Archive for June, 2014

Supporting the Community: Tough Choices Need to be Approached Strategically

Thursday, June 26th, 2014

Supporting the local community can be expensive. Even large organizations have to be careful about how and where they lend their time – and money. Is there value – beyond personal satisfaction – in supporting local events and activities? Which ones? How can you say “no” graciously to the many requests that come your way?

Research from the Council on Foundations, indicates that over a 10-year period, companies with good corporate citizenship images and programs enjoyed a 33 percent lead in growth of profits over competitors without such programs.

These efforts, though, need to be done strategically! The factors that go into determining whether you will support specific goodwill advertising requests are the same factors that go into virtually every business decision you make: your market, your business objectives and the resources you have available (your budget).

As you work to develop your own “goodwill policy,” follow these steps: (more…)

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Posted in Business Development, Strategic Communications | No Comments »

What You May Be Doing Wrong When You’re Pitching to the Media

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014

At least once a week – maybe more often – I’ll have a prospect or client say to me:  “I can’t understand why the media won’t run a story on my…” Well, there may be a number of reasons.

Here are 5: (more…)

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Posted in Media Relations/PR, PR and Media Relations | No Comments »

10 Copywriting Tips to Generate Results!

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

I’m a copywriter from way back and, although, my life has taken a number of twists and turns since my old copywriting days, writing has been a passion of mine for many, many years and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The thing is, much of what I learned as a professional copywriter holds true regardless of the type of writing I do: whether I’m writing a brochure, copy for a newspaper ad, a script for a radio announcement or a page or blog for a web site, there are some tried and true techniques that can be used to boost the odds that the copy will get the results I’m looking for.

Following are some tips I’ve gathered and used over the years — can you add to the list? (more…)

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Posted in Content Marketing, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »

Media Interview Tips: How to Get the Coverage You’re Hoping For!

Thursday, June 5th, 2014

After all of your hard work to interest an appropriate media channel (one that reaches your desired target audience) in a story about you or your business pays off, the work is just beginning! It may be hard to believe, but getting the interview is often the easy part — doing a good job during your interactions with the reporter is the really tough part. It’s what determines whether or not your name and information will ever see the light of day.

When we conduct media training, here are the general tips we share: (more…)

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Posted in Media Relations/PR, PR and Media Relations | No Comments »

Common Marketing Research Survey Errors

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014

Surveys and polls are two little tools that are widely used and often incorrectly. They’re tools that look easy enough to create and, after all, with apps like Survey Monkey, Zoomerang and others widely available they are vastly easier to prepare than in days gone by.

Yet, despite the ease and availability of tools to help in the process, far too many surveys and polls contain very easy to avoid errors that can cause the results attained to be of questionable value. I work with both students and clients on the development and use of marketing research instruments, and I often review and provide feedback on survey instruments. Some of the most common errors I see include: (more…)

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Posted in Marketing Measurement, Marketing Research | No Comments »