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The how-to-do-it e-newsletter for PR and marketing
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Now's the time for PR to connect with business
Ever felt unloved? I refer, of course, to your PR work rather than any more intimate relationship. I ask the question because one of the themes that’s come through from PRs I’ve been speaking to during the past month is the fact that they don’t always feel their work is appreciated where it matters – among senior managers and in the boardroom.
That’s, perhaps, not surprising in the present troubled economic climate. Many boardrooms see PR as a low-cost way out of their marketing problems. So they’ve ratcheted up the pressure on the PR people to get more results. Trouble is, of course, they haven’t always ratcheted up the budget.
Of course, many PR people don’t deserve the brickbats that are sometimes aimed at them from the boardroom. But not all PR people have made as much effort as they should to talk about what they do in language that makes sense round the boardroom table. That’s why we kick off this issue with a thoughtful insight from Diane Thieke, executive director public relations and strategic communication, Enterprise Media Group Dow Jones, on 10 ways PR can talk business language.
Grainne Rothery is one of the leading business journalists in Ireland. She’s editor of Ireland’s Marketing Age and contributes to other newspapers, magazines and websites. She gives a view of what journalists in the Emerald Isle want from PR.
Here’s what one editor told me about some of the headlines he reads on press releases: “The worst failure in press releases is to use a weak pun as a headline that tells you nothing about why the story matters.” In Press Release Clinic, we look at the art and science of writing effective press release headlines.
China is the coming economic power in the world – already the third largest economy. But how many UK PRs know how to do PR in China? Dr Kevin Lin has worked for the BBC World Service producing radio and TV shows for China. Since setting up KL Communications, he’s advised PR companies, among others, about getting across effective messages in China. He shares his deep knowledge in this issue.
One of the popular features of PR Success Monthly is the “Sponsored Weblink” section, which you’ll find in the right-hand column. You can link easily to a range of organisations that have useful services for PR. If you’d like to have a sponsored weblink in the next issue, you’ll find details of how to go about it there.
Peter Bartram
Editor
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10 ways PR can talk business language
Diane Thieke, executive director, public relations and strategic communication, Enterprise Media Group Dow Jones, and author of a new e-book on translating PR results into the language of business, shows how intangible PR results can be presented as success factors to the rest of the organisation As communications experts, we should find it easy to convey the value of our services to the business managers in our organisations. Yet many PR professionals struggle to express results in a way that makes senior executives instantly recognise the impact that public relations has on business success.
Some of today’s public relations measurement practices need to change. The metrics we share with business executives must demonstrate PR’s strategic contribution. To do this, PR metrics must be tied to company objectives, linked to the bottom-line and, perhaps most importantly, become forward-looking.
So here are 10 tips, taken from my e-book, which can get you thinking about how to do this in your organisation.
1. Go ahead and jump in – before you get pushed. PR Week reported that nearly 60 per cent of companies with formal measurement tools in place created them at the request of senior management. But waiting for a top-down directive means that you may give up the ability to define what will be measured and how it is done. You’ll also miss the opportunity to be proactive in the eyes of your management team.
2. Speak the language of business. Company objectives should be used to define PR metrics or your communications performance indicators (CPIs). If your CPI metrics are not part of the company’s key performance indicators, consider how they might have an indirect effect on them. You can then put them in context to demonstrate how your efforts impact the top KPIs. For example, if customer retention is a KPI, consider showing how your PR efforts affected customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction then becomes a part of your CPIs.
3. One-trick ponies don’t last in the circus. Public relations must be evaluated from several angles. Then data must be combined to provide a complete picture. The balanced scorecard, first introduced for the PR world by PR scholars (Anderson and Hadley, 1999, and Fleisher and Mahaffrey, 1997), is a useful tool because it combines several dimensions and incorporates both quantitative and qualitative measures.
4. Connect the dots between clip counts. Among the executives interviewed, not one mentioned the amount of coverage received as a key indicator of PR success. Instead, they cited the key role public relations plays in managing corporate reputation.
5. Don’t miss the point. You need to understand the key business issues and any “cause and effect” that comes as a consequence of your communications strategy. You may wander into uncharted territory – areas of the business that you know nothing about – but it’s a great way to increase your knowledge of the business. And by offering strategic advice, you can alter the course of the business.
