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Recent Articles From My Weekly
Column, “Front Lines with Larry Galler”
Published in the
Business Section of The Northwest Indiana Times every Sunday since
November 2001
Front Lines 443 May 30, 2010
Great
publicity is a terrible thing to waste!
A small
business serving a local community received some national publicity
from a well known expert in his industry who wrote an article about
this businesses technical abilities. The publicity was transmitted to
other professionals within the industry, but not to the businesses
customers and prospects. So other than some “bragging rights” and ego
gratification for being recognized by peers, the business didn't garner
any marketing advantage because no one who could or would buy the
businesses services ever saw it..
It's
sort of like that old philosophical question: “If a tree falls in a
forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Not
being a philosopher or a physicist, I'm not going to delve into that
subject in print, but I can tell you that, from a marketing standpoint,
the net marketing effect to the business mentioned above was a big fat
zero.
But, if
they thought about it from a marketing perspective, the business could
reap some effective positives from this industry recognition. They
could:
•
Send copies of the recognition article (with permission from the holder
of the copyright of course) to their customers and prospects which
would brand them as a recognized expert in their field.
•
Send copies to their local newspapers and get community recognition
when local consumers read the article.
•
Give out copies of the recognition article as part of their sales
presentation to prospects.
•
Reprint the recognition and insert it in their brochures.
•
Add the recognition article to their web site.
It is
the marketing mindset that can turn some very gratifying industry
recognition into a powerful marketing tool but that mindset isn't
obvious to those who don't think in marketing terms. Some day your
business might be favored with great, unexpected, publicity. When
something extraordinary happens, such as this industry recognition, ask
yourself, “How can I use this to inform my marketplace (customers and
prospects) about the advantages of buying from me… and then do it. Make
sure that, when the tree falls, the people you want to hear it actually
have the opportunity to listen!
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