Life Lesson

Add All The Public Relations Curb Appeal You Want

Garth Beyer

You’re a realtor. If the house is a log cabin and you’re trying to appeal to a more modernistic Le Corbusier-type of consumer, sprucing up the curb, the walkway, the mailbox won’t do it.

Companies who are labeled with a target consumer, don’t often grab hold of someone new outside of the described (and perceived) demographic. (And that’s okay!)

Apple might pick up some 60+ year olds, but do they really contribute to the success of Apple?

Hot Topic might get a preppy teenager to come in the store by advertising polos, but is it a smart use of space for the possibility of reaching a different demographic member?

Lands’ End might try appealing to a younger generation of women, but will the advertising strategy work?

Many businesses throw themselves under the bus by trying to be something they are not, by trying to wiggle their way into the minds of a different demographic. What happens? They end up ignoring the strength of the tribe they already have. Curb appeal may grab the attention of difference consumers, but at the same time it confuses your current ones.

At some point you have to realize you need to create a new product to reach the new target audience (if that’s really what you want). At some point, no amount of curb appeal will attract the number of new customers you hope for.

My advice when you know you’re at the end of the rope, tie a knot.

Praise your current market. Instead of paving a new pathway to the house, add more to it. Give back to existing customers. If your business is a traditional one, drop the idea of a mobile app and revert back to rewarding those who share through word of mouth and refer you to friends.

Apple is successful because they admire the early adopters. Hot Topic is still open because everything is still black and they have CDs. Lands’ End will grow more if they create a referral program for consecutive consumers rather than telling 20-year-olds what they should be wearing (without changing the style of the product, merely its curb appeal).

I’m a PR strategist who prides himself in being honest. Can you get new customers? Certainly. Can you get the number of new customers you want (or will need once you start confusing your existing/returning ones)? No.

Sometimes it’s easier, better, cheaper to build a new house than to add to the curb appeal of the one you own. (Especially when the one you own is beautiful as it is!) Plus, it’s more fun to create a new product that fits the target audience you want than to stretch the fabrics of the current product. Sooner or later, it won’t fit your consumer base, and that’s when you crumble.

 

Stay Positive & Tie A Knot And Show It Off

What’s Missing?

Garth Beyer

‘What’s missing?’ isn’t specific enough. The real question you’re looking for is ‘what connection is missing?’

You don’t lack ideas. You lack your connection with those who have them. Perhaps a special dinner is in order.

You don’t lack courage. You lack connections with those who dance with fear. Perhaps a summer seminar is in order.

You don’t lack resources, hope, business skills or a precondition for taking risks. You lack the connections.

I don’t believe in inabilities. You are the sum of all of your connections.

 

Stay Positive & Go Build Your Tribe And Tell Me Your Goal Still Can’t Be Achieved

Better Ideas Than Meeting Spec

Garth Beyer
  • Surpassing spec.
  • Spending a few nights building a new strategy plan and pitching it.
  • Finding ways to deliver promises faster.
  • Adding more or something different. Being generous. Giving goofball gifts.
  • Taking two minutes to make the message more personal and empathetic.
  • Showing clients the fun you had developing their plan.
  • Making larger promises and then surpassing them by over delivering.
  • Hiring a better editor.
  • Scraping the plan of mediocrity and tasks of ill-used time.
  • Trying something new.

 

Stay Positive & Meeting Spec Isn’t Good Enough (More on good enough)

Assorted Links

Garth Beyer

1. Can a robot do my job? (read)

2. 5 steps to new job opportunities (read, seriously, I’ve read this four times over already)

3. Gen Y Girl (read/follow)

4. Readers expect humor on Facebook, says author of Dallas paper’s funny weather posts (read) Social media angle (read)

5. On being good: the secular virtues (read)

6. How I got fired from a hot startup (read)

7. Don’t let the PR plan block your path to success (read)

The Invaluable Variable Of Any Great Business

Garth Beyer

What are you teaching?

There is not a single successful business that doesn’t teach something of some sort to their customers or clients, or at least gives the opportunity to learn in some shape or form.

Netflix. Documentaries.

Starbucks. Small talk.

Pursuitist. How-tos.

Barnes & Noble. Self-explanatory.

Inkhouse. PR.

 

So, I ask again. What are you teaching?

 

Stay Positive & Businesses Stop Teaching When They Stop Learning

In For Free

Garth Beyer

There are two situations for any club, event, outing, etc,.

1) You pay to get in and then you pay for things inside.

2) You don’t pay to get in and then you pay for things inside.

In both circumstances, you pay for things inside, but there is a large mental processing gap when it comes to how much you’re willing to spend inside.

See, the situations you pay to get in, you’re lead to believe everything inside will be cheaper. It’s not. Then you begin to rationalize your purchases, typically beginning with, “Well, it was already $15 to get in…”

On top of that, you may rebut with an example of an all-inclusive package. Supposedly, you pay for the all-inclusive package and everything “inside” is free. Thing is, it’s never free. When you’re inside, you then have to pay for an upgrade or to get the special drink that’s not included in the package or to get into VIP.

Taking a look at the other side

Everyone loves free. In fact, I’d argue they love getting into something free more than having everything inside be free. When you make an exchange with money, the value of the item (perceptional value) increases. That is, people who, say, buy a brat at a brat fest think the brat tastes better than someone who pays to get into the event and then gets the brat for free.

What does this mean for you and me?

It means to let your customers, clients, friends, strangers into your business for free and then charge them for what’s valuable inside. Consider all the business models that incorporate the situation where customers must pay to get in, then everything inside is free. Newspaper subscriptions. Water parks. Strip clubs. Movies.

Having clientele pay for what’s inside and not pay to get inside is not a flawless model (think Netflix), but it’s one worth considering when developing your business plan. One worth arguing about. Perhaps, one worth rebutting (or supporting) in the comments section below.

 

Stay Positive & Never Underestimate The Power Of In For Free

Creating Chief Content For Your Landing Pad

Garth Beyer

Your blog is your landing pad. All properties and social media outlets change without your control, but not your blog.

Recently I’ve blogged about independent PR blogs and how to face Goliath, the mass content producing sites like Pursuitist. I was privileged recently to sit in on a talk by Christopher Parr, founder of Pursuitist. I heard the story of how he made Pursuitist what it is now, a success.

Worth noting, not once did he say he couldn’t have done it without the help of all his contributing writers (group blog model). Perhaps he may think it, but I would still respond with disagreement. He could have done it by himself too. Why do I believe that?

Below you will find a list of ways he swears by to create blogging success. Bare with me 10 seconds before you scroll down to read them. As you do read them, ask yourself if you could do the action by yourself. Matters of speed and time aside, it is purely a matter of what you think you can and can’t do. You can take on the content machines. You can.

 

 

 

 

Chief Content Officer Takeaways:

  • Engage your community with questions.
  • Share amazing photos.
  • Create content that can be easily consumed on mobile devices.
  • Keep it “human.” Don’t be a bland corporation.
  • The best posts or videos come from the frequently asked questions people have.
  • Interviews make great content.
  • Share original, behind-the-scenes photos of you and your team.
  • Create interesting, brief product and service demos with videos.
  • Testimonials are great, especially if you can highlight the hero, your customer, and not your product.
  • Point out the great people in your community with videos and interviews.
  • Deliver instruction and teach someone how to do something. Create a “how to” series.
  • Keep publishing, keep creating great content. Don’t give up.

 

What do you think? Think you’re up for it. I do.

And again. You don’t need to neglect the benefits of them, by all means participate, but also withhold your own landing pad.

 

Stay Positive & Imagine David And Goliath As Friends