Get S.M.A.R.T. When Setting PR Objectives

Before you can effectively measure the results or return on investment (ROI) of your public relations programs, you have to know what you’re measuring, says blogger Jeremy Porter. Review a lot of PR plans and you’ll see a consistent them – great-sounding goals and objectives, that upon further inspection are a little better than loosey-goosey guesses at program outcomes.

I f you really want to improve the performance of your public relations programs you must work harder on getting S.M.A.R.T. with your objective definition. If you haven’t heard of the S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym (and a pretty nifty mnemonic device) used in project management for setting objectives for the project. It’s more than relevant and applicable to public relations strategy and planning.

There are many different versions of this acronym that have popped up since the early 80s when it first surfaced (according to Wikipedia), but here’s the one most used over the years for PR planning:

• Specific - Clearly define your objective so that everybody will know exactly what you are trying to accomplish, rather than “double coverage among A-level trade publications,” your goal might be securing one placement in the New York Times’ Bits Blog each quarter. It could also be as simple as distribute two news releases per month on the first and second Monday of the month.

• Measurable – Can you measure your progress against the objective with relative ease? In the examples above you can, though you may want to be more specific and report on activity specific to the objective (e.g. what activity is directly tied to that objective?) If you don’t know how you will measure your objective, you need more definition.

• Actionable – You should be able to complete your objectives within a reasonable amount of time. If your objective is too far in the future or too complex, break it down into a shorter-term objective. In the two press releases per month objective for example, your first specific, measurable and actionable step might be to create and share a press release calendar with your team by Friday. Step two might be to conduct interviews for the first release and so on. Writing two press releases per month is NOT actionable, because it’s too broad a task. You could check it off at the end of the year, but you need to break it down into bite-sized pieces to be more effective.

• Realistic – Be honest with your objective setting. While you want to be aggressive, you also need to be realistic about what you can achieve by your project deadline. If your organization has historically sent out one press release a quarter, is it realistic to believe you can do two a month? Do you have enough news to maintain that pace? Are your sources able to provide information quickly? Does your legal department need more than a week to approve releases? These are all important questions to ask when setting an objective. Don’t just trust your gut for objective setting – if you have available data on current or past performance, use that as a guide. If you increased website traffic by 50% last year, can you increase by 60% this year? If you set and measure against S.M.A.R.T. objectives, you’ll get more accurate with your forecasting in the future. You may be way off on your projections the first time you do it, but you should also nail it next quarter.

• Time-Based – Your objective should be tied to a date (or time). The more specific you can be with this deadline, the better. This has always been the biggest wake-up call for professionals. There is often a big gap between when they think they can complete a task and when it actually gets done. Use any task or project management system that encourages you to set deadlines for tasks and shows you overdue tasks. Basecamp and ActionMethod are two favorites because they enable you to track tasks associated with project components or milestones (rolling up to your objectives). There are free versions of both tools you can play with if you’re not familiar already.

Getting Started

Review your current goals for Q1 or 2011 – do you have them defined? How do they hold up to the S.M.A.R.T. test? Will you have a hard time justifying your bonus or a raise based on the objectives? It’s not too late to revise them to be more specific, measurable, actionable (attainable), realistic and time-based.

What do you think? Is the S.M.A.R.T. approach to objective-setting helpful for PR professionals? How do you currently set goals and objectives for your PR programs? Do you measure ongoing campaign performance against these objectives? Do you think some campaign goals are too loosey-goosey? Please share your thoughts.

5 Small Business Marketing Secrets from Big Box Retailers

Big box retailers like Target and Walmart have marketing down to a science and rarely do they stray from these tried and methods.  It’s worth it to take a look at these successful retailers to see what strategies they use that might work for your business too, advices marketer Wendy Kenney.

1.         The Secret of Reach: Big box retailers understand that the secret of success is in the numbers, large numbers that is.  So they focus on reaching out to the masses through media such as television, radio, newspaper and direct mail with a focus on their target market.  The idea is the more people in your pipeline, the more people you can convert to qualified buyers.    Now if you own a small home-based business, I’m not suggesting you advertise in the Sunday paper to gain more customers.  However, the law of large numbers remains true.  To be more profitable, reach out to a large quantity of targeted prospects.

2.         The Secret of Consistency: Big box retailers also understand the concept of out of sight, out of mind.  That’s why they employ a consistent advertising strategy.  Grocery stores mail out sale ads every Wednesday and put them in the Wednesday newspaper.  Consumer goods stores like Target put out ads in the Sunday paper.   Furthermore, they use strategies like social media, email marketing, and television advertising all in an effort to keep their brand in front of their target customer on a regular basis.

