We can’t improve the weather, but we can give you some advice on how to adapt your marketing activity to prevent spring being a total wash-out.

Being British we love to talk about the weather. This means that most people, especially those with an outdoor interest, are familiar with the current weather report. Of course the longer the forecast the less reliable it is, but if your business relies on dry weather and, dare I say it, sunshine,  then you need to find out when your customers believe the rain will stop. This is your next window to market, especially if it falls on a weekend.

Create an event of some kind to maximise interest and sales on that single dry day. Pick something that customers can plant, install or enjoy in a short space of time and run a promotion on it.

This doesn’t necessarily mean cutting price, in fact that’s probably the last thing you can afford to do, so consider adding value. Give something additional free or discounted (margin allowing), offer bulk deals, or make a fuss of a specific product or service to make it more desirable. Why not get the orders in now and deliver later? (This latter option will probably require a price incentive to work but it could fill the order book and help cash flow).

You’ll need the promotion organised in advance – make it time limited to give a sense of urgency, but avoid specific dates. Refer to ‘today’ and ‘this weekend only’ so the banners can be brought out at the optimum time whenever the weather breaks.

Budget will be an issue of course, but if you have a good location with lots of passing trade, invest in a simple banner – you can have one made up in a day and they needn’t cost much. Go online and change the homepage of your website – make the announcement bold and compelling. If you have customer data on file, send out an e-shot informing them of a great deal just for loyal customers – make it special and make it worth their while.

Remember that your customers are also depressed about the weather and want to be able to buy from you. Make it easy for them – motivate and inspire them during the dry spells. Their planned spend will likely remain the same, but you may need to persuade them that a delayed expenditure is still worthwhile.

For example, I know of a garden centre that’s worried customers will get to June, decide the planting season has passed, and write this year off altogether. Use this slow period in sales to educate customers of what will flourish when planted later in June and afterwards. Also, what else might they buy? Stonework? Lighting? Ramp up other aspects of the business such as the cafe (if you have one) to carry the business through this tough time.

Your competitors will also be suffering, so use this time to get in the best possible position when things pick up. It can’t rain all the time, so meanwhile, clean your database, update your website, connect with more people on social media, invite the local press to interview you about something you are doing well (such as the restaurant) or to educate customers (eg what to plant in June).

Whatever you do, don’t become despondent and simply wait it out. Use this time to hone your marketing skills, train staff, test offers and promotions, and get your online and offline presence in order. We’re happy to discuss ideas and provide advice, and we can help with quick projects if needed. Call 01376 564315 and ask for Helen or send us an email.

If you’re not sure what that all means, but you need a website that works harder and costs less, read on.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is one of the many platforms you can use to build a website. It started life as a blogging tool, but was quickly adopted by a community of programmers who liked the software’s simplicity and potential. Now there are literally thousands of excellent WordPress templates available to buy or simply download, or you can use an agency like us to create a completely bespoke site.

Why choose a mainstream platform?

If a web designer sells on the basis of a bespoke platform, be warned! Having your site built using a specially developed system might sound like a great idea, but there are several drawbacks.

WordPress is constantly being improved by a community of programmers – they respond to changes in SEO, user-behaviour, design and technology by releasing free updates that are easy to install. ‘Private’ platforms are unlikely to be able to compete on this scale of development.

What makes it SEO friendly?

As an open source platform, WordPress benefits from the collective expertise of a programming community. Your site will be built to accommodate SEO ‘plug-ins’ so you can optimise every page, and these are updated regularly as search engine algorithms evolve. Also, the way the sites are built makes it easy for search engines to crawl your content and match it to relevant search terms.

Is your website live?

Another reason why WordPress websites do so well in the search engines is that their design encourages people to keep them updated. In order to demonstrate that your website is a genuinely useful resource for search engine users, you need to maintain it. WordPress websites have an intuitive admin area that makes it easy to make changes and synchronise with social media.

Who has control of your website?

