During my time as a Reference Manager, I have been privileged to work with some great public relation managers and agencies. Some of the PR agencies I have enjoyed working with include A&R Edelman and Kulesa Faul. In this article, I will share some ways you can leverage customer success in your public relations.
First, there are Customer Win Press Releases. This is a press release announcing a closed sales deal with a new customer. You can find out about these new wins by working with your sales organization or even pulling new win reports from your CRM. I am a huge Salesforce advocate and at my last two companies I created more than 30 reports to stay on top of customer wins, new product wins, top customers etc. Here is an example of a Customer Win Press Release - "Savvis Selects Precise to Further Enhance World Class IT Infrastructure Services".
Second, you have a Customer Momentum Press Release. This is a press release that talks about how an existing customer has purchased more software, seen significant ROI using your product, or invested in a new product/solution with your company. Here is an example of one of these press releases - "Louisville Water Company Taps EMC to Manage Rapid Data Growth". My favorite customer momentum releases are where you can identify ROI saved and do a press release about this. When I worked at LANDesk, one of our customers identified huge savings and did a press release with us about it "aQuantive Saves an Estimated $2.2 Million Using LANDesk Solutions".
Third, you have news articles that are pitched by your agency/PR team to the press. This could be an entire article focused on one customer's success or a quote from your customer on particular topic like virtualization. Here is a customer success that was pitched to the press and an entire story was done around it "CareGroup Healthcare Gets 24x7 Availability with Precise Software".
Fourth, you can nominate your customers for awards. Every year, find out the different awards in your space, find out the details including dates and requirements. Next find great customers that match up and ask them if you can nominate them for the award. Most will be honored and work with you on the nomination but be aware that some companies won't allow it or their PR team might just take your nomination and submit it themselves. While at Precise, I helped nominate Dr. Daniel Chan of the New York Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance for a CIO Top 100 and he won! Here's an example of this press release -"Precise Transaction Performance Management Customer Named One of Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2010".
