Press Relations is the most important and sometimes most overlooked activity in the marketing communication mix. It is to know the editors and be able to properly represent a client's interest. The alternative is to blindly post out Press Releases - in the almost certainly that they will never see the light of day.

Business Plus has developed Press Relations over many years, if the communication is worthwhile - that is it is news and of value to the readership then Business Plus Press relations will often make the difference

Application Case Studies...

If your customers are prepared to endorse your products and services this is far more persuasive than any other sales collateral. Business Plus takes pride in providing cost-effective preparation of all work. Teleconferences are used in as well as site visits (unless other tasks have to be accomplished). Photography is included in the service which will greatly increase the chances of an article being used by an editor; the extra photography taken on any occasion being useful stock for a client's future projects.

The resulting Press Pack is prepared in a way that is known to include all the requirements of trade publishing. The whole process being managed by Business Plus, from appointment scheduling, to drafting, approvals and sign-off. The business process in doing this has been optimised over many years and simply works, with minimum risk and maximum effectiveness. The approved material is typically also typeset and printed, or printed on demand, and produced in electronic format for web and E-mail use.

OR
You may wish to have a Technology Feature written to communicate how you have used new technology (web, PDA, wireless, .Net etc..) to produce or handle your products or services.
AND
Editorial placement in technical journals can be facilitated

Communicate your products, applications and solutions - still “better than a thousand words”.

It’s more than taking the shots, it is about thinking through the brief and making maximum use of the digital dark room to produce photography that communicates effectively what you are trying to portray.

 

Print and Publishing

In many ways the communication effort for web sites, e-newsletters and e-PDFs such as copy writing, graphics and photography can be reused and adapted for printed material. Business Plus has produced items from double page A4, A3 folded to A4, 6 page flyers to multipage bound brochures. The trick is to have a business process and approval stages - this minimises risk and costly rework. If it can be shown that printed collateral would be effective (such as for direct sales and conferences or seminars) then effective design, publication knowledge and cost-effective printing are called into play by contacting Business Plus.

Make a lasting impression that you will be proud of

You are at the expo, the seminar, the exhibition or even in your reception; you need something that shows your products and services to good effect, so you automate a Powerpoint slideshow, but somehow you feel that you could have done better...

A 5-10 minute video of your products and services in action is a far more effective solution. Video can be shot and edited today without the costs that are usually associated with doing that. Business Plus has experience of what you do and what the benefits are, therefore clips and story boards are more effectively prepared, saving time and irksome detailed briefing about the very basics of your business.

It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, it may not be true that a video is worth a thousand pictures ... but it is worth an awful lot of words! Let a video do the work for you, allowing you to concentrate on the customer.
Video example - Bulk Commodity Terminal Operations   courtesy www.dbis.biz
Talk to Business Plus about the potential in Digital Video for your business...

Podcasts - take advantage of the high levels of ownership of mp3 players (or even simple multimedia on a workstation using Windows Media Player). An overview of the company, a case study, a technology release? - all suitable subjects. Business Plus can prepare a story board and a script, undertake coaching, undertake the interview and post process the recording to take your message to new markets

Today MS PowerPoint has become the de facto presentation standard. Whether for seminars, sales or other use we all see PowerPoint on many occasions during the year. The built-in tools are powerful and much can be achieved on an “in-house” basis; but, there is a bigger picture, what about the story-line? How do you prepare an animation that will communicate well?

Business Plus has developed and prepared many presentations for many occasions. All presentations are based upon real-world experience of delivering presentations myself, I know what it is like to stand out at the front (and the even more difficult role of Webinars, where audience feedback is practically zero).

Fast-track presenter training is undertaken as an additional service - overcoming natural human reaction to finding oneself often thrust to the front when you find this an unnatural activity. I will work with you to make sure that on the day your delivery is effective and the experience becomes the basis of ongoing capability and confidence

Return On Investment - audit, investigation and training for sales proposal creation.

Scenario...
You wish to sell a product or a service (or in the case of the IT world, a system). You can see that this is a “no-brain decision”, but you need the order whilst to the customer it’s their money. Frequently the use of this money has to be justified. You have made sure that the price is right and you have shown functional benefits.

If you get the order this is enough.

But what happens when there is no order, when you are told that there is no budget? Usually this means that the money is not allocated or may now be allocated elsewhere (the new building or the new roof). Thus the real competition to your proposal was not a direct competitor but a senior company employee that had a better business case.

If this is the FD the business case could simply be that the money would be better in the bank.

What you have to do is to show that the benefit in purchasing your system is a sound financial one, that is the gains will deliver more than the bank interest rate and may even offset the cost of the new roof!.

Business Plus can help you with this and show you the techniques of using ROI benefit this can be done as a Workshop with key sales team members or on a per project basis...

A simple E-mail or phone call will set things in motion.