Let me correct myself. It's not just possible for CEOs to do their own public relations. It's imperative. If your company is going to push the right levers, you'll need a strong platform, a market message that reflects a corporate mission. That's got to be set at the top before it can be communicated to anyone.
Start by telling yourself the truth. What does your company stand for? What does it do best? If you don't know what you want to say, you can't say anything well.
Consider your customers, real and potential. What, if anything, are they hearing about you? What do they need to hear? If you can't carry the message yourself, who would be the most effective messenger? How can you enlist that person in your cause?
Often, the most effective messenger is not the most obvious one. You may have visions of a popular media campaign when, for instance, your company's interests might be better served by appearances in the trade press -- in articles, not ads. What could be more reassuring to potential customers than to see your name among those of the experts?
There is no mystery in reaching the trade press, according to Peggy Nordeen, president of Starmark Inc., an Inc. 500-listed business-to-business marketing company. "Trade-press editors are looking for solutions to problems," she says. "They'll give you an ear because they need the kind of information you can provide.'
They're like your customers that way: impressed by significant applications clearly communicated. Nordeen suggests sending your first application example as soon as you sign your first customer, particularly if you're selling to a business market. Target the heavyweight trade periodicals first, then use reprints for sales support, direct-mail material, or as a background for capability brochures.
Make it as easy on them as you can. Be sure to get written customer approval before you send in a story, and include a photo. Submit to one editor at a time, not to four competitors at once. Call the publisher's office to get an advance copy of the magazine's editorial calendar, then target your story to its special themes. Better still, talk to an editor one-on-one at a trade show.
Jim Bernstein's byline is a familiar one to the health-care trade press. But Bernstein credits General Health Inc.'s growth, and its eventual placement on the Inc. 500, more to his choice of another, more powerful, pressure point.
In insurance, as in most markets, not all customers are created equal. There are always a few that lead -- the biggest, most innovative, or most thoughtful, the few that everyone else watches. Bernstein targeted them individually, inviting a handful to a series of luncheons.
The meetings were low-key affairs, a chance for Bernstein's guests to get to know their fellow senior executives over a discussion of health-care cost containment. Bernstein didn't worry about selling his risk-assessment services. In discussion he was just one expert among equals, although he was very much the host at table. But he could see the payoff as the conversation circled after the meal, while his customers vied for the chance to endorse his products to the group.
With acceptances for his luncheons running at more than 70%, Bernstein expanded his PR program, adding a national conference as well and inviting some 30 guests for two days of "discussion and socializing" in Washington, D.C. Besides converting many of those leading-edge health-insurance executives, Bernstein established himself as a leader in the eyes of the rest of their market.
Bernstein had tried the traditional PR approach first, with less-fortunate results. For six months he had paid a $5,000 agency retainer, hoping in vain for a mention in Forbes. "We spent a lot of time educating a recent college graduate in what our business was like, but after six months we'd only gotten one small article in a local magazine," he remembers. "Then I figured out that PR was merely a form of marketing, a means to establish credibility, and that the best way to do that is meeting people face-to-face.
"You consider an agency because you're innocent. You imagine that PR is something mysterious -- you can't do it yourself, so you go out and get it. But it's not magical; it's just hard work and common sense. It's spurious to think a PR company can do it better than you can. They don't have your sense of urgency. They don't know your clients. They don't know your business.'
Bernstein overstates the case, but only by degree. The passion of a CEO/founder is clearly the key to PR success, your personal presence the most effective tool you've got, whether you aim at the trade press or influential customers, bankers, or suppliers. But the wider you cast your nets, the less likely you'll have the time or interest to handle everything; even Bernstein relies on a marketing vice-president to bounce ideas off and an in-house staffer to execute the details. The question is not whether you'll need help, but when and from whom. Does someone on your team have the skills necessary to write an applications article in plain English? Is it cost effective to delegate a task in-house or hire a free-lancer? If you hire an agency you'll be turning over at least part of your reputation to an outsider. A good agency can add extraordinary creativity and experience to your marketing; it should be able to produce measurable results as well, if you give it the tools (see "So You Really Want to Hire an Agency?," page 5). A bad one can kill your company.
Anthony Lemme knew what he had when he started Source Intermarketing Corp. As the exclusive U.S. licensee for the Vacu-Vin, a $20 pump resealer for wine bottles, he had a product priced at one-fourth to one-fifth the competition's. But he had worries, too: limited resources and experience, plus the memory of one failed start-up immediately behind him. So he turned to an agency even before he'd signed his license agreement, hiring B. L. Ochman Associates to handle the marketing while he concentrated on production, shipping, and the search for finance.
Ochman helped Lemme shape the company, introducing him to the people who designed his packaging and manufactured his product. She helped him to expand his market to such stores as Zabar's and Bloomingdale's as well as conventional wine and spirits distributors. Then she convinced him to gamble the company.
