Marketing & Media Relations

As an organization or individual professional, when should you take a public political stand? What are the risks and benefits? Who will you alienate or support by your statements?

If you haven’t done clear branding work, these questions will be tough to answer. Branding is not simply developing a logo. (That’s just an outcome.) Branding means defining who you are as an organization, figuring out who you serve, and understanding why you do what you do.  Your brand should support your mission–it’s your organizational promise.

Taking a strong stand on a controversial political topic is risky, but depending on who you are as a business, it can be one worth taking.

In response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day 2018, Dick’s Sporting Goods took a stand on gun control that helped define who, exactly, the retailer wants to serve. They banned assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines, and they increased the minimum age for purchasing a gun to 21. Then they publicly urged elected officials to raise the minimum age for gun purchases; ban assault-style firearms, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks; require universal background checks that include relevant mental-health data and previous interactions with the law (requiring a database of prohibited buyers); and close the private-sale and gun show loophole.

They drew a line in the sand. Dick’s decided who their target audience should be: athletes and outdoors people (young and old), including responsible adult gun owners who use their guns for hunting or sport. No doubt, some customers will decide to stop shopping at Dick’s to show their support for the National Rifle Association’s stance on gun control; however, my bet is that more customers will decide to shop at Dick’s to show their support for stronger gun control laws that safeguard innocents.

Personally, I never really thought much about the difference between Dick’s and their competitors like Big 5 Sporting Goods, Pacific Outfitters, REI, and others, but now, I would go out of my way to shop at Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Taking a strong stand on a controversial political topic is risky, but depending on who you are as a business, it can be one worth taking. When it comes to sharing your organization’s position, be sure to consider all your audiences, both internal and external. Talking to your internal audiences before you make a public announcement allows you to do two things: 1. assure that you have consensus within the organization, and 2. provide employees and other internal stakeholders (e.g., board members, community partners, etc.) with the information they need to support and magnify your position.

If you’d like help developing your branding or deciding how to share your message, give us a shout.

If you need to interview someone for a blog post, news story, book research, or another professional endeavor, here are some helpful tips.

Get Clarity on Your Goals

To save time and get the most out of your interview, be sure you understand exactly what you hope to accomplish with each interview.

Do Your Homework

Before you interview someone, learn what you can about them and their area of expertise as it relates to your interview, as well as some personal facts. This will allow you to tailor your interview appropriately and relate better to the person you’re interviewing.

Prepare Your Questions

Avoid questions that allow a yes or no answer. Start questions with How, Why, Can you explain, or Will you describe. Your early questions should be softballs,  easy for your interview subject to answer. Allow a little time to build rapport before you ask the hard ones. I recommend against sending questions ahead of time. Certainly, share the topics to be covered, but sharing questions early allows your subject to provide canned responses, making the interview boring for everyone.

Check Your Equipment

Whether your interview is face-to-face, via video chat, or on the phone, make sure your recording and communication equipment is charged and ready.  Test it early enough that any technical difficulties can be fixed before the interview is scheduled.

Start the Interview in Control

Take a deep breath and focus. Calm your body.  Straighten your back and walk in as though you were born to do this interview. Remember, your interview subject may be nervous, too. The best thing you can do is to exude a calm, friendly, competent demeanor. As you begin the interview, you can put your subject at ease by matching their body language and verbal style. If they are informal, be more relaxed. If they are formal, keep it there.

Set Expectations

Remind your subject what your goals are and how long the interview should last. If you haven’t already, note the proper spelling of the subject’s name and ask for their title.

Listen Actively and Allow Some Lulls in the Conversation

If you can, record the interview electronically, so the only notes you have to take are ones about things that catch your attention–an unexpected comment or a moment of hesitation that may benefit from a follow-up question. You can have your prepared questions close at hand to get you back on track, if necessary, but it’s best to listen closely and go where the interview takes you.

When your subject appears finished with an answer, pause before jumping in with the next question. Many times, that slightly uncomfortable silence will encourage an interview subject to keep going, to share a little more. Many times, that slightly uncomfortable silence will encourage an interview subject to keep going, to share a little more.

Repeat Key Points, Especially if They’re Technical

To be sure you fully understand a key point, ask your subject if you can repeat it back to them, especially if you’re gathering complex information about a topic you don’t know very well. This will show your subject you’re listening and if you stumble in the retelling, you know what your next question should be.

Follow the 80/20 Rule

Allow your subject to talk 80 percent of the time. It’s fine to share a little about yourself or interject some humor or comments that show you’re engaged and interested, but remember not to talk too much.

Redirect if you Must

If you’re pressed for time, don’t be afraid to gently interrupt and redirect your subject back to the topic at hand with a comment like, “I’d love to hear more about that another time, but since we only have 15 minutes left, could you tell me more about _________?”

Don’t Write the Story Before You Hear It

Be open to ideas that don’t conform to your preconceived notions. If an answer doesn’t fit with your worldview or your understanding of the topic at hand, ask for more information. It’s okay to courteously push a little. You could say, “That’s interesting. Some people think just the opposite. Can you share how you came to your conclusion?”

Always End With This Question

When you’ve asked everything you can think to ask, always end with, “What should I have asked that I didn’t?”

