How to Make Your PR Pitch Stand Out in Crowded Inboxes

Journalists receive hundreds of emails every day from public relations professionals. A lot of them may end up in the trash or get ignored, but many of them really, truly are used for stories. If that sounds surprising, you might be one of the PR professionals who is having trouble getting journalists to consider your pitches.

Just like a resume needs to stand out to a recruiter (especially in this economy), a pitch or press release needs to stand out to a journalist. But how can you do that? Let’s review some of the ways we’ve successfully gotten the attention of journalists over the years despite their jam-packed email inboxes.

Craft an Enticing Subject Line

The rules of email marketing apply to PR, too. The first thing journalists will see when they receive an email is the subject, and it may be the deciding factor in whether or not your pitch is opened, let alone read. You can use the subject line to offer the journalist something of value, ask them a question, or make a joke. But you’ve got to give them something more than “Company X Announcement.”

Include Visual Content in the Body

People love visual content, but it’s often ignored in press releases in lieu of the usual press release format. Be different, and include a video or picture that adds value to your pitch. Just make sure these add-ons don’t clog up their inbox, take too long to load, or render poorly on mobile devices.

Use Lists

A journalist should be able to scan through your pitch and quickly pick out the important information. Don’t be afraid to use bullet points and numbered lists. Reading through full sentences takes too much of a journalist’s time, and it is much easier for them to simply read through short phrases that explain the same thing in much fewer words.

Articulate Why the Pitch Matters

Tell journalists why your content is important. What makes it content that they simply cannot pass up? Is it a product launch? A strategic partnership? What about those things is going to rock their readers’ world? Make sure to visually highlight the “so what” of your announcement — whether by bolding, enlarging the text, or italicizing it — so the importance of the pitch is clear, concise, and obvious.

Show Knowledge of the Journalist and Publication

Blindly pitching a journalist without performing any background research is a bad move. Researching what they have written about in the past, who they have interviewed, and what types of articles they write about. It will help you personalize your pitch and grab the attention of a journalist who is constantly inundated with generic, often irrelevant pitches. This also helps you build a relationship that will make it easier for you to get your stories published in the future.

Keep it Short

Never send a long email with giant, text-dense paragraphs to a journalist as your pitch. It is acceptable to attach press releases with more details than your pitch for the journalist to read over, but a pitch will be ignored if, at first glance, it just looked like a brain dump. And remember, formatting is your best friend when trying to make text-heavy sections of your email more palatable for the reader.

Get Rid of Fluff

Journalists don’t have time for fluff. Flowery language is not helpful and should be saved for the story after it is written. Your pitch should get right to the point and provide only the absolutely necessary information.

Source – Rachel Spring, Hubspot Blog

12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them

There are loads of different types of clients out there and chances are at some point you’ll get to meet all of them. So let’s take a look through some typical clients and see if you recognize a few of your own in there!

Client Breed #1: The Low-Tech Client

How to Spot One:

Looks confused and disoriented when discussing anything high-tech, calls rather than emails, wants everything to be faxed. The Low-tech client needs to go through everything twice to get it, but will then happily take your advice.

The Highs:

The Low-tech client will rely solely on your sage wisdom for all things technology related. They will look to you as your technology saviour and will stroke your ego with their reverence of your knowledge and advice.

The Lows:

The low-tech client will need to be handheld through everything from setting up their email to opening up PDFs. Charge accordingly. They can also be particularly frustrating if they decide to ‘work it out themselves’. A Low-tech client’s idea of how a website should work for example is often not pretty.

How to Work With One:

The low-tech client needs to be handheld. Make sure everything technical about a job is in writing for them to reread at their leisure. This will save you a lot of time explaining things repeatedly. It’s also best to just accept that you will not be using a lot of the technology that makes our lives easier these days (email, online project management etc) and should instead budget in time for phone calls, faxes and face to face meetings.

It is very easy to start to patronize your low-tech client unintentionally. As you can imagine, this can damage your relationship and even worse hurt their feelings. Make sure you balance the playing field by asking for their input in the areas they know about – their business. This will keep them happy stop them feeling the need to weigh in on your area of expertise – which can waste everybody’s time.

Finally if you work in technology, make sure that your Low-tech client knows how to use whatever product you give them!

Client Breed #2: The Disinterested Client

How To Spot One:

The uninterested client is a strange beast – where most clients can’t wait to get involved in your work, the uninterested client just wants things done with as little effort from them as possible. You’ll spot an uninterested client on first meeting when you ask them questions about their business and are met with the minimal response. The uninterested client will rarely provide requested information or materials and will often ask you to complete tasks outside your area of expertise because they “don’t have time”.

The Highs:

An uninterested client will give you a lot of creative freedom, mostly because they have no interest in being involved. Their insistence that you “take care of it” may broaden your skill set and your ability to delegate to outside contractors. You may also gain experience making it work when you don’t have the information or materials you need.

