Ten Ways to Start the Year with a Bang!

Cheers to 2020! This new year already has some exciting buzz surrounding it: it’s a leap year, and you may have seen the meme about how many of the holidays this year take place on or around the weekend. Clichés in January—here’s looking at you, “New Year, New You”—abound, but there is something to the resolution to do better when we’re facing a fresh calendar.

Here are ten ways to start the new year with a bang:

1.       Attend the Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Preview Las Vegas on January 17th. With a new event location at the Wynn, plus a dynamic speaker in the NFL’s Roger Goodell, it’s sure to have an energizing agenda!

2.       Get curious. A business coach once advised to find out the why behind just about any topic. And doing so in a way that draws from a place of curiosity creates space for real, transparent communication.

3.       Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. Whether it be a referral, an introduction, or for a client to share his or her experience, it never hurts to ask. If you bring value to those you serve, others will be happy to recommend you to others or refer their contacts who need what you offer.

4.       Make the most of your Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce membership. President and CEO Mary Beth Sewald advises to know what your benefits are and that many organizations can select the benefit options that make the most sense for their business goals. “Do you need to go to events and meet people,” she says. “Or are you interested in HR tools or learning about the latest rules and regulations?” Mary Beth also shares that the Chamber is creating a Member Success Team; watch for details soon.

5.       Share your knowledge. Are you an expert in a certain field or industry? If you are, sharing information that is pertinent to your prospective or existing clients can be a worthy initiative. This can be done in a continuing education presentation or via a whitepaper that you share with your audience. As you do, make sure it’s valuable to them and worth their time.

6.       Use LinkedIn as a business tool. Have you ever considered reaching out to your potential clients via LinkedIn? Or keeping up with past colleagues or industry experts on the professional social media site? A personalized note with your value proposition can be an interesting way to harvest new relationships.

7.       Get schooled. UNLV has a fairly comprehensive continuing education certificate program, as well as many other higher education institutions do. Why not take a course on either something you’ve always wanted to learn—or a topic that you consider a weakness?

8.       Develop relationships the “write” way. When you check your mail, don’t you gravitate toward anything that doesn’t look like a bill or advertisement? I schedule “Thank You Fridays” in my calendar, and it’s incredible how much people appreciate handwritten notes.

9.       Get into the community. Serve. Network. Learn. Find an organization that helps a cause that you value. Are you an animal lover? Consider volunteering at the Animal Foundation. Want to support kiddos? Think of Make-A-Wish or the Discovery Children’s Museum. Are you a financial whiz? Share your expertise with Junior Achievement.

10.   Grow your leadership skills. A Chamber affiliate, the Leadership Foundation of Greater Las Vegas has several phenomenal programs for people looking to develop professionally—and even personally. This author can personally recommend the Leadership Las Vegas program, a ten-month program for experienced professionals to learn together and make a big impact in the community.

Wishing you a successful start to this year and decade!

This post was originally written by Shan Bates-Bundick for The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s January 2020 Business Voice magazine. Click here to view the original article.

Ending the Year on a Strong Note

Thanksgiving meals and deals on Black Friday. Celebrating the holidays with friends and family. Elevating your organization’s marketing game. Toasting a new year. As we enter the last two months of 2019, one of the above themes may not be on our minds. However, it is good business practice to take count of your current marketing tactics and make sure the right strategy—and budget—is in place for 2020.

An acquaintance recently asked to pick my brain about ideas to get more clients in the door. The first question I asked was about her current marketing strategy, which involves a website and social media channels. The next question I posed: “What are you doing within those channels?” It soon became clear that a good next step would be focusing on concise brand messaging of the business’ unique value proposition.

As detailed in last month’s article, a clear value proposition is invaluable for showcasing what your organization does better than anybody else. And now is the perfect time to make sure that your brand message is clear for your target audience. How you can bring immeasurable value to your client is the best gift that you can give this holiday season.

In the spirit of giving, here are the top three strategic areas to focus on to end the year on a strong note:

1. Strategic marketing planning: What are your marketing objectives? If your marketing strategy and execution are a well-oiled machine, this could be reviewing the current mix, budget, and messaging. Tweaks could be made to make sure that the current initiatives are bringing the desired outcomes.

