PR It’s all about your reputation. How do your customers and potential customers see you?
Do they rave about you to their friends?
Ideally your customers are a tribe of raving fans. Think back to the last time someone asked you for a recommendation. My guess is that you wanted to help them, you wanted to be the one who solved their problem by introducing them to the best new product they’ve seen in ages.
In order to create an effective PR campaign you need to know EXACTLY who you are targeting.
So first, who are your customers? Who buys your stuff? (when we say stuff, we can mean
a product or a service – anything you’ve got on offer).
To keep it simple, let’s divide these people into two camps for now…
Your current fans/customers
They’ve bought something from you in the past and quite possibly loved it. They’ve had a good experience with you (of course, because you’re great!)
It could be quite recent or it could have been ages ago, it doesn’t matter. They’re still your customers.
Potential fans/customers
They want to buy your stuff, they’re the right people to buy your stuff, they want exactly
what you’ve got. They might be weighing you up against your competitors as we speak,
or they might not even know that your service exists…yet.
So let’s step into the current customers camp for a moment and really get to know them.
As with all groups of people, it’s only natural you’ll like some better than others. Chances are, your favourites will do things like pay their bills on time, come back for more, tell their friends how great you are… these are the ones you want to keep close.
So, let’s get to know these people for a moment and really try to get into their heads.
Who are they?
And no copping out by just saying ‘everyone’. We need to dig right down and get to know these people.
What do they do as a job?
Are they business owners or the lady on the checkout in the supermarket? Maybe they are stay at home Mums and Dads (who do the hardest jobs of all…) Or perhaps they spend hours commuting to work in the city?
What is their gender?
Add some detail here. Maybe it’s men who want to get in touch with their feminine side or women who want to learn to operate heavy machinery.
How old are they?
Are they even old enough to buy your stuff or do they have to use their powers of persuasion on the one who holds the purse strings?
Where do they live?
And we’re not just talking about the geographical area here, but what kind of home? They might live in a mansion or a narrowboat or a bijou little flat in Kensington.
What are they interested in?
What films do they love, what discussions do they have with their friends? Do they love to be creative or be the centre of attention? Do they love sports or do they just want to hang out with their friends?
If you don’t know any of the answers then resolve to find them out – maybe by asking some of them, or offer a prize draw for filling in a questionnaire.
Some of it might seem irrelevant but we’re trying to get the bigger picture here. We want to know these people like we know ourselves.
Why?
Because the more you know about them the easier it is to guess where they hang out (online and in real life). What kind of magazines, papers and blogs they read, what websites they visit and who influences them.
Once you’ve finished the first part of this exercise you should have a better picture of your customers in your mind. And once you’ve done this for your current customers you can also start to piece together the same information for potential customers, if you feel you are missing any customer types.
Next, start to think about how they keep in touch with the world. Where do they get their news from? How do they meet people? What events do they go to for work or just for fun?
Maybe they don’t read much at all but they love to watch videos or listen to the radio. Maybe they just gossip with their neighbours or get the low down from their football chums. Or maybe they’re constantly glued to social media.
Using the information above make a list of publications and events. They could be online or off, written, audio, video, film or tv. Or they could be sports, social or business events.
If you can’t think of any, find out! You can start by searching the internet, but don’t stop there. Browse a big newsagent to see what’s on offer. Ask around – do any of your friends or neighbours have similar interests? What about your work colleagues?
Now we are ready for some PR….
By now you should have a list of publications, events, and websites that you might want to target to get in front of your customers.
I’m always happy to have a call to chat about how you may want to do this. You can book in a free discovery call with me: https://meetings.hubspot.com/andrea340
