10 Top Tips For Small Businesses Hiring a PR Agency

My 10 top tips for small businesses looking to hire a PR agency for the first time (or who are maybe ditching the lot they're currently with because they're a complete waste of space) are as follows:

1. Never hire a PR agency that ties you into contracts. PR agencies that tie into contracts are PR agencies that don't perform. If a company is confident it will give you the results you're after, why the hell bother with contracts? In our experience, small companies want and need the flexibility of being able to step back at any time, even if only temporarily for, say, cash flow reasons. The 'No contracts' approach gives company directors peace of mind, which is essential in this market.

2. Only hire a pr agency if they will work for you around the clock. Many PR opportunities arise outside conventional working hours and on weekends so you need to be sure the agency you employ is prepared to drop what it's doing at any time and focus on you.

3. I can't stress how important this tip is, but never work with an agency that starts later than 7.30. So much of the day's news breaks before eight o'clock that if the person on your account only switches the Dell on at 9.30 then you're on a hiding to nothing. If you're a business in the financial services sector - an analyst, for example - getting an earlybird pr agency is particularly important. Corporate results almost always come out at 7am. Don't hire a sleepy head!

4. Only employ an agency that completely understands the sector you are in. It's not essential they have strong contacts in your sector, but it does help. Ideally, you want them to have a great understanding of your industry and a great contact book with your target media.

5. If you want to target primarily national media, you're best off hiring a London PR agency as you'll want to be working with PRs who know the national journalists well - and ideally on a personal not just working basis. At the national level, relationships are particularly important.

6. Make sure the agency you work with is creative. Ideas are crucial to generating media coverage. So you need thinkers and drinkers. Go got flashing colours and zing, not grey.

7. Always use a pr agency that is made up exclusively, or almost exclusively, of ex-journalists. Journalists understand what journalists want and how they work, whereas people who have only ever worked in PR too often don't. Ex-journalists can write, too, which is again essential when it comes to press releases and other written copy you are issuing to the media.

8. In the digital day and age, only ever employ a PR agency that understands how to leverage your brand online through the myriad technologies that are now out there. Depending on the company, direct to consumer activity through online channels can be more powerful than traditional PR strategies and tools.

9. Ask who will be managing your account. This is crucial, as the people who rock up at the pitch and who bowl you over with their expertise and knowledge will often have nothing to do with your account on a daily basis. Instead, smaller companies are often handed over to Jackie or Elizabeth, the company noobs, junior account execs who know as much about PR as I know about cross stitch. Always make sure you are working with account directors and above - don't accept anything less.

10. If you really are risk averse, and don't even want to pay a monthly fee to an agency, then go for a results-based PR agency (excuse the shameless plug) such as our own Just In Time PR. No coverage, no fee my lovelies!

How to Write an Effective Press Release

Whether you're a business owner, manager or the director of a non-profit organization, you have a story to tell. You'll likely use a number of vehicles to deliver that message to the public, including issuing a press release.

While relatively cheap and easy to produce, the press release remains one of the most valuable marketing tools out there. A well-written press release can gain the attention of the media, resulting in publicity for an organization, but a poorly written one may have the opposite effect.

Let's say you have a start-up business and want to announce your grand opening, so you write a press release and distribute it to the local media. It will be one of the hundreds that news outlets receive each day.

So how do editors choose which ones to run? First, the content must be mistake-free. If it's not, it will be automatically tossed to the side. It must also be newsworthy and written in the correct journalistic style.

Even if you've dedicated a lot of time and energy into a news release, if it's not well-written, it won't get any attention. At that point, all of your efforts have been in vain.

For a non-profit, a bad press release might cost an organization one of the few opportunities it has to get publicity. For those that cannot afford to advertise - which is most of them - it can be a major setback. A cash-strapped non-profit might only have one good shot at telling its story, so it'd be a shame for it to lose out because of something that could have been easily fixed.

In some of the worst-case scenarios, a poorly written news release might actually do harm - and cause some embarrassment.

The Internet has really changed how news releases are used. Nowadays, shrewd organizations post their news releases online to gain greater search results, which makes good writing even more important because journalists are no longer the only ones reading them.

If a business posts a bad press release, it could be a disaster. From a customer's perspective, if a business can't produce quality writing, how could it produce a quality product? It may sound unfair from a business owner's perspective, but it's the way many customers think.

More importantly, a poorly written news release could cost a business its chance to make a good impression. If it's a first impression, it might be the only one some customers have of that business.

To avoid these dangers and gain some peace of mind, the best option would be to use a press release writing service such as www.ProPRCopy.com, which staffs professional freelance writers from the fields of public relations, marketing and journalism. It's the only way to ensure that your press release will gain some positive attention for your organization.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_D_Bailey

How to Write an Effective Press Release

It is important, in any business, to know how to write an effective press release that can be published online or in a newspaper. This is crucial for your company so that new information or products can be shared with your consumers.

Your press release needs to catch the eye of those reading, but first grab the attention of the gatekeepers: editors, publishers, and journalists. The gatekeepers are the people that decided whether or not to share or publish your release.

At the top of the release you should have the words 'for immediate release' in all caps followed by the name, address, phone number, and email address where they can reach your company for more information. Then begin with the information you would like to focus on.

First, you need to start out with an interesting title. Not only will this get the attention of gatekeepers but also your audience. Your title should also be written in larger text than the body and, if necessary, make it bold. Keep the title short and to the point.

As soon as someone has read over the title, it is your responsibility to keep their interest. So, make sure that your release is newsworthy and relevant to the time at hand. People in the marketing and communication business are busy, so your press release should list the most important information in the beginning, such as, date and time.

