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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