Читать книгу Hype Yourself - Lucy Werner - Страница 9
ОглавлениеCHAPTER 1
PR PLAN
OK, I’m going to start by throwing you into the deep end, ahead of strategic thinking. For this chapter, I want you to have an organised declutter hat on. Imagine your current PR strategy is a pile of dirty laundry and this is the Marie Kondo process to have some neat clothes at the end.
By the end of this chapter you will have laid the foundations for an effective campaign. It is an essential road map for your self-hype journey and makes you think into the why and what of your business – I’ll ask you regularly to refer to this throughout the book.
I am amazed at how many people (including PRs) are carrying out campaigns with no overarching strategy. Success can already be hard enough to measure without setting some goals and there is no point putting all the hard work in to hype yourself if you don’t know why you are doing it. We will now run through the following:
– Business objectives
– Communications objectives
– Your why
– Audience
– What is unique about your business
– Communications calendar
– Crisis Q&A.
Grab your notebook or download the strategy template from www.thewern.com/book. Throughout the book I will provide various business examples, but for the strategy work in Chapter 1 I have used my own business as a case study. The full template for this is also available from the website.
1.1 Business objectives
We need to start with outlining your business objectives, which we will constantly remind ourselves of all the way through. It is nigh on impossible to hype yourself in an effective way without knowing these, so best to get them sorted from the beginning. Changing the goals halfway through the campaign means you may have to start from scratch, so it is essential that your business targets are outlined on one page.
ACTIVITY
In your workbook write down the title ‘Business objectives’, have a read through the following questions and answer the questions that feel relevant for your own business.
NB: You don’t have to have an answer for all of these pillars, I’ve just included some examples to get you thinking.
Turnover or business growth
– Do you want to get more bums on seats?
– Do you want to launch or sell more products?
– What are your revenue goals?
– How much website traffic are you looking to attract?
– How many email sign-ups are you looking for?
– What’s your social media following target?
Internal goals
– Are you looking to find brilliant industry talent to come work with you?
– Do you want to empower existing employees to be industry experts?
– Which areas of your business do you need training or assistance with?
Operational
– Can you improve on any element of your supply chain to improve profitability?
– Are all logistical elements of your business up to scratch?
Industry/customer awareness
– Are you looking to secure alternative revenue streams where you need to raise your own industry profile?
– Do you want to be considered as a major player within your niche?
– Do you need to reach a wider audience?
– Do you need to boost awareness within a specific demographic?
EXAMPLE
At the beginning of 2019, this is what business objectives looked like for The Wern.
Revenue
– Increase revenue streams from consultancy to coaching, books, teaching, courses and products.
– Increase turnover by 50%.
Operational
– Review effectiveness of current suppliers and contracts.
Growth
– Establish email marketing database.
– Grow existing social media channels by 200%.
Awareness
– Grow my profile as a PR expert for small businesses and entrepreneurs to underpin the above goals.
TIPS
– Your business objectives should be brief and to the point.
– A business goal shouldn’t read like an essay, make it achievable.
– A measurable goal means that everyone who is working on the business is heading for the same direction.
– Double-check that your business objectives also fit your personal objectives.
1.2 Communications objectives
The next header in the template or your own workbook is for your communications objectives. For this segment, I want you to think about how and why you want to hype yourself. From your business objectives we have an end goal, but this activity is to dig deeper into the voice you will use to hype yourself. The best relationships are based on truth and in order to hype your business we need to help pull out the voice of the true you.
ACTIVITY
Think about the following questions:
– Are you trying to establish yourself as a voice of authority? In what area?
– Are you an entertainer?
– Do you want to be a quirky, fun brand? Or are you trying to educate consumers about a new product category?
– Is there an education role in explaining your business offering?
– What is unique to your business personality?
– Can you describe your tone of voice?
– Can you use adjectives that mimic your true personality?
EXAMPLE
To accompany The Wern’s business objectives, I started the year off with the following communications objectives:
– A no-nonsense industry expert that is friendly but direct
– Keeping honest by sharing business vulnerabilities and lessons learnt on the journey
– To lead by example, demonstrate how I use PR to amplify my own business.
