Today’s 5 Question Friday is about our vice president of Communications at Infusionsoft, Kathy Sacks. Kathy recently joined our executive team and has kicked our communications strategy into high-gear since she walked in the door. Coming from a world of expertise in public relations and experience with small businesses, she has a lot of insight to help you gain word-of-mouth and buzz about your business. She answers five top questions businesses have about boosting their PR efforts.
When talking with business owners, especially those with small teams of just a few people, it’s often that public relations (PR) comes up as a topic of discussion when it comes to increasing sales and buzz. And rightly so, it should be a hot topic for every entrepreneur. Today, more than ever, PR is one of your top ways to generate leads and brand awareness… and to educate the market, positioning you and your company as an expert. I thought I’d address some of the top questions I get from small business owners on this topic in today’s 5 Question Friday.
Should I hire a PR firm? They can be so expensive, and I’m not sure I need it.
It depends. My PR-savvy friends may not like this answer. (Before Infusionsoft I ran my own PR firm working with tech companies). Many small businesses may have a hard time affording $3-5K monthly for an outside PR firm and are not above a little DIY. One way to get started is to try it yourself. You’ll find that if you started your work to become a thought leader in your industry, media and bloggers will want to talk with you – the business owner directly – rather than an outside intermediary. It’s helpful to have someone personable in the company do some of the legwork to gather contacts. It takes work in building relationships with media and bloggers — it’s not an overnight thing, so that means it falls down the list of priorities quickly.
You need to be committed, set aside an hour each day to this sustained effort to follow with your local press and industry trades, bloggers. Come up with a list of about 20 to people connect with first and send an email introducing yourself and some news about your company, your customers. Expect rejection. Be tenacious and aim for developing a relationship where you can help be a source of content for them.
I’ve heard that press releases can help me improve my search engine rankings. How exactly?
By pushing out keyword-optimized press releases over wire services, you create another way for your company to appear higher up on search engines. We use press release wire services at Infusionsoft. Lee Odden of Top Rank Blog gives a solid list of wire services here and explains why press release optimization is important. Some services are paid and some are free.
We use PRWeb, BusinessWire and PitchEngine. BusinessWire goes to newsrooms of traditional media in addition to online vertical news sources. It’s the priciest of the three, and we use it for the most newsworthy stuff. PRWeb we purchase in packs of 12 for optimal savings and use that in cases where we want to push keyword-rich releases that may not necessarily be breaking news. PitchEngine is a new service that we’ve just begun experimenting with and we’re finding good results with it.
What are the best ways to come up with angles that will get the media and blogosphere interested?
Create two lists. The first should be about what makes your company’s beginnings, its evolution, its history unique. Are you a mompreneur? Started out of your garage or moonlighting until you were ready to escape from cubicle nation? Eco-focused? Minority-owned? Unique culture? Off-the-wall business practices? Serial entrepreneur? Family-owned? Wacky location that’s a competitive advantage? These are all pieces of interest to a reporter who wants to uncover a hidden gem and inform their readers about it.
The second list consists of trends you’re seeing among customers and in the marketplace. If you’re a business-to-business company, maybe a certain segment of customers is having to make big changes in their business model because of the recession, which means that more are seeking out your services. Perhaps, a particular industry all share the same pains, and thinks your product is the only way to fix it. Come up with articles that you can write on the topic and pitch outlines of those to spots where they run expert bylines. We do a number of those at Infusionsoft and typically, the reporter will give you feedback on what you should tweak in order for them to want to run it. Those are just a few ideas to get started. I’ll dedicate a post on this topic alone coming up. Think, “What’s the hook?” Is it interesting? If you’re not jazzed about it, those you are pitching probably won’t be either.
How do I “pitch” media with my company’s story?
Despite the fact that the channels have changed the last 5-10 years—used to be just primarily phone or email—it still comes down to forming a relationship built on knowledge, helpfulness and trust, you just have more ways of connecting and learning about the influencers. Whether someone is a blogger for their own site or a dedicated columnist for a syndicate, it’s good to connect with them. Take the angles you’ve come up with and send a short bulleted list note to someone with the ideas you have and how it may be of interest to you. This is not the time for novels – brevity is the goal. Most reporters and bloggers are inundated with email, so consider that when contacting them. Attend industry events where they hang out so you can make a personal face-to-face connection.
For us, the kind of stories that we see the biggest lift in quality web traffic that converts to leads are the ones that feature customers, rather than a “hey, look at how cool Infusionsoft is” type of story. As well, it’s the lesser known niche sites, than the big mainstream pubs that generate the best kind of web traffic. Start by identifying five customers who are super advocates for your business and whose experiences represent the typical kinds of problems your market faces and how your product or service solves that problem like no other solution can.
Come up with some trends among your customers. For example, I’ve recently seen a trend among wedding-related companies who have turned to Infusionsoft. We’ll look at some of the top wedding related vertical publications and providing some trend stories to them on how more wedding businesses—hit hard by the recession—are looking for ways to do more with less, and how sales and marketing automation via Infusionsoft is enabling exactly that.
Is it worth the time to submit my company for awards?
Another way is to identify local business awards and industry awards to enter. Almost every metro-area has a Best Place to Work—that’s a great place to start. At Infusionsoft, we’ve won that four years in a row from the Phoenix Business Journal. Plus we’ve been earned a top spot on the Inc500 four years in a row. Get recognition for the stuff you’re good at. It gives you street-cred and makes it easier for your small business to get noticed and taken more seriously by those you’re pitching. Remember, you’ll most likely have to earn your way up to better and better media opportunities. In other words, don’t expect to pitch the small business reporter at Wall Street Journal and expect coverage. And frankly, you’ll probably get better lift in web traffic if you get a mention on niche, influential blogger’s site.
Should social media a part of my PR program?
Social media is a key part of your PR program. This is where you can listen to customers. Follow influential bloggers, reporters and publications. It’s where you can discover your greatest customer advocates. I frequently discover customers simply on Twitter and on our Facebook Page alone. As well, it’s where we do our brand reputation monitoring, competitive intelligence and customer service. So, yes social media should definitely be a part of your PR program, but start with a strategy first rather than the tactics. Here are a few angles of attack for building social media into your PR program.
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Kathy does a lot to lead our communications strategy at Infusionsoft, but one of the more interesting observations her focus on customers. She’s constantly talking with customers about their experiences with Infusionsoft, asking them questions and recording their experiences for others to hear about. She has a ton of experience in PR and would love to hear your story. If you get a chance, send her a Tweet or shoot her an email. She’s waiting to hear from you.
Posted In: Company Buzz
