“The Art of Competitor Snooping” with Public Relations

            Investigating and gaining the competitive knowledge of others is one of an essential undertaking that all businesses today must embark on. Businesses today must arm themselves with the absolute understanding of everything that encompasses their markets, and especially of their competitors. Everything that follows will serve to guide you in successfully gathering and analyzing intelligent information about your competitors so that when used it will put you on top. 

The Art of Competitor Snooping

            If your competitors are slyly attracting your customers away from you, there’s probably a very good reason for that to be happening. It may be simply something you are not doing. Or, it may be something you are doing that they simply are not doing. Either way, if you do not know or understand what this is, it will make things very difficult in getting to the top.

            Losing business is never fun, and it can be very frustrating trying to keep up with your competitors in today’s market. But, the one thing that you have to do today; is snoop on your competition. Your future competitive success and future decisions will require it.

            To begin, you will need to put your best minds to work on this research. The perfect type of individuals suited for this task will be those who are clever enough to see through a con artist’s bag of tricks. That is because marketers are extremely talented, and they possess the gift of word magic. Talent and ability to analyze a message for language usage;  admissions; omissions; meanings; and deception are some of the highly required attributes. But, I will show you how to gather this intelligent information and then decipher that information to determine exactly what your competitors are really saying or not saying. Understanding how your competitors communicate in their messages will help you understand how you can adapt and prevail.

Your Competitors:

            Let’s begin by making a list of your top five direct competitors. We are currently in the Social/Mobile media era today, so everything we need to research will most likely be available on the internet. Go ahead and list all five competitors on a separate piece of paper. Start at the top, because we will be filling up each sheet of paper rather thoroughly. Perform a search engine search of each competitor. Record on the sheets of paper the HTML page title that is listed directly over their business website address. Also, record their HTML description tag; it is the short sentence directly under their business website address. Be sure to record everything as they have presented it, and as you read it. Accuracy is always an important aspect of analysis.

           

Collecting the Data:

            Let’s go ahead and analyze your competitors HTML tags for some pre-practice, and then we can move on to much bigger things. To start, you will need to count the total number of each word found in each separate sentence that appears in the HTML page title and the HTML description tag. Be sure to record all of your findings with proper labels next to the sentence being tested. Next, we want to count the syllables within each word and sentence. For example; there are three syllables in the word leadership, (Lead-er-ship). We count that word as three and continue counting each syllable in each word until the end of the sentence. We now want to count each “personal word” found in a sentence. Personal words are the human interest aspect of a sentence or message. They will appear as names of people, and personal pronouns like he (him), she (her), I (me), and you (they), -or- us (we), ours (mine). Count every word that directly relates to people. Go ahead and record your total number of personal words at the end of each sentence. After that, we want to research the verb tense within each sentence. Tense means time in grammar. The tense of a verb tells you when the action of the verb takes place. There are six main tenses, and we are interested in all of them. Understanding the language of the message related to a time reference can tell us a lot. This will be explained more thoroughly later on but for now record each verb tense for each sentence. For example,  A verb expresses the main action or state of being in a sentence. For a sentence like; I ride my bike every day. Ride; would be the verb tense of the sentence and listed as “Present Tense.” Rode; would be listed as “Past Tense,’’ will ride as “Future Tense,” have ridden as “Present Perfect Tense,” had ridden as “Past Perfect Tense,” and will have ridden as “Future Perfect Tense.” Each tense tells us something different. Determine what tense your sample sentence has and record it on your paper. For the final data collection, we will count the confidence words in each sentence. These words will be strong powerful words such as leading, exact, precise, or top performing. Let’s go forward now and take a look at how we decipher all of this valuable information for our benefit.

Syllables per Sentence:

            We will start our evaluation by dividing the total number of syllables found in one sentence by the total number of words in that sentence. This will give you the average number of syllables per word. The objective here is to determine readability. The more syllables per word simply mean the harder it will be to read. The least amount of syllables in each sentence the better, it will create a smoother transition from word to word, and will make it much more inviting for your audience to read.

