“We want to stand out from the competition. We’re really different, so be as creative as you can so we can stand out.” This, in a nutshell, was what a client told us once. We had done the discovery, thought we had really honed in on who they were, and what their story was. They weren’t shy about telling us how different they were, and that was exciting for us! We really got our creative juices going, and came up with some great concepts that differentiated them from others in their industry.

Then came time to present. The client looked at our messaging and proposed campaigns with dismay. At one point during our presentation, they said “yeah, we know this is what we told you, but what we really want is to look just like the 500 pound gorilla in town.”

In the end, while the client really didn’t end up standing out from the competition at all, we realized that the process was useful to them in some way. It helped them realize they didn’t want to be too risky, and felt more confident with a conservative approach. They were OK being one of the pack.

Many business owners and leaders, however, want to do everything they can to stand out. They tend to follow a marketing and PR plan that includes things like:

1.    Taking risks: They’re not afraid to be contrarian in their industries, or go head to head with the 500 pound gorilla. We once had to talk a client (with no fear of risk taking) out of getting himself arrested for his “cause”. We applauded the dedication, and in the end, developed an alternate tactic that allowed him to stand out, get attention, and keep his rap sheet clean.
2.    Forging a new path: Is your industry already crowded? Don’t want to compete with the big guy? Create your own path. Be the company known for providing goods or services to a niche market. Develop a new way to provide that service. We have a client who bucked all conventional wisdom in his industry and began offering a service in a way, and for a price, that no one had been able to do before. Because he stands out, he has gained not only direct customers, but also a great deal of referral business from others in his industry.
3.    Being creative: This isn’t just about your ads, or trying to come up with what you hope will be a viral video. Being creative involves allowing yourself the intellectual freedom, and introspective strength, to shape your story in a way that’s truly you – and to live that story every day. We do a whacky Christmas card for a financial firm each year. Does this diminish their credibility or expertise? No! It means they’re telling their own story and showing they’re real, approachable, and relatable people.

While these are things that frightened one client, they’re things that many businesses striving to identify and live their brand each day embrace with passion. Which path is for you?

So, you have a degree in marketing, communications or public relations. What does that mean for entering the workforce? The harsh reality is that in many employers’ minds, it may not mean all that much, as a large number of people with college degrees have no practical experience and/or meaningful internships.

Of the resumes that we receive at KolbeCo, roughly 20% have meaningful experience. In addition, they are not students of the media, meaning they don’t watch the news, read the paper or are active in building a professional brand for themselves on social media. 

As I look back at previous generations, many professionals of years past did not have the educational experience, but they had practical experience. They learned on the job. They were always passionate students of their trade.

Allow me to share my grandfather’s story, a man who faced a challenging childhood, managed to get a high school education, and started his career selling irons door-to-door during the Great Depression. But the man who began as an iron salesman had a passion for engineering. He was self taught, never stopped learning, and went to work for Douglas Aircraft in California, which later merged and became McDonnell-Douglas. During his time there, he became the chief engineer on the AV8 Harrier project and worked in a lead role on the Apollo project. Yet he only had a high school diploma. Why was he successful leading a team of 2200 engineers? Because he was a student of engineering – even in retirement! He loved designing aircraft, and it was a big part of his identity. He remembered many of the internal debates within the walls of McDonnell Douglas – now Boeing. These were passionate debates on how to address problems and make the designs better. Believe it or not, I have met people on his team who remember debates with my grandfather from 30 or 40 years ago! That is what I call passion.

I believe there are lessons to be learned from my grandfather’s story – lessons that translate to the marketing and PR industry. The story teaches us that it’s not just about that diploma hanging on the wall. Want to have success in marketing? Be passionate, push boundaries, and most importantly, make mistakes.  Want to be a great PR person? Have a true, authentic appreciation for the media. Become a consumer of media – read a journalist’s articles, watch the news, follow them on social media, learn the audience. You will soon understand what a journalist or a producer likes. You don’t need to ask them and shouldn’t have to. As you learn this you become a resource as a PR person and not a pest. 

