How to really measure your PR results?

I was looking at a site for a company that was interested in hiring some PR help lately. Based on an initial conversation, they seemed to take a great deal of pride in what they had done up until that point and were seeking someone to come in, take up the baton and carry forward. I had to be a bit of a spoil sport when it came time to ask questions and ask them why they were so proud of what they had already done. I was not trying to lessen their accomplishments, rather I wanted to understand why they believed their PR program was in excellent form.

I told them in my opinion they had an impressive amount of coverage. I saw a number of very well known publications, including some very solid business coverage. What I did not see however was publications which may be read by individuals who are interested in purchasing their services. In other words I saw the very evil shadow of trophy hunting and nothing that would help the brand to grow and excel.

Let me give you an example. Say your company invents a robot that can fit into your garage and diagnose problems with your car in layman's terms and even perform minor repairs like oil changes. Now this is cool stuff and of course you may wish to get it covered by Time and the Wall Street Journal and your local big business publication. But I would argue that Car and Driver and maybe even Simple Life may be more appropriate as this is where people would go to make buying decisions regarding these products.

The issue boils down to the fact that one hit in a solid industry publication is one that will go to deliver your message to your customer base. They are not always glamorous, but they are highly influential among the consumers of your product. A hit in a big business publication like The Wall Street Journal may feel good and may give the impression of success, but it will prove to be an empty victory.

Remember that people do not turn to mainstream media for information on specific industries. They usually go to specialized media outlets, web sites and so on. The best way to measure the success of your PR efforts is by monitoring how much of an increase you see in a tangible factor such as web site hits, contacts or leads. Of course, you need to factor in the role of the other elements within the marketing mix such as direct mail,advertising and the web in your calculations.

The strongest advice I can offer to any organization who wishes to measure your PR results is determine what you hope to accomplish from public relations and then base all measurements against that. Avoid the pitfall of thinking that a big name will result in a flood of new business and realize that, ultimately, the goal of your PR efforts is to work with the marketing team to drive sales and create revenue!

How do I market my product? Part II

OK, so as we discussed in Part I you have built a web site and that is serving as the kernel for your brand identity. So now you have to decide what to do next? You basically have two choices, the first being to continue working under the radar and develop your product further or begin the public aspect of your organization by ramping up the public relations aspect of your program. At this point, you are not truly ready to go public since you will need to have stronger sense of who you are and be ready for what may come your way so the best course to follow is to continue defining your brand and image by developing marketing materials.

The development of marketing materials is often given short thrift and more often then not suffers from dual and conflicted roles. On the one hand, they are eagerly desired by sales people who seek them because it is something they can leave or send to a customer that clearly spells out the market advantages of their organization's products and services. The other side of that coin is that marketing materials are often prepared by very creative types who see themselves as the sellers of the brand and focus nearly exclusively on the creative aspects of how best to sell the product.

If you are familiar with the AMC television show Mad Men you know what I am talking about. Sales people offer a value proposition and believe that they can sell it to the target audience as a rational, fact based formula. Creative people are nearly the exact opposite. They believe that the sales decision is made based on emotional stimuli and as such we need to appeal to a person's emotional side and need to have a creative approach to sell the product.

It then becomes the difficult task of a marketing manager to not only balance these two, often conflicting viewpoints out, but to find a middle point. As we all know the definition of a compromise is when everyone walks away from the table feeling cheated. But that is exactly what a marketing manager needs to do, balance the competing desires of both groups.

Successful organizations know how to balance the ideals of sales and creative types and work together to develop a strong brand message which clearly sells their product. A perfect example of a company that marries both very well is Coca-Cola. Coke has an exceptionally strong brand and this is done by advertising which most companies can only hope to achieve. But the strong creative is enhanced by a global distribution system that is second to none. Without this strong sales and support system, Coca-Cola would have none of the global command that it does today.

So you are starting your own company, can you learn anything from what Coke or any other brands do. I believe the answer to be yes! First of all, as I said earlier you need to use the step after your web site to continue building your brand identity within the organization. This is also the time when you should bring your nascent sales organization to the table. Ideally this person will have some knowledge of your markets and sure as heckfire should know how to sell. You will also want them to give you some feedback on the tools you plan to give them to sell the product and service.

It is not uncommon for sales people to try and pull back and say they are not comfortable or that is marketing's job etc. But the fact remains at the end of the day it is up to sales to connect with the customer and convince them to buy. They need to be present for at least the first stages of development. The worst thing that can happen is for you to be six months to a year in, wondering why your product isn't moving and have sales shrug their shoulders and blame marketing.

So part II of the marketing development program is the development of marketing tools to further help build your brand. This is also the time to begin to engage sales and bring them into the loop and see what they can contribute. Marketing will help you increase awareness of your product but it is sales who sells it. Therefore their contributions must not be excluded.

How interactions with others can be mean ruin for your organization!

I remember this story that a sales friend of mine told me about a meeting he went on with his CEO and a potential client. They were waiting for the client who was delayed and while there his CEO started talking about someone back at the office and saying how incompetent she was and how in his organization he has no tolerance for fools and that it was his way or the highway. Well sure enough the client comes in and right away the scowl goes away, the smiles go out and they go in and have their meeting.

Well several weeks later my friend calls up the client wondering why they have not heard back regarding what had earlier seemed such a promising lead. The contact told him that the receptionist had overheard what the CEO had said and commented on how rude he was. The icing on the cake is when this was reported back to the CEO, he didn't take it as a lesson learned, he called up and told the client that they were not interested in doing business with them anyway and if that is how they do things than fine.

The point of this story is that every person who deals with the public from the CEO on down to customer service or even accounts payable is a brand ambassador. Each and everyone of them need to realize that all customers are key and that the cost of finding new customers far and away exceed the costs of acquiring new ones. Yet companies seem to think that the only people who are responsible for presenting the public face is either marketing and then by default sales. And sales gets the task by default only.

Every organization needs to review who speaks to the public and more importantly there needs to be some basic training in how to deal with the public and in many cases customers. It is amazing to me how much money an organization will pour into marketing and how much time and effort is spent on color schemes for advertising and what vehicles to use and then from the minute the contract is signed until the moment the license comes up for renewal nothing happens.

Or you can have a case where there is a problem and you get passed around from person to person, none of whom seem interested in helping you. In my mind it is amazing how little time or money is truly invested into the full 360 degree marketing process. Yet ironically when customers are unhappy and not purchasing or purchasing more renewals of the product, it is often the marketing group that faces the blame.

The take away here is that everyone who deals with customers works for marketing. Customers should be treated like the special beings that they are. The reason being is that if you think it is expensive to keep customers happy, try to find new ones to replace those who are unhappy. Of course, don't forget the old adage that an unhappy customer will tell six people for every person a happy customer will tell.