Driving Sales

Shift Your Thinking and Jump Start Your Marketing

When dollars are tight and alternate options are needed to keep your business top-of-mind, it pays to take a fresh look at every aspect of your marketing. Consider nothing sacred and open your mind to all possibilities - you never know where a new idea or unconventional approach might lead. Food for thought . . .

This may be the time to renegotiate your contract with the print media. They are hurting, too - and there are deals to be made.

Maybe your ads have to change their emphasis. Ads during a recession need to reflect the current consumer mentality. Can you reformat your offering? Is there a price program you could offer that would help you hold on to your existing customers? What about special discounts or temporarily lower pricing?

What about taking a booth at a trade industry show or community event?

Have you used social marketing to promote your business on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other popular social media platforms?

Are you creating and using press releases to increase exposure for your business and drive visitors to your Web site for more information?

What about partnering with a sponsor who would benefit from reaching the same audience you are?

Marketing during a recession is smart business when you approach it with a fresh eye for opportunity and an emphasis on resourceful alternatives.

Find a way to keep your name out there. It will bring back dividends to you now and, most assuredly, when the market heats up again.

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

The Upside of Branding Cities in a Down Economy

Is your city's brand image strong enough to promote your strengths and attract new opportunities in today's highly competitive environment?

If you have any doubts, take advantage of the down economy and get busy building a brand that puts you top-of-mind with all the right people. 

While that reasoning may seem counterintuitive at first, in the current tough economy, the branding climate is actually ideal to step up your efforts to attract and retain businesses and residents. While other cities cut back on marketing activities until the economy improves, a strategic move now to update your brand:

• Commands the full attention of your target audiences who are far less distracted in a world of reduced advertising budgets and marketing "noise."  

• Builds a distinct identity that can differentiate you from your competition and expand your reputation in the region.

• Creates a revenue-producing asset that attracts investments, businesses, visitors, residents, talent and events.

• Boosts community pride and inspires residents and businesses to be enthusiastic "ambassadors" of your city's outstanding qualities.

Over the past 20 years, Ambit Advertising and Public Relations has had the honor of helping develop positive, brand-specific images for numerous Florida cities, including Delray Beach, Hallandale Beach, Boynton Beach, Tamarac and Oakland Park. We have worked collaboratively with key stakeholders in the public, private, civic and cultural sectors to build city brands that position our clients to achieve greater economic and quality of life benchmarks over the long term.

If you're interested in raising your city's profile (while giving other municipalities an identity crisis), consider the practical and competitive advantages of investing in a strategic branding process.

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

Rise and Shine Online: A Multi-Pronged Approach to Business Exposure

Thanks to advances in technology, the opportunities to forge productive connections with customers and prospects online have never been greater.  So what's the secret to building relationships, producing leads and orders, and increasing quality business exposure? The simple answer is this: Never miss a chance to let people know who you are, what you think, and what you're doing.

To get your name, brand, news and ideas in front of the groups and people you want to reach and influence,  commit to a multi-pronged approach to online communication that uses every available means to achieve your objectives.

Here's four core tactics that can start a buzz and bring you attention and results that pay dividends over the long haul.

Join in on forums and discussions. Regularly exchanging views with potential customers in various online communities can earn you and your business the "insider" status that leads to bigger things. Add insightful comments to blog postings, answer a question raised by another member of a forum, post a link to a resource on your Web site or blog.  It all adds up to stronger lines of communication and more possibilities for doing business.

Put your press releases online. Each time you send a significant release to the media, maximize your potential exposure by including online distribution services, such as Send2Press.com. At the same time, add the release to the media room of your Web site to establish an official and robust repository of all news and information relating to your company.

Post articles online.  Add original content to your blog or Web site and invite readers to comment. Take opportunities in your everyday business communications to encourage people to link to specific articles of interest.

Start a Facebook business page. Having a Facebook business page is like having an e-mail database of super-interested contacts, only with one major difference. With Facebook, you're providing the tools for them to stay connected, be engaged, personalize their communications, and be ambassadors of your brand wherever they go.

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

Flop-Proof Rules for Making Memorable Speeches

Whether they like it or not, most business executives and community leaders need to make speeches from time to time. It's an occasion that casts a singular spotlight on their ability to stand and deliver (or flop and fall flat) and few go it alone in crafting the right words to have a memorable impact on their audience. 

