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Would you handle innovation this way?

What does it take to be successful? Is it innovation, adaptability or striving for a clear goal? Or sheer luck?

Here is a sobering statistic often touted in the success literature: If you take 100 people and follow their lives until retirement, something like only five will be successful, meaning they will retire financially secure. The rest, well you know how it is, they’ll still be struggling until the day they die.

After 60 or 70 years how many companies are still successful? How many are still around trying to survive in the modern world with new digital technology, global markets and brutal competition? Are they also the five percenters?

Two companies thirty years ago were aware of the coming digital technology in film and took steps over time to protect their businesses. One is now at death’s door, yet the other one is thriving.

The one company ramped up digital cameras and expanded its chemical side into pharmaceutical drug products without success. It was slow to change and introduce innovation. Smart phones pummeled its old film and camera making business. This company filed for bankruptcy today.

The other company also went into digital photography, innovated a line of cosmetics and branched out into optical films for LCD flat panel screens. This company enhanced innovation making fast changes. Though it’s been a difficult ride with restructuring, slashed costs and jobs, the company is doing well despite the economic times.

The two companies are Kodak and Fujifilm. You can read more here in a business briefing on technology change called “The last Kodak moment”.

http://www.economist.com/node/21542796

Also look at “Gone in a flash”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/01/kodak-files-bankruptcy-protection-1.

Our lives might not parallel the trajectory of large companies but the lessons that stand out are that change requires innovation, doing things differently and acting when we see the alarm bells rather than waiting until the wolf is at the door, breaking the house down.

Faced with the challenge to change what will you do? Wait or act?

How can you make the changes necessary to thrive in the year ahead and coming years?

The techniques and methods in www.ideaaccelerator.co.za can help you whatever business you’re in. Why wait? Go take a look at the articles and links now. Send us an e-mail to find out how we can assist you.

 Stay inspired.

Chesney Bradshaw

PS If you know anyone who is interested in subscribing to these e-mails and blog posts from www.ideaaccelerator.co.za, please forward this e-mail to them. Let us know who you sent this mail to and you stand to win a free special report on generating ideas for profit.  All your networking friends have to do is to go to http://www.ideaaccelerator.co.za and fill in their email address and first name in the subscribe panel on the top right-hand section of the screen.

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What does 2012 hold for your business?

At the beginning of the year it is customary to look at trends. In this post we briefly examine a trend that businesses need to follow or they will fall behind.

Will things get worse? How will I keep my business afloat? Where can I find opportunities to grow?

In the midst of economic uncertainty at the start of the New Year questions like these may cause anxiety but they are essential to avoid stagnation and decline. Looking at trends in your business and market is one way to orientate yourself and your business to the pathways that lead to growth and to avoid those that are heading smack into a solid wall.

Trend spotting can be valuable for any business. It goes without saying that whether you are part of a large corporation, a business proprietor or entrepreneur, a solid understanding and knowledge of economic trends is vital for adjusting and even capitalising on the expected economic conditions whether fair or foul.

Watch customer buying trends

Industry or market trends that directly affect your business are just as important. Buying trends and preferences, whether you are in business-to-business or consumer markets, are vital and need to be closely watched. To be on top of the labyrinth of your customer’s mind, you need to spend at least a few hours a week studying their needs and desires.

Trends for the smaller entrepreneurial business this year that need looking at include the continuing growth of business on the Internet, cloud computing, the ever-growing cell phone market, the need to reduce costs and find more effective ways to market products and services using traditional and on-line methods, particularly social media — all of which means creating greater customer value.

Terminal decline?

Magazines provide a case in point. As traditional media, magazines need to play catch up with using social media as part of their reader retention and acquisition strategies. The integration of social media with traditional offline media products such as magazines certainly looks set to grow. For those magazines that ignore this trend or are too slow to adapt, the consequences could be fatal. A woman’s magazine recently closed with the publisher saying that they took too long to integrate with social media and come out with a user-friendly digital edition. These digital editions or many of them are so cumbersome that it is hardly worth the effort trying the view them online. I subscribed to a newspaper digital edition and did not renew my subscription. Fortunately, it was only for three months.

