Worry Makes People Buy...

Sometimes I lay in bed at night worrying about what people are laying in bed and worrying about!

If you want to sell a service or product to anyone then one of the best things to be is a solution provider – and to do that you have to know what their problem is.

Public relations may be all about education but most people do not want to be educated or sold to…but they do want solutions to their problems so they can sleep easily in their bed.

So, before deciding on what stories to get out to the media it is a good idea to picture the typical client and speculate on just what might be their biggest fear or their nightmare scenario. If you can then show that you have the solution for them they are likely to want to listen to you…and maybe even buy something!

For some of Empica’s clients this is an obvious tactic. Acorn health and Safety, for instance, provide training courses that help people prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace.

But for others it is less obvious that the “fear factor” is there. PKF accountants may appear to be a service provider – but really they are problem solvers and help people when they are worried about getting that return in on time, concerned that the business deal they are thinking about doesn’t add up or worrying about future growth.

A good tip then for any business person is to address the concerns and problems of their potential customers.

Spreading The Word

During this winter’s snow days a number of large round snowballs appeared alongside the roads near the place I live and that rare practical example of the “snowball effect” could be seen for real!

The theory is that getting publicity is very like building one of those giant snowballs. Someone has to start the thing off but once it starts rolling it starts to gather pace and snow and gets bigger and bigger.

Having a rare chance to try out the snowball effect for real it seems it doesn’t happen exactly like that. The snowball might turn over a few times but you have to keep giving it a shove to keep it growing and progressing – and do you know that is exactly the same as publicity.

Publicity for our clients works best when we start it off in a particular direction then keep giving it a little shove to make sure it works and keeps rolling along.

The most recent example for us has been the Cadbury House Alien campaign. Aimed at creating a bit of local publicity for the gym in the early weeks of the year the story gathered momentum and with some judicious shoves by us ended up literally rolling round the world with enquiries coming in from Australia and coverage in the USA.

Our PR works best when we keep pushing it and pushing it so that it gathers its own momentum – rather than firing one shot and hoping it hits home.

If all this talk of snow makes you feel a bit chilly then you can also think of it as spreading like a fire. We light the matches and we keep fanning the flames so that it continues to get bigger.