Often, all you need to attract a few new clients is the opportunity to speak to a group of qualified prospects at a seminar. Here are seven quick, cheap and easy steps:STEP #1: Create a seminar on the problem you can solve for clients. For example: How to love the body you’re in. How to be organise and stay organised. How to reduce the pain and expense of divorce. How to find the love of your life in no time. How to make more money doing what you love. Choose a subject that will appeal to the new clients you want to attract.STEP #2: Get a flier prepared to promote the seminar. On the flier, display the title, explain the various points or problems you will discuss, add your photo and include your biography. Include a space for the time, date and place of your program.STEP #3: Get a co-sponsor for your seminar. If your seminar is business oriented, you might ask the local chamber of commerce to co-sponsor it. Or a local network group. If it is consumer oriented, ask a local newspaper or TV station to co-sponsor it. All way choose a co-sponsor based on the size of the audience they reach, how many of your ideal clients are in that audience, and how willing they are to promote your seminar to their audience, membership or mailing list. (This can save you a tremendous amount of money in promotion costs, including printing and postage.)STEP #4: Promote your seminar to your co-sponsor’s audience. Provide them with a flier about your program. Given them the whole information about your seminar makes things easy. If you rely on them to create the flier, it will probably contain nothing more than the title, time, date and place. But if you provide it, you can go into great detail about the information you will present and the problems you can help prospects solve. The more you explain about your program’s content, the more prospects you can expect to attend.STEP #5: Promote your seminar with newspaper publicity. Contact your local daily newspaper or business paper (depending on the nature of your seminar). Announce that you’re presenting a seminar. Discuss the problem your seminar will address and emphasize how many people in your area are affected by this problem. You can even ask the editor to interview you for an article to help alert the community to this problem and your upcoming seminar. You’re in a stronger position when you approach the editor in writing with a letter discussing your seminar and what you will present. Give the editor at least six weeks’ advance notice of your program.As an alternative -- if you can’t get advance promotion from a particular media outlet -- invite the editor to send a reporter to your seminar who can write an article about it for the newspaper. I’ve seen editors put articles about my clients’ seminars on the newspaper’s front page. This article won’t help seminar attendance because it won’t appear until after your seminar. Still, it makes a powerful reprint and may bring you new clients.STEP #6: Promote your seminar with direct mail to your past clients, current clients, prospects and referral sources. I have used this method successfully. Many people on your mailing list may want to learn about your subject. Also, they may have friends and colleagues they can invite to attend with them.STEP #7: Present your seminar, addressing the subjects you outlined on your seminar flier. Discuss clients you have helped in the past so prospects see you have experience in these matters. Share actual case histories of what happens when prospects make good decisions, and what happens when they make bad decisions. Then offer something your prospects will find attractive, such as a free office consultation, free telephone consultation, free report, a free manuscript, audio, e-zine or whatever you wish.In all likelihood, if you reach qualified prospects, you will get new clients as a result of this educational seminar.
