Media training 101 for small businesses

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Great news: you just scored a big press interview to promote your business. The story will expose your brand to the perfect new audience and drive meaningful traffic to your website. So…don't blow it. Yes, just as quickly as the excitement for the opportunity arrived, the realization that you now have to do an interview sets in. I get it—press interviews can absolutely be intimidating. The resulting coverage represents a significant opportunity to acquire new customers, drive sales, or raise awareness, and you want to be sure to represent your brand well and really compel the audience to check out your company. On top of that, you have to contend with adrenaline and nerves in the moment. You may be thinking, "So many other business owners are so polished and articulate in their interviews. How am I going to pull that off?" Deep breath. A successful interview is usually the result of good media training: preparation and practice in advance of an interview. I've tr...
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How an Oklahoma entrepreneur showcases small business successes

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Lee Easton's company, AeroVision, has been fortunate—they haven't taken much of a hit during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 crisis. But Lee is a small business owner, and he felt strongly for all the other small business owners that have had to lay people off or even close doors over the past few months.

He started seeking out motivational news, and as he did his morning reads, he came across inspirational stories from business owners that had started pivoting to save their business. He heard about an escape room business that started offering monthly "escape room in a box" subscriptions. He read about real estate agents switching to Zoom for all virtual tours of properties. And he read about companies that changed their business model from brick-and-mortar sales to eCommerce—and grew their revenue because of it.

That's when, with the help of his amazing web development team, he launched PivotsFromCOVID.com, a website where business owners could share their stories—and, hopefully, inspire others whose businesses were struggling. "This site is not intended to make me any money, but to provide a resource of knowledge and even inspiration during these tough times," he told us.

Lee used Zapier to connect his submission form to his database: whenever someone clicks Submit, the story submission is automatically created in his CMS. He then gets a notification whenever the Zap runs, and he can review the story before publishing.

Lee hopes that the businesses featured on PivotsFromCOVID.com can help other business owners see a light at the end of the tunnel. "So far we have had some nice submissions," he says. "I hope to see more awesome stories come through as our economy recovers from the crazy times we are in."

Lots of Zapier customers have themselves had to pivot because of social distancing measures. Here are a few examples of businesses that have made it work with an assist from automation.



from The Zapier Blog https://ift.tt/3dy4GHZ

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