These days there are many facets to implementing a complete Public Relations and Marketing Campaign. While you still have traditional mediums; such as newspapers and TV, you must also include the Internet and Social Media in your plan. And each of these pieces must be maintained to keep them fresh and up-to-date.
The following is a breakdown of the strategy that needs to be done to cover all the bases to present you or your business just as you want it presented. It's best to control your own narative, rather than trusting someone else to do it.
Research
Our public relations services start with the irrefutable premise that facts matter, information matters, and most of all the truth matters. Credibility is based on the soundness of the information you are sharing with the media and the public. Nothing can sidetrack your public relations objectives faster than not knowing the facts or ignoring them. That’s why our communications campaigns begin with thorough research to support the positions our clients want to take.
Quality research is critical to the two “C” words that are integral to successful Public relations strategies.
One is confidence. A candidate for office or a person representing your company who is armed with the facts based on good research is more confident in supporting the message you are trying to deliver. That confidence helps inspire trust in your organizations make your message more believable.
The second word is credibility. If your message and information that you deliver are deemed to be credible, the success of your public relations initiatives increases dramatically. Many of the companies on the list of Forbes Magazine’s Most Reputable Companies have invested in developing and refining a trustworthy message that is in tune with what their customers’ values. That messaging is rooted in research-driven credibility. On the flip side, companies that squander their credibility soon end up on the untrustworthy list.
A strong message – one that is believable and can withstand scrutiny - is especially important to social media messaging. The ability to persuade and influence people is rooted in facts, not just opinions. And given the fast-paced nature of social media, your ability to marshal facts to rebut opponents is a valuable tool to have in your communications arsenal.
The bottom line: Don’t be in so much of a hurry to tell your story that you forget to do the research.
Earner Media Intiatives
Whether you need press releases announcing your event, kicking off a campaign or presenting a position on a topic that is important to your organization, The Write Associates will get you the media coverage you need. After three decades as communications professionals we have the media connections you need and get your message in the hands of the right people.
In our social media age, some people ask why bother with traditional earned media. Because no matter what a lot of those people say about the media; it still has credibility with millions of people. And much of what is posted on social media is taken from traditional media reporting.
Earned media requires a relentless desire to work with reporters, editors and producers and that’s what The Write Associates will give you.
Op-ed Articles
Opinion articles, often referred to as Op/Eds provide you a platform to display your expertise and your arguments for or against the positions you want to embrace or the problems you are trying solve. Published in newspapers or on online news sites, an Op/Ed can rally support for your issues and move you to the center of the debate you want to be part of. The Write Associates specializes in crafting and placing Op/ed articles and has a long track record of getting our clients’ messages in front of the people they want to reach.
Constructing an effective and well-received Op/Ed requires diligent research and the ability to hone the message to a fine knifepoint point that impacts the readers and invites them to engage in the dialogue you are trying to shape. That effectiveness of Op/eds extend far beyond the essay in a single forum; members of the broadcast and online media are more likely to reach out to people who have proven, through a well-crafted essay that they have a mastery of facts and the ability to communicate a cogent message.
Direct Mail
In the age of social media, there is still a prominent place for direct mail contact with the audience you need to touch. Well-crafted and designed mail puts a tangible message into the hands of those you want to reach in a format that lasts longer than an email and is less cluttered than online advertising.
Direct mail is a key part of cross channel marketing. Combined with email marketing, digital, television and radio advertising, direct mail helps cement your message in the minds of your target audience Direct mail is effective because it allows your message to be brought into the home or office and not just stored on a laptop computer with thousands of other messages. The web today is cluttered with digital ads, pop up ads and email solicitations that are all fighting for attention. Direct mail helps you stand out.
Studies have shown that:
- Brand recall is 40% higher if you follow an email with a direct mail follow up.
- Response rate is 26% higher if you follow a digital display ad with a direct mail follow up.
- Direct mail with digital ads yields 28% higher conversion rate.
Another advantage of direct mail is that it can be highly targeted to people by age, income, sex, geography or interests. Direct mail also allows you to build brand recognition and trust. By using consistently attractive logos, color schemes and even typefaces, your target audience will recognize you and trust your message.
Overall, direct mail, in conjunction with other forms of media, gives you better response rates from your targeted audience. See our direct mail samples on this site.
Email and Direct Mail Statistics
Website
You want to view your website as your "Ground Zero". In all social media posts, op-ed's, articles, TV interviews, mentions, citations, Google queries, etc. you want potential customers to be guided to your website. By getting them there, you have complete control of telling them who you are, what you do and what you're selling. Everyone, every business that has a website, is selling something, whether it's information, or a product.
Your website must be created with Google in mind. While customers are the ones we are building the website for; Google decides who it is that gets to see it. So, we always keep Google's "needs" in the back of our mind while putting the website together. Google has a set of "Best Practices" that we follow to be sure they know who you are, and what you do. You must adhere to Google's rules and protocols.
If you're serious about building a website that works for you; you need to leave it to an expert like Web Pro NJ. The Free websites from WIX and others, may be easy to create and pretty to look at, but without proper optimization, Google will have no idea what to do with it. At that point you'd have more success by stapling a flier to a telephone pole.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a technique that enables search engines to find and rank your website higher in organic search listings than all the other millions of websites, based on a user’s query. When a user types in a query the search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo!) runs that query through its index of over billions of pages, to find ones that are most relevant to the keywords. The purpose of the search engine is to give the user an answer to their question, based on relevance, on the search engine results page (SERP).
