Category Archives: Publicity

Ideas To Celebrate Our Bank’s 25th Anniversary?

Publicity, Services

I work for a community bank that is preparing to celebrate our 25th anniversary. What ideas do you have to promote our anniversary? I am thinking I have two goals with this event: (1) Thank our customers and employees, (2) capitalize on our strength and stability.

###

Jay’s Answer: Go through your records and identify homes and businesses that you’ve loaned to. Then contact them, asking for pictures of their home/business (ideally with them in it). Create a photo wall (also on website) of your customer community. Each week of the 25th year, randomly pick someone’s name (who gave a photo) and reward them publicly ($25? Give the money to a local charity of their choosing?)

Grand Opening Ideas For Small Children’s Shop

Products, Publicity, Starting Out

We have just opened a very small retail shop which carries fine children’s clothing, toys, and other gifts. Our main concern is how to attract new people to this shop, and for our grand opening, especially because we have an extremely small budget. Our main benefit is that we We are a sister company to a large swimming instructional school which is located right next door. We know that our main group of customers will be from the swim school, and we are already completely making use of that customer base. My main concern is getting new people in the door for our grand opening in a couple of weeks. We are going to be flyer-ing cars with a small discount attached and we are doing a pass along email to friends and family. The grand opening is going to be week long, and we are doing daily giveaways and a grand prize. But, we can’t even afford a mailer right now.

###

Jay’s Answer: Have you offered a referral bonus to customers that the swim school refers? If there’s a swim team, give the bonus to the team to pay for gas, cover-ups, etc.

Where do the parents go when their kids are taking swim classes? Make it your store by offering free drinks and snacks (comarket with a local snack shop) and a cool place to sit and read.

When kids are waiting for their class to start, or for their parents to pick them up, where do they wait? Can you offer to set up a small game room for them to use?

Also: consider an essay contest (“Why I want to win the prize”) for a shopping spree. Post the entries on a wall, let everyone vote for their favorite (using an email address?). A press release about the contest would be a natural for the local newspapers to pick up on.

Ear, Nose, and Throat Booth Games?

Publicity, Services

I am looking for few new ideas that i can use for upcoming mega Ear nose and Throat conference in a local hotel. We have already confirmed a stall in the exhibition. I want some new idea to attract doctors towards the stall in the form of placing any game, computer game, or some thing new.

###

Jay’s Answer: Before you create the “gimmick”, make sure that your offer/value of your product/services are top-notch. It’s not to your benefit to get lots of booth traffic only to wind up with no leads or lack of interest in your offering.

Obviously to play any of these games they need to provide contact info for follow-up.

  • Have a huge jar of small toy heads. Closest guess to # wins.
  • Any of the Exploratorium exhibits on hearing can be turned into fun games

How To Market A Local Chiropractor As A Speaker?

Publicity, Services

I am just starting to market myself to local chiropractors, as I have seen a need (via ads, etc) for what I can offer them. Have gotten a couple responses already to only a dozen I have emailed with my attached letter- one wants ONLY for me to get him into local companies as a one-time speaker (obviously he doesn’t GET that marketing takes more than 1 talk!!), in & out, another might contract with me to do various marketing projects, including company events/health fairs, etc- he is offering $15-20/hr + undetermined “bonus structure”- I am just seeking advice from marketers who have worked with chiropractors in the past, about pricing strategy. Any advice you can give would be helpful- not sure if I should do an hourly rate or flat fee, and if a flat fee, what is reasonable- per company I get him in, etc?

###

Jay’s Answer: Your confusion is because you’re unclear about the value of the service you’re providing.

  • You can charge him a % of his perceived value (in $) to the chiropractor of appearing as a speaker.
  • You could charge him a % of the business that results from the appearance, but you’ll have a harder situation to monitor and also can’t control their speaking effectiveness.
  • You could charge him a flat fee for each speaking engagement.
  • You could charge him an hourly fee for your effort.

As for what’s best – it’s a combination of your skills, their needs, and their budget. From their perspective, getting the engagement has value, but your time doesn’t. Therefore, a % of perceived value/flat fee makes sense. What’s fair? If you’re unsure, ask local PR people for their fee structure. That’ll help. Realize that the chiropractor doesn’t sound like they want a long-term relationship with you: they simply think more speeches = more clients = more $. So, create a short-term fee structure that’s fair for your time and their response.

How To Market Conservation To Absentee Landowners?

Names + Taglines, Publicity, Services

We are developing a marketing/pr campaign to target absentee landowners (landowners who do not live on their land) into implementing conservation practices and/or seeking assistance for their conservation questions. We were tossing around “Have you walked your land lately”. This was to encourage them to visit their land (with assistance from their area conservationist) to make sure they know it’s current state. We need to get across the message that they need to be concerned about their land and that free assistance is available for them to help assess their land. We are also providing them with information about what conservation programs are available to help them protect and preserve it. There are two campaigns that don’t necessarily need the same message. One is for land that is primarily forest, the other for land that is crop or recreation land.

