Three Girls Media » Marketing

Keeping Blog Content Fresh

Jennifer Donahue — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:02:16 +0000

For many businesses, maintaining a blog is an important part of marketing. But how do you keep up with the demands for relevant content? The truth is, it’s all in the planning.

If you find yourself staring at the computer week in and week out, waiting for inspiration, try these tips:

Create an editorial calendar. Plan three, six, nine months or even a year at a time. Start by filling in any upcoming events that are important to your business, then your industry, then your community. New location opening in 2 months? Tease the opening now, and devote a full blog post to the new location as you get closer to the big day.
Be the reader. Think about your target audience and what they are interested in – your content doesn’t have to be all about you. If your business is outdoor gear, write about an upcoming work day at a local park. If you sell pet food, highlight the work of a local humane shelter.
Get visual. People respond to photos and videos, so use them where appropriate. A “behind the scenes” look at your workplace might be fun, or give a sneak peak of a new product.
Invite a friend. There’s no shame in inviting a guest blogger to post once in awhile. Your audience might appreciate hearing another voice. Consider an expert in your field, a co-worker from a different department or even a longtime customer.
Be a resource. Collect information that might be useful to your audience. Try a top ten list or a collection of links. For example, if you are a CPA you could link to appropriate local, state and federal tax agencies.

Keeping your blog content fresh and informative is essential, but with proper planning it doesn’t have to be a chore! We can help you create custom blog content that speaks directly to your audience. Contact us to find out how.

Photo Credit: peteoshea

6 Tips for Using E-Newsletters as a Powerful Marketing Tool

Erika Montgomery — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:04:53 +0000

Promoting your business requires a multi-pronged approach through a variety of avenues like social media, websites, blogging, coupons, and in-person networking, just to name a few. Another powerful marketing tool are email newsletters. In one marketing newsletter, which your target audience can see right inside an email, you can disseminate lots of information, tastefully and invitingly laid out. Here are 6 tips on how to make the most of this marketing tool.

Consistent Timing is Key. As with so much of our advice, consistency is key. Let’s say you are a realtor. You know that people don’t move often, but someone is always moving, and when a specific person on your contact list is moving, all those months of having sent out a consistent newsletter will now trigger her to think of you at this critical time. We recommend a monthly email newsletter; bi-monthly depending upon your industry and if there is a lot of flux. Money managers might consider this more frequent option, for example. Whatever frequency you choose, keep at it.
Consistent Branding. Like consistent timing, you want your image and branding to remain consistent. Use company colors that match your logo, including the fonts, tone, etc.
Consistent Categories. Along with your consistent branding, you can create an email newsletter with consistent columns or categories of information, like “What’s New,” “Staff Highlights,” or “Blog Articles.” If appropriate, include a coupon, service discount or special. Whatever categories or sections you create, have them be easily populated each time you prepare your newsletter so that you don’t spend a lot of time reinventing it each issue.
Take Time to Prepare. Don’t leave creating your email marketing newsletter to the last minute. It can’t be done well slammed together in half an hour. Allow yourself plenty of time to write the content, let it sit for at least an hour (overnight is better), and then come back to it and proofread, proofread, proofread! Spelling errors are costly public relations mistakes and diminish your brand in your audience’s eyes!
Find the Right Vehicle. One of the most-used newsletter generation software is Constant Contact. You can compare their service with Vertical Response or Mail Chimp. All offer a similar service, but one may be more appropriate for your budget or ease of use.
After It’s Written. After your email newsletter is complete, send it out to your customer and contact database. Then post the e-news to your social media outlets and your website. If you included a blog reference in your newsletter, make sure they mutually reference each other for increased SEO and exposure on the Internet.

If you would like to see these ideas in action, please ask to be added to our email newsletter.

Special Offer: Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. loves working with small and emerging companies to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. Email info@ThreeGirlsMedia.com to make your appointment today!