Like it, or not, we are living in a Google world. Google owns 65% of all search, with Yahoo!, Bing and all the others spitting the rest. The second biggest search platform is YouTube – owned by Google. Are you seeing a pattern here? Search engines are the new Yellow Pages. When was the last time you opened a phone book? Over 80% of all web sites are found through search. If you are not search engine optimizing your website, you should not even bother having one.
To achieve higher ranking, your pages must be optimized, utilizing every possible factor that the search engines may be looking for. The inherent problem here is that Google has over 200 different factors in their algorithm, and the weight of each of those factors changes about every 16 hours. That means there are over 450 changes every year that Google is using to rank your page, and they protect the algorithm like Coke and KFC protect their recipes. So, an SEO analyst is always trying to hit a moving target that continually changes.
Optimization breaks a webpage down to its base, analyzing every bit of code. What a user sees and what a search engine spider sees, are two totally different things. A search engine spider is a program that crawls the web 24/7 searching out and indexing new or updated webpages. When it comes upon a domain, it crawls the entire website, potentially indexing every page on that site. Since we don’t know exactly what the search engines are looking for, we have to make all the pages the “least imperfect”, based on the factors we do know, and what has worked before.
Titles, descriptions, keywords, heading tags, inbound links, outbound links, linking text, and every single word on the page are just a few of the things that are important to search engines. If there are over 200 factors in the algorithm and, for example, we know 40 of those factors, and we do those 40 things to their fullest potential, we have a good chance of ranking higher than the next guy. Your webpage doesn’t have to be perfect – because we don’t know what “perfect” is – it just has to be better than the next guy.
Social Media
Social Media Marketing is essential for a complete Internet Marketing campaign. It consists of a group of online platforms where people connect and communicate, such as; Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and literally millions of blogs (Weblogs) all across the Internet, about any topic you could possibly imagine. They enable the creation of tons of free user-generated content. Studies show that in these days of social web sites, potential customers are swayed more by product reviews and user word-of-mouth, than by conventional advertising. It’s called social proof, which is the theory that we are more likely to do something when we see others doing it. Social media is built on social proof.
Social media sites are where the people are. Do you know anyone who doesn’t have a Facebook or Twitter account? Social media gives you the chance to interact with hundreds, thousands, even millions of potential customers. Social communities are breeding grounds for interaction, which is a huge market that must be utilized to be able to achieve success in your Internet marketing strategy. However, these platforms are not places for “hard sell”, they are for attraction and awareness of who you are, and what you do. Since social media is readily available to everyone, it greatly enhances potential for creating brand awareness.
With conventional advertising you are talking "at" the potential customer. But with online advertising, you have the ability and opportunity to talk "to" the customer. With social media, you are the publisher. You need to determine exactly what your customers need and publish valuable, re le vent and compelling information, through social media platforms, blogs, email and more. Show them that you are an authority, and that what you have to offer will be valuable to them. By positioning yourself as an authority in your field, you’ll stand out from your competitors, generate buzz and increase your value. Providing valuable relevant content boosts your credibility and builds trust. Once you establish yourself as an expert, the customers will come to you. Value, credibility and trust, added to high visibility (social media) gives you the perfect formula for complete success.
- Yelp
- Angie's List
- Home Advisor
Google My Business
Google My Business is a free tool that helps small businesses create and manage their Google listings, which appear when customers find businesses on Google Search and Maps. It helps business attract new customers and share information about what makes them special.
The Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) has gone through many changes over the years. Initially, it was all organinic results. Then they added ads, soon to be followed by images, video and maps. Currently, for a business; the most inportant element on a SERP is the My Business listings. Studies show that the user will click on one of those listings far more often than the organic results.
Paid Ads
Paid Click Marketing or Paid Search Marketing is paying for your ads to show up in a search results page (SERP). In a Google SERP, the PPC results run vertically down the right-hand column. The campaign and the ads are created based on keyword research. The ad positioning is determined by a bidding process, but the highest bidder doesn’t necessarily get the top slot, it is also based on quality score, which Google determines by page relevance. All the big search engines offer paid search programs. Google has AdWords, Yahoo! has Search Marketing and Bing offers Microsoft adCenter. A complete paid search campaign needs to utilize all three.
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Microsoft Advertising - Formerly Bing Ads
Citations
A citation is an online listing of your businesses name, address and phone number (NAP). As with links, Google uses them to determine the online authority of your business. While links need to linked to your website in order for you to get credited for them, citations do not. In order to get the biggest bang from a citation for your SEO strategy, it must exactly match the the NAP on your website, and on your Google MyBusiness page. It must be 100% consistent with the name (Bang Zoom Enterprises LLC is different than Bang Zoom Ent. LLC), address (Ave. vs. Avenue), and phone number ((973) 707-6636 vs, 973 707-6636) used when building citations.
In Conclusion
For a complete Public Relations/Marketing/Branding campaign you're going to want to utilize many, if not all, of the above mentioned elements. With regard to the Internet related items; you can have them all tied together to work in concert, using your website as the control center.
Before invoking any of the above, we need to totally map your complete strategy, and then systematically create your entire campaign.