In today’s competitive environment, it is imperative to frequently reach your current customers (to keep them sold) and prospective customers (to encourage them to consider your products and services). To do so, public relations is a good no or low cost method to do so. Services such as Business Wire, PR Newswire PR WEB are good resources to distribute your content. These services offer on-line “how to’s” so you can do it yourself. Knowing the effectiveness and return on your investment of your Public Relations campaign is important. These services track how many people read your release, where it was picked up, and where your prospects
learned about your business in detailed reports.

Utilizing sites like Linkedin and Facebook are other good methods to distribute your news. Your blogs is also an effective way to share your news.

E-mailing your releases, or e-newsletters, to your customer base, prospective customers, employees, agents, distributors, suppliers, strategic alliances, service providers (e.g. – your CPA and lawyer), board members, and investors is recommended to keep them up to date. Don’t forget to notify appropriate members of the press. Constant Contact is one resource to support your e-mail and e-newsletter programs. Encourage all to respond with their comments and suggestions.

Each release should focus on one topic each, so you do not dilute the effect. You can plan a series of releases over time. To be most effective, no less than one release per month is suggested. Typical release topics feature 1) a new product or service, 2)personnel news; e.g. – someone was promoted or hired, and 3) company news, e.g. – a new office was opened in Europe or a new distributor is now representing your company.

Through these efforts, traffic to your website will increase.

About Mike:

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

In The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC, Tzu offers:

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”

As it relates to your business, this approach is not enough. The goal of all intelligence is to take what you have learned to make better business decisions. From making your business the sought after organization to buy from, the result will be increased sales.

To do so, you need to track your competitors, and the business environment you are all in. Changes and trends in the economy, technology, laws / regulations, ways of doing business (remember the sweeping changes the Internet brought on), society, and international opportunities, to name a few issues, will change the way you need to do business. Look at the big picture that is affecting everyone to understand what industries and markets you should stay in and which ones you should enter.

To know more about your markets and the customers within, ask the librarian in your local college or town libraries. The resources provided are usually no charge to the user. Other resources include chambers of commerce, industry associations (many who keep track of industry trends), your own suppliers who usually sell to others in your industry – they have a unique grass roots perspective – and your sales people, agents and/or distributors too.

Post Written by:

Mike Miller, Director
www.Symbiocracy.com

About Mike:

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

Lately, it seems like the less successful companies right now are in one (or two) of two boats:
1.    They have a weak product.
2.    They have done a poor job at marketing their product.

A profitable business requires a strong foundation.

Product:
I define a weak product as one that does not fulfill a need or want of enough people to make the company sustainable.  As follows are the questions I use to measure the companies’ products with which I work (in 2nd person for your convenience):

• How many people REALLY will use your product?
• How many people will spend the time/money to use your company to purchase your product or use your service?
• Do people need your product? (Review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
• If they do, do they know that they need it or will you need to sell them on the fact?
• If not, why do you think they will use it?
• Do they want it enough that they will pay for it or spend enough time on the site to make it worthwhile to your advertisers?
• What are the advantages of using your competitors? Do those advantages outweigh your advantages?
• Is something about your website turning people away?
• Is there a reason for people to use your company more than once or will you have to continually replace your customers?
• How much money will people REALLY spend for your product or service?

or

• How much money will advertisers spend to reach this customer base?

or

• Do you have another knock-your-socks-off revenue stream?

The strongest products are easy sell and go viral. They don’t require much  advertising (if any at all). Not only because of the economy but also because we can easily shop around for products on the internet, we are much more careful to spend money. And, with the current media overload, our attention is pulled in many different directions, so it’s hard to get our attention for long. Sure, companies sell weak products all the time, but it’s a struggle you don’t have to go through. If you start with a strong product and improve it over time, success will come much more easily. And, once you have a strong product, you can move your focus to marketing.

Marketing: If you have a strong product, marketing is the easy part:

• Honestly represent your product
• Determine your most accurate target demographic
• Engage your target demographic where they will feel most positively about your product.

So, there it is – a strong product and how to market it well – it’s definitely a good place to start when you’re writing your business plan. There are so many things to worry about when you have your own business. You don’t want to have to reinvent your product while you’re dealing with accounting and HR and permits. And, you aren’t going to get the revenue you need if you don’t know how to market your product.

According to a recent nielsen wire article, “Twitter’s Tweet Smell of Success,” written by Michelle McGiboney, Twitter has grown 1,382% from February of 2008 to February of 2009, “making it the fastest growing site in the member communities category for the month.” In February 2009, it had over 7 million unique visitors. And over 40% of its visitors are age 35 to 49, and almost 85% are over 25 years old.  In other words, Twitter is used by a large number of adults, and that number is growing every day.

