The next time you spend money on an advertisement, spend extra time proofreading and spell-checking it. There’s nothing more unprofessional than misspelling “professional”. Also, if you’re going to mention an other company’s trademarked name, make sure you capitalize it correctly and provide proper trademark attribution.
Here’s the problem: we have a part-time band called BonJourney (Canada) which is getting amazing reviews – but no one in the festivals and event planning knows us, or has even heard of us Our website is: www.superiorimagecom.com/bonjourney.htm and you can go onto YouTube and type canada bon journey – and it seems to find us.
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Jay’s Answer: Start by listing your site on tribute band lists, such as: Tribute Band (where “Gary’s” Bon-Journey band is listed: http://www.bon-journey.com/).
Ideally, the website for the band should have its own website, not be part of http://www.superiorimagecom.com/ In fact, typing “BonJourney” finds your competitor in PA before you.
Have you looked at: FestivalNet? It lists the festivals and the type of music performed so you can apply to those with the “right fit”.
For event planners, have you looked at: Gig Masters or All-Time Favorites?
What about any of the meeting planner newsletters or magazines: http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/about_us/subscriptions.jsp (for targeted mailing lists)?
Finally, how about networking with the fan clubs around the world? They love the bands you’re performing as tributes, and they’d no doubt like to see/hear you as well.
I am the marketing manager of two branches of a financial institution. One branch is located inside of an office building where there are 2,500 people. We are high on a hill away from any restaurant, bank, store, etc. You have to get into your car to go anywhere. We are tenants of this building. There are 1-3 employees in the branch. We have been associated with the company for a long time – although our personnel has changed.
I am having difficulty reaching this audience as I am not allowed to be in the company’s newsletter, advertise outside of my area, (including the cafeteria), or have access to email accounts, unless requested.
I have glass entrance doors in which I put large posters, have had some raffles to draw people, but I am uncertain how else to reach this audience. If they read the local paper or listen to the radio – they will hear our ads – or if they visit our website in which many have online accounts with us…
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Jay’s Answer: Let’s assume that most of the people have seen your signs, but still haven’t come in. This indicates to me that you haven’t given them a compelling reason to talk to you.
You have a number of options: change your copy to be more clearly benefit-oriented, change your copy to be more interesting (for example, tell an amazing story, a mini-chapter-a-day with your sign. The story would be financially oriented, but something that gets people to want to read the next “chapter” as soon as they arrive that day. Keep previous chapters on your website to allow people to get up-to-date. If done well, it’ll create buzz. The last day, offer to have the main story person give a talk on the subject, story, etc.), or conduct a survey (to find out what people need)(instead of talking to them, simply provide bowls of candy under signs indicating their financial problem, and people vote by taking the candy).
Photo by Saquan Stimpson
I learned some lessons about putting out a call for sources for my new Business With Passion TV series.
Have someone review your request. You know who you’re looking for, but it’s easy to not be 100% clear in your request. Have others read you request and note all ambiguities.
Create a special email address. Instead of using your normal email address, create a special address just for this purpose. It’ll make sorting your normal emails simpler.
Respond to every pitch. Having pitched my own business a number of times only to hear…nothing, I was determined that everyone that took the time to pitch me at least received a polite email response.
Use an autoresponder. Had I used a special email address (see above), I could have set it up so that emails to that address received an automated reply confirming their pitch. That would’ve saved me a bunch of time responding to every pitch.
Categorize the pitches. I used my email program to organize the pitches into five categories: Yes, Probably, Maybe, Probably Not, and Definitely Not. If you’re unsure about a pitch’s category, bump it up to the higher category. You can always downgrade the pitch, but you’ll be focusing on the pitches in top-down order.
Prepare an overview. Although you have an image of how you’ll use your sources, your potential sources don’t.Create a single page overview of your project with specific dates/needs. It’ll ensure that everyone is working together.
