How do you know if it's working?

The time you spend on public relations and marketing should pay for itself in new customers. You won't know if your efforts are paying off, however, unless you keep a record of how your customers are hearing about you. Was it from an article about you? Was it from your Yellow Pages advertising? Did they hear you speak somewhere? Did they hear about you from a friend? Did they get your mailer? Asking these questions, and recording the answers, is called tracking.

With conscientious tracking, you can increase your number of successes and reduce the amount of time and money wasted.

An author I worked with, a best-selling self-help author, began tracking his book and product sales and realized his sales spiked immediately after he made a personal appearance somewhere. This may seem obvious but he had so many marketing programs going on simultaneously that he'd never sat down before and looked at where the actual sales were coming from. By asking for feedback from customers and noting the places and dates where his products were selling, he was able to cut back on some of the wasted advertising and focus those resources into the promotion of his public appearances.

One of my favorite communications tactics and tracking tools is an opt-in email campaign and list management tool called Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com). When you send out a newsletter using Constant Contact, the software allows you to generate reports that show you exactly how many people opened the email, who clicked through to your site and other valuable metrics to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing.

Definitions

ADVERTISING

Advertising is promotion you pay for. Its most important function is to boost sales. With an ad, you can control your message, its frequency, and in some cases, the placement of your ad. Beware! Your ads compete with hundreds of others for your prospect's attention. You must be willing to run your ad several times until it begins to work. Select advertising media that your audience is likely to read, see or hear on a regular basis, because it is highly likely your prospect will not notice your ad the first time, or even the second.

DATABASE

A database is a collection of information you store in your computer. With a good customer database, you can manipulate the data to create meaningful reports and lists. The most successful businesses keep detailed customer databases and spend a great deal of time and resources to keep their databases up to date. This information can help you:

• print address lists for mailings
• send email or faxes
• determine who your best customers are
• know who bought which products or services, when, how often and at what price
• reminds you when to contact certain customers for various reasons (sending birthday cards, follow-up on leads, etc.)

A good database is essential for your media relations efforts, and for customer retention purposes.

I remember reading an article about a men's clothing store that used its customer database in the most wonderful way. When a customer bought a suit, for example, the salesperson recorded the color of the suit, style, price and other details. When, say, the store received a shipment of new ties, the salesperson would notify the customer that she had a new tie in stock that would beautifully complement the customer's suit.

I wish my hair salon would use its database to more advantage, the way a veterinarian reminds customers of when the next pet vaccination is due. I'm not saying my hair isn't naturally blonde, but let's just say for the sake of argument that if my hairdresser were to send me a note six weeks after each visit reminding me that I'm due to have my hair "done" again, I'm not only more likely to make an appointment, but also return to the same salon. It's a simple process, but I'm surprised at how many business owners lose touch with their customers when it's so easy not to.

DIRECT MARKETING

Small businesses with a specialized focus and community-based businesses should focus on direct and personal marketing strategies. Approaches include direct mail (flyers, catalogs, solicitation letters, contests, etc.); telemarketing, client calls, networking, special events and other such approaches.

MARKETING

Marketing involves all activities related to making a product or service available to the public, from the initial spark of an idea to years after the sale. More simply, marketing is the process of finding, and keeping, customers.

PERSONAL MARKETING

Personal marketing is building your business by getting known by circulating at parties, networking, joining clubs, public speaking and handing out business cards.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations is the management of information between an organization and its publics. It involves creating positive relationships with the media to encourage them to print your news releases, to show stories about you on television, or send reporters to your events. It involves your organization's positive relationship with key publics (prospects, customers, shareholders, industry analysts, community leaders, etc.).

PROMOTION

Promotion is the use of mass media, direct mail or other marketing options to reach your audience.

PUBLICITY

Publicity is free promotion that you get from the mass media -- newspapers, radio and television. When you attract the attention of large amounts of potential customers, you are getting publicity. Unlike advertising, there are no guarantees that an editor will publish your story, and you cannot control where your story is placed in the publication. However, if you do receive positive coverage on a regular basis, your efforts can be very rewarding in the form of business growth and positive public regard. Generally, people believe what they read or see on television if the message is delivered by a credible source.

Never Stop Promoting Your Business

Sometimes a business owner gets so busy with the day-to-day operations of the business, or runs into a temporary business upswing, that the task of promoting the business is neglected. This is why a lot of businesses get into trouble -- they have neglected the "promotion" element of their marketing plan, or let too much time elapse between efforts, and then, when the business needs the revenues, there are no customers to be found and few prospects. While you're in the office drinking your own Koolade, the market has forgotten you and moved on to your competitor, who hasn't neglected his promotion. With this in mind, consider the following reasons to keep promoting your business:

1. The marketplace is very crowded and competitive, suggesting it is risky not to constantly promote yourself. You need to actively spread the word about your business so that you can:

• keep customers aware of your existence
• overcome customer confusion or indifference
• help establish a position in the minds of those you wish to serve

2. Before customers can buy from you, they have to know about you. The techniques used to create this awareness differ from business to business, but there are time-tested ways to reach every customer. Find what works for you, and stick with it.

3. It is a fact: Good marketing results in sales revenue increases. The only time this is a problem is if you bring in more business than you can service.

4. Your success depends on doing everything you can to reach the minds of your prospects and existing customers so that they have an easy time remembering you.

Promoting your business doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. There is a direct correlation between the amount of energy you put into your marketing and the level of your success. Persistence and discipline are more important than anything.

Press Kit

I unearthed a pile of old portfolios and found work I'd done 150 years ago (in the 80s.) In it are samples of my work -- article clips, newsletters, bylines, brochures -- and an "old" press kit.

Back in the day, press kit contents were housed in lovely, embossed, die-cut pocket folders with 8x10 black and white glossy photographs and a well-chosen selection of printed documents: press release(s), fact sheet, company overview, FAQs and other printed information that I, as the PR rep, believed were good and useful resources for my media contacts.

We used to send these press kit folders via U.S. mail to all the pertinent media outlets, at great cost when you consider printing, postage, 10 x 13 envelopes and labor. At the receiving end were reporters, editors and producers with stacks and stacks of folders received from the hundreds of people and organizations who were promoting something, each of these stuffed with paper and photographs, many of which ended up in the circular file.

As far as I know, almost no one uses these kinds of printed press kits anymore. Today, the press kit is fully electronic, downloadable from the web site as PDFs or Word docs. Since most media correspondence is now done via email, the media are fully accustomed to receiving press kit documents as attachments. That's great for us -- the economies created by the digital age are substantial when it comes to the practice of public relations.