Category Archives: Publicity Orange County

How to submit your website to Search Engines

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Before submitting your local or national web site to the search engines, make sure it is properly optimized, has all the meta tag keywords, and titles. The second important part, make sure the site is graphically appealing, not cluttered, or the SEO’s will just pass you by. The last thing, is the site map. Your web site should have a site map, it is how the SEO’s crawl sites. It’s all about knowing how to use web marketing.

Just like a well planned publicity campaign, your well-designed web site needs to be submitted to get the site ranked by the SEO’s, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Whether you are a local Orange County web marketing strategycompany, or a national company, the submission process is basically the same. Here are a few tips to consider:

1- Submit your site after it is complete. Too many times a pr client, or web designers want to submit the site even if you have a couple of pages that are still in construction, or are not completed. This will hurt your rankings.

2- Hand Submission is best. If you hire a local web marketing company or have your  local publicity agency do the submission, make sure it is not done with software.

3- Beware of promises by web companies. If someone promises you top rankings…buyer beware. Check them out, make sure the company can produce what they claim.

4- Use keywords, phrases that relate to your location. It is good practice to include in tyour title page, or in the body text that tells where your company rsided. Although your company may do business nationally, local web marketing will further the exposure and your chances of being ranked higher with the SEO’s.

Doing the submission to all the search engines and directories is a long process. And you should only submit to about 5 SEO’s per week. Doing a blast will trigger red flags to the “bots” and cause your site to be overlooked. In the long run, using a professional web marketing company will assure your site is properly submitted, and optimized.

New Google Tool Can Improve Your Publicity Campaign

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Every marketer, and publicity professional wants to keep update with the newest tools to help their pr clients, whether being a local publicity client in Orange County, to a national pr client, get the best publicity campaign available. Well, another new tool from Google can help. It is not a submission for releases, but instead it is a tool that helps find errors called crawl errors on a pr clients web site.

You’re probably saying how does this help with improving a publicity campaign? Well, it does. An article by Jason lee Miller gives a good example about “Google Helps Find Missing Links“. missing and broken web linksOk, maybe not directly if you are a publicity professional. But this gives you the opportunity to work with the IT staff, or the webmaster. Why? Because if a web site has broken links, the SEO’s, like Google, Yahoo will punish your site. This can cause you to fall many pages back on a listing, even loose a listing altogether.

By knowing about this web tool, it makes any pr professional smarter knowing how the web works. Because if you post your pr clients press releases on the web site and the site gets poor ranking (due to broken links) then it is time and money wasted. This is even more true when visitors or media visit the site. Broken links are not liked by anyone, especially anyone in the media– editors, reporters, etc.

Protect your pr clients publicity by including this into your pr marketing strategy. It can only improve your relationship with clients. And in this touch economy, loosing a client can be very costly. If you need help with your web site, then give George Carson a call at Carson Marketing, Inc. (949) 477-9400.

Mainstream Media Embraces Bloggers

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It may have taken more time for the mainstream media to learn that blogging and the people behind the words are here to stay. The impact this social group has is proven its staying power this week when the LA Times article titled “Newspapers, bloggers now engage on same page”. Even though this is in a Publicity Orange County section of the paper, it is nationwide.

Why has this old form of communication (newspapers) changed their outlook? My guess, they see the writing on the blogblogging and media wall. Whether it is local orange county media, or local publicity in orange county, newspaper editors, reporters all over are noticing their shrinking market. They also see that these amateurs are getting a lot more reading attention than their own bylines. But let’s not get too crazy with the papers embracing the bloggers. It is all attached to a financial reason.

If you read the LA Times article, you will see the story addresses the Washington Post has added a sponsored blog roll to its website, a directory of links to blogs that specialize in travel, technology and health, plus more. So as you see, it just took time for these money hungry papers to discover how they can get more revenue from their shrinking profits doing dailies, weeklies. To prove this point, the article mentions Caroline Little, chief executive at Washington Post Newsweek Interactive. She said most ad buyers don’t want to take the time to buy space on dozens of blog sites, and since their staff stories are not plentiful, they turned to blog rolls. This just means they don’t loose the dollars to other competitive bloggers, etc.