Pre-screen. Some people look great on paper (e-mail), and some look great in-person. Make sure that your sources match your needs. If you’re going to be doing an audio or video interview, pre-screen the potential guests (by phone). Although there are no guarantees, you will have a better idea of how they will be.
Photo by flyfshrmn98
I recently put out a call for sources for my new Business With Passion TV series on “If I Can Help a Reporter Out…“. Because I received a wide range of responses, I thought I’d share some advice for how to pitch yourself (or your client) well:
Read the request. Although my subject was “Passionate Guests for Local Biz TV Show (TV – San Rafael, CA)”, a couple of people thought I was looking for guests for a radio interview.
Don’t underwhelm me. A number of people wrote saying, “I’d be a great guest – check out my website to see more”. I don’t mind digging for information, but only after it’s clear it’s worth my time.
Don’t overwhelm me. One person sent me 20MB worth of high-resolution head shots of their client. Besides taking a while to download, it wasn’t helpful to evaluate their pitch.
Tell me why you’d be great. Ideally, you’ve been on other media (and have clips to share). If not, tell me a story to get my interest piqued. This is tricky, because you need to balance personal information with professional accomplishments. As a producer, I am looking for an interesting person with a story. As a reporter, I am looking for solid credentials.
Don’t sell me your services. Some people sent me their advertisements, complete with price sheets. I’m looking for a guest, not a salesperson.
Don’t pitch me your story idea. A couple of people had their own agendas to push. I might be interested in listening to them after we’ve explored my needs first.
Proofread your pitch. Especially double-check your contact information (including your website’s URL). Spell checking is available in most email programs as well.
Don’t tell me that someone is “perfect”. Unless you know everything about the show, the target audience, the format, etc. you can’t know if there’s a fit. Also please don’t say, “I guarantee your time will not be wasted.”
Look professional. About half of my responses were from public relations firms who were representing their clients. The read the request and pitched a single client of theirs (usually) in a single paragraph/bio. They provided links to their client’s media pages and any current/relevant information. As a result, it made for easy work.
I just wrote a new B2B ebook which I am making available for free. It is on marketing with case studies and can be downloaded at http://dynamic-copywriting.net/Plotthinkenspdf.pdf.
How can I get the word out, get blog reviews, get it forwarded along and generally create buzz?
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Jay’s Answer:
1) Having a URL for your website such as “http://dynamiccopywriting.blogspot.com/” doesn’t instill professional confidence. If you own dynamiccopywriting.com, make your site live there.
2) Having a blog for your site alone won’t build (online) confidence. You also need some pages of who you are, how you work, who your clients have been, examples of your work, etc.
3) Creating buzz isn’t a formula. The key is that what you offer has to be truly outrageous or remarkable to make it “water cooler conversation”.
4) Online, create a social bookmark (http://www.socialmarker.com/) to allow people to easily “thumbs-up” your site. Then, find people that truly like your offering and ask them to mark your site. That’ll drive traffic today, but won’t create an ongoing stream of buzz.
5) Find blogs that deal with business stories, case studies, etc. and offer both your wisdom and a link to your free ebook (where appropriate).
6) Finally, identify businesses that in your professional opinion, could really use your services. Find the right contact person in that organization, and send them a letter indicating that their website appears to needing white papers, etc. and that’s your expertise. Mention the ebook as part of your expertise.
I work in a service firm as a marketing executive. I need to come out with as many marketing ideas as possible to build good relationship with customers before passing over potential customers to the sales department. Currently we send our company info, sometimes hampers and small souvenirs to keep in touch with potential customers. what else can i do to build strong relationship with our ‘to be customers’? I also have to monitor the progress after the sales dept take over – so the bind between me and the customer is a continuous one…whereby i have to keep coming out with new ideas all the time.
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Jay’s Answer: Find out what your customers need, and give it to them (even if it’s not services/products from your company!). Your prospects don’t initially need your company info, hampers, nor souvenirs – they want their problems solved. Get clear on what their underlying problem is, have them place a price tag on it, and offer solutions that clearly (and in a proven way) address their issue. That’s a service worth talking about to ones’ friends.
