GrandOpeningHelp.com

Synopsis: Public relations has bad PR. It is known for its fluff and hype, for the sleight-of-hand work, and, whereas, all of that exists, the glitter and flash isn’t what makes for an effective campaign. What makes media placement effective is that it tells a story, it educates, it gives the public information on a particular topic or field that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

When placing stories in the media, you want to highlight you product or service, but you also have an equally important second objective. You want to educate. I don’t think that I can emphasize this point strongly enough. Public Relations has bad PR. It is known for its fluff and hype, for the sleight-of-hand work, and, whereas, all of that exists, the glitter and flash isn’t what makes for an effective campaign. What makes media placement effective is that it tells a story, it educates, it gives the public information on a particular topic or field that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

We represented a physician who was working on a new cancer drug and was in the midst of clinical tests. The first series had been quite promising. He was looking for patients with a certain type of cancer who were interested in participating in the study. He received hundreds of calls after a local TV interview ran, from people wanting to find out more information. These people would have never been aware of the study, and their opportunity to participate in it, if it had not been for the interview they saw. How about a couple of examples that are not quite so serious?

A skin care expert who has created her own make-up line, appeared on a TV segment teaching consumers how to buy cosmetics for less. The piece explained how to read and understand labels and how to shop for quality, yet inexpensive products. She was presented as an expert, her products were highlighted, and the public learned new information.

The President and CEO of an Internet company who specialized in B to B solutions, was interviewed in a national publication on the changing face of the Internet. He was able to discuss his company and the solutions it offered, establish himself as an expert in his field, and educate the public.

All of these pieces highlighted and focused on the client’s company, but they also educated. By watching the programs or reading the articles, the public learned new information. The pieces were informative and (hopefully) added to the quality of the viewers’ or readers’ lives. Done correctly, it educates, instructs, entertains, and whets the public’s appetite to know more. On the marketing end, it also stimulates your target audience to make an appointment, purchase a product, or to visit a store. But the bottom line comes down to presenting yourself as an expert, an educator, as someone whom both the media and the public turn to for information and advice, you are communicating with and educating the public.

For further information visit:
www.AnthonyMora.com

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This post was submitted by Anthony Mora.

In the 20^th century, people are now connecting through social networks. Facebook, being the leader in industry, is connecting people, colleagues, reuniting classmates and business associates using the Internet. Let’s use this social network to announce to people who have a personal interest, business relationship or similar interests that your business is having a grand opening. Considering many businesses are started by people who are leaving one industry to reinvent themselves in another, the wealth of resources, connection and personal relations built over these years of business interaction are severed instantly once the individual boxes up their office cubical. Many of these connections would like you to succeed in your new business venture and would be willing spread the word through their network of your grand opening.

Make it an Activity

Facebook allows users to post what they are doing right now! Let people know that you are stocking shelves for the grand opening, booking grand opening entertainment, creating a press release, talking to local news agencies and businesses about the grand opening.  Keep the post current and build to the grand opening date.   Making announcement days before is less effective because the social networking is not fully developed. Allow the anticipation to build.  Pretty soon, friends will be contact you and asking “Are you ready for your big grand opening?”

Start the Networking

Facebook.com, is the most popular, free social networking environment, and is one of the easiest to find and acquire contacts or in social networking terms, friends.  First, create an account making sure you use your real name, unlike Internet forums or bulletin boards, where fake names are common.  The power behind Facebook is its ability to connect people by schools, companies, interests, hobbies and relies on you to recognizing individuals by name.

Second, enter your personal information.  Personal information is the key to complete social networking.  The more information supplied in these areas allows you and others to seek out individuals with the same desires and interests.  For example, if you are leaving the aviation field and opening up a hobby shop, include in your personal information that your hobby is fling.  Facebook will link you automatically to other individuals (friends) who share the same interest.  This link to new “friends” will allow you to build a social network that you can announce your grand opening celebrations.

Connect with past classmates and colleagues in the same manner.  Once you fill-out the school information, Facebook will search its database of schools and classmates in your graduating year.  Many of these people will quickly seek you out and want to know what is happening in your life.  Inform them about your grand opening and invite them to come see you at the grand opening.

