10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#9 Be a pencil, but be another kind of pencil.

Establish your brand as capable and dependable. Then, sharpen your message to one that makes you unique and out of the ordinary.

Offer a promotion or service your competition doesn't. Share your message in your own special voice. Then, deliver it in a way all the others don't.

Beyond social media, there are tons of ways to stand out with direct mail, personal promotional deliveries, outdoor, broadcast media, cause marketing and PR to name a few.

As an example, let me tell you about a campaign I'm working on for a home care agency. The problem posed is this. "How do we get prospective customers to think of us first in an industry saturated with big name franchises to established privately owned firms to upstart mom and pops?"

The particular company I represent is a privately owned firm that has successfully served metro Atlanta for a decade. They have years of experience in the home care industry.

When I asked the owner what he thought the main thing his prospective clients should know, he said, "We care." I asked him how his company did that and he give me three examples.

Those three examples are now being developed as individual direct mail postcards. These postcards will be mailed out every month to our prospects. The tagline is "What caring means." This line takes ownership of the word "caring" and explains the benefits to our would-be customers and prospects. The post card delivery method is affordable for my client and its positioning line has legs to it.

"What caring means" can and will go on Facebook, and Twitter, coffee cups, pens,notepads, Press releases, you name it. We'll drive it home.

So, if you want to stand out from your competition like the home care agency, be a pencil, but be a different, better pencil. I can't put a fine point on that enough.

I'm Sharna Fulton, a freelance advertising and PR writer. I enjoy creating content and managing social media for a variety of small businesses to corporate clients. If you have a marketing/writing project you need help with, please contact me. Thanks. sharna.fulton@att.net

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#8 It's not rocket science.

Do you want to get a new marketing campaign off the ground, but don't know where to start?

Are all of your big ideas on hold because you haven't put a social media plan in action?

Do you worry you don't have the writing chops needed to eloquently promote your biz in cyberspace?

Do you ignore the Twitterverse because your energies are needed elsewhere and you can't seem to work it into your day?

Try this simple formula.

Head over to your computer. Oh wait. You're probably at your computer. Super. We'll call it mission control for now. Open up a word document or a blank new email. Then, start making a list of everything that's good about your company, your employees, your products, your services, upcoming events and more. Write down everything you can think of without judging your ideas. Try to come up with at least ten. Don't stop writing until you can't think of anymore.

Read your list and choose the one that's best. Maybe it's number one?

Copy that one single item. (To do this, run your mouse over it and hit Control C.)

Open up your company's Facebook page and then hit Control V to paste (and post) your update.

Review it to make sure everything is spelled correctly and that it still makes sense.

Then get ready to blast off and click the "Share" button. (Don't worry. The ground won't shake. But chances are you'll feel a sense of accomplishment of moving your business forward.)

That's called launching a social media plan out to your clients and prospective customers. You won't believe how easy it is.

Now, don't forget to post your second best idea tomorrow. Then, the next day and the next day. With consistency and practice, your Facebook page and Twitter account will start to grow more likes, attract more followers and create an aura that's all its own.

I'm Sharna Fulton, a freelance advertising and PR writer. I enjoy creating content and managing social media for a variety of small businesses to corporate clients. If you have a marketing/writing project you need help with, please contact me. Thanks. sharna.fulton@att.net

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#7 Be different.

The goal for your organization ought to be quite simple. Find your niche and exploit it. (This is also known as "branding" in non-corporate speak.)

If you want to connect with your prospective buyers, being different is the only way to do it. (Note. Which of these wheels can you not take your eyes off of?)

One company that hits it out of the ballpark at being different, literally, is Ice Box. Not content to be another run-of-the-mill promotional products company, Ice Box takes to the basketball court at Atlanta Hawks games. With their fun, super sized balloon penguin mascot and friends, Ice Box shoots tee-shirts with their logo on them up into the rafters of cheering fans at Philips Arena. The takeaway message to potential customers is so much more than "buy our stuff." It's more like "we make your life fun!"

How cool is that? A promotional products company that actually knows how to promote itself!

If you've already got your niche and you're not flaunting it with unique promotions like Ice Box or even, heck, just free social media, who's going to know? And if you're not finding new social media tools and new ways to use them, you're not "branding." (You're not standing out.)

So, time to get Tweeting and updating that blog weekly -- or better yet, daily! Get pumped up about what your organization does differently. Only then, will you stand out from your competitors and start getting the recognition and sales results you deserve.

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#6 There aren't enough minutes in the day for you to handle your own social media.

You keep telling yourself you're going to start updating your Facebook page and Tweeting everyday. But will you?

Be honest with yourself.

As a business owner or manager, you have too many other things to do. Products to make. Clients to serve. Staff to manage and more. With so much to juggle, face it. You'll never make marketing your priority. Never.

But with the new marketing tools that allow any company to have an online presence, it's a shame to not be taking advantage of them, right?

Email sharna.fulton@att.net and ask me how I can start creating a consistent and professional social media presence for you today.

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#5 Once upon a time your organization had a story to tell. Actually, that time is now. In fact, you have several of them.

You could share what products or services you're introducing. You could explain how they make the world a better place. You could tell us when your next promotion begins or jump up and down with excitement about who your employee of the month is and why.

