Whether you are filling out an RFP or putting together your own proposal from scratch, the most successful new business presentations share not only great ideas, but ground those ideas in data and insights. Great pitches tell a prospective client something they didn’t already know about their business, or identify an media opportunity out of existing efforts that efficiently make use of company resources. Each fashion PR agency has its own approach to developing client proposals, from the exploratory phase to presentation style. Regardless, there are multiple ways to glean valuable information and insight about prospects online. Demonstrating that you have done this level of research will not only support PR objectives and big ideas, but demonstrate your strategic approach to brand-building for clients.
In this article, we are going to pretend that your agency is pitching to manage the launch of a new mascara from a well-known cosmetics company. After you have done your initial research on the company website, branded Google searches, and social media chatter, then take a look at the newly revamped Google Trends. These searches will help you compare the online performance of your prospective client against leading cosmetic brands and mascaras. First, do a cursory overview of the Google-generated “hot searches” and “top charts,” and use the “explore” feature and search by keyword. You will be able to limit your search results by web search, image search, news search, google shopping, or YouTube search. The information that comes from Google Trends is not only a more accurate reflection of a prospective client’s social influence, but also an efficient use of your time (so that hours are not spent navigating the web to gain only a limited understanding of your client’s reach).
Based on the results of our cosmetic brands and mascara product searches, we discover that Benefit Cosmetics mascaras are some of the most talked about and frequently-reviewed mascara’s online. You uncover that through a series of well-timed social campaigns and competitions, these results are based on efforts taken by the brand to keep their mascara top of mind. In addition, Google Trends also gives you a geographical breakdown of where your client’s product is experiencing its greatest SEO. This, followed by further independent research may provide some good helpful insights about the audience you should be targeting with your mascara launch campaign. Whether you choose to pitch a similar strategy that leverages many of the same tactics as a leading competitor, or take a completely different approaching, grounding your recommendations in research will help you to be able to quantify your creative ideas.
If you like the idea of data-driven proposals and pitches and are looking for an even more robust option that will allow you to track and compare brands by social channel, publisher count, audience size, impressions, and earned media, you might want to invest in a media monitoring or trend service. At Tribe, we put all this into affordable packages designed specifically for the fashion and beauty industries. Our earned media report, pictured below, reports on SEO, blog mentions and digital press. For more reporting, check out a few of our trend-specific reports and visit our solutions page for more information. I hope you find them valuable in an upcoming pitch.
Photo Credit: vonderauvisuals
