Claire Elbrow
Christmas is just a jump away!
When sending Christmas Gift pitches, begin with larger national magazines before moving to local ones.
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Claire Elbrow
- Jul 5, 2019
- 2 min
Positioning your PR pitch
Are you looking for ways to improve the effectiveness of your pitches to either your local or industry media? Our blog explains how
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Claire Elbrow
- Mar 7, 2019
- 2 min
March Awareness Days
If you are looking for some new hooks for your business PR, have a meander through these upcoming awareness days. March 7th World Book Day 7th University Mental Health Day 7th - 10th Crufts 8th Healthcare Science Week 8th International Women's Day 11th - 17th Nutrition and Hydration Week 11th National Butchers Week 13th National No Smoking Day 15th Red Nose/Comic Relief 16th National Quilting Day 16th Disabled Access Day 17th St Patrick's Day 18th National Conver
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Claire Elbrow
- Mar 6, 2019
- 3 min
Zero to Hero - Building your email list
Attracting new subscribers to your small business email list takes time, creative thought and constant attention! However, instead of looking at it as a numbers game, look at it more strategically. It is far better to have fewer email address which belong to your perfect customer than hundreds of lukewarm prospects. Keep in mind that the age-old adage that 20% of your customer base is responsible for 80% of your revenue. It is very close to the truth for many small busines
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Claire Elbrow
- Aug 30, 2018
- 6 min
How to measure the ROI on your business content marketing campaigns.
More and more businesses are seeing the benefits of content marketing. OK, it's still not on the radar of every business, but the benefits can be significant in terms of awareness, lead generation and actual sales – if you know what is working and what is not. Basically B2B content marketing aims to: 1. Boost traffic to a site 2. Convert that traffic into high-quality leads 3. Convert those leads into sales So, why measure? Exactly as I mentioned above, you need to
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Claire Elbrow
- Jun 24, 2018
- 6 min
What should you consider when starting your business?
Starting a new business? Just where should you start? There are a considerable amount of things you need to think about, other than marketing, when you start your small business, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and get nowhere. To help you get over the inertia that can come when you have a whole heap of priorities, we, have pulled together our top tips to get you going. The ‘we’ is me and the other freelancers I work with. On chatting, we realised we all had different start po
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Claire Elbrow
- May 29, 2018
- 3 min
Reasons to celebrate today!
Firstly and most importantly, it's #NationalBiscuitDay today - a totally top day in our books! Secondly, the GDPR panic is over for the time being, and your fully subscribed data list is back on track, albeit probably an awful lot smaller than before, what can you do to ensure you make the best of it? So, don't panic! One of the benefits of GDPR is that your shiny new list should be full of people who are keen to hear from you and more engaged to your offers, so take some co
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Claire Elbrow
- May 15, 2018
- 2 min
Why should you consider PR for your business?
It's a question that a lot of business owners ask, especially in start-up or small businesses. While it's possible to operate a business with little or no PR spend, it's unlikely that the company will ever gain traction in their key markets without it. On the other hand, small businesses that actively engage in integrated PR and marketing tactics are more likely to capture the attention of their potential customers and achieve the kind of business results that create long-ter
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Claire Elbrow
- Apr 10, 2018
- 3 min
Are you clear about what you want from PR? I hope so!
If I could have a £1 for every time someone says to me that he or she 'used to do PR, but did not get much out of it', I would be a very happy bunny! It comes soon after they ask what I do and of course, I respond, 'I work in PR and I work with small businesses and start-ups'. It is also very true that most business owners I have met and who are responsible for their company’s internal and external communications strategy are still not sure why they need PR and what they get
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Claire Elbrow
- Feb 14, 2018
- 4 min
Telling your story.
Journalists are busy people! They get hundreds of story ideas every week. So how can you make your small business story stand out? Where do you start? Do you have a real story? Should you ring or email? How much information do you need to send to the journalist? Should you follow up when they do not respond? Here are my top tips: Make sure your story is a strong story Think through your story and be brutal with yourself – is it really newsworthy? A new website or a new
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Claire Elbrow
- Feb 2, 2018
- 4 min
Startups: 5 Social Media Tips to get you going!
