The average individual probably wouldn’t correlate the art of being “zen” with the deadline and results-driven world of marketing and public relations. However, maintaining a calm, clear and patient mind can be the key to success.

Here’s how to be more Zen:

Create a plan.

Jumping into a campaign or project without a strategic plan is a recipe for lackluster results. Instead, take a step back before you act. Carefully think through the challenge at hand. What are your objectives? Who is your target audience and what key messages will resonate with them? What is your strategy and what tactics will you use to support them? Thoughtful planning doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it will provide a solid foundation for your efficiency and effectiveness moving forward.

Meditate on it.

Once you’ve built a smart strategy and have rolled it out, make sure to evaluate the results after a reasonable amount of time. For example, if you are pitching a story on behalf of a client, try out the media pitch for a day or so and then reevaluate, discussing tweaks and new angles. If a promotional campaign for a webinar isn’t generating sign-ups after a week or so, think through ways to improve it.

Use your intuition.

Once you have some experience under your belt, your intuition can serve as a very powerful guide in the world of marketing and communications. Set realistic expectations for large and small announcements and trust your gut—based on your past experience and the knowledge you’ve accumulated, what would realistic results look like?  Clarity upfront helps everyone understand success measures.

Be patient.

Rome wasn’t built in a day—and neither are the majority of successful campaigns or projects. Again, communicating timing and expectations are key. While one-off wins do happen, continuous and impactful coverage stems from building relationships with target media, ongoing conversations and hard work.  What’s more, some articles may be in development for months before they are actually published.  A little patience can go a long way on the road to success.

While marketing and public relations can be a fast-paced, stressful world, there are steps we can all take to make it more zen!

Connect with us on Twitter: @Zer0to5ive

I recently put together a blog post with steps one through five for getting more and better consumer media coverage.  Here’s a look at steps six through 10:

6. Create Expert Tips/Top Five Lists – Pitch the reporter with a top five list pertaining to your client’s product. Some examples include the top five places to hear sounds better (re: sound enhancement product) or the top ways to maximize summer value and fun (re: travel discount card). Offer up the client as an expert and work your product into the pitch as an example. The idea here is to give reporters a fresh idea for a new story or post without your product coming across like an advertisement (which turns away reporters).

7. Build the Relationship – Begin to foster the relationship with the reporter from day one. This will put you ahead of the pack when contacting the reporter for your client’s launch or other announcement. Reaching out early ensures that you have the right contact; learn the reporter’s communication preferences and see what upcoming topics and trends the reporter is covering.  Sending an intro email is another way to get on the reporter’s radar.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
8. Leverage Reporters Across Accounts – Pitch reporters across accounts to help generate momentum with new clients. For example, do you know a consumer producer who might want to book a new client? Or perhaps a medical reporter that switched to the financial beat that will cover a new investment advisor client? Making the connections across accounts is not always obvious – thinking outside the box will help to connect the reporter to new clients while strengthening the relationship with the reporter.

9. Master the List – Leverage your media database to put together a strong media list.  This step might seem obvious, but I’ve found that fully mastering all the advanced features of your media database can lead to additional contacts and coverage. For example, most databases offer the ability search for keywords in reporter titles such as “consumer” or “new products,” which I’ve found helpful when offering up new consumer products for review.  Always prepare to vet your list in advance of your pitch as contacts often switch beats.

10. Pick Up the Phone – Add the phone to your pitching toolkit.  Is relying on email enough when the top reporters are getting 100+ pitches a day and juggling deadlines, breaking news and special requests from their editors?  My teams have used the phone to their advantage when we’ve done our research on the reporter, know our technology inside and out, and simply haven’t heard back by email. However, the phone is not always appropriate, such as when the reporters are deadline or they already said “no” through email.

A copy of my presentation is available here.

Post by Michael Levey
Zer0 to 5ive Director
Twitter: @mikelevey

With the top consumer reporters getting 100+ pitches a day, while also juggling deadlines and special requests from their editors, it’s important to have a solid plan of action for opening the door to more consumer coverage.

At our recent company retreat, I put together a presentation on ten steps for getting more and better media coverage for consumer clients.  Here are my tips:

1. Address the Pain Point – Start your pitch with a clear and convincing pain point.  For example, if you pitch a direct-to-order hearing aid, how about sharing that 36 million Americans suffer from some kind of hearing loss, but less than ¼ are doing anything about it?  Or if you push a rapid HIV test, how about including the fact that prior to the introduction of rapid testing, more than 1/3 of the 2.2 million Americans that tested for HIV at public health clinics never returned for their results? Numbers and statistics build credibility and interest with the media.

2. Tie to Breaking News & Events – Connect your product to breaking news and events to help drive immediate interest.  For example, can you tie your water purification product to the Gulf Oil Spill?  How about connecting a financial crime monitoring software to the Super Bowl or World Cup events that have a large spike in transactions?  Breaking news and events are bound to be covered – so offer up your client to talk about the product or service in the context of the big news.

