THE POWER OF PR with Danae Jones
As we enter a new financial year it is highly recommended to take a relook at your Marketing & Public Relations Planning to ensure that by December you achieve your desired goals for the calendar year.
A Marketing & PR Plan is only as good as the person crafting it, the people that follow it and those tasked with implementing it, so a number of factors need to be assessed when you take a look at how you’re tracking with your revenue targets.
OBJECTIVES:
So what are your objectives for the year? Are you needing to change focus due to market demands?. By the way, it is absolutely fine if you need to – in fact I’d encourage it.
Those businesses that don’t reassess based on the market conditions get left behind, so if your objectives need re-jigging, then now’s the time to do it.
STRATEGY:
Your strategy is the “how” you are going to get there. We are now over six months into the year and it is at this time of year that we need to ask ourselves – is our current strategy working and serving the business needs? If your strategy does need tinkering, it is important to understand why at this point.
Do you have increasing competition, is your industry struggling to keep its head above water at present, have you been doing the same as your competitors and is it time to stand out from the pack and dominate with your point of difference. Why is it that you feel you need to change strategy mid year?.
TARGET AUDIENCE:
If you had your target audience right to begin with, then your target audience should only change mid-year if you are trying to cease on a new opportunity or new market segment. Now is the time to think about whether you need a multi-pronged attack to your targeting. And if you do, it is important to get the pitch right for each segment so you meet their needs and in turn capture those sales.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS:
Now is the perfect time of year to take a look at the competition. What are they doing different to you? What are they doing the same as you? How can you stand out from the rest and develop your unique value proposition? Have some of your competitors closed their doors – and if so, does this present a new opportunity for you? Or do you have an increased level of competition? … and if so, how are you planning to tackle this challenge?
MARKET RESEARCH:
Have you taken the time to research the current market trends and see what lies ahead? Let’s consider economically, socially and environmentally. How can the current market trends in these segments benefit or threaten your business?
SET TARGETS & REVISE IF REQUIRED:
Have you set clear targets of expected revenue generation? And if not, why not? It’s time to set clear and concise income targets from your Marketing and PR endeavours.
SALES STAFF LITMUS TEST:
Are your sales people or business development team up to the task? Too often I see businesses who have grown to love their sales people for personality, not performance. I have seen many examples locally where the sales people are absolutely lovely, but they couldn’t sell to save themselves.
So my only word of advice in this arena is - be honest with yourself and stop making excuses for your underperforming business development team.
If you haven’t set KPIs, do it, and make them realistic. Also have your team trained in how to sell effectively. They may just be lacking some key techniques required to close those deals. But either way, let your team know that you expect results. They are in sales to SELL – full stop. If you have sales people who aren’t bringing in the bacon then you have a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed. Even the best Marketing and PR plan doesn’t work if there aren’t skilled people able to deliver the outcomes.
IMPLEMENTATION:
Work out who is doing what and when, assign tasks and put this into a timeline format and prioritise the jobs to be done. Everything from events that need to be attended for networking opportunities, sales training to be conducted with the team, number of sales calls to be carried out for the month and percentage conversions expected. Along with mainstream media advertising, marketing and public relations activity to be conducted, all need to be drilled down.
It’s the New Financial Year so let’s regain some focus on our Marketing & PR Plans and try and stick to them for the rest of the year to achieve some great outcomes!
Danae Jones is Principal of PR & Marketing firm Danae Jones Consulting