PR Tips: Never Whine in Public
When I read a headline like this, I gag.
"Chelsea Clinton: I tried to care about money." (NY Daily News)
Oh dear me, you poor baby! With millions and millions of dollars, an investment banker husband, wealthy parents and a cushy job from said parents...you TRIED to care about money?
Now, I doubt I'll ever be in the position to be asked the same question as the former president's daughter. And I'm not knocking being wealthy - far from it. I don't mind if you're rich. More power to you and enjoy what you have.
Just don't pretend that you aren't rich when you are.
Don't make it seem like money isn't important when the whole world knows you've got plenty of it, and the readers of the paper are struggling to pay the rent, put their kids through college and fill their gas tanks to drive to work each week.
The public hates hearing rich, privileged people whine about their wealth and opportunities. It's like when the BP oil spill happened in the Gulf and the CEO complained about how he just wanted to get his life back. The people along the gulf coast were outraged, and with good reason. The CEO wanted his life back? How about the people who fished or shrimped for a living, who ran hotels or resorts or charter boats or restaurants that relied on tourism, now suspended because of an oil slick that threatened not just their comfort in the next few weeks but their entire lives? That's another good example of what NOT to say in public.
Here's what we can learn from the former BP CEO and from Chelsea Clinton. While you and I might not be interviewed during a crisis like an oil spill or asked why we joined our parents' foundation, we may have to navigate PR waters some day, and it's a good thing to learn as much as you can before you're in a situation that gets out of hand.
- Pause and think before you answer a reporter's questions: If you're doing a live interview on television or radio, remain focused and don't worry about pausing before answering. You don't have to be glib or quick with your answers. It is better to be slow and thoughtful than to put a foot in your mouth. The same goes for telephone interviews with reporters. Take it easy and think before you speak.
- Always keep it positive. Chelsea Clinton, when asked why she joined her parents' foundation, should have focused on her positive motivations. "I don't care about money" sounds snobby, greedy and just plain silly to most Americans. Instead, she should have emphasized what she DID care about - namely, the same causes that her parents espouse and support through the foundation. It's amusing to consider that she wanted to distance herself from her parents' ideals but couldn't, and that was a good starting place to build rapport with her audience. But she went off message by emphasizing money over ideals.
- Stay on message! Public relations experts talk about remaining 'on message' during communications opportunities. Every person, company, cause or brand has a message behind it. Know what drives your business and your mindset, and what the overall, overarching message you want to convey to the public is, and always bring your points around to that message.
You can't control the media, but you CAN control your response to it. Emphasize the positive, stay on message and pause, think and breathe before responding. You'll be glad you did when the interviews turn out favorable!
3 Tips to Get More Traffic to Your Website
Wouldn’t it be great if you get customers to flock to your website like this? While there’s no magic formula, there are specific steps that you as a small business owner can take to boost your website traffic. Here are my top 3 tips for improving your site’s search engine position, visibility and traffic. If you need help implementing any of them, contact me at Seven Oaks Consulting for a consultation.
Tip #1: Update your website frequently with juicy, interesting content and share-able graphics.
Search engines love fresh website content, and the more frequently a site is updated, the better. That’s one of the many reasons why website owners love Wordpress-hosted sites; the built-in blogging capacity offers easy site updates.
It’s not enough to simply swap out a picture or change a headline and call it a day. What are you saying on your website, both through your text and images? Are you using information to enhance your expertise, your brand position, your approachability?
Content offers entry points for visitors into your website. If you don’t have a content marketing plan, create one or talk to us about creating one for you. Content continues to be an integral part of online marketing and a great way to attract new site visitors once it is shared.
Tip #2: Share Content on Social Media
Share appropriate, brand-supporting links; build networks by commenting and interacting with your followers. Make sure you have social media icons prominently displayed on your website so that site visitors can find you and follow you on their choice of media platforms. Building a robust social media presence helps you generate links into your site when you share those links widely across social media.
Tip #3: Interact Beyond Your Usual Online Platforms
Broaden your outreach efforts. Consciously make an effort to visit new blogs. Bloglovin’ is a great place to find blogs of interest. You can type in the name of a blog you like, and the site helps you find similar ones. I also find fascinating new blogs through Pinterest. Many pinners share images from their blogs, and the link appears below the image when you click through to the original pin. It’s worth trying, especially if your business website is one that lends itself to images or blogger outreach.