TIPS
– Take some time to really think about communications objectives.
– Check against your business goals.
– If there are multiple staff in your business, consider different objectives for each member.
– This is about how you speak.
1.3 Your why
Before we proceed, I want you to stop and check. What is motivating you? Why are these your business goals and how have you come to the decision that you want to communicate in this way?
ACTIVITY
In your notebook under the header ‘Why’ consider the following questions to determine your motivation.
– Where are you now with your business?
– Is this a side-hustle or do you want it to be your full-time business?
– Do you want to travel for work and does this business allow that?
– Are you hoping to grow a team?
– Do you want to secure investment?
– Would you like to one day sell your company?
– Is this a lifestyle business?
– Do you want your business to fit around childcare/family responsibilities?
– Think deeply about why you want to grow.
– Where do you want to be?
EXAMPLE
These are the whys behind my business, each step digs a little deeper:
– The current PR agency model doesn’t work for most of the emerging SME market in the UK. I want to provide an à la carte menu of services to cater for different needs.
– I love PR and want to share my knowledge to help other business owners learn how to promote their own services.
– I care about independent businesses that care about people and I don’t want them wasting money on PR agencies if they can do it for themselves.
– A work/life balance is important to me and this is a trait that is also prevalent in many independent businesses.
– I want to build a business where I spend less time being busy and more time on delivering publicity advice that has big impact for individuals.
– Having enough time and money was always an issue in my house as a child. I want to build a business that means I have the time to look after myself and my family.
TIPS
– Don’t be afraid to keep looking at the personal reasons underneath your business why.
– There is the good reason why you run your business and then there is the real reason; knowing what motivates your business will focus how you hype it.
– Your audience will care more about what you are about and what drives you than what your business does, this must underpin everything that you do.
CHECKLIST
– Are you constantly referring back to your why – before executing any new element of your promotional campaign?
– Are you being honest with yourself about your real motivations as to what drives you to do what you do?
1.4 Audience
Back to the maps, who are you helping and what is their need? For this section, I want you to determine exactly who your ideal customer is, because once we know this, we can then look into how to reach them. You might also benefit from a service offering that is tailored to different customers at different points in their business journeys which is fine. Just make sure you map out for each of them.
ACTIVITY
Try creating an imaginary persona for your ideal client. It can be brilliant to have this person at front of mind as a reminder every time you execute part of your press office.
In your notebook, work through the following questions under two headings ‘Audience’ and ‘Media’:
Audience: Who is your target audience?
What is their name, how old are they? Where do they live? Who do they live with? What are their hobbies?
Can you sketch them or cut out a picture from a magazine to help you visualise?
Media: Where are your audience?
Do they watch YouTube? Are they reading magazines? Where do they get their news from? What influences their purchasing decisions? What are their preferred social media channels? Do they read traditional print media, or do they prefer broadcast?
What you need by the end of this task are two lists. Your specific target audience and the different target media they consume.
EXAMPLE
I’m currently focused on a zero to Forbes client – by that I mean someone who has no press exposure and wants to build their profile to a certain level. I’m not interested in the Forbes to TED Talk-type customer (currently); therefore, my business objectives and target audience are skewed to a very specific early-stage customer.
Below is a summary of my two different audiences.
1. Target Group 1: Start-up business/entrepreneurs – based in London, in shared workspaces, attending a lot of panel events. Age between 20 and 60, equal male/female split.
Media: Startups.co.uk, Courier Magazine, Telegraph Connect, Wired, Forbes, Jolt, Monocle Entrepreneurs, Secret Leaders.
2. Target Group 2: Creative freelancers, side-hustlers, e.g., sole traders or creative networking groups, Mum’s the Word Events, Mothers Meeting, No Bull School, UnderPinned, Federation of Small Businesses.
Media: Women’s lifestyle, e.g., Stylist, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Women Who ParentsinBiz, DIFTK (Doing it for the Kids).
TIPS
– If you have a few audience segments, then make sure you do this exercise in depth for them all.
– The more specific you can be, the easier it is to reach them; people are often scared to niche their targeting, but this is proven to be the most effective.
