Within the past year, Boost 1 Marketing has expanded and we now have clients from Orange County, California to Washington DC. One of our biggest challenges has been a new project we’ve teamed up with Derrick Williams of the Pittsburgh Steelers to help him launch and open his new learning center and workout facility! This has been a dream of Derricks as well as mine so partnering up for this new and exciting project has been fun and a great learning experience!
I never imagined my first out of state project would be a 12,000 square foot learning center and indoor workout facility, but hey, might as well start somewhere right?!
- Learn the area. The best thing to do is research, research, research! Once I learned about this project that we were starting , I began to research the area, local businesses, organizations, schools, projects and anything and anyone that we could work with to make our mission a success.
- Learn the local media outlets. For this I spoke with my client and asked him to start telling me the popular radio stations, the newspapers, and of course local TV stations that he could think off of the top of his head, after getting this list, I went to the wonderful world of social media! Be sure you search out these outlets on twitter, facebook and LinkedIn and follow them, watch for similar stories that could relate to what you’re doing, and be sure you keep track of which reporter covers the type of stories that relate to your project (ex: sports, technology, community, etc).
- Build local relationships! When we met our relator, he introduced us to his friend, who happens to be a huge Penn State fan (where Derrick was a star at for his entire college career), he came to meet Derrick and I found out he runs a great Lacrosse program for inner city youth AND they are looking for a facility to hold meetings, events and wanted to take advantage of our tutoring services! This has ended up in a great future partnership for us once our facility opens, and him being local, we’re not meeting more people each time I travel to the area!
- Partnerships! Focus on partnerships that will benefit both parties! Similar to the lacrosse program mentioned above, we’ve partnered with local Penn State Alumni chapters (always reach out to your alma matter, they are usually very supportive and have alumni that will share similar interests!) along with local companies, our new trainers are from ETC Training, they already have a large clientele that they will be bringing over to our facility once we open.
- Consistency! Be sure if you’re from out of town and working with your client you get back in town on a consistent basis, if you’re around and getting work done one month and disappear for the next 10 weeks, people might forget you! Stay in the front of their minds and when you are in town, be sure you stop in and say hi, emails are great but a good old handshake will always win!