Context Public Relations

New business does not just fall out of the sky. You’ve got to work for it and one of the most important sources could be the people and businesses you deal with on a day to day basis.

Here at Context we regularly ask our clients and suppliers if there is anyone they think we should approach. It may sound a bit cheeky but if you don’t ask you don’t get. Our existing clients regularly refer business to us and more often than not the prospect will of been already told what we do and what we have done for the refer. This means that the sales process is often much shorter and we can get down to doing the job much quicker.

So what should you do?

Before jumping in and asking everyone for leads follow a few steps that can help save time and also effort:

• Who do you want to work with? - Try and identify people that you really want to work for and you have the skills that will really benefit their business.
• Look at your contacts - Ask yourself who may know the key decision maker in the business that you need to talk too. (Don’t forget personal as well as business contacts!)
• Ask your contact directly - By naming the company you want to work with they may tell you a little extra detail that you may not know (e.g. who they work with now or the problems they are having)
• Be cheeky - ask for an email introduction, your contact can always say no if they are not happy about it.

Tags: Marketing Mix by Rob
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I’ve just come back from holiday in Turkey – back to the grey skies of the UK! – but while I was there spoke to a number of estate agents all of whom said the same thing – property sales over the last year have been slow.  But, every cloud has a silver lining, and what they are seeing is that the rental market this year is stronger than it’s ever been.

While Turkish tourism is benefiting from being outside the Euro Zone, this demand for rental properties is reflected elsewhere – travellers are more money conscious, and what could be better than combining a cheap flight with self-catering accommodation? 

Companies working in the property market and in the tourism industry need to be sure to take advantage of any opportunities that are open to them in the current environment.  This is where PR is helping them, offering a cost-effective way to communicate their messages and raise their profile among targeted audiences.

If you’re offering property rentals you need to be shouting about it, and if you’re in the travel industry and you’ve not been promoting your product over the last five months you need to focus on it now.  And don’t forget to plan for the future – a press trip now will pay dividends for 2010.

Tags: Public Relations by Rachel
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The classic martini is widely accepted to be four parts gin, to one part dry vermouth. Whether the cocktail is shaken or stirred is a moot point, depending on who you ask. The important thing is getting the mix right.

Getting the mix right is just as important in the PR and communications game, and broadening your channels of communications will help to ensure you get seen and heard by prospects, existing customers and partners.

With the rise in digital media, an online strategy is essential if you are to compete successfully in your marketplace. An estimated 87% of all Internet journeys start with a search – Google makes up 90% of these searches – so it’s important to include search engine optimisation in your PR campaign.

A digital PR campaign can help you to identify the keywords that make a real difference to your business, and that drive traffic to your site, and crucially can help to significantly boost your Google rankings in these areas, without having to simply resort to the costly pay-per-click option.

Of course, digital PR is only part of the answer. Getting into the hallowed pages of the nationals or gold standard trade press will get you in front of your target audience and potential customers, and is a valuable endorsement of your business credentials, but again it’s part of the mix.

The more you communicate, and the broader your channels, then the more effective you will be in reaching your target audience, and growing your business.

Tags: Public Relations, SEO by Luke
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Recently, I was at the giant Infosecurity exhibition for the 9th year in succession.  As is often the case with industry trade shows, they’re always changing (new vendors, new logos, new stand designs), yet always the same (you get to meet your friends, peers and rivals from the industry again).

What made this show different for me was, my clients at the show had already made big news announcements earlier in the year.  They didn’t have any news events that they were saving for the show itself.  And as nothing irritates the press like an interview with no news value, I made no appointments to meet with journalists.

Instead, I spent time in the press office, just chatting and catching up with my contacts, without the usual pressures of organising a round of interviews.  And this informal approach was far more productive in terms of updating the press on what my clients were doing, and in terms of refreshing relationships.

That’s not to say that interviews at shows are a waste of time.  Far from it.  But if a press interview is to be successful, there’s GOT to be some hard news behind it, otherwise it’s wasting the journalist’s time.  And shows are no exception to this rule.

So if you don’t have any real news at a trade show, don’t worry.  By all means, meet the journalists.  But do it on their terms — don’t tug at their sleeves and interrupt if they are busy, but do stop and chat if they have a few minutes.  That’s where the real relationship-building work is done.

Tags: Public Relations, Technology by Craig
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