Press

Gone are the days when we used only words to tell a great story. Today, especially when communicating sustainability, we rely more on the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Please don’t get us wrong; words, statistics and data measurements are crucial to sharing a company’s focus on the triple-bottom-line, but we need to use more visual and compelling elements to truly portray a commitment to sustainability. That’s the only way to break through. Furthermore, effectively communicating sustainability can be a key driver in positive organizational change.

We live in a world where people are bombarded every day with new messages and up-to-date information. In fact, here are a few statistics supporting this phenomenon:

The average person gets one information interruption every eight minutes, or approximately seven an hour and 50-60 per day.
The average American is exposed to 247 commercial messages and 3,000 advertising messages each day.

Message vehicles vary from social media posts to text messages, emails, face-to-face interactions, radio commercials, online and in-print articles and advertisements, bus signage, billboards and even logos on buildings.

In the midst of this chaos, we have found several ways to cut through the clutter and stand out — sustainability is too important not to communicate it effectively.

In the ultra-competitive field of luxury real estate marketing, social media can be your secret weapon. Here’s how strategic platforms can help set your brand apart, and drive conversions.

• Social media is an ideal place to create and share your brand narrative.
• With social media usage consistently on the rise, these platforms help lead users to your website.
• The visual nature of social platforms like Facebook and Instagram is ideal for marketing luxury real estate.
• Luxury real estate doesn’t exactly sell itself — if you’re a marketer, you’re well aware of this fact! The relatively limited customer base and highly competitive field make it crucial for luxury real estate brands to set themselves and their properties above the pack. When it comes to marketing luxury real estate, social media can be your best friend.

Of course, social media marketing and real estate are a match made in heaven. Real estate is inherently personal, even at the corporate and luxury levels, and marketers can use social media to great effect in cultivating productive relationships with leads.

As the influence of digital and social media has soared, PR agencies who focus primarily on earned media (once known as publicity) are often warned that they’re falling behind.

There are regular calls for PR services to include paid media and other offerings. Many firms like to brag about how little they depend on earned coverage generated for clients. They’ve moved on to other things.

This is understandable, in part because PR is much more than media relations. But it’s also about the bottom line; the fastest way to grow is to offer more services, ideally those that can be automated and offered at high margins. PR agencies naturally want a piece of the digital media budget pie. Large firms in particular have big overhead to feed and face constant pressure to add offerings.

Earned Media: Labor-Intensive, Hard To Scale
Earned media work is notoriously hard to scale. When Tom Foremski referred to public relations as “an artisanal, hand-crafted service operating within a brave new digital media world that rewards scale,” he was probably talking about the back-and-forth that results in earned coverage. It’s difficult and time-consuming in practice — an inexact and often inefficient process that takes talent, imagination, and timing, and that rests on relationships.

But reports of earned media’s death are premature. A new study on the credibility of various information sources shows that it may be more relevant than ever. Three researchers looked at how people evaluate earned news stories, traditional ads, native ads, independent blogs, and branded blogs. The study’s authors surveyed 1500 members of a consumer panel and conducted focus groups with 46 of them.

The upshot? Consumers found earned media stories the most credible of all the information sources they reviewed.

Earned Media Beats Paid And Native Ads
It always comes down to credibility. That’s what earned media offers – within limits – and that’s what many PR agencies still deliver. It’s also notable that although the highest percentage of study participants found earned media stories the most credible among all the news and ads provided, they valued posts written by independent bloggers, rating them more credible than corporate blog content.

The news isn’t all bad for paid media, though. Though study participants considered ads less credible than earned media, they found them useful and showed a sophisticated understanding of how different information sources work together. The study’s authors points out, “people recognize that companies will face legal consequences if they don’t tell the truth.”

Negative Comments Add Credibility
Interestingly, negative information or reviews aren’t a dealbreaker for most people; in fact, they tend to enhance authenticity and therefore can make an earned media story or social post more credible.

What fared the worst in the study were the native ads shown to participants. Nearly half considered them the least credible information source, using words like “sneaky,” “tricky,” and “disingenuous.”

