Your website is one of your best tools to help you attract clients and customers. A great website is designed to be of benefit to the people you are trying to attract and serve.
You are a benefit when you are helpful.
You see, if you’re not helping your customers or clients. you’re selling them and most people don’t want to be sold anything. They want to learn. They want to educate themselves.
Your job as a business owner or marketer is to help your website visitors. If you really want to be of value, help, don’t sell.
What does that mean exactly?
It’s simple really. Think about all of the questions your customers and clients ask you on any given day and answer them on your website and your social media profiles.
You can do this in the form of blog posts or create a FAQ (frequently asked questions) page.
If you need help designing your website or would like a free audit, drop me a line at hello@mj.works
Note: This case study is a summary of a very successful three year public relations and media outreach campaign that I single-handedly created and executed, landing media and influencer mentions in US Weekly, Elle,Shape, Fitness, Allure, W, Health, Preventionand many, many more. It is packed with story ideas, pitches and ways to reach out to the media and influencers for press coverage for your new brand. While I love working with health, wellness, fitness and nutrition brands, these tips are for anyone trying to connect with the media and build their market. If you are looking to build press and influencer connections like a pro, you should probably check out my course The PR Playbook.com as well.
Why Vanity Metrics Matter
Everyone knows that influencers can actually sell through your product, bring real return on investment to your conversion funnel and actually have you making some money off your new business, but you tell me, how do you plan on paying for all that sponsored media? You need a balance of both blogger and persuasive top tier mentions and connections to convince and convert.
Same Problem, New Solution
I digitized these press clips and organized them into case studies with helpful tips for you to demonstrate that the news cycle in health, wellness, fitness and nutrition is a continual loop of how to look and feel our best. What is old again, is new again.
How to Pitch Like a PR Pro
It is not enough to tell the world you have built something brand new. You MUST share the problem you solve and why your product is the ultimate solution. In order to do this consistently like I did, with press in every media outlet imaginable – from Brides to Marie Claire;Town & Countryto Oprah and Travel & Leisure to Vogue, you have to be very, very creative. No blogger, vlogger or journalist in their right mind wants a mass blanket pitch.
One of my first clients in beauty was a complex collection of skincare products (read: over 125 SKUs) from a brand called Yon-Ka Paris.
The challenge: Accumulate international brand awareness and celebrity cult-like status for an obscure, botanically-based skin care line created by two eccentric sisters living in the countryside of France without heat, electric or plumbing.
Create an influencer & celebrity worthy experience while delivering five-star results at a world premiere event, like the Cannes Film Festival.
2. Don’t just focus on the masses. Branch out and persistently and consistently land press coverage in specialty (niche) media like I did here with bridal and new moms.
3. Pitch story angles around each individual product for additional reviews and inclusion in specific problem/solution stories.
4. Build upon product coverage and reviews by promoting spa and retail partners to build a clip book of the best of spa and wellness experiences in top tier media outlets, like Allure, Vogue and W.
5. Stay on top of all consumer trends and connect the brand to everything that is “hot”, on newsworthy, while climbing the charts – always sharing with media outlets in a timely fashion.
6. Create a charticle and/or listicle with products that offer solutions for every health and beauty challenge under the sun.
7. Never miss an opportunity to let the world know that your product is coveted by insiders “in the know”. Yon-Ka featured here in The NY Times.
8. Research, uncover and reveal blogger, vlogger, model, celebrity and influencer hacks, secrets & ways to look and feel their best. Then share it with those who want to look and feel like a star.
9. Highlight and tout exotic ingredients, or even every day house hold items and edibles like grapefruit as the next super food, miracle cure and foundation of youth, while sharing the benefits backed by science.
10. Show everyone short cuts to reduce stress while recreating an at-home mindful spa & wellness experience.
More ways to create story ideas around your products and brand . . .
People can never have enough ways to eliminate the signs of anxiety and exhaustion.
Help followers, customers & prospects pack for travel and another season and reason of self-care.
Vet products, curate collections and share other complimentary brands in your story.