But being a great professional is also about finding your personal passion, and gaining life experience. Looking to enter the marketing field and not sure how to get started? Volunteer at a nonprofit. Explore the world. The more depth you have as a marketing person the more creative you can become. While some of this comes from experience, there are numerous creative people who are young and always thinking of new ways to push the boundaries. As a new graduate, look to push the more senior experienced people to their limits as well. They will appreciate it if they too are passionate people.

Education is a great start, but where you go from there is up to you. 

Hip hop pioneer Chuck D. once said, “Don’t believe the hype.” Since I was a youngster, I have always tried to live my life by these words of perspicacity. What exactly do I mean by “hype,” you ask? It is when a person gets caught up in the minutiae of a situation and they refuse to see the big picture.

These types of folks are normally very numbers driven. If they can’t measure the results numerically then, well, the efforts are completely wasted in their mind. For example, think of your doctor and the Body Mass Index scale.

The BMI scale is a formula physicians use to evaluate the shape of an individual’s body based on their height and weight. The problem is it only accounts for two variables: weight and height. I am 6 feet, 185 pounds and according to my doctor I am—you guessed it—fat. The scale is totally numbers focused, completely ignoring external factors such as bone size and muscle mass.

If I valued my doctors opinion—which clearly I don’t—and got down to 160 pounds I would not only look like Screech, but women would probably start to mistake me as one of their own.

The same kind of crude tool is used to measure success in the world of marketing. Over the course of my career, I have been involved in several successful marketing campaigns; however, not all of them, in the short term, could be measured in total sales. If a quick increase in sales is a short term goal, then that needs to be explicit from the get-go.

One campaign sticks out in particular. It was a social media campaign for a local home builder. The goal was to simply educate their target on the current housing market and expand the reach of the brand within the St. Louis Metro area.

Upon completion, the client was perplexed that they didn’t sell any new homes during the duration of the campaign. To them, it was a complete failure. I, on the other hand, was thrilled with the outcome.  Social engagement was through the roof and growing steadily. People were talking about us. We were “sexy.”

Six months after the campaign, the client sold 2 new homes in one month. That was more than they had sold in that last 9 months. While these folks did not participate in the social campaign, they were, in fact, aware of their newfound social presence.

Sure a quick boost in sales is nice, but it doesn’t always equate to long term success. If you can expand your reach and increase brand awareness, you can reap the benefits from one campaign for many years.

The same can be said for weight loss. If the number on the scale doesn’t say “you are skinny,” but people complement your appearance… your efforts were a success.

There was no “Hi” or “Hello” when I picked up the phone – just, “So what’s your damn excuse?”

I am used to coming up with excuses. The trouble was that I was not even sure who it was. “I sent you an email about our 20th anniversary party, and you didn’t show up. You didn’t even reply.”

At the time, I was working as editor at the St. Louis Small Business Monthly, so email announcements about anniversaries had become as common as spam messages about male enhancement. And, as far as my inbox rules were concerned, they were treated in much the same way.

As a disclaimer: I do think that anniversaries are significant. Running a business is hard. There are so many ways to fail and, at times, a great deal of luck is involved in keeping the doors open.

But here’s the question: How much does the media care about your anniversary or opening or company retreat or new book or new customer? The answer: Not at all. This leaves many business owners feeling like Rodney Dangerfield when they are on the phone with editors, news desks or bloggers. Calls go unanswered and emails unreturned. The media seems to lack any respect for the dedication and commitment it takes to successfully run a business.

But, back to that phone call.

Seeing as how I was not interested in his anniversary, but I do, at times, suffer a “decent human being seizure,” I asked him to tell me more about his company. What has helped him to be successful for so many years? Does he have wisdom to share?

What he said was this:

“We do engineering – all kinds. And we are great at customer service. Our customers love us.”

What I heard with this.

“I have no story. I have no story. I have no story.”

I heard that because great customer service is not remarkable. Almost every company claims to have it and rarely is it actually true when you interview customers. Also – anniversaries happen to lots of businesses every day. And simply doing well enough to stay open is not a compelling story.

