The PR Maven Podcast

Before sending a pitch to Maine Homes by Down East magazine, listen to the podcast episode. Editor Sarah Stebbins lists what makes a good pitch and a great story for the magazine. Sarah talks about her career from InStyle to Martha Stewart Living and many others, the story behind Maine Homes magazine and where she hopes to see the magazine go in the future. Sarah shares some of the most memorable stories that have been featured in the magazine.

3:35 – Sarah describes how she always wanted to be a journalist. She even applied to Glamour, Marie Claire and Rolling Stone looking for a summer job in high school.  

7:49 – Sarah explains what differentiates Maine Homes by Down East.

11:59 – Sarah listed what you should do when pitching Maine Homes by Down East magazine, including being familiar with the magazine and identifying which section you think the story would fit best in. Ask yourself:

• Is it a trend?
• Is there a fresh angle?
• Is this unique?

13:02 – Sarah talks about what constitutes a great story.

17:47 – Sarah shares some people Maine Homes by Down East has featured that have a strong personal brand.

21:14 – Sarah describes what she hopes the future of Maine Homes by Down East looks like.

24:34 – Sarah talks about the Maine Homes section in Down East magazine.

26:34 – Sarah explains what makes the Maine brand so special.

29:43 – Sarah shares some resources that have helped her.

Quote 

“One thing since we launched that's been really important to me is to try to show approachable houses. Not museum-y or chill-y houses or houses that you feel like you can't sit on the furniture or houses that make you feel bad about yourself when you look at them. We show beautiful houses that are inspiring and interesting.” – Sarah Stebbins, editor of Maine Homes by Down East magazine

Links:

Vertical gardens: https://mainehomes.com/the-walls-are-alive/

TerraFlora: https://www.terrafloramaine.com/

Shelfie kits: https://mainehomes.com/help-your-shelves/

Of The Sea Studio: https://www.instagram.com/oftheseastudio/

Home Remedies: https://www.homeremediesmaine.com/

Down East Adventures: https://shop.downeast.com/down-east-adventures/

“Just Let Me Lie Down” by Kristin van Ogtrop: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Let-Lie-Down-Half-Insane/dp/0316068292

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About the guest:    

A native of Cousins Island in Yarmouth, Sarah began her career at InStyle magazine in New York, where she worked on the launch of InStyle Home. She was later an editor at Martha Stewart Living before moving home to Maine to freelance write for publications such as Real Simple, This Old House, and Southern Living.

Sarah joined Down East in 2016, where she oversaw the relaunch of mainehomes.com, growing it from about 5,000 page views per month to more than 51,000, and expanded home content in the magazine. The success of the website signaled that readers were interested in the kind of authentic home content she curated, and, in 2018, Sarah launched Maine Homes by Down East as a quarterly magazine. The second issue won the Home/Shelter category in the City and Regional Magazine Association’s annual awards contest. Today, Maine Homes magazine has 40,000 subscribers hailing from every state in the country, and 51,000 social media followers.

Sarah lives in Portland with her husband, two sons and rescue mutt in the “starter house” they decided to stay in and perennially renovate.

Looking to connect:          

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://mainehomes.com/

Instagram: @mainehomesmagazine

When you combine the digital revolution with a pandemic, you’re left with the most virtual world in human history. Technology is everywhere — from iPhones and Oculus headsets to Starbucks app orders and Tesla charging stations across the street.

But technology is nothing without batteries. Over the years, I have become slightly obsessed with keeping my batteries fully charged. All of my electronics need to be full, whether it’s a phone, laptop or watch. When my batteries are running low, I get a feeling of panic.

The same concept applies to keeping my internal “batteries” charged. When I sense that I’m getting tired or running on fumes, the same panicky feeling comes out of nowhere. It feels like I won’t be able to face the challenges of the day. It feels like my productivity drops to zero. And it’s not fun!

In business, you need to be sharp. You need to be vigilant. You need to perform at your best to stand out in a crowd and separate yourself from competitors. So how do you keep your batteries charged?

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in January 2022.