Those who are wise in the ways of speechwriting know that a good script with a strong theme, clear purpose and conversational style can make even the most reluctant public speaker connect with their audience. If you want to inspire instead of perspire, work with a PR pro or copywriter with proven speechwriting experience and follow these flop-proof rules.

Know your audience.  Knowing as much as you can about the group you'll be speaking to gives you a huge advantage in winning them over by customizing your talk to their specific interests. For example, a speech we prepared for a city official to give at the groundbreaking of an affordable housing project was heard by  an audience comprised of county government officials and local residents. It appealed to both groups with a mixture of facts about how the city's overall affordable housing program was made into a legislative mission and an emotional message about turning the American dream of owning a home into a reality for hard-working residents.

Write in a conversational style. The best speeches sound like someone talking "off the top of their head," not like a dissertation or academic thesis. Maintain a conversational tone by using short words, short sentences and even some casual language or slang here and there. Once you have a draft together, test the conversational flavor of the speech by reading it out loud. If it doesn't sound natural, rewrite it until it talks the talk of real people with warmth, wit, humor and passion.

Keep it simple.  Speeches are effective at expressing ideas and opinions in ways that inform, persuade and (if you really knock it out of the park) inspire. They're far less effective at delivering complex theories or relaying a large volume of facts, so be realistic and stick to one main theme and just a couple of central points. Give your listeners bite-size nuggets of information, friendly persuasion and advice and they'll likely stay with you for the duration of your speech. Weigh them down with a complicated line of thinking, scholarly arguments or too many numbers and statistics, and you might as well be making the last portion of your speech to a brick wall.

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

  

Potent PowerPoint Presentations in Five Easy Pieces

With its ease of use as a presentation tool,  PowerPoint can be a pleasant, eye-catching visual aid or a weapon of mass distraction overflowing with text, charts, stats and images. (Admit it. We've all sat through the mind-numbing pain of an overstuffed presentation while our imaginations wandered off on a mental vacation to a beach in Barbados.)

If you've done your share of PowerPoints through the years, you know that "less is more" and that trying to jam too much onto your slides will guarantee your own slide into the abyss of audience indifference. Fortunately, focusing on five key components of the PowerPoint experience can not only save you from bombing, but lift you to that elite plateau were presenter and presentation come together in the most crowd-pleasing way possible. 

1.) Keep it simple. While visual effects have their allure, the most effective PowerPoint presentations feature easy-to-understand charts and graphics that support what the speaker is saying. Keep text to five words or less per line and no more than five lines per individual slide.

2.) Edit, edit, edit. When you've drafted your PowerPoint slides, put them aside for awhile, then revisit them with your overall objectives and audience fresh in mind. If any words or images strike you as unnecessary, confusing or off target, edit until you've stripped away all the clutter. Your presentation will look and communicate better and so will you. 

3.) Don't mimic your PowerPoint. The surest way to lose an audience is to not make eye contact with them for long stretches of time while you redundantly read, word for word, what's on your slides. PowerPoint works best when you've prepared remarks that expand and elaborate on what appears on the screen while you directly address your audience.

4.) Use numbers selectively. It can be tempting sometimes to heavily season your slides with numbers and statistics that support your message. Not so fast. Too many numbers and figures can overwhelm your viewers and neutralize their intended impact. A better approach is to package most of your statistics in printed handouts for more thorough digestion at a later time.

5.) Hold off on handouts until the end. Your audience's attention is already split between watching and listening to you and viewing the PowerPoint slides that support your message. Unless it's crucial that people read a certain handout while you're presenting, things will go a lot smoother if you distribute printed materials after you're done.

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

 

Three Big Keys to Choosing the Right Marketing Firm

From advertising and public relations agencies, to interactive and social marketing firms, to some mixture of all of the above, the options for businesses looking for support in achieving their marketing goals are endless.

Unless you decide to just "go with your gut," there's no real shortcut to researching a potential marketing firm's capabilities, professionalism, body of work, roster of contented clients, and price structure. Once you've narrowed the playing field to a promising few, however, there are three key elements that your final choice should encompass. If they lack any one of these "big three" move on to the others and don't stop until you have a winner.

1) Chemistry.  Effective marketing campaigns come from working closely with smart, talented people who believe in your vision, are passionate about your success, and become a partner in building your business. There's no getting around it -- chemistry is key to making great things happen as a shared commitment creates a mutually rewarding relationship and produces marketing that has a major impact. It's a philosophy of working and winning together.

