This Entrepreneur Used A Blog To Create PR For Her Business

Here’s an entrepreneur who’s taken the concept of thought leadership—writing non-promotionally about the things others genuinely want to read about—to heart.  April Morse is a young mother of two who works in her family’s custom cabinet shop, Weber Company. In late 2009 she started a blog, Custom Cabinet Girl, to write about things happening in the shop as one of the few female custom cabinet makers around. It covered the “stories behind the story” about what her family business was doing.

When she began she had just nine followers, comprised of family and friends. The recession had pummeled the company in 2010, forcing the layoff of 25 people. Only April, her father and one part-time employee remained. Cabinet sales had dried up. But there were plenty of wood scraps lying about, and with her father she thought that perhaps the business could market some creative cutting boards to fill the revenue gaps.

The company is based in Lodi, Calif. (Yes, the same Lodi made famous by the CCR song, “Oh, Lord, stuck in Lodi again.”) Because it’s in wine country, Morse thought that maybe a wine-bottle design would appeal to regional customers and she worked up a design.

A friend encouraged her to submit her idea to Williams-Sonoma. Figuring she had nothing to lose (not even a cutting board, since the initial round of the process required only a description and pictures) she obliged. Being a diligent salesperson, she phoned the company the next week to follow up. She reached an abrupt individual who scolded her, saying something akin to, “Are you kidding? Didn’t you read the submission form? It says not to expect a response for 60-90 days.” She felt a little foolish but saw the humor in the situation—the naïve entrepreneur who’d followed up too quickly—and turned the situation into a blog.

Then an interesting thing happened. The CEO of Williams-Sonoma had a Google alert that watched for the company’s name and read the blog. He was in Australia at the time, but phoned a U.S. associate and told them to find this woman and begin stocking her product immediately. The paperwork was daunting, but the Williams-Sonoma relationship put her business into a retail realm that allowed her products to move as fast as she could make them.

And her story spread in the press. Morse was featured on the front page of AOL.com in this story. And the AOL story resulted in a trip to NY to appear on the Nate Berkus Show.

Now she’s been featured in articles and blogs throughout the country, all because she saw the humor in her personal story and wrote it up in a blog.  Five years later April’s blog is still the core of her PR strategy. But she’s also on the continual lookout for journalists who might be interested in something she does that could be of help in their articles. (My bid for offbeat PR ideas, for example, resulted in her appearance here in my column for Forbes.)

A smart entrepreneur. In fact,  there are many examples of bloggers (particularly women) who’ve managed to create blog sites and articles interesting enough they’ve served as the center point for their entrepreneurial business. A great case in point is The Six Sisters  that markets everything from recipes to fashion, home décor, crafts, family projects and fitness. (Note to April Morse: Perhaps your cutting boards belong in their index?) Another female entrepreneur from Utah (my home state), Alison Prince, established the market for her online boutique PickYourPlum.com by writing articles as a founding contributor of How Does She?  In a similar way, the blog provides the stories that spawn the ideas for readers and produces interest in the products her company sells.

There are three additional takeaways here for other entrepreneurs:

1. Morse’s story included the name of the company she’d contacted, Williams-Sonoma. Hopefully she linked the name to the company’s website, but regardless, the call-out was enough for search engine traction and piqued the interest of the company’s CEO. Never forget in a blog like this one that the things you write online are searchable even if you have a following of just “nine family members and friends.” This can work against you as well, of course, if you write a disparaging or negative story. It will live forever online. Even if you think better of a negative story after its posted, the evidence can still be found through a service such as the Internet “Wayback Machine.”
2. April Morse wrote her stories with readers in mind. Yes, it was a story about herself, but it showed her vulnerability and experience in a relateable way. That made it interesting to others. It was not a hype-y piece to promote herself or her product. She wrote a true and slightly humorous story about a learning experience.
3. In approaching reporters, April’s focus has been on the things they need to complete their articles that she may be able to provide. Again, she wins by providing a helpful resource instead of pounding at the editors’ doors or accosting them on social media with pleas of  “I’m looking for someone to write a profile about me in Forbes.” Smart lady.

What she might consider doing further from here:

• Don’t overlook the value of press releases as an SEO tool. Just like articles, they show up in web searches. A press release is allowed to include a bit of promotion, although the same rules of engagement apply – write your press release in the same matter of fact language a reporter would use, and include the information readers are interested in seeing. The web result will last forever, and press releases, like blogs, are one of the few vehicles of communication to the world in which you get to control every word.
• Perhaps some additional video would serve April well. One of her two biggest press appearances is available on video. Nicely done. But there may be additional things she could demonstrate on video to let prospective viewers learn more.

What else could April and others like her do to increase her PR visibility from here? I welcome additional ideas in the comment section below.

Cheryl Snapp Conner is author of the Forbes eBook Beyond PR: Communicate Like a Champ In The Digital World. Do you have a great entrepreneurial PR story that others could learn from? If you do, reach out to Cheryl Conner via Forbes with your thoughts.