - Are you seeking a large corporate PR Firm, a mid-size firm or a small or boutique firm?

The question I pose is not a black and white one. The answer to this question must be determined by several things. Your budget, how much hand holding and personal attention you require, how far you want your public relations outreach to be, and your desire for a team working on your account or for just one or two ambitious publicists working on your account.

Large corporate public relations firms generally charge between $10,000 and $20,000 per month for their basic retainer services, so budget is a huge factor here. To a company like Microsoft or Johnson & Johnson this is a drop in the bucket. But to a small- or medium-sized company, that type of fee is far out of reach.

The benefits of a large national and sometimes international firm is the wide reach your brand can achieve, a large team working on your account, a large pool of other clients who are with that firm from that your company can possibly network with and benefit from.
These large firms generally have a ton of experience on their side. Many of these large PR Firms are 20, 30 or 50-plus years old.

The downside of these large firms aside from the hefty monthly fee is the amount of bureaucracy and red tape involved in the day to day functions of the company, and unfortunately this can often lead to smaller clients falling through the cracks.

Another minus to working with large PR Firms is the lack of personal touch and attention, which is fine for established companies but not as good for start ups, small and medium sized companies who require more nurturing, more brand development and other complimentary services like writing and basic marketing assistance.

Smaller public relations firms tend to offer monthly retainers that can range anywhere from $7000 all the way down to about $2,000 depending on how much overhead that firm has, their level of experience and expertise, their particular public relations niche, their contacts and how much time they plan to devote to your account.

Most PR Firms out there tend to fall into the mid-size, boutique or small category and are also very effective at doing their job.

2. Ignore the Hype and Look at a Public Relations Firm's Portfolio of Work!

I cannot stress this enough. In perusing some colleagues' Web sites recently I was shocked to observe that some of these websites have flashy graphics, catchy promotional copy about their services, and glossy images but NO examples of their media placements, marketing case studies, writing samples... nada!

Where is their work? Don't fall for public relations firms that are all flash and no substance. Always, and I mean always look to see if their website is packed with examples of past projects, past examples of media placements and other examples of work created by the firm. Look over the work that is displayed on their website and when speaking with a representative from that public relations firms ask them to elaborate on their body of work. Some great questions:

What media placements are you most proud of?

How was that media placement achieved by your firm?

What is your firms biggest strength?

Can you tell me some of your contacts in the media?

Can you give me some marketing case studies?

Some public relations case studies?

What sets your firm apart?

3. Make Sure You Are A Match: Assessing Values, Vision And Creativity

The above sentence is pretty self-explanatory but I will elaborate.

This publicist or PR team will be your brand ambassador. You want someone whose values reflect your own values. You also want to be sure that your publicist understands, appreciates and shares your vision for your company or organization.

If a PR Firm wants to pitch your beauty brand as an elite, untouchable, prestige brand and you want your beauty product to speak to the every-woman, showing her how beauty can be accessible to all women, then that publicist may have a vision that is not in line with yours and things will likely go from perplexing to downright tense.

A good trick when speaking to a potential publicist is to ask him or her how they see your product, who they think your audience/demo is and how they envision positioning the product to the media and to potential consumers.

Don't expect them to go into too much detail before really delving into the product line, but they should give you a basic pitch that falls in line with your own vision. If not, move on.

4. Are you in it for Website traffic, magazine placements, TV appearances? What is it you want? Be specific!

Don't be shy about what it is you want. Why are you searching for public relations services in the first place?

Really sit down and think about it. And don't be shy about your needs. Is your main objective to build a strong targeted online following to drive quality traffic to your website and convert visitors into sales? Is your main objective someone who can write outstanding copy for your business like press releases, articles, pitch copy to send to media outlets, etc.? Is your main objective to become something of a personality and expert in your field and to build a resume as someone who makes appearances on television news programs giving advice to promote yourself as a brand and an expert?

Figure out what your goals are and choose a PR Firm that is strong in your area of interest.

5. Location, Location, Location

In the age of email, fax machines, long distance phone plans and inexpensive air travel the location of your public relations firm may not matter to you... or it might.

Do you want lots of face time with your publicist or do you not care if your publicist is in Timbuktu as long as they can get the job done, and get your company press coverage?

Everyone's comfort level with location is different and there is no right or wrong. If you are looking for entertainment public relations you may set your sights on a PR Firm that is in Los Angeles or in New York.

If you are an up-and-coming Internet company you may find value in a San Francisco based PR Firm. Fashion? New York may be the way to go for you. Or you may simply look for a public relations firm with a rolodex of contacts in a particular city or industry, regardless of their brick-and-mortar location.

