Tailor-Made for Two-Way Traffic

Monday, May 24, 2004 – While we’re on the subject of presentations (see previous post, entitled The Black Door), there’s one I made with a former colleague nearly six years ago that just begs to be resurrected here in A Fine Kettle of Fish — for reasons you’ll quickly understand. At the time, I was working at CPS Direct, where they had a program called Direct Marketing University. The gist of this program was that employees of the company were to exchange their knowledge and expertise with each other, leveraging, if you will, our pool of intellectual capital. Brownie points of some sort were doled out, commensurate with how many of these “courses” you either attended or taught, but for the life of me I can’t remember all the details. It was a brilliant idea, though. Trust me. Everybody won, all around. It was the quintessential brain dump, “mind share” at its finest. Anyway, my colleague, Todd, and I spoke on public relations — what it is, and when and how to put it into play. And if I do say so myself, I think we did quite well by our brethren. I’m bringing all this up now, what seems like half an eternity later, because all of a sudden bloggers are being approached by those seeking media coverage, and vice versa. Of course, I could go either way, thinking we have something in A Fine Kettle of Fish that is new and different and relevant to direct marketing today — and that is, in and of itself, a public relations channel tailor-made for two-way traffic.

Excerpts from Bob’s CPS Direct Presentation on Public Relations:

The Definition of Public Relations

…the efforts of an organization to promote goodwill between itself and the public. This includes publicity (supplying information to media not controlled by you), promotion, public affairs, advertising and opinion marketing.

The 11 Objectives of a Public Relations Initiative

1.Inform prospects about how to choose, buy and use your products and services without burdensome expense of advertising and promotion.

2.Counteract misconceptions and stereotypes about your products and services.

3.Attract prospects and clients to a special event.

4.Recruit highly qualified employees.

5.Crown yourself the expert.

6.Get your message across in a seemingly objective way.

7.Add to your credibility.

8.Rally support to your cause.

9.Put the odds in your favor for professional recognition.

10.Create new and unexpected, profitable opportunities.

11.Stand head and shoulders above the competition.

The 5 Reasons for a Public Relations Initiative

1.There is something new about you, your business or organization.

2.There is something that is especially different or distinctive about you, your business or organization.

3.There is an upcoming special event that would be of interest to prospects, clients and the industry at large.

4.You have conducted research that would be of interest to prospects, clients and the industry at large.

5.Your products and services are relevant because they have something in common with the day’s news.

Sources for Information on Public Relations (Above)
Publicity and Public Relations by Dorothy I. Doty
Guerrilla PR by Michael Levine
The Publicity Handbook by David R. Yale
6 Steps to FREE Publicity by Marcia Yudkin

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