Communicating your worth

Your staff have valuable skills …. you can’t cut back there! You can’t afford to neglect customers – customer care is more important that ever! If you don’t keep up the R&D you’ll have fallen behind come the recovery! The last thing you want to do is let any area of the business slip in these turbulent times but if the income’s falling something may have to give. So what will it be?

For many firms the first thing that’s slashed is the advertising and marketing budget. But how do you keep and attract customers if you don’t spend money letting them know where you and what you have to offer? Perhaps there’s another way to keep your name in the frame.

Some firms play the press and media game so well that they rarely have to spend on advertising and marketing. Take Sir Philip Green. He doesn’t need advertising when he has Kate Moss on his arm, can attract headlines just by walking into a room or is constantly interviewed on the recovery.

I’m not suggesting you aspire to that level of coverage but being mentioned in a press article is estimated to be worth about 3 times advertising value: if it costs £1,000 to place an ad in your trade magazine or £14,000 for one in the FT, an article about your business in the same publication or a mention with a well crafted quote, is worth up to three times that amount in terms of impact on potential customers. A broadcast interview is reckoned to be worth up to 6 times advert value. Those advertising equivalent values have fallen out of favour a bit lately but there’s no doubt that getting ‘editorial’ can be a great way to make up for an enforced reduction in your advertising budget.

So how do you generate those valuable opportunities? The press and broadcast media are hungry beasts. Think about the articles you read, hear and see. How often are the same firms mentioned and the same people rolled out to give their views? Reporters and researchers have people they know and trust and when they’re up against a deadline they reach for that ‘low hanging fruit’ ….. people who will say ‘yes’, know what they’re talking about and have a good way with words. But there’s always room for new people especially if you’re flexible, knowledgeable, audience friendly and willing to impart your personal mobile phone number! You stand an even better chance of making the cut if you’ve had some good media and communication training.

Who do you need to reach with your business message? They will include customers, shareholders, advisers, brokers, policy makers and any other stakeholders. Work out which publications and broadcast programmes nationally and locally, not forgetting online, other new media and even community stations, they’re likely to use. Work out what your business objective is – what do you want to get out of being interviewed? Listen, watch and read the outlets you’ve identified and if you think you have something to say and can get it across well set about courting the right contacts.

As with any other aspect of business someone you know will know someone who knows the person your need to talk to. Form relationships with those people. Learn what is it they need to make their programme or publication work and what you can give.

Imagine the joy of a hard pressed researcher, writer, producer or reporter who gets good stories from a trustworthy, friendly source who understands what’s required. Sometimes they’ll turn to you for information as part of research and you won’t get be quoted or interviewed, but on other occasions you’ll be asked to contribute and your title and firm will get that all important credit.

Once you’ve done the ground work it’s a case of taking care of the relationship. You may not be photographed on the arm of Kate Moss but you can do your business a power of good, at low cost, by getting your name in front of an audience that needs what you have to offer.