"Muck-raker": one who investigates and exposes issues; synonyms include: spin doctors, public relations professionals, marketing flacks
Commentary from the PR/Marketing/Graphics Industry
Question: "What is one key low-cost way to stand out from the competition?"
"Use and reuse viable content. For example, some people actually believe that a case study, published in a monthly publication circulated to 30,000 and a weekly reaching 150,000, has lived its full life span. That's simply wrong. Re-pitch it to other titles that are more interested in sharing best practice stories than beating their competitor to a good story." (Greg Vitarelli, Founder of Sherpa Media Ltd.; Public Relations firm based in London; gv@sherpanet.com)
"As someone who toils in the field of strategic communication, I've witnessed over and over again the power of a well-constructed speech, op-ed, or industry article to get positive media attention. If a company's senior executive team isn't out once a month waving the corporate flag, it's a huge waste of talent. Let the media extend your marketing and public relations dollar!" (Russell Pennington, PenningtonES Executive Speechwriting, pencomm@aol.com)
"Innovation is the key to differentiation. Without it, you face the prospect of commoditization. So, companies should ALWAYS be looking to innovate, but do so in the area of its core competency, and then focus communications around that strategy." (Scott Friedman, Regional Director of North America, Text 100 Public Relations; scottf@text100.com) [not necessarily low cost]
"On a crowded tradeshow floor it is quite difficult to make your booth stand out unless you feature a purple elephant and are offering free rides. What has worked quite well for me in the past is to have a lot of BIG balloons around the booth. This may sound hokey but it effectively draws significant attention to your booth and will increase your traffic." (Michael Rubinov, Director of Marketing for NICE Systems; Michael.rubinov@nice.com)
"Polish your prose. Everything you write is a chance to make a good impression. The written word is one of the most effective tools for projecting an image that reflects credibility. Conversely, a letter, report, proposal or press release that is poorly written will crumble your image." (Kelly Rice, Director Corporate Development, Quantum Method, business strategy, communication and design)
"One key, low cost way to stand out from the competition is through the use of memorable, repeatedly used taglines associated with your business. As an example, though I've never bought or installed a faucet in my life, I know Moen faucets carry the tagline "Buy it for looks, buy it for life". Taglines, when properly done, help your advertising and promotional efforts by giving potential customers something to remember, and are especially suitable for businesses or individuals whose name alone isn't easily distinguishable or particularly memorable." (Joe Balestrino, Founder of Mr-SEO.com; - search engine optimization; joe@mr-seo.com)
Letter from the Editor…
I am all about brevity with regarding to the spoken or written word. My extensive background in Public Relations has transformed me into a succinct communications machine. I no longer have the ability to write or speak incessant babble. While this has served me quite well in my Marketing career, I'm also learning it has tremendous applicability in selling. You often hear about salespeople that talk 90% and listen 10% as opposed to the prescribed inverse equation.
In this vein, I believe a great way to stand out from your competitors is to talk very little about your business and rather ask tons of questions about their business. Wait for the prospective client to ask you about your products and services before going into your sales dissertation. Furthermore, keep your sales rhetoric short. There's nothing worse than a salesperson/marketer that doesn't know when to stop talking.
Now imagine you are a prospect looking for a computer consultant. You visit with three potentials and all go well except one of the three listens intently to everything you have to say and probes and probes into your business needs and challenges. The others simply provide a capabilities data dump. Let me ask you this… "Who would you choose?"
In the interest of brevity, that is all I am going to say.
