Marketing Tips for Businesses Looking to Make an Impact

How do you stand out and make an impact in today’s crowded business marketplace?  It used to be that each city had one newspaper and three news programs to choose from.  In the age of advanced technology, there are so many vehicles for people to get their news, learn about their community and hear about companies they want to do business with, that it is difficult to break through the clutter. 

In order to develop an effective marketing campaign, you need to consider the following:

• Who is your ideal client and where do they get their news?
•  What can you provide to past and current clients to keep them interested in what you have to say?
• What tactics are your competitors using to put the spotlight on their company?
• How do you do business differently and better than anyone else?

You need to capture the attention of your key audiences, early and often, yet not in a pushy, salesman manner.  You need to connect with them on their life and passions and fulfill their needs, not wasting one minute of the limited time they have available. 

Public relations and marketing are not just about sending a press release to the media.  It is your relationship with all publics that interact with your company.  It is your virtual and in-person reputation.  Public relations is your presence as a member of your community, a leader in your industry, a resource that can be relied upon and a company worth doing business with.

Your Web site is Your Calling Card
“A picture is worth a 1,000 words” and a poorly designed, hard-to-understand Web site can be barrier in potential clients contacting you.  Your Web site needs to concisely explain what you do and why you are qualified to do it.  In order to do this, you need to review competitor Web sites to find out how they are positioning their company.  You then need to find your niche and communicate how you are better to the same audience.

It is difficult for any company to take a step back and promote themselves.  Many companies rely on outside help to develop new ideas or revise the content they currently have on their Web site. 

Become a Credible Resource
In order for you to be perceived as a resource you need to enlighten the media and other organizations on what expertise you have and how that can benefit their audience.  The first step is to develop a concise, professional bio that showcases your expertise, industry involvement and community.  Then you need to determine which organizations might benefit from hearing you speak and find the right approach to appear on their agenda in the coming year.   You can request speaking engagements at community organizations or talking to the local media – who are tight on time and resources – if they would like you to byline an article or become a guest columnist.

Telling Your Friends and Family is Not a Marketing Strategy
When someone starting a business says their promotion strategy is to ‘tell their friends’, I cringe.  Your friends should be proud of you, but that coupled with an occasional introduction is not a marketing strategy.  Word-of-mouth is vital to a new company and your contacts should be included in your database for company announcements, but that cannot be the only way you plan to generate new business

The good news is that with today’s vast social networks, you can speak directly with your friends’ contacts and create your own buzz.  When part of a larger marketing strategy, social networking will not be viewed as pushy; but as connecting with people you know, who may be in the position to either refer your or conduct business with you.

Be LinkedIn to Your Facebook While You Tweet
Technology is significantly impacting how we connect with clients, making our relationships with them multi-layered.  While online, you will have the opportunity to bond about shared interests and activities with people who would otherwise know you as the (fill in professional title) in their life.  When you share news about your company, it will be seen as a part of who you are by someone who now has an ore in-depth relationship with you.  Company news sent through these networks should entice your contacts to re-post it and should be integrated into an overall communications plan. 

If you can’t dedicate the time, hire someone who can establish a strong online presence for your business with both people you know, people who are part of your industry, media who are interested in your field and people you don’t know, but should. 

Maximize Your Impact in the Community
Find your passion and the people will follow.  Your choice of which community organization you want to dedicate your time to should be sincere.  Once you are a valuable member of any community or trade organization, think strategically about how to be involved, how that can best showcase your talents and how you can market your involvement. 

Find an Excuse to Reach Out
An effective marketing plan looks ahead at 12-to-18 months and creates opportunities to reach out to your different audiences.  Although the overall plan should have a theme and have specific touch points throughout the year, the plan should also be fluid enough to seize opportunities as they are available.  Those might be national statistics that you can localize, industry trends, news stories that you can utilize to draw attention to your key messages. 

Carrie Goldstein, President, Impact Image, Inc.
Impact Image is a boutique public relations firm, based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, that has focused on healthcare, physician and non-profit public relations campaigns for the past decade. 
www.impactimageonline.com

Carrie Goldstein | 954.816.6003 | carrie@impactimageonline.com | www.impactimageonline.com