So, should PR agencies double down on their earned media offerings? Not necessarily.

The point is that when preparing to buy a product or service, people tend to get information from many sources. PR campaigns should continue to deliver messages and tell stories across paid, earned, shared, and owned channels. Yet the study does reinforce the central role of earned media as a PR deliverable, and it’s backed up by the results of PRWeek’s most recent Agency Business Report. Earned media remains a centerpiece of what we do, and although many agencies are expanding their offerings, it’s valuable both as a key service and as a point of view that stresses the credibility of a brand message.

PR Firms Can’t Be All Things To Clients
There’s also the credibility of the agency offering itself. The mega-firms who’ve invested in paid media services can plausibly do so, but many simply can’t be all things to all clients. Look at the flipside; today it’s common for branding, digital marketing, or even SEO agencies to say they offer PR or earned media services. But no knowledgeable communications professional would trust them with a major PR campaign. The promise just isn’t credible.

Bottom line, we should focus less on the superiority of any one source of information and more on better integration of messages that are consistent and compelling across all platforms and channels – including earned media, which will be a key part of public relations for a long time to come.

There was a time when PR was associated with free publicity and marketing with paid advertising. That distinction has blurred since the popularity of the internet, especially social media. On the other hand, it depends upon whom you ask.

For companies selling products or services, marketing, and public relations have the same goal of producing positive returns that result in increased business and profits. That has never changed but social media has drawn the lines closer together in what’s called relationship management. It’s also called relationship marketing.

How so?

Paying for an ad on Google would normally be labeled marketing while paying for materials to nurture a potential customer would generally be considered PR. It was kind of a one-two punch. PR set up the potential customer and generated goodwill and interest wile marketing followed up with a deal that the customer couldn’t refuse and acted on.

What Is Relationship Management?

Relationship management aims to draw a consumer deeper into the company’s service and/or product circle with comments, feedback and offers to become more engaged. Once a person likes a product or service on social media, it opens a doorway for the company to connect even more closely by sharing and informing the customer about recent advances, changes, etc. for what they liked.

Relationship management then is a hybrid of both marketing and PR.

Different Schools of Thought

Some observers would tell you that social marketing aims for a larger market, while PR concentrates on the existing one. Others would argue that PR today throws out a bigger net to not only appeal to current customers, but also potential ones. That outreach could be enormous. Consider how some GoFundMe stories and sites have become overnight social media sensations and successes. There’s validity in the latter argument. In order to survive and grow, PR has to extend its boundaries. That’s the value and difference of blogs, influencers and other strategies that weren’t popular a decade ago.

As with the evolution of so many other things, it’s time for marketing and PR to unite.

Combine Both For Success

Should marketing and PR be separate? To achieve maximum success today, both should be located within the same department so they can coordinate and collaborate. They should be supervised by the same person.

By working more closely together, marketers and PR folks not only learn to collaborate but also discover more about each other’s arenas which enables them to become even more effective and successful. Providing meaningful content as well as exceptional information to customers and potential ones will only serve to generate more leads but also a much-appreciated increase in sales

Now is the time to bring the PR and marketing together.

Google search rankings and website traffic are among the key metrics for PR and marketing analytics. That’s one reason PR firms stay abreast of the latest Google algorithm updates.

Google constantly tweaks its algorithm. It made 3,200 changes last year alone. Staying attuned to Google’s algorithm changes helps secure better positioning in search results for the corporate and brand websites – and for other content created by PR.

Google releases significant changes to its algorithm – what it calls core updates — several times a year. Some websites suffer substantial drops in rankings, much to the dismay of SEO pros and website managers. Some think Google has penalized them and desperately seek a quick fix.

No, they likely haven’t done anything wrong and there might not be anything to fix, writes Danny Sullivan, Google’s public liaison of search. The websites only dropped relative to other sites that produced superior content.

