Tag Archives: publicity campaign

Newsletters Tips for Publicity

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Another great topic is newsletters. They are excellent communicators to keep potential pr clients and customers aware of the products and services offered.pr newsletters

It doesn’t matter if you are a national pr client, or local publicity Orange County agency, newsletters should be included in your web marketing campaign. Newsletters need to be on-going, just like any ad campaign, or publicity campaign. When you start a publicity newsletter for your pr client, or are doing one for your Publicity Orange County Agency, make sure someone is assigned to handle the task.

Writing Tips for Newsletters:

  • Tip for the month. No matter the industry, it is easy to develop at least a dozen tips to help pr clients or customers improve their business.
  • Have examples of how these tips have helped a pr client or how a publicity campaign has created awareness for your service or products.
  • Create a TO-DO list. Make a list of important things that will help a pr client during an interview, or how to prepare a press kit.

If you use your web site as the main vehicle for marketing the newsletter, be sure to capture some information about the company signing up for it. Most important, have someone follow up to the newsletter list every 6 months to make sure that contact is still at the company. Keeping your data current is as important as the information you write.

Tips To Getting More Web Traffic

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Get Visitors To trust You

Get more traffic and trustSounds like a great idea to get visitors to trust you and your company, right? Not as easy as you might think. But when you see the list to getting trust, you will think, "hey, I already know this stuff". If so, then why haven’t you incorporated that into your publicity campaign, your web site and all the means of communication you now do for your company.

Pr Clients, public relations specialists know and use trust in the campaigns they develop. Now it’s time you implement these tips. Before you toss out the "easy tips" make sure you add those you are not already using.

1– Do you have a phone and contact info on the web site?
Right, you already have that, but is it easy for customers to find the contact info?

2- If you are doing any consumer marketing, consider registering the site with BBB and TrustE.org. These are recognizable non-profit organizations that can give your company that seal of approval in customers eyes.

3- Is your ABOUT US page current? Not everyone thinks of updating their site, especially this page. It is the first place most potential customers will visit to learn about you.

4- Press Room. Make sure you write press releases and place them into your press room on the web site. This also means anything of importance like, new people in the company, or civic events that your company helps to sponsor, etc.

5- Offer Refunds, and guarantees. Most people may not use these even if someting isn’t what they want, but it gives your site credibility and that feeling of TRUST.

These are but a few tips to make your web site more trustworthy by customers. To learn how your site can get more consumer friendly, give us a call.

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Is It Publicity or Marketing?

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YouTube and Google

Google and YouTube purchase Google likes being in the news and takes a lot of chances. But that is one of their marketing strategies, to keep in front of the computer user public.

I have read many articles lately about the purchase of YouTube by Google. Some good, some are not.

One interesting viewpoint was by Bill Wise of Did-It, a search marketing agency.

He tells us that Google could have made a blunder in the $1.6 billion purchase. Bill gives three reasons for his theory:

  • YouTube is still young and in a market that has attracted a young audience and still hasn’t turned a profit
  • YouTube has only 65 employees compared to Google with 8,000 and MySpace with 300
  • Last is the legal issues that YouTube and Google are facing with copyright infringement

No matter your perspective, Google will win in the long run. It is possible that YouTube could be a short lived fad, or be taken over (in the market share) by Microsoft’s version (Soapbox), or other networks like CBS allowing downloads of shows and who knows, maybe videos. What Google is gaining is a lot of Publicity. You cannot pick up a publication, newspaper or watch TV, listen to radio without hearing something about this acquisition.

So the question remains, Is google creating a major publicity campaign around YouTube? If so, I think they will get back their investment just by the fact that many new people will now be attracted to YouTube and be exposed to the advertisers that Google hopes to reap the profits from. I’m also sure that Google learned it’s lesson with the failure of the ad venture, GooglePrint. Maybe they can apply the right marketing with this new venture.

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Rolodex of Reporters

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Keep an updated list of the reporters

reporters and editorsEvery time you write a press release for you pr clients, you need to make sure you already have a media list formulated. A mistake is to send each release to every media on your Rolodex listing. That doesn’t help get your company or pr client noticed.

