How Not To Pitch The Media

August 19, 2009 By 7 Comments

Woman Speaking Behind MicrophonesEvery now and then someone makes a mistake. With the rise of social media and social networking, mistakes can sometimes turn into crisis within one hour. A mistake made in front of hundreds of social media experts can create a crisis in a matter of minutes. You may know where I’m heading with this but sometimes in life we need to learn lessons from others’ mistakes.

As a small business person or entrepreneur interested in doing your own PR, this is one important lesson to learn.

Here was the scenario (and by the way I learned of this situation via Richard Laermer of Bad Pitch Blog – a very important read for newbies in PR and media outreach): Beth Brody from Brody PR sent out a pitch to members of the PR, advertising and social media community about a new e-book on social media for small business. Harmless, right? Well, unfortunately she blast emailed it to hundreds of reporters and bloggers (some of whom were not the appropriate target). Making matters worse she failed to blind copy her entire email list and instead “CC’d” the whole list. Let’s just say this is a no-no. If we simply stopped here it would be bad enough to describe as a crisis.

But, of course it just went south from there.

Many reporters and bloggers on the list who replied to Ms. Brody asking to unsubscribe failed to reply only to the sender. They instead hit “reply all.” As I’m sure you can imagine by now, this set off a fire storm and upset members of the media and blogging community even further, thus turning the episode into a full blown crisis. Although Ms. Brody said she was busy facilitating the unsubscribe requests, she failed to accept responsibility for her mistake and apologize in a timely manner, at this point adding salt to the wound.

The wrong move in social media can turn south in a hurry, to say the least. So here are the lessons we learned from this episode:

1) Try to avoid blast emailing a press release, pitch or any type of correspondence to members of the media without first customizing and tailoring your pitch to targeted journalists and bloggers.

2) Always keep in mind the differences between “blind copy” and “carbon copy” when sending an email to more than one person.

3) If something goes wrong don’t wait it out or deflect blame (not saying Ms. Brody did so in this case, but it is important to note). Immediately grab hold of the situation, take responsibility if necessary and even apologize if that’s the best course of action.

4) We love Richard Laermer. But with all due respect your goal is to not get on his radar for Bad Pitch Blog.

5) Download the PR Toolkit to learn great tips on how to effectively do public relations and media outreach.

Ms. Brody may in fact be a wonderful PR professional who used poor judgment in an isolated case. But it’s important to learn from certain mistakes so that small business professionals and entrepreneurs can avoid going down the same path.

Do you have a nightmare pitch story to tell? Please share your comments here.

Filed Under: Public Relations Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Small Business Can Learn From Michael Vick

August 14, 2009 By 1 Comment

picture-2Michael Vick, the famed NFL quarterback who served a prison term for his role in dog fighting has not only been reinstated by the National Football League but also given a second chance by signing a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles (whether or not you believe Michael Vick deserves a second chance is not the point of this blog post). All throughout the business world there are also opportunities for second chances. Here are five ways small business can take a page from the Michael Vick saga and benefit from a second chance:

–Damaged Reputation: Some small businesses face adversity from doing the wrong thing to customers, employees or other stakeholders. When your reputation is on the line, taking the proper PR action and crisis management can go a long way towards securing a second chance from those who’ve been affected. It’s important to gather the facts, take responsibility, make the necessary changes and then communicate your actions through public relations, marketing and social media. People will give you a second chance if they know you’ve made every effort to correct the problem.

–Unemployment To Entrepreneur: Millions of talented professionals have been left unemployed by the most severe recession in decades. Although many are trying to find employment with another company there may never be a better time for these people to chase their dream of owning their own business and become an entrepreneur. For those that successfully open their own business now is the time to get a second chance at becoming their own boss to follow the American Dream.

–Small Business Lending: This second chance isn’t just for the small business owner; it’s also for the banks. Up until now small business has largely been shut out of any bailout money set aside to once again stimulate the economy. If there’s a perception that every large bank (Citi), company (General Motors) and industry (Wall Street) have received bailout funds, it’s because so far it’s been true. But even when a large institution (CIT) that is closely tied to small business tries its luck at getting a bailout, even then it’s unsuccessful. That all being said, the banks need to do a better job at lending money to America’s Job Creators (small business) so that entrepreneurs can get a second chance at securing more financing to pay down debt and focus once again on expansion.

–Going Green: It’s often easy to discard the notion of becoming more environmentally friendly because you’re running a business. But that excuse isn’t good enough anymore. Small business can do a better job of getting greener as pointed out in this blog which offers all kinds of great environmentally friendly tips for entrepreneurs like getting energy-efficient products and cleaning supplies, using less paper and more recyclable products.

