Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Driving awareness, word of mouth and downloads for new mobile phone apps is no small endeavor. The number of mobile app innovations have exploded since Apple’s release of the iPhone, as evidenced by the more than 500,000 apps ready to be downloaded at Apple’s online App Store.
This infiltration of mobile phone apps had the team at Communiqué PR considering the different ways to generate editorial coverage and drive word of mouth for a new app in today’s competitive media landscape. What PR efforts will be most effective in encouraging people to download and use an app over others? How do you get journalists to pay attention to any app when they are being bombarded with requests to write about a host of other products and services?
At Communique PR, we believe there are five essential best practices surrounding successful PR for mobile apps:
1.Remember – differentiation is critical: According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), “There was a time when having an app was a press-worthy development.” Today, unless the app presents a revolutionary idea, attention should be focused on a unique aspect of an existing category.
Ask yourself some deep-thinking questions: How can you demonstrate that your application is truly different? What features or benefits does your app have that competitors don’t have?
It will be an uphill battle to market your app if you are only making incremental improvements or if you are entering a crowded category. For instance, consider the health and nutrition tracker apps. Today, there are dozens of apps such as Weight Watchers Mobile, Nutrisystem and MyFitnessPal for tracking weight, calories, exercise and more. To be successful in raising awareness and driving downloads for a new mobile weight-management application, it is vital to show how it is significantly better or different than apps already on the market.
2. Make your app newsworthy: A variety of elements determine the newsworthiness of an announcement. As we point out in an earlier blog post titled, Is Your News Really Newsworthy?, the number of people affected by a story heightens its significance.
Additionally, think about who your target audience is and ask yourself who would care about your app. This is the number one question editors and journalists ask themselves. Think through how your product will resonate with others and whether it’ll be relevant in the fast paced news world.
3. Consider marketing platforms: Marketing platform solutions such as Flurry’s AppCircle program, TapJoy and W3i integrate their clients’ apps with large user networks. Their databases focus on keeping your app ahead of competitors and in the hands of users, helping your app become profitable and popular. TapJoy claims it has more than 200 million mobile customers and W3i asserts they have successfully connected nearly 700,000,000 apps to users.
According to CNET news, breaking into the top 25 lists can dramatically increase downloads and purchases. Consider leveraging one of these platforms to reap such benefits.
4. Define metrics: Generating press associated with an app is incomplete without data. The MMA’s A Brand Marketer’s Guide to the Mobile Web and Mobile Apps claims, “Measurement should reflect the strategy of the mobile initiative goals.” Before releasing an app, establish desired performance metrics. Two possible ways to track progress are engagement and usage.
For any app on the market, a primary form of measuring engagement is the number of downloads. However, be sure to define projected usage time and desired activity. One download for example, does not confirm if a customer is using the application. Tools such as Google Analytics, Flurry and Adobe SiteCatalyst can tag usage and measure activity. A successful marketer must understand whether customers are continuing to engage with the app.
5. Anticipate the costs: Be prepared to adequately fund your program. Driving meaningful media results for an app entering an already saturated market often can be both time consuming and expensive. Financially speaking, ensure the ends will justify the means.
When strategizing marketing for a mobile app, think about these tips.
One of our favorite projects to work on for clients here at Communiqué PR is landing byline articles. Byline articles elevate thought leadership by highlighting content experts, and they also help our clients put themselves in a reporter’s shoes.
Over the past few months, Communiqué PR has helped our clients garner coverage through byline articles. John Scumniotales, CEO and president at Verdiem, had a great guest post in GeekWire last month about workplace culture. In March, Sam Morris, a product marketing manager with Attachmate, was published in the Data Center Journal regarding managed file transfer.
However, landing byline opportunities isn’t as easy as you might think. Below are a few things to keep in mind when considering a guest post or byline article.
- Not all publications are open to bylines. We know that reporters are being stretched thin, but that doesn’t mean they all want guest writers providing content for their publications. It is important to research a publication before pitching a byline idea, which will save you wasted time and rejections from publications that aren’t open to guest posts. Also, just because a publication does accept byline articles doesn’t mean you are entitled to post there. Your pitch will be under an editor’s scrutiny and if you don’t have a strong angle, your article might be rejected.
- Content experts need to be the authors. You shouldn’t rely on ghost writing when it comes to byline articles. While the PR team can help gather content and a framework, in order to be authentic and honest, the content experts need to ultimately feel that the end result is their own work. If you are working on a byline article, make sure the end result reveals your own personal style and voice. The article should contain your own thoughts in your own words, even if you’ve had some help putting the pieces of the story together.
- Articles need to look beyond your own brand. Most publications won’t run articles that have a vendor bias – that’s something more appropriate for an advertorial. A byline should be product neutral and not promote a specific product or service. Rather, byline articles should offer an expert’s perspective on an industry trend or provide a new perspective on an old business problem.