6. Measure perception, not coverage. Opinions, observations and viewpoints can all be collected through interviews and surveys. One PR professional tracked perception of his company by using a sophisticated media analysis tool that combined media analytics with survey data and share price information. This combined picture provided a complete assessment of the perception of the company in the marketplace. When repeated over time, this type of analysis can clearly show the impact of a communications strategy.
7. Count the sheep while tending the flock. Behind the scenes, your team works hard to educate the media about your organisation and the issues with which it is connected. This constant effort not only ensures good coverage, but also prevents you from being linked to unfavourable issues that have little to do with your company.
8. Set your sights on the competition. Competitive benchmarking can be done for almost any type of measurement, but should be based on your company’s objectives. Both surveys and media analysis can be structured to assess your own organisation’s results against those of your competitors.
9. Show the love – then measure it. One surprising finding was how often the executives interviewed mentioned the importance of relationships with customers, employees, the community and the media. The first three were considered key indicators of the health of the company. Since public relations is primarily concerned with managing perception and building strategic relationships, this should be one of the key metrics that you report to senior leadership. Relationships can be effectively measured through surveys or focus groups.
10. Pretty pictures aren’t just for walls. Recognise that presentation of your measurement report is important. You must understand your audience and the type of metrics they need. Give them too much, and they won’t read it; give them too little, and you’ve lost the opportunity to show your strategic skills.
See Sponsored Links in the right-hand column of the newsletter for details about how to download the full e-book.
BUSINESS-FOCUSED PR: If you handle your PR in-house (rather than through an agency) the Perfect Public Relations Masterclass in London on Tuesday 2nd June will give you new insights into how to deliver PR coverage that delights the board. More details and online booking at www.howtodoyourownpr.co.uk
Five minutes with... Grainne Rothery
Grainne Rothery is editor of Ireland’s Marketing Age, and contributes to other leading business publications including Businessandleadership.com, Irish Director and Owner Manager.
1. What I want from PR people ...
…is an understanding of the publications I work on and the ability and willingness to provide relevant and topical information and access to people who might be interesting to our readers. Being accessible and responding quickly to requests is also important.
2. The best way to get my attention ...
…is to contact me initially to chat about the kind of news, ideas, interviewees, etc, I’m interested in - or not, as the case may be - and how you can best provide the relevant information, contacts and so on.
3. But please don’t ...
…phone after sending a press release to ask me if I received it. Life’s too short!
4. When pitching a story to me ...
…it will help if it’s obvious that you have a good understanding of the target publication, the kind of articles, news and imagery we include, and our readership. Also, as with most publications, we’ll want some kind of exclusivity. It’s important to be up-front if you’ve pitched the same story to a number of people.
5. If you’re sending a press release, I want...
…newsworthy information and all the relevant facts. Press releases generally aren’t much use if they’re three weeks out of date. It’s also pretty easy to spot a press release that has been thrown together for the sake of it rather than because you have genuine news. Photos – either enclosed, available to download or to be sent immediately on request – are always welcome. It’s worth having a selection of images (not every publication wants a photo of a model draped over your new product). Clean and simple copy works best.
6. The most successful PR people ...
…try to build up long-term professional relationships with journalists. They understand that they - and their pitches - are much more likely to be taken seriously if they make the effort to establish trust over time.
GET EDITORS’ ATTENTION: If you want to discover some effective ways to pitch ideas to editors, the Perfect Pitch Masterclass in London on the afternoon of Thursday 30th April will help you. It’s a training course based on what 75 editors and senior journalists want from PR pitches. More information and online booking at www.perfectpitchmasterclass.co.uk
Press release clinic: headline news
Peter Bartram provides a simple formula to help you write winning headlines on press releases
The headline is the first part of a press release that a journalist reads. Yet many headlines on press releases fail for a number of reasons. Some don’t focus on the main point of the story. Others are complex or technical. Yet more fall back on posing supposedly intriguing questions or cracking weak puns. It’s almost as though there’s a black spot when it comes to writing headlines.
The press release headline has to do two jobs. First, it has to summarise the main point of the release. Secondly, it has to arouse the interest of editors. Many release headlines achieve the first of those objectives but not the second.