Photo Credit: worddraw

New Year Marketing: 9-Step Plan to Market Like a Pro

Emily Sidley — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:54:22 +0000

The New Year is fast upon us, and it is not too late to organize your thoughts and create an action plan for marketing your business for success in 2012! A new year brings new beginnings, a chance to clean house, refresh dreams and put all your efforts into focus.

Because time is precious to everyone, we want you to make every minute you spend promoting your business pay off! It’s a great time to plan for success.

The most important step: Set Aside Time for Marketing. Even if you have not yet identified your end results and incremental goals (below), it is vitally important that you set aside time strictly for working on your marketing strategy. We recommend a minimum of two hours per week dedicated only to marketing. Tasks to complete during this time include creating and posting content (pictures, blogs, posts, website updates), networking and following up on leads, and other action items resulting from the work you do in Steps 2 and 3. Later, it will also include reviewing marketing results (see Step 5). If you use a calendar tool like Google Calendar, block out weekly times for marketing work. Block minimum half-hour chunks so that you can complete something significant every time you engage in this work.
Identify your end results. What are the specific outcomes you intend for 2012? Most people want increased sales, but you may also need greater brand recognition and more clients. You may want to be known as an “expert” in an area. Focus on one to three overall outcomes, and use these to drive all your actions.
Set realistic goals. Within the overall results you want, set realistic goals. Let’s say you have a new product you want to promote. Think of actions you can take to get the word out. Setting up a website is fundamental and not difficult to get started. Getting your product mentioned in 10 magazines within three months might be an unrealistic expectation. If you aren’t sure what you should wish for, a consultation with a marketing professional is perfectly in order. Three Girls Media & Marketing specializes in helping small businesses gain insight, perspective and focus on their end games.
Find social media compatibility. Spend some time on the various social sites, and determine which one best matches your business image, goals and audience. Not all are right for every business (Please see our previous blog post about Social Media). Once you identify the top two, focus on them primarily (in addition to your website and blog), as your social media marketing targets.
Use helpful Internet tools. There are free Internet tools available to help you gain insight into your market, your strategy, and even your wording. Although they can seem overwhelming to a beginner, tools like Google Analytics are indispensable to the DIY’er. Analytic tools monitor traffic and sales conversion rates, among other data. If you pursue a social media marketing campaign, which we highly recommend, there are Internet helpers like Hootsuite and Sprout Social to manage posts and notifications.
Monitor results. Whether you use an analytic tool or devise another system (such as tracking payment sources, or calculating referrals received, etc.) reviewing results on a regular basis enables you to spot trends quickly, so you can make adjustments to your plan. Decide how often you will review the results of your marketing strategy—monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly— so you can fine tune for optimum ROI.
Consider other marketing strategies. Not all DIY strategies are sufficient for all goals. In-person networking is one thing only you can do. Many business owners like to maintain their own social media and website activity, but if you are unable or unwilling to devote the time required for that, we advise delegating this task to professionals. Other marketing to do’s best left to marketing professionals include such things as graphic design and business identity creation, press releases, or a sustained marketing program that includes outreach to media professionals or big name advertisers.
Be yourself. People generally respond to people, not images or names. Carve out time in your schedule to meet people, to be a resource of information and referrals for others, and to promote other businesses you admire. Being a source of positive energy and support to others is one of the best things you can do to market your business. The main key here is to be valuable to others before expecting or asking that other do business with you.
Don’t be afraid to get creative! If you don’t think you are a creative genius, call someone who is! The staff at Three Girls Media & Marketing thrives on finding creative ways for small businesses to meet their goals within their budget. Drop what isn’t working and try something new. If you don’t feel happy about something, find another way to do it, delegate it or stop doing it. If something is bleeding you financially, get rid of it. If you like what a friend is doing, pick their brain over what is working for them and copy it.

We wish you the very best, most fun, creative and financially rewarding year ever! Don’t forget: small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Be a great business, support local businesses and thrive!

