Naturally, this made me wonder: Is my friend managing his time and email correctly? I’ve been the recipient of many of his emails, and I feel confident saying “no.” But why is this? My first answer is that he is not a professional communicator.

As PR professionals, I believe we have a distinct advantage over other professionals to use our PR skills – namely organization and writing – to bring greater sanity, efficiency and effectiveness to email correspondence. In fact, I get highly discouraged when working with fellow PR professionals who cannot or do not communicate clearly in email. To me, that’s adding to dysfunction and ineffectiveness, not to mention doing a discredit to the title “PR pro” or “professional communicator.”

Positively managing and writing effective emails can have numerous professional and career benefits, including: increased productivity and working efficiency; greater respect from supervisors, colleagues, subordinates and clients; and an increased perception of your own personal brand.

In some respects, I view email as an extension of your own personal communication and organizational style. For example, are you quick to reply to every email you get, or do you wait hours or days to reply? Do you consistently write complete, thoughtful sentences for each email or are your emails choppy and disjointed? Do you vary your writing, such as your voice and/or length, based on the person you’re emailing? Contrast this with face-to-face meetings. If you’re sitting across the table from your supervisor or a customer, you probably want to be more precise and thoughtful with your speaking and communication style. If you’re in a team meeting with colleagues who look to you as a leader, you probably want to inspire confidence and trust. Wouldn’t you want to do those same things via email?

Below are some suggestions for better managing email and productivity. If you are a PR pro, I hope you are employing all or most of these ideas. If you’re not a PR pro, I hope you find these suggestions beneficial.

1. Stop and Evaluate – Not every email needs an immediate reply. But every email needs an action from you. You have the choice to reply, not to reply or save it for future use/review. When trying to figure out what course of action to take, keep the following questions in mind:

• Who is it coming from? If it’s from your boss or client, it should be an email that you reply to within a reasonable amount of time (see below for more on this.)
• What is the urgency? Is the email so critical that you should you drop what you’re working on and respond to it immediately? I would venture that less than 10 percent of the emails we get are of this nature.
• What is the context? Is the email important to the work I am currently doing or will be doing shortly?
• What is my “Call to Action?” If I do reply to the email, am I being clear in my reply? For example, do I need more information from the sender? Am I going to forward this along to my boss? Am I going to put an action on my task list to do for next week? Be clear to yourself and the sender about your course of action to move the email along.

2. Set “To” and “Copy” Expectations – This may be the most important step, but is also the one of the more challenging. If you’re a manager, it’s vital you are clear with your subordinates about the types of emails you want to be copied on or when you would prefer an email vs. a phone call or meeting. For example, I tell my colleagues that I want to be copied on all important client deliverable emails, but that’s it. I also tell them not to send me emails related to their professional development or employment terms; I would rather discuss these issues with them in a face-to-face setting vs. through email. If you can set these expectations, you can greatly reduce the amount of emails you may get from your team members. It’s also important to set this same expectation with your supervisor. Setting clear expectations and then following through is key to any project, and email is no different.

3. Consolidate Topics and Meet or Pick Up the Phone – Whether you are a manager or a subordinate, remember: If you send out a lot of emails, you’re going to get a lot of emails coming back to you. Therefore, if you’re trying to manage the amount of emails coming to your inbox, consider picking up the phone or having an in-person conversation. If you have multiple topics to communicate to one person, try consolidating or “grouping” them and having a 5-minute discussion with that person. This may ultimately be quicker and more efficient than sending out multiple different emails on multiple topics.

4. Block Off “Email Only” Time – This goal is related to #2 above. You should set parameters for when you will actively be on email and responding to emails and when you will not. Be sure to communicate this to your supervisor, team members, customers, etc. For example, unless I have a meeting, my colleagues know that my time for actively checking emails is from 8 to 9 a.m. and then again from 4:30 to 5 p.m. If I don’t reply to an email from them during that time and they have an urgent issue with me, they should come find me.

