Every marketing textbook tells you there are four Ps of marketing — price, product, placement, and promotion.
What the textbooks don’t tell you is that in the rapidly evolving world of public relations, there are three more Ps to remember — personal relationships, patience, and persistence.
Now that social media is more compelling than the printed press release, it’s easy to hit the send button and move on to the next big thing. However, building personal relationships with reporters and exercising patience and persistence pay off in the long run.
Below are two examples how our Lenz PR team used all three Ps of Public Relations to help our client Resurgens Orthopaedics:
Resurgens doctor Antenor Velazco:
We first wrote about Dr. Antenor Velazco in February of 2010. After learning that he is an ultra marathon runner who travels the world to compete in races of up to 100 miles, we were hooked on his story. Reporters were interested, but never took the time to write about him.
But our PR Director Ryan Klee persevered. We tried to time the story to the 2010 Peachtree Road Race, but no luck. The story stayed in our files, resurfacing every few weeks. We nudged our contacts periodically as the months went by, but no bites. That’s when a personal relationship came in handy. When a reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle asked about candidates for their Executive Profile feature, Ryan immediately thought of Dr. Velazco. We quickly updated our story and sent it over. The result: a major feature in the Friday, Aug. 26, 2011 issue of the Business Chronicle.
Resurgens patient Larry Castillo:
We regularly write patient success stories for the Resurgens Orthopaedics web site. http://www.resurgens.com/media/success-stories
And we are often able to interest local reporters in how Resurgens patients successfully return to their favorite activities after their treatment. But like the story on Dr. Velazco, some stories take longer than others to generate media interest.
We completed a release about Resurgens patient Larry Castillo on Jan. 4, 2011. Dubbed “the bionic man” by his doctor, Larry continues to win canoe races even after 16 different surgeries over two decades to repair his shoulders, hips, knees, and back. We loved Larry’s story, but knew mid-winter wasn’t the best time to make the local news. So we patiently waited, contacting local reporters periodically to tell his story. Then in mid-summer, our patience paid off. Both The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fox5 News told Larry’s story to a citywide audience.
http://images.burrellesluce.com/image/10873/10873_1602
http://www.resurgens.com/media/news/2011/07/resurgens-orthopaedics-patient-featured-on-fox5
So yes, we’re always ready to respond to breaking news and help our media friends connect with our clients. But we’ve learned that the proactive process of interesting media in feature stories takes time. And we’ve found it’s well worth the effort.
— Alice Murray