The Essentials to Getting Coverage and Creating a Buzz: PR PREP

This is the first in a series of posts on how to create a buzz for your company via PR. This first post details the items you need to get you started.

Hi-res (300 dpi) photos of your products. These should be on a white background and in focus – if you have a product with labels then make sure when you zoom in you can read the label clearly. If you are service-based company then you need hi-res photos of images of you and images of what you represent (i.e. if you are a money expert and the PR campaign angle is about offering quick tips on saving money then have pictures of people pulling their hair out, sitting at a kitchen table looking over bills, enviously looking at a luxury family car). If the photos are too large to email then look at ways to share the photos via services like YouSendIt.

A press kit. Companies always ask if they really need a press kit. The short answer – YES. The media will not take you seriously if you do not put the effort into providing them with information on you, your company, your products/services, price, and distribution (retailer list). Have a professionally designed press kit which means get a graphic designer to lay it out (not your brother Tom who can do wonders in MS Word). The good thing is that a press kit can double as sales kits which means you (or your sales reps) can use it to solicit new accounts; the investment goes beyond media outreach. 
Bloggers are more forgiving so if you are planning on doing a blogger outreach campaign then you can typically get away with supplying them with photos and a brochure (along with a pitch letter). However if you are including e-newsletters in your blogger list then note that they do require a press kit.

Samples. Be prepared to send samples of your product or provide your services for free (if that’s possible). Bloggers and editors require samples; don’t expect them to give you coverage based on photos. Better yet, for bloggers, offer them samples or a discount they can offer to their readers.
If you are service then think about ways you can offer them your expertise. This could include quick tips, free tickets to your speaking engagements or cross-promotion of your blog posts.

Target list. Whether you are approaching media outlets or bloggers, you will need a contact list. This requires time to research the outlets and read/watch/listen to past articles/posts/reports in order to find out who the best person to pitch, if they write straight product reviews or take a larger look at an industry surrounding the product/service. For traditional media outlets, target the reporters or assistant editors vs senior editors.
Build your list in Excel with multiple columns headings: outlet name, web address, contact name, contact email, contact phone, address, twitter ID, facebook page, statistics (subscribers, number of followers, etc).

Press release or social media release. This is a debatable essential. Bloggers don’t want to receive press releases but some will accept social media releases; the media are inundated with press releases but most of the time they don’t read them right away unless they know the sender or company. Sometimes a well written email can take the place of a press release. We recommend writing press releases for events, a product launch or if you are planning a wide distribution (via a service like Cision).
In the end, a press release is simply a tool used within a process, but it’s the process that really counts.

Next post will be on establishing a benchmark to determine success.

Cross-Promotional PR Programs with Canadian Mom Media

When trying to attract new customers and raise awareness about your product/service,  I regularly encourage my clients to consider cross-promotional relationships with media outlets, key influencers (mom bloggers), like businesses and other organizations. These type of relationships are a win-win situation that cost nothing and typically only require an exchange of in-kind services or products.

We recently took this same strategy for limelitePR and have implemented three unique cross-promotional relationships with two of Canada's leading online mom-focused publications:

This month SavvyMom.ca launched their third annual Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Award and as you will see, limelitePR is one of the top 5 prizes for the grand prize winner!

Grand Prize – Take Your Business to the Next Level with $15,500 in Prizes!

The overall national winner of the SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year award will be crowned Canada’s Top Mom Entrepreneur and receive our grand prize, a custom package of cash and services valued at $15,500 designed to improve every aspect of a growth-oriented business and help the winner take her business to the next level. The grand prize includes:

• a cash prize of $5000 for investment in the business


• a Q & A feature on Todaysparent.com


• a full-year business mentorship with Canadian Sitter Inc. founder, Martha Scully, winner of the 2008 SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Award


• a workplace productivity assessment and program courtesy of Clear Concept Inc. valued at $3000


• a consultation and 90-day Action Plan courtesy of Limelite PRvalued at $6000


• a search engine optimization (SEO) assessment courtesy of Eighty8 Online 
  valued at $1500

In the fall 09, SavvyMom.ca and limelitePR will also be conducting reader surveys to learn more about Canadian moms' habits. First up is mobile technology - what brands are Canadian moms loyal to, what kind of applications are they downloading, why do they use it. Stay tuned for more details and results.

Finally, as we know the best way to interact with moms is to be part of their community and create a special experience that taps into their core values, feeding their desire to be better moms.  In partnership with yoyomama.ca (Vancouver's leading e-newsletter for mums on-the-go) limelitePR will develop custom interactive brand experiences that will raise brand awareness and develop customer loyalty. This grassroots influencer program is an out-of-the-box results oriented program that allows you to personally interact with yoyomama's loyal readers (across the Lower Mainland) and create a buzz within the mom community. Benefits include the ability to distribute samples, coupons, promotional items; cross-promote with local retailers and other like-businesses; develop strong strategic partnerships and effectively promote a unique marketing initiative to acquire customers.