5. Tailor Your Communication – After considering Steps #1 and #2, you should tailor your communication based on the person and the context. For example, I would not advise using email to communicate potentially sensitive or negative news, if you can avoid it. Likewise, email is not the forum to fully detail your 5-year strategic marketing plan. If your goal is to impress your boss and you’ve determined that email is the best forum, be sure you write sharp and concise emails to him or her. Remember: Email can be quick, but a phone conversation or an in-person meeting can sometimes be more rich and effective. You need to balance these things based on the entire context of who you’re communicating with, the topic and the time urgency.

6. Be Clear – Seem obvious, right? Unfortunately, however, emails are all too often written fast or without much thought. This makes it a challenge to know what exactly to do with poorly written emails. Emails that are not clearly written can create ambiguity, confusion, stress — and even weakened productivity due to lost time. Don’t add to the confusion and the dysfunction. Be clear in who you are addressing and what you’re requesting or assigning in your email. Also, be sure to include any deadlines you need. It’s better to take a few minutes to craft one well-written email to move the process along rather than go fast and send out three different emails.

Beyond the suggestions above, below are some tactical tips you can use immediately:

1. Include a Strong Subject Head — Be sure to have an effective Subject Head to get attention

2. Use Numbers or Bullet Points — Be sure to use numbers or bullet points in your email if you’re covering multiple issues; this will allow the recipient an easier way to address each one individually

3. More than 15 Minutes? — If it takes you more than 15 minutes to write an email, it’s probably better to stop writing that email or condense it and then augment it with a phone call or in-person meeting

4. Use Bold or Underline – Doing this can help make a point or draw attention to important or specific items you need read

5. Be Careful When Forwarding — If you’re forwarding an email string/chain and there is something of importance in that chain, don’t just use “FYI below” and expect the recipient to see what you’re hoping they see. Actually point out what it is that they should pay specific attention to

6. Get Closure– Be sure to include direct actions and deadlines in your email

7. Avoid Multiple Sends — Try to avoid sending multiple emails out from the same email before your recipient gets a chance to respond to the first email

8. If You Have Doubts…Wait a Several Minutes – If you have doubts about hitting the “send” button, there is probably a good reason. Listen to what that voice in the back of your head is trying to say. Remember: You can never “un-send” an email once it’s sent. Better to keep it in your draft folder and think about it for an hour than send it quickly and have regrets

Time is everyone’s most valuable resource. By using smart and effective communication strategies for email, we can free up more time to be productive or do the things we want to do. It’s my hope that PR professionals are carrying the torch for effective email and interpersonal communication and thereby making things easier for themselves and the audiences they work with. If they are doing this, they are doing a great service to themselves and the profession.

What are your thoughts? Have I missed anything?

1. Audience Connectors — At its heart, PR is still about “public relationships.” Our goal is to identify an organization’s key audiences and develop strategies and tactics to connect with these audiences to drive desired results. (Example: Company X needs to raise the awareness of its brand among women age 45 to 55.) We can be as broad or as focused as we need in developing the right strategy and tactics with the audiences we identify, and we can develop highly tailored programs to reach those specific audiences. This mindset — who is our audience, what do they know about our brand, what do we want them to know about our brand, and what do we need to do to reach them — drives everything we do in PR.

2. Real Content Creators — PR is not advertising. We don’t use flashy images (think catchy print ads or TV commercials) or two-word taglines to tell our clients’ story; that just won’t work for us. Yes, there is a need for this, but that comes from our advertising brothers and sisters. For PR pros, we have to dig deep with our clients to uncover and develop real and compelling content…content that will be of benefit to the online and traditional media we work with day-in and day-out. If we don’t have this real and compelling content, our media contacts, no matter how strong our relationships with them are, will not use what we provide them. Real and compelling content means it fits the needs of a reporter’s audience, which is the ultimate sniff test. It’s easy for a client and their agency to sit across the table from each other and say, “Great idea, run with it.” But, when you have a third-party involved (in this case the media), you are sure to get a true reading of whether your content is meaningful or not. This is exactly why they say advertising is paid media and PR is earned media.