Expand Social Networking through the Company

Encourage employees to create a Facebook page.  Once created, ask them to make an announcement in their network of friends about the grand opening.  The goal is to use the network to spread the word about the grand opening.  Pictures can be uploaded; announcement can be posted along with a shout out of how the progress and development of the grand opening is going.  Lastly, make sure you follow up with pictures of people who come from the network of friends.  People who can’t attend that day will be interesting in seeing the pictures and will participate in the grand opening through your pictures.

Don’t put the Camera Away

Keep the digital camera ready after the grand opening, you may find many network friends will show up late in the week and you can capture the moment and share it with the network of friends who help make your grand opening a success.  It will take a little work and time to build the social network of friends, but that work will make your grand opening and business stronger.

Network with Dale on his Facebook

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Many franchises will leave the grand opening up to the franchisee to develop a grand opening extravaganza. Typically, marketing support falls short by the franchise; their concern is the store opens on time and follows franchise protocol.

Successful franchises have or hire a creative marketing team to develop the grand opening marketing. The franchise helps the franchisee with advertising, securing vendor promotions, and provides marketing support through its other franchise locations.

The ability of the franchise to support its franchise is critical for both parties success. Too often franchiser is more interested in expansion and overlooks the simple support that they can provide to a new franchisee.  New franchisees should request:

• Advertising support for the grand opening
• Announcements in all franchise locations
• Support in securing vendor participation
• Press release announcing new location
• Web support highlighting grand opening location
• Support in TV, radio, print and Internet advertising
• Support team to help run and develop a successful grand opening

The franchise needs to show from the beginning, that they are committed to the new franchisee and are willing to work together to develop a strong grand opening celebration.

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The Entertainer’s Website Network grand opening is on February 10th 2009. The Entertainer’s Website Network is a paid subscription based directory of professional entertainer’s. The Entertainer’s Website Network allows Interment user to rank, comment, search, view thumbnail images of website, and locate professional entertainers quickly and easily. The Entertainer’s Website Network will be part of the www.mbd2.com website, the fastest growing balloon entertainment websites.

The Entertainer’s Website Network will offer a unique opportunity for professional entertainer’s to allow testimonial review of the entertainer, while providing them with full Search Engine Optimization built into the Entertainer’s Website Network.

The Entertainer’s Website Network will be working with other TWISTingonline.com, Balloncast.org, private email list, the mbd2.com newsletter (5,000+ readers) to kick off its grand opening.

To subscribe to the Entertainer’s Website Network
Subscription Option # 1 – $50.00 US
1. Thumbnail image of website
2. Full-size image of website
3. List website title
4. List owners name
5. List state of operation
6. List country of operation
7. Link to website
8. Choice of 3 categories
9. 5 User defined keywords for search + Owners name, city, state, and country of operation
10. Rating of website
11. User comments
12. 1 Years Subscription

Subscription Option #2 – $95.00
1. Thumbnail image of website
2. Full-size image of website
3. List website title
4. List owners name
5. List state of operation
6. List country of operation
7. Choice of 6 categories
8. 20 User defined keywords for search + Owners name, city, state, and country of operation
9. Rating of website
10. User comments
11. 1 Years Subscription

Payments can be made by PayPal, Money Order, or Credit Card
Site is owned and operated by DEO Consulting, Inc – www.mbd2.com

Company : DEO Consulting, Inc

Contact Name: Dale Obrochta

Email: dale@mbd2.com

Event Address: http://www.mbd2.com/ewn

City, State, Zip: Orland Hills, IL 60487

Telephone Number: (708) 744-0234

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This post was submitted by Dale Obrochta.

Grand openings and ribbon cuttings don’t have to be limited to businesses that have retail locations. If your “real estate” is your website and you work out of your home, this great public relations opportunity is available to you as well, although you will have to plan it a bit differently than someone with a brick and mortal location. A few years ago I attended a “ribbon cutting” for a client’s new website and had a great time meeting people all over the country on a teleconference bridge line.

Since I’m only a few months away from a new website myself, I wondered how to powerfully take advantage of this wonderful promotional opportunity. I made some posts to some discussion lists to which I belong, and the ideas listed in this article are the results of my information requests.

