Summ It Up Marketing

Writing a press release that editor’s will love

Ann Brown, May 8, 2012

What’s a newsworthy story?

1.       The first business to…..

2.       Link what you do to a topical news story e.g. during a military campaign there was a great deal of publicity about the shortage of security equipment for UK soldiers. A company developing safety helmets with communications facilities latched on and gained valuable interest in their business.

3.       For larger businesses new staff members and appointments.

4.       Charity sponsorship

5.       Launch of new products and services.

6.       Staff achievements

7.       Events and conferences

8.        Invent your own newsworthy story. Use statistics that are relevant and that allow you to introduce an opening for your business. For example you have started a dating agency. Find statistics on the web that provide data on the number of single people who suffer from depression. Good sources for statistics are government departments and the national office of statistics.

Writing your press release

The most important part of your release is your headline. It has to be eye catching and interesting. Editors typically receive more than 200 press releases daily so you have to catch their eye. Headlines can be as simple as ‘It’s official – more than 50% of men over 45 now live alone and 35% of men over 45 admit to receiving treatment for depression’.

Follow your headline with an introductory paragraph that brings your headline and story together.  

Add some facts and substance to your press release

Who is involved in your story?

What is happening?  For example ‘Cookery school launching a new course for diabetics’

When is the event happening/or happened?

Where did the event take place or where will it take place?

How did the event happen or how will it happen?

Include a quote in your press release. For example Mel Davison marketing director for W. R. Browns said ‘At Smiths we believe in giving new designers a chance. Allowing three members of staff the opportunity to introduce new designs is a first for our company. All three show true originality and we are hoping that this will be a new innovation both for them and for the company’.

The format of your press release

Send your press release by letter or e mail. Try to obtain a named person to send it to. Space your press release at 1.5 or 2 spaces. 

Include some background information about your business, your web site and all other contact details and a bit about what you do.

Include an image and use short sentences

Who should you send your press release to?

Local newspaper

Regional newspaper

National newspaper

Business pages of publications

Lifestyle magazines

Regional magazines

Online PR  - add to your web site and announce on social networks

Trade press

TV

Radio – national and local

Plan your press releases and get into the habit of sending out regularly. Think about your target audience. Are you aiming at a specific audience?  If so check which publications they read. All newspapers and magazines have information about the types of people buying their magazine or newspaper. The same applies to TV and radio.  

A press release for your business only £75 in May. Get in touch at ann@summitup.co.uk

©Copyright Summitup Marketing May 2012

How to plan a Marketing Campaign

Ann Brown, April 25, 2012

It might sound obvious but as part of your overall marketing and promotion, planning a campaign increases the successes you will have and the sales you will make. Not only that it means you can plan ahead, finely tune your marketing strategy for future success, target your most profitable customers and make marketing simpler, easier and more efficient. 


Planning will save you time and more important will increase your success rate. What is your campaign for?

To launch a new product or service
To target a new audience for your products and services
To launch a new business
To increase sales to existing customers
To find new customers

Set some objectives for your campaign and be specific
To generate x number of enquiries and sales
To make sales to the value of?
For a service business it might be to make x number of new contacts
To increase visits to your web site
To generate enquiries from your web site
To achieve a higher profile for your business on the internet

The next stage is crucial to the success of your marketing campaign. You need to decide:

 
Who are your audience?
Where do they buy?
How much is your marketing and advertising budget?

The last three are perhaps the most difficult to decide on and to plan. Take time understanding who your audience are. For example if you sell luxury home goods are you selling to private individuals with a specific income or is it interior designers?
Understanding where the audience for your products and services buy makes selling easier.  This might be online, from catalogues, from specific shops, from local shops or in response to direct mail offers.

Whatever marketing and advertising you do, make sure your ads, marketing material and web site has:

A powerful headline
Benefits and specific benefits
Powerful calls to action
Offers – not discounts with deadline dates not opened ended
3 ways to contact you

It's a business card...........

Ann Brown, April 11, 2012

Whatever business you are in you will need some sort of marketing material, even if it’s only the humble business card.  We take it for granted that a business card is a specific size and simply a business card and a brochure is often a 3 fold gloss sheet. But with a little inspiration you can use existing formats for a variety of different uses. Here’s a few ideas for using the format of a modest business card.

It’s a……..

Business card – essential for every business, don’t just give them out at business network events, include with mail outs, invoices and letters. Even better add a QR code to send prospective customers and clients to a page on your web site.

Loyalty Card- Business cards are the perfect size for loyalty cards and another fantastic opportunity to spread the word about your business, to generate more sales and to keep customers loyal.  Use one side of the cards for your contact details and the other for loyalty card information. Loyalty cards work well for a wide variety for businesses including, coffee shops, tea shops, hairdressers, gift shops and delis.

