Social Media Marketing: Is It Really That Important?
All day long, I’m checking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s part of the job here at 919 Marketing. I wish I could say I had time to check in with my wife and kids while surfing social media, but there’s usually no time. So, every evening on my drive home from the office I call my wife to check in. Our conversations range from a detailed report of how everyone’s day went to, “When you get home, the kids are your problem!” That’s usually followed by, “They’re finally quiet because I just let them use their iPhones so I could finally enjoy some […]
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How Public Relations Drives Franchise Sales
While there is no roadmap to creating a top-notch business, franchise marketing and franchise sales can drive visibility and profitability, putting your business on the road to success. A good PR firm can help secure the media coverage your business needs to spark growth and boost franchise sales. The key to driving franchise sales is the significant increase in visibility that comes from a story about your business playing on TV stations and appearing in print across the country. American Family Care, an urgent care franchise, saw millions of dollars in franchise sales following stories in USA Today and on NBC Nightly News. […]
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The Lost Art of the Business Relationship
Looking back, the good old days of marketing weren’t always so good. I got my start in advertising at one of the biggest firms in the country in 1986, hardly the Stone Age, but I tend to think of it as the last gasp of the Mad Men era. Sexism in the workplace was more common than it is today, for instance, and ad execs and clients were still engaging in the weekly two (or three) martini lunch. But I come not to bury the 1980’s and ‘90s. In fact, I’d like to dig up something the corporate world used to treasure: Business relationships. Oh, […]
The PR Mistake Franchisors Often Make
Many franchise business development execs aren’t leveraging PR and social media to increase margins and improve close rates. We work with a lot of new business franchise executives, and have noticed a wide range of perspectives regarding the use of marketing, and particularly PR as a critical component of company growth. I can reference multiple times where our PR efforts have led to an immediate, direct increase in sales leads and conversions. However, that’s selling short the power of effective PR programs. PR shouldn’t be solely judged on the number of qualified leads flowing into the lead pipeline. This is a […]
Is Your Story Newsworthy?
There’s no denying that the media industry has changed in the last decade. The entire industry has been turned on its head, in many ways for the better. Today, newsrooms are smaller while the sea of news and content is overflowing. What hasn’t changed is what makes a story newsworthy. It’s interesting to me that through the years, the characteristics of what is “newsworthy” haven’t changed. In fact, they’ve only become more important. (In fact, when doing media training with clients, we haven’t even had to change this part of the sessions.) If you want coverage for yourself, company, product, […]
16 Ways to Handle Negative Reviews and Comments
Every business is at risk of getting negative online reviews or negative comments to a blog post. Naturally, dealing with those not-so-nice reviews and comments sends anyone into defense mode. After all, it’s our first reaction to defend ourselves (or business or product or service) when delivers a blow. But when it comes to handling negative reviews and comments, there is only choice: Kill ‘em with kindness. If your business, product or service gets a negative review Monitor for mentions of your brand name using Google Alerts or monitoring software like Trackur or Radian6. This way, you’re one of the first to know when there is […]
Why Your PR Isn’t Working
“Target your pitches and press releases to the right reporters at the right media outlets.” Any PR professional has surely heard this advice at some point in their career, and at some point, despite our better judgment, we’ve all ignored it. Why? We ignore this tip because it’s a daunting task; we “don’t have the time” to sort through a massive media list, and reading up on every single journalist would take days and days. But here’s the truth: Buy not customizing a pitch or release, we hurt our reputation as well as our client’s, our results, and fuel content […]
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Blogging into the abyss? We think not.
I work with clients all the time who struggle to appreciate the value of a blog, especially when they think about the time that goes into keeping it up to date and then getting people to read it. We live in a world of instant gratification – microwaves, drive-through’s, mp3 downloads and movies on demand. So the thought of putting deep thought into each and every blog post when we’re not sure anyone is listening does sound daunting. But it will pay off in the end. I promise. So, I’ve broken down what I see as the two most important […]
3 Lessons We Learned in Client Management: Wizard of Oz Rejected Our Clients and Their Little Blog Too
We all jumped over the rainbow with joy when we thought we landed our clients on a huge national TV show, a TV daytime talk show starring one of Oprah’s favorite sons who grew up to be a doctor. A famous doctor named Oz. All was well and we were off to see the wizard until a producer had noticed that our lovely couple from Kansas had already been on another network TV show sharing their story and because of that – she nixed us from the show. Our hopes of landing our client on a big network show? MELTING, […]
by Sue Yannello