Here are some ideas to spice up your virtual grand opening/ribbon cutting:

Technology

At a minimum you’ll need a teleconference bridge line. My favorite one at the moment is Live Free Conferencing, http://freeconferencing.liveoffice.com/, because you can record the call at no extra charge, the bridgeline holds up to 250 callers, the moderator can mute the entire call if needed, and they offer the ability for muted callers to ask a question via their webcontrol panel.

If you’d like more interaction with your visitors, you will want to use webconferencing/virtual conference room software. There are a number of these services out there, so I recommend that you do a search and try and few before deciding on your provider.

If you’d like to invite a group of people to your event, you can use an invitation service like Evite.com, or sent out an HTML invitation to your contact list through your email broadcast service like aWeber.com, EzineDirector.com, ConstantContact.com or an audio postcard through a service like AudioAcrobat.com. In order to have your attendees register for this event, you will need to create a contact form on your website that feeds into your shopping cart or autoresponder service.

Event Activities

1. Virtual ribbon cutting. You can do this via a web cam and actually cut a ribbon that’s draped over your monitor which is displaying the home page of your new site and show it via your webinar service/virtual conference room service. Or, you might find an animated graphic of a ribbon cutting and show that via your virtual conference room instead.
2. Have people register for your event and give out door prizes. You can spotlight your business colleagues by requesting door prizes for them. Electronic info products are the easiest door prize to award, as you don’t have to mail a physical package to the winner. If some of your door prizes do require mailing, however, you need to request a mailing address from everyone who registers for your event.
3. Hold a teleseminar during the grand opening that’s partially educational, partially promotional. You can make a special offer to all those who attend the live call.
4. Give a virtual tour of your new website via webinar/virtual conference room software.
5. Host a roundtable session at your event that permits attendees to give a 30 second commercial of their businesses. Schedule this at the end of your event so that it doesn’t detract from your offerings.
6. Hold a scavenger hunt on your site during your grand opening. This hunt creates a reason to have people visit the site and visit multiple pages. Create a 3-5 page report or something that’s easy to compile that showcases your expertise and is of value to your visitor for the prize. You might use roll-over images to give clues or find a funny graphic or and hide it in various places throughout your site in obvious and not-so-obvious locations. You could also place audio snippets around your site as well and put clues in those audio files.
7. Sponsor a message board and/or chat room on your site. At specific times post a series of questions, polls, etc. that will make your visitors interact. Ensure that the questions are relevant and of interest to your target market. This will instantly create popularity for your website, as well, for keywords pertinent to your target market.
8. Give away prizes every hour (or every 10-15 minutes for shorter events) and tell your visitors that they have to be present in the webinar room/on the teleconference line to win. Between giveaways, talk about your experience, your offerings, and offer free on-the-spot help for a problem faced by your target market.

Online Publicity/Promotion

1. Post the date and time of opening of your event on CraigsList.com, on the boards for your city/area and surrounding areas.
2. Send out invitations through Evite or though your email broadcast service.
3. If permitted, post the particulars about your event on various lists/discussion groups to which you belong.
4. Send out press release regarding event through online press release services.
5. Create a post about your grand opening/ribbon cutting on your blog and invite attendees to post their comments on your blog

Offline Marketing

1. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and they will offer to hold a ribbon-cutting for you. For virtual/at home businesses, most chambers will do this in their office rather than your home. Many times a photo or article about the riboon cutting will appear in the local press and in the chamber newsletter.
2. Plan a couple of local talks and/or book or product signings to coincide with your grand opening
3. Send out postcards inviting people to your new website and grand opening and offer them a free gift for dropping by.
4. Send out press releases to your local media regarding any “in-person” events you sponsor during this grand opening time

Grand openings are held to generate good will and begin relationships with business colleagues, current clients, and prospective customers. Now, as the owner of a virtual business, you can foster that same good will by sponsoring a virtual grand opening for your new business or new website and get your new venture in gear.

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at Get More Clients Online.

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This post was submitted by Donna Gunter.

If you are starting a new franchise and you want it to be a success from the beginning you are on the right track. And if you want to effectively get the community and people aware of your new franchise, a grand opening is a must! A grand opening is a great way for you to attract people to your new franchise and get business started right away. It is a great way to get your franchise going faster and stronger than if you didn’t have one.

