Category: Public Relations

Public Relations on a Shoestring Budget

public_relations_on_shoe_string_budgetBy Gordon Benzie

Having just discussed the importance of measuring the incremental marginal value and marginal cost of public relations as a way to determine an optimal level of investment, sometimes that option simply doesn’t exist. If you only have a limited budget, then you must simply learn to make do with what you’ve got.

For the purpose of this post, let’s assume you have at least some funds that can be allocated to PR. For your initial public relations campaign, you need to start small. Regardless of your budget, spending a high proportion of available cash flow on an untested, unknown marketing activity is needlessly risky, so don’t do it! Instead, set a few targeted objectives and allocate a modest budget to accomplish.

Most importantly, you must be able to measure these actions with metrics that matter. Then give yourself a minimum of 3-4 months to lay the foundation for your Public Relations campaign to allow for a bit of a “runway” to experiment with a couple of activities. Often a campaign will “grow legs” and set in motion other, related actions that bring rewards and opportunities you never even considered.

First Steps

Once you have mentally committed to this “experiment,” the first step is to identify an objective or goal that can be measured and is a reasonable expectation. You don’t need to talk to a marketing consultant to know that if you are currently ranked #50 amongst your competitors, issuing a press release won’t get you to #1 over night!

To help illustrate, let’s say you own a shoe store, located in a mall. Your customers primarily consist of those who are either already at the mall and see something interesting in your window display, or are repeat buyers. Given your knowledge of the business, you know what a “normal” traffic baseline is, so for this example, our goal is to increase foot traffic by 20 percent. Note I am not directly targeting an increase of revenue, but instead that increased traffic will lead to more sales. My hypothesis is simply that a rising tide will raise all boats, leading to more sales. If increased traffic does not improve sales, then a different problem might exist.

The Campaign

Now we have a goal, the next step is to think about is what event or activity can be established and communicated to achieve more traffic at the store. Perhaps you are friends with a local celebrity in the area, in which case you could advertise they will be in your store next Saturday to sign autographs. With this “call to action,” you can now invest the time (and resources) to draft a press release announcing this activity, which then would need to be published in time for your prospects to read about it and make time in their schedule to visit. You could then reach out to your local paper to make a short announcement, even inviting someone from the paper to attend (if they are available). A few phone calls and some time spent writing the announcement sums up your investment for this trial activity.

Another example might be to sponsor a local school event by providing running shoes for some (or all) participants. This could be a way to raise awareness to the other athletes in the area your commitment to being part of the local activities, helping to make your store be known as one that is investing in the community. In “marketing speak” this is referred to as brand awareness. With this scenario, the investment cost all depends on what you want to give away.

In the end, the activity or campaign will then need to be measured against your objective to see how it fared. Missing your objective can teach you just as much as over-attaining it. Dissecting this activity can reveal enormous intelligence on how your customers perceive you, as well as insights into their buying behavior. From this knowledge, you can then adjust your approach, message or outreach to hopefully continuously improve your results and return on investment.

And that, after all, is the key to unlocking the future upside in any business.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies. 

What is the Right Amount to Spend on Public Relations?

public_relations_return_on_investmentBy Gordon Benzie

Once you have made the investment to do public relations, the next step is to determine the right level of investment. While some consider a bus the best way to commute, others might be completely justified to insist on a Lamborghini. Your level of spending must match your business profile, budget and message objective. If you are publicizing a high end brand, a corresponding higher level of PR investment might be warranted. For all other campaigns, return on investment should be carefully evaluated to determine what is right for you.

One approach is to apply the concept of “zero-based” budgeting. Start with nothing, and then only justify incremental programs, starting from a zero baseline. If your ROI is positive, then spend more. As long as your returns continue to be positive, a reasonable case can be made to continue to expand. Note that some returns may be “soft” and yet completely justified. Borrowing from my economics background, at some point, your marginal returns will turn negative. At that point, stop spending more dollars and shift focus to continuous improvement at that spending level.

It is easy to quantify what you are spending on Public Relations. It is the benefits that are more intangible. As a way to help with this process, below is an example of a return on investment of public relations campaigns can be reasonably measured.

Measuring Better Public Awareness

Increased awareness is a benefit that makes sense on paper, but can be difficult to measure. To start, try doing a Google search on your company product name, company name or whatever term you are seeking to measure increased awareness on. In your search query, make it specific to your company market, target audience, geographical location (if applicable), etc. How often were you mentioned? How high up on Internet searches did your terms rank? This is a quick way to gauge a baseline exposure level.

Of course, search engine optimization impacts ranking levels. More news will too. More public relations activity generates additional listings to drive improved web traffic. If your listings doubled, web traffic will likely increase, resulting in greater value with increased levels of prospect engagement.

Another way to measure is with your sales team. As they go out on customer prospect meetings or calls, how often must they explain who you are? This measure will be rough at best, but, you might get answers such as “all the time” or “about half of the time,” which can then give you a baseline to measure against. Less time spent introducing the company means more time for sales people to sell.

In the end, the best measurement strategy depends on what type of business you are in, the competition and what level of existing awareness already exists. Investing in public relations can yield many benefits. Pick your target, implement a campaign and then measure it. Repeat. Over time, your understanding of the market will increase, which can then be used to justify expanding or contracting your existing spend rate.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.