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Public Relations Marketing 101…Forgotten Art? July 26, 2008

Posted by David Dirks in Marketing Buzz, Public Relations Strategies.
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The previous blog posting I did prior to this one was about how to hire a marketing or sales consultant. I forgot to mention one thing.  It’s an insight into just how the ‘shoemakers have no shoes’ (as the old saying goes). Here’s what I mean:

I write a business column on marketing for the Times Herald-Record (www.recordonline.com) here in New York State. With a business partner of mine, we’ve been writing this weekly column since February of this year. The column, like this blog, focuses on sales, marketing, and organizational issues that confront businesses today and our suggestions for dealing with them. I focus on the sales and marketing columns and my partner focuses on the organizational development issues.

Now here’s the deal. In this part of the Hudson Valley, I could probably throw a random stone and hit a ‘marketing’ or ‘sales’ consultant. There’s plenty of them around. How many of them have contacted me since February about a column idea? Or an interview opportunity? Guess? Zero. Instead, I’ve had to chase them down. I wouldn’t hire any of them because they have missed what seems to be to be a simple and basic premise regarding public relations marketing. There so good that they failed to see the marketing opportunity in pitching a story idea in their own market!

If you’re a local marketing or sales consultant or business consultant…why not pitch a potential story idea to the folks who write the weekly marketing and sales column? Huh?

You might say, “maybe they don’t read paper”. They don’t read the local paper that serves a huge portion of the area they live and work in? They really stink then.

Columnists and business editors are always on the lookout for good story ideas. If you have to write nearly 52 columns a year, you need ideas.

So, here’s another question to ask a prospective marketing or sales consultant when you’re shopping for one:

When was the last time you pitched a story about a idea you had for your local paper on the subject of marketing or sales? What was the story idea? Did you get some publicity?

If the answer is no, run. You don’t need a shoemaker who doesn’t own a pair of shoes and goes barefoot.

Beating a Recession – 2 March 28, 2008

Posted by David Dirks in Marketing Buzz, Recession: How to Beat It!, Sales Strategy/Tactics, Solving Business Problems.
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dirksphoto.jpgIf you’re in business and you hear the word ‘recession’, you need to rejoice!  Rejoice?  Yes, get happy about it because your time has arrived.  Call me crazy but when times are good and the economy is kicking along, even mediocre businesses can survive.  Recessions, like any economic downturn worth its salt, flush out those who were already on the way out.  The challenge of keeping your business moving forward and profitable is not an easy task during an economic slowdown.

The good news is that there are many things you can do to advance your growth and profitability during a recession (or anytime for that matter).  In this column series, we’ll take a look at ways that can help you win no matter what happens.

Now, for the bad news.  If your business is already operating on a shoe string (little or no money), you’ve got to fix that problem first before you take another step.  People who open businesses on a shoestring have broken the first rule of business:  have more than adequate funding to start.  Talk to your accountant (don’t have one? Another mistake!) and your banker to develop a plan to shore up your finances.

Here are three ways you can advance your business during a recession:

•    Sell more of your expertise.  Own a restaurant?  Offer cooking classes.  Own a florist?  Teach people how to arrange flowers for all occasions.  Own a auto repair shop?  Why not teach basic auto care?  Own an accounting service?  Teach basic business bookkeeping workshop.  Get it?  Take your expertise out of the closet and put it into the hands of people who need it the most: current and future customers.

Marketing more of your expertise to your current customer base can help you deepen your relationship with them.  It’s also a way to bring new foot traffic into your business too. You can also develop an adult education course for BOCES or any one of our fine community colleges that have active adult education programming.

It’s a huge business opportunity that is underutilized within the Hudson Valley.  Need proof?  Try to find a business that reaches out beyond their normal product/service offerings to sell their expertise.  If you do, I’d like to hear about it.  Email me at dirksmarketing@gmail.com.

•    Solve more customer problems.   When you are looking for ways to create or stabilize your revenues, one way to do that is find more customer problems your business can help them solve.  That will help you add more offerings to your business menu.  Contrary to popular recessionary wisdom, you should add more service/product offerings instead of cutting back on them.  How do you do this? Just ask your customers and they’ll tell you what problems they are trying to solve.

•    Use local college brainpower.  Need some fresh perspectives and ideas on a marketing or sales issue?  Bring it to a local college and get some fresh eyes, ears, and brains on it.  For example, find out if your local college/university has a marketing program.  Contact the professors who teach those programs and see if you can enlist the help of their students to solve a marketing or sales challenge.

Sometimes you’re just too close to a business problem to effectively come up with solutions to solve it.  What better way to get that outside perspective than to tap into our local institutions that teach the next generation of business leaders?

You might even consider hiring an intern or two and have them focus solely on helping your solve a critical marketing or sales challenge.  It’s a win-win for both you and the students!

Look at a recession as a business opportunity, not as a call to 911.