Tips to conduct a successful grand opening for your franchise:

1. Pick a time and date that will benefit you the most. Since you will want as many people as possible it should be during a time when most people can attend. So, Sunday at 10am is not good since a majority of people may be in church. During the week is better and during a high traffic time.
2. Invite people in the community such as the mayor, city council or other government officials. This will not only get them there but others who respect those you invited.
3. Make it look like something is happening. You may have many great things planned inside for your grand opening, but if nothing is out of the ordinary on the outside how will people know. You should have grand opening signs or banners, balloons, ribbons, and things of that nature. That way you will attract those who may have heard and those who are simply passing by.
4. Plan a great opening day with giveaways, door prizes, games and refreshments. You may even have a ribbon cutting ceremony, guest speakers, D.J’s or other forms of entertainments for all. Have something for everyone, something for the adults and also something for the kids! You want to make the day memorable. That way people will want to come back and they will also tell their friends about. Word of mouth can really boost your business!
5. You may even be able to get a little more publicity if you ask for it. You can contact newspapers, television stations and other means and invite them to your grand opening. If they do attend chances are they will add it to their feature in the news or newspaper, this is a great promoter for business. For the best response you should invite these individuals two to three weeks in advance and then call them a few days before the event to remind them.
6. Plan your grand opening event for about a month after you actually open. This is a good idea that way your franchise is running and you will have worked through any glitches of problems before you invite everyone to “check you out”. You will also have a well trained staff that can cater to the customer’s needs. Customer service will be key to your success!
7. Don’t forget to invite your personal support group. Invite your friends, family and previous influential contacts. Not only will they provide support for you but the community likes to see that you are human.

Give your franchise the best grand opening by following these simple tips!

For more information on an automotive franchise visit BumperDoc auto body franchise and start your path to business ownership.

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This post was submitted by Samantha Mccartney.

While there are no firm statistics, professionals have noticed that the majority of businesses that close within the first two years did not have an official grand opening event. Those same pros continue to surmise that if you create a successful grand opening, you’ll set the pace for the weeks and months ahead. This has never been truer than it is today, as we see company after company closing its doors or downsizing. But what can be done for your particular business? Which types of grand opening ideas can draw the attention of customers as well as the media?

Bring in the Big Guns… or Cups or Tacos or Puppies or…

Here’s a phenomenal grand opening idea: Create a giant inflatable balloon of your product or logo and place it on the rooftop of your business. For instance, a Mexican restaurant could place a giant, inflatable taco on its roof with a banner that reads, “Now Open.” A local veterinary clinic could put a massive, inflatable puppy or kitten on their rooftop with signage declaring, “Grand Opening!”

Why giant inflatable balloons? Because they attract attention of all sorts. People busily going about their routines don’t even notice most of the advertising that comes their way. According to the Newspaper Association of America, Texas A&M University and the Journal of Concerned Scientists, Americans are exposed to well over 3,000 advertising messages each day from a variety of sources. Our senses are on overload and, therefore, most of the ads we view are blocked out.

However, place a 30-foot-tall giant taco up on the roof (higher than most of the other clutter like billboards, storefront banners, etc.) and drivers down your street suddenly wake up and smell the guacamole.

Gain Press Coverage

Your business can make good use of this second grand opening idea: Use inflatables to bring the press to your location. Inflatables are an exceptional way to garner media coverage. While yet another Mexican restaurant grand opening might not be considered news, a restaurant with a giant taco on its roof that drew in massive crowds is. Likewise, while a photo of a restaurant storefront isn’t an overly exciting picture, that massive taco is definitely a photo opp just waiting to happen.

Bring the Crowd Inside

Unless you’re hosting a sidewalk sale, having a crowd of customers outside your
door won’t do you much good. You have to bring the people inside your business. Grand opening idea number three is to use smaller, sealed inflatables as giveaways.

For example, sticking with the same Mexican restaurant theme, you might say the first 100 customers get a free, miniature, inflatable taco. You could create practically anything you want: inflatable mariachi singers, inflatable sombreros… the list is endless. Because everybody loves to get something free – and because they can be branded with your business name and address – sealed inflatables make the perfect giveaways.

As a business, you can’t neglect the importance of your grand opening. Use ideas that create a buzz in your community and that will attract the press. When you do it right, you’ll find that word-of-mouth advertising kicks in and the business just keeps on coming!