This proves again, if your pr marketing strategy, or pr agency isn’t including a blog site for your company, then it is time to re-think how to communicate. No, it doesn’t mean you stop your normal means of pr communicating that is now working, just means to enhance it with a blog program. Blogging is not a side job, nor a part-time assignment. To get noticed, you need to keep this activity daily. You need to have the RSS feeds, and all the optimization to your blog site in order to get noticed, ranked high and compete. Get into a blogging campaign now. Contact Carson Marketing, call George Carson for help. He can get your company noticed in the right places. Or if you wait, he may just be helping your competitors who will pass your by.

Social Media keeps growing. Learn how to reach target markets.

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Social media is not a fad. It keeps growing and now savvy marketers can target specific age groups and genders.social networks

If you are a local pr client that does Publicity locally in Orange County, or a national company, marketers can now reach their target age customers with social media. It used to be restricted to the younger teens and those who were in college. Sites like MySpace and Facebook were the main arteries to this limited age audience. But now there are many new social media sites that are catering to various age groups. Such as “www.econs.com”. It isn’t surprising that this site was established, because it reaches the 50+ age who are very internet savvy.

According to a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project, they estimate over 70 percent of Americans aged 50 to 64 use the web. And econs.com is one of the sites they frequent most often.

If your pr marketing strategy is to target the generation between Baby Boomers and Generation X (born in the mid-50s to mid-60s) then check out BOOMj.com. This social networking site will get your pr campaign noticed with them.

Another new site called lavalife.com is a narrow niche targeting women in the mature age of 45 and up. This is still a beta site, but as you can see, social networking is expanding. It is helping local companies like those in Orange County, or New York City, to specifically reach a selected audience. To get more niche, other sites are popping up. These include SisterWoman.com, and CafeMom.com. The later is identified with moms raising kids while SisterWoman is a social network for women to chat and connect with girlfriends.

Make sure your pr marketing strategy plan includes these social networks as well as a solid blogging campaign. This is another way to increase the branding awareness and build a solid branding company. To get your pr marketing plan on target, give Carson Marketing Inc a call.

How to increase business with a referral program

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This publicity program should not be restricted to local areas, such as Orange County.

Sometimes pr clients, advertising agencies, and publicity firms are too busy developing campaigns to lure new customers than using the resources at hand. The best new business approach is to establish a strong referral program.

If you have a multi-million dollar advertising and pr budget, then this inexpensive program may not be of interest to you. On the other hand, if you are a wise, local Orange County Publicity agency, or a pr client, or a national company that seeks other methods of generating additional customers, then listen up.

referral program, increase businessFirst let me tell you that I am not the only person who uses referral programs, nor am I the only person who enjoys telling others how to create one. You will find many other business people and consultants who do this as well. One particular person who has broken down the referral program is Daryl Logullo. His concentrates on building strategies for business people needing to develop strong referral programs. Mr. Logullo created these three key concepts for redirecting any local orange county publicity company to a national software company’s marketing efforts.

1- Ensure that your existing clients understand the full scope of your services. If you company provides several different services, or products, but certain clients only know a handful of them, you need to let those pr clients experience the other services/products. To do this, you need to have the pr clients recognize that you can improve their lives/business when they understand all that you offer.

2- Discuss the subject of growth with your pr clients. Most of the time we tend to be shy about expressing to clients about our advancing. In reality, pr clients are like anyone else. They would appreciate knowing you are positive and optimistic about expanding your company. And more than often, they become thrilled to know you are sharing your growth plans and requesting their help.

3- Reward referral-generating behavior. When you acknowledge and reward a person for a referral, it is more appreciated. But beware to not only reward a pr client when the new lead becomes an active customer. It should be done even at the early stages of giving you a name to contact.

These are just a few tips to consider when implementing a referral program. Now you can see that referrals should not be restricted to local areas such as Orange County, or publicity in Orange County, but it can be in any market that you can provide the services to customers.

How To Get Local Publicity

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The goals for any pr client is to get local publicity first, then get as much pr attention as you can later. Why is that important? Because without achieving local recognition, you allow any competitor to take control of your back yard. So what are the secrets to getting local publicity? For example, if you are a pr client in Orange County, you want to begin by getting involved with community programs, or local events.local publication newspaper Orange County

If you are working with a local publicity agency, such as CarsonPR, or one of our divisions (Carson and Company or Carson Marketing, Inc.), make sure you notify the pr agency of any activities, events, community programs that your company becomes involved in. In turn, think about getting more visible by lecturing at different events, or sponsoring small programs, such as the YMCA.

