DIY PR by Penny Haywood Calder

A recent Accountemps survey of 150 top US executives listed the following top annoying jargon words:

Leverage

Reach out

It is what it is

Viral

Game changer

Disconnect

Value-add

Circle back

Socialise

Interface

Despite the list originating in the US, these are all terms I come across a lot.


The list also included words that previously appeared in their earlier (2004) survey, which sadly we still see today:

At the end of the day

Synergy

Solution

Think outside the box

On the same page

Customer-centric

People use jargon to indicate they're up with the latest management fads, as immortalised by the David Brent character in 'The Office' TV series a few years ago. As a result, far from being impressed by jargon, it's more likely to produce an image of an ineffectual man with a bad break-dancing tendency!

It's not a good image. It's not good PR. It's not even good communication.

Labels: clear communications, content, copy, copy writing, jargon, PR

There's no shortage of paid help and expensive subscriptions to keep you abreast of environmental legislation for business, but there are some great free resources. Use them to create an Environmental Management System (EMS) to demonstrate your serious commitment to the environment. And reduce the likelihood of expensive fines by keeping up to date with a number of recent changes that affect most businesses.

At a time when businesses need every edge they can get, being able to demonstrate credible green credentials is a real PR plus - a key business asset.

Log onto useful free resources at the http://wwwnetregs.gov.uk/ site, which has been recently re-vamped. It includes a questionnaire http://ping.fm/iaVafnetregs/links/97472.aspx)where you can get a bespoke answer as to your environmental compliance requirements.

That will give you a legislation list, which is the start of your EMS. You will find out how each individual piece of legislation impacts on your type of business using the search tools on www.netregs.gov.uk. Netregs will stream info according to business type and the regional variants for Scotland, England & Wales, plus Northern Ireland.

Environment legislation is driven by Europe and there are more changes in the pipeline. It's worth signing up for the Netregs updates to stay up-to-date.

Labels: DIY PR, environment, green car, Penny Haywood, PHPR, PR

I'm all in favour of business networking, and word of mouth is the most effective type of publicity, but it is limited to relatively small numbers because it is a one-to-one form of communications.

The grand-daddy of the one-to-many approach is media relations (both online and offline media), not only because it delivers the big numbers, but it also carries a powerful media editorial endorsement.



Like an award (which makes you forever an award-winning business) you can use a media accolade on all your publicity materials: as seen on TV/in the FT.com…. This confers a lot of credibility on your business and inspires confidence.



And we are talking of reaching very large numbers indeed: thousands of people.

Every town has a collection of local media, from community radio, newspapers, online sites and local interest magazines onwards, so look out for outlets for your news.

And don't forget the newsletters and blogs for the business clubs and the trade press relevant to you and your business.



Add a few of these up: it would take you several lifetimes to network with that lot. A really good story could reach them all in one single day!




For every person who contacted the business as a result of reading or hearing about you through the media, there were thousands in various stages of near readiness to buy, who needed a few more nudges with information and contact to finally land the sale.



That's why PR needs to work alongside marketing and sales.

• PR raises awareness and confers credibility.


• Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).


• Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison. And manages the relationship to get customer referrals and case studies to further boost your business.

Labels: DIY PR, Edinburgh, marketing, media relations, on and offline PR, online PR and marketing, Penny Haywood, sales

Staff are at the front line and spend a lot of their waking hours with you, so they could be your business' most knowledgeable and credible advocates - if you give them the information they need.

Even if the 6 degrees of separation theory has been disproved, most people are better connected than we realise: your staff among them. Even if it’s only friends like them who would be good workers, saving you lots of recruitment costs and time. But you’d be amazed at who their uncle knows.. so keep them up to speed with the company. But they can't pass on good news about your business if they don't know it!

Same goes for your family and friends. I once met a wife who was playing tennis with the wife of the top guy on her husband's key potential client list. He hadn't told her, so she never even thought to mention the surname of her tennis pal to him... A simple dinner invitation was all it took when I pointed out the connection.

