Tag Archives: pr marketing

How to increase brand awareness. Create an Event.

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Be sure the pr marketing strategies for your company includes promotional events. It can be an excellent media for building a company’s brand.

You can develop a local publicity event that can be as effective as a national campaign.

Our pr client, Extreme Karting, held their first promotional event at K-1 Speed in Irvine, California. It was an indoor racing go-karting event. The turnout was great and the fungo kart event promotion was at an all-time high. Drivers ranged from dad’s to son’s who participated. As usual, the younger group showed the dads their skills by outperforming them. The event gave an opportunity for new customers to experience go-karting while getting to know our pr client. This was a great pr marketing strategy that worked.

We completely handled the publicity with K-1, developed and created the special eMail invitation to the event, and coordinated the activity including taking photos. In addition to the promotional event, Extreme Karting has a shifter GP go-kart on display for all to see. The kart was set between a formula race car and an off-road race vehicle, making the display area more exciting. Potential customers took handouts from the go-kart display giving more branding exposure to Extreme Karting.k-1 speed indoor racing

Branding for Extreme Karting was lifted several more levels as many of that company’s customers and potential customers became familiar with the Extreme name and products. We are planning other promotional events as part of our overall pr marketing strategies for this year and next. We enjoy seeing our pr clients get results.

If your company needs to uplift its branding image, then it’s time to contact Carson Marketing Inc. Ask for George Carson. He can create a special event to make you smile from the results.

Web Sites. Build it and they will come!

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Everyone wants a successful web site. But if you build one without a pr marketing strategy plan that includes web marketing and optimization, they won’t come!

pr clients and pr marketing web sitesMany factors determine if a web site is search engine friendly. For example, optimizing meta tags, title pages, text in the body of the site (each page is important), the url, alt tags, among many other things.

If you are a pr client, or a B2B company in today’s competitive Internet business world, you should include social networks. These may include Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and many others.

A PR marketing strategy campaign for a web site should include inbound links, site submission to directories and search engines submission. If you want to outpace the competition, then social media and blogging need to be part of the overall media mix.

Ok, let’s get back to being “user friendly” and “search friendly”. Your site might look good, but is it designed for the crawling of search engines? Make sure you have the following:

1- Use text that is rich in content. Use the keywords and title that are in your source codes. Don’t have a home page that is an “only registered’ page without text.
2- Develop a domain name that says what you do. It is getting more difficult to create a domain name that isn’t already taken. But there are creative solutions to that problem. If you face this issue, give us a call. We can suggest alternate domains that will work for you.
3- Keep the site simple. A lot of content is ok, but if the site has too many pages deep to get to a specific area, then it will turn off customers, as well as SEO’s.
4- Design the site for users. Although SEO’s do not read images, or videos, you can still build a good site with these and have good content. A poorly created site is a sure way of not getting recognized by search engines as well as users.

Those are some of the basic rules to follow. Now all you need is traffic. Be sure to read many of our other tips and topics that can help you achieve your goal. Or contact us for a free, one-hour session on how to build a solid web site.

Core Branding with PR Marketing Strategies

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Few CEO’s, and presidents will admit that they get sidetracked when growing their company. This can cause negative branding as well as losses. Usually a weak pr marketing strategy or none is in place when this happens.

What is the answer? Keep the focus on your core products and services that are offered. As companies grow, they tend to diverse into other areas to expand their market reachPR Marketing Strategy or to increase profits. What happens typically, a company will either purchase smaller competitors or find “similar” products to market. If the strategy is to become more diversified within the company, then the direction the CEO and president had initially intended to grow the company, soon gets lost.

Having a strong pr marketing strategy is important. Connected with any pr marketing strategy is the branding of your company and/or the products you offer. A recent article in Brandweek illustrates this topic that discusses how Heinz made a turnaround to become more profitable. A man named Nelson Peltz had to re-direct the companies products and begin to focus on those that were the core to the company’s future. By increasing spending on marketing the company will gain the awareness to have a successful pr marketing strategy tied into higher profit core products. Peltz is known for his turnaround at Snapple, so he is both liked and hated by various leaders in the industry because he strategizes for what makes a company survive rather than be an executive with blinders.

We are in an age of branding. It is now more important to understand how to create a branding campaign along with a strong pr marketing strategy. Together these can be powerful when implemented correctly. If you need to increase your brand identity, then start now, not later. If you need help, give George Carson a call at Carson Marketing, Inc. You will be pleased with the results when you become one of his clients.

Publicity Strategy, or Real Marketing?

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Another “Publicity is Everywhere Series”

Starting a new business can be difficult and sometimes very challenging when you are in a “me-too” industry. What if you started a unique business and got a lot of free publicity. Was the business started because of a need, or because it could generate a lot of publicity? Let memarketing and publicity strategy tell you about a story that appeared in a recent issue of Inc magazine. Then you decide if it was a pr marketing strategy or a campaign for a business really needed.

The company is called SpotScout. What makes this business unique..it is an online company that helps find “Parking spots for drivers”. Yes, the company makes available what parking garages, private spaces, and on-street parking spots are available. The company, SpotScout focuses his business in congested markets such as New York City, Boston and San Francisco.

Publicity Strategy or Marketing?
Is this for real? According to the many agreements the company has, which is over a few hundred arrangements with commercial garages and even private spaces advertised by people offering their driveways or garage, it seems so. Now what do you think, is this a publicity stunt to draw attention to a possible new business venture, or someone wanting and finding a solution to congested parking?

No matter your thoughts, it is an excellent pr marketing strategy that is getting a lot of publicity. The company has been mentioned in publications such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Financial Times among many others.

