It’s a cliche, but when it comes to growing and scaling a business there’s nothing more harrowing than the thought of failure.
If you’ve been reading my newsletters for a while, it won’t surprise you that I have a rebellious relationship with ‘failure’ in the sense that failure isn’t final.
‘Failure’ is often an opportunity to experiment and learn from mistakes. Those mistakes are still lessons and lessons need learning.
There’s a belief that if you’re not learning then you’re not growing and if you’re not growing then you’ll stay stagnant and if you stay stagnant for too long, then the road to failure is closer than you think.
STICK TO STRATEGY
Having a strategy is imperative if you want to keep focussed on your growth goals. Plus, it helps you to analyse what is and isn’t working at regular intervals (I suggest that clients assess tactics every 3-6 months.)
The thing is, you can easily waste time creating a strategy for everything; the business, growth, PR, Marketing etc. Strategies are important, but you also need to put a plan in place so that you know what needs to be delivered, by when and who by.
Without a plan there’s no way of setting KPIs with your team, or deciding how you’re going to monitor performance, results and effectiveness.
Without this, it becomes incredibly hard to pull people up on things when they aren’t going to plan, because there wasn’t a plan (or KPIs) to begin with.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
When I work with clients, my number one priority is to make sure that the PR strategy aligns with the growth goals of the business. If it doesn’t then there’s no point investing time, money and energy into tactics that don’t (or won’t) deliver growth.
PR is hard to measure in terms of quantitative outcomes. It’s there to drive brand awareness, build trust and create an engaged audience, it’s not a sales and revenue driver (although it does influence buying decisions in the long-run.)
This is why it’s more important to look at qualitative measurement:
- How does your media coverage make your audience feel?
- How are they responding to your PR activities?
- Is it driving more leads into your business?
It’s exactly the same when it comes to marketing. Marketing exists to nurture leads, whether that’s on social media, through your email newsletter or ‘in real life’ experiential events.
These activities allow you to build a relationship with potential customers and clients until they trust you enough to buy from you.
In an ideal world, PR and Marketing would work together to hit all four parts of the PESO Model (which you can read about in this blog post).
PR and Marketing can work independently, but it’s a bit like eating a Victoria Sponge cake without the cream. The jam alone is yummy, but jam and cream combined? That delivers a next-level experience that makes you want to return for more.
EARNED ATTENTION ECO-SYSTEM
It’s becoming harder and harder to break through the noise of the internet and fight against the different social media algorithms.
And the truth is that you’re talking to an audience that’s already following you, which limits the impact your content is having to potential customers who don’t yet know you.
While it’s possible to grow your audience on social media, relying on people to find you via a hashtag search is like relying on the weather.
To consistently drive leads into your business, you need to be seen (and heard) by your target customers. Which means that you need to understand where they’re hanging out and position your business in front of them.
👉 Are they on social media? If so, which platforms are they on, what type of content do they prefer and are they actively visiting your website to learn more and buy from you?
👉 Are they listening to podcasts? If so, which ones?
👉 Are they watching TV? If so, which shows and channels?
👉 Are they attending events or pop-up experiences? If so, which ones?
Once you understand where your customers are hanging out, then you can plan PR and Marketing activities that will deliver you to them via the correct channels.
Once you know, you can create a strategy (and a plan) that allows PR and Marketing to work together to implement an Earned Attention Eco-System that works seamlessly in the background, consistently driving traffic and leads into your business.
YOUR CUSTOMER COMES FIRST
Without customers you haven’t got a business.
There’s no point creating an Earned Attention Eco-System if you don’t actually know what your customers want or need from you (or how they buy from you – is it an impulse purchase or do they need to build trust before parting with their cash?)
The only way to truly understand this is to consistently monitor performance and assess the impact and influence it has on your business.
It’s all very well creating content for every single social platform, but what are the outcomes (not to be confused with output, which a lot of agencies will focus on) of this activity?
- Is it creating engagement?
- Is that engagement made up of reactions or comments?
- Is it driving visits to your website?
- Is it driving sign-ups to your email newsletter?
- What’s the click rate and open rate of your email newsletter?
- What’s the sales conversion rate?
Monitoring analytics and insights is going to help you assess what’s working and what isn’t, in terms of meeting the growth goals of the business.
