12.05.05
Posted in Creativity, Biz Success Strategies at 10:41 pm by admin
You know that old saying — if you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there. That’s what happens if you don’t take the time to figure out what your goals are and WRITE them down. There’s power in writing things down. Trust me, I’m a writer. I KNOW.
Figuring out your goals is probably one of the most important and one of the most overlooked steps for creative professionals starting their business. Ideally you should put together a business plan. However, I have yet to meet a creative professional (including myself) who has one. (In fact, if you do have a business plan, please contact me. I’d love to chat with you about it.) Second best is getting your goals down on paper. Here are some things to include.
Your personal mission statement. What do you want to accomplish in your life? Not just as a creative professional, artist or writer, but as a person. Knowing your mission will make organizing your time much easier.
Your creative or artistic goals — both long-term and short-term. What do you want to accomplish in three months? Six months? This year? Five years from now?
Your financial goals — both long-term and short-term. Don’t forget to write down how much money you want to make.
Your plans for your business — both long-term and short-term. Break it down the same as your creative or artistic goals — three months, six months, one year and five years. Include a marketing plan as well. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just figure out who your target market is, where your target market is (i.e., local, regional, specific cities or national), and how you’re going to reach your target market.
Action steps for each goal, including the marketing plan. Break each goal into manageable steps, number each step and add a completion date. Make a separate copy of this and put it where you can incorporate these action steps into your daily activities.
Don’t rush this process. In fact, you should make it a treat for yourself. Go on a retreat. Try and get away for at least a day if at all possible (a couple of days would be better yet). Go somewhere where you won’t be interrupted (and that includes the cell phone). Allow yourself some quiet time to really think. If it helps, do some meditating or journaling during this time.
Don’t worry about it being perfect either. This is a working document. Ideally you should review it every six months or a year and see where you are and what’s changed.
Now, when I first started my business five years ago, I hadn’t planned anything or written anything down.
This was a mistake.
Sure I had some vague notions in my head of where I wanted my business and my writing to go, but by not committing anything to paper, I didn’t end up there. My first three years of my business I was busy and making money, but I wasn’t getting anywhere near the vague notions dancing around in my head. Even more amazing, I couldn’t figure out why.
So two years ago, I started a regular practice of writing down my goals and plan (much like the above). I do it twice a year, and you wouldn’t believe the difference. Sure, my plans are far bigger than what I actually accomplish, and I’ve also found myself modifying and changing my action steps (the goals remain pretty constant, but how I attain those goals does change).
Best yet, I’m now seeing results. I’m accomplishing my goals.
Take the time to go through this process. The rewards are worth it.
Creativity Exercise — Goal setting and creativity
If every year you find yourself setting goals and never making ANY strides toward reaching them, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself why. Could it be they aren’t YOUR goals but someone else’s goals for you?
I don’t care what the goal is — stopping smoking, losing weight, starting an online business, writing that novel — there’s a reason it keeps climbing up, then falling off the goal list. And until you figure out WHY that goal is stuck in the never-never land of goal setting, you’ll never actually pull it into reality.
Is it because you don’t know where to start? Or is the project so big you’re afraid to start? Or you’re stuck somewhere in the middle and don’t know what to do next?
Or is it because you really don’t want to do it?
Okay, I’m probably dredging up all sorts of demons now, but truly, those demons need to be exorcised or they’re constantly going to be standing between you and your goal.
What I suggest is to take some quiet time and do a little soul searching. Journaling and meditation are both excellent ways of opening up a dialogue between you and your muse. Your muse is an excellent resource for you. If you ask, it will tell you which goals really matter and really don’t matter to you.
And, if it turns out that goal is something you don’t want to do? Then stop putting it on your goal list. I mean it. Quit making yourself feel like a failure by constantly sticking it on that list.
What if the goal is something like quitting smoking? Something you know you have to do because it’s hurting your health? Try this instead. Rather than making it your goal to quit smoking, make it your goal to figure out why you don’t want to quit. And what you can do to help yourself become committed to quitting.
Whatever you do, don’t make turn this exercise into a license to beat yourself up. Be nice to yourself. You’re doing this to help, not hurt, yourself.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Creativity, Biz Success Strategies at 10:37 pm by admin
One definition of creativity states that creative people look at the same thing everyone else does, yet they see something no one else does.
But even creative people (which includes all of you, of course) can run into roadblocks every now and then. Sometimes it’s not possible to see something different. Sometimes you’ve just been staring at a problem for so long it’s now impossible to look at it in any other way.
So what do you do in these situations?
Why not try changing your perspective?
Consider this: A friend of mind who does needlepoint has a design that’s mostly black. Rather than simply stitching the design on white canvas with black thread, she’s using a black canvas and is stitching the negative aspects of the design instead of the positive.
She changed the way she viewed the problem. And now she has a really cool-looking needlepoint design that’s different from most other ones out there.
Or what about this: An art teacher has her students turn a photograph or object upside down and paint what they see — not a picture but an arrangement of shapes.
