Experts' Corner

March 15, 2007

All About Public Relations: Getting the Word Out About Getting the Word Out

Few people in the real estate industry would question the importance of marketing. Many firms have an in-house marketing department -- or, at the very least, a substantial marketing budget. Yet a surprisingly high percentage of these firms devote little, if any, time and budget, to public relations -- a sub-sector of marketing that is becoming increasingly important in a world with 24/7 media access. Why don’t firms pay more attention to public relations?

Typically, it’s because:

They don’t understand what it is.
They don’t recognize the differences between public relations and advertising.
They don’t see its value.
All of the above.

Once industry executives get to understand public relations better, however, they realize that it makes sense (and cents!). Here’s why:

Public relations is reputation management. No one I’ve met in the real estate industry wishes to be associated with a firm of ill repute. But not everyone realizes that public relations is one of the most effective methods of protecting and enhancing reputations. In particular, this is news to those who believe that public relations is synonymous with customer relationship management. Those are completely different services. The latter involves direct communication between a customer service representative and a customer. Public relations, on the other hand, involves communication through the media to reach a number of different target audiences, who include not only existing customers, but also potential customers, business partners, industry insiders, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders.
Public relations is generally less expensive and usually entails more credibility than advertising. Another common misperception of public relations is that it’s the same as advertising. Yes, both are subsets of marketing, and yes, the two share some of the same objectives, but their differences are major. The old adage that you "pay for advertising and pray for public relations" is close to the truth. In advertising, if you pay a fee for placing an advertisement or advertorial, you are guaranteed coverage. With public relations, there are no guarantees. You try to interest media in your firm, your products, your services, or your expertise, and offer story angles or announcements that portray your firm in a positive (but not hyped) light. Even if you succeed in generating interest from a reporter, however, you have no control over the resulting message. Given these limitations, why would anyone devote resources to public relations rather than to advertising? There are two good reasons. One is that public relations efforts usually require a small fraction of the cost of advertising. Two is that placements generated by public relations commonly achieve a higher level of credibility than pay-for-play placements, because reporters are viewed as objective sources of information. Your firm is not. For example, which of the following messages would you trust more? An advertisement that touts the benefits of a new residential or commercial development, or an article by a respected reporter at a respected publication that shows the development in a favorable light? Clearly, you’d be far more impressed by the second message. To put it another way, a good press item is the equivalent of a third-party endorsement. In addition, public relations offers a second advantage in terms of audience perception that isn’t possible via advertising: it allows the client to position key executives as go-to experts. We do this by identifying executives who can serve as good sources of expertise for journalists, so that those executives find themselves often quoted in important media.
Public relations offers a high return on investment. Because of the perceived objectivity of the media, one single placement in a key target publication can be far more valuable than a yearlong advertising campaign that appears in that publication. I can’t tell you how many times my clients have said to me something along the lines of, "Ever since the article about us appeared in the Times/Wall Street Journal/Business Week, etc., we’ve been getting lots of inquiries from prospective customers/partners/employees, etc. In other words, their investment in public relations more than paid off.

The Bottom Line What’s the bottom line? The bottom line is that public relations helps your bottom line. No marketing program is complete without a public relations component. Remember, we’re a long way from the days in which people got their information from a few select media outlets. Today, information is available nearly everywhere, at any time. And the media that supply this information are constantly on the lookout for ideas. Many savvy real estate firms are helping reporters through public relations efforts, and enhancing their firm reputations in the process. Shouldn’t you?

LVM Group Inc. provides public and investor relations and marketing communications services to clients in real estate and a broad range of other fields. Jeannette Boccini encourages you to contact her with questions or comments at jeannette@lvmgroup.com. Access: www.lvmgroup.com.

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