Building website traffic takes time and effort. If your traffic is stagnant, it’s time to look beyond your current internet marketing efforts. [pullquote align="left|center|right" textalign="left|center|right" width="30%"]Getting customers to flock to your site is a combination of creating a great website with frequently updated content, sharing that content, and introducing yourself to a wider circle of acquaintances.[/pullquote] Try these three tips today and spend time this summer boosting your visibility online.
How to Be a Great Guest Blogger
Guest blogging is a great way to increase your audience reach online. Guest blogging is, as the name implies, sharing your content on someone else's blog as a guest. Some blogs welcome guests, while others don't permit them. This blog does not offer guest blogging opportunities, but I do welcome opportunities to write for other business and marketing blogs. So please contact me using the contact form if you'd like to have me write a guest post for your blog.
Like being a guest in someone's home, there are certain rules of etiquette when guest blogging. Just as you wouldn't peek into your host's medicine cabinet (you wouldn't, right?) or take a tour through their underwear drawer as you detour into the bedroom on your way to the bathroom (tell me you won't do this...please), so too as a guest blogger you won't cross the line into advertising copy.
When you're guest blogging, the emphasis should be on:
- Sharing knowledge freely from your particular niche or area of expertise;
- Offering more than recycled content - offering readers something new, unique and engaging;
- Keeping the focus on the blog's readers, not on your business;
- Supporting the blog owner's work or business by sharing links to your post freely with YOUR social networks.
It also helps to be prepared for common requests from blog hosts once they have agreed to have you as a guest on their blog. The most common requests are:
- A good headshot or photograph of yourself
- A bio of you (keep it short, 3 sentences, max)
- Links to your website and social media profiles
I have a speaker package on my computer that includes all of this information and more. It also includes sample questions, in case the blog host prefers a Q and A format rather than a straight post.
How do you obtain guest blog posts on other people's blogs? There are directories available, or you can search in your area of specialty or niche for blogs on similar topics and write a short, personal email to the blog host asking first if they accept guest posts. Include a brief mention of why you'd like to be a guest on the blog, including the intended topic. This isn't the time to go into a length spiel; keep it short and to the point. Your initial contact with the blogger should be to the point and focused. You're just trying to ascertain whether or not they accept guest posts, and if so, if they are open to your idea.
The benefits of guest blogging are enormous. Not only will you share your insights with a completely new audience, but you'll also gain valuable inbound links to your website, potential social media followers and additional publishing credits to your name. Your host will get a day off and an interesting, engaging post to enliven his blog and educate and entertain his readers. It's a win-win for you both!
This post was written by Jeanne Grunert, a marketing writer and president of Seven Oaks Consulting. Visit our website, sign up for our newsletter, and get a free copy of The Little Book of Big Marketing Secrets.
Three Ways to Generate Content When You're Stuck
Everyone gets stuck on occasion. I'm not talking stuck, like Winnie the Pooh in his tree or like a kid getting his head stuck in a stair banister. I'm talking creatively stuck, as in, "Oh no...I've got write four blog posts this month and I don't know what the heck to write about..."
Feeling stuck like that is no fun, especially when you're a business person with a pile of tasks waiting for you. It's easy to push aside content marketing and get back to things you feel like you can actually do right now, like pay the bills and check your Facebook account for the 100th time today (guilty as charged).
But if you keep avoiding the blank page, or in this case the blank screen, you'll be left without content and without the opportunity to share your expertise with the world. And what fun is that? None in my book!
I've pulled together three of my top tips for generating content when you feel absolutely stuck, like you're staring at a blank wall or that the creative well has completely dried up. Feel free to grab any of these tips and try them today if you're facing that situation.
- Compile your own "top 10", "top 5" or whatever list. Go back and look over what you've already created. Chances are good you've got several posts you can group together into a 'best of' sequence of posts. Write a one paragraph summary and introduction (surely you can do THAT), and then use bullet points to link to the original posts you wrote. Voila. Instant blog post!
