New Vibrant Clients
I’m excited to announce that Vibrant PR is now working with Burleson Pipe and Steel based in Fort Worth and The KARD Group based in Mississippi.
Welcome to the Vibrant Family!
Soapbox Time- target markets
Many businesses today focus intently on developing business plans, acquiring start-up monies, creating product, hiring staff and minding their bottom line intently – as they should. However, one of the pitfalls for businesses small and large is using standard, cookie-cutter promotion and advertising tactics that often yield nothing more than a debit in the bank account.
Business owners and entrepreneurs should recognize that just “running an ad” may not yield the results they desire, and in many markets won’t be the best use of hard earned (or borrowed) money. Even if you produce, sell or distribute a “universal” product, blanket marketing and advertising can cost a pretty penny. The key to choosing the right promotion strategy for your business is defining your target audience.
Often marketers ask customers the question “Who needs your product?” And the answer is typically “women” or “men”. That is not a target audience. I swear if I hear one more MLM energy company representative say “Everyone needs what I’ve got…” I might just scream. Okay, so that’s a little dramatic, but really now can we just think before we open our mouths?
Clearly defined targets include demographic, geographic and even psychographic indicators. These are the basics people.
Take the time to consider these questions to help you create a profile that can define your target clearly:
• Who wants this product/service? (age, gender, race)
• Where do these people live? (work, recreation, education)
• What motivates this person to buy? (income levels, cost, discounts)
• What type of life does this person lead? (busy, tech savvy, children)
• What benefit does this product/service offer this person?
One of my dear friends and clients actually breaks this down really well in a new book that will be coming out soon. Sarah Zink gets it. And she’s even got a workbook (I helped with the design) that can help those challenged in targeting. It’s the best $7.50 you can spend if you struggle with this topic.
Using the answers to these questions above and others like them creates a profile that shows you a target, outlines the type of message they need and even where they should hear or see it. Now you can choose the right tool to communicate with your desired customer. Perhaps it is an ad in the local paper, or perhaps it’s a promotion at a local event, or a direct mail postcard and promotion to certain zip codes. Whatever tactic you choose, you’ll be making an informed, targeted choice about where to spend your time and resources to communicate with the person most likely to become your customer.
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Vibrant Resource: Sarah Zink Business Training can whip anybody into target marketing shape. Seriously.
Vibrant Challenge: See if you can write down in one sentence who your primary target market is. Okay…I’ll give you two sentences.
Plan for Charities
Picture this, the phone rings at home and it’s a neighbor. They congratulate you on starting your new business and want to give you the opportunity for some great exposure. Sounds great – all you need to do is underwrite the cost for the uniforms for a youth baseball team. They’ll put your name on the jersey’s and everything. It’s just $850.
Now if you’re opening a local service-based business, exposure to parents, officials, and fans could be just what you’re looking for. And supporting kiddos is always a good thing, right? Sure it is, and community-based giving is important when it comes to being a good business citizen. Even large companies have taken the expensive ride down this slippery slope. Organizers are often more than willing to mention your name, print it on the t-shirt or some other low-cost added value.
Having a charitable giving plan, or even a charity of choice, can keep entrepreneurs and small businesses on solid ground when it comes to community citizenship. For example, the Vibrant Charity of Choice is the American Cancer Society, but I also offer a 20% discount for local 501c3 certified organizations. Here are some ideas to consider for charitable giving:
• Select a charity that really means something to you and your employees. When you’re passionate about why you’re involved with a charity, others are more understanding if you decline their proposals.
• Align your activities with a charity with your business goals: choose one that serves your primary service area and reaches one of your target audiences.
• Ask for what you need when it comes to added value. Ask if you can send coupons to organization members, ask to speak briefly at the event, put a link on the organizations website to your business site.
• Establish an application for funding that allows you to capture information from applicants. You could also establish a policy of discounted services for charities rather than monetary donations. Generic Sponsorship Application
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Vibrant Resource: The Business Case for Corporate Citizenship
Vibrant Challenge: Schedule some time to think about your charitable giving policy. Take into consideration what you and/or your company is passionate about. If that means surveying your employees so you have complete buy-in for future activities then do it. Then establish your policy and stick to it. If you’re having a hard time choosing the right charity, check out the Charity Navigator.
