How To Speak Marketing

We’ve all been in THOSE meetings where you have either brought in a third party consultant to help out with growing the business through marketing – and they just don’t get you – or perhaps it’s an eager co-worker who likes to show off their wide-ranging vocabulary. It’s the dreaded marketing jargon showdown. The person using the verbiage carelessly goes on and on, when in reality others in the meeting are still back at “hello.”

A while back, we talked about a few trendy marketing and PR buzzwords that get thrown around a lot when it comes to building a strategy, but what about those nitty gritty terms that have been around for a long time, and will probably stick around?

The most important thing to remember is that no one should feel inferior if they don’t know what these terms mean. PERIOD. It’s probably best to stop the speaker and ask them to clarify, because chances are someone else has the same question (an old adage that has stuck with me as I get older).

Here are a few marketing terms to brush up on before your next meeting!

B2B: Business to Business (B2B) means selling your product or services to other businesses.

B2C: Business to Consumer (B2C) means selling your product or services to the end-user consumers.

Brand loyalty: When a customer keeps coming back to the same brand over and over again in spite of other competitors on the market.

Call-to-action: What you are asking your audience to do (ie. Share a post, like a post, tell your friends, etc.). You should always include a call to action in your outgoing messaging.

CASL: Canadian Anti-Spam Laws were introduced in 2014 to protect people’s email inboxes. In short, you can’t send marketing communications via email unless the receiver has opted in to your list.

Clutter: Similar to when your desk is messy and you can’t find anything, clutter in marketing, or noise, refers to the amount of other marketing messages you have to break through. There are a lot of brands trying to reach customers on a daily basis, and the challenge is to cut through all of that so you get noticed.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): CRM is a system for managing customer and potential customer interactions on a daily basis.

First-Mover Advantage: Being the first to introduce a product into a new market. This allows you to capture a higher market share.

Going Viral: When your message spreads quickly via the internet or other channels. Contrary to what most people think, you can never really have full control over whether your video or message will go viral as it completely depends on how it is received. However, you can coax it along by getting to know what your target audience likes.

Integrated Strategy: Creating an overall strategy that takes into account both traditional and non-traditional (AKA digital) channels to reach the target audience and achieve the overall business goals.

Niche Market: A niche is a subsection of a larger whole. In marketing it’s when you choose to target your efforts to a smaller group with the goal of gaining higher brand loyalty than if you tried to appeal to a larger group.

Personalization: The ultimate form of targeted marketing where a brand creates messages and other content for each individual.

Ubiquity: This can be used in everyday life (and we encourage it…), but in marketing it means that you are trying to be all things to all people. For example, if you are a luxury brand, you are also trying to appeal to the masses, which could affect your brand’s status.

There are many more terms that could be added to this list, but these are the common ones. You should never get bogged down with the lingo. Keep your strategy discussions simple and based on idea generation, while using these terms to highlight the conversation.

What kind of marketing is best for you?

The world of marketing can get confusing. With all of the buzzwords flying around, and more being added on a daily basis, just deciding on an overall strategy for your business can seem complicated – but it doesn’t have to be. The important thing to realize is that a lot of the terms or types of marketing you are hearing actually overlap each other.

The takeaway from this overlap is that you should approach your marketing strategy in the same way. These overlapping tactics fit together to create an integrated marketing strategy that is designed to tell your brand story while building awareness. In most cases, businesses will look at how a strategy affects the bottom line at the end of it all, but we all need to be realistic about how we get there and how much time it will take to build your business. While it will take some time to build using a marketing strategy, your business won’t grow at all unless you are telling your story.

Let’s talk a bit about how you can decide what kind of marketing types are best for you.

The first order of business is to decide who your customers are. Are you selling to other businesses (business to business or B2B) or are you selling to consumers (business to consumer or B2C). Once you decide on that, your next route should be a bit of research to find out more about your target audience. What do they like, where do they get their information, how do they like to receive information, etc.

Once you know about your audience you can look to see what type of marketing you should focus on. Keep in mind that you can’t be all things to all people (especially if you are on a tight budget!). This means looking at your budget and deciding what is going to give you the best return on your investment.

Your focus should be on building a community of loyal followers for your brand. Here are the common marketing types you can choose from. Remember, this process isn’t meant to be quick! Take the time to really think about what is right for your brand.

Once you decide what marketing type is right for you and your target audience, it’s time to start building a great strategy. Don’t be afraid to have fun with it and push the boundaries of your comfort zone a bit!

