Limitless
Limitless Public Relations

What is the PESO model? How to get your ducks in a row

Posted on by Claire Stephenson

PESO is a well-used model within the communications industry. The acronym stands for Paid Earned Shared Owned in terms of media. It relates to the channels used to communicate your campaign messages and how they can cross over with one another.

For us as public relations professionals, we often like to call it the ESOP model as we lean to the earned media channel because securing influential media coverage is our priority.

But what does it mean? Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks created the model in 2014, although others believe Ketchum’s Don Bartholomew developed it previously in 2010. Here’s the breakdown of what it means:

PAID: The channels you pay to place your campaign message on.

EARNED: Coverage secured about a cause, product or a business on an influential media site.

SHARED: Sharing of your campaign message by people through social channels.

OWNED: Editorial created by you to sit on channels controlled by you.

The diagram below, which is our version of Dietrich’s, shows channel examples so you can see how they interlink. The middle section is the area you should aim to be working towards: a positive reputation that helps you to succeed.

No individual channel is more important than the other in the PESO model. The amount to which you use them will ultimately depend on your overall communication objectives, who you want to target and, of course, your budget.

When planning your communication strategy, we always start with one single powerful question: what do you want to be known for? Once that’s clear, we work with you to determine your messaging strategy.

We then apply the PESO model, and depending on your objectives; we may use one or many elements of this model.

It sounds simple. But in all reality, the best campaigns often are.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you achieve your communication goals, drop us a line.

The wisdom of crowds and the power of ‘buzz’

Posted on by Michael Gregory

One thing that Greg Wilson learnt early in his career, even before he was in public relations, was that people follow the crowd…

As a graduate in the late 90s looking for my first marketing job, I naively came up with the idea that if I could get my mates’ band a record deal, it would look amazing on my CV. I dutifully got a whole load of CDs printed and developed a “promotional pack” to send out to record company A&Rs, inviting them to a “showcase gig” at a renowned A&R pub in Camden. I hammered the phones asking if my beautiful promo packs had been received, did they like the CD? Were they coming to the gig? Several said yes. But on the big day, to massive disappointment, all-round, not one record company showed.

When I called to ask why, I remember one particularly honest response. The promo pack was very nice, he said. He even really liked the CD, but he was only ever really interested in coming to see bands who already have some “buzz”. Put simply, “selling” a band to a record company doesn’t work. Not unless they’ve already heard that you’re one to watch.

When that happens, the direction of travel is reversed. Bands with “buzz” often ended up with record companies fighting to sign them up, to the utter dismay and disbelief of all the other bands who are pitching themselves so relentlessly.

This was an early lesson that the perceived “wisdom of crowds” trumps salesmanship and fantastic marketing every time, no matter how beautiful your sales pitch is.

But how exactly do you define “buzz”? Well following the music business example, it was hearing the band’s name from venue owners, promoters, sometimes rival artists – basically anybody who didn’t have a vested interest in the band’s success – before receiving the CD and gig date. It was about being seen to already have fans. A following, if you like.

After more than 20 years in the public relations profession, the same still goes. If your buyers can see evidence of your greatness, outside of what you are telling them directly, they will follow that crowd wisdom – and buy-in to all your empirical evidence that you are the right choice.

This is the lesson for sales and marketers who are unsure about the value of PR. Hone your marketing and your sales pitch all you like. But if you want to be a superstar, make sure you have the “buzz” to back it up. Be the one to watch before you try to sell, and selling will suddenly seem easy.

In fact, they may just come to you.

Limitless rebrands to support expansion plans

Posted on by Michael Gregory

Limitless has undergone rebrand of it’s visual identity to mark the start of a five-year growth plan for the agency.

The strategic public relations and brand communications agency is to expand nationally and internationally through organic growth, joint ventures and acquisitions. 

Michael Gregory, who joined Limitless alongside existing directors Greg Wilson and Richard Slater in November 2020, said: “The pandemic provided us with a chance to recalibrate the business, focus on what we do best and rebrand our identity. And that’s to help our clients be known for what they want to be known for.

“It’s a simple proposition and one that gets to the heart of the matter. It helps us to shape campaigns that achieve clients’ brand and communication objectives.

“The next five years are going to be exciting for us and all our partners. We’ve got realistic plans in place to grow the business domestically and internationally. We’re talking to like-minded partners in the UK and Europe, to collaborate or form structured partnerships that will benefit clients.

“Our growth will be fuelled by doing an excellent job for clients. That’s the sure-fire way of getting to where we want to be.”

Get in touch HERE to book an initial free of charge strategy session.

Why public relations helps remove fear

Posted on by Michael Gregory

Listening to some words of wisdom from wonderful award-winning sales training firm Sales Geek, I learnt a simple equation for sales. 

Need + Value – Fear = Sales

When you see it laid out like that, it seems so simple, like one of those things that is so obviously true when you see it, you can’t believe you’ve never heard it before.

To achieve sales, you need to establish who has a need, demonstrate the value you can provide in meeting that need, and take away the fear of going ahead.

While the beautiful logic of it looks so simple, there is, of course, a huge amount of process that goes into achieving success with those three factors. Need, as identified in the equation, can basically be translated as lead generation. Whatever you do for lead generation, be it SEO, networking, mailshotting, you’re basically establishing who has a need for what you do or sell.

Value is easily translated as sales conversion. Whatever you do to convert those leads into sales, be it your website UX, or your hotshot in a Mondeo with the awesome literature, you’re demonstrating your value and the specifics of why you are better than your competitor.

But how do you take away the fear?

You can build a process for lead generation and a follow-up process for sales conversion. But take away the fear? Where is the process for that? How can you have a process for something so ethereal?

You could argue that that’s the stuff of magic. And it is, and I do. It’s the magic of brand awareness, or to use another term, PR. Good old-fashioned PR. Being famous, sometimes seemingly for being famous’ sake. Therein lies the magic. It’s what great brands and great companies are built on. Brand awareness is about taking way the fear.

It’s about being the salesperson from the famous brand against the salesperson from the unknown quantity. It’s about being the website you’ve already heard of, not the sidebar scrabbler. It’s about being the obvious choice from the outset. It’s why big brands do it, and why they are big brands. Say hello to public relations and goodbye to buyer fear.

If you’d like to know more about how public relations can help build your brand, drop us a line