Author Archives: Don Beehler

Communications Audit: Ad Agency Tips for Conducting One

The best way to conduct a communications audit is through an independent, third-part individual who thoroughly understands the communication process. Ad agencies are in an ideal position to provide this third-party research for clients.

Audits typically include a review of formal and informal communication processes; one-on-one interviews with community leaders, influencers and employees; focus groups; and sometimes surveys. An audit will review the facilities (e.g. signage, displays and lights), publications, public relations activities, telephone voice messages, videos, direct mail, electronic communications (Web site, e-mail lists, etc.), meetings and outreach programs.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

 

Communications Audit: Benefits to Ad Agencies and Their Clients

A communications audit can help organizations understand how well their messages are being received and accepted by audiences. While people may think that others understand and accept their messages, the fact of the matter is that we are often unaware of how the messages we send are received or understood.

Equally important as sending a message is listening for feedback. A communications audit also can help identify barriers to effective communication and provide practical solutions.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Communications Audit: An Effective Management Tool for Ad Agencies

A communications audit is a management tool that ad agencies can use to help clients understand how effectively they are communicating with various audiences. It involves the collection and analysis of in-depth information about perceptions individuals have about an organization. In essence, a communications audit is a snapshot of an organization at a given time.

An audit may be broad or narrow, focusing on a particular audience or a variety of audiences. Likewise, the audit may address a single issue or a wide range of issues affecting an organization. The bottom-line objective for any audit, however, should be to improve the effectiveness of an organization’s communication.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Social Networking Sites Help Ad Agencies Attract Business

Social networking sites are a great way to increase an advertising agency’s visibility, demonstrate its areas of expertise and reach specific markets.

According to a February 20 article in the Orlando Business Journal, social networking also is an effective way to attract new business. Citing local businesses’ success in reaching new customers through blogging, the article noted the explosive growth of blogs on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn:

“Today, more than 116 million Internet users in the U.S. read at least one [business] blog on such sites per month, said eMarketer, a digital media and marketing research site. That figure will jump to more than 145 million users by 2012 — meaning an even bigger audience for companies’ marketing efforts.”

Read the full article here: http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/02/23/story17.html?b=1235365200^1781524&ana=e_vert

Social networking should be part of an ad agency’s public relations strategy for telling its story. As is the case with publicity, you can reach a lot of people for free.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

A Handy Way for Ad Agencies to Segment Audiences

Audiences are not always who you think. When I was in graduate school, I learned a handy way to identify audiences so that you don’t miss anyone, and an effective way to segment them:

Enabling links – publics that set policies or goals and may control assets.
• Board of directors
• Government regulators
• Congress

Functional links – audiences with a direct link between the services the organization performs and the product(s) it produces.
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Users of products/services

Diffused links – individual members of a public who do not belong to a formal organization but share a common interest.
• Community residents
• Minorities
• News Media
• Environmentalists
• Voters

Normative links – publics that share the organization’s goals and values.
• Religious associations
• Professional societies
• Competitors

Diffused links can quickly fuse by organizing to take action (over a common problem or opportunity) and can cause major headaches for you and your organization. Examples:
• Unions
• Coalitions
• Environmental groups

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Questions Ad Agencies Should Ask When Creating a PR Plan

Where you’re developing a public relations plan for your agency or a client, it helps to ask yourself some important questions. Here are questions I have found are helpful to discuss with my clients before getting started on the plan:

• What are the desired results of the public relations initiative?

• Who are our primary audiences? Secondary audiences?

• What do we know about the image these audiences already have about the organization and its products/services?

• What do we know about the news media’s perceptions of the organization and its products/services?

• What is the image we wish to convey?

• How much of this plan should be geared toward creating awareness vs. changing perceptions?

• What are our key messages?

• What are the best communication vehicles to carry these messages?

• What are the organization’s greatest strengths? Weaknesses?

• What threats/obstacles exist?

• What opportunities exist that at present are not being maximized?

• What percentage of his/her time is the CEO or other designated senior-level executive willing to devote to media relations activities?

• What landmines do we need to avoid?

• What does this plan need to take into consideration in connection with the organization’s overall marketing/branding efforts?

• How will we define success?

• How will we measure success? (In other words, at the end of a year, how will we know if we have or have not been successful?)

It takes a while to plow through and answer these questions, but the end product will be much better if you take the time to go through a disciplined process like this before getting started on a PR plan.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Ad Agency Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics

Clients sometimes get confused about the difference of between goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. I’ve found the following football analogy helpful:

Objective: To win the game.
An objective is specific and measurable. In this case, winning is the primary objective. A secondary objective may be to enable a player to gain enough yards to break a school record or to score a certain number of points. Goals are broad and intangible, so the team’s goal could be to become the best high school football team in the world. Because there are no world playoffs at the high school level, the goal couldn’t be measured.

Strategy: The other team is bigger, but we’re faster. Therefore, we’ll utilize our superior quickness to achieve the objective (i.e. to win the game).

Tactics: The specific plays we will run throughout the game, especially those that favor quicker players. You also could think of tactics as the action plan.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

A Way for Ad Agencies to Measure Publicity

Ketchum Public Relations has a one-page “scorecard” to help simplify the media measurement process. The Ketchum scorecard is a grid that rates coverage on a point scale based on the following:

• Prominence of client mentioned
• Prominence of position
• Source of item (i.e. did it come from the company’s PR efforts or elsewhere)
• Quality of primary messages
• Quality of secondary messages
• Format of presentation (a feature story with photos vs. a mention of the company)
• Exposure index (how much exposure a story gets in a given media vehicle)
• Favorability index
• Audience reach

While this level of analysis may not be practical or necessary in many cases, it does provide a helpful way to provide clients and senior management with a useful tool to measure the effectiveness of their PR activities.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Social Media Helps Ad Agencies Connect with Clients

Rebecca Byrd, owner of upscale Greensboro, N.C., clothing boutique Rebecca & Co., was getting ready to open a new store and wanted to find a new way to reach her target audience, generally women in their 20s and early 30s, to let them know about the store and update them on sales and other happenings at her original location.

According to The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area, “Instead of turning to the newspaper, TV or even e-mail marketing, Byrd created a business profile on social networking site Facebook. Through the page, potential customers can receive basic information about the store, see photos taken at special events and even sign up as ‘fans’ of the store and recommend that their friends do the same.

“To date, the store has 62 fans with whom Byrd can communicate directly, sending information about new clothing lines or special promotions and sales.

“’As a small-business owner, using Facebook is a way for me to create awareness about my stores and hopefully bring in new clients,” Byrd says.

“With our struggling economy, everyone is looking for the most cost-effective way to promote their business and, for me, social networking is the way to go… It has absolutely brought it more clients.’”

Read the full article here: http://triad.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2009/01/12/focus1.html?b=1231736400^1758550

 Increasingly businesses are using social networking sites to connect with customers and prospects, and engage them in conversations.

Small and medium-sized ad agencies should to be leading the way in helping their clients build these relationships – or risk having clients bypass them and figure out how to strategically use social media marketing on their own.

 

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

 

 

Crisis Management: 8 Characteristics of a Crisis Ad Agencies Need to Know

 Burson-Marsteller identifies 8 characteristics of a crisis:

  1. Surprise
  2. Insufficient information
  3. Escalating flow of events
  4. Loss of control
  5. Intense scrutiny from the outside
  6. Siege mentality
  7. Panic
  8. Short-term focus

 (Source: Burson-Marsteller)

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.