Personal Words per Sentence:

            To determine the average personal word usage per sentence; divide the total number of personal words found in one sentence by the total number of words in that sentence. This will determine how much human interest appeal has been crafted into each sentence. The goal is the more the better. Human interest is one of the most appealing aspects to include into any message. So make sure you have a lot, at least more than your competitors do.

Verb Tense per Sentence:

            At this point, we are simply looking to determine the sentence language. What was the writer really saying? It is important to read carefully and listen to everything a message is saying. People’s words will often betray them and identify hidden facts. People normally mean exactly what they say, and they say exactly what they mean, in a very specific kind of way. Present tense is the tense that usually will be the only tense to make any real sense.  Wow, if that wasn't a riddle. What that means is this; present tense speaks the truth, it is happening, it isn’t something that may have happened, or we hope will happen, but, it simply happened. If you find a past tense sentence, be suspicious of that statement. For it probably did not happen, or somebody is simply trying to use some fluff to present the message, but they can’t, because it is stressful being deceptive. The thing is; is that people normally tell the truth, to do otherwise would create some level of stress on a person, that stress can be observed as deception within the sentence tense. If it is believable, then the tense will normally be the element to determine that.

Confidence words per Sentence:

           

            Here you want to determine the average usage of powerful confidence words per sentence. Divide the total number of confidence words found in each sentence by the total number of words per sentence. Who wants to read weak sentences; weak sentences do not attract people to them. The goal here is to have as many confidence words as possible per sentence. Make your sentences exciting, important and strong. Adding product/service benefits into your sentence as confidence words will really send your messages soaring.

            Remember when I told you that your prior work was just a pre-practice, well, get ready for it because here comes the real practice. No, I am just joking with you, you have already performed most of the hard work. Everything that follows will be fun and very enlightening for you. You have already learned that it is important to remove as many syllables as possible from your message sentences for easy reading. You have also learned that adding as many personal words and confidence words to each sentence; adds incredible value. I am confident you also understand how sentence language of verb tense can present some misleading or credible information. So be sure to write your messages in the present tense. Anything else just leads to misunderstanding.

Final Research, the Website:

            For the rest of your research; all you will need to do is enter each competitor website and perform the same analysis. But this time; you will select the first paragraph listed at the beginning of each separate website page. You must sample a consistent number of sentences from each page and of each website. Example: You analyze the first four sentences found within the first paragraph of each page and of each website. It must be the same across the board to receive an accurate analysis. To continue your analysis, all you need to do is first count each word in each of the four sentences you are analyzing. Divide the total number of words by the total number of sentences. This will give you an average sentence word length. For readability purposes; the shorter the sentence; the better it is for the reader. Perform the same data checks of syllables per sentence, personal words per sentence, confidence words per sentence, and verb tense per sentence. You will be dividing everything by using your combined four sentence findings by the total number of words from those four sentences. You can either use the average sentence length of the four sentences or can use the actual count, Just make sure you use the same variable for each test. This will give you your averages. Once you have completed a thorough analysis of your competitors, you should perform the same tests on your business material. You can also expand this by searching for competitor advertisement messages on social media sites, or other retail sites, etc…. Any business message you can find from your competitor will provide added valuable clues.

            This competitor analysis method was developed by Outstory Public Relations Group. The method in its entirety consists of many other technical variables that we confidentially left out of this writing, simply because they are proprietary to our research practices. But, have no doubt; this information provided to you will generate some very valuable information concerning your competitors. If you adhere to the analysis principles within your own message crafting, your messages will be very readable, powerful, and full of human interest. Add to that, the benefits of product/services, confidence words, and the appeal of making your readers feel important, and you will have created the best of messages.

For more information or to develop your personal public relations campaign plans:

Contact:

Outstory Public Relations Group

A Modern Public Relations Agency

Solving Problems, Changing Attitudes, Creating Understanding, and Influencing Behaviors

Outstory PR Group solves business and public relations problems. We serve organizations of for-profit, non-profit, governmental authority, and well-known persons. We develop and manage creative problem-solving campaigns for businesses small and large, both nationally and globally.