3. Dialog and Conversation Creators — As PR pros, we are constantly trying to help our clients effectively tell their brand story. This can be done by facilitating media interviews, issuing press releases, securing industry speaking opportunities, developing white papers and byline articles, writing case studies, etc. In an ideal situation, we have lots of content and we are interacting with several audiences, which could include the media, customers, sales teams, employees, etc. When a PR firm has compelling content and lots of avenues for sharing that content (think Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), there are more opportunities to share a client’s story. And because we’re dealing in substantive content (i.e. we’re not just regurgitating a tagline or an ad campaign), we can have a rich two-way or multi-way dialog with those audiences.

Creating an effective social media campaign is certainly not a one-size-fits-all approach. But social media is, if nothing else, about dialog, conversation and sharing information. To effectively participate in this realm, you must know how to listen first and then share information quickly and in a thoughtful way. PR pros have been doing all of these things since the industry was founded decades ago. It makes sense, therefore, that the skills we have inherently been using to tell our client’s story prior to the advent of social media is easily transferable to great effect for today’s social media-driven world.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree?

The company’s two co-founders and principal partners realized long ago that military battles provide a rich metaphor for discussing leadership characteristics and scenarios that can be easily applied to today’s business environment.  For example, battles require lots of planning but also significant adaptation once the engagement starts.  They are full of chaos and extremely fluid.  They require that subordinates know the vision for success, but also have the flexibility to make decisions on their own.  And, they consist of humans making courageous sacrifices as well as critical mistakes.

I had a chance to tag along at one of Battlefield Leadership’s programs at Gettysburg recently to see first-hand how their experiential offering works.  What I came away with was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had.  Not only was I able to walk on such hallowed ground as Gettysburg, which is so important to our nation, but I was also able to think about my leaderships skills (strengths and weaknesses) and learn new ones.

Among the many memorable and highly applicable takeaways I left with, here are my top three:

1.  Leaders Need to Get (and Maintain) Perspective – At the start of the battle’s third day (July 3, 1863), Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was convinced that his troops, led by Gen. George Pickett, could break the Union’s center.  Lee’s hubris was due, in part, to his army’s success the previous two days, as well as his smashing victory against his Union foes at the Battle of Chancellorsville only a month prior.  Lee was advised by one of his commanders, Gen. James Longstreet, that a better course of action would be a defensive one.  But Lee demurred and set the plan for Pickett’s Charge in place.  If Lee had sought to gain greater perspective about the Union’s now-arrayed forces on Day Three and/or considered Longstreet’s advice with more diligence, Pickett’s Charge could have been avoided, as well as the Army of Northern Virginia’s defeat at Gettysburg, and ultimately – perhaps – the outcome of the Civil War.

2.  Leaders Need to be Comfortable With Who They Are – Union Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin is one of the battle’s most enduring figures.  He rallied his men of the 20^th Maine atop Little Round Top, the Union’s far left flank, against a force of Confederates on the second day of the battle.  Chamberlin was not a military man by background.  Yet his leadership and actions that day saved the Union left flank from becoming decimated by the Confederates and providing them a significantly strategic advantage over the entire battlefield, which could have changed the course of the battle.  From his actions this day and throughout the remainder of his life, Chamberlin knew exactly the kind of person and leader he was and wanted to be.  He was comfortable giving orders, trying new tactics, listening to his subordinates and motivating his men.  In short, Chamberlin knowing his own identity as a leader made him a more effective leader.

3.  Leaders Need to Communicate Effectively – Leaders are required to do many things, big and small.  Yet one of the most important aspects of leadership, especially in the heat of battle, is effective communication.  During battle, there is no room for ambiguity in communication.  For example, during the end of Day One’s fighting at Gettysburg, Lee ordered one of his new Corps commanders, Gen. Richard Ewell, to take Cemetery Hill “if practicable.”  This term was confusing for Ewell, who ultimately failed to attack in time before the hill was sufficiently fortified by Union troops.  This lack of clear communication cost the Confederates a strategic location and many lives during the next two days of fighting.

What are your thoughts?  Do you agree with my takeaways above?  Do you think the careful and reverent exploration of a battle can provide a unique way to explore leadership traits applicable for business purposes?

