Have you ever stumbled upon a business that just impressed the pants off of you?

These folks all have something in common.

They have a super-duper brand.

And by brand, I don’t mean you have to have fancy pants graphics placed all over your website. I mean having a brand that makes people so over-the-top delighted to work with you that they are barely able to catch their breath.

How can you unleash the same branding as these masters without shelling out a bunch of cash? Check out these four easy ways to get cracking on creating your own killer brand.

Blend Lifestyle and Business

Grace Kang of Retail Recipes helps entrepreneurs make their products retail-ready. Even though she has plenty of street cred as a former buyer for Bloomingdale’s, Saks and Barney's New York, Grace doesn’t stop there when trying to draw you in. Her brand uses food comparisons to explain different concepts like reliable inventory (aka “Your Meatball”). Grace is a self-proclaimed foodie and a killer baker. Her ideal clients are also food lovers, so this branding is the perfect mixture of business + life.

Infuse Personality

The minute you stumble on Lora Sasiela’s Financially Smitten website you feel like you’ve entered a chic, fashionable world of finance. Her ideal clients can feel “at home” on her website, which rivals their favorite fashion blog while providing a safe space to divulge all of their money secrets. My favorite line from her site? “If you are afraid you will spend your retirement years as a bag lady with sacks full of designer shoes, you need Lora Sasiela.”

Deliver Juicy Content

Coach Marion Chamberlain is top dog when it comes to creating content that her customers devour like a juicy novel. Knowing that her folks are most interested in gaining independence, freedom and connection, her weekly newsletter delivers little pops of goodness like “Five Ways to Flick on your Energy Switch" and, my personal favorite, "How to Score the Black Eyed Peas’ Energy." Her stuff is so rocking that the media has her on speed dial when they need quotes. Now that’s branding goodness.

Star in your own Ad Campaign

Companies spend millions of dollars to hire celebrity spokespeople for a reason. But, if you don’t have the budget to score Halle Berry or Jennifer Aniston as your company spokesperson, go for the next best thing. Do it yourself! Angela Jia Kim of Om Aroma & Co. uses her gorgeous mug to grace the pages of her website. She also expertly uses her personality to star in videos to demonstrate how to use her skincare line. And her spa ritual bath with daughter Sienna is just adorbs. To watch it, CLICK HERE

Which brands inspire you? Post a comment below with a link to your favorite brand.

I don’t know about you, but at the beginning of summer I have all of these grandiose ideas of taking more time to lounge by the pool, take my dog swimming, or hit the beach.

But then, before I know it, the summer is over and I’m back to raking leaves while simultaneously kicking myself for not taking enough “me” time.

If this sounds anything like you, then you’ll love this post, which is dedicated to serving up smiles all summer long. How? By giving you back some precious time.

Here are my four favorite time-saver tricks to shave off an hour (or more) of your time so you can spend it having fun in the sun.

Social Media Time Suck

Boy, if I added up all the time spent over the years on Facebook and Twitter I probably could have taken a summer off traveling Europe.

But ever since I discovered the magic of Hootsuite (http://www.hootsuite.com) I began doing somersaults around my social media efforts and saving tons of time. Just sign up for a free account and feed your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts through the system. You’ll be able to view, update, and socialize all on one convenient screen. Plus you can schedule updates – for example sending tips or quotes or links to promote your blog. Voila! Instant time saver.

Front Load your Month

Have you ever agonized over blog topics? Or threw your pen in frustration while you were trying to come up with pitch ideas? This run-around way of coming up with ideas is a true stinker.

To never have the “I don’t know what to write about” feeling again, take the first day of each month to come up with 10 media pitch ideas. Even if this takes you some time, you’ll be done in less than one day. Then recycle any of the ideas you don’t actually pitch to the press as blogs, newsletters, or other content for your customers.

Avoid Content Overload

Do you have a blog and a newsletter? If so, STOP. It is not necessary to have both and you’re only wasting precious time trying to fill the space while you could be doing other things (like sipping iced tea while devouring a juicy novel). You do want to maintain regular contact with your list, so feel free to mimic the strategy I use for newsletters/blogs. Every week I write a blog and then send short, text-only newsletter that sends you there to read.

Get Help

College is out, and that means there are thousands of guys and gals scrambling to make a little dough or score some experience and college credit. Interns are a fabulous way to hand off things that you KNOW you shouldn’t be spending time on to someone that would be happy as a clam to do. Plus you get the feel-good experience of mentoring a future star.

Contact your local college to ask if they have a place to post internships and also use sites like Craigslist to post for free. Keep in mind interns do not need to work in your office – with all of the fabulous tools like Skype and Google applications, it’s easy as pie to have a virtual intern.

So now that you have carved out some spare time, what will you do to chalk up your best summer yet? Post a comment below with the “me” time activities that you are planning this summer. Here are a few of mine:

• Take my dog jogging on the beach
• Visit the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met
• Make a baby quilt for my friend (due in July!)
• Watch and re-watch each episode of True Blood Season 4 (yes, I’m an obsessed fan)
• Shoot independent film – I’m co-starring in one right now in Philadelphia and having a blast!
 

As entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time second-guessing ourselves.

We try a host of different things to publicize our business. We tweet. We blog. We send endless pitches to the media. We plow through even the most boring networking events.

Inevitably there will come a day when you look at everything you’ve done to promote your business and want to throw it all in the trash can and start over.

Your blog sounds lame. And the fact that no one is commenting makes you feel even more lame.

You just spent hours crafting new pitches for the media and following up on old pitches and now are waiting breathlessly for someone to call or email you back. And then…nothing.

You scour your Twitter feed and try desperately to think of something intelligent or pithy to say in 140 characters. And then no one responds except someone named “xxxstaciexo”

Somehow all of your hard work now looks like a pile of poo.

