Category: Blog

How prepared is your business for the inevitable changes that will be impacting how you operate, how you market and how relevant your business is to your key audiences?

You may be thinking “Aw…we’ll be doing business pretty much like we always have. Nothing is really going to change how run our business or market ourselves.” 

Wrong on both counts. 

Look at the past to get a snapshot of the future

Take a moment to reflect on how change has overtaken and totally disrupted how we work, what we do and how we do it. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• Retailing (think Amazon)
• Trips to the doctor’s office (you can now visit over the phone or computer)
• Working in an office environment (employees working from home) 
• Hotel and lodging (have you booked an Airbnb or Vrbo rental?)
• Kodak film and cameras (do you shoot photos with your cell phone?)
• Blockbuster (streaming replaced rentals and is replacing visits to the movies)
• The U.S. Postal Service (almost totally overtaken by online communications)

If you want to think big, here’s an article that appeared in Forbes in 2019 that identifies ten entire industries that are on the edge of disruption.

And, if you want to really dig into what the future might look like, here’s a fascinating future-probing article that bears a quick read.

How is “the market” going to change in the near future?

Let’s start with the truism that no one can predict the future with total accuracy. If that were the case, one would by a Powerball ticket and take the rest of their life doing whatever they wanted to do. 

There are, however, trends that bear consideration, no matter what your business. These are summarized in an authoritative article by Dudley Poston, Jr., Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M University.

How are all of these changes going to affect you and your business?

That’s totally up to you. 

You have the choice of either accepting the notion that change is going to occur and adjusting to change or simply keeping doing what you are doing without making any significant change and hoping that you get by.

If you choose the latter path, hold on. Because the changes are, indeed, coming for you. 

So, how can Wellons help me with future marketing needs?

At Wellons Communications, we totally embrace change. As an Orlando marketing agency, we have to constantly peer ahead to keep our services relevant and productive for our clients.

To illustrate, we utilize numerous outside services that complement what we already do or what needs to be done for our clients. We use these services on an as-needed basis, as opposed to buying hardware or equipment that will be outdated in a couple of years. 

In this sense, we serve as a sort of general contractor who assembles a team of resource specialists who address your particular needs within your budget and your schedule (which is often ASAP!). 

Here are some examples:

If you need video product, we will find a video production company that is affordable and compatible for your needs. If you need graphic art design, we will call upon a graphic design resource whose technical skills are up to speed and who can deliver the creative result that is in keeping with what you need. 

If you need to conduct a special event, like a grand opening or introduction of a new product feature, we can produce the entire program from formatting the event to reaching media to generate publicity. 

We can oversee the entire process so that the end result is what you need and what you can afford. 

From a relationship standpoint, we work within your stated budget (which we can help create), while avoiding the notion of “building the church for Easter Sunday” and overbuilding or overspending. 

Map your future marketing needs with Wellons Communications

We believe in adapting to the present while keeping a close eye on how the future is going to affect both your business and ours. 

One of our primary business tenets is, in the words of Jake Gaither, the legendary, late football coach at Florida A&M, to act “mobile, agile and hostile.” 

By hostile, we mean going after your market with energy, creativity and aggressiveness.

If you’re searching for marketing agencies in Orlando, find out more about how we can give your marketing program a boost. Take advantage of the experience we possess, the energy we can generate and the professionalism we offer. Give me a call and let’s discuss how we can help you market your products in compliance with the future…and the near-present.

If you’re planning your digital marketing strategy, chances are, you’ve already thought about email marketing. In fact, you might spend a great deal of time thinking about it as you plan for when to send each email, write copy, create a design, and blast it out to your contacts.

But while one-off emails are certainly an important part of any digital marketing campaign, it doesn’t have to be the only tool in your box. Automated emails can be a huge time saver, and while you can spend years learning all of the advanced tools, it’s not hard to get started and take advantage of some low hanging fruit.

Here are some easy ways to get started with email automation, even if you’re not working with a digital marketing agency.