Key Content Questions to Ponder

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
• Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
• Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

SEO experts have listed 200 ranking factors, some more technical than others, but Google continues to emphasize the significance of superior content. Over time, Google’s search engine algorithm has become far more sophisticated in its ability to rate expertise, authority and trustworthiness.

Google’s continued effort to rate content means PR may have a greater role in managing websites, creating story content and improving page rankings. For page one ranking, the Google algorithm prefers in-depth information and analysis

It wants definitive content that offers a thorough and preferably complete account of the subject. That’s why

PR pros who manage corporate and brand websites can benefit from Google’s advice on how to manage the constant updates to its search engine algorithm.

Superb content and writing for readers, not search engines, offers the best path to page one placement in search results.

Just completed a presentation to the Southeast Building Conference on brand development for builders, general contractors and developers.

The audience had an interest in learning more about how rebranding or retargeting fits into their overall marketing strategy to reach prospects and customers.

Retargeting is a form of targeting online advertising to reach people who have already visited a website or are already in a database as a lead or customer.

Retargeting ads reach people based on their previous internet actions.

Developers want to sell more home sites in thir communities, sell them faster, at a greater profit, and have more demand for those home sites from successful builders.

Builders want to sell more homes at higher profits, and both need to have an overall greater customer satisfaction level.

What does it take? A cohesive, coordinated marketing and positioning program in which the developer cooperates with their primary customers — builders — by assisting them in reaching their primary customers — potential home buyers.

Branding can create a scenario where the overall community is well-positioned within the marketplace, with a central information or sales facility, community advertising, and cohesive signage.

This generates more consumer demand for homes in that particular community. As a result, builders sell homes faster and the developer realizes quicker returns. By creating higher sales velocity, prices may even justifiably increase.

A developer can accomplish positive results through a marketing program designed to draw new-home prospects to the community. This could include all or part of the following: a well-designed website; an effective  public relations campaign, an ad campain, billboards, and directional signs; on-site promotional events; targeted social media; direct mail; and positive media exposure.

All of these activities should be implemented as a result of a well-thought-through marketing strategy, with the costs amortized over all the builders and the developer.

Whether a hotel is small, inexpensive, luxury, a resort, near a national park, or something else, PR should be a primary concern for any destination. For all types of hotels and whether or not a PR professional is in their budget, it’s still important to get the word out and keep getting it out.

In small communities near a significant tourist attraction, there are built-in approaches that can be shared on websites and social media. But the truth is, for all hotels one of the most important things to know is what about your hotel is special, unique, outstanding, or better than others in a similar price range in the area.

FIND WHAT’S UNIQUE
A honeymoon specialty resort in the Poconos might have a heart-shaped or champagne glass tub, a fireplace, and a round bed, and pictures of those should be on the website, but many other hotels in the area will also have those. Either look for or create something unique to your hotel, maybe horse riding lessons or putting that tub with sauna jets out on a private balcony overlooking particularly scenic views. It could also be a four-star Michelin rated restaurant on the premises. Whatever is special about your place should be key to all your advertisements and PR, setting you apart from the rest.

If you aren’t certain, then speak to your visitors, ask them what they loved about their stay, what they think would make it better, and ultimately, ask them to write a quick paragraph about your place. Offer them something special for doing so – maybe five free postcards or two-for-one coupons to a local bakery.

Do something special after they leave. Send a thank you or if they came celebrating an anniversary or birthday, make note of it in your calendar to send a card the next year to commemorate and offer something in celebration of that event. It might be an all-day lift ticket if you operate a ski resort, or send a picture of how beautiful nature is there during your off-season.

PR BENEFITS
PR is usually less expensive than ad campaigns, but they can also work together to amplify your efforts. For small hotels, using social media platforms is a good way to do some targeted advertising without spending a lot of money. Just make sure you get professional-grade photos for your efforts. If you don’t want to spend a lot, offer your guests the opportunity for a free night added to a paid two-night stay if they win a monthly photo contest of the area or something about the hotel they loved.

Talk to employees about extracurricular activities and share their stories with the local newspaper, then share those articles on social media right after it comes out as well as about a month later, and then maybe again six months later. People don’t see all the things listed on social media since only so many things appear on a news feed on the sites.