And advisers.

Your lawyer and accountant are dealing with 100s of businesses a year. Why shouldn't they refer you if they come across a need for your services? But you won't be at the front of their mind when they come across someone who needs your goods or services if you don't keep them up-to-date with positive feedback. And they are businesses too. You might want to explore a more formal arrangement to cross promoting each other?

But different people swim into your orbit at different times and there comes a point when keeping track of these newsletters and contact actions needs to be organised so you don’t send out the same snippet or newsletter twice to the same person. It's all too easy to do if you get a few interruptions in your day...

This is where a CRM (customer relationship management) program like SalesForce or Act! or the free open source program: ChannelCRM.dk (it has been translated into English) could be very useful. Don't let the ‘customer’ bit in the name put you off - these are contact management systems that work well for managing communications with potential client.

This is the seventh in a series of posts re-visiting some of the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood.

The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business.
That's because:

PR raises awareness.

Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).

Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison.
As the series develops, choose a few to trial for a few months.
The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Labels: 6 degrees of separation, communications, DIY PR, ecommerce, PR, running a business

Referrals are much more influential than your own sales spiel – they are credible because they are third party endorsements.

They are vital for B2B businesses and are the fastest way to boost any business. So why not have a Referrals Plan to maximise your referrals chances?

Roy Sheppherd’s book shows you how with over 100 non-cheesy ways to ramp up your referrals – it’s called Rapid Results Referrals. Nothing new. Only common sense. But how many referrals tactics are you currently using?

How often do you hear about Referrals Plans? … Exactly! You’ll be miles in front of the businesses that are not using a planned referrals campaign.

Just choose up to 10 referrals ideas from the book and work with them for 6 months, review, ditch what doesn’t work and top up with new ones. Repeat twice a year. Easy!

This is the sixth in a series of posts re-visiting some of the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood.

The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business.

That's because:

PR raises awareness.

Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).

Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison.

As the series develops, choose a few ideas to trial for a few months.
The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR/marketing/sales Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Labels: DIY PR, PHPR, PR, referrals

Generally, the high value sales “follow the face”, especially in the early stages of generating business-to-business service sales, even if the sale and most of the service delivery happens online.

1-2-1 networking and building relationships and referrals is key at this stage.
But you can accelerate a business relationship in between seeing people face to face by staying in contact in a thoughtful and helpful way. For example:

1) Provide personalised news snippets – maybe send a link and a note - like a personal Tweet?
2) Keep them up to speed with e-newsletters if you have contact permission and know they'll be interested
3) Hang out online and comment on their blog, answer or comment on their forum posts - that's really good for generating feel-good as many blogs don't generate much feedback.
4) Ring if you have news that could be very useful – keep it light. No pressure.

It's worth keeping in mind when you are desperate for a sale that they tend to come when you don't push. Not everyone is immediately ready or able to buy immediately, so these contact efforts are never about in-your-face selling. It's about being a familiar and trusted contact - and being at the front of their mind when they are ready.

This is the fifth in a series of posts re-visiting some of the 30 low cost or free publicity techniques featured in PHPR's founder's best-selling book: DIYPR, the small business owner's guide to 'free' publicity by Penny Haywood.

The 30 techniques are a mix of digital and offline sales, marketing and PR tools because you need to work all three disciplines (sales, marketing and PR) to effectively boost a business.

That's because:

PR raises awareness.
Marketing describes the features and benefits of your offerings and decides how to position them in the market (positioning for price, gaps in the market, distribution etc versus your competitors).
Sales matches the benefits to an individual buyer's particular needs and handles the mechanics of the sale and after sales service liaison.

As the series develops, choose a few to trial for a few months.

The aim is to work up to 10 varied publicity techniques that work for you and your business to create a rolling PR Plan for success.

Your feedback is most welcome and may be included (with proper attribution) in the forthcoming revised edition of DIY PR.

Labels: boosting your business, business promotion, DIY PR, ecommerce, online sales, PR, public relations, publicity