Arran Events, Advertising and Marketing

Does the thought of trying to get publicity for your business seem like something that you can’t do yourself, and would have to hire a professional for? Do you think that writing a press release is totally outside your ability to do? Does the thought of talking to the media about your business make your mouth go dry and your stomach clench? If so, take heart, because you’re about to learn how you can take care of your own publicity, simply and easily.

Getting publicity for your business can seem like an impossible task — something that only happens for “big” companies that can afford to hire publicists.

The reality is, getting free publicity for your business isn’t that difficult. Welcome to “Media Training 101 — The Secrets of Writing a Good Press Release”. By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll not only understand the basics, you’ll know what goes into the process, and what you have to do to get started writing your own press release.

First of all, let’s go over some basic terminology you need to be familiar with.

Press Release: A statement with useful and relevant information that is written for distribution to the media.

Hook: The information or larger story that you can use to attach your press release to. Using the right “hook” in the right way can help you to get more publicity for your business.

Spin: Telling your story your way.

The good news about learning to write a Press Release is that there is an established format that you need to follow. And once you’ve learned the basics, writing a press release is a kind of “cookie cutter” process. Here are some basic ideas to keep in mind:

Make your news “newsworthy”. A press release is not a sales advertisement. A good press release answers all of the “W” questions (who, what, where, when and why), and
sometimes “how.” Your purpose in writing it is twofold: to provide the media with useful and relevant information about your organization, product, service or event and to get your name out to your target market.

Begin with a strong headline. Your headline and first paragraph need to grab the reader’s attention. Without being flowery or overly dramatic, you have only the first few seconds to grab your reader’s attention and get them to read your story, and decide if it’s worth running. So don’t blow it by being vague or weak. The rest of your press release can give them the nitty-gritty details.

Tailor your story to your Primary audience – the media. Your secondary audience is your target market, but if the media doesn’t decide that your story is newsworthy and runs it, your potential customers will never know about it!

Pay attention to your writing. Sometimes, especially in rural areas and online, the media will run your press release in their publications with little or no modification, so make sure you’ve used your spelling and grammar check before sending it, and keep to the facts. Most of the time, journalists will use your press release as a stepping off place for a larger feature story, especially if you can show larger relevance to other current events. Always develop your story as you want to have it told – put YOUR spin on it. Even if your story is not reprinted verbatim, always remember what YOUR purpose is in writing it – to provide exposure for you, and to help brand you as an expert in your field.

Not everything is news. Just because you are excited that you made your first big sale, or started a new product line, or wrote your first article, doesn’t necessarily mean that the press are going to think you have a newsworthy story. From the time you start your first draft, keep your audience in mind. Who will find your story interesting? Why are they going to find it interesting? How is it relevant to something else that’s going on right now?

Identify a problem, and show how you’re solving it. Use real life examples about how your company or organization solved or is solving a problem. Give examples of how your service or product fulfills needs or satisfies desires. What benefits can be expected? Use real life examples to powerfully communicate the benefits of using your product or service.

Stick to the facts. Always. Tell. The. Truth. Avoid fluff, embellishments and exaggerations. It is part of a journalist’s job to be skeptical. If you want to use publicity effectively, then you’re not looking for a one night stand. You want to gain the trust of the media, establish your credibility, and build an on-going relationship with your local media, so that you become a resource for them within your industry.

Find your “hook”. Try to make your press release timely. Keep informed about what’s going on in your community, in your state, region, the country or the world. Is there a local, regional or national news story that somehow ties in to your industry or your business? If you can hook your press release to current events or social issues, you increase your chances of having it picked up. If not, then make sure your story is relevant to the needs, wants or problems of your community or target audience.

Use an active, not passive, voice. Use strong verbs that will bring your press release to life. If there is controversy, describe it. There is an old adage in the news business: “If it cries it flies, and if it bleeds, it leads.” (Not very nice, but it’s often true.) So, while you may not be crying or bleeding, make what you’re writing about stand out. Use active verbs. Write “partnered” rather than “entered into a partnership” or “engaged” rather than “interested”, etc. Writing in this manner will help guarantee that your press release will be read.

