By inmedia
Bloomberg, a provider of business and financial news, is a regular target for us for our clients who are looking to communicate their business stories and successes. Wondering what is it really like at the head office of this media giant in New York? The company lampoons itself and the popular TV show “The Office” in this clip created for the Financial Writers Association’s “Financial Follies,” presented earlier this month.
By Francis Moran
We heard this one again last week.
Generating effective coverage of a client’s story is not all about the relationship I have with reporters; it’s all about the value of the story I have to tell.
This has long been the top-ranked of Francis’s Favourite Fictions, and for two good reasons. First, it’s incredibly widely held, believed in by clients and actively promoted by agencies. Second, it is so demonstrably untrue that after 30 years practice as both a journalist and PR guy, I remain utterly gobsmacked that it retains such unassailable currency.
Having worked the trenches of daily, weekly and monthly journalism, for both print and broadcast outlets, on both a local and national level and for both general news media and trade publications, some of my strongest and truest professional and personal relationships are with journalists. And I couldn’t lean on the best of those relationships to get a client of mine even a column inch of coverage that the client’s story didn’t merit. More to the point, I wouldn’t risk my own credibility by even trying.
But if my client’s story deserves to be in the New York Times, or on the BBC, or in EE Times, or on National Public Radio, or on the Richard and Judy Show, or in the most narrowly focused of trade media outlets, it matters not a whit whether I have any kind of existing relationship with the reporter, editor or producer who needs to be successfully pitched in order to get that coverage. It matters only that I have a deserving story to pitch and the ability to pitch it well.
And if the story doesn’t deserve to be there, all the relationships in the world ain’t gonna make it happen.
Here at inmedia, we demolish this fiction practically every time we take on a new client since we invariably are required to add new media outlets, new contacts — indeed, entire new industry sectors — to our outreach efforts. And even where we have an established record of success with any individual journalist or outlet, we don’t lever the relationship; we lever our ability to engage that journalist on the only issue of any interest to her or him: the story.
So why does this fiction persist? I blame the PR industry. Truth is, you sell what you’ve got. And if you don’t have the necessary grasp of how newsrooms operate to effectively pitch into them, if you don’t have the deep understanding of your client’s story that allows you to get past the initial objections reporters throw in your way, if you don’t have the strategic understanding of why you’re trying to generate coverage for your client in the outlet you’re targeting, then the only thing you can rely on is your so-called relationships. So you tell the prospect that relationships with the target media are a prerequisite to getting coverage and you hope the prospect is an unsophisticated buyer who will fall for that.
By Francis Moran
Canada’s national broadcaster, the CBC, is airing a special series on its national radio news programs called, “How may I help you?” I caught the first in-depth piece yesterday evening and I so badly wanted to call in immediately and share my endless stack of customer service horror stories. Many fellow listeners obviously felt the same way; as of late this morning, fully 279 (!) individual stories of lament had been posted to CBC’s web site.
The issue put me in mind of an article, authored by Graham Technology’s Frank Kirwan, that we secured in Customer Management magazine earlier this year.
As I was listening to the radio piece last evening and reading some of the horror stories posted online this morning, the key point that kept coming back to me from Kirwan’s article “Dissatisfaction is a greater driver of (customer) defection than satisfaction is of retention,” he said. And judging from the number of CBC listeners who wrote that they would never again do business with that bank, telephone company, travel agency or whatever, clearly it takes just a single outrageous example of lousy customer service to trigger that defection.It really doesn’t have to be that way.
Because we have been working with Graham Technology for about a year and a half now, and with other companies like PIKA Technologies and Vocantas whose products and services can help companies sharpen their customer service, we know that the effective deployment of the appropriate technology solution can dramatically improve what seems to be a near-universally dismal record. The irony is that technology implementations are often cited by customers as the most egregious part of the problem. (Bell Canada’s voice avatar Emily surely would be hung in effigy from city to city across Canada if she was anything more corporeal than the ultimate in service-preventing disembodied interactive voice response (IVR) systems!)
By Jill Pyle
Lately, I’ve had the opportunity to work with several clients whose PR programs have an analyst relations component. It’s been a great experience getting to know the ins and outs of analyst relations and learning about the many ways it can create value for a client.
We reach out to technology analysts for the same reason we reach out to media: what they say and do has the potential to move markets and engaging with them can have a positive impact on our clients’ business objectives. Many purchasing decision-makers read the research reports issued by large analyst firms like Gartner, Forrester and IDC that put the companies that are included in these reports at top of mind when it comes time to buy.
Like purchasing decision-makers, the media are also known for approaching analysts to source expert opinions. Quotes from technology analysts often appear in the media. Some analysts also write byline articles, columns or blogs. It’s also common for analysts to give presentations and provide counsel to large organizations. In order to stay on top of advancements in their area of expertise, analysts regularly participate in briefings with technology vendors.
Typically, our clients’ first engagement with an analyst firm is an introductory phone briefing, where they have the opportunity to share information about their business, market, market drivers, technology solution and its applications. Introductory briefings can range from 30 to 60 minutes, usually starting with a presentation or demo and finishing up with some questions and answers.
Because we provide company and technology background information in advance of introductory briefings, our clients are often able to have high-value conversations with technology analysts and receive feedback on their value proposition, as well as an authoritative perspective on trends affecting their market. These are the kinds of briefings our clients really enjoy. Unfortunately, some briefings are void of feedback and end with a sales pitch to sponsor a research report.
Our objective when engaging with technology analysts is to seek out opportunities for our clients to be included in research reports that do not require sponsorship and articles that are published in outlets that reach their target customers. It is through engaging with a healthy mix of big-name and boutique analyst firms that we are able to find these kinds of opportunities for our clients.
By Linda Forrest
Media relations is a collaborative process. The client and the PR agency should clearly define objectives for the program at the outset and a plan should be formulated to reach those goals.
It’s important to consider that one of the predominant reasons for outsourcing the PR function is to gain efficiency. We can ease your workload so that you can better spend your time attending to your other business requirements. We are here to take the content development, pitching, media monitoring and other PR activities off of your plate. We work hard to learn our clients’ full story and best pursue the media coverage that your story deserves.
If this is your first time using an agency instead of doing PR in-house, a transition is to be expected. But soon enough, as our clients can attest, the process has been streamlined and results are achieved. Hopefully, the following few words on content development will help ease the transition.