Offer up new survival tips and products for every day annoying, yet common problems, like dark under eye circles.
Collaborate with all-stars, includingyour strategic partners, retailers and professionals for added press coverage.
Reposition your products for a new market – like men’s skin care.
Position your more expensive, luxury product as an investment.
Make sure your products are in good company and in the hands of professionals – and share their know-how with the world.
Niche markets like “pregnancy” may have a shorter customer lifetime value, but they are open to product suggestions and recommendations. Especially when positioning your product as safe and effective for everyone.
You’ll build more trust when you sound believable, so keep it really real. Don’t just make up your CEO’s quotes. Let them speak from the heart. Be believable.
Popularize a certain part of the body and zone in on care for that one particular area.
Promote soothing, safe, natural ingredients – like botanicals for specific skin conditions.
Take an age old problem, and propose a new way to deal and heal it.
Sampling sizes always work to give customers the opportunity to try before they buy.
Does your product have an exceptional color? texture? Share the beauty of what’s inside the bottle.
Understand your customer persona. What is her personality type? Naturalist? Futurist? or maybe just pure Becky. It doesn’t matter, just be sure to pitch to the media he/she reads, views, likes and shares.
Go local – Connect with city guides in areas of dominant influence.
Even in an age of influencers by the dozen, stars and celebrities still have pull.
Plan an amazing product giveaway for your audience, fans and followers.
Plan a splurge vs steal story – and include products at every price point.
Help people get ready to reveal more for a new season – summer slim down and beach beauty prep.
Have experts speak on your behalf. They need the publicity just as much as you do.
Promote your product by lifestyle – cross over with fashion and accessories. Create the ultimate beach guide.
Notice an ingredient trend before an influencer does? – help them select products for a round up .
Have you opened a new retail account? Launched in a new online store? Tweet and share the news.
Even if you are not pitching a story or new product it is important that influencers know what you are up to – so they can include you in their upcoming stories. Stay in touch with your VIPs.
What happens when you have a fierce sales team, a loyal customer base and a winning marketing team – it’s a recipe for magic – it’s explosive.Work together.
Show people how to relax, de-stress and unwind during distracting times.
Help people transform themselves. Read: A complete vegan makeover.
Are your products in a new hot destination spot? Promote it.
Added tip: Make customization as simple as possible. As a matter of fact. Make everything as simple as possible.
Take one ingredient – like geranium – and promote the hell out of it.
Get people out of a bind – like when they over tan or burn their skin .
Keep it exclusive and promote win its aka “contests” to attract new audiences.
Promote B2B and B2C – which also helps boost employee morale.
Promote experts from within your company to speak about their skill set.
Seed out your products to celebrities.
Offer tips on how to choose the best products in a category – like self-tanners.
Go niche – pitch to smaller media and combine products with partners for the ultimate story mention.
Pimp out celebrity users when they are launching a new movie or track. They need the publicity now more than ever.
Reveal confessions.
Ask your followers what their favorites are and report on that.
Enter awards for your brand and promote the honors.
Focus on problematic issues, like sensitive skin.
Want more ways to build your brand with media coverage? Check out my on line video course, ThePRPlaybook.com a short cut to learning how to pitch the press like a pro.
So your marketing isn’t getting any traction. No retweets, likes, comments or love. You need more traffic to your shopping cart, eyeballs to your website.
The real reason you don’t have engagement, why your blog and social posts aren’t read is because your content is too self-serving.
Word of advice. If you want to succeed in growing your business, do not try to sell or market another thing. Every time you say or share something about your company that emphasizes the upside you will most likely get skeptical responses.
Sure, it is perfectly fine to list the benefits of your brand, but whatever content you are creating – whether it be a blog or Instagram post, your unbridled optimism about what your business can do for customers and clients comes across as salesmanship and it seems dishonest. As a consequence it is met with skepticism.
Everyone is allergic to the feeling of being sold something.
What you should focus on instead – why people buy.
Buying motives are a million times more powerful than selling skills.