Use only enough words to tell your story. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives, flowery language, or redundant expressions such as “added bonus” or “first time ever”. Paint a strong, vivid picture in the minds of your audience by making each word count.

Use jargon sparingly. There are times that some jargon is required if your goal is to optimize your news release for online search engines, but whenever possible, speak plainly, using everyday language. Avoid words like “capacity planning techniques” and “extrapolate”.

Avoid hype. The exclamation point (!) is your enemy. You will destroy your credibility by using hype. If you must use an exclamation point, use one. Never do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get Permission. Most people and companies are very protective about their reputations. Be sure that you have written permission before including information or quotes from employees or affiliates of other companies or organizations. If there is a hint of a dispute in this area, chances are your press release will be tossed aside, and never used. And you will lose your credibility.

If you follow those simple rules, you’ll be able to put together a newsworthy story that will help you achieve your goals of getting the word out about your business.

Scott Morris manages the site on world business news.

Tags: business analysis news, business news articles, global business news, world business news

Hoo boy, I am sticking my neck out here! Ready for the chopping
block I am – but it needs to be said and here it is:
“Marketers – wake up! Get back to basics and get original”

So what is this all about?

The other day I got an e-mail from a marketer: Intriguing subject line, but also a little disconcerting. “Leon, Don’t ever trust me again”. Wow, this is really thin ice stuff. I must say it really intrigued me. A powerful statement and unique. Methinks that this marketer had a lot of faith and kudos’ to him for a very original opening headline.

So what did I do? Of course I opened the mail and had a look!

Why did I open it? It was a mail from one of my trusted marketing acquaintances in the marketing world. It was from someone that has built credibility and trust with me over a period of time. And yes, the headline or subject hooked me – why should I now suddenly not trust this marketer?

Yes it worked

Now comes the crunch – why, o why must everyone copy – like
sheep, I tell you.

In the next 24 hours I received another bunch of mails with the
same heading/subject from other marketers! O dear me – how
un-original can you get – A flock of sheep following a leader!
My unsubscribe button worked overtime. It now was becoming an
irritation – not an attention grabber.

Come on marketers – it worked for the original creator of this
headline. It is a unique headline – like a signature, but for
the originator only. Not for copycat purposes.

What has happened to creative marketing? What has happened to
re-packaging? What has happened to original thinking? What has
happened to you, dear fellow marketers? I am using a specific
example of an e-mail in this article, but unfortunately it
happens all the time. I see this happening continuously – the
same marketing messages/headlines/subject coming through from different marketers. It is so obvious.

The originator of this created a great attention grabbing
headline/subject for the marketing e-mail. It also worked for
him because he had already built a trust relationship with his
customers. Because it was so unique, it stood out – like a
brand.

Other marketers that copied this – word for word I must add –
fell flat on their faces – it worked against them as it was
obvious that there was not even a hint of originality in their
thinking. By all means copy the method, even the manner,
but copying the exact words as well ?

So please marketers – be wary of what you copy. And when you copy someone’s message please check the spelling.

Please marketers – be original, be yourself, take a little time
to be creative – repackage the message to fit your style and
your list.

Please marketers – be aware that you have customers on the other
side and not just a list of names that needs to be fed
regurgitated copy.

Please marketers – stop copying and start marketing to your customers!

Leon Williams has been involved in corporate internet marketing for many years. He is passionate about the psychology behind web marketing and has now decided to live and work his dream by training entrepreneurs on the applied techniques of web marketing psychology.

Tags: copywriting, Marketing, marketing copy, marketing tools, original marketing, true marketing

These five indispensable tools will help you to compile, respond to, maintain, track and otherwise gain control of your marketing efforts online. All of them are even available for free or at a very minimal cost. While you might be able to function for an initial period without some of these, ultimately you’ll need them all if you’re going to grow an online business. The “fabulous five” essential online tools include:

1. An E-mail account

The first essential tool is an e-mail account capable of handling large quantities of mail, large attachments and file sizes. Most free e-mail accounts aren’t really suitable and many sites and group lists don’t accept them. Google has by-invitation-only e-mail accounts that house a stunning two gigabytes of storage. (gmail.google.com/) Hotmail now offers 250 megabytes of free e-mail storage which in itself isn’t too shabby either. There are so many others that just typing in “free e-mail” into a search engine will yield scores of sites including those from Netscape, Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, and Lycos among others.