The key to hitting both of the targets is to look at the job of writing the headline as a two-step process. The first step is to write a headline which summarises the main point of the story. Do that and you might come up with something like these:
Boggins launches shampoo
MassiveCo announces profit
Amalgamated appoints CEO
Each of these signals clearly what the story is about. But each also signals that the story might not have much to offer. This is because none of them provides an “angle” on the story. So the second step is to introduce into the headline a piece of information that provides an angle. Often this will be a single fact which is central to the release’s angle. So the headlines above would then become:
Boggins launches chemical-free shampoo
MassiveCo announces record £50m profit
Amalgamated appoints first woman CEO
None of these headlines goes out of its way to be clever, but each makes it clear what the story is all about. That’s about as much as a journalist is looking for from a headline. Remember that the headline you put on your press release will rarely be picked up and used unchanged in the newspaper or magazine. The sub-editors will write their own headline based on how they plan to use the story and the space available.
However, there are a couple of other points you might want to bear in mind when writing headlines. First, most headlines work well when they include a strong finite verb which makes it clear what’s going on. So in the examples above, the verbs “launches”, “announces” and “appoints” are the key to understanding the point of the story.
The second is that short words work best in headlines. So, for example, an “investigation” becomes a “probe”, a “disagreement” may be a “row”, an “initiative” may be a “bid”. And so on. It pays to develop your vocabulary of potent headline words. But take care not to overdo it. A mild disagreement, for example, is not a “row”.
One final important point. The promise in the headline must be delivered in the press release. If you’re a PR under pressure from a client to get some coverage it’s very tempting to write a sensational headline in the hope that it will grab some attention. But editors are experienced at seeing a real story from a piece of puffery. And it pays in the long run to have a reputation for writing headlines that deliver the goods in the story.
SHARPEN YOUR PRESS RELEASE WRITING: There’s a great opportunity to take a fresh look at your press release writing at the Perfect Press Release Masterclass which is taking place in London on the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd July. Get more information and book online at www.prmasterclass.co.uk
A quick introduction to doing PR in China
Dr Kevin Lin, head of KL Communications, says that doing effective PR in China means thinking like the Chinese themselves
A group of girls called “Miss PR” danced to deafening music on a make-shift stage heavily branded in a consumer product’s logo. That’s what PR means to many Chinese. But that doesn’t mean you should discard what you know about British PR when planning a Chinese campaign. The challenge is to learn what works in Chinese PR.
Start with the basics. PR is about communicating a message. It must be pertinent to China. A few years ago, we did a PR survey on the top three issues Chinese students and parents consider when choosing a UK university. The biggest surprise was “crime rate” came in number three after “university ranking” and “fees”. Yet few corporate communications campaigns for China start by researching the target audience.
Many are conceived in English by people who don’t specialise in China. An example: a UK Trade and Investment document inviting Chinese companies to invest in the UK read: “We support all UK-based international companies.” It wanted to say that UKTI supports investors in the UK, including Chinese. But most Chinese reading that message would think it excluded China. To them, “international” means the world outside China and “UK-based” means British locals only.
Another example: Coca-Cola once used this line in China: “If everyone could see the glass as half full and not half empty, the world would be a much better place.” Whoever translated it into Chinese would have had a hell of a time – the concept doesn’t exist in China. Even when faithfully translated, the copy would still puzzle Chinese.
There are three pitfalls in translating PR messages into Chinese. First, too often the translation is given little or no thought - bizarre when the message is the combined wisdom and labour of a team over weeks, even months. Secondly, a single translator is usually no expert in PR messaging or branding. Even native Chinese may not be able to handle creative use of language at this level. Thirdly, few translators in China are savvy enough in English to understand fully a highly condensed message. So it becomes lost in translation.
An example: in the UK, “You are worth it,” clearly means “you”, the consumer, are worth “it”, the product. The Chinese version becomes: “You are worth owning” - the intimacy of “you” is lost along with the pun. Messages translated into Chinese frequently lack emotional resonance. To avoid this, translation should be done by a bi-lingual communication specialist with genuine understanding and enough time to consider the work carefully.
