PR pros who are fans of the show can take more than entertainment from the show’s characters.
If you’re waiting for Lorelai and Rory to grace your screen again, harken back to Stars Hollow with these PR and marketing lessons:
1. Provide excellent customer service.
Luke: “Don’t bother. I saw you coming and already ordered your Wednesday usual: the French dip, extra fries, the every Wednesday cherry pie.”
Rory: “Such service.”
Successful marketing focuses on people. If you aren’t connecting with and helping potential and current customers, why would they continue to come back to your business?
2. Don’t respond emotionally.
Rory: “I just don’t want to do or say anything else that’s going to be completely moronic.”
Lorelai: “I’m afraid once your heart is involved, it all comes out in moron.”
It can be hard not to take a negative comment or online review personally.
Instead of firing off an emotionally charged response that can make you and your organization appear unprofessional, take a breath and collect yourself.
Ask if there’s something you can learn from the feedback. Perhaps you can offer a new service, improve your a product or provide better customer service. Once you’ve composed yourself, apologize and ask the commenter to reach out you can discuss their complaint personally. Make sure you leave your contact information!
3. Start a conversation.
Emily: “Now, take me through this step by step. You see a man, you walk up to him and you say?”
Lorelai: “Hello.”
Emily: “Is that too forward?”
Lorelai: “No. It’s the appropriate way to indicate you’re open to a social engagement.”
Don’t be afraid to make the first move. When you meet someone new, start a conversation with them. “Hello” is a great way to start!
Focus on them: Find out how you might be able to help them, rather than just talking about you and your organization the whole time.
4. Be pleasantly persistent.
Paris: “I just wanted to tell you again that I had so much fun last night.”
Tristan: “Yeah, after five messages on my answering machine, I kind of got that impression.”
Whether you’re following up with a potential customer or a journalist, don’t be too aggressive.
Instead, try “pleasant persistence.” Check in enough that you stay front of mind, but not so much that the person feels like you’re stalking him or her.
5. Make it easy to contact you.
Lorelai: “Yes, I left behind a glass slipper and a business card just in case the prince is really dumb.”
Is your contact information buried? Make it as easy as possible for potential and current customers to get in touch with you. At the very least, include a phone number and email address or contact form in a prominent place on your website.
6. Prioritize.
Lorelai: “Don’t study so much that you get brilliant, go mad, grow a big bald egghead and try to take over the world, OK? Because I want to go shoe shopping this weekend.”
Rory: "Promise. I will not go mad until we get you some boots.”
As you create your marketing plan, brainstorm tactics you think would best achieve your goals—and then prioritize which ones you want to try first.
Every 6 months to a year, evaluate how they went so you can determine if you should continue with your current strategy, make a few small changes or go in a completely new direction.
7. Be flexible.
Paris: “What if I fall for him, but he doesn’t like me?”
Rory: “You’ll find someone else.”
Paris: “What if there is no one else?”
Rory: “Then you’ll get some cats.”
As in life, marketing plans don’t always turn out the way we’d expect. Be flexible and view failed strategies as an opportunity to learn and improve.
8. Remember that nothing is instant.
Lorelai: “OK, I know I was the one that said I was craving mashed potatoes, but oh my God, they’re a lot of work.”
Rory: “It’s instant mashed potatoes. Key word: instant.”
Lorelai: “Oh, no, not instant. I have to mix water and butter into it, not to mention the adding of salt and pepper.”
Successful marketing takes time. Even though running Facebook ads or updating your blog regularly can be fantastic tactics to implement, they won’t double or triple your sales overnight. Keep at it to see long-term results.
9. Pay attention.
Rory: “Jamie just asked you out on a date.”
Paris: “He did?”
Rory: “Yes.”
Paris: “Did I accept?”
Rory: “Yes.”
Paris:” I’m going out on a date?”
Rory: “Yes, you are.”
Paris: “Oh, man. I finally get asked out on a date and I missed it.”
Do you look at your analytics regularly? They’re one of the best ways to see what your readers and followers are telling you.
At least every 4-6 weeks, look at your website, social media and email marketing data. As you review the data, make note of popular posts, clicked links and trends that may help you finesse your marketing strategy.
10. Change your perspective.
Lane: “I don’t know what happened. I mean, I was just standing there and then he bends over and his hair falls forward, and suddenly it’s like my hand has a life of its own.”
Lorelai: “Sounds like your hand had a little help from your hormones.”
Lane: “Go,d I was so humiliated! I can’t ever go back to school. I’ll have to be home schooled—my mother finally gets her way.”
Lorelai: “Look at it from a different perspective: You have so many years of screw-ups ahead of you. View this as a trial run for really grown-up humiliation.”
Instead of looking at a failed marketing tactic as a waste of time, learn everything you can from it. Then turn around, use what you learned and come up with a new way to achieve your organization’s marketing goals.
What PR and marketing lessons have you gleaned from the dialogue in “Gilmore Girls?”
Emily Sidley is the director of publicity at Three Girls Media. A version of this article originally appeared on Three Girls, a Dog and a Marketing Blog.
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