When word broke of Tiger’s infidelities, the world was shocked.  Throughout his career, Tiger had painstakingly cultivated his image as a fierce competitor, shrewd business man, generous philanthropist and private family-man (portrayed as a dedicated husband and father.)  Tiger really was, well…a tiger.

For Toyota, its name has become synonymous with quality.  Toyota grew over the decades through truly innovative manufacturing processes and a unique company wide organizational culture, the likes of which had never been seen before.  Yet over the course of just a few months, the Toyota brand name has been battered about, causing the company’s once-impeccable luster to lose much of its shine.

Could Tiger or Toyota have prevented their brand names from morphing into entities that none of us could have imaged?  Absolutely.  No one but Tiger could have stopped his actions.  And no one but Toyota could have seen and fixed its problems.  Indeed, both Tiger and Toyota have a long way to go to get their houses in order.  Yet both Tiger and Toyota could have kept much of their respective brand names in tact by having a better communications strategy to the public.

While each crisis is unique and has its own set of challenges, if Tiger and Toyota had followed the following fundamental communications rules, I think the public would have been much more forgiving, and the media scrutiny much less intense.  In short, the Tiger and Toyota brands would not have been as severely damaged as they are now.  Both Tiger and Toyota now face the daunting task of rebuilding their images and regaining the public confidence they had spent years carefully cultivating.

To other Tiger and Toyota brands out there, heed the following in times of crises:

Be Quick – The Tiger imbroglio began on Thanksgiving eve, but Tiger did not make his public statement/apology until Feb.19.  During this time, the media and others were doing the talking and the speculating.  Tiger lost his opportunity to tell his side of the story at the beginning, thereby missing his chance to tamp down rumors and curry favor with the general public, including his fans, fellow golfers and sponsors. Toyota, meanwhile, has also been extremely slow in getting its highest level executives to discuss this situation.  In fact, several long weeks had gone by before Toyota President Akio Toyoda spoke publicly in the U.S.

Be Human – People can have sympathy and empathy, but only when they feel a connection with their fellow human.  Tiger’s well-rehearsed public apology, scripted and with note cards, did not convey an apology that was truly from the heart, thereby leaving a lot of people unconvinced or sympathetic.  Toyota was dragged in front of Congress, thereby losing any sympathy they could have gained and looking like just another big corporate conglomerate with something to hide.

Show Regret – Did Tiger or Toyota come across as truly apologetic?  During Tiger’s speech, he vaguely suggested that his fame and money contributed to, if not justified his actions.  Toyota, meanwhile, is dealing with media reports that it may not have been overly concerned about its sticking accelerator pedals when the problem was first discovered.  Do these actions show real regret or remorse?

Enact Reform – Both Tiger and Toyota have discussed what they are doing to fix their respective problems.  Tiger is in rehab and “focusing on his family,” while Toyota has ordered new parts and trained all of its dealers in order to fix the recalled cars.  Yet the public will continue to be skeptical if Tiger’s and Toyota’s reforms fall flat.

Provide Restitution – Toyota is providing restitution to those owners who were involved in accidents caused by their faulty gas pedals.  But is it going far enough to appease a skeptical public that sees the organization as slow to react to this crisis?  I’m guessing Toyota will probably need to do more in providing restitution as the crisis continues to move on without a clear resolution in place.

Be Honest and Transparent – Does more need to be said about the importance of these two things in a time of crisis?  In the early hours after Tiger’s accident at his Florida home, media reports said his wife used a golf club to free him from his crashed SUV.  In hindsight, no one now believes this was true.  As for Toyota, more reports are coming out about a lack of transparency and honesty regarding their prior knowledge of the faulty gas pedals.  As our parents told us, “no one likes a liar.”

So, what do you think?  Beyond these thoughts, how else could Tiger or Toyota protected their brand and image in the hours, days and weeks immediately following these respective crises?

For more details on Toyota’s gas pedal issue, click on this link

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100201/CARNEWS/100209999

Here are the Top Five Reasons to send an eNewsletter to your clients or employees next month:

1. Feedback. We can track how many readers open the email, which stories they read, if they watch a video, click through to your website or forward to an associate. With a traditional newsletter, this type of feedback is not available. With feedback we can gain insight into what messages resonate with your audience and if our strategy is effective.

