Public relations is all about a personal outreach. No matter how digitised your outreach and efforts, it is the personal impression your stakeholders have of your brand that will mark your relationship with them. How to establish those relationships? Get up close and personal. Time to reassess some of your outreach options.

1. In-house company events – the bustle to your hustle

Hosting a customer event or setting up a customer visit work miracles for any customer/prospect retention intention. After all, it’s the perfect way of showing people why they (should) love you. And when invested in successfully, the long-term benefit is substantial. Spread love to get it. It can be that simple, albeit time and budget intensive.

Need a cheat sheet? Check this guideline blog by Cindy Van Luyck (CHILI publish).

2. Press initiatives - be in it for the long haul

Austrian magazine 4c organises a yearly Printtour. For the 2017 edition, the editor-in-chief decided Belgium was the place to be. With a mixed audience of 13 C-level people attending, the program had to be as varied as possible. With a little advice from a local resident, participants to the tour visited industry suppliers (likes of Kodak, EFI, …), software innovators (CHILI publish), associations (VIGC, CEPI), but also actual printing houses (Symeta, Grafische Group Matthys and 3Motion) and even a substrate supplier (Squid). Variety spices the appetite and it did the trick just fine. The C-level participants indulged in the information flood and were surprised at the high level of graphic expertise and ingenuity in this little country of ours. Participating in a press set-up can look daunting to companies unfamiliar to dealing with the press, but open communication will get you far. It will even get you nice coverage along the way for you to repurpose elsewhere. Content and all, you know.

3. Trade shows - face-to-face one-on-ones to close the deal

In today’s lead generation driven society, it is still the firm handshake that closes the deal. Because despite all variety and the cornucopia of solutions offerings, we still rely on word-of-mouth, reputation and recommendation. We’ll explore the website, click the clickbait e-mail titles, read the brochure - but at the end of the day, business is to be conducted with people. Invest in trade show participation - when you invest wisely in a traffic track, you’ll see people will seek you out, find you and get to know you.

Fespa Paola Bonfanti Anna Naruszko Jolanta Ziemniak-Ronke Maya Staels

Kornit Digital Guy Zimmerman Fespa press conference 2017

Invest in the people you hope will invest in you. It’s a two-way track.

And despite the bigger options I mentioned above, never ever underestimate what one single act of interaction can cause. A kind word in a mail could result in a personal call, which in turn, could turn into a sales meeting, a deal-closer and with a bit of luck, a customer for life.

Be present where you need to be present and whom you’d like to be presented too. It will work miracles for your reputation.

On that note, I hope to meet you in person at #print17. Enough sitting behind the desk, time to practice what I preach.

Reach out to me via Twitter or LinkedIn - happy to meet up and get blown away in the windy city!