12.05.05
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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