Marketing Camapaigns: These are a few of our favourite things

Spring is in the air, so we thought we’d talk about some of our favourite things at the office… when it comes to marketing campaigns.

With all the great campaign ideas percolating in every industry, the challenge we have for all business owners and entrepreneurs is to think outside of the box. It’s important to not shut down an idea before it even gets started. Brainstorming is your friend!

If you seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut, personal experience shows that sometimes it benefits you more than you know to step away for a bit and then come back at a problem or strategy with fresh eyes.

Here are a few campaigns that have caught our eye over the past little while. Looking at what worked for others can help you to think about new ideas for your own strategy.

Depaul outdoor campaign (UK)

Playing with perspective and telling a story

This campaign, while visually very simple, manages to challenge the stereotypes surrounding homelessness. We should all try to see the world differently.

Image Source: The Drum

TNT: “Push to Add Drama (Belgium)

Intrigue and surprise

Yeah, I know this one isn’t really new, but it still amuses every time. While this campaign was big budget, there are ways to use teasers and surprise elements in even the smallest campaigns. You just have to get creative with it. We liked this one because who doesn’t love a bit of drama! Plus, I know I would have pushed the button because curiosity would have gotten the better of me.

Dove: Any of the Real Beauty Campaign tactics… but this is the latest

Emotional/personal connection

The latest video from the Real Beauty campaign again shows how women are quite hard on themselves, and how for some reason we put beauty on this imaginary unattainable pedestal. How can you not love a campaign that is designed to help people feel better about themselves?

It’s all about making an emotional connection with your audience. As brands we can all do this — there is no shame in feeling a little emotion.

There are hundreds of campaigns that could have been posted here, do you have any favourites?

4 Things Your Mom Taught You About Business (And You Didn’t Know It)

Disclaimer: This isn’t a weird and twisted “your mom” joke. If you were looking for that, try here. Although, we don’t in any way condone jokes about moms… They’re kind of mean, and most of the time she’s not there to defend herself.

Growing up there were so many times that we got annoyed with our parents, however, so much of what they said actually applies quite nicely when it comes to business and entrepreneurship.

#1: Play nice in the sandbox

Just like your parents told you to “play nice in the sandbox” you need to do the same in business. No sense creating drama, there are enough pails and shovels to go around that one person doesn’t have to have all of them. You can’t even use all of them at once! A recent article in Marketing Magazine talked about Twitter Canada’s Kirstine Stewart and her approach to competition. In her words, competitors should “Collaborate or die alone.” There is enough market share to go around.

Similarly, if you embrace a spirit of entrepreneurship, even in a larger organization, you will find the business world a more supportive and exciting place. It fosters creativity and innovative thinking.

#2: It’s not always going to come easy, but don’t give up

I was at a Women in Leadership Association event recently, and one of the speakers, Stephanie MacKendrick, President of MacKendrick & Associates International, said that women need to be “comfortable with being uncomfortable.” I would go so far as to say that this should be about everyone. It has nothing to do with gender. In business, sometimes, you need to push yourself past the boundaries of your comfort zone so you can get to success.

#3: Get back on the horse, but do it differently

This one can be the toughest to follow through on. Once you make a mistake, more often than not there are no take-backsies. What will set you apart from the rest is how you deal with the aftermath. Own your mistake and try again. However, if you just try to do the same thing over and over, life is going to be rough for you because you are going to make the same mistake over and over. Find a new way to approach whatever situation you’re dealing with. For example, If your first social media contest was a flop and you only had 2 entries (your mom was one of them), take a look at what went wrong and change it up for next time.

#4: Don’t grow up too fast

How many times have you heard parents talking about how fast their kids grow up, or saying to their kids that they wish they would stop trying to act older than they are? The same goes for start-ups and small businesses. It’s important to hit all of your growth milestones for a number of reasons. First, you want to make sure that what you are doing is scalable; if there are any issues, it’s easier to catch them before it becomes a problem. You also want to make sure that you don’t burn yourself out. Growing too fast without the proper processes and staffing in place can be tough.

As I was thinking about what to write this week, I actually slurped up the last bite of my red Jello and giggled out loud. Let your inner child out in your marketing and business planning. Kids have so much fun and they aren’t really restricted by all of the politics and responsibilities that adults are plagued with. Let your mind go to the craziest idea that you can think of and see if it’s a viable option. You might be surprised.

