We hope you'll enjoy this edition of Strategy Matters, a newsletter bringing you news, tips and strategies for effective communications from Strategic Communications, LLC, committed to bringing you success through strategy. www.stratcommunications.com |
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Generating Media Coverage |
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Getting coverage for yourself, your products and your services can be a great way to generate awareness for your services - at less cost, and greater credibility than you could achieve through paid communication tactics.
Strategic Communications has generated media coverage for itself and its clients in media outlets like USAToday, NewsDay, The Globe & Mail, AdWeek - and many others.
While we'd like to have you believe these are extraordinary feats, the fact of the matter is that it is not that difficult to generate exposure - IF you follow a few simple guidelines:
- Keep your ears to the ground. Know the media you wish to target and stay on top of what specific reporters are covering. Find those most aligned with your pitch and make contact.
- Tie your message to something newsworthy. While you may sometimes generate newsworthy information yourself, in other cases it can be helpful to tie your story to something else that is making news. For instance, just about anything related to reducing health care costs is timely these days. This tie, or connection, can be your "hook."
- Stay relevant. Once you've found your "hook," stay relevant by conveying clearly what it is you have to add to the discussion and why you should be a go-to-source.
- Focus on the audience and what's important to them. The better job you can do of conveying practical, useful information to the audience of the media outlets you've chosen, the more likely it is that you will be quoted. Avoid blatant promotions for yourself, your products and services. While we all know that self-promotion is what you're after, go too far in this direction and you'll have reporters running the other way.
- Be accessible, helpful and forthcoming with the reporters who contact you. If you schedule an interview - keep the interview. Stay on topic, provide relevant information and offer to provide additional information as appropriate.
For more information about working with the media, and Strategic Communication's PR services, visit www.stratcommunications.com. |
| Are You Prepared to Serve Gen Y?
For years, the "baby boomers" represented the focus of much of society - from television programming, to advertisers' focus to social media commentary from journalists and academics. But, today there is a new generation that is rapidly gaining attention and focus from these groups. Generation Y - born between 1977 and 1995 - is a close second to baby boomers in volume; about 76 million compared to 77 million boomers.
Also known as the millenials, Gen Y is very much a "different breed," representing both opportunities and challenges for businesses large and small.
This generation represents your future customers. Depending on the business you're in, that future may not be that far down the road. Are you doing things now to ensure that you will be able to understand and connect with this group?
One problem for many businesses - including mine - is "we're not them." We are separated by one, if not two or more, generations from this group and often may be entirely missing the mark when it comes to meeting their needs now, or anticipating their needs in the future.
What can you be doing to close the gap?
- Hire employees from this generation to gain their perspectives and help make important connections.
- Consider ways in which you can reach out to establish connections - perhaps through social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.
- Reach out to both employees and non-employees that represent these segments to form focus or advisory groups that can be used as sounding boards and idea generators.
- Remain open-minded. Gen Y represents just one potential market segment that may view things differently than you do. It always makes sense to take time to understand your own company, products and services from a different perspective.
For more information about connecting with diverse audiences, visit www.stratcommunications.com. | |
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A Rose By Any Other Name... |
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...would still be a rose. Had a rose been named a "snorfus" it would still have all of the characteristics it does today. It's the attributes of the rose - its color, its delicate petals, its aroma - that make it what it is.
Why then, do so many companies labor endlessly over what to name their business, their products or their services and believe that there is "one right name" that, if selected, and accompanied by the "one right" logo, will lead to guaranteed success?
Yes, your company and product names are important - as are the visual elements you choose to represent them.
But, it's not the name, or the visual depictions of the name that creates your brand. It's what your name comes to represent to your target audience that really matters from a branding perspective.
Think about it. What did Nike mean when first selected (and how long did it take to "teach" people that the word didn't rhyme with "like")?
Regardless of your company or product name, what matters as much - if not more - is:
- Whether what you have to offer is appropriately and meaningfully differentiated from your competitors (all other available options).
- Whether your target audience believes you are delivering value to them (it really doesn't matter what you believe).
- Whether you're providing that value and the overall "brand experience" consistently over time so that your name comes to be associated with a specific experience in the minds of your target audience.
If you're spending a lot of time considering whether changing the name of your company or a particular product or service would boost your brand identity and bottom line, you might first want to consider if you're delivering a valued product or service that is better than what competitors have to offer - and if you're delivering it consistently.
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| Free White
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Interested in generating media coverage?
For a free whitepaper on tactics for getting your name in the news contact:
Strategy Matters! |
| Offer Expires: 11/1/09 |
Strategic Communications, LLC, specializes in strategic communication planning and implementation for brand management, community, customers, employees, marketing and media relations.
We work with businesses, large and small, to help them apply strategy to address their communication challenges.
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What's keeping you up at night?
What are your greatest marketing communication challenges - most importantly, what are you doing about them?
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