This morning I had the pleasure of giving a presentation to an engaged group of people involved with early childhood education and family services at the Augusta Civic Center. Called “Engaged Communities, Growing Small Children,” the conference focused around a book called “The Charismatic Organization, 8 Ways to Grow a Nonprofit,” by Shirley Sagawa. I tied my presentation in to Shirley’s book by talking about how organizations can engage themselves better with their communities through effective communications if they share their stories and newsworthy events on an ongoing basis. Continue Reading »

By Michael Stumpf, partner in www.parleestumpf.com and one of NMC’s strategic partners from the www.amcagroup.com

We are often asked:  “How do we reach out to new customers?”

Well the answer, for businesses large and small, is the same.

The value proposition in your marketing must be relevant to your target market…to the audience you are trying to reach. This means, your target market must be clearly defined.  And you’ve got to buy into their ‘worldview’ - those things that are important to them.

Smart marketing doesn’t try to change someone’s worldview.

You’ll never sell a Rolex to someone who has no money, or doesn’t want to spend their money on an expensive watch.  You’ll never sell a Harley Davidson to someone who believes it’s dangerous riding the road that way.  You’ll never sell an airline ticket to someone who’s afraid to fly.  And you’ll never get someone to buy a smart phone when all they want to do is make telephone calls.

Continue Reading »

I was visiting a tourist destination in Maine this week that is going to remain unnamed. I was speaking with the owner of the business and she was saying that business was down. While I was standing right there, a group of six prospective customers walked up to the front entrance of this business, picked up a brochure, and were totally ignored by the numerous staff members standing around chatting among themselves. I was shocked.  Horrified might be a better word.

Then today, my husband, son and I went to a golf course in Maine to play nine holes of golf. The owner greeted us nicely and we told her we wanted to play golf. She said, “you don’t want a cart, do you?” We said “actually yes, we would like one, maybe even two.” She handed us the key for one cart. Then she said, “You’re only playing 9 holes, right?” We were actually only playing nine but why couldn’t she have said, “Would you like to play 18 holes? It’s a better price overall per hole if you play 18 rather than 9.” But she didn’t. Continue Reading »

An article in the August 2010 issue of Maine Ahead Magazine profiled three social media “experts”:  Rich Brooks, Lynnelle Wilson and me.  Thanks to Publisher Mark Wellman and Editor Tori Britton for the time and effort they put into writing this article and publishing this great magazine!   I thought it was interesting how each of us focused on diffferent aspects of social media and the return on investment in terms of time and effort.  Continue Reading »

By Katie Greenlaw, Account Coordinator at Nancy Marshall Communications (Katie is pictured at the computer, with NMC team members Juli Settlemire and Greg Glynn looking over her shoulder.)

Katie is a new member of the NMC team. She brings excellent credentials to her job, having worked as director of public relations at Thomas College where she also earned her M.B.A. with a 4.0 G.P.A.  Welcome Katie!  

Facebook is an important tool in today’s business world. Companies worldwide both large and small are increasingly seeing the relevance of having a Facebook page to share their news, special promotions and tips with current or potential customers. However, you can have a truly captivating, motivating, engaging and inspiring page, but what good does it do if no one is looking at it? Continue Reading »

We have worked with several consultants lately who are starting their own consulting businesses. We create “Marshall Plans”  for consultants which serve as their step-by-step strategic and tactical marketing communications programs. In our first meeting, which we call the “Discovery Session,”  we ask a series of questions to help create the “brand manifesto” that will serve as the foundation of all the consultant’s branding and positioning. Continue Reading »

The Obama family is visiting Bar Harbor, Maine this weekend. There’s nothing like a visit from a standing president to generate publicity for a tourism destination.  Hundreds of media people are following the first family around, and others are talking about it on TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Maine will definitely benefit from all this positive publicity. Even though we think it’s hot here, reporters on the Today Show this morning  were saying how cool it is compared to Washington and New York.

They chose Maine because they wanted to visit a national park where they could enjoy hiking and biking. Maine has a national reputation for its outdoor adventure vacations.  Immediately upon their arrival yesterday, they hiked up Mount Cadillac and biked on the Carriage Paths. The President didn’t even change out of his dress shirt before going hiking. He must have been hot. That’s why they also went for ice cream in Bar Harbor. I wonder if they had the lobster-flavored ice cream?

Our governor, John Baldacci and his wife Karen Baldacci greeted the first family when they arrived at the Trenton airport, along with Congressman Mike Michaud.  The governor presented the First Family with a gift bag of Maine gifts. 

Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park are beautiful places. I lived there while working at Hinckley Yachts back in 1985 and 1986. The ‘back side’ of the island is particularly beautiful and not as touristy as Bar Harbor, but with the Obamas visit lasting only 2 1/2 days, I doubt they will go there. I lived in the village of Manset where I was able to go out and get mussels off the rocks in my ‘front yard’ to cook for dinner each night. That was a real treat!

The good news is that the WCSH weather just reported that Bar Harbor is going to be one of the coolest spots in the state today. I hope that the Obamas have a great weekend in our state!

I am a proud member of the Society of American Travel Writers (www.satw.org) because I have been doing PR for travel and tourism destinations throughout my career, which started back in the last century. I am not a travel writer, but I am a travel publicist, so I am an “Associate” member of this prestigious national organization.

SATW publishes a great newsletter called the SATW Traveler. There is a travel writer named Sandra Friend from Florida who writes a column on professional development and this month’s column is entitled “Build A Better Blog.”  She shared a tip about using the “Networked Blogs”  Application on Facebook in order to share your blog right on your Facebook page.  Since I’ve been writing this blog for several years, and separately maintaining several Facebook pages (for myself personally and for Nancy Marshall Communications), I think it makes a lot of sense to share my blog with my Facebook friends. But the thing I love about the Networked Blogs application is that I can easily see the blogs that my Facebook friends are writing, and see the blogs that they are reading as well!  If you are a blogger, or if you are interested in following the blogs that your friends are following, I encourage you to check out this app. 

Thanks, Sandra Friend!

I’ve had this persona as the “Maine PR Maven”  for several years now, but just today, while surfing the web and researching an article I was writing for my e-newsletter, I discovered another Maven who has a great online persona and community.

This is Wendy Maynard, a marketing expert who works with entrepreneurs to catapult themselves and their companies to high visibility and success.

Check out http://www.mavendiary.com for an information-packed blog by Wendy, who owns a marketing and design firm called Kinesis, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. Wendy has done a marvelous job of building herself as an expert who is approachable, helpful, fun, nice and charismatic!  You go, Wendy!  I’m glad to meet you and although you live on the opposite side of the country, I am grateful that we can connect and perhaps even collaborate across the miles through our blogs, websites, businesses, Tweets, friends and Facebook pages!

One of our great clients is the Northern Forest Canoe Trail , which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer. We’re helping plan and sponsoring their anniversary celebration weekend in Rangeley, coming right up on July 24 and 25th. If you haven’t visited Rangeley lately, if you love to canoe or kayak, and if you are looking for a really great way to spend a day or a weekend, I encourage you to join us in celebration of the trail and its wonderful heritage.

It’s also the weekend of the Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum’s Logging Festival so you will get to see the crowning of Little Miss Woodchip and Little Mr. Woodchip and enjoy some real Maine Bean-Hole Beans. Pageants, meals,  and celebrations like this  are iconic events in our state’s summer schedule!

 (Pictured is a beautiful photo of Flagstaff Lake, a section of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail near Rangeley Maine. Thanks to Clyde Smith for this photograph.) Continue Reading »