My Pledge To My Clients

By David Moye

I take my job as a PR pro very seriously. It is my job to get massive amounts of media for my clients.

I consider this to be my sacred duty and, in fact, the reason why I am here (not "here" on this planet, but here at this desk typing out a blog even though it is a beautiful sunny day outside).

When you hire me as your publicist, I take a sacred oath to serve you to the best of my ability.

To that end, here is what I promise to do for you, my beloved client.

1. I promise to have or develop cordial relationships with members of the media who you are interested in having promote your product or service.

I will do this in any way possible (preferably methods that involve food, alcohol or lively conversation). In fact, the reason I got that great placement for you last week was because I did a palm reading to a TV producer and predicted a new relationship was going to come into her life. I didn't tell her that relationship was with you. She can find that out on her own.

2. I promise to defend your honor in the case of inaccuracies or unfair accusations. I might even scream and yell at a journalist over the phone (especially if you are in the room).

3. I will make sure that the media is prepared before they talk with you and make sure you are prepared as well.

4. I will support your goals, but that doesn't mean unwavering allegiance. If I think your concept is lame or asinine or counter-productive to your goals, I will gently suggest you in towards a better path.

5. I will spend every waking billable hour striving on your behalf and ensuring the best possible PR for you.

6. I will be happy to hear from you when you call. Even if your last call was five minutes ago.

The Value of Rebranding

By Jane Wong

Ever since Coca-Cola became a global phenomenon more than a century ago, the business community has acknowledged the value of brands.

That's why many businesses request up-to-date appearances and mission statements that better reflect how they serve people.

These days, many well-established companies are hoping to reignite their initial buzz and appeal by rebranding. In addition, many trendy boutique are welcome the idea of rebranding to keep fresh and exciting new look to attract more consumers.

Rebranding gives you the opportunity to reposition your brand but the first thing to consider is a strong vision.

Whether you are are selling products or services, everything comes down to what you can offer to consumers that other company can't or won't offer.

Taking the best methods of your previous branding, business owners can take advantage of their established images in ways that are  beneficial to their new branding direction.

Strategic planning is necessary as well as careful analysis. Specializing your services will help you become an expert and increase your market value.

Part of rebranding means attracting a new target group. This is a natural process of rebranding, but during the period of rebranding, no one will actually how the mass consumer will react.

Therefore, planning is very important and business owners also need to pay attention to consumer feedback. At any moment, business owners need to take action and respond to the requests of their valued customers request.

A good back up plan is also part of the rebranding process. Sometimes, the old customer might not adjust to the new changes and leave.

Although this might only be a short term effect, a good businessman always consider the long-term financial security.

A strong branding image can put you on top of the map. After all, there is no sure way of rebranding, it takes careful planning, stunning images and personal interaction.

Your products or services must speak for itself in order to build trust and provide value to customer to invest on you.

Heat Up Your Cold Calling

By Erin Goss

Nearly all companies want more clients, but what do you do when your well of referrals and contacts has dried up?

Sure, hunting for new clients through cold calls can be a daunting task, but it needn’t be. With a few simple tips you can be well on your way to turning your dream prospective clients into real ones.

Ideas for prospective clients can literally come from anywhere. Let everyday life be your inspiration. Take notice of the businesses and people around you, on TV, in the newspaper, or at local events. Anyone that your business can be of value to is a prospective client.

When contacting prospective clients use creativity and provide a layout of specific benefits that your company can supply.

Remember, creativity is what is going to initially catch your potential client’s attention. Mediocrity makes for a poor first impression.

Make sure to thoroughly research the client beforehand and use that information to emphasize commonalities between your business and theirs. It doesn’t hurt to show that you know what you are doing either by playing up your previous successes. Prove that your business is the perfect match for their needs.

These days, sales cycles are taking longer than ever due to the lagging economy, and consequently it is important to be proactive in your client search. With the ease of technology it is tempting to rely upon the convenience of e-mail but often the old fashioned sales tactics are most effective.

The phone is your friend! Strike up a conversation outside of virtual reality and see where it takes you. Also don’t be afraid to send a friendly promotional card.

Last but not least: If you really want to see your efforts pay off, remember to follow up! Follow ups solidify your interest in working a client and are often what makes or breaks a new business relationship.

Unfortunately, it is inevitable that people are sometimes going to decline your offer, but don’t let disappointment hold you back. Consider a “no” as signal to move on towards other opportunities.

