Basics of communication for franchisors.

1. 1JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
10 WAYS TO GENERATE FREE PUBLICITY
PRESENTED BY: JO HART

2. 2JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Jo Hart
PR and communications consultant
10 years’ experience
Mix of brands and agency experience

3. 3JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Our Agenda for Today
Free editorial
Newspapers, radio stations and
magazines
Social media
How to use it for your business
Events and awards
How to make the most of them

4. 4JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
10 top tips
That you can put into practice
Questions
?

5. 5JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
But first of all...
Understanding
your brand
and your
customers

6. 6JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Use your franchise network
A lot of the hard (and expensive) work has already been done
Your franchisor should be able to give you information
on your customer base, what makes them tick and
what’s going to get them to buy from you
Customer insights
They’ll be a marketing and promotional strategy in
place to help you build your business, but also tell you
what you’re able to do
Promotional strategy
Your franchisor might also provide access to sample
marketing and PR materials
Content and materials

7. 7JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Demographic
Profession, age, gender, social
grade, education level, family size,
employment status, location,
homeowner
Wants & needs
What keeps them up at night,
what’s important and will make
them choose you. How you can
give them the most value possible
Media habits
Newspapers, magazines, events,
awards, radio, social media,
websites
Your customer
Understanding who they are

8. 8JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Now, we know
who they are,
how do we
communicate
with them?

9. 9JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Free ways to reach your customers
Local media
Newspapers
Magazines
TV
Radtio
Social media
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Instagram
Events
Local events
Industry groups
Networking
Awards
Local award schemes

10. 10JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Working with the media
Editorial, not
advertising
Non-paid for opportunities, not
advertising
Two-way street
Working with journalists to give
them content and information
relating to your business that is of
interest for their
readers…therefore they’ll include it
for free

11. 11JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
News
Genuine
content
Detail
A personal
approach
What the media want
And what they don’t want
 Business investment and
performance
 Job creation/business
expansion
 Supporting good causes in
the community
 It MUST be on their patch
 What, who, when, where
and why
 People
 Numbers
 Pictures
 Video
☓ Corporate speak
☓ Sales messages
☓ Vagueness
 Get to know your paper –
read it each week –
what’s in it?
 Who are the journalists, -
what and where do they
cover?
 When does it come out?
Don’t call the day before

12. 12JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Identify a possible story within
your business
Think about a news angle –
how can you make this
valuable content for your local
community and therefore, local
media?
Find an
angle
Getting coverage
Create a press release or formulate
the key information – who, what,
when, where and why
Find out who it’s most relevant to – is
it business news, commnity, or for a
specific area
Speak to the media – give them a 10
second overview of the story –
remember, what’s in it for their
readers
Tell the story
Email the press
release/information
Look out for the coverage
Get feedback from the
journalist
Follow up

13. 13JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Build your
online profile

14. 14JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
293,000
status updates
433,000
tweets
5 million
video views
Social media
One minute online
120
new users
Where are my customers online and where should I
be?

15. 15JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
0-11 12-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) 2012-2017, by age
Facebook users
Now and the future

16. 16JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
24%
21%
Twitter users
Who’s on there

17. 17JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Twitter users
Who’s on there
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
18-29
30-49
50-64
65+

18. 18JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
18
Top professions on LinkedIn
1
2
3
4
5
IT
664,000
users
Construction
630,000 users
Hospitals & Health Care
600,000 users
Retail
566,000 users
Financial services
540,000 users

19. 19JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Growing
platformNow 14 million active
users in the UK
Younger
audience30% of UK users are 16-
24
Female orientated
64% of users are female
Instagram

20. 20JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
How do I get
started?

21. 21JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Create a profile
Must use company profiles on Facebook and
LinkedIn
Image
Using a brand or logo is good practice
Links
Direct visitors to your business website
Setting up
Description
Briefly but clearly, describe your business.
Think about what people might search for
Engage
Use search tools to find people in your
area/your customer base – follow and engage

22. 22JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
2
2
Be human
Remember, it’s SOCIAL
media. Don’t be too
promotional or just
broadcast message. Have
conversations.
Give value
Your posts need to give your
customers value and a reason
to follow you. And value
doesn’t just mean offers and
promotions
Be creative
Think about your audience
and what they like and value.
Share things they’ll like and
be interested in from a range
of sources
Be consistent
Aim to tweet at least once a day.
A irregular and unmonitored
account is worse than no
account at all
Think about
timings
There are tools out there
(Tweriod) that show when
you’re followers are most
active. Schedule your posts
for those times to reach your
followers
Top tips for social media

23. 23JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Build your real
life network
and profile

24. 24JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
24
01 Awards
Local business awards
Local community awards
Franchisor awards
02 Events
Local business events
Trade shows
Community events
Build your network and profile

25. 25JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
Research – when, where,
who
How to ‘be there’ – attend,
network, take a space,
sponsor, be on the judging
panel
Tell people you’ll be there
Use the marketing
opportunities at the event
Before
Making the most of opportunities
Be ready to network – we’re
all in the same boat
Business cards/contact
details
Talk about being there –
LIVE!
During
Follow up – Link-in, follow
etc
Tell people that you went –
share your knowledge
After

26. 26JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
So, in
summary…

27. 27JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
01 Use your assets
What resources are
available from your
franchisor?
06 Think digital
How can you use social
media to share your message
and add value to customers?
Ten tips
For free publicity and to get noticed
02 AudienceRemember who you’re
talking to. There’s no point
being where your audience
isn’t
07 Be socialAnd stay human. No one
wants to speak, let alone buy,
from a robot with their own
agenda
03 Create headlines
What’s going on in your
business? What stories can
you tell?
08 Be targetedThink abut the time of day,
the channels you use and
content that your audience
wants
04 Bring it to life
Think about pictures,
numbers and details
09 NetworkIt is about who you know, so
get to the right events and
places that your customers
attend
05 Be a journalist
Think like a journalist, not a
salesperson
10 Maximise
Think about the before,
during and after of any event

28. 28JO HART PR & COMMUNICATIONS
jo@johartpr.co.uk
www.johartpr.co.uk
Jo Hart PR & Communications
Based in Manchester and the Midlands
Contact me