What are automated emails?

First things first: What is email automation?

Email automation is essentially exactly what it sounds like: Emails are triggered to automatically go out to a specific audience at a specific time.

With a manual email, you work to put together a one-off send. This might be for a sale, a special, or a monthly newsletter. You email might still go to a specific list, and you might even schedule it to go out “automatically,” but it isn’t triggered to go out on its own.

With automated emails, you create an email and set your parameters—then you can essentially “set it and forget it” (but we don’t fully recommend that, as you’ll see below).

Why use email automation?

There’s a time and a place for both manual emails and automated emails, but if you’re not drawing on automated emails, you might be missing out on opportunities. Indeed, automated emails have many great benefits.

For one, they’re automatic. Once your system is set up, you don’t have to worry about dropping the ball and going radio silent on your targets.

Automated emails also allow for more personalization. Whether that is acknowledgement of a customer’s birthday or the ability to speak more accurately to the person’s position in the sales funnel, automation allows you to build warmer leads, as well as build awareness and educate.

How to start an email automation program

1. Define your goals.

Just like with any marketing program, you need to know what you’re shooting for before you start. Are you looking to drive leads for the sales team? Are you looking to retarget existing customers, or gain new ones? Even if you just want to give your customers a few more rewards with simple automation, knowing your goal is key.

2. Collect your contacts.

Even the best written, most beautiful, highly strategic email marketing plan will fail if you don’t consider this step. Your emails are only as strong as your list. If you don’t have an email list or you want to add to it, consider adding a form to your website. (Most email platforms make this easy!). If you’re working with an existing list, work on segmenting your contacts into the appropriate categories.

3. Map your plan.

This is the big step—creating your plan. With email automation, you can go as far as you want to as you pick up new skills—but it doesn’t have to be complicated to start. Consider easy automation with birthday or anniversary emails, a bounceback coupon or a cart abandonment play. (Many email platforms have these worked in.) Or, set up a simple drip campaign with triggers over the course of six months or a year. Think about your clients’ pain points and what’s worked at different points in the sales cycle before. Again, it doesn’t have to be complicated, and your email platform might even walk you through the steps.

4. Create your assets.

Now, make it happen. Write needed content and design your emails. It’s good to spend a fair amount of energy on these emails, because they’re going to be around for a while. And, don’t forget about assets you already have. Maybe you created an awesome brochure that has gone over well in the past, or you have a video that always moves your speaking audiences to tears. Incorporate these pieces into your campaign. Finally, don’t leave landing pages as afterthoughts. These are often critical in getting your target across the finish line.

5. Monitor success.

As with most any marketing plan, the final step is to watch and learn. See which emails are performing well and where you have opportunities. Be sure to remove targets who have unsubscribed or who have converted, and keep your lists clean and updated.

With these steps, you’ll be rolling out your first automated campaigns in no time—and hopefully reaping the benefits.

Need some advice on automated emails or an overall digital marketing strategy? Our Orlando marketing agency has a suite of services to help. Give Will a call at 407-462-2718 or email will@wellonscommunications.com.

At our Orlando PR agency, we spend an enormous amount of time thinking about how to reach external audiences—all those groups you are hoping will buy your product or service or idea—and generating revenue or results on your behalf.

All too often, however, we find that people overlook the vital role internal communication plays in enabling your employees and staff to understand and value your marketing success and the positive results that means for their job security and satisfaction.

The fact is the better your staff understands what you are telling your important contacts, the better they can reflect and reinforce the kinds of values and messages you are seeking to project.

And, as all of us have experienced in 2020 and 2021, the impact of COVID-19 has underscored the importance of internal communications.

Internal communications is where PR begins

Your staff and employees are the first audience that needs to grasp what you are trying to accomplish. The better they understand what you are doing and how you plan to get there, the more they can assist you in reaching your goal.