- Create a meme, quotable quote, or Pinterest-worthy share. Use only your own original photos to ensure you're in the copyright clear. Find a quotable quote. Use a free service like Pixlr.com or PicMonkey.com, add the quote, and share. Instant content!
- Review a product, service or website in your industry or niche. I like this one because you can talk about something or someone else without feeling pressured to sell, sell, sell. Plus, you're sharing the love, by helping someone else sell without any pay off on your own. It's a feel-good way to get yourself writing again. I'd stick with only positive reviews, but that's just me. Negative may get you more press, but positive gets you more karma points.
The next time you're feeling stuck, think of this:
So take action!
Written by Jeanne Grunert, Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne is an award-winning writer, blogger and marketing consultant helping companies acquire, retain and create loyal customers. She is available for freelance work.
The New PR: Blogger Outreach
Traditional PR (public relations) still has a place in most businesses' marketing plans. It's a smart move to add blogger outreach to your mix in addition to traditional press releases and media outlets.
Contacting bloggers and courting them as blogger-reporters requires a different mindset and approach from the traditional PR approach. Bloggers, for example, have smaller followings than newspapers or websites, but those followers tend to be fiercely loyal, eager readers who engage more frequently with bloggers. Blogs tend to focus more tightly on a specific niche topic, too.
There are other differences which will change how you approach blogger-outreach as compared to media outreach. Blogdash offers a new free paper on the topic. You can download it after following their instructions. Visit Blogdash.
How to Determine the ROI on Your Social Media Accounts
When I'm wearing my marketing consultant's hat, I'm focused on the return on investment (ROI) for my clients. After all, most are small to mid-sized business owners, entrepreneurs and artists - folks who absolutely need to understand how, when and where their marketing investment is paying off.
Social media often seems like the big question mark in the marketing mix, but it doesn't have to be. You can track your company's return on investment in social media marketing just as you would any other digital campaign. The trick is to have the data available from your website, as well as from the social networking website you're using, and to put into place some smart best practices to help you move ahead.
I've written a new article for the website, Routing, detailing just how to do that. I've included three simple steps you can take to enact social media ROI tracking and analysis, but of course there are other ways. I'll share more in the future on this blog and other article.
Read: Three Simple Steps to Measure Social Media ROI
Content Marketing for Small Businesses
If your business doesn't have a robust content marketing strategy in place, you might be losing out on the biggest innovation to hit marketing since the internet. I read a statistic this morning that made me really sit up and take notice. According to the article on Inbound Writer, 78% of chief marketing officers think custom content (articles, white papers, blogs, etc.) is the future of marketing.
Content Marketing Defined
What is content marketing? According to the Content Marketing Institute,
"Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action."
Why Content Marketing Matters
Traditional advertising's effectiveness is fading. The more people are bombarded with ads, the less effective the ads become. Consumers have grown wise to the tricks of the advertising trade, and eschew ads for information. And that's where content marketing comes in.
Content Marketing In Action: An Example
Most custom content produced as part of a content marketing strategy seeks to inform consumers, providing them with facts to help them make a purchasing decision. The other day, I was searching for background information to write a client's blog post, and found a treasure trove of woodworking project how-to sheets online. The major retailer producing this excellent content had uploaded a complete project library that anyone could access and download without having to jump through hoops. Each sheet had a simple format and clear drawings that showed the novice how to complete everything from a deck to a new pantry shelf system, with a shopping list of hardware, lumber, paint and supplies needed to complete the project. The idea, of course, was that once you found the project sheet, you'd download it and take it into the store as your shopping list.
Think about this content for a moment. Not only can it be printed and handed out in-store, but it acted as a search engine marketing tool, appearing on the first page of the search engine results when I typed in my search term. It was a potent marketing tool helping the company's website attract new site visitors, and by using clear, simple instructions, perhaps transforming the casual visitor into a buyer in the store.
Starting Your Content Marketing Strategy: The First Question to Ask
Any size business, from a sole proprietorship to a major corporation, can use content marketing to build their brand and acquire, retain and create loyal customers. The first step is to identify your content marketing strategy.
