In marketing, if advertising is compared to moves in martial arts, then soft articles are internal skills and mental methods. The highest level of advertising is to generate internal skills and mental methods from moves; while soft copy is just the opposite, practicing moves from mental methods; in addition to moves and mental methods, it also requires excellent weapons, which are marketing activities. Integrating these three is the highest state of martial arts and the highest state of marketing.
After a period of confusion, the soft article marketing model has reached the level of "three wins", putting the vital interests of consumers first.
The sales of such soft articles will no longer be a fantasy, but an achievable ideal state. The text does not need to be gorgeous or shocking, but it must be spoken from the bottom of your heart, because it is the common language that touches people's hearts the most; every word and every word is for the benefit of consumers.
There is a famous DIY home decoration chain store abroad. The secret of its success is to save money for consumers. The first responsibility of each employee is to tell consumers which decoration materials and tools can meet their requirements. It also saves the most money. A consumer wanted to buy a set of tools worth US$5,000 to solve a difficult problem. An employee of the chain store provided him with a simple solution for only US$5. Can the consumer not be moved? Can you not come when I need you next time?
Many people will say that such a store is too silly, and that consumers should be allowed to spend as much money as possible, which is the key to getting rich quickly. However, stupid people have their own stupid blessings. This store is considerate of consumers, and consumers who get benefits rush to spread the word. No advertising fees are spent. The number of visitors every day is often too many to accommodate. Business is very good. With popularity, financial resources will naturally roll in.
The "Three Wins" soft article model has many similarities with the Chinese Tai Chi. It uses softness to overcome hardness and fights hard. It may seem weak and weak, but it has profound internal power and directly hits the vital points of the human heart. It is difficult to sell goods.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, the famous black leader in the United States, presided over a demonstration rally for freedom attended by 250,000 people in Washington, and published an article that made the United States The speech "I Have a Dream" is still unforgettable by the people.
In fact, Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” is the best “three-win” soft article template, which has transcended the narrowness of fighting for oneself and a small group. and limitations, reaching the highest level of dedicating oneself to the freedom of all black people in the United States. As he said, "I have such a dream in my heart, that is, we can eventually fill in all the ravines in the world, remove all the barriers in the world, turn roughness into prosperity, and turn roughness into plainness. At that time, God's halo will Reappearance, all the creatures in the world come to worship Christ.”
Basics of public relations soft articles: Column articles
Most of the early soft articles were in the form of columns, which originated from the evolution of print advertising. Therefore, columns are also called "text ads". When simple print advertisements cannot explain the efficacy of the product in depth, and when the information that can be expressed is difficult to complete through advertising, the advertisement becomes a text advertisement, which is what is called a "column" today.
The most commonly used field of "column" is the promotion of health care, beauty and other types of consumer products. Such products are characterized by less connotation, and consumers rarely pay attention to them. Therefore, simple print advertisements The effect is very limited. On the contrary, if you add pictures of beautiful women or more eye-catching pictures, and use both pictures and texts to psychologically attack consumers, you can make them have a strong desire to buy. It is worth noting that articles on electronic consumer products such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3s, and flash drives are generally illustrated with pictures and texts in the media. However, these products are products that the public pays more attention to, and the media themselves are willing to publish them. Therefore, their significance Different from "column". This is also the reason why media public relations costs for IT customers are far lower than those for consumer products, and responsible public relations companies will also make the most reasonable quotations based on the actual conditions of the customer's products.
The operation method of "column" is almost the same as advertising. When operating, we generally choose evening newspaper media with large circulation. The price of "column" is higher, ranging from 5 yuan/word to 15 yuan/word. No wait. If you choose county-level or non-mainstream media, the price can be as low as 2 yuan/word. The price of heavyweight central media, such as the People's Daily, requires 30 yuan/word, and there are many restrictions.
It can be seen that for a column with 1/3 of the page and about 2,000 words, if it is an excellent media, the price may even reach 20,000-30,000, which is a very high price. The marketing expenses of many small and medium-sized enterprises are very limited, and choosing a column is either a matter of sweeping in a large amount of funds, or it is really out of necessity.
As for columns, an unwritten saying in the industry is that any article can be published in a newspaper, as long as you have money. In other words, if there is really no choice, I can still publish the article through the column so that the people can see it. Because of this, columns are an indispensable supplement in daily communication. Articles such as corporate culture, in-depth product introductions, consumption environment simulations, trial notes, etc. often need columns to coordinate.
There are several commonly used methods of columns:
1. Creating a sense of crisis: soft articles make the audience feel fear, and then propose solutions, which will be a matter of course.
2. Consumption environment creation: My wife bought me something. After using it, my complexion improved and I felt refreshed
3. Consumption role model setting: Go to XX place, so-and-so No matter what, I am... in sharp contrast.
4. In-depth product introduction: XX is one of the top ten functions of XX product. It has several functions and has been voted in several columns. This product is awesome and has ten major functions.