Promo Items -
Pens. Note pads. Magnets. Letter openers. They’re everywhere. These items may seem like start-up staples for small businesses to help promote your business – and sometimes they are. The thing to avoid for any businesses is spending time and resources (creative and financial) on projects that don’t yield results.
Choosing the right promotional item is important because it is reflective not only of your brand, but also of how useful your company is. Sure everyone in business needs a letter opener, but is that how they’re going to choose a printer? An accountant? A dry-cleaner? Remember, everything you do in marketing or promotions should help tell your story!
When you’re ready to choose promotional items for your business, stop and take inventory of your strategies and tactics for generating new business. How will this item play into your overall sales or marketing strategies? Should you spend $.35 per plastic click pen to hand out to the masses at a local event, or should you spend $2 per pen on something a little nicer to leave behind after a sales call or visit? Do you want something that has desk-life to reinforce brand awareness or do you want an item that goes for the Wow-Factor?
Going for the Wow-Factor with kooky novelty items may grab attention at a convention, but may not be reflective of the professional brand you’re trying to establish for your company. Vice versa if you’re business is built on fun, choose something that’s interactive and unique rather than a boring office tool. A good promotion company should be able to help you choose the best item as long as you are clear with them about your company’s image, budget and the goals you want to achieve.
Most importantly, spend your money wisely. When you’re starting up or on a tight budget here are some things to remember:
• Don’t invest in branding disposable items.
• Have a distribution plan for every item you order.
• Buy in bulk for discounts only if the item has value and shelf-life.
• Avoid trinkets and invest in items that build your image. Remember - you get what you pay for.
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Vibrant Resources: My preferred vendor for apparel and promotion items is Gerry Fine. Love the quality control, insight, experience and creativity at Gfinelogo.
Vibrant Challenge: It’s time to get real with yourself. Are your promotional items too cheesy? Have you calculated your ROI?
Holy Cannoli Batman!
I have readers! You are out there. According to my web analytics there are actually about 45 live human beings that have tapped into the Vibrant Blog. Woohoo!
Okay, so sure, there are blogs out there that generate thousands of readers, but we’ll get there. Going through the data I was sincerely surprised to see some unique referral patterns and sites. It got me thinking…I sure wish you could track traditional communication methods the way you can a website.
To my fellow PR chicks and fellas…just imagine it. Being able to guarantee that 85% of your target audience actually read the message you so artfully and patiently crafted. In fact, they spent an average of 2.76 minutes reading your letter and then forwarded it to another member of your target audience. (insert dramatic sigh)
But let’s face it, that’s why the digital realm is so freakin’ attractive. You can track email newsletters, website visitors, promotional code deployment and so much more. Of course, with the thrill of instantaneous data comes the responsibility of cautious reporting.
You have got to be smart when communicating the results you track in the digital age. I can’t stress enough how important it is to set those goals ahead of time and agree upon them with the entire team that’s engaged in a project. I mean, I could be totally thrilled that one day I had 65 unique visitors to a special feature or offer on my website. But if those visitors happened to be generated from Kuwait because of a fluke search engine query, how thrilled should I be?
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Vibrant Resource: Web Analytics Association - These people know their stuff. They have a well-archived repository of webinars, articles and interviews. All written in (fairly) layman terms. Yeah!
Vibrant Challenge: Think about your website. No, really think about it. What is it out there for? What are you trying to communicate? What are you trying to do? Create at least one measurable objective for your site. Remember, objectives must contain clearly stated goals, include a time frame and a method for evaluation.
PR Chick turns to modeling
That’s right. Come October 31, this PR Chick will have a short stint as a model for the Bodacious Boutique on Good Morning Texas.
Paula Guthrie is a fellow eWoman and is the owner of the Bodacious Boutique in Dallas, TX. She’s a savvy marketer, and has landed a special interview segment on GMT before. I adore her store and somehow as we were talking a few months back I agreed to be a model.
So we’ll have to see if my guilty indulgences of watching America’s Next Top Model and What Not to Wear are going to pay off!
See you in HD on Halloween. Now that’s a truly scary thought.
Had a Blast
Over the weekend I conducted a media spokesperson training for the American Cancer Society. Now I’ve done this for years, but this one was very special, and I had a blast.