By changing your perspective, you’re changing what you see. And when you change what you see, you’re more likely to create something completely different.
But — I can hear you all saying right now — that’s art. That won’t help me with my business problem.
Okay, so here’s another story from the book “Thinkertoys” by Michael Michalko. Back in the 1950s, experts proclaimed the ocean freighter industry was dying. Costs were skyrocketing and delivery times kept getting pushed back later and later.
Executives at the shipping companies kept focusing on ways to cut costs while ships were sailing. They developed ships that went faster and needed fewer crew members to run.
It didn’t work. Costs continued to spiral out of control and it still took too long to get the merchandise shipped.
Then one day, a consultant changed the perspective. Rather than ask the question: ” In what ways might we make ships more economical while at sea?” executives asked: “In what ways can we reduce costs?”
Ta-da!
Ships are big money-sucking machines when they aren’t at sea actually doing their job — shipping merchandise. And when aren’t they working? When they’re sitting in port being loaded and unloaded.
So, the industry came up with way to preload merchandise on land. Now a ship comes in, the container carrying the cargo rolls off, a new container already loaded with cargo rolls on, and the ship heads back to sea.
That one innovation saved an entire industry. And it happened because shipping executives changed the way they viewed their problem.
Creativity Exercise — Change your perspective
So, how can you change your perspective and solve your business/marketing problems?
Try what the shipping industry did and change the question.
Instead of looking at a narrow part of the problem (”In what ways can we make ships more economical while at sea?”) broaden the question (”In what ways can we reduce costs in general?”)
Here’s another example.
Maybe your question is “how can I land more clients?” What if you started broadening the question like so:
How can I land more clients?
How can I grow my business?
How can I make more money from my business?
How can I make more money period?
How can I be happier in my life? (I know, I know, money doesn’t buy happiness. But it’s certainly nice to have.)
Maybe one of those questions is a better place to look for a solution. Because maybe one of those questions is the “real” question you want to solve, but since you never took a step back to look at the big picture, you’ve never discovered the right question to ask.
And if you don’t ask the right question, your muse will never give you an answer that actually solves your problem.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Public Relations, Advertising at 10:29 pm by admin
Wondering if your marketing message is dancing in the spotlight or is busy cowering by the punch table? Take this quiz and find out.
1. Overall, you would describe your marketing as:
A. Going strong. You consistently get lots of good leads and sales from your marketing efforts.
B. Getting better. You’re seeing some positive results, but you’re always looking for ways to improve.
C. Flat. Your sales are neither growing nor shrinking.
D. Don’t ask.
E. You don’t do much marketing. Or any marketing for that matter. Customers pretty much find you.
2. Your last marketing campaign was:
A. A huge success. It exceeded your expectations.
B. No complaints. You’re pleased with your results.
C. Not sure. You didn’t notice much change with your sales.
D. A waste of good money.
E. You can’t remember your last campaign. In fact, you don’t think you’ve ever had one.
3. At a Chamber of Commerce meeting, you bump into a woman who you feel would be your ideal customer. Her response after you introduce yourself is:
A. “I’m so glad I ran into you. I’ve been meaning to talk to you in more detail about how your business can help me out.”
B. “Oh, I think I remember hearing about you. Tell me more about what you do.”
C. “Sorry. What did you say you do again?”
D. “Who are you?”
E. “Excuse me. I need to refill my drink.”
4. While working out at your health club, you find yourself exercising next to your sister’s new boyfriend. Even though you know he has no interest in your business, he starts quizzing you about what you do. After you tell him, he says:
A. “Oh, that’s interesting.” And changes the subject.
B. “Yes, I think I’ve heard about your business.” And changes the subject.
C. “Yes, I think I saw one of your ads in the paper last week.” And changes the subject.
D. “Oh course. I’ve been seeing your ads all over the place.” And changes the subject.
E. Changes the subject.
5. You run into one of your customers at a restaurant. He’s sitting with a large group of people, but still jumps up to greet you. When he turns to introduce you to the rest of the group, he:
A. Describes your business perfectly.
B. Gets it mostly right.
C. Manages to describe one aspect okay, although he got a couple major points wrong.
D. Describes someone else’s business. At least that’s what you think he was doing. He certainly wasn’t talking about your business.
E. Doesn’t quite get your business name right. For that matter, he doesn’t pronounce your name correctly either.
6. You feel like you’re getting your money’s and/or time’s worth from your marketing efforts:
A. Most definitely.
B. Definitely.
C. Not sure.
D. Don’t want to talk about it.
E. You’re getting a great return — after all, you spend hardly any time or money marketing so ANY return is huge.
7. Overall, how would you rate your marketing in terms of meeting your overall business goals?
A. Exactly on track.
B. Doing pretty good. For the most part, your marketing is helping you meet your goals.
C. You’re still in business so you guess something must be working. Although you’re not exactly sure what.
D. Business isn’t so hot.
E. What goals?
Scoring “Where’s your marketing message” quiz
Scoring:
Mostly A’s. Your marketing message is definitely the life of the party. It’s getting in front of your target market and your target market is responding to it. Better yet, you aren’t wasting your efforts reaching people who have no interest in what your business does. Great job!
