Getting the right promotions can really help your business thrive and these seven tips will help you do so.
How To Get Your Marketing & Promotional Purposes Right:
1. Know your market
In as much as your efforts to try and penetrate different markets is well-founded, it is vital that you have much of your efforts geared towards a specific market. Be particular about who will use your product or services. It will help you know which media to use to reach out to them. Keep in mind that no product has a commanding 100% market share and that you do not need to achieve this for your product for it to be successful.
2. Identify the significance of the benefits of your product or services
When you are looking at the benefits of penetrating a particular market, consider the appropriateness of such gains. Similarly, weigh the benefits your products will present to your target customers. It is not the extra features in the product that count, but what it can do for your customers. Overall, you should package your strategy in a manner that will make the media find it to be an exciting piece worth publishing. Therefore, make known the benefits and provide enough supportive data that proves your products does or offers what you say it does.
3. Establish your product as unique
Your promotional efforts should make your product or service be viewed as a game changer. Put it out there in a manner that tells people that your product or services are better, faster, cleaner, and more efficient than what your competitors have to offer. Stating such specifics, that should be factual, is advantageous. It will give you product an edge over the others in the eyes of the media.
4. Source and leverage testimonials
Testimonials and customer reviews are arguably one of the most effective ways of enhancing the credibility of any marketing campaign. However, the impact that such vouching will have is pegged on how you package and present them. In as much as you may further the credibility of your promotional piece by stating that someone named Bob A. Charles from Utah says your products or services are great, the premise of the editorial piece should be about the benefits that person got from your products or services.
5. Target the media your target market prefers using
Identify the various media outlets that your target markets favor. It will help you find out the specific programs and journals they like to read, listen to or view. If this is not obvious, then you need to dig deeper. Research your target market to find out the media they are mostly into; Check out SRDS and any Bacon’s directories to get the information you need. The publications outline various magazines, journals, newspapers, newsletters, TV and radio broadcasts based on their locality and interest groups. You can even get some names and contact details for chief editors.
6. Your press release should be ready for printing as is
Your editorial piece should have a great start denoted by a sweeping and captivating headline. It should adhere to the AP style guides that make it possible for a journalist to cut and paste the material to meet their story angles. Keep the first paragraph short, no more than 25 words. It should explain the headline and the premise of the story. Why? Well, journalists tend to “speed reading” new releases; thus they take an average of seven seconds to skim through every story of interest that comes their way. As such, the introductory segment of your piece is very crucial. Also, try your best to have your press release in no more than one page.
7. Sell your press release
Get in touch with the person named in the media guide and inform them you have a piece that may interest them or their readers. Hand them a snippet of your story – the headline and first paragraph. If you get a “yes or “maybe,” then it means they see something in your story. It also implies that you should send an email or fax with more information. As you forward the piece, do some follow up; ask if you can call back at some specific time depending on the publisher’s schedule or publication dates.