Those are just a few story lines for starters your clients, prospects and stakeholders can't wait to hear. With free marketing tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc., there's absolutely no reason not to share them.

Need somebody to help you tell them? Ask me how I can manage your social media starting at 35.00 week.* sharna.fulton@att.net *Milk and cookies not included.

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#4 When your business looks to help someone else, it helps itself, too.

Take for instance, Warby Parker. Their "buy a pair of eyeglasses, give a pair of eyeglasses" not only helps them promote and sell their high fashion, low price specs to a hip audience. It's also letting them provide 20/20 eyesight to people without glasses in places like New Delhi, India.

Whether you're a business or nonprofit marketeer, you can grow (brand) awareness, increase sales, raise money for a good cause and create invaluable goodwill just like Warby Parker. You just simply need to employ a method you may not quite be familiar with yet. It's a method that can benefit any organization no matter its size, no matter its marketing budget. It's called Cause Marketing.

Cause Marketing is when a "for profit" company and a nonprofit work together for mutual benefit.

If you are a "for profit," you need to know that this is not charity. It's "Selfish Giving." And no. I didn't invent the term. Joe Waters did. He's the cause marketing Tweet sensation, the writer of a popular blog, Selfishgiving.com and author of Cause Marketing For Dummies. You'll even find him on Huffpost, where he blogs about, you guessed it, cause marketing.

Joe has lead the way for me as a cause marketer in my "Create-A-Sweater" program. A project I developed last year in conjunction with K-5 schools to help raise sweaters and funds for senior service agencies in Atlanta.

It worked for us and it can work for you. (We just happened to collect tons of sweaters, a little bit of money and more publicity than we could imagine -- which in turn, created awareness for the for profit home care agency and Metro Atlanta's Senior Service agencies, the nonprofit partner.)

So, why not let Joe be your cause marketing guiding light, too? It just might mean better results in your marketing in 2012. And that's something I know you wouldn't mind seeing.

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

#3 Freelancers eat. We also pay for shelter and clothes, heat and AC, cell phones and DSL like what I'm using at the moment to write this blog post. Of course, we also have to fork over the dough for our own healthcare, benefits and set aside more of our income for taxes than a "normal" employee. Some of us even have children or pets with mouths to feed and drive to client appointments in automobiles that guzzle gasoline.

I'm not asking you to feel sorry for us. After all, one of the great benefits of being a freelancer is having the flexibility to manage our own schedules and work from our home offices. I guess that's two benefits.

But one of the major burdens of freelancing is having to send emails or make calls to clients and politely beg to be paid. Or run to the mailbox at 4 pm every afternoon for 30 days in a row with our fingers crossed in one hand and a bunny's foot in the other hoping that the check we're owed for the past two months of social media work, web design, you name it has finally, finally arrived. Hallelujah! Not only does it take our focus away from what's important -- the work. It zaps our enthusiasm for you as a client and the projects you say you want us to do.

My point is this. If you want us to stay focused and enthusiastic, pay up. Pay on time or pay a few days early. Pay with a smile on your face and say thank you. "Thank you Mr. or Ms. Freelancer for caring about my business." And, if you're a freelancer who happens to have a client who just paid you on-time, consider yourself very, very fortunate to have a great job with a great employer. Then, don't forget to thank them all the same.

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012

2. A creative person is really just a cleverly disguised "suit."

As a business owner or manager, you're not the only one who wants results. It could be to sell 20% more widgets this quarter. Launch a new product. Or increase your likes on Facebook. Whatever it is, you need to make it happen! After all, this is serious business, right?

So what happens next?

You enlist one or more of us, "creative types" all comfy and relaxed in our jeans and Chuck Taylors to help you do it. You have no choice you tell yourself because you're not much of a writer. You don't know HTML code. You don't get Twitter. And frankly, you're just too busy making widgets to do it, yourself.

The trouble is we're like a seven year old boy at his first major league baseball game. We ask too many questions. We come up with a gillion and two ideas (including some bad ones). And finally, to make matters worse, we seem to enjoy the process. (Gasp!)

Yes. We are a different breed. We are creative professionals. That's right, "professionals." Not just frustrated slacker wanna-be Picasso's or Hemingway's. Okay, so maybe we are. But that's not my point.

My point is we, as creatives, are dedicated to helping you grow your organization. We have the agency training, background, education, creative passion, etc. to help you meet the task. And we know you can't execute a brilliant idea until you have a strategy in place.

So, next time you think we're too creative hipsterish for you or that we just don't understand, get over it.

Because truth be told, we do. And you need us.

10 Things Every PR/Marketing Client Should Know In 2012.

1. You and your PR/social media and marketing person are in a relationship. You have a mutual interest. It's called "your business."

And because it is "your" business and you know more about it than your marketing person does, it's up to you to create the positive energy for that relationship to thrive. That means doing all those relationshippy things that are often so difficult for us humans to do. Things like listening. And being open to new ideas. Taking the time to sit down and be together even when you feel constantly under the gun to get things done at the shop, restaurant, factory, corporate HQ, whatever.

By showing your appreciation for the unique ideas your marketing person brings to you and your business, you'll recoup the benefits of watching your business grow. And believe me, that is exactly what everybody wants in this relationship.