The Famous Business

On today's show brand supremo Andy Snuggs from Future Kings explains why it is vital that you as a startup have a clear idea of your brand.

Your brand is so much more than a logo - it is a strategic tool for your business growth.

Andy explains how we as founders and startup owners can start to identify our 'Minimum Viable Brand' (MVB).

Knowing your MVB is the key to unlocking the growth potential in your business, attracting investment, winning an army of customers, attracting the right staff and ultimately being a success.

A brand is not simply stating the function of your product or service - it is articulating the impact you are having, the problem you are solving.

Identifying your brand will allow you to get your message across clearly, quickly and with passion and conviction.

In this interview, Andy helps us to understand why we need to take brand seriously and why if we do it will give us a massive competitive advantage.

And brand doesn't stop with our external audiences it also affects everything we do inside our businesses.

Marrying our internal brand with our external brand is when the magic happens.

You can no longer think of your brand as merely a visual element of your business, it touches everything, from how you behave, communicate to sell and hire.

Andy explains how the team at Future Kings work with startup and scale-up businesses to help them identify what it is that really makes them unique and how they are going to take that information and use it to engage their audiences.

This is strategic communications at the highest level and if you are serious about growing your business you really need to know this stuff.

So for this week take a step back from focusing on the media headlines and have a look at the bigger picture of your brand.

Taking the time to get this right will mean that when you're ready your PR efforts will be so much more effective.

Over to Andy, the King of Brand.

Josh Nielsen, founder of podcasting platform Zencastr, tells us why he thinks it’s going to become a necessity for businesses to get involved in podcasting and why a word of mouth PR strategy has worked for him.

Tech startup Zencastr is making it possible for anyone to host a high-quality podcast – but how does the man behind it put his business on the map? How does he get people to use his platform when there is an increasing number of competitors on the market?

By his own admission, Josh Nielsen knows the pains of trying to get a tech business off the ground. He’s ‘launched to crickets’ with previous ventures but with Zencastr it’s different - Josh is right at the centre of the explosion in podcasting and already has more than 15,000 clients!

Not bad for someone who claims to be a marketing novice. So how did he do it?

A word of mouth PR strategy

Zencastr has also had some great media coverage, including the obligatory article in TechCrunch, but for Josh the real success has come from this organic network of raving fans.

Want to learn how he built a word of mouth PR strategy so you can too? Hit play now.

Oh…and he also gives some awesome insight into why ALL businesses need to be podcasting right now, it’s a channel that you can’t afford to ignore if you want to succeed.

And if you'd like some additional reading on, amongst other things, a word of mouth PR strategy, check out Marketing for Developers. Josh is a big fan of these guys and we reckon they’re pretty neat too.

Find out more about Zencastr here and on Twitter and Facebook.

On today’s show, I take a look at why over-reliance on Facebook advertising could be a very risky strategy in 2018 and why PR is SEO.

So many of us small business owners have come to depend on Facebook as the number one way to get our messages in front of customers.

But a spate of recent reputational crises and the fact that Apple has announced it will soon block the Facebook tracking pixel mean that the good times could be coming to an end.

Perhaps not in the next six months but in today’s episode, I argue why now is the right time to diversify your online marketing efforts.

PR fuelled SEO is the only way to guarantee your reputation online and start to build the awareness levels and credibility that your business deserves.

Appearing high on Google rankings for search terms connected to your business is going to put you in the driving seat in 2018.

Of course, this is nothing new but the Google algorithms are now more than ever trying to measure the real-world relevance of your business and that means appearing in mainstream media and high profile blogs and podcasts – all with backlinks to your website.

Where traditional SEO folk can’t help you is understanding what makes your business truly newsworthy and capable of securing these major pieces of media coverage. PR is SEO in the digital world.

In today’s episode of The Famous Business, you’re going to learn why the time is right to unfriend your Facebook advertising campaign and how to start to get national media coverage that Google loves.

The first step is you need to know how to pitch to a journalist so check out TFB060 to learn more about that.

P.S

In this episode, I mention a couple of recent studies that conclude Generation Z is leaving Facebook at an alarming rate. You can see those here and here.

We got so much love for episode TFB 058 that I wanted to revisit one of the core issues that came up.

The fact that Guardian journalist Emma Sheppard (like most journalists) gets around 200 pitch emails a day!

This seemed to shock a few of you, and I got a few messages saying 'what's the point in even trying to get media coverage if the odds of getting my story printed are 200/1?!'

Don't despair - instead ask 'why is this journalist ignoring me?'

It's actually easier than you think to stand out in a crowded inbox if you know the rules of the game.

On today's show, I go through the 6 essential rules that you need to apply to every email pitch so that a journalist clicks on your message, opens it, reads it, loves your story and then runs it!