Other ideas to get noticed are: Press releases. These are always a good suggestion. When your company hires an executive person, or contracts with a new client, or moves to different offices, it is always newsworthy. It might not get complete publishing in all the local newspapers, or local magazines, but your name becomes familiar with the media. The next step is to hold a press conference. This isn’t as easy, but when you have something of value to your industry, or the community, get the press to know about it. Another great publicity method to get noticed is to submit articles. These can be company related. In other words, don’t sell yourself or the company, but write an article about the industry you are in and provide information, or suggestions on how to improve that industry. Publishers, editors like these types of articles. It attracts readers to their media, and you might just become an expert in you market that the media will turn to for information.

There are many other easy publicity techniques to get noticed. If you still need more suggestions, give us a call. We’ll be pleased to show you how to get your publicity campaign noticed locally, then nationally.

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.

Create A Direct Mail Campaign That People Will Notice

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Direct mail is a very competitive. And if you are selling a service, a direct mail campaign needs to stand out and be compelling. You can do traditional mailings using a fancy postcard, or a letter. That is one way, but it will get lost with all the other mailers. If you hire a publicity agency in Orange County, or find a national publicity agency, you might get some very creative shop that wants to develop a mail campaign with a gimmick. For example if you are a financial advisor the public relations agency might mail a small baseball bat in a box with a clever headline that reads “We Hit Home Runs For Our Clients”, or “How NOT to strike out in Retirement”. Although these concepts might win awards at a banquet for publicity Orange County agencies, it isn’t going to bring customers to the client.

You might even try some publicity techniques. Get articles or press releases written about the unique direct mail campaign. But are these really going to get you customers? Maybe, but it isn’t going to make you stand out. So what will? And how do you create a campaign that gets results?

email videosThere are several things you can do. One for example is to send prospects and current customers an email video. Yes, a video. This is just one example of being creative in a different and less costly venture than mailing the baseball bat.

I am not against direct mail campaigns. They should be part of your overall campaign. When you include a video with your mail campaign, you now have set your company apart from the masses. Plus, you will have a different perspective by the viewer. No longer do you need to rely on that single sheet to tell your story, but you can tell it on video.

Just remember to keep it short. These are sales tools, not feature films. Your potential customer will watch the video, if short, and will listen if the information is both entertaining and factual. Here are some sites to learn more about sending email videos: Image Mind, if you use Outlook 2003 try this link, Google has a list of many email video companies to consider.

If all else fails, give us a call. We’re here to make great things happen for your company.

Re-Branding for an old Name in Snack Foods

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Building a brand takes a well planned and coordinated effort by the publicity agency, the pr clients and in most cases the marketing department who develops the pr marketing strategies. But when you need to re-establish a name, that can become a different challenge.

branding with pr marketing strategiesRecently we were contracted to help market the Laura Scudder’s brand. Many of you may not remember this name, but it was one of the best known brands in Snack Foods during the early 50’s through the mid 70’s. Although the original company started in the late 1920’s, it wasn’t really popular until the early 50’s. If you are a PR client who was in business during that era, or publicity agency in Orange County during the 60’s or 70’s then you know the name.

In order to re-build back the name recognition, we began with the logo. Keeping the scrip style type is important. The style that is used today is a modification of what was used in the late 80’s. The publicity it garnered over the years was positive, so it was decided to continue with that font. The images will now include many of the “past” illustrations, such as the Mayflower sailing ship, which was used during the 60’s. Other designs will also be picked up from the era past.

No matter the product, re-branding a name requires the same tactics as it would when building a new brand. The only advantage, the name Laura Scudder’s had a position in the marketplace, we just need to re-ignite that name and image through a publicity effort. The literature we created for the newer items, such as the dry dip mixes capitalized on the freshness and the original illustrations from the packages.

As we progress further with the branding of the Laura Scudder’s name, I’ll keep you posted with the pr marketing strategies and creative we use.

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.