Does it feel as if it is getting harder and harder to make connections with the media? Is the competition for print space getting increasingly overwhelming? Have you often thought it would help to work with a formula for success to making more media connections?Public relations and marketing practices are vital to the formula for success of any company or organization. Reaching targeted publics and markets is vital to the success of public relations and marketing. With shrinking media outlets and more competition for news and event coverage, public relations and marketing professionals from all genres of business, all sizes of companies and types of organizations have to find ways to win print space and broadcast time. The T-Connector Formula introduced in Making the Media Connection Topic, Timing, Type of Media is the perfect formula for success in making media connections. The T-Connector Formula can be applied to traditional media connections such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television as well as the new media resources including social media, blogs and Internet-based news sites. to the right audience (topic) then making it relevant to the time of the year or current events and getting the news sent on deadline (timing) and selecting the right media resources such as local, regional or national newspapers (type of media) are the results produced by the T-Connector Formula. Whether you are new to public relations and marketing, a seasoned professional or are tasked with coordinating these functions, using the T-Connector Formula to evaluate all communications released by a company or organization can help produce quality promotional messages that get noticed and get published. Using the T-Connector Formula every time, all the time, will go a long way in helping public relations and marketing professionals in making those much sought after media connections.

MAKING THE MEDIA CONNECTION Topic Timing Type of Media

Using the T-Connector Formula for Marketing and Public RelationsBy Patricia Faulhaber

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Patricia Faulhaber
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-2504-2

Contents

CHAPTER ONE T-Connector Formula For Marketing And Public Relations.....................1CHAPTER TWO Marketing..................................................................13CHAPTER THREE Public Relations.........................................................21CHAPTER FOUR An Integrated Communications Plan.........................................31CHAPTER FIVE Topic: The Message!.......................................................35CHAPTER SIX Know The Audience When Developing The Topic................................51CHAPTER SEVEN Meet The Sample Companies................................................59CHAPTER EIGHT Topic And The Sample Companies...........................................67CHAPTER NINE Timing....................................................................77CHAPTER TEN Audience And Timing........................................................87CHAPTER ELEVEN Timing And The Sample Companies.........................................91CHAPTER TWELVE Type Of Media...........................................................95CHAPTER THIRTEEN More About The Internet Media.........................................107CHAPTER FOURTEEN More About Broadcast Media............................................113CHAPTER FIFTEEN Your Audience's Choice Of Media........................................117CHAPTER SIXTEEN Type Of Media And The Sample Companies.................................123CHAPTER SEVENTEEN So Let's Make The Connection.........................................129CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Making The Connection With The Sample Companies.......................137CHAPTER NINETEEN Keeping The Connection................................................143CHAPTER TWENTY Crossing The T-connection...............................................149CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Keeping T-connected To Your Audience................................155APPENDIX A..............................................................................159APPENDIX B..............................................................................161APPENDIX C..............................................................................164

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

T-CONNECTOR FORMULA FOR MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Topic, Timing, and Type of Media

"There are no gains without pains." Benjamin Franklin

Business, industry, social service, government, education, large and small, and everyone in between use some form of communications, be it in sales, marketing, or public relations. Zig Ziglar wrote in his book, Secrets of Closing the Sale, that anyone who uses effective persuasion is, in effect, in the business of sales, no matter whom you are or where you work.

To be effective in today's world of commerce, everyone must also be in the business of communications. There is a saying that grows ever more important in the current competitive business world: "Out of sight, out of mind, out of business."

To be seen or heard, you need to have an edge, or a plan, or a formula. The T-Connector Formula can help you successfully communicate with your company's or organization's publics.

WHAT IS THE T-CONNECTOR FORMULA?

There are three parts to the T-Connector Formula. Each part addresses one of the following issues:

1) Having the right topic or message 2) At the right time (and before deadline)

3) Communicating the message using the right type of media The T-Connector Formula shows a business owner, manager, department head, nonprofit organization director, or public relations or marketing professional how to get the right message to the right type of media in the proper time frame. Put these three elements together, as illustrated below, they make a T-connection.

WHY USE THE T-CONNECTOR FORMULA?

Face it, everyone communicating with marketing and public relations through the media is competing against each other for the same media time and space. Only a certain percentage will actually win the time and space they seek. Using a systematic, organized attempt with the T-Connector Formula can help put a company in the lead. Keep in mind the only way to guarantee print space or airtime is to buy it, as in paid advertising.

Professionally, I have over twenty years of experience in writing, public relations, sales, and marketing. I also have spent several years in sales management and have extensive experience in teaching and promoting adult education. I am also an avid reader. I have read hundreds of business-related books, including books on public relations and marketing.

What this book does is introduce you to the T-Connector Formula and shows you step-by-step how to use the formula effectively. The T-Connector Formula is a formula that first-time and long-time professionals can apply to the process of obtaining press time and space for their company or organization.