Creating a new website may seem like a huge project, but it’s just the start. Modern websites are always adapting to the market, to your business and your customers. Make sure you know who will be making those updates from the outset, how much it will cost and how long you’ll have to wait. Being open source, and with several forums available, you can maintain your own WordPress website or find another developer to take over if necessary at some point.

Video and social media

In a WordPress website it’s as easy to upload a video or podcast as it is to upload an image. As a social media platform it’s also excellent, and can be integrated with all the popular channels.

I could go on banging the WordPress drum, but hopefully this post gives you the idea – it’s a great platform and one we fully endorse.

We therefore create and maintain WordPress websites for clients as part of a long-term relationship or on a project basis. Our bias stems from the frustration we’ve experienced over the years as clients consult us about overpriced and underperforming sites.

So if you’re about to embark on a new website, or are wondering why yours is stuck in Google obscurity, feel free to give us a ring or send an email. We’ll be happy to assess your current website, provide advice and put together a proposal for a new website if you want to find out more.

The smart money

In this context, the smart money is on technology that uses the phone and tablet format, from websites (choose WordPress) to iPhone apps. Most of the brands we speak to say they’d love an app, but raise the same concerns: complexity and cost.

It’s true that Apple has made it consistently harder to publish an app over the past few months, but this can only be good for the industry as poor-quality vendors are forced out. It’s also true that many app developers have seen the boom of smartphones as a licence to print money – but as with most marketing-related hype, PrettyGood PR has the antidote.

Successful track record with iPhone apps

In the past 3 months we have successfully launched two extremely complex iPhone apps, on behalf of HVAC manufacturer Ideal Heating. This month saw the successful and swift publication of the Gas Flow Rate Calculator – an app which makes installers’ lives that bit easier by timing the gas flow and processing the formula [Click here to visit Apple store]. This is the first time heating engineers will have access to such an accurate measurement tool – and it’s free to download.

Our first app for this sector, the Boiler Sizing Guide, has consistently averaged around 500 downloads per month, plus it was widely reviewed in the trade press. Without giving away how much it cost, I can say it wasn’t a fortune and that the app was approved within a month of submission to Apple.

Launch as part of an integrated campaign

As with all new services and products, iPhone apps need to be marketed and a brand needs a certain amount of prestige and authority for its app to be taken seriously. Ideal Heating launched the app as part of a comprehensive marketing campaign that addressed installers’ needs in a variety of ways. The success of the app was therefore assured, both as a result of the brand’s reputation, and because it is technically excellent and hugely practical.

To find out whether your business would benefit from an iPhone or Android app, please get in touch.

How to achieve results in the local press

First and foremost, you have to change your mindset when it comes to PR, whether it’s local or national newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio or TV. While your objective may be to increase sales or awareness of a new product or service, or to build your reputation with a company announcement, you need to approach PR from a completely different angle.

Journalists are constantly bombarded with press releases and emails suggesting stories, but the problem is that many of these approaches are not stories, merely thinly veiled commercial messages. If you’ve sent ideas to local editors before and heard nothing back, it’s likely that your pitch fell into this category. Journalists are extremely busy, especially on daily titles and programmes, so if your subject line or first paragraph doesn’t instantly chime with their format, chances are you won’t get a reply.

Conversely, if you get it right, you will probably get an email or phone call within hours (depending on whether your story is time sensitive). Local journalists have a lot of content to produce in a short space of time – give them what they need and you will benefit from a hugely influential and cost effective flow of marketing.

Inside advice

So what is the secret? Fortunately it’s quite simple – approach PR from the reader’s perspective and not from a position of self interest. One of the many reasons why employing a PR agency is a good idea is that we have distance and perspective. It’s harder to judge whether your story is too commercial if it represents the culmination of months or years of hard work.

For example, your business may be in the process of expanding, or have reached an important milestone. As a local company you may think this is relevant to the community, and that your increase in revenue/staff/premises/fleet etc is newsworthy. And it may be, especially if your business is one of the biggest employers in the area or intertwined with the town’s history. But if you’re not, these types of angles will not merit editorial exposure.