Call Outstory PR Group Today: 704-904-0682

Website: http://outstoryprgorup.com

Shawn Stoffel

Shawn@outstoryprgroup.com

Creating Small-Business “Awareness” with Public Relations

           I know you have heard the old saying about “who you know” is supposed to make the difference, right? Well, not so fast, that really isn’t true in business at all, is it? Instead, it is not who you know, but realistically, it is those who know you, who will make the biggest difference. In fact, you may know one-hundred of the most influential people on this planet, but if those one-hundred people are not mentioning you or your business, then what benefit are you getting? In turn, you may also know one-hundred customers from prior business dealings, but because you didn’t create a memorable experience for them, what benefit can you possibly gain from that? How about your relationship with your ten employees, they simply get a paycheck for performing their work and then they go home. Will they be spreading good thoughts about you or your company? The theme here is people. It is people and the relationships with people that matters, it creates awareness, and ultimately creates success.

What can be more important than feeling important?

            It is not hard to see that when people know who you are for your positive actions, it develops into benefits and awareness of great success. Knowing the right people in business also creates that success. The right people are your customers; your non-customers; your employees; your suppliers; and everyone else that they all know as well. I am not talking about just knowing their names, that is nice and helpful, but you can go much deeper than that. In business, and before anything else, you must first determine what element will be the most important aspect for the success of your business existence. If you think it is your innovation, your product, your services, then you are dead wrong. Everyone in business has something to sell, there will always be some sort of product, or service available. Instead, it’s those people who assemble your products, sell your services, deliver your supplies and those who purchase or hear about your product/service that makes the biggest difference. It’s the people who talk, who listen, and who create the positive or negative perceptions of your company, and who ultimately determines whether or not you succeed or fail. You could have the best products/services in the world, but how will you ever benefit from that, especially if they do not have that same perception as well? Awareness and success start in-house, your employees, your staff, your current customers. If they have nothing good to say, why should anyone else?

            Understanding one very important aspects of what makes people tick can be the key for you in creating a positive awareness domino effect for your business. People talk, people listen, and it is through people that word is spread to all corners of the planet. The one thing that all people have in common is that they all want to feel important. Do your employees feel important, what about your suppliers, or your customers? Your company could literally have twenty competitors within the same building as your business, but, if you had the best relationships, and you created ideal importance, you would be the chosen top-dog. 

            Making people feel important can come from many things. The sheer feeling, of wanting to feel important, drives the actions of a person into doing everything in their power to realize it. That means wearing the latest styles, driving the best of vehicles, and eating the trendiest of foods. Whatever the product/service may be, it must incorporate the need for a person to feel important. People do not want to be sold, they want to be in control, and there it is again the importance thing. Yes, make it important to them, why should they care for anything less than their own feeling of importance? Simply just advertising that you have a product or service to sell, doesn’t create the feeling of importance, where’s the desire in that? Mailing your employee a paycheck after a week’s worth of work does not give them the feeling of importance. Your supplier unloading your materials on your dock certainly will not make him/her feel important. You must engage your people with what they need. The core basics of what drives us to want to say something positive about you and your company. Do you even know what your employee’s points of views are? What about your customers or suppliers? What are they thinking, what are their perceptions? You must engage in the most direct and thoughtful of manners. Be interested in what everyone has to say, know them, understand them. You will gain more in 2 weeks by becoming interested in what other people think, rather than spending 2 years trying to get other people interested in you. Build those relationships, and do it with sincerity, with honesty, and always with importance. Simple things like appreciation and encouragement go a long way, and it spreads just as fast. 

            Businesses are chock- full of people who are self-seeking, and who focus solely on product/service sales. That’s fine and dandy for them because that is what makes them feel important. But, it is through the rare individuals who can unselfishly serve the needs of others who create real opportunities, the positive awareness, and the great success stories. People will talk, they will listen, and they will flock to those who support their need for feeling important. Make them feel important and watch how fast the awareness of your company, products and services soar.

We study the facts-of-life, and our primary study is of the public mind. We provide crucial interpretation of the public to our clients and we illuminate our client’s every desire to the public.

