In Sequence - December 2003
Feature Articles:
| • | Legal Update: Marketing on the right side |
| • | Getting Started and Realistic Expectations with Media Relations |
| • | Advice from our Advisory Board |
| • | Case Study: RedFlagDeals.com |
Legal Update: Marketing on the right sideBy June Macdonald Prices, Terms and Taxes: the Bureau initially wanted to require all prices, taxes and terms to be disclosed in online advertising, but it was determined they do not have jurisdiction on this issue.However, the Bureau indicated businesses should take care to disclose any differences in price between environments (online vs. offline). Not disclosing differences could be taken to be materially misleading and thus a criminal offence.Liability of Intermediaries is governed by what nature and degree they have control over the representation. The Bureau considers the following in ascending order of liability: web designers who create the representations, web hosts who own or operate the servers from which they are distributed, service providers who provide access to the Internet, advertising agency who developed the ad, and most liable is the business on whose behalf the representations are being made. Privacy: the Federal legislation, PIPEDA, was touched on, as it goes into effect January 1st, 2004, unless there is similar provincial legislation in place (which was underway in Ontario but has been put on the backburner; BC and Alberta have their own legislation). A reminder to everyone that you must be collecting consent for use of consumers and employees private information. Private information is any data that could be used to personally identify a person. You must have person in your company consumers can contact as the appointed "privacy advocate". All private information must be auditable and your privacy policy publicly stated. The minimum is opt-out where there is a previous commercial relationship. As we've said on this list before, for permission marketers, this is not a problem and opt-in consent is easy to collect. |
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Getting Started and Realistic Expectations with Media RelationsBy: Jennifer Evans and Marisa VernolaWhat is the difference between public relations and media relations? Public relations is the entirety of how a person or individual communicates to the general public. Media relations is a small but critical subset of how public relations is accomplished. Because media coverage is so valuable and can make such a difference to a growing company, companies often focus on this component of public relations. We are frequently asked by our clients "How do we get mention of our company in the media?" It's good to keep in mind that media relations is merely a subset of complete and effective public relations. Here are the things that effective media relations are NOT:
Selecting Media How are you going to reach your prospective audience? There are several ways to reach your audiences and as the number of electronic, print and contact communication vehicles has increased, so has the need to reach them. Media relations provides an effective alternative to more traditional communication tools (brochures, newsletters, speeches, etc.) and when used properly, can contribute greatly to the overall success of a public relations campaign. For example, the launch of a new consumer product may be targeted towards consumer, business or news reporters and/or industry specific publications, where as a story about the company launching the products may be simply targeted towards business and trade publications. If however, the product was a new software technology created for a specific industry, it would make more sense to target trade and tech reporters at various newspapers as well publications and televisions shows targeted towards the industry. Many prospective clients come to us with little or no media relations experience and they either have feelings of concern about a complete media relations campaign ("it's so public! What if I say the wrong thing?" or very high expectations ("Why is my press release not generating a lot of results?"). The keys to a successful media relations program are:
Some tips for effective media relations delivery:
Example of an effective campaign One of our earlier successes with media relations occurred when we launched a media relations program for a client who wanted to build visibility for their online company. How we did it? Stage One: Background work Stage Two: Developing the release and media list Stage Three: Following up Stage Four: Training Stage Five: Execution and follow-up For weeks we worked on developing the first phase of this particular campaign, which included developing an angle for the story, preparing and writing the press release and other supporting documentation, researching various media channels and creating a detailed media list of targeted contacts. The client's target audience determined the media channels and contacts that the release would be distributed to and for this particular release we chose to focus on consumer, business and tech media. A day after the release was distributed, a local news station did a piece on our client's web site for their web trends segment and the following day, a consumer specialist from another station picked the story up. The results: a 1 1/2 minute segment on the 6 o'clock news which included a user testimonial, an interview with the founder and demonstration of how the site works; increased web site traffic; increased newsletter subscriptions; increased online forum users and various inquires of interest about the company and the site. Not only did this prove to be a successful launch, but our client's key messages were delivered effectively and with ease. And, while success factors do vary among our clients, this client could not have been happier - which for us, makes it all the more meaningful.