However, there may be a genuine story in your news, one that is less obvious but of far more interest to your target audience. After all, if you get the story published but no one reads or listens to it, you won’t see a positive return on investment. Take the business expansion angle – perhaps sales are up and more jobs have been created. This news relates to job creation and the local economy, and therein lays your hook. Make it a people-centred story with a professional photograph, and you have something worth sending to an editor.

Top tips to secure local press coverage

This is a huge topic, and at PrettyGood PR we employ a wide range of strategies for securing local media coverage. Here are some top tips to get you started, and feel free to call us to discuss your specific campaign if you’d like to know more.

• Find the human interest angle that connects your story to people’s families, jobs and lifestyles.
• Always include a good quality photograph with your story, ideally including a few people, in focus, and not taken on a mobile phone.
• Read the publication, watch the TV programme or listen to the radio show before you send them anything – don’t waste their time or yours with a story that doesn’t suit their format.
• Tailor your approaches to each journalist – explain why the story might interest them and how it fits with their agenda.
• Make sure you’re available to respond to emails and calls – don’t send a story out on Friday and leave it until Monday to check your inbox!
• Consider whether you would read the story yourself, in your own time. If the honest answer is no, rethink.

If you’re planning a DIY local PR campaign and would benefit from some consultancy, or need a professional agency to manage the process for you, please get in touch. We’re happy to give advice and will always give an impartial assessment of your campaign – local PR can be a great way to raise your profile and create a buzz around the brand.

This year we’d like everyone to give a thought to all children who will be spending Christmas at the Refuge – at any one time 30-40 children are resident. We’ve supported them by buying presents for the children, so they’ll have something to open on Christmas day, and there is still time for other companies to do the same.

Simply go online and click www.localgiving.com/colchesterandtendringwomensrefuge

It’s a fantastic cause and even if you happen to read this blog post when the festive season is over, we know the Refuge will be extremely grateful for any contributions. Support is provided for the women and children all year round, for example, for the children there is a pre-school and after-school club, and the children enjoy many other activities and trips out. However, when you consider that government funding for domestic violence services doesn’t include support for the children, this is a huge undertaking on the part of the Refuge.

Each family has a small self-contained flat and comprehensive support services according to their needs. The cost of delivering this level of support is clearly very high, and so private donations will be vital to maintaining this invaluable service in the future.

We believe that every business has a duty to put something back. These are tough economic times, of course, however a little can go a long way when many people decide to act.

Please give generously if you can and have a wonderful Christmas!

However, as devoted followers of the trade press, we’re still seeing case studies that fail to inspire. Why consign interesting stories to the corner, when a more developed piece would interest readers and give you an opportunity to shine? Here are some of our dos and don’ts when it comes from making your case through third party endorsement:

DO:

• Find out the whole story before interviewing the third parties involved in the project. This requires more than having a list of key dates and products/services provided. Make sure you understand the context in which the transaction took place, such as why your company was selected, the challenges that needed to be overcome, and what unique factors influenced the decision.
• Understand the roles of everyone involved and how they worked together to achieve the outcome. Not only is this information essential for accuracy, but it could also add weight to the newsworthiness of the case study.
• Prepare for each interview. Draft a list of questions that will ensure you get the most from a short telephone conversation.
• Send the questions to the interviewee in advance. They may feel slightly apprehensive about being put on the spot, so anything you can do to reassure them, and make the interview more efficient, will help smooth the process.
• Communicate the benefits of doing the case study to the third party. Offer to send them copies of the editorial coverage and explain you will also use it as a platform to endorse their brand at the same time.
• Aim to secure enough information for a longer article than the usual 150-200 words. An editor may express interest in a more in-depth piece, and the extended version can run on your website. Don’t cut corners and later find yourself having to repeat the interview and approval process.
• Do the maths if there if are significant cost or energy savings involved. Impressive figures will give your story more immediacy and impact.