The main objectives of public relations and marketing are to promote, promote, and promote. You can do this by informing and persuading or buying advertising. No matter the medium, the T-Connector Formula provides an effective framework to get started on promoting, promoting, promoting.

MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS

What kind of professional background or training and education do the best public relations and marketing professionals have to make them most effective in promoting, promoting, and promoting? Many start out going to college as journalism majors. Others start with marketing or communications majors or training.

The ultimate public relations professional knows their way around both the journalism and marketing or promotion worlds.

Journalists oftentimes change careers and enter the public relations arena. Having an ex-journalist in a public relations department can certainly help get the company's news in to print. On the downside, journalists are not trained to market or promote.

Professionally trained marketers, on the other hand, often lack the experience or knowledge of how to get company news to the public, but they know how to interpret demographics and they know about focus groups and product, place, and price.

It can be a difficult task to find the professional that has both backgrounds. You more than likely will have a marketing person and a public relations person or separate departments.

If your company does have two separate departments, to achieve maximum promotion, try combining or integrating the marketing and public relations departments into one powerful promotional machine.

This works so well because of the similarities of the activities for marketing and public relations. Both require the following:

* Planning

* Preparing

* Evaluating

* Implementing

* Communicating effectively

This book examines the communications link and how to best utilize topic, timing, and type of media (the T-Connector Formula) to effectively promote (market) and inform, persuade, and build solid relationships (public relations).

In other words, whether you work in public relations or marketing, or you are wearing many hats that include public relations and marketing, this book will benefit your publicity and promotional efforts.

USING THE T-CONNECTOR FORMULA TO WRITE YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

A company can have the best-written and well-intended mission rendered virtually useless if the company's publics never hear it or read it. Once again, keep in the mind the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind, out of business." A company must communicate to internal publics such as employees, stockholders, and suppliers. It must also stay in the minds of the external publics such as customers, clients, social agencies, community leaders, and the general public.

Your company's news and information is put in the external public's eye through marketing and public relations activities, which are carefully and thoroughly described in marketing and public relations plans (MRPR). News is distributed to the internal publics through public relations or via a well-planned communication effort from the administration. The T-Connector Formula helps to implement the communications sections of marketing and public relations plans.

There are in-depth theories to both marketing and public relations, so much so that there are college degrees in both disciplines. This book only takes a surface view of each. Chapter Two will define marketing as it relates to using the T-Connector Formula, and Chapter Three will explore the basics of public relations.

SIMILAR TASKS WITH A T-CONNECTOR IN THE MIDDLE

As stated earlier, marketing and public relations are usually separate processes but they do share similar tasks, and both depend on strategic planning.

This book takes just one part of each of these processes and explores it in depth. Knowing how to get your organization's "news" published for free is an important task in the public relations process, the results of which will automatically flow into the marketing process.

You must catch the attention of your target market (which by the way gets defined in the marketing and public relations planning phase), and this attention will generally result in increased customer traffic, which then becomes part of your marketing plan. This book does not attempt to address marketing and public relations planning and implementation. It does try to help you develop and deliver the appropriate message at the appropriate time using the most effective type of media.

A COMBINED BUSINESS MODEL

A business model that combines the marketing and public relations functions into one big integrated marketing and public relations plan was developed in the 1990s but is still applicable today.

You may notice a few Ts in integrated marketing and public relations plan. The T-Connectors profiled throughout this book are important to the success of this business model. Just as the name implies, the marketing and public relations plans are combined into one model or plan. Chapter Four explains the basis for the model and illustrates a development chart.

PRESS RELEASES ... A PUBLIC RELATIONS MAINSTAY

Press releases are the traditional means of informing the public of your company's news. They are one of the most effective tools in a public relations kit. Press releases can be far reaching in their effects.

Editors and reporters can and do pick up on feature stories and coverage from press releases. Releases do get read. Releases can get attention. And, press releases have gotten more versatile by having a Web site presence and a targeted audience persona.

While press releases have gotten more versatile, the same rules apply when creating: know the goal of the release, know the audience you want to read the release, write the release to that audience, and distribute the release accordingly to get the most effect. The T-Connector Formula can help.

ONE PART OR ONE T-CONNECTOR AT A TIME

Keep in mind, the T-Connectors to markeTing and public relaTions address just one part of the two processes. I have written that statement a number of times to make sure that you are aware of the planning that must go into marketing and public relations so that these two functions can produce the results for which their independent formulas were developed.

Another important item to keep in mind as you read through the book is that your company or organization must have the service or products and planning in place to substantiate the attention your company will most certainly generate with marketing and public relations. If not, the attention of your target market (or any market, for that matter) will hurt you instead of benefit. In other words, be prepared to deliver on all claims and be true to your words!

