What’s required
Believe it or not, you don’t have to be a great writer to be a successful columnist. Good, solid writing skills will do just fine. Editors are more interested in your ideas and industry expertise than your ability to string prose into profound statements.

However, writing a column will eat up a good chunk of your time. Expect to spend at least four hours researching and writing each column. And you’ll have to be timely. Editors will expect you to think of story ideas and deliver the finished column on-deadline (there are no excuses for being late in the news world).

Who’s interested
Begin by selecting some potential publications. Your best bets include:

• Arts and entertainment newspapers – These are weekly publications that include news commentary, columnists and listings of local happenings.
• Community newspapers – Published once or twice a week, these periodicals specialize in reporting the happenings in select neighborhoods.
• Association publications – Typically published monthly, these periodicals are targeted to the members of industry associations.
• Online versions of the above – Don’t get all dejected if you don’t see many columnist opportunities in printed publications. The online versions often feature far more content and writing opportunities.
• Community-focused websites – This category includes small websites dedicated to select communities, as well as big websites (like Yahoo) that feature community-focused sections.

Why go begging to periodicals when you could just start your own blog? When you write for an existing publication, it comes with an existing group of readers – and readers are the most difficult thing for any writer to find.

Making your pitch
In the news world, proposing a story (or column) idea is called “pitching.” The letter outlining your proposal is called a “pitch letter.”

Once you’ve targeted a publication or two, familiarize yourself with the content before making contact. Read at least eight past issues to get a feel for the kind of subjects it typically covers, the writing style it tends to use, the community it focuses on and more. There’s nothing editors hate more than people pitching story and column ideas that are completely foreign to its usual fare.

All editors care about is satisfying the desires of their reader, so that’s what you want to emphasize in your pitch letter. Every publication has a primary target demographic. Your job is to figure out what that demographic is (by studying past stories and ads), then make those people the focus of your column idea.

Your first contact should be with an editor (usually the managing editor), not a reporter or other columnist. It should be in writing (rather than a phone call). And it should include the following:

• A one-page pitch letter introducing yourself and outlining your column idea.
• A sample column or two (pretend you’re writing your first columns for the publication).
• Your resume (not necessary but very helpful).

If you don’t receive a response within a week, follow-up by phone. (It’s considered bad form to pitch your idea to more than one person at the same publication at the same time.)

Writing like a columnist

• Identifying topics – In the beginning, you may wonder how you’ll ever find time to write about all the column topics swirling in your head. As time goes on, however, you’ll probably find yourself grasping for something – anything! – to write about. To avoid dry spells, become an avid reader of other columnists, hone your research skills, and keep tabs on new trends.
• Adding perspective – As a columnist, you’re not reporting the news, you’re commenting on it. So while your column ideas may originate from news stories and other columnists, it’s what you do with those ideas that matters. Be honest about your feelings and giving with your opinions.
• Writing quickly – The first thing you want to do when writing a column is get something down on paper – either the basic facts from your research or some gut reactions to a topic. Just get something on the paper. Then start arranging those chunks of text into an order that makes sense. Finally, start flushing out the ideas, developing new ideas and creating transitions from one topic to the other.
• Editing your work – Any professional writer who’s honest will tell you that their first draft is almost always an embarrassment. It’s only after editing, editing, and editing more that something presentable starts to take shape. For the best results, allow each draft to sit for a day between edits (when you return to it, you’ll discover a whole new perspective).

Exemplary examples

• “On the Home Front” – Linda Skolnick (a real estate agent in the Westport-Weston area of Connecticut) has been writing this bi-monthly column for her local paper, the Westport News, for a few years now. And some would say it’s one of the reasons why she’s consistently ranked the top-producing agent at Westport’s highest-grossing sales office.
• “Nickie Fitness” – Nicole Glor is a personal trainer in New York city who created a workout program specifically for military wives. To promote it, she writes a column called Nickie Fitness for the Web site military.com.
• The National Society of Newspaper Columnists – The NSNC is home to hundreds of amateur and professional columnists. To see a sampling of the columns they write – and the kind of publications that accept them – visit the Links page at columnists.com.

