Member Kimberly Schwede, Creative Director of Bebe Bilingual, a collection of educational gifts and tools for children around the world recently found out that jumping on PR leads pays off. She responded to a lead and not long after her Spanish Food and Number placemat was featured in 002 Houston Magazine Foodie September 2012 issue in their children's section for "Whimsical Dinnerware and Utensils".
Kimberly shares her story below about how she snagged this press in just one week.
HOW BEBE BILINGUAL GOT FEATURED IN 002 HOUSTON MAGAZINE
How often have you been working on your own PR? Either by yourself or someone on your team?
I just started about 2 months ago. I haven't been submitting that much (probably 12 submissions) but I hope to do so more. Its a fun challenge. Tomorrow I should have two additional press links on Spanglishbaby.com and Cardandgiftblog.blogspot.com.
What press opportunity did you snag by replying to a PR Lead? My Spanish Food and Number placemat was featured in 002 Houston Magazine Foodie September 2012 issue in their children's section for "Whimsical Dinnerware and Utensils".
How long did the entire process take?
Fast! I submitted a link to my Etsy shop and Houston responded within a week. They just asked for a high res image to publish and link to the shop.
Did you learn anything through this process that you can share with other small business owners?
Try and proof the ad before print!! I was so excited then a bit disappointed when I realized they misspelled my last name. Definitely more excitement than disappoint though. Don't be shy to submit products. I feel the worst rejection is simply no response so you have nothing to lose. Houston initially was going to feature my Ocean Amigo placemat so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my Spanish Food + Number placemat. Show the press a few products to chose from.
Want more? Click here to read even more inspirational SNAGGED! stories and start pitching! You could be our next success story!
You may have noticed that the Tin Shingle website is a little slow lately, and some other things are a little...wonky too. We know, and here's why:
We're upgrading!
Yay. #growingpains
When we moved into our new Tin Shingle life, we decided to take that opportunity to invest in our infrastructure a bit, which is an understatement. For those who like geeky things, here's what we are doing, and how it impacts you:
Faster Website Server:
The website has been slow for too long. The reason? We're maxing out on memory. So, we're moving to a new server and a new frontier entirely. We've been at Media Temple for a long time, and do love them for most websites, but for ours, we need to move to the Amazon Cloud. That takes a lot of server tinkering, which is now mostly done (I don't think server work is ever realllllly done).
Upgrading Drupal:
Our website is built on an open source platform called Drupal. It has its own upgrades that websites can put into place. Like any update, stickiness can happen. We had to make this big upgrade on the live site, and before we moved to our new home in the Amazon Cloud. This is our current project - getting the site from Media Temple to Amazon.
Then Come Pretty Page Layouts!
We have visual changes as well, like a better top navigation, better layouts of the Marketplace and Diaries of Small Business Owners, and a better way to manage membership and billing details. Those will happen after the above uber techy things happen.
Frustrated about something? Email us.
We can take it. Please email us at info at tinshingle.com . We want to make the site great for you. If there is a problem, or if you can't find something, we'd love to hear about it so that we can make it better.
Meanwhile, we're hooked on reading Diaries of Small Business Owners!
We're reading some great stuff coming from our fellow small business owners in the trenches!
Get ready, because I'm about to reveal to you the easiest way to brand and promote yourself. It's free, it will reach several people every day, it could prove to be a gamechanger and YOU'RE in control of it...
I know what you're thinking: What, pray tell, could be that easy Sabina? I know PR and branding are hardly ever free and/or easy... Well hold on to your hats entrepreneurs because one of the most overlooked ways to promote yourself and your business (whether you are a product, service or expert based brand) is also the most simple to use: your email signature. In this post I'm going to share a few pointers regarding how you can ensure it provides maximum brand impact, and show you an example of a power signature, with the help of the lovely Jene Luciani, who knows how to work an email signature just like she works a Today Show segment!
Stop reading right now and open your email. Look at what your signature says. Is it "naked" (just your name or phone number)? Is it updated? Does it include your social media information? Is it "PR Sexy" (those of you who attend out #PRTuneUps know what I mean here)?
Your email signature is something people see every time you reach out via email and you control it. Sure, you don't want to add another massive paragraph to the end of your email, but you do want to include more than just your basic contact information. You want to let people see a glimpse of who you are, what you do, what you've got coming up and more!