Want more info? Contact limelitePR www.limelitepr.com 

Report: Growing Number of Moms Using Social Media

Mediaweek.com just published some great insight into moms' social media vs traditional media habits thanks to a new research report released by BabyCenter.

According to the article and the report, 63 percent of women report being active on social networks. When compared to a similar study done in 2006 when just 11 percent claimed to be social net regulars, we can see that moms' priorities and community is continuing to change. Most also claim that as their personal time is constrained, they end up sacrificing time with magazines and newspapers compared to before they had children. BabyCenter data indicates that "women with new babies at home cut back on media consumption by as much as three hours, with print taking the biggest hit. According to the report 49 percent of respondents claim to read magazines less after giving birth, and 46 percent said the same about their newspaper usage."

The article and report go on to details that "moms develop two distinct friendship circles: their real friends and their mommy friends - who they may or may not have actually met in person. Because these women are so social, and so information hungry, they often meet other mothers in similar child-rearing stages on sites like BabyCenter and a variety of mommy blogs."

To read the complete article visit: Report: Growing Number of Moms Using Social Media

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Canadian Moms' Media Habits

New Survey Reveals Canadian Moms' Media Habits

Vancouver, BC/Toronto, ON (May 6, 2009) - With moms controlling 85 percent of household spending and more companies focusing their marketing efforts on gaining the attention and loyalty of this powerful consumer market, limelitePR, Canada’s first PR firm wholly focused on connecting companies with moms, has conducted a nationwide survey in conjunction with Toronto-based urbanmoms.ca to investigate Canadian moms’ media habits. Results reveal that moms trust and refer to websites and TV for current and relevant information, are most interested in local stories and receive more information digitally than by traditional mediums such as magazines and newspapers.

“In order to develop impactful campaigns for our clients, we felt it was important to determine the most trusted and valuable mediums for the mom market,” says limelitePR Principal Jeanette Miller. “What this survey has produced is a deeper understanding of where moms currently turn for relevant information. We strongly believe that Canadian moms’ reliance on digital sources will grow as younger Gen Y moms move up the ranks but word-of-mouth (aka word-of-mom) will continue to reign as #1.”

The survey garnered over 700 respondents from coast to coast and polled Canadian moms on the sources they most commonly refer to and receive in their home.

The limelitePR and urbanmoms.ca survey highlights include:

• 73% of moms receive 4 or more e-newsletters
• 43% of moms consider websites the most trusted, valuable source for accurate & relevant information
• 37% of moms subscribe to 1-2 magazines, with 20% receiving no print subscriptions at all
  40% of moms refer to TV programs as their source for news and current events
• Canadian moms are most interested in local stories (30%) but parenting/family stories and lifestyle stories (food, fashion, trends) also garner worthy attention at 20% each.
• Moms’ community of peers and friends (including online community) overwhelmingly influence moms’ decisions by being the primary source when looking for information and recommendations on products or services.

“Mothers and community is not a recent trend. Throughout history moms have been depended on each other for connection and information. However, technology now enables moms to connect and share virtually which provides a trusted voice with a vastly broader scope and reach,” says Jen Maier, urbanmoms.ca founder.

“The survey results demonstrate that moms refer to online sources for stories about their community and rely on their peers and network to provide them with practical information that will make a positive impact on their families’ lives. We believe that it’s important to have multiple points of contact in order to create brand loyalty in the mom market,” says Miller.

About limelitePR limelitePR is a boutique public relations firm that is dedicated to creating a buzz and connecting leading brands with moms across Canada and the USA. By conducting traditional media relations, blogger outreach, and creating influencer mom-market activities and programs, the limelitePR team develops an integrated PR approach that will generate brand awareness at a consumer level, which directly increases sales and maintains brand recognition.

About urbanmoms.ca urbanmoms.ca, founded by Jen Maier, Toronto marketer and mom of 2, is Canada’s leading online community for moms. Based on the philosophy that when a woman has children she doesn't magically conform to a one-dimensional world of motherhood, urbanmoms.ca provides women with a forum to connect and build relationships while directly influencing some of Canada’s leading brands.

For more information contact:
Jeanette Miller, principal limelitePR O: 778.786.1495 M: 778.552.2949
E : jeanette@limelitepr.com T: @limelitePR

One final note: Hatley was generous enough to donate one pair of adult rain boots and one pair of child rain boots for one survey respondent. We hope you love them as much as we do!