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In this episode, Scott Dunn, president of the Maine Maple Producers Association, joins Nancy to talk all things Maine maple. From how he got started in the business to promoting Maine maple products and Maine Maple Sunday, Scott explains what makes Maine maple products unique when compared to other regions. Scott also offers tips for cooking with maple and some resources to learn how to produce maple syrup or connect with producers.

2:50 – Scott shared how he got involved with syrup making as a kid in Vermont.

4:29 – Scott explains what the Maine Maple Producers Association is.

5:43 – Scott offers his favorite way to cook with maple, substituting the sugar in chocolate chip cookies with maple sugar.

6:57 – Scott talks about Maine Maple Sunday, the last Sunday in March.

10:19 – Scott describes what makes the Maine maple brand unique.

12:58 – Scott shares his vision for the future of Maine maple syrup.

13:05 – Scott provides some resources that have helped him in his maple syruping career.  

15:01 – Scott talks about the weather conditions to make maple syrup.

Quote

“Our producers put a tremendous amount of pride into their product. Everything from the way they care for the woods and the trees, into their sugarhouses and really the final product. It's made with passion and pride. Being able to connect with that really makes people enjoy maple syrup that much more because they have their people. It's nice to hear stories when families come in and they're like 'We brought maple syrup home and my daughter wouldn't eat it because it wasn't yours.’” – Scott Dunn, president of the Maine Maple Producers Association

Links:

Maple events and classes: https://mainemapleproducers.com/events/

University of Vermont: https://www.uvm.edu/

Connect with producers: https://mainemapleproducers.com/member-directory/#!directory/map

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About the guest:    

Scott Dunn started making maple syrup in Vermont with his family as a kid. In high school, a neighbor had a sugar house up the road and Scott would help him after school. Years later, Scott started making syrup on a small scale. He has now grown to 1,600 taps and has direct-to-consumer and wholesale accounts all over Maine. His website sales have grown tremendously in the last two years.

Scott was elected as the president of the Maine Maple Producers Association three years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has worked to support the producers and grow the “Maine” brand. Their signature event, now in its 39th year, is Maine Maple Sunday. Each year, sugar houses open their doors for a maple celebration state-wide on the fourth Sunday in March.

Looking to connect:          

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://mainemapleproducers.com/

Soon, millions of college graduates will be looking for jobs. In today’s job market, most will succeed. And many will end up in either sales or marketing.

But what is the difference between sales and marketing? The two words are often used interchangeably, even though they fulfill two extremely different needs.

Marketing is the culmination of all activities that set the stage for sales (e.g., the transaction itself) to take place. It is the marketer who establishes a brand and maintains its reputation in the eyes of others. Marketers engage customers and clients (prospective and current), raising the profile of a brand so that it attracts the "right" people — those most likely to make a purchase.

Marketing is all about the “Four Ps:” product, price, place and promotion. Marketers define the benefits of a given brand, attracting buyers by educating them about the particulars.

While marketing is tied to the customer or the client, salespeople have an even more bottom-line relationship. Sales is about making the final transaction happen, culminating all of the activities that lead to direct purchases of goods and services. Whereas marketing establishes and maintains a brand's reputation, sales representatives ensure that the brand can endure financially by securing real revenue. A sales plan, therefore, includes the tools and resources that will be used to actually move the buyer from "interest" to "purchase."

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in July 2020.

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As the Covid-19 pandemic drags on, Americans are feeling the burden of the new normal. According to this survey, most U.S. adults (53%) claim that the stress and worry associated with the pandemic have negatively affected their mental health. This burden is only compounded by the return to school, with many Americans still disagreeing about the best approach to education during a pandemic.

At a time when bad news is everywhere, we need to keep our heads held high. Of course, most Americans know that perseverance is a valuable currency nowadays, but there is perhaps an even more valuable one: curiosity. I believe that those who are curious are much, much more likely to survive and thrive in the months to come.

Those who are currently out of work — and there are millions of them — need to keep chugging along. Remember: This was never the original plan. Two years ago, we could not have foreseen social distancing and self-isolation becoming the norm, affecting employees and job seekers alike.