Finding New Clients Through Social Media And The Internet

By Michelle Lew

In an era which a good majority sits behind computers with endless information at the ends of their fingertips, finding new clients has shifted from actual word-of-mouth or driving around town to social media and internet searches.

Yes, technology has changed the way a lot of business works. If you don’t have a Web site, your company is outdated. If you don’t show up in a Google search, you’re most likely going to get overlooked.

Thanks to review sites such as Yelp!, CitySearch and Merchantcircle the internet can be helpful in finding new clients.

First, it helps to have an idea of either the neighborhood or industry you’d like your client to be in. Then you’ll be able to look through main listings of local businesses and then go to their personal sites or do Google searches of their company. You can choose whether or not you like their mission, company and services through their site and then add them to your list (or not).

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be a big help for finding new companies. Social media is a free way for new companies to get started and old companies to connect to different customers.

Facebook is no longer just for college-aged people. Everyone (and some of their mothers) is on Facebook and that opens the door to finding clients. Twitter is a very open medium where contacting others or retweeting a post can bring attention to your company. This is an easy way to make potential clients aware of your services.

Even if you personally are not following the potential client, the word of mouth through Twitter is outstanding because retweets and mentions by other tweeters can lead you to undiscovered gems!

From the potential clients you have found through your Internet research, you can then begin your outreach efforts to secure new clients.

Color Trends For Spring

By Jane Wong

What’s in your mind?

Your kind of color is what you feel, what you smell and let your creative mind take you.

It is springtime, close your eyes and picture what your spring would like.

Whether your spring has an endless flower field or is a rainy day standing by a red bus stop sign, colors represent your feelings. Don’t be afraid to show it!

Nowadays, everyone is speaking up and be able to influence one another by one click of a button.

Posting your daily life through a blog or checking out what is happening in town by Twitter is another way you can color your life.

The value of of a color trend depends more on what a large group of people choose rather than what one or two experts say.

We create what represents us and what inspires us, based on what we've learned from exploration or information.

Your color is your voice.

Discover your color trend and inspire others by sharing your love.

Enlighten others today!

Guerilla Marketing

Guerilla Marketing

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Attracting New Attention To Old Clients

By Michelle Lew

Sure, maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what if you taught a new dog old tricks?

Getting attention for old clients might seem like a difficult task, but with some out-of-the-box thinking and these tips you should be set to go.

Find new media outlets

Blogs and online media are showing up everywhere. Depending on how long they’ve been around, it’s a good chance they have not written a piece about your client.

These new dogs are not familiar with the tricks you already have. This way you can to pitch any services that your client has because they’ve never heard of them.

Also, look for publications that you have not outreached to before. Although print is allegedly a dying media, it is still worth sending a pitch over to see what happens.

In addition, don’t ignore the places you’ve been. They might have changed editors and that means your old client might be new to them.

Develop a new strategy

Think of this as a small re-brand, a mini make-over for your client.

With trends changing so rapidly, your client should be tweaking their services or their message to accommodate the changing times.

Frequently brainstorm with your team how you can help your clients out, even the smallest things help or start the wheel turning in a co-worker.

Think about current events, trends, new services offered and pitch your idea to media to get coverage.

Also, introducing old clients to new media is never a bad idea. Twitter and Facebook are always options to raise awareness and can be used to your advantage when needed.

Remind them & create nostalgia
 
For the older contacts, simply reminding them of your client might help. Humans were programmed very strangely and sometimes creating nostalgia about a client can help.

Maybe your target audience has some emotional ties to your client and a little tug on a heartstring is what is needed for them to write a story. Or perhaps they have previously written something for your client and you could use this to your advantage and pitch a follow up story.

A professor once told me, “Keep it simple, sometimes less is better.”

If it seems like there’s nothing you can do to help out an old client, start fresh and think back to the basics. If that doesn’t work, there are always interns around with new and improved ideas you can ask for help!

How To Get Results From Social Media

By Erin Goss

So you’ve got a Facebook and a Twitter page for your company… what now?

That seems to be the big question these days. Companies know that they need to jump on the social media bandwagon, but once they’ve got their pages set up they struggle to figure out how to turn tweets into real results.

Don’t worry! We can help with these simple tips.

Be passionate! First off, businesses need to realize that in order to get readers and increase brand awareness they need to make their pages interesting! Too often businesses post boring news messages without any personal flair. One of the greatest benefits of social media is the ability to humanize a company by allowing it a voice and the opportunity to communicate with followers. So don’t be afraid to show off your business’ personality!