Why do you want to enact a content marketing strategy? Is it to boost your visibility on the search engines and attract website traffic? Is it to build your brand? Is it to increase sales for a specific product category or engage better with a specific group of customers?
Any and all of these are great reasons to begin your content marketing program. A good content marketing strategy begins by knowing the answers to these questions in detail. Take your time to develop your responses. Knowing WHY you want to begin a content marketing strategy is even more important than understanding the HOW of carrying it off.
If you'd like to begin work on your company's content marketing strategy, I'd be delighted to help you. I've created great content strategies for many industries and products, and for companies ranging from small start ups to major established firms. Contact me through Seven Oaks Consulting, and let's talk about how we can harness the power of content marketing to boost your website visibility and sales.
About the Author
By Jeanne Grunert, President and Founder of Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne is an award-winning writer, blogger and marketing manager with over 20 years of experience. She personally works with every client at Seven Oaks Consulting and creates expert content marketing strategies and written materials to build brands, attract site traffic, and acquire new customers. Contact Jeanne.
The Convergence of Retail Marketing and Mobile Marketing
One of the most fascinating trends I've encountered recently is the convergence of mobile marketing and traditional bricks and mortar retailing. When I left graduate school a decade ago, retailers were admonished to synchronize their online and offline channels; it was confusing to customers when they couldn't return internet purchases to their local retail outlet, for example. Customers today are pushing the envelope even further and demanding more from their favorite retailers.
For example, a recent survey stated that 64% of customers took out their mobile devices to look up product information and reviews while shopping in a bricks and mortar store. Think about it! They're standing in your store, staring at the flat screen televisions, and looking on their smartphones for reviews.
What if you added a QR code to your store signage so that customers could easily access glowing reviews of YOUR store's service and flat screen TVs? What if by scanning that code, customers could easily access tons of useful, relevant information that would encourage them to buy from your store?
Can you see how the convergence of mobile marketing and retailing is changing how you need to think about your bricks and mortar store?
My latest article for Decoded shares even more revelations from a recent report - and how you, as a retailer, can capitalize on it. Read: Enhancing In-Store Retail Sales with Mobile Options.
Pricing for Profit: What Is Your Time Worth?
What's the number one question that consultants, coaches, writers, entrepreneurs and anyone offering freelance services ask? The answer: How to price their time wisely so that they can acquire customers and turn an honest profit. Knowing what your time is worth is the starting point to determine your prices.
How to Determine Prices
Ask yourself...
- How much do I need to earn annually to live on? Divide that by 50 weeks (assuming 2 weeks for vacation each year) and then by 5 days in a work week. That gives you a rough idea of what you need to earn weekly. Now divide that by 5, and you've got your daily wage....divide it again by a 7 or 8 hour working day, and that's a rough estimate of your hourly rate.
- Do you have any specialized education, skills or experience that sets you apart? That increases your hourly rate. Those who can provide they have additional knowledge that would be hard for the average person to acquire can charge more for their time, because hiring someone with specialized knowledge SAVES time and money in the long run.
Specialized Skills Are Valuable
One mistake many entrepreneurs make is launching their businesses as jack of all trades. The problem with the jack of all trades approach is that you end up being so vague about what you can do for others, or you pile on so many skills on your resume, that people are reluctant to trust you. How can anyone do so many things well? It's true that many people CAN do a lot of things well. However, by focusing your business pitch on a few highly specialized, rare, unique or highly-sought after skills, you add value to your work. When you add value, you can charge more.
People Pay What They Believe You Are Worth
If you keep getting offers to pay you far less than you value your time, ask yourself this: are you proving your values to your clients?
People are always willing to pay more for:
- Results: Do you share with potential clients the results you have achieved on past projects? Why or why not?
- Value: Do you add something special to your services? A special touch, something that sets you apart from others? If not, what can you do to add value?
- Quality: Quality always sells. Are you offering the very best quality of services you can possibly offer? If not, how can you improve your quality level?
[pullquote align="left|center|right" textalign="left|center|right" width="30%"]Pricing is both an art and a science[/pullquote]. The scientific part is figuring out the nuts and bolts of your hourly rate. That you can do through deductive mathematics, or working backwards from an annual benchmark figure you have in mind. But from that point on, pricing your services become more of an art. Adding value through specialized skills, knowledge and experience, adding quality and specialization to your service offerings can all help you add value to your customer relationships and charge prices that are both fair to your customers and profitable for you.
