Archive for the ‘PR & marketing tips’ Category

The annual conferences and expos held by trade and professional associations provide a natural opportunity for those associations to generate publicity.  Reporters may want to interview the national experts brought in to speak at the event. Unfortunately, those big events absorb the staff, making it hard for them to find time to focus on a publicity campaign.  Douglas Communications Group can provide timely, temporary assistance to help associations capitalize on those opportunities.

October is National Community Planning Month and the Michigan Association of Planning had scheduled Mitchell Silver, president-elect of the American Planning Association, to speak at its October conference.   Silver generously wrote a 300-word essay on the importance of planning which we offered to the op-ed pages of daily newspapers around Michigan.  Kelli Kavanaugh, development reporter for the E-zine Model D, interviewed Silver, resulting in this article.

It seems like Sam Bernstein and family are EVERYWHERE these days.  They advertise constantly on TV and I see their billboards all over metro Detroit.  Do you think Sam or one of his three offspring will personally handle every case?  Of course not.  That advertising must generate thousands of leads.  They created a process and hired people to screen those leads, legal assistants to meet with the likeliest prospects and a cadre of lawyers who handle those cases that appear to be profitable.

The Bernstein Law Firm undoubtedly had a plan and timetable so they could ramp up their staffing as their advertising generated business, and you can bet that it does generate business.

Have you set a sales goal for next year?  How much more money do you want to bring in?  Five percent?  Ten? Twenty?

If your goal is anything other than “business as usual,” what are you going to do differently?  You’ll have to expand your capacity – more people, more inventory, more space — and you’re definitely need to market more aggressively. TV and billboard advertising may not be work for you like they work for the Bernsteins, but you really do have to spend money to make money.  It differs based on your industry, but think about budgeting to spend 10 percent of your gross sales on marketing.

(This item was inspired by a discussion with Novi Economic Development Director Ara Topouzian.  Thanks, Ara!)

Stout Systems provides software development consulting and IT staffing services. Their marketing mix includes the use of direct mail, traditional media and social media. For the latter, part of their strategy includes targeted advertising on Facebook, according to President John Stout.   (John and I are mentors in Detroit’s TechTown program.)

At first, their Facebook ads weren’t generating a substantial number of clicks, so the company discontinued them for several weeks, and almost immediately saw their lead generation drop by about 10%.  The company reinstated the Facebook ads and the stats improved and are now running higher than ever.

“We didn’t always know why our Facebook ads worked for us, but clearly they do work,” Stout said.

By Erik Meier
Guest columnist

When a prospect expresses interest in your product or service, “What” plays a pivotal role in developing the potential opportunity.  Why?  Because asking “What” questions in the early stages of the selling cycle helps you obtain the information needed to understand the nature and scope of the opportunity.  And, in the later stages, “What” questions help you determine if your product or service represents the best fit for the defined opportunity.

Let’s examine some of the “What” questions to which you’ll need answers as you work toward defining the opportunity. 

• What does the prospect want?
• What does the prospect need?
• What triggered the need or desire?

As the scope of the opportunity begins to take shape, you need answers to “What” questions to get a sense of the prospect’s commitment to move forward with a purchase.

• What, if anything, has the prospect done to try and satisfy the need or desire?
• What level of urgency has the prospect assigned to satisfying their issue?
• What are the prospects expectations regarding the investment necessary to fulfill the need?

When you’ve fully defined the want and need of a prospect, its time to ask additional “What” questions before presenting and closing.

• What would cause the prospect to award the sale to one company over another?
• What additional benefits accrue to the prospect by doing business with you?
• What value does the prospect place on those benefits?

When you have all the answers to the “What” questions, you’ll know whether the opportunity is one you can win, and how to win it.  Contact me to learn more about “What” questions you should be asking to close more business.  What could be more important then that?

Erik is the CEO of the EAM Consulting Group in Troy.   He trains, coaches and consults as an authorized licensee of Sandler Training,  a world leader in innovative sales and sales management training.

The TV reporter’s in front of you with a camera and a microphone.  How do you make sure that your important content winds up on the air and not on the virtual cutting room floor? Here’s the secret:  Only “60 Minutes” can roll video for as long as it takes to hang you.  TV news reporters have to get on to the next interview.  If you keep repeating the same thing over and over, they’ll be forced to use it.