Shallow Marketing Should Be One of the 7 Deadly Sins

Have you looked at your latest marketing efforts? Really looked? Was it something you just pulled together out of necessity, but it hasn’t really had a lasting impact because you didn’t take into account the overall business strategy? You want to make sure that you don’t look at your marketing strategy as existing in a vacuum. It has to be rooted much deeper than the surface of your business, otherwise it won’t stand up the business you’ve built.

Are you too focused on the packaging?

We’re currently redoing our website (stay tuned for more on that!) and I have been pouring so much brain power into what it will look like (really excessively). Instead, I should be focusing on what the website has to say and how user-friendly it is. Can people find us easily (SEO)? Can they find what they need on the site? Does it showcase our brand personality? Those are all questions that can be answered through great, refreshed content. You might have a great-looking site, but what happens when potential customers read your content?

It’s like when you meet someone who is really good-looking, but then they start talking and it turns out they are actually a terrible person. What you have to say as a brand and how you say it really does matter.

Are you focusing your budget on the wrong things and then finding that you are nickel and diming everywhere else?

It’s so easy to get caught up in the nitty gritty details, which means you are probably spending a lot of time and money in those areas when you might not need to. Do you really need to get a new professional headshot? Unless you look incredibly different (ie. Full head of hair vs. none left), then the answer is no. Hire a professional photographer instead at your next event to capture some great shots you may not have thought of to use in a promotional section on your website. Or perhaps not hiring someone to do your headshot means you can better afford to have an event period – maybe it’s a customer appreciation event that will drive business growth.

You need to keep your marketing spend thought process at a higher level. You have to take everything into account, not just that one little detail. If you are having trouble keeping on track, it could be a great investment to hire a third party consultant to help build your strategy, perhaps even to help implement it.

Are you unique?

We get so caught up in thinking that unique means we have to spend a lot of money on bigger and better, but that’s not the case. There are small start-ups that are more unique than some of the bigger guys. And you will find that those unique start-ups will grow faster and remain steadily in the growth phase longer (as long as they stay true to themselves), whereas the larger companies who play it safe or don’t connect with their customer base in a memorable way will plateau.

You can be unique if you inject a bit of personality into your brand and the campaigns you set out to do, whether grassroots or big and glitzy.

When was the last time you spoke to your customers?

You would be nowhere without customers, whether you are a company that sells to consumers or to businesses. The best thing you can do is find out what your customers want. If you are just starting out and have no customers yet, do your research and find out what your target audience likes. What’s the point of marketing at all if you aren’t going to grow your business through it? It’s better to target your efforts and tailor the strategy to reach your target audience than try to reach everyone. You can’t be all things to all people – your message will be watered down.

Make sure your marketing strategies are deeply rooted in the foundations of your business strategy, otherwise, your marketing efforts will only be skin deep, and you might be missing the point.

How deep does your marketing go?

Marketing: Can you afford not to do it?

At one point or another, every entrepreneur has looked at their budget and felt that “something’s gotta go.” More often than not, they look at the price tag to get a great marketing campaign off the ground and think one of three things:

1. It’s way too expensive for marketing. I am just going to start operating and see what happens.
2. Hiring someone is expensive. I can definitely do this by myself to cut costs.
3. I’m going to go ahead with the investment.

Let’s have a look at all three schools of thought.

#1: Waiting on the magic

After taking the time to build a business concept, you’re just going to sit back and hope the masses come to you? You’re going to entrust your business success to a wing and a prayer attitude?

This could be compared to musicians who keep saying over and over that they just want to be discovered and become famous, but they don’t really put themselves out there. Inevitably, they don’t get discovered because absolutely no one knows they exist and then they just complain about lack of opportunities for them that others had.

Newsflash. For most people, success does not come easy. It takes hard work and dedication. But it also takes a bit of storytelling magic. You need to put your brand story out there so your target audience can find you and learn about you.

And it’s ok to strive for organic growth instead of explosive growth. No one can knock growing organically. For many entrepreneurs, accelerated growth can be overwhelming, and, while it likely means higher revenues, burnout from understaffing and lack of scalable processes can lead to disaster.

While marketing can be done on a budget, you will likely have to put some resources into your strategy.

#2: Lone cost-cutting ranger

While noble, for many business owners, there is enough to do without having to worry about posting to Twitter 3 – 10 times per day, or how you are going to get through to that editor or producer so they can showcase your product. Working with an agency that you trust will ensure that your story is being told in the best possible way.