Involving your staff in your communications plan signals that you value their ideas, their input and their direct involvement. Involving your personnel allows them to better understand what you are saying and enables them to clearly and consistently project the same messaging you are sending to your key audiences.

At our Orlando PR firm, when we develop PR plans, we always include our client’s staff and employees under “audiences we want to reach.”

The three key sources of internal communications

Precisely how you go about communicating with your personnel differs in every organization.

Large organizations with multiple locations, for example, have different internal communications challenges than smaller organizations based at one location.

There are, however, three key internal communications sources that are common to every organization. These include:

Management – top-down dispersal of information such as strategies, company results, internal and external information, and other important general information that will affect one’s organization.

Face-to-face – briefing individuals on tasks and situations.

Resources – the intranet, email, social media, messaging, video calls, telephone.

What management says – and how they say it – is important because it sets the tone for your overall forward direction. If staff understands what the organization is doing, where it is headed, and how it plans to get there, they can buy into the program. Further, management messaging is critical because employees look to management for motivation, direction and leadership.

Face-to-face communications provide the personal touch leadership and internal communications demand. Whether it is a “town hall” gathering, a staff meeting or a Zoom video, putting your face and voice in contact with staff is key to building a management-employee relationship that can succeed.

Finally, orchestrating the resources by which you reach employees is important because the resources serve as the bridge to your staff. No matter what the message, an internal communications plan must include the same basic elements of an external PR plan: who, what, where, why, when, and how.

We can help you strengthen your internal communications

The vast majority of our clients want us to reach outward to their key marketing targets and amplify sales results.

We wholeheartedly agree that sales and results must head in in a positive direction for an organization to succeed.

We also subscribe to the notion that involving your staff and employees through simple, direct communications that clarify your goals, hopes and expectations, adds strength, consistency and enthusiasm to whatever goal you are seeking to attain. The old adage “there is strength in numbers” comes to mind when you add the know-how and willingness of your staff and employees to your marketing mix.

Want to learn more about how you can amplify your internal communications program to get more out of your marketing mix? Give us a call at Wellons Communications and allow our Orlando marketing agency to get better acquainted with your organization and how you can actively involve them in getting more from your overall marketing program.

You know your company has a good piece of news to share. You have been meaning to write up a formal company announcement for weeks now. And yet, every time you go to write, your fingers pause over the keys. You get pulled away to put out a fire. Your client work just seems more important. Or maybe you just don’t know where to start.

Trust us, we are very familiar with the struggles our agency public relations clients go through to put their company first and get the piece of content out the door (we like to think we can help with that!)

But regardless of whether you write the content yourself or your PR firm provides the assist, the point is that content is valuable. You put hard-won time into pieces, and you want to capitalize on the news you have to best position your company for future success.

That’s why you need to be sure you’re making the most of every piece of content you have. It might seem incredibly simple, but the best advice usually is.

Are you getting the most out of your content?

Write it once. Use it many times.

At our Orlando PR firm, we like to talk about this concept so much, we made it into a graphic. (We call it the Wellons Wheel).

The idea is that you write content once and use it for the original purpose you intended. But too often, clients stop there. They don’t realize that they’re actually sitting on a goldmine. That same piece of content can be repurposed and used as an SEO blog, a social media post, a piece of sales collateral and/or a staff memo.

While your personal wheel can be slightly customized to fit your industry, the message is the same. When you create content, you should always be asking how else can I use this?

A content checklist

The Wellons Wheel can also be turned into a content checklist. We often see the cycle play out like this:

A client has an idea or a story come up. Let’s say it’s a milestone anniversary for the company. They notify their public relations agency, sending the necessary information. The agency drafts a press release and distributes it.

Next, the client can take this information and tweak it slightly for an SEO post on the company blog. This can be shared to social media with a great graphic and a link back to the site. At the same time, it can be included in a company eblast. If the client desired, the same could be designed as a postcard for a sales touch to inspire confidence in the company, and the client can share the great news with the staff.

