Don't forget about Pinterest!!!

Our friends at HubSpot have a great new eBook on Pinterest.  It gives great information on how to get on Pinterest and develop a following. Click the image below for the the link to great material.

Regardless of the Accent, Good Communication is Engaging and Connecting.

What I love most about strategic communications and marketing is the fact that no matter the language, the date, the accent, or the continent, great businesses engage an audience and then connect with them. Here is a great example of an engaging ad from the UK. Enjoy!

Your Brand is Your Company or Organizational Signature not Your About Us Page

Good, bad or indifferent, when you hear the words, Rolls Royce, Jeep, and Hummer, you immediately see an image in your mind associated with the respective name.  That image represents the product.  Our minds then, almost instantaneously, process an associated significance of the image.  In the marketing world, it is called the brand.  That associated significance or “brand,” believe it or not, was not actually developed by your brain alone…as smart and complex as it may be.  It was developed by a strategic communications plan that told your brain how to associate the product.

A marketing campaign presents a multitude of images and words including product specs that you may read on an About Us webpage or in detail in a full color advertisement.  A strategic communications campaign packages and defines all those details into a simple message – the signature of the product or service, so to speak – and converts all the images and text into the associated significance of it all, the brand.  Strategic communications defines and wraps all of the details into the brand, and, in essence guides you, as a consumer, on how to view the product or service just at the sound of the brand name.  Through our strategic communications plans and initiatives, Concierge PA incorporates all to the complex and intricate specs, text, benefits and images of products or services, and translates them all into unique signatures that speak volumes for our clients.  We deliver what our clients expect; we produce signature brands.

Small Businesses Must Play by Big Boy Rules.

Regardless whether you are talking about advertising, marketing, strategic communications, social media or public relations, connecting with your audience is getting more complicated, and the rules of engagement are changing constantly.    Garnering audiences is even getting more complex for strategic communications and other marketing firms including ConciergePA.  Corporate giants with deep pockets, from manufacturers to media conglomerates, are realigning their marketing strategies to leverage the ever-changing engagement platforms.  If the Fortune 500 corporations are finding it challenging to navigate the rough waters of audience engagement, what is the small business with limited marketing budgets to do?

Regardless of financial resources, small businesses have to play by the rules just like the big boys.  This is because consumers are driving this bus and they are redefining how businesses – large and small – interact with them.   And, this is worldwide.  There was a good article in The Globe and Mail today that elaborated on the shifts in social media and marketing.  So what are the rules?

Well, there are many rules and they seem to change daily.  But, there are a few ways that small businesses can connect with their audience, and play by the same rules as the big boys do.

Content is king.  All you have to do is Google social media strategy, and you will be bombarded with advice on pushing content to your audience.  When it comes to content, you may engage a consumer or two with catchy, insignificant content, but if you want to connect with them and turn them into buying consumers, you have to provide them with content that they can appreciate and draws them in.  In other words, your content has to be more than just fluff to connect with your audience. 

Constant contact is key.  You cannot connect, yet alone engage, potential customers with a “digital billboard.”  Have you ever come across a company that has a Facebook page, but it looks like it has not been updated since it was created?  It is just a shell and contains no content that would draw the consumer to the brand.  You have to not only create content, but you have to keep feeding that content to your audience to solidify the relationship.

Bring out the bells and whistles.  We already talked about content, but remember that content today is more than the written word.  Pictures, links and videos are very important to incorporate into your marketing mix.  Whether it is a blog, a Facebook page or even Twitter, make sure you incorporate pictures and video to garner consumer interest, and where appropriate add  link to other engaging content.

Don’t suffer alone.  Make sure you partner with a firm like Concierge PA to help you manage your strategic communications initiatives.  The marketing landscape is rocky enough as it is.  Partnering with a firm that can help you navigate the terrain, as well as help with consistent content development, may be the best advice of all.

Strategic Communications and Marketing Article

Check out our newest article entitled, "When it comes to marketing, connecting is the goal."

Still Time to Enter: 2012 DFW Marketing Makeover

There is still plenty of time to enter your small business or non-profit in the Concierge PA 2012 Dallas - Fort Worth (DFW) Marketing Makeover Contest.  The winner will receive $5,000 in prizes.

Simply go to the Concierge PA Website, click on the Exhibits Page and open the Marketing Makeover Rules and Entry Form document.  Fill out the entry and submit it.  It is that easy.

Look closely: You're in the Audience!

One of my mentors at Concierge PA, the consultancy firm where I work, told me the premises of my job was simple and they were to know my audience thoroughly and connect with it.  Besides loyalty, privacy and trust, which are the hallmarks of my firm, Concierge PA, the one other word you will hear most often is connect.