The Lows:

The uninterested client will ask you to take care of everything from copywriting (when you’re a web designer) to flyer design (when you’re a copywriter). Sadly they will often not realize that this should incur extra cost. The uninterested client sometimes marries their lack of interest with wanting things done a certain way producing a very hard to deal with client.

How to Work With One:

It is best to get into good habits early with your uninterested client. A freelancer must be pushy with an uninterested client, so get used to calling and emailing repeatedly. A friendly and humorous tone is a great help when trying to push them along. An uninterested client generally isn’t trying to be rude and unpleasant, most of the time they’re very stressed and crying out for a little help. If you can be straight with them that extra work costs extra money, either take on that extra work if you can or use it as an opportunity to outsource.

A uninterested client is a tricky client, but if you manage to take care of them they often become very loyal, happy to have someone that ‘takes care of business’. Just make sure you are straight about costs, and be clear with yourself that nagging is unavoidable.

Client Breed #3: The Hands-On Client

How To Spot One:
The hands-On client is a frustrated artist, as soon as they walk in the door they will be telling you about their skill as an artist, illustrator, photographer or writer. The hands-on client already has a very specific idea about what they want and usually has very little interest in your thoughts on the matter.

The Highs: 
If you’re happy to just do exactly as they ask no matter what you might think of it, a hands-on client can be a good little earner. Almost always there is little confusion as to what the client wants to see and this can make these jobs easy.

The Lows:
If you feel you have an ethical responsibility to point out the flaws in your hands-on client’s directions, you are headed for conflict. Hands-on client’s secretly believe that they could do their job much better than you and that there is little or no specialist knowledge you could possibly impart.

One oddity about working with a hands-on client sometimes occurs when you give in your creative ambitions and agree to do it their way. All of a sudden your hands-on client may accuse you of making them do all the work or not doing your job. This can go as far as baulking on payment. Naturally this is highly infuriating.

How To Work With One:
When you find a hands-on client, the best thing to do is go with the flow. If you try to fight it you usually lose and the job winds up a lot harder than it needed to be. If your hands-on client knows exactly what they want, then power to them, recognise that and give it to them.

Often its a good idea to explicitly tell them that they seem to have a very specific idea of what they want and that you will be following their direction, however make it clear that if they would prefer; you are more than capable of doing it without their input.

Client Breed #4: The Paranoid Client

How To Spot One:
The legal papers come out almost immediately and are elaborate to say the least. A paranoid client will often not want to even discuss their project without getting you to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and be prepared for drafted agreement to be heavily pitched in their favour.

The Highs: 
If you work with a paranoid client, any legal agreement you sign should also be protecting you. So as long as you don’t breach any part the agreements you sign you should get paid.

The Lows:
You MUST get any major legal agreements looked at by a lawyer (and not the lawyer that works for them). As you would imagine, this can cost a lot of money that your client may not be willing to pay. Often within these documents are a whole list of grounds for the client dismissing you without payment. Grounds might be that you miss a deadline for whatever reason (even if the paranoid client is at fault).

From personal experience, I have always found the most paranoid clients are the ones who seem to have the most problems as well. This happens because they are always on the lookout for evidence that they are being ripped off or taken advantage of. Needless to say this means that you can easily wind up trying to straighten our points of legality with them rather than doing your job.

How To Work With One:
It is not worth working with a paranoid client for a small or low paying job. The risks far outweigh any possible gains. Besides, a personalized legal agreement is very expensive, so if they’re willing to spend a large sum on protecting their interests they should be paying you equally well.

For a large job with a big client you may wish to consider going for it, but even then factor lawyer’s fees into your quote. Most companies have legal agreements because they want to protect themselves or sensitive projects, but some paranoid clients use them in a predatory way. Remember that the paranoid client paid more to be protected, so you should quote more to make sure you get a fair deal.

Client Breed #5: The Appreciative Client

How To Spot One:
The appreciative client will shower you with praise and make you feel special – gosh I love an appreciative client!

The Highs: 
The appreciative client will make your life very easy as they’ll often pick the first version of the first draft and declare it perfect. They’re very enthusiastic and generally a delight to work with.

Even when the appreciative client does not like something they often word things in ways that make you happy to continue work on the project to get it pitch perfect.

The Lows:
They’ll make the rest of your clients look bad.

How To Work With One:
Sit back and enjoy the glory. Make sure you get them a very nice Christmas gift and throw in a freebie every now and then. An appreciative client is like gold to a freelancer, so do your best work and make them feel like a VIP.

Client Breed #6: The Get-a- Good-Deal Client

How To Spot One:
The get-a-good-deal client is a wheeler-dealer and believes that the price you first give is just a starting point for negotiations. You’ll know you have a get-a-good-deal client on your hands because agreeing on a price and job description always involves a bit of to and fro. Often times get-a-good-deal clients are successful entrepreneurial types who have haggled their way to wealth.

The Highs:
Get-a-good-deal clients are often great for getting repeat and referral work having their fingers in lots of pies and you can sometimes make deals that payoff well for you as well as them.

