public relations strategy

Make email work for your public relations strategy

March 22, 2022 By Rae Hostetler

With so many professionals working from home this year, communications reps like me are using email in campaigns more often than not. As the year lags on here’s the question: Are we suffering email fatigue?

PR Strategy

Perhaps. But I believe when used properly and well, email newsletters and updates can be effective to meet goals in a public relations strategy. Why? I have proof.

One of our global clients work in an industry that’s been extremely dynamic this year. We support writing and sending email updates on industry trends and impact to their clients’ business. Last week an email was sent, and their sales team had email replies from prospects asking for appointments. This tells me people are still opening and reading emails. And in this case, it means new business.

Here are five tips for creating effective email campaigns as a tactic in a larger public relations strategy.

The list: Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and other like email systems allow users to create segmented lists. A public relations strategy should outline your target audience and the segmented lists should line up with those targets. Think clients, prospects, trade associations, chambers and so on.

Sign-ups: Have a sign-up segment set in your email system and link via your website. Then be sure to see who signs up. Promote the sign ups in social media, in your store front, on your business cards and any other communications tool you use.

Content: This is a fancy word for what you want to say to your readers. For our retail-oriented clients, we write about products and things to do. For our business to business clients we write about topics and trends that impact customer business.

Think visually: It’s true, not everyone wants to read a long blog. Paring down content into a graphic tends to help readers grasp the content even if they don’t read the entire article. Canva is a great online tool that’s affordable, user friendly and helpful for creating visuals. Also visually think about your fonts. Consider different sizes and colors for readers to easily see what you’re saying.

Open Rates/click throughs: After you hit send in your email tool, you’re not done. Look at the open rate and how readers clicked to articles/links. Consider about how you can make improvements in the next email.

If you’re interested in making email work for your public relations strategy,
let’s find a good time to talk by phone, Zoom or in-person.

Public relations and marketing strategy 2022: Stick with the basics

December 13, 2021 By Rae Hostetler

The New Year is coming, and that feeling of a fresh calendar always builds a sense of possibilities. Often business leaders want to hear what’s trending to catapult business in a New Year. Our recommendation, stick with the basics and focus on these three areas.

Plan, measure, adjust. Remote and hybrid work is now normal. And that means a strategic marketing/communications plan is essential. Team members need to understand business goals and how their job fits into the bigger picture, especially because they are not all in one place working together five days a week. Creating a plan doesn’t mean hours of laborious work. It means getting the basics documented and shared for focus and understanding.

Based on business goals, what’s the company message?
What are the goals for marketing communications (choose three to do well)?
Who are your key audiences to reach and achieve those business goals?
Document objectives and tactics to support those goals, along with who on the team is responsible for getting the work done. Consider processes, too.
How will you measure effectiveness to ensure accountability and smart spending?

Business leaders who track results of marketing and public relations campaigns can easily see where to adapt and adjust. If a campaign isn’t tracking, why continue that sunk cost?

Focus on employees—their experiences and education. Good employees are hard to find. So why not focusing on the ones you have?

A December 2021 Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce study shows what we already know, employees are thinking about moving on. The study shows a quarter of professionals currently employed plan to look for a new job in 2022. This data echoes national studies. Why?

Employees want to feel valued by being paid well, having work/life balance, realizing growth/advancement opportunities, and working at a company with a good culture. How many times have companies conducted employee opinion polls only to disregard the results? Business leaders say they want questions and feedback from employees about the direction of the company, but do they really? Now is the time you should listen and respond to what employees have to say.

They are in the driver’s seat. Retaining current staff and building a solid culture is essential in today’s business climate. Companies responding are using “stay” interviews. Instead of waiting for an employee to leave and have an “exit” interview, top talent is being asked for their feedback to find out what they need. What they’re saying isn’t a surprise.

Professionals want to trust their managers and hear directly from them about what’s happening at a company. They want to be upskilled with training that gives an opportunity for growth, advancement, and challenges. This makes strategic internal communications that builds culture more critical than ever before.

Still can’t find staff. Think about finding contractors who can complement your workforce—both from a strategic and tactical standpoint. Then treat them as an extension of your team.

Consistent marketing communications—it’s critical. How many starts and stops has your business made with new programs and initiatives? One ad, one news release, one prospect meeting, one employee event isn’t going to create a dramatic business shift. Consistent and strategic communications regularly measured against a marketing communications plan will.

Over a 30-year career I’ve seen the fascination on the faces of business leaders who learn about the latest communications tools—news releases, websites, blogs, brochures, social media. They’ve read a book or gone to a professional session where someone has talked about great success using a new tactic. Now they need it and want it too.

Reality is a well design internal and external communications strategy executed with patience and flexibility (coupled with a thoughtful culture) moves a business’ goals forward. Always ask: how will this be measured. And remember, doing something once rarely makes an impact.

What’s your 2021 public relations strategy?

November 19, 2020 By Rae Hostetler

public relations strategy This year is certainly one we want to forget but will always remember. The New Year is certainly uncertain. Yet business continues. If you’re thinking, “How do I keep the business momentum? Or saying, “Let’s hope next year is better.” Remember this:

“Hope is not a strategy.” (Vince Lombardi)

If you’re ready to plan for a successful growth year, start with strategy by investing time to hear ideas, carefully think about goals and keep people accountable. Here’s how to start.

What are your goals? Use the Rule of 3, which is a productivity technique that focuses on achieving three meaningful outcomes. The Rule of 3 comes from J.D. Meier’s book on agile time management, Getting Results the Agile Way. It creates focus and outcome.
What public relations tools are in place that you can use to reach your goals? Study after study shows that it takes four to seven touches for someone to remember your company, your message and act when they need your product or service. These tactical touches could include email, social media, media relations, advertising, brochures, word of mouth, events and more. Start with what’s available and build.
What’s your company message? Whether you have a small staff under 10 people or a team of thousands working globally, employees should know and understand the company message and goals (refer to number one). They are your word of mouth (refer to tactics in number two). If your company is struggling with message, take time to either have a team member prepare a message or consider a qualitative study that lets customers, vendors, employees and others talk about the company. This process creates an authentic message because the words, phrases and stories come from those closest to your business are your true message.
What’s the plan and budget? With goals, tactics and message ready, outline the plan and assign who’s managing or doing each tactic. If there’s no one with expertise to manage an area of focus, consider outsourcing. Each tactic should have a cost for the budget. Finally add a tactical calendar by month. Too many times company leaders think there’s “plenty of time,” yet the calendar tells a different story.
Who’s holding the team accountable? The final public relations strategy should have a project manager. Each month (at a minimum), the team should review progress along with a measurement dashboard. A strategy is a living document that should be used wisely to meet your three goals.

A good public relations strategy is a few pages using a Word document. We have one client that uses an Excel spreadsheet with the goals posted at the top. The simpler the plan, the easier it is for the staff to understand, participate and support the company’s growth.

Have questions or want to talk PR strategy? Give me a call or send an email.