Photo Credit: jbj

4 Tips to Achieve Marketing Goals in the New Year

Erika Montgomery — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:36:18 +0000

Every December one of our clients looks forward to the local paper’s year-round Gardening Guide. Month-by-month prescribed activities help her ensure a beautiful, bountiful garden throughout the following year. Even during rainy January, there is something to do. Keeping a great garden is broken into manageable tasks, and she is rewarded month after month with amazing produce and flowers for her family and friends.

Growing your business isn’t that different from tending a garden. Trying to mow, plow, seed and water and grow in one weekend is impossible. Trying to cram marketing activities into one or two short weeks before you expect them to pay off is stressful and completely unproductive. Three Girls Media & Marketing recommends setting long-term publicity and marketing goals, and breaking them down into manageable activities over time, laying a structural framework. The rewards will follow all year long as your efforts come to fruition.

1. Plan in Advance. If planning 12 months’ worth of publicity activities is too daunting, focus one quarter at a time, say, January through March. Maybe a six-month plan is better for you. Regardless of what time range you choose, choose one and stick to it. It is imperative that you plan your actions in advance not only to stay on track, but because the best publicity opportunities usually don’t happen last minute. They are often fixed in advance, and only those who are prepared will benefit the most.

2. Set Realistic Goals. Perhaps you want to appear on a television show or be mentioned in a major magazine or newspaper. Maybe you want to be picked up by a blog- or website that caters to a specific audience. Social media may be a marketing goal – increasing fans or engagement on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Maybe you don’t even know what your publicity goals are or what is possible! We highly recommend consulting a PR or marketing professional to determine the full breadth of goals to consider. Three Girls Media & Marketing specializes in matching publicity/marketing activities to specific businesses, and steer clients away from those that don’t make sense for them (See our special offer for a free consultation, at the end of this post).

3. Set a To-Do Schedule. Each publicity placement or marketing success is the result of having completed smaller tasks. Set a realistic schedule for getting grunt work done, whether it is one task per day or three tasks per week. If you take on too much at once, it will be overwhelming and you may give up. The staff at Three Girls Media & Marketing creates month-by-month game plans including step-by-step activities designed for a specific outcome. This kind of well-thought out plan saves time and money while achieving optimum results.

4. Evaluate Your Marketing Efforts Regularly. Every month, quarter or every six months, reevaluate your marketing and publicity efforts. Are they paying off? Did the magazine placement generate the website traffic you envisioned? Do you have more fans or likes on your social media platforms? More readers on your blog? Keep notes and records so you can review progress and change up plans if needed. Do more things that work, and get rid of activities that aren’t producing the results you’d like to see.

We wish you the best year in business yet!

Photo Credit: rachel_titiriga

Understanding Public Relations: Use the Right Tools in the Right Way

Emily Sidley — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:49:52 +0000

It is important to understand what public relations is, and what it is not, so you can take advantage of different facets of marketing to ensure success. Every entrepreneur or business has a fixed, or at least finite, budget for “marketing.” Knowing which dollars to put into which “marketing” category saves time and money.

Public Relations (PR) is part of the entire “marketing” process, however its placement, purpose and objectives are very different. According to Dean Hirasawa, Director of PR and Investor Relations for Globalstar LLP, a satellite communications company, “PR is simply a relationship, or communications with the public. PR is part of the marketing promotion function, therefore is generally managed by the marketing department within an organization.” Inside marketing groups often contract with PR specialists, like Three Girls Media & Marketing, to achieve their objectives.

PR seeks to shape consumer perception, building a lasting “Like,” if you will, so that when they come to a decision point about a product, they will already be happily informed about your company, thus more likely to buy. Three Girls Media approaches a sustained, targeted PR campaign as a way to effect managed growth for your company. Through strategic multi-media coverage, we build a lasting awareness and brand credibility for your company. Today, news travels at light speed, and effective PR is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of marketing. Image and public opinion mean everything, especially in the increasingly influential realm of social media. Images are made and shaped here, and PR helps keep your company looking good.

