Tag Archives | PR

How to Get New Customers Part II

By on April 3, 2012 in Branding & Marketing, Grow Your Business, Melinda Emerson @SmallBizLady, Starting A Small Business

There are numerous ways of getting new customers but not all methods are applicable to all businesses. I also need to remind you that getting repeat business from your existing customers is far easier than attracting new customers, but it is important to have a strategy for getting new customers in the door. In Part 1 of this series, I provided a philosophy and an approach for obtaining more business. Choosing your best customer acquisition strategy will be driven by why your customer is buying, their purchase frequency, and how they collect purchase information. In Part 2, the focus is on specific strategies and tactics to create a stampede in your small business.

Here are 7 strategies for getting new customers:

  • Start advertising: You want customers to know you exist – If you have a storefront business that depends on local customers. Consider investing in local online advertising, direct mail, flyers, or local penny-saver ads. You can also do pay per click ads online too. Use calls to action in each advertising initiative to get prospects to contact you. Do not start any advertising program that you can’t maintain for at least six months.
  • Start building a prospect list. One of the key ingredients in a business is having an active prospect list.  One of the best ways to build your list is through your website.  You should have 3-5 ways to engage web visitors to get them to give you their contact information. Create a coupon or giveaway from your website. It could be a special report, free chapter of a book, or audio interview, a 10% off coupon, a free estimate or a giveaway for the first X number of new customers who download the giveaway.
  • Launch a public relations campaign: Your PR campaign should have a story behind it.  The fact that you open your doors is not compelling enough.  Consider having a PR tie-in a local charity, cause or group. For example, my neighbor got a front-page story in our local community paper as a donor of care packages in support of our troops. The article also highlighted her business and her contact information. You can always donate a portion of net proceeds to charity and get a tax write-off too.
  • Use incentives: Give your current customers referral incentives – everybody likes a deal. If an existing customer gets a special discount, cash, or free stuff for recommending a new customer to your business, it creates a winning situation for everyone. Interestingly enough, when you give a surprise benefit to an existing client, like a free pizza after so many purchased or a “no charge” for a regular dry cleaning customer, or free shipping and a discount on future business, customers tell others about these unexpected bonuses.
  • Develop a social marketing strategy: – Like it or not, we are in a digital age and ignoring free marketing tools, such as social networking sites is just plain foolish. You must be googleable! It used to be that all you had to do was build a website, now you need a blog and to have a social media footprint to go with it. No one uses the yellow pages any more. It is pretty common that if we want to know anything about anything we go to the internet. If your business is not there, it can really impact your visibility. Read, read, read and seek out a professional to get you started with social media marketing. Check out my book “Become Your Own Boss In 12 Months” to get more insights on building an online brand.
  • Use Success By Association – Become a part of your industry trade organization, local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, community service organizations, and other groups both local and national. My active membership in the National Speakers Association led to some outstanding business contacts for me. It is very satisfying to learn from peers and fellow business owners.
  • Create recognizable value – If you are in a business where you can provide informational value through articles or newsletters that provide tangible customer benefit, it can lead to getting a new customer and development of a “following”.  Media is always looking for content to sustain itself and to grow. If you have a message of interest, write an article for your local media outlet, notify your local TV or radio station about your unique business and the benefit it brings. Don’t keep your  better mousetrap a secret.

Getting the word out about you and your business will take planning and hardwork and you will sell your faith in your enterprise. It is not always easy to do, but persistence will get you to success.

Do you have any other tactics to share on getting new customers?

Enter the #SMBSolidInk Twitter Sweepstakes! Your Chance to Win a New ColorQube 8700 for Your Small Business! Follow @Xeroxoffice for details http://bit.ly/HsA9Xt

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and smallMelinda Emerson "SmallBizLady" business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also bestseller author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works.

 

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PR for Newbie Entrepreneurs

By on August 12, 2010 in SmallBizChat

Each week as @Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This post is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with @ElenaVerlee Heralded as “The Passionate Publicist,” Elena Verlee can help even the most ordinary business become well-known and sought after through the power of publicity. Elena delivers high-impact, low or no-cost publicity strategies for entrepreneurs serious about claiming leadership in their market and growing their business to profitability and beyond.  Elena’s blog is www.PRinYourPajamas.com and she is a serial entrepreneur who has built a 7-figure business from home, and has sold two businesses for 6-figures.