But the malaise with magazines is deeper. In a highly competitive media space magazine content is just not cutting it with readers (circulation figures are drastically down) — not for all magazines but most of them. They just have not done enough reader research. They haven’t used creativity processes to find solutions to keep readers and deepen their reader experience. This is what comes from myopic thinking, looking at what the industry is doing and not examining other industries for break-out ideas.

Quickly grasp this

One trend that continues to grow and which is of great interest to us at ideaaccelerator.co.za is innovation. Riding out the economic storm, leading companies and entrepreneurial businesses have quickly grasped the importance of innovation — from new technologies, product development and marketing to consumer insights and business models.

Small businesses have innovated by reducing the costs of doing business, being more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly, finding ways to attract good employees, and effectively marketing their products and services offline and online. Sadly, given the number of business failures, it’s clear that too few small businesses are innovative. But for those that continue to grow despite the current economic malaise, continuous innovation is core to their success. Among these innovators are those business owners who are quick to use the methods and techniques for new idea generation and creative strategic approaches that we have covered in past updates on ideaaccelerator.co.za.

Keep innovation constant

It’s not just the big ideas that are important for innovation. Take, for example, the following analogy from the cricket world. If we look at the double-century cricket score of Jacques Kallis, South Africa’s greatest modern-day batsman, we see that in the match between South Africa and Sri Lanka at Newlands, he scored 224 from 325 balls. In that score only 31 balls were 4s and one was a 6 (325 balls, 31 x 4 1 x 6). It was the constant batting of smaller scores that allowed him to reach his record score.

Innovation needs to be a constant part of our business lives. A steady, constant flow of ideas is necessary if we want to be successful. Yes, sure the big idea can be earth-shattering, game-changing or make a large impact to our business or in the marketplace. But the big ideas are often few and far in between. We need to innovative every day even if it is sometimes in small ways. These have an accumulative effect.

The choice is yours if you want to stand still in such an economy. To stop growing, to hesitate and wait for change to happen to your business, means that you are prepared to put everything at risk. New ideas meet change head on and spur growth. If you want to embrace change, to not stop growing, then use innovation to keep your business from stagnating or even running into terminal decline and eventual closure.

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Turbo charge your innovation in 2012

Hard work, dedication and perseverance are essential qualities for achieving your business goals. In this economy more is required – continuous innovation. Prepare your business for 2012 by considering where you will need to innovate to anticipate and capitalize on changes in your market niche.

Innovation, coming up with new ideas, methods and approaches, has been essential for business and personal growth in 2011, a challenging year for many. Change, whether self initiated or through external circumstances, requires new responses often unshackled from past thinking. Just look back at 2011 and consider the social, political and economic events and upheavals that have often speeded change at unprecedented rates.

For business people change requires the ability to spot and seize the opportunity in the midst of what often seems like never-ending chaos. Change requires the need for new ideas, fresh ways of thinking, often radical shifts in perspectives and innovation.

Courage to create

Most importantly, change requires courage. Rollo May, a renowned therapist, in his book “The Courage to Create” says: “Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built … In our day, technology and engineering, diplomacy, business, and certainly teaching, all of these professions and scores of others are in the midst of radical change and require courageous persons to appreciate and direct this change.”

This year ideaaccelerator.co.za has offered insights into various techniques to spur new ways of thinking, generate ideas and encourage innovation. Blog posts have covered idea generation tools such as freewriting, closely looked at business models and provided promotional ideas in a challenging economy. Other posts have explored the discipline required to create and form new works of art, businesses and even charities and see them to completion as well as case studies of innovators who have succeeded by using ideation techniques and processes.  

Outstanding results

All through the difficult economic circumstances we have held the new that obstacles and challenges can be surmounted through generating new ideas and spurring innovation. We have assisted small businesses using idea generation processes to achieve outstanding results. We have also witnessed the more successful companies innovating their technology, reformulating products, improving their service offerings, incorporating more sustainable business practices and reaching out to customers in new ways. These companies know that their success and in some cases survival depends on innovation.