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Advice from our Advisory BoardOur Advisory Board has a mandate to provide us with advice and information on effectively doing business, as well as comment on the issues and trends facing both the online marketing and public relations industries. Sequentia's Advisory Board is comprised of:Len Ruby, President, Krug Furniture John Hayes, CFO, Engineering.com Jacqueline Danforth, President, FACT Group Carolyn Burke, President, Integrity Incorporated Katherine Macmillan, Vice President, Operations, Manulife Financial Geoff Simonett, President, WaterthatWorks Jan Crowe Ted Betts, Blakes Cassels and Graydon In this issue, our advisory board has provided us with some basic business advice. Here's what they had to say: 1. Getting everything you want in a negotiation is not necessarily a win! This applies to business, friendship, marriage, customer relations, and any long-term relationship between two or more people. Every party in a negotiation has a range of possible outcomes and hopefully there is overlap amongst the parties. If you get everything you want in a negotiation, it is likely that the outcomes were not overlapping to begin with, and despite coming to an agreement, chances are one of the parties will not be happy in the end. This happens all the time. If a long-term partnership underlies any negotiation, your best possible outcome must also be a pretty good outcome for your partner(s). If not, the deal/relationship will eventually fall through and everybody ends up with nothing i.e., divorce. 2. Pick a focus and have a plan! As George Harrison said, "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." What he meant to say is, "if you don't know where you're going, then you don't know where you'll end up." Presumably, you care where you're business is headed and know of the many roads that will get you there. The chances of you arriving "at the end of the road" successfully and in a timely manner, largely depends on choosing one path and sticking to it. This doesn't mean that your plan needs to be followed rigidly - flexibility is a must - it just means that if you don't define success before you start your journey, you may never know when you've actually succeeded. 3. Don't count yourself out before the race has started! Don't scrap an idea because you assume somebody has already done it or that others could do it better. Most people are surprised by their own success and even more never give themselves a chance to succeed. Never give up. 4. In the service industry it's customer, customer, customer! Everything you do and everything you expect from your staff needs to be dedicated 100 per cent to making your clients look good even before worrying about whether you will be getting the credit. Your job is to make your marketing and/or advertising contact appear successful to his/her boss, even if they take all the credit. Deep down, they know who helped drive their success. 5. Existing customers are more valuable than new ones! We've all heard this many times and in many different forms, but it really comes down to simple math - a class a lot of people seemed to have skipped. You spend a lot of time and money building a relationship and once you have gained a customer's trust, repeat sales should be a no-brainer. Everybody sells relationships or trust, products and services are always secondary. 6. Don't get handcuffed by convention! If ever you make a decision because, "that's the way it has always been done," then it's probably time for a change. There is a heck of a lot of room when it comes to making a change or becoming radical, so push the envelope a little and experiment. 7. Base all management decisions on defendable logic! First off, it's never that simple. For example, at some point in the life of a small company you will begin to see that employees of equal skill are making widely different salaries. Some employees may be getting paid less because that's simply the decision you made, others may be getting paid more because you couldn't handle the constant complaining, and in some instances, you may not even remember why you made certain decisions regarding pay. Its important to note that once a salary has been determined, you can never go back on your decision only forward. When you find yourself in this situation, there's a good chance that eventually your employees will learn what each other are making. When this happens, brace yourself because your office will be very busy until everybody is satisfied with the salary they are making or receiving the salary they feel they deserve. Things such as this are never black and white and you must be able to defend your position on decisions, often in a public forum. Yes, some people will be upset, but far less than the runaway train you could set in motion. 8. Always play for the team! Work with your peers and manage them, just like you'd manage up...keep them informed, get their buy in, seek their advice. Communication is key even when there is nothing to communicate! Most people are naturally paranoid. Classic case: most people will immediately assume that if they didn't get invited to a party then they must have done something wrong. That is, instead of considering possible reasons as to why they didn't receive the invite (i.e. it was held up in the mail), most people jump to conclusions and consider the most negative outcome. In the office, people always assume there is something going on that they are not allowed to know about and in most cases there isn't. Keep the lines of communication open and foster an environment that maintains an open door policy. By doing so, you can prevent the onset of such assumptions. 9. It is better to grow a little slower than to risk your reputation early on! Try to resist projects where you are less than expert and resist hiring people that are less than a perfect fit. |
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Case Study: RedFlagDeals.comRedFlagDeals is Canada's pre-eminent site for finding shopping deals. The site had a very committed community of nearly 5000 users and was generating in excess of 3 million page views per month, but founder Derek Szeto wanted to expand the site's reach from early adopters to the general public.
NEXT MONTH: How a small manufacturing business in Hamilton targeted its communications and got exceptional results!
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