3. Use Catchy Subject Lines – Create a short and clever subject line.  Think about it… how much more likely are you to open an email that catches your attention?  Some examples of catchy subject lines that my teams used to drive national coverage include “Is RFID Sponge-Worthy” (re: RFID counting and detection system for surgical sponges) or “Are We All on Drugs? The Answer May Be in the Water Supply” (re: new pharma drug take-back program).  The subject line should also be short enough that it can be read on a PDA.

4. Pitch Seasonal Gift Guides – Product gift guides are a great way to connect your products and services with the top publications on a regular basis.  Mark your calendar for important dates such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s/Father’s Day, and back-to-school season.  Offer to send a sample product and high-res photo – and be sure to reach out several months in advance.

5. Target the National Days/Months – Take advantage of the national days and months set aside by industry organizations to connect your product or service.  This includes days from Earth Day to World AIDS Day to National Doughnut Day.  And if you can’t think of one, invent your own.  For example, 7-Eleven created “Free Slurpee Day.”

These are five steps to get you started.  Stay tuned for part 2 that will discuss tips six through ten and give you an opportunity to view my complete presentation from the retreat.

Post by Michael Levey
Zer0 to 5ive Director
Twitter: @mikelevey

Working in PR, you’re constantly tasked with getting your clients targeted, exciting and highly relevant media coverage.  We work with a lot of print and online publications. But, one of the most exiting “hits” – for both the agency and the client – is the broadcast placement.  Not only does broadcast itself garner tremendous visibility for your client, it often extends to online and sometimes print coverage.

How can you achieve this type of placement? There’s no doubt that airtime is competitive.  Having a great, timely announcement or product launch will certainly help your chances, but there are also some best-kept secrets that go a long way in grabbing the attention of a show’s booking directors.

Here are the top 5 tips for pitching and landing a broadcast hit:

1. Make sure your pitch is brief and to the point – no more than a paragraph.
2. Include video. TV bookers want to know that the person coming to speak on the show is good at speaking in front of a camera. Take out the guesswork and include a link to a YouTube video or a video on your company’s website.
3. Tie your pitch to a major event or trend. If you’re pitching a travel package, tie it in to upcoming Spring Break or summer vacation trends.
4. Pitch 3-4 weeks in advance. If it’s a fit, the show will want to secure a relevant interview timeslot a week or two in advance.
5. Do your research and pitch the right person! Pitching the person who actually assigns the stories can make all the difference. If your pitch winds up in an inbox of someone who doesn’t assign stories, it will go unnoticed – and most likely be deleted.

Kelsey Rodenbiker
Zer0 to 5ive Strategist
Twitter: @KRodenbiker

The 17th annual National HIV Testing Day took place on June 27^th, promoting the benefits of HIV testing and prevention to millions of Americans at risk for HIV. OraSure Technologies, the industry leader in rapid HIV tests, once again played a huge part in marking the importance of the day.

From left to right; Ron Spair; Catherine Abate; Frank J. Oldham, Jr.; Marjorie Hill, PhD; Douglas Michels; Mayor Ronald K. Davis; Mayor Robert L. Bowser of East Orange, NJ; Johnny Ford

More than 1.1 million people are affected by HIV; however, over 200,000 of these people are unaware that they have it. Zer0 to 5ive coordinated with OraSure Technologies and others on a series of events that put the spotlight on the company and National HIV Testing Day, including:

• Opening the NASDAQ Stock Exchange with the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) and others.
• Hosting a panel of experts that discussed and shared their best practices for successfully integrating routine rapid HIV testing in a variety of clinical and non-clinical settings.
• Coordinating with The Community Healthcare Network (CHN) to offer free, rapid HIV testing with OraQuick ADVANCE® from its mobile HIV testing van in Times Square.
• Coordinating with Walgreens to provide free screenings for HIV at select retail pharmacies in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, New Orleans, Oakland and San Francisco.
• Working with local mayors and celebrities, including Vinny from The Jersey Shore, for key photo opportunities and to generate interest in the cause and the company.

From left to right: Mayor Ronald K. Davis; Johnny Ford (former Mayor); Mayor Robert L. Bowser; Douglas Michels

Along with many of its partners, OraSure Technologies utilized a major national day of recognition in order to foster community awareness of HIV, as well as maximize media coverage of the company and its innovative HIV tests.

Katie Cannon
Zer0 to 5ive Strategist
Twitter: @KatieGC7

A “framework” is a tool or a method for thinking about a business situation or decision – such as launching a new product, considering a move into a new market or defining a corporate strategy.