Don’t sell your product. Instead think about why people buy products like yours.
Marketing – Educate, inspire and enlighten your audience instead.
Writers for top tier media like The Huffington Post are generally very curious people. If you are going after media coverage and you’ve landed an interview, be sure to share the problem your business helps solve. Share your personal story as well. Did you create your business because of a problem you were having yourself? This is what makes your story more interesting, authentic and possibly more shareable.
Need help sharing your story with editors and journalists? Reach out for a complimentary brain storming session with me. Send me at Tweet @marketcouncil
The best way to grow your business is to build brand awareness to create word-of-mouth demand. Everyone I interview and I myself have found public speaking and networking at events to be an extremely effective way to attract new customers and clients. The larger the group and the more focused on your niche, the better.
Vincent Dignan, a UK-based growth hacking pro offers up his way to speed up the scheduling of your next series of public talks.
This quick video clip cuts right to the chase.
Search sites like Meetup and Eventbrite for events with a larger number of members in your niche.
Ask to join the groups and then contact the leader or group admin with this –
Hi there,
I am a (expert, pro, guru) at (your specialty) and I would love the opportunity to share my (top ten – fill in name of talk) at your next meet up. I have a huge network that I will invite as well.
Let’s connect,
Sincerely, you
Cut and past that message into an email for each and every Meet up you target and cross your fingers for replies.
Now, he also makes a good point. About 5% (I say even less) of the attendees will actually buy something from you. However, focus on making your presentation entertaining and informative so you increase the chances of attendees telling their friends about you.
Your website and social media channels are your most visible brand statement to the world and every single page of your online branding should be as consistent as possible.
Your Brand Checklist for Social
Your logo, brand colors, tag line, mission statement, bio/profile, high quality visuals and contact information should be the same on each platform you use.
Why Consistency is so Important
People value consistency which in turn creates accountability. Consistency will also establish your reputation and make you and your brand that much more relevant. Being consistent builds trust with future clients, customers and colleagues and enforces your message.
How to Be Consistent
Be consistent in how you display yourself and your company on each website platform and consistently share information that is helpful, resourceful and useful.
This post is targeted to experts and creators in the fitness, organic beauty, health, wellness, nutrition, spaand medical industries. However the rules apply for all markets and all startups.
As of March 2016 your essential brand platform list includes:
Your Website and a Vlog/Blog along with the following popular social media platforms where you will create brand awareness about your services and products. I recommend WordPress for both. WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. But in non-geek speak, it’s probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today.
Facebook The user profile according to 2015 Pew Research –66% Men 77% Women. 87% 18-29 years of age and 63% 50-64 yrs of age. However, you can really target your posts and promotional offers by age, interests and location with Facebook ads if you have budgeted for them.
Instagram 22% Men 29% Women. 53% 18-29 years of age and 11% 50-64 yrs of age. As of March 2016 the posts with the most Instagram engagement have long form (five to seven sentences with about five #hashtags). Instagrammers want to know about the backstory behind your photo and video so bring your emotional side along for the ride.
YouTube Distribution of video by content includes female dominated categories – makeup and beauty, skin and nail care & weight loss. Male dominated video includes soccer, strategy games, X Box and basketball.
YouTube tutorials and brand announcements may seem daunting at first so spend some time in front of the camera to become more aware of how you look and sound. Practice before you upload. You can also share inspirational videos on your channel if YouTube’s not for you.
LinkedInA great way to network for B2B (business-to-business) services, a premiere subscription (not the free version) will have you connecting without having done business before. You can also publish your helpful and resourceful information to Pulse, LinkedIn’s blog. Stats as of 3/2016 28% Men 27% Women. 31% 30-49 yrs of age. 30% 50-64 yrs of age.
Google + This was Google’s way of keeping up with communities on Facebook and Twitter, but it never really got off the ground. Most use it to help with SEO (search engine optimization) 74% Men 26% Women 55% from the US. Read this for more on why Google Plus is not “dead”.