Polar opposite of creativity

Yet for many business people creativity and innovation don’t sit well in an environment that has become mechanized on a massive scale. “Mechanization requires uniformity, predictability, and orderliness,” according to May. This is the polar opposite of creativity, which often requires human processes and even unconscious thinking for breakthroughs. New ideas and approaches are a hard sell to the assembly line until of course demand for poor or unsustainable products spirals into a trickle.

That’s why our approach is to work with business people who run their own businesses and who often need to respond rapidly to changing circumstances or face going out of business. Small businesses don’t have deep pockets that can keep them toiling in the wrong direction (sometimes for years); they need to move quickly, come up with smart solutions that retain, build and delight their customers. Staying ahead of their competition, fighting for smaller market niches, requires continuous innovation.

As the end of the year approaches, it is time to relax, reflect and recharge. 2012 will soon bring its unique set of challenges. For those fascinated by new ideas that “pop up” from the unconscious in response to the need to find innovative solutions to changing business circumstances, ways to excite customers or to simply raise their game, we will try to keep you inspired with innovative ideas in 2012.

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Creative heads in the clouds

Creativity in advertising can help catch people’s attention and win customers. Yet some advertisers’ heads seem to be in the clouds when they don’t pay attention to the conversation taking place in their market. Creative approaches need to link with the customer’s world to provide returns.

 Sometimes you just wonder how “creative” advertising can be so detached from its real world surroundings. It’s much too easy to criticize someone else’s advertising so I will mention just one short falling of an advert I saw in a national business weekly. It totally missed a big opportunity.

The advert was about cloud computing and gave examples of its applications in society and ended by mentioning the company’s contribution to global computing. All very good except that this ad was run on the Sunday midway through the COP 17 climate change negotiations in Durban. Surrounding pages in the business section were plastered with ads about climate change and solutions for a low-carbon future. Now, how possibly could the advert fail to mention any reference about climate change? It’s sort of like walking up the road from King’s Cross Station and not being aware that the place has social problems (which we won’t go into here).

After reading the advert on a flight to Durban I asked the passenger sitting next to me: “What do you make of this?” He took a look and said, “They could at least have mentioned something about their e-waste and what they are doing about it.” Later the passenger mentioned that he was the climate and environmental advisor to the presidency of a country in Africa.

Being present to the conversation already taking place

So what is the real message for marketers – off-line and online – with this advert? Simply put, to be present and listen to the conversations already taking place among customers. Surely, the team that put together this advert could have thought about what would be going on when the ad would appear? If they had, they might have recognised that COP 17 would be a major topic of discussion in the papers and online during the negotiations taking place in Durban.

They could have come up with a quick short-list of examples of solutions that their computing is bringing about to help mitigate climate change. It would have then been easy for them to join their customers’ conversation which would have certainly included climate change and the global climate change negotiations. The other advertisers had thought about their timing – some even used leaves symbolically acting as the blades for wind turbines to promote renewable energy.

Creativity doesn’t mean generating ideas that are detached from people and the marketplace. Products of creativity are meant to inspire, entertain, influence perhaps and ultimately sell. Even a five-minute session with a basic idea generation tool would have assisted in this instance with developing the original idea and making it so much more powerful.

Loosen up and fire your imagination

By joining the customer’s conversation, understanding their interests, problems and aspirations, businesses become more relevant and real when they try to connect with customers. Communicating with worn-out come-ons or unsupported authority in a competitive marketplace is just not authentic or meaningful. But to get there companies need to loosen up and become more creative.

The problem is that the words “creative” and “creativity” are such catch-all terms that they have come to even have negative connotations. What we mean here by these words is to come up with new ideas that will profit your business. It involves a search for ideas using creative and innovation tools that help you generate a range of possibilities that hold the potential to produce amazing results whether for your product, service or business.

Encourage expansive thinking

Such expansive thinking may itself sound like needing to put your “head in the clouds” but it is vital when your business is under threat or you need innovation to compete against increasingly strong competition, especially in 2012. Innovation, coming up with new products, services and new ways of doing business, is essential for responding and anticipating a changing business environment. For smaller businesses that are much closer to their customers whether on main street or in industrial parks innovation is critical for maximizing returns on any investment.