Small hotels may take advantage of opportunities to list travel-related sites to share their unique and special traits such as extreme customer service or maybe a breakfast buffet for all guests that features fresh blueberry items if the hotel is in blueberry country. Have free drop-off and pick-up service to a nearby amusement park or other activity.

IDEAS FOR A HOTEL PR CAMPAIGN

• Look at sites for other hotels near and far to see what works for them and get ideas, then make them applicable to your place.
• Share stories on social media about events in the community, local places to visit, annual festivals, even who the best local teachers are for skiing, swimming, snorkeling, and surfing. Tell about where the best place to find arrowheads, seashells, souvenirs trinkets, etc.
• Mention special services like a spa, driving range for golf, tennis lessons from a pro, or family style eating for guests.
• Always ask for them to write a brief review or to share what they liked best on their social media accounts.
• Word of mouth PR is one of the most effective ways to promote your business.

Public relations, or PR, is all about your restaurant’s image.

When it works, it is basically free advertising, and can provide exponential word-of-mouth impact. Its ultimate goal, media exposure, is especially powerful because it is seen as unbiased. The general public trusts the media or public figures to filter through restaurants and give honest feedback. If someone has heard about your restaurant through the media, and in a positive light, then you have won half of the battle for customers.

But how exactly do you get press coverage for your restaurant when you haven’t really got a lot to talk about? Sure, when you are opening your doors it’s relatively easy to get press, but for existing restaurants sometimes it’s hard to have the valuable ongoing press coverage, especially just when you need it—when times are slow.

Just as you should target ideal customers to be most effective, so you should target restaurant journalists and other members of the media. As with staff, customers and anyone else within the restaurant’s circle of contacts, you need to think “win-win.”

To do this, start small and work on building a relationship. Keep in mind that journalists are always on the lookout for new information and stories. Make it your job to keep them abreast of what is happening in the industry or community. Be consistent and regular in contacting them. Don’t send one communication about your restaurant and be done. And don’t just send press releases. Become a source for them, freely giving information, even when there isn’t a story in it for your restaurant. Your goodwill will be returned.

Restaurant journalists may be always looking for stories, but the fact that Aunt Ida thinks your seafood chowder is wonderful isn’t really going to pique their interest. You need an angle if you want to get media attention. What can you do?

• Become an expert. Once established as an expert, the media will come to you regularly for input on various topics. One of the best ways to acquire “expert” status is to write a cookbook, or a book about your experiences. This can also count for your staff, so if your chef is really outstanding or uses special techniques then leverage this in an article.

• Share real news. Whether it’s an expansion, an important new employee, or a new/special menu, journalists like real news. Make sure to send out a press release every time something truly new is happening with the restaurant.

• Be first or be unique. A new menu or dish, using a local supplier or a new cooking technique… anything that is likely to change the terrain is good fodder for news.

• Look for local angles. News that has a community hook will help you get valuable local exposure. Maybe your restaurant is catering an important event, or has helped the neighborhood Boy Scout troop start a new fundraising campaign. If it’s local news then talk about it to local and regional media.

• Show you are up on the latest trends. A new menu that taps into the hottest food craze could create interest. If it’s linked to something already in the news and getting exposure then ride on the wave of that news.

• Share human interest stories. Everybody loves inspirational stories. If you have helped someone overcome their problems, have a program for hard-to-employ staffers, meals, have an all-woman team or woman chef, or are helping tackle a community problem, talk about it.

It’s a good idea to prepare an electronic media kit for your restaurant. It contains a letter explaining why you are approaching the journalist, a press release about the restaurant and the following:
• Backgrounder with historical information on the restaurant and owner or chef;
• A fact sheet listing specific features, information, and details;
• Restaurant marketing messages such as the restaurant’s values;
• Service descriptions;
• Case studies and testimonials;
• Biographies and photos of the management team and key people in the organization, including quotes;
• Good-quality, high-resolution photos of the restaurant, food, drinks and more;
• Links to past press coverage;
• Sample menus; and
• Marketing collateral such as brochures and postcards about your restaurant.

