Public Relations Archives

28 Ways To Approach Marketing Your Business In A Crisis Economy

03/17/2020 By Jayme Soulati

In business crisis communications planning is essential. Having an expert public relations professional on board (ahem) also helps. Your business ought to have a crisis plan on the shelf collecting dust, or rather, on a hard drive easily accessible.

Here’s the rub: no PR professional ever developed a crisis communications plan for a business to manage a global pandemic viral mutation that inhibits the function of the entire world. As a result of this near global shutdown, many businesses are slowing and shuttering temporarily.

Has your business implemented a remote workforce? Maybe employees equipped and ready to work at home will be productive, but guess what? The companies sending moms and dads home to work will see disrupted parents managing children also sent home from closed schools. That means disrupted childcare, more toilet paper (uhm, yes, empty store shelves of paper products!), more soup and grilled cheese lunches, more spats among the kids or the need to transport the kids to the playground all while trying to work and be present and positive during meetings.

Look, all is not lost. The COVID-19 virus, will flat line one day and is temporary. While the U.S. may not know the extent of the virus’s health in communities, there’s a good chance that it will wane within a time frame yet to be determined (how’s that for running around the mulberry bush?).

`28 Ways Business Can Focus During A Crisis`

There are things businesses can do during an economic crisis of this magnitude. Here are 28 ideas businesses can take advantage of time and put it to good use right now:

Do NOT reduce your marketing budget during a crisis. This is an opportune time to initiate customer campaigns oriented to education and relationship-building.
Strategize about public relations campaigns during a time frame about six-to-eight months ahead.
Look at the conference and trade show schedule in your vertical market and plan to attend. Purchase a booth; run a customer prospecting campaign to meet people in person (once social distancing is no longer the norm).
At that trade show in #3, ask your CEO or other thought leader to speak in a break-out session or sponsor a session for attendees (that you pay for).
For the trade show in #3 (and other conferences you may attend), pull your exhibit booth out of the closet, dust it off and take a look at what needs refreshing. How are the colors, is the logo prominent, and what about the message?
Hire a facilitator to do a Message Map with your leadership team. This is always an important exercise to bring the leadership team together to discuss the 5 Ws about your company. Focus especially on the Why of your existence. (Want to know more about message mapping? Give Soulati Media a shout, and we will share more.)
Revisit your Mission, Vision, Values statements and ensure that your company is on track, working against each of these important foundational items your company follows.
Going one step further, explore your business purpose. What drives you beyond revenue generation? What purpose do you have for being in existence? This is not something to answer in 10 minutes. Take some time to meet with the leadership team and mull it over.
Your website needs TLC. When we’re busy, websites hit the back seat. If your company is feeling a pinch during this economic downturn with fewer customers then take a look at every single page of your website to see if you approve.
While you’re at it, click on every link on each page and ensure it’s not broken.
Check all images on your site for the proper ALT code. If you don’t know how to do any of those items, then call for assistance. There’s always something you can do to freshen your website during a down tick.
Do you use landing pages for campaigns you’re running? How many? How are they functioning for you? Again, this is a very good time to review all digital assets to ensure proper function, content, images, and success metrics.
B2B companies do very well with newsletters to customers and prospects. When a business slows, that’s when marketing upticks. There’s no time like the present to launch a newsletter or refresh an existing newsletter and communicate en masse to your customers.
Don’t want to do a newsletter? Then let’s go with more email marketing! You can create a new campaign to celebrate the end of virus fears with a promotion to get customers back in sync with your business.
Hire a photographer (and support the economy). Here’s why: you can retake all the head shots of the leadership team in your company; you can take high-resolution images of your company in action (and use these on social media and your website), and the images can be used in communications with customers.
Do you have a high-performing video marketing program with a YouTube, Vimeo or Twitch channel? During a downtime develop one! The whole point of this is “there’s no time like the present” to focus on things you neglected because of a time crunch. Video is the future, and the data are staggering about just how many videos exist on each social media channel. Don’t get left in the cold!
Develop your digital marketing strategy. Look at all the ways you can live stream, bring people into a community, do virtual meetings and conferences, bring all your assets to the web, open an e-commerce site, and so much more.
Plan a webinar series. In #B2B marketing, webinars are a wonderful way to communicate with customers. It’s smart to have a series of webinars with three topics scheduled over the course of six weeks. One of the webinars can be your product team speaking about something new alongside the CEO talking about the vision for the future. The other two can be with customers on a panel speaking about a product or service. When you invite others to attend, you collect emails and use those emails to develop your list for email marketing and newsletters.
Focus on business development. As everyone is in the same boat with the current business climate, now is an excellent time to revisit your strategy to earn more customers. This is where your entire marketing team needs to meet and discuss ways to earn new business.
Go on a retreat. No business schedules a retreat when everyone is chaotically working. Now? What a perfect time to bring the leadership team and directors together to revisit #7 and #8 and also look at new growth opportunities in the future.
Continue your efforts with social media, do not go on hiatus just because your business has gone virtual. As everyone stays closer to home, they will spend more time on the Interwebz surfing. There’s no question you can maintain conversation and engagement with your audience.
Survey your employees. A downtime is excellent for a word from your employees. Building a Survey Monkey provides a perfect vehicle to gauge what employees think about the state of the business. Offer a gift card to the employee with a novel idea that you implement.
Build a customer loyalty program. For frequent buyers of your products, implement a customer loyalty program with incentives that bring them back over and over again.
Talk with your customers. When was the last time you picked up the phone and had a no-pressure conversation with a customer? This would not be a sales call but a call to deepen and strengthen relationship.
Meet with a non-profit. Do you have a volunteer day where your employees leave work and volunteer for a day to work for a non-profit? What about adopting a non-profit every two months so that some of your company’s efforts, like pro bono work, go to a charity?
Review all of the subscriptions your business pays for whether it’s periodicals, newspapers, apps, photography and turn off automatic renewals. How many automatic renewals exist at your business? Then only after they renew, you remember you signed up.
Develop a new product or service. You can make a new product or service as an e-book or online course for prospects and even current customers to remind them that your services go deeper than just one layer.
Clean your email box(!) and clean your desk, your closets and reduce, recycle, reuse!