Doing effective PR in China is partly about seizing opportunities not available here. In China, news is not necessarily what’s currently happening – it’s what’s not already been reported. There are thousands of newspapers and magazines as well as radio and TV stations in China. They are all hungry for stories. And an interesting piece can be picked up a month after it’s appeared somewhere else. Devise a PR campaign on that basis and see your story continue to appear for weeks across the country.
Many Chinese journalists, including those at leading media organisations, know little more about the UK than a handful of icons and often write about us in stereotypes. They are serving a nation galvanised into catching up with the West. The history of companies that won’t make it into any national newspaper here because they’re old stories can win successful coverage in China. But you must make the stories pertinent in ways that will resonate with Chinese. Pertinence and Resonance = PR China.
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Contents
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Diary dates:
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Training events for PR and marketing professionals:
Thursday 30th April: Perfect Pitch Masterclass, London.
How to devise article and interview pitches that journalists really want to hear
More: www.perfectpitchmasterclass.co.uk
Tuesday 2nd June: Perfect Public Relations Masterclass, London.
A practical workshop for organisations that want to win more of their own media coverage
More: www.howtodoyourownpr.co.uk
Thursday 18th June: Perfect Proposals & Presentations Masterclass. London.
How PR and marketing consultancies can improve pitches to win more business
More: www.perfectproposals.co.uk
Wednesday 1st July: Writing for Publication Masterclass, London.
How to write news stories and feature articles that editors want to publish
More: www.writingforpublication.co.uk
Wednesday 22nd July: Perfect Press Release Masterclass, London.
A journalist’s eye view on how to write releases that make it into print
More: www.prmasterclass.co.uk
Thursday 1st October: Perfect Press Release Masterclass, London.
A journalist’s eye view on how to write releases that make it into print
More: www.prmasterclass.co.uk
Wednesday 7th October: Writing for Publication Masterclass, Manchester Business School.
How to write news stories and feature articles that editors want to publish
More: www.writingforpublication.co.uk
Wednesday 7th October: Perfect Proposals & Presentations Masterclass. Manchester Business School.
How PR and marketing consultancies can improve pitches to win more business
More: www.perfectproposals.co.uk
Thursday 8th October: Perfect Pitch Masterclass, Manchester Business School.
How to devise article and interview pitches that journalists really want to hear
More: www.perfectpitchmasterclass.co.uk
Tuesday 27th October: Perfect Proposals & Presentations Masterclass. London.
How PR and marketing consultancies can improve pitches to win more business
More: www.perfectproposals.co.uk
Wednesday 28th October: Perfect Public Relations Masterclass, London.
A practical workshop for organisations that want to win more of their own media coverage
More: www.howtodoyourownpr.co.uk
Wednesday 2nd December: Perfect Pitch Masterclass, London.
How to devise article and interview pitches that journalists really want to hear
More: www.perfectpitchmasterclass.co.uk
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BNI
Business Network International provides a structured business environment where all members find work for other members. Business Wire
From press release distribution to SEO services to multimedia - the complete selection of PR services and tools you'll ever need. Caroline Duffy Graphic Design
Looks count! Good graphic design ensures you're making the best of your marketing budget. Call now for a free consultation. KL Communications
KL Communications, a corporate communications consultancy with three main specialisms - branding, translation and interpretation - works with PR and advertising agencies. Nick Sinclair Photography
Delivering innovative and creative imagery to clients in PR, corporate communications and design companies for 20 years. PR for the bottom-line
PR metrics must tie to company objectives. Here are 10 tips for translating PR results into demonstrable business success.
Worldwide Webdesign
Worldwide Webdesign is an advanced web design company, which has designed websites for many clients in the UK, and abroad.
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Worth knowing:
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Write well...
Language is an important tool for PR professionals. And, when it comes to PR writing, clear and simple English is best. Yet all kinds of management speak creeps into press releases and other marketing materials. Here’s one chief executive announcing the launch of a new product.
“I believe the cross-pollination of creative properties in multiple media formats with a vertical market approach allows companies to maximise the return from their investment in creative properties and talents and will prove to be the economic engine for our industry in the future.”
Hmmmm! The problem is that this kind of language is creeping across written English like algae on a lake. How to Write Well at Work is a book which proclaims the virtues of writing clear English and shows how to do it. “A concise and useful guide for those who lack confidence in their writing…” said the magazine Business Age.