– If you aren’t sure what media they consume or want to get a better idea – then just ask them! Do a simple research exercise on surveymonkey.com, perhaps offering an incentive to drive participants to help you.
– Don’t let your ego get distracted by your competitive set; being in an industry publication might win you points amongst your peers, but does it move the needle with your target audience?
1.5 What is unique about your business?
What instantly makes every business different is the individuals that are behind it. For this task, I want you to reinforce the foundations of Hype Yourself by doing some clearer thinking on what makes you and your business different. There is no such thing as a new idea but every person has their own thumbprint.
ACTIVITY
To help you think about your unique selling point (USP) you need to identify what separates you from other businesses, so you don’t get lost in the crowd.
Under the heading ‘USP’ in your workbook, do the following exercise:
– List all the benefits and features of your business.
– Put an asterisk against any of the things on this list that only you can say (and not your competitors).
– What is your signature style? Are you extremely strategic, funny, creative, practical, understated? List the words that describe your approach.
– Using all of the above, create sentences that are short, clear and concise and easily understandable.
– Cross-reference against your competitor. If they can be applied, go back to the drawing board.
EXAMPLE
– The Wern is founded by Lucy Werner, an anti-PR for startups and entrepreneurs.
TIPS
– Keep out jargon – make it easy for anyone to understand.
– Can you demonstrate how you address a need?
– Test and refine with your customers if need be – ask 5–10 people for feedback.
– Take your USP and apply it to your competitors, can they say the same? If it can work for any other business, then go back to the drawing board and make sure it is unique for you.
1.6 Communications calendar
Marketeers or social media strategists often refer to this as your content calendar. Planning out your key moments, framing your year and referring to this regularly are crucial tactics in reminding you how and when to hype yourself. A post on the LinkedIn marketing solutions blog states that marketeers with a plan are 60% more likely to be effective with their content marketing than those without.1 So, don’t skip this part.
ACTIVITY
Either download our calendar template for A3 (from www.thewern.com/book) or sketch out a 12-month table – see the example below for a suggestion – and work through the following titles under each month.
Business dates
– What are the key moments in your business for the year ahead?
– Do you have a business birthday?
– Do you have a significant planned new senior hire?
– Do you have an annual charity day?
– Are you implementing an innovative HR policy that you could promote?
– Do you have case studies to promote?
– Are you launching a new product or service?
Key calendar days
Have a Google of national days that relate to your sector; e.g., if you are a food & drink business, Google ‘national days for food & drink’ and see what comes up that could be applicable to your business:
– If you are a business-to-business (B2B) organisation, there are still plenty of national days that can be applicable. What about National Coworking Day, National Work from Home Day, National Apprenticeship Week, Small Business Saturday or National Freelancers Day as a starter for 10?
– What about key moments such as the budget, or policy debate days that might apply to your business? Check what is coming up in parliament for inspiration.
– Each month we share our own cultural calendar dates via our blog and Instagram on @wernchat; have a look out for inspiration on dates relating to sport, fashion, film, design and TV.
Think about how you can do something different on a traditional newshook. Grace Gould from Soda Says shows just how innovative you can be:
Our favourite case of using a calendar newshook to our advantage was when Soda Says launched our Sex Tech edit for Valentines Day 2019. We did a whole series of programming around demystifying female pleasure and self love. We even co-hosted a sold out “unValentines Day” party with the Pink Protest and the Libreria bookstore in East London.
Awards/conferences/panels
– Think about how you could populate your calendar with industry events, awards and conferences.
– Research sector-specific events; e.g., if you are a wedding business, what are the wedding-related events, awards or groups you want to participate in? Plot these in.
– Consider generic business events for founder awards, marketing, design.
– Think regionally – lots of local regions have their own independent business or founder awards.
Content summary
Every business now needs to be a publisher so you need to think about the following content ideas and match them against the key dates you have created (or even use them to fill in the gaps).
It helps to first write a list of how many of these you would like to do annually, then break it down by quarter and then monthly so that you can then see a clear pattern of activity for the year.