The framework:

• Provides a way to consider the different factors at play
• Simplifies a highly complex situation into one picture
• Can help you determine a course of action

Before you begin your next research and analysis project, take a moment to explore several different frameworks. Taking the time to look at the project from several different angles will ultimately improve your analysis.

SWOT Analysis

While not required, SWOT analysis is almost always presented as a 2 x 2 table.

This image (from businessteacher.org.uk) does a great job of explaining the framework.  For a given product or business opportunity, the table should outline the product’s internal strengths and weakness, then its opportunities and threats from the external marketplace. This distinction between internal and external is key – it is common to confuse weaknesses and threats when you first start working with the framework.

In some cases, after completing the framework, the takeaways will be crystal clear. In other cases, the framework will succeed in helping you to paint a picture of the situation, without actually providing direction. Additional analysis and thought is almost always required.

Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is a framework for industry analysis and business strategy development, created by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School around 1979.

[Find this image and an article by Professor Porter here: http://hbr.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy/ar/1]

Porter’s framework reminds us to take a step back and look beyond the immediate competition to the other powers affecting the industry and its customers. Too often we get into the habit of reacting to what consumers or competitors are doing – looking at this framework forces us to consider the other forces at work within a particular industry.  This framework is often closely associated with more “traditional” manufacturing-related industries where suppliers and buyers are very clear, but we can also learn a lot by applying the framework to “less traditional” business models (SaaS is a great example).

The “2×2” axis

A simple X and Y axis can be used to examine industries, illustrate brand attributes and compare product features. One of the most simple analysis tools, it sometimes isn’t taken very seriously.

Here’s an example:

From Phil-Hudson.com

Adding a few new frameworks to your repertoire can shake up your analysis and provide insights that you may have otherwise missed.

It is all too easy to build a framework to show exactly what you want it to show. The key to a good analysis is to look at more than one version of the framework to force yourself to paint different pictures of the situation. What do those other pictures tell you? If every picture is worth a thousand words, the more pictures you assess, the stronger your analysis will ultimately be.

The sheer size of the prospect universe for most companies is daunting, and pursuing unqualified leads is expensive, time consuming and ineffective.

Thankfully, marketers can help sales narrow their focus by implementing initiatives, such as webinar campaigns, that generate inbound inquiries from interested prospects.

Successful webinar campaigns can:

• Strengthen corporate/executive thought-leadership positioning
• Educate target audiences on key industry and value drivers
• Increase traction with existing prospects
• Identify and deliver new qualified leads to the sales team

At Zer0 to 5ive, we have been leveraging webinars to help our clients generate leads for nearly a decade. As a result, we have identified a set of best practices to help ensure your webinar is a success:

• Preparation: Create a plan that includes objectives, strategies, campaign theme, target audiences, participants and all the other tactical details to support the strategies. As a rule of thumb, Zer0 to 5ive allows 4 – 6 weeks prior to the first email drop for proper planning and coordination.

• Content: The single most important aspect of a webinar is the actual content of the presentation. Content must be compelling, relevant and significant to the audience, enabling them to gain new, valuable information, without coming across as a sales pitch. Consider engaging third-party sources, such as partners, customers or industry analysts, to provide added credibility.

• Promotion: Promote the key value proposition or takeaways; if your content is really of value, the audience will come. It is also important to remember that promotion is a team effort, and coordination from the marketing, sales and public relations team members is necessary. Consider all methods of promotion, from social media to more traditional methods.

• Lead Identification: The goal of webinar campaigns is to capture leads, which makes the registration form critical. Be sure to use a registration system that allows you to customize the form so you can capture all the information you feel is pertinent. Be sure that you have a method set up in advance to transfer the leads to your corporate sales database for ongoing targeting.

• Event Management: Webex has all the features and functionality you need for a truly interactive webinar and, in our experience, it is the most reliable. Technology issues cannot get in the way; be sure to have a system in place that you are comfortable with and know how to use.

• Follow up: This is key in terms of lead generation, as leads are turned over to the sales team. There needs to be a plan in place for follow up by the sales team within a specific time period. Also, be sure to provide attendees with follow-up materials they can use to educate other internal colleagues.

MaryBeth Sheppard
Zer0 to 5ive Principal
Twitter: @MB_Sheppard
Image courtesy of iStockPhoto/JLGutierrez

Whether you are dealing with a product failure or recall, a lawsuit or a crime committed by an employee – all crises have in common the potential to damage the reputation of your Company (or your client’s company). You rarely see them coming. But, the good news is that there are things you can do to be prepared and minimize the damage.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a short list of tips:

Have a Plan

With the immediate nature of today’s news cycle, the first hour is the most important in any crisis. It is critical for companies to be prepared before a crisis hits, with a crisis communications plan.