As I mentioned above, auditing PR and Marketing activity every 3-6 months is a great place to start as it gives you enough time to implement and build momentum, without letting mistakes fester for too long and become expensive lessons.
(This recent blog post on being delusional about data may help you make better decisions.)
Understanding how your customer behaves before implementing any kind of strategy is going to pay off exponentially in the long run.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Actually, f**k that! There’s no such thing as perfect. Chasing perfection will hinder you from the excitement of experimenting and being open to the results it delivers.
There are too many ‘guru’ coaches online now who promise that they’re thing is what’s going to accelerate your business.
In my experience (trust me, I’ve bought into all the hype over the years), the best way to see what works is to give it a try (in your own time and in your own way) or to give your internal or external teams autonomy to do so.
What has worked for your competitors may not work for you, so put your blinkers on and let your own tuition guide you.
This is easier said than done when you’re an entrepreneur with a team of one, or a small team that’s on the same page as you.
But more people = more opinions, so if you’re an SME with a bigger team, be prepared to hear lots of noise that *may* cloud your judgement and cause you to change your mind.
(Or, do what I sometimes do: ask for input, weigh up their opinions, then do what you wanted to do in the first place!)
STAY CURIOUS WHILST STICKING TO THE STRATEGY
Having too many boundaries is going to cockblock success.
A strategy is important to keep everyone focussed and on track and a plan is imperative as it details how the strategy will be implemented and who’s responsible for implementing it.
But don’t get too fixated on the ‘how’. The ‘how’ (or the tactics you use) aren’t nailed down to the floor, they can be moved.
I always say that if you lead with ‘why’ then you naturally stay curious and can’t go wrong.
Also, don’t get too bogged down by data. It’s a good measurement tool, but don’t focus on it so much that you forget the human touch, especially if you’re getting direct feedback from your target audience.
Not every result will be a sale. Results can often be delivered as a new product idea, or feedback that you weren’t expecting.
Growth comes in all different guises.
ADVOCATING FOR YOUR ADVANCEMENT
Strategy days and planning sessions are an essential part of business growth – if you fail to plan then you plan to fail!
If you’ve been collecting data for the past 12 months then now is a good time to analyse what’s been going on and audit how effective your growth tactics have been.
You may realise that a tactic that worked for eight months has now taken a nose dive, or you may spot a gap in the market that you want to explore with a different tactic (this is often where PR slots in nicely with your Marketing activities, if you haven’t implemented it before.)
I’m going to be controversial here, but if you haven’t invested in PR support before, then a ‘spray and pray’ approach is often more beneficial to begin with.
It still needs to make sense within the business and growth strategy (there’s no point being featured in Women’s Health if your target audience doesn’t read Women’s Health).
If the goal is simply to raise awareness of your brand then being featured in multiple different media outlets is going to be a solid strategy.
Commit to that for 6-12 months to see how your target audience responds to your media coverage, then analyse the results so that a specific strategy can be implemented, based on the outcomes of PR activity.
If thought leadership is your primary focus then creating a strategy from the offset will be a better use of your time and money, as opposed to the ‘spray and pray’ approach.
Basically, the PR approach will depend on what you want to achieve and how you want your target audience to take action once they’ve heard you on a podcast, seen you on TV or read about you online or in an article.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS
If you’re looking to up the ante with your PR strategy next year, or you want to create an Earned Attention Eco System, then I’d recommend investing in one of my PR Strategy Days.
Or, if you want to start the year by auditing your current activity to see how it’s been performing and where the gaps are, then I’d suggest investing in a Brand Influence Audit before committing to a PR or Earned Attention Strategy.
To find out more about either service, either email me on laura@prwithperkes.com or schedule a consultation call in my diary, which you can access here
About Laura Perkes:
Laura Perkes is a PR Specialist, Communications Consultant and the Founder of PR with Perkes.
With a degree in Public Relations and Media Studies and 20+ years of on-the-ground experience, Laura published her first book ‘How To Get PR’ in 2022.
Laura works with creative, diverse and innovative founders, entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs who are looking to raise their profile, build authority and create an earned attention eco-system that consistently contributes to the year-on-year growth of their business.