I have a book being launched in another state to where I live, at a conference, however after a recent email from an associate in my city asking for an invitation it occurs to me I really need to do something local too – so my family, friends, associates, colleagues, clients and others can attend. This has the potential of growing big if I’m not careful and I don’t want to be paying out huge dollars.
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Jay’s Answer: Are your friends, family, etc. simply wanting to see you “in-action”? If so, if you could record (or even, web-cast) the party, then they can feel a part of it.
If you’re trying to fill seats with friendly faces, be careful to limit it to people who can actually help your business. For example, people that understand what your book is about. Perhaps even provide some questions to your friends to ask should things be quiet.
Your friends & family may also want to help. Ask them to provide snacks/finger-food. Ask them to help you find an appropriate venue.
Lastly, given your book topic, contact local mothers groups in Melbourne. This would be a win-win: they would be interested in the topic, would love to help you succeed, would be great to get support from, and perhaps have a meeting space that they could provide (in exchange for free attendance by their members).
I am helping out a family friend’s Coconut Trading Company (let’s just call it CTC for now) that is based in Asia. They import fresh premium coconuts by land directly from Thailand and started out as the only distributor in the local market. They have been in the business for more than a decade now and with no competition over the first few years, they were able to establish good relationships with the restaurants owners, beverage stands and hotels within their country.
About 5 years ago, an employee with the knowledge gathered from working at CTC decided to put up a business in the same trade, New Coconut Trading or NCT. The new player thought that by offering low grade coconut at a lower price will be enough to get into the market. But when they tried to tap into CTC’s client, NCT found out that offering a lower price is not enough. So NCT took a different approach by offering other fruit drinks that CTC doesn’t have and was able to tap into CTC’s client, which the loyal customers supported as long as its not coconut related. So with this, CTC learned to adapt to its competitor and the new changes that came with it but at the same time was able to maintain his client.
Everything seems okay for CTC and NCT until 2008. They are both facing a new challenge as another player made its introduction to the market recently. Rumour has it that previous employees from CTC and NCT joined forces to put up Another New Trading or ANT. And this time ANT is trying its best to tap into both CTC and NCT’s client by offering premium and low grade coconuts plus a new array of fruit drinks. Lets add to that the number of mobile vendors who are also now selling low grade quality coconuts in the streets. The demand for premium coconut is getting less as the supply of cheaper coconuts from Thailand is increasing in the local market.
What is the best Marketing Strategy for CTC to be able to survive these new threats and at the same time maintain their market share?
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Jay’s Answer: Here are a few ideas:
1) Diversify. If CTC is only selling coconuts, any new company that also offers coconuts will be a threat. Sell other products that CTC’s existing clients need.
2) Make Premium Brand Clearer. What are the benefits to the premium coconut? Taste? Vitamins? Organic? More milk? Less chance of spoil? Continue to highlight the benefits of your products to differentiate them from your competitors.
3) Make Service Clearer. Why are CTC’s customers continuing to purchase from it? Is it your refund policy? Your quality? Low spoilage? If you don’t know, ask your clients what are the top 1 or 2 reasons.
4) Merge (Co-market) with NCT. Use both of your names & customer lists to establish a stronger single brand or ease of ordering.
There’s always a question in my mind that what could be the best strategy to promote the walk-in customers/ bank customers or the stakeholder to get attracted towards what the asset management company is offering. Let’s say, if the asset management company want to increase the sales of unit of their product so what could be the tools or techniques that we can use to make a successful campaign/BTL activity.
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Jay’s Answer: I’ll assume you already have a great high-quality offering.
There are 4 basic temperaments for people, so your offer needs to appeal to each: Methodical (transparency of offer), Spontaneous (something new/different), Humanistic (show how others have benefited), and Competitive (results better than everything else). The words and images must echo the temperaments so people can quickly filter and evaluate your message.