Smallbizlady: What is PR?

Elena Verlee: Public Relations builds goodwill, awareness and credibility for your company, product or service – which is really critical for small businesses. There are many aspects of PR but most people think of it as “getting publicity” or getting media coverage in a magazine, newspaper, TV, radio or online sites like blogs. The best thing about PR is that it is free publicity.

Smallbizlady: How is PR different from advertising?
Elena Verlee: Control, Cost and Credibility. You can control exactly what your ad will say and when it will appear, but it is costly as you pay every time. A reporter will write their article their way and usually it appears only once unless it gets syndicated. However, getting publicity can be free if you do it yourself, it’s rare to get a negative story and there is way more credibility than an ad because a third party is writing about you.

 

Smallbizlady: Why bother getting publicity?

Elena Verlee: It’s a way to establish leadership in the market, reach markets who would otherwise never know about you, and many lucrative opportunities can come as a result of getting media exposure. I’ve even sold my own start-up company in less than a year using just one marketing tactic – getting free publicity. It was an unexpected but welcome benefit from publicity! Here are 50 reasons to go out there and get some:
http://prinyourpajamas.com/50-things-getting-publicity-can-do-for-you/

Smallbizlady: What type of small business can benefit from publicity?

Elena Verlee: I’m biased of course but I’ve worked with make-up and moms to authors, experts, service providers and technology companies. Everyone needs their business to be as visible as possible if they want to succeed. The author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Mark Victor Hansen said “90% of the success of any product or service is its promotion and marketing.” I agree.

Smallbizlady: When should a small business start using publicity in their marketing efforts?

Elena Verlee: If you’re an expert at something (and we all are), you can get start getting publicity now. Media are looking for an interesting story 24/7 and that is a lot of time to fill – not just offline papers and magazines but think of all the online TV shows, web radio, blogs and so on. Authors should be building their visibility and platform way before their book even gets published. As soon as you start a company you should be announcing what big problem you are solving by opening your doors.

Smallbizlady: How much does a typical publicity campaign cost?

 

Elena Verlee: PR agencies typically start around the $3000 – 5000 per month retainer. Consultants maybe half of that. Like any marketing effort, you need to have a marathon mindset and not a sprint. It should be something sustained over a period of 6 months or more, which can be very expensive for a small business. That’s why I think small business owners should learn to do it themselves.

Smallbizlady: Can someone without experience really do their own PR campaign?  

 

Elena Verlee: Absolutely. No PR experience required! I’ve taught hundreds of small business owners how to do it themselves and some of them have landed in papers and national magazines right away. There IS a system to getting publicity – once you understand the steps you’ll realize there are a ton of opportunities you’ve been stepping over all these years.

Smallbizlady: Do I need to write a press release to get publicity?

 

Elena Verlee: Nope! I hope that brings a sigh of relief! That’s probably one of the biggest obstacles do-it-yourselfers face – not many people can write a press release well so it’s intimidating. And if you’re intimidated – you won’t do it! However, if you can write an email, you can pitch a story to the media. Just tell them who you are, why their readers should care and how to contact you. Three paragraphs is all you need.

Smallbizlady: What do you need to get publicity?

 

Elena Verlee: You need 4 things: A story to pitch which as I mentioned can be a three paragraph email. A reporter or blogger to pitch it to (think of where you would like to appear) A compelling photo can help sell your story. A client testimonial shows proof that whatever you are selling works. I bet you can put this together in 30 minutes since you should already have a story, photo and testimonial in your other marketing materials. Just leverage them.

Smallbizlady: Why aren’t more business owners using publicity to grow their business?

Elena Verlee: There’s always been an aura of mystery around PR, what it is and what it can do for your business. People get stuck on what type of story to pitch. What is unique about your business and why should a reporter care? If you’re stuck on what types of stories the media love, you can listen to a free class here: http://www.createfreepublicity.com

Smallbizlady: What about using social media channels to get publicity?
Elena Verlee: I think of social media and social networks as online publicity channels. You can meet almost any journalist on Twitter these days and it’s much easier to build a relationship by commenting on reporters blogs or engaging with them on social networks before pitching a story. Bloggers can be very influential in their niche so a mix of offline and online publicity is a must for any business.