- Consider your audience. Remember that different publications have different audiences, so you will need to tailor your material for each. For example, a business audience that reads the Wall Street Journal likely won’t be interested in the technical details of how a software solution works – they will want to know the overall benefits and how it will impact a company’s bottom line. That said, an InfoWorld reader will likely be interested in the opposite. Make sure you know who your readers will be and what information will be most helpful for them.
For additional tips, read this blog post we published back in 2008: https://communique.innovisionwebsites.com/?p=106. It provides some additional ideas and tips on how to make your byline shine.
We never want to lose a client. However, there is at least one situation in which losing a client is cause for celebration.
At Communiqué PR we focus on helping our clients leverage PR in order to achieve their business objectives. Sometimes those business objectives involve selling the company, and by successfully positioning a company for acquisition, we may ultimately lose the account. We have seen this happen over the years with a number of our client companies including SnapIn and Open Interface North America.
In November 2010, we began working with another organization focused on positioning itself for acquisition – The Shops at The Bravern. We strategically targeted our PR activities on securing results that would reinforce that objective. These activities included building local and regional awareness of The Shops at The Bravern, driving retail traffic and sales, and demonstrating momentum within the retail industry. We leveraged key events including Holidays at The Bravern, Fashion’s Night Out, and Sips & Sounds, and tapped into broad trends to help secure the results needed to reinforce the owner’s objectives.
Those efforts paid off in a big way. Earlier this year, our client Schnitzer West sold The Shops at The Bravern to Ashkenazy Acquisitions, achieving its business objectives with the property. Once again, we successfully worked ourselves out of a job.
PR success is measured in many ways. We take pride in helping our clients achieve their business objectives, even if those objectives include setting the enterprise up for acquisition. The strategies and tactics we employ are always focused on the clients’ goals – so we consider it a positive reflection of our success when our clients achieve key milestones, including a successful sale.
Thankfully, we work with a broad range of clients and not all of them are focused on acquisition!
Here at Communiqué PR, we are enthusiastic about staying on top of current ”tools of the trade” that enhance communication. That’s why the new cloud-based presentation software, Prezi, caught our eye. Since learning about the tool, I have noticed multiple presentations in the format, and have even seen LinkedIn profiles boasting to be “Prezi experts.” A recent TedTalk on YouTube Driven Innovation even featured the presentation software.
So what is Prezi? Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that has the unique property of a “Zooming User Interface,” which allows users to zoom in and out of their presentation while navigating it. This property gives Prezi’s a non-linear, brainstorming type of flow, as opposed to the traditional linear style of PowerPoint presentations. Prezi also has features such as Prezi Desktop, which allows paying subscribers to work off-line on presentations, Prezi Meeting which allows up to 10 participants to co-edit presentations in real time online, and Prezi Viewer for iPad, which has the ability to view Prezi presentations on an iPad.
How does Prezi work? Through the Prezi website, you can create your own presentation from scratch, or work from one of their pre-designed templates. Once finished, the presentation can be saved on Prezi’s website, or as an Adobe Flash file if you do not want to rely on internet connectivity. A bonus of being cloud-based is that viewers of a presentation can log on and add notes to a Prezi before, during, or after the presentation itself occurs. Additionally, a viewer of your presentation (if it is made public on the Prezi database) can download and save the file onto their computer for later reference. PowerPoint files can be converted to a Prezi by first saving the PowerPoint in PDF form, and then uploading the PDF onto the Prezi website. Unfortunately, there is no streamlined way to convert a Prezi to a PowerPoint.
What can Prezi be used for? Prezi can be used for any type of presentation to provide a visual aid. Its most popular uses, according to Wikipedia, include business and conference use, education, and miscellaneous types of information visualization (e.g. architectural presentations). Some job seekers have used the tool to create interactive portfolios and ‘Prezumes’ (Prezi + Resume).
How much does Prezi cost? Prezi is free to use, but you can purchase packages with additional features. There are two available deals. For $59 annually, you get more storage space, the ability to privatize your presentations, and the ability to put a custom logo in your presentation. For $159 annually, you can receive even more storage space, as well as a tool called “Prezi Desktop,” which allows for offline editing. Both of these packages are available for 30-day free trials.
How does Prezi compare to PowerPoint? Neither can be distinguished as better—they each work well in different situations. Here is a break-down of the basic differences:
Prezi
- Non-linear structure
- Focused on visual aspects of a presentation
- Cloud-based, so users can access their presentation from anywhere
PowerPoint
- Linear style
- Not cloud based; controlled access to your presentation
If you are looking for a tool to amp up the visual appeal of an upcoming presentation, think about giving Prezi a try!
Have you used this tool before? If yes, what are your thoughts?