Who knows, it may not be long before you start seeing signs above people’s cars when parked that read “Parking Spot For Sale/lease”. Do you get the feeling that our major cities are becoming so overcrowded that we are now looking to sell our parking spot? Maybe it is time to consider moving to the suburbs and take a train, or bus to get around in the metro cities.

PR Marketing Strategy– New or Old Idea?

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I saw an article in Brandweek, as well as in other major newspapers that pitched the greatness of Chrysler offering “Lifetime” warranty for their power train to their vehicles. This sounds great, doesn’t it? Or is this a PR Marketing Strategy or a PR Promotion so that the lagging manufacturer can show consumers they are building better cars than their competitors. Well, one thing for sure, why now after all these years and overnight, can a manufacturer offer such great products?

Actually it has been going on for years. This marketing campaign and ad campaign for this PR Client isn’t new in the auto industry. Several years ago, about 17, Ford Motor Company had a similar campaign. They would give a lifetime warranty to any part that was installed in your car. This was not with the new cars, it was for any used Ford vehicle you had a part repaired. For example, if you owned a 1968 Mustang, and the alternator had to be replaced, the dealer/manufacturer would install another one with a lifetime warranty for as long as YOU owned the car. If you had the car for 20 years and it went bad again, it would be replaced for free. The problem was that FordPR Marketing Strategy never did any serious marketing with this great concept. Then one day we were called. Our agency was chosen at that time to develop the creative and publicity for this division. We won the campaign against many of the nationally known agencies. After finalizing the TV and print campaign, we received the bad news.

After a few years of the division being quiet about this concept, Ford canceled the entire PR Marketing Strategyprogram. I wonder if those people who had bought parts during that time are still covered?

So did Chrysler come up with a brilliant idea? Maybe not, but at least they are trying to get the word out. It might not bring thousands of people to the showrooms, but it will build a better brand loyalty and brand awareness to the name. Creating a brand is one thing, keeping that brand awareness is an on-going task. You should never feel that your marketing campaign is safe without any branding included. Keep your company’s brand awareness high with a smart PR Marketing Campaign.

Social Media. Do You Know How To Do It Right?

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There is a lot of buzz around on how a company should embark on a social media campaign. Some pr marketing strategies have already proven poorly, while other pr marketing strategies are successful.

So what makes one pr client succeed and another falter? Do they need to spend more money? Do they need a blog site? Are they aware of their audience and what they want? It is knowing how to do it right! In a recent article by blogger BL Ochman, she gets right to the core of many issues that are causing serious problems for pr clients not knowing how to so social media.

Does anyone have the answers? Yes, everyone seems to, but who is right? As much as BL Ochman illustrates the right from wrongs in campaigns, you cannot completely know if it is going to work until you implement the marketing campaign. I do agree with her that if you haven’t been doing social media, and are using old pr marketing strategies, then you better hire a blogger or media specialist who understands the workings of social media. That sounds easy enough. But large companies like FORD proved that you could spend $60 million and still not get it right. They need to go outside of the ad agency. Go to the consumers who are blogging about them. Basically, they need a street-smart marketing program. Only through this type of research can any company survive the constant changes consumers experience everyday.

So are you doing it right? If not, look to someone who can direct you to a social media program that can make your company reach its goals.

Carson Chosen To Do Direct Mail Camapign For Senior Outreach

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Direct marketing should be more than mailing a letter, or postcard to perspective customers. We were recently chosen by the Senior Outreach Network (SON) to help them communicate their services to those reaching Medicare age. In this confusing society of medical terms and how to get the benefits, it is good to see that someone like the Senior Outreach Network is there to explain the process. Although the client is local, our publicity and marketing is not limited to Orange County.
senior outreach for medicare
Our PR Marketing Strategy is to create a mailer that is geared to the 65+ audiences. The creative marketing is not overdone, meaning that it does not loose the purpose of the mailer. It is creative in layout and uses images that quickly identify the message, and the words are chosen to be creative yet direct. That’s what direct mailers should be. Best of all, the mailers are personalized. These speak directly to the recipient, not “occupant”. We strategically include the name of the person throughout the mailer to make the reader feel and know we are interested in them. This form of using a personalized approach in direct mail marketing is becoming popular, but it is still not used correctly. We believe our smart creative and publicity will make things happen for our new client.

If you would like to discuss how to get creative and still hit your target with a pr marketing strategy that will generate results, call us today. It can be the most rewarding phone call you make this year.

Blogging and Marketing

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Many of you still do not see the power in blogging. It can be one of the best pr marketing strategies you can use. For businesses, it is the best source to get the word out as well as get your company’s web site rank higher. If you feel that there are too many blog sites, then yes, there are. But the fact still remains, blogging can enhance your image, and can get you listed higher with the search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

blog marketingMarketing is a very broad term. In some industries, it relates to tele-marketers, those who call us at the most annoying hours. But the true meaning of marketing is getting a product or service to customers. This can be Business to Business (B2B), or Business to Consumer (B2C).

If you are looking for information on marketing, then visit the different blogs that speak about all types of marketing, from pr marketing, to sales marketing to industrial marketing and so on. A good place to start when you want to learn more about marketing blogs is at Online Marketing Blog. You will find a list of over 350 on-line marketing blogs that cover most topics like search marketing, social media, and new media public relations. The list is updated weekly, so visit the site often.

When you want to do some search engine marketing, then you need to check out the Google Directory. A list of weblogs and Directories will pop up. Almost too many for the average person to view. These are just a few things I wanted to share with you to show that blogging is not going away, instead it is becoming a serious part of the business method of communicating today.