If you have ever struggled to come up with a solution to
a
problem in your business or personal life and been stalled
at the gate, you'll want to pick up a copy of Marketing
Idea Shop's newest special report, "Getting Creative:
Methods to Your Madness." It is jam-packed with ideas to
jump start your creativity.
You'll learn how to use the Creative Whack Pack® to
solve
your marketing problems, how to create a mind map to
generate a picture of your solutions and a path to success,
how to brainstorm alone or in a group to get lots of
creative ideas, and many other ways to come up with not
one
but many ways to solve your problem.
1. The Four Seasons of Publicity
2. Quote of the Week
3. Steal This Idea: The 4 P's
4. Getting the Sales Edge
5. Resources for Entrepreneurs and Marketers
6. A Little Marketing Fun
7. Smell the Coffee
If you're like most publicity seekers, you probably think
one project at a time. You've got a new product coming out
in April, so you send out a release in March. You've hired
a new executive, you'll put out a release when she's on
board, etc.
For hard-core publicity insiders, though, there's a rhythm
to generating coverage, based upon the natural ebb and flow
of the seasons. Such an approach can help you score
publicity throughout the year, and will help keep your eye
on the ball from January through December.
Essentially, a yearlong approach consists of two
strategies:
Timing your existing stories (new product
introductions, oddball promotions, business page features,
etc.) to fit the needs of the media during particular times
of the year.
Crafting new stories to take advantage of events,
holidays and seasonal activities.
Before we run through the four seasons of publicity, a few
words about lead time. In this age of immediacy (only a
few
seconds separate a Matt Drudge or a CNN from writing a
story and putting it before millions), it's easy to forget
that, for many print publications and TV shows, it can be
weeks -- and sometimes months -- before a completed story
sees the light of day.
The phrase lead time simply refers to the amount of time
needed for a journalist to complete a story for a
particular issue of a magazine or episode of a TV news
program. For example, a freelancer for an entertainment
magazine may need to turn in a story on Christmas movies
by
September 15. That's a lead time of three months, time
needed for the editor to review and change the piece, the
issue to be typeset and printed and distributors to place
the issues on newsstands before December. Lead time
can
range from a day (for hard news pieces in newspapers) to
a
few days (newspaper features) to a few weeks (weekly
magazines) to many months.
The longest leads are the domain of "women's books" like
Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens. These
publications often have a lead time of up to six months,
which means they need information for their Christmas
issues as early as May!
Here's a tip to help you discover the lead time of a
particular publication you're targeting: call the
advertising department of the publication and request a
media kit. Since advertisers need to know when their ads
must be submitted, each issue's lead time is clearly stated
in the media kit.
Factor the lead time into your planning as you look over
the following sections. If you have a great story idea for
Rolling Stone's summer issues, you need to be on the ball
well before ...
If you're looking for more great story ideas for your media
plan, check out Joan Stewart's teleseminars with TV
reporter Shawne Duperon.
Shawne was Joan's guest on two teleseminars in 2003, where
they suggested more than 300 stealable story ideas you can
use in your 2004 media plan. The recorded teleseminars,"116 WOW! Story Ideas from January through June" and "103
Sizzling Story Ideas from July through December," are
available as CDs or cassette tapes. Read about what you'll
learn or order them, complete with handouts listing all
219
ideas, here.
Think of marketing as a big recipe. The ingredients are
all
the things that entice customers to buy your product or
service. The packaging, where you sell it, how you
advertise it, your warranty -- all are part of your recipe
for success.
Experts put these ingredients, or marketing variables, in
four categories called the "Four P's":
PRODUCT
Name
Packaging
Sizes
Features
PLACE
Inventory Levels
Channels
Locations
Transport
PROMOTION
Advertising
Publicity
Sales Promotion
Personal Selling
PRICE
Discounts
Credit Terms
Warranties
Returns
Good marketing decisions are based upon estimates of the
net revenue produced by investment in these ingredients.
The secret then, is to emphasize those that are most
important to your customers.
Robert Grede is the author of NAKED MARKETING - THE BARE
ESSENTIALS (Prentice Hall) and an acclaimed speaker. To
find out more: http://www.thegredecompany.com
or order his
book through Amazon.
4. Getting the Sales Edge
By Jim Wilson and Lois Carter Fay
On an initial sales call, being observant can give you a
slight edge over the competition. Pay attention!
