Concentre Communications, Madison, WI, branding, Website design, public relations
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Written by Jennifer Dinehart
MARCH 17, 2009
Why you should continue marketing in a recession?
In the past few months, many business executives have asked me what they should do about marketing in a recession. My answer is very simple. If you want your business to be successful at any time, you need to continuously market it. Marketing is not a one-time event; rather, it is a continuous process that brings leads and customers to your company on an ongoing basis.
If you personally want to remain healthy, you can’t just take good care of yourself on occasion. You must eat healthy, exercise and practice healthy habits all the time, whether you feel like it or not.
In business, whether you are succeeding or struggling, the prescription is the same.
The economy is tight and buying decisions are being delayed. The competition is tougher than ever – the pressure is on. Achieving or exceeding your company’s revenue and sales falls squarely on your shoulders. You need your team firing on all cylinders.
Customers and sales are the engines of any business. But, how do you drive sales up when you have a smaller budget due to a down economy. One way is to ditch traditional marketing in favor of an often less expensive and just as effective marketing option. A lot of shifts are being made from traditional media to other forms of technology-driven marketing services. These can keep your business above water through rough (waters) economic period.
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Written by Jennifer Dinehart
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
Why Use an Agency to do Your Public relations?
The other day I met with a senior marketing manager from a company with many diverse products. The company had never used an outside agency before. The manager asked me why they should use a consultant instead of hiring an employee to do their communications and public relations (PR).
There are many reasons. When you hire us, you aren’t just employing one person, you’re hiring a whole department—one that produces tangible, dollars-and-cents results. We work as a team staffed by experts in many areas of the communications field. We’ll devote full attention to your company’s opportunities and needs with impartial and confidential handling of your information.
Our professionals know and have relationships with key media people. We know how to get specific news placement. We know how to get direct reporter-interest response.
The media depend on contacts that they trust to bring them a real news story. They trust us. We are skilled at communicating each client’s unique strengths in an interesting, innovative way. We know how to find the reporters, pick the right publication and target the right audience online and off.
PR is more than press releases. Effective PR is choosing the correct placement of your news. It’s getting your name out into the marketplace, getting that exact placement in a specific newspaper or trade publication. It’s knowing how to get customers’ and all your stakeholders’ attention when and where they want it.
Using sound communications strategies, we can increase the support and awareness of your company. Our full-time business is communicating ideas and messages to the public, and garnering support for your products and/or services.
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Written by Jennifer Dinehart
February 5, 2009
Does Your Website Need An Overhaul?
Time and time again many marketers ask me this question.
For many of you, your Website probably started out as an online billboard or brochure. That time has changed. Websites are now your No. 1 business calling card. Audiences expect to quickly get detailed information, real services and take actions important to them online.
The key is to keep sight of your company’s goals and audience’s needs. It can start with comments like “our Website looks dated.” Or, “The amount of clutter has built up and key information is hard to find on our site.” And, “Are we doing everything we can online to have an impact?”
A few years ago, a thoroughly modern Website could ignore social media, RSS, accessibility and search engine optimization; it could do without Flash-based animation, rich media or have no blog. You only added content weekly or much less. When changes were needed, IT was called in to work with HTML code.
Things have changed, and keep changing. Now there are content management systems that you can use to update your site easily and as frequently as you’d like and much more.
But how do you know? If you are unsure, you can always ask for a Website review. It’ll tell you what you might benefit from when having your Website updated or redesigned.
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