Answer their question if you can.  If you can’t, answer the question you wanted them to ask.  How?  Key messages.

There are actually four elements in this system:

• Key messages
• Proof points
• Bridging
• Rehearsal

Key messages are brief assertions – opinions — about your business or issue. For example:

Stagecrafters is an important economic development asset in Royal Oak

You support them with as many proof points as you wish:

• Stagecrafters brings 20,000 people to the city each year, from as far away as W. Bloomfield and Shelby Township
• 45% of our patrons dine in Royal Oak before or after the show
• Most of our patrons drive to the theater, spending tens of thousands of dollars in municipal parking lots

You will create three to five key messages.  Together they should cover every possible question a reporter – or anyone — might ask.

You will respond to questions by bridging back to one of your key messages.  If there’s time, you’ll support it with a proof point.

City commissioner:  “Why should we grant Stagecrafters this special event permit?”

Stagecrafters representative:  “We are an important economic development asset in Royal Oak.  Your parking deck alone captures tens of thousands of dollars a year from our patrons.”

In the final stage, brainstorm to think up all the unfriendly, pointed questions you might encounter in an interview.  Use them to make sure your message shield covers all your vulnerable spots, then rehearse your answers until you can bridge smoothly.

Now to the gubernatorial debate.  Both Virg Bernero and Rick Snyder  will have about five key messages, which they’ll back up, as time permits, with proof points.  Sometimes they’ll answer questions directly but you can expect them to handle about 75 percent of the questions either by using a key message or by bridging to one.   Look for the occasional Olympic-caliber long jump when they have to get from a really ugly question back to the safety of one of their core themes.

You’ve changed, you’ve cut back and you’ve survived.  Maybe you’ve even  grown stronger through adversity. Some competitors have fallen by the way, but guess what? You’ll find the other survivors competing for what’s left of yor market.  So how are you going to beat them?

You can’t just wait to grow along with the economy. If you’re ever canoed on a river, you know that you can only steer if you’re going faster than the current.  You can only outrace your competitors by paddling faster.

You’ve innovated to stay afloat;  now you must innovate in your marketing.  Invest in new initiatives that will differentiate yourself from your competitors and go after them while they’re still drifting with the current.

What is your unique selling proposition?  What differentiates your company from its competitors?

In the Sept. 19 New York Times, Kevin O’Connor, CEO of FindTheBest.com, said he learned business strategy from his work as a wrestling coach.

“You have to be the best at one thing, and it usually comes down to one thing that you’re better at than anyone else,” he said.  “You have to have a favorite move, and even if the opponent knows that move is coming, you should be so proficient at it that he can’t stop it.”

Is your brand that powerful?

The term E-Prime (short for English Prime) refers to a style of writing and speaking that completely removes the verb “to be” in all its forms from the English language.  Those who write in E-prime always write in an active voice.

It makes us more accurate and accountable for our opinions.  Compare, for example:

• She is intolerant.
• She said something intolerant yesterday.

• People are unhappy with our service.
• Five people complained about our service.

E-prime encourages us to use more verbs, adding color to our writing

• He was angry.
• He yelled at me and slammed the door.

Try this useful tool: When you use Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar check, the completion screen looks like that shown here.  It will tell you the extent to which you wrote in a passive voice.

Read more.

In a perhaps apocryphal story, a public relations practitioner taking the professional accreditation exam encountered an essay question, in which a hypothetical corporation faced accusations of tainted products.  “What should the company do?” the exam asked.

“Implement their crisis communications plan,” the test taker replied, and moved on to the next question.

Even small businesses should envision a worst-case scenario and spend some time thinking about how they’d cope.  Here’s some good general advice.

Of course we at Douglas Communications Group can help you develop that crisis plan.  We’ll challenge your assumptions, evaluate your staff’s ability to cope and anticipate sources of bad publicity and editorial support.  We can teach you or your managers how to be an effective spokesperson.  (Remember BP President Tony Hayward saying “I just want my life back”?  Oops, I mean the former BP president.)

Back in March I wrote about buying graphic design through online competitions.  Here’s my original article, and here’s an analysis of the pros and cons of crowdsourcing graphic design.