For more information or to develop your personal public relations campaign plans:

Contact:

Outstory Public Relations Group

A Modern Public Relations Agency

Solving Problems, Changing Attitudes, and Creating Understanding

Outstory PR Group solves business and public relations problems. We serve organizations of for-profit, non-profit, governmental authority, and well-known persons. We develop and manage creative problem-solving campaigns for businesses small and large, both nationally and globally.

Call Outstory PR Group Today: 704-904-0682

Website: http://outstoryprgorup.com

Shawn Stoffel

Shawn@outstoryprgroup.com

“Words that Power Influence” with Public Relations

            What everyone is looking for in today’s digital age, is that one big influential message that can represent their product/service in such a way to bring with it widespread attention and success. It is the holy grail of business marketing, of product/service marketing and of ultimate success or failure. It is through the use of words where the power of influence occurs. An emotional power so strong, yet, so very basic, and instinctual, that success in today’s digital age is determined by it. 

 

Club Not Necessary

            Before the advent of language, or of the written word, success was probably limited to the use of a good sturdy club. But, although the club was probably no doubt a very powerful influential method, we must set that thought aside, and for obvious reasons, we must think more towards the use of modern methods today. The most influential method in today’s modern age is the time tested use of language. And more precisely, the use of strategically planned words crafted into messages which carry with it the emotional power to influence others. Now, before we move too far ahead of ourselves, let’s clarify a few things about that. Some folks will be throwing up their arms in protest, and saying that influencing others is an unethical practice. But, not only is the influential practice not considered an unethical practice, it is a totally natural process that humans have practiced for thousands of years. Persuasion is a natural human process and there is nothing wrong with it, so long as you allow others the opportunity to disagree. Influencing others is not the same as using a good club. We always allow for disagreements, we even go as far as to encourage them, so that we can learn from them, and to continue improving on our own influential methods.

            In order to create the perfect influential message, we must first understand a few basic human appeals. The human appeal, in this sense, simply means to have the basic attraction and interest for something. People’s motives go much deeper than the basic appeals presented below, but, every message needs to at least begin to satisfy these basic appeals first. To create an appeal for whatever your desire is to promote, sell, market or advertise, you must be aware of these basic human appeals. Attraction to anything always involves the basic need to appeal to an individual’s personal preservation, to their passions and intrigue, and to their financial security. Include those basic appeals in every message you create, and you will learn that it doesn’t take very much persuasion to influence others toward your desires.

            If we include just  a few more basic techniques into our message planning, we can further enhance our messages for optimal influence. For example, people develop instant judgments and opinions from reading the very first sentence of your message. That very first sentence must be the most important combination of words you have ever crafted in your life. It must be strong, yet so very basic and instinctual that it captures every basic appeal. The spellings must be correct, the grammar must not be tricky or confusing, and everything that follows that first sentence must be secondary and minute in comparison. Combine into that first sentence the words that would represent the most attractive aspect of your product/service for the absolute desires of your audience, and you have your influential appeal. I know, it sounds like a lot of information to fit into one little sentence, and you’re right, that is why people in the message crafting business make the big bucks. Oh, and did I mention that your first sentence should be less than ten words in length? Yup, that’s right, ten words. You do not need to use words that require a dictionary to determine the meanings, instead, do your homework. Perform a research analysis on the readability level of your audience within whatever particular channel you wish to place your message in. A hint, most social media networks sites are averaging within the 4^th to 5^th-grade reading levels.

            Outstory PR Group can perform all of your readability level analysis for you. We love a challenge; do you have a message that you want to be crafted? We can develop any message with your deepest desires included. Our messages sell, they appeal, and they have the emotional power that gets results.

By no means were we able to cover every aspect of this highly technical subject of message crafting within this short writing. But, adapting to those basic appeals will create better results for your messages had you not used them at all. They are as necessary as we need food to survive. And remember this, everyone has a product/service to offer, yet, not everyone can create the attraction, the appeal, and the influence for success.

