Cheryl McCants, Founder and CEO of Impact Consulting Enterprises (East Orange, NJ), took her journalism background and founded Impact, a communications/marketing/digital company. In today's interview, she explains how "story" works as the foundation for an effective marketing campaign, why it is important to be mindful of industry trends and be ready to leverage experience to diversify into new customer populations, and the critical difference between a news release and a press release.

Cheryl provides a clear path for creating and communicating a client's story:

• Consult with client to identify the ideal customer and clarify the story that needs to be told to this target audience,
• Develop an integrated cross-channel promotional strategy,
• Research the market, the business environment, the client company, competitors, and customers,
• Build a memorable story that resonates with the ideal customer at a psychological and emotional level, and
• Implement the campaign, keeping in mind the communication preferences of the ideal customer and potential cross-channel synergies

Impact Consulting Enterprises is a sponsor of New York and New Jersey Minority Supplier Development Council's Business Opportunity Exchange (June 12-13, 2018).

Cheryl can be reached by phone at 973.337.2028, through the company website at www.eimpactconsulting.com, on Twitter: @icebranding, on Facebook at Impact Consulting Enterprises., and on LinkedIn (Cheryl McCants), where, writing under a pseudonym, your Marketing Mama, she provides marketing tips. http://www.eimpactconsulting.com/success-blog/