The Lows:
If you aren’t a good negotiator or you don’t recognise a get-a-good-deal client soon enough you can wind up feeling taken advantage of as they take whatever there is to be had. Unethical get-a-good-deal client’s are usually up for ‘no harm trying’ mentality that can see them trying to get out of paying for certain things or at their worst bullying you for more work or discounts.

How To Work With One:
The best way to deal with a get-a-good-deal client is to fight fire with fire so to speak. Taking a get-a-good-deal approach back on them usually negates their strengths and ensures that you cut a fair deal. This means coming in high and then lowering your prices and being very assertive on points of payment and workload.

Client Breed #7: The I’ll-Know-It -When-I-See-It Client

How To Spot One:
The I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It client shares much in common with the uninterested client except in a more frustrating way. Their indecisiveness and inability to articulate what they are after makes them one of the few clients that it is generally best to steer clear of.

The Highs:
If you can produce the “It” for this type of client you can possibly win them over and turn the I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It client into a very appreciative and trusting client who rejoices in having found someone who has their same ‘vision’.

The Lows:
If you don’t produce the “It” this type of client can quickly become highly frustrating as you stab frantically in the dark while worrying about blowing your budget and timeframe.

To make matters worse the I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It client often becomes agitated or unhappy with you if you don’t magically produce “It” leading to strained relations and a project that rapidly goes south.

How To Work With One:
In order to work with a I’ll-Know-It-When-I-See-It Client you need to remember two things:

– First be VERY clear with how much revisions cost. If you don’t do this you WILL blow your budget
– Second unless you can produce “It” you could be in for a rough project, accept this fact.

Client Breed #8: The Always-Urgent Client

How To Spot One:
All their emails are ‘highest priority’ and their couriers are always red-hot. They work on weekends and late into the night and think that everyone else does too. Additionally the always-urgent client often seems to think they are your only client and that their job should therefore be your highest priority as well as theirs.

The Highs: 
Since there is never any room for prolonging a job the always-urgent client will usually okay jobs relatively quickly. They often won’t have time to okay a quote so you end up charging by the hour.

The always-urgent client generally knows when they are being unreasonable and will do their best to pay you quickly, which is handy for cash flow.

The Lows:
The always-urgent client adds stress to your life, and if you want to keep them you may need to work late nights or over the weekend. You may also endure repeat late night phone calls and nonchalant requests that you build websites, organise photoshoots and produce detailed illustrations in oh… say a few hours!

How To Work With One:
The always-urgent client must be taken with a grain of salt. Everything will be desperate so you must decide when it is worth the inconvenience to yourself and your other clients. You must make it clear to the always-urgent client when their requests are unreasonable, right from the beginning. As always, keeping this light-hearted and jokey is the way to go, thereby defusing situations where you might otherwise come off as aggressive.

The always-urgent client is similar to the disinterested client in that they both require extra care. You may need to chase up the always-urgent client if you know a job is coming up in order to give yourself more time and as with the disinterested client, if you take care of them when it counts they will be loyal to you.

A word of warning though, having multiple always-urgent clients can lead to severely stressful situations as everything is needed now, now, now! So unless you thrive on pressure, you are advised to limit the number of this type of client you engage.

Client Breed #9: The Decision-By- Committee Client

How To Spot One:
Usually inhabiting the world of large corporate clients, the decision-by-committee client can still be found in smaller operations where they share their decision-making with a spouse, neighbour or dog. The decision-by-committee client is one who lacks a single point of authority and for which every decision must be approved by many people.

The Highs:
Since decision-by-committee clients don’t have anyone making firm decisions it is sometimes possible to just do whatever you think and sneak it through under the radar. This can easily backfire though, so be careful.

The Lows:
The decision-by-committee client at its worst is achingly slow to work with and when many people have their pet peeves you can wind up with a highly inferior product to show for the work. Decision-by-committee client almost always reduce to the lowest common denominator and if there is one person who dominates they are usually the one person you wish *didn’t* dominate.

How To Work With One:
Unfortunately decision-by-committee clients are a fact of life when it comes to working with large corporate clients and this is one reason why it is important to charge high when dealing with the big guys.

It helps to be firm and quickly identify the stronger members of the committee and target them for responses while trying to win them over by conceding lesser points and sticking to your main guns.

Client Breed #10: The Doormat Client

How To Spot One:
The doormat client is the client who puts up with anything and just keeps coming back. They are usually very unassertive and seem to be content waiting for ages for you to get back to them or accepting less than perfect work.

The Highs:
The doormat client is often also very appreciative which is always nice. It’s also relaxing to have a client who doesn’t mind waiting around.

The Lows:
Unfortunately doormat clients often bring out the worst in freelancers. Without the pressure of a potentially angry client a freelancer can easily become laissez-faire about their work and wind up taking advantage of the client’s passive nature.

How To Work With One:
The doormat client requires great discipline to make sure that you stick to your timeframes and deliver the goods. If your client doesn’t protect themselves then it is up to you to do so for them.

While you may wish to take advantage of their generous nature on occasions when you are stressed, you should try your best to treat them the same as every other client.