This boosts the potential reach of the news way beyond the simple press release that was originally intended.

A content checklist might look like this:

• Write a press release
• Post an SEO blog
• Share on social
• Share in eblast
• Share internally
• Decide if sales material is appropriate

Any of these steps might also spur a follow up story or another idea, and the cycle begins again.

The point, of course, is efficiency and consistency. When you go to the trouble of sharing valuable insights or news, you want to maximize your return. Doing so is usually simple—it’s just a matter of implementing the system.

Need some help running the play or creating content in the first place? As a Central Florida PR firm, that’s our specialty. Give Will a call at 407-462-2718 or email him at will@wellonscommunications.com.

You have a resume. You have a LinkedIn and a handful of other profiles, social media and professional.

So why is it, when your team needs bios for the website or a contact asks you to send your bio over, your fingers freeze over the keys?

A great professional bio is one of the shortest pieces of content you’ll write, but it’s also one of the most important—and that’s exactly what makes it so paralyzingly difficult.

Need to add one to your professional stockpile? Here’s how.

You have a resume. You have a LinkedIn and a handful of other profiles, social media and professional.

So why is it, when your team needs bios for the website or a contact asks you to send your bio over, your fingers freeze over the keys?

A great professional bio is one of the shortest pieces of content you’ll write, but it’s also one of the most important—and that’s exactly what makes it so paralyzingly difficult.

Need to add one to your professional stockpile? Here’s how.

Just like a headshot, a solid professional bio is a key piece of content every executive should have on hand. It’s just like a logo or boilerplate for a business—it’s part of your personal professional brand.

And just like a branding piece, a bio says a lot about you, from the tone in which it is written to what accomplishments you choose to highlight. Giving the piece some thought in advance means you’re not only prepared to act quickly and capitalize on opportunities when you need it, you’ll also have time to ensure it says exactly what you want it to say.

Additionally, having a crafted bio on hand means you’ll be able to fully fill out profiles and add a personal touch to your digital trail, including your company website.

What makes a great bio?

There’s no one way to write a bio, but great ones all share a few traits—they’re informative, they’re interesting and they’re short.

Similar to a cover letter, your bio is your chance to express yourself. It shouldn’t be a reiteration of your resume or a chronicle of everything you’ve done since graduating high school. Instead, think of it as your chance to tell your story.

In order to keep your bio interesting, steer away from the cliches, and hit the high points. Think about it like your own personal elevator speech. Take a page from a journalist’s playbook and write it in the inverted pyramid style, with the most important features at top, lesser details below and the boring tidbits left out completely.

And most importantly, keep it short. It’s tempting to include all of your amazing accomplishments, but try to keep your bio between 300 and 500 words (or, at least give yourself a “short” version and a “long” version).

How to write a professional bio

OK, so you know why you need it and you know what to do—but how do you write a professional bio?

At our Orlando marketing agency, we have plenty of experience doing just that. When we sit down to write an executive bio or bios for the whole team, we follow a few simple steps.

First, figure out what direction you want to go. Do you want to strike a casual tone or a more formal one? Will you write in first person or third?

Next, determine how the bio will be used. Is this for your website? Something to have on hand for award programs or speaking engagements? Will you be writing this for yourself, or will the entire team need a bio? This will help determine what you want to include and if you need to create a template for uniformity.

Now, consider what you want to say. Here are a few common sections you might want to include.

• First and last name
• Position and company name
• Short description of responsibilities
• Professional history and experience
• Professional achievements
• Education
• Personal hobbies
• Fun fact

Once you’ve decided what to include, it’s time to get writing (and editing) until you have a great bio you can customize for any need.

Turn to our Orlando PR firm for help mastering the bio 

Writing a professional bio takes a little time and a lot of understanding of the audience and process, but a well-written bio is a vital tool.

Fingers still poised over those keys? Writing about yourself can be tricky, so if you’re stuck and still want to reap the benefits of a great bio, leave it to the professionals. Give us a call at 407-339-0879 or email will@wellonscommunications.com. We would be happy to review your goals and share our writing skills with you.  