2. An auto-responder

Initially, you also may be able to self-respond to the incoming messages to your e-mail account, but eventually, if your marketing campaign is working, you won’t be able to manage all your inquiry traffic without assistance. That’s where the auto-responder will come in handy. It will acknowledge incoming mails as they arrive with your pre-determined message, saving you, your business and your sanity. There are numerous good ones available at no cost online. Here are some for starters:

http://www.freeautobot.com/ allows to follow-up on e-mails. The program is free with no ads

Another free auto-responder is downloadable at: http://www.macurious.com/free/

A tutorial on auto-responders and auto-reply e-mail services as well as free software downloads is provided at: http://www.creatingonline.com/site_promotion/auto_responders.htm

A free autobot is available at: http://www.talewins.com/FREEbot.htm

http://www.webmasterfree.com/software/E-MailTools/E-mailNotification/free_auto_responder.html is yet another good free auto-responder downloadable from the web.

3. A List server

Another essential tool for managing your soon-to-come throngs of incoming inquiries, requests and orders is your list server. As you build your opt – in e-mail list of contacts you’ll need a way of sending messages to all of them at once. Announcements, promotions and special notices along with your normal touch-base e-mails will need to be sent out in a reliable manner. Maintaining customer contact is a marketing essential. Without some form of contact management database, you’ll be swimming “upstream against the flow” in the management of your past, present and potential clients. It’s all too easy to be overwhelmed. Later you may opt to install a contact management database like ACT! or Goldmine, but while you’re growing your online network a list server will do nicely. Have a look at these:

An overview of the principal list servers and their features as well as providing the download access pages for them is at:
http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/10825_1355051_1

http://www.lsoft.com/download/default.asp?item=overview

http://www.lyris.com/products/listmanager/

http://server.com/communityapps/maillistapp/ allows users to create their own internet newsletters in plain text or HTML, create mailing lists, RSS syndication feeds and is *free* to use.

4. A PDF compiler

If your products and services include distribution of e-booklets, e-reports, e-books or other online info-products, you’ll need to put many of them into pdf format. This format helps protect your documents from copying and other pilferage and is an accepted industry standard for online document and e-book distribution. Free pdf compiler software, with tutorials, is available online at these sites:

http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/ebooksoftware.htm

http://www.virtual-ebooks.com/compilers.htm

http://www.hsinlin.com/software/pdf.html

5. A website

Although it’s quite possible to market services and products online without the associated costs, programming and hassles of a website, ultimately it is an essential tool that is highly effective in showcasing your wares, whatever they may be. Aspects of getting and maintaining a website are too numerous to be addressed here. Information on free website hosting, templates and site management is only a few mouse clicks away. Free website hit counters, website templates and even no-cost hosting services for a website are at: http://members.freewebs.com/.

Here are more for comparison:

Free web hits counter
http://www.statcounter.com/free_hit_counter.html

Free web hits counter http://freelogs.com/

Free website templates http://freesitetemplates.com/

Free website templates http://www.freewebtemplates.com/

Free web site hosting and utilities are available from: http://www.bravenet.com/

Using these tools for building, maintaining, marketing and promoting online commerce at any level will be indispensable in marketing your products and services on the internet. This short list is certainly not to be considered all-inclusive. Whether you opt for these or other free or paid versions, you can use these five essential tools to boost your online presence and build your customer base. Hey, shouldn’t you be getting busy?

Larry M. Lynch is a writer and photographer specializing in business, travel, food and education-related writing in South America. His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News and Brazil magazines in print and online. As an expert author he can ghost-write original articles for your articles marketing campaign and content for your website, newsletter, blog or e-zine. His fees are $98 for 10 articles or $24 for 2 articles of 500 to 800 words each. Please e-mail him now with details of the website, newsletter or blog you’d like promoted and how many articles or content insertions you’d like at: pentagon_elsb@hotmail.com

Tags: free, internet marketing, internet tools, online essentials, tools