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More ideas, better ideas – innovate now

Dealing with the challenges in your business has become increasingly urgent with the economy as it is. Yet we know that some business people thrive under any circumstances. These far-sighted business people take measures to innovate their business despite prevailing circumstances.

A business owner* who runs a media and website business was experiencing a gradual drop in his conversion rate from quotation to sales, which was leading to lower revenues. At ideaaccelerator.co.za we jump at such challenges and offered to help solve the problem using the idea-generation and ideation expertise we’ve developed over a number of years.

At first he was skeptical. “But how can creativity and new ideas work for my business when all I have is a sales conversion problem?” he asked. Our reply was, “Why not give it a try and see what happens. You haven’t come up with a solution now and who knows when you’ll stop the decline so using these idea generation techniques and processes could help you right now, wouldn’t they?”

Steps to produce amazing ideas

We started with a closer enquiry into the possible cause of the lower quotes to sales conversion. Next, we took the business owner through a series of steps to produce ideas that were imaginative and energizing. We tried to disturb the usual thinking patterns that keeps us stuck in familiar thinking ruts – the same tired ideas that get raised in brainstorm meetings that never seem to fire inspiration or let alone work.

He had an initial resistance to these new approaches but we guided him into the processes we have developed. We’ve found that it is often better to just get on with following the tools and processes and finding new solutions than to get into detailed, arcane explanations that will only really be understood once they are experienced when the results start flowing.

The tools and techniques used to assist this business person to generate ideas were suited to his temperament and natural curiosity. Knowing what works best with individual customers is important so that they remain motivated to complete the necessary steps.

 Astounded at the quality of ideas

The business owner was astounded by the number and quality of ideas produced. His problem became how to sort through all the ideas and prioritise them. We gave him a simple prioritization grid which quickly helped him select the best ideas with the fastest and biggest payback that he could action in his business right away.

 The result of the ideas produced and implemented was a 200% increase in quotes to sales conversion. All this was achieved through working on tangible and intangible parts of his service and increasing benefits for customers.

 “We increased our sales conversion by 200%”

“Using ideaaccelerator.co.za’s ideation process, we came up with new ideas for our business that helped us increase our sales conversation by 200%,” the business owner told us afterwards. “We generated so many ideas that it will take a year to implement them all. We’re already started on actioning just three and the results are amazing.”

 Leapfrog competitors

By generating more and better ideas small businesses can leapfrog their competitors through innovative ways to do business. Unless idea generation is purposeful and directed towards a clear, definite end goal the results will be less than spectacular. The idea generation facilitator needs to be experienced or very familiar with business and the success factors for small business because a high level of experience is required. While business is often considered a science by the business schools, it’s more of an art that requires a high level of judgement and ingenuity to activate the levers that will produce the best results.

Businesses faced with the challenges in the marketplace today with lower demand, varying customer buying patterns and price-sensitive customers have a choice to wait and do nothing until disaster strikes or innovate their businesses to produce stronger profits and stay ahead of their competition.

* Details of the business owner and managing director of this case study can be made on request to chesney@ideaaccelerator.co.za

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Win your inner creative war

Creating anything of value requires getting started. But many things can get in the way. Who is the real enemy? What prevents us from achieving our best work?

It’s a problem we all face – getting started. Your idea for a business, a website, a sales letter, a charity, an e-book, a song, a poem, a painting lies dormant in your imagination waiting for you to bring it to life.

Someday you’ll get around to it. Or on the weekend … The weekend comes and goes and you’re still don’t have anything to show for it. What’s stopping you? How can you get started? Why can it be so hard to create what you feel in your bones you can do or long to do?

The answers to these questions and more can be found in a book titled “The War of Art” (not to be confused with “The Art of War, the ancient Chinese book on strategy) by Steven Pressfield (Grand Central Publishing, New York).

Facing the real enemy

In the first part of the book Pressfield defines the enemy: Resistance. “Resistance,” he says, “cannot be seen, touched, heard or smelled.” It can be felt and its aim is to prevent us from doing our work whether it is to launch an entrepreneurial venture, pursue any calling in writing, painting, music, film, dance, a diet or health regimen and even an act that takes commitment of the heart such as to get married, have a child or weather a rocky patch in a relationship.”