I’m sure that after reviewing this list, you’ll think of many other things you can do during a downtime. While this situation is hugely unfortunate, consider it an opportunity. No one takes time under “normal” circumstances to do most of the above, so why not now?

Is Conflict Good Public Relations?

10/16/2019 By Jayme Soulati

ALT="Marc Veyrat, Restaurateur and Chef of La Maison des Bois" — Screenshot from www.marcveyrat.fr

Conflict is well, conflict, usually not a good thing. As public relations goes, conflict ranks as bad…except when it isn’t. Sound confusing? No problem; let me share a story about conflict that could be regarded as a PR ploy to grab some PR on the global stage, especially in my view as a PR professional.

Michelin Guide Causes Major Conflict For Restaurateur

Marc Veyrat, 69, chef/owner of La Maison des Bois in France, slammed a lawsuit at the Michelin Guide for reducing his restaurant’s three-star rating to two stars.

Mr. Veyrat’s attack on the Michelin Guide puts his feud front and center on public display.

His beef, which is probably a cuss word in Mr. Veyrat’s vocabulary since his cuisine is plant-based, centers around the lack of transparency by Michelin in sharing how stars are awarded or reversed.

To show just how much drama encompasses Michelin Guide ratings, Mr. Veyrat’s comment in a magazine (reprinted in the New York Times) surpasses any doubt he’s kidding.

“I feel like my parents died a second time,” said Mr. Veyrat to a magazine. “Can you imagine the shame I feel: I am the only chef in history to get a third star and then to lose it the next year.”

In Michelin’s defense, they say Mr. Veyrat’s “accusations are baseless.”

Most interesting, the downgrade to Mr. Veyrat’s business by Michelin did not affect La Maison des Bois. Its business actually increased 10 percent over last year. Mr. Veyrat mentioned “his anger stemmed mostly from his wounded pride.”

Understanding The Importance Of Michelin’s Stars

The Michelin Guide awards three stars to the most elite restaurants. In 2019, 27 restaurants received three stars and 84 received two stars. Quite a dichotomy, right?

Along with stars comes great prestige and pressure on the chefs to maintain their 3-star elite rating. When a star is removed, conflict obviously becomes the name of the game.

So, I’ll ask again: is conflict good PR?

Conflict As Public Relations

ALT="La Maison des Bois restaurant with alpine view" — Screenshot taken from www.marcveyrat.fr

Let’s take a look at the main fact of this story: Mr. Veyrat’s business increased 10% over last year!

Perhaps his lawsuit contributed to that and perhaps not. Seeing the “shame” Mr. Veyrat feels about his demotion from a three- star to two-star restaurant, his bark and lawsuit certainly contribute to this public relations debacle.