@2006 Joyce Oladipo
Online entrepreneur Joyce Oladipo, “Client Attraction Maven,” is creator of the winning ‘Attractive Marketing E-zine’ to Jumpstart Your Business offline and online. To learn to Attract More New Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, Without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at www.ClientAttractionStrategies.com
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
10 Big Benefits Of A Busy Business Blog (And How To take Advantage)
The blog; what can be said that hasn’t been said before? In all truth, very little, but there is still a seeming lack of businesses willing to take up the “challenge” of running their own blog. Those that have done so often report their findings and invariably they are positive reviews of both the blogging process and the results of their business blog. In a bid to hammer the point home we’ve compiled a list of ten advantages to establishing and maintaining a business blog.It is important to note the word “busy” in the title of this article. It isn’t there simply because it begins with a B and lends itself perfectly to the alliteration in the title. It’s meant to outline the fact that a blog is at its finest when it is regularly filled with quality content. A blog with no content is just a template.1 - Quick And EasyTwo words that every business owner and manager loves. A blog is simple to set up even for the technologically challenged. There exist a number of free blogging services, and while these aren’t ideal for a business blog they do offer a way to start. Setting up a blog is not like setting up a website. In the worst case scenario you will need to install a software application on your website and tinker with a few settings.2 - Inexpensive SetupThe only word more popular than quick and easy is inexpensive. To integrate a blog into the page of your site costs very little money, especially as somebody within your organization can usually do it. Even outsourcing the task will cost only a couple of hundred dollars. Remember that a blog could become one of the most powerful marketing weapons you have in your arsenal and consider that a couple of hundred dollars might just pay a salesperson for one day’s work.3 - Provides Easy Access To Company NewsA business blog can be written in one of numerous styles, or a combination of these. One huge benefit is the ability to inform your customers of any changes, new products, latest offers, and much more. This, in turn, can lead to direct sales. People love to frequent blogs and pass their time reading the same ones on a regular basis. Captivate your audience with compelling content and you will receive a growing list of market leads. Remember that individual blog readers generally prefer a personable style but if your operation is a business-to-business one then you will need to vary your style accordingly.Typically, companies have used newsletter and e-newsletters to offer this kind of regular contact with their customers and potential customers. Using a blog is easier and it can be updated much more regularly than when offering a weekly or monthly newsletter.4 - Search Engine FriendlySearch engine optimization is a particularly beneficial form of online marketing. It can be used to gain search engine traffic for given keywords or search terms. Your blog offers the opportunity to promote your website for hundreds or even thousands of different keywords. Search engines particularly like promoting blogs because they offer a large amount of content that is updated and added to on a regular basis.5 - Appear AccessibleIt doesn’t matter whether you are not, but you and your company will appear to be more accessible especially if you allow freedom for all your visitors to post comments. Accessibility is often a stumbling block for many potential customers that still prefer to deal with companies offline. A blog makes you more approachable and so alleviates this concern.
Read full article at thewebmarketingblog.com On thewebmarketingblog.com
Read full article at thewebmarketingblog.com On thewebmarketingblog.com
Sunday, December 17, 2006
3 Key Internet Business Start-Up Ideas - Without a Website
A great deal of money has been made by online entrepreneurs who have implemented these 3 highly successful business models that can help you create income online without having to invest a single a cent in website design, hosting, optimizing or website maintenance. 1. Affiliate Marketing This is how to set yourself up as an affiliate marketer 1. Becoming an Affiliate Firstly you need to sign up as an affiliate with individual companies or affiliate networks that represent several companies. These affiliate networks usually have a wide range of products and services to choose from and offer everything from e-books to networking products to sell. They also administer your account in such a way as to provide you with up to date earning and traffic statistics. 2. Get Products and Services to Sell Next you need to identify the products or companies whose products you would like to promote. You can do this by either choosing the most popular, hottest selling products or the ones that you have an interest in or are knowledgeable about. 3. Selling and Marketing Once you've got your unique affiliate link, which you'll get from the affiliate network, for each product that you want to sell you need to start getting it all over the internet. This link can then be promoted by, 1. advertising it One of the most effective and most popular advertising models involves you setting up a Google Adwords account You then purchase pay-per-click keywords on which determine when, where and how often your Google Adsense ads appear all over the internet. Your affiliate tracking code will be embedded in the Adsense link which will send buyers directly to the affiliate merchant. You will then earn commission on each sale made. This is the best way of getting massive targetted traffic to the merchant's site where your prospects will hopefully make a purchase. However, whilst you may be generating traffic don't forget that each click your ad gets costs you money and if you are spending more on Adwords advertising than you are generating in commission you will be out of pocket soon. 2. having it included in someone else’s website 3. using it in an e-mail newsletter - direct marketing 2. Start Selling on eBay eBay is the hottest e-commerce site on the web today, and for good reason... * More than 2 million people visit eBay.com every single day, spending an average of two hours navigating through eBay's pages and listings * More than $1,000 in sales happen on eBay every single second * 72% of eBay users have incomes in excess of $50,000 per year--so they come ready to spend! And while those listings will cost you only pennies to place on eBay's pages, you gain immediate access to millions of buyers who are looking for items just like yours. 3. Start Selling on Purpose Built Websites One of the easiest ways of setting up an online business is to buy into a ready made store front that will be populated with thousands of digital products and services all embedded with your unique affiliate tracking code So everytime a purchase is made from your site you are credited with the commission. So there you have it, employ one or all three methods to launch a legitimate and sustainable online business.
