‘Just a few words …’

If you’ve entered for an award, you’ll keep your fingers crossed until the short list is announced.  If you’re on it you’ll almost certainly want to celebrate - that’s a real achievement.  But what happens when you attend the awards presentation?  Are you ready to win?

In most cases you have time to prepare your awards entry, you can draft and revise it right up to the deadline for submission, but if it’s your name that’s announced on the night are you prepared to say a few words?

We’ve all seen Oscar winners who ramble on at length and thank everyone on the planet, also those who say almost nothing (often despite being talented actors) and clearly haven’t been prepared for the possibility of winning.  You don’t want to be either of those people!

Preparing a short speech is not egocentric, it’s professional.

Start with due diligence 

Find out from the organisers about the plan for the evening.

• What are their expectations of the winners?  
• Will you be expected to say more than ‘thank you’? 
• How long have they allowed for winners to speak? 
• Do they have any advice if you should be lucky enough to win? 

Doing this means that you know whether they expect the winners to talk for one minute or three minutes - and there’s a big difference.

Avoid boring 

Of course, you want to thank your team for their contribution to winning the award, but you don’t need to name everyone.  Acceptance speeches can quickly become routine with long lists so make sure yours is different.

• Why did you enter?   
• What will winning mean to your company? 
• What does winning mean to you personally? 

Speak from the heart and don’t use clichés.  The more human you appear and the more interesting your presentation, the better chance you’ll have of being mentioned in the press reports later (more positive promotion for your business!)

Notes or not? 

Many people think notes show arrogance, but no notes and nerves can wipe the memory.  An index card with your three key points should be enough to ensure you don’t miss anything or anybody out.

Do practise, run through what you want to say so that you don’t open your mouth and say “Errrr, ummm, just want to say a few words …”  That’s probably long enough for most of your audience to disengage - especially if you’re towards the end of the presentations.  You want to open your mouth and say something that will capture their attention.

Keep it crisp, short and light - and well done!

Let IT take the strain

I’ve been reading a lot of Gerry McGovern’s blogs and he’s on a mission about making technology and IT systems do the drudge work - so that the people in your business can actively help customers.  It makes sense, but it’s not what happens in many big organisations.

When your business is just you - or you and a couple of staff - the customer gets to talk to you directly.  You build relationships with your customer and talk to them on a one-to-one basis.  Logically, as the business grows, you just can’t stay in touch with every single customer.

That means that you need to employ people who really get customer service - but it doesn’t mean that they should spend all day long in email conversations with them.

Customer service works best when it’s in human being form - either face-to-face or voice-to-voice.  Email is useful, but doesn’t work nearly as well for relationship building.  However, it’s an excellent tool to maintain contact with interested people and customers who are happily using your products or services.

Here are a few situations where an automated email series (autoresponders) can maintain your business visibility:

Sales follow up:  When someone has bought your product - or services - what useful information can you drip-feed to them in the three months following the sale?  As long as the messages have value for the receiver they’ll appreciate them.

New contacts:  If you’ve met someone networking or at a conference or exhibition, it can be hard to keep up with everyone on a regular basis.  The first contact post event must be done personally, but invite them to join your ‘free’ tips and hints community and set up a services of emails that deliver value regularly (maybe once a week or fortnight).

Keeping them interested:  If you’ve built a list of people who have downloaded a free tips sheet or white paper from your website, you’ve got a list of people who have said ‘I’m interested in what you offer’.  They may not be ready to buy just yet, but if you can add value by sending them additional free information that will help them, they won’t forget you when they’re ready to purchase.

Post event:  Whether the event is a webinar, seminar, training course, business breakfast, trade show or exhibition - staying in touch with your attendees can be a challenge.  A series of emails set up to remind attendees of actions they should be taking or useful links (books, blogs, tools, advice) that are relevant will help to keep your name in their minds as someone who delivers tons of value - even before they become customers!

Just remember that a series of email should not be your only contact with your existing customers or people who are actively interested in doing business with you - that needs a human being.

Picture Power!

You know what they say about a picture says a thousand words?  I may be a writer, but even the most compelling copy needs images to enhance the message.

Think about it - a blog like this with no image to decorate the top and attract the eye would look pretty boring.  What about a web page that was top to bottom text only?  Social media used to be text-heavy, but today images and video rule.  Text only posts get far fewer views.

Both Pinterest and Instagram use this maxim very effectively.  And they’re brilliant for promoting products, as long as you don’t sell too hard.

Instagram is an excellent platform for engagement and building awareness and visibility.  In fact, Instagram is actively encouraging businesses to use the platform to promote their businesses with the proposed new Shopping channel.

As Insta have IGTV it makes short videos easy to share and lets your audience see the human side of your business too.

Pinterest is a very different animal - and lots of people just can’t see the point, but I’ve listened to more than one conversation where one of the people says ‘… and I go on Pinterest to check out products and get ideas for things I want to buy’.

According to Omnicore:

• 93% of active pinners said they use Pinterest to plan for purchases and 87% said they’ve purchased something because of Pinterest.
• 40% of Pinners Have a Household Income of $100k+
• 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.
• 72% of Pinners use Pinterest to decide what to buy offline.
• 50% have made a purchase after seeing a promoted pin.

Even if you are selling a service rather than a product, infographics are a fantastic way to share your expertise and build your reputation as the ‘go-to’ person for your specialism.  A good infographic gets shared a lot, providing it’s got useful information in it.  Think 10 ways to …; 7 facts about …; How to …; The Ultimate [subject] Checklist.

Pinterest is simple - you create your image and pin it to a board with a relevant name.  It’s not a conversation, you literally just pin images … and you can follow other pinners and repin their images too.

So don’t underestimate picture power as a business promotion strategy, you may be surprised at how effective it is.