Get To The Grapes

Change is inevitable; success comes from harnessing its power

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond Contributing writer

Are you in the zone? People love the zone — the end zone, the “I’m totally focused” zone and their comfort zone.

Let’s take a closer look at that last zone. The comfort zone is extremely easy to fall into, but one of the most difficult to get out of.

The comfort zone keeps us doing what is comfortable and familiar. It also keeps us from changing and trying something new. It keeps us in the same place, avoiding the ever-frightening unknown.

Well, in today’s business and marketing landscape, a lot is changing, which means there are a lot of unknowns. We need to step outside of our comfort zone and start to embrace change.

Keeping up with change

So, what’s really changing and why should we care? Here’s a list of five significant changes and tips on how you can capitalize on them.

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Employers experience much trepidation when it comes to social media, so they ban and block it from their employees. On the other hand, employees are simply better versed and more comfortable in the ‘Twitterverse,’ so they sometimes tweet and blog their way into trouble. So, what are employees and employers to do? Read on to find out. Here is a link to a great article featured this weekend in the Sacramento Bee.

What’s your favorite advertising campaign of all time? Go ahead, take a moment and I’m sure you’ll come up with something.Now, name one of your favorite public relations campaigns.

Somehow, I bet the first question was easily answered, while the second one really made you think; hard. Did you come up with an answer? My guess is that most of you could not. And it’s not your fault. Advertising simply gets more attention than PR because it’s blatant. It’s funny. It’s clever, It’s in your face.

But ‘behind the scenes,’ there are powerful public relations campaigns that are garnering companies phenomenal brand recognition, awareness, traffic to their websites and most importantly, sales. Almost every business-owner and marketing professional I speak with shares his or her frustration about having to cut their incredibly creative and effective advertising campaign. However, far too often, they never mention anything about PR because they are simply not using it, or certainly not using it to its fullest potential.

So just how powerful is PR? Have you ever heard of The Body Shop, Palm or Google? These brands were built with public relations. It’s been only in the past few years that they have implemented aggressive advertising campaigns to maintain the strong brands they built with PR.

Advertising is finite. You get exactly what you pay for, no more, no less. So this means to really reach your audience, you’re going to need a fairly sizeable budget: something most companies simply do not have right now.

So for those of you with a shrinking marketing budget and a growing need for awareness and sales, my recommendation is to take a close look at the power of PR.

I often tell our clients that public relations is the most underutilized tool in marketing today. A research study by Erdos & Morgan for the American Advertising Federation found that among 1,800 corporate executives surveyed, PR was ranked third in order of importance behind product development and strategic planning — and advertising came in sixth. This is not to say that advertising isn’t important, because it is: it’s simply to illustrate the power of PR.

So, how can you tap into the power of PR? 

First, get to know your local media. Nothing annoys an editor or reporter more than someone who pitches her a story that has nothing to do with her beat. You need to not only have a good understanding of who and what you’re pitching, but clear objectives as to why that editor’s or reporter’s audience would (and should) be interested in you or your story. If you can’t answer that question with a confident and compelling response, it’s time to go back to the drawing board before making the pitch.

The easiest way to get to know the local media is to partake. Read the local paper (if it’s still around), community papers, magazines, newsletters and blogs. Watch the local news and listen to your local radio stations. Find out who is writing or covering stories in your industry and then read them. Get to know what that editor or reporter enjoys writing about and then send a story idea to her.

When you’re reading an article and you say to yourself, “That should be me,” stop wishing and get to pitching. Email the editor explaining why your story is perfect for her column and readers.

Second, just because you think your story is “news” doesn’t mean it is “newsworthy.”

To make your story newsworthy, tap into the news. Here a few tips to help you craft your story:

Holidays: If your company makes a great gadget, pitch it as this year’s hottest holiday gift. If your retail store happens to carry the latest holiday gift or gadget, offer yourself and your store to the media as a resource. If you run a restaurant, why not share a few holiday-themed drink recipes and a quick and easy entertaining guide online? There are literally dozens of ways to tap into the holidays, so get creative.