Vouchers- A well designed business card style voucher with a few spot prints really look the part. Once you have a standard design in place, update for Christmas, Valentines Day, Mothers day and Fathers day. The sky’s the limit! You could even build up a range for birthdays and anniversaries.

Club entry & pass cards – Do you run a club? Use the business card format for club entry and pass cards. Laminate them or spot print for real impact.

Invitation to events – Have one side of your cards designed with your contact details and use the other for your invitation. Invite customers, clients and prospective customers to come along with the invitation to redeem for a gift to be handed in on the day of the event. It’s an easy way to make sure they visit you!

Charity donations – Be one of the first to use this technique to generate donations. Use one side for contact details and include a QR code on the other side. Instruct readers to scan the QR code which will take them to a specific page on your web site which has details of your projects and how to donate.

What’s really good about using the business card format in this way is that a small print run of 200 makes good economic sense and gives you the chance to update regularly. Get your business cards, vouchers and invitations professionally designed and keep your business logo the same but change the design with the seasons and make them specific for expo events and seminars.

I’ve a portfolio stuffed with ideas for how to get the most from marketing material and everything you do!

Need a little help? 200 business cards (format ) designed and delivered to you for £95. Simply ring or E mail me for more>>>>

Why you can’t ignore social media!

Ann Brown, March 28, 2012

Ten reasons why you need to tweet, follow and post:

Your clients and customers are doing it

To spread the word about your business to a wider market

To recruit staff

To promote advertising and marketing campaigns

For market research

To show case your expertise

To promote news and events

To send visitors to your web site

To see what your competitors are doing

For handling complaints and criticisms

A little bit more about social networks:

Linked In - 53% of businesses use Twitter and the majority of users are selling business to business

Twitter – 71% of businesses use Twitter and the majority of users are selling business to business

Facebook – 56% of businesses use Facebook the majority are selling business to consumer

U tube – 41% of businesses use U tube and the majority are selling direct to consumers

Google plus – relatively new, used largely by strongly branded businesses

Blogs – Are used more by companies selling businesses to business. Use a blog to give advice, voice opinions and for reviews, all part of positioning yourself as an expert in your field.  Ask your web designer about setting up a blog or use Google Blogger

When you first join the social networks they can be intimidating. There is always the worry that whatever you do can be seen by 1,000’s on the internet. But by thinking of social networks as extensions of what you already do, you can use them to increase the effectiveness of the marketing and promotion you do now.  For example if you are holding a spring sales, you can use twitter to promote your sale to a wider audience.

Your social media plan

Decide which social media is most suitable for your business and what you want to achieve. If you sell direct to the public and run  for example a nail salon, gift shop or provide holiday accommodation facebook works well. Post exclusive offers and news and invite friends to ‘like’ and post images If you sell direct to other businesses then twitter is a good option and LinkedIn essential.

How often should you post?

A lot depends on your business, but realistically once or twice a day and try different times so you are meeting different people.

Need help setting up your social media and how to use - £95 to make an enquiry>>>

Help setting up a blog and what to write £95 to make an enquiry >>>

Next time – E mail marketing is it worth it?

@Copyright summitup Marketing March 2012

Identifying your ideal customers

Ann Brown, March 13, 2012

For many businesses as they develop, sales are haphazard and typically come in peaks and troughs. The reasons for this are a combination of factors. At the new business stage sales are made to one group of customers and word of mouth generates sales within this group. The other factor is marketing, which tends to be intense as businesses start up and then becomes sporadic.

Identifying your ideal customer makes marketing and advertising easier and more effective and helps to smooth out the peaks and troughs of sales.  If you are an established business, when it comes to identifying your ideal customers many of them are already with you.

Existing customers and this applies whether you offer services or sell products are the most lucrative area you can sell to. All businesses need new customers at some point and if you are new in business the likelihood is that you will not have sufficient customers to make your business profitable. 

Ideal customers
Pay on time
Make decisions to buy from you in a short space of time
Recommend you to other people
Respond to your communications
Buy from you again and again

The trick to planning and identifying your ideal customers is to find a group of customers, by type, that you want to target and then break down the categories you have selected further. For example if you are a service business perhaps you are targeting solicitors. Drilling down are you targeting new businesses, small practices or large? Where are they located, in the same area as you or UK wide?

When you are looking at who to target first think carefully why they will want to buy your products and services. How will they use it and what will it do for them? When you are targeting potential customers think beyond simply selling to them to how many people they influence. In other words how likely are they to recommend your business? When you do decide who are you targeting why you think they will buy from you what it is about your product or service they will want to buy.