At a minimum, the plan should include:

• List of potential crisis scenarios relevant to the Company
• Appropriate steps that must be taken, with a timeline
• Protocol for communications (who will be the spokesperson, what are the steps)
• List of crisis communications team members (internal legal counsel and head of corp. communications are mandatory)
• List of communications targets, including employees, media, local community, board members, etc.
• List of communications channels available and which will be used

Get the Facts and Prepare Your Response

Quickly gather information on the situation from all available sources and draft the materials you will need to respond. Do your best to understand what the key concerns are and how you can address those concerns directly. Determine what will be kept confidential and what will be shared.

Create the materials you will need:

• Detailed Q&A
• Media statement or press release
• Key messages/talking points documents for spokespersons

Be sure that your response addresses the following key questions:

• What happened?
• How did it happen?
• What is the current situation?
• What was your initial response?
• What is your long-term response?

Respond Swiftly and with Sincerity

With your spokespeople and response in place, it’s time to communicate to your targets, which may entail one or all of the following:

• Issue a communication to your board, customers, partners
• Issue a memo to employees
• Issue a press release or a statement
• Grant interviews to the media
• Post information on website and let media know of its existence
• Communicate through your Company’s available social media channels

Be sure to provide updated information as often as possible. If answers are not immediately available, it is important to highlight the actions being taken to obtain these answers. Always tell the truth and never speculate.

Remember that is it often the response to the crisis, rather than the crisis itself, that determines perception. So, in the unfortunate case of a crisis, a little planning can go a long way toward a positive outcome to a crisis situation.

Post by Jen Moritz
Zer0 to 5ive Managing Principal
Twitter: @j_moritz
Image courtesy of iStockPhoto

2010 was an excellent year for Zer0 to 5ive and our clients.  We won the Silver Anvil for the second year in a row in B2B Integrated Communications, we won the Big Apple Award of Excellence for one of the best campaigns out of a NY agency and we won the Web Marketing Associations award for Best B2B website.  We also successfully launched multiple products and services where our marketing and PR programs drove measurable business leads and revenues for our clients.   We are grateful for the trust, collaboration, friendship and latitude they gave us over the year!

In 2010, we also saw a more focused approach to vertical market penetration by our clients, a greater emphasis on content generation than ever before and a healthy explosion of top-tier national news coverage driven by trends, metrics, out-of-the-box stories and the willingness of our clients to assert their point of views.

Many of our clients continued to struggle with the opportunities, challenges and logistics of social media and the constant attention it requires.  At the same time, trade shows and conferences – both industry and corporate – regained a new sense of importance in several sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, healthcare and education technology.

One month into 2011 and we are well underway with a sense of purpose and all the excitement that a new year holds.  Here’s what I see as The Big 5 for the year ahead:

1. Greater integration of PR and marketing as strategic communications becomes the mantra with more and more content needed for media, marketing, lead generation, SEO, thought leadership and customer education.  Plus, a greater focus on video and alternatives to PDFs
2. Greater involvement with, and attention to, industry and media influencers who are rising above the fray and having an impact on sales
3. Benchmarking against key competitors and industry leaders as a focus on sales, growth and leadership continues
4. Excitement around “the big idea” and a growing willingness to break through the clutter with non-traditional approaches
5. Connection to the consumer, even by B2B companies, to drive greater customer impact and media attention

by

Nicole Maziarz

Being a graphic designer, there are many essential tools that I can’t live without. Outside of a computer, design software (Adobe Creative Suite), books (always filled with valuable literature and great sources of inspiration), pencils sketchpads, printer, and scanner, here are a list of “must have” tools for today’s graphic designer:

Lorem Ipsum
http://www.lipsum.com/
This dummy text is great to use in a design when the final copy hasn’t yet been approved by the client. It can give your internal team and client’s alike a good idea of what the finished product will look like even when the content is still in development. This can help speed up the client approval process.

Smashing Magazine
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
This site is filled with great articles, design tools and tips,  from today’s most innovative designers. Whether you are looking for a specific CSS3 question or just some inspiration, this site can be super handy. Be sure to favorite this site to stay up-to-date on today’s best design practices.

Psdtuts
http://psd.tutsplus.com/
If you want to practice and improve your Photoshop skills, this site/blog has incredible tutorials that take you step-by-step in creating great graphics. The site is filled with detailed tutorials, free guides and more. Designers should be constantly improving their Photoshop skills and this site can be a fantastic tutor.

Art Directors Tool Kit
http://www.code-line.com/software/artdirectorstoolkit5/
Just recently, my creative director introduced me to this amazing design tool. It was so helpful and saved me a great deal of time when searching Pantone swatches for color palettes I was creating for a new logo design.  It includes swatch libraries, layout tools and many other solutions for all the hurdles designers are expected to leap each day.

These tools can help you grow as a designer, share this with your team  and creative coworkers today and stay tuned for more tips on making the most of your creative projects.

Nicole is a Graphic Designer at Zer0 to 5ive