|
Volume 1 Issue 3
|
|
Department
|
|
|
|
Tell a friend about ProGardenBiz. Click here to send a fast, easy email. They'll be glad you did!
|
|
|
|
|
Internet Search Tips
If you are looking for more information on the Green Industry and the landscaping and gardening business ProGardenBiz has over 40 feature articles, columns, news, and tips in each issue. Previous articles and information can be found in the Archives.
For additional information you can use a good search site such as Google or All-the-Web. When doing a search use terms that define your interest.
Typical search terms for the Green Industry are:
landscape contractor
landscaper
landscaping
landscape maintenance
garden
gardener
irrigation
sprinklers
waterscape
ponds
lawn
lawn care
lawns
mowing
grounds maintenance
interiorscape
nursery
Green Industry
landscape magazine
garden magazine
lawn maintenance
lawn equipment
lawn care PR
lawn care promotion
Public Relations
Use two or three words that best describe your search such as:
start garden business
You can add or delete words to refine your search if the results are not successful.
ProGardenBiz is here to help answer your questions. We welcome your questions. Email us at: editor
@progardenbiz.com.
|
Green Industry Templates & Forms for Landscape Contractors
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interiorscape
by Liz Thompson
|
|
|
|
Public Relations Toolkit
PR, Cultivate it
Understanding Public Relations
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public relations is an art form that carries a lot of importance. When you understand basic public relations, you will know how to work with the media to have a story covered... Read more.
The PR Commitment to Lawn Care Small Business
Article by Robert A. Kelly
We're birds of a feather, public relations and small business. Wonderfully compatible and a perfect fit. Usually makes it easy to commit resources to your lawn care small business success.
But, sometimes I wonder about those small businesses that ignore the perceptions and behaviors of the key audiences with the most immediate impact on their businesses – the very people who hold the future of that small business in their hands!
To me, it's a matter of dollars and cents, even of survival!
So, what are we to make of lawn care failures? Especially one where it's obvious that enough well-placed publicity might have altered the behavior of sales prospects in a positive way allowing the business to prosper and avoid a Chapter Eleven filing?
What a waste!
*****************
IF you accept that what people BELIEVE to be true, versus the truth, defines your public relations problem
*****************
Truth is, the folks who make up these key audiences, like the rest of us, act on THEIR perception of the facts before them. If a small business overlooks this crucial reality, and fails to prepare by monitoring how these people view it, who is to blame if misconceptions flower leading inevitably to negative behaviors?
Of course, the lawn care business itself.
The title of this article speaks of a commitment to small business. While I believe that public relations is indispensable to small business success, our commitment must be conditional.
Here's why.
We are committed to your small business, and will help you every step of the way:
IF you take the time to meet with members of your key audiences and evaluate their feelings and beliefs about you;
IF you are committed to move into action when you discover troubling perceptions;
IF you accept that what people BELIEVE to be true, versus the truth, defines your public relations problem;
IF you are willing to raise your profile by regularly speaking before business and fraternal clubs, by meeting with the media, and by promoting your business as appropriate, thus building the kind of good will you will need should things go awry.
IF you prepare carefully written, persuasive messages that directly address the misconceptions you discover during your fact finding;
IF you select effective communications tactics that will carry your messages to those key audiences in a timely manner. Tactics such as meetings, speeches, luncheons, facility tours, promotional events, emails, media interviews and many more.
And IF you track your progress by speaking regularly with members of those key audiences, and monitoring both the media and the reaction of community residents and other businesses, adjusting your strategy and tactics accordingly.
A lot to ask in return for our commitment to a small business? Perhaps, but without such a commitment in return, a positive result is unlikely.
Public relations and small business ARE wonderfully compatible and a very good fit.
That's why my commitment remains on the table.
About the author:
Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks about the fundamental premise of public relations. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com
***************************
Five Steps to Precision in Publicity
Article by Rusty Cawley
PR flacks use a scattergun approach, hoping to hit something. They fax out press releases to long lists of reporters and editors. They make countless, fruitless phone calls. They pester and cajole and plead.
But PR Rainmakers reject such amateurism. Instead, they adopt the motto of the U.S. military sniper: "One shot, one kill."
You want to become so precise with your proposals that you inspire news stories that accomplish exactly what you and your client aim to accomplish.
There are five steps to bringing such precision to your publicity:
1. Pinpoint your objective.
This is often the hardest part of the process. It requires you to focus your client or your boss on exactly what it is they want from your news story. Boil your objective into a simple sentence, such as "We want our retailers to gain confidence in this new product" or "We want our vendors to complain to Congress."
Executives often rush through this process. Don't let them. Ask them: "If we don't know what we are aiming at, how do we know when we hit it?"
2. Identify your audience.
Knowing your objective allows you to choose the appropriate audience for your story. Generally for a business, audiences fall into seven categories: management, employees, customers, vendors, lenders, investors and regulators.
The appropriate audience is the one that can help you reach your objective. All other audiences are irrelevant for the purposes of this particular story.
3. Design the message.
You must ask yourself, what is it we want the audience to do? Buy our product? Write their congressman? What? You want to design a message that will cause your audience to respond in the way that will help you reach your objective.
Again, boil your message down into one simple sentence. Avoid the temptation to hit more than one target. Focus, focus, focus.
4. Target the journalist or the media outlet that can best deliver you message to your audience.
The whole point of PR is to get your message to your audience through a credible third party. In this case, the third party is the news media. Forget the general press release.
Focus instead on proposals that aimed to convince one particular reporter to write one particular story. Figure out which reporter is the most influential with the audience you want to influence, then pour all your energy into devising a proposal that will appeal to that reporter or to that reporter's editor.
Study the reporter's past stories to discover that reporter's tendencies. Fit your story to the reporter's needs.
5. Create a proposal that hits the bull's eye.
Make your case in just one page. No nonsense. Get right to the point. Give the reporter at least three good reasons to do the story, each of which strongly appeals to the reporter's needs and tendencies.
Put your proposal in writing, send it by overnight delivery and then follow up in two days with a phone call. If the reporter says no, don't argue. If you missed, you missed. Time to reload. Listen carefully. Often the reporter will tell you how to hit the target next time.
Above all, don't get frustrated. Most story ideas end up in trash, no matter who comes up with them. Don't resort to the scattergun. That's for amateurs. Be a professional and learn to shoot with a PR rifle.
About the author:
Rusty Cawley is a 20-year veteran journalist who now coaches executives, entrepreneurs and professionals on using the news media to attract customers and to advance ideas. For your FREE copy of the new e-book "PR Rainmaker," go to www.prrainmaker.com.
Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click on each book for more information
|
Starting a Landscape or Gardening Business:
ProGardenBiz, a landscape and garden magazine for the Green Industry is your online resource for starting and operating a business as a landscape contractor or landscape and lawn maintenance gardener. Related fields covered by ProGardenBiz are irrigation installation and maintenance, sprinklers - repair and maintenance, waterscapes, water features, and ponds. You will also find information on plants, plant identification, trees and tree maintenance, and many other topics that span the Green Industry. Visit our new Community Web Portal for Forums, Chat, FAQ's, News, Articles and more.
If the answers you seek on Ironite are not readily found, then drop us an email at: editor@progardenbiz. Your questions are welcome and will be answered by email and appear in our "Letters" or "Ask?" columns.
If you want to learn more about your profession or wish to start a landscaping or lawn care business then discussion groups are the place to get answers and discuss problems with others in your field. Participants share ideas, challenges and opportunities. They also develop valuable professional and personal relationships. Start talking now...
|
|
|
