Great Brands That Compete On Value: Spread The Word

Last month I took business owners and professionals to task about being too focused on competing on price, rather than placing the emphasis on the value of their offerings.

I’m pleased to report that based on the feedback we received, many of our fellow businesspeople here in Lincoln are willing to consider adjusting their approach, if they haven’t already been doing so to some extent. At the same time, I found it to be an area where there’s a need for more in-depth education, as many are seeking direction. After contemplating how I wanted to go about this, I decided to start with using Strictly Business as an example because by design, it does exactly that (and of course after twenty-something years, it’s safe to say there’s no one more qualified to explain why).

From here on out, each month I’ll present one of the ways the magazine – in print, online and via social media – can be utilized to support the goal of conveying value without even so much as mentioning price.

So without further ado, let’s start with spreading the word through press releases. If you’re familiar with Strictly Business, you know that our news is divided into four sections: Business News, Non-Profit News, Personnel News, and Health News. Any news will serve the purpose of increasing your visibility, establishing your credibility, increasing familiarity and top-of-mind awareness, and generating interest in your business. However, since the desirable traits of a business depicted in each category aren’t necessarily the same, I’m going to address them separately, beginning with Business News.

“…press releases are by far the easiest and fastest way to create buzz of the bunch.”

By regularly sharing the progress you’re making as a company/organization, it shows that you are invested in concentrating your efforts on building your business. Development goes hand-in-hand with vision, commitment, and depth of expertise. Continuously striving to be better today than you were yesterday also speaks to strength of character. Likewise, where you choose to allocate your precious resources is very telling about what you value.

Although not an exhaustive list by any means, consider the following examples of common announcements we’d classify as Business News, all of which convey value without explicitly stating it:

Anniversary (Every business has one!), New Location, New Product/Service, New Division/Sister Company, New Partnership, New Website/Significant Upgrade (Side note: Consistent promotion of your news can increase your SEO ranking, leading more people directly to you! For those who aren’t familiar, here’s another tip: Backlinking is major, look into it if you haven’t already.), Award/Endorsement/Business Achievement/Industry Recognition, Continuing Education, New Logo/Rebranding, Event Host/Participant (Don’t have anything on the books yet? Plan one, promote it, and then report on it!), Sponsoring Event/Team, Development of Proprietary Tools/Techniques, Contest/Sweepstakes/Special Promotion—and you can find even more ideas on our website: strictly-business.com/31ways!

Among the most successful tactics to utilize as a part of your promotional efforts, press releases are by far the easiest and fastest way to create buzz of the bunch. Particularly when the news is coming from or involves a third party, such as when a franchise receives a top honor out of all located in the region/nation or with industry accolades, that validation is what people will take note of more than just you saying it’s so. Similarly, this is not the place to go into great detail with self-promotion. Rather, stick to what makes it newsworthy and let that do all of the talking for you. It’s far more impactful when you lead readers to arrive at their own conclusion as to why what you’re announcing has value to them.

The secret behind all of this is much like self-confidence, if you see the value in what you have to offer and are able to successfully convey that to others, they are likely to follow suit. Take note of the things you are doing as a business to improve and to set yourself apart, and then make sure to spread the word!

Great Brands That Compete On Value: Spread The Word