If you are just setting out on your journey with your new business, you might be unsure what tack your should take on social media. Fear not, it is easy to navigate, and if you use it well, you can use it to reach new clients, validate your expertise and establish yourself. Step 1: Pick the right goals. Like all marketing, good social media marketing starts with setting good goals. It is not all about the number of followers you have. A good number is great, but this is unl
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Claire Elbrow
- Jan 19, 2018
- 4 min
Times they are a-changing! Facebook announces news feed changes.
Turmoil this week as everyone mulls over the latest Facebook changes! However, we do need to remember that Facebook is always evolving and it should! Their reasons are two fold. firstly, increasing our experience when interacting with our friends and family and secondly, to make money via their advertisements. So, getting businesses to buy into their advertising options is always going to be somewhere near the top of the list of things that will evolve. If you have a busin
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Claire Elbrow
- Jan 4, 2018
- 4 min
How to make Twitter work for your business.
Choosing the social media platform for your business can be a trial! Do you do everyone one or should you just look at a couple and do them well? Personally, I think the second option is the best option, but still you have the question of which one you choose? Your choice will depend on a number of things: Where your audience hangs out? What age they are? Are you looking to build brand awareness? Are you looking to generate leads and sales via the content you post? Are you
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Claire Elbrow
- Nov 8, 2017
- 2 min
Calm after the storm!
After a super busy few months, it has been great to have this week to reflect how Blue Lizard Marketing has done this year and finalise plans for next. What's new! I have been working with a more freelancers with deep expertise in areas such as web development and design, SEO, pay per click and content creation. This works so well for Blue Lizard Marketing as it means I can absolutely match the clients needs to the right people and the results gained are far better. This has
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Claire Elbrow
- Sep 28, 2017
- 1 min
Where to find great images for your content marketing
There are a good number of free sites you can find images for your content marketing. Here’s a few of my favourite copyright free sites. Pixabay Pixabay offers a whole heap of free images and videos for both personal and commercial use. All images on the site are royalty-free and can used commercially online and in print. Unsplash Unsplash offers 10 new photos every 10 days via an email subscription and on their website. They have a good number of categories and images are o
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Claire Elbrow
- Sep 27, 2017
- 2 min
PR - What doesn’t work anymore!
I think as PR bods we are all probably aware of this but here are the top three PR activities which don’t work anymore – and send us all into that 'head banging' moment! As small businesses using PR to help promote their business, these three are certainly worth keeping in mind. - sending out a mass press release If you had a news story in the past you were very likely to write it up as a press release and send it out to journalists as a mass e-mail. This traditional method
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Claire Elbrow
- Sep 21, 2017
- 4 min
What is PR and does your small business need it?
Good communication will let people know that your company, your brand and your products or services exist. Strong messaging helps turn your one-time customer into a loyal and returning fan. When you have a small business, you are always going to be limited on time and most likely resources, so ensuring your PR activity is timely and consistent is not always going to be top of your list. So how can a PR freelancer help? I run Blue Lizard Marketing as a freelancer working sol
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Claire Elbrow
- Aug 15, 2017
- 3 min
Got the summertime blues?
Need a cure? For small businesses the summer can be frustrating – people on holiday, delays in new project decisions, sales dipping and diving as the weather changes from scorching to torrential rain. For some, part-time employees may vanish for a bit as the kids’ holidays kick in. So what’s the cure? During my first year trading, a good number of moons ago, this summer slump caught me by surprise and I panicked slightly that it was going to be the norm for the rest of the ye
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Claire Elbrow
- Aug 3, 2017
- 3 min
Happy Snaps - getting the best from your photo shoot
When you are commissioning a photographer for your project, you may not immediately think of writing a brief, particularly if you are working on a smaller shoot. However, lack of clarification or direction before the shoot could mean that your photographer is left guessing about what you want and this can waste time and effort on both sides. It makes sense to discuss and plan the details with your team and pop it all down on paper so everyone has a clear idea of the end resul
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Claire Elbrow
- Jul 4, 2017
- 2 min
Keep us updated!
We manage a number of social media accounts with clients – I say ‘with’ clients, as it is ‘with’ rather than ‘for’. Keeping your content effective and relevant to your business needs you to work with your social media team. We need to know what is going on in your company to help us keep your social media presence lively and personal. So, if you are about to outsource your social media presence, remember those managing your feeds will really be helped by your input. Let them
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