The only caution I would offer is to not allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security. Things change. Markets shift. Don’t let your current success blind you to a new competitor or a new product or a changing marketing landscape. History is littered with companies who allowed themselves to lose market share or even be toppled by a shift in the marketplace.
Mostly B’s. Your marketing message may not be the star, but it’s certainly turning heads. While you could be getting more from your marketing efforts, you’ve definitely accomplished much. Your target market is both getting the message and acting on it. You’re seeing a slow and steady growth in your business.
While everyone would love be to the next “overnight” success, truthfully that’s not terribly realistic. Marketing is about slow and steady growth peppered by occasional setbacks and maybe even a big leap or two. While huge marketing success is great as a goal, you should be very pleased with what you’ve accomplished.
Mostly C’s. Your marketing message has about half of its dance card filled. Your business is flat. Probably as flat as your marketing. Your business is certainly not growing and may even be slowly declining.
While there’s nothing wrong with holding the status quo, this is still a precarious place to be. If you’re not careful, you could find your business sliding into the “business is not so good” category.
I would suggest taking a hard look at your marketing message. Maybe you’re not reaching your target market at all. Maybe you’re wasting your marketing efforts by getting your message in front of people who will never buy your products or services. Or maybe you are finding your target market, but your marketing message isn’t persuading them to do business with you. Maybe the marketplace or your target market is changing. Or maybe it’s a combination of things.
Mostly D’s. Your marketing message is hiding in the bathroom and has been there for awhile. This is not a good place to be, but you already know this. If it isn’t too late, I would suggest a complete revamp of your entire marketing plan. Maybe your target market isn’t right. Maybe you have too much competition. Maybe you’re competing on price (never a wise selling point). Maybe you’re not differentiating yourself enough from your competition. Maybe you’re not explaining your product correctly. Or maybe it’s something even deeper, a major problem with your product or business.
But don’t lose heart! It’s still very possible to turn things around. Remember, all successful people suffered setbacks (and downright failures) at some point in their careers. You can make a comeback.
Mostly E’s. Your marketing message is still outside looking for a place to park. Many service-based, single-person businesses find themselves in this category – for instance consultants, coaches, graphic designers and (ahem) copywriters. You never really take the time to put together a marketing plan or market yourself in any orderly manner. When work falls into your lap, you happily snatch it up. When it doesn’t, you find yourself wringing your hands a lot.
Yes, I too was in this category. When I first started my business, I didn’t write down my goals and promoting myself was haphazard at best. Believe it or not, I was actually pretty successful for several years using this model. I was lucky. I had good, loyal clients who I could count on for repeat projects.
However, even with good clients, you still end up with the “feast or famine” business model. Does this sound familiar? Work starts raining from the heavens, so you hole yourself in your office and focus on, what else? Getting the work done. And you’re so busy with paying work, you stop promoting yourself. When you finish the work, you pick up your head, look around and discover there’s nothing new waiting for you. So you rush out, start networking and contacting people and pretty soon the work is raining down again. And you stop promoting yourself because you’re busy and…you get the picture.
In this model, you aren’t really growing your business. You don’t have time. You’re either doing billable work or looking for billable work. Even if you use outside help during the busy times, the busy times don’t last so you can’t build your business.
Speaking from someone who’s been there, I would strongly, strongly urge you to take a hard look at your business, your goals and your marketing model. A regular, sustained marketing campaign can lead to regular, sustained work. Your cash flow will even out, and you can start outsourcing certain tasks on a regular basis so you can start growing your business.
(A note on Question 4 in case you thought I had the answers reversed. The point of this question is to find out if you’ve picked marketing vehicles that are reaching your target market or if your marketing is so scattered it’s reaching people who have no interest in purchasing your products and services. Don’t waste your time and money driving just anyone to your business – target people who have the interest and the means to purchase your products and services.)
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Public Relations, Advertising, Community Relations at 10:28 pm by admin
In the marketing world, radio has earned the reputation of being the odd step-cousin. You know the one. No one knows quite what to do with him. Especially at family gatherings when everyone tries hard to avoid sitting with him. (After all, who knows WHAT he’ll start talking about.)
Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to the mix. However, radio doesn’t test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be the one with the dismal scores.
A good friend of mine, who’s also a marketing consultant but before that she sold radio for many years, has a theory about that. She says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember the ad, but not that they heard it on the radio. So, they tend to credit a different medium for the ad, like the yellow pages. Yellow pages gets a boost while radio drops a few points.
Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.
However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.
Internet radio shows are starting to take off in a big way. That means advertising and sponsorship opportunities are also taking off. In addition, “offline” methods have been shown to be pretty effective at driving traffic online. If increasing Web traffic is your goal, using traditional media outlets to increase traffic should be a part of your mix.