2. Cost-effective marketing. With no printing and low delivery costs, eNewsletters are a cost–effective way to stay in touch with your customers. For a penny or two per reader, you can deliver the same message to one or a million customers, host the graphics and videos online and provide tracking reports.

3. Visibility. In a tough economy, companies that make efforts to remain visible to clients and customers come out on top when the market turns back around. eNewsletters are a convenient way to remain “top of mind.”

4. Accessibility. The format of an eNewsletter fits into today’s busy lifestyle. Executives can take the newsletter “on the go” to read later on smart phones, PDAs or laptops.

5. Connection. eNewsletters offer a regular connection that helps to strengthen the relationship between a company and its clients or staff.

Don’t get me wrong, beautifully printed magazines, brochures and annual reports still have a significant place in the marketing mix. So when clients ask if it is better to go digital, in most cases the answer is yes.

Note: This article originally appeared on Jennifer’s personal blog, Sheran Memories.

Not only do the Census results help allocate funds for the betterment of communities, the results also give companies an idea of how consumers have changed in the past decade and helps them forecast some of the ways their audiences will change in the 10 years to come. The results can have an important impact on how a company proceeds with its marketing and communications strategies.

In doing research for this post I came across an article from Advertising Age titled “New U.S. Census to Reveal Major Shift: No More Joe Consumer,” that pitches its new white paper “2010 America: What the 2010 Census Means for Advertising and Marketing”, which is based on preliminary observations from a demographics expert. The article highlights the shift from an easily defined society to one that is multi-dimensional (multicultural) and even more complex. I think many of us can agree that pursuit of the evolving consumer is nothing new, but understanding the changing demographic landscape should still be of importance to companies and their PR firms.

Take the top three findings of the aforementioned article:

• U.S. households are growing ever more complex and varied
• In some cities minorities are the new majority
• 85 percent of the nation’s population growth occurred in the South and West

If this doesn’t get your creative juices flowing from a communications perspective, I’m not sure what will. I expect to see more and more to be written by PR pros and how the 2010 Census results impact their clients businesses and their communications strategies.

As I prepare to begin work on my clients’ accounts in 2010, the Census will be top-of-mind. Even though the Census Bureau doesn’t disclose the results of the 2010 Census until the spring of 2011, I want to make sure that as a trusted advisor to my clients I can help them be prepared for these results. I think it’s important to have a PR strategy in place and to discuss the benefits of knowing how my clients’ consumers are evolving and how we’re meeting their needs.

A few questions I will be keeping in mind for my clients include:

• Do the results of the 2010 Census have an impact on our communication strategies and vehicles?
• What new audiences can we reach out to and what is the best way to do so?
• Are we focusing on the right type of consumer for our products?
• Should we be reaching out to ethnic or other niche media and online outlets in order expand the outreach of our media relations work?
• Do the results indicate that social media would be a good way to reach new consumers that we want to target?
• Do we feel prepared to be proactive about the 2010 Census results or will be reactive?

It’s no surprise that the Census results help companies glean the changing face of the American consumer and the new market trends that are impacting the demographic, economic and social landscape. Will your company be prepared for the new wave of consumers? The reality also is that the way you communicate your message to a specific audience does matter and can impact your bottom line positively if it’s done correctly and with the right partner to guide you.

My first blog (“Defining Your Brand”) discussed why it’s important to start a strategic planning session by looking at your brand first.  My second blog (“Considering Your Business”) discussed the various hard-hitting questions that need to be answered to ensure your communications program is aligned to your business goals.

Now, this blog asks the questions needed to create a communications program that is effective and fully integrated with both your brand identity and business goals.

1.  What Have You Learned About Your Brand and Your Business?

Before embarking on your marketing communications plan, take a few moments and consider the key elements of your brand (See Blog #1) and your business goals (See Blog #2).  For example, it’s always good to keep in mind your brand’s core strengths and its unique selling point (or claim of distinction).  These are things that make your company great and why you have customers.  To create a marketing program that deviates or does not take these elements into consideration would erode the brand equity you’ve spent so hard building.