DON’T:

• Cut corners by omitting a seemingly minor contributor to the project. Consider the possible repercussions if a third party realises they’ve been excluded – what impact will it have on the relationship?
• Ever publicise a case study without getting signed approval from every party referenced in the case study. This is a cardinal sin in the world of PR.
• Submit a poor quality photo with the story. Most magazines are image led, and it won’t matter how interesting your story is if the picture is too small, out of focus or poorly composed.
• Pester a third party for an interview or approval. Another golden rule of PR is never jeopardise customer relationships for the sake of publicity. If someone isn’t cooperating, it’s unlikely their testimonial will be that strong. Focus on satisfied customers who are happy to endorse the brand.

Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to protect your brand. The potential damage of a negative story can be mitigated or even neutralised if you recognise that a PR crisis situation exists which needs to be managed.

However, time and time again we see high profile brands making basic mistakes to their cost. Just this weekend a fairly sizeable manufacturer in the HVAC industry was portrayed in the national tabloid press as being defensive, distant and uncaring – all because they didn’t follow the basic principles of crisis management.

Here are some basic guidelines that could one day save your brand’s bacon:

1. Don’t underestimate the problem

The primary goal in crisis management, especially when it comes to the press, is to prevent the story being published. You can only achieve this by taking the issue seriously from the outset. Assume that an unhappy customer might progress to contacting the BBC or similar ‘watchdog’ press agency, or take their grievance online.

For example, I know of a recent case where a disgruntled customer posted a video of faulty equipment on YouTube, amassing hundreds of viewers whilst the brand delayed sending out an engineer. It may be tempting to dismiss an unhappy customer or local journalist, especially if their complaint is unreasonable, but do so at your peril.

2. Take immediate action

A journalist can turn a story around in a day or two, which includes gathering photography, supporting case studies and technical data. Your company should be asked for a statement, and may only be given hours to respond. If you think a customer or other stakeholder (such as an employee for example), might be going public, or has already done so, treat it as a priority. Even if a newspaper article, radio broadcast or online comment is later corrected in your favour, the damage is done.

Another important point – always respond. There’s nothing worse than when a presenter or journalist says that the company failed to comment. You’ll come across as indifferent and arrogant.

3. The customer is always right

While it’s important not to set a precedent that could undermine the brand on a larger scale, such as by admitting liability to deal with an isolated case, you need to take the attitude that your customer is justified and deserves a sympathetic response. Statistics show that an unhappy customer who later becomes happy is a far stronger advocate of a company than someone who was always satisfied.

Also, remember how the story may appear to the wider public and stakeholders – your irate customer may come across as David taking on corporate Goliath – this is to be avoided at all costs.

4. Avoid negative language

Clearly you must be sympathetic in your statement to the press or online, however what you also need to be aware of is the impact that negative words might have – even if the context in which they’re used is positive. General words such as ‘fault’, ‘failure’ and ‘complaint’ make an impression on readers and listeners, even if the statement is that there was no fault or failure, etc. You also have to be careful with industry specific terms – ‘fire’, ‘gas’ and ‘leak’ being examples from the heating industry that are guaranteed to be internalised by the audience.

5. Understand what the customer wants

Spend time discussing the issue with the customer or stakeholder, and you may find out what it is they really want. In our experience, it’s rarely revenge that’s being sought. Perhaps the customer feels personally slighted and undervalued by the company, in which case contact with a senior manager will make them feel heard. Or it could be that a seemingly small sum they spent rectifying the problem was not insignificant to them. Either way, by having a calm, friendly conversation with them, you can identify what will repair the relationship.

These are just a few tips for staving off bad publicity, but even these basic pointers are frequently ignored. As soon as you suspect that someone may take their grudge public, act quickly and ideally, stop the situation escalating to a crisis.

There are various ways of going about this, and which you choose will depend on what you want to achieve. At one end of the scale you could casually note which of the companies in your sector are active in the media, and what they’re talking about, so you’ve got a general idea of what they’re up to. At the other, you could measure and record your competitors’ coverage – in a selected set of core titles – on a monthly basis, so that you can produce a detailed analysis and use it to track their strategies (in fact, this is one of theservices we offer our clients).