If you have spoken to an agency and you still really feel that it’s not in the budget to do a full implementation, rather than shut down the idea and say that you will just do it (knowing full-well procrastination will set in), just talk to them about what your budget is and see what you can accomplish. A good agency/consultant will be able to offer options to you such as partial implementation for selected tactics or even setting you up with a strategy and coaching so you can implement internally.

Bringing someone in to put together a strategy for you could open your eyes to opportunities that you maybe hadn’t thought of. It’s also a great way to fully develop your brand story with someone who is objective.

#3: Diving in

If you see the value of getting your story out there, the question is how much do you do. If you have done proper forecasting in your business planning, then you could take a percentage of what you expect to make in the first year as your launch budget. If you are just looking to refresh your current marketing, the same principal applies. What percentage? Well, that depends on your industry and where you’re at in your journey. You are going to have to do a bit of research, but it shouldn’t take you long to find a ballpark figure.

Once you have determined your budget, you need to realize that there is no cutting corners. For example, if you use a really bad printer with bad reviews to print your marketing materials because they are cheap, you will get what you pay for. Here is where a third party consultant can help to point you in the right direction. Whether you bring them on for coaching on an hourly basis or they are going to run your strategy development and implementation so you don’t have to worry, it’s important to get to know who you’re working with so there is a high level of trust and communication. You want them to love your brand as much as you do.

Obviously, those in the last camp will be the ones who find their companies will grow. You aren’t going anywhere if you aren’t telling your story to someone. Who’s telling your story?

Brand Success: How To Have a Killer Content Strategy

By now, if you haven’t heard the term “content strategy” then you should step out of the shadows and into the light. Loosely defined, content strategy refers to planning, developing, and managing content. Simple right?

I can’t stress enough how important a killer content strategy will be for your marketing outreach. Not only will it help you become more efficient as a business, but it will also help you to define your brand story.

A quick Google search will pull up endless tools and advice to sift through. The reality is, content planning will be different for everyone because we all think differently. The trick is finding what works well for you and sticking to it. Regular audits of your strategy will tell you if you need to tweak something that’s not getting you the results you want.

Here are a few tips to get you to great when it comes to your content strategy:

1. Take the time to develop your brand: How will you know what to say if you don’t know who you are as a brand? Whether you are an expert building your profile within social media and traditional media, or you are a large corporation, you need to be careful what messaging you put out there.
2. Identify your goals: Before forging ahead, you need to know what you want to achieve. This will help you in the planning and development of content. Don’t just talk about them; write them down. This way you can revisit them to make sure you are on track.
3. It’s all about your audience: By now I sound like a broken record saying this. Working with clients on a daily basis, this is always our first point of reference. What’s the point of creating content to put out there if no one will care to read it? Find out what your audience needs/wants before embarking on the content journey.
4. Integrate all channels into your strategy: This is all about developing content that can be shared across multiple channels, but it’s also about ensuring your content marketing is all linked, whether it’s by theme, message, visuals, etc. For example, if you have a blog, a newsletter, and multiple social media channels, then you would need to make sure all of your great content is being leveraged across channels, but not necessarily duplicated. Your audiences one different channels may have different needs. Also give them incentive to follow you on multiple channels.
5. Content strategy is the basis for social media outreach: Let’s get real for a second. Think of all the times when you said something where you “put your foot in your mouth…” Long list? Short list? Well, regardless, generally when people say things they regret, or that make them look foolish, they are not well-thought out – you winged it and it didn’t come out like you thought it would. Either that, or maybe there have been times where you really don’t know what to say. Flying by the seat of your pants on social media is just as bad. It becomes really easy to go off the rails. Planning first, then execution. Social media is a tool to help you get your message out faster.

Public Stunts and Events: 7 Things You Need To Know For Planning

By now, we’ve all seen the greatly elaborate stunts from major brands like WestJet and their Spirit of Giving campaign (I tear up every time…), Coca-cola and their countless Share happiness stunts (Always a favourite!), and we can’t forget the prankvertising that has really just gone off the rails with Pepsi and race car drivers to LG and the end of the world.

The challenge is how do you tap into that type of success for your own brand, even if you don’t have the big brand budget?

Here are a few things to remember when you are considering a public stunt as a part of your marketing strategy.