If you are selling directly to consumers, what age are your ideal customers? Where do they live? What do they like? What service do they expect? What disposable income do they have and where do they buy, on the high street or online?

Separating out groups of potential customers allows you to target each group separately, by how and where they buy, by the publications they read and the types of ads they respond to. Make an offer that will appeal directly to them and chances are you will increase enquiries and sales.

How to write great headlines!

Ann Brown, February 28, 2012

Great headlines grab reader’s attention and make them want to read on, but most businesses fail to produce punchy attention grabbing headlines. The good news is that the best headlines are not necessarily the clever ones and by using a few clever techniques you too can have real impact.

Great headlines:
Increase the response rate from direct mail
Increase responses from ads
Make your business memorable
Increase the take up of press releases
Generate more enquiries from web sites

Without being too clichéd or clever you need to engage your readers attention. Having a few headline structures will make writing your headlines easier. Shorter headlines make more of a statement and generally have more impact so make your headlines short and punchy. Not for example ‘Of all the bacon I buy I think Pink’s bacon is the best’ rather ‘Pink’s bacon is the only bacon I ever buy’. 

Write your headlines before or after you have finished your piece of writing, whichever you find easier. Use a few headline ideas for writing great headlines for your E mails, your web site, blogs, direct mail and press releases.

How to write great headlines
1. Use a question for your headline e.g. ‘Who knows?’, ‘Would you like to’, ‘Are you?’, ‘Want to try?’, or ‘Did you know?’  Starting with ‘How to’ or ‘Now you can’ are great starting points.
2. Make your headline an invitation for example ‘Be one of the first to snap a bargain in our sale, visit our web site by 1/1/11’.
3.  To challenge your reader make your headline a true or false e.g. ‘Farm shop produce is 20% more expensive than supermarkets true or false?’
4. Headline with a leading question for example ‘How will RD Legal debt recovery policy recover your company bad debts?
5. Quote statistics, this works really well for press releases as newspapers love statistics. Visit Britain, the National Office for Statistics and government web sites are a good source for stats. 
6. If all else fails the simplest and most effective headline of all is to include a benefit in your headline.  This is very powerful.
7. Lastly collect headlines – sounds geeky but really helps with inspiration. Check out web sites and magazine ads for more ideas. Finally make sure your headline is relevant to your article or press release you are writing. 

@ Copyright  Ann Brown Summitup Marketing February 2012

A few simple ways to use Quick Response codes

Ann Brown, February 18, 2012

QR Codes

Ever heard of QR codes or used them?
QR stands for Quick Response Code. They are bar codes or painted squares that when scanned by a smart or I phone and take the user to a page on a web site. They were originally developed in Japan around 10 years ago as tracking codes for car parts.

Today QR codes are used successfully by many businesses in this country as part of advertising and marketing campaigns.  Now you see them appearing in magazines ads, on vehicles and billboards. The UK has the highest number of Smart phone users in the world, so there is great potential.

Can QR codes work for your business?
Small and large businesses can all make good use of QR codes to increase response rates from ads and other publicity. Start in a simple way and you will soon see the potential of these bar codes.  Initially use a QR code in your ads, in your marketing material and on postcards to send people to your web site when they scan the code.

A few ways to use QR codes in advertising and marketing
Include in your ads
Add on to your vehicles
Include in marketing material, leaflets, flyers, postcards and posters
Add to postcards for your B & B
Put on your business cards
Add to paper drinking cups
Put onto envelopes when you send out mailings and invoices
Include on direct mail

To generate your own code go to http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

One hour master class on how to use QR codes £75 exclusive to Bridlington.net

Do you Tweet?

Ann Brown, February 8, 2012

Twitter started out as a quick way for friends to keep in touch. Since then it has been rapidly taken over by businesses small and large keen to spread the word about their products and services.  Twitter is a fantastic way to link with businesses you would not otherwise come across.

Before you jump in decide what you want to use Twitter for. Knowing this and having a simple plan will make Twitter easier to sue and more effective. It will spread the word about your business and what you sell. Although plenty of businesses use Twitter for direct promotion of products and services it is not Twitter etiquette. 

What to use Twitter for?
To become a market leader – Short tweets telling you followers what you are doing and linking to your web site
To post blog updates – if you write a blog promote it and send a link
For market research – search for your competitors or businesses by industry to see who is doing what and selling what
To build relationships – follow conversations and if you see something of interest join in to offer help and suggestions,
To get help sourcing goods and services – looking for something specific ask your Twitter followers for help, by the same token you can help your followers when they need help
To find the movers and shakers in your industry – follow then to see what they are up to!
Setting up your Twitter page is simple to do. Create a name that fits with your business, add a photograph or logo and personalise the background. Then you are ready to go! It’s a good idea to go on to Twitter and follow some of the people you sell to or who supply you. Then you can get to follow some Tweets to give you inspiration.