–Leveraging Social Media: Saying you don’t understand is simply no longer a valid excuse. Starting today entrepreneurs have a second chance at learning how to incorporate social media into their marketing mix. Start a Facebook page and get raving fans. Jump on Twitter and join in on the conversation. Create a blog about your company and develop a forum where your customers can share ideas, feedback and interact with one another. Take lots of pictures of products and your company experience and start a Flickr account. Especially in B2B settings make it a priority to network with other professionals on LinkedIn. There are lots of social communities out there and one that’s just right for your business. Check in with UnderstandingMarketing.com often and participate in the #smbiz Twitter chats to learn valuable tips on how to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts.

What kind of a second chance do you wish for today? Share a comment here and then go make it happen.

Filed Under: Marketing & PR Strategies, Public Relations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Marketing Provides Novocaine For Dentists

August 12, 2009 By 2 Comments

Female doctor standing with colleagues in the backWhen you went to your last dental visit did you sit in the chair and wonder what kind of marketing the doctor was doing to drive business? I bet you didn’t. And neither did many of the dentists.

A severe recession will change all that and many dentists are now stepping up their marketing efforts to include traditional marketing, public relations, online marketing, email marketing and even social media marketing via Twitter.

According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, some dentists estimate that between 20 to 30 percent of their patients have put off dental visits because of the economic conditions. Because of this many are stepping up their efforts to create more visibility and promote specials to current patients as well as new ones. The article also points out there are more than 120,000 dental practices in the U.S., according to the American Dental Association.

Dentists are just like your typical small business. They’re smart business people who would much rather focus on their skill instead of deal with things like marketing or business development. Unfortunately in this current economy, the ones that survive are the ones that know how to raise visibility, promote specials, create an atmosphere that breeds word of mouth excitement and reward customers to come back for more. In a word, integrated marketing.

Here are a few ideas to help dentists (and other small businesses out there) get started with their own marketing:

–Start by creating a blog. WordPress makes it easy to get started on a limited budget. Select a domain. And begin offering all kinds of health tips that inform people of great dental care for their teeth. Encourage people to participate in your blog community by letting them share their own information and ideas, as well as ask questions about their teeth (since, you know, it’s supposed to be about teeth).

–Once your blog is established you now have a base to direct people via your marketing efforts. Understanding marketing will be very key here. Design attractive brochures, post cards, direct mail and email campaigns that direct people to a special landing page attached to your blog. On this landing page include a special offer they just can’t pass up – like 50 percent off their first dental visit. Also, create incentives for them to bring in friends or other family members and reward them for doing so (an additional 20 percent off for each friend or family member signed up).

–Also consider promoting your blog and blog posts through Twitter and Facebook, which are great ways to spread buzz and generate excitement on a limited budget.

–Once you start getting people in the door via your blog and promotions, think about developing a PR story for the local news. Maybe a local business reporter will find it interesting that a local dentist is using Twitter to promote the business. Maybe you want to comment on how your business has been coping with a slowing economy. Or perhaps you want to develop a feature story and showcase how each week you offer your services to provide free dental care for women and children who find shelter from abusive situations (just an idea, of course). For more PR ideas check out the PR Toolkit.

Want to add an idea to this list? Please share a comment below.

Filed Under: Blogs/Web Sites, Customer Loyalty, Direct Mail, Email, Landing Pages, Public Relations, Social Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Using Twitter To Mitigate PR Crisis

August 3, 2009 By 1 Comment

media_relationsA stitch in time saves nine.

Have you ever heard this saying before? Basically it means if something goes wrong, it’s better to provide a solution the first time it breaks. If you ignore the problem it will only grow bigger, and ultimately when you’re forced to provide a solution it will be a lot more costly.

For a small business owner or entrepreneur, Twitter and PR can work hand in hand to be that solution when something initially goes wrong. Larger companies have jumped into the social media fray to beef up their Twitter efforts and now engage with customers and bloggers who tweet about a negative customer experience. Twitter enables a company to immediately mitigate the situation by engaging the customer, addressing the situation and coming up with a solution that works for everyone involved.

Case in point as highlighted in The Wall Street Journal:

–When Ford tried to shut down an auto blogger who appeared to be promoting counterfeit products, a Ford executive stepped in, mitigated the situation and tweeted the outcome to all parties involved.

–When a Pepsi customer tweeted about a German Pepsi ad talking about suicide, a company executive immediately worked to have the ad removed.

