Archive for December, 2009

Use testimonials to prove your unique selling proposition

December 27, 2009

What better way to prove you deliver on your promises?

Customer testimonials – quotes from your customers about the services and products you provide – are a great way to hit home your business’ unique selling proposition(s).

I’m working on a new marketing campaign for a commercial envelope printing business in Wisconsin, Express Envelopes Unlimited. Most of its client-base are commercial printers and mailhouses who need thousands or millions of envelopes printed quickly, with high quality standards and at a fair price.

Express Envelopes Unlimited’s value proposition is:

In an effort to add new printer customers to Express Envelopes Unlimited’s client roster, the foundation for the new campaign will be real testimonial quotes from actual customers.

We went to Express Envelope Unlimited’s top tier of clients for the initial round of testimonials. Within three days, all customer contacts had responded enthusiastically to our request for “a quote about the benefits of doing business with Express Envelope Unlimited.” Here are just some of the quotes I pulled from these responses:

“They print ALL of our envelopes – more than 4 million in ’09.”
 “More than pleased with EEU’s exceptional quality and service.”
“Unsurpassed quality, service and price.”
“EEU puts us in good standing with our clients.”
 “Every order is printed correctly, delivered on time and at the price quoted.”
“EEU is our preferred envelope vendor … great customer service and they deliver on time.”
“Consistently makes our deadlines and delivers quality work.”
“EEU is a terrific vendor … a rarity these days!”
“Fantastic customer service.”
“EEU helps us to stay competitive in this tough economy.”
“They commit to our deadlines so our customers will not be let down.”
“We love EEU’s fast turnaround for quotes.”
“Our orders are always delivered on time, within budget, and exactly the
q
uality we need.”
“EEU is very competitive on price.”
“They produce our envelopes faster than any other printer – by far.”

As you can see, the key points Express Envelopes Unlimited makes in its value proposition — which is consistently conveyed across all marketing efforts from its brochures to its website — are expressed by these customers in their own words.

There are so many ways to collect and use testimonials effectively in your marketing efforts including ads, direct mail, collateral, email marketing, websites, and public relations, to name a few. If you need help soliciting or applying testimonials to your marketing initiatives, please contact me.

Denise B. Hearden

Public Relations Tips Hotline: do we really need an online press room?

December 15, 2009

Tips Hotline Operator:
“PR Tips Hotline, what’s your question?”

Caller: 
“Does my business really need an online press room?”

In many, many cases, the answer is YES! Your media contacts can benefit greatly from a press room (a.k.a. news room) – managed by your PR team – to keep them abreast of your company’s latest endeavors, innovations, accomplishments and much more.

Press Room Contents
The best way to make use of an online press room is to make it an easy-to-find and user-friendly “asset” management tool for your media contacts. A place they can go to easy access information, images or videos about your company, its spokespersons and products/services.

In a typical press room, the media will appreciate the following information and materials:

- Media Relations Contacts

- Current Annual Report

            – Annual Report Archive

- Company Backgrounder

- Company & Product Fact Sheets

- Executive Bios

- Image & Video Library

            – Executive Headshots

            – Facility Interior and Exterior Shots

            – Product Beauty Shots

            – Product Application Shots

            – Videos (by type: education/how-to; promotional; social; etc.)

- Recent News Releases

            – Archive of Past News Releases

- Resource Library

            – Technical Papers

            – Research Reports

            – Company History

            – White Papers

Ultimately your press room should be tailored to suit the specific needs of your media contacts, your business and PR/marketing objectives.

Publicity Placement Archive
For your company’s own benefit, you’ll also want to maintain a page within the press room that provides a detailed list of publicity placements (name of media outlet, title of placement, publish date, type of placement, author) along with a link to each placement (a PDF copy of the placement or link to the media outlet’s archived version of the article/video/audio placement).

Your Press Room’s Home
When communicating with your media contacts, you’ll frequently and consistently point them to your online press room to access information, images, etc. In electronic communications, you’ll include a hotlink (hyperlink) that takes your media contact directly to your press room.

