Build vs. Buy: What is the Best Path to Grow Your Business?

As a business owner (or an aspiring one), an important consideration is the quest for future growth. From a strategic perspective, there are really only two choices: grow organically or by acquisition. By “organic,” I simply mean to grow by closing more deals, through efforts such as expanding your sales force or introducing a new product line.

When writing a business plan, it is important to consider each of these growth strategies – whether you are starting a new business, or expanding an existing one.

This decision is actually quite important, with big repercussions as to what your company will ultimately become. Given the significance of this choice, it is smart to carefully consider both options.

Grow Organically

If you are starting a business, then the biggest challenge is what I’ll call “finding your way.” Starting from scratch means you don’t have any processes in place. Everything is a variable, so picking it all right the first time is highly unlikely. Instead, you will pick an initial path to pursue. Then, you will spend a lot of time adjusting and evaluating that decision. This process will then continue until you start getting traction and find the right path for growth.

Having a long “runway” with sufficient funds to make a few changes is critical for long term success. Early mistakes can be costly – a big one could sink the company. So, it is necessary to plan for some setbacks. Other suggestions are to surround yourself with as many experts as you can, and to have a well thought through business plan.

Grow by Merger or Acquisition

This option, in many ways is the exact opposite of organic growth. First, existing processes, employees and a business plan are already in place. If you are seriously considering the purchase of an existing business, you must see something desirable – enough to buy it! So, your challenge is how to integrate the new business into your existing company – from a people and process perspective, as well as from an IT systems and go-to-market strategy.

Alternatively, if you are considering starting a business through acquisition, then the one integration challenge is that of acclimating yourself to being the new owner or manager. Process “integration” is not really an issue … it is more your evaluation of the existing processes. What makes sense and what doesn’t?

business plan writing helps M&A strategy
In many ways, an M&A strategy is similar to the decision to have a dog. This is a picture of my own dog, Rusty.

In many ways, I see the success of a business acquisition to be akin to getting a new dog as a pet. Here are three ways I see these two activities to be in close alignment:

  1. There are many different types of dogs, and there are many different types of companies – you need to research the strengths and weaknesses of each if you want a good fit with your existing lifestyle, and/or the culture of your business. For example, if you live in an apartment in NYC and don’t have many “jobs” for a dog to do, then getting an Australian Sheep dog might not be a good fit. Similarly, if your company has rigid processes and procedures, then purchasing a startup out of the Silicon Valley with a young management team might not be a good fit either. It is really important to match the culture and temperament of an acquisition to your existing company or family to achieve a good fit.
  2. If you don’t spend time with your new acquisition, then the relationship will sour – this holds especially true with a puppy. Young dogs have a lot of energy, so they will either play games with you, or chew up your clothing, furniture and anything else they can find if you are not around. In the same way, employees at a newly acquired company will be looking to see their new role. If you don’t quickly give them guidance and a compelling reason to be part of the newly combined entity, they might lose interest and leave. The amount of time you need to invest in this task is going to be more than you thought. And, this requirement doesn’t go away after the first 60 days. If you are not ready to invest the time, re-think this acquisition decision.
  3. New dogs and new companies need clear lines of demarcation to know what behaviors are acceptable – for those of you who are parents, you know this analogy applies with young children too. We all need clear direction on what is expected and how we are to perform to achieve success recognition. Without this communication, pets, employees and children will come to their own decisions, likely pushing boundaries to new levels in search of a definitive line.

A careful evaluation of “build vs. buy” will help avoid surprises before you have made an investment in either a new company, or a new member of your family. Once the decision has been made, it is usually quite difficult to undo … and will cost you a lot of time, effort and resources. Plan ahead to avoid the pain and achieve the gain, and go into these transactions with eyes wide open.

While Content May Be King, Conversation is Queen of Market Awareness

king_and_queen_marketing_awareness2Numerous articles have been written on the importance of what we marketers refer to as “content” in order to drive market awareness, lead generation and other sales support activities. Simply stated, you need something to say to gain the attention of your prospects and customers. Google, Bing and the other search engines reinforce this concept – you simply can’t achieve good search engine placements without quality, relevant content that is frequently updated on a regular basis.