On the other hand, Michelin Guide offers no flinch about their decision to remove a star from La Maison des Bois. Their chief critics stand firmly by their decision, although no one really knows just how those decisions get made. The latter forms the groundwork for the lawsuit by Mr. Veyrat who will see his nemesis in court late November.

In thinking about restaurant public relations as a profession, communications pros must be diligent in their strategy. It takes consistency with events and news to attract and keep patrons. Add to that that arrogant chefs who may also own the restaurant, ahem, Mr. Veyrat, and challenges abound.

If there’s a lawsuit, this conflict brings the curious in droves. More people want to know what the big fuss is all about because people generally are nosy creatures.

Conflict Where There’s No Conflict

In my opinion, this story plants a big giggle on my face. It got the attention of the New York Times, and that’s certainly a huge achievement in media relations circles. Mr. Veyrat’s escapades feature in both print and digital editions of this global publication.

If you know media relations, we work hard to get our clients featured in the New York Times. Here comes a winy restaurateur filing a lawsuit over removal of a star, and voila (literally because he’s French), he lands a story about his shame. On the flip side, the New York Times published a photo with the article of Mr. Veyrat accepting his three stars last year from Michelin Guide. No ruckus there, eh?

So, conflict in this case is certainly good PR for this French restaurant with alpine views bordering Italy and Switzerland.

What do you think?

There’s Public Relations Gold In That Recycling Program

06/29/2019 By Jayme Soulati

ALT="oceanfront on Santa Monica beach with no trash from recycling program"

By Jayme Soulati, Santa Monica

You’ve heard, right? Some smaller communities can no longer afford a recycling program, and some aren’t telling the homeowners who diligently separate garbage from recycling. That would tick me off kinda big, how about you? Others put out their recycling only to have it untouched week after week. When a phone call to the municipality says, “Oh, just mix it in with the trash, and we’ll sort,” you know there is NO recycling program in your community.

Indeed, recycling programs cost money, but at what cost to the environment is the long-term cost of recycling? [Read more…]

Your Business Toolkit Needs A Public Relations Strategist

04/04/2019 By Jayme Soulati

A business toolkit needs more than tools; it needs people with skills to make the tools work.

I am a message mapping expert in the world of public relations that has become so blended with marketing. To become an expert in anything, you move from the tactical to the strategic, or you are a strategist who loves the tactical. There are both: public relations strategists and public relations tacticians.

In a business toolkit, I’m likely to fit into both: strategist and tactician.Who’s in your business toolkit? You better have a digital marketing specialist, a content marketer, a social media marketer, and a copywriter, too. It’s wonderful when you have a web designer and developer in your back pocket because every business needs one.

When there isn’t enough bandwidth to have all of the above, then hire a really good public relations strategist. Someone like me earns that moniker over time and experience. There’s no hiding it! I’ve been at this for more than 30 years earning expertise every day. [Read more…]

Building Community One Spice At A Time

09/18/2018 By Jayme Soulati

For those of you not familiar with Penzey’s, it is a growing, family-owned spice company that originated in Wisconsin. Even with the onset of the digital age (which have helped with building community and exponential sales), it’s the most fun to shop in the brick and mortar store. The customer experience is amazing, especially if you love to cook. Penzey’s says, that “cooking is kindness, and that kindness can change the world.” I have to agree!

My mom shares the writings and emails of Pennzey’s CEO, Bill Penzey. He is an extremely outspoken figure who expounds upon liberal politics and the crisis in American democracy under the Trump administration.

Brands have begun to show their colors, and why not? A human is behind every brand, no matter how old it is. Remember the recent experiences with Chick fil-A and Hobby Lobby? What about the Colorado baker who refused to make and sell a cake to a gay couple in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court? Nike actually chose to build a campaign around Colin Kaepernick, which is somewhat different than the previous examples.

Building Community With Controversy

When you serve people with your products there is a choice whether to wear your beliefs on your sleeves or keep them to yourself. Bill Penzey elects to build community using the former. His views are squarely on his sleeves, front and center.

From his vantage point, he’s building community one spice at a time. In fact, what speaks more loudly than his words are his company’s sales. Penzey’s sales have shot upward. Isn’t it interesting how politics and words can influence sales of spices? It’s obviously due to building community.

Look:

“Arizona Dreaming is one of our best blends, inspired by people very much like John McCain with the strength to fight the uphill battle for a more inclusive Arizona. Arizona Dreaming is a very tasty celebration of the coming together of cultures that so flavors the foods and the lives lived across America’s Southwest. Don’t miss this chance to get yours free.”