By targeting specific writers or reporters with your press releases, or articles can better improve your chances to get published. If you are doing your own publicity in-house, then be sure that your database of reporters is current. Media people move around a lot and having a current roster of names that match the media is good practice, and it will reduce embarrassing follow-ups.

It is worth your time to categorize a reporter’s list for each client. Even if your publicity firm specializes in a specific market, you will soon learn that certain media will become more familiar with an account or company. That can work in your favor. Knowing reporters, writers, or any media on that level can further a relationship with the press.

These tips may seem common sense, and I hope that you are using them. But the reality is, as common sense goes, we tend to ignore these tips and soon become unknown with the press because of little things like keeping your database of reporters current.

If you feel that your list may not be current, then contact a outside company, even another pr firm, to help with the launch of the publicity campaign. Then begin working on your list.

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Web Site Blogging

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Keep a daily blog and publicity will increase

If you are interested in getting more visible, then you need to add a blog site to your publicity campaign. It is true that most anyone in your company can probably write the blogs on a daily basis, but it is the use of the correct wording and use of keywords that make a business blog productive.

Not everyone can write a short novel, or a radio commercial, or a sales brochure. Each of these examples requires a different writing talent. A publicity pro can write successful press releases and articles for publication, but they might not be a good copywriter for brochures or ads.

But a good publicity writer can adapt easily to writing blogs than an advertising copywriter. Why? The reason is simple. Publicity writers are not writing text for people to buy, but rather to act upon. Therefore, their style is more informative in their writing. That’s what blogs (for business) are about. Getting the information in front of readers who will react more to a blog than an ad.

Knowing how to write a blog is only one aspect of a good blog site. Now you need to know how to use the site to gain traffic and visibility. This requires learning how to make links, use photos and inserting keywords into your text and in what order. Once you begin using blogs, it will open more opportunities for your company, or your pr clients.

So I again recommend that pr clients, publicity firms look into the serious positive effects that blog sites can offer.

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Publicity and Email

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One is a series

Email marketing isn’t new, but how we use this tool for marketing, shows that it is now making positive advances in using email for publicity. To make any publicity campaign successful you need to make sure that all your options of marketing tools and resources are in place. This is not saying to use email to contact reporters, editors or the media. That should be part of your normal activity.

A Study Reveals Reasons To Use Email Marketing
There is a lot of discussion about how email has helped different companies gain recognition and increase sales. Not through spamming, but through controlled distribution. Several new studies show that a majority (out of 259 companies surveyed), 93% use email to reach consumers. This and other studies are important to pr professionals, because it clearly indicates how people rely on email and how they are thinking and how they can be reached.

If you have a pr client and they want to gain awareness, then it is your responsibility to examine the options of email marketing. The study I read, called "Email Goes Viral" shows the marketing tactics of manufacturing companies will increase their spending on email marketing, direct sales and even publicity. As much as a 42% increase on publicity alone! Another Internet activity is Webinars, a 35% increase for next year.

Publicity Agencies and PR Professional Need To Act Now
This should give reason for publicity firms to act upon and use other marketing sources like email. As I have said many times, publicity needs to interact with the IT departments and Marketing departments of a company in order to develop successful campaigns.

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Make Your Web Site Visitor Friendly

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Some call it Microcontent

What good is having a strong publicity campaign if your web site is poorly designed, or difficult to navigate.

Even a good publicity professional can do only so much to generate traffic to a pr clients web site. It is then up to your business web site to make customers feel good about the product or service.

What makes your site better than your competitor’s?
Several things. It can be the graphics, the text, the images, and the ease of navigation, among other things.

For this lesson, I want to discuss the content of the site. One writer, Ann Wylie, has an article that explains the "Microcontent" of a web site. Basically she divides the topic into several sections:

  • What is Microcontent and what it includes

  • Why it is important

Ann gives some good advice on what to do, and not do when building the content. When you use these tips, it will be helpful to your existing customers, potential customers, and above all, the media will praise it. Editors and writers will find things easily. This will bring a positive view because the good content will be easily understood.

In the article, advice includes these areas that are needed for Microcontent, such as:

  • Page Titles
  • Navigation Bars
  • Headlines
  • Subheads
  • Highlighted Text
  • and many other sections

A good example of why illustrates when you do a “search, find and save” and it is now in your bookmark. Then when you want to go back a few days or weeks later, the bookmark reads “Welcome to XYZ Corporation”, or “Untitled Page”. I’m sure you experienced this and clicked several bookmarks before finding the site you were looking for. And if you are like me, you can’t find it quickly, and decide to do another search.