If people already know you (which they might in your local market) they’re more likely to be loyal. And they’re more likely to send other customers to your site. Depending on the costs of radio in your community, radio may be a very affordable way to get a good viral campaign going. (A viral campaign is when your customers send promotional items about your business such as e-mails, articles, Web site urls, etc. to their friends and family members.)
Below are some other positive reasons to use radio:
* Affordable — when you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of the least expensive media out there. However, one spot ain’t going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. That’s why radio can also turn into one of the more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap the benefits of radio — for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or two weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.
* Psychological, if you voice the commercials yourself — hearing your voice makes people feel like they “know” you. (Hence the popularity of audio on Web sites. In fact, marketing gurus claim just by adding audio to a site substantially increases how many people buy.)
People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an Internet business.
* Speed — you can get your spot up and running in no time.
* Loyalty — listeners choose stations based on the music or shows they like and they tend to be quite loyal to that station. If you know what your customers enjoy listening to, it’s an excellent way to reach them. (I include both music and talk shows in this.)
* Good support medium — radio works really well when paired with other marketing mediums (like print, direct mail or television).
But for every positive, there’s a negative. In the spirit of being objective, here are a few for radio:
* Background medium — radio tends to be on in the background, which means it tends to be ignored. Generally, your target market needs to be exposed to your ad more times than other marketing media before they’ll act upon your message.
* Little staying power — the lack of visuals again keeps radio from “sticking” with people. At least, that’s what some of the marketing gurus say. But, here again my marketing consultant friend differs. She thinks it’s that subconscious thing again.
And if you can write a spot that creates pictures in your customers’ heads, you can actually work this to your advantage. In fact, according to my friend, if the picture is defined enough, not only will people remember it better, but they’ll also think it was a print ad instead of a radio ad. (More on the art of creating pictures using words in later issues.)
* Hard to track – it’s impossible to know exactly how many people are tuning in at any given time.
A final note: Because radio is subconscious, keep that in mind when crafting your ad. Repeat your business name a lot and any other branding info, so it gets into your customers’ heads. Don’t put in phone numbers. Instead, purchase a memorable Web site domain name and repeat that. And remember to create “pictures” whenever possible.
Creativity Exercise — How can you use radio in your business?
Would radio work for your business? Let’s find out.
Take out a sheet of paper and a fun pen. (I’m partial to gel pens.) Draw a line down the center.
On one side, put the header: Why advertising on radio is a good idea for my business. On the other side, put the header: Why advertising is a bad idea for my business.
Now pick a side and start writing down reasons.
You might be more comfortable starting with the side that’s easiest for you. Then when you work on the other side, you can simply turn the reasons around.
For instance, let’s say you started with the bad idea. One of your reasons was: My product is completely visual. You could turn it around by saying “Because my product is so visual, I’ll have to work harder to create pictures in my customers’ minds. And because the customers create their own pictures, they’re more likely to remember them.”
Or what if you started with a good idea, and one of the reasons was: “Because my business is local.” You could turn it around and say “Because radio is holding me back — I’m only reaching this local market.” (Ah, now I’m even going against what I said earlier. Maybe with this statement you could look for ways to get your customers to spread the word outside the area about your business.)
As you saw by my last example, you’ll be amazed at what comes out when you do this exercise. Even if you don’t change your views on radio advertising, you may come up with new and powerful insights to your business.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Advertising at 10:27 pm by admin
This is the first of a two-part series. Next month I’ll be discussing When Should You Use PR.
Most business owners and managers keep a fairly close eye on their marketing budgets.
And nothing throws a budget out of whack faster than advertising.
Advertising, or paying good money to get your message in front of your target market, still has a place in your marketing mix, although it’s not quite as effective as it once was.
If you’re going to advertise, you need to be smart about it — or you can quickly find yourself with a blown budget and not much to show for it. Below are seven questions to ask yourself before writing out that check.
1. Do you need to generate customers/traffic/leads/etc. right away? If so, then you better pull out your wallet. Advertising is hands down the fastest way to get your message in front of your target market. (You’re paying for placement after all.)
2. Do you have another way to get the word out about your business? For instance, do you have a customer database or an e-zine list? If so, then you might be better off sending an e-mail (assuming you have customers’ e-mails). Although technically e-mail announcements fall under advertising, I’m not counting it in this particular case because it’s more or less free (or very low cost).
Perhaps you have a good news angle and a good relationship with a reporter. Or you have a high-traffic Web site and/or blog. Or maybe you’re an active volunteer with a large organization and can use networking to get the message out.
But if none of those really apply, then you’d better take a closer look at advertising.
3. Do you need to augment your other marketing efforts? Maybe you have articles featured on a Web site targeted to your customer base. Great when your article is front and center and not-so-great when your article is buried in archives. A little advertising on that site can keep you in your target market’s sight all the time. Or maybe you struck gold and got a big article written about your company in the perfect trade publication. Fantastic for that month and not-so-fantastic for the other 11 months of the year. Or maybe it’s taking you longer than you’d like to drive traffic to your Web site. Advertising is good for speeding things along.