Stephanie Meacham is Vice President of Landmark Creations who has designed and manufactured custom inflatables since 1986. Looking for business grand opening ideas? Visit Landmark at http://www.landmarkcreations.com today.

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This post was submitted by Stephanie Meacham .

Make the Grand Opening Sale Special

No matter if this is your first or your 100^th store grand opening; people will expert some type of sale.  In fact most store grand openings use sales as a tool to lure in customers, but be creative in your sales marketing and reap profit and create loyal customers.

Many businesses try to discount the entire store thinking this will give them the greatest

exposure and the largest variety of customers.  This works great if you’re a convenience store and not specializing in a horizontal market. If you’re a specialty store, you want to make sure you attract customers who will use the products you’re selling and develop loyal customer base.  Understanding your consumer demographics is as important to your grand opening, as well to the success of your business.

Sale items should be clearly marked and should show savings.  Make it easy for the customer to see the saving you’re offering.  If you offer repair services, show a comparison chart of your rate compared to competitors.

Become creative in your grand opening sales.

• Offer useful products on sale that will brand a particular product or service to your store. The goal is to generate sales, but also create loyal customer base who will retune for future sales.
• Offer discounts on multiple product if purchased the day of the grand opening.
• Offer discounts on related products purchased together – Snow shovel, salt, and door mate reduce greater if purchased together.
• Offer free assembly or delivery on large ticket items, if purchase at grand opening.

Making your store grand opening profitable is not difficult, it just take serious planning.  The sales planning you do now; will pay off in future sales.

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Do you know what the best type of Marketing is for your company?

How about a Yellow Pages advert? Pay per click? Maybe some direct mail followed up a telemarketing campaign?

Well whilst each of these are perfectly valid marketing routes and one’s any forward thinking company should at least test the very best type of marketing for all types of business is the type that is FREE!!!

That’s right Ladies and Gentlemen, if you’re working with a tight marketing budget (or indeed with no set marketing budget at all) then you can now get exposure for your product, service or company in the form of PR (or Public Relations).

For large companies PR is big business. They will think nothing of employing staff with the sole intention of getting the name of their company in the media (be it written press, television, radio or online). And because the PR market is seemingly dominated by the larger companies small companies shy away from using PR in their marketing mix.

If this applies to you then good times could well be ahead as PR is a vital part of the marketing mix for smaller companies in particular as they often don’t have the time or money to spend on often expensive advertising or other marketing.

Successful businesses of all sizes use PR to promote their business, build their reputation and become a recognised expert in their particular field. And the beauty of PR is that everyone is an expert in something. And by passing on your expertise in a particular subject in the right way you become newsworthy.

And that is the real secret when it comes to good PR. It has to be interesting and newsworthy. Nobody cares that you’ve just launched a new website or that Mrs Jones in Accounts has just become a Grandmother for the second time (both subjects I’ve seen in press releases and both subjects I’ve seen in journalist’s bins!!). And if you’ve ever attempted PR only not to have it published then I wouldn’t worry too much about it as you’re amongst the 99% of companies who send out PR that isn’t newsworthy or interesting.

Here are a few words on Why PR is important.

Communication lies at the heart of today’s modern society. Be it on the internet, television, pod casts or whatever medium you choose. And with so many firms competing for the same business as you, how do your customers differentiate between you and your competitors?

The answer lies not particularly in the size of your Yellow Pages advert but how you project yourself and what your firm has to offer.

PR has a huge sway in the minds of consumers as the perceived third party endorsement that comes from editorial coverage can be substantial, maybe even more so than advertising that can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds.

PR done well can result in increased exposure, increased business and increased profits. And if you want your business to be the best it can be then becoming good at PR is something you want to do.

And remember, it’s FREE!!!!

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This post was submitted by Marketing Buzz.

Trying to figure out what marketing ideas will work and won’t, is always a difficult choice for a business.  Trial and error are how most people start a business while cleaver people do some research and find clever, innovative marketing ideas to help them achieve their financial goals.  Here is a document on Creative Marketing Ideas that can help small businesses improve their marketing along with improving their current marketing positions.

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This post was submitted by Dale Obrochta.