As has been mentioned in this blog and other publications, a blog is a great place to showcase your content. Blogs offer a great “home” for you to build a collection of articles and stories that share a common theme, which in aggregate support your brand and help future customers to find your business. Any business plan writer you meet with should have a strong understanding of this topic too – if not, it might be time to find another writer!

Is Good Content Enough?

Here is where you have to ask yourself “what’s next?” Now that you have invested the time and resources to write a collection of articles, how do you now build relationships with your readers, current customers and potential clients? The reward for getting engaged in these conversations is substantial and includes:

  • Enhanced likelihood these people will read and follow future announcements
  • Improved response rates to future offers
  • Increased chance of that person will ultimately become a customer

Learning by Example

One area where marketers can learn how to drive increased conversations is from the world of e-commerce. Some of the online retailers are quite good at creating a series of interactions that create a group of engaged prospects that likely will become future customers. For example, we all know that if we order a product from a website, we will get an email soon thereafter confirming our order. This is a good thing – we like to have a record of what we just bought. Further, if we receive an email the next day indicating our product has shipped, this is also a nice message to receive – my order is on its way. Then, sometimes you even get an email indicating that the order has shipped, with complete tracking information. Follow up emails might even include customer satisfaction surveys, another great opportunity to suggest or induce conversation.

The conversation, however, doesn’t stop once the order has been shipped and received. Instead, it is highly likely we will get a follow-up email from these retailers in a few weeks or months from now, suggesting a similar product for us to order. For some of us, this is an annoyance, and we will opt out. But, for others, this is seen as a nice thing, as a way to make future orders easier to manage and accommodate.

Here is where public relations and social media professionals might take note. What can we learn from the retail establishment as a way to increase our conversation “quotient”? One challenge is we don’t have the same access to the contact information that e-tailers do, such as an email address. And, with privacy laws and concerns, it is unlikely this will change. One approach is to add a call to action or value proposition that can then facilitate better access to this data. A newsletter sign up, for example, might be an angle that promises notification of new stories of interest, or of when a new blog post goes live.

If you can accomplish the right mix of content and conversation, then you are worthy of “royal” lineage. You will then have addressed both the king and queen of marketing awareness, through a marketing-based approach to public relations and brand awareness!

Promoting your Blog with Social Media

social_media_promotion_blogI recently wrote a blog post on the importance of building a blog as part of your public relations program (see article here). As I explained, in today’s digital world, a blog is a critical part of your online profile – as a source of new insights, thought leadership and brand positioning necessary to keep your opinions and perspectives top-of-mind.

Once you have come to the conclusion to invest the time and resources to have a blog, the next step is that of promotion. If you build it, no one will find it unless you provide digital “bread crumbs” to lead the way. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will play an important role, but isn’t enough. Here is where social media comes in. In fact, from a Public Relations professional’s perspective, this might just be the most important use for social media, and the single most important factor in justifying your entire investment in social media marketing.

What Should I Tweet About?

With Twitter being one of the most predominant social media platforms, it is nearly mandatory that you, your company or even your product line has a Twitter account. It is easy to set up the account … what next?

One strategy is to share interesting news that the audience you seek to build might be interested in reading. This is generally a good idea. Providing value to an audience will, over time, generate more followers, which helps in getting a higher profile. But, wouldn’t it be better to instead drive your audience towards an article that you wrote and hosted instead? Or, better yet, what about directing traffic to a promotional partner that is perhaps hosting a future event you are sponsoring? It doesn’t take much to see that driving traffic to a page you control is better than one you don’t.

Here is where the blog strategy can pay a handsome dividend. Once a new post has been written, such as this one, the next step is to promote it through your social media channels. Further, this points to a tangible benefit that can be achieved by building an audience … each time you have a new blog post, you will theoretically attract more potential readers with a larger audience.

Some authors have mastered this technique very well. Seth Godin, author of my favorite book the Purple Cow, has attracted an audience in the millions that religiously follow his words and wisdom every day. And, as he announces to books that he has written, he has an instant “base” of avid fans that will become new buyers.

What Social Media Venues should I Pursue?

Having made the decision to invest in a blog and promote it with social media, the next question to ask is what social media properties should you focus on?

Great question, and one that will be answered in my next post.

Policy Change, or New Trend Opportunity?

trend_or_new_business_opportunityI recently had the opportunity to go to France on a business trip. Despite the increasingly “flat” world we live in, each country definitely has its particular nuances on how business is done and what social customs are acceptable. Fortunately, I was able to spend a bit of time in restaurants where I enjoyed the wonderful French cuisine.