Unlike advertising and some forms of marketing, public relations’ goal is not immediate sales. It is, rather, a more subtle, sustained approach to keeping your business favorably in the consumer’s mind. In many instances, this can be done at little cost, or free, as in tapping into social media, or having articles printed in newspapers or trade journals.

Whether large or small, well funded or not, there is a thoughtful, coordinated way to market your company for optimum results. Three Girls Media invites the opportunity to help you discover the PR message that is right for you. And I’ll leave you with this to consider—a great example of what public relations is:

In third grade, over forty years ago, a woman toured a Ford Motor Company factory with her class. Great educational experience, certainly, but what stuck in her mind was the talk at the end of the tour. Over lunch, the speaker answered their questions respectfully, and generally treated them like honored guests. Even as a youngster, she wondered why a big company like Ford would do all that for “little kids.” She no longer wondered when shortly thereafter, she influenced her parents’ decision to purchase a Ford car.

Photo Credit: DoktorSpinn

What Marketing Is, and Using It To Fulfill Your Objectives

Emily Sidley — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:07:14 +0000

What is marketing? Here’s a great example. In 1979, before Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita’s Sony Walkman™ burst on the scene, people were not strolling about gravely pondering, “Wow, what I’m really missing right now is portable, high-fidelity personal sound!” These foresighted inventors created a new—now universal—“need.”

Today, practically everyone has personal portable sound. “Marketing” occurred, and occurs constantly all around the globe. Entrepreneurs identify or invent a consumer need, then hire marketers to develop the best way to engage consumers so they are encouraged to buy a product or service.

Marketing then, is the process of persuading consumers a) that they have a need, b) that your product or service fulfills their need, c) that your product is superior to the competition; and, in essence, d) why they should buy your product. A strategy generally is designed around a consumer’s real or perceived lack, need or “pain.” The message must address and solve that problem in the consumer’s mind. That is why it is important to hire a partner who can keep an unbiased view and understand how to target the process from the consumers’ point of view.

When Three Girls Media designs a client’s marketing plan, key factors are identifying which consumers need to hear the message, and executing many aspects of the plan to convey that message persuasively. We are experts at all familiar aspects: advertising, commercials, pricing, packaging, and today, social media. Our marketing goes further, however, including press releases and public relations, maintaining customer goodwill (customer service and after-sale care, for example.) All of these aspects dovetail into a beautifully targeted and executed message.

A great marketing company will design a strategy aligning your business’s image, core principles, ethical standards and societal objectives. But all the great marketing in the world is worth nothing if you are off the customer mark: for example, marketing Kobe beef to vegans. You need partners who will develop the right strategy and message for the right consumers.

Whether you are designing a fairly inexpensive social media campaign, or a comprehensive commercial advertising blitz on many media platforms, a thoughtful, an experienced agency like Three Girls Media can create the perfect campaign designed for the right consumer to find you.

Photo Credit: Chris Heiler

Sales: How Do You Treat Your Clients?

Emily Sidley — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:21:10 +0000

The way you treat clients directly affects how successful your business will be.

We’ve said it before: Being nice can set you apart. I was recently reminded of this again thanks to one of our client’s blog posts. Tony Quintong of Securieon posted an article on his site about one rule to live by in business: Treat others as you would want to be treated. The whole idea is that no matter who you’re working with, the way you interact with them can play a big role in how successful you are in your business.

Here’s some of what Tony wrote:

Here’s the essence of this observation: It’s a Glengarry Glen Ross world of pushy real estate salesmanship. We live in a plethora of readily accessible information. There is no need for the capital required of the Procter & Gamble’s or Mattel toy companies of the world. Market research of what a client is likely to buy – and why – is a few keyboard taps away, yet how many sales people really do their homework? Here is a simple Sales 101 Training approach to catching a prospect’s attention:

Do the homework on the person and their company
Develop a solution statement based on their needs – not on your unfounded opinion
Provide an insightful view on their industry/company challenges
Follow up with a compelling point of interest to them

If you want the potential customer to be receptive, treat them as you would want to be treated. If you don’t agree or have not considered their point of view, its ok with me; however I would seriously consider another profession.

