Archive for marketing

What’s Wrong with Marketing to the Vulnerable?

By Sandy Spadaro
Sunday, December 9th, 2012

So I’m standing there rinsing my hair in the shower after a long afternoon of holiday food and drink binging.  I’m relaxed.  I’m not at work.  In fact, I’m not even thinking about work. Instead, I’m casually reading the back of shampoo bottles and oversized containers of body wash. There are some rather entertaining dialogues between the reader and the product bottle these days. What the hell, I have a few minutes, I’m already here…let’s read all the bottles.

It then occurs to me that this is an opportune time to sell me something I’m NOT already using. 

Can you picture it? Starbucks teaming up with Pantene to write me a message about how fulfilling my post-shower ritual will be when followed by a steaming hot, flavorful cup of my favorite coffee.  Mmmmm…

What better time to communicate than during an already captive moment? Marketing communications are all about establishing a dialogue and motivating the recipient.  Consequently, when you’ve succeeded in snagging the audience’s attention (as with the bottles of shampoo and conditioner that have already been purchased), a creative communicator takes the opportunity to motivate that audience toward another layer. How is it that Sunkist doesn’t currently rent product placement space from the Crest folks? They’ve got at least 2-8 solid minutes of my full attention while I’m brushing, flossing and mouth-washing with nothing else to do but read what lies within my line of sight – and think about what I’m going to do next. Every single day.  They’ve already sold me on the toothpaste, take the ball and run with other products.

I know, I know…product placement is nothing new.  We’re sold suggestively at every turn.  But I’m talking about the communication partnership that occurs when someone else does the selling for you, like with a good networking partner (See point #6 Promoting Partners of The Six Commandments of Sock-Charming). After all, what comes around goes around.

Ultimately, partnership communications have become prime-time for the selling frontier.  It just makes marketing sense.

What small business promotion partnerships can you create by swapping communication space and letting someone else sell your stuff?

 

Categories : business communications, marketing communications
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4 Ways to Self-Promote Without Promoting Yourself: Part I – Awards & Accolades

By Sandy Spadaro
Monday, March 21st, 2011

It’s a commonly known phenomenon – when your name/company name appears in print and is being promoted by the press, its level of visibility and credibility rises exponentially. You already know that your product, services and/or knowledge are superior. The challenge is in getting others to claim your superiority.  Here’s where “being humble” gets in the way.

Most folks tend to get hung-up on the difference between self-promotion and promoting oneself.  I like to think of it as standing in a dark room with a bunch of your competitors…if you don’t turn on a lapel-light or some blinking goggles, how will your prospects be able to see you?

While not everyone feels comfortable wearing blinking goggles, it’s still up to you, as a professional, to find a way to inform and educate their clients & prospects about how great you are…without it sounding like self-promotion.

There are 4 activities that will aide in getting the press and the community to do the promoting for you;

1.      Awards & Accolades

2.      Letters to the Editor

3.      Event Promotion/Public Speaking

4.      Article Marketing

Each of these areas offers creative opportunities for accomplishing far more with your promotion efforts than you can muster alone, so I’d like to provide you food for thought…one step at a time. Let’s start with Awards and Accolades.

I. Awards & Accolades

When it comes to nominations, whether self or otherwise, this is the single most effective way for getting recognized for achievements in your profession, your industry, your community or your non-profit & volunteer efforts.

Don’t want to put on the blinking glasses?  Then have a friend or colleague do it for you.  Write the nomination content and give it to them to submit using their own name as “Nominator”. Assure them that it’s not like being a God-parent; their responsibility ends after submission.

So where do you find places to submit yourself? Each large press publication in your region has recognition contests for individual professionals, company accolade and for non-profit organizations. In my region our big ones are NJBIZ and the Philadelphia Business Journal.  Additionally, many Chamber of Commerce associations promote their members by recognizing them with award & dinner programs (see example: Burlington County Chamber of Commerce’s Voice of Business Awards ). Check out your local association listings and begin collecting your submission data research, including criteria and deadlines.

Got growth? Here are a few National opportunities you’ll want to look into:

What’s the catch? You have to win the award in order to get the recognition.  Check out your competition first – most award programs post past recipients on their websites. Google search winner backgrounds and make sure your own background and community efforts are comparably noteworthy, recent…and not just about incoming revenue.

Follow Through – You’re not finished if you win it. Don’t rely on the paper to promote it alone.  Help get the word out via your website/blog, your collateral materials and your social media profiles. And don’t forget the almighty press release! Don’t know where to start?  Let  me give you a hand.

Stay tuned for next week’s creative self-promotion method, Letters to the Editor.

 

Categories : business communications, marketing communications, personal communication
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