Public Relations And Marketing Strategies For Promoting Children’s Products - Meet Melissa Talago
April 22nd, 2008
| My guest today is Melissa Talago. Prior to setting up her own business, Melissa was working for big companies in the corporate world - providing public relations and marketing strategies. After having kids, she quit her 9 to 5 job. Almost by accident, she noticed a gap in the market and she seized the opportunity and set up her own PR firm. She talks more about this in her interview. Her company specifically targets businesses run by parents - businesses that are selling baby related products / services. She provides public relations and marketing strategies to these companies. She provides a friendly, personalized and professional service to all her clients. And thanks to her service levels and expertise, her business has been growing steadily…She recently won a Gold Award at a business function in UK. The award was for a Low Budget PR campaign she ran for one of her clients. Read and Be Inspired…. |
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| Why and when did you start ‘Peekaboo’? |
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I started Peekaboo in April 2006 by accident. I had been in PR for over ten years before I had my children but really didn’t want to go back and do what I had been doing, which was tech PR. I also couldn’t do the long commute into work anymore. However, I didn’t want to be a full time stay at home mum so started looking around for things to do.At the time I was weaning my baby and started to investigate the prepared baby food market, thinking rather foolishly that if I could puree for one, I could puree for many. I quickly realised that making baby food wasn’t for me but did stumble upon a company called Babylicious. I couldn’t believe that the company had such a great product but I’d never heard of it. I wrote to the founder and told her I thought she could be doing more to promote her products. She invited me in and hired me to help her promote her products.Once I started looking at the baby/parenting market – or as I like to call it, the tums-to-tots market – I realised what a booming market it was. I also realised that most of the companies operating in this space were other mums trying to work around their children. Most of these companies need cost effective PR and marketing support from someone who not only understands their target market, but also understands what it’s like to work around kids.And so I set up Peekaboo Communications to help these mums build the visibility of their businesses. | ||
| In your experience what are a couple of the most common mistakes mothers in business make (in relation to PR)? | |||
| There are two mistakes that I see over and over again.The first – and biggest – is that when they’re setting up, they either forget to do any PR or try to do it themselves to save money. But launching a new business is the biggest news hook you’re going to have and you need to make sure you make a great first impression. I often get approached by mums who’ve sent out their own press release which isn’t picked up, usually because they’ve written it as an advert rather than a press release, They then want me to try again – but they’ve already wasted their ‘newness’. It’s difficult to go back to a journalist and relaunch a company that’s already been ‘launched’ just a few months before. So make sure that when you do your launch PR, you do it properly.The second mistake is that many mums don’t want to be the visible face for their business. They think that the products will sell themselves. But all businesses need a spokesperson, and if it’s your business, that person should usually be you. Mums need to realise that they’re going to be the ones whose names are going to be in the paper and the voice on the radio. If they want publicity for their business, they need to be willing to put themselves out there and speak with confidence about their business. | |||
| For your company, what has been the most effective bit of marketing you have ever done? | |||
| Marketing is about 4 Ps – product, price, place and promotion. If you look at all four of those, I would say the most effective bit of marketing is getting my product right by specialising in a single sector. By focusing exclusively on the tums-to-tots sector instead of trying to be all things to all people, I have given myself a big differentiator against the many other PR companies out there.If by marketing you mean promotion, it’s probably a combination of getting the right clients on board who have opened up doors to other clients - most of my clients come through word of mouth – coupled with being active on mums in business and parenting forums online to build awareness for virtually no money at all. | |||
| It’s hard to balance raising a family and running a business. Can you share with us some of your time management tips? | |||
| • Getting good childcare in place is essential (and something I have battled with!) • Use the hours you have for work to really work. I find that the more I have to do, the more effective my working day becomes as I don’t stop for a second to procrastinate. • Learn to multi-task. You need to be able to switch from mummy mode to business mode in an instant. • Plan ahead. I’ve been planning Christmas since September. That way I get less stressed about having to do everything at the last minute, so if I have any work emergencies I’m not completely unprepared on the family front. • Do everything online. Shopping. Holidays. Passports. Whatever. It takes far less time than getting out and about and it can be done after hours when the kids are sleeping |
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| What is one business tool you cannot survive without? |
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| The internet! Also, having a wireless network at home so that I can work and keep an eye on the kids if I have something that has to be done while I don’t have childcare. | |||
| If you had your time again is there anything in your business you would do differently? |
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| I would plan better before I set up. My business has evolved without me really having a firm plan and now it’s got so busy that finding the time to plan is really hard. And I’d be less shy about asking for help. | |||
| Finally, your five keys to success? | |||
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| Sites Of Interest | |||
| http://www.peekaboocoms.co.uk/ | |||
| This interview was published on 23rd April 2007 | |||
| Visit Melissa’s website to get more information about marketing strategies and public relations for children’s products… | |||
To read more stories about women in service industry click Idea Home Based Service Business. |
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Entry Filed under: Service Based
1 Comment Add your own
1. Entrepreneur Home Busines&hellip | April 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
[...] Read More about Melissa and her company Marketing Childrens Products [...]
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