#1: What’s the purpose? Before you even consider discussing your concept, make sure you can answer “why are we doing this?” Just doing a public stunt or event for the sake of doing it because you think it’s cool could mean that you will waste a huge chunk of your marketing budget on something that isn’t going to get you anywhere. For example, if you are a corporate law firm looking to get new clients, you wouldn’t throw a flash mob at the mall (sometimes an exaggerated example gets the point across). Here is where you will set your goals to determine what you want to achieve with this tactic.

#2: Decide on a budget. This is going to determine what you will be able to do for your concept. Amazing public stunts and events can be executed at all budget levels, so don’t feel you have to break your marketing budget for one tactic. It’s also important to take into account that your budget will be the first thing to slide, so you need to stay on top of it. Keep a spreadsheet of all costs and regularly go over everything with your team to make sure you are on track.

#3: Come up with a creative concept. Once you have a purpose and goals, it’s time to come up with a concept. What are you going to do to achieve your goals? It’s great to have a look at what some other companies have done, but it’s also important that you make it your own. The last thing you want is the media or your audience online talking about how you copied someone else’s idea. Equally important, your idea should fit your brand identity. You want people to immediately associate the stunt with your brand when they discuss it with their friends. Unless you have the brand awareness of, say Pepsi (and the budget to go along with it), you are going to need to do some legwork to make the connection, so make it easy for yourself.

#4: Research the date. How many times have you heard, “oh, I would come but I have another event to go to…” Or have you said that to someone else. It’s important that you do your research before setting a date. You could be planning something big for the same weekend as something else, like a festival or key industry event. Don’t set off on the wrong foot by putting yourself in competition with another event or attraction. Granted, things will come up, but, you should know what’s happening anyhow.

#5: Make a project game plan. Once you know the date of your event, you need to come up with a game plan. This means making a list of everything that has to be done to ensure the success of your stunt – will you have food, refreshments, entertainment, signage, etc. After you have made your list, work backwards from the date you have chosen to create a realistic timeline for when everything will need to get done. Remember that things often take longer than you would expect, and you should always give yourself a buffer time zone. Scheduling things to take place down to the wire is always tough, both on you as well as the vendors you have chosen.

#6: Consider a weather contingency. This is so often overlooked. If you are having an outdoor event, what happens if it rains? If you are having a winter event, what happens if there is a snowstorm? You should be prepared for everything, even if it means having a tent rental company’s number programmed into your phone for a last minute rental!

#7: What’s next? Your public stunt or event shouldn’t happen in a vacuum. You should look at your marketing strategy as a whole and when it comes to this particular tactic, you need a follow up strategy, whether it’s putting together a video from the big day, following up with media, or following up with attendees, it needs to tie in to everything.

Media Relations: What to do if you can’t get coverage

Before the holidays we talked about why the media may not be interested in your story. Maybe your story really is great, and you’re doing everything you should be doing down to the right timing and media targeting. If you look at it from the perspective of the journalist, they receive sometimes hundreds of pitches every day. Despite how hard you try, your email or Twitter pitch may get lost in the shuffle.

An accomplished and well-respected journalist once told me that sometimes you need to find ways around the media, especially if we look at how much things have shifted to social and online. This is exactly how you would handle this situation.

Here are a few ways to get your story out there when you just can’t get through to the media.

Amp up your content strategy.

I’m not living under a rock. I realize that content strategy and content marketing are buzzwords… However, they are practical buzzwords that you really can’t get away from. In business, cash is king, but in marketing, content is king.

Take a look at all of your content across channels. What kind of content are you putting out there? Is your great story laid out across all of your platforms? Do you have a blog? If you have a story that is so amazing, you likely have something to say. When was the last time you reviewed your e-Newsletter strategy, or your direct mail campaign?

It’s important to both keep your content fresh as well as put out a steady stream of content so you stay in view of your audience. If you do this for long enough, someone is bound to take notice. I have a client that got a call from a radio station because of an article he put out. If you have something to say, make sure you are capitalizing on all opportunities to say it!

Guest blog posts/bylined article placements.

Not ready for a full-fledged blog strategy for your business (you should really re-consider), or perhaps you have a strategy in place, but you just want to branch out? Try connecting with publications and key blogs of interest to see if it’s possible for you to write a guest post. This is a great way for you to get your name out there to reach a broader community. If you are afraid to reach out to editors or other blogs, consider LinkedIn publisher as a great place to start.

For more thoughts on this, check out this article!

Grow your social media community and empower your customers to share your story.