###

Jay’s Answer: “Have You Walked Your Land Lately?” doesn’t reinforce your offering: free assessment and conservation. Some ideas:

  • Who’s Minding Your Land?
  • Entrust Your Land Forever
  • We Help Protect Your Land For Free
  • Have Your Land Enjoyed For Generations

How Should I Plan My Chamber Open House?

Clubs + Associations, Publicity, Services

I am planning for an open house with my Chamber of Commerce to promote my private mental health counseling business. Do you have any ideas or resources to order materials for such. Since my areas will be with children, parenting, and substance addictions, I’m thinking about having informational handouts, business cards, and promotional items such as pens, but don’t have it all together.

###

Jay’s Answer: While you’re at it, invite your local parents’ groups to your open house.

I’d have separate handouts for each of the areas you specialize in. Each of these handouts would talk about what problems that this group has that you can help with. Testimonials would be a plus.

Your goal at the open house is to network – to talk to people and find out how satisfied they are with their parenting and family, and offer your skills to help improve it. You want to build trust in your skills and personality. I’m sure you already know how to ask great questions and listen to their answers. You just need to do this in a business setting first.

How Can I Improve My Medical Trade Book Marketing?

Names + Taglines, Publicity

What’s a catchy tagline for a direct mail ad to pitch the sale of a medical book? We are publishing a book and we want to introduce it to the market. It is a trade book on Cardiology and the audience would be medical and healthcare professionals, including doctors and professors.

It would be a postcard, so it would be a headline followed by copy that would promote the book and inform the target audience of its arrival and possibly a blurb to let them know what to expect from the book.

###

Jay’s Answer: First, create a brochure website for the book. The site would have some sample sections, testimonials, peer reviews, etc. Additionally, an opt-in page to get people who are interested in the book early to sign up (perhaps also an early order discount?). People searching for cardiology books might stumble up on your site (once you get backlinks from trusted medical/book sites).

Given your audience, you don’t want it to be “cute”. But you do need to focus on what this book has that the myriad of others doesn’t. What makes this book so good that they should buy it immediately? Also, why should they trust this new book instead of their well-used books already on their shelf?

Trade Show Banner Tips?

Publicity, Starting Out

We have a trade show coming up and we are launching a new product in a new market. Therefore the product is unknown and so are we. We are however working with a well known channel partner to enter the market. We are therefore planning to have an interactive demo unit (operational) with a 35″ x 90″ banner. I’d like some feedback on the content:

-words _ too many ?
-logo sizing
etc..
and general rule of thumbs as it applies to product banners vs. corporate banners.

###

Jay’s Answer: A banner is not a brochure. It’s also competing visually against the entire environment. Since no one knows your company name, product name, or logo, don’t spend valuable space trying to announce yourself. Instead, focus on the key benefit that your prospects care about. That’s who ultimately you want to attract. Yes, put your logo & company name, but not prominently. Keep your message simple, your text large, easily read, and able to catch their attention in 3 seconds as they pass on by your booth.

How Can We Get Our Company Profiled By The Press?

Publicity

Can you recommend best-practices for getting our company profiled or quoted in the press? We’ve already begun blogging, and are seeing some nice results. We also have a number of experts on staff who can speak intelligently on topics that should be of interest to potential clients. How can we position ourselves optimally for getting covered by the media?

###

Jay’s Answer: To get picked up by specific media, understand their demographics and the article trends. Spend time to sincerely develop relationships with the editors, so that when you do contact them, they’ll answer your call/email, Then, based on your company’s expertise, suggest story ideas to the proper editors. In addition to the story provide them with some possible sources for material (including your company, if appropriate).

Another approach to being picked up by the media is to do/say something outrageous. The media is looking for a “story”, not just another business ho-hum “piece”. Take a stand completely against the mainstream, and justify it with lots of data. Start an argument, dare someone publicly, or simply play “devil’s advocate”. Done right, you’ll be seen as a passionate expert on a topic and worth covering.

How To Make Your Business Message Go Viral

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity

Dandelion
Photo by Emiliano Ricci

I am often asked what tricks people can use to get their video or product announcement to go “viral” (spread online quickly). In almost all cases, people are trying to make an entertaining message get passed around like a funny joke. If the message does get passed around, all too often the business part of the message is forgotten. People get traffic to their website, but no one is paying attention to the business – only the entertainment. It’s a lost opportunity.

The late Dr. Everett Rogers described in his book Diffusion of Innovations (first published in 1962!) the five key ways innovations spread (or in modern lingo, go viral):

  1. What benefit do the consumers notice: price, prestige, appearance, convenience, and/or satisfaction? The clearer the emotional benefit, the faster the innovation spreads.
  2. How easy is it to use your innovation (from what your consumers are already using)? Habits are hard to break. Bigger changes require bigger benefits. Smaller changes only require smaller benefits.
  3. How steep is the learning curve? The more education, the lower the likelihood for spreading the word.
  4. How easy is it to sample? A free experience reduces the fear of a bad choice.
  5. How easy is it to see the results? The more obvious the benefit, the higher the likelihood for spreading the word.

None of these are magical incantations to get your idea/product/service to spread like wildfire. However, if you do incorporate Dr. Roger’s messages into your next viral marketing campaign, you dramatically increase both the speed of the message and the retention of it.