Additional benefits
Most business people who write columns to promote their products and services soon discover the extra effort required is accompanied by an array of extra benefits, as well:

• The research you do for your columns will undoubtedly make you a better manager of your business (and a better informed resource for your customers).
• Becoming a columnist will allow you to network with other columnists – valuable relationships you can use to increase your knowledge base and gain industry-wide recognition.
• The feedback from readers will provide you with rare insights into the true wants and needs of your target market.

People often think of columnists as ideologues providing some sort of public service. But for most of the business people who do it, writing a column is really just a savvy strategy for improving the bottom line.

Benefit #1: Newfound credibility
Corporate credibility is one of the hardest things for small- and mid-sized businesses to build. It takes years. But as soon as the public sees your logo and name side-by-side with a charity they’ve come to trust, they assume your business deserves some of the same respect.

Benefit #2: More attention for your marketing efforts
People open, read and respond to marketing efforts from charities far more often than they do for-profit marketing offers. By co-branding the charity’s marketing materials (adding your logo), your brand could gain far more exposure to your target audience than it would in a solo marketing effort.

Benefit #3: Face-to-face interaction
Charity events offer salespeople a rare opportunity to personally mix with their target market in a setting where consumers actually welcome the advance.

Benefit #4: A great reason to call
Many charities depend on their corporate sponsors to drum up interest in events and solicit donations. That gives you a great reason to call your target market (and the charity’s list of donors), introduce / re-introduce your company and leave a good impression of your business – all in the name of charity.

Benefit #5: Free publicity
As the sponsor of a popular charity event, you’ll get valuable publicity each time the local media run a story about it. Play your cards right, and TV news / newspapers will provide pre-event coverage (to encourage participation) and a post-event roundup (featuring the amount of money raised, the winners, etc.).

Benefit #6: Reduced marketing expenses
Most charities will be happy to provide your company with free marketing templates and materials if you’ll manage the implementation / distribution. Plus, there’s usually an opportunity to use the charity’s mailing list for co-branded marketing efforts of your own, as well.

Choosing a charity
Choose a charity close to your heart, but also make sure it’s reputable and well-run. One of the best places to start is Charity Navigator – a free and completely independent online service that analyzes and evaluates over 5,500 U.S. charities.

Promoting your business
There are lots of ways to effectively promote your business via a charitable event / drive without stealing any of the charity’s thunder:

• Direct mail: Direct mail is one of the best mediums for promoting a charitable drive / event (and advertising your business / brand in the process). Even if you do a solo mailing to your own marketing list, make sure the charity gets top billing to maximize the response rates.
• Email: For the best results, include the name of the charity / event in the subject line of your marketing emails (even better, have the organization send the co-branded emails on your behalf).
• Social media: Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools are terrific for ongoing communications about a charity event / drive (and for developing a deeper relationship with your target audience in the process).
• Event T-shirts: At every charitable event, make sure all employees (plus their spouses and children) wear a T-shirt with your company name – just like the good folks at Weichert Realtors.
• Event banners and signs: At a charitable event, there’s almost always an opportunity to hang a banner promoting your business (when you’re a sponsor). Make sure the sign includes as many “brand differentiators” (catchy tagline, attractive logo, striking color scheme and unique selling points) as possible.
• Event booth: At a charity event, there’s often lots of downtime for, and milling about by, the attendees, which makes a corporate booth a great opportunity to interact with and educate prospective customers.
• Premium giveaways: Charitable events / drives are ideal for distributing premiums (pens, calendars, flashlights and other sought-after everyday items) with your company name and logo imprinted on them (or co-branded with the charitable organization).
• Press releases: Most companies wish they had more newsworthy events to communicate to the press. Charitable events / drives are almost always of interest to reporters and editors.
• Take ownership: To maximize the impact of these marketing ideas, consider creating your own charity event. When the name of the event proudly features your business, the marketing benefits can be magnified many times over. See this fundraising checklist for a better idea of what that entails.

