If I look back at my entire business journey, and all the money I ploughed into advertising campaigns etc., the most valuable marketing activity every time was always PR.
In fact I would go as far as to say that if you only had the budget or time to do just one marketing activity then you could easily build a business using PR alone - it just takes a little more time and tenacity, that's all.
My new PR Louise Third at Integra was a particularly brilliant find. She 're-launched' my personal brand last Autumn - after a nightmare period of being destroyed by the mainstream media post RLD crash - and the coverage I have so far received (see the PR section of my website) has been wholly positive and supportive, with lots more in the pipeline - including the cover article in April's Director magazine to co-incide with the launch of my new book.
She also does lots of work with 'Beermat' entrepreneur Mike Southon and is author of 'PR on a Beermat'.
Louise is now holding a series of short workshops with Daily Express journalist Maisha Frost, the first of which is at the British Library on 13 March from 5pm to 7.30pm. They're designed to help you maximise your chances of gaining coverage if you handle your PR yourself. If you are running your own business, need to pump up your sales and marketing activity, but don't have a huge budget to spend on external PR support, I really would suggest you go along.
It could be the best £47.50 you ever spent!
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16 comments:
I agree with you that PR is the best. Our first year was extremely successful but our second year bombed! This course sounds excellent. Any plans for a further away event - say Edinburgh?
Elizabeth
Funny you should mention Maisha Frost - it was Maisha who wrote an article which took up a full page of the Daily Express after I sent out a press release (see link)
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/27356/A-final-fix-for-wobbly-tables
I would agree that PR is the best (and actually the cheapest) route. Spending on trade magazine adverts did not seem to make any difference to sales but I know each time there is an article published because there is a peak of sales.
I think PR is a wonderful, beautiful thing.
How else would MrRobot get noticed?
I mean - who'd notice a 40 something rusty old robot, without PR?
Do you know your market? Do you really know your market? Take the Why test!
Thought this might be of interest to someone!
http://intrench.blogspot.com/2008/02/do-you-know-your-market-do-you-really.html
Skype: MrRobot1
Although I agree that PR is V important the new(ish) medium of search engine marketing and SEO is also something to consider. Google doesn't need to be wined and dined to print your story ;)
d
Thats true Dave.. But you still need to make it love you!
Sounds good. PR most def very important
Endorsements for "PR on a beermat" from Rachel Elnaugh. How ironic.
Plaudits for a quick fix manual requiring little experience and no obvious thought process.
Doesn't it just sum up Rachel Elnaugh's approach to life and those whose lives she touches.
Does no-one who praises this woman understand how she thinks and works?
At Red Letter Days she treated people dreadfully and ran the company like a petulant child treats a toy. No-one was surprised when the toy broke, but she continues to blame everyone else for it going under (especially the MD who spend a fortune on a ton of terrible advertising that she herself signed off. Important that - she saw everything throughout the process, but still pointed the finger when it failed).
Entrepreneurs beware. Do not take her advice. She ran a company into the ground through neglect, having run the business on a high level of fear and threats, blaming blaming blaming all around her when something went wrong.
Tell you what Mr or Mrs Anonymous. Go and build an innovative multi-million business from the age of 24and maybe you'll understand a bit more.
I worked in the video games industry for years and worked directly with many of the people at the top, who built international companies from their bedrooms. There is a lot of the premadona about them and they can act like spoilt kids. But the fact is their genius was the basis upon which many people paid their mortgages. It is clear that you have no understanding of what is required to develop an international brand from your kitchen.
Actually, I think she is probably very naughty myself - but the most exciting entrepreneurs seem to be the ones who are open to public scrutiny and most in touch with their inner child........
Gosh Anonymous, if Rachel's a petulant child with a toy, you sound like an embittered coward with an axe to grind.
Unless their core strength is financial management, Entrepreneurs are often asked to delegate tasks to people more capable and we depend on competent people to help us run our businesses. We pay good money and so yes we should blame them if they are incompetent enough to run our business to the ground. It happens a lot and Rachel's situation is not unique.
I would think that Rachel of all people would know what lessons she has learnt from trusting others too much and for my money is better placed to dispense advice to budding entrepreneurs.
Sorry anonymous person but I'm finding it difficult to take your advice or comments seriously.
If the purpose of your post is to show Rachel up I think you have not succeeded. It would be far better to post your credentials - let us know under what authority you judge a person so critically.
Anne Herbert
I'm up for this event - given that 50% of marketing is a waste of money - trouble is we don't usually know which 50% in advance! :-))
I'm trying to build a profile for my book 'Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll' without any significant support from a publisher, so it would be good to learn from someone who has put the 'beermat' men on the map.
And, to Mr / Ms anonymous, reveal yourself - your comments do nothing for your own anonymous image!
Peter
Well Mr. / Mrs. / Ms. anonymous that’s quite a spew of vitriol.
It sounds like you have some inside knowledge and of course a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing!
As Anne Herbert rightly highlights that at some stage all entrepreneurs need to give away some of their business controls. Without that delegation, hopefully to people better than you, businesses growth would be stifled and hamstrung.
An entrepreneur cannot be an expert at everything – financial control, advertising, PR, etc. etc. Unfortunately, when you first begin to give away that control your business enters a risky stage in its growth process, quite simply because you have hired in new expertise. You hope you have hired well and so you listen to their advice and allow them to run with the ball – after all that’s what you hired them for!
Unfortunately, if your new employees are not the experts you thought them to be you can find yourself with you’re a*** hanging out in the breeze.
Of course this anonymous negative comment may in itself be some “beermat PR” - there’s no such thing as bad publicity and perhaps your vitriol is designed to create additional "buzz" about this blog!
PS. Peter from Human Dynamics, you might want to have a look at Mark Joyner’s “Rise of the Author”. It’s a free publication and makes interesting reading. You can download it from his Blog . It’s a teaser for his publishing course in self publishing, promotion and creating Amazon.com & New York Times bestsellers. I cannot vouch for this particular course but can say that Mark Joyner courses are focused, step by step and simple. It might be worth a look.
Well of course I am used to receiving all sorts of comments post RLD crash, some negative but I am pleased to say the overwhelming majority positive and supportive.
The thing that really does annoy me (as others here have pointed out) is when the criticism comes from someone who hasn't the courage to reveal their identity !!!
Rachel
I used to be called Stephen then it was MrRobot, then i thought i was a millionaire, called Harold Hodgekiss. Then i thought i better start being consistent (else i'll lose my reputation) so i stuck with the name of MrRobot, until i realised that no one was taking any notice of me anymore, so i just went on talking about nothing anyway.
Then one day i awoke to a see the most glowing of all lights and it stood before me and said......
"You MrRobot, MrRobot1, Stephen, Steve and Harold". From this day on you will no longer be called any of these names. From this day on you shall be called "The Procrastinator".. tee hee.
Drowning Entrepreneur,
Thank you for this - I shall follow the link.
The session last night was good and I found Louise Third very balanced.
Whilst I thought that Maisha spoke from good experience, in so far that journo's have short attention spans etc. she was very unkind to a far eastern lady who volunteered to speak on a technical topic, and cut her off after around one sentence. I was unimpressed with this 'know it all' approach when she had not heard the woman out.
Peter
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