Are You Paying Your PR Firm To Develop Their “Strategy” For Your Campaign?

Why “Strategy” Is One of The Biggest Boondoggles in PR

Marsha Friedman
Chief Executive Officer - EMSI
1127 Grove Street, Clearwater, FL 33755
www.emsincorporated.com

Good marketing people never do anything without a plan. That’s a given.

So, it stands to reason that good PR people shouldn’t embark on a program without a plan. The question is, how much should a client pay a firm for that plan?

That’s one of the most striking differences between pay-for-performance (PFP) firms and retainer-based firms. The good PFP agencies don’t pad their bills with extra fees for a strategy. The reason is, they get paid for media exposure and “strategy” is a requisite tool for successfully securing media.

Retainer firms set a standard monthly fee, and bill the client’s account by subtracting the hourly fees racked up by their team. Just like a law firm, agencies have different billing rates for different team members. A junior account rep who does the grunt work might bill against a retainer at $100 or $150 per hour, while a VP might bill in the $350 range. Even the administrative assistants get into the act, sometimes billing between $50 and $75 per hour. Because retainer-based firms have to account for each hour spent on the account, sometimes the agency will even bill out for the time it takes the administrative staff to pull together all the information for that report. That means that clients often pay between $100 and $150 just to have their monthly bill and report assembled.

Strategy, however, is the big ticket item, because it involves the senior staff. In many cases, they’ll hold hours-long strategy sessions with the client, utilizing specialists from other departments and at least one VP. If you add up the billable hours, one three-hour strategy session can cost a client upwards of $3,000 against their first month’s retainer.

In the pay-for-performance arena, strategy is a given, and the good firms don’t charge a line-item fee for it. After all, how can an agency book media without a strategy? That’s a key way that PFP firms represent a sizable advantage for their clients over their retainer firm counterparts.

I liken it to taking your car to a mechanic. Most reputable mechanics won’t charge you to look at your car to see what’s wrong. They’ll look at your car, develop a strategy to fix it, and then give you an estimate for the tactics they’ll use to fix it. They don’t hold a big meeting with their owner, manager and two or three top mechanics and then charge you for it. They just tell you what they think you should do, and then give you a price on what it will cost to get it done.

This is why PR agencies sometimes get a bad rap. It’s not just that some of them don’t deliver against their promises—it’s because they charge big money to develop a strategy that in some cases doesn’t even work. That’s one reason why PFP firms are a better bet—they generally don’t mark up the strategy, and they promise results and not just best efforts.

The bottom line is that when engaging a public relations firm you should expect—and insist—on a detailed explanation of exactly what services you will receive for monies spent. Question each item and take the time to ensure you understand everything, including what outcome you can expect at each step of your campaign. If the information doesn’t add up, keep looking for the firm that has the answers that make sense for you!




Marsha Friedman
Chief Executive Officer
1127 Grove Street, Clearwater, FL 33755
www.emsincorporated.com

NEEDS ANALYSIS QUESTIONS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL MARKETER

These CNA questions are not meant to be used as a questionnaire with the client, but as samples to prepare your questions in advance of your first meeting with a prospect. Best practices for needs analysis meetings suggest you memorize as many questions as possible to keep your meeting conversational, but occasionally refer to your notes when you need a reminder.


Company:
1. How long have you been in this business?
2. How did you get started?
3. If relatively new, what did you do prior to this?
4. What’s most enjoyable about being in this business?
5. What’s least enjoyable about being in this business?

Products/Services:
1. Do you consider your products to be average quality? High-end? Low-end?
2. What are your best sellers? Worst sellers?
3. Anything you consider your specialty?
4. Anything you like to feature (maybe because of higher profit margin)?

Customers:
1. Who are your current customers?
a. %Male? % Female?
b. Average age?
c. Average income?
d. Typical profession
e. Typical level of education
2. Who would you like them to be?
a. %Male? % Female?
b. Average age?
c. Average income?
d. Typical profession
e. Typical level of education
3. Has your client base changed in the last year?
a. If so, why?
b. Was this a good change? Why or why not?
4. Do you anticipate any changes in your business that would affect your current customer profile?
5. From how far away do your customers typically come to shop?
a. Are you satisfied with this?
6. What is the average amount a typical customers spends each time they shop your store?
7. How much is a customer worth? (Amount they spend + number of referrals)
8. How would a typical customer describe the experience of shopping at your store?
9. What is the single largest misconception non-customers have about shopping with you?

Competition:
1. Who are your biggest competitors?
For each competitor:
2. Why do people shop there?
3. What are their primary competitive advantages?
4. What do they offer customers that you can’t or won’t?
5. Why do customers come to you?
6. What do you offer that your competitors can’t/won’t?
7. What is your single greatest competitive advantage?
8. What is your single greatest competitive disadvantage?
9. Do you anticipate any changes competitively? (New competition/old going out of business/new
product lines, etc)

Objectives:
1. Is your business experiencing the kind of growth you need/want? If not, why?
2. Do you have a positioning statement?
3. What do you feel is your unique selling position?
4. What is your primary business image: low price, large inventory, service, etc.?
5. What would you want your overall image to be, if different from above?
6. Do you feel there are any misconceptions about you/your business that you would like to address?
7. Could you describe you single biggest sales and marketing challenge?
8. How are you actively addressing this challenge?
9. How would you like to see you business change over the next 12 months?

Advertising:
1. What media do you currently use?
2. Which do you use most often?
For each medium:
3. How often do you typically use this medium?
4. What do you like best about this medium?
5. What do you like least about this medium?
6. What would you change about this medium?
7. What is your typical average monthly investment in this medium?
a. What percent of your monthly advertising budget does this represent?
8. Do you utilize co-op?
9. Are you taking advantage of discretionary vendor support?
10. Dates and names of all major sales events
11. Two strongest sales events and why they are the most successful?