Frequency is king when it comes to marketing — if you’re out of your customers’ sight, you’re probably out of their mind when it comes to buying time. Advertising is a good way to beef up or speed up what you’re already doing.
4. Are other marketing methods not appropriate in this situation? Let’s say you want to have a sale. But your customer database is small (or nonexistent). Your Web site has minimal traffic. And you aren’t going to get any bites from the media since having a sale isn’t news. What do you do? Run some ads.
5. Would you rather save time than money? Let’s face it. Running an ad is easy. Other marketing methods are more time-consuming. If you want your marketing to be easy, then advertising is about as easy as it’s going to get. (Now there is a caveat to this one, because you can hire people to do some of those marketing tasks, such as updating Web sites, running PR campaigns, etc. However, not everything can be hired out so you still might be stuck spending time you don’t have.)
6. Are you planning to test a new campaign or a new product/target market? Running small, inexpensive ads can be a good way to test certain marketing aspects before launching big, expensive, time-consuming campaigns. If you want to penetrate a new market or if you have a new product to launch or a new marketing message to try, buy some ads and see what the response rate is. Another strength of advertising is control — you have total control over your test.
7. Do other marketing approaches never quite measure up? It happens. Advertising in one or two specific media outlets seem to generate more sales and more leads then anything else you’ve tried. If that’s the case, then don’t mess with it. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Creativity Exercise — Advertising and your business
Is advertising right for your business? Try this exercise and see.
1. What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now? Write it down.
2. Go through the above list of questions and ask yourself each one. Does it apply to your situation? If it does, write that down too.
3. Do some brainstorming. In what ways can you use advertising to solve your marketing challenges? What media would work best? Online? Print? Radio? Television? Direct mail? Something else? Make up an ad for a variety of media.
Now do the exact opposite. Think of ways advertising WON’T work for your business. Brainstorm at least 25 reasons why advertising won’t work for your specific situation. Be silly. It’s a good way to loosen you up.
4. Go back and reread both your pro and con lists. Now read your ads. Do you like what you came up with? Do any of them resonate with you, even now after coming up with your list of objections?
You may have just come up with your next advertising campaign.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Public Relations, Advertising, Community Relations at 10:26 pm by admin
When most people think about marketing, they think advertising. While advertising is a part of marketing, marketing is much bigger than advertising. There are lots of different marketing methods floating around out there, and the challenge as a business owner is figuring out when it’s appropriate to use each one and the best way to use it.
Public relations, or PR, is the art of getting someone else to write or talk about you or your business. Preferably in a favorable manner. Traditionally, “someone else” was the media. In this day and age however, someone else can also be a blogger, a freelance writer, an e-zine publisher or even an owner of a big Web site. For purposes of this article, I’m using the word “media” to refer to all of those folks.
PR is also being able to get yourself on a big talk show to talk about yourself or your business, or writing your own article that’s published in a desired outlet. (Not your own newsletter or Web site.)
PR is one of my favorite marketing methods, but it can also be one of the
more frustrating ones. Even when you do everything right, you still might
not get the publicity you want. Or for that matter, ANY publicity at all.
When a PR campaign doesn’t work, you can find yourself wanting to pull out
all your hair in frustration.
Even with that in mind, I do believe most if not all businesses can benefit from some type of PR campaign. But before you launch into something that could end with you becoming hairless (and investing in a sizeable hat collection) ask yourself the following questions.
1. Do I need to see results right away? If you do, better pull out your wallet and pay for some advertising. PR takes time. And it’s not guaranteed. You might not see your article for weeks, months or ever, and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it. If it’s immediate gratification you want, don’t look for it in a public relations campaign.
2. Do I have the time to consistently devote to a public relations campaign? We’re back to the time issue. PR not only takes time to see results, but you also have to take time to make it happen. Either you have to do it or you have to pay someone else to do it. If you do it yourself, you’ll have the potential of garnering the equivalent of thousands of dollars of advertising for little or no money. But it will cost you some time. If you pay someone else, you’ll save time (which is a good thing, I’m a big believer in outsourcing) but it can get expensive. Worse yet, you STILL might not get any coverage for your money.
3. Do I have enough perseverance to run a PR campaign? PR is about follow-up. It’s about sending story idea after story idea to the same reporter before one finally connects (and maybe it’s the tenth one). It’s about sending a little note or letter to the same editor for as long as several years before you get a bite. It’s about reminding your contacts you’re out there until one day they realize they need you.
If you’re willing to court the media, develop relationships and do whatever you can to make their lives easier, the rewards can be huge.
4. Do I have newsworthy events happening at my business? (Newsworthy is something media personnel feel would interest their readers.) Or, if I don’t, can I create them?
