ist magazine October 2021

Feature

P lant your expertise seeds where you have the strongest oppor tunity for success. That means having a firm grasp on your target market where you know you have a strong shot at developing enduring roots – not just a momentary glimpse of sunlight. Anyone who has ever seen that first seedling sprout in their garden or field knows that immediate feeling of elation ... Things are happening! I wasn’t just tilling and watering this soil for no reason! It’s a burst of excitement knowing that your work has paid off. But those same folks Nurturing – Building Relationships

With publicity, post-placement marketing is a key, critical component in a campaign’s life cycle. Without effective marketing to the associations and industries who utilized your expertise in their publication, you cannot truly capitalize on the commitment you made to growing your business or enhancing your audience at the outset. Effectively marketing the publicity you receive involves outreach to the industries who found direct value in your content – be it your perspective in an interview or your unique selling propositions in articles. Without lever aging these placements and marketing to those industries, you’ll be left with a bounty without a buyer. With business back in full bloom, events are currently being planned and organizations are seeking experts to enrich their audiences with their point of view. To enjoy the full range of benefits of a publicity campaign, you must think like a farmer or gar dener – determine the fertile soil for your content, sow the seeds of your expertise with targeted pitching, with a green thumb frame of mind (in a monetary context, of course), nurture the relationships built, and then leverage your placements to begin marketing your content. As the gardeners and farmers among you know, it doesn’t happen overnight. But with time, care and dedication, you’ll enjoy the rewards of a fruitful publicity endeavor. Q

can also identify with watching their work wilt on the vine and the inescapable thought that more could have been done. Once you have started the process of pitching out your expertise – be it to daily newspapers in the form of in terview availability, or articles to trade, industry and association publications, it’s imperative that you nurture those leads by properly tracking and following up with the editors who have requested your comment or content. One of the biggest mistakes that is made during a publicity campaign is fostering a one-sided relationship. Each one of those columnists and editors is looking to fill space with intriguing con tent on a consistent basis. Just like you wouldn’t prune your leaves or fertilize all at once when it’s convenient, you need to maintain a dialogue with those who are looking to you for answers. That doesn’t mean bombarding them with emails or phone calls – it simply entails having a firm process in place to touch base on the status of your article or interview, and be ready to reach out when a mutually benefi cial opportunity arises. The Harvest – Frequency and Repetition The pinnacle of the sowing season is the harvest – when you can reap the rewards of your time, efforts, energy and dedication. After months of tending to your crops, it’s finally time to take out your bushels and account for your yield. In a PR campaign, the sowing season runs year-round as a well-targeted cam paign means you’ll receive a bounty of coverage on a consistent basis – regard less of the date on the calendar.

With time, care and dedication, you’ll enjoy the rewards of a fruitful publicity endeavor.

About the Author: Russell Trahan is the owner/president of PR/ PR Public Relations and the Author of Sell Your self Without Saying A

To the Market – Benefiting from Publicity

Off to the market with your haul! This is where the hard work really pays off and you can assign a definitive, tangible value to the time investment to planting, tending and harvesting your crop.

Word. PR/PR/ Public Relations is a boutique agency specializing in thought-leaders and subject matter experts. He positions his cli ents’ expertise in front of their target markets. PR/PR Public Relations has a 20+ year his tory of getting 100% of their clients results. For more information, please visit PRPR.net.

58

October 2021 istmagazine.com