All too often, public relations is viewed in terms of special events and one-off activities that attract attention for a short time but often fail to yield a long-term payoff.

Special events do have a place. New product launches, grand openings or service changes all cry out for some kind of attention-getting activity that can immediately signal that something is new or different. When successful, the payback can result in immediate gratification: widespread publicity and awareness and a corresponding surge in response from your target audience.

Ongoing public relations campaigns, however, are different. They require careful planning, patience and a long-term view of what denotes success in your overall marketing plan.

How to plan a PR campaign

No two public relations plans are alike. However, in more than three decades of creating and implementing public relations campaigns, the most successful campaigns we have developed at our PR firm have been derived from a disciplined approach that invariably has heightened the chances of success—and marketing impact—for our clients.

• Find an interesting subject

In order for a campaign to be successful, the subject must be newsworthy, engaging and different. It should get people talking. Media must want to cover it, and consumers must want to read it, share it and engage with it. To determine whether your story is “newsworthy”, try to place yourself in the mind of your target audience. What might feel like news to you may not provide a big enough hook to those who aren’t yet invested in the minutiae of your brand.

• Link to your brand message

It’s not enough for your story to simply be newsworthy; it must also communicate the message that your brand wants to convey if it is to be truly effective. Generating a conversation is meaningless if it doesn’t help you to achieve your business’s goals. 

Ask yourself what you are ultimately trying to achieve. Are you trying to change perceptions of your brand? Raise awareness of a new product or service? Promote your unique selling proposition? Establish your brand as an expert in a certain field? Reach a new audience?

Whatever your strategic goals, a sound campaign will help you achieve them by providing you with an opportunity to communicate your message in a way that connects with the audience you are trying to reach. There is no point in pouring effort into a story that offers no opportunity to meaningfully link back to what your brand really wants to say.

• Identify the right time

Timing is crucial, and a badly timed campaign can have a detrimental effect on its chances of success. This has never been more apparent than during the COVID crisis, when so many brands have learned that undertaking a campaign that seems tone deaf, insensitive or irrelevant to people’s current circumstances can do more harm than good. 

However, during less exceptional times, the most successful campaigns will always be those that are topical and tap into the moment. Before launching a campaign ask yourself, “why now?”. If the answer is not obvious, or if you can think of another time that would be more relevant for the launch, it is better to launch the campaign at a time that offers a better chance at success.

To help determine the best time for your campaign, stay in tune with your audience and ensure you are putting out content when they are most likely to be susceptible to your messaging.

•  Ensure you have an opportunity to drive traffic

PR has the power to drive high quality, targeted traffic that is already engaged in your brand, product or industry. This traffic can be directed to your website or to your store or office, where you will ultimately have the opportunity to convert the traffic into sales.

To maximize online traffic, ensure that the web links are relevant and add value for the reader by offering them the opportunity to find out more about what they have just read or to gain tips and advice. If driving web traffic is your primary goal, efforts should be focused on securing online coverage, including within online media outlets, e-newsletters and on social media, where you will have the opportunity to include click-through links to relevant content on your website. That said, never underestimate the power of print media coverage for generating brand awareness—it’s just harder to track through web traffic. 

• Plan for multi-platform content

Rolling a campaign out across multiple platforms will maximize exposure and impact. To determine which platforms to prioritize, consider your audience and target the channels that they engage with. Think beyond the traditional media outlets they might read and consider ways to engage with them across other platforms that they use, including social channels. It is vital that the content appears in places your audience trusts and spends time.

•  Measure success

Measuring success is one of the most important aspects of a successful PR campaign. Lacking analysis and measurement of results, you have no way of knowing whether the campaign was successful in achieving what it set out to achieve. 