Smallbizlady: Can a company increase sales using publicity?

Elena Verlee: I have used publicity in the past to sell a lot of product, but for most people it may not necessarily be direct sales. It may be someone reading about you that then approaches you for a partnership or consulting project or to invest in your company. Publicity is a strong tactic that should be integrated into your overall sales and marketing efforts.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

How to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is one of America’s leading small business experts. As a seasoned entrepreneur, professional speaker, and small business coach, she develops audio, video and written content to fulfill her mission to end small business failure.  As CEO of MFE Consulting LLC, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing. She has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and Black Enterprise Magazine. She hosts #SmallBizChat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs and publishes a resource blog  www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the author of the national bestseller Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. ( Adams Media 2010)

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How to Get Free Publicity for Your Small Business

By on May 6, 2010 in Branding & Marketing, SmallBizChat

Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wed. on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @JillLublin on How to Get Free Publicity for your Business. Jill Lublin the author of the new best selling book – Get Noticed…Get Referrals: Build Your Client Base and Your Business by Making a Name For Yourself, from McGraw-Hill and co-author of the best selling books Networking Magic and Guerrilla Publicity. She is also a Speaker, Strategist & Radio & Television Host. For more information http://www.jilllublin.com/

SmallBizLady: How can small business owners create name recognition for themselves?

Jill Lublin: Create the “I’ve heard of you syndrome” and focus on creating your expert status.

SmallBizLady: For small business owners, how can you identify the best sources for referral business?

Jill Lublin: Find trade associations that will help you cross-market to your target audience.  Be clear about what you need in the next 30 days and ask for it – as well as give… ask others how you can help them.

SmallBizLady: Is there proper referral etiquette to keep in mind?

Jill Lublin: Be clear and focused.  And be reciprocal….remember to ask others, how can I help you?

SmallBizLady: Your first book, Guerrilla Publicity, focused on low cost and free ways to use publicity in order to increase visibility.  Can you share with us some of those techniques?

Jill Lublin: Placing announcements in your local newspaper’s “People” section is a great free way to get publicity.  Announcements should be short and focus on something new and special about your business like a new product, a promotion, a published book, etc.  I also recommend giving free seminars about your expertise.

SmallBizLady: How can you create your “ooh ahh factor”?

Jill Lublin: Focus on your unique story.  Think about what makes you special.  What has happened in your life?  What is it that makes you stand out?

SmallBizLady: Networking is another great way to get your word out.  What are some of the dos and don’ts of networking?

Jill Lublin: Dos…look to help others constantly, stay focused on your target market, and have a 10 – 20 second sound bite prepared.  Don’ts… never thrust your business card in everyone’s face, be careful not to misrepresent yourself, try not to monopolize people’s time.

SmallBizLady: Can you recommend where you find to be the best places to network?

Jill Lublin: Look for places that cater to your target market – an example… one of my target markets is women business owners so look to organizations such as the National Association of Women Business Owners and eWomenNetwork.

SmallBizLady: With so much competition out there, how can you distinguish yourself and find your uniqueness to focus on?

Jill Lublin: Find your own angle that is personality and value based.

SmallBizLady: How can you quickly respond to breaking news and trends in your industry?  And how do you go about doing that?

Jill Lublin: Subscribe to google alerts and helpareporterout.com.  Also scan the news everyday and look to be a bit boarder about how you can fit in.

SmallBizLady: Can anyone really get themselves into the New York Times or on CNN without a hired publicist?

Jill Lublin: Yes although it may be difficult.  Be passionate about why your messages matter and pitch!

SmallBizLady: Do you have a favorite “guerrilla” PR tactic?

Jill Lublin: It is really a combination of things that creates success… the every 60 day announcements, sending out newsworthy press releases every quarter, speaking engagements, etc.

SmallBizLady: What additional secrets might you have to share on how to people can expand their businesses?

Jill Lublin: Create a message that will capture people’s hearts.  Know who you are.  And remember you will need to be professionally persistent with your follow up – sometimes could take at least 7 calls.

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.

Melinda Emerson, known to many as “SmallBizLady,” is a Veteran Entrepreneur, Small Business Coach and Social Media Strategist who hosts #Smallbizchat weekly on Twitter for emerging entrepreneurs.  Her first book Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months was released in March 2010.

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