It’s also important to keep in mind your overarching, long-term business strategy.  Don’t let a short-term marketing program take you away from your bigger business goal.  Also, remember your customers.  They are the ones buying from you now and are more predisposed to buy from you in the future.  Why would you lose focus on these people with a flashy new marketing program not aimed at them too?

2.  What Kind of Marketing Has Been Done Before?

Any good marketing communications campaign should seek to build on the one before it (if it was effectiveJ), since that can drive greater brand awareness, conserve/maximize resources and build brand equity.  So, a careful analysis of the tools and strategies used in the past is needed.  Your PR firm should ask you what strategies have worked, what didn’t and why.  Beyond this, they should be asking you tactical questions such as what are your key message points, what and where is your online presence, and what are the media outlets you’re trying to reach (and have reached before).

3.  What Do You Have to Work With?

It’s great to have grand plans to get to the top of the mountain.  But if you don’t have the resources to take that trip, you’ll never get there.  When it comes to a public relations or marketing program, a realistic “audit” of resources – budget, personnel, etc. – should be a requirement.  For an effective PR program, your PR agency should be asking you questions such as:

• Who are your company visionaries, product experts and spokespeople?
• What are your upcoming major company initiatives, product launches, company achievements and/or milestones, and how do plan to promote those?
• What are some of the great customer success stories you should be sharing?
• What are your competitors saying about you, where and why?
• What kind of budget and personnel do you have allocated to supporting your marketing initiatives?

4.  Why Does it Matter?  

Finally, it goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – that all this work should matter.  Therefore, it’s essential that you and your PR team develop realistic metrics to measure results.  Yes, tracking the number of media placements and calculating a readership can be one form of measurement.  However, if you’ve engaged your PR team from a larger brand and business standpoint (as I’m recommending in this blog series), then those elements should be considered as well.  For example, did your PR firm enhance and/or protect the image of your brand?  If so, how?  Was it through the brand-centric programs they created, the messages they delivered, the customer service they employed when interacting with your customers?  Did your PR firm keep your business goals in mind and re-direct or bring new activities designed to support those goals?

Using “traditional” models of PR evaluation are important.  However, the value of a PR firm should not be measured by those alone.  At the end of the day, the best communications partner is helping change or create behaviors and perceptions that can strengthen your brand.

Now that you’ve read all three blogs, what are your thoughts?  What do you agree or disagree with?  Or, what else would you add?  I’d love to get your comments!

There have been numerous books penned by non-millennials that throw around stereotypes about how millennials act, their purchasing habits and how they receive communication (Fast Company has a great article, “A Millennial’s Guide to Millennial Guides,” that chronicles a millennial reading some of these books). Apparently, the consensus is that millennials:

Hi, I'm every millennial. I'm not afraid to subtly fight the man by pairing a nice suit with a pair of Chucks. In case you're wondering, I'm a Mac and not a PC.

• Need to be told they’re special and everyone gets a trophy
• Are wildly uninhibited thanks to the assumed anonymity of the internet
• Are incredibly self-centered with no respect for authority
• Attempt to delay adulthood by taking longer in college and living with their parents
• Are profoundly shaped by new technology

I think most of these sweeping generalizations are a load of you-know-what, although I will agree that most millennials are technologically savvy. However, this fact seems to be tripping marketers up left and right.

Marketers are targeting millennials through technical channels with vigor, but not many companies are getting it right. It’s great that marketers have caught on that a lot of millennials are on social networks and get text messages, but it’s important to go one step farther and figure out how your target audience actually wants to receive your messages. Personally, I feel a sense of outrage at text ads. I have to pay for that text, and if I don’t want to see an advertisement, it’s pretty safe to assume I don’t want to pay for it.

For example: Victoria’s Secret PINK is one of the brands that has successfully leveraged an online channel to reach their target audience. PINK has a very successful, very active Facebook page, and it’s not a coincidence that PINK’s target audience, college-age women, is one of Facebook’s largest user groups. (Keep in mind that when Facebook first started it was only for college students.) It just makes sense that PINK gets a lot of views on Facebook.