A common challenge in PR is working with clients to determine if their story is newsworthy. News organizations are often bombarded with pitches and press releases that have no hope of seeing print. As PR professionals it is our job to work with our clients to determine what the news elements are.
For example, a product release might not be appealing to a journalist, but if tied to a hot trend, it can help pique interest.
In a recent article I came across in Ragan.com titled, “6 questions to determine whether your story is newsworthy,” Susan Young suggests questions to walk through when deciding whether your pitch might get pickup. I’ve included some of Susan’s questions below along with examples from my own experience in pitching reporters.
- Who cares? It sounds harsh, but this is the no. 1 question reporters and editors will ask themselves. If you can answer this question, you should highlight it in the subject line or leading sentence of your pitch.
- What makes my story outshine the other 372 that crossed a reporter’s or blogger’s desk today? Just like standing out in a crowded room, pitches need to be unique. I guarantee that the journalist you are targeting receives hundreds of emails a day and you must grab their attention before they hit delete. For more information on how to craft a subject line that can help, read our previous blog post.
- Where would my story fit in this reporter’s world? Sometimes tying a product launch, a new company or event to a relevant trend can help your story. Reporters need to be able to relate, so try to tailor your pitch to be relevant to their coverage topic.
- When is this most important? Today, tomorrow, next Tuesday? Reporters generally cover day of news or preview upcoming news. They aren’t interested in something that happened yesterday. News is such a fast paced and competitive industry that old news is no longer news.
- Why would anyone sitting in their den in Utah, driving on I-95 in Florida, or bowling next to my dad in New Jersey want to pay attention to this story? The goal of a reporter is to have their story read or watched by their audience so the story should tap into emotions or a human element. For example, providing someone that the journalist can speak with who is impacted by the announcement can make your story more compelling. This moves the story away from the company announcing the news, but shows the impact the news has.
- How can this story help other people? The news is likely important to the company sharing it, but in the same vein as the question above, journalists like to illustrate how the story will help other people. By writing an article, how will the audience benefit from this news? For example, if you are pitching a story about a new safety feature for a car, be sure to call out how telling this story will benefit the audience. Will this reduce the number of accident fatalities? Impact soccer moms? Save money?
The more you can showcase why your story is newsworthy for the journalist, the more likely you’ll be successful in your pitch. For more information on what makes a good story, and additional questions to ask yourself when developing a pitch, read our previous blog post.
Earlier this week, we facilitated a two-hour messaging workshop for a new Communiqué PR technology client. The goal was to discuss the company’s mission and vision, as well as hone in on its value proposition and distill that information into several compelling key messages.
The messaging workshop was a big success and it got me thinking about our work and methodology for facilitating these discussions, which can often be fraught with emotion as senior leaders and executives often have strong points of view about the subject matter. At Communiqué, we believe there are five key steps that should be taken when preparing to conduct the messaging workshop:
- Explain the importance of messaging and build the case for the workshop. Messaging is often the foundation of your PR program. To harness the full power of PR, you want to deliver messages that are accurate and credible, as well as concise and compelling as possible. It is also essential to arm employees, staff, investors and partners with the right messages so they can deliver them on your behalf. Given this, if a company has not outlined key messages, we recommend holding a workshop to identify and build consensus around the key points that need to be communicated.
- Determine who needs to participate. This is another essential step for a productive workshop. To have a meaningful discussion about mission, vision, values and a company’s value proposition, you will need the senior leadership team to be present. Typically this group of individuals are responsible for the direction of the company so it is important they articulate their perspectives on these topics. By gathering this group together to discuss vision, mission, values and value proposition, the facilitator can hone in on differences in perspective and help resolve them, which is important if you’re going to deliver consistent messages about the company and its products and services.
- Get the creative juices flowing. We recommend coming up with one or two ice-breaker exercises to help set the stage for an effective and engaging ideation meeting. These can be really helpful as you look to get people thinking in a new manner. For instance, you might provide executives with a list of emotional or functional attributes to describe their company and ask them to rank them. Each person could then present his or her perspective. This gives everyone an opportunity to share his/her thoughts at the beginning of the meeting and sets the tone in establishing participation with all the leaders.
- Set time limits. Determine how much time you’re going to spend on each subject. Give everyone a few minutes to share a point of view, but at the end of the allotted time, be sure to move on to the next section so you don’t get bogged down on one point. If there is unresolved conflict around a topic, feel free to table it so you can do some more thinking and analysis.
- Identify roles for the meeting. Designate one or two people to facilitate the meeting, and appoint someone else to take notes and capture key action items. We also recommend bringing a digital tape recorder to ensure that everything is captured and can be reviewed later.
We hope these tips are helpful. If you’re challenged to come up with the right messages, please feel free to call us. We are experienced and adept at helping companies identify and come to consensus on key messages.