One thing that caught my attention was when it came time to pay my bill. I was aware that when using a credit card, the tip had to be referenced early so as to be included with the authorization approval. What struck me as odd was that a tip amount could no longer be included with my credit card charge.

Shortsighted Policy Shift

This policy change surprised me, so I asked further what the thought was behind it. My server told me that it was causing too much taxes to be charged to the restaurant – apparently VAT or other taxes are applied to not only the food bought, but the services tipped. So, the solution was to simply stop including tips with credit card bills.

My next question was to my server – what did he think of this change? You might guess his response, “It is terrible.” I can only imagine. Personally, I carry little cash with me, relying heavily on plastic to cover my expenses, especially during a business trip. I didn’t have any Euros on me, so had to explain I would be back later to reconcile my shortcoming (which, by the way, I neglected to despite good intentions).

Industry Change, or Window of Opportunity?

My next thought was whether this change was government-mandated, or just the establishment’s decision. After doing a bit of research, it appears this was an isolated incidence (please let me know if I missed something). Given my server’s response, if the policy was country-wide, I suspect we would have all heard about it by now!

Given that this appeared to be an isolated change, what do you suppose will be the outcome? To start, I have a lower opinion of the restaurant – why do I want to support an organization that is clearly not thinking about their employees?

Further, I am inclined to believe the hired help will seek employment where tips can be added to the receipt. This might even create a cycle (and a reputation) that this business owner may, or may not truly understand. Those that can’t find “full payment” employment opportunities might ultimately become the staff at this establishment – effectively lower the bar on the quality of staffing. These folks might have to accept a lower payment in exchange for a lack of experience, poor work history, bad reputation, or some other challenge that precluded their working elsewhere.

As a competitor, this opportunity could be viewed as a window of opportunity to initially hire away the best employees, and in the future, to convince new recruits to not even consider their competitor for employment.

Alternatively, if this were a broader industry shift, such as a new government mandate, then the window of opportunity might be with a different perspective. For example, a new business plan that might now gain traction could be to provide mobile payment via a new app capable of digitally paying a bill while bypassing the restaurant’s own internal billing format. From a marketing communications perspective, the waiters could then become your own distributed sales force, offering this service to those without cash on hand.

Those with a keen sense of what was driving the change and what the perspective is of those impacted by the change will stand to benefit – if they can move quick enough to provide a new solution before everyone else.

So, next time you observe a shift in a routine, it might be worthwhile to pay particular attention to what is driving that change – a new business plan opportunity might be just around the corner!

Business Plan Writing vs. Advising

business_plan_advisor_or_writerOver the years I have had the opportunity to meet quite a few people eager to start a new business with ambitions to conquer a market, introduce a new product or to just start something new. Once the idea is born, the challenge is to pick the best path through to fruition. There are many decisions to make with regards to how to spend your time, where to focus your budget dollars as well as reviewing ideas with close friends and family. As part of this decision process, the source of capital for launching or expanding the business will inevitably come up. Can I fund this idea myself and retain 100% of control, or, do I need help via a capital investment?

Those that make it through these hurdles with the conclusion that outside funding is required must then face the task of best explaining their new idea in such a way that it can generate excitement without necessarily giving away all of the “secret sauce” of the venture. It is at this point that the topic of writing a business plan will emerge – do I need one now, or, can it wait?

Given the capital markets, it is likely you will need to make a bit of a time investment to achieve success … you will need to speak with many individuals before finally finding the right match of your opportunity with the investment profile of an angel or Series 1 investor. In the interest of efficiency, it is typical to arrive at the conclusion that another “venue” for telling your story is needed. In fact, you probably need a few different formats to best tell your story.

To start, a 30 second elevator pitch is critical. If you can’t tell your idea quickly with enthusiasm, then you venture will likely die. Add to this challenge the fact that everyone is totally overloaded today, being impacted by literally thousands of messages, images and other distractions all the time. Your communication must be crisp, unique and stand out from the crowd.

Those that you “hook” with this elevator pitch will then ask for more information. This is a good thing – you have their attention. So, the next step is what do you do? If you can arrange a future meeting in person, great. A presentation will be needed, at a minimum, to continue your conversation. I would propose that in addition, now would be an excellent time to have a business plan already prepared to send prior to your meeting. Access to a written plan can be well worth the time and investment to prepare, provided it demonstrates your commitment to the project and achieving success with your venture.