   If you’re like a lot of business owners, your focus is on the daily operation of your organization. Your priorities are providing amazing solutions to your clients and growing your business. Yet communicating your value proposition must also play a role. With this in mind, I recommend:

2. Brand identification and management: Does your perceived brand match the value proposition to your audience? It is crucial for an organization to streamline the “5 Ws”—Who, What, When, Where, and Why—into a compelling brand with an ongoing strategy of how to best communicate it. And it’s also important to share this compelling brand story and value proposition in the right mix of both traditional and digital channels. As we turn the page to a new calendar year, why not take some time to make sure your brand message is the right one? It’s an exercise that will take you into 2020 with a fresh story.

3. Expressions of gratitude: I once read a statistic that it takes someone eight times to truly feel thanked. Not only did this blow my mind, but it served as inspiration to make sure my clients know how much I appreciate their business in multiple ways throughout the year.
   
   The holiday season is the perfect time to show gratitude to clients, partners, vendors, mentors, and employees. And there are multiple options for doing so: Thanksgiving-themed appreciation, the traditional holiday gift, or even a New Year’s touchpoint to kick off a new year right. An organization doesn’t have to have a huge budget to show appreciation and thanks—a sincere message goes a long way.

Cheers to making the most of November and December and beginning 2020 with a bang!

This post was originally written by Shan Bates-Bundick for The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s November-December 2019 Business Voice magazine. Click here to view the original article.

Marketing 101…and Beyond

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” I like to think of marketing as a combination of strategic initiatives an organization leverages to showcase its brand to target audiences. Either way you look at it, marketing activities are critical for any size of business or non-profit entity to strategically share its story.

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
-The American Marketing Association

Marketing is a key component of any business’s operations, yet it can be simple, cost-effective, and easily achieved for even small businesses. Marketing is all about the mix—the right grouping of both digital and traditional communication activities—that is unique to every organization.

Mix It Up
Turning attention to digital marketing, think about the following statistics:

•       We now spend more time on social media than in our email inboxes. (Source: WSJ)

•       Instagram is the overall engagement winner. Engagement with brands on Instagram is ten times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter. (Source: Trackmaven + Social Pilot)

•       Facebook has over 8 billion video views each day. (Source: TechCrunch) A Facebook executive has also predicted that video will continue to comprise a larger percentage of content each year.

Current marketing trends point to a 100% digital strategy. Yet direct mail response rates are at the highest they’ve ever been at 5.1%. (Source: Capterra) I’m also a big fan of the well-positioned one-pager as a leave-behind or an incredibly designed postcard. The moral of the story: businesses must have a comprehensive approach to share their brand message across multiple channels. So where do we start?

The Value of a Clear Value Proposition

A good place to start is detailing what your organization can do better than anybody else: your value proposition. This will feed messaging, future content strategy, and any available communication channels moving forward, including website, email communications, print marketing, social media, public relations, video, broadcast advertising, billboard, and on and on. The point is, if an organization hasn’t taken the time to define its brand and properly communicate its value proposition, marketing tactics will not be as solid and based on the key principle.

Once an organization knows its value proposition, the right mix of initiatives based upon target audience, time, and budget can be determined. Is the company a small business targeting local consumers? One might consider a mix of direct mail within a certain zip code and geofencing (i.e., placing digital ads around a local hangout or store), as well as a robust client testimonial collection process. Is the business offering services to other businesses? Perhaps a grouping of networking and community involvement paired with a social media campaign targeting other small businesses is in the cards.

Strategic storytelling should be at the center of any great marketing strategy, and the right marketing mix is unique to every organization. The good news? With a focus on what you’re offering your clients to make their lives easier, better, or more enjoyable is a message people want to hear. The sweet spot is the intersection of great messaging in the appropriate channels…which is the fun part!

This post was originally written by Shan Bates-Bundick for The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Business Voice magazine in October 2019. Click here to view the original article.