In this issue: We talk about who should be in charge of promoting your enterprise, shed some light an an underutilized promotional tool from the PR department, and show you were to find some ideas for promoting your business more effectively before, during and after trade shows and business conferences.
Talking Branding in Salt Lake City
I had the pleasure of speaking at a real estate agent conference in Salt Lake City late last month. It was a great experience. The show was surprisingly good, given that it was the first produced by Weekly Real Estate News. But it was the attendees who made it great.
Given the legal action impacting their industry, I wouldn’t blame any real estate professional for hiding under their desk right now. And yet, so many agents came out to the show, ready to learn how to overcome and be of greater service to home buyers and sellers.
In my session, I visited with agents about the foundation of a good brand and how it’s not what some expensive branding agency writes down on a card for you. It’s not a well-chosen three words separated by periods below a stylized image of a house.
Your brand is what you consistently do in service to your customers. A strong brand inspires your customers to share stories about what you did for them. Our job is to find the problem we can solve and do it in a way that gets those stories shared.
There’s more to it, of course. I spoke for almost an hour and agents stayed for another 15 minutes or so with specific questions, a couple of which I will answer in this newsletter.
If you are considering retrofitting your brand for the new market you are competing in today, I would love to visit with you. I have some ideas that might serve you well.
Getting a Journalist’s Attention
One of the tactics I always recommend to executives who want to leverage public relations to build a stronger business is regular press releases.
We first work past the knee-jerk reaction that they never create news and people won’t care to read it. Once they realize they have plenty of stories in their company waiting to be told in a new release, we address the next challenge: getting a reporter to pick up their news.
“How do you get the journalist’s attention,” one of the agents in my session at RE:Ignite asked.
First, you need to know the people covering your industry. There are career reporters who have a wealth of experience and who forge their reputation by telling stories that matter to the people working in your industry. And then there are those judged by the number of clicks their headline gets.
Often, in this crazy world, they are the same reporters.
If you want a reporter to pay attention to you, it’s important to know what they are looking for and give them what they want. Here’s what I wanted when I was editing trade press publications for the financial services industry:
- A knowledgeable source who had been in the industry long enough to tell me what is going on AND what it means.
- A story that might have a bigger impact on the industry, one that seems to punch above its weight.
- A source I know will not lie to me. Ever. Not even a little.
- A source who can point me to other information for my story.
- A source who has sent me interesting press releases in the past.
I rarely covered a company that had only sent me a single press release, especially if they had help from a PR firm. I didn’t want to write about a company that might be out of business tomorrow. I saved 90 days worth of releases and when I was assigned a story, I went back through them to find companies that could provide good information for my story.
But then, I’m old school. Today, a reporter is likely to search a hashtag in X or Facebook to find any releases related to their assignment. But they won’t find you if you are not putting news out there consistently.
When they find you, give them what they need to do their jobs and you’ll start building a relationship that will serve your company well.
But What Will I Blog About?
No sooner have I convinced a busy executive that a blog can be a valuable part of the company’s lead generation and nurturing process than I’m asked what content should go on the blog.
This was one of the questions an agent asked me after my session on branding at RE:Ignite.
Designing a blog that wins you more business requires you to go back to the marketing department and find out all you know about the customers you serve and the challenges they face.
The best stories are found at the intersection between the problems your target market is dealing with and your team’s expertise.
The more you know about what your target market is dealing with the more content ideas you will find for your blog.
Then you can add your monthly press releases, some links to resources that can benefit your prospects, news about your employees volunteer efforts in the community and, before you know it, you will have one of the best read blogs in your community.
Need more ideas? Schedule a call with us and we can brainstorm it.
RGA Clients in the News
Some of the companies that were breaking news last month.
Mortgage Cadence CEO Pedro Garcia: The Personnel Challenge CEOs Now Face
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The Functionality Servicers Need Now
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More News
Setting Up An Effective Sales Pipeline
Much of the work we do at RGA PR is designed to get our clients more attention, from the media but also prospects, partners, and potential employees. But that work only results in sales when our clients have a proven method for moving prospective buyers through the buyer’s journey to the close. That requires a good sales pipeline.
I found this article in Small Business Trends, penned by Rob Starr, provides a very good explanation of the elements that go into such a system. This should allow you to fine-tune your own.
Or you can always call on us.
For many more ideas for getting your company more attention, visit our website at https://www.rga-pr.com. For help promoting your business, contact us anytime.
