Since 1913, the Snoqualmie Valley Record’s mission has been to tell the story of Snoqualmie, North Bend, Fall City, Preston and Carnation to our loyal print and now digital audience. Part of that job is to also help our local business and nonprofit partners tell their own story as they brand their businesses and promote their unique products and services to potential consumers, partners, customers and clients in the Valley and beyond.

As part of that ethos to help local businesses, the Valley Record and Sound Publishing’s King County News Group organized a branding, marketing, advertising seminar at the Snoqualmie Inn on Snoqualmie Ridge. The 6th annual “Sound Edge” event is presented annually by Sound Publishing’s management team and is held annually at a number of venues all over the Puget Sound area. This most recent event was held on August 23 and was the first ever in Snoqualmie Valley. It was formatted to help small to medium sized local businesses develop strategic marketing, branding and advertising strategies, objectives and best practices during this dynamic and still challenging post-Covid environment.

Hosted by Valley Record General Manager William Shaw and presented by Sound Publishing Vice President and Everett Daily Herald Publisher Rudi Alcott, the free event was attended by a diverse group of local businesses and nonprofits including owners and principals from regional and local tourism, to insurance, financial, healthcare, real estate, hospitality, HVAC, entertainment, theatrical arts and a nonprofit downtown association.

The seminar outlined best practices that most businesses can do, such as analyzing the local marketplace, strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threats — in your own business and the competition, discovering or rediscovering your target audience, setting marketing goals and objectives, defining your key marketing message, allocating a marketing budget and outlining marketing and branding tactics.

Local businesses are the lifeblood of our community in the Valley — and we at the Snoqualmie Valley Record strive to do all we can to help keep our local business community strong. We at the Valley Record and Sound Publishing hope the seminar will bring benefit to their marketing and outreach strategies in the coming months, and we offer thanks to the many local business partners who attended. We plan on doing another seminar in the Valley in 2023.

William Shaw is General Manager of the Snoqualmie Valley Record. Contact wshaw@valleyrecord.com.