– Guest post/article
– ‘How to’ guide
– Interview
– Podcast
– Live-streamed video
– Whitepaper/Research report
– Newsletter
– Press releases
– Trend pitch
– Talk/Panel event
– Other activity
For now, you can leave this blank, but you may wish to populate it with ideas from Chapters Three and Four as you work your way through the book
BONUS ACTIVITY
With all campaigns I work on, I am also thinking about the future, so I often break down my key calendar dates by long lead, mid lead and short leads.
Long lead
The one that most people might have heard of is Christmas in July. Basically, long lead refers to monthly magazines that are working six months in advance. No good going to Vogue in January to pitch your perfect product for a New Year’s Resolution; you should be doing that in August.
If you have photography of your product or an event image you can use six months ahead then you are good to go and it’s definitely worth marking in your calendar when to start pitching.
Mid lead
Similar to the above, but for me, mid leads are 6–8 weeks (usually this can differ for different titles) – this is more applicable to the Time Out magazine-type publications. If you are planning an event, launch, or something that is timing-specific, then working far in advance is essential, so you have time to craft and issue your press materials ahead of the launch.
Short lead
Typically, short leads are your online publications. But again, even with them you want to be giving them a heads up of at least a week in advance. No good pitching someone your fantastic Valentine’s Day stunt on the day. And I think it’s always better to be safe than sorry. In my opinion, you can never be pitching your event, service or activity too early – someone can always say come back. But if you are too late, the opportunity is dead.
EXAMPLE
TIPS
– Make sure you plan in advance where necessary (e.g., if you want to pitch to long-lead magazines or pitch to speak at a conference) to make sure the things that need a lot of consideration are included.
– If thinking ahead for a full 12 months is too much, then start with monthly or quarterly content.
– At the beginning of each month, I write a week-by-week plan to ensure I am keeping my strategy on track.
– Sit and review your calendar at least monthly to make sure you are on track – schedule a monthly communications planning meeting with yourself/your key stakeholders and cross-reference against your objectives to make sure you are staying on brand.
1.7 Crisis Q&A
When you put your business out there, it doesn’t matter how big the spotlight is. There are going to be people who like you and some who do not. With the age of social media, people can even share their disdain for you in a very public forum and the trick with this is not to react emotionally.
Your current customers are your most valuable asset and you should spend just as much time serving them, if not more so, than trying to acquire the next customer. So being prepared is important. With this in mind, it is a good idea to prepare some crisis communication materials in advance.
ACTIVITY
Particularly for customer-centric businesses, I would highly recommend creating a crisis Q&A crib sheet. This does not have to be a huge document but think about the sort of criticism you might face; e.g.,
– Your product was lost in the post.
– It didn’t look like what was advertised.
– Somebody felt like they received bad service from you.
In the heat of the moment, the worst thing that you can do is to ostrich. With a crisis document in place, whilst you don’t want to give robotic responses, you have a framework to base your answers.
TIPS
– Whilst almost everything I have suggested in this book is for you to hype yourself for free, booking some one-to-one coaching or seeking some training in crisis response could be beneficial to pre-empt any disasters.
– Don’t just ignore customers’ or journalists’ requests for a response.
– Update your social media as soon as information is available.
Chapter summary
So, if you have completed all the above tasks can you clearly tick off the items below?
– Do you have defined business objectives that you are happy with?
– Are you clear on your communications objectives?
– Have you mapped out your audience?
– Do you know everything about your audience and what they are consuming?
– Have you cross-referenced your USP against your competitors’ to make sure that the language is not the same, and that it can only apply to you?
– Have you created an annual communications calendar with your key dates for the year for activation?
– Have you ensured you have a framework in place for customer complaints?
You may now be wondering why you have already got this far and worked this hard and I’ve not even told you how to do any actual PR yet. By looking at the checklist above, I hope you now have a well-thought-through blueprint with clearer directions for where your business is heading. The work in this chapter is essential for you to have strong foundations to execute your communications strategically.
And don’t hate me, but you still have got to get through another quarter of the book doing work on yourself before I’ll let you out the gate. But it will be worth it, I promise. Once you start thinking about your business in this way you will start to spot opportunities for yourself out there. Let me know how you are getting on via social media and get rolling your sleeves up for Chapter 2. Because if you want to hype yourself faster, we’ve got work to do.
