A New Publication For New London

A New Publication To Promote New London

     Here is another idea I have been developing, which I believe may develop into an instrument of great value and effectiveness for the economic community of New London.

     A new publication will concentrate on telling the story of life in New London. Titled New London Lifestyles,  this publication will combine both print and online versions to present an in-depth view of life in the city, looking back at the historical, up close at current stories, and ahead to forward trends. The aim of this publication is to provide an effective platform for the promotion of New London as a place to live, visit, work, and do business. In model and format, NLL enters and mines in unique ways the new landscspe                 

More Thoughts On A New London Feature Page

     In a number of previous postings, I have floated the idea of creating a new page or section in the Resident featuring stories and advertising exclusively about New London. My belief is that this will have have a multiplying effect on each businesse's advertising by building more traffic into town, creating potential carry over between businesses (synergy). It is also possible for a number of businesses to combine forces by sponsoring an ad for, say, the Garde's winter schedule, with actual contact information included for the sponsoring businesses. There are many ways this may be approached, including an "advetorial" format where a combined ad is presented in an editorial format. 

      The point is to promote New London as another place for people to spend their money during the holiday season. I also intend to pursue this format going forward, tied to holidays and special events.

     Another development of this concept will be a publication, probably combining print and online, with a target market in the New London area, extending into the neighboring towns. This would be aimed at businesses whose primary market is in the more immediate area (which is realisticaly most businesses). The cost would be considerably lower given the lower cost of less copies and higher online content. In reality, though, it is still necessary to use traditional media to augment digital media.  

     Finally, a quick note on why the Resident is such an effective marketing asset. There are two kinds of marketing, in essence; interruption marketing and permission marketing. Interruption marketing is when a commercial interrupts your favorite program, or a free flier or newspaper appears in your mailbox and must be dealt with. Permission marketing is when a potential customer picks up a flier, coupon, or free copy of the Resident at a coffee shop and reads the contents as a matter of choice. The Resident in fact draws people in with its content and editing, with an editorial slant towards positive stories and interesting people. The proof of its success is that many advertisers have appear in every issue, some for more than twenty years straight. People are more receptive to offers when they have given you their permission to make the offer.

     There are of course many things that can and must be done to promote business in this city; in upcoming postings I will begin to lay out some more ideas for effective ways to bring more traffic and revenue into the city on a continuing basis.

     

Marketing: Expense Or Investment?

     Business owners are naturally conscious of expenses; they are in a constant battle to keep more money coming in than going out, and the expense of advertising and promotional work can seem very high to them. This is especially true when marketing is not cost effective, a point heightened by our present economic situation. Many business owners are simply hoping to ride out the storm until things get better and customers are once again plentiful.

     But waiting for customers, even in boom times, is never a viable strategy. Complacency will see customers go elsewhere regardless of the economy, which has been part of New London's problem for many years. In our present stagnant economy, it is necessary to do more in order to capture a large enough piece of what markets are out there to sustain your business and be part of the eventual recovery that will come in time.

     Marketing, then, is an investment; like all investments, a return is needed to keep the investment viable. This requires testing of marketing venues and campaigns, with the understanding that some will work and others will not. In time a clear picture of who your customers are, and how best to reach them, will emerge. This is never a finished process, but there will eventually be less dead ends and more clear paths to customer loyalty.

     The mistake most small business owners make is, spending money on advertising for a short period of time and, seeing no appreciable results, terminating the ads and hoping for the best. The truth is, all forms of marketing require consistency for a long period of time, and every business must have many outlets for their marketing efforts to reach their target market. Businesses which rely on a small number of resources put themselves at great risk of not having sufficient customers or cash flow to stay in business. As with any investment, the process must be finished for the results to be seen.
     This does not mean that vast amounts of money need to be spent on marketing; investing time and sweat (which are in greater supply in these times) is also a viable part of the process. Working the internet and social media is a good way to find customers (though in truth this can be a very laborious process at times).Looking for ways to leverage dollars through marketing collaborations with other businesses always makes sense, which I will address in a number of forms in future posts.
     A final word; one would not abandon a half built house or new shop, unless an unforeseen disaster forced such an outcome. Neither should your marketing efforts be abandoned in mid-stream, though modifications are likely to be needed. Building on any success is critical, and the most critical point about all marketing is: 60 to 70% of your marketing should be directed at your current customers. They are the payoff for the investment you have made in your business and your marketing plan; they are the main asset of your business that needs to be nurtured.  

