The Return of Local Public Relations

Businesses and communities that serve local needs are popping up everywhere; the idea of 'local' is now a media darling in the eyes of consumers, and everything from local review sites, to Google and beyond are taking up the flag of local in terms of search, food and goods. Accompanying this is Local PR, a way to increase the popularity of a local product or service with a local public relations campaign. This doesn't mean you move away from a National Campaign, but the local PR is simply a compliment to it.

When done right, Local PR really works well - it takes advantage of the great work your company is doing, and leverages that work at the grassroots level without having to reinvent your brand and message. Like local review sites like Yelp, which has customized their experience to each location, a PR Firm can present a unified voice for your company across the nation, but keep it personal at the local level. By utilizing local TV stations, newspapers and radio, it helps communicate your brand, message and products in a unified, yet personal way.

The idea here is replication: take a large company campaign and replicate the message across several mediums in several different places, yet change specific cultural messages depending on the location. The Midwest may react differently to a particular aspect of your campaign than someone from the Northwest and so on. This can be an effective way to boost awareness of your product nationally and locally at the same time while reducing costs.

So how does one go about creating this type of dual PR campaign? Hire a great PR Firm and work with them to create a great local marketing strategy and local PR program. Any thoughts? Share them below!

Reporters and Experts: A Win Win Situation

I have the utmost respect for the brainpower contained within the leadership teams at my clients' organizations. Many have either launched the enterprise, worked within the organization for decades, or have contributed significantly to the industries in which they work.

In fact, by most standards, they've achieved expert status in their given fields. They've written books, given powerful presentations, taught at universities, mentored and launched careers for others, and do all they can to stay up on the industry by constantly reading.

Knowing that they have a wealth of expertise and experience, as public relations specialists, we can leverage their intimate knowledge on a subject and position them for interviews more easily. It is helpful in both proactive media pitching, as well as reactive. In the first instance we are pitching reporters on ideas, in the latter, reporters have already began working on a story and are seeking experts for their piece.

Now, it should be said that these expert opinion/quote opportunities rarely result in full-feature stories on our clients. Rather, our clients are quoted as an expert, with their companies and specialties noted.

Nonetheless, it is a great way to build awareness and maintain visibility in an industry and reinforce the expert status. Expert positioning isn't the only way to get the good word out for our clients, but it is a tactic that provides benefits on many levels.

PR Firm USA, National Public Relations Firm, Franchise PR Agency

5 Ideas to Turn Your Press Release Into a Media Magnet

Here are five tips to turn your company's public relations beyond normal, everyday press release. These suggestions help provide additional entrance-ways into your firm’s online presence, and help promote the thought leadership of your company's leadership – opening up other media possibilities and a greater number of touchpoints between your organization and its customers.

Leverage Current Events
When choosing a story that already has or is gaining a high level of public awareness, find an unusual hook specific to your company or industry to get your information visibility. For example, a local health club could have connected with the Old Spice YouTube campaign with an article like “21 Tips to Be In Shape Like Old Spice Spokesperson, Isaiah Mustafa.” Ask yourself, what can our firm contribute to the discussion where we have a special perspective? Think in terms of giving advice, not promoting your product and/or services.

Use a survey
Gather publishable data that your market will find interesting. Charles Schwab’s 2010 Family & Money Survey found that twenty-somethings were more interested in financial fitness than physical fitness following the financial meltdown. Remember you’re looking for a way to get people’s attention related to a topic they’re interested in. Your offering shouldn’t be the main focus of the survey!

Extend holiday-related promotions
Develop PR campaigns around promotionally-driven events like back-to-school, Halloween and Thanksgiving. For example, you could write a press release on “5 Reasons Helping Your Child Get Organized for School Improves Grades” and link to a shopping list on your website or specific back-to-school products. Your goal is to provide useful information to customers, which also relates to your products. Alternatively, you could help create an event, like Mashable's “Social Media Day ”.

Incorporate Promos into your press releases
A great example that illustrates this point is from Southwest Airlines: it generated $1.5 million in sales from four press releases. When you use this form of promotion, think about creating special promo codes to track results. Consider that this type of promotion might go viral, so you must have sufficient product or your potential customers will feel cheated.

Spotlight your Clients and Customers
Take a page from American Express, which features customers who use their product in their Open advertising and Lion Brand Yarn, which features a customer project each month in their blog. For a press release, think about how to incorporate your product and something of benefit to prospective customers. For example, Lion Brand Yarn could provide a link to a pattern in their press release and give a discount on the materials. Remember to get permission and a release for using customers’ photographs. Many customers are thrilled to get the attention.

Chicago PR Firm, Franchise Public Relations Agency, Public Relations Agency

How to Gain Publicity for your Business

In business everyone is always looking for new and better ways to gain as much publicity as they can, generate as much traffic and attention to their business in a short amount of time. On of the biggest secret weapons to gaining more publicity is something that people rarely think about since it isn’t seen that much, editorial calendars.

Margie Zabel Fisher recently did an article on Small Business Trends on this way of gaining more publicity for your business. If you can gain access to editorial calendars and know about upcoming stories that will be published, or upcoming topics that are to be discussed, you can include your notes and suggestions.

This has the general idea that by you contributing your notes, suggestions and suggested topics you will in turn gain more publicity for your business. You can also incorporate your ads into some of the topics and editorials that you find.

Offer story ideas with enough lead time. The lead time for publications varies, and can be as much as six months or more. If you’re not sure of the lead time, assume three to six months. If you need help gaining publicity for your business, give All Points Public Relations a call at 847.580.4233 or email us!

How to work with the Media and Journalists

As a former reporter, I have a lot of experience working with fellow journalists and media personalities. There are certain steps and traditional etiquette that most reporters and PR consultants follow in order to keep healthy relationships with key outlets. Follow these suggestions to not only cultivate a good relationship with your media contacts, but also develop long-term contacts to further your business.

What to look for in a PR Firm: The Good and the Bad

When a company hires a Public Relations Firm, they expect to start gaining some publicity fairly quickly. Why? Because the effectiveness of Public Relations can be seen almost immediately, if the right processes and steps are taken to secure coverage. It also helps to have a firm on your side that understands the business and industry they're working with: the media.

After working in the Public Relations Industry and at a well known PR firm, it's time we take stock in our own firm, and give advice to all of you in what to look for.