Public Relations | 7 Reasons to SHIFT

7 Reasons to SHIFT

While other firms talk a good game about the need for disciplined PR to help motivate sales, they continue to craft communications programs within the marketing “silo;” they continue to report solely to the marketing chief; they haul elephantine clip books to quarterly review meetings and bring a glossy version for the next Board of Directors meeting.

By contrast, SHIFT Communications’ unique approach is initiated at the intersection of the CEO’s vision, the marketing executive’s strategy and the sales field realities. We win in competitive situations thanks to the creativity of our ideas – which are based on how we can positively impact a client’s business, not just its reputation. Think, “Reputations That Drive Revenues” when you think “SHIFT.”

We define the “public” in Public Relations as “prospects”. Our goal is to help clients develop transaction-based relationships with prospects, while helping to shape the broader conversation unfolding within diverse online communities.

Today, your corporate message is only as credible as your online audience says it is. Perception is reality. At SHIFT, we expertly navigate the blogosphere and other social media outlets to help shape the conversation about your brand, your products, your station in life.

There’s still a role for traditional technology public relations. But the door to your messaging has been kicked wide open by your followers and detractors. We’ll help you get comfortable with transparency, and acquaint you with the benefits of social media PR.

The PR industry’s historic inability to quantify its impact has led to frequent budgetary drubbings. SHIFT is trying to change that paradigm now; working with clients at the beginning of the engagement to ensure they are equipped to measure our performance.

PR can impact many types of transactions, but most often it needs to impact lead generation. The client organization must be capable of capturing, tracking and analyzing their lead flow, if they hope to measure the impact of PR and other marketing programs.

Once they have been empowered to do so (through process changes and/or technology investments), SHIFT’s clients find themselves able to make specific statements as:

“Public Relations accounted for 32.7 percent of sales leads in the last quarter; of these leads, 20.1 percent were high quality and we closed 14 percent of them. Our churn among customers who came to us through Public Relations is 7 percent… etc., etc.”

With such sophisticated tracking power on-hand, PR always shines!

Now, re-read the sample quote above but replace “PR” with any other marketing campaign – e-mail, direct mail, advertising, etc. Or replace “sales” with “new stock holders” or “new partners” or “trade event and webinar attendees.” By helping clients identify and measure the results of the entire marketing program mix, SHIFT becomes more tightly engaged with its clients.

Although the details of our processes are proprietary, broadly, they begin with Messaging Labs with a client’s CEO, the top sales executive (and, separately, with bellwether employees within the field sales force) and the marketing team.

Once the message and strategy are set, SHIFT creates and deploys “High Performance” communications programs, ranging from traditional media relations and product launches to hard-core Competitive Relations campaigns.

SHIFT works best with companies of $10M - $500M in revenues. We have three offices, in Boston, San Francisco and New York, but our 70+ technology and consumer clients come from all over the world, and come in all shapes and sizes.

These are the values that make a SHIFT employee an “A Player:” Fearlessness. Loyalty. Honesty. Initiative. Optimism. Quality.

Fearlessness is the most valued trait and the most telling reason for why SHIFT attracts and retains creative and dynamic employees. We do not encourage malcontent but rather have structured our business in such a way that employees can tell their clients what they really think about the PR program, the message, etc., without fear of reprisal. If we lose a client as a result of such fearless counsel, no one loses a job. This creates an atmosphere of freedom and opportunity that motivates more effective programs and better client relationships.

We recently won the “Agency of the Year” award from the American Business Awards, but we’re not content to rest on our laurels. SHIFT will continue to innovate on the social media front. We will doggedly educate all staffers about the evolving tools of the trade – otherwise known as PR 2.0.

And we’ll continue to grow intelligently, engaging new clients only when we can do the relationship justice.