I’m not talking about making things up here. But there are things you can be doing to make your business more newsworthy. For example, you can do a survey and publish the results. You can tie a feature of your product or service to something that’s currently happening in the news. You can hold an event. You can research a newly published study that relates to your product or service. There are countless ways you can transform aspects of your business into newsworthy story items — the creativity exercise below can help you come up with your ideas.
5. Do I want to build my credibility? Develop my status as an expert? Then get that PR campaign off the ground. Nothing builds your credibility or expert status faster than having other people say you know what you’re talking about.
6. Do I want to augment my other marketing efforts? Public relations definitely plays nicely with the other marketing methods. You can be building your long-term expert campaign with PR and building short-term customers with advertising. Or you can turn your community relations strategies into PR campaigns. It’s a great way to get the most bang out of your marketing time and dollar.
Creativity Exercise — How can you use PR in your business?
Grab some sheets of paper and pen (I like the fun gel pens myself) and get ready for some brainstorming.
Start by listing everything you do or sell. Then write out all the features or descriptions of your products or services. For instance, if you have a book, what is your book about? What does it offer people?
Now see if you can turn those features into something newsworthy. Is there a time of year when people are interested in your services? (Accounting and tax season). Are there any studies you can dig up? Is there something in the news that ties into your product? Can you turn an aspect of your business into a human interest story? (Something like fitness tips for busy people or parenting tips for single parents, etc.) Write everything down that comes into your head, even if it’s silly. See if you can come up with 50 story ideas.
Now look at what you wrote. Can you find a few in there that you think would interest the media? Congratulations — you just came up with a PR campaign.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Public Relations, Advertising, Community Relations at 10:24 pm by admin
Community relations is one of those marketing strategies that isn’t talked about much, even though I venture to say practically everyone ends up doing it at one time or another. Basically, community relations is when you and your business become involved in your community. For instance:
Your business donates money to nonprofit organizations.
You or your employees volunteer at a fundraising event.
You or your employees volunteer for a nonprofit organization.
You or your employees join a service club.
You or your employees network and/or volunteer at industry association meetings or business functions (such as Chamber of Commerce events). Some people might consider this networking and not community relations, but I would argue networking falls under community relations. Regardless, you get the idea.
I’m going to go through the pros and cons of community relations in a moment, but first I want to encourage all of you to think about ways to not only add community relations to your marketing strategy but also to get better at leveraging those opportunities to grow your business. But first, let’s go through the pros and cons.
Pros:
Builds credibility for you and your business.
Builds personal relationships with customers.
Works well with advertising – similar to public relations, community relations is a “soft” sell approach that can make your customers more receptive to your advertising.
Can be a stepping stone for PR.
Creates goodwill (and good karma).
Cons:
Time – community relations can consume a ton of it. All that volunteering can suck up a lot of working and/or leisure hours.
Long wait to realize results – like public relations, you implement a community relations plan for the long haul. And I do mean the long haul (even longer than PR).
Difficult to track – I’m talking mainly about the non-business networking activities here. You may never be able to trace sales to community relations. Actually, chances are you probably won’t. You need to trust it’s working on some cosmic level and let it go.
No payoff at all – this can happen if you find yourself donating time and/or money to charities that are wonderful causes but offer little advertising and/or promotional opportunities. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m advocating only supporting high-visibility causes. On the contrary, there are many good reasons to have a community relations program in place. For one, the good feeling you get knowing you’re supporting a worthy cause (not to mention all the good karma you build).
Basically, you can sum up the cons to this: spend lots of time or money for little/no return.
Not a good marketing strategy.
But, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can and should find ways to increase your ROI (return on investment) for all the community relations activities you take part in. And one good way to do that is to leverage them into marketing strategies.
Creativity Exercise — How to get a return on investment with community relations
Grab some sheets of paper and a pen (I like the fun gel pens myself) and get ready for some brainstorming.
First, list all the activities you’re doing that are considered community relations. Write them all down.
Next, analyze those activities. What ROI are you currently getting from them? Do your customers know you donate time and/or money to those activities? Do you get sales because of your involvement? Are you building your brand and/or awareness of your business because of your donations?
Don’t know? Well, then you probably aren’t getting much return.
Next, I want you to brainstorm ways you can start leveraging those activities. Can you devote a section on your Web site to telling people about your involvement? Can you use your Web site to help raise money and/or volunteers for the causes you support? If there’s an event involved, can you more aggressively market your services during it? (Set out flyers or brochures or have a really good elevator speech if you’re able to introduce yourself.) Can you send out press releases? Can you have your logo added to the organization’s marketing materials? Or have the organization link to your Web site?
Try and brainstorm 20 ways you can increase your ROI. Some will be silly, some will be completely impractical — but that’s okay. All you need are one or two gold nuggets to really jumpstart your marketing and make that investment in time and money really start to pay off.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Public Relations, Advertising, Community Relations at 10:23 pm by admin
Have you ever noticed that in communities without big universities, high school sports take on an even bigger importance?
