Digital is the way we communicate and we have you covered. From e-newsletters to e-promos, our team can develop a complete digital communications program to get your message to the right audience, at the right time, efficiently and effectively.
Digital is the way we communicate and we have you covered. From e-newsletters to e-promos, our team can develop a complete digital communications program to get your message to the right audience, at the right time, efficiently and effectively.
By Victoria Rossi, Managing Director, i-media-international
Companies in all stages of the business lifecycle, and all levels of success, can use P.R. to grow sales but too often, P.R. is treated as a separate discipline unrelated to sales or simply left out of the marketing mix. This leaves opportunity and a powerful sales tool on the table ready and waiting for your competitor to grab and run. Don’t be that guy or gal. Here are 5 simple ways you can use PR to nurture your business development and marketing efforts to grow your sales.
How effective can this be? Imagine this scenario. Imagine you are at a cocktail party. You see the CEO of a company you’ve been trying to connect with for months. As you approach, you practice your opening line and put your hand out to introduce yourself. While he is polite and smiles, he doesn’t seem too interested in what you are saying. Suddenly he perks up, and says, “Excuse me, but I see someone I’d like to speak with. I read about him in XYZ Trade Magazine, and it seems they have the expertise and perfect solution to my company’s problem.” He makes his way around you, and you turn to see him introducing himself to your competitor.
Bonus Assignment: Extend awareness of the coverage or speaking engagement to your prospect and customer database by including a link to it in your company newsletter, posting it on your social media channels and website, and most importantly, sending the link to prospects and clients with a personal note. If you’re speaking at an event, invite prospects and customers to attend, send out a press release about your participation, have someone take pictures and post the pictures on your company’s social media channels.
Implementing a multifamily energy efficiency program can be challenging. In comparison, the program’s development can seem like the easy part. A 2016 study conducted by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) identified five best practices for achieving higher participation and interest in multifamily energy efficiency programs that utilities and program administrators (including energy efficiency service providers) can implement for better results.
By Victoria Rossi
A marketer or salesperson’s job is never done. It can be a challenge to make cold calls, generate leads, qualify and develop them into prospects, and then close the deal. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easier way to warm up your lead pipeline and increase the number of prospects that were looking for a reason to close the deal with you? We have good news for you! There are three digital marketing tools that will help you do just that. They are e-newsletters, e-promos, and SEO/SEM.
1. E-Newsletters
E-newsletters are an excellent marketing vehicle because they:
Once you add e-newsletters to your toolbox, make sure you follow some straightforward best practices. Always give your audience the ability to easily:
Also, be sure to:
2. E-Promos
Unlike e-newsletters that are meant to allow you to showcase your expertise, tell your ongoing story, and provide something of value to your audience, the e-promo is more focused in purpose in that it’s primary objective is to propose an offer. The goal of the e-promo is for your audience to take specific action such as making a purchase, scheduling an appointment, or inquiring about a specific product/service you are offering.
Make sure your e-promos are:
3. SEO / SEM
While slightly different but just as powerful, if not more so, is search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). SEO and SEM drive self-qualifying prospects to your site. People conducting specific searches online are at the very least, gathering information, but more often than not, they are ready to consider buying options and be sold. Choose your keywords wisely and direct your traffic accordingly. What do we mean by that? If your keyword phrase is “blue suede shoes” then be sure to direct the corresponding link to a page offering blue suede shoes and not bedazzled red heels. This goes for the SEO on your website and any SEM you do on any of the popular search engines.
Most mid-sized companies already have these tools in place, but their use sometimes get put on the back burner behind bigger budget items such as advertising and events, or urgent items such as getting information to prospects. But remember, the great thing about all three of these tools is that they help the potential prospect self-qualify. They choose to open the e-newsletter and e-promo, and they decide to click on your link and go to your website when they find you in a search. This pre-qualification takes them from cold to hot prospects, and the cost of conducting the above in comparison to those bigger budget items, makes these tools essential in enhancing your marketing program and increasing your sales and business development results.
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Victoria Rossi is CEO of i-media-international a public relations and digital marketing agency based in New York City. At i-media-international, our primary objective is to help your organization meet its sales and communications goals. We do that by bringing together the disciplines and best practices of public relations and digital marketing to create awareness, positioning, new leads, and ultimately, new sales opportunities for your organization. Contact us here.
Thought Leadership. What is it? Should you be doing it?
In the P.R. and communications industry, we’re constantly urging our clients to embrace the concept of thought leadership. However, with everything most executives have on their plates, especially closing business and focusing on direct revenue generating activities, individual thought leadership is often not a top priority. But establishing yourself and your organization as an industry thought leader doesn’t have to be the time consuming task many fear it to be, and more importantly, it should be recognized as a sales support activity.
Let’s start with what is a thought leader. A thought leader is someone who is at the forefront of thinking in their industry or discipline, distinguishing trends, opportunities, and burgeoning themes, and most importantly, is able to effectively communicate these to relevant audiences. The “relevant audiences” part of the definition is one that is often left out of other definitions. However, it is quite important because you want your perspective and insights to add value to audiences to whom the information is important, as well as audiences that are important to you and your business. Being identified as a thought leader can be quite beneficial in the sales and business development process because it can tip the scales in your favor, encourage potential clients to seek you out, and establish trust and credibility with potential prospects and partners.
The path to thought leadership status, won’t be laid overnight, but it is one that can be fruitful along the way. Below are three quick things you can do right now to begin sowing the seeds to growing business opportunities and sales through thought leadership. You can remember them through the acronym SOW.
These three actions can be implemented immediately. Be sure to work with your public relations team or agency to hone your strategy and optimize this opportunity.
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by Victoria Rossi. Victoria is CEO of i-media-international, a public relations and marketing agency.
Marketers find creating content or keeping up with their blogs to be one of the most challenging marketing tasks, with 43% indicating that it simply takes too much time. But creating content doesn’t have to be that complicated.
Much of the material that you need to create valuable content is already at hand. Here are our top three suggestions for facilitating the process for you and your team.
1) Create an editorial calendar: Create a calendar with topics and posting dates to help you map out the schedule and plan. You don’t have to get fancy, just use Google Calendar or a simple Excel spreadsheet. Select topics of interest to your target audience and consider industry shows, seasonal product cycles, product launches, etc.
2) Assign team members on a rotating schedule: You don’t have to be responsible for writing every post. Assign different team members with areas of expertise matching your editorial calendar. Have a new product launch coming up? Then invite the product manager as a contributor. Has your technical team been receiving a specific kind of inquiry? Invite your tech manager to write a brief that answers those questions and offers additional information to your clients.
3) Reach out to partners, clients, and vendors: Your blog shouldn’t be all about you. Feature, interview, and invite partners, clients and vendors for a blog that offers depth and multiple points of view.
Automate & Facilitate Your Marketing
Yes, I’m Interested In Automating & Facilitating My MarketingTraditional P.R. no longer has the impact it once did and brands must now look toward public relations that surrounds the consumer across platforms.