Did that blurb spark your interest in wanting to buy Arizona Dreaming in honor of Senator John McCain? (Or, maybe I’m sentimental!)

Who else do you know in the corner office who mixes spice with politics to earn sales, literally? You’ll see in Mr. Penzey’s recent email newsletter that his side of the aisle is very good for his business, and he encourages marketers to observe and embrace that.

Bill Penzey on Politics, Building Community And Spices

Below is a recent post from Bill Penzey I’d like to share with his permission to republish.

“We think we’ve discovered something. What we’ve discovered is that standing up against everything the Republican Party has become is really, really, really (+76 more reallys), really good for business. I understand how this can seem at odds with the image so popular right now that America is an evenly divided nation, but as we’ve learned this image does not reflect reality. And as much as it seems that the big issue right now is an out of control, possibly worse than racist presidency, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The real issue is the unlimited political spending that brought this President and so many other Republicans to power. Watching TV ads and reading comment sections, it can seem like Republicans actually have popular support, but these days ads and comments are simply part of the many things unlimited political spending can buy. Yet from our experience what we’ve found political spending can’t buy is popularity.

This chart is our weekly online sales this year vs last year starting with the week of April 1st. It mostly is the tale of just two offers. The first was calling out the President for claiming that he was above the law; he isn’t. This is America where no one is above the law. No one can pardon themselves.

The second came with us pointing out that the Russia probe has to happen because: Our President chose a campaign chairman who had accepted $17 Million from a pro-Russia political party. This chairman personally picked the vice president, who in turn went on to pick a literal Russian agent as our country’s top national security advisor, despite being clearly warned by our intelligence community about his past.

The first offer in the chart looks like two spikes because this is a weekly graph and that offer ran over a Saturday and Sunday. But that second offer, that big pyramid there, just ran for 18 hours over a Thursday night. With that offer we received an 80-fold increase in sales over the same time period last year. Along with the avalanche of orders we also got comments like: “Don’t mix business and politics, Bill. It’s bad for the bottom line.” “I was taught years ago, you don’t mix politics or religion with your business.”

Yet, look at the chart. This is not 80% growth, this is 80 times as much in sales!

In our experience we’ve found that when you honestly support and speak out for the values of your customers, your customers support you. Looking at how we evolved, humanity really is the gift of Cooks, and for people who cook to simply watch as Republicans use the power the money of unlimited spending has bought them to undermine education, attack the environment, take health insurance from the poor, dehumanize those deemed not white enough, and separate children from their parents simply for seeking asylum; these can be heartbreaking times. Speaking out now really matters.

If you are involved in a business that has been uncomfortable with the Republican attacks on human decency, there is really no better time to share those concerns with your customers than right now. Your country needs you to step up.

And if you are a marketer, please be aware that the times are changing. Maybe it’s time to stop saying young people can’t be reached and instead try to get your clients to look to the values young people hold dear. At some point some breakfast cereal maker is going to celebrate the bravery of Colin Kaepernick by having him taking a knee on the cover of their box. In that moment they will win all of the younger generations for all of the rest of their lives.

There’s talk right now about people no longer being interested in things but instead being interested in experiences. At Penzeys we sell Spices, the very things that have been selling continuously for longer than any other thing in human existence. I believe a big part of why Spices have the staying power they do is that they are experiences.

Each Spice, every Seasoning connects us to a place, a time, an event that has at its heart our humanity — how we take care of each other. Make your product an experience, make your experience in some way radiate decency, compassion, and kindness and get ready to be busy.

Right now those on the frontlines of challenging what the Republican Party has become are being rewarded, and that’s a good thing. Unlimited political spending has taken away the vote from individuals and given it to corporations that seek profit from undermining the public good. It’s time for Americans to vote with our spending. My advice is to be a company worth voting for.

I believe what we’ve been experiencing is only the start of something much bigger. Business is an evolutionary process where the new things that work very quickly become what everyone needs simply to survive. This is not the time to be left behind. Spend every day like it’s November 6th.
Bill | bill@penzeys.com”

Find Your Kin As Your Next Customer

So, marketers, brands and the humans behind them, take note. If you speak your mind in a calm and intelligent fashion with logic, you can find your kin who will also become a worthy customer of your products, services and brand. Will this happen overnight? No, but with consistency comes success for the long haul.

Let’s wear our perspective on our sleeve and sell spices, shall we?

Soulati-'TUDE!

28 Ways Business Can Focus During A Crisis