Nata PR School (EN)

David Tremblay, my partner at NATA PR, is my guest for episode 100 of our podcast. We are discussing the relevance of public relations in a post-pandemic world.

Hello, David, and welcome to this 100th episode of the NATA PR SCHOOL podcast.

For those who would like to get to know David better, I invite you to listen to episodes 10 and 85. In episode 10, you’ll get to know David better; and in episode 85, he compares the Canadian and American markets.

David is an expert in public relations, with an exceptional strategic vision and an innovative view of marketing combined with social media.

David has been part of the NATA PR adventure for nearly eight years now, so I couldn’t record this episode without him.

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that this PR moment inspires you.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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We often receive consultation requests from brands that had major success in the pre-Internet era but that communicate little and rarely tell their story. These are superb brands that have been in existence for 30 or 40 years or longer. Several of them have never leveraged the power of public relations.

They come to us when:

These brands don’t have genuine marketing departments and are hiring in-house experts who will often recommend that they retain the services of agencies for advertising and public relations. This requires a considerable investment as you can imagine. Although these companies are prepared to make that investment, they often change course after working with these agencies or with their marketing director after a year or two.

They have so far to catch up that they’re not prepared to invest in their brand to that extent. We have to see things from their point of view—they’ve been around for years and have never had to make this kind of effort to be known among the general public. They were able to do this because several of them were virtually alone in their market.

These niches are rare today. I can assure you that these brands that don’t invest in public relations, social media and marketing will disappear.

Public relations is an excellent tool to ensure that a brand will last.

Quite simply, including communications in your marketing plan is vital. As my partner would say, these brands actually need a marketing plan.

PR helps you maintain the close links you have with your current clients while also going out and attracting new ones. I've often talked about big luxury brands, the “unstoppables” like Gucci, Burberry, Dior, Saint Laurent, Chanel and Balmain that constantly shine. All these brands have a public relations plan that they’ve adapted over the years to remain visible.

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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I like to talk with young digital marketing professionals under thirty who are discovering public relations and see their faces light up when they figure out that public relations is the best part of any organic digital marketing plan.

“What, you mean public relations isn’t some dusty old industry on the verge of extinction, cranking out newspaper articles that our generation doesn't even read?”

No indeed, my digital marketing friends. PR is more relevant than ever, because we still manage to crank out those articles and get our clients’ names into websites, online publications and blogs – all for free. What you now call “organic references.” For our listeners who are unfamiliar with all these new digital-age terms, “organic” simply means it wasn’t paid for, so it’s not an advertisement, which, according to Google and other algorithms, confers real value by improving your ranking in search engines.

Anyway, let’s get back to this podcast’s topic and talk about “PR Money,” a practice that adds to our organic work. At NATA PR, it consists of allocating a limited budget to pay for the work we do with select influencers.

Then, if we get a strong response from their community, we’ll advise our client to take things a step further and pay the influencers in order to access their community. We respect the work that serious influencers do to build and maintain their community. By paying them, we can offer a discount code so they can give their community the option of buying the product at an “introductory price” for a limited time. So swiping up on Instagram, which sends readers straight to our client's website, lets us measure the fans’ interest and the impact of these influencers.

Here’s a summary of the steps we take for our clients whenever we work with influencers:

If these first steps get results, you can move on to the following phases:

Our unique expertise with influencers, who we develop connections with just as we do with reporters, is based on respect and understanding of the target audience. This is the key to staying in the long game – not just in the moment.

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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“When should we use PR?” This is such a fundamental and important question – which our clients ask us regularly – that I wanted to talk to you about it in this podcast.

First, your business is ready to use PR when:

So, it's essential that you understand:

After talking with my partner David, who you can also hear in episodes 10 and 85 of our NATA PR SCHOOL podcast, about what the brands and clients we're most successful with in our public relations campaigns have in common, we’ve reached the following conclusion:

We’ve had a lot of success with brands that know how to use trends to get talked about. For example, many of them launch new products or new collections using new or renewable materials.

However, it’s good to know that we don't recommend using public relations in the following cases:

The clients we’ve had the most success with all have many answers to the first question in our model.

Why would anyone talk about you or your products?

Generally, our successful clients also know how to combine public relations with their social media. They post references and articles to their Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

The most successful brands aren't afraid to put themselves out front and they understand the impact of their ambassadors or the celebrities who use their products.

So – are you ready for PR?

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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I like to address some of the questions that clients ask us, because I’m sure that many of you have the same questions about public relations.

Some clients, who aren’t familiar with public relations, ask us if the fees they pay us every month are worth it. Underneath this old favourite lies the next question: “Should I be using this money in another way – like an advertising campaign?”

I often answer them by joking that companies haven’t been paying us for the past 22 years for our looks, nor so that they can slip into a conversation that they’ve retained a PR agency – but simply because we produce measurable results.

