If you’re an entrepreneur in the creative field, blogging may be the last thing on your mind. A long-term investment with no immediate payoff? I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t given a second thought to blogging, you’ve likely got piles of other tasks to get through. But often it’s precisely these long-term investments that make all the difference.
Time. When you’re a busy entrepreneur, there never seems to be enough of it. Whether it be finding ways to engage prospective customers, building relationships with the media, or promoting your products to the right audience, there’s always something new fighting for your attention.
Creativity is a critical skill for success in business - it’s the driving force behind innovation and problem solving. While not everyone is born with creative talent, we can all improve on our own creative abilities. Here are our top five tools to get the creative juices flowing.
1. Metaphorical thinking. It allows you to compare one problem with another problem to identify similarities between the two, and uncover new solutions and ideas.
2. Attribute listing. Great for product innovation, attribute listing is where you list as many attributes as you can for an object, consider the value of each attribute, and how you can modify it.
3. Post-It brainstorming. Best for group brainstorming sessions, post-it brainstorming involves team members silently writing ideas on Post-It notes, which are posted on a wall, before being shuffled and explored.
4. Role play. A great way to inject fun into ideation sessions. Begin by choosing characters for team members to play, and then brainstorming in character. Select characters related to your problem to develop expert ideas, or choose a character totally different to find radically unique ideas.
5. Thinking hats. This involves using different types of thinking to stimulate ideation, before selecting the best to move forward. Each team member should select one hat to put on. Options include information, judgement, creativity, intuition, optimism, and logical thinking.
Creatives often lack the budget for large, expensive marketing and public relations campaigns. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t generate buzz for your creative initiative or venture. Here are three ways you can promote your project without breaking the bank.
1. Be selective. When you’re promoting your own project, it can be tempting to contact as many journalists as possible. This approach is not only expensive, but it can also waste your time. It’s much more effective to concentrate your efforts on selected, high value media targets. Who are your target audiences, and what media do they consume? Research media platforms and generate a list of all those most relevant for your project and audience. Find key information on each media platform, including its audience demographics and circulation figures - targeting those with the highest circulation will maximise your potential for promotion.
2. Deliver value. Now that you have a media list, you need to create tailored pitches, aiming to deliver value to each unique platform and its audience. Ask yourself, “Why should the readers of this magazine care about my project?” Editors and journalists seek to publish stories that inform and inspire their readers. What’s inspirational about your project? What can readers learn from it? Make sure the story you pitch will resonate with a large audience.
3. Build relationships. Strategic connections with the right editors, reporters, and social media influencers are the foundation of lasting publicity. People who know you and recognise the value you can offer their audience are much more likely to open your emails. When it comes to building such relationships, a systematic approach ensures your networks are always growing. Make relationship-building activities a regular part of your annual promotion plan. Send a unique, personalised email, then follow-up with a call to find out how you might help meet their editorial needs. You can even add them to your e-newsletter list and connect with them on social media, particularly on Twitter and LinkedIn. Above all, endeavour to be genuine and helpful to ensure a lasting connection.
Most startups face a major challenge when it comes to public relations. While they know the importance of PR and generating awareness, they don’t always have the connections or manpower to stir up good press.
The right PR can help early-stage startups build user bases as well as attract interest from venture capitalists, so don’t let a non-existent marketing budget or the lack of a dedicated marketing team discourage you.
Here are some tips to make public relations work for your start up:
Be specific with your niche: Putting together a well thought-out pitch takes time, which is something that startups don’t have enough of. Instead of pitching everyone and anyone, identify a dozen media outlets that are ultimately your top choices. It’s not about ‘the more the merrier’. Be very specific about which media you want to cover your start-up. For instance, if you’re in the tech space, focus on developing relationships with tech journalists and the media outlets that publish tech news.
Personalise your message: Reaching out to journalists can be a challenge as they are often inundated with emails, media releases and event invites. Cut through by being friendly and personal. Don’t spam them with media releases, but instead get to know the journalists and send them a personalised email, which speaks to their needs and topics. While this does take more time and patience, it works far better than sending impersonal mass emails – journalists and editors can spot a copy/paste job a mile away.
Create content you can publish: Create content and share it with online media and blogs where your investors and customers hang out. Share your story, experiences, insights and knowledge. This is a great way to position yourself as an expert and build trust with your audience.
Share your story: Journalists get hounded every day by startups, PR agencies, founders and more. Their job isn't to write about you. Their job is to write stories, get scoops, break news and thoughtfully evaluate companies and products that are useful to their readers or viewers. So make sure you are delivering value to them, respecting their work and understand they have their own agenda of how to break news. The fact that you have a new product or start-up isn’t a story. The pitch needs to be your point of difference and what you’re offering as a story.