Client Breed #11: The Budget Client

How To Spot One:
Every client is on a budget, but some clients just seem that much tighter than the others. The budget client can be the result of doing a friend or relative a favour, or equally just a regular client who never has any cash.

The Highs:
Budget clients are sometimes appreciative of the work they are getting done so cheaply – though unfortunately this isn’t always the case.

The Lows:
Budget clients are cheap and at their worst still expect the same service and workload as their higher paying brethren. This makes them both annoying and bad for business.

Budget clients are at their worst when they exhibit traits from other clients such as ‘Always-Urgent’ or ‘Paranoid’, in which case it’s just not worth it.

How To Work With One:
Make sure your budget client realises they are on a budget and that therefore their work may not always be first priority and that you probably can’t get those extra changes or revisions in because it simply doesn’t make good business sense. If your budget client gets aggressive or manifests other negative traits, accept that they aren’t worth it and let them go.

Client Breed #12: The You-Should- Be-So-Lucky Client

How To Spot One:
The you-should-be-so-lucky client is much cooler than you and they know it. They generally have a cool but low paying project for you and are in an industry everyone wants to work in…think music, film and fashion industries in particular.

The Highs: 
The right you-should-be-so-lucky client looks great in your portfolio, and your friends will think you’re cool. You’ll make some handy contacts and your professional credibility will probably benefit. You’ll also be hanging out with the cool kids – TAKE THAT HIGH SCHOOL!

The Lows:
You won’t be paid much and the you-should-be-so-lucky client will act like they’re doingyou the favour, not the other way around. If you do enough jobs for a you-should-be-so-lucky client you will start getting jaded about the industry and feel mistreated for your efforts.

How To Work With One:
The you-should-be-so-lucky client can be a great asset to your portfolio, but that will be the main reason to do the job. Because everybody wants this type of job (until they’ve actually got some) there are many talented but green freelancers more than happy to work for almost nothing. If you are a student this can be a great thing to do, but for a seasoned freelancer it can impact your cash flow. So pick your you-should-be-so-lucky clients carefully and use them sparingly to impact your portfolio or break up the monotony of corporate jobs. And of course, make sure you enjoy being that damn cool!

Source – Jack Knight, Freelance Switch

Perfect Pitch: How to Nail Your Elevator Speech

You ride the subway, grab a coffee, and get to the office—it’s your typical Monday morning, until,bam! You step in the elevator and find yourself face-to-face with the CEO of your dream company or the client you’ve been dying to land.

She smiles and says, “Hi. What do you do?”

Scary? Absolutely. But it could happen to you—tomorrow—and you’ll want to be prepared.

The aptly named “elevator speech” or “elevator pitch” is a concise, compelling introduction that can be communicated in the amount of time it takes someone to ride the elevator to her floor.

Even if you’re never caught heading up to the 39^th with someone important, this is a good skill to master when you’re introducing yourself during an interview, a sales pitch, or a networking event. People are busy, and being able to communicate who you are and what you do quickly and effectively will ensure that you get your most important points across, no matter how short the conversation.

Not quite ready for the elevator ride of your life? Check out our step-by-step guide to crafting—and perfecting—your pitch.

1. Start with a Blank Canvas

Take a blank piece of paper and number it from one to 10. Then, fill in the most important bits of information that you want to convey about yourself, your service or product, or your company. What, exactly, do you do? What have you achieved, and what are your goals? Who does your company serve and why? Focus on the most interesting or memorable facts—the ones that really make you stand out from others.

2. Red Pen It

Using a different color pen, edit what you’ve drafted with a critical eye. Eliminate any redundancies, unnecessary or unclear information, and broad business jargon. More importantly, hone and enhance the good stuff. “I’m great at sales” isn’t likely to pique anyone’s interest, but “I’ve exceeded my sales goals every quarter for the last two years” sure might.

3. Pick a Card

Grab five index cards, and label them “Who I Am,” “What I Do,” “How I Do It,” “Why I Do It,” and “Who I Do It For.” Add each item on the list you’ve created to the card where it fits best. Ideally, you’ll have two compelling sentences underneath each heading, so fill in any gaps if you need to.

4. Get in Order

Organize the cards in a logical order, making sure the most important information is first. Remember, you often only have a few seconds to communicate with someone. If you get cut off, what would you want her to walk away remembering?

5. Add an Attention-Getter

Add an interesting fact or stat to use at the beginning of your speech. Your goal is to immediately engage someone so that he or she is intrigued and wants to learn more.

6. Practice!

Recite your pitch to close someone who can be objective, and ask for constructive feedback(although we love our friends and families, sometimes they think we can do no wrong!). What may seem clear in your mind might come across as convoluted, long-winded, or fragmented to an outside observer.

7. Record Your Pitch

Once you’ve gotten feedback and honed your pitch even further, record yourself saying it. Listen to your tone—make sure it’s friendly, non-threatening, and that you’re not talking a mile a minute (knowing you only have a few moments to speak may subconsciously increase your pace). Really listen to what you’re saying—make sure you’re not repeating words and that you’re sending the message you really want to convey.