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in August 2020.

Listen to Kat Child’s PR Maven® Podcast episode.

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The lessons from my father resonated because they were simple and straightforward. He often told me to remember the simplest rule when meeting new people: Look people in the eye and say their name. In truth, it’s the No. 1 rule in business: Treat people like people, and humanize your relationships.

Recently, my son Jamie and I had dinner with one of my first bosses in business, Warren Cook, the president of the ski resort where I worked as the communications director in my 20s. Warren asked Jamie if he remembered my late father, who was a sales engineer for Westinghouse. In that capacity, my father leveraged an unusual combination of sales and people skills. Warren said to my son: “Your grandfather was a look-you-in-the-eye kind of guy.”

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in December 2021.

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Consider how much business has changed in the last two years. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the “Zoom call” was not particularly well known. Within weeks, the U.S. economy shifted from the traditional workplace to remote everything, with social contact limited and virtual moneymaking the norm.

Now, consider how much business has changed in the last four decades. I often think about the evolution of corporate America, specifically in terms of public relations — one of the most rapidly changing industries around.

When I started in PR, I used a typewriter. I felt lucky when I received a typewriter with an erase key and I didn’t have to use white-out to erase any typos. I also remember using a mimeograph machine to make copies of press releases to send in envelopes to the media.

Whereas sending emails and text messages now happens instantaneously, such technological efficiency was not commonplace in the 1980s. I often recruited people to stay up all night and help me stuff envelopes with the press releases, before running them through the postage meter to send out. At one point, I was sending 1,400 press releases out every week — by hand.

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in September 2020.

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Let us know what you think about The PR Maven® Podcast and how we can make it better! Fill out this survey. If you complete the survey by January 15, 2022, you can enter a drawing to win a $250 Visa Cash Card.

https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6641116/f2c7643c1aea

In today’s digital world, Google Search is pretty much everything. Google processes an average of over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches annually. That comes out to more than 40,000 queries every second.

And it’s not just searches for “cooking recipes” or “how to change a tire” that make Google the world’s most dominant search engine: Google Search is also home to “top stories,” user-specific advertisements and much more. It is essentially a one-stop-shop for everything.

With that in mind, brands need to make their Google SEO — that is, where they appear in search results — a top priority. Whether you’re promoting a personal brand or an organizational brand, there are ways you can create and post content online that will make your brand show up with more authority and credibility for searchers.

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in October 2020.

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Let us know what you think about The PR Maven® Podcast and how we can make it better! Fill out this survey. If you complete the survey by January 15, 2022, you can enter a drawing to win a $250 Visa Cash Card.

https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6641116/f2c7643c1aea

I recently returned from the largest content marketing conference in the world — fittingly named Content Marketing World — and it got me thinking: How do you generate brand buzz? How do you “go viral”? How do you draw a direct line between branding and selling?

In today’s world, it’s virtually impossible to succeed as a business — large or small — without engaging in some form of content marketing. Amazon, Lego and the New York Times all have that in common — they create content to promote their brands and engage with consumers. From social media posts and YouTube videos to op-ed columns and blogs posts, content really is king. Content creation is synonymous with successful marketing.

Public relations has transformed from drafting press releases for the media to creating other forms of content that engage with a target audience, and that’s exciting. Of course, media relations is still an important component of PR, but the idea of content marketing is to interact with people in a wide range of new ways, beyond the traditional news story or five-minute TV spot.

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in November 2021.

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What does it mean when someone says, “I’ve heard of you”? It means that your brand has value, and hearing that only adds more positive capital to your brand (unless you’re known for the wrong reasons).

If people have heard of you, then the power of “word of mouth” is working in the background, on your behalf. The sales pitch is already on its way. You are not starting from ground zero.

Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight. Building and cultivating a brand can take years, if not decades. Perhaps you may even have to re-brand, which takes even more time. The talking points have to change. As Warren Buffet famously said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Truer words have never been spoken. So, the question becomes: What do you need to do for people to “hear about you” and recognize your brand?

Continue reading here.

The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in November 2020.

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