These and other tips are based on Pricing Your Services: 21 Tips for More Profit by Jeanne Grunert. The book is available from Smashwords, Amazon and your favorite ebook retailer.
Jeanne is the president of Seven Oaks Consulting and offers marketing consulting, coaching and seminars, and marketing writing services for businesses and marketing agencies. Visit her marketing writing website for more information.
The Secret Reasons Why People Buy Your Services
MarketingProfs ran a story this week about the reasons why customers purchase B2B (business-to-business services). The reasons ranged from "collaborated with me" to "offered solutions". You can read the original article on MarketingProfs, but I wanted to offer my own take on the topic based on my years of sales and marketing experience.
People Are Illogical During the Sales Process
People purchase products and services based on a complicated stew of emotions, logic, and feeling. They may buy from one salesman because he reminds them of their favorite actor, while another person may buy from a different salesman because he looks like a favorite teacher. While most people apply logic to their choices, underlying the logic is their past history, their feelings and other factors outside of your control.
Your Task: LISTEN
Your first task when selling goods or services is to LISTEN. What is the person really telling you?
Number four on the Marketing Profs list was "Listened to me" but I believe that listening comes first on the list. If you don't listen to what the customer is really telling you, then you can't offer solutions.
Listening involves all your senses. It's not just what the person is saying, but what they're not saying. If they're coming to you seeking a solution, listen to the problem. Sometimes the problem is what they say it is, but often there's a "problem behind the problem" that needs to be explored.
The Reasons Behind the Reason
For example, a company called me to ask if I would conduct a teleseminar for their marketing staff on the topic of SEO. I gladly said yes, since it's one of my favorite topics to teach. However, they didn't need information on SEO - they could get that from books, online articles, and myriad other sources.
What was the real reason they wanted me to present on this topic? I had extensive industry experience that related directly to the audience's job functions. Because the industry is so specific and so insular, they needed someone who had actually worked "in the trenches" so to speak and who could teach from a place of knowledge, experience and education. Just hiring any old consultant wouldn't do. They wanted someone who their team members could trust, because she'd walked the path before them.
That was the 'reason behind the reason' for the assignment. My job wasn't just to impart the basics of SEO to the group, it was to reassure them that good search engine optimization is useful for all industries, and that it was possible to implement good SEO in their industry.
Why Do People Buy from You?
Let's look more closely at the Marketing Profs list of reasons why customers choose a particular vendor for B2B services. The reasons include:
- Educated me with new solutions.
- Collaboration (partnership)
- Showed me it would achieve results.
- Listened to me.
- ....more
Among the topics on this list, do you see a trend? Education, collaboration, results.
Do you educate prospects on the possible solutions available? Do they feel like they have a true partner with you, someone they can trust to deliver the results? Lastly, do they see a clear pattern of results in your previous work - results you can demonstrate to them?
Clearly Convey a Reason to Buy
Remember that if you sell online, your words must convey the reason to buy. That goes for people who use the written word, as I do here in this blog post, audio or video clips.
- Are you clearly articulating the "why" behind the "buy?"
- Do you show the results people can achieve with your services?
- Do you offer new solutions or educate them on ideas they didn't know before? (That's content marketing, much of the word I do here at Seven Oaks Consulting).
- If you have conveyed the "why" before the "buy," is it prominent on your website? Do you repeat it often enough? Saying it once isn't enough - people may need to read it multiple times to truly 'get' what you're saying.
In order to sell more of your goods or services, or acquire new customers, you've got to know, understand and apply tactics to address the secret reasons why people buy your services. Listen, learn, educate, respond and collaborate. It's the best way to acquire, retain and create loyal customers!
Jeanne Grunert is the president of Seven Oaks Consulting. She's an award-winning writer and marketing expert who works with clients in diverse industries to help them acquire, retain and create loyal customers through powerful direct marketing and content marketing strategies, great writing, and expert online promotion. Visit Seven Oaks Consulting to learn more.