Promise Marketing Blog

Archive for April, 2011

Timing is everything

Friday, April 29, 2011 —

I hope you did not have any major news break about your business today. Because unless you are in the wedding business or somehow know the royal family, your chances of getting your story covered are so slim, you might as well just give up and wait for another day.

That’s the thing with public relations, you can have (what you think) is the most interesting story in the world, but if it snows in Milwaukee or Brett Favre says something (anything really), you can’t get noticed.

How do you avoid this? First of all, consider what else is going on in the world when you decide on your timing for contacting the media. Think about how what you have to say relates to what is going on in the rest of the world. Remember that it is the media’s job to report news, not profile every business in the city (as much as we’d like that sometimes). If you can relate your story to a trend or new event, you have a much better chance of getting attention.

We often tell clients, a great story has the following elements:

A problem or trend
+
A solution (that’s you)
+
An example (a client who benefited from your solution)
=
A good story

Take the time to think about what’s going on in the world and when needed, be patient! Because tomorrow, even the royal wedding will literally be yesterday’s news.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: media relations, PR, Public Relations

Stop Plop & Roll

Thursday, April 28, 2011 —

I was at my doctor’s office this week and this poster for proper use of hand sanitizer among medical personnel caught my eye.

This poster effectively communicates the steps needed to use the foam sanitizer with minimal copy, visuals and borrowed interest. Who doesn’t remember the “stop, drop and roll” statement we all were taught back in grade school about fire safety?!

When creating a poster for quick reference, try to keep it simple with minimal copy points and visuals. This way those that need your service/product can quickly understand your message. Brevity and simplicity rock – especially with marketing! Sure, not every situation can be brief when we have a complex product or service. But when possible, it can drive home key communications points and be impactful.

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

Tags: content marketing, employee posters, marketing instructions, simple marketing

Keeping up with the times

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 —

The other day I was working on a document and trying to save something when this box popped up:

Did you catch the word floppy? Because I laughed so hard when I saw this that I didn’t even care that Word lost data.

But it also got me thinking. Looking like you are up-to-date with technology and marketing trends means you need to have all the little things covered. I tend to think that Microsoft is keeping up with what they need to in order to stay competitive. So it was surprising to me that “floppy” was left in the mix, although I have to confess that this box did appear from 2003 Microsoft Word and not the most recent edition.

I only laughed at this blooper because, in my experience, Microsoft has been trustworthy and the mention of floppy did not seem to impact anything I was working on. There was at no point when the only option was to insert a floppy. So Microsoft will survive. But what if this was a detail that was overlooked by a company that had changed all its branding and missed a word on an important part of communication? Or if it was a company that switched to Twitter for most customer service continues to direct customers to an email that somebody doesn’t check often?

I hope this post serves as a friendly reminder to stay on top of communications and to remember the details!

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

Tags: branding, Communication, marketing, media relations, Public Relations, Social Media

Common Marketing Mistakes – A Presentation

Thursday, April 21, 2011 —

Blog

Recently, I was asked to make two presentations to Marquette students. Both classes I spoke to were students who were interested in potentially opening their own business after graduation. Since the two groups of students were in different majors (law and therapy), I decided to share some of the problems we see when we first meet with a new client rather than spending time explaining how or why they should develop a marketing plan. We generally see professional service providers making one or more of the same basic mistakes when we first start working with them, so my hope is that by sharing these traps with the students, they may be able to avoid making these mistakes themselves.

Below is the slide deck I used for the presentations.

Marketing Mistakes Professional Service Providers Make

View more presentations from csteder

If you are already working to market your business, the parts of the presentation that I think are most important are to remember to market your businsess consistently, and that your prospect does not need to understand every detail of your business. Many professional service providers make the mistake of forgetting about marketing when they get busy. This leads to a roller coaster sales cycle, which makes running your business well difficult in myriad ways – affecting your employees, your budget, and your ability to plan. The other common mistake is to drown your prospect in details. When you are speaking with a potential client, you do not need to make them understand every single aspect of your service. That can come later. When you are trying to bring them on board as a client, you just need them to understand at a high level why you are the best choice so they can say yes. Although you know all the things that are important to you when you get the job done, it is important to remember that your clients do not want to know everything you do to get them from point A to point B. They just want to know that you will get them there.

Official Researcher for a Day

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 —

A few weeks ago I shared a research paper that I wrote in grad school with two classmates about creating communities on Facebook. We wrote it almost two years ago, but since the timeline to get accepted into a conference is quite long, we just presented our paper at the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) Midwest Convention a week and a half ago. I thought I’d briefly share my conference-presenting experience!

Not one of the three of us has any desire to include the title of “researcher” in our future but we decided that getting accepted and presenting at a conference would be our last grad school benefit/hurrah of sorts. We went into it with an open mind, excited to present to other researchers outside of a classroom setting.