Every time I receive an email from Jene I immediately think WOW that girl is on fire! Reading about what she's up to opens up a file in my brain that at times opens up again when someone mentions needing something or someone relate to her brand. In other words every email from her is like a mini-pitch bringing to my attention that she's a regular TV expert, when I can tune in to her next, I see how I can follow her on social media, I check out her book and more! All in a few lines at the end of an email! We'll share a glimpse at Jene's email shortly, but first, here are a few MUSTS for your email signature:
Always include your name, job title, company name and website.
Include links to your social media handles. This is major. I often see people begin following me (or one of my companies) after I send them an email, and I know they got the links off my email signature.
Insert some personality in it (if you feel up to it). I personally include a quote at the bottom of the emails that is very "me" and I change and update the quote quarterly.
Include a link or sentence sharing company news/updates (link to a new product, upcoming segment, recent press).
Don't write a novel but DO share a little bit about who you are - get them excited!
Be sure your contact information is up-to-date.
It is my personal belief that your email signature should be at the end of every email (even replies). Call it "a bit much" but I think it's worse to have someone searching through old emails for your contact info because you only have it in your initial emails. You can make that choice yourself but remember that if someone cannot reach you they may move on to someone they can reach!
There you have it! One of the easiest ways to get the word out about your business that are free and easy. And now the email the inspired us to write this post...In a recent email conversation with Jene Luciani I saw her signature and thought: this woman KNOWS how to sign off! So it's fitting she closes out this post as well:
Jene’ Luciani ~ www.JeneLuciani.com
Style & Beauty Expert * Bra Guru * TV Personality (NBC’s TODAY, Wendy Williams, E! News, Dr. Oz, Access Hollywood, Ricki Lake, Anderson Cooper, The Nate Berkus Show, Bravo, STYLE, OXYGEN)
*Bestselling Author, The Bra Book: The Fashion Formula to Finding the Perfect Bra
*SHAPE.COM Beauty Blogger
*Coming FALL 2013 – Rising Star by Jené Luciani, a line of lingerie-inspired handbags, powered by Eastsport (licensed under Hound Entertainment Group)
Follow @JeneLuciani • Bookings, Appearances & Spokesperson Opportunities: (We're witholding this info from the blog)
Upcoming Appearances:
NBC’s TODAY SHOW 4/3 @ 9 AM & 5/6 @ 10 AM EST
BETTER TV, 3/25, Chk local listings
SIMON FASHION NOW, THE WESTCHESTER MALL, 4/13 @ 1-2 PM
THE RICKI LAKE SHOW, 5/2, Chk Local Listings
Ignore for a moment the mud, and focus on the green growth popping out from the mud.
These are sprouts of my bleeding heart bush, which will look like the picture below when fully grown. Trouble is, these sprouts are located underneath my trash can that I moved this morning to take to the end of the driveway. I do this once a week, which means that the mud sees daylight maybe once or twice a week. I moved the bush to this spot last year, and completely forgot during the winter that it was in this spot.
That means that this lively plant is almost totally blocked from the sun, which is essential to its growth. Even with this major blockage, the plant is still growing. Which tells me that your business, if it's healthy in the root, can grow with even total blockage. If you are having distractions or blockages while growing your business, like a day-job, or a family, or an illness, these can be major blockages to your business growth, and can cause frustration for you.
But look at the pink buds of this bleeding heart, and know that your business can continue to grow despite the blockage. You will need to move the blockage, because certainly the bush cannot grow tall if you keep putting a trash can on it. But this resilient bush has been in two locations in my yard, both of which have been awkward. The first was between two other giant holly bushes. Totally the wrong place. And now it's in the corner of the yard, but obviously in a place that is better suited to tuck away our trash cans.
Which forces me to move this bush yet again. And I've thought of the spot: just on the other side of this fence, in a corner of my side yard where I've never known what to plant there. This new place may be just the spot for it to thrive and spread out.
Blockage unblocked. But know that you and your business can still thrive in the dark mud with minimal sunlight. Even darkness can't hold you back...
Googling "JC Penney CEO" produces a lot of good drama to read through and learn from as we watch the Crazy happen at JC Penney, a once seemingly stable brand. When JC Penney snagged Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail Operations Ron Johnson to be their CEO, they did so hoping he would revitalize stores sales like he did at Apple, when he was behind the development of the now famous Apple store design (currently being ripped off in China), the plan seemed like a no brainer. He'd been the Vice President of Merchandising at Target, and Target is pretty hot now. Under his care at Apple, Apple's annual sales exceeded one billion dollars within their two years of opening, which, broke the record set by The Gap.