It’s crucial to measure against the initial goals for the campaign. If your goal was to drive web traffic, measure the number of hits you received from websites and social media pages that covered your story. If your objective was to reach an audience of high earners, evaluate whether the campaign was featured in places that attract this demographic. If you aimed to change the perception of your brand, assess whether the campaign conveyed your new key messages. Column inches and large readerships are meaningless if they are wasted on the wrong audience or fail to clearly communicate your brand’s message.

Count on Wellons Communication for sound public relations strategies

Clients at our Orlando PR firm expect results from their marketing dollars.

We view our role as finding and developing a path to achieve those results and make an impact on your bottom line. And we believe that campaigns, carefully thought out and conducted in a disciplined fashion, are an important key to achieving marketing success.

If you’re exploring PR agencies in Orlando, look to us to help you go beyond one-off events. Call on us to develop, execute and measure public relations campaigns that deliver ongoing, long-term results and reputation building that can benefit your business.

By definition, creativity is seeing things differently.

In public relations, creativity centers around the ability to transcend traditional ideas and come up with interpretations, rules and alternative ways of doing things. Often a marketing problem—be it dealing with a stubborn sales challenge or figuring out how to freshen up a tired message—requires an alternative approach. And coming up with that alternative approach requires creativity.

Do the basics…and then add some creative

At Wellons Communications, the majority of our approaches employ disciplined, tried-and-true methodologies to address client marketing challenges.

Calling on standardized, proven strategic and tactical approaches effectively resolves the majority of client needs.

Two examples of successful standardization include repetition of a successful theme line or headline in all communications so your key audiences hear your message with clarity and consistency and issuing news about your organization on a consistent basis, always keeping your name in front of key media audiences.

The bedrock of our marketing agency approach centers around doing the basics well…and then dressing them up in a creative manner.

The three key elements of creative thinking

In one of the many motion pictures in which actors Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland appeared, there was a memorable scene in which the pair of actors was faced with a problem. They both ruminated for a moment and Rooney then raised his finger high and proclaimed “I know! Let’s have a show.”

For many, the notion of creativity is exactly that. “Let’s have a show!”

The reality is considerably different. Coming up with creative solutions is a disciplined exercise that requires a combination of control and a willingness to listen and consider the ideas of others, no matter how strange they may seem.

At our Orlando marketing agency, we develop creative approaches using three benchmarks:

1. Unconventionality: Is the approach totally different? Can it be a different approach using a tried-and-true method?
2. Autonomy: Is anyone currently doing what we are thinking about doing? Will we be the only ones in our product or service category with our creative approach or message?
3. Risk: How much or how little risk is involved if we change what we are doing?

How we organize and manage these determines the extent to which our creativity is stimulated or stifled.

Look at things differently. Be open to new ideas.

In the 1980s, Roger von Oech, a successful toymaker and popular conference speaker, published The Innovative Whack Pack, an effective creative tool that lists 60 creative strategies to provide and inspire creative thinking von Oech’s approach centered around stimulating creative thinking around ideas like “Slay a Sacred Cow” (i.e. putting aside, for a moment, ideas considered sacrosanct), “Change the Direction” (e.g. Is a 12-year-old female an old child or a young woman), and “Let Nature Be Your Guide” (Imagine you are a plant, an animal or an insect. How would you go about solving your problem?).

Using an outside prod (like the Whack Pack) may, in fact, serve as the trigger for someone on your team to come up with a totally new, different and successful creative approach.

Wellons Communications is your creative Orlando PR firm

Our clients depend on us to help them engage with their audiences and stand out from the crowd. We continue to do our lateral thinking homework even when we’re not working on a specific assignment. It’s part of our job assignment.

If you are in dire need for different marketing thinking or simply in need of freshening what are you currently doing, keep Wellons Communication in mind. We’ll sit down with you, listen to what you want to accomplish…and respond with some fresh, new ideas that will combine creativity with conventional marketing.

The end result? A stronger connection with your clients and wannabe clientele.

Call Will at 407-462-2718 and let’s set up a creative get-together.