Articles: If you’re an expert in your field, offer to write an article pertaining to your profession. Whether your articles get published weekly, monthly or only once a year, the return on investment is invaluable. People want to buy from, and do business with, the best in the field, and this is one way to position yourself as just that.

Pop Culture: Celebrity news, cell phones, reality shows, Crocs, Twitter, anything “i”: iPods, iPhone, iTunes and even “IMs.” If you have a product or service that taps into anything related to pop culture, it can be newsworthy.

World’s First: Whether you have a product, service, book or technology that is the world’s first (or simply the first locally), tout what others can’t. Consumers and the media love “firsts,” new, exclusive, patented, etc., so tap into it.

Surveys: There are always surveys and “top 10″ lists available to the media, but they’re usually not conducted locally. Local is what matters, so do a survey that is of interest to your community. Make it general enough for broad appeal, but specific enough to “hint” at your subject matter. This is a great way to not only gain publicity, but also become a resource for the local media.

Associations: How do some people always seem to get invited to the best events, be featured in local news stories and be chosen to write articles? They join associations, which enable them to broaden their network of friends and professionals. In doing so, it allows them to tell their story to more people, which often has a compounding effect. If you want to get your story out there, you need to start by getting out.

Human Interest: Make it about people. If you make a heart monitor and want it covered in the news, don’t tell the media what it’s made of, how accurate it is and how long it took to get it patented (yawn). Instead, talk about the little girl whom without it might not be with us today, about the grandmother who has enjoyed that past three years with her grandchildren because of this incredible technology or the father who is enjoying playing baseball with his son for the first time in two years. It’s about people. Whether you’re selling a product or service, remember, it is emotion that compels consumers to buy, and it is emotion that the media like to cover.

Blogs, online forums, seasons, how-to’s, public speaking, newsletters … there are literally hundreds of ways to generate press coverage for your company. 

So, while your advertising budget is invariably shrinking, start thinking about how you can begin growing your public relations activities.  Often times it’s more efficient and effective than any other form of marketing communication.  And most importantly, unlike advertising, it’s really infinite.  There’s no telling where one good PR pitch might take you. 

If you want a little attention, run a clever ad campaign. If you want sales and long-term success, tap into the Power of PR. 

Sacramento Professional Performance®  Magazine: Vol 17 No. 2

Printed with permission by Sacramento Performance®  Magazine: http://www.theperformancemagazine.com/ 

Friday, May 29, 2009

With Twitter, you can promote your business and brand in real time

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond Contributing writer

Although Twitter might not be the best vehicle for Shakespearean prose, it’s fast becoming a marketing powerhouse.

Twitter is a social networking tool that answers the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less.

Originally designed as a personal social networking tool for friends, family and co-workers, marketers and other business professionals recognized its potential and are now seizing it for everything from customer service and brand perception monitoring to promotion of new products and services.

Best of all, it’s all in real time.

Even the president of the United States (@BarackObama) was all a-Twitter during the campaign, as well as national news sources such as CNN (@cnn). Heck, even Oprah Winfrey (@oprah) “tweets.”

So, should you start tweeting? Well, consider these statistics.

According to Compete.com, Twitter had 19.44 million unique visitors in April, up from 1.5 million in April 2008. Nielsen, however, recently reported that more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter members abandon the site after one month of use.

But don’t let that discourage you. There are still close to 20 million users on Twitter from which you can create your very own following. And, once you do, you can reach them with your message in real time.

Tell customers what you’re up to

So, how are companies using Twitter to promote their businesses? Here are just a few examples:

• Zappos (@zappos): With more than 600,000 followers, Zappos chief executive officer Tony Hsieh understands the power of Twitter. He sells shoes online, and through Twitter, and has become a one-man customer service and marketing machine for the online shoe retailer.

Although some might find Twitter to be a bit impersonal, he uses it at Zappos for building more personal connections with both the company’s employees and customers. And given the fact that the company was featured on Fortune Magazine’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list, the guy must be doing something right. He continues to foster brand and employee loyalty one tweet at a time.