However, when we go crazy trying to change everything in a desperate attempt to make something…anything…work, we can often make it worse. We stop doing things without knowing if they really ARE working. We pick new ways to market our business just because someone else told us we “have” to try it.

And while we navigate deeper into this mess, we aren’t putting any more money in our pocket.

So, what do you do when your publicity efforts are in the sewer?

Create a Plan that Sticks

I get it. You’d rather stick needles into your eyeballs than have to sit down and plan.

But hear me out.

Planning can actually be fun. But you have to create a plan that you can stick to.

I hear from many folks that they wish they had more time to pitch, or to write a book, or to blog, or to attend events. A good first step is to identify where you are spending your time and if you’re spending it efficiently. I like to make a list of all the tasks I do during the day. Do it for one day, or for a full week.

Then you’ll start to identify pockets of time that you might be wasting, or specific tasks you can outsource to free up more of your time.

Now make a plan of action – which marketing and publicity activities will you try in the next three months and how much time do you want to devote to each? This way you can chart out ahead of time how much time you’d like to invest for specific tasks (example: 5 hours per month for blogging, 10 hours per month for media pitching, etc)

Find Out What Really Works

You should have some formal process to measure all of your marketing and publicity efforts. At its most basic, you should ask where your customers heard about you – whether they are buying online or if you have your sales staff asking in person or on the phone. Also, check your website analytics monthly. Where is your traffic coming from? Which pages of your website are they reading (and which page are they leaving your website from)?

Having a measurement system in place to align with your individual marketing strategies will help keep you on track.

Get Help

It sucks doing it all alone. And it can be tough to run things by family and friends (who love your business, but can’t be your only customers).

Plenty of well-intentioned fellow entrepreneurs will share their success strategies, but that doesn’t mean those strategies will work for YOUR individual business.

That said, I’d love to help get you out of the weeds.

WORK WITH ME FOR FREE

I LOVE working with small business owners and get all giddy hearing about your business. As soon as I hear your challenges, my brain starts popping out ideas like fresh-buttered popcorn.

So, this week, I’m hosting a deliciously-awesome contest where you can win a 45-minute phone consultation with me (a $250 value).

All you need to do is post a comment below describing your biggest publicity or marketing challenge. Please also share your business name and website link (if you have one).

I’ll pick FIVE lucky winners by next Tuesday, May 3rd. WE HAVE CHOSEN OUR WINNERS! THANK YOU ALL FOR ENTERING!

Ready to try your luck at a private coaching session with yours truly? Post your comment below for a chance to win!

You’re sitting at your desk – biting your nails – staring at the email you drafted to the editor of your favorite magazine. You change a few words. Then change them back. Then you say **ck it, hit send, close your eyes and breathe a sigh of nervous relief.

Said editor receives the email. He/she digs the subject line and opens it. He/she reads your first line – yawns, hits delete, and moves onto the next email.

What just went wrong?

The opening sentence of your pitch is crucial to capturing the attention of the media. You are competing against tons of different distractions (ringing phones, exasperated co-workers, a junked-up inbox, the wafting smell of freshly brewed coffee).

If the first line of your email sucks, you’ve lost them.

So, how can you deliver a first line with enough razzmatazz to keep them reading?

Share the Love

If you’ve done your homework and researched the outlet before pitching, you should know the most recent stories your target has worked on. If it genuinely appealed to you, and your product would be a fit for a feature that’s similar, why not take this opportunity to pay them a compliment?

An example: Dear xx, I recently enjoyed your piece in the latest Marie Claire magazine on Healthy Beauty. I was surprised to hear that pear is such a great ingredient for the skin and can’t wait to try the recipe you provided!

Knock their Socks Off with a Stat

Find an interesting and thought-provoking statistic that ties into your business and hit them with it right up front. For example, if you have a product that induces laughter or wrote a book on laughter, you might want to say something like: Can a laugh a day keep a heart attack away? A recent study by the University of Maryland says yes.

Bonus points if you are delivering original results from your own survey or study.

Make them Shake their Head in Agreement

Aim to get that “a-ha” moment from the media. If your product/service delivers a solution (and I’m willing to bet they all do) – you might want to start by getting them to say “yes” to your question and be compelled to hear the solution. For example: Are you tired of kinky strands but not ready to make a commitment to chemical straightening?
 

Do you struggle with clever openings for your media pitches? Do you have lots of success with certain “openers”? Spill it in the comments below!

One of my PR coaching clients recently got a call from a national TV show that wanted to feature her product. Excitement ensues!

The day before the show, the producer let her know that the segment was running over time and that they had to chop it down. Unfortunately, her product feature ended up on the cutting room floor.

Cue disappointment.

During our call, she was clearly bummed. As I was about to share my sentiments on why it’s essentially an honor to “even be nominated” and that this could open doors for future opportunities she said to me – “You’re absolutely right. That’s why I sent the producer a handwritten thank you note along with some salt water taffy which she mentioned on the phone that she really missed from the Jersey shore.”

I almost fell over.

Not only was her reaction to this situation completely inspiring, her wonderful act of gratitude reminded me to always be grateful – even if things don’t work out as planned.

This got me thinking of all the ways we can show gratitude each day. I’m a big believer in handwritten notes (and send them often), but what else can we do to show gratitude?

Please join me in adopting an attitude of gratitude this week. List 3 ways in the comments below that you can show thanks. Here are mine:

1. Write a genuine compliment on a sticky note and leave it for someone to find as a surprise.
2. Ask for the manager when you purchase something and say thank you for a pleasant shopping experience. (same for eating establishments).
3. Take out the trash (without expecting a thank you from the hubby).

Don’t forget to post your 3 expressions of gratitude below!