Photograph by George Marks

I know. This can be easier said than done. Here is where you have marketing managers and business owners saying that they want to run a viral marketing campaign. EVERYONE wants to run a viral marketing campaign. The stars aren’t always aligned for your campaign to take off on the internet, however, you can focus on reaching your immediate audience. If they feel connected to you as a brand, they will feel good about sharing your story for you. This will grow your audience through word of mouth (or stroke of key, tap of screen… you get it).

Your audience is your most valuable asset when it comes to marketing. If they like it, then you are doing something right!

Public stunt to increase impact.

Want to go big? You could plan a public stunt to get attention. Careful with this one though. It’s easy to run off the rails with budget on this if you are trying to compete with the big guys. That’s not to say it can’t be done. There are creative ways to think outside of the box but inside of the budget. It’s a matter of finding what will work best for you in terms of brand awareness and fit. I feel a blog coming on about public stunts, so check in next week to find out more!

Final thoughts.

The key is you need to think creatively when it comes to your strategy. If you start to look at your marketing efforts (including PR!) as a bigger picture rather than in silos, you can use multiple tactics to get your brand story out there.

In The Media: 10 Tips For Writing a Bylined Article

It’s one of the first requests I get from clients: “I want to be in the media.” Now, that can mean a lot of things. It can mean:

• You want your product featured in print or in a segment on TV or radio
• You would like to be quoted as an expert in an article from a journalist who is covering a topic that you know a lot about
• You would like to be featured as an expert on broadcast media
• You are doing some sort of public stunt or event and you would like live broadcast coverage
• You would like to publish a guest column, or bylined article

Let’s talk about the last one, what it takes to publish a bylined article. Here are a few tips you should be aware of if your goal is to have a bylined article published in the media (print or digital).

#1: Why do you want to be in the media and how does it fit within your overall marketing and PR strategy. What you have to say should positively affect either your company’s brand or your personal brand, or both. When executed properly, and not in a vacuum, a published bylined article can add a lot to your strategy when it comes to building awareness through credibility by establishing yourself and your brand as a leading expert in your field.

#2: Identify what you have to say and add value for the reader. This is key to making you and/or your company stand out. It’s time to pull from all that work you did when you identified your key differentiators in your business plan! Whether you are giving a list of tips or a problem/solution-based message, there should be key takeaways identified for your target audience, including quality data wherever possible.

#3: Identify your target publications. You should select target publications that you know your target audience will read. Make sure you familiarize yourself with their contributor policies (including how you can promote it after publication). You can usually find this on the website, or you can contact the editor.

#4: Know the audience. You should know the publication well enough to match the writing style while remaining in your own voice. For example, if you are writing for a business publication that is extremely factual and serious, you likely wouldn’t start your article off with a light-hearted joke.

#5: This is not a promotional piece. If your article is just a long-winded sales pitch, chances are it will be turned down. Take the opportunity to showcase your knowledge rather than what you do. It is more a “thought leadership” piece (full disclosure: that term is way overused, and I am using it only as a descriptor).

#6: Break up the text. Using subheadings or bulleted lists within the article will allow your readers to easily organize the information you are giving them. It’s also a great way to clarify the main points of your article.

#7: Design the perfect byline. This will depend on the publication, but if you can, include your website and contact information. If not, generally, you will be able to at least include your Twitter handle. Find a way to descriptively identify what it is you do and how you can add value for potential clients without being salesy.

#8: Don’t be boring. Yes, easier said than done. However, if you feel like you are watching paint dry when you are reading through your article, chances are your readers will also feel the same way. Make sure you add a bit of personality in there so readers can get a good sense of where you stand on the topic.

#9: Proofread. I can’t stress this enough. In fact, you should likely have someone else proofread it for you as well. An extra set of eyes never hurt anyone. You want to make sure you put your best foot forward when it comes to reaching out to media.

#10: Make sure you have a follow up game plan. Ok, so you’re published, now what? Yes, you can share it around, and you should, however, what are you going to do to build on this initial profile-building tactic that you have executed?

Bonus Tip: Use a third party. There is no shame in having someone help you out by drafting your byline articles. Sometimes, time constraints of business ownership get in the way, or perhaps writing really isn’t your strong-suit. The key is finding someone who takes the time to get to know you and how you tick, and someone who is not afraid to take the anonymous back seat to your success once the article gets high acclaim. After all, it is your thoughts that are going in, someone just helped you put those thoughts on paper.