Everyone would like positive PR for their business. Using public relations is perhaps one of the most effective Lean Sales and Marketing techniques to generate interest in your business. What do I mean by Lean Sales and Marketing techniques? Lean is an approach to doing business focused on the reduction of wasteful activity. It means doing more for less. When it comes to sales and marketing many businesses spend more time, energy, and money than they should. Often these resources are spent on techniques that only generate a 2% conversion rate... that's 98% waste. How do Public Relation activities fit into Lean? It fits by being extremely cost effective (it's mostly free), easy to measure results, and not only does good PR make your company more visible to potential clients, it makes your business more credible (that's two birds with one stone - very efficient).
Here are two ways that public relations can gather more interest in a company's products and services.
You can place your business in front of many potential clients just by securing a spot as a presenter during a lecture series, convention or trade show. The place to start is to search for lecture series and trade shows that relate to your own business. For instance, if you are in the home building supplies industry, look for home-improvement trade shows. It would be hard to promote your products at a classic cars convention since the audience is interested in classic cars.
After locating relevant trade shows and lecture series, it is time to contact the managers in charge of them to ask about the possibility of adding you as a speaker. Once you have received a position in the series it is time to make preparations for the event. You will want to know if a speech is the only requirement or if you should include a question and answer section also. It is important that you practice for each of these occasions. Your friends and employees can help you field possible questions that may arise from responses to your lecture. Expert preparation is critical if you are going to sell your products to people who are prequalified. Since public speaking is a great way to convince potential clients that your business is worth giving a try, you have to know what you are doing.
Professional organizations and clubs offer good opportunities to use public speaking to elevate your business visibility. Charities also provide a good option, and you get to give something back to the community when getting involved with helping to raise money for the cause. Even thought the crowds at charity presentations may not garner as many leads as you might get at trade shows, you will bring more awareness to the community about your company's reputation. Promoting local business is a favorite activity of those who care about the community and you are sure to get the attention of reporters who enjoy putting their names to stories of benevolence. News stories are completely free publicity for your business.
Make Friends with Reporters and Bloggers - Reporters and Bloggers are people too and just like you or me they like to have relationships with people that can help them. Journalists are always on the lookout for interesting stories, which their competition does not know about. Help them find these interesting stories in regards to your business or industry and build up a continuing relationship with them. So how do you start a relationship with a reporter or blogger?
So a search of your favorite sources of news so find articles about your industry, products or services. That may be in local blogs or newspapers if you serve a local audience. Find out who is writing them, and list a few of your favorite journalists. Get to know everything you can about them. Read the latest articles they have written before actually making contact with them so that you can offer insights into what you have read. Make comments on their Facebook pages, on blog comments, or through email. It is not necessary to agree with everything they say, but it is necessary to remain courteous and respectful. Don't say too much, just highlight your thoughts about the industry, service or products mentioned. You can do this each day for a few months or until you get a response back from them. If there is no response, go on to your next favorite writer. Once you have established a good relationship with them, offer an idea for a story that goes with what they have been saying. Highlight what you think the journalist's readers will be interested in. It doesn't matter whether your idea is used or not, it is the relationship you are interested in. Over time, the PR will come is you are receiving responses to your unsolicited comments.
Public speaking and befriending reporters and bloggers is an effective Lean Sales and Marketing technique to generate interest in your business. Effectively using these public relations avenues will generate more interest in your business.
Here are two ways that public relations can gather more interest in a company's products and services.
You can place your business in front of many potential clients just by securing a spot as a presenter during a lecture series, convention or trade show. The place to start is to search for lecture series and trade shows that relate to your own business. For instance, if you are in the home building supplies industry, look for home-improvement trade shows. It would be hard to promote your products at a classic cars convention since the audience is interested in classic cars.
After locating relevant trade shows and lecture series, it is time to contact the managers in charge of them to ask about the possibility of adding you as a speaker. Once you have received a position in the series it is time to make preparations for the event. You will want to know if a speech is the only requirement or if you should include a question and answer section also. It is important that you practice for each of these occasions. Your friends and employees can help you field possible questions that may arise from responses to your lecture. Expert preparation is critical if you are going to sell your products to people who are prequalified. Since public speaking is a great way to convince potential clients that your business is worth giving a try, you have to know what you are doing.
Professional organizations and clubs offer good opportunities to use public speaking to elevate your business visibility. Charities also provide a good option, and you get to give something back to the community when getting involved with helping to raise money for the cause. Even thought the crowds at charity presentations may not garner as many leads as you might get at trade shows, you will bring more awareness to the community about your company's reputation. Promoting local business is a favorite activity of those who care about the community and you are sure to get the attention of reporters who enjoy putting their names to stories of benevolence. News stories are completely free publicity for your business.
Make Friends with Reporters and Bloggers - Reporters and Bloggers are people too and just like you or me they like to have relationships with people that can help them. Journalists are always on the lookout for interesting stories, which their competition does not know about. Help them find these interesting stories in regards to your business or industry and build up a continuing relationship with them. So how do you start a relationship with a reporter or blogger?
So a search of your favorite sources of news so find articles about your industry, products or services. That may be in local blogs or newspapers if you serve a local audience. Find out who is writing them, and list a few of your favorite journalists. Get to know everything you can about them. Read the latest articles they have written before actually making contact with them so that you can offer insights into what you have read. Make comments on their Facebook pages, on blog comments, or through email. It is not necessary to agree with everything they say, but it is necessary to remain courteous and respectful. Don't say too much, just highlight your thoughts about the industry, service or products mentioned. You can do this each day for a few months or until you get a response back from them. If there is no response, go on to your next favorite writer. Once you have established a good relationship with them, offer an idea for a story that goes with what they have been saying. Highlight what you think the journalist's readers will be interested in. It doesn't matter whether your idea is used or not, it is the relationship you are interested in. Over time, the PR will come is you are receiving responses to your unsolicited comments.
Public speaking and befriending reporters and bloggers is an effective Lean Sales and Marketing technique to generate interest in your business. Effectively using these public relations avenues will generate more interest in your business.
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