About The Author
Mark Bellinger, a university graduate, is a successful businessman and entrepreneur exploring legitimate and lucrative internet opportunities, ways to make money on the internet and how to generate income online without a website.
About The Author
Mark Bellinger, a university graduate, is a successful businessman and entrepreneur exploring legitimate and lucrative internet opportunities, ways to make money on the internet and how to generate income online without a website.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Get Your Website to Profit With the Best Affiliate Programs Available
The Internet is one of the most frequently used tools for communication today. There are over millions of people who log on to the Internet every single day. Besides, with the benefits that the Internet gives, who would not want to be a part of this information superhighway. With the Internet, you can communicate with your family and friends through emails and instant messengers, you can purchase goods and services without leaving your own home, and the Internet is one of the most promising income generating tools that everyone can use today. In the past, you needed products or services in order to make money through the Internet. Today however, you can make money through the Internet by using affiliate programs. This program will allow you to make a substantial amount of money out of your website and is a very good home business that you would want to get in to. First of all, you need to know what an affiliate program is and how it works in order to fully understand how you can make some money out of it. Affiliate programs is like a joint venture where you or your website becomes a partner with another website that have already developed a product or service that they are already selling in the Internet. As a partner, your job is to direct the visitors of your website to your partner website and hope that they will purchase the products or services being offered. Your website will be like the company's marketing arm, among several. The company you plan on being affiliated to will be providing all the necessary tools that you need in order to start the affiliate program. They will be providing the links, and some companies will provide free e-books on how you can effectively earn from affiliate programs. The best way to profit from your website through affiliate programs is by promoting your website in the Internet. The key to success in affiliate programs is targeted traffic. This is why you should think of a product or service that you would want to promote and also a product or service that you are knowledgeable about. Think about your hobby. For example, if you like fixing cars, you want an affiliate program that promotes cars, or car parts. In your website, you will then discuss about your hobby. Make some articles and post it in article publishing websites and also in your own site. Since your affiliate program is selling cars or car parts or even car accessories, the traffic you generate in your website will have a greater chance of clicking the link or banner of your affiliate website and buy from that website. You will then earn a commission out of the sold product. As you can see, it is very simple to earn money from affiliate programs. However, when you are just starting out in the business of affiliate programs, you have to work hard to establish your reputation as an expert in the product or service you are promoting. The best way to do this is publish your articles about a particular product frequently. This will build your reputation in the Internet and soon, you will get that targeted traffic you have been always wanting. It is also a good idea to update your website once in a while (once a week) with tips and tricks on a particular product. The best thing about affiliate programs is that you do not have to be in front of your computer 24 hours a day 7 days a week. All you need is a few minutes of checking up in your website and also check out your earnings in your affiliate programs. Always remember to update your website frequently in order to keep your readers and keep them buying from your affiliate website.
About The Author
Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter & marketing consultant. He is a protégé of Dan Lok, the World’s #1 Website Conversion Expert, & in Steven’s totally biased opinion simply THE BEST. You will find the latest internet marketing techniques & tricks at: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com.
About The Author
Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter & marketing consultant. He is a protégé of Dan Lok, the World’s #1 Website Conversion Expert, & in Steven’s totally biased opinion simply THE BEST. You will find the latest internet marketing techniques & tricks at: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com.