2) Creativity. Instead of trying to outspend your competition, invest your time and effort in outsmarting them. Sure, a huge budget is nice, but it's no guarantee of success. The only thing you can really rely on to get a competitive edge is sound creative strategies.  Your marketing firm should have the ability to get your target audiences attention by packing substance and orignality into every message. Whether it's an ad, website, email, commercial or billboard, look for a consistent track record of creating memorable, cut-through-the-clutter work.

3) Results. All work -- from scrupulous research to eye-catching creative to innovative marketing methods -- should have two fundamental purposes:

• To help your business and paying customer base grow
• To bring you the top-of-mind recognition that builds long-term success.

Measure a prospective marketing firm's abilities by the results they achieve for their clients. When all is said and done, it's the only criterion that counts.

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

Building a Facebook Following that Leads to More Business

If you run a business, some of your employees are spending time on Facebook. Some of your friends, past and present, are there, too.  Then there's your current and future customers and business associates - on-board, connected, and hungry for your latest news, views and updates.

The fact is, if you're not exploring Facebook's business potential as a social media networking site and channel of communication, you're probably missing a pretty big boat of prospective new customers or clients. 

While Facebook started as a social networking utility for the net generation, it has quickly evolved into an enormously popular and highly efficient tool for connecting people over a range of interests and communities. Since its launch in 2004, it has steadily grown to include more than 90 million active users, many working in professional, sales, executive or technical careers. For business purposes, Facebook leverages opportunities to:

• Build communities with customers and stakeholders that increase your business exposure
• Collaborate externally with people you wouldn't otherwise have access to
• Get to know potential customers, see what they read, what groups they belong to, what they post in the cyberworld, and much more
• Gain "word of click" free marketing as your Facebook "friends" or followers share and comment on your information on their pages and profiles
• Get messages out, with credibility, to groups that really care about what you have to say

Having a Facebook business page is like having an e-mail database of super-interested contacts, only with one major difference. With Facebook, you're providing the tools for them to stay connected, be engaged, personalize their communications, and be ambassadors of your brand wherever they go. That's a dramatic improvement over the one-way, static communication that the e-mail blast traditionally has been.

Getting your business in on Facebook's powerful merging of media, collaboration and community is as easy as setting up a free profile or business page. Here's how to do it:

1. Visit www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

2. Choose the best category to list your business under, then enter your business/product/brand name and click "Create Page."

3. To create initial content that you can build on later, enter a description of your business, web site address, and upload your logo as a photo/image.

4.  Click on your business name in the top left corner and then click "publish this page."

5. From your new profile page, click "add to my products." This enables you to become the first "fan" of your business. When you become a "fan" of your business, your Facebook friends (some of which are likely customers) will see a message on their home page. Ideally, some of your Facebook friends will befriend your business, then their friends will see a message, and so your exposure grows.

If you want to see a sample Facebook business page, check out Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

For more ideas to drive sales, check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

Blog Behavior: Best Practices for Reaching Bloggers

To blog or not to blog -- that used to be the question. Today, as bloggers create a vast, ongoing dialogue across the media landscape, the question of whether or not to blog has been replaced by how best to gain blog exposure for your company and its messages through bloggers who can influence your target audience.

Armed with a knowledge of emerging best practices for reaching and winning credibility with bloggers, your chances of influencing the people who influence people who are important to achieving your business goals are excellent.

Know your target bloggers. Who are the bloggers with the greatest potential influence within your niche? Reading the "About" page of a blog is a quick and useful way of determining whether your issues and products are relevant to the blogger. To be 100 percent certain, the best test is to subscribe to the blog for about a month. In that span of time, you will begin to understand the blogger's motives, learn who else is monitoring the blog, and follow links to establish a network of blogger relations.

Speak your blogger's language. When you identify a blogger who might be interested in your company, find out how to communicate with them. Bloggers have their contact preferences and personal idiosyncrasies. If you want to make a strong impression, take the time to personalize communication and show that you have actually read their blog. Focus on building a rapport.

Refer or link to the blog. One of the most meaningful ways to show appreciation to a valued blogger is to take every opportunity to refer or link to their blog. The added bonus in adopting this practice is that linking is like passing out a business card online to make the blogger aware of you.

Be persistent. Even with a well-founded knowledge of a blog's preferences and priorities, sometimes your timing will be off and your first attempt to get exposure on a blog won't happen. As the saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try again. Being persistent (without being annoying) will eventually pay off.