So think about making your site more pleasing to visitors. It is good publicity for you and your company.

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How To Get More Exposure Without Increasing The Budget

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Publicity and Media Buying

We all know that publicity can generate good sales, and most of all establish a positive image/branding.

So why do so many advertisers, primarily the big companies, spend thousands on wasted media. Wasted media? Let me explain my definition of wasted media money.

We all know the publication industry makes money from its advertising. And the most costly ad placements within publications are the back cover, inside covers and specified placement.

Take this test. Pick one of your favorite magazines. It doesn’t matter what industry, the example will apply. Turn the first page. See the inside cover? It is probably facing another full-page ad, right? Or the ad is a spread. Now turn the page again. Another full-page ad, with another facing ad!

This can go on for 5 to 6 pages, or more until you get to the contents page. Now imagine, these advertisers all paid a premium to be in the front, especially the company that bought the inside cover.

Most consumers open the magazine to find the table of contents to see what interesting articles to read. So as you open the magazine, you skip all those colorful ads, and spreads. The winner is the advertiser who bought the placement next to or across the contents page.

The other smart media buyers are those who bought space next to articles, or within an article.

Imagine, if the company that paid a premium would have bought the space next to an article and put the savings into the publicity campaign, the results would be greater all around!

I’m probably going to get hate mail from publishers, but the reality is that the inside covers no longer get viewer ship or create leads as they did 20 years ago. In my book, it is money wasted. Spend more with the publicity and see the positive results.

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Getting More Out Of Your Camapign

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Mass media and Online Media


When you take advantage of the tools you have for publicity and marketing you can extend the life of a pr campaign a lot longer. This in turn will get you more publicity for pr clients and increase your product or service awareness.

How do you integrate the two?

One example is to make use of the print or TV campaign and integrate that into your web site. For example, Hardee’s, a known hamburger chain that is owned and operated by Carl’s Jr., made use of a clever TV campaign.

They, Hardee’s, is known for very large, monster burgers. This particular ad focused on their new Philly Cheese Steak ThickBurger. The web site home page was the platform of their new commercial. The commercial could be uploaded to an iPod, added to a MySpace.com page or sent to a friend. Hardee’s invited customers to comment on the TV spot.

This gets their customers involved with the product and gets the word out at the same time. Hardee’s had an email sign up form to become part of their loyalty marketing program, which has benefits.

This is one company that understands integration of publicity, web marketing and reaching mass media. They are one of the few to make this work for them. Other companies shy away from their publicity departments and marketing departments. Keeping them separate. This can only slow your process to gain favorable publicity.

Learn how to make use of these media. It can only help promote your company further.

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What’s New In Marketing?

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PR needs to watch this new media


We are in a fast moving world that sees changes on a daily basis. Once we learn of a new technology, or a new media like blogging, we are quickly discovering another media. This time it is "Viral Marketing’.

As usual this new form has been embraced and popular among young web people. It is the video content that anyone with a cheap video camera and some editing equipment, will post onto a web site. This is not just a fad. Tens of thousands of videos are already in the ultimate Short Attention Span Theatre. These will range from the bizarre of car crashes and Jackass-like stunts to musical performances by classic rockers.

In a business environment, there is gold at the end for them. For example, you are already seeing how this new media is creeping into our homes by the TV commercials from MasterCard. I am sure you noticed their new TV spots that invite consumers to fill-in the blanks on their "Priceless" campaign.

There will soon be more high profile companies using this approach in their ad campaigns.

Another popular viral video that has become one of the hottest is YouTube, based in San Mateo, CA. Last April the YouTube had averaged 6.6 million unique viewers a month. That shows you the power this phenomenon is having. Several other exisit like iFilm. Just type the words into Google and see what comes up.

How does this relate to publicity and your public relations campaign? Well, if you do this right, you can probably get some great publicity for your pr client, or your own company by doing something unique using viral video. I suggest doing something that is legal, otherwise the publicity you get from the press and other media will not be what you hoped for.

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