Archive for July, 2008

Do you want press coverage? Do you need it? Do you know how to get it?….Slow down for a minute!!

Let’s put some things in place first so that when you are contacted by members of the media, you will get the most out of the coverage.

One of the very first steps – and one that can be easily forgotten – is preparing a media kit.

In show #67 – Building Your Public Profile, Robert and I present our first in a series of “Business Appetizers”. These rapid-fire podcasts give you a quick taste for a key topic, issue or challenge. The goals of these appetizers: Save you time, money and effort by providing you with enough practical know-how that your hunger for growth doesn’t cause you to rush into swallowing some advice or products that leave you with a sense of indigestion.

So, in show #67 – Building Your Public Profile we help you address when, why, and how to pull together a cost-effective media  kit - which is an essential piece of any effective profile-building initiative.

Bon Apetite!

Remember: Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

When Robert and I had Matthew Vernhout from Email Karma (www.emailkarma.net) on the BusinessCast, we tackled the very “hot” topic of Email Marketing for Entrepreneurs.

We wanted to better understand how email can help entrepreneurs establish and build strong business relationships online.

With Matt’s help, we unearthed some of the key issues and misperceptions about email and email marketing. Moreover, we got a handle on just how complex effective email marketing can be along with plenty of practical tips and advice from an email marketing guru.

So, here are a handful of some critical lessons in a Q&A format:

Q: Why should an entrepreneur consider/use email as part of their marketing efforts?

A: Email, when developed and delivered responsibly, is: 

• Efficient (i.e. it can deliver marketing results)
• Cost-effective
• Immediate
• Measurable
• Easy to use

Q: What are some of the critical issues that entrepreneurs should be aware of so that they can hone their email marketing efforts?

A: Entrepreneurs need to address ways of:

• Ensuring email actually lands in the intended email box
• Building and sustaining a database of people who look forward to receiving email
• Setting and maintaining a deployment schedule that provides the best results
• Periodically testing elements of email to achieve the best results

Q: What are some of the greatest misperceptions about email marketing that can potentially damage an entrepreneur’s relationship building efforts?

A: Just because you send out email, you can not assume that your email:

• Always gets delivered to the email boxes you are targeting
• Always arrives when you need it to arrive
• Recipients see the email the way you designed it
• Recipients will always actively engage with your email

Matthew strongly recommends using the services of responsible email marketing services – which allow you to delegate the tasks of developing and delivering email to companies that can do it most cost-effectively. Find a list of email marketing services (organized by county) at a useful resource developed by the email marketer’s club.

In the next few weeks, we’re going to have Matt back in the BusinessCast bagel shop and we’re going to run through a very practical ’soup to nuts’ scenario – whereby we cover the main points of an effective campaign in case-study format. So, if you’re planning an email marketing campaign, looking to hone your existing campaign or if you’ve been looking for an excuse to launch your first campaign, let us know. We could use your campaign as the focus for our discussion. Make sure you also listen to the show, Email Marketing for Entrepreneurs.

Remember: Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

———————————————–

Who’s got time to develop a business plan?!? 

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you can certainly support the idea…but, when push comes to shove, you’re focusing on the day-to-day activities more than planning where your business should be going.

When we tackle the need for Fine Tuning Your Business – show #58 we are sensitive to that reality. At the same time, we know there are so many conventional resources available for developing business plans that it is often very hard to get excited about pulling a plan together – one that you’ll want to update during critical stages of your business such as expansions, increased competitiveness and/or calamities.

Rather than suggesting you adopt a traditional business plan, we recommend you create a “Passion Plan” - a plan that tells the inspiring and unique story about your business – within a business plan structure.

Why? Because, only plans that effectively capture your energy and enthusiasm will really take root in the hearts and minds of those who have to live the plan each and everyday – i.e. your employees, your investors and of course…you!

Listen to Fine Tuning Your Business – show #58 and you’ll get other real-life practical suggestions that will help your business plan – and therefore your business – achieve new heights!

Remember: Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

For many entrepreneurs – across industries and regardless of years of experience and type of business – Public Relations remains a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma!

While there is both an art and a science to cost-effective PR, entrepreneurs can do several things to enhance their public profile without needing to make huge investments.

So, here’s a heads-up: This coming weekend, Robert and I are going to tackle one of the fundamental tools of PR. Specifically, we’re going to take on the “media kit” head-on!

That means, we’ll be providing practical and actionable advice to answer entrepreneurs’ most commonly asked questions, including:

• Do we really need a media kit?
• What should we have in place before developing a media kit?
• What goes in our media kit?
• What should stay out of our media kit?
• How do we know our media kit is really working?
• What other tools support our media kit?
• Should our media kit be online or offline?
• Who should write and/or contribute to our media kit?
• How are we going to distribute our media kit?
• What does having a media kit say about our business?
• When should we update our media kit?

After listening to the show, you’ll know if, when and how a media kit can help your business. Stay tuned – the show will be posted soon!

Remember: Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes

In BusinessCast podcast show #59 Get New Employees Up and Running, we tackle employee orientation. Why should you care? If you want to achieve any of the following objectives, listen to the show:

• Give the impression that your company is a good place to work
• Give an accurate sense of what it is like to work at your company
• Reduce new employees’ ‘ramp up’ time for getting familiar with your company’s culture, required skills and technologies
• Reduce employee turnover rates – and associated costs
• Inspire new employees to become ambassadors for your company

Chances are that you want to achieve several of these objectives. So, here are some of the key secrets you need to include in your employee orientation initiatives:

• Identify those meetings that new employees need to attend, or participate in, so that they feel as if they’re part of the culture. 
• Keep in mind that how a new employee thinks about your company begins prior to the first day on-the-job (i.e. during your recruitment and interviews).
• Make sure that employees feel like they are part of the team. A great way of doing this is by assigning a ‘buddy’ during the first six-to-eight weeks of a new employee starting work.
• Spend some time with your new employee to learn about their skills and career aspirations.
• Think of your potential new employees as your most important prospect. So, make sure that every interaction your company has with them is professional, respectful and reinforces your company’s core values.
• Ask your current employees to provide input in developing, monitoring and updating your employee orientation program.

Developing a successful employee orientation will save you time, energy and money. And, now, you’ve got some of the essentials tools to get underway! Remember, let us know about the innovative ways you orient your new employees.

Remember: Subscribe to the BusinessCast Podcast at iTunes