      

Building Traffic. Marketing For The Holidays

     In the last post I presented a proposal to do a special holiday insert in the Resident newspaper for New London businesses. This is a concept that I have been considering for some time now, for the following reasons.
      A single business advertising and otherwise promoting itself will draw customers into the city for one reason: to visit their business.
     Multiple businesses advertising in a dedicated section will give potential customers several reasons to come to the city. This will multiply the effect of each ad, bringing in more traffic over a period of time, which is exactly what the city's business and economic centers need.
     This is further leveraged by the addition of editorial content reporting on the attractions in New London  and other positive stories. The format I would prefer would be one of businesses sponsoring stories about the city. It is also possible to use the "advetorial" format, paid ads which are formatted like editorial stories.
     I believe that this kind of organized marketing will create the tangible synergies needed to bring the increased traffic and activity that New London's economy requires.
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     The other reason for making this proposal at this time is the fact that the holiday season (November and December) represents some 19.3% of all retail industry sales (for some, the number is 40%). The last quarter of the year also generates 27% of restaurant business nationally. My perception of New London is that the city does not take in it's share of this business, holding to the notion that New London is a summer town (Mystic and Essex are summer towns; they are holiday towns as well.) In 2011, on Christmas Eve day, I stood talking to a friend on State Street; we were the only people on State Street. In Old Saybrook, you cannot stand on a main sidewalk on Christmas Eve day without getting run over. 
     I don't believe the city can continue to concede a share of the $600 billion dollars that will be spent at retail, discount, and grocery stores during this holiday season.

      

Holiday Promotion for New London

A Holiday Promotion for New London

     In this post I want to pass along a brief proposal aimed at promoting New London's local businesses during the upcoming holidays. This is an idea I have been kicking around for some time, which with some coordination should help bring in more holiday traffic and business to the city (which by all appearances has been an under utilized opportunity for some years now.)

      As most of you are aware, I have been working with the Resident newspaper for about 18 months now, doing feature articles and ad sales. This paper has a strong circulation along the extended shoreline, distributing 30,000 copies which are read by some 200,000 people. For businesses which draw customers from outside of New London, the Resident is an effective way to reach their current and potential customer base.

      For the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, I would like to see a special, all-color section featuring New London stories and businesses.This would be a two or four page insert, with positive stories about the city, sponsored by local business advertising. I believe that this would be a cost effective way to increase traffic and sales for businesses and non-profits throughout the holiday season. 

     At this point I am doing a preliminary "head count" to see what level of interest there is in doing this special section. There would need to be a minimum amount of sponsorship to make it work, which would have the added benefit of giving people multiple reasons to come into the city to shop. If this is something you would like to pursue, please contact me and we can set up a time to discuss the details. I may be reached at:

jonpersson7@gmail.com

or

860-857-2687

  

Timing and Follow Up

Maximizing the Effect of Media Relations

     This next posting is easy to write, sounds easy to do, and makes perfect sense; in reality, carrying these things out requires planning, diligence, and consistency. 

     First, the timing of press releases and media events is critical, in order to have time-sensitive information hit the public eye in a coordinated and effective manner. It is also important to give editors time to get your release into their news flow. These days, news outlets have the advantages of technology to theoretically shorten lead time requirements, but they are all working with too few people to cover all the news effectively. Also, breaking news stories will naturally bump press releases out of the loop due to time and space constraints. 

     Conversely, this is precisely why well written press releases can get published; being able to fill space with a good, short story of interest to an audience, without taking reporters and photographers off of more pressing stories, is always helpful to editors. 

     You must also consider the different lead times of different publications: newspapers require a few days, magazines at least two weeks, usually more. Thus, press work needs to be tailored to the media contacted, which may be approached as follows;

     1) For events, such as opening a new business, adding a significant new product line, etc., a pre-event press release inviting press attendance at the event should be sent out weeks before the event, with follow up releases a few days before the event. Ideally, you will get a follow up from some publications, asking more questions about the event; some attendance, which can lead to an independent story with photos; and the publishing of your press release in time to draw people to your event. Pre-event press releases  should go to all levels of media, even though magazines probably won't publish them (they may post them on their website and other digital media, though).

     It is a good idea to ascertain the preferred lead time of important media outlets, and to set up a marketing calendar to keep media work in the pipeline in a timely manner.

     2) Follow-up to events is of critical importance. Have a general outline of your planned event beforehand, and add to it based on how the event actually unfolds. Take some good digital photos of the important people and moments. From this, write a follow up press release to send out to all media outlets, with the aim of getting coverage of the event. The most important point is to get your operation into the greatest number of publications possible, to help draw customers in greater numbers and frequency. 

     And, have copies of your original press release, plus any expanded details regarding your enterprise, your self, your key people, what the organization does and for whom, and any additional info about the subject of your original release (i.e., a media package). This is the discipline and diligence part, but it is important as reporters will draw heavily on this package as a way of confirming the accuracy of their final report. 