Who to follow?
Build followers who will help you achieve your objectives for Twitter. Depending on your business it is generally quality over quantity when it comes to numbers of followers.

What to tweet?
Build some followers before you start tweeting. Then tweet:
Business achievements
Staff achievements
Blog updates
Market news
Launch of competitions
Surveys

Need some help? Twitter set up with 20 followers & 20 tweets £55

Next time…….'Wish you were here!'

 @ copyright Ann Brown Summitup Marketing 2012

7 in store promotion ideas

Ann Brown, January 30, 2012

7 in store promotional ideas

Why do in store promotions?
An in store promotion can increase sales, create a buzz for your business, build a mailing list, increase customer loyalty, sign up more people to your loyalty club, attract press interest and bring in out of season sales.

What in store promotions work?
There are many different ways to use in store promotions that increase sales. Here are a few I’ve used for my customers.

1. Hold a loyalty club preview day and offer members the chance to be ‘the first to buy’ and the first to try’.

2. Have a day to promote and sample new products, but take it one stage further and tell the story of how you developed your new products. How you found a new product and how a local food producer developed their new products.  Ask customers to fill in responses to show you value their opinions. You can then use this with their permission to build your mailing list.

3. Hold seasonal and special events, but take it one stage further and invent your own specials days. For example ‘first fruit of the season day’, ‘early spring’ or ‘new season event’ and ‘tea time special’.

4. Hold children’s competitions in the school holidays, seaside drawing competition or seaside trail.  Make sure you have the space to accommodate large numbers safely. This promotion can bring in large numbers of existing and new customers. Make sure you have plenty for sale that will appeal to young families. 

5. Hold a charity day. Support a local charity and give 10% of all sales to the charity.

6. ‘Monday specials’. Choose a day when your shop is usually quiet. Package items together if you are a food shop provide a recipe. Food stores can use cookery to show how to use what you sell. The smell of food cooking alone will increase sales.

7. Link up with another shop or business and hold a joint in store day, promoting each other and offering joint purchases with special add on offers to upgrade gifts.

In every promotion you hold, build and use your mailing list, promote events in store and with staff, on Twitter.  Whatever promotions you hold don’t forget the PR opportunities, you will soon be seen by the media as a business to watch and to contact to find what you are doing at??? Follow up your special days with news and photos of the event in your newsletter, on your web site or on your Facebook page.

Copyright Summitup Marketing January 2012

How to Advertise

Ann Brown, January 22, 2012

Advertising is a big subject. It can be an expensive option and all too often we are tempted with short notice offers. So it pays to plan ahead, to have a budget in mind and a stock of ads ready to roll out.

Planning advertising ahead
To begin with you have to find the publication your customers, or the customers you would like to have, read. You need to know circulation numbers, geographical circulation area of the publication and the cost of your ad. Divide the circulation number by the cost of the ad and you will have the cost per reader.

Not only will this help you 'target' advertising it will also help you make a decision on which publication to use.  Bear in mind that apart from local press readerships are generally falling so negotiate the cost, the size of your ad and how long you are going to run it for.

And you have to consider
The design of your ad
How long to run your ad for
The size of your ad
If online advertising the right keywords to use
The style of your ad, whether to run a straightforward ad or to include an editorial bit

What does your ad say?
An ad can tell a story
Solve a problem
Make an offer
Make an announcement
Fulfil a safety need
Tell readers they can be a winner
A voucher

Wherever you are advertising be it in a magazine or on the net the publication you are paying to advertise with will probably offer to write and design your ad. However you would be well advised to at least provide the text and some idea of where you want your ad placing. After all you know what is important to you and the message you want to get across.

The design of your ad
If your ad is in a colour publication, use your corporate colours. Break up the ad with sections of colour. Include an image if your ad is big enough and make it both a quality image and an original image.
Use a call to action for example ring 1234567 for more details, to take up your offer or to visit on a specific day
Include your logo
Contact details - if you want customers to ring you make the phone number large and bold
Use a powerful headline or offer
Make sure it is clear who you are and what it is you are selling
Make it is a tone that will appeal to the customers you want to attract
Include your web address
Opening times
Social media buttons
And remember to check for spelling!!

Need a little help?
An ad designed for your business �25

or two for �40 January and February 2012 only 
Eitorial style ad �110

Copywright Ann Brown

Summitup Marketing