8. Ride the Elevator

The next time you ride an elevator (alone), practice your speech. First, give yourself some time by going to the highest floor. Then, try giving your pitch from a middle floor and from the first to the third floor, too. Having to make just a few brief moments count will help you to hone the words you need and scrap the ones you don’t!

Another tip we love: create your speech using Harvard Business School’s Elevator Pitch Builder. The online tool will help you select effective words to describe yourself, walk you through creating your who, what, why, and a goal. And then it gets better: It’ll analyze your pitch for you with stats like how many seconds it will take you to present.

This week, set aside some time to craft your elevator pitch (or dust off the one you’ve used before). You just never know who you might face tomorrow morning.

Source – Laura Katen, The Daily Muse

What Every Start-up Should Know about PR

You’re thinking about bringing a PR firm in to help your new start-up—but you’re wondering just what goes into the secret inner workings of public relations. What, exactly, is that PR firm going to be doing for you, anyway?

PR is nothing like the dark, scary world that people make it out to be—but it is a new one for most. And knowing the ropes ahead of time can save you from setting impossibly high expectations or getting overpromised and oversold by the firm you hire. I’ve seen more than my fair share of clients bringing in a PR firm with the hopes that it’ll save their company or propel a small, just-launched start-up into an insta-Facebook. And unfortunately, I’ve also seen PR firms make these types of promises. Guess what? They’re never kept.

So I’m here to give you the facts. Let me explain how PR really happens, and how you can make the most of it for your company.

1. Good PR Does Not Substitute for a Good Product

PR will not make or break your company, nor is it going to save your company if you’re floundering. In fact, there’s only one thing that will have any of those effects: your product.

What, then, does PR do? PR exists to build momentum. PR gets your name out there, letting you showcase what you’re doing well and driving awareness of your offering. Because let’s face it, when you’re a brand new start-up, no matter how amazing your product, it’s going to be painfully slow growth if you have to wait for your 15 initial users to tell their friends’ friends how great you are.

But PR is no substitute for having a great product. Nor is it a guarantee of sales, sign-ups, or funding—if anyone promises you otherwise, be wary!

2. You Want the Press That’s Right for You

Non-shocker alert: What does every PR client want? A New York Times piece, in print, right away. But while there are some clients that this is the right kind of press for, it’s actually not ideal for everyone—particularly if you’re a digital brand.

If you’re a new company trying to get users to sign-up for your services or download your app, the best press you can get is digital press. Think about it: It’s rare that someone is going to read the morning paper, see the name of your company, run to the computer, double-check the story to get the URL right, and go to your site. But if you’re featured in an online tech publication, readers will be able to click straight to your product home page—and that’s much more likely to translate to exactly the type of exposure you want. And then, eventually maybe even that New York Times print piece.

3. It’s Better To Be Successful Than Sexy

I know, we all want to be the coolest kids on the block. But here’s my advice: Don’t try to be cool, try to be successful. If you built a tool that you thought was going to be the great new thing used by every social media enthusiast, but it turns out it’s actually better suited to be a super-functional internal tool for large companies? Awesome. Ditch the “we’re the next Facebook” angle, and shift your focus to getting your name in front of large, corporate audiences.

More importantly, don’t use PR to try and be something you’re not. Spend your time and energy getting to know your audience, and be honest about who that audience really is. The more honestly you can share this information with your publicist, the better they’ll be able to get you placement in the right publications that will actually help you build on your early success. Don’t worry, you’ll be ultra cool when you sell your company for lots of money. Invite me to the party.

4. Launch is a Crapshoot

Who likes Vegas? I do! Who likes gambling? I do! Who likes that, no matter what, it’s impossible to guess how many people will actually read about your product on launch day? Nobody. But that’s the way it is.

I love that I get to work with very early-stage start-ups, most of which haven’t launched yet. I get to guide them through the launch process and find the right media outlets for them to make their big announcement. But with so many new companies, and only so many spots to get media coverage, it’s tough out there. A good PR rep should be able to tell you early on how the press is responding to outreach before launch. If interest is slow, use the opportunity to tweak your strategy—but don’t wait too long.

Because really, it is a crapshoot. I’ve seen unexpected clients have smash launches, and I’ve seen star clients be met with little interest. It’s important to be prepared for either outcome—and to not get too excited (or too discouraged) by your first press. After all, launch day is just one day in the life of your company.

Source – Lindsey Green, Daily Muse

How To Plan a Business Grand Opening, Part 3: Invite Your Guests

The easiest thing you can do right away is create a list of people you plan to invite. People you may want to invite include: potential customers; the press; neighboring businesses; your city’s chamber of commerce; government officials; vendors; employees and their guests; your friends and family; former colleagues; people who helped get your new business or location established (such as architects, loan officers, lawyers. . .).

