Paul Krupin’s Continuous Learning and Improvement Marketing and Publicity Blog

Question came to me from another publicist, phrased as follows:

Why are we important?

I often get asked this question in the context of tracking and evaluating pr effectiveness and performance metrics.

More times than not, there’s no easy way to identify the tangible effects of media publicity and public relations. Very simply, the results are goal dependent. It depends on what the client is seeking.

With single books or products or event announcements and single outreaches, a relatively simple evaluation over a four to six month period will provide the necessary data in terms of impact on sales, or coverage, or people who attended, that sort of metric.

With multiple repeat publicity projects more complex branding efforts, it is necessary to track cumulative costs, cumulative publicity acquired, and related them to overall sales or actions or people transactions over time. A systematic outreach and tracking effort must be carefully designed, implemented and maintained. It may take up to a year to develop the necessary data.

The bigger problem is distinguishing the effects your public relations efforts are having in comparison to all your other direct marketing and management communications efforts.

Can you determine how each of your multiple efforts affects your bottom line? Are you really able to document and track the individual contributions of each effort?

Direct financial impacts may produce improved sales, and greater profits and/or improved cost savings. Indirect financial savings may produce good will and improved reputation.

Direct non-financial impacts may be to introduce you to new people that produce new ideas and critical business intelligence. These can result in refined higher goals and objectives, totally new initiatives, better alignment of your people and other organizations, internal and external collaboration and even contractual teaming or partnership opportunities. Changing attitudes can be reflected in public opinion or outcry and consequent decisionmaking by affected governments.

Publicity may improve your operational effectiveness simply because you are receiving more outside scrutiny and public fame and engagement with what you and your people and organization do. Your people may pull together and form a more professional, more efficient and effective team as a direct result of the pride they are experiencing in having received such wide-open visibility and public recognition.

Indeed, this last benefit may be the most important effect publicity can have on your total business performance.

There’s an article at my website I wrote several years ago that goes into far more detail. The title of the article is:

Tracking Publicity Success and Public Relations Effectiveness

Hope this helps.

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If you have never really questioned yourself about where you are going and asked yourself how committed to what you are doing you really are, then this little video may rock you to the core.

Andy Andrews is a NY Times best selling author, a world class humorist, radio and TV personality and corporate speaker. He has headlined for Joan Rivers and Kenny Rogers and has spoken at the request of four United States Presidents and the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies around the world. He has written over 20 books, many of which are best sellers. Two are being made into movies. In Andy’s early days he was voted “comedian of the year” several years in a row by colleges around the country. He has been hailed as the modern day “Will Rogers”. At the request of the Joint Chiefs, he was recently flown by F16 to the Middle East to speak to the troops and field commanders.

There are many reasons why people like working with Andy. He has a direct, no nonsense, win/win attitude. He is personable and has an upbeat personality. He offers a steady stream of humor, helpful and provocative ideas and engaging stories about his life and the lives of people he has met or studied. He will share many compelling stories and crucial ideas about what people really need to do to achieve personal success.

You can learn a lot from Andy. he’s one of the few people I know who can make you laugh, cry and experience profound wisdom in the same breath.

Andy Andrews new book new book Mastering the Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success may be one of the most important books you read.

Andy explains the importance of vision and commitment to the achievement of your goals by sharing the story of Hernando Cortez quest for gold and the conquest of the Incas.

The next time you embark on a goal — remember to

Burn The Boats!

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I have a lot of books on my shelf by Brian Tracy. He is a fascinating and awe inspiring teacher and his ideas on personal and professional development are very readily implemented with great benefit.

It’s not very often that you can find something so short and sweet that you can take it home in your pocket and bank the benefits immediately. But these two little videos do just that. They will help you make a significant difference in what happens to you not just today, but for the rest of your life.

This first one describes how to identify and select the most important goal in your life.

This second one describes the single most important word you’ll ever need when achieving goals.

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We’ve been traveling this week, visiting colleges around the west.  So this post will be quick and short. 

Listening to so many talented and energetic tour guides makes me think of what I would have done if I was in my 20’s again.   It came to me that I would have made better plans and goals for myself.   

So here is Zig Ziglar, one of my all time heroes of sales talking on his process for setting goals.   

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Jack Canfield’s primary goal in his life revealed and discussed in this wonderful five minute video. Jack reveals some early history and ideas that helped him along the way to creating his first Chicken Soup for the Soul book. The video ends with a discussion of his book The Success Principles. Here’s a guy who has made tens of millions searching for the answer to a simple question: What are the numbers that open up the lock?

This next one is a one minute seven second video that captures the essence of some of Jack’s Success Principles on how to get rich.

Although it probably wasn’t created and isn’t maintained by Jack Canfield himself, the My Space page for Jack Canfield is an education in and of itself: Jack Canfield’s My Space page.

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