That’s what it’s like where I live.
But like everywhere else in the country, our high school sports are always looking for ways to make a few extra bucks. Enter the high school baseball sponsorship program.
For a nominal fee (really nominal) businesses can display a banner around the baseball field for the season.
To me, this is a perfect example of a win-win situation for everyone.
Businesses get to advertise to parents (who are currently purchasing adult products and services) and kids (who soon will be purchasing adult products and services). They are able to control their message because they choose the banner (one of the strengths of advertising). And, because the parents and kids viewing the ads know the proceeds are going to help high school sports, they tend to view those businesses more favorably (one of the strengths of community relations).
Best yet, high school sports benefit from an influx of cash.
See how this works? As a business owner, you get the best of all worlds: Control of your message (advertising), frequency of your message (advertising), affiliation with a good cause (community relations) and the good feeling knowing you’re supporting a worthwhile cause (community relations).
Creativity Exercise — How to find win-win advertising and community relations opportunities
Grab some paper and pens (I’m partial to the fun gel pens) and let’s start with some brainstorming.
First, start by making a list of everything you’re looking for. I would include:
What advertising opportunities does the association offer? For this purpose, make sure they offer some sort of advertising or sponsorship package.
Is it a cause near and dear to your heart? (Or even just something you believe in?)
Does the cause reach your target market? This is important. In the above example, as cool as I think that opportunity is, I’m not racing to sign up. Why? Because chances are, I’m not hitting enough of my target market to make it worth my while. And since there’s a limited number of these opportunities, I could potentially be taking something away from a business that could really benefit from it.
However, here’s something else to think about. Basically when it comes to target markets, this is what you have to decide: Is the cause more important than you getting business out of it? The more closely aligned the cause is to your target market, the more likely you’ll see results from your participation. But again, if this is a cause you’re passionate about and it reaches absolutely no one in your target market, you may still want to participate simply because it is so important to you. (I would still look for ways to get something out of your investment — see How to Use Community Relations to Grow Your Business for more ideas. There’s nothing wrong with reaping some reward for your time and/or money.)
Now that you know what you’re looking for, start digging around for opportunities. Start by calling the local Chamber of Commerce and networking groups like the Rotary and Kiwanis and other organizations that have their fingers on your community’s pulse. Ask about both high-profile events and ones off the beaten path. Make sure you research them both — high-profile events may seem too pricey on the surface, but dig deeper and you may discover it’s perfect for your business. And you may strike gold with smaller venues.
You can also try calling your local area school sports coaches, band directors and fine arts program teachers — all frequently offer programs that might include sponsorships and/or underwriting and/or various forms of advertising. Ditto non-school run sports programs like dance, gymnastics, Pop Warner football, AYSO soccer, Little League, YBL Basketball, etc.
With any luck, you’ll discover your own win-win situation.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
Posted in Marketing, Biz Success Strategies, Public Relations, Advertising, Community Relations at 10:21 pm by admin
Which statement sums up how you define your customers?
1) I have a very specific customer in mind — very specific and very narrow. I only want to sell to this specific customer, I’m not interested in attracting anyone else.
Or
2) If they have a pulse, they’re a potential customer.
Okay, in care you were wondering, number 1 is good and number 2 isn’t.
Yet I can’t tell you how many business owners I run into who are closer to number 2 than number 1.
I know, it’s difficult to think you might be turning away potential business. But trust me, your life will be much easier once you’ve carefully defined your potential customer (also known as your target market). And to further convince you, here are 3 reasons.
1. You’ll be able to find your target market more easily. If you know exactly who you’re looking for, you’ll have a much easier time tracking down where they’re hanging out (i.e. publications they read, Web sites they visit, radio stations they listen to). Then you’ll know exactly where you should be spending your advertising dollars and/or which editors you should be courting for potential PR stories. Best yet, you’ll probably be spending less money/time and yielding far better results.
2. You’ll be able to persuade your target market more easily. If you know exactly who you’re talking to, and what their challenges and problems are, you’ll be able to craft far more targeted marketing materials. You can use language and images they respond to (which will make them feel like you understand them) plus you’ll be able provide a specific solution to their challenges.
You can’t do this if you’re trying to please “everyone.” “Everyone” is a tricky fellow. He’s tough to pin down. After all, “everyone” buys a product for different reasons. Take cell phones, for instance.
Senior citizens, teenagers and parents buy cell phones, but they buy the, for different reasons. Teenagers buy them so they can chat with their friends all the time. Parents buy them for their teens in order to keep track of them (the teens, not the cell phones). My 90-year-old grandfather bought one for emergency use only. Each one of those reasons is a different benefit. The ad that appeals to parents knowing where their teenagers are is certainly NOT going to work for teenagers, and neither of those ads will be terribly persuasive to my grandfather.
So if you’re trying to sell to “everyone” just imagine how complicated it’s going to be to try and cover all those different reasons in a single marketing piece. Not really possible, is it?
