This week’s update from Jenn and Nicole:
Public Persona Marketing:
- Created a bi-weekly newsletter that gives business advice, marketing tips, cool finds and profiles of our clients. This e-newsletter is then sent out to press, consumers and boutiques, and other businesses creating exposure for both ourselves and our clients. Our first newsletter will be sent out tomorrow (1/22/08).
- Created “All-inclusive” Media Kit. The all-inclusive retainer allows clients to allocate hours differently each month between our three departments – PR, marketing and design – based on their particular needs for that month. This week we started sending the media kit out to potential clients. In the media kit, we also included an offer for a free website design or corporate identity and materials for signing on.
- We created a “New Business Start Up Package” promotion and will start sending out next week. We have created the emailable materials for this promotion, but won’t be aggressive about sending them out since there’s far fewer new businesses popping up right now. We feel our time is better invested in targeting existing business with our all-inclusive retainer package.
- We created a referral promotion for our existing retail clients. The offers would give our retail clients six months of free email marketing (our e-ditorials) if they refer a designer for PR services and the designers signs a minimum of a six month contract.
- We sent out a promotion for our e-ditorials. Interested retailers would receive a reduced rate plus the seventh month free.
- We followed up with some potential clients that we had originally met with a while ago, but didn’t seem to go anywhere. We have a couple interested (see results below.)
Results
- From the “all-inclusive” retainer package we’ve sent out thus far, we have secured one appoint with a fashion designer for next week!
- After following up with several previous potential clients, we have one meeting this Friday and one next week (both designers as well.) For another company that has been stalling on making any decisions on PR/Marketing, we offered some added value to entice them. They sounded interested are we are waiting to hear back from them.
- From the e-ditorials promotion, we signed on three new clients – two retailers and one corporate business. The corporate business is actually a business advisor for retailers and she has already referred us one of her clients for web design! She thinks she has many more clients that would be interested in our services!!
Moving Forward
- Pitch members of our team for personal press. Haven’t started on this one. More towards the bottom of our priority list, but we are going to start in the next couple of weeks.
- Network, network, network! We’ve been bad about this one because we’ve been so busy, but next week we are going to work on mapping out a schedule with interesting events in the area that we would like to attend and that we think would be beneficial to us. We also talked about making each person responsible for finding one event per month that sounds interesting to them and we will all attend.
- Continue targeting new companies with our “all-inclusive” retainer package
My two cents:
Wow! What a week! Sounds like you are making amazing progress! I hope that next time you’ll share with us what is working (and not working, if anything) in implementing your plan.
I think your package ideas are great and will be particularly attractive to prospects in the current economic climate. Also, I understand your reasoning about fewer businesses starting up, however, there are many emerging businesses that, while not literally new, have owners who consider them start-ups because they haven’t reached the point where they’re really working yet. If you can provide a compelling solution to those prospects, they may be promotable.
Do you have any questions for or thoughts to offer Jenn and Nicole?
P.S. I’m competing in the Start-Up Nation/Ladies Who Launch “Leading Moms in Business Contest.” If my blog has been helpful, enjoyable or inspiring to you, would you please take a second and cast your vote? Just click here. Thanks so much for your support! Roberta