Just as with you would with your customer base, target a “hit list” of journalists and communicate with them regularly. Review their coverage and audience and create a story that would interest their readers. Prepare a turnkey story, even producing photos, videos and quotes. Anything that will make their life easier will get you invaluable media coverage.

Keep a database of restaurant critics and journalists similar to your customer database. Note when they have been contacted and when they have spoken or written about your restaurant. The active ones often will become your “go to” people, journalists you should contact with exclusives or important information.

PR is an essential part of marketing. If you don’t have a restaurant PR agency or freelancer helping you, then someone in-house should be responsible for coordinating media contacts.

Public relations is hot. Businesses from tech startups to nonprofits have come to recognize the value of a strategic PR campaign executed by a talented team. But PR’s popularity has given rise to some misconceptions. Here’s what every business person, from marketers to CEOs, should know about public relations.

It can’t replace marketing

Occasionally a tech startup or small brand will tell us that the company has committed most or all of its marketing budget to public relations. That vote of confidence is great, but in most cases a PR campaign is a poor substitute for a marketing plan, and it’s not typically designed to drive demand. With some exceptions, public relations is best used to build visibility and shape reputation over time. It doesn’t compare to paid advertising when it comes to frequency of message, and it will never offer the type of control that paid content will. But a good PR program will support a brand marketing campaign in a variety of ways, like educating prospective customers and boosting a brand message.

But it’s a lot closer to marketing than it used to be

The social media explosion has greatly expanded the toolbox of tactics comprised in a PR campaign. Whereas PR used to be considered “below the line” within a marketing budget and was loosely (and inaccurately) defined as “coverage you don’t pay for” in contrast to paid advertising, there’s now a significant gray area between PR and marketing. What we call PR can include paid influencer marketing, content or inbound marketing, social content, and other varieties of paid creative services.

Today’s PR is specialized

Like other disciplines, public relations and grown and changed over the years. Most consultants or agencies operate individual profit centers that may be organized by sector, from food to fashion to financial services. There are also deep specialist expertise by PR function. Some individuals and agencies concentrate strictly on reputation management, litigation PR, or crisis management. Others are more publicity oriented, and still others are focused in that gray area between earned and paid media. Any business seeking PR services for the first time should be aware of both vertical and horizontal specialist models and the ways in which they may fit their needs.

It’s not a quick fix

Good PR takes time. For many companies the most visible manifestation of the work is the earned media placement — an article, interview, or segment that features their brand. But like any kind of marketing content, the brand stories are the culmination of weeks or even months of work. They’re typically preceded by category and brand research and a differentiated positioning to set up the story. Media messages and various materials are needed for an all-out media outreach. Most importantly, each contact is part of a plant to develop and spur momentum. They all work together.

It’s a two-way street

At its essence, PR is about telling a brand story, but a good team should also serve as a source of feedback, intelligence, and insight on what target audiences are thinking and saying. Business people who aren’t using PR tools and tactics to better understand customer, influencers, employees, or partners are probably not maximizing their investment. A top PR program should improve relationships with key audiences, but not by merely broadcasting through media. It can and should work in both directions.

Earned media is the beginning, not the end

Most companies still think of publicity, or earned media, as a successful outcome of a PR campaign, but the coverage is often the beginning. The way we consumer news and other content has changed drastically, so successful promotion of earned media is essential to success. A good PR team will urge clients to promote their coverage on social media, include it in sales presentations and proposals, share it with stakeholders in company communications, add it to the website press center, and merchandise it to get more media coverage, of course.

But PR is still about the story

The tools and platforms have changed and grown more sophisticated (and in some cases, data-driven), but the heart of a good PR program is the story. We have a wealth of ways to shape a brand narrative, from influencer videos to high-level opinion content. But what hasn’t changed is the importance of story and its power to grab someone’s attention, engage them, and influence their attitude or behavior.

As more businesses focus their dollars and energy on their SEO and online presence, the value of public relations for business has started to shift.