PinterestBe sure to link your posts, videos and favorite content from your own website and vlog as well. Boards are a collection of inspiration for you to review and to share with your community.13% Men 42% Women 34% between 18 -29
TwitterWhile there is talk of this platform dying (read this New Yorker article) there are still hundreds of millions of dedicated users.24% Men 21% Women 37% 18-29 and 12% 50-64
& possibly . . . think second phase of your growth . . .
SnapChat 70% Men 30% Women 71% are 25 and younger. Right now it looks like SnapChat is a pre-teen to teen social media platform but those in the industry like #askgaryvee think this platform will begin to be used by those 40 plus. All big media now have a channel.
Tumblris a very visual platform and used by fashion designers, artists and photographers. 10% of all internet users are on Tumblr – 11% women 10% men. In the future, future possibly Periscope, yet another platform that enables you to “go live” via your mobile device anytime and anywhere. (If you are already on all of the other social platforms than I recommend getting on Periscope now because it is so new.)
As an expert it would also be smart to answer questions onQuoraand to dig into conversations onRedditfor future blog and vlog content inspiration.
Follow the Leaders If you are looking for inspiration, check out . . .
I am working on launching an online class called “The Market Sessions” this fall (Sept 2016) where I will share the most efficient and critical strategies for startup growth & success. Follow this blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel here for updates.
One of the first questions I get from owners and founders of startups and small businesses is “when should I begin branding and marketing my business?” In this short teaser video, I include a brief overview of how and when to start promoting your product or service.
Recommendations include –
Beginning with a brand name and well a vision/mission and a brand guidelines map for media and strategic partners.
A strong Icon that can be used when you grow globally.
How to market before you actually manufacturer and/or launch.
Taking pre-orders to test the market and help fund the future of your business.
Once you start selling, continually checking reviews on Amazon, Yelp, Ebay – where ever customers are talking about you.
Marketing IRL(in real life) matters just as much as social media. Make sure you are attending and networking at all important events.
How user testing will help improve your website conversion.
and why it’s important to stay organized along the way.
Please feel free to email me at m.johnson@themarketcouncil.com or tweet me @marketcouncil with your most challenging marketing or branding question.
I had the opportunity to study and interview one of my client’s product demonstrations this past Monday during a Whole Foods in-store event. Call it experiential marketing for the organic & natural seeking consumer.
My assignment – discover how we can make the program even stronger. What tools should we supply these brand ambassadors with? How can we help them inspire and sell more?
This client peddles chemical-free hair color. I do a lot for them – including the creation of a beautiful new website.
It was just pouring outside. Bad weather had me cautiously driving slick roads thinking – low turn out, it’s going to be a bust, the store will be dead. Wrong.
Whole Foods was jammed, a cart-to-cart race around the fresh organic avocados and shiitake mushrooms. Thought to self: It’s Monday at 11 am EST, don’t these people have jobs?
Armed with new surveys, email sign ups and a beautifully wrapped raffle giveaway to inspire shoppers to hand over their emails and opt in to our monthly marketing offers, I was ready to take these demonstrations to the next level of branding and sales success.
When Branding becomes a Blemish on your UVP
I watched the demonstrator set up her table and she just blew my mind when she whipped out a home-made before and afterphoto of her own hair with her new healthy color. This is her show and tell to help sell my client’s hair color?
Two amateur photos, printed at CVS and glued on a piece of faded and slightly torn sheet of construction paper with the words “before and after” scribbled underneath. I was stunned.
Now my first thought was – add that to our graphics needs list, but the demonstrator insisted that customers just loved it. They believed the before and after because it was her own photo. It was convincing, not some “branded bullsh$@!”
I gather the notion of making every single marketing message polished, perfect and PhotoShop-ed – is just not always the way to play it. Customers are so incredibly skeptical. Ready to shoot you down.
While I really don’t like “studies” and know that most statistics fall prey to confirmation bias, there has been recent research on just how skeptical consumers have become.
The true challenge of marketing is how to make your mark without burning your brand. How to get customers to trust and believe you before they layout their hard earned cash.