Resistance, or self-sabotage, is often fuelled by fear (a good indicator as it tells us what to do) but has many forms such as drugs, shopping, TV, gossip and consuming unhealthy foods. Just about anything can keep us from starting our work. Resistance can involve the choice of a mate, choosing someone who has it or is successfully overcoming resistance. “Maybe it’s easier to endow our partner with the power that we in fact possess but are afraid to act upon,” he says.

Putting things off can be fatal

Procrastination, when it becomes a habit, can be fatal to our life’s work, putting of things until we reach our deathbed. But Pressfield says we are never without the power to alter our destiny. “This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work.”

Qualities that distinguish the pro

In his chapters on combating resistance, Pressfield covers turning pro which means, among other things, to show up every day, show up no matter what, stay on the job all day, master the techniques of our job and receive praise or blame in the real world. He discusses the qualities of a professional such as acting in the face of fear, accepting no excuses, preparing, not showing off and not hesitating to ask for help. It’s tough advice but turning pro requires discipline and self mastery.

Know the territory

An intriguing concept that Pressfield deals with in some length is that of territory and hierarchy. In a hierarchical orientation an individual competes against others, measures her achievement by rank within the hierarchy and acts for others. The artist, or creator, can’t look for others to evaluate her work. The artist or creator needs to operate territorially which means “he must do his work for its own sake”. Working in the territory, gives birth to the artist’s original creation that add to our lives, regardless of the obstacles faced.

Even though some of the advice can be daunting, I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s not only for those who wish to get started on bringing whatever is important to them to life but also for those who work on projects for weeks, months or even years to bring their gifts to the world.

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Is your business personality out of whack with your customers?

When the personality of a business matches its customer profile success follows. But a mismatch can spell trouble. Find out what business personality disorders to watch out for before they hurt your business performance.

A small business reflects the personality of its owner. This can be advantageous when the business owner’s personality enhances the business by attracting customers. But when the personality of the owner and the business are out of sync with prospective customers, poor performance is often the unfortunate consequence.

The personality of a business maybe isn’t so important when it has little competition but when competitive intensity increases, business owners need to examine and assess their business personality. They need to make plans to shape it into a clear, deliberate and visible identity that carefully selects the customers they wish to attract.

A match made in restaurant heaven
Let me show you an example of a business owner whose personality is working for his business. I’ll take you to a restaurant in a competitive main street where many similar restaurants are competing for the same market. The owner, a young chef who recently bought the business, decided not to make sudden changes when taking over the restaurant. He first wanted to get a feel for what his customers want. Yet his personality, friendly and enthusiastic is already projecting a fresh vibe, retaining existing customers and attracting new ones.

When personalities clash
Take the opposite end of the spectrum. Here’s another restaurant that had an attractive name, fresh approach and was growing until the new owners decided to change everything – the name, décor and menu — to match their personalities. Don’t get me wrong, the restaurant is a wonderful eatery with a New Age vibe of harmony and colour. But the problem is that it is located in an area where they don’t have customers to fit this profile. Competition is brutal leaving no room for mistakes like this. A trickle of customers frequents this restaurant and it’s sad to see their live musician in the early evenings playing to no-one.

How long can they go on this way? This is the kind of business that adds to the high small and medium size business casualty rate of more than 70% business failures in the first five years.

Projecting your personality onto your business without conscious awareness of your market can backfire badly.

Compare this restaurant to another that is quiet, clean, well kept with instrumental music from yesteryear playing and an efficient, attentive, old style service restaurant owner. Many people would find this place boring. But he’s selected his customers. By 10:00 am the place is packed with patrons, mostly retired women.

This restaurant owner has matched his business personality to his customers perfectly. He has created the ambience his customers want. It feels like being in a time-warp with crack sharp service, soothing old music and pristine cleanliness but it is working.

A business can establish its personality to attract the customers it wants. The right approach can entice a profitable section of the market. For example, a new band has broken into an overtraded market with a unique three-piece instrumental outfit. It is working, having drawn a niche from the younger customers looking for something different. But this strategy could have easily backfired. The risk is knowing that the market has the right type of customers in sufficient numbers.

