PR strategies to keep you on top
Getting your message right is only part of what helps you succeed. Delivery, placement, positioning – it all feeds the hunger of the consumer for your product. Refresh your memory about the nuances of good guerrillas. Then, here are seven points on the checklist for you to consider while designing your next great guerrilla campaign.
1. Prepare. It's not about buying big data, but understanding the real things you already know about customers. One of the reasons businesses employ guerrilla tactics is because of agility and responsiveness. Start stretching your mind.
2. Predict. Look at the typical demographic information, including how your target market moves and why – but then think about your own family and friends, things they like to do, what would be inspirational for them. Then get ready to…
3. Portray. Develop a gripping story that will create a relatable contextual vision that will draw in your consumer, showing them new life and the great opportunities your product brings.
4. Be memorable. You don’t want to create just another handout. By design and by delivery, the interaction accompanying your message needs to reverberate with your potential clients in a way that creates a positive lasting memory.
5. Motivate. Energy creates waves of its own, and the power of engagement motivates a new client to tell another client. Skepticism abounds; people trust their family and friends more than a salesperson – convince their circles to purchase too.
6. Mobilize. Take your message to the people. Take to the street and deliver your brand message directly to the hands of consumers. Take action instead of traditional commercialized approaches.
7. Caution: Some people are trying to rebrand experiential marketing as "the new and improved guerrilla." Don't be fooled. (Experience and social marking will be compared in a separate update in the near future.)
When you keep to the basics, your public relations campaigns will draw more profits and more loyal customers than uninteresting passive campaigns. Customers are more sophisticated than ever, and you need to be a distinctive voice resonating above the din of normal. Axia Public Relations can help you align your vision to your message and bring out the guerrilla for the next campaign. Download our e-book Maximizing Your Public Relations Investment to learn how to maximize your profit with public relations strategies.
Heather M. Hilliard is a marketing and strategic planning professional with expertise in crisis management communications. Earning two master’s degrees and her international Certified Emergency Manager credential, she has worked during disasters as well as “normal business” to offset impact in preparedness for large- and small-scale events in a variety of industries. She is an adjunct professor for Tulane University and currently focuses on strategic communications and improvements.
Featured image credit: 123rf.com
Topics: public relations
Comment on This Article