Get Slightly Famous

How PR Can Boost Your Business

Jayme Broudy of Pinnacle Consulting Group used to work with business owners across many industries, helping them develop management systems to better run their businesses. The benefit she delivered was helping her clients move from “owner dependant” firms to building profitable, stand-alone businesses.

Her challenge, however, was that she lacked a clear, focused target market to guide her marketing efforts.

When Jayme Dill Broudy became a client, we challenged her to target a market niche of her best prospects, which turned out to be building contractors - from plumbers, to electricians to roofers - who had a track record of benefiting from her services.

We created a plan to establish her reputation within the contracting industry that centered on publishing articles in contractor trade magazines. We researched dozens of contractor magazines, developed article ideas based on her expertise, and approached editors and introduced Jayme as a potential expert contributor.

In less than 9 months, Jayme went from “niche anonymity” to securing seven major article placements in contractor magazines, including articles in Building Systems Magazine, Lawn Care Professional and a monthly column in Construction Business Owner Magazine.

This trade media coverage helped Jayme become a known and trusted resource to the contracting industry, secure speaking engagements at national contractor conferences, boost her web site traffic, and generate article reprints for a direct mail campaign.

The media shape the opinions of everyone that has a direct impact on your business. How many times have you learned about an important issue, a business you patronize, or a product you buy because you read about in a newspaper or magazine?

Advertisers and marketers agree that the more times someone runs across your name, the more predisposed they are to buy from you — an effect that grows when your name appears in contexts that imply you are competent.

Tips For Successful Public Speaking From The Toastmasters Club

Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and healthy. It shows you care about doing well. But, too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here's how you can control your nervousness and make effective, memorable presentations:

• Know the room. Be familiar with the place in which you will speak. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

• Know the audience. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It's easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.

• Know your material. If you're not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.

• Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.

• Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear, and assured. When you visualize yourself as successful, you will be successful.

• Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative, and entertaining. They don't want you to fail.

• Don't apologize. If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience's attention to something they hadn't noticed. Keep silent.

• Concentrate on the message -- not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.

• Turn nervousness into positive energy. Harness your nervous energy and transform it into vitality and enthusiasm.

• Gain experience. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters Club can provide the experience you need.

VISIT A TOASTMASTERS CLUB! Toastmasters clubs meet in the morning, at noon, and in the evening in approximately 70 countries worldwide. No matter where you live, work, or travel you are more than likely to find a club nearby. If you'd like to learn more about joining Toastmasters, visit http://www.toastmasters.org/.

Strategic Partnerships In Action

The potential to form profitable relationships is around us all the time. Take a look at your business and the challenges you face. Identify which of these challenges would be more easily addressed with the help of others.

Is your office rent too high? Does it cost too much to reach the types of prospects you need to reach on your own? Could you easily establish your credibility by riding on the coattails of a larger, related business?

All of these issues have the potential to be mitigated through targeted, decisive partner relationships. Once you identify other businesses that occupy similar circles of interest, begin to look for possibilities to pool talent, capital and experience to reach mutually beneficial ends.

Target, Target, Target!

Too many businesses pursue PR with the mistaken belief that “any press is good press. This is just not true. What good is it to have your business mentioned in a local newspaper if the people you need to influence never read it and would not be impressed anyway?

To get the most from you efforts, focus less on the volume of media impressions you generate and more on the quality of those impressions. Smaller businesses usually benefit more by targeting their PR efforts toward a smaller, more qualified, tightly focused audience of the best potential customers for what they are selling.

For example, an international consulting firm could bombard their local newspaper with press releases in hopes of a mention. And if they persist, they will probably succeed in getting a mention in the paper. But if their customers are located in other parts of the country or are better reached through a trade publication, what’s the point?

Your time is best spent courting only media coverage for your firm that stands the best chance of reaching your prospects and customers. Remember, good PR is defined in sales and money in the bank, not emotionally in column inches.