–When a Southwest Air plane made an emergency landing, company spokespeople closely monitored Twitter to see what passengers were tweeting about, ready to step in and mitigate if necessary. Fortunately the pilots did a fantastic job and Southwest was able to use the opportunity to spread good will and thanks amongst its pilots.

As a small business owner it’s important to utilize the power of Twitter to shape your company’s PR and public image in front of your customers. As with any business, negative stuff happens. Twitter is a great way to immediately see what the buzz is so you can step in and put a PR/crisis plan in place AND use Twitter to carry out your critical communications and response.

Additional resources for this blog topic:

Working with the Media

The Publicity Handbook

What’s the Secret: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience

Filed Under: Public Relations Tagged With: , , , , ,

The ROI of PR for Small Business

July 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Business Graphs and ChartsA wonderful colleague of UnderstandingMarketing.com, John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing, recently blogged about the Return On Investment (ROI) of social networking for small business. In his blog post, and as to be expected, he mentions that virtually every small business owner and entrepreneur asks about measuring the success of a social networking or social media campaign. Small business owners are numbers people, and rightfully so. We’re in business to make money.

Mr. Jantsch goes on to then make an excellent point on the subject. When considering the ROI of social networking campaigns, it’s equally fair to examine the ROI of any in-person networking event. Surely any small business owner will admit that there can be great reason to attend many in-person networking events. Is it easy to credit direct sales to those networking events? Sometimes yes but more often, no. The same can be applied to social networking strategies and campaigns since they’re heavily reliant on relationships fostered, opportunities created and customers educated about you and your business – all in a virtual environment.

One could arguably make the exact same comparison to PR activities, campaigns and strategies. In general, PR isn’t meant to be a leads generator but instead an awareness generator. Does awareness alone lead to sales? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. However, much of that awareness can be described as “buzz.” And since the majority of small business owners are constantly saying they’d like more “buzz” about their company, well, PR is a big part in helping to accomplish this. But it’s not necessarily going to lead directly to a sale today. Instead, your PR efforts work in concert with an integrated marketing campaign (direct response, brochures, email marketing and social networking) to create sales today AND tomorrow.When a prospective customer reads about you in the local newspaper one day and receives an email marketing message a week later, there’s a good chance you’ll get a better response from that customer because he/she will have already become familiar with you through the PR efforts. In a nutshell, over time PR can quickly turn a cold lead into a warm lead.

Getting a great profile story on your company in the local television news may or may not lead to direct sales – much like meeting several people at your last networking event may not lead to direct sales. Generating buzz is exactly that – excitement. It’s this excitement that helps create more sales as time goes on.

Additional resources:

Working with the Media

The Publicity Handbook

Filed Under: Public Relations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

DIY Marketing Giveaway Week 3 Winner

June 25, 2009 By 1 Comment

Small business public relationsUnderstandingMarketing.com is happy to announce the winner of the Week 3 prize for the DIY Marketing Giveaway – a 60-minute PR brainstorm session, a 400-word press release and a PR Toolkit. UnderstandingMarketing.com co-creator and PR veteran, John Sternal, will discuss the winning entrepreneur’s PR goals for his or her company and also develop a 400-word press release on a topic that will help promote the winner’s company. The winner of this week will also receive a PR Toolkit so that they can learn effective techniques on how to generate ongoing media awareness to help obtain more customers. Congratulations to Katie Schutrop of Minneapolis-based Scarletta Press for winning the PR prize.

For all other small businesses, the Giveaway rolls on. Don’t forget to sign up for Week 4 (This giveaway ended 6/30/09).

DIY MarketingThe final giveaway is a “Do It Yourself” Marketing Makeover Plan by UnderstandingMarketing.com’s co-creator, Chrisanne Sternal. This plan could provide you with a customized action plan that you can implement without the assistance of a marketing agency. The plan will include a 60-minute marketing consultation session to discuss your marketing goals and objectives. Then you’ll receive a plan explaining what marketing tactics you should put in place based on your budget and time constraints. The plan will also include some how-to info to get you started.LotusJump SEO Software

Plus, the winning entrepreneur will also receive six months of free LotusJump DIY SEO software Pro Edition. This software gives easy-to-follow instruction and tasks on SEO activities, including content and link building, directory and article submission, social profiling and competitive backlinking.

An additional two winners will also be selected to receive LotusJump DIY SEO software Pro Edition six months for free.

Filed Under: Marketing & PR Strategies, Public Relations Tagged With: , , , ,
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