Escherman
Jennifer Mattern, Naked PR: “I am just sick, sick, sick of PR and SM folks acting like tools exist for their purposes and their purposes alone. It’s bad enough that PR folks are habitually late to the game to begin with, but once they discover a new tool, it’s like no one exists but them. Yes, I understand the PR value of blogging. I understand the value of conversations and relationship-building. Blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard it all before.”
Excellent post from Duncan Brown of Influencer50. I agree that the traditional awareness/familiarity/consideration/purchase/loyalty model just doesn’t apply any more – McKinsey’s new version says that awareness isn’t even a prerequisite for consumer decision making. Worth reading Duncan’s full post.
Here’s the escherman Christmas video card, courtesty of Animoto (definitely one of the must-have applications of 2008 – and no doubt of next year as well). Many thanks to all the readers of this blog in 2008 – hope you’ve all found something of value here. Look forward to more blogging in 2009!
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The ever excellent Jason Baer at the Convince & Convert blog has just posted a splendid piece on the 10 strengths of the agency of the future, based on a recent survey conducted by IT consultancy Sapient of over 200 chief marketing officers in the US. Jason’s analysis of the findings is spot on. And even though the survey was carried out in the US, there is no question that the same things are happening over here in the UK and Europe. I recommend reading Jason’s full post, but here are a few stand out items:
Clients are switching agencies based on digital marketing knowledge.
90 percent of respondents agree that it is becoming increasingly important that their agency uses ‘pull interactions’ such as social media and online communities rather than traditional ‘push’ campaigns.
An overwhelming 94 percent of respondents expressed interest in leveraging virtual communities (public and private) to understand more about their target audience.
92 percent of respondents said it was ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ important that agency employees use the technologies that they are recommending.
76 percent of respondents deemed understanding customer behaviour an ‘important/very important’ aspect of their agency’s online digital marketing and interactive advertising area of expertise.
77 percent of marketers surveyed ranked strategy/brain trust capabilities at the top of their agency wish list.
65 percent ranked analytics at the top of their agency wish list (for measurement).
These findings pretty much bear out what I’ve been saying for some time re: the changing nature of the online/digital PR/marketing sector. The demand for brain power rather than (inefficient) commodity services has never been greater.
I’ve been looking at Google’s new Ad Planner tool. As Google says, it is “a free media planning tool that can help you identify websites your audience is likely to visit so you can make better-informed advertising decisions.”
They could also add that PR firms may want to look at it in terms of building an online media target list.
As ever with Google, the Ad Planner tool reveals a host of interesting data based around demographics and interests as well as access to aggregated statistics on the number of unique visitors, page views, and other data for millions of websites from over 40 countries.
However, one part of the tool that intrigued me was the ability to see detailed info on an individual site’s visitors and page views. For example, take a look at IT Pro (I’m not singling out IT Pro for any reason – just happened to be the first one I looked at). According to the publisher (Dennis), IT Pro has:
311,000 unique users
1.1 million page impressions a month
According to Google, it has:
33,000 unique UK visitors (86,000 worldwide)
120,000 page views (260,000 worldwide)
Google also provides a nice little graph showing daily visitor rates – so IT Pro seems to toggle above and below the 1,000 daily visitor rate in the UK. It also tells you where else visitors to the IT Pro site go – mainly in the Dennis fold it would seem – computerbuyer.co.uk and pcpro.co.uk.
The big question here is: whose figures do you use? Both as a potential advertiser or planning a PR campaign, you’d want to be sure that you were basing your decisions on accurate data. (And Chris Green’s plan to reward freelance journalists on the basis of traffic figures clearly hinges upon this).
So what is the explanation for the wide variance between what the publisher says and what Google says? I don’t know (and I haven’t had time to do an exhaustive analysis to check if this is just a one off or there are universal differences between publisher data and Google’s data).
If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, I’m all ears. At the end of the day, I’m sure the only thing people want is accurate information.
The following stats from Keyword Discovery got me thinking:
Over 50pc of all English language search terms consist of either two or three words.
19pc consist of a single word term.
Search terms with 10 words or more represent only 2pc of all searches.
Search terms with 9 words constitute 0.79pc of all searches.
83pc of all search terms consist of 4 words or less.
What does this mean for PR?
First – remember 2 years ago Lord Saatchi’s pronouncement on One Word Equity?
Well, he was nearly right – if you are Finnish. The Finns – true to cultural stereotype – appear to be the only people who perform more than 50pc of searches for a single word term.
However, in English, Two Word and Three Word Equity rules.
So. Are you able to distill down your PR and marketing messages to two or three words? Given that search now seems to act as a universal gatekeeper to the B-to-B selling process, ensuring that your target audiences are going to associate such brief phrases with you (and not be disappointed by the PR and marketing content that may await them if you get them that far down the conversion funnel) becomes a key goal.
PS: Try typing “outcome based PR” into Google and see what comes up first….
Marketing, PR and media sector jobs registered the steepest decline in availability in June, according to online recruitment site Monster.
However, “opportunities increased significantly in hospitality and tourism; and healthcare, social work whilst the arts, entertainment, sports, leisure sector surged year-on-year.”
Hat tip to David Meerman Scott for pointing out a neat new (and free) online utility called Press Release Grader.
It’s very simple. You copy and paste the content of your release into a box and hit submit. The site then generates a report about the press release – it checks to see if the release contains a valid contact phone number for example. But where it gets very funky is in checking any embedded links in the release – not only to ensure they are valid, but also whether the anchor text is reflected by the target link – very handy for SEO purposes. It also has a word “cloud” that lets you see keyword density at a glance – good for checking that the release is highlighting the right things. And lets not forget the Goobledygook checker – it’ll tell you how many suspect buzzwords your release contains.