     3) More follow up: Any press and media work, and any marketing literature, should refer people to your website or other online and digital assets. Make sure that these are up to date, and contain information about the subject of your press release. Marketing is largely about reinforcing your image and presence in people's minds, and connecting on a personal level with people who will become your regular clients.  The subject of keeping websites is an interesting one; I have noticed that business people become rather defensive at the suggestion that their websites are not up to date (myself included) I have some thoughts on how to minimize the work while maximizing the effect of websites, which will come at a later posting.

     4) Media works regarding new products, a new service, or anything which is not time sensitive, obviously have a less urgent time frame for publicizing and getting published. Here, a "roll-out" press release may be used, in which the unveiling of the product or service is reported as a news story about an event which has already happened. This should of course be preceded by a pre roll out release aimed at getting more immediate press coverage of the event.

     5) Finally, monitor the publications contacted as much as possible to see how they respond to your press release, how they follow up, if they publish it. These days some publications will simply have their advertising department contact you, which you need to consider with caution; a good publication wants advertisers who will be repeat customers, and so will only contact you if they think your business is a good fit with their demographic. But, others will simply see you as a possible ad sale, so be prudent in your decision making. 

     And, keep at least a simple record of how many calls and sales you get from those publications which do cover your story. This will give you some solid direction towards which media outlets will be most worthwhile for your business or non-profit to advertise in.

      

       

Media Relations and Developing a Marketing Strategy

     In the previous posting we began a discussion of the effective ways to use media relations to uncover the core market and media resources which will help draw customers to your business. Media relations, or the use of press releases, press events and announcements, and such, were touched upon as cost effective ways to begin this process. 

     This is due in part to the fact that editors and publishers of media have a very good idea of what their audience is looking for, and so will respond positively to stories that will be of interest to their readers.That said, it should be noted that media of all kinds and at all levels are not as open to publishing press releases as they once were; the media industry as a whole is also strapped for paying customers (advertisers) and is loathe to offend their advertisers with stories about businesses and non-profits which compete with their paying customers. The wall between advertising and editorial departments is in many cases not as clearly defined as once it was, especially in publications which are not in the hard news reporting business.

     For this reason, it is important that press releases and follow up packages contain something that will be effective at helping the media resource attract readers and viewers, sell copies and advertising. There is thus a level of de facto collaboration between the writers and publishers of press releases, both parties wanting to attract readers who will in turn lead to respective and ideally repeating sales. 

     From the publishers perspective, especially well written press releases are a plus, as they become the basis of editorial copy which requires minimal input (and cost) on the publisher's part. I have sent out press releases to fairly extensive numbers of publications which in fact published the release, with it's photos and in its entirety, with no changes at all to the text; a self-directed message to potential clients repeated word for word to a multitude of readerships. 

     Now, to get to the nuts and bolts of writing good press releases. Press releases must have an element of newsworthiness to get editors to publish them. Simply publicizing a sale at your business won't get you much ink; donating a portion of one day's profits to charity, or announcing an expansion that will add new jobs, is more likely to get published. Marketing requires a planned, coordinated effort, which we will get into a bit further on. In general, informing people of activity that will be of benefit and interest to an audience served by the publication will catch the editors eye.

     Editors are also interested in the people behind an enterprise, especially if they have a special talent or intriguing story. Bringing new people of exceptional talent or experience into an enterprise will also warrant at least a short mention. But generally, one needs an out of the ordinary story, which falls inside the "news" and not entirely under the "advertising" category, to gain coverage.

     A good press release should be concise and to the point, with the gist of the story contained in the title and first paragraph. The real art of good reporting is to get the attention of the reader in the first line, and then hold their attention until they fully grasp, remember, and act on the piece. With press releases and other media work, one must first accomplish this with the filtering editors, and then with the targeted, buying audience. Practical experience is always desirable; and, it is certainly acceptable to send follow-up information carrying the same basic message in a modified form, as a process designed to find the right combination that will lead to publication.

     Ideally, a release will contain all of the essential information in a single page. After establishing the fundamental information, subsequent paragraphs should fill in the essential details, including the all important contact info, website, address, etc.

     There should also be a header before the body of the release giving contact information and names of contact people. This allows the receiving editor to contact you for more information or, in a best of all worlds response, to do a full article on your business or non-profit.

     Include good quality photos of the subject, principle people, etc. Photos draw attention in publications; if the photos are interesting enough, they will carry your release to publication, even if only the photo and a brief caption are used. Be sure to include your own caption, with names of any people and descriptions of any objecs. The smoother the path is set out for editors, the better your chance of coverage.

     In the next posting, I will address the issues of timing for press releases, and the need and value of  having follow up and supporting media to leverage the coverage you receive. Also, it is important to keep track of where your press release does get published, and of any response you get to these publications. Remember, the dual purpose of sending out press releases are 1) to promote and publicize your enterprise and 2) to determine which media resources are likely to be most cost effective at drawing in customers with paid advertising.