• High-end food vendors: I know, as odd as it sounds, mobile food vendors are using Twitter to draw more customers. The drivers tweet via their cell phones to alert customers to their whereabouts and menu options.

That’s true in the case of Kogi BBQ, which is, according to the Associated Press, an almost cultishly popular Korean-Mexican style taco vendor in Los Angeles. According to Jane Goldman, editor-in-chief of CHOW Magazine, “the Kogi folks have shown themselves to be adept at turning those mini-missives into a hugely successful marketing machine.”

• Comcast Cares (@comcastcares): Not known for their customer service acumen, Comcast was able to take a barrage of negative comments and stories in the blogosphere and, via Twitter, turn them into one of the most successful customer service case studies on the Web.

How might you use Twitter to promote your business? Depending on the type of business you’re in, here are a few ways you might capitalize on the craze:

• Restaurants: Tweet about your food and drink specials, events, new menu items, etc. Chefs can tweet about what they’re picking up from the farmers market and the sommelier can tweet about the new Bordeaux she just added to the wine list.

• Retailers: As a retailer, what you want is traffic, and Twitter can help you get it. Tweet about your new arrivals, sales, specials, discounts and exclusive lines.

• Grocers: From fresh strawberries to succulent salmon, tweet about seasonal specials and sales. Given the real-time nature of Twitter, during hot summer months you can tweet about cold concoctions to satisfy one’s thirst. This list could go on and on.

• Theaters/concert venues: Let people know there are still seats available at a discounted price. Tweet about the arrival of a celebrity. With great movies and music, the topics are endless.

• Marketers: Yes, I tweet, along with many of my peers. At our agency, we use it to communicate with editors, writers and reporters, as well as colleagues, clients and other followers.

To borrow a line from Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage. …” Isn’t it time you started tweeting from it?

So grab a twitter handle (that’s the name you’ll go by following the @ symbol) and get to tweeting. Feel free to follow me at @DebiHammond or twitter.com/DebiHammond.

Debi Hammond is president and chief executive officer of Sacramento-based Merlot Marketing Inc. Reach her at debi@merlotmarketing.com.
 
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But within every challenge lies opportunity. As a small-business owner, here’s yours: Given the current state of the economy, many businesses’ sales are down. In some cases, way down. When sales are down, the first thing most companies do is cut their marketing budgets. Yet many studies show this to be counterintuitive. In fact, here are just a few of studies that show “making noise” during a recession can really payoff:

• McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies from 1980-1985. The results showed that business-to-business firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth — both during the recession and for the following three years — than those that eliminated or decreased advertising.

By 1985, sales by companies that were aggressive recession advertisers had risen 256 percent over those that didn’t keep up their advertising. For the rest of the article visit Sacramento Business Journal.

Do you blog? Tweet? Write on “walls?” Are you “linked in,” so to speak? Web 2.0 (or the wild wild Web as I like to call it) is not only here, it’s here to stay. And what about social media?  Well, it isn’t so ‘social’ anymore. It’s business. Big business. 

For the rest of the article check out the San Francisco Business Times or the Sacramento Business Journal. Enjoy!

As a columist for the Sacramento Business Journal, here is my latest article: You might be your firm’s best marketer. Enjoy!

Today I had the opportunity to speak to members of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW): The industry’s premier business organization dedicated to the advancement of women in commercial real estate. Like most industries today, they are feeling the effects of an economy on the brink of recession. So what can they, and you, do to weather this storm? Focus on what you do best while capitalizing on new opportunities. Click here for a recent article featured in the Sacramento Business Journal.

If you thought you enjoyed reading blogs, hold on to your ‘wine glass’ because we’re creating a Merlog – two, in fact (see our agency Merlog “The Water Cooler”). “Get to the Grapes” is just that – a place to gain insight and access to the world of marketing (and other things of interest to me. In this industry blog (or Merlog as we like to call it), I’ll forego pretentious ponderings and simply get to the grapes about what’s happening in marketing and the world. Agency life is our life and we’d like to share with you our thoughts, ideas, and expertise from the agency perspective – and trust me, in this business, it’s a unique perspective. So, come back often and leave us a line – we encourage the conversation.