But don’t stop there. Any great resource to the media becomes accessible day or night. You never know when a story idea will hit an editor, and if your press room is useful and memorable, he or she may just firm-up their story idea by taking a look at the information you’ve made easily available online. So, make sure that the URL of your press room is short, sweet and makes total sense. For example, “WidgetsUSA.com/pressroom.” Or, “WidgetsUSAPressRoom.com.”

Of course, you’ll make sure your press room pages comply with all of the basic search engine optimization best practices so that when a reporter searches Google for “Widget USA annual report” she’ll be a click away from your press room.

Finally, you’ll want to make your press room easily available from your site’s Home Page and About Us section. Intuitively, the media will look for a Press Room link on these pages.

For public relations counsel, press release (news release) development guidance, press release distribution or media relations support, get in touch with me.

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing

Public Relations Tips Hotline: what goes into a well-written press release?

December 7, 2009

Tips Hotline Operator:
“PR Tips Hotline, what’s your question?”

Caller: 
“What information goes into a well-written press release?”

Before you distribute any release, please objectively edit it to ensure it meets at least the basic criteria for a well-written, timely and newsworthy story. Here are the basics that are most commonly overlooked:

Contact Information
Be sure to include the name, title, and complete contact information for your media representative/ spokesperson. Include phone number (office and cell), fax number and e-mail address. As a PR veteran of 16 years, my advice is to be as accessible and responsive as possible.

Press Release Headline
State your most exciting news, finding or announcement in as few words as possible. Emulate the headlines you see in highly regarded newspapers or trade publications. Your copy should be factual, not sensational.

The Press Release Subhead
Subheads are remarkably useful tools, yet usually overlooked by inexperienced press release writers. Basically, the press release subhead gives you the opportunity to flesh out your angle and further hook the reporter, without stepping on the drama of the press release headline.

The Press Release Lead
Journalism 101 — the lead paragraph includes the who, what, when, where and how of the story. If the reporter were only to read the lead of a good press release, he’d have everything he needed to get started.  There’s no room for hype or sell. Just the facts.

The Rest of the Press Release
The balance of the press release serves to back up whatever claims were made in the lead and headline.  A quote should be included to help add perspective and enhance the relevance of the news story – not to state the obvious or present cliché remarks. 

Boilerplate
Finally, spend a sentence or two describing your company and what you do. This paragraph is known as the “boilerplate” — an old newspaper term meaning a block of standard text that’s used over and over again (e.g. the explanation of symbols on the stock price page). In this case, it’s text that you might use at the bottom of all your releases.   Place your boilerplate right above the # # #’s and include the company’s location, main phone number and website address.

Below the ###’s
Here’s the space you can use to provide the reporter/editor with additional information, notes regarding images, image thumbnails and captions, links to downloadable images or an online newsroom, etc. If one-on-one interviews or an on-site tour is an option, add a line that says something like: If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with John Smith, please call Jane Doe at 555.927.0066 or e-mail Jane.Doe@MediaRelations.com.

Some Key Things to Remember

  • Stay away from hype-bloated phrases like “breakthrough”, “unique”, “state-of-the-art”, etc.
  • Always write it from a journalist’s perspective. Never use “I” or “we” unless it’s in a quote.
  • Read a lot of good newspaper writing, such as the New York Times or the Washington Post to get a feel for the style.
  • Shorter is better. If you can say it in two pages, great. If you can say it in one page, even better.

Now that you’ve got the ingredients of a well-written press release, you might be wondering what other methods you should use to make yourself a really useful media resource. You may even wonder if a press room might be a good idea. Well, it is!

Your media contacts can benefit greatly from a press room (a.k.a. news room) – managed by your PR team – to keep them abreast of your company’s latest endeavors, innovations, accomplishments and much more. In next week’s post, I’ll reveal the contents of a truly useful press room.

For public relations counsel, press release (news release) development guidance, press release distribution or media relations support, get in touch with me.

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing