Do You Want to Raise Funds as Part of the Crowdfunding Equity Campaign? Don’t Forget to Communicate!

Do You Want to Raise Funds as Part of the Crowdfunding Equity Campaign? Don’t Forget to Communicate!

utworzone przez | | BUSINESS, COMMUNICATION

Equity crowdfunding is gaining popularity every year. According to the forecasts of the research company Technavio, the value of the global crowdfunding market will increase by 239.78 billion USD between 2021 and 2026. Therefore, it is an attractive and interesting way to obtain financing for the development and operation of your company. By giving away part of the shares, you can fund the company financially, as well as acquire a group of ambassadors. What increases the effectiveness of the campaign?

In this post, I will share with you information not about how to obtain such funds, but what should not be forgotten when planning an equity crowdfunding campaign, i.e., promotion!

Expectations and Reality…

Even though promotion seems obvious, I see a rather mixed approach to this issue from discussions and observations. Often, a company’s board seeking funding assumes that a mere presence on the platform will provide adequate funds. It sometimes limits its activities to posting on social media and the company’s website.

Unfortunately, reality can be disappointing here. Often, when all family members and closest friends have paid, the meter stops. Nervous refreshing of the page won’t do any good. Analysis of companies that are on equity crowdfunding platforms and the search for whom to invest in here today is not a routine activity of Poles.

In such situations, it is best to take a step back and see what the plans for communication activities look like. Do you have every week of the campaign planned? Do you know what’s going to happen and where? Or do you rather decide to go with the flow and let come what may?

Communication Is the Key to Success

Some campaigns do not end in spectacular success for a simple reason: you need to inform others that you are planning or starting to collect funds, e.g., on the Beesfund platform. I keep saying that, and I’m going to say it here. If you don’t talk about your company loudly enough, often, and substantively, no one will notice you. People are so busy that they either need to be amazed by something, or you need to be extremely visible so that others decide to invest in your product.

We have already implemented several promotional campaigns for companies raising funds using Beesfund, Crowdway, and FundedByMe. And I admit that usually, companies come to us a week before the start of the campaign, or… when it is already in progress. But the results leave a lot to be desired.

In such situations, we have two options: get to work quickly (we do it when we believe that the project is interesting and we have an idea for it) or apologize and say that, unfortunately, we do not have enough hands to work at the moment.

But It Can Be Different…

Starting work with the selected platform does not take only fifteen minutes. You have to prepare the proper documents, and arrange all the formalities. If you plan such activities, come to us. Talk to us and tell us what you do and why others should be interested in your product. Do not wait for support until the raising of capital stops.

How Can We Help You Raise Funds for Development?
  1. We’ll plan the campaign from start to finish.

„Stand out or get lost” can be paraphrased here to „Stand out or get lost in a crowd.” When equity crowdfunding becomes more and more popular, you start to compete with other companies in your category.

You are competing not just for funds that someone can invest in your company. First, you compete for the attention of the media, influencers, and investors who like such initiatives. And the campaign can give you more than just extra funds; this is a great opportunity to promote the company and gain more recognition in your segment. You can get the visibility that you would normally have to pay a lot more for. Don’t waste it!

  1.   We will offer you interesting activities.

As I wrote above, you need to stand out. Therefore, we will offer you activities that will allow for an interesting presentation of what you are doing. According to one advertising slogan: „Better visible, visibly better!”

  1.   We will regularly inform you about the public interest in what is happening around your campaign.

Let’s talk a month before your campaign. Then we can calmly plan all the activities. You’ll feel more confident because you’ll know what’s going to happen. Such a campaign is an additional job—after all, you will not suspend your normal activity for a month or two while it lasts. If you plan it properly, you get the feeling that you have control over what’s going on. You don’t need the extra stress. Above all, however, you will gain more funds.

Do you want to take care of the communication yourself? Below is my checklist, which is what you should have if you plan to implement a communication campaign yourself:
  1. Write down the most important things about your company that make you different, better, and more interesting.
  2. Prepare a dedicated video about the campaign. Let others get to know you and find out why they should invest in your company. Show how you want to spend the money you collected.
  3. Make a calendar of posts and ads on social media. Once the promotion starts, you won’t have to work on it on an ongoing basis.
  4. Make a list of the media and journalists you want to reach with the information, and then send them a message about the ongoing collection.
  5. Make a list of all the people who could help you share information about your campaign.
  6. Test and observe. Here, unfortunately, there are no ready-made patterns that you can copy 1:1. Analyze what makes the meter on the campaign page grow and repeat these actions.

Good luck! If you want to talk about your campaign, I invite you to individual consultations.

6 Things to Keep in Mind When Creating a Community

6 Things to Keep in Mind When Creating a Community

utworzone przez | | COMMUNICATION

I would compare community building to mountain climbing. In the beginning, often our dream peak seems distant and difficult to reach. But with each step, we see that we are getting closer and closer, and the trees at the bottom are getting smaller. And so, step by step, we reach the dream mountain. There’s no shortcut here. This process must be done according to what the environment is telling us.

What is there to remember when you start your adventure with community building? Whether it’s building a community around a person or a topic, the following tips should work for each of you.

1. Designate a permanent place of communication

In the beginning, we should choose a space where our group can be kept up to date with what is happening.

It can be a channel on social media (or even a few), mail, or even a permanent event space. You choose a place based on where you find people who are interested in you, what resources you have available, and what your goals are. The most important thing in all of this is consistency.

Chaos, which is a situation in which you once post on your Facebook profile, then suddenly send a letter by mail, and then do an Instagram story, may turn out to be too expensive. At first, it’s better to choose fewer channels and manage them well, rather than try to be on every platform.

2. Be systematic

Communication with your community should be directed towards building a habit. And this is created through regular activities. By sharing content every day, you’re getting used to the content you create. Regularity is essential here. I even noticed the need for regularity in my surroundings, for example by observing activities on Instagram. If people who publish regularly suddenly stop, I feel very surprised. I wonder what happened. I see the need to find out what’s going on with them right now. And that is their strength!

During the partnership with Venture Café in Warsaw, I conducted authorial interviews called “Women”! I talked to absolutely exceptional women about their beginnings in business, the biggest lessons, and their goals. From the very beginning, the organizers have focused on building communities around this project. All interested parties knew when and where the meetings were taking place.

If someone asks about the recommendation of interesting events in the field of innovation in Warsaw, it is known that I can always offer something.

Therefore, be systematic, systematic, and, once again, systematic 🙂

3. Create a symbol that identifies the community

There are plenty of these symbols in our daily lives. The well-known Apple’s bitten apple image or the Nike “swoosh.” In my opinion, Martyna Wojciechowska’s partnership with the W. Kruk brand was great. I liked the Freedom collection the most—wings, compass, hawk. Symbols that, on the one hand, have their meaning, and on the other hand, leave room for each of us to give our own meaning. At the same time, they are beautifully related to the ambassador’s personality, her daily work, and her motivations. By owning such jewelry, a person can find what is missing in their life or demonstrate what is important to them.

6 rzeczy, o których warto pamiętać przy tworzeniu społeczności

 
4. Communicate your values clearly

The beginnings of community building seem easy. We know what’s important to us, what drives us. However, over time, a crisis may come. On the one hand, it may seem to us that we talk about something so often that it makes no sense to repeat it. People in our circle need to know these things. However, here we forget that new people may still be appearing, and it is because of them that it is worth repeating some things.

6 rzeczy, o których warto pamiętać przy tworzeniu społeczności

 

On the other hand, the values that are important to us could become blurred. Something that was important to us at the beginning becomes commonplace and is no longer something special. It also happens that our values change, which is not a bad thing in business. It is then that the accusations appear, such as „sellout,” or „he/she is no longer the same as he/she used to be.”

I encourage you to observe your communication during this time. Continually emphasize what is important to you, and what motivates you. And when the change comes, speak boldly of it. This is always fairer and creates an opportunity to start an interesting discussion, to start a dialogue.

5. Express yourself and listen to feedback

The community is not made of one-sided communication. It is a dialogue, and it is worth being aware of it from the beginning. The community requires its creators to be open to feedback. Not everyone will always be comfortable with what we are doing, and will have their own different expectations, often emphasizing it and informing us about it. But that’s the kind of living community that’s the best test group there is. The ideal situation assumes that you will be able to send information to specific people, that they are the first ones who can check if everything works or does not work as it should, even before wider distribution. This can be a great distinction for them, and for you, it will be valuable feedback and information on what needs to be improved.

You can count on the brutal honesty of the group members. However, when you listen to their suggestions and implement them, you will gain dedicated users. You’ll give them a sense of agency. Co-creation is a wonderfully engaging element.

6 rzeczy, o których warto pamiętać przy tworzeniu społeczności

 
 6. Organize meetings

Nothing can replace a face-to-face meeting. Despite the huge number of communication platforms, most of us are happy to meet with others in real life. I observe this daily, and I see that even though people talk to each other through instant messengers, a live meeting allows them to raise issues that go beyond the current topic of conversation.

People are social beings, and often a sense of belonging to a given community can be seen during the conference. Events can integrate strongly, open your eyes to other opportunities for cooperation, and encourage you to talk more openly.

For how to organize them, you can read here and here.

When building your community, try to create conditions for your community to meet. Whether by opening a new store or launching a new app, or maybe by a hackathon. You have plenty of options here. Test and see which one works best for you. And if you don’t want to do it yourself, contact me 🙂

How Do You Build a Community Around a Brand to Sell More?

How Do You Build a Community Around a Brand to Sell More?

utworzone przez | | COMMUNICATION

I’ve always believed in groups. It’s in groups where important, interesting, and sometimes intriguing topics are discussed. I trusted that there was strength behind them, and looking at how the modern business looks today, I was not wrong.

When we look at the best-performing companies, especially those directing their offer to individual customers, we notice that they all strive to build a community around their products.

Through various activities, they try to attract and keep us as long as possible. Why? To put it bluntly—building a community pays off! In this material, I will tell you why and give you tips on what to remember when you create your own.

To Build a Community Means to Spend Time on It

A lot of time, actually. It won’t happen overnight, just like you won’t make a friend overnight. And often, building such friendly relationships within the community is aimed in this direction.

Looking at various brands, we will see that they are largely addressed to women. For what reason? There are a lot of factors behind this, but the key here seems to be the need to build bonds, to belong. Women, more often than men, admit that they like and want to be part of a group. Of course, that doesn’t mean men do not also.

When we look at groups on Facebook, we will immediately notice how many women’s organizations are there. They allow you to talk, exchange opinions, and share your thoughts. This is how women establish real relationships: by talking. The more intimate and difficult the topics are, the stronger the bond between the women is formed.

The need for bonding is one of the four needs that make the economy work in this way and not in another. It is worth taking it into account when creating your communication campaigns.

How to Build a Community Around the Brand

Observing various communities, I noticed that two models of their design can be distinguished.

The first is based on the personal branding of the leader.

The second gathers others around common topics.

Jak budować społeczność wokół marki by sprzedawać więcej

How is the First Model Created?

Here, the first place is taken by the leader. A person who, with charisma, passion, and commitment, convinces others of what they believe, and what is important to them.

Such a person strongly emphasizes their values, and over time begins to gather around themselves people who are similar. Such a person can inspire and educate them.

This model is also associated with our search for a “role model,” someone you can refer to or whose example you can follow. Sometimes such a person is a point of reference – „Yes, I want to be like them!”

You can read about how to work on your personal branding to build a community here and here.

The more reliable, coherent, and interesting a role model seems, the more they will attract others. The disadvantage of such a model of community building is the so-called „human factor.” For one thing, knowing that others look at what a person does and the risk of a setback does not always help. For another thing, you need to sense the moment when it no longer matters who is a leading model in a given project. Suddenly, the project can begin to live its own life and have a chance to survive even without the person behind them.

The next step is to recognize the needs of the emerging community, understanding their motivation and concerns. Then, we are only one small step away from creating a product, i.e., trying to monetize and scale our values.

You can make money from speeches, meetings, and consultations—however, only the scale gives real development opportunities. Look at the influencers. They are not limited to creating materials in their social media channels, but they market products that they first present to the communities they create, and they are usually the first tester and buyer of new products and then become their ambassador. Clothes, books, restaurants, cosmetics, jewelry. There’s a lot of it. The longer I look at it, the more I wonder what makes the product successful.

For me, a brilliant example of such a strategy is Anna Lewandowska, who leads her community like a pro. In the National Court Register, I found information about six companies she is involved in. But she has a lot more products. What is very striking is the consistency and complementarity of what she introduces to the market; here we have snacks, a cafe, a sports center, trips, sports camps, a training app, clothes and accessories for children, and cosmetics. No wonder that in 2021, Wprost magazine valued her assets at 231 million PLN.

It’s safe to assume that her marriage helped her. It certainly gave a completely different start. But there are a lot of well-known soccer players’ wives who have not achieved such business success. In my opinion, they do not build communities around themselves as effectively as Anna does. Her financial results speak for themselves.

Jak budować społeczność wokół marki by sprzedawać więcej

The Second Model

The second model of community building does not focus directly on a man who, like the sun, attracts others to orbit him. It’s the topic and issues relevant to the selected group that are important here.

This approach will work very well in B2B. The key is to define the problems of the group people are interested in and prepare a product that will respond to them.

It can be an event you organize, a book, an ebook, or anything you think is best for the situation.

We created one of these communities for Hubraum; you can find the details here.

The topic of how to build, develop, and create products around the community is particularly close to my heart, which is why I will certainly talk about it more here. If you think it would be useful for your company, contact me. I will try to help you.

 

How to Communicate Hardware Products to the World?

How to Communicate Hardware Products to the World?

utworzone przez | | COMMUNICATION

Hardware products are associated with things that are very complicated, technical, and inaccessible to most. Of course, advertising is always tailored to a particular target group, but how do you reach other potential customers? How can you communicate seemingly difficult things? I will answer these questions in this post.

I have been working in the field of new technologies for over 10 years. During this time, I have encountered many communication situations. This is how we came up with the idea of creating a series of articles about how to start communicating selected solutions and how to use what is the most fascinating in them. I also hope that you will get the most out of my tips and that using them will help you in your daily work.

I open this series with hardware-based solutions, which relate to a situation in which the company sells tangible products. These can be watches, sensors, robots, or drones. The organization may also have software that they use to transfer, analyze, and collect specific data. It does not matter whether they wrote it themselves or whether they use available open-source solutions.

Step one: Decide what you’re really selling

I noticed that the biggest problem in the communication of hardware-based solutions is that it is prepared by people who often created these solutions who speak advanced, technical language. It’s hardly understandable to the common person.

It is very easy to recognize such materials. In the product descriptions on the website, we can see the product parameters and information on what elements it was prepared from. However, insufficient attention is paid to how it works.

If we use such content in B2B messages, the other party will not see the business benefits of a partnership. There’s no answer to the most important question: Why should someone buy it? Is it because you’re selling technology, or rather because you’re selling an improvement in the speed of work given by the technology?

Jak komunikować światu produkty hardware

 

Step two: Be sure who is the recipient of your product – who buys it?

Is your client a person who moves perfectly in the meanders of technological solutions, or an average newcomer who knows that he has a problem and is hoping you can solve it?

Modern entrepreneurs have plenty of areas to learn. They constantly need to improve their competencies. If you create clear, simple information in the message that will explain how this solution will help them streamline or speed up processes in the company, it will certainly increase your competitiveness in the market.

Step three: Select the tools to best explain product functionality.

Often, the solutions offered by our customers are a total revolution. They change the way we live and do things. A similar situation occurs when the product guarantees solutions in an industry that has so far had little to do with innovation.

In each of these examples, the communication tool that I strongly recommend is video. A video in the promotion has a lot of advantages. For one thing, it reduces the time it takes to explain how technology works. Well-recorded material also helps to present possible applications, educates about functionalities, and answers frequently asked questions. And it saves time, which I don’t think any of us have in excess today. An interesting video form to consider is animation. We have also used this type of message: 

Step four: Take a creative approach to communication in the media.

Hardware has the advantage over software in that you can touch it and see how it works. In the case of software, we often have to imagine how it can help us. In hardware communication, tangibility is the greatest force for me.

You can organize a press conference at which you show in a creative way how your robot works. Perhaps it is worth creating a virtual map on which journalists will move, following the signals sent by the sensors.

Ideas could be multiplied. The point is to look at your own product in such a way as to see something more than obvious uses. Sometimes, to arouse interest, it is worth looking for a less predictable and more surprising solution.

Jak komunikować światu produkty hardware

Step five: Don’t be afraid of trade fairs – have an idea.

A fair is an event that hardware developers can treat as their real holiday. I wrote here about how to prepare for participation in an event fair.

With a tangible product, you can do a lot. The only thing that limits you is your imagination. Maybe your robot will hand out pens and notebooks? And another one could give out business cards or invitations for coffee.

It all depends on the time you have to prepare for such an event and idea. The rest is mainly a matter of smooth execution.

Jak komunikować światu produkty hardware

Step six: Act!

Communication is often like a business model. Different approaches, tools, and methods need to be tested here.

Unfortunately, there are no ready-made solutions that always work the same way everywhere. Each time we have a different amount of time at our disposal, we have a different target group and a different situation on the market. The most important thing is to act and draw conclusions.

Pay attention to which form of product storytelling arouses the most interest. You’ll see which is the best place to invest extra funds. You will also see who most often asks about possible implementations, who is interested in such communication, and what do customers pay the most attention to? That is what needs to be emphasized.

Analyze the data and conclude. Act! Good luck.

And if you are looking for someone who can help you or take over your communication duties, contact me! 🙂

How to Prepare for Participation in Trade Fairs?

How to Prepare for Participation in Trade Fairs?

utworzone przez | | BUSINESS, COMMUNICATION

Finally, the opportunity to participate in fairs and conferences is back. Forecasts indicate that in 2022 there will be a gradual return to the economic state before the pandemic, and the market will grow steadily in the coming years.

Trade fairs are always a unique opportunity to show the world what we do on a daily basis, present the methods of our work, and pass on our experience to others. It is also an opportunity to acquire new customers and business partners. So how do you prepare for participation in the fair and make the most of this time? The most important thing is to choose an event, including the decision whether to come to one in Poland or go abroad. If you want to go to a different country, you should first know whether the company is ready to show up in international markets. There are more questions regarding the choice of the fair. I encourage you to do your homework and answer them.

The level of satisfaction – for both image and financial – depends on how much time you devote to preparing the answers. Below, I’ve shared my checklist, which will help you in deciding on participation and choosing the right trade fair:

  1. Are we ready to acquire new customers?
  2. Can the team going to the fair tell about the technical aspects of the product? Do they understand the technology, and can they present its business application?
  3. Can the team talk about the product not only in Polish but also in English? How about other languages? (For example, if we decide to go to a fair in Italy, you can be sure that the talks will begin in Italian.)
  4. Do we have an idea for a booth arrangement? Stands and roll-ups alone may not be enough to stand out. They often act as a deterrent and do not attract attention at all.
  5. Do we have any idea how to attract people who don’t know us to the booth? What’s going to happen in it?
  6. Have we informed customers and business partners that we will be at the event? Perhaps it will be an opportunity to meet and expand cooperation.
  7. Have we defined success rates? How will we know that participation in the event was successful? (Believing that inquiries will start coming is not enough. Define precisely how many queries you would like, and then calculate how much they actually cost you to obtain).
  8. Does marketing cooperate with sales well enough that people working there can communicate information about companies interested in a partnership?
  9. Have we chosen people who will contact new customers?

Fairs? The Team Is Key!

The fair is first and foremost a meeting of person to person. And although the location of your booth and the idea for the arrangement is extremely important, the team that will go to represent the company will be the most important factor.

Even the best location and the most creative presentation will not give as much as a brave and personable team. Why? Specialists who are too shy to approach and talk to a stranger and encourage them to visit your booth will not do much.

What is the perfect set of personality traits for the fair? You should decide on people who are communicative, curious, and cheerful, who like people and talking to them. Participation in the event should be good fun for them, not torture. The above questions also clearly indicate that you should be represented at the fair by people who know technology well, as well as those who understand business.

During the event, there will certainly be a lot of fans of technology and fans of the most complex solutions. But there will also be people who will be oriented towards business and its development. Not everyone combines knowledge in both areas, so it is worth choosing people who will complement each other in this area.

Conferences and Events Accompanying the Fair

The fair is a real holiday for the industry. Under one roof, you can meet the companies that create it, as well as listen to interesting speeches and take part in workshops or discussion panels. I wrote about how to prepare for the latter in Discussion Panels: How to Use Their Potential.

The conference is often a great opportunity to share the conclusions of implementation, observations, or lessons learned. This is when you have a chance to invite potential customers who visit your stand and encourage them to get to know your work better. It is worth choosing a person who will present the company from its best possible angle. Ideally, they would be trained in public speaking and would feel comfortable in this role.

Jak przygotować się do udziału w targach

If more people participate in the event, it is worth dividing your team, taking into account the diversity of the audience. One person could join a workshop with an interesting topic, someone else might want to see what the competition will talk about, and a third representative can visit individual stands and look for partners.

Of course, roles can be assigned on the spot. However, planning and deciding who does what and when will allow you to control the team at the booth. You’ll avoid a situation where suddenly there’s no one around.

The fair may prove to be a very good sales and promotional tool. The keys to success are adequate preparation for participation, planning how you will show up and what you will say, and knowing how you will stand out. The better you plan all communication before the event, the more satisfied you will be with the work, during, and after.

Effective E-commerce Communication in the Media, Step by Step

Effective E-commerce Communication in the Media, Step by Step

utworzone przez | | COMMUNICATION

You create your store or solution for e-commerce. You decide for hours what it will be and what great results it will bring. Finally, there is the desired publication of the product on the web and… nothing.

The solution, which costs you so much time and energy, suddenly does not find much interest. What is going on? A basic mistake in the communication of e-commerce solutions may be the lack of a prepared strategy, i.e., the language of benefits for potential customers, as well as a marketing and PR plan.

If you are developing and operating in the e-commerce industry and directing your solutions to B2B customers, this article is for you.

Is E-commerce Communication a Difficult Art?

When you start working on communicating your products, ask yourself what you want to achieve and how you will know that you have achieved your goal. Maybe you need this communication to find an investor, increase sales, or just be aware of the market. Why is this so important? I know many entrepreneurs who wanted the media to write about them. Then there were articles in the press, statements on the radio, and sometimes even appearances on TV. But when I asked during the meetings how the development of the company was going, the answer indicated that it was only average.

And that’s where you have to ask yourself, “Why is this event happening?” The first thing we should remember is that communication does not bring results right away. It is building the company’s image and educating potential customers, to whom we explain what our product is used for, who it is addressed to, and what problem it solves. Yes, it is often the case that someone reads an article about us and immediately writes that they are interested in cooperation because that is what they needed. However, it usually takes more time for the scale of activities to produce results.

Another thing is to define measures that will allow you to determine whether the communication brings the expected results. There are often situations where entrepreneurs are so excited about the fact that the media is interested in their activities that they forget about the purpose of communication. They focus mainly on the number of publications in the media.

Such a measure may be, among others, increased traffic on the website, inquiries about the possibility of testing your solution, or an invitation to cooperation.

Where Can I Find Customers for the E-commerce Industry?

Once you’ve set your goals, the next step is to prepare the appropriate list of media you want to appear in. But that’s not it. Also prepare a list of events and other places where you can talk about your project. And here is a small hint: if you offer your services to business customers, the media channels that are worth appearing in are, among others: Forbes, My Company, E-commerce Magazine, or Money.pl. There are, of course, many more. Your choice should depend on which of them your target group reads and what kind of service or product you offer.

Once you know what media is right for your business, there’s an analysis of what you’ve already written about the industry you’re in. Maybe the competition’s already there. If so, see how their solution was presented, what was the focus of the article, and what drew journalists’ attention. This is a very important analysis, which leads us to the next point.

Skuteczna komunikacja e-commerce w mediach krok po kroku

What Do I Want to Talk About?

You’ll probably answer: “About the product.” However, I will say right away that in the case of cooperation with journalists, it is not so simple. If you only want to talk about what you do, you can be sure that they will direct you to the advertising department immediately. Your success depends largely on your specific knowledge of the needs of journalists.

How to find journalists interested in e-commerce?

If you want to start an adventure with company communication yourself, after choosing the media and analyzing how they write about the topic you are interested in, learn who is the author of these texts. Usually, the articles are signed with their name, and under the text, you can often find the contact details of a journalist.

There is one goal: you want to show yourself and your company in e-commerce or technology, and you can do it in several different ways.

Press Releases

These are materials most often presenting a current situation, implementation, the introduction of new functionality, etc. Such content is usually sent to a wider group of selected journalists dealing with the related subject matter.

What exactly can press releases be about? They can talk about opening new offices and hiring a large number of employees, personnel changes in senior positions of companies, gaining significant funds, interesting partnerships, international expansion, important industry events, or new implementations in the field of e-commerce.

Reports and Studies

Data, analyses, and numbers – there what are constantly needed in the world of media. If your technology allows you to create a report showing a change in the world of e-commerce that not everyone is aware of yet, then this should be used. You can also count on the interest of journalists if you show the purchasing behavior of a selected group of customers, supporting it with an interesting analysis.

Generalities, phrases such as “it seems to us” or “probably,” are neither interesting nor do they add anything. Materials that actually present how your business is developing will gain significant media interest.

Dedicated Content

The media is constantly looking for experts who can share their knowledge and practical approach, show certain trends, and present these through the eyes of the practitioner. Sometimes there are also published columns showing the directions of development that you notice and that can help others in the business. This is what articles, statements, and studies are dedicated to.

I would add two additional categories to these, which I discuss below.

  1. The approach from the general to the detailed. This assumes that you present how, for example, artificial intelligence changes our purchasing behavior. You talk about the directions of development and present what is associated with such changes. Very rarely will you be able to talk about your product. The “detail” I am thinking of at this point is signing you with your name and the name of the company you represent.
  2. Approach from detailed to general—the media, especially that which specializes in a given subject, is very fond of case studies. By presenting an implementation, you have a chance to present your knowledge and experience and the technology you work with. You must keep the figures and conclusions in mind. It is best that they show the bright and dark sides of a specific implementation, and talk about what you would do differently next time and what advice you would give yourself for subsequent such situations, etc.
  3.  
Follow-up

A day, maybe two, after sending the material, it is good to contact journalists to whom we sent press releases or reports. Every day, they receive hundreds of emails from other entities, similarly willing to show their work. The better the relationships you have with them, the faster and easier it will be to develop cooperation. However, this takes time.

Every stick always has two ends. This means that a journalist may also want something from you, e.g., a statement or comment on the topic they are interested in. I don’t advise you to delay answering because if you do, there will be someone else to take your place. I also advise against rushing media workers. Too much intrusive contact could turn on you. The topic that you propose may not be attractive for a journalist at a given moment, but it could be after some time. Unfortunately, the editorial rules are absolute, and you have to comply with them. However, if you urgently need to publish, consider commercial activities and pay for publishing the article.

Skuteczna komunikacja e-commerce w mediach krok po kroku

When Do I Start Communicating in E-commerce?

What is the best time to start product communication? The answer will probably not please you, because it cannot be precisely defined. It depends on the type of solution you offer, how much competition you have in this area, whether the media has already written about it, and the level of advancement of your project.

Cooperation with the media in e-commerce is a demanding task, but it gives significant opportunities for business development. It requires a thorough analysis of the industry and knowledge of the specifics of journalists’ work and time. Such work allows for building lasting relationships with the media, which will then result in recognition and the building of a stable, reliable brand.

The most important questions you should ask yourself before starting communication are:
  1. Whom am I talking to?
  2. When should I start communicating?
  3. Where should I appear with my message (which media, events, etc.)?
  4. How should I talk about my product?
  5. Why is the product worth attention?
  6. What will the reader gain from using our product?
The article was published in the E-commerce Magazine April-May 2019 No. 2 (5) / 2019

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