The next step is creating, printing and mailing your invitations. Lower your costs by inviting your employees via company e-mail, bulletin board, group meeting, etc. You may want to invest in mailing lists that target potential customers. It is effective to send an invitation in the mail to complement an online invitation.

Check if the information you have on file for your guests is correct. Depending on the number of people you are inviting, it may be unrealistic to double-check all of the information. If this is the case, make sure to at least double-check the information of the people you need at your grand opening event the most.

As a general rule, expect 50% of your courtesy invites to show up. The actual number will probably be closer to 25 or 30%, but it is always better to plan for more. The percentage may be even lower if you are not targeting the right people in your invitations or are sending mass invites.

Send invitations, both print and electronic, to all local news directors and editors. That’s print, television and radio. You never know. Inviting the press can’t hurt.

Along with each invitation, you should include a personalized and hand signed letter. The letter should explain to the recipient who you are, what your business is and why your grand opening is a major event for the community. Remember that they are in the news business; if you present them with a good story, you increase your chances of getting news coverage. If you do not have an in-house PR department, consider hiring someone to take care of inviting the press.

Put someone in charge of calling to follow-up with the press and other personally invited guests. Have this person call them on the week of your grand opening event as a reminder.

When inviting the press or other high demand guests, personalize and sign each letter.

I cannot over-emphasize this. Sending a personalized letter lets the reader know your letter is not spam. Do research on each person you are inviting and have a few lines in the letter that show you know who they are. You may also be able to use information you gather to make the letter more appealing.

Be careful. Though you should be aggressively pursuing the press, remember that there is a fine line between aggressively pursuing and harassing.

Donating money to a local school or hospital, in addition to helping your community, will generate good publicity and help your efforts to garner media attention.

As you can see, a business grand opening is a lot of work. Make sure you give yourself enough preparation time so you can make changes if a problem should arise. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and your business grand opening is a big success.

Source – UPrinting

How to Plan a Business Grand Opening, Part 2: Planning Your Event

So you have set the time and place of your grand opening, now it’s time to plan your event.

Traditionally, there are speeches given by prominent figures in the company followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony. If you are a new business, you will also have the city’s chamber of commerce present you with a chamber membership.

Your business grand opening is a big day for you and you should enjoy it, but you do not want to alienate your audience. Things vary from business to business. If the attendee is an employee, he or she may enjoy a speech about what it took to get to this day. On the other hand, if the attendee is a potential customer or vendor, he or she may be bored by the speech.

Hiring an MC to intro the event and speakers is a good idea. The MC will keep the crowd lively and the program moving. If you know someone with an electrifying personality, ask if they would be willing to MC your event. If you are hiring a DJ, they too can handle the MC duties.

If possible, get a celebrity or highly accomplished guest speaker (not associated to your company) to speak at your event. This will build credibility in your audience’s eyes. You could even have this person host the event and be your MC.

Remember to use your alumni networks to your advantage. Speak to the head of your alma mater’s alumni department to see if they can help you get a guest speaker.

Is that it? What incentive is there for the regular Joe to attend? Consider having games and prizes at your grand opening event. If your company creates products, give away samples. If you are in the service industry, offer discount coupons at your event. Craft your event around the people you want to attend.

Once you have a general plan, start thinking about what you will need to throw this event. For example, you may need to rent a sound system, get carpeting, repaint areas, order food, etc.

Free food is a great draw. If you are a restaurant, consider giving free food as a means to introduce the public to your restaurant. If your company produces food products, definitely give out free samples.

If you are having your grand opening catered, check with the caterers to see if they provide utensils. Depending on where you are holding your business grand opening, you may also have to arrange for tables, chairs, etc.

Be sure to check that your grand opening is not violating any city codes or regulations. Unfortunately, these rules vary from state to state so there is no guideline I could set out.

Though it may not be required in your area, it is generally good custom that you make bathroom facilities available to your attendees. If you are throwing the grand opening somewhere that does not have access to restroom facilities, you may need to arrange with a company to provide sanitation services.

Make sure there is ample parking for your attendees. Your guests may leave if they cannot find parking. Having valet parking at your grand opening event helps prevent this problem.

Part III will be posted tomorrow…

Source – UPrinting

How to Plan a Business Grand Opening, Part 1: Time and Place

A grand opening event is a great way to introduce your new company or location. It is also an excellent reason to throw a party. This is not any regular party, though. Planning will be crucial. A corporation likely has a corporate event planner, but a small business owner may be doing the planning themselves. You should give yourself around a month’s preparation time to plan your business grand opening.

Regardless of who is planning the event, the days leading up to your grand opening may be especially stressful. Chances are that no matter what you do, there will be unavoidable pitfalls. For this reason, I have created this how-to article based on research and my own experience in order to make the road to your business grand opening as smooth as possible.

I found it easiest to work in this order, but you may feel more comfortable planning your event in a different order. Just make sure you cover all your bases.

Where is the Business Grand Opening Event Taking Place?