Are there any awards on display in the waiting area?
Any framed press releases or articles that have been published?
Is the company's mission statement on the wall?
Is the place bustling? Is the phone ringing often?
Listen to the conversations ... do they sound upbeat?
Once you are in the prospect's office, notice everything:
Are there family photos?
Mementos? Awards and other "hero" plaques?
Is the office neat and orderly? Or are there piles of papers everywhere?
Some of the things you see can be very useful as you begin
to develop a relationship. The mission statement can tell
you what is important to the management in a company. The
way the telephone is answered can show what type of working
environment the company has. The photos and artwork in a
prospect's office give you insight into their personality.
An office that is in total disarray can tell you that you
will need to follow up repeatedly because details might
tend to get lost. On the other hand, if a prospect has an
office that is very neat and orderly, you will likely need
to cross every "t" and dot every "i" because they will pay
attention to all the details. You can learn much about your
prospect by paying attention. And that can give you the
edge.
If you liked this tip, you'll LOVE the other 51 in our
ebook, 52 READY TO GO SALES MEETINGS: 52 WAYS TO HELP YOUR
SALESPEOPLE (AND YOURSELF) WIN AT THE GAME OF SALES.
Besides 52 hard-working sales tips, every chapter gives
you
a list of questions for discussion and several things you
can do right now to improve your sales. Read more about
the
book or buy it and start putting these tips to work today.
Here's a cool site where you can look up all the candidates
running for election, see how they have voted or where they
stand on issues, AND look up important media information
by
simply putting in your zip code.
==> Marketing Resources Newsletter
Digital Women® produces a terrific electronic newsletter
and offers tons of great ideas at their site. Take a look
and sign up for the ezine.
==> Free Fonts
Take a look at this site. There are 6,500 free type fonts
here:
Tired of wondering what arialbi.ttf stands for in your font
file (it means Arial Bold Italic)? Well, once you figure
it
out, with this freeware program, you can rename the file
so you know at a glance what it is.
Read the 99 best real-life stories and tips from marketing,
advertising, and PR pros who reveal what they learned in
2003. Download free. Includes:
- Campaign stories - what worked, what didn't
- Business tips for agencies and consultants
- Practical advice on search marketing, email marketing,
- PR, offline campaigns, site tests, and career growth
==> 2004 National Multicultural Diversity Conference
March 17-19, 2004, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket,
CT, $295 per small business person until Feb. 20. For more
information, visit this site.
==> Postcard ROI Calculator
Here's a quick calculator to help you figure out your
return on investment on a postcard campaign. And best of
all, it's FREE.
==> Amazon: 2 for the Price of 1
Here's a special deal from Amazon on Shel Horowitz's
marketing books. Those of you who joined my list before
September may remember Shel Horowitz and his successful
one-day "virtual book-signing" for his new book,"Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First." Now
Amazon is offering quite a deal if you buy that one
together with his practical low-cost marketing how-to book,
"Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World."
Visit this Amazon link below and then scroll down a bit to "better
together," and you can get both these wonderful books for
$28.32 including domestic shipping. Considering that Shel
sells "Grassroots" for $28.45 including domestic
shipping, it's like getting "Principled Profit" as a
no-cost bonus. How do they do it?
Over the years I have done lots of event planning, so
planning a fun dinner party is easy for me. I'm lucky to
have a very talented husband, too, who can build things
when I want them. Just before Christmas, Don built me a
HUGE, round table so that we could seat 12 to 14 people
in
our dining room. (No, we don't keep it out all the
time...he built it so it comes apart and we can store it.)
Luckily, our house is a contemporary-style home and we have
one large great room instead of smaller spaces. Well,
anyway...we had the table, so I didn't need much of an
excuse to invite a bunch of people over for dinner.
Afterall, it was the day before Valentine's Day.
Five couples joined us for dinner. Some people had met each
other briefly before but most had not. What a fun and
interesting time! We themed it a "red and white dinner" and
asked everyone to bring a portion of the meal. There was
bruschetta on toasted French bread, cream cheese, crab and
seafood sauce with crackers, a green salad with red Russian
dressing, couscous-stuffed red peppers, spaghetti and meat
sauce, chocolate-dipped strawberries and red velvet cake.
And of course, red and white wine. Yum!
And best of all, Don bought me a dozen white roses and a
dozen red ones! Isn't he a sweetie?
What did you do for Valentine's Day?
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