Knowing how each of these hurdles works is key to cracking the code and winning major media coverage.

Oh, and don't forget even the best pitches in the world sometimes miss their mark so don't worry if not every story you pitch about your business gets picked up - that's never going to happen.

Media coverage is so impactful because it's hard-won, not impossible, but hard-won.

In today's show, you're going to learn how to be one of the 20 emails that a journalist will read - not the 180 that they won't. 

Subject line: listen to this podcast and get media coverage today! 

Al 

Entrepreneur Stephen Sacks has a plan to help you 'reboot your business'.

In his new book, of the same name, Stephen explains the need for us all to wake up to the rapid speed of change in today's workplace, why being small means you can be nimble to opportunities and how you can release cash from your business.

But this is The Famous Business Podcast where we talk about all things PR and comms so why the business advice?

Well firstly, you can't be a 'Famous Business' without being a brilliant business - the two are inextricably linked - and secondly, I wanted to ask Stephen what it was actually like to write this book and how it has helped him in his own marketing efforts.

What you're going to learn is that to have a brilliant business in 2018 you need to think about all elements of your sales funnel and how your communications build trust through all stages of that process.

Stephen shares how writing a book (from a rainy beach in the Maldives) has built so much more trust in him as a thought leader and has increased his own bottom line.

If you're considering opening up the laptop and writing about your own expertise then this is the episode for you.

Right, that's the introduction...now to Chapter 1...

On today's show, I have the brilliant journalist Emma Sheppard.

Emma has written for a wide range of media throughout her career and has spent the last few years covering the small business and startup world for The Guardian Business to Business section.

If anyone has the inside track on what it takes to get your business in the national media it's Emma!

From a company using tech to revolutionise funeral services to the home coworking movement, Emma has covered more startup stories than most. 

Emma tells me why she loves businesses who do their own PR and why it is possible to get coverage without a PR agency.

There's her '3 email rule' for pitching  - which you don't want to fall foul of - and her advice on how to stand out from the 200 emails she receives a day.

If you're a small business wondering how to write a press release that will get noticed by a journalist this is the show for you!

And her top tip?

If you follow Emma's advice your PR success is guaranteed!

Al.

Today's guest is a young woman on a mission.

Hannah Phillips knows more about UK healthcare than most - because as a child and a young adult she underwent major heart surgery.

During her years in and out of hospital, Hannah saw that more needed to be done to make appropriate information available for young people.

It was hard enough going through such serious procedures but being given information designed for aging adults made it even tougher.

As soon as Hannah was well enough she became a health campaigner and is determined to make things better for other young people who find themselves needing serious medical care.

On today's show, Hannah tells me how her new campaign, Wired Up, is educating young people about having pacemaker procedures.

She also explains how she is using PR to get her message to a nationwide audience and the success she's recently had landing major national TV coverage.

I first met Hannah two years ago when she did the Class:PR Famous course - and boy has she put those learnings into practice!

Over to Hannah, the queen of the PR pitch!  ...

Doing PR for your own business is hard work.

There are a hundred knockbacks, journalists ignore your emails and calls, you feel overwhelmed by imposter syndrome and you're not even sure you have a story.

None of these are a reason to give up ... ever.

High impact media coverage is the fastest and most reliable way to bring massive awareness and credibility to your business, but like anything worth doing - it ain't easy.

In today's show, I look at the reasons why most small business owners and entrepreneurs give up on PR and why that's ALWAYS a mistake.

You need to understand the rules of the game you're playing, then your success is guaranteed. No more hoping and praying.

And if you like today's show have a listen to episode TFB 040 where you'll find some sure-fire strategies to get media coverage in 2018

Laters,

Al

On today's episode, I explain the crucial difference between a news story and a feature - and why it matters to your business.

Don't think that they are basically the same - they're not.

Once you understand the difference between these two pieces of editorial you'll be able to create PR campaigns that help journalists do their job and get the media coverage you are after for your business.

Don't stumble into the PR world uninformed - if you want to put your business on the map you must know the difference between these two.

In today's show, you're going to learn just that.

This is the news...or maybe it's a feature...

In this episode, you’ll learn how an online jewellery business mastered the art of PR winning major media coverage – and a starring role in hit US comedy show Parks and Recreation!

Tiny Hands make scented jewellery which is now popular all over the world. They’ve had heaps of media coverage from Buzz Feed and Fox News to CBS and Nickelodeon.

It’s fair to say that founder Mei has mastered the art of PR over the last 10 years and has some pretty tasty tips for you – so listen up guys because there’s a lot to learn from today’s show.

Find out more about Tiny Hands here or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.