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“Make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
How to motivate a target audience to take action by understanding their needs, preferences, and behaviors.
Keren Speck
June 18, 2024
What's playing this week:
“Make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
What does this iconic movie quote have to do with your public relations and your target audience?
Of course we’re not referring to coercion or threats, that never works out to well. Rather how to present an opportunity or deal that is too good to pass up.
And specifically to “make him an offer he can’t refuse” you first need to know who “him” is, which is your community, and then you need to know what will drive and encourage him to do what you want, thus motivating your audience.
To create a successful public relations communications program you will need two things:
Understand who your community is.
Learn what will motivate them to do what you want.
To motivate an audience you need to understand them, so it’s 100% worth it to spend time learning who those people are. Start with the list you made of your community or audiences from here.
Let’s look at different methods of learning about your audience and see if any inspire you.
Research your target demographics including age, gender, income level, location, hobbies, etc.
Observe. It’s time to put on that sociology hat and start observing online communities. You can see their behavior, changes, and causes of these. Look for patterns and take notes.
Ask questions to understand your audience’s key issues, concerns, needs, and preferences. Surveys and feedback can help you here.
Listen: Keep track of conversations on social platforms and customer service to see what drives engagement and motivates them.
Study other companies’ success, then use them in your efforts.
What have you learned about your audience?
What are my audiences’ key issues, concerns, and needs?
How do these members like to communicate?
What are they talking about?
What are the pros and cons of interacting with this group?
Who or what are they reading, watching or listening to? (this is important to know what publications and journalists to engage with later)
With this knowledge comes power and influence. You will know how to inspire them to act. Soon you will find yourself crafting messages and campaigns they can’t refuse. (See what I did there?)
“Know your audience like you know your morning cup of coffee: strong, precise, and essential for a productive day”
Do this now: Take 3 target audiences and add all the details you can about each one. Give them names, descriptors, where they are located, what they are interested in, and any other relevant information. Build your ideal customer profile (ICP) if you haven’t already.
Audience (i.e. Newspaper) details: ___
Audience (i.e. Magazine or News outlet) details: ___
Audience (i.e. ideal customer profile) details: ___
Next time: Now that you have your audience profiles and brand identity buttoned down, you will use the principles of communication to craft and tell your story to your audiences.
Term to Learn
Paid Media means anything that is paid for to reach an audience. It can be anything from billboards, social media advertising, search engine ads, or print ads.
FAQ
Q: What’s the difference between public relations and marketing?
A: PR comes under the marketing umbrella, but it isn’t limited to only customer related activities.
Public Relations focuses on cultivating relationships between an organization or individual and its community. The public relations audience isn’t just customers or investors, it also includes members of the media and internal employees.
Marketing focuses on the promotion of products and services for generating revenue.
Get PR techniques from recent news.
Newsworthy
The OG of Media Monitoring is closing shop after 130 years
The ones who invented media monitoring are exiting the business.
Media monitoring refers to tracking any mention of your brand, product or services in traditional media which includes print or television and now of course it includes digital media.
Besides monitoring your own company’s mentions and opinions you can stay up to date on the latest about competitors, trends, and current news. You can understand public perception and trends in your industry.
History Lesson: Interested in their story? Enjoy a fascinating read about the legendary company Burrelles.
“Everybody needs to have a PR department, everybody needs to know what’s being said about them in the news — not even [about] their own company — but their competitors, their industry [too]… just to be current and knowledgeable about what is going on”
✍️ Key PR Takeaway: Implement a monitoring system. From simple Google Alerts to a comprehensive monitoring service, it’s good to know what’s being said about your company, product, industry, or brand in a timely manner.
Learn from others.
100% Cool : 0% Cringe
Bringing joy and happiness to all, this Edmonton Oilers super fan, Mama Stanley can be seen at every game day dressed up in her ode to the Stanley Cup costume.
She has captured the attention of thousands of fans, and has appeared on many sports broadcasts, news articles and countless social media postings. Mama Stanley, you have taught us well!
✍️ Key PR Takeaway: She has put the time into her persona. How has she captured the hearts of fans across North America? She stands out (look at that costume!). She’s consistent (you’ll find her at all the games). She’s authentic (everyone wants to take a picture with her and she’s happy to). And, she has a catchy name (Mama Stanley is spot on and easy to remember).
Useful PR Resources.
TOOLKIT 🧰
Media Monitoring — Google Alerts
You can set up to 1,000 Google Alerts for free to monitor your brand, your name, your website, your competitors or see what’s happening out there in your industry with keywords.
It requires a free Google account and is easy to setup but step-by-step instructions can be found here for creating alerts.
Attention Seeker of the Week
Captain & Morgan 🥃
When these 3-year-old brothers wants attention they jockey for closest snuggle position on the back of the couch and each take a shoulder. Okay boys, you win!
If you enjoyed this newsletter please forward it to help other Seekers to subscribe, and I will love you even more than I already do!
Have a suggestion for a PR topic I can cover? Reply and let me know.
Your fellow Seeker,
Keren
🕶️
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