this year they are going to work harder than ever at increasing sales while trying to contain marketing expenses, according to a Dow Jones story that ran this morning.
Their solution? The Internet.
"We're looking at how we can be more targeted in how we talk to our customers," said Barbara Hagen, senior marketing director for brand strategy and communications at Best Buy Inc., who was speaking at the National Retail Federation's annual convention in New York City on Sunday. She described marketing tactics designed to increase their visibility and drive people to their Web site to buy online or head to their retail locations. "It's also a way of increasing loyalty and retention."
She's right - PR is the best way to leverage the Internet. It is the only marketing tactic that combines the power of print, both offline and online, with one stroke. A single article in traditional print publications can also appear in their online publications and then can be republished and redistributed by numerous others on social networks.
The new media and PR are a match made in heaven for increasing awareness about your company and products:
1. PR is trusted - According to Forrester Research, 45 percent of people surveyed trust the editorial sections of the newspapers and magazines they read (offline and online). But, 85 percent of consumers don't trust the advertising that bombards them.
2. PR delivers credibility - If the reporter at your local daily newspaper sees fit to write about your company in a positive light, it amounts to a tacit endorsement of your company by the paper. That carries weight and trust that you just can't buy with display ads in that same publication.
3. PR reaches the masses - In an age where more people are getting their news online than offline, it would appear on the surface that PR is losing its punch, but nothing could be further than the truth. Every newspaper and magazine repurposes its content online. In fact, the Audit Bureau of Circulation said the Internet readership of newspapers exceeded 75 million unique visitors last year, an increase of more than 23 percent over the previous year. People are STILL reading newspapers and magazines - and they are doing it online.
4. PR on the Web is closer to your customers - No matter your business or your potential customer, the ones who are ready to buy go to the Internet to research their decisions BEFORE they reach for their checkbooks. Articles about your company and product can confirm their buying decision and, in many cases, put your consumers one click away from your Web site - your virtual storefront.
5. PR is Social Network Compatible - The best way to draw the ire of the millions of Facebook and Twitter users is to be too commercial in your updates and links. If you currently use social networks to generate new business, you already know you cannot be too overtly commercial in your posts. Tweeting and providing links to legitimate stories in the media about your company is not the same animal, however. In fact, these postings typically help generate greater buzz and far more one-to-one contact with potential customers.
6. PR online is happening NOW - Right now, your competitors are working all these angles in growing numbers. No matter your business, companies - like Best Buy - are getting smarter about connecting the dots between their customers, the Internet, their message and their sales. Every day that you wait, they gain ground and you lose it.
The challenges of the new decade aren't going to get easier, and economic recovery won't be a magic wand waved by the government. We have to do what we know is smart, prudent and cost effective to drive our businesses forward. PR meets all those requirements more so today than it ever has before.