3. You’ll have an easier time with your business. If you’re busy running around providing different products or services to different customers, chances are you’re not as efficient as you could be. This is especially true for business owners who are service providers. If you’re constantly learning new skills for each client who walks in the door, how efficient will you be? Wouldn’t it be better to stick with what you’re good at and just sell that?
Creativity Exercise — Discover your target market
Here’s an exercise you can try if you’re still unsure of your target market or if you want to make sure you aren’t missing any potential customers.
Get a sheet of paper. Write down all the features of your product. Features are descriptions of your product. Take cell phones, for example. Features of cell phones are they’re small and wireless.
Now change those features to benefits. For a cell phone, you can carry it anywhere and use it anywhere (anywhere there’s a signal, that is.)
Now make a list of who needs those benefits. Think broadly here. Maybe parents or people in certain industries or people with certain jobs. Try to come up with at least 50 markets. Be silly. That’s when you’re most likely to hear your muse (or genius) speaking to you.
Another technique is to ask your subconscious for help. Do a meditation where you ask your subconscious to show you someone from your target market. Ask questions and see what the answers are.
Once you come up with your list, then it’s time to critique and judge. Try and narrow it to no more than five target markets. One or two are better yet. The more target markets, the harder it gets. You can always start with one, and once you’ve made yourself known in that market, you can move to a second and a third and so on.
Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Permalink
11.30.05
Posted in Biz Success Strategies at 6:25 pm by admin
Probably the biggest problem with being a small business owner is right there in that phrase. Small.
Small means few or no employees. Small means you end up doing most, if not all, business tasks yourself.
Whether or not you’re any good at them.
But even if you ARE perfectly capable at completing those tasks, is doing them really a wise use of your time? (Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD.)
As a business owner, you should be focused on the big things – a vision for your business, putting together a plan to reach that vision, developing new products, spending time with your clients and marketing. In other words, those “big picture” tasks that grow your business.
What you should NOT be doing is worrying about getting your invoices out, mailing products, providing troubleshooting help, scheduling your time and all those other administrative duties.
In fact, the more time you spend on all the minutia of running a business, the less time you’ll spend on tasks that can actually grow your business.
It’s a vicious cycle. Maybe you feel like you don’t have enough income to hire help. So you do the work yourself. Because you do the work yourself, you don’t have the time to work on growing your business. So then you don’t feel like you have the income to hire help. And so on.
The same cycle exists if you feel you don’t have enough time to locate and train help. You end up doing the work yourself because there isn’t anyone who can help. And because you’re so busy doing things you truly have no business doing, you’ll never have the time to locate and train someone to help you out.
In either cycle, you’re probably discovering you feel overwhelmed, drained and with zero creative energy. Instead of jumping out of bed excited at being in business, you wake up each morning facing a to-do list longer then War and Peace and wanting to crawl back into bed and put your pillow over your head.
So what’s the solution? Hire a virtual assistant.
Virtual assistants, also known as VAs, are freelancers who specialize in taking care of the “busy work,” freeing you up so you can focus on why you started your business in the first place.
Because they’re freelancers, you pay them for the hours they work. And you don’t pay for overhead, vacation, taxes, office supplies, a desk, etc. It’s a perfect win-win for everyone.
VAs can break you out of both those cycles and put you on the path to building a successful business. They can help you with just about every business task imaginable (with the sole exception of filing – you’re probably stuck doing that yourself). Some examples include:
* Bookkeeping, including invoicing, paying bills and following up with unpaid invoices
* Product fulfillment
* Customer service
* Answering e-mails and phone calls
* Scheduling business and personal appointments
* Maintaining databases
* Updating Web sites
* Submitting articles to article databases
And much more.
In fact, if you want to see a list of what a VA can help you with, check out IVAA.org (International Virtual Assistants Association) and AssistU.com. These organizations can also help you find the right VA for your business. VAs specialize in different business services, such as marketing or bookkeeping, so make sure you find a VA who focuses on what you actually need.
I can tell you from experience that once you take the plunge and hire a VA, you’ll kick yourself for waiting so long. You’ll have more time to devote to the tasks you most enjoy (rather then struggling with the ones you hate), you’ll be less stressed and have much more creative energy. Plus you’ll probably find yourself making even more money.
Creativity Exercise — Hire a VA
Ready to try a VA but not sure how to begin? I suggest starting small. Like five hours a month.
Make a list of everything you do in your business each day. If you get stuck, keep a notebook on your desk and write down things as you do it.
Now look at the list. Pick something you could delegate to a virtual assistant and would take around five hours a month.
Once you find the right VA and have freed up those five hours, make sure you use those hours to do something to grow your business. Maybe do some more marketing or develop a new product line.
Now after you’ve started seeing more income, take some of that extra money and add to your VA’s tasks. Again, use the time you’ve freed up to continue to grow your business. Before you know it, you’ll have a built a thriving, successful business with less stress and have more energy and income then ever before.
Permalink