It used to be that PR was synonymous with stories in the newspapers or appearances on television or radio. Only those who read the paper, or saw the story on live television were influenced by the coverage.

Today, all of these PR activities have a nearly eternal, second life online, and these stories will be some of the first things potential customers see when they search for you on Google. News websites typically have a higher credibility level and ranking with search engines due to their status as a news organization and because of the number of views they attract. If businesses understand that referral traffic to their website can be influenced heavily by earned media, then investing time and energy in public relations is a no-brainer. Its the gift that keeps on giving!

If you don’t currently have a public relations strategy for your business and are spending money on Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns and search engine optimization (SEO), you are probably spending too much money. By implementing a strong PR effort, your SEO efforts can become twice as effective and also have the interesting result of both increasing your ranking and decreasing how much you are spending on keywords.

Here are a few white hat strategies for SEO:

• Write relevant content for your business
• Caption images with full descriptions
• Use complete sentences in your writing
• Check your spelling and grammar
• Link to relevant content and references
• Use standards-compliant HTML
• Develop relevant page titles

We work for clients on SEO to maximize the impact of search and public relations.

Here are a few strategies we use to align efforts:

• Write and publish keyword optimized byline articles on industry related websites
• Support link building by securing guest blog posts on related sites
• Press release distribution through a wire service
• Create high-quality content and blog posts for our client’s websites

The bottom line is that if you have a digital agency working in one corner and a PR agency in another, you are missing out on huge opportunities to maximize your marketing spend. The SEO guru and the PR expert need to be able to communicate to align efforts and amplify the work that is being done for your business.

The potential that PR has on positively impacting a business’s search engine optimization can be threefold. First, it increases brand awareness. Second, PR placements can boost the number of website views you receive. Third, leads generated by earned media website referrals tend to be higher quality.

Public Relations and SEO are hand in glove strategies that work for both large and small businesses.

A major goal for any business is to create profit by selling its product or service. A source of frustration for many business executives is the sheer amount of time and effort it can take to convert a potential sales lead into a buying customer. While sales and marketing teams are the ones usually in charge of creating conversions and thus driving sales, neglecting the role of PR activities in the sales process can be a missed opportunity for many businesses.

PR can be a powerful tool to jump start sales. It can be helpful in improving response times from potential leads as well as increasing the probability of a sale.

HERE ARE A FEW WAYS PR CAN DRIVE SALES FOR YOUR BUSINESS:

NETWORKING
It’s no surprise that marketing and PR are diving further and further into the digital world. Spending on digital ads are taking over more and more of the ad budget and sales tactics based on digital platforms are more popular than ever. That said, there is still room for the non-digital space and that’s where PR can swoop in.

PR can be a gateway to new opportunities as networking provides an avenue to show off our expertise and insights, thus building trust and credibility. With a flood of contacts and spectacular networking prowess, PR can open up doors for industry events, trade organizations, marketing partnerships, speaking opportunities and so on. These events and opportunities are an excellent way to generate leads that are more likely to be interested in your product or service.

CONTENT MARKETING ADVICE
‘Content’ has become a major buzzword in marketing. Content marketing is an indispensable and highly effective marketing tool that creates results. The whole idea of content marketing to generate leads, or more important drive sales, by creating unique, relevant and interesting content that makes the audience connect to your product or service.

A PR professionals everyday job to to create content by using their expertise to draft key messages to either the general public or a targeted audience. A PR agency is perfectly placed to provide advice and counsel on the types of content that are more likely to resonate with a specific audience, while at the same time creating a media buzz. Having the right message to the right audience can go a long way in increasing your sales and PR can help you get there.

ENHANCE CREDIBILITY
Most companies use PR as a way to build a positive reputation with the public by creating a relationship based on trust and credibility. PR is also a great tool for sustaining trust even when times get rough. Credibility and trust are very powerful and without it, it is unlikely sales continue growing. While enhancing credibility is a long-term and continuous function of PR, it is vital to the long-term growth of a company.