One of the best things about working online is discovering hidden gems, and Kay Bransford has a good one! Kay is the founder of an award-winning company called MemoryBanc that helps individuals and families manage their most important documents and information.As many of us have aging parents, MemoryBanc is a service many of our families could benefit from. I asked Kay to share more about MemoryBanc and how she’s leveraging the internet to help her clients get their information organized.
Can you give us some background on MemoryBanc?
I founded MemoryBanc out of a personal need. My parents had done everything the estate lawyer, financial planner and life insurance professional advised. As their heath began to fail, I needed to step in to help, but I didn’t have the information I needed. I started to collect it in a binder that eventually became the prototype for the MemoryBanc Register.
We received an “Older-Adult Focused Innovation” award from AARP and then landed a publishing contract to bring our system to bookstores around the globe. Our latest product MemoryBanc Your Workbook for Organizing Life is now available at a variety of retailers from Amazon, Barnes and Noble to Follett’s.
How does the internet support MemoryBanc?
The internet is a requirement of doing business today. I am focused on selling to retirement communities, estate lawyers and financial planners and they need to know that I’m a credible business. {The internet allows them} to learn more about me, our business success and products. Most of my sales are face-to-face, but my pipeline development requires a professional online experience.
This may change when my book (launching in March) is released since most people will use online sales sites to order and download to the ebook readers. I’m looking forward to learning.
What’s your approach to social media?
Because my product isn’t a known commodity, I use social media to help educate on the problems we help solve.
I am transparent but try not to entirely expose my personal life to my clients. On Dealing with Dementia I blog about very personal experiences as a caregiver, but don’t use names of my family members and also don’t share everything. I share the things that will best help others be better caregivers to their loved ones.
This year, I launched a separate blog, Why Minding Your Stuff Matters, to address the fact that most of my clients are not caring for loved ones, but just want to get organized. Most people don’t know about the things that happen if a spouse is suddenly incapacitated or a loved one ends up in the hospital and no one has their power of attorney.
What’s your favorite digital marketing trick?
Give. If you give to your prospects and clients and help them, they will look to you for information, products and services when they need them.
Do you have a favorite online productivity tool you’d like to share?
I just learned Hubspot’s blog topic generator yesterday from Christina Daves, author of PR for Anyone. It helps you come up with a snappy, compelling headline and is a great idea starter.
What online tactics are you planning to implement to help MemoryBanc grow?
Develop drip marketing programs using MailChimp and get my integration with Insightly right and tight. I just can’t keep up with everyone and need some automation to help.
Kay Bransford is a Digital Asset Guardian and Chief Curator at MemoryBanc. As a former marketing executive at Vocus and the Washington Speakers Bureau, Kay brings a world of experience to solving the modern-day problem of scattered document and assets.
You can get in touch with Kay through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.