Get the ruler out
Measuring how much coverage – in terms of advertising and editorial – each company achieves can show you who’s investing the most in their brand at any given time, and this is conventionally done in column centimetres. You might expect the largest firms to be obtaining the biggest presence, but it’s not always the case, as smaller (or new) companies with an aggressive attitude to growth may also put a great emphasis on achieving media coverage to accelerate their success.

The titles your competitors are targeting can also tell you much about their strategy. If they are majoring on local media coverage, they might be looking to glean new business from this specific geographical area – but not necessarily. A big corporate employer, for example, might be engaging in this sort of activity to underline their commitment to the local community, and show what a caring, sharing brand they are.

It’s usually thought that only the big guns contribute regularly to the trade press – but smaller companies can punch above their weight and appear larger and more authoritative by having comment and expert advice articles published in their specialist media (indeed, this is our speciality). If you see your competitors doing this, chances are they’re trying to make a name for themselves within your industry for one reason or another. B2B organisations could be trying to reach new customers, or cement their reputation with their existing ones – alternatively, a company could be raising their profile in order to raise the organisation’s perceived value, ready for a sale.

Pay attention
In the trade media, pay attention to the topics being discussed by your competitors, since you might gain insight into which products or services they are focusing on pushing at the moment – read carefully, and you may even pick up hints about new directions or projects, allowing you to move more swiftly to alter your offering, if required.

With work pressures being as they are, it can be difficult to find the time to work ON your business as you spend so much time working IN it, and keeping up with the media relevant to your sector can often be the first casualty of a busy schedule. But if you can find the time – or alternatively find someone who has got the time and can look after it for you – then tracking the activity of your competitors can provide some useful insights.

We’re all taught to write in infant school, so it’s easy to think that our whole lifetime’s experience of writing equips us adequately with this essential business skill. However, effective written communication is a little trickier than you might at first think, even if you ARE au fait with the ‘i before e’ rule and know how to use a semi colon properly.

Get it right
We can’t stress enough that word-perfect spelling and grammar is of paramount importance, not just for general reasons of trust and credibility, but also because mistakes could give misleading information. For example, knowing the difference between ‘complimentary’ and ‘complementary’ means that you won’t ever fall into the trap of offering something for free, when you merely intended to describe it as being the perfect match with another product or service. If you’re a bit shaky on how to use hyphens, where the speech marks should go in a quotation, or when you should use ‘affect’ as opposed to ‘effect’, then it’s a good idea to brush up on your writing skills.

However, effective copy doesn’t just require good spelling and grammar. It also needs to convey all the right business messages in a suitable voice and tone, in a concise and accurate manner. In short, you need to strike the right chord with your target audience, and you need to do it quickly. Speed is particularly of the essence with online – the web entrepreneur quoted by the BBC in the aforementioned article stated the window of opportunity to make a good impression is ‘about six seconds’ – so it’s even more important that words are chosen carefully and sentences crafted to ensure that your point is made swiftly. This type of writing isn’t taught in mainstream education, so many people aren’t already equipped with the requisite skills to do this effectively – however, if you’d like to learn them, we do offer bespoke workshops in written communication.

Fresh perspective
Added to the difficulty of ensuring your writing is technically correct, and strikes the right note when it comes to tone, business owners and managers have an added complication to contend with – perspective. You know huge amounts about your industry, and can go into great detail about this and that, using all the relevant lingo. Many struggle to step back from their business activities enough to be able to keep their copywriting clear, concise and jargon-free – and understandably so, since they are so involved in the daily detail that it’s difficult to take an outsider’s perspective. But customers are technically outsiders, so although tailoring marketing communications to meet their needs may be tricky, it is absolutely essential. If you don’t convey your offering in the right way, they may not realise you’re exactly what they’re looking for…

This is where professional copy writers (like us) come in. We not only have an immaculate grasp of spelling and grammar, a stylish turn of phrase, and years of experience when it comes to finding the right voice to convey the right messages, we have the benefit of an outsider’s perspective – it’s easier for us to communicate on your customers’ level, because we’re not so ingrained in the daily workings of the business. Whether you’re looking to communicate with the trade or consumer audience, we can take care of all your copywriting needs, from blog posts, social media and websites to brochures, direct mail and magazine editorial, leaving you free to focus on your main business activity.