Examples of companies doing it right

• For a taste of the positive media coverage an ongoing corporate charity campaign can produce, see this news story about the ERA Castelo Real Estate Group.
• Swagger Gifts, a retail store in North Carolina, found a way to not only give back to the community but also increase customer visits and generate news stories by offering not one but two fundraiser-events (with tie-ins to the premier of a popular new movie). Read all about it
• Hosting a charity event / drive doesn’t have to be a big deal (not if you think creatively). The Yun Fitness Boot Camp has raised more than $2,000 for the Make-a-Wish Foundation (and boosted its cache in the community) by hosting four no-frills workouts. All they ask is that each participant donates $15. See how simple it can be.

These days, every company is looking to squeeze more value from the old marketing budget. By joining forces with a charitable cause, you’ll reduce marketing expenses, expose your brand to all-new prospects, gain valuable credibility, deepen existing customer relationships, pick up some publicity and give everyone in your company something to feel better about. That’s a huge return, and all for a very modest marketing spend.

The right time to write

Handwritten notes are never going to replace corporate correspondence. But at times like these, there’s often nothing better:

• When you want to say thank you (for a big sale, for a referral, for a recommendation, for being a loyal customer).
• When you’re trying to win a new account / customer (i.e. “I very much enjoyed our meeting yesterday. Should we earn your business, I can guarantee…”).
• When your company messes up (often, a handwritten note is just the thing to keep a mistake from turning into a lost customer or a messy legal issue).
• When you want to network (i.e. “I enjoyed our conversation at the PRSA meeting last week and would welcome the opportunity to sit down and talk with you more about your company’s fitness goals and how our facility might be able to help”).
• When you want to prove you’re the consummate professional (i.e. “I’m sorry to hear you chose another agent to list your home, but I very much appreciate the opportunity to provide a proposal. I also want you to know that, should you have any questions or concerns, I’d be happy to offer advice”).

The formula for success

• Resist the urge to really hype your products or services. This is a unique opportunity to show you care (which, today, is often the most alluring sales technique of all).
• Don’t fret about your handwriting. Write slowly; or print if that looks better. People will be so thrilled to see you personally wrote, they’ll be more than willing to overlook any penmanship problems.
• Keep it short, but sweet. You don’t want to be curt, but do try to limit your notes to just three to five sentences.
• Use a conversational writing style. In other words, pretend you’re writing a note to a friend, not a cover letter to a prospective employer.
• Add a little something extra to the envelope. While it may be fine to include a business card, think about adding something even friendlier (like a special “President’s Pass” discount card, or a paper bookmark with your favorite quote).
• Try to write one per day. If you write notes in bulk, they’ll come across as staid and forced. But take 10 minutes every workday to write just one or two truly heartfelt notes, and the recipients will never forget it (or you).

Handwritten notes are classy, unique and memorable. Plus, you’ll find the more notes you send, the more you receive in return (together with appreciative phone calls, gifts and good wishes).

If you want your marketing efforts to be successful, they need to feature a message that resonates with your target audience. Here are six seasonal themes perfect for summer:

Outdoor fun - Everyone wants to be outdoors having fun during the summer. Play along (and make a name for yourself in the process) by featuring summer-fun tips together with your marketing messages. Combine your marketing messages with things like a barbecue recipe, a schedule of local summer events, water-safety tips, sunbathing dos/don’ts and helpful weather-news resources.

National pride - When times are tough, people tend to put more emphasis on country. That’s why any marketing efforts with a Fourth of July message are bound to resonate with your target audience this summer.

Health and fitness - Summer is, of course, prime time for messages about looking and feeling better. If you offer any kind of health service or product, consider a message like:

• “It’s bikini season. Is your body ready?”

Gardening – Combining gardening tips with your marketing messages is sure to attract attention and build name recognition. Even renters are eager for advice about lawn care, pruning and watering.