3.         The Secret of the Loss Leader: A loss leader is a marketing strategy in which a business offers a product or service at a price that is not profitable.  Stores like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy understand that in order to entice consumers into your store to buy there’s no better way than to offer a great deal on a product they may want or need to use every day.  The idea is that the customer will buy other, more profitable, products once they get into the store.   Of course, be careful when using this strategy.  Make sure the manufacturer allows you to price your product as a loss leader.  Also make sure that you have enough of the item in store.

4.         The Secret of Psychological Pricing: Studies have shown the consumers have emotional reactions to the way that prices are displayed, and make decisions accordingly.  Because of the way we read numbers, $19.99 appears significantly less than $20, and therefore appears to be a better value.   This could work well for a business that is focusing on being a value leader.  Walmart takes this one step further by using prices ending in numbers like 8, 4, and 3, perhaps as another way to cement their low price image.

Another pricing strategy, when offering a discount or a sale price, always make sure you show the original price as well, this shows context so that the customer can determine if they are indeed getting a great deal  and value.  Perhaps your item is not on sale but the manufacturers recommended price is $49.99 while you’re selling it for $39.99, showing this difference can clearly communicate value to the customer thus encouraging them to buy.

5.         The Secret of New: There is something exciting about discovering new things which is why you see stores like Target rotating inventory, moving things around, and selling Halloween candy in August.  Newness is noticeable, newness is fun and newness sells.  If you want buyers to keep coming back time after time, bring in new stuff on a regular basis and give them another reason to visit.

As a business owner, you can have the best product, best pricing and best service in the world, but unless you market your business (that is tell your potential buyers all about it) you won’t make a lot of money.  By employing the marketing strategies of big box retailers like Target and Walmart you’ll soon be on your way to sales success.

Traffic Jam in Super Bowl

When Americans tune into the Super Bowl on Feb. 6, they should expect to see as much metal as they do pigskin. Car marketers, having woken from their recession-induced ad slumber, are doubling down for Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas and setting the bar sky high for auto companies and their ad agencies to craft commercials unique enough to break through the clutter and capture viewers' attention. At least eight different auto manufacturers have purchased airtime. What's more, many of them are buying more ad time than they have in the past, and raising the ante with two or three commercials sprinkled throughout the broadcast.

Ad Age reports that BMW North America will return to the game after a decade, seeking to use the Super Bowl as a stage to launch a new slate of cars. General Motors, which had sat the past two games out, is back in with a focus on Chevrolet. Chrysler, the only U.S. automaker to show up in the last Super Bowl broadcast with a single ad for Dodge, is back in and this time wants at least two brands in the game. Audi of America is making its fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance and will be in the game's first commercial break.

Indeed, many automakers are bouncing back, posting healthy sales results after bankruptcy filings, government bailouts and recalls, and like Mercedes, they have news to share about new models -- in BMW and GM's case, electric car models. It all adds up to car makers heftily contributing to the record sellout of the game. News Corp.'s Fox, which is broadcasting the game, booked 80% of its ad inventory by June, and by October the network announced the Super Bowl was sold out.

Now comes the real challenge: After spending all that money, how do you get your messages to cut through? Since so many car ads look the same, the chance of their being recalled by consumers is low. Most top broadcast-network shows have a car ad in nearly every commercial break, often showing an automobile or truck traveling on an open road or city street while pop music plays in the background.

Making things worse, car makers over the past two years have grown more conservative, trading humor and emotion for retail-oriented messages. Steve Wilhite, who spent 20 years at VW of America and was the client behind Arnold's famous "Drivers Wanted" campaign, describes car advertising these days as "absolute dreck," "mind-numbing" and "uninspiring." Experts say carmakers will now have to work doubly hard to avoid familiar tropes or themes.

To combat the problem, ad-buying agencies representing many top automakers usually ask TV networks not to run ads from competitors during the same commercial break. Even so, these rules only apply to national commercials, and ads from local stations can sometimes run in the same ad pod. Ad buyers with knowledge of automobile marketing have often said that consumers' ability to recall individual car ads gets weakened as more of them air.

One big car advertiser hopes to stand apart from the pack by not joining it. Ford Motor Co. will advertise only during Fox's pre-game coverage, said Matthew VanDyke, director of U.S. marketing communications at Ford.