Nurture the relationship. Don't get complacent and fall out of touch once you make it onto a blog. Like all good relationships, blogger relations need continual nurturing. Neglect this one simple rule and all your hard work will be wasted.

For more ideas that drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

Fishing for Social Media Opportunities in the Stream of Life

Self-described CEO, entrepreneur, and adventurist Peter Shankman has a message for those struggling to understand "social media" and its place in today's business environment: adjust the way you think.

For companies looking to positively impact the bottom line (that hasn't changed), it's more than considering both newspaper advertising and YouTube (www.youtube.com) postings. It is a fundamental change in how society is viewed, understanding that it isn't "web 2.0" but life itself.

In 2008, the evolution of the species means that many people have cameras in their phones (and aren't shy about using them), post daily blog entries, twitter (www.twitter.com) even the most mundane details of their day, and constantly network with others they may never have met, but who share common interests. That can be the good or bad news for a company.

More from Shankman (www.shankman.com) on how to navigate this brave new world:

• Be adaptable.
• Social media puts people in control and citizen journalists can be as powerful, and in some cases more so, than traditional media outlets.
• Social networking should take place all the time, not just in structured situations where business cards are exchanged.
• Engage and be part of the audience you seek to reach. When credibility is critical (in a crisis, for example), it's too late to join the party.
• Reputation and transparency have never been more important, since trust is the lifeline. There are no "do-overs" in the cyber world.
• Facebook (www.facebook.com) isn't just for college kids. Get connected.

For more ideas that drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.

Index of Posts

Getting More Bang From Your Business Blog

Shift Your Thinking and Jump Start Your Marketing

"Canned" Advertising Kills

Gaining Business in a Sour Economy

Wish You Were Here: Engaging Customers With Postcard Advertising

A Little More Conversation, A Little Less "Puffspeak"

When the Economy Gets Tough, the Tough Get Marketing

Hungry for Web Site Traffic? Feed a Search Engine

The Upside of Branding Cities in a Down Economy

Rise and Shine Online: A Multi-Pronged Approach to Business Exposure

Flop-Proof Rules for Making Memorable Speeches

The Laws of Trade Show Attraction

Potent PowerPoint Presentations in Five Easy Pieces

Putting More "Pull Power" in Your Next Mailer

Inspect Your Copy for Sizzle and Substance

Three Big Keys to Choosing the Right Marketing Firm

R U Using SMS 2 Market?

Letting Customer Testimonials Do Your Talking

Taking Your Blog From Wallflower to Life of the Party

Secrets to Writing Direct Mail Letters That Sell

Email Subject Lines that Build Curiousity (and Banish Spam Fears)

Why Baby Boomers Still Matter as a Marketing Target

Sell, Sell, Cell!

Learning the Language of "You"

Building a Facebook Following That Leads to More Business

Need to Create a Tagline? Just Do It

Blog Behavior: Best Practices for Reaching Bloggers

Fishing for Social Media Opportunities in the Stream of Life

Mingling and Marketing on the Social Media Scene

Creating a Powerful, Brand-Focused Ad Campaign

Now Hear This: B-to-B Audience Still Tuned to Radio

Designing Emails for Inquiring Eyes

What Makes You Any Different in These Economic Times?

Crafting Email Text that Delivers Your Message

Conducting Focus Groups to Confirm Ideas that Sell

Practicing "Good Form" to Get Online Prospects Registered

Enticing Inactive Email Recipients

Optimizing Your Landing Pages for Higher Conversions

Creating Taglines That Promote Your Brand

Boosting Your Online Visibility With the Right Dose of SEO

Selling Prospects Throughout Your Website

Creating the "Write Stuff" for Search Engine Optimization

Old Marketing and New Marketing: Getting the Best of Both Worlds

Fuel for driving traffic to your Website.

Trying to find your place with Web 2.0?

Building positive media relations one editor at a time.

Decision-Makers Value Industry-Specific Digital Media ... Why Don't You?

Get your email messages through with a rock-solid reputation.

Extending Your Reach By Advertising In Other E-Newsletters

Grabbing publicity with "caveman easy" press releases.

Start a Blog, Build a Brand

Well-done copywriting is prepared on medium.

“CRISIS!” Defending Your Reputation With Timely Public Relations

Digital is inevitable but bluring the focus of your campaign is not.

Building your brand with a Starbucks "kick."

For more ideas to drive sales check out archives or visit Ambit Advertising and Public Relations.