5. Corporate culture: This company is so awesome. For such an awesome company, of course the products are excellent.
6. Essay solicitation, promotions, activities, etc.: must be made known to everyone in the evening newspaper.
As far as soft article planning is concerned, the price of "column" is very expensive after all, so in the marketing process, if you can do without column soft article, try not to use it.
Practice and strategies for public relations soft articles: Hype articles
The media always publish articles. If the level of writing of a soft article exceeds the best article in a certain newspaper page, and the manuscript The events involved in it are very consistent with the style of a certain newspaper. Such soft articles are already a martial arts master.
However, such good things rarely happen, and even if they do, if a soft article is only targeted at one media, the writing task will be too heavy for the public relations company. What's more, reporters are good at reporting and commenting on news. Thousands of things happen every day. When competing with reporters for manuscripts and news, public relations companies will definitely be at a disadvantage.
Many things are trivial in the eyes of ordinary people, but for soft article hype, they must be big things. As long as you make things bigger and justify yourself in the end, you can achieve the best results. For example, if you want to talk about a simple promotion event in a big way, you have to focus on the industry, ask negative questions, and then answer it positively. The general arrangement of the article is:
1. Propose the big news that "XXX is about to die"
2. Discover that "there is still one breath"
3 , "So that's it!"
In addition, the hype must be carried out from all angles at the same time. After a comprehensive SWOT analysis of the company's products, some advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and challenges will be discovered. The advantages are To be carried forward, disadvantages must be there for a reason, opportunities must be expanded, and challenges must be met. Then we can effectively formulate the overall route for the soft article to be hyped, and then carry out all-round hype from various angles such as industry, industry, enterprise, channel, consumer, brand, etc. Common hype examples include:
1. Industry analysis: This industry has lacked vitality and needs some new things to promote development
2. Industry analysis: There are various means of competition, so we should be more playful There are new tricks, or it can be said that developing technology is the last word, or that service is the basis for success.
3. Exclusive interview: Don’t you believe it? Listen to what the authorities say. ——Suitable for companies that are good at hype.
4. Channels: XX is ambitious and consumers will buy it, so come and distribute this product.
5. Consumer: Are you confused? Let me tell you what to do.
6. Brand: XX is the originator, a challenger to XX, and the leader of XX
Of course, this method is suitable for aggressive companies, and for some more conservative companies For enterprises, the hype methods are relatively monotonous. However, once such a company needs soft articles, it is usually caused by a magnitude 7 earthquake, and the impact is indeed very wide. At this time, the soft article hype should be "still holding the pipa half-hiding" and "stop talking", and inform it bit by bit.
The soft article operation uses news releases, news comments, news comments, news comments... to carry out chronic bombing. Otherwise, as soon as a big review draft is published, the things will be stated clearly and clearly, and then it will be useless to hype it.
The highest level of public relations soft articles: Invisible Chapter
The highest level of martial arts is to win with no moves but one move, and four taels can make a fortune. The hype of public relations soft articles can be compared to this. It is the supreme mental method of Tai Chi, which can achieve the purpose of press release invisibly.
For example, there are frequent acquisition cases in home appliances, patent infringement lawsuits in the IT industry, paint-related cases in the paint industry, and wave after wave of large price reduction cases with Chinese characteristics. The popular behavior of destroying one's own products has earned a lot of media attention. But this can only be used to hype up more advanced soft articles, but the discussion is rarely upgraded, so the effect is only average.
The most basic article in which the intangible is better than the tangible is not the highest level of public relations writing: it seems to be a fair comment from a third party's perspective, but the entire article speaks for the client. The so-called supreme goal is to force competitors to take action, or to attract the attention of the media, actively follow up, and let others spend money to promote themselves.
The way to force competitors to take action is to take the initiative to attack the opponent's weaknesses. Generally, companies in the second and third tiers of the market attack companies in the first echelon to attack others in order to improve themselves. Because it is a weak point, competitors can only slowly worm their way in even though they know it is a trap. When spending money to exonerate themselves, they have to improve others. This is actually an approach that is beneficial to both parties. If the two companies cooperate tacitly, the effect will be very good. For enemies in the market, if they can't compete with each other, they can attack each other tacitly. The tacit hype between Rising and Kingsoft can be regarded as a more successful example.
The media has a keen sense of smell, and what consumers pay most attention to is what the media needs most. Many times, we only need to provide a topic, such as the media generally reporting whether the use of household air conditioners is healthy, which is much more effective than hyping the Haier Healthy Air Conditioner itself. In addition, for online media, their large-scale reprinting of excellent articles has undoubtedly achieved the excellent effect of soft article dissemination. No matter which method is used, it is the best way to make a big difference, to make a voice, and to "encourage" the media to help hype the concept.
No matter how it is hyped, it uses the least resources and arouses the uproar of the whole society. This kind of soft article hype is the real supreme of martial arts.