If you're using the same tactics to reach both of these gentlemen, you might need to rethink your strategy.

PINK is not using Facebook to market to millennials. They’ve got a much more targeted audience: females, 18-25. I feel certain that their marketing team has drilled the group down even farther based on factors like disposable income, hobbies, etc. Can you think of a product that every person aged 9 to 29 would want to buy? Not just the majority or a few of them, but all of them? I don’t think that such a product exists (unless something crazy happens where we live in a world where you have to buy oxygen), which is why instead of trying to market to millennials, it is my personal belief that you should market to a much more specific group.

If you think that it is possible to have one campaign suitable for the entire group of millennials, I’d love to hear your opinion. As a millennial, I’m going to continue thinking that I’m right (and special) until you prove me wrong.

In my first blog (Defining Your Brand), I discussed why it’s important to start a strategic planning session by looking at your brand first.  Knowing your brand – who you are, who you care about and what you do – is the foundation for strategic planning.  If you don’t understand your brand, you will have a hard time developing an effective communications program that creates meaningful results for the benefit of your brand.

Once you’ve “defined” your brand, it’s time to look at your business.  Organizations will engage a PR firm for a myriad of reasons – crisis communications, special event promotion, perception building, executive positioning, etc.  However, at the end of the day, your PR firm should, at the very least, know your business goals.  And at the most, align their PR strategies with those goals.

Below are some of the questions that need to be answered in order to develop a strategic communications program that can effectively support your business.

1. Where Do You Want to Go?

Your communications partner should have a clear understanding of your company’s one-, three- or multi-year revenue goals.  They should know if you are anticipating exceptional or marginal growth so they can match that to the strategies they recommend, as well as the budgets and resources needed to meet that anticipated growth.

Inherent with this conversation is knowing your organization’s overarching business growth strategy, i.e. how you plan to grow.  For example, your PR partner should know if you are looking to increase existing market share, steal market share, increase sales of existing customers, penetrate new markets, etc.  Once again, knowing this information will enable your PR firm to develop a matching strategy and tactics.

2.  Who Will Get You There?

OK, so you’ve defined where you want to go in terms of business growth.  Now comes the hard part:  Knowing who will get you there?

Of course the biggest focus needs to be on your customers.  Your PR agency will need to know everything about your customers, since they will mostly likely be a key target audience.  It will be important for your agency partner to know such details as where your customers are located, why they buy from you (vs. others), what they buy, when they buy and how much they buy.  Without a complete understanding of your customers, your PR firm won’t be able to provide the solid counsel and recommendations required to meet your business goals.

The other “who” your agency will need to keep in mind are the people in your organization that make the sales process work.  This not only includes your sales team, but also product managers and sales support staff.  Business conditions can change quickly, so your PR team needs to be plugged into what is happening in the market at the point of contact.

3.  How Will You Get You There?

You’ve defined your revenue goals and the people (customers and personnel resources) you have in your stable.  Now it’s time to look at the business opportunities available that can lead to accelerated growth.

It’s important that your PR partner knows your “sweet spot,” i.e. where you excel in sales.  Every company has a key product or service that is their money maker; your agency needs to know what that is and why.  What’s more, they also need understand your distribution model – how you get your product or service to market and into the hands of your customers.

Other elements worth reviewing are:

• New growth market opportunities:  Where are the growth areas that you should be a part of?
• Underserviced areas:  Where are you underperforming that could lead to increased sales?
• Pricing structure:  Is your product or service above, at, or below market pricing?

Final Thoughts:

PR is not a Silver Bullet – It’s important to note that a public relations program alone cannot generate sales.  Generating sales is a multifaceted process.  There are a number of separate yet interconnected parts that need to be in place to drive sales, such as:  effective customer prospecting and qualifying; prospect-to-customer conversion strategies and tactics; sales force training and education; etc.  PR, advertising and other forms of marketing should all be considered to drive sales opportunities.  Yet as any good sales professional will tell you, there is a distinct sales process that requires a lot of operational work on the front end, in the middle and on the back end to effectively close a sale.  This operational work cannot be solved by PR; that’s why a PR program alone cannot drive sales.