Grand openings typically take place at the business’s store, restaurant, factory, etc. However, in some instances the business may opt to throw a business or brand launch party rather than a traditional grand opening. In such a scenario, you will need to choose a location for the event. Make sure to get started early, as the closer it gets to your grand opening date, the harder, and possibly more expensive, it will be to book a venue. Plus, you need to know the venue before you can send out invitations and you ideally want to send out your invitations 6-8 weeks prior to your grand opening.

When is the Business Grand Opening Event?

The key thing to consider when picking a date is the list of attendees. If you are a restaurant, do you want to target employees who work during the week or are you trying to attract families who go out to eat?

As a general rule, it is recommended that your grand opening not be on a weekend or holiday. You may needlessly lose attendees. Locals often go on vacation during these times and employees may elect to skip the event rather than come in on their time off.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to plan events. If the grand opening event is planned during the day, it is easier to take time off work in the middle of the week rather than on Mondays or Fridays which are usually the busiest days of the week.

Consider the weather. You may be planning your grand opening months in advance. Go on whether sites and look at weather trends for the date you are selecting. What will be the average temperature? What are the chances that it will rain?

Lastly, as always consider your business. Everything I have said deserves consideration, but in the end it is you who knows what you are doing and who you are trying to reach best. Maybe it is best that you throw your business grand opening event on a Friday or Saturday. If you are opening a camp, the best time to have your grand opening event would obviously be on a Saturday or Sunday, when kids don’t have to go to school.

What Time is the Business Grand Opening Event?

Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? The time the event is being held will greatly affect the theme of your grand opening. For example, if the event is at night there may be lighting concerns, or it may be too cold to have it take place outdoors. If you hold the event at around noon, how hot is it going to get?

Planning your grand opening at night is risky, especially if you’re planning a formal event. You do not want people to have to go home to change in order to attend your event. Even people who actually plan on attending may go home with the intent to change, but get complacent once they are home.  To prevent this needless loss of attendees, plan your event so that people can attend straight from work. If your heart is set on throwing a fancy grand opening, go ahead and throw it. However, keep in mind that whenever you are asking people to go out of their way to come to your event, there must be something to entice them to do so.

Remember to give a time frame of how long you expect the event to last. Invitees might need to adjust their plans in order to schedule your business grand opening into their calendar. For this reason, it is also important that invitees know well in advance about your event so that they have scheduled your event into their calendar before anything else comes up.  As a general rule, you do not want to have your grand opening event take place any earlier than 8 am or later than 10 pm.

Source – UPrinting

How a Good Public Relations Plan Can Help You to Reach Targeted Customers

In today’s 24/7 connected world, it’s more important than ever to publicize your company’s products and services through a variety of ways to differentiate your company from the competition.

While you can certainly generate publicity for your company by yourself – like going to networking events or keeping in touch with your existing business/personal contacts – a strategic public relations plan can more effectively disseminate your company’s messages to a targeted group of individuals and corporations who would likely purchase your products and services.

I’m certainly not advocating stopping business development efforts that have been successful  in the past. Instead, I’m speaking from my own experience that a strategic public relations plan can help your business to reach levels it’s never known before because of the economics of scale provided by public relations. Through the implementation of a strategic public relations plan, you can reach more people in one day than you’d ever be able to reach by with yourself.

What makes a good public relations plan?

It’s much more than just trying to get your business mentioned on Oprah, an article in the New York Times or even getting 1,000 followers on Facebook. A good public relations plan looks at your business and your customers (who they are, where they live, how they get their news) and targets opportunities that will result in higher qualified leads for your business.

For example, if you’re a company that sells financial services to millionaires, there’s a good chance that your customers are notwatching Oprah in the afternoon when the stock market is open. As a result, an effective PR plan would determine how your business can reach your targeted customer base; perhaps you could hold an intimate event where you can network with doctors, lawyers and corporate executives.)

Depending on your business, a strategic public relations plan may include things like: a media relations strategy that communicates information  on your business to local, state and industry media; ways you can promote your business through social media outlets; the development of a new website that can be cross-promoted by search engines and social media sites; the creation of a marketing/advertising campaign, development of promotional events; and speaking opportunities at corporate and non-profit events to generate credibility for your business.

Simply put, a good PR plan is not one size fits all. A strong plan is developed by putting a lot of thought into how you can reach customers where they live, work and visit and then targeting those places with salient messages that will resonate with your customers and get them to visit your website, call your company and ultimately buy your product or service.

Source – Tony Bianchini, Open Door Media

5 Reasons to Create a Superior Customer Experience

Customer Experience is more than Customer Service

Some might say he was just giving good customer service, but it was more than that.

Good customer service would have been answering the phone, being polite, knowing the facts and getting the parcel delivered some time that day – that was the service that had been paid for.

Here are five reasons why you should create a superior customer experience for the customers of your small business.

1. Building customer relationships . . .

A superior customer experience is a critical part of building successful customer relationships.

Before people will buy from your small business they need to know, like and trust you.  If their first experience with your business is bad, you’ve made that process much harder.

One of the key points about providing a superior customer experience is consistency.  You never know how important a customer will be, how much business they could place with you in the future.

