Business Blogs
Ready, Set, Grow! Harness the Power of PR to Grow Your Business
Friday, April 30, 2010
Too often, a business owner may think that because they are “just” a lawyer or an accountant, they don’t have anything truly interesting to say about their business. A lot of times they’re so into running the company’s day-to-day operations that they can’t see the interesting thing about it. Sometime it helps to have a different perspective to tell the businesses’ story.
Storytelling and using the power of public relations to tell that story were the central messages in ThinkBusiness’s April “Ready, Set, Grow!” event at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church, Va.
The event’s moderator was Jen Sterling, president of Red Thinking. The panelists were Elizabeth Shea, president and CEO of SpeakerBox; Robert Deigh, principal, RDC Communication; and Pauline Lewis, CEO of oovoo design.
Here are just a few of the tips that our participants provided:
- Keep your messaging tight, focused and consistent. Practice your pitch! It can be surprisingly difficult to get your “elevator speech” down to 30 seconds or less.
- Every organization has good stories in it, but not all of them have to do with the focus of the business – the CEO may have an interesting hobby that could draw attention, for example.
- Check out sites like HelpAReporter.com (a site that matches reporters with sources).
- Look for opportunities to mingle in person with reporters. Some newspapers and local magazines host “meet our reporters” events that are worthwhile to attend. Make sure you’re available to take a reporter’s phone call – they are often on very tight deadlines.
- Establish a Twitter account, and follow reporters who focus on your subject area.
- Find publications that accept contributed articles and contact those publications with your pitch.
- Establishing a business page on Facebook, a blog about issues central to your business, and accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter can help with your outreach efforts to both the media and the public.
ThinkBusiness Media hosts periodic “Ready, Set, Grow!” breakfast panel events. For information about upcoming events, watch for announcements in the events section of our website.
Thanks to our April platinum-level event sponsors: Administaff, The Meltzer Group and Access National Bank. Special thanks to Falcon Print and Copy and Reston Limousine.
Harness the Power of PR - Exclusive Event April 30
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
ThinkBusiness Media's unique "Ready, Set, Grow...!" event on April 30 is bringing together some of the area's leading experts on public relations to share how your business can grow using some of the latest PR techniques and trends. There's still time to register!
The breakfast panel will educate you on how to effectively promote your message, business and brand in this market climate. Register now to network with executives from the area's leading companies at this must-attend event on PR trends to grow your business in today's changing market.
Learn the latest on:
- The effectiveness of PR to grow your revenue
- The newest trends and techniques in PR
- Proven strategies for companies of all sizes
- Strategies to maximize your PR budget
...and so much more!
The panelists for this important event are:
- Elizabeth Shea, President & CEO, SpeakerBox
- Robert Deigh, Principal, RDC Communications/PR
- Pauline Lewis, CEO, oovoo design
- Moderator: Jen Sterling, President, Red Thinking
This breakfast event is 7:30 - 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 30 at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church, Va. Breakfast and complimentary valet parking is included.
Time is running out! Register online here today!
(For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Tracey Bonomo at (703) 204-1002.)
Got Effective Email Marketing?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Even in this age of social media marketing, viral marketing and more, email is still a highly effective way to reach out to customers.
More than 70 people attended ThinkBusiness Media's Ready, Set ... Grow! breakfast event this morning -- the majority of whom have tried email marketing in the past. “Once!” someone called out.
Moderator Greg Cangialosi, president and CEO of Blue Sky Factory, confirmed what many attendees had already heard: Email marketing delivers.
In fact, research from the Direct Marketing Association concluded that email marketing has an ROI of about $42 for every dollar spent. There are very few online services customers can use (including social media) without an active email account.
The following are some of our tips from the panelists: Jeanne Jennings, principal of JeanneJennings.com; Raj Khere, CEO of MailerMailer; Jeffrey Lupisella, president and CEO of Vizual, Inc.; and Bill McKay, vice president of Direct Media Millard.
