Are you ready for PR? While any business can orchestrate PR, how can you be sure you are getting the best sound from your trumpet?

The simple answer is, be prepared. An effective public relations and publicity strategy relies upon the depth of the organizations business and marketing plan. What is your organizations mission? Its goals? What product or service are you marketing? Who are your target customers? Who are your competitors? Dont get the cart before the horse; PR IS the first step to launching a product or service, but these other steps must come first.

A good PR company is going to ask you these same questions. Once they have been answered, they will craft the language that best describes your products, services, and the qualities that set you apart from your competition. Then they will seed these messages with the media, opinion makers and other influential third-parties who can sign your praises. These same messages also become the core content of your Web site, product and program brochures, direct mail flyers, newsletters and advertising copy.

Think of yourself as the conductor of an orchestra; you must know every note of the musical before it is played, what each musician will play, and when they will play it. PR is your baton; with it you direct the musicians and influence the timing and intensity of the performance. To the audience - your customers - the baton represents your credibility. If you have prepared and rehearsed, it visibly demonstrates that you are the master of a marvelous symphony, deserving of a standing ovation.

Peter TerHorst

Peter terHorst is president of SymPoint Communications. He honed his extensive sales, marketing and public relations experience in a 20-year career with the Motorcycle Division of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. From 1997-2002, he led the company?s publicity efforts as Press Manager during the company?s resurgence as the leading U.S. motorcycle brand. Mr. terHorst has considerable non-profit experience as well. He was Executive Director of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, the largest source of non-governmental funding for pediatric brain tumor research in the world. He directed the foundation?s successful fund-raising program, the Ride for Kids?, to consecutive record years in 2002 and 2003, oversaw the expansion of the foundation?s media outreach and instigated a national media campaign to broaden public awareness of childhood brain tumors, the country?s deadliest childhood cancer.

Mr. terHorst and his family reside in the beautiful mountain community of Asheville, NC. For more information, please visit sympoint.com.