Still, the executives who ask us this question are often running companies that:

Some of them have had great success in terms of sales, but they haven’t yet managed to create their brand. They’re not that familiar to the public, or even to potential local clients.

Mistakenly believing that public relations will generate immediate sales, when that doesn’t happen, they’re sorely tempted to put their PR budget toward ad campaigns instead.

The main goal of public relations isn’t to generate sales. No, for us, our main goal is making you known and getting you talked about. Obviously, this goal will help increase your sales and, more importantly, make you stand out from the competition.

How can you be seen as interesting or appealing if you only do advertising campaigns? It’s a safe bet that a competing brand will start eating into your market shares one day. A “trendier" brand that knows how to make headlines without buying ad space and, more importantly, knows how to win people over.

No brand has a 100% upward trajectory. What can you do to prepare for this future where another brand wins over your clients? Make yourself known other than by advertising, give your company and your products a certain soul, by telling your story.

You can do that with public relations.

So, when one of these newer, younger, more dynamic companies comes along, you’ll already have won the hearts of your consumers, and many of them will stay loyal to you.

As you know, I like to illustrate my points with the success of the big names. Take Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent, Dior or Fendi. What are they doing to stay in their consumers’ minds?

They’re all staying alive with a communications and public relations plan, to get themselves talked about.

So that’s the big question: why would anyone talk about you or your products?

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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For this 95thepisode, I am delighted to welcome Janylène Turcotte, founder of Hypno Coach and a new entrepreneur who participated in my very first NATA PR SCHOOL training program in 2020.

A clinical hypnotherapist licensed in (RTT) Rapid Transformational Therapy®, Janylène masters a technique that allows you to quickly make the changes you want in your life. She is also an ICF Certified Coach. An incredible human resources professional, she held senior HR management positions for large international corporations for many years. Curious by nature, she is constantly learning and loves to ask questions to discover the infinite resources that our amazing brains conceal.

Thanks for agreeing to join me, Janylène. Following that brief overview, and before we talk about Hypno Coach, I always begin by asking my guests a super simple question:

Find HYNO COACH at:

https://www.hypnocoach.ca/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janylene/

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that this PR/marketing moment stimulates your creativity.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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We know the web has enormous impact, and there are very few industries that haven’t been affected by the digital revolution.

If you think about music – which you can play nonstop and purchase in digital format on every Netflix-type platform that offers you content on demand, whenever you want it – you realize how detached and digital it all is.

For the media, the impact has been enormous, and some countries like *Australia are just now starting to regulate GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) by requiring that they share, for instance, ad revenues and royalties on media content relayed on Google. Needless to say, the changes have been profound for the traditional media. Fortunately, a good many of them have already made the shift to digital, and many papers have completely stopped printing because they can be read online, on a tablet or computer.

Public relations has also had to adapt. I think it’s fascinating to go back in time when a lot of brands, a few years ago, believed that the Internet, social media and Facebook ads were going to replace public relations.

As Instagram became increasingly influential, some of our clients chose to take the budget they had allocated for PR and move it over to social media, convinced that PR was going to die a natural death.

Well, that’s not what happened. Quite the opposite! PR is more relevant than ever. Some of our former clients came back to us right before the pandemic and, after just a few weeks, their digital marketing team was amazed to watch their organic SEO grow right in front of their eyes. It literally exploded during the pandemic because the major players had completely stopped communicating.

Those who chose to eliminate public relations from their marketing plan are kicking themselves now. Their competitors, who stuck with PR, have pulled way ahead, whether in SEO or in recognition.

If you’re one of those brands and you haven’t brought public relations back into your marketing plan, it’s time to act.

If you do retain the services of a public relations agency, know that it will cost you the same monthly fees to get articles both online and in the print magazines.

PR isn’t like advertising, where you choose your media based on your target clientele. If the Metro newspaper wants to cover a high-end brand that’s just opened a spa downtown, why deny yourself? It probably won’t be your first choice of media for taking out an ad, and ELLE magazine will probably be more appropritate

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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* https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56163550

What goes through your mind when an advertising campaign grabs your attention?

If you're like me, you probably wonder if they're trying to sandbag you with their slogans:

• Buy now and save!

• We'll pay the tax for you!

• Buy our product now and get this for free

I ask you: How does spending money help us save money?

If an advertised product calls to me and I'm not familiar with it, I wonder why I haven't read anything about it. That makes me have doubts about how good and how relevant the product they're trying to sell me is.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Yes, public relations plays a key role here when it's time to introduce a new car, a new boat, a new piece of furniture, or a new online app to, say, trade journalists.

What's your process when you're thinking about buying a higher-ticket item?

Antoine Bolduc, one of our students at the NATA PR SCHOOL, saw his credibility skyrocket after a TV interview. “I gained some traction in the outdoor category – not that my approach wasn't serious to begin with, but the fact that a journalist gave me an on-air interview changed everything – in a good way, obviously. "

If you're interested in finding out more about Antoine's experience at the NATA PR SCHOOL, listen to Episode 86.