What my mentor taught me was that my audience, people, was in charge.  They wrote the rules.  And, no matter how many changes come into play on the media and technological landscape, I always remember that my focus is the people that make up my audience, and my job was to connect with them in a way that I could produce the appropriate objective for my client.

In the world of strategic communications, it is easy to get caught up in all of the ever-changing media technology, but what never changes it that the technology nor media writes the rules.  The people do.

Look at financial markets.  The NYSE does not own the market, nor does J. P. Morgan Chase.  As successful as he is, Warren Buffett does not own it either.  He, in fact, capitalizes by remembering that the people own the market and that they write the rules.  His investment strategies focus on who will put the bull or the bear in the market, the people.

Technology is changing at a light-speed pace, and the media reinvents itself every other day.  What we must remember is that what is always constant is that people – not technology, nor the media – write the rules.  Regardless of the new “faces” on the technological block, the root of success in strategic communication still comes down to one thing, your audience of people.  Connect with them regardless of the technology or the media and your job is done.  Now that’s what I call a captive audience.  Run tweet that.

Concierge PA’s strategic communications consultancy division specializes in public & media relations; advertising; online, social & digital content development & management; logo and identity design; marketing plan development; publicist services; and media, special events & trade show management.

It's Finally Here...The Concierge PA 2012 DFW Marketing Makeover!

Concierge PA Announces its 2012 Dallas – Fort Worth Marketing Makeover Contest

$5,000 in Prizes Awarded to the DFW Small Business or Non-Profit Winner

(Dallas, Texas – 06/12/12) – Dallas-based Concierge PA, a professional consultancy which provides cost-contained strategic communications services, employer / employee solutions, and RFP management services to select organizations – both large and small, and in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors throughout North America, today announced the launch of its 2012 DFW Marketing Makeover contest.  Open to all small businesses and non-profit organizations which operate in the Dallas – Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex, the winner of the 2012 DFW Marketing Makeover contest will be awarded over $5,000 in strategic communications and marketing products and services including a multi-page professionally-designed website, web hosting for a year, a professional logo and branding design package, and a six-month strategic communications and small business consulting contract.

Daniel Brown, Senior Director of Relationship Management at Concierge PA, stated, “We are delighted to present the Marketing Makeover giveaway as just another way that Concierge PA can support the business and non-profit communities of Dallas, Fort Worth and the entire DFW Metroplex.  It fits our corporate culture.  One thing that distinguishes Concierge PA from most firms is that we are a professional consultancy with the responsibility of devising and implementing cost-contained strategies which protect our clients’ financial interests while providing them with top-tier solutions.  At Concierge PA, we embrace good old-fashioned business principles where we place far greater value on our client and community relationships than sheer profit.   Being able to help yet another small business or non-profit organization in the Dallas – Fort Worth community through our Marketing Makeover giveaway is an extension of our mission.”

 

Any DFW small business owner or non-profit administrator, his or her designee, or a nominating sponsor may enter the 2012 DFW Marketing Makeover by completing an official entry form and “sending out” a 300 to 1,500 word Marketing Makeover SOS, a personally-written, free-form narrative which describes the history of the business or non-profit organization; the services/products offered by the business or non-profit organization; its vision and, or mission; and details why the small business or non-profit organization needs strategic communications and marketing help, and deserves to win.  The official entry form and rules may be obtained by visiting the Concierge PA website at www.conciergepa.com and accessing the Exhibits page on the site, or by sending a request by email to mediagroup@conciergepa.com.  Concierge PA will accept entry forms and the associated Marketing Makeover SOS narratives beginning June 12, 2012.   All entries must be received or postmarked on or before July 20, 2012, the contest closing date.  The winner will be announced August 14, 2012.

 Concierge PA Inc., a U. S. corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a professional consultancy which specializes in providing cost-contained, top-tier strategic communications, employer / employee solutions and RFP management services to select organizations, both large and small, and in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Defined by our hallmarks of loyalty, privacy and trust, Concierge PA’s consultancy groups and professional associates (PA’s) specialize in developing and executing cost-contained, top=tier strategies to directly and positively impact our clients’ financial, operational, and marketing objectives; and always within the framework of our professional culture – one in which our organization embraces good, old-fashioned business principles where we value long-term relationships with our clients as an excellent steward of their financial resources, and as a true business partner.

Concierge PA’s strategic communications consultancy division specializes in public & media relations; advertising; online, social & digital content development & management; logo and identity design; marketing plan development; publicist services; and media, special events & trade show management.

 ###

The Concierge PA $5,000 2012 DFW Marketing Makeover Contest

Ready...set...go!  It is coming...June 12th.  Stay tuned for details.

Do you have what it takes to win????

Ready...set...go! It's coming!