Be Realistic – While strategic planning is about the future, it’s important to know where you are today.  Smart businesses recognize the resources they have to work with and the challenges – both internally and externally – they need to overcome to meet their business goals.  As the old saying goes, the path to good intentions is always paved with gold.  When it comes to strategic planning, make sure you have a path.  And if you can make it smooth, you’ll be off on the right setting!

Check back soon when I’ll be discussing the final part of this three-part blog for strategic planning:  Developing a communications plan that aligns to your brand and business goals.

To use a football analogy, if you’re engaged in strategic planning this fall, think of your role as a quarterback coming up to the line of scrimmage.  You not only need to see the entire defense before you (obstacles, challenges, opportunities), but you need to remember your offensive assets (your brand, your products, your people, etc.)  If you’re not sizing up the entire field and taking a holistic approach, you’re missing opportunities to score and win.

Below is Part One of a three-part blog on top-line tips for how to integrate your brand and your business goals with your strategic communications plan.  When considering your brand, it’s important to ask three essential questions:  Who are you?  Who do you care about?  And what do you do?  Although the questions are simple, finding the answers can be complex.  But knowing the answers to these questions can help develop a communications plan that is in line with your brand.

1.  Who are you?

Review Your Mission Statement – Do you know what your brand stands for?  What is its relevance today and tomorrow?  A good place to find answers to these questions is by reviewing your company’s mission statement.  If you don’t have a mission statement, you need one, as a mission statement articulates your organization’s purpose and direction.

Know Your Company Values and Culture – It’s important you analyze your company’s values and culture.  This information could be gleaned by reviewing the mission statement, but I suggest you go deeper.  Talk to a wide cross-section of people – from your CEO, to your sales people, to your customers, to the people in the office or on the factory floor.  Are you a company that cares about its people and the community you work in?  Are you a company focused on growth and bottom-line numbers?  Are you a company with tradition and heritage, or a young company with a “take-on-the-world” approach?

2.  Who Do You Care About?

Know Your Customers and Stakeholders – Who are your primary target audiences?  Certainly you have customers; indeed you may have multiple types of customers.  It’s important you know exactly who your customers are and what they care about.  But beyond customers, you have other important stakeholders, such as employees, suppliers, the local community, etc.  In order for your brand to resonate with these stakeholders, you must first understand who they are and their desires.

Know Their Perception of Your Brand – In addition to knowing your stakeholders and what they care about, it’s also important to gauge their perception of your brand.  What do they think about your brand – do they love it, hate it or even know about it?

3.  What Do You Do?

Know What You Do Well – Knowing what you do should be easy to articulate.  But this is more than simply saying, “We make widgets.”  This is about knowing your brand’s marketplace position and niche.  What is your sweet spot? Where do you really, really excel?  There are lots brands claiming they are a “low cost leader,” “innovative,” or “highly customer-focused.”  You need to go deeper and discover why and how you are truly different.

Benchmark Against Your Competitors – One of the ways you can discover your difference is by objectively evaluating your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.  A second way to discover your difference is by evaluating your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.  By comparing these like criteria against one another, you’ll be on a better path to knowing how you’re different and unique, which can play a big role in your branding and communications strategies.

Know Your Relevance – Lastly, when trying to answer “what you do,” it’s good to look at your brand relevance.  For example, can your brand answer the questions:  Why [your brand]?  Why now?  And how is your brand helping and/or making life or business easier or better?

I’ve Asked the Questions:  Now What?

By asking and answering the questions above, you can walk away some important deliverables, such as:  your brand’s unique selling point and claim of distinction; your brand’s obstacles to overcome; your brand’s voice and personality; and a succinct brand positioning statement.

All of these deliverables (and many more that can be uncovered) are important in creating a communications program that articulates, emulates — and most importantly — embodies your brand.

Obviously, undertaking the above activities can be time-consuming and daunting.  But for many companies, simply knowing the right questions to ask is an important step in defining your brand and its value.

Check back soon when I’ll be discussing Part Two for strategic planning:  Understanding your sales and growth opportunities.