Remember: advertising is never a replacement for public relations, and only with public relations will an executive boost their reputation as an expert and be recognized as one by the public and the target consumers.

Nothing's stopping us from using the TESLA formula for success – on a smaller scale, of course – without being a troublemaker:

There's no point in chasing fame's tail – but you have to get relevant information out at the right time. You have to tell your story to the right reporters and influencers, the ones who will be interested by what you're offering.

And this is where a public relations agency can help you develop a media strategy that's smart, meaningful, and effective. If you want to explore public relations on your own, you're in the right place. That's what we do at the NATA PR SCHOOL.

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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What makes a literary success? Advertising or public relations?

You’re also thinking that word of mouth can go a long way toward making a book successful, which is true. But here, public relations plays a key role. Never advertising.

Sure, ads can be an important reminder to potential buyers (showing that a book is available at a certain place or is on sale). But advertising isn’t the secret of its success. And it’s not how the word got out on that book in the first place.

I’m not anti-advertising—quite the opposite—and I make full use of Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn on occasion to spread the word about the services of the NATA PR SCHOOL.

But think about it: why do you buy a book?

Odds are, that friend found out about the book in one of the above four ways.

In the United States, if you think about those lucky books that have been chosen and discussed by Oprah Winfrey, it’s easy to see the PR and promotional role she’s played.

And each of the books in the Harry Potter phenomenon also had a well-crafted PR campaign that got all of the world’s major media talking about it.

It’s also reported that when the character of mafioso Tony Soprano, beloved by Sopranos fans, mentioned that one of his favourite books was Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” that book shot up to #6 on the USA Today bestseller list. The publisher had to crank out 25,000 copies in a hurry.

Of course, these are exceptions; not all books can fit on that path. Still, it’s really interesting to see what makes them a success, isn’t it?

There’s a recurring theme with every one of those phenomenally successful books, and advertising has nothing to do with it. Public relations does, though.

Some authors are minor geniuses themselves when it comes to PR.

Remember that book: Who Moved My Cheese, which sold more than 30 million copies? The author Spencer Johnson had been sending excerpts from his previous books to the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, banks, and so on – for years. Then many companies bought thousands of his books because they’d been exposed to his work.

ATOMIC HABITS

This is the standard if you want to learn accessible techniques for changing your habits. I became familiar with this book through one of the professional coaches I worked with. Today, social media and podcasts are bringing these authors to a highly targeted customer base that demonstrates great interest for this type of book.

CONCLUSION

Can you think of any bestsellers that have got that way thanks to advertising? No? Me neither. It’s always public relations that generates the buzz for them.

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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In this episode I’ll be sharing one of our simplest and most-used tactics for getting our clients to talk about us to media and influencers: novelty.

Big corporations are frequently really good at novelty. But what is novelty? What does the word “novel” even mean?

Under “novel” in Webster’s Dictionary it says:

SYNONYMS

Fashion is the perfect example of an industry that’s constantly reinventing itself and borrowing from the past to show consumers what will become new again, but really not so new when you know your fashion history.

This means your products are “novel” for customers who aren't familiar with them. That's also true when you're developing new markets.

At NATA PR, we're experts at getting the word out about new brands on the US and Canadian markets. Here's the kind of thing we highlight for them:

• the brand's first store in a new market
• this brand’s great classics available at last to a new market, etc.

I have employees 30 years younger than me who are just discovering non-stretch denim… yep, those good old blue jeans that made us suffer so. For them it's cool, very new and on-trend!

To grab the attention of reporters and influencers who are interested in consumer products—beauty, fashion, cars and food—very often all you have to do is be new.

If you're a new business, everything you're going to put on the market in the first few years will be new and worthy of mention for that reason alone.

Another example of reinvention is the beauty brand Tata Harper. A few years ago, the founder, whom the company is named for, knew she couldn't be the only one looking for 100% natural skincare products. So even though many of these products weren't new, her company was. She didn't hesitate to tell her story and share her new products with reporters and the media.

In just a few years, Tata Harper created a real movement around her brand. She could sense the tide was turning for her craft, and she sailed with it—long before the big beauty groups managed to bring their massive ships about and get them on the 100% natural course. Thanks to her agility as a small new company, she dug into her corner of the market at the start of 2010, and today her sales are close to $70 million, according to WWD.

Same for Tata Harper, one of the founding mothers of the movement in 2010. “… without so much as a drop of chemicals.” Meaning: GMOs, toxins, fillers, artificial colours, artificial fragrances, or synthetic products. Recognized as one of the most premium Clean Beauty products, Tata Harper's revenues are now close to $68 million (source: WWD). Premium Beauty News

Do you see how powerful novelty can be when you talk about it in a press release, which is then circulated among reporters and influencers?

So, what qualifies as new in your company today, that a public relations campaign could put front and centre?

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