The week of our panel presentation, we met and ended up with more questions than answers. How much time would we have? Would there be a podium? A microphone? Would there be 20 people or 100 in attendance? Did people want to find holes in our research or would they be mostly supportive? At least the one thing we did know was our material, which we were grateful for. And that there would be three other presentations during our time slot.

Our presentation went pretty well, although we stumbled over one or two points that had become rusty over the past year. It was great to share with others at a communications conference where people actively research a variety of communication subjects. After all four presentations in our time slot, a respondent assigned to our session stood up to talk about how all of the topics were the same and then spent a few minutes on each paper in front of everyone.

The respondent seemed very impressed by ours and it was great to get that response from somebody who didn’t need to give us an official grade! Apparently the theory we chose was unique to communications but worked very well and our ideas could really be used in a variety of circumstances. Success!

It was really valuable and satisfying to see a research paper from infancy (about our shared interest in social media and nonprofits) to being acknowledged in the research world. While it would be amazing to have a published paper, the three of us are completely content and proud to have presented at a conference.

Have you experienced something similar? Was it everything you thought it would be and more?

Tags: Clear Verve, Communication, Facebook, marketing, research

Gum Package Highlight: Orbit

Thursday, April 7, 2011 —

Gum packaging design is usually simple: a minimal number of colors representing the flavor and all the information. I’m going to skip past the package changes this past decade or so.

Remember these?

I don’t usually notice gum packaging. Does anyone really? Grabbing a piece of gum is not usually a slow process. It’s usually done without much, if any, of a glance at the packaging. I know if it’s in my purse that I don’t even take the package out. It’s easy to get a piece out without looking.

Gum is simply about flavor and meeting a need of fresh breath or something to chew. It’s not about admiring the package.

And that’s why I think it took me so long to notice what Orbit is doing with their packaging. Underneath the flap on the package (which happened to be sitting open on my desk at work while I was looking around for inspiration) is a code. If you go to Orbit’s special website and enter the code on your pack of gum, Orbit will donate 50¢ to Keep America Beautiful.

Here’s a sample of the flash intro from the page:

Kind of cool, right? I thought so. Let’s just hope that more people notice the code! Over $40,000 has been raised, but it’s still a long way from the goal of $300,000.

Tags: cause marketing, Communication, content marketing, marketing, nonprofit

Resolving Conflict

Wednesday, April 6, 2011 —

When I’m not at Clear Verve (and often times when I am at Clear Verve too), I’m active with several volunteer organizations in our community. One that I’m actively involved with is TEMPO Waukesha - a great group for professional women to connect with other professional women in Waukesha County. New members are nominated by current members and the women in the group are amazing.

Our TEMPO Waukesha group has been providing career development advice to some inspring women at the Women’s Center over the past year and I had the opportunity to speak with another TEMPO member on the topic of conflict resolution last week.

We had some great discussion as a group on strategies for resolving conflict including some role exercises. Here are some key take-away points we can all use when dealing with associates, clients and often resonate on the handling of a crisis:

Listen and watch for what is felt as well as what is said. When we listen, we connect more deeply to our own needs and emotions, and to those of other people. Listening in this way also strengthens us, informs us, and makes it easier for others to hear us.
Make conflict resolution the priority rather than winning or “being right.” Maintaining and strengthening the relationship, rather than “winning” the argument, should always be your first priority. Be respectful of the other person and his or her viewpoint.
Focus on the present. If you’re holding on to old hurts and resentments, your ability to see the reality of the current situation will be impaired. Rather than looking to the past and assigning blame, focus on what you can do in the here-and-now to solve the problem.
Pick your battles. Conflicts can be draining, so it’s important to consider whether the issue is really worthy of your time and energy.
Be willing to forgive. Resolving conflict is impossible if you’re unwilling or unable to forgive. Resolution lies in releasing the urge to punish, which can never compensate for our losses and only adds to our injury by further depleting and draining our lives.
Know when to let something go. If you can’t come to an agreement, agree to disagree. It takes two people to keep an argument going. If a conflict is going nowhere, you can choose to disengage and move on.

So, these were just a few of the many tips discussed. Feel free to share other tips/advice on this topic.

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

Tags: community involvement, conflict resolution, TEMPO

What’s in that envelope?

Friday, April 1, 2011 —

About a week ago, I received a letter from a local nonprofit (who shall remain nameless). It was a charity I was familiar with, so I opened the envelope. Here’s what I saw:

Can you see what the problem is here? How about if I tell you that this mailing was supposed to be encouraging me to “save the date” for an upcoming event. Unfortunately, that’s not the first thing I read. The first thing I saw was that a corporate table costs $800.

My point is not to bash this wonderful charity. They do amazing work. It’s to illustrate the importance of providing good direction to volunteers (or staff people). Make sure they think about what you are trying to communicate when they are working. This mailing contained three pieces of paper. The one they wanted me to read first (to build up my desire to fork over $800 for a corporate table) was sandwiched between the table solicitation and a survey.

When you are marketing your business or charity, details matter. Remember, people judge things they don’t understand based upon the things they do understand.