9 Steps to Follow When Working From Home
Working at home can seem like the ideal situation - no commuting hassles, more time to spend with the family, the freedom to set your own work hours. However, combining your home and office environments presents many special challenges. If you want to make working at home work for you, you need to understand those challenges and meet them head on.
1. Choose the right business. Not every business can be run successfully from home. Consider the appropriateness of your business as a home based business. A business that involves large machinery, lots of inventory, frequent truck deliveries and pickups, or lots of foot traffic from customers or associates is definitely not a good candidate.
2. Be professional. Contrary to the popular stereotype of home based entrepreneurs being able to "work in their pajamas", you must be businesslike and project a professional image if you want to be seen as running a legitimate business. Keep regular office hours, get business stationery printed up, have a business phone and voice mail or message system, and keep your office neat, organized, and attractive.
3. Optimize your work space. Don't make do with a makeshift work space. Locate your office in an area of your home that can be dedicated to business activities and affords you some privacy. Choose a space as far as possible from street noise and other distractions. Invest in functional furniture and the right equipment and set up your home office in a way that lets you be comfortable, productive, and organized.
4. Minimize distractions and interruptions. Staying focused is hard enough without the additional distraction of friends calling, neighbors dropping by, and children clamoring for attention. Screen your phone calls and filter your emails. Let your friends and relatives know what your work hours are and explain that during those hours you'll be at home working.
5. Plan your work and work your plan. Use a "to do list" every day with the tasks you need to accomplish in order of decreasing priority. At the end of the day check your progress, and put any unfinished tasks at the beginning of the next day's list.
6. Set goals and evaluate your progress. Setting goals and tracking your progress toward them will give direction to your efforts and keep you moving forward. Set both long-term and short-term goals that are realistic given your resources and that produce measurable results, then reward yourself every time you reach one of your goals.
7. Separate your home and work lives. Keep your work life separate from your home life as much as possible, both physically and emotionally. Keep your work space off limits to household members and ask them to respect your work hours by not interrupting you unless absolutely necessary. If you have kids who aren't old enough to amuse themselves while you work, hire a sitter to keep them occupied while you concentrate on work.
8. Keep your balance. Don't let work dominate every aspect of your life. Commit to a "quitting time" and stick to it unless a real emergency arises. Take a break and devote some time to your hobbies, getting together with friends, a change of scenery, getting some exercise, or just doing nothing. You'll come back to your work refreshed and stave off burnout.
9. Get some help. Don't feel you have to do everything yourself. As your business grows, use some of the profits to hire help. Outsource, streamline, or automate where you can and hire an assistant (or a "virtual assistant") to help you if the work load has become more than you can reasonably manage.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Randy Greer is a webmaster who authors articles and his website is geared for people who are interested in finding an online legitimate work at home opportunity or starting a Home Based Business http://www.workplacehomebiz.com
1. Choose the right business. Not every business can be run successfully from home. Consider the appropriateness of your business as a home based business. A business that involves large machinery, lots of inventory, frequent truck deliveries and pickups, or lots of foot traffic from customers or associates is definitely not a good candidate.
2. Be professional. Contrary to the popular stereotype of home based entrepreneurs being able to "work in their pajamas", you must be businesslike and project a professional image if you want to be seen as running a legitimate business. Keep regular office hours, get business stationery printed up, have a business phone and voice mail or message system, and keep your office neat, organized, and attractive.
3. Optimize your work space. Don't make do with a makeshift work space. Locate your office in an area of your home that can be dedicated to business activities and affords you some privacy. Choose a space as far as possible from street noise and other distractions. Invest in functional furniture and the right equipment and set up your home office in a way that lets you be comfortable, productive, and organized.
4. Minimize distractions and interruptions. Staying focused is hard enough without the additional distraction of friends calling, neighbors dropping by, and children clamoring for attention. Screen your phone calls and filter your emails. Let your friends and relatives know what your work hours are and explain that during those hours you'll be at home working.
