Publicity Tips For Women Owned Business - Meet Shannon Cherry Of Be Heard Solutions
By sandy.naidu | Category: Service BasedIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
| My guest today is Shannon Cherry of ‘Be Heard Solutions’. Shannon provides Public Relations (PR) and Marketing Services for small businesses. Her innovative PR strategies have helped a lot of her clients gain national and international media exposure. Some of her clients have even landed a spot as a guest on Oprah Show.Shannon enjoys helping small business owners - especially women owned businesses. She understands their needs and limitations and designs a strategy that suits them. Shannon’s publicity tips are easy and cost effective to implement. She also shares her tips on WAHMTalkRadio (a radio show for work at home moms). | |||
| She has a subscription based site called ‘Penny Pinching Publicity’. On this site she offers cost effective PR solutions for businesses.She is a busy woman - She is a mother of two kids, has a growing PR business and a very interesting blog.Thank you Shannon for participating in DotComMothers.Read and Be Inspired. | |||
| What is “Be Heard Solutions”? Can you tell us a bit about what you do? | |||
| Let me tell you a little bit about how I got here. I’ve always worked in the communications field, but I have worked both sides of the fence that divides that field: I have been a reporter and I have been a publicist. That is, I have worked for the media, creating and choosing stories to run, and I have worked for businesses trying to get their stories into the media. My first career was as a broadcaster and print journalist. By the time I graduated from university, I was already working as a reporter on WUTR TV, an ABC affiliate in my home town of Utica, New York. Before long, I was a news anchor.Still in my early twenties, I had a glamorous job most people can only dream about. But like many glitzy jobs, the glitz doesn’t look so good when you are up close. Interviewing politicians and other newsmakers sounds glamorous, but you pretty soon realize that most of the newsmakers are people with power and money who know how to gain access to the media. They often don’t deserve the coverage they get, and the truth does not always get told!So after a few years, I left broadcasting and went into marketing and public relations. I was no stranger to this field, because my mother had spent her career doing PR for non-profits, such as museums and schools. I thought that doing PR would enable me to help groups and people without a lot of power and money to get their fair share of the media spotlight.However, in the PR and marketing world, the most prestigious and lucrative clients are the big corporations. And because I was very good at PR, within a few years I found myself working for world class clients like Minolta cameras, Alaska Airlines, and the US Justice Department. I also found my self working for some world class assholes!Everyone told me I was the best publicist they knew, but I wasn’t happy with my work. My talents were being used to publicize corporations I didn’t much care about and to make a lot of money for bosses who treated their staff badly.I took stock of my career and my life. I realized that the issues I was most passionate about were all issues of justice and fairness. That was why I fought my boss when he treated my staff unfairly. That was why I joined campaign groups and did volunteer publicity work for nonprofits I believed in. That was why I enjoyed working for the underdogs more than the big fish.And that was why I started my own business – Cherry Communications.I also realized that my communication skills and supportive style were best suited to women entrepreneurs. I do have male clients, but I have found that I have a special talent for working with women-owned businesses.I am able to help women find their voice and tell their story. I also know that women are all too often ignored by big media — which is still mostly owned and run by men. But I know how the big boys play their game, and I know how to play that game to help women be heard.So that is why I set up Be Heard Solutions in 2004.I created Be Heard Solutions to help female business owners and entrepreneurs like you to find your voice, tell your story and be heard – and without a million dollar price tag! | |||
| Most of the work at home mothers have very limited budgets when it comes to marketing and PR. What are some of the most effective ways they can get exposure in the media with their limited budgets? | |||
 |
It’s publicity. Publicity is when you get coverage (interviews, features stories, product placement) without paying for it. And it’s better than advertising, because you are getting exposure for your business (or yourself) from a third party. After all, you always question when you see an advertisement how credible the person is. But when you read about the business in a newspaper or magazine – or hear about it on the radio or TV, you’re most likely to be recognized as an expert. (And who doesn’t want to do business with an expert?) Now although publicity is free – you can do it yourself – it takes a lot of time. You need to come up with ideas, write the information up in a way the media want it, find the right media outlets and right reporters to send it to, and find out how the reporters want to receive it. Then there’s the follow up. You need to do that too. | ||
| You also have a very interesting blog. Why did you start this blog? How important are blogs for today’s business owners? (btw Shannon I love the recipes on this blog). | |||
| I started www.mommy-inc.com soon after I had my twin girls in January 2006. So many people were asking me ‘How I did it all?’ and I wanted an outlet to write about the other aspects of my life besides PR and marketing, so I created Mommy, Inc. It’s basically a place for mompreneurs, and WAHMS to get ideas to balance their businesses and their family life. Every day has a specific topic: Mondays – Thrifty Mom (money-saving ideas); Tuesdays – Publicity 101 (marketing & PR tips); Wednesdays – Make-Ahead Meals (family meals that you can make ahead of time, when there’s not a lot of time); Thursdays – Mompreneur tips (tips for mom in business for themselves); Fridays – Success Secrets (tips and tactics from other women in business that have helped them succeed). I also post my on insights and ideas that aren’t related to any specific topic. | |||
| In your experience what are some of the common marketing mistakes business owners make? | |||
| Almost 95% of women in business don’t market themselves consistently. Many people think getting a business phone line, buying business cards and setting up a website should get people knowing down the door to get their products or services. It’s just not enough in today’s marketplace. The key is that you need to dedicate at least 20% of your time and resources to continued marketing efforts. Even I – a professional marketer – made that mistake in my first year of business. Sure, I began marketing myself when I first started my business. But then the work started coming in and I pushed marketing off to the side. But when I finished all my client work, and the money was starting to dwindle, I ended up starting all over again with my marketing efforts. What I learned was consistent marketing efforts will keep people in your pipeline. | |||
| You have twin daughters. If you have one tip for effective time management for all women business owners, what would that be? | |||
| Plan. Plan. Plan. Having a plan really helps keep everything going. Sure, you need to be flexible in your plan, but knowing you have a plan, with strategies, tactics and to-do list really have made the difference for me. | |||
| Can you tell us the most effective bit of marketing you have ever done? | |||
| Actually, my blog helped me land one of my goals for 2007 in February. I wanted to be featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and had created a few pitches to send to them. But what I didn’t realize is that the editors were working on a story already about mompreneurs – exactly one of my ideas for them. And that the editors were reading my blog and loved it. So they interviewed me – and took a great photo of me and the girls. It was in the May issue! So the lesson is, the more you are out there, the more likely the people you want to find you will. | |||
| Finally, your five keys to success? | |||
|
|||
| Sites Of Interest | |||
| http://www.beheardsolutions.com | |||
| http://www.cherrycommunications.com | |||
| http://www.mommy-inc.com | |||
| http://www.pennypinchingpublicity.com | |||
| Visit one of Shannon’s websites to get more information on promoting your company, gaining media exposure and publicity tips. | |||
To read more stories about women in service industry click Idea Home Based Service Business. |
|||
| This interview was published on 2nd October 2007 | |||
Stumble Upon
Del.icio.us
Buzz