Coherence counts when customers have much choice
Whatever your business personality, you need a unified through-line across your business so that it has a coherence in the mind of your customers and prospects. All the little inconsistencies can add up to a pretty disjointed, chaotic business personality which will be off-putting to customers. If you have these inconsistencies, they will stand out for all to see. For example, if your business projects friendliness but you are rude to customers and keep them waiting for their orders, then your business personality is inconsistent.

Putting it all together
How does a small business owner, once aware of their business personality, manage all these elements? It all starts with a close inspection of everything that makes up their business. Sometimes it would be good money spent to bring in a pair of fresh eyes to assist. But the consultant would need to have a proven track record, and more importantly, a passion for this type of work. For small and even medium size businesses managing all these elements can be challenging at first. But once the business owner understands what personality their business is projecting and how it affects customer buying, they are well on their way to make the necessary adjustments to match their business to their customer profile.

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Jealously guard your reputation

In today’s economy it’s important to look after your reputation. Mistrust of business has grown with broken promises, shaky advice, inflated prices and job losses. The idea of reputation is simple – it’s what people think of you. Can they trust you? Can they believe you and your products or services?

It all started out innocently enough. I visited the pay channel TV store to exchange an old decoder for a new one. The assistant said they couldn’t replace my old unit because it was reconditioned and out of guarantee. She told me I needed a new decoder and a new card. Three months later, I’m checking my bank statement and I see a double charge from the TV pay channel. I call them and find out they’ve charged me a monthly rental for my old card and my new card — for three months! They say it’s my fault and won’t pay a back a cent. I’m in for a long fight to get my money back.

How often do we get ripped off like this?

Our biggest fear in dealing with businesses is being ripped off.

But it happens so often you almost expect it.

Ripping off customers causes reputation damage that businesses can ill afford during an economic storm. But this is just one form of reputational damage that corrodes trust in businesses. 

What is business reputation? How important is it for small businesses? How do you build reputation and what can you do to prevent losing it?

A promise you keep with your customers

Reputation is based on the promise you keep with your customers and other people you interact within your sphere of influence: suppliers, the community, local authorities and so on. Small businesses gain a reputation for honesty and integrity when they have no hesitation over ethics.

In these economic times where there is pressure to shove flagging sales, drive increased productivity of staff and make profit figures, the danger exists of pushing too hard and cutting corners. Managers and employees want to reach their targets and make bonuses, sometimes at any cost.

To prevent loss of reputation it’s important that a business, whether retailing on the main street or online, does not lie to customers, badly treat employees, cover up mistakes and short-change customers.

How many businesses do this?

Small businesses can build their reputation by practicing truthfulness and honesty, taking a stand for what they believe is morally right (such as the environment), practicing what they preach and accepting the blame when they are wrong. Reputation can build trust, influence good behavior in others and creates high standards.

The value of reputation in the tough economy is priceless because it allows businesses to keep and gain more customers and to prosper even when other businesses are experiencing declining sales or, sadly, closing down. Word spreads quickly. Unscrupulous treatment of customers, employees and suppliers spreads like a raging mountain fire when the wind blows gale force.

Customers are tired of being kicked in the teeth. They are much more cautious about spending their money and certainly won’t part with hard-earned cash to make sub-par companies with rat-like reputations rich. As a business owner be alert to any potential reputational risks. Don’t wait for cracks to appear because by then it’s often too late to win back trust.

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When to hire a publicist? Try this quiz

Deciding when to hire a publicist is an important step for a small business owner. This quiz can help you better understand when it’s time to involve an experienced pro to really make your publicity work for your business.  

In this economy small businesses are faced with increased competition and slower sales. If you have a store or home business, it may be difficult to keep a steady flow of leads. Yes, you can advertise but advertising can be expensive and you may not always be able to measure the results unless you go online. Even if you have an on-line business and know how to generate interest through e-mails, on-line newsletters, blogs, forums and social media, you still need to know how to generate publicity for your business. Publicity can help you extend your reach as a small business beyond what you are able to do through sales and advertising.