Free! – During summer, there are all kinds of sought after promotional items you can offer as giveaways via your marketing messages: hats, drink glasses, sunblock and much, much more (all branded with your logo and marketing message). Consider promoting them with a message like:

• “This summer’s coolest accessory – free to the first 50 visitors on August 22.”

Summer specials – Discounts and special deals make great marketing messages, whatever the time of year. But during summer, more people are out and about (which means more takers).

One great message (or marketing effort) isn’t going to make your summer, of course. Consistently marketing yourself year-round – using a variety of marketing mediums – is the other key to true success. But now that you’ve got these ideas for messages, there’s nothing stopping you from getting started right away. Right?

• Features are the tangible attributes used to describe an item (“3,000-square-foot home”), a product (“latex outdoor paint”) or service (“24-hour roadside assistance”). In short, features define the thing.
• Benefits take that list of raw features to the next level, explaining how those things will positively impact the user. They explain what the item, product or service will accomplish; what the consumer will gain. In short, benefits sell.

To use a food analogy: Features are the cake, while benefits are the icing – and you don’t serve one without the other.

When considering a home, buyers want to know that it has a big picture window, an expansive deck and a new roof. But you need to sell the benefits of those features, too. If you focus on features alone, that means you’re relying on the reader to noodle all those attributes and figure out the associated benefits. Most people are too busy and distracted to do much of that. More than likely, all those carefully worded features descriptions will sail right in one ear and out the other with little to no impact.

When it comes to convincing prospects to make a purchase, you need to explain exactly what’s in it for them; you need to spell-out the benefits of each feature – as in these examples:

Example 1 (feature-focused text)

This house features a large, fenced backyard with many plantings, a large Trex deck and alley access to all the utilities.

Example 1 (rewritten to focus on benefits)

The lush, fully fenced backyard offers real privacy and year-round color. The deck is more than large enough for grilling and outdoor entertaining, while the low-maintenance Trex construction means no more seasonal staining. Plus, the pedestrian-friendly alley offers easy access to out-of-sight garbage and recycling amenities.

Example 2 (feature-focused text)

At LifeStream, you’ll find a full selection of free-weights, 10 Universal and six Cybex machines, a full-size aerobics room, plus a caring staff with more than 40 years of combined physical fitness experience.

Example 2 (rewritten to focus on benefits)

With a complete collection of Universal and Cybex machines, plus a full selection of free-weights, LifeStream offers something for every type of body – without the overcrowding you find at other fitness clubs. In the expansive aerobics room, our high-energy instructors can guide you through a variety of challenging routines just about guaranteed to shed those extra pounds. Plus, one-on-one training is always available for those who desire the rapid body-sculpting results only a personal coach can deliver.

As you can see, the rewritten examples above are still chalk full of features and facts. Those things are still front-and-center. But the revised text also clearly states the consumer advantages of those features, products and services. That’s what will get your target market to sit up and take notice.

The bottom line: If you want consumers to hand over their hard-earned cash, you need to convince them that the benefits of your products and services will improve their lives in some tangible way.

But you could have guessed that. What you really want to know is: How can you get more of these all-powerful referrals rolling your way. Marketing experts advise the following:

1. Do great work. Deliver outstanding service and products, and your customers will recommend you to their friends and family. Works every time.
2. Ask. Even among people who say they’d be willing to recommend a company, a recent study showed only 26 percent of them actually tend do so. In other words, if you want people to refer your company, you have to ask and encourage them to do it.
3. Build your brand. To get referrals, you have to make it easy for people to remember your name. That’s where branding comes into play. Emphasize the same “brand differentiators” (catchy tagline, attractive logo, striking color scheme and unique selling points) on all your marketing materials, and the ability of your target audience to recall your company name at a moment’s notice will just keep building with time.
4. Market your business consistently. A regular, ongoing marketing program builds familiarity, familiarity builds trust, and trusted businesses get more referrals.