Have you taken the time to actually do the homework, listen to your customers and find a compelling point of interest to them? Not only can this help you make the sale, but it can help you develop a marketing strategy to actually reach your target audiences effectively!

Photo Credit: JodiWomack

Al La Carte PR: Blog Management

Emily Sidley — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:40:30 +0000

A blog is an excellent way to build your credibility and brand recognition.

At Three Girls, we focus on helping the little guy: small- and medium-sized businesses that need PR the most, but often can afford it the least. While we do offer comprehensive Public Relations campaigns, we understand that not all companies are ready or have the resources to invest in an All-Inclusive campaign, which is why we offer a variety of Al la Carte PR Services to fit the needs of almost any budget.

A blog is an excellent way to build your credibility and brand recognition. Three Girls will research, write and post blogs on your behalf complete with SEO friendly headline, photo, caption and links. We can post a minimum of one time per week or as much as once per day. If necessary, Three Girls will create a blog template on your behalf using WordPress. Cost: $50 and up per month.

For more information about this Al La Carte PR option, or for other services available, give us a call at 408-871-0377 or send us an email.

Photo Credit: Foxtongue

Branding Tip: Your Email Signature

Emily Sidley — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:50:30 +0000

Is your email signature as strong as it could be?

Look at your email signature. What information is included? Your signature is an easy way to remind people of your contact information and reflect your brand. In fact, it’s a lot like an electronic business card stapled onto every email you send.

So how can you make your email signature as powerful as possible? Here’s what you want to include:

Company Name and Website
Your Title
Your Phone Number
Mailing Address
Fax Number
Social Networks with which you’d like people to connect with you (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Even though email signatures are often ignored, you want to make it as concise as possible so if someone is looking for the information they can find it quickly and easily.

Some people also add graphics and change the font size/color to attract more information. Personally, I just use basic formatting as large pictures and strange sizes/colors don’t always show up the way you intend. As an example, here’s my signature:

Emily Sidley / Senior Director of Publicity
Three Girls Media and Marketing Inc.
Phone: (408) 871-0377, FAX: (866) 875-7847
Twitter: @ThreeGirlsMedia, Facebook: Three Girls Media
Mailing Address: 453 Sobrato Drive, Campbell, CA 95008
Three Girls Website: www.ThreeGirlsMedia.com

What tips would you suggest for creating a powerful email signature?

Photo Credit: Fletcher Prince

Body Language Traps, Social Media for Business and More

Emily Sidley — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:16:34 +0000

These 6 articles will tell you what your body language is saying, how to jump into social media and more.

Is your body language getting your message across? How should you start using social media for your company? Here are 6 articles to help you with those topics and more:

10 Words That Don’t Mean What You May Think They Do http://ow.ly/4WVQf – English changes little by little over time. This post shares 10 words that mean something different than you may think.
10 common body language traps for women in the workplace http://ow.ly/4TnFa – Is your body language saying something different than you intend? This article shares common ways women in the workplace miscommunicate their message based on how they stand, tilt their head, etc. A quick study of psychology might have some big payoffs. Check out 50 Mind-Bending Psychology Blogs. It provides some great advice to further understand your reader. Never stop learning.
Do you run your business or work from a home office? Here are 7 steps to help you achieve work-life balance http://ow.ly/4VYhi – A lot of small business owners work from home. This article shares helpful tips for managin work-life balance.
How to jump into the social media pool without drowning http://ow.ly/4YLUI – This is a great resource for business owners jumping into social media. It includes advice regarding which types of media to use and activities you don’t want to forget.
Are you an educated business blogger? 12 things every business blogger should know how to do http://ow.ly/544tX – There’s a LOT of advice out there for business bloggers. This post shares a good list of things you don’t want to miss.
Life Without Twitter – An Infographic http://ow.ly/4VYi8 – This is a fun infographic of what life might be like without Twitter.

Photo Credit: Rd. Vortex