5. Plan your work and work your plan. Use a "to do list" every day with the tasks you need to accomplish in order of decreasing priority. At the end of the day check your progress, and put any unfinished tasks at the beginning of the next day's list.
6. Set goals and evaluate your progress. Setting goals and tracking your progress toward them will give direction to your efforts and keep you moving forward. Set both long-term and short-term goals that are realistic given your resources and that produce measurable results, then reward yourself every time you reach one of your goals.
7. Separate your home and work lives. Keep your work life separate from your home life as much as possible, both physically and emotionally. Keep your work space off limits to household members and ask them to respect your work hours by not interrupting you unless absolutely necessary. If you have kids who aren't old enough to amuse themselves while you work, hire a sitter to keep them occupied while you concentrate on work.
8. Keep your balance. Don't let work dominate every aspect of your life. Commit to a "quitting time" and stick to it unless a real emergency arises. Take a break and devote some time to your hobbies, getting together with friends, a change of scenery, getting some exercise, or just doing nothing. You'll come back to your work refreshed and stave off burnout.
9. Get some help. Don't feel you have to do everything yourself. As your business grows, use some of the profits to hire help. Outsource, streamline, or automate where you can and hire an assistant (or a "virtual assistant") to help you if the work load has become more than you can reasonably manage.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Randy Greer is a webmaster who authors articles and his website is geared for people who are interested in finding an online legitimate work at home opportunity or starting a Home Based Business http://www.workplacehomebiz.com
Friday, December 15, 2006
Advantages Of Commercial Advertising
It is an age of advertisement. The word advertisement is used as a business term in transactional contexts. The word 'Propaganda' is used in the context of ideological propagation. Publicity is a combination of advertisement and propaganda. Commercial advertisement has become the order of the day.
Without advertising, we cannot boost up any business or give impetus to any commercial product. Commerical products find their markets only through advertisements. Advertisement is the spinal chord of popularising the demand of a product. If we wish to strengthen our economy, we should enliven the art of commercial advertisement which is necessary for creating national as well as international markets for our products.
Advertisement is an art and if this art is adopted in a really creative manner, it can produce desired results. There must be some produce suspense in an advertisement. Only suspense can attract but mere suspense is not enough. It should have some sustance in it. The media of radio, television and newspapers are the main factors behind a commercial advertisement. Different items of consumption are brought home to the people through commercial advertisement. Whether it is a medicine, a dress, a book, a property, an institution of education or finances and so on, everything for its survival and growth depends on commercial advertisement.
Selling and buying are the two activities on which depends the vitality of a market. Only commercial advertisement can enliven and resuscitate these activities. It is the commercial advertising which can make the unknown known to the people and then, they start buying the unknown which soon becomes known-rather well-known. Thus demand is created and supply starts.
Without advertising, we cannot boost up any business or give impetus to any commercial product. Commerical products find their markets only through advertisements. Advertisement is the spinal chord of popularising the demand of a product. If we wish to strengthen our economy, we should enliven the art of commercial advertisement which is necessary for creating national as well as international markets for our products.
Advertisement is an art and if this art is adopted in a really creative manner, it can produce desired results. There must be some produce suspense in an advertisement. Only suspense can attract but mere suspense is not enough. It should have some sustance in it. The media of radio, television and newspapers are the main factors behind a commercial advertisement. Different items of consumption are brought home to the people through commercial advertisement. Whether it is a medicine, a dress, a book, a property, an institution of education or finances and so on, everything for its survival and growth depends on commercial advertisement.
Selling and buying are the two activities on which depends the vitality of a market. Only commercial advertisement can enliven and resuscitate these activities. It is the commercial advertising which can make the unknown known to the people and then, they start buying the unknown which soon becomes known-rather well-known. Thus demand is created and supply starts.