The challenge is that you can’t really wait for the next “chance” encounter to then sit down and write the plan. These documents need time and effort to be invested so they sound good, are well thought out and exciting to read. This type of writing doesn’t happen overnight, nor can you really put something together in just a few hours. You want to show that you have thought through this business opportunity quite carefully, and are ready to go once finding the right partner, employees, or other resources necessary to get started.

It is at this decision point when you must ask yourself: “Do I just need a writer to capture my thoughts, which I am completely confident are all correct?” Or, is it more accurate to consider that you have “pretty much” the idea for the plan in your head, but, there are definitely some of the details, competitive pressures and product / service differentiation that could do with some refinement? If the latter is the case, realize you need more than just a business plan writer. You need an advisor, a person who can help you with not only the writing to ensure it is understandable, but that it can withstand the scrutiny of an investor that is putting some of their own money into the venture. This type of reader will have very specific questions that must be answered before they consider proceeding further.

If you come to this point in your new business process, challenge yourself to really assess if you need a person who is skilled with what business models can actually be executed, or, do you want to hire a writer that will simply replicate what you tell him or her. If it is an advisor or modeler you seek, then look to see what marketing experience in planning and execution that they have. After all, the entire discipline of marketing is focused on planning, strategizing and executing the best way to achieve business plan objectives. Once the plan has been carefully thought out, it then becomes the responsibility of sales to actually execute upon it. Of course, this may be one and the same person for a smaller organization, but, the concept still holds true.

 

Gordon Benzie is a marketing communications professional and business model adviser that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies. Gordon can be found on Google+

Why do Public Relations?

Why do public relations?

For this post, I thought I would challenge what the role of public relations is, with the objective to provide a thoughtful perspective on what value PR plays within an organization.

To start, the objective of public relations or PR is to raise awareness of a company, non-profit group or any other organization. Why does this matter? Well, to start, it is a lot easier to sell products or services if your audience has heard of you. Simply stated, no one wants to buy from a stranger. Public relations overcomes this sales hurdle by creating stories about the organization that will be viewed as interesting, or at least interesting enough to be read about by your target audience.

Note that this methodology must be applied with the sole objective to engage your audience. If other people find out, that is fine. But, you must be careful to not waste limited resources reaching individuals that will never be part of your buyer’s purchase lifecycle. This philosophy must be applied religiously to every opportunity for contributed articles, guest blog posts, speaking engagements and award opportunities.

My Audience Already Knows Me

I have spoken to some business owners who state that their target audience already knows who they are, and they know all about their company’s product or service. If this is the case, why spend the investment to reach out to them again? The reason why this investment makes sense is that it is going to help you to continue to best serving your market segment. Just because a customer has heard of you doesn’t mean they will continue to purchase or renew their existing services with you on a consistent, never-ending basis.

The Risk of Complacency

Imagine this scenario as a theoretical a case study. A new competitor enters your market. What do you think will be the first thing they do to introduce themselves to your customers? Odds are some sort of PR campaign, including announcements, special offers, grand opening day parties, etc. They must make this investment as they are coming into your market as a “disruptor,” which must be announced in order to be effective.

Now let’s say that you haven’t been investing your own PR campaign. Maybe funds have been tight as you have neglected this activity for the past year or so. Maybe your website and social media channels are a bit out of date too, falling into the category of something that could be deferred for a year or two.

Unfortunately, you are now a sitting duck for this new competitor to come in and eat your lunch. Once they begin making noise, you will be caught off guard. Assuming you move quickly and start to invest in getting your PR program back on track, it will still take time. Days, weeks or even months will pass before you are able to first get your routine changed to re-focus on this topic. You will be in “catchup” mode for some time. Every month you are behind is a month where you are at risk of losing customers. Think about it … what is the opportunity cost that someone might come into your market and try to steal market share?

At minimum, it might make sense to at least keep a few programs running, even if funds are tight. This way you still have a “toe” in the water, as a steady “beating of the drum,” to remind the market and your audience of current customers and prospects. This activity states that you are still there, and are actively reaching out to them to continue to help better address their needs with your product or services. Seems like a good investment and an even better business strategy decision that can be easily incorporated into your marketing communications strategy.