For more information or to develop your personal public relations campaign plans:

Contact:

Outstory Public Relations Group

A Modern Public Relations Agency

Solving Problems, Changing Attitudes, and Creating Understanding

Outstory PR Group solves business and public relations problems. We serve organizations of for-profit, non-profit, governmental authority, and well-known persons. We develop and manage creative problem-solving campaigns for businesses small and large, both nationally and globally.

Call Outstory PR Group Today: 704-904-0682

Website: http://outstoryprgorup.com

Shawn Stoffel

Shawn@outstoryprgroup.com

“Public Relations isn’t Propaganda”

            In the public relations business, my path crosses many people from every walk of life. Many are curious about public relations. But most, do not understand what public relations does. Most people have very different points of view about public relations. But, they never seem to have the right view. I usually get the same responses when I ask; what do you think public relations does? The majority of responses go something like this; you do some sort of propaganda work, or I don’t really know what PR does, maybe something with advertising or marketing? I just giggle a little and move right into improving their understanding a bit by explaining to them my long version. It goes something like this:

 

Outstory PR Group. Created to do what PR Agencies aren't doing today.

            Public relations practitioners are just your plain and ordinary common sense business consultants. We merely work on the principles of human decency, which flow direct from the goodness of our hearts, and into every relationship, we find ourselves in. Our way of living and our attitudes are directed for the good of people, for all people. We have excellent habits, practices, and conduct ourselves in a reflective manner which enforces every contact we make with others. We are the relationship builders, the maintainers, the sentinels. We employ our good manners, our behaviors, and our good morals with every person we meet. Others around us; look to us; to solve their problems, because they know we look first at fostering the best of relationships.

            You see, propaganda just doesn’t fit anywhere into that description. Instead, propaganda means providing information in a biased or misleading nature. It is mainly used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Like when The Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014. To confirm even further, annexed means to appropriate, and to appropriate means to take (something) for one‘s own use, typically without the owner’s permission. Propaganda is a strategy used in a misleading nature. Public relation practitioners do not work like that at all. They work to solve problems, and not to create them.

            The idea of public relations working in an advertising and marketing role may be a little harder to explain. But, let’s take a stab at it. First, we must consider a few facts before we can explain that aspect of public relations. Public relations is an extremely complex function of relationship administration. It is an asset that works with for-profit organizations, non-profit organizations, governmental authorities, well-known persons, and the public. It covers such an “enormous” range of activities from protecting interests to education. It is true in the sense that wherever and whenever dealings with the public occur, public relations will be there to care for those relationships.

             Public relations has lost some of its own identity in the past few decades. Not a turn towards propaganda, no, but a turn into a function more of an advertisement and a marketing role. With the convergence of mass media into the internet, advertising and marketing are always mistakenly viewed as the way to get a foothold into any new medium. It happened when radio started, it happened when television started, and it’s happening again with the internet. Everyone is in a frenzy to be heard on this new market, the new medium, the internet. They forget about what truly matters, their public relations. History has taught us many times before that once things begin to teeter off; businesses will again turn to what truly matters, their relationships. But, to those organizations who have not forgotten this crucial element in their success, they are thriving, they are ready for the good times and the bad. They are not in a frenzy. They have plans, their public relations plans. They know that when times are good or bad, their relationships are strong, fostered, and cared for. They understand what reciprocation truly means and they implement that in the right ways.

            Public relations is about the public relations. It’s about establishing, sustaining, and caring for those relationships that truly matter, in good times and the bad.

            Getting back to what truly matters, we must build relationships, the public relations way. Not with marketing or advertising. For they will push your products right off the cliff for you, but your relationships may also go with them. Put the effort where it is most vital, the relationships.

For more information or to develop your personal public relations campaign plans:

Contact:

Outstory Public Relations Group

A Modern Public Relations Agency

Solving Problems, Changing Attitudes, and Creating Understanding

Outstory PR Group solves business and public relations problems. We serve organizations of for-profit, non-profit, governmental authority, and well-known persons. We develop and manage creative problem-solving campaigns for businesses small and large, both nationally and globally.

Call Outstory PR Group Today: 704-904-0682

Website: http://outstoryprgorup.com

Shawn Stoffel

Shawn@outstoryprgroup.com