Measuring The Success Of Web Advertising
Once you have started an online advertising program, you need to find out if it is really working. There is no point in spending money on advertising that does not work for your business. This article discusses some ways to find out if the web advertising method you have chosen is performing as you planned.
PPC Analysis; Pay per click Analysis is one of the best ways to find out if your PPC advertising campaign is working. It tracks the performance of PPC ads and has many advantages.
PPC analysis tracks the volume of sales and the revenue generated by the advertising. PPC advertising analysis tracks the conversion value of and conversion rate of advertisements. PPC shows which keywords are performing best and help you weed out non-performing keywords.
Keyword Analysis; Keyword analysis tells you a lot about your web advertising campaign.
You can track the keywords that generated the most sales. You can find out how many people visited your website by typing particular keywords into search engines. You can find out revenue earned using the keywords and the cash value of those keywords.
Trend Analysis; Trend analysis looks at the overall performance of sales, conversion rates, and visitors to your site. It gives you an overall picture of how your site is performing.
Advantages of Trend Analysis; Trend analysis has the following advantages when it comes to measuring the success of web advertising.
You get a visual representation of how your website is performing. You identify trends related to the performance of your website and strengthen weak points of your web-advertising program.
Measuring Success of Web Advertising: Parameters Certain key indicators tell you how successful or unsuccessful your website advertising program is.
Search engine rankings and submission Click-through rates Monthly traffic: Includes number of visitors, page views, unique visitors, search phrases, and entrance and exit pages. Number of sales
Importance of Measuring the Success of Web Advertising; It is very important that you know how successful your web advertising campaign is. This helps you in the following ways:
Understanding keyword dynamics: which keywords get the most visitors to your website and which keywords get the desired amount of sales. Getting an idea of the products customers are interested in. Fine-tuning your search engine optimization techniques. Helping with merchandizing and production. Seeing how popular your brand name is.
It is not advisable to just put the web advertising process in motion and sit back. You have to continually monitor the performance of the web advertisements and see if they are giving the desired results. Measuring the performance of website advertising helps you see where the campaign is falling short and rectify problems associated with those shortcomings. If you need to know more about tracking the performance of your web-advertising program, you can hire a business advisor who will guide you on the various aspects of a successful website-advertising campaign.
Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.
Business Owners all across the country are joining "The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.
PPC Analysis; Pay per click Analysis is one of the best ways to find out if your PPC advertising campaign is working. It tracks the performance of PPC ads and has many advantages.
PPC analysis tracks the volume of sales and the revenue generated by the advertising. PPC advertising analysis tracks the conversion value of and conversion rate of advertisements. PPC shows which keywords are performing best and help you weed out non-performing keywords.
Keyword Analysis; Keyword analysis tells you a lot about your web advertising campaign.
You can track the keywords that generated the most sales. You can find out how many people visited your website by typing particular keywords into search engines. You can find out revenue earned using the keywords and the cash value of those keywords.
Trend Analysis; Trend analysis looks at the overall performance of sales, conversion rates, and visitors to your site. It gives you an overall picture of how your site is performing.
Advantages of Trend Analysis; Trend analysis has the following advantages when it comes to measuring the success of web advertising.
You get a visual representation of how your website is performing. You identify trends related to the performance of your website and strengthen weak points of your web-advertising program.
Measuring Success of Web Advertising: Parameters Certain key indicators tell you how successful or unsuccessful your website advertising program is.
Search engine rankings and submission Click-through rates Monthly traffic: Includes number of visitors, page views, unique visitors, search phrases, and entrance and exit pages. Number of sales
Importance of Measuring the Success of Web Advertising; It is very important that you know how successful your web advertising campaign is. This helps you in the following ways:
Understanding keyword dynamics: which keywords get the most visitors to your website and which keywords get the desired amount of sales. Getting an idea of the products customers are interested in. Fine-tuning your search engine optimization techniques. Helping with merchandizing and production. Seeing how popular your brand name is.