What I wanted to hear was something greater truth. I was in the business of creating something remarkable with depth for readers. Something that was not this: “You will likely stay open longer if you have this thing called ‘great customer service.’”

In my years there as an editor, I had heard stories about business failure such as the one Eliot Frick at bigwidesky told me about killing his company. I had heard stories about overcoming what most think is a disability such as Nathan Stooke at Wisper ISP who was born with dyslexia. I spent a whole day with Attilio D’Agostino to witness the power of singular focus on your passion.

This phone call, though, was not one of those stories. At least, I will never know because he couldn’t tell me.

–

Here are some truths about media relations that most PR folk are probably too nice to tell you (and I am a new enough convert, so I don’t know any better):

Your story isn’t that special. At least, the way that you tell it isn’t. Most people (PR folk included) do not know what makes their story compelling. Chances are you have a great story. But, it is most likely not what you think it is.

Media folks (editors, bloggers, and social media wizards) are customers – not promotional devices. You need to serve them with that supposed great customer service. That means you will have to get to know what it is they want. And that is going to take some commitment and time from you. You need to read their publication or listen to the show or watch the video blog.

You are going to suck at media relations. This is not because you are not intelligent or capable. It’s because you need an advocate. You need an objective party that can craft something for you and can make the introductions you need.

–

You won’t be able to get the respect you deserve until you respect yourself enough to learn your story. Stand up for yourself. Be heard.

Today’s lesson is: proofing. It’s a fast-paced world and people are always on the move – and wanting things, well, yesterday. We St. Louis agency folks are always striving to do our best to provide a product that is awesome, gives you confidence, and is done in a timely fashion. But I cannot stress the importance of PROOFING. Everyone! Staffers, clients—I’m talking to YOU!

While I pride myself on quality work, I am only human. Spell-check is not fool-proof (there, their, they’re), and I don’t always know that you wanted to use the 1-800 number as opposed to your local one. Projects are ultimately a team effort between the client, and the agency staff working on the project. It is important when receiving a proof to SLOW DOWN, and really take the necessary time to read through it carefully. Resist the urge to just look at it and say: “Wow this looks cool.”  (Although I’m happy you think so.)

Often times, parties are in a rush or working on something else so they simply glance at it and say: “Ok, it looks good.” As time passes, they then realize after looking at it a second time (4 hours later, or the next day even) that there is something missing.  By this time, I have possibly already sent this “approved” art to the printer, thus costing you time and money.

Scenario #2 is: “Okay I have one edit, and then we are good.” Fast forward two hours later: “I have another change.” The next day: “I don’t like paragraph 3.” While I’m happy to fulfill your editing wishes, you may have cost yourself valuable time and money by not simply taking the appropriate time to sit down with your proof and read through it thoroughly.

Proofing is time and money – for both the agency and the client. For a St. Louis marketing firm, it is losing money on the time used making countless edits beyond the scope of the project. And for the client, it could mean an additional charge on their bill depending on what kind of billing agreement was in place.

So save time, save money, save sanity and… proof it!

I really want to make this short and sweet, but we will see how this goes…

I’m never shocked in this day and age, when clients are looking for inexpensive ways to market themselves. The economy has been a rollercoaster ride for us all. However, I am shocked when I see businesses choosing not to explore their options and forfeit putting a better foot forward to benefit themselves when cutting corners.

Guys! Your business card, letterhead, direct mail cards are representative of, well, you. They are your “face.” Your calling card. So when I see a business card that someone printed off their inkjet—perforated edges end up in my hand—I cringe. Is it representative of the work you do? Are you careless? Do you provide sloppy service? Do I want to spend my money with you, send business your way…?

Now I know some of you want to reach through the computer screen and slap me. “I don’t have money to waste on printing cards.”

Okay, I get that we designers can get carried away. We have dreams of presses, die cuts, crazy materials, and metallic inks, but hey – WE GET IT! And we can HELP you get what you need to get the business you want. There are many alternatives these days, and dare I say it, even online printers who print SUPER cheap.

So before you DIY, here’s an FYI…you have options. Just ask!