 
Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

Are you Ready for the Mobility Revolution?

A couple weeks ago I saw the latest Top 10 IDC predictions for the IT industry. It is always good idea to seek an “outside in” perspective on your business positioning and marketing message. A prediction that caught my attention was that in 2013 there will no longer be growth in the use of traditional desktop computers and laptops to access the Internet. By 2015, it is expected that more people will surf the net from their “Smart Mobile Devices” instead.

From a marketing communications perspective, this is pretty big news.

To start, one of the most important communications venues is a website. The growth in tablets and smart phones to access the Internet is hardly surprising. A year ago I wrote this post: 5 Ways to Improve Website Usability on a Mobile Device, which pointed to this growing trend, and what to do in preparation. Regardless, the expectation that more than half of all website visitors will be on mobile devices is shocking! No longer is it prudent to just think about formatting and display issues … a complete reevaluation on menu navigation and accessibility should now be considered. Ignore this audience and you will be at risk of losing up to half of all visitors in just two years’ time.

Here is something to consider: do you have flash running on your site? If so, then you might want to set a plan in motion to remove it. Apple mobile devices have a significant market share, and Flash doesn’t work on their systems. And, the new Microsoft Surface tablet doesn’t run flash either.

Here is another thought to consider: Windows 8 is out and on the shelves. In the next 12-18 months a much larger percentage of website viewing activity will be done from this operating system, which will run both desktops, laptops and mobile devices. This OS favors a content structure that moves from left to right instead of from up to down. Translation: you might want to start thinking about how to arrange your website navigation accordingly.

Lastly, take a moment to recognize that touch screens are steadily becoming more prevalent. Apple is the one to “blame” for this transformation, with the launch of their iPhones and iPads. Their popularity demonstrates the benefits of this type of user interface – it is just easier to touch a screen to navigate a user interface or website. This is another design element that should now be considered as part of your website layout. Big buttons will need to be incorporated to activate menu options or to request more information.

My prediction is that 2013 will be a great year for web design firms. If I was running the marketing program at one of them, I would be sure to kick off the year with a special message and marketing communications about the results of the latest IDC study coupled with a free “mobility compatibility” evaluation offer.

There might even be a reasonable business plan that could launch a new company offering this service …

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

Did Labor Unions Really Kill the Twinkie?

The nostalgia world may never be the same after the events from earlier this month. After 88 years, Hostess, the makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business. According to the story that ran on NBC.com, the CEO blames the unions, which made the decision to go on strike as part of the latest round of labor negotiations. The company has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for the past 10 months or so. Last week it was announced that all assets will be liquidated, resulting in about 18,000 employees losing their jobs – certainly an unfortunate turn of events.

When I first read this news story, it struck me as interesting how strong the focus was about the role that the Labor unions played in “bringing down” the company. Since the labor unions would not accept new lower salaries, the only choice CEO Gregory Rayburn had was to shut down the company.

That is one way to tell the story.

Another angle is that the company failed to adjust to the times. Over the past decade or so, eating habits changed – the focus today is on eating healthier foods. Given this trend, it is not surprising that a company such as Hostess began having problems, given its product line. I don’t think anyone will argue that the nutritional value of a Twinkie is not too high … according to info published on Livestrong.com. At 150 calories per Twinkie, it has 4.5 g of fat, 20 mg of calcium, 20 mg of cholesterol and 19 g of sugar, equivalent to almost 5 tsp. Double each of these figures for the typical way this product is sold, as a two pack. Other Hostess products don’t fare much better.

This brings me to my point. When you are crafting a story for the press to cover as a business communications or news announcement, there are many options on how to pitch it. Seldom is there just one story. In this case, perhaps the Hostess CEO and management team sought to blame the unions for the downfall of their iconic institution in order to deflect a different line of questioning – such as what were you doing about new product introductions a decade ago when this trend first became obvious? A few days later, more details began to emerge indicating that maybe there were other issues impacting sales. Clearly their cost structure was not well aligned to revenue. It might be that there is no business model that could work for these products today; however, a story focused on that theme wouldn’t do well to help the company find a new suitor. When faced with these alternative stories, portraying the problem on the unions was probably the best way for them to deflect blame while keeping the door open to a new buyer that believes they can address the labor issue.