The Internet and social media have greatly expanded the opportunities for small businesses to gain attention in the media whether on-line or in print. DIY publicity strategies allow anyone to generate publicity and support their profile as an expert in their field at low cost. But there are many valid reasons why turning to a publicist with a proven track record and expertise in your market or area of expertise makes business sense. Find out some of the reasons why by spending a few minutes on the publicist quiz below.

 True/False Quiz

 1  I need to hire a publicity agent to get my name in the newspapers.

  · True

  · False

 2   I want to obtain credibility and authority for my business and the products and services I sell.

  · True

  · False

 3  Calling reporters and editors on the phone is as enjoyable as calling a close business associate.

  · True

  · False

 4  The Internet means I can quickly know how publicity works, how to handle media interviews and run my own publicity campaigns.

  · True

  · False

   5  I do basic publicity myself but need help from a publicist who has knowledge in a specialized area.

  · True

  · False

 Answers

 1  I need to hire a publicity agent to get my name in the newspapers. False

If you only need to get your name into the newspapers you can quite easily do it yourself. You can write a letter to the editor, send a press release on a newsworthy event or milestone in your business to an editor. DIY publicity can work for your business especially if you send out press releases infrequently. But if you want to gain credibility, position yourself as an expert or broaden your audience, a publicist can help you do all this and more.

2   I want to obtain credibility and authority for my business and the products and services I sell. True

A publicist can help you lift your business and its products and services from obscurity and position you as an authoritative and credible leader in your marketplace. Publicity must, of course, be based on performance. Your business needs to be doing the things that you are saying it does. For example, if you have introduced meaningful environmentally friendly practices in your business, your story will be credible. But if you aren’t, then it’s merely greenwash. A publicist with a track record will help ensure that your messages are fact-based and believable.

3   Calling reporters and editors on the phone is as enjoyable as calling a close business associate. False

Business people are comfortable dealing with customers and suppliers. Some may find it interesting to contact the media but sometimes things can become difficult when there is suspicion about advertising dressed up as news. A seasoned publicist, often having spent time as a reporter in a newsroom, can act as a bridge between both worlds, business and the media. When difficult questions are asked or things get tricky, a publicist acts as an intermediary, diplomatically handling issues that would otherwise lead to negative publicity.

4   The Internet means I can quickly know how publicity works, how to handle media interviews and run my own publicity campaigns. False

The Internet has made it possible for small business owners to generate their own publicity. Press release templates abound, some websites even offer DIY templates where you simply type in your information and you instantly can generate a press release ready to send out. Press release distribution services send out bulk releases instantaneously. A professional publicist can help you target your message, prepare you for difficult interviews and conceptualise campaigns customised for various types of media.

 5   I do basic publicity myself but need help from a publicist who has knowledge in a specialized area.

 For simple public relations work such as a news release or brief on a store milestone, customer event or achievement, business owners can mostly handle their public relations needs. But when your business needs to target a specialized market, a new industry or more sophisticated customer segment, a publicist with experience communicating to these audiences would be of great value. Their knowledge is available straight away for your business instead of you needing to acquire it over a long period through trial and error.

Knowing when to cross over from DIY publicity to using a publicist is key for small business owners who wish to advance their strategies for gaining and holding an audience’s attention. Building credibility and authority involves much planning, conceptualizing, implementing and trouble shooting. A publicist with a track record can help businesses get up to speed in writing effective news releases, positioning their business, products and services, producing newsletters, media kits, fact sheets, presentations and speeches that will generate publicity. They can also provide opportunities through their contacts for valuable media exposure.

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Generate publicity without breaking the bank

Recent reports reveal that small business closures are up dramatically. Publicity plays a vital role in gaining the right sort of attention for your business to keep existing customers and win over new ones.

Winning the attention of customers and prospective customers is one of the more important priorities as small businesses fight for survival in these difficult economic times. Publicity helps businesses get noticed without forking out a lot of money. Though the attractive thing about publicity is that you don’t need to invest a lot of marketing cash to get results, you need to invest your time. Doing publicity yourself involves thinking about your strategy, coming up with unusual ideas that fit your business and implementing them with consistent follow-through.

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