HOW IT ALL CONNECTS: STARTING WITH THE TOPIC

In her book Communication Counts, media and presentation consultant, Mary Civiello writes about helping a client write a headline for a presentation. Civiello suggested the client think about the audience and what would excite them. The headline the two of them came up with was "Good PR Results in News You Can Use to Win New Clients". The presentation was for a group of magazine ad salespersons wanting to learn how to sell more ads for a magazine.

That is exactly what a public relations professional wants to develop when thinking of a topic - news you can use.

The Publicity Handbook by David R. Yale details that "Journalists want two things from publicists: your facts have to be reliable, and your material must have a news angle or news peg that makes it different and interesting."

This formula applies to proposing feature press coverage as well as sending press releases and public service announcements (PSAs). Chapter Five will give you detailed information on selecting a topic that fits the time. For a quick example or two, almost every month of the year has a special theme. November is American Diabetes Month. October is Adult Literacy Month in Ohio. January always has the New Year theme. May/June can always produce a "gear up for summer" note.

For standard press releases and PSAs, find or fit your message to what's relevant in local, state, or national news and events. Try a back-to-school fit and you'll be surprised at all the ways you can tie your message to this event, which by the way, happens all over the United States in late August, early September.

As a public relations specialist for adult literacy, I always sent press releases in August informing the general public that registration for fall GED classes was happening. Registration and classes were held year round, but since everyone's thinking of returning to school in the fall or at the beginning of a new year, I sent registration releases in August and again in January for spring registration.

I sent the same set of releases in May and geared the message to spend your summer preparing for your GED or enhancing your reading, math, or English skills in preparation for fall college courses.

For feature stories or press coverage, you can tie the topic to what's happening in the "big" news of the time, the season, or what's happening in the area. We had an adult literacy class take a class trip to the county Board of Elections. On the surface it doesn't seem newsworthy, except that it was before the 2000 presidential election and many in the class had never voted. The adult students were unsure of how to use the voting booths or what happened to their votes.

Visiting the Board of Elections helped the students feel more comfortable, and most returned on Election Day to vote. One of the local newspapers decided to cover the story because of those who had never voted before but wanted to. And, what a presidential election it turned out to be!

Think about those involved with an event. Are they involved with community organizations? Do they have outside interests in nonprofits, social service agencies, or public service?

How about the event itself? Is your company installing new equipment that will increase production or quality? Will your company's event increase employment in the community? Is the equipment being installed the latest and greatest technology in the area, in the state, or in the country?

In the public relations chapter you'll learn that the main purpose of public relations activities is to inform and persuade your organization's publics of what is going on in your company. There are a number of questions you can ask yourself about the topic that will help you prepare your message, place it with perfect timing, and reach your audience in the appropriate manner with the perfect type of media.

No matter the news or message, you'll need to determine who needs to hear it, what they need to know, why they need to know, and where or how they will hear the information. Chapter Six will give you more help with determining the answers.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

We've already touched on timing a bit and it will be further explored in Chapter Nine. For now, realize that timing refers to making the information relevant to the time of the year. It also refers to getting the information to the selected media before deadline. Chapter Ten discusses the issues of audience and timing.

TYPE OF MEDIA

You need to build and maintain a media list. You know the message you want to deliver, who it should go to, and when your deadline(s) is. Next you need to find the type of media that will best deliver the news. Just for the record, you may need to modify the message to fit the media.

Chapter Twelve will give complete details on how to find the media in your area, how to build and maintain a media list, and how to write and develop topics to the media type. Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen explore media outlets, while Chapter Fifteen looks at your audience's selection of media types. Again, there will be a series of questions that you can answer to help you complete this connection.

MAKING THE CONNECTION

After you learn some background information about marketing and public relations and after an in-depth look at preparing the communications plan of marketing and public relations with the appropriate topic, timing, and type of media, Chapter Seventeen will help you make the connection. Chapters Nineteen and Twenty provide more tips and information on maintaining connections. Chapters Seven, Eight, Eleven, Sixteen, and Eighteen show you how two sample companies use the T-Connector Formula to effectively plan promoting, promoting, and promoting.

Chapter Two

MARKETING

"He that waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner." Benjamin Franklin

Although this book is not a marketing book, an understanding of marketing is needed. After learning about marketing, we'll zoom in on the communications aspects of marketing, which is the area where the T-Connector Formula works.

TELL ME ABOUT MARKETING

I thought you'd never ask. One of the hundreds of technical definitions of marketing goes something like this: Marketing is a social and managerial process involving fulfilling the needs and wants of groups of individuals. It involves creating and exchanging products, services, and value.

A less technical definition might be that marketing is a wide range of functions or activities that help your company meet the needs of your customers or clients. Simply, marketing is the act of selling products or services in a defined market. The market is defined by the wants and needs of customers or clients your company intends to service.

For example, if you market adult technical education, you're fulfilling an educational need for adults. Your market then becomes those adults in need of technical education. Those adults seeking a four-year college degree are not in your primary market.

(Continues...)

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