Brainstorming Secrets for Success in the New Year

Start the New Year with a new attitude and a new marketing plan.  The best way to do this is to step back and look at your business in a whole new way.

Set up a Brainstorming Session Time for the New Year.  Block a couple of hours, or better yet half a day and invite your marketing team or PR consultants to look at your business in a whole new way.  If you don’t have a marketing team, that’s fine, you are now your official marketing team.  Invite your employees, associates or anyone you trust, who you feel has some understanding about your business.  This is not a “business meeting”.  This is to be a fun, adventurous time to play with ideas, options, feelings, new approaches, and interesting story angles.

The purpose is to come up with new, unique ways that you can market your business and tell your story.  Remember the best marketing campaigns tell good stories.  You don’t want to simply say “buy my product or service because it’s good”.  Everyone says that and because everyone says it, no one listens to those messages, or at least very few people do.  You want to use the Brainstorming Session to help you go beyond that roadblock.  Don’t hold back; be creative.  Remember you don’t have to use all these ideas, but if you don’t allow yourselves to really let the creative ideas flow; you could end up missing out on some of your best marketing and media relations stories.

Look at your business, product or service from all angles.  Is there a story in how the product or company was founded?  Is there a unique journey story that tells about how you came to develop the product or service?  Maybe you started the company because of a personal experience you had.  Did you jump from one career track to follow the road less traveled?  What type of challenges did you encounter?  What inspirited you to start your business?  Was there an “aha” moment that changed your direction in life?  There is a whole range of human interest stories that can connect with the public.  By telling a compelling story you get others to listen, to understand and bond with you.

And what about the business, service or product itself?  Is there a different approach you use?  What problems does it solve?  How does it differ from others in the field? Has it been updated or modified in any way?  Is it smaller, larger, brighter, less expensive, more user friendly, or more effective?  How could you present it that’s somewhat different?

And don’t forget the most important focus; how has your business or product affected others? How has it helped change lives?  Has it made life easier?  Has it made people richer, thinner, smarter, faster, or happier?  Do you have clients who would be able to tell their story to the media?  The best public relations campaigns are those that tell transformational stories.  If you have some that illustrate how your businesses has affected the life of others, you’re on the right track.

Awhile back we represented a long term health care center.  The basic stories there had to do with the various aspects around that type of care, along with the challenges of caring for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s. One day while I was visiting the client, we held a brainstorming session.  While we were meeting, I noticed that there was a small dog that followed one of the nurses form room to room.  Something clicked and I wrote a press release about the dog as one of the facilities’ favorite employees.  The dog didn’t see old age, didn’t care whether someone was in a wheelchair, or had memory problems.  The dog loved them all the same.  By presenting it this way, I was able to shift what could be seen as a depressing story to a warm and fuzzy tale (so to speak).  It worked.  We were able to land coverage in Time, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, NPR, NBC, ABC, the Discovery Channel and other media.  Without the brainstorming session, none of that would have happened.

So block some time, have fun with it and have your own Brainstorming Session. Believe me; it’s worth it.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010