I was fascinated with Ron Johnson's plan to turn retail sales upside down, where he stated that the retail model was broken. He had a four-part plan, the first of which was to cut sales. The rest of which included building mini-stores within a store, and featuring top designers, like many of the big box stores have successfully done.
But he didn't want to cut sales as in, make them deeper discounts. He removed them, and introduced flat low pricing. I believe in a flat income tax, but not pricing! I shop by sales 70% of the time! I'm a sale rack junkie! If you're a designer and your stuff is on the sale rack, don't think that I don't think your stuff isn't hot. I do, I just flock to the deal sometimes when I'm buying high quality so that I can buy more of it.
Not being a pricing or retail expert, I expected this plan to fail. When I saw the JC Penney commercials starring Ellen being confused about $X.99 pricing, I didn't get why her character was confused. So when the quarterly sales came out recently, it was sad. Really sad for JC Penney, and for a visionary who thought this would work.
I reached out to my branding expert and friend Melissa Wildstein of The Matchstick Group, seeing if she could throw me a quote for this article. I loved her response so much, I'll just repost it here for you:
“In my opinion, JCP doesn't have a pricing problem, they have a positioning and branding problem. Penny's has always been a tried and true discounter. The people who shopped there did so because they wanted a good deal. Solid merchandise at a discounted price. People who didn't shop there likely didn't shop there because they didn't like the stigma or the brands that JCP carried.
“Take two discount shoppers:
“My friend Mandy: Always looking for a deal, combs through the sales rack at Marshall's, hits up the thrift store, never sets foot in the grocery store without a stack of coupons. Isn't seduced by name brands, just wants a new top / pants / furniture / whatever that fits her needs at a cheap price. She would shop at the old Penney's.
“My sister-in-law Michelle: Always looking for a deal, combs through the sales rack at Neiman's, subscribes online to the Nordstrom deal of the day, her Amex card is her best friend and she is the queen of racking up cash back through their dining program. She would never even consider shopping at Penney's.
“By eliminating the sales and moving to 'everyday low prices' means that Mandy has no incentive to shop there. She doesn't care about brands and now without the sales, she's not sure that she's getting a 'deal'.
“With the partnerships and store layout changes and whatever, Ron is likely trying to appeal to a customer more like the Michelle's of the world. But Penney's has such an old, discount brand heritage that despite their best efforts, it's going to take a long time to get the more affluent, more brand conscious customer into the doors.
“Regarding the Ellen ads: I'm not sure what the ads were supposed to mean - and I don't think that anyone else did either. Heck even WalMart's 'every day low prices' go on sale from time to time. Women like to shop. They like to look, they like to browse and they're often impulse buyers. Sales, discounts, coupons trigger impulse shopping. And die-hard discounters don't buy unless they have a deal. So by eliminating the deals at JCP, they turned away their most loyal customers.
“Ron needs to talk to his customers - past and potentially future - to figure out what they want and who they're willing to buy that from. My guess is that unless Penney's were to change their name, they aren't going to get the results that everyone is looking for from the company. I think that there's still so much tied to the old Penney's brand that new customers aren't going to be willing to give it a try unless there's some serious incentive - like a sale (ha!)
“And as for the name change from JC Penney to JCP: It's like Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranding as KFC and pushing more grilled chicken. Everyone still knows what it is...And they didn't substantially change their offering - just tried to promote a little healthier alternative.
“What JCP is doing is like Kentucky Fried Chicken changing their name to KFC and deciding only to sell gluten free organic free-range salads. WHAT?!? You don't go there for free range, organic chicken salads - you go there for a bucket of chicken and biscuits."
And there you have it, folks. Women like sales, and people like chicken and biscuits with gravy.
What are your thoughts on this? If you're a business owner, how to sales impact your business?
Oh the joys of planning a wedding. If you weren't reading this and we were talking you would hear the heavy sarcasm dripping from that phrase. So much to do, so many vendors to talk to and so little time. If you're an entrepreneur or small business owner and not a "civilian" you'll understand me when I say the pressure to get it all done can really get to you. That said, I'm currently knee deep in my own wedding planning and found a silver lining to all of the work that vendor negotiations and conversations about why I do not want a "signature cocktail" entail:
I love me some Etsy artists and shop owners, why? Because they are always raising the bar for the most touching, appropriate, and effective ways of saying "Thank You!" to a customer who places an order.