If you ensure every customer gets a great experience you’ll build great long-term customer relationships.

2. Gaining customer referrals . . .

Customers don’t refer businesses who give them a bad experience.

But if you receive a superior customer experience you are likely to tell others, leading to customer referrals.  These referrals are a great source of new leads and are very important for building a sales pipeline.

The process of nurturing a lead into a sale is easier with a referral because your existing customer has already built some trust by recommending you.

3. Saving you money . . .

Providing a superior customer experience will save your small business money in two ways.

Firstly receiving customer referrals means that you can save money by cutting back on other forms of advertising to gain leads.

Secondly you’ll ensure you don’t lose sales due to customers telling others about their bad experience.

4. Building a positive brand . . .

Social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook have made it much easier for people to communicate their feelings about your business.  They might feel uncomfortable telling you that they were unhappy with their experience, but that might not stop them telling their three hundred friends on Facebook or their two hundred followers on Twitter.

Providing a consistently superior experience for your customers will ensure that you build a strong, positive brand and a great reputation.

5. Building customer loyalty . . .

If you offer a superior customer experience you’ll stop your competitors stealing your customers.

You’ll develop a loyalty with your existing customers so they return to you when they need your products and services in the future.

The Bottom Line

If you want your customers to recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues you need to offer a superior customer experience.

Source-Fresh Eyes Consultancy

10 Tips for Event Planners

This is obviously not an all-inclusive list, but here are some tips that can guide you in planning events for your clients.

Key elements for consideration before you start planning any event.

1. Key Objectives

• Be sure to set out and understand the objectives of the event.
• Consider what you are trying to achieve and how you will achieve this.
• Who are you trying to target and where do you need to be to reach them?
• Be sure to identify the unique selling point (USP) of your event and make sure you shout about it when marketing and advertising!
• Be original – don’t aim to copy other similar events.

2. Budget

• Decide on your budget and set it out in an easy to follow format. An Excel spreadsheet is more than adequate for this.
• Keep this budget sheet up to date and review regularly.
• Carry out a cost analysis to establish how much of the budget needs to be allocated to specific tasks. It’s no use planning a gala dinner dance if you have allocated 75% of your budget to the entertainer and then can’t afford to feed all of the guests.
• Be sure to set aside an element of the budget as a contingency – (approx 10% should be sufficient).

3. Team

• Establish a Planning Team and nominate one person as Project Manager to coordinate and oversee the progress and budget planning.
• Make sure everyone else knows who this person is and ask them to provide regular updates on their activities to the Project Manager.
• Agree a schedule of regular planning meetings. Make sure these meetings are minuted and clear action points assigned.
• Be certain to allocate timelines to each activity and set clear deadlines to avoid any creep in the overall project timeline.

4. Venue

• Compile a list of venue ‘must haves’ and appoint one person to research suitable venues.
• Be sure to check availability dates, seating and catering capacity, facilities and parking and any other events that might be taking place on the same day.
• Produce a shortlist for inspection and book the venue before announcing any dates to your attendees

5. Action Plan

Set out key procedures for the following:

• Advertising/Ticket processing.
• Invitations/Location Map/Parking Permits
• Dress Code/Theme
• Delegate/Guest arrival and/or registration.
• Managing entertainers/speakers/sponsors/exhibitors and guests.

6. Catering

• Source caterer and ask for referrals from previous satisfied clients.
• Wherever possible ask to attend a tasting before making your final choice from the menus available
• Make sure they can accommodate the date you require.
• Establish menu and any special diet menus.
• Check available facilities for catering at venue.
• Agree timings and numbers of servers with caterers. Hire additional staff if necessary.
• Keep caterer up to date with guest numbers and dietary requirements.

7. Guests/Delegates

• Ensure all guests receive tickets/passes/parking permits in advance of the event.
• Check for any special dietary requirements.
• Check parking and accessibility for any wheelchair users, disabled or infirm.

8. Entertainment/Speakers

• Secure any entertainment, special guests or keynote speakers early on to avoid disappointment.
• Make sure the venue can accommodate their set up requirements.
• Check any licence requirements for the type of entertainment you are planning.
• Provide all entertainers/speakers with a clear itinerary of how the event will progress. Make sure they understand what is expected of them, at what time, and for how long.

9. Check, Double Check and Check again.

• Use checklists, plan ahead and don’t leave anything to the last-minute
• Always double-check rather than guess.
• Make sure that all bookings with caterers, entertainers, flower arrangers, key speakers are confirmed in writing and always, wherever possible, hold back a final balance payment until they arrive at the venue on the day.

10. On The Day

• Make sure that one person is ‘in charge’ on the day.   Yourself or someone from your team should serve as the point of contact for all onsite staff, contractors, caterers etc. Whoever you decide to use it is vital that you have one person who can stage manage every aspect of the ‘on the day’ activities.
• Be sure to signpost the venue well so that guests/delegates understand where they need to go.

Source –  Heather Noble, Salt Solutions