Finally, it provides you with an overall score out of 100. Imagine if PR agencies started putting their Press Release Grader scores on their releases. Journalists could then choose to only view those that score, say, 85 or above.
Why not check your own releases? Or test out a few from Sourcewire to see what the general standard is.
Press releases suck says Sally Whittle.
She lists five reasons why most press releases get deleted:
1. Your sentences are too long
2. Your client descriptors make no sense.
3. Your quotes come from robots.
4. Jargon, jargon, jargon.
5. You sent it to the wrong people.
Read Sally’s post for the detail behind each of these. She says: “I can’t help but think that something has to change.”
Sadly, things probably won’t change. In fact, she nails the reason why in a comment to her own post: “The problem is that nobody dies when this stuff happens, and nobody is really offended.”
Journalists have simply come to regard poor press releases as a necessary evil – a constant background noise. Like tinnitus.
Clients still approve copy. And PR firms still get paid.
Can it really be that hard to follow some basic rules of copywriting?
For want of a few pounds spent on reading the books of David Ogilvy or Alastair Crompton, an entire industry could pull its socks up.
(One of Ogilvy’s many memorable lines was: “Always give your product a first-class ticket through life.” So why do so many clients and their PR advisors allow 4th class press releases?)
However, I suspect there is a much deeper reason for why press releases will continue being deleted in droves by Sally and her colleagues.
Any fule knos that a headline should contain a benefit statement – whether an ad or a press release. Scan SourceWire or ResponseSource and see how many headlines contain a discernible benefit.
Not many, eh?
And whether a journalist receives a press release via e-mail or RSS, the headline is the route to success. Given the dire standard of headline writing, is it any wonder so many releases get ignored.
Why is that?
It must be either:
a) The PR company hasn’t done enough homework to work out what the benefit should be. Or the client hasn’t briefed the PR well enough to allow a benefit to be discovered.
b) There are no real distinctive benefits.
I suspect in most cases, the answer is b).
That would explain reasons 1 – 4 on Sally’s list. Long sentences are usually a sign that you have difficulty in clearly articulating what you want to say – because there is nothing to say.
Or attempting to obscure the fact you have nothing to say.
Client descriptors make no sense because again they are attempts to make the mundane sound new and interesting – but with no basis in reality. Robotic quotes exist because they have been constructed like Lego. If the person writing the release actually uttered the quote aloud, they’d soon realise that no one of sound mind would pay any attention to it. And jargon is of course another example of trying to dress up mutton as lamb.
The fact is, many press releases should never have been written in the first place – but press releases levels are probably going to continue unabated – and no one will bother.
Then again, perhaps it leaves the field clear for those who can write good headlines and great body copy.
In 1977, Mark Perry ran a punk fanzine called Sniffin Glue – a defining image from the mag was a hand drawn diagram of finger positions on a guitar for E, A and B7, with the caption: “Here’s three chords. Now form a band.” (Perry himself denies it ever appeared in the publication – but for better or worse, the myth has taken precedence over the reality).
In a similar vein, there is nothing much to stop anyone starting a PR company today – with little more than Internet access and a credit card.
Here’s the FAQ:
1. Do I need an office?
No. If you need to meet people, go to them. If you really feel the need for a business address, then there are plenty of virtual office solutions that won’t break the bank in the early days. Or simply hire meeting rooms as and when you need them.
2. What about a phone?
Use Skype and a mobile (pay as you go if you are on a tight budget)
3. Do I need to own my own computer?
This will probably be your single biggest investment – even so, for PR needs, you could pick up a perfectly serviceable laptop for a few hundred pounds. If you were feeling really bootstrapped, you could get away with simply finding a comfortable internet cafe and paying for your internet access as you go.
4. Do I need my own software?
No. In short, Google is your friend. Using Google Docs gives you free access to a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software.
5. What about a database?
Again, who needs to pay for stuff these days? Try Blist.
6. How do I go about promoting myself?
Build a website. There are plenty of free tools around to do that. Again, you could try Google. Or why not just have a blog as your primary website? And don’t forget LinkedIn.
7. Aren’t there specific services such as PR Newswire, Vocus, etc that no self respecting PR firm should be without?
Not anymore. Name any service that costs a lot of money and you can usually find a lower cost or free alternative. Use Sourcewire for press release distribution. Use Getting Ink Requests to find out about editorial opportunities. Use Google Alerts via RSS to Google Reader and Google Blog Search for monitoring.
8. Don’t I need some kind of fancy intranet?
No. Google Sites will do the trick (some people don’t think it’s much cop, but the point is, it’s free – and at that price, it’s good enough.
9. What about setting up a limited company, VAT, banking, accounting?
Setting up a limited company is quick and straightforward these days – do it yourself, or use a third party. You can apply for the flat rate VAT scheme which removes a lot of the headache. Banking, again, do it online – a number of the banks are offering 2 years free banking now. Accounting – for returns purposes, if you feel confident, do it yourself – or at worst you can get accounting done for a small business at relatively cheap rates these days.
10. I don’t actually know that much about PR – how do I learn?
Well, if journalists are to be believed, the professionals aren’t that good themselves – so you haven’t got much to lose. Even so, there is plenty of good free advice to be found on best practice – try following it and you might even surprise yourself at the results.
Of course, I exaggerate for effect. There are clearly many other factors to consider, However, I believe the general principle is true – namely, that the barriers to entry and potential ongoing running costs of a PR business these days have never been lower. The main constraints are time, energy and imagination. As well as delivering true value added services that clients are prepared to pay for.
Will the spirit of “three chords, now form a band” be reborn in today’s PR environment? Let’s see.