Getting consumers to take your product for a test drive could possibly lead to new sales and fans. Some call it “Discovery Commerce”, I call it a smart way to sample.
Even with all of the online reviews already out there and the busy affiliate bloggers mentioning your product combined with the mess of social sharing that happens daily, finicky customers still need a big push to your (shopping) cart and that can happen with sampling. Today’s post is about the value of sampling your product and how to sample effectively.
Subscription boxes are boxes that contain an assortment of sample products – typically with a common theme, such as beauty boxes, pet boxes, or food boxes that customers subscribe to for a fixed monthly fee. In return, they get to try and review new products that they may purchase in the future.
Some customers claim they subscribe to monthly subscription boxes because they hate investing in a product that isn’t perfect for them. Others are interested in being the first to try a great new brand. Some buy them as the gifts that keep on giving for others. As a brand, these boxes can make sampling sense, but it’s recommended that you focus on making the transition from sampling to purchase as easy as possible.
Out of all of the ways to get your products into the hands of new customers, including in-store demonstrations and tastings, creating a unique retail experience, investing in a pop up shop, a special mall promotion or direct mail sample, I believe that investing your marketing budget with samples in a well-known and coveted sample subscription boxes offer great returns.
Keep in mind you will probably pay for category exclusivity and distribution, along with subsidizing the costs of samples, which can cost as much as a full size product to produce. What you get in return is a way to track sampling to shopping cart movement along with market research provided in the way of feedback from potential customers.
So how do you sample effectively?
Impress them with a “wow” factor. Be sure to include a sample of something new that has wide appeal.
Make sure the sample is large enough to try over three or four uses.
Make sure your product is in good company. Participate in subscriptions that have good reviews.
Convert customers with special coded coupons to you take them from sample to sale.
Many influencers review boxes, so be sure to discover, review and engage social sharing and news about #yourbrand
Be sure to learn from your audience. What did they like about your product? What might you change? or offer that is new?
One of the pioneers of the discovery commerce platform has been called the “Netflix of make up” Birchbox is currently launching over 100,000 beauty products a year to over 400,000 subscribers. They also teach consumers how to use your cosmetics and send personalized products that match their subscribers profile. Birchbox has collaborated with brands like Gossip Girl and Women’s Health Magazine. And now there is even a Birchbox Man subscription box.
What other type of subscription boxes are we talking about? There are over 1,000 subscription boxes currently on the market. Barkbox is a box of dog treats, RocksBox offers designer jewelry, Quniciple is a weekly subscription service that creates a balanced box of groceries each week, including the freshest from the farmer’s market. Creator Box for ages 6 and up contains a new build-it-yourself toy delivered each month. Bulu Box is a monthly subscription vitamin box that also has snack items like FlyJoy bars and Mediterranean Lentil crackers.
There are boxes for geeks/gamers, for the home, crafty and eco-minded even those that are celebrity-curated and “adult” only. The most popular subscriptions are fashion, beauty samples, organic food, eco products and kid’s crafts. And the discovery commerce space is booming. JustFab received $109M in venture capital and BeachMint $73.5M.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, our favorite box of the day is Hotel Chocolat’s sampling box.
Looking for a box for your brand? Find Subscription Boxes has launched a mobile app to help people find the best box for them.
Note: This case study is a summary of a very successful three year public relations and media outreach campaign that I single-handedly created and executed, landing media and influencer mentions in US Weekly, Elle, Shape, Fitness, Allure, W, Health, Prevention and many, many more. It is packed with story ideas, pitches and ways to reach out to the media and influencers for press coverage for your new brand. While I love working with health, wellness, fitness and nutrition brands, these tips are for anyone trying to connect with the media and build their market. If you are looking to build press and influencer connections like a pro, you should probably check out my course 
SnapChat 70% Men 30% Women 71% are 25 and younger. Right now it looks like SnapChat is a pre-teen to teen social media platform but those in the industry like #askgaryvee think this platform will begin to be used by those 40 plus. All big media now have a channel. 