DELIVERABILITY
Go to senderscore.org to evaluate how well your messages are being delivered. If you create an account, you can see your acceptance rate and tips to increase your deliverability. In addition, remember that people change email addresses so work to keep your own internal list up to date by making it easy for people to update it.
OPEN RATES AND YOUR RESOURCES
Someone in your company should stay on top of open rates, deliverability and other metrics and work to improve them. If you don’t have people dedicated to manage your e-mail marketing, you may want to outsource your email marketing to an email service provider. However, don’t get discouraged by what you may think are low email rates. A 10 percent open rate may be much higher due to how different email clients block images or other tracking-focused elements. Some ESPs can track metrics other than your open rate, such as activity (who clicked on a link in your email, for example).
MANAGING YOUR LISTS
Your email list (obviously) is a very important element, and while you can purchase a list, renting may be a better way to go. Reputable list brokers will be able to work with you to target a specific group of recipients. Learn the difference between a “hard bounce” and a deliverability issue and work with your list broker, ESP or your internal email marketing manager on keeping your list “clean.”
LEGAL ISSUES
You have to have your physical address on your email, and you need to have an electronic option for recipients to unsubscribe to your emails. More on the CAN-SPAM act is available at www.ftc.gov/spam.
YOUR SUBJECT LINE AND CONTENT
KISS it (keep it simple, stupid). Your keywords should go at the start of your subject line. It should be short and to the point. Try to avoid things that may trigger an email service’s spam filter, such as putting your subject line in ALL CAPS. Test your subject lines over time and track open rates to see which are most effective. Also test how your content renders on multiple email clients and devices.
Your content needs to be relevant to your target audience and includes a “call to action”. You need to know what your goals are for each email campaign and tailor your content to meet that goal. Educational content emails tend to be more successful than sales/promotional emails. In addition, emails with video tend to have higher open rates and interaction.
Attendees may download a free ebook about email marketing from Blue Sky Factory.
The event sponsors were Administaff and RCD & Associates. Special thanks to Inox Restaurant and Falcon Print and Copy.
ThinkBusiness Media’s next Ready, Set … Grow event will be in April. Watch this blog for more details in the coming weeks.
Are Your Blinders Still On?
Saturday, December 5, 2009
For several months now I have been getting back into the “deal mode.” In the last four months I have visited more than 15 business owners scattered around the country and the theme is almost always the same. “My business was fine, I paid my bills on time…my customers disappeared.” Following that statement would come the notion that if the owner could “raise new money” or “find a new debt source” all would be well.
Rarely does adding debt save the day. I don’t mean small amounts over short periods of time. I mean big chunks of money where the idea is that next years’ performance will make it possible to pay back the big chunk.
The part I want you to focus on is not that out of desperation someone is willing to borrow more, even at higher costs, just to build that bridge to the future next year when the recovery will make everything all right. You see…the recovery people expect isn’t coming. THIS economy will actually get worse before it gets better.
GET YOUR BLINDERS OFF.
When you feel sick, maybe with the flu, deep down inside you know as you take your medicine that soon you will feel better. You have been sick before and you got better, so you comfort your aching body by having your mind think about that recovery just around the corner. It works for almost everyone for almost every illness. It gets a little rougher when it is a long term problem like getting a new hip or knee, or suffering a more serious ailment. When it turns out you have something really bad, something that could be terminal…you start acting differently…you realize you might not recover.
I am proponent of positive thinking. But it has to be reality based positive thinking. The economy did not catch a cold. America has a potentially terminal economic illness. And you better act accordingly. You can survive when you do everything you can, as fast as you can…to survive. That starts with taking your blinders off. If your child acts out you scold them…if you find drug paraphernalia you better step up the actions taken to correct the situation. Five pounds overweight, maybe you should skip dessert a few days. Fifty pounds overweight calls for quite a different action.
This is the new economy. People have less buying power. People are actually changing their philosophy about spending frivolously on “stuff.” The slower spending comes from less available credit and a new “less stuff” philosophy…get used to it. We will be here for several years before people will change again. We didn’t have a “scare” in this country, we woke up to the reality that we might have a terminal economic illness. Short term hope based on a short term recovery will most likely put you out of business.