Let your voice be heard: There are a plethora of start-up events and meet-ups in today’s business environment. Start by attending and networking, and then graduate to sharing your start-up journey via speaking engagements. Speaking is a great way to be seen as an influencer and you’ll also be able to introduce your start-up to a whole new audience and position yourself as an expert in your field at the same time.
1. Instagram is no longer a trendy teen hangout. It has morphed into a social networking site withgreat potential for businesses and influencers. While it has always had a young, passionate user base, older generations want to see what all the fuss is about too. These users are checking their dashboards throughout the whole day, so there are plenty of opportunities to be seen.
2. Instagram has been around for long enough that it has a massive user base, but it is still early enough to establish a presence for your brand and find your niche.
3. Instagram allows the user to decide how they want to present themselves to the rest of the Instagram world. It allows users to create visual content (which dominates in terms of engagement). Filters and captions can give your image a unique feel and convey a specific mood and message to others.
4. It is ideal for on-the-go sharing. Instagram has always been intended to be used on mobile devices. This is not only handy for businesses because it allows for quick and easy sharing, but also for the consumer, who is able to come across content easily.
5. Research shows that Instagram users engage more with Instagram content than Twitter or Facebook content! So if your business isn’t already on Instagram, now is the time!
In today’s cluttered media landscape, it is crucial that your content, not only captures the attention of your intended audience, but sustains it also. To gain the upper hand over your competitors, your content must be clear, concise, and creative. Longwinded, dense, and unoriginal content will quickly deter consumers who are exposed to a treasure trove of information on a daily basis.
According to a 2015 report from Chartbeat, 55% of all page views get less than 15 seconds of attention. Many businesses are often concerned with the level of online traffic that their web pages receive, however, more importantly, content must be compelling enough to prevent visitors from leaving your page before consuming the material.
Here’s what to do to cut through:
Be clear: In order to produce clear content, you must know your audience and apply a writing style which best conveys your message to them. It’s important not to use unnecessarily verbose or formal language. Simple is always best - it avoids confusion or misinterpretation.
Be concise: The Nielson Norman Group conducted research which suggests that readers apply the ‘F’ approach. In their eye-tacking study, they found that users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content, before shifting down the page and moving horizontally a second time. Finally, readers scan the left side of the remaining content. When producing content, it’s important to get to the point as early as possible. Where relevant, adopting the ‘inverted pyramid’ approach, that is, putting the most important information first, would ensure that readers consume the most relevant content first, if or before they leave your page.
Be Creative: Most importantly, creative and original content will set you apart form your competition. Following and observing the latest trends is important, but setting the trends is even better. Just like any good investment, the rewards will certainly strengthen your brand. It’s worth taking the risk - everybody remembers the trend setters, whilst most trend followers are forgotten. Thinking outside the box and creating new, entertaining, or inspiring, and most of all, memorable content elevates the consumer’s perception of your brand.
The crowd is large, and the competition is thick, so cutting through it will make your brand stick!
Over the past decade, social media has become less of an optional marketing opportunity and more of a priority. In fact, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become integral parts of brand awareness, content distribution and customer acquisition strategies for businesses. This is especially true for startups working with smaller budgets and grassroots campaigns, who want to stay connected with their audiences online.
But with this great opportunity comes countless failures, as businesses struggle to utilise social media effectively. To ensure you’re on the right track, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you maximise the potential of your social media platforms.
1. Have a social media strategy: Before everything else, have a clearly defined plan. Too often organisations try to nab a spot on social media without first having a strategy in place. Before you fill out that registration form and begin churning out your posts, you need a detailed strategy that will drive your focus and keep you on track. The first step is to figure out how you would like your brand to be portrayed as. Align your social media approach with the culture you have established for your business. Does you prefer a straightforward, classic approach, or do you take more of an easygoing, relaxed feel? Whichever defines your business, that's the approach you should take when building your social media strategy.
2. Determine your goals. After honing in on your approach, it’s necessary to define your social media goals. Decide what you want to gain from being on social media, whether it be brand awareness, content distribution, lead generation or customer acquisition. This will help you create a profile that knocks your communications goals out of the park, and will also guide how you engage with your audience online.
3. Select your social media platform(s). Depending on your strategy, approach, and goals, you should be able to determine which social media platforms are right for your startup. Facebook is by far the largest social media platform available, so if you’re looking to reach the masses, it is a great place to start. Twitter, on the other hand, is ideal for businesses with a focus on content distribution and one-on-one customer engagement. For B2B startups and companies looking to find business partners, LinkedIn is extremely valuable.
4. Create quality content. One of the benefits of social media is the opportunity it gives you not just to deliver your message to your audience, but to interact with them and get their feedback. With a little effort, you can form real connections that will impact how people see your brand. How do you do this? Engage your audience, rather than simply selling to them. If all you do is blast your generic marketing message, people will tune it out. But if you take the time to listen to your audience’s opinions, answer their questions and address their issues, they’ll begin to see you not as a corporate façade, but as a trusted friend.