Take Advice. What is the point of communicating with clients if you don’t use that information to improve your company? That’s right, there’s none. Take comments seriously, recognize what your business is doing right but also take into account criticisms. Just note that any critiques should not be taken personally. If you have ever looked at Yelp you know that some people have way too much time on their hands…

Get Creative! Think outside the box. The businesses that have been most successful using social media have come up with creative incentives for people to follow their pages.

Exclusive giveaways via Twitter or Facebook are a great way to get people checking your site constantly. For example, Jet Blue recently started tweeting about special deals for $9 flights that are available to followers until the seats run out. The only stipulation is that the customer proves their twitter allegiance by providing the specific code that went out with the promotional tweet.

Set Goals. Don’t just aimlessly post on your social media sites. First decide what you are hoping to accomplish, and gear your social media towards achieving that goal.

For instance, are you trying to increase brand awareness, or perhaps drive more traffic to your website? Focus the use of your social media on a goal and you will be more likely successful in your social media endeavors.

 

 

Promoting A Business That Is Hard To Promote

Yes, PR people like to put a positive spin on things, but, honestly, some businesses are easier to promote than others.

However, the businesses that aren't the easy sells can make a good PR person rise to new heights.

There are three examples of clients I've had who may have not been the easiest sells, but I was able to promote them by using my creativity.

1. Client: A dog kennel based in a less populated city. To be fair, dog kennels are a hard sell to the media. Nobody says, "Why don't we have enough dog kennel stories?"

However, I felt strongly in the client and wanted to do right by them. One day, the client mentioned that customers from a nearby casino had boarded their dog there. I immediately got a brainstorm and suggested a partnership with the casino declaring my client it's official doggie concierge.

To their credit, the casino jumped at the idea. After some work creating a press release, we  sent it out and managed to secure placements in tourism publications, pet-oriented media outlets and even a TV segment.

It was a selling point to future clients.

2. Client: A fitness trainer in a crowded field. The media like good fitness trainers, but some, like my client, can be a difficult sell because he didn't follow trends and the media is all about trends.

We spent some time working on pitches, but the real success came when we decided to create a halftime workout for football games that would burn enough calories to allow viewers an extra beer or chicken wing.

This was the hook that allowed my client to stick out from the pack. As a result, we secured a segment with a top cable news station.

3. Client: A neighborhood bar that wasn't divey enough to be trendy and wasn't glamorous enough to be surrounded by paparazzi. The bar was cool, but that wasn't enough to inspire much media love.

How do you promote a great neighborhood bar? For us, we capitalized on the bartenders' sense of humor by promoting a segment of bizarre hangover cures used around the world.

Within ten minutes of sending out the release, we had booked a segment.

The moral of this story is that while some clients aren't easy sells, a little creativity can get their message across and you'll feel better about your success than the easy sells.

Being Too Social With Social Media

By Jennifer Hoskote

In the words of the legendary Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

The phrase can be adapted to numerous life situations…consistently locking your keys in the car, not cleaning up after your dog then walking outside barefoot, or leaving your I.D. at home when you go to Las Vegas.

But it especially applies to social media. You’d be surprised at how many seemingly intelligent people hurt their careers by posting something on Twitter or Facebook that could negatively influence themselves or their company or client’s image.

It’s a slippery slope because most people see social media as a channel to express themselves and their personal views on a wide array of topics – everything from their opinion of the proposed health care bill to not “getting” the season premiere of “Lost.”

This is all fine, but begs the question: “How much personal expression is too much?”

You’d think it would be common knowledge not to call out of work sick then post on Facebook “Pool party at my place, free booze!”

Apparently not.

Comments like this might help your personal image as a party animal, but it will hurt your trustworthiness and damage your credibility with clients.

It’s even worse if your Facebook or Twitter accounts are connected to your company because it threatens their gain for potential clients and your own job.

Let’s be honest: No one cares about what you had for lunch or that your morning coffee burned your tongue. Well, most people don’t.

But the benefits of social media can be quickly ruined with nonsensical posts that beg for attention for the wrong reasons – such as that photo of yourself doing a body shot off your boss’ wife.

You’re more likely to gain followers and friends with similar interests and values; make those known, and not how wasted you got this past weekend.
That being said: Even companies can get a little too social with their social media by inundating people with product and/or service emails that properly belong in the junk folder.

Keeping your client/customer base interested may be difficult at times, but creativity and controlled humor go a long way…all the way to the bank.

Whether it’s for personal or business use, knowing your audience is the first rule of thumb. This doesn’t mean completely limiting yourself, but having a firm grasp of what your message is and conveying it in an appropriate manner are vital to maintaining a successful relationship with your public.