This was for a group of 25 cancer survivors. Some were in remission, some were surviving day to day. What they all had in common was that they were hand picked by the staff in their state/region to become volunteer spokespeople.
I have never worked with a group that had more energy or passion. It was thrilling.
With any training I usually have to go through the convincing speech to build up the “students” that they are experts in their area and should speak with confidence, yadda, yadda. Not so with this group. They let go and let themselves shine. Here are some of the things these cancer survivors taught me at this training that I thought I’d share with you.
1) “I was more scared of losing my hair than talking to a reporter.”
2) “I’m not going to let someone drag me into a political debate, communicating my message is too important.”
3) “It doesn’t matter if your soft-spoken, your words still have power.”
Kudos to these Heroes of Hope. It was my honor to share the morning with you.
Integration - brought to you by the letter “I”
Much of what I do through my own creative process and with clients is to fully integrate messages, brands, images and the personality of a company into everything we communicate. It’s what I call creating a living, breathing brand.
I was catching up on my newsletter reading this morning and ran across a good article by Gregory J. Pollack with PBM Marketing in Marketing Profs. In this article Pollack talks about taking the idea of fully integrated brands into “Partnership Brand Marketing”.
I found his ideas dead on. He writes, quite well, exactly what I’ve been talking with a few of my clients about recently. Choose your partnerships for promotions and marketing carefully and with a strategy of reaching a new customer base in mind.
Pollack writes:
“But the key ingredient is integration. It is not enough to create a promotion or align with a licensed property. It is not enough to create a joint merchandising display.
Well-crafted partnership brand marketing should include every possible touchpoint that your business has with its customers—both traditional and nontraditional marketing, including Internet, special events, advertising, promotions, public relations, packaging, merchandising, and a host of other marketing components. ”
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Vibrant Resource: Marketing Profs - I’ve been reading it for more than 6 years and it continues to provide fresh ideas and information.
Vibrant Challenge: Think about your brand. It’s more than just your logo, it’s a balance of your personality, benefits and primary point of differentiation. Is it fully integrated into everything you do in business? Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to prepare for brand integration.”
Vibrant Goals: Make a list of other brands you’d like to partner with to build your own brand. Remember to think strategically.
Power and Women 2008
In the infamous words of the Pointer Sisters, “I’m so excited! And I just can’t hide it!”
Vibrant PR is proud to sponsor the 2008 Power and Women Cruise, a Sarah Zink Signature Training Experience.
Okay, so now that I read the lyrics to the song, perhaps not EXACTLY in the words of the Pointer Sisters, but the spirit is the same - extreme excitement!
Direct from the vibrantly designed website:
Sarah Zink Business Training is proud to take one of Sarah’s Signature Training Series to the high seas! As with any Sarah Zink training, you’ll have fun while learning to be productive, profitable and powerful. We’re staying true to the Sarah Zink promise of making our trainings affordable and accessible.
With plenty of time to save and pay for this cruise, there is no excuse for any business woman not to grab a girlfriend or colleague and make plans to attend this cruise. Log on and learn more today. Heck you can even shop for Power and Women gear.
New members of the Vibrant family!
Thanks to my involvement in eWomen Network I’ve been meeting some outstanding business professionals here in North Texas.
I am so proud to announce two new clients I will be working with in the coming months. And the coolest thing? I met them both at the same networking dinner in Dallas!
Rorree Tillman is a dynamic woman who is a successful entrepreneur, coach, business trainer and inspirational speaker. Rorree has signed with Vibrant PR in order to launch her brand and multiple programs for workplace wellness and business prosperity in the greater Dallas area. She’s had great success in Sacramento, CA and is excited about the opportunities here in North Texas. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this very talented lady.
I’ve also had the pleasure to meet with Jennifer Grunwald and Tracy Gomez with All About You Salon and Boutique in Plano, TX. These women have really tapped into a great niche in the cancer recovery assistance business. When I visited their salon I would have never thought of them as wig and mastectomy suppliers! Their dream has come alive in an adorable boutique that makes women going through cancer feel gorgeous. I am very pleased that we’ll be working on brand enhancement and a new, dynamic website to help tell their story across the country!
Welcome to the Vibrant family ladies. Here’s to a future full of vigor and energy!