Plenty of businesses have joined the bandwagon too, hoping to reach potential customers through this medium, and if the statistics haven’t sold you on the idea, here are my 5 reasons for brands to jump on the Twitter wagon:

1.    Opens Communication with Influencers: Twitter not only allows one to reach a large percentage of the public, many of these Tweeters are influencers among their network. These people pride themselves on having something to say, and their network is listening to them. This type of person is much more likely to voice their opinions of products than the average customer, making them the perfect people to introduce to your product; if they like it, they’ll tell everyone about it.

2.    Customer Service: Not only will these people share what they like, they will also share what they don’t like. But instead of this conversation going on behind the company’s back, companies can be involved in the conversation. If a complaint is made on Twitter, the company can address the problem and solve it within minutes. With Twitter, companies don’t have to wait until someone is angry enough to write a letter.

3.    Immediate Updates: Many companies don’t have the resources to send out regular press releases, and even if they do, a large percentage of their customers and potential customers will never read them. Twitter is the best way to keep these people informed of projects, improvements and anything else that you think they would like to know. According to the above article, many of these people (735,000 in January) access Twitter from their phones, giving the Tweeter direct access to people who want to read what they have to say. And, if nothing else, it keeps your brand on their minds.

4.    Initiates Ongoing Education: Successful Tweeters share interesting and current information. These people read articles, listen to other Tweeters and do whatever they can to be knowledgeable in their field. For most corporate Tweeters, this means they need to conduct their own ongoing education, which, in turn, makes them better at their business. Successful Tweeters have no choice in the matter: they must become more knowledgeable in their field.

5.    Increases Credibility: Also, by being one of these successful brand Tweeters, one not only proves that the company keeps up with trends and new technology, he also proves the company’s expertise among its competitors, which increases the brand’s credibility.

So, do some research, learn how to Tweet like a pro, lurk for a bit and jump in. The water’s fine.

Note: Photo is from FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

During this depression, companies have completely pulled back on their sponsorships because they no longer have extra money to donate. Many charities, without sponsorship dollars, have either funded their events out-of-pocket, earning nothing, or next to nothing, at their events or have decided not to put on their fundraisers at all until the economy is more stable. This situation hurts each party concerned; it’s time to reevaluate the process.

Instead of just asking for money, charities need to understand their events’ value to a sponsoring company. How many impressions will the company’s logo or product receive? Who are these people? How does the event encourage guests to subscribe to or purchase the company’s product or service? Once the charity knows the answers to questions like these (and many, many more), they need to put together a professional sponsorship deck to give to potential sponsors. To read more about asking for sponsorships, visit http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-to-not-write-business-plan.html. In his blog, David Cowan offers his insight on putting together an effective presentation to get funding. (In his case it’s from venture capitalists, but the format is the same.)

The second part of this equation is the corporate sponsor; the recipient of this deck needs to evaluate it as it would any advertising or marketing opportunity. Often, charity events are a much less expensive way to reach a target audience; where else could you find a whole room full of people who have extra money to donate and are completely driven by something (and you know exactly what that something is).

For example, if an environmental charity is hosting an event, which will be attended by 500 of their biggest donors from the Seattle area, green companies should be jumping at the chance to get their product into the hands and/or minds of those people. These people are the voice of their consumer base and will reach far more potential customers than the company ever could on its own for as much money.

The charity – Charities need sponsorship dollars to reach their financial goals. Many charities couldn’t raise funds at their events without sponsorship dollars. In order to maintain momentum for their cause, many charities have continued to host fundraiser events though they have brought negative event profits.

The company – Especially with the economy the way it is, companies need to see large returns on their investments. A well-thought-out sponsorship plan can give a company far more than a traditional marketing or advertising plan.

The public – The public likes to learn about products or services that are applicable to them.

Freelance photographer Andrea LaBarge Mills entered a contest online, in which the winner’s dream assignment will be funded with $50,000. Andrea submitted her proposal, and named the Guitar Center Music Foundation as the beneficiary of a component of the project.

Copyright © 2004 Andrea R. LaBarge

Copyright © 2004 Andrea R. LaBarge

Who benefits?

The photographer – She gets to experience her dream photo assignment. Andrea specifically chooses an assignment that she thinks will most affect her life, both personally and for her career. She really looks at how to make the most out of the $50,000. Also, the contest is a vehicle to reach more people and gain a greater following. She would also win a new computer as part of the package.

The charity – The charity will also gain exposure from their involvement in this project. A charity relationship is not a requirement in this contest, so it’s a great vehicle for reaching more potential donors (in that they have little competition in this venue). Because the charity will publicize this on their social networks, they will also gain some exposure on search engines.

The company sponsoring the competition – Microsoft is making a minimal investment for a lot of publicity. All they did was provide the $50,000,  put together a self-sustaining site for submissions and are going to give three computers away to the winner and two runners up. If they had given them away without a competition, there would have been no viral marketing or publicity for it. And, the $50,000 would have probably contributed to their print marketing, which is far less effective.