When you have a business communication to address, sometimes you get to choose what the lead in story and news will be – more often if you proactively make an announcement or hold a press conference. If this is the case, best to take advantage of this opportunity. Other crisis communications, such as an oil drilling platform explosion and fire, can’t really be modified to give it a good “spin.” Over time, if your story has more to it, then it is most likely that the rest of the story will follow. But, it will be secondary to the original announcement, which might just buy you some time to get through your crisis, should you have to experience this type of announcement.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

What Role Does Social Media Play in your Marketing Plan?

Like it or not, social media is here to stay. It has changed the way we communicate, the way we shop and the way we share these experiences. Consumers would rather buy from someone they know. Absent this type of referral, a product or service review by an independent third party is deemed as nearly as valuable and certainly more credible that what a company says about itself.

According to a recent McKinsey research survey, “Social technologies as a group have reached critical scale at the organizations represented in our survey. Seventy-two percent of the respondents report that their companies are deploying at least one technology, and more than 40 percent say that social networking and blogs are now in use.” The below charts published in the McKinsey report demonstrate the consistent growth social media has experienced within the business world.

There are two ways you can leverage social media as a business tool: As an internal means to improve productivity and efficiency, and as an external means to further engage with your customers.

 

As an Internal Tool

Social media can be used as a collaborative platform to better share ideas and solve customer issues faster. Here social media is being used as a shared IT application, no different than the use of browsers for web surfing or applications for word processing. As a collaboration tool, it should be centrally managed with a set of agreed upon usage guidelines to encourage appropriate behavior that isn’t offensive and makes good business sense.

As an External Tool

Here is where inflated expectations sometimes lead to unrealistic lead generation, branding or awareness assumptions. The likelihood of acquiring a million users that want to use your product after reading your twitter feed is probably unrealistic, unless there is a highly compelling event that can give you the exposure for such traffic volumes. A more likely scenario is one where your customers reference and, ideally, praise your product or service within their existing social media sites and usage patterns.

The critical question to ask consider is “How easy are you to work with?” How difficult is it for one of your customers to extract data from your service and upload it into their social media sites? If it is easy, then social media might indeed have a role in your future growth. Also, what content are you providing? Is this information that will be helpful for them as part of their purchase decision and evaluation? What is of primary importance, however, is that you think about it now, and that you realize that the way we use social media will likely change over time. Today we are in the middle of a communications transformation. This means you have to be ready to make the time, effort and financial investment to stay current and learn with the rest of the other companies.

Just in the same way that every marketing and business plan should have a competitive review and a strong positioning, companies today writing a business plan or marketing plan must now have a Social Media component. Businesses must now recognize that this is not a trend that will quietly go away. Social media is an important communications vehicle that should ideally be used both internally and externally as part of your marketing and communications plan.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.

The Importance of Visual Communications

Visual digital communicationsI recently met with a group of marketers and public relations specialists from Europe last week. Our meeting was an excellent opportunity to look “outside in” at how I operate as a marketer. One of the lessons learned was the importance of including pictures with my marketing communications.

Now, don’t get me wrong … pictures have been a part of my communications for some time now, especially in blog posts such as this one. You can definitely increase your readership by including an image with your blog post – this has been proven by those who do research for our industry.

My “aha” moment was the level of importance that a picture can play with your communications objectives. Here are three take away points I gained from my recent trip:

  1. Today an increasing share of your readers have English as their second language; when English is your second language, not only can subtle nuances of the language be lost, but sometimes main points as well; a picture or two can really help convey your message
  2. In the “sea” of marketing communications pushed to various reporting, magazine and other online venues, our eyes quickly scan through headlines for clues to see if an article is worth reading; having a picture gives you a much greater chance of being seen by a “scanning” eyeball
  3. From a cultural perspective, other countries place an even greater emphasis on images that you might expect … beyond the benefit of simply standing out from the clutter of content we are bombarded with on a daily basis; there is a credibility perspective that is lost in some cultures (ex: German) for content that appears without an image

So the next time you are writing a press release, white paper or business plan, and you are focused on ensuring your message and communications objectives are covered, take a few extra moments to consider what image can support these objectives to actually increase the likelihood that your content is first found so it can actually be read.

Gordon Benzie is a marketing adviser and business plan writer that specializes in preparing and executing upon business plans and marketing strategies.