Marketing and PR Food for Thought

This topic will be presented by Valerie Harding.

We will share how to truly evaluate how well your company is marketing itself. When it comes down to actually evaluating PR initiatives, organizations aren’t exactly sure. Marketing and PR is con

sidered > intangible in terms of its ROI and associating an actual matrix to its value. Companies know that they need it but consider it a gray area when it comes to setting expectations for their in-house team as well as for their public relation agency, if they have one.

Here are just a few of the questions we will consider along with the importance of why we are considering them:

Is your company vision clearly mapped out for today and for future products and/or services as a context for all company communications?

Have you developed your company’s key messages for each unique audience and defined competitive differentiators?

Are you utilizing a matrix to measure the overall success in communicating the company’s key messages effectively?

Are you getting placements in at least 50% of relevant editorial opportunities? How do you know?

In producing third-party endorsements, customer testimonials, and success studies, how are you marketing them?

Are you actively seeking award opportunities? How many awards have you received so far this year?

Have you conducted a perception study to understand how your key constituents perceive your company?

We will provide a “How To” PR guide and explain the importance of measuring the results. PR performance measurement encompasses a measure of business value, of strategic alignment and of marketing efficiency. It can seem too abstract to fit easily into a concrete measurement like it does for sales but through our 10 plus years of PR experience, we definitely have seen the PR measurement matrix evolve. Our presentation will help organizations get a handle on setting PR expectations as well as how to successfully fulfill those expectations. We are excited to share with the group through our experience, industry research and customer stories on how organizations are able to evaluate what PR investments they should make along with how to measure their outcome and success.

Valerie Harding is the President of Ripple Effect Communications. Fluent in French and German, Valerie brings a wealth of global marketing communications experience in increasing foreign companies’ market share in the US and bi-directionally increasing US companies market share in Europe. Valerie successfully assisted such companies as Siemens, PC Soft International, and Intec Controls in their growth through strategic messaging, positioning, and focused campaign planning. Prior to joining Ripple Effect Communications, Valerie was Director of Public Relations for LifeFX where she increased overall visibility of the company through the analyst community, global connections, and securing placements in such high profile magazines and journals as Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine Europe, and USA Today. Some key TV segments she has secured have included ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Channel 4 News, Discovery, and Fox News.