This artist, Kate Endle, has marketed her brand everywhere, from Etsy to shops to markets (keep up with where she is on twitter). I found her illustrations in a paper store in Beacon, NY and bought her 2012 calendar of roosters, a whale, black birds, and other lovely, cooing animals. I've since repurposed the calendar illustrations into square posters for my son's room. Instead of finding a new artist via calendar from another store, I missed my monthly Kate Endle in my front hall, so went to her website and bought the 2013 calendar from her Etsy store.
Right away, I was sent a thank you note telling me when my order would ship. A few short days later, a brown paper package arrived on my porch, with this cute little owl pictured above next to my address! Meanwhile, Kate herself (or maybe her assistant, but doesn't matter to me) sent me a thank you email, asking me to leave some positive feedback for her at her Etsy shop if I was happy. Yup, I am! And thanks to her reminder, I will leave that feedback. I did know it was common practice at Etsy, but I always forget about it.
Hand-written notes go a long way. Especially when they are drawn. ;) Note: The colored squiggles on this owl are my daughter's when she and I were coloring. I had cut out the owl from the USPS packaging so that we could have some original artwork to look at in the kitchen.
Yes, now you can update your business page while waiting in line at the drug store! There may be an app for that, but the easiest way for me is to email my update + a photo to my Facebook business page.
I tell you how in our Ask the Expert series on this website. Click here for full directions. Hint: Facebook already set this up for you, and it's in your Admin area of your business page...
You're a pro. People want to know what you know - and hire you for it. One of the best strategies for landing new clients is to validate your brand online with expert knowledge, and to get in front of new eyes who have never seen or met you before. That's why you go after press leads, and that's why you care about SEO and how it works.
Here's what's working at Tin Shingle: people searching for special answers to specific problems, and landing on Tin Shingle's Ask the Expert series to find the answer and meet a trusted new expert to follow. This series is free for all business people to read, and all articles must have Tin Shingle's approval and meet our editorial policies.
Want to be a featured author in our Ask the Expert series? Pitch us. Your angle is:
what's new in your industry?
how does something work?
what are common mistakes that your clients make?
how do you do that cool thing that works in your industry?
Here's something you should know about me: I LOVE posters that employ the use of graphics (photos or backgrounds) with cool typography over them. You see these regularly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even company's websites. Why do I love them?
They allow you to share inspirational quotes or company messages in a highly visual (and share-able) way.
People in social media feeds love sharing images they like or are motivated by, and if you slap your company's name, website or social media handles at the bottom you're getting your name out there!
Who wants to see a boring "sale here" post when you can add some KAPOW with a poster including an image of your sale items and the text right over it! Here's an example from Grey Era and its founder Sierra Fromberg.
They are a great addition to a social media campaign or launch!
They are simple to make: low workload and HIGH impact!
You catch my drift, and I'm sure you've seen and possibly shared these posters in the feeds you follow. Also, I'm sure that you, like me, may want to create them for your own use but aren't really sure where to start. NEVER FEAR, we've done the work for you!
We connected with our sources, including the woman on our Tin Shingle team who knows all, our community manager Jackie Nees, and I've got two apps for you that make poster creation child's play! Find my current favorites listed below. They are free to start using, only require a smartphone and for a minimal fee (a couple bucks) you can upgrade to more backgrounds, no watermarks and more font and text options!
InstaQuote - Use your own images or select from the background choices they provide, pick a font and text color and you're good to go! This App also lets you pull from your own camera roll, Facebook, Instagram and more and of course when you're done you can share it over your network.
Overgram - Yet another great App that lets you add beautiful typography to your images. The main difference here is that it relies on your photos instead of supplying you with background posters to select from. The user interface is also a bit different and to be honest was a bit harder for me to master, but once I did I loved it!
Both accomplish similar results and take different paths to get there. I suggest you test them both out (via the free versions) and select the one that works for you - I personally have both on my iPhone and am switching back and forth until I fall deeply in love with one of them!
Submitted by Jackie Nees on | 0 Comments
“In my opinion, JCP doesn't have a pricing problem, they have a positioning and branding problem. Penny's has always been a tried and true discounter. The people who shopped there did so because they wanted a good deal. Solid merchandise at a discounted price. People who didn't shop there likely didn't shop there because they didn't like the stigma or the brands that JCP carried.
