Remember when you were a kid and mom would make you a PB&J for lunch? You would always eat the insides of the sandwich (cut into triangles, of course!) and leave all the crust on the plate. When your mom would ask why you didn’t eat the entire sandwich, you’d say “I did!” You never knew why you didn’t like the crust, you just knew you didn’t.
Well, deep down, you know why you didn’t eat the crust. All the good stuff was in the middle! Why would you chew on boring bread when there was no peanut butter or jelly on it? Eventually, your mom would just chop off the crust, saving you having to eat around it.
When redesigning your public relations campaign, it’s best to think of all the unneeded, wasteful parts as crust on an otherwise PB&J sandwich. Be like your mom and chop them off so your customers can get to the delicious insides easier.
What’s Getting in the Way?
The “crust” of your public relations campaign is anything that prevents your customers from getting to the “meat” or your business. Clients and customers want to get to that delicious peanut butter and grape filling, but if they find they have to chew through tough crust, they may be turned away.
To that end, you must figure out exactly what is getting in the way of your public relations campaign’s success. It could be anything from an awkward social media campaign to strangely written press releases. Have you checked your SEO, too? That could easily be the crust, as the words associated with your company might not be to your liking.
After you’ve successfully located what isn’t working out for your campaign, now you must work to eliminate it. However, don’t just hack and slash. When your mom cut the crusts off your sandwich, she didn’t use a chainsaw. She probably used a butter knife and carefully cut along the lines, giving you the most PB&J goodness.
Do the same with your public relations campaign. Don’t just mow it all down – carefully extract what you don’t need and keep the rest.
Don’t Forget The Crust
That being said, some people LIKE the crust. You more than likely switched to eating the real entire sandwich when you hit adulthood. So don’t forget that when you’re cutting away parts of your campaign, you’re going to leave some people out, because they liked what you were doing.
That awkward social media campaign? A certain population of your customers enjoyed it and found it endearing. The odd words associated with your business on Google meant some freaks and geeks were picking you up on radar and shopping there.
Just because the vast majority of people may not like the “crust” doesn’t mean nobody does. That’s why you must be very careful when cutting away what doesn’t work, or you risk losing those who never asked their mom to chop off the “gross crust!”
What would you say the “filling” and “crust” of your campaign is?
This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (https://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download your free copy of the Beginner’s Guide to Writing Powerful Press Releases here: https://www.ereleases.com/free-offer/beginners-guide-writing-powerful-press-releases/