Many years ago, when editors had time to enjoy all the perks of being the person that everyone wanted to be chummy with, PR was in some sectors a very different ball game. Leisurely lunches and lavish press trips were the order of the day in some circles, with maybe a few cog-oiling freebies thrown in along the way. But times have changed, and so too has the media landscape – PRs now have to think and write like journalists to get the results their clients deserve.

It’s been reported that around a third of editorial posts have been cut from the media industry over the last decade – which is a huge proportion. With new technologies such as email and digital images freeing up time in the editorial office, publishers found that magazine and newspaper production staffing costs could be streamlined, while more recently the recession and the corresponding drop in advertising revenue has led them to economise even further. Consumer titles have had their teams and freelance budgets shrunk to the lowest possible level, while it’s not unusual for a trade title to be run by just one or two members of editorial staff, with little or no budget for freelance contributions.

With fewer people in-house to produce the same number of pages (benefits of the digital age or no), print media is more deadline-driven than ever before. Add to that advertising department pressure to favour companies which spend money with the title, then you can understand why journalists have their hands full. It’s not surprising they’re no longer likely to accept lunch invitations or go on day-long jollies.

This, along with the corresponding boom in digital media (including social networking), is why PR has changed so radically over the last decade, and why its allegedly fluffy reputation is not only inaccurate, but well outdated.

The most valuable and significant editorial coverage can be achieved by placing articles in publications almost the same way as a freelance journalist might – pitching the idea, refining the angle of the piece to suit the editor’s requirements, and submitting a high-quality article which has real reader value, on time, without fail. This is why, these days, the best PRs think and write like journalists – indeed, a lot of the best PRs have come from a journalism background. They have personal experience of the editorial office, and understand the particular pressures involved, which is absolutely invaluable.

But if you’re not an ex-journalist, how do you go about building bridges with a particular editor? Here’s our insider advice for anyone thinking of using media relations to boost their business:

• Always find out the right named contact for your enquiry. Got a press release about an award win to send in? The news editor might be best. Want to pitch an idea for an ‘expert advice’ article? The features editor is probably the person you want to speak to. If it’s a smaller publication, you may find that the team simply consists of one editor.

• Email is often a more welcomed form of communication, since it can be read at a convenient time by the recipient, and filed for a future issue if not immediately relevant. But keep your message short and to the point, as journalists are time poor and anything other than a concise communication may simply not get read.

• Find out when the publication’s print deadline is, and avoid calling or emailing in the days running up to it. Communications that are not immediately relevant are often not a priority, and may even get forgotten in the rush to get the editorial completed and off to the printers.

• Don’t write articles which are too salesy in their tone. It’s a no-no to continually refer to your company or its products when the editor has agreed to run an advice or comment piece. Not only will you annoy the editor, but in fact your piece will have less impact with the reader, who can spot sales patter at ten paces.

• Try to resist the temptation to call if you’ve not heard back from an editor after sending in a press release. The ‘did you get my press release?’ phone call is the bane of journalists’ lives, and you’ll get short shrift. Rest assured that if it’s useful, and they need more info, they’ll be in touch – and if it’s useful, and they have everything they need, you’ll see the coverage soon enough.

• Make sure your writing is up to scratch. If you have impeccable spelling, grammar and punctuation, along with a nice turn of phrase and an ability to structure an argument within the word count, then it’s more likely that the editor will want more material from you. After all, it’s quicker and easier for them to include your copy than an article that has to be given major surgery before it’s considered of suitable standard.