If you’d like help becoming a better interviewer, get in touch! If you’d like to receive a little communication inspiration straight to your inbox, subscribe here.

As you think about how to reach your target audience (the people for whom your product or service is designed), you must decide whether you should create a marketing strategy that reaches out to them directly or whether you would be better off influencing the influencers.

Let’s say you are a health food store. You believe that food is medicine and good, healthy, organic choices (the very type you sell) would benefit all sorts of people. Who should your target audience be? Those who do the grocery shopping? Yes. But who influences them?

If a friend with no particular expertise in diet or nutrition suggested you make a change in your diet, you might consider it. If your doctor told you that based on loads of research and his or her personal experience, that making a change in your diet would improve your life, you’d probably be much more likely to make a change. So, as the owner of the health food store, shouldn’t you consider marketing to healthcare professionals as well as those who buy groceries?

Depending on your budget and other marketing resources, it might be a better return on your investment to focus on the influencers. Who do you align with? Who benefits by promoting your product? When those healthcare professionals promote healthy food (referring patients to your establishment in the process), they reach their goal of enhancing their patients’ health, their patients make better food choices, and you make a profit. It’s a win-win-win.

Almost every business must deal with a public relations crisis at some point, whether it’s a data breach, an unscrupulous employee, a problem with the product or service, or a miscommunication. For almost every business, you can usually predict the types of crises you’ll face, so you might as well prepare now.

Let’s imagine you work in a hospital. A “Code Black” situation means the hospital is overrun with patients–maybe there’s a natural disaster or a terrorist attack or a nurses’ strike leading to an employee shortage. Whatever the cause, you’ll need to communicate with frightened members of the public, desperate to find loved ones. You’ll need to communicate with organizational partners to set up shelters and/or alternative medical care options, and you’ll need to communicate with the media about what’s happening. And that’s only the first hour.

Before any crisis hits, you can write the press release (mostly).

The press release’s lede (first paragraph) should provide the who, what, where, and when of the situation. Then you can reinforce your organization’s mission and values, since those are the foundations upon which decisions will be made to guide your organization through the crisis.

The press release you write to prepare for any Code Black situation could start with something like this:

At (time of day) on (date), (number of patients) patients arrived at Hometown Hospital (HH) as a result of (description of disaster). The influx of patients quickly filled the 12-bed emergency department, but patients could not be sent to neighboring hospitals because they, too, were overwhelmed with disaster victims. 

HH President Joe Goodguy said, “We’re triaging patients as quickly as we can, putting patients on gurneys and lining the hallways where our dedicated physicians and hospital staff have worked through the night to stabilize them.

As always, our mission is to provide excellent health care for everyone in our community, and we’ll continue to do all we can to make this happen.” 

People concerned about loved ones can visit HometownHospital.org/crisis or call (1-800 Crisis Line) for more information. 

Clearly, you won’t know every detail ahead of time, but you know you’ll want to 1. Explain what happened, 2. Give kudos to the people in your organization going above and beyond, and 3. Provide answers to people’s most pressing question(s). In this case, people will want to know how to reunite with loved ones, or at least find out whether they’re safe.

You can go through each crisis scenario your organization is likely to face and brainstorm probable questions and issues; then prepare a press release for each. You can also set up a dark page on your website (one that remains unpublished until it’s needed) with key facts and contact information to keep people informed in the event of a crisis.

Best Practices for Crisis Communication

1. Plan ahead. Identify likely crises and create a communication plan for each.
2. Identify a spokesperson and be sure employees know they should refer all media inquiries to that person.
3. Be open and honest about the crisis as quickly as possible; then provide accurate, timely updates so people continue to come to you for information.
4. Use many pathways for communication: social media, traditional news outlets, community partners, and other networks. Use radio, print, broadcast, and web resources.
5. Be accountable and make things right. If your crisis involves a mistake, admit the mistake and explain the measures your organization is taking to prevent this type of mistake in the future. If appropriate and if possible, make those who are affected by the organization’s actions whole again, to the degree that you can.

As a small business owner, you may hope to be good at all aspects of your business. Even as you read this, you know you can’t be, but the idea of giving up control of any part of your business makes many of us feel dreadfully uncomfortable. One of the areas where business owners typically need help is with publicity. Regardless of how confident they are in their product or service, they don’t like to promote themselves, or they don’t know how. This is why it can be so beneficial to work with a public relations professional.

Those of us in PR love our business as much as you love yours, and our business only thrives if we succeed in continually enhancing your reputation. This is the synergistic effect that occurs with the right public relations consultancy.

What is Public Relations?

Public relations deals with relationship management–making sure you have a good reputation in your industry and among key stakeholders–including the media. It involves internal and external audiences, and it focuses on unpaid sources to enhance your credibility. For example, when you buy something at Amazon, do you trust the promotional text written by the company or the customer ratings? Most of us want to know what consumers like us think. A PR professional’s job is to influence people so they want to help you tell your story.

A reputable PR professional will walk you through a process that helps define your key audiences and messages, aligning them with your strategic goals. He or she will then work with you to review budget constraints and set realistic goals. The public relations consultant will write press releases, speeches, and blogs; develop speaking engagements and foster strategic alliances; and make pitches to the media and influential opinion leaders. Working behind the scenes, the PR professional helps you earn prominent coverage where it matters most.