Lincolnshire Tourism Conference - ‘Success through Quality’

PR Workshop (20 Minutes)

Summary

Have you ever seen an article about a business, similar to yours, in your local press, your favorite

magazine or on the radio and thought ‘we could do that’; well now’s your chance!

Help us put Lincolnshire and your business in the press to capture the attention of visitors.

1. What is PR, and how will working with the media boost business?

Encouraging the press to write about your business and Lincolnshire is a great way highlight what the

county can offer. Readers also hold their favourite journalists in high respect so a good word from

them can boost business for you. It won’t cost anything – just the time to make a phone call or write

an email.

2. Sounds interesting, but what do I do next?

Hear practical tips and advice about promoting your business, events and your latest news to local,

regional and national press. Understand what the press want, how to talk to them and how to get

results!

3. Don’t forget, Visit Lincolnshire is also here to help

At Visit Lincolnshire we have a dedicated press office working with journalists to raise the profile of

the county to potential visitors. We also work with regional and national partners VB, VE and EMT.

We have the media contacts but you have the stories….help us get them out to the press!

Introduction – 2 minutes

Welcome to the PR workshop.

Introduction – session run by Emma Tatlow Head of Marketing and Business Development and

Charlotte Goy, Media Executive.

Charlotte has 4 years PR and media relations experience working with local, regional, national

and international travel journalist (Press cutting folder).

What we will cover in this 20 minute session

1. What is PR, and how will working with the media boost business?

2. How to get involved and ‘Do It Yourself’

3. Working with Visit Lincolnshire

What is PR, and how will working with the media boost business? – 5 minutes

Public Relations is about managing the relationship a business has with its public, or in this case the

relationship your business has with visitors.

Within public relations the media play a vital role, which is why public relations is sometimes referred to as

media relations. In PR the media are used as a third party, or a louder voice, to get your message across

to visitors.

PR can be used exclusively, but it’s most effective when used as a marketing tool alongside your website,

advertising, direct mailing etc.

At Visit Lincolnshire we use PR in exactly this way, to support all other marketing activity – and you can

do the same!

Case study example – to demonstrate how PR works with, and complements marketing I’ll run through

an example.

See advert for

Lincolnshire

Google

search

visitlincolnshir

e.com

Request a

Brochure for

more

information

Read an article

or review about

a B&B, attraction

in a magazine

from a trusted

journalist

Want to know

more so sign

up to Blog or

Twitter

This is a, very simplified example, of how we / Visit Lincolnshire, use all our marketing tactics to promote

the county. But this can also be scaled down to a local or regional level for your business like these

examples.

Lincolnshire Echo & Lawn Visitor Centre

Meridian Meats

How will this boost business – Despite the recession these are opportune times for tourism businesses.

The buzz word of 2009 was around the ‘staycation’ and never before has the media spotlight been so

bright on UK based tourism businesses. Understanding PR and how it can work for you, at a local,

regional or even national level, can really help boost business.

Doing PR and using the media to sing about all the good things your business can offer, upcoming events

or news will raise visitors’ awareness; they will then seek out your business as a place to visit, stay or eat

at above others.

How to get involved and ‘Do It Yourself’

PR costs nothing except your time and imagination – many tourism businesses already do it in-house,

perhaps without knowing so. This session will highlight some top tips for doing it yourself and how to talk

to the media and get included in their articles.

Recognising what is newsworthy – take a step backwards from the day to day running of your business

to see if you have anything that is newsworthy or interesting for the press.

Very newsworthy – launching a new TOL menu, investing in new services, expanding business,

winning awards, success stories, human interest stories…

Recognising what media to target – when you got something to say to the press, next you have to

decide who the best press outlet is to tell; is it a local story, a regional story or a story that a national

journalist would like.

Local press interests – local investment, local people, local angle…(Sue Hoy)

Regional press interests – destination round ups & features.

National press interests – round up in events, features involving many businesses.

Getting your story / news to the right press in the best way – journalists are pulled in all directions.

Even if you have a cracking story the success of it all depends on the method you use to get it to the

press.

Writing an effective press release – read through

How to make sure your email isn’t rejected unread – subject line

The importance of rapid response – phone calls and sending information back.

Success! You got coverage – congratulations on getting coverage and your story successfully across to

the press. This story and information will now be read by potentially thousands of people and potential

visitors. Readers also hold their favourite journalists in high regards so a good word from them could

result in a business boosts for you!

Recognise the work of the journalist and say thanks – keep lines of communication open.

Keep all your coverage and display it for visitors to see

Mention coverage on your website (watch out for licensing laws), put in hyperlinks to online

coverage and tweet about it.

This is just the beginning – for every bit of coverage you get you’ve secured another contact in your

address book.

Cultivating contacts - for this, quality is certainly more important then quantity. Journalists need a

good flow of story ideas as much as you desire coverage. Now you’ve got a conversation going

with them be sure to keep them in the loop of all your news and stories, and if possible get as

information off them for future articles they are writing.

Working with Visit Lincolnshire

All the above PR we have discussed is what our Press Office specialise in. We have a very strong

address book of local, regional and national contacts we feed stories to – with great success!

We also work with our regional partner EMT and VB/VE to target as many press opportunities as

possible.

Keeping us in the loop of your news - If you have a story or press release send them to us as well as the

press, they may come in handy for PR we are planning to do.

Look at our Media Room – see what press release we write and copy their style

Become a VL member and receive additional PR help & If you need help – contact us!

Questions and answers – 3 minutes