A few ideas to get you started

Ready to put those concepts into action? Start with these ideas:

Offer a reward – The best way to get anyone to do anything is to offer them something in return. Consider offering anyone who refers a potential customer your way a $20 gas card, two tickets to the movies, a massage or some other generous thank you.

Hold a contest – Contests are a great way to offer an even bigger, more exciting referral reward without going bust in the process:

• Consider creating a simple drawing (where the grand prize is a trip, a TV, or some other big-ticket item). For every referral provided, each person gets entered in the drawing.
• Even better, follow the lead of the Precious Beginnings Resale Shop. They let anyone give their friends and family special store-discount coupons, then reward the person who distributes the most. Everyone benefits. See their website for all the details.

Ask nicely – Not everyone needs to be rewarded, of course. Some people will be happy to tell their friends and family about your business if you simply remind them how important it is. Consider launching an integrated marketing effort (direct mail, email and social media) featuring a message something like this:

“Without referrals from our customers, neighbors and friends, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So please, if you know someone who might be interested in what we have to offer, encourage them to give us a call. Tell them to mention your name, and I’ll personally see to it that they’re given the gold-star treatment.”

Make it easy to remember your name – Offer your target market free, branded premiums (flashlights, pens, calendars and other sought-after everyday items) and they’ll always have your contact information close at hand when someone asks for a recommendation. If they have to hunt for the information, they may never get around to it.

None of these ideas cost much to implement (another benefit of referral marketing), but the payoff can be huge if you make them part of your long-term marketing plans.

Order your 2012 Baseball Schedules today! Our schedules this year include new magnet back options.  The 2012 MLB season starts in a few weeks, so time is running out to get these ordered and in the hands of clients and prospects.  Opening Day for most teams is April 5.

Log in to your Xpressdocs account then click on the seasonal tab at the top to view all seasonal items. Select 2012 Baseball Schedules on the left to see all your baseball team options.  Please call if you have any questions, 866-977-3627.

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Social Media

Often companies turn to social media with the notion that it is “free” advertising.  Although setting up a site is free on most social media networks, the time it takes for updating, posting and maintaining a social media presence is not free.  In addition, posts only remain at the top of a user’s page for a short period of time before another takes its place, making it easy for your message to get lost throughout the day.  However, social media can be quite effective when it comes to promoting events or showcasing employees in an effort to give a more human feel to your company.

Direct Mail

The biggest drawback to direct mail has always been the expense.  Between printing, labeling, and postage, the costs can run fairly high.  However, the longevity of direct mail is far better than social media, as the recipient must get the mail piece out of the mailbox, carry it inside and sort through it before determining what to do with it.  In fact, in many households, a postcard might lie on a table for a week before catching someone’s attention, while it would be nearly impossible to locate a Facebook post from a week ago.  Recent surveys indicate that people prefer receiving offers via postal mail rather than electronic mail, which makes direct mail even more enticing.

Combining Direct Mail and Social Media

One way to ensure that direct mail and social media can coexist is by incorporating social media icons into your direct mail campaign.  Directing customers to a Facebook page where they can enter to win prizes or can find special events that are available to only Facebook friends is easily done using direct mail pieces with the pertinent information included.  By sending the direct mail to a few select customers rather than to all customers can also help promote your social media presence.

Direct mail and social media are actually designed to work well together if done properly and this guarantees that both will be around for a very long time.  For more information regarding direct mail and social media, visit www.xpressdocs.com.

Happy Leap Day! In celebration we have a one day only social media coupon – 29% savings!!

The promo code is LEAPYEAR29 and is a 29% savings for one day only (2/29), and is valid for one order per customer. This is a social media exclusive offer.

*Offer valid on one order per customer placed on 2/29/12.  Simply enter offer code LEAPYEAR29 at checkout. Offer not valid on email campaigns, stationery, or promotional products. Discount cannot be combined with other promotional offers. No credits or refunds will be applied to previously-placed orders. Product selection may vary by company.