Keep your release to one page. If you are successful and your press release is published, it is very unlikely that the entire release will make the page. Releases are normally used to fill open space and therefore, your release must be short.

Given that there is a limited amount of space and thousands of press releases submitted daily for publication, it is imperative that your release does not have any errors. For newspapers, make sure your release in written in AP Style. The less cropping and time it will take to fix the release the more likely it is that the release will be chosen for publication.

In the last paragraph give a name and number to call for additional information on your company or event. At the end of the page center "###" to signify that this is the end of the release and there is no further information.

Finally, after your release is written, submit or send it to someone on the paper, at the station, or working at the website that you know or have built a relationship with. If someone can recognize your name or remember enjoyable past encounters with you, they will be more willing to help you out. If you make the mistake of sending it straight to the news editor or man in charge without first having a working relationship, your release will probably be trashed.

All in all, make you release professional, timely, entertaining, and short.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tiffany_McWilliams

Quality Assurance and Self Storage

Quality assurance (QA) refers to the process of monitoring and verifying services offered by a business to ensure that it meets the requirements of the customers or clients.
Although QA can't assure the quality of the production process, it can improve customer service to make it more likely. The QA team in any organization mainly looks at two things. First is the product or service, which is the basic need of the customer or client. Second is whether the customer or client will prefer the product or service in the future. In other words, determining the market requirement of the product or service to attract the future traffic.
Most QA experts apply a trial and error method to ensure quality and reach the result that determines efficiency as well as reliability of the service. However, a lot of money and effort goes into quality analysis. Some people also feel that QA usually stretches the work, thereby delaying the whole process.
Four Methods To Ensure Quality Self Storage Business
Just as in any business, QA is necessary in the business of self storage. Experts suggest four steps for the quality assurance of the service. These four steps are planning, accomplishing, verifying, and implementing. However, the process of QA is slightly different in the business of warehousing. The following are some of the best methods to ensure quality in storage services:
Make A Test Plan
As stated above, QA process highly depends on the trial and error method. You need to draft a test plan assuming that the plan covers all areas in all circumstances. Although it is hard to devise a plan that can verify all aspects of a range of services offered by the warehouse, it is desirable to make it in a way that covers the wide spectrum. For instance, if a person keeps his belongings in your warehouse for more than three months, does he get it back as it was at the time of submission? It is possible that his goods get damaged or caught by moisture. It is, therefore, important to store goods in a unit for three months and test it in advance. Drafting a test plan makes it pretty easy for quality assurance team to kick-start the process.
Ensure Accountability
If the customer files a complaint for a service that goes through QA, it is a great defeat for the quality assurance team. In fact, customer dissatisfaction is the most debated issue when it comes to the efficiency of the QA team. The best way to avoid such an unwanted situation is to devise a proper customer acceptance test plan. Involve customers in your QA process and adopt methods to tackle the problems. This way the role of QA can easily be defined. Also, you can assure the quality.
Use Software
It is obvious that QA process involving humans always involves a huge amount of money and effort. Therefore, it is advisable to use software and automate the QA process. Although software can't replace manpower but they can increase the efficiency because most of the times software employ complex applications. Moreover, software has set standards to meet customer requirements.
However, make sure that the software is easy to understand and use, and it verifies within the set framework.
Process Management
Ensure that the process adopted for QA is flawless. Apart from the basic business management rules, you need to use statistics, market analysis, and graphics to make the QA process more efficient. The process should always be simple, quick, and executed properly to ensure quality service.
Quality assurance is the best technique to survive in the cutthroat competition in the business of warehousing. It not only builds up credibility of a storage unit, but also ensures long-term growth. However, it is imperative to adopt quick, easy, and systematic QA process; otherwise the whole idea of quality verification gets defeated.
The processes concerning quality assurance can be used as an effective measure of the services provided by self storage businesses. Visit the given link to know about the essentials of self storage business management and quality assurance practices.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mario_Kennedy

Consider Essential Fundamentals For Writing Business Proposals

A business proposal can take shape of several layouts and formats. Appropriate use of layouts and formats make a perfect presentation of an offer letter. A marketer sends these offer letters to the prospective clients with an aim to propose his business concepts or business ideas to them. One of the essential reasons of writing an offer letter is to meet the requirements of a customer. An entrepreneur also aims at furnishing sound and valid reasons to a customer to choose the proposed company among its competitors.

In an offer letter, a marketer throws light on all those facts which make his company outshine in the market. You should sound authentic and credible to a potential customer. A person can show sound understanding of the problems of a customer. In other words, in a separate section you can highlight the problems of a customer. It will also be beneficial to portray the root cause of the problems faced by a customer in their lives. This helps you in creating a favorable impression on the mind of a target customer. It is because there are times when a customer who is tied up in his busy schedule does not get time to ponder over the causes of his problems. Then you can encourage a customer to follow your line of thought and can explain him how you can help him in solving his problem. Offer the goods or services or your business idea as a solution to their problems. A marketer may be tempted to expound on the benefits or unique features of the company. However, this might simply result in boasting about your company.

Boasting about an enterprise does not solve the purpose. This will not win the confidence of a target customer. Furnish the benefits of your business idea or concept in such a manner so that these details appear beneficial for a prospective customer. Do not forget to mention the certification and credentials of an enterprise to make a customer trust and rely on your organization. Be grammatically sure and perfect before sending an offer letter to any of your clients. In this way, you can create an everlasting impression on the mind of a customer and allure them towards the business. For creating such type of impressive and professional proposal there are many business proposal software available.

Lara Hopkins is a business analyst as well as web content writer who has more than 7 years experience in content writing. In this article she discusses how to make bid winning business proposals. For more information about proposal software, business proposals, proposal template please visit http://www.proposalsmartz.com/.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lara_Hopkins