PR That Gets Moms Buzzing

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

PR That Gets Moms Buzzing

View more presentations from Jeanette Miller.

What is Word of Mom?

Since starting this blog, I have discovered that blogging is more difficult than I expected. My admiration for those who blog faithfully has greatly increased, with a special spot held to mom bloggers because as a busy mom and entrepreneur, I find it incredibly difficult to squeeze more time out of day to write something inspired (in a peaceful, writing-condusive environment). I've been seeking advise from fellow bloggers about how to get through my "Bloggers Block" and have heard some fantastic suggestions. While I contemplate implementing vlogging (video blogging), some structure to my posts and peer blogger support, I have been watching the online mom blogger world join together to support one of their own - again proving the power of the word of mom.

Online sadness and heartbreak was projected worldwide last week when a 17 month old Madeline Alice Spohr died. I didn't know her or her family; I had never even read the family blog (written by mom blogger Heather Spohr of www.thespohrsaremultiplying.com) until numerous mom bloggers tweeted their shock and heartbreak and I just had to find out what they were all talking about. I was instantly in tears and emotionally distraught the next day as bloggers worldwide expressed their sorrow and started blogging about their grief. I couldn't stop reading, nor could thousands of others. These are the best of the worst kind of blog posts. They hit you in the gut and make you think about your own life. You relate in some small way to someone you've never met but now feel some sort of kindship to because of an experience, emotion, reaction. You see the bigger picture more clearly, realize that sweating the small stuff is stupid and discover that seeking support from your community is not defined by borders.

Mom bloggers came together to support one of their own. When floods of visitors overpowered the Spohr's website and their server dumped them for going over-capacity, mom bloggers banded together to get it transferred to another server (it was twitterer @princessJenn from Canada who came to the rescue, btw). In mere hours housands of dollars (there was a tweet about hitting $10,000 by mid-morning) were raised for the Walk of Dimes in Maddies's honour and teams across the USA have been formed to Walk For Maddie http://sarcasticmom.com/walk-for-maddie/

This universal support system, this innate ability to relate to another person soley based on the joint experience of loving a child, is the foundation of word-of-mom. I don't think even Maddie's mom could have envisioned the impact her experience would have on moms worldwide. When it comes to spreading messages, especially when its for the greater-good, moms are the influencer and source.

My thoughts continue to be with the Spohr family.

Marketing 2.0

While media outlets crumble and collapse because their conventional business model is broken beyond repair (due to a weak economy, changing consumer habits and online competition), mom bloggers across the nation are debating the demand to become better marketers, generate revenue, and question how to maintain editorial integrity while accepting advertising, free products and sponsorship.

Simultaneously, as Ted Murphy details on

his blog, Forrester Research released a paper about ‘Sponsored Conversations’ which proposes that marketers consider paying bloggers to create transparent and genuine content about the brand.

Bloggers are the influencers that traditional media outlets once were. The problem is that unlike their conventional counterparts, bloggers have to do everything – write and edit the content, SEO, solicit and listen to PR pitches, generate interesting promotions to increase and engage with readers, decide how to work with an advertiser – which has some mom bloggers questioning their role and how the competitive online marketplace could perhaps push the non-aggressive-marketing-mom-bloggers into obscurity. Most are adamant that they are writers first-and-foremost and the focus on how to make their blog bigger and better is a distraction from their true focus – to share information and offer insight in a well-written manner.

For those of us who want to work with mom bloggers in order to increase brand awareness and develop a stronger online presence, we must contemplate how the evolution of online content and influencers will push our conventional marketing approaches into uncharted territory; while also taking into consideration how marketers can support bloggers to remain true to their original intentions so that their readership doesn’t dwindle beneath the demand for a bigger and better approach.

Mabel’s Labels recently conducted contest for a blogger to win a trip to BlogHer’s annual conference. They asked bloggers to answer the question – What have been the rewards and benefits of participating in the blogging community?, which generated over 100 blog posts across North America. Ten finalists were chosen and then an online poll (where bloggers solicited readers via their blog, twitter, facebook to vote for them) determined the winner. This is a fantastic example of how to support (mom) bloggers in their writing pursuit while creating a buzz for your own company online; taking a traditional sponsorship activity to a whole new level.

I question whether sponsored conversations will be accepted by bloggers and readers alike – perhaps seen as a transparent yet obtrusive advertising method. Will readers simply ‘tivo’ past these conversations as they have with their cable channel ads, does this develop a pay-per-placement system and those with the biggest budgets win, will bloggers and marketers who adopt this system lose credibility with their readers?