The book points out how the very act of writing has changed in the digital age. “There used to be a decent distance between spoken and written English. But mobile phone texting and e-mails have shrunk that distance in the minds of a generation of workplace writers. We now need to ask the question: when is the written word not the written word?”
The book argues that the computer revolution has had a profound impact on the way people write. “When people used pen and ink or typewriters, it was difficult and time-consuming to make changes. You had to rewrite a whole page or type a new document. So you thought carefully about what you were going to write before putting it down on paper.
“Writing on screen is a different kind of creative process. Instead of working out in your mind what you want to say before committing it to paper, you try it out on screen, knowing it’s easy to change if you don’t like it. As a result, you can work faster, using the screen as though it were an extra lobe of your brain.” That’s fine if your first thoughts are good. Too often, they’re not but the writer lets them stand.
Read a chapter online: You can read the first chapter online at www.writewellatwork.co.uk How to Write Well at Work is published by New Venture Publishing at £12.95. ISBN: 978-0-9552336-2-3
Recession PR
There are some specific PR opportunities in the recession. The first of these comes from the simple fact that “news” is often something which is unusual – out of the ordinary. So when most of the news around is bad – lower sales, staff lay-offs, bankruptcies, branch closures and the like – the positive story can suddenly make headlines. So, lesson one, accentuate the positive.
The second opportunity comes from the fact that in a recession people are confused and looking for expert guidance. So there will be many opportunities to place articles on subjects ranging from how to sell your house in a downturn to keeping out of bankruptcy.
The key here will be to look for likely news pegs on which to hang these ideas and to make them fresh by giving each story an original angle – what a journalist would call “moving the story on”.
The third opportunity lies in the fact that events are moving fast – each day seems to bring some twist to the recession story. And, in all of this, the media is constantly looking for expert comment to interpret and explains what’s happening.
Those firms which tend to get their directors and senior managers into the press and on radio and television are those which have the ability to move fast. They are tuned into the media’s pace of working.
No doubt there will be plenty of other opportunities as events unfold in the next few months. The sharp PRs will be keeping their eyes wide open, scanning the horizon for changes before they happen. Thinking ahead is a great way to get ahead of the PR pack at the best of times – especially so when times are tough.
Learn recession PR: The Perfect Public Relations Masterclass in London on Tuesday 2nd June is a great opportunity to discover how to use PR resources more effectively during a recession. To see the full Masterclass programme and make a booking online go to www.howtodoyourownpr.co.uk
Press release survey
A survey of 89 editors and senior journalists gave the six most common reasons for not using a press release. They are:
1 Irrelevant to their interests. Every day, editors receive releases which have no conceivable relevance to the subjects they cover. Those PRs who take care to target carefully get more attention.
2 No story or weak story. A release ought to contain some intrinsically interesting information that an editor would want to pass on to readers. PRs who understand the kind of material a publication uses score because they look for relevant ideas, then tailor their release in a way which makes an editor sit up and take notice.
3 Self-promotion or puffery. Too many people who send out releases don’t seem to understand the difference between news and advertising. Editors hate having to wade through pages of boastful hype extolling an organisation and all its works.
4 Poor English. A significant proportion of releases contain spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. Most editors in the survey said errors are a certain turn-off.
5 Confusing jargon. Some press releases seem to have been written by computer.
6 Too long. Many press releases combine the twin faults of being too long – but not providing enough information. That’s because the information they do provide tends to be irrelevant background about the company, while key facts about the story – the value of the contract, the date of the product launch – are left out.
Write press releases that editors want: The Press Release Masterclass, taking place in London on Wednesday afternoon, 22nd July contains much more information about what makes the 89 editors decide to use a press release. More details and online booking at www.prmasterclass.co.uk
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Contact details
We hope you find this newsletter of interest. If you have any queries or would like to make a suggestion about future content, please contact New Venture Publishing using the contact details below.
New Venture Publishing Ltd, 29 Tivoli Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 5BG, UK.
Tel: +44 1273 565505. E-mail: info@newventurepublishing.co.uk
© New Venture Publishing Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.
New Venture Publishing Ltd is registered in England & Wales, number 5606789
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