It is not advisable to just put the web advertising process in motion and sit back. You have to continually monitor the performance of the web advertisements and see if they are giving the desired results. Measuring the performance of website advertising helps you see where the campaign is falling short and rectify problems associated with those shortcomings. If you need to know more about tracking the performance of your web-advertising program, you can hire a business advisor who will guide you on the various aspects of a successful website-advertising campaign.
Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.
Business Owners all across the country are joining "The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
3 Simple Steps to Getting Thousands in Free Advertising
3 Simple Steps to Getting Thousands in Free Advertising: Many entrepreneurs believe that they understand what public relations is, but very few do. Publicity and public relations can be used to boost your business by thousands of dollars a week or kill it; the trouble is using it to your advantage.
I'm going to cover a few of the basics for getting good publicity and why you need to do them. If you do, you can be assured that you will be increasing your business at a rapid speed. Publicity, if used correctly, can be many times more valuable than advertising, and best of all, it's free.
1. Always be honest- when you are talking with a journalist, either through email or the phone, you must always be honest. Journalists have a sort of BS detector and can see what is truthful, what is hype and what is outright lies. If your new, they'll probably excuse some hype for the first time but they will never forgive you if you outright lie to them.
2. Know what is news - if you are launching a new web page about your cats, that is not news. Honestly, no one cares. I really shouldn't be saying this, but you would be amazed at the number of people who put out news releases on subjects that no one in their right mind would consider news. However, many entrepreneurs don't realize when they are sitting on a publicity goldmine. For example, if a celebrity is a happy user of your product, if your company is putting out an interesting or unusual product or service or your company has come up with an extremely innovative product, then you probably have some news on your hands!
3. Know whom to target- when you are releasing a new hairdryer that increases efficiency by 40%, you can call the product sections of the news organizations near you. however, you would be ill advised to call an organization that has nothing to do with your products, "cat monthly", for example. "pr spam" is a much-feared problem for journalists and pr practitioners alike. My rule is that you can send a release to a journalist you don't know if you believe that it is very well targeted. I'm not like a few people who believe that you need their express permission; simply by being journalists and posting their information, they are inviting news. However, this being said, don't spam them.
Try to keep these rules in mind the next time you are looking to get some major publicity to skyrocket your business. Keep to common sense and use old fashioned networking, and you too will be sitting on a publicity goldmine!
I'm going to cover a few of the basics for getting good publicity and why you need to do them. If you do, you can be assured that you will be increasing your business at a rapid speed. Publicity, if used correctly, can be many times more valuable than advertising, and best of all, it's free.
1. Always be honest- when you are talking with a journalist, either through email or the phone, you must always be honest. Journalists have a sort of BS detector and can see what is truthful, what is hype and what is outright lies. If your new, they'll probably excuse some hype for the first time but they will never forgive you if you outright lie to them.
2. Know what is news - if you are launching a new web page about your cats, that is not news. Honestly, no one cares. I really shouldn't be saying this, but you would be amazed at the number of people who put out news releases on subjects that no one in their right mind would consider news. However, many entrepreneurs don't realize when they are sitting on a publicity goldmine. For example, if a celebrity is a happy user of your product, if your company is putting out an interesting or unusual product or service or your company has come up with an extremely innovative product, then you probably have some news on your hands!
3. Know whom to target- when you are releasing a new hairdryer that increases efficiency by 40%, you can call the product sections of the news organizations near you. however, you would be ill advised to call an organization that has nothing to do with your products, "cat monthly", for example. "pr spam" is a much-feared problem for journalists and pr practitioners alike. My rule is that you can send a release to a journalist you don't know if you believe that it is very well targeted. I'm not like a few people who believe that you need their express permission; simply by being journalists and posting their information, they are inviting news. However, this being said, don't spam them.
Try to keep these rules in mind the next time you are looking to get some major publicity to skyrocket your business. Keep to common sense and use old fashioned networking, and you too will be sitting on a publicity goldmine!
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