Specific questions about Interactive:
12. Are you advertising on the Internet?
13. What is your goal for your website? Branding? Direct response? Providing information? Building your customer database?
14. How pleased are you with your website's results?
15. Are you selling goods or services through your website?
16. What do you like best about your website?
17. What would you change about your Interactive efforts if you could?
18. What are you doing with your database?
19. How are you promoting your website?
20. Who handles your Internet advertising and other new media advertising?
21. What kinds of results have you found with your Internet advertising?
22. What new media are you using for advertising? E-mail marketing? Search? Mobile marketing?
23. Who serves your Internet ads?
24. Are you using rich media? Audio? Video? Flash? Animation?
25. What size ads do you prefer?
26. What kinds of sites get you the best results?

Wrap-up:
1. Are there any other areas we should discuss before I begin to prepare some detailed analysis and
recommendations based on today’s meeting?
2. As I am collecting research on your industry over the next few days are there any areas of special
interest to you that I should research as well?
3. Are there any other individuals involved in making marketing and advertising decisions?
4. Do you have any advertising agency?

Traditional Media Not Going Away: Why Radio, TV & Print Will Survive The Rise of the Internet

Posted by Marsha Friedman
President - EMSI Public Relations

With over three decades of experience in marketing and PR, in the last few years I have been awed and excited by the new opportunities afforded by the Internet. The explosion of Internet applications, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, to name a few, has shifted and expanded the world of marketing and PR, and it will never be the same.

But, don’t expect the traditional media—newspapers, radio and TV—to disappear any time soon. Those who predict the death of traditional media could not be more wrong! In truth, the only really successful marketing campaigns must now embrace ALL media avenues, both offline (traditional) and online.

Irish playwright Eugene O’Neil once wrote, “There is no present or future, only the past happening over and over again—now.” That is what is happening with radio and, in fact, with all other traditional media now being thrown into the dead pool because of the rise of the Internet. In fact, the death of radio has been predicted on numerous occasions with the advent of 8-track cartridges, MTV, satellite broadcasting and the Internet…experts have claimed each would make radio obsolete or irrelevant.

We once used radio for everything. Then came television, and it was predicted by “well-informed people” that not only would radio die, but so would the movies!

But radio and movies are still here. Instead of dying, radio evolved and found a new niche. It would never again be the center of our living rooms, where families would gather to be entertained and informed, but it would survive as a music medium. Today, radio is as strong as ever— and even with a huge growth in the talk radio landscape!

And let’s talk about print. When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer scrapped its print edition in favor of an online-only version, people began predicting the same death of the print medium. But, in fact, the traditional print medium is thriving. Just as radio reinvented itself after the dawn of television, so has print in the age of the Internet. The print medium’s primary strength—beat reporters—still exists and their articles are printed in traditional publications AND are also posted on the Internet!

And I suppose that’s my point. As marketing gurus talk up the importance of social media marketing, search engine optimization, strong Web sites, blogging and other Internet-centered activities, we can’t omit traditional media from our marketing and PR strategy. People still listen to radio. People still watch TV. People still read print publications (both offline AND online). They are STILL the media, and they are NOT on life support.

Traditional media should still be the backbone of your efforts, but MUST be combined with online marketing and PR for maximum exposure. If you don’t cover all the bases, you will have missed the terrific cross-marketing opportunities enjoyed by savvy marketers who’ve embraced the synergy of a campaign that combines offline and online strategies!

Producing Radio Ads to Promote Your Business

In 30 or 60 seconds, a good radio ad grabs attention, involves a listener, sounds believable, creates a mental picture, spins a story, calls for action, and manages to keep the product on center stage and the customer in the spotlight — all without sounding pushy, screamy, obnoxious, or boring.

Writing to be heard
Great writers tell you to write out loud when you create radio ads. Here's how:
• Use straightforward language that is written exactly how people talk.
• Write to the pace people talk, not to the pace at which they read.
• Cut extra verbiage. You wouldn't say indeed, thus, moreover, or therefore if you were explaining something exciting to a friend, so don't do it in your radio script, either.
• Rewrite elaborately constructed sentences. Don't expect listeners to track through phrases linked together with who, which, and whereas. Instead of The new fashions, which just came off the Paris runways where they made international news, are due to arrive in Chicago tomorrow at noon try The newest Paris runway fashions arrive in Chicago tomorrow at noon. You're invited to a premiere of the world's leading looks.
• Tell listeners what to do next. Prepare them to take down your phone number (Have a pencil handy?), or at least repeat your number for them. Most important, help them remember your name so they can find you in the phone book or online. (Warning: Don't waste radio time telling people to look us up in the Yellow Pages, especially if your competitors overshadow your presence there.)

Do's and Don'ts
Use the following checklist of ideas to employ and landmines to avoid:

• Do stick with a single theme in each ad.
• Do make a simple offer that calls for immediate action.
• Do generate leads by making no-risk offers for free estimates, free brochures, or free information.
• Do use radio as a complement to other advertising: Look for our coupon in Friday's paper.
• Do say your name three times.
• Don't expect the ad to make the sale; use it to make the contact.
• Don't advertise products with a bunch of disclaimers.
• Don't use incomprehensible jingles.
• Don't talk to yourself. ("We've been in business 25 years; We're excited over our new inventory; We're open until 10P)

Turn every statement into a consumer benefit if you want to hold listener attention — and you do!