MarketingMoment

I was critiquing a client’s press release the other day. Nothing unusual in that. While it was in essence a good base for a successful PR campaign, the release itself was full of “This is why I am so good” details about the author of the piece. Nothing unusual in that, either . . . unfortunately.

You see, a news release should NEVER be used as an opportunity to toot your own horn or blatantly sell products. Rather, it should be about the reporter. Her audience and their needs, to be precise. And it should read like news, not an ad.

Your release should provide newsworthy fodder that is important or valuable in some way, so that it makes the publication’s editor think, “This looks exactly the sort of thing my readers should know about.”

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I’ve been asked by many to put together a few publicity packages that will offer year-round publicity ideas, support and mentoring without the HUGELY steep prices associated with the typical PR agency. 

So I thought, “Why not?” I’ve worked with companies as large as NEC on their big-budget campaigns, as well as entrepreneurs on a one-to-one, more-down-to-earth-budget basis. So why not package that expertise? Especially if it will help small businesses and entrepreneurs leverage the most from F.R.E.E. publicity.

As a special offer to all my clients and CfS subscribers, I am happy to deduct 10% from all the prices you see at this new page:

www.mediaminister.co.uk/PRservices.htm

BUT . . . only until 12.01pm on 9 September.

To take advantage of this offer, email the word “publicity” and your details to me before D Day.

(NB: I will never sell, rent, trade or share your email address with anyone. Plus, I will ONLY email you regarding this offer, unless you tell me otherwise, of course!) 

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You may have heard that “direct mail is dead.” Especially in the world of Web 2.0. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Quick statistic: According to Target Marketing’s survey on direct response, 34% of respondents said direct mail delivers the healthiest ROI for customer acquisition. (Email came in at a respectable 24%.)

Does that mean that YOU should use direct mail as a client acquisition marketing method? Not necessarily. 

• If you don’t yet have a product or defined service or indeed anything to promote, then direct mail is unlikely to benefit you right now. 
• It’s certainly not right for you if you don’t have a defined target audience.
• If you think of spending £10–£20 on postage as an expense, rather than an investment, then direct mail is not for you.
• If you want to develop a strong referral campaign, then direct mail might prove to be very beneficial.
• If you’re launching a new publication, then direct mail can be the springboard to its success.
• If you’re thinking of reaching your customers because your emails keep bouncing, then direct mail is likely to work for you.
• If you can see the benefit of combining offline promotion with online advertising, then direct mail will be right up your street. 

To get the most out of your direct mail campaign, I’d certainly suggest reading the works of David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and Claude Hopkins. Many of their books will be available at your local library. You can borrow and review them without spending a penny.

Another way to gain F.R.E.E. insight into the aspects of success in direct-response marketing and other strong marketing performers is to sign up to receive my newsletter Communiqué for Success!

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Holding a competition is a great marketing tool, giving you:

• brand recognition
• positioning in the marketplace
• goodwill in the community
• publicity
• the ability to fish for product name ideas
• leads
• new customers and/or sales

It needn’t be complicated or costly to set up, either.

If you’re looking to build your customer base, then a simple ’send-in-and-win’ tear-off reply coupon is sufficient. You can do the same via email (”Send the answer to the following question to contest@yourdomain.com”). 

You can also get ideas for a new product or service. For example one of my colleagues is giving away $1,000 (approx £550) for the person to come up with the best title for his forthcoming book. This is all being done via social media. 

If you’re a life coach with a local client base, you can ask your clients and prospects to choose their best restaurant, doctor, supermarket checkout assistant, bus driver, milkman or postman and give away six months of coaching to the winner. 

If you’re a gardener, hold a “name that tree” competition, and then donate a tree or two to the local park in both your names. You can do the same if you’re a carpenter, only donate a bench instead… 

The ideas are endless. You just need to get a bit creative. 

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I heard on the news (BBC) this morning that supermarkets are spending more on advertising and less on branding, in an attempt to lure shoppers and defeat the credit-crunch fallout.

Does this mean that you should follow suit?

Advertising – whether it’s advertising in magazines, newspapers, the trade press or online – CAN be yield a good return on business. But it’s generally more appropriate for larger brands with the advertising budget to match their size.

That said, advertising DOES work, and it can work for you . . . providing you advertise the right things to the right people in the right places and in the right way.  

If you do wish to dip your toe in the advertising arena, then I would suggest spending your budget very carefully to ensure you receive maximum returns for your expenditure.  

My step-by-step, lead-generation system High-Powered Ads that Generate Sales reveals where to place your ad – and where NOT to advertise – as well as how to triple the results of ANY ad you write . . . guaranteed! For more information, point your browser to: http://mediaminister.co.uk/products.htm#HPA 

But back to the question of whether you should ditch your branding efforts. I think not. Branding is crucial to any business – at any time and regardless of the state of the economy.

It can reinforce your image so that you stay in your existing customers mind, as well as grab the curiosity of potential new customers. 

Central to effective branding is the concept of consistency. No matter what you do, you absolutely MUST be consistent with your core marketing message. That’s because you want your business image and brand to be easily recognisable, and you want your prospects to conclude that your company is a confident, credible and stable one.

To really strengthen your brand image, as well as being consistent, you should be educating your potential customers about WHY they should buy your product or service (no one likes to be sold, right?). The use of case studies and testimonials is a great way to achieve this. You’ll find plenty of other ideas in posts here on MarketingMoment.

So what about you? How are you educating your customers to increase sales?

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Perfect for testing an idea before making a commitment, a mini or condensed version of the standard marketing plan can prove valuable in a number of ways. Not least to analyse the year before, review where you are now and focus on what you wish to achieve over the next six months.

Start by heading over to this handy page where you can download a variety of one-page marketing plan templates – F.R.E.E. of charge.

By putting it in writing, you will identify tactics and strategies to help you with your business goals. 

Psssst . . . Not sure where to start? As well as offering worksheets and home-study tools, I can give you profit-multiplying advice and pointers on things you can do straight away to attract new business with my Powerfully Effective Marketing sessions.  

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If you read copy written by someone other than a copywriter, chances are it will scream Features! Features! Features! OK, features are a very good thing indeed and, yes, readers do need to know about them. But not all of them. And NOT right up front. 

Instead, you need to do what every good copywriter 
MUST do in order to educate or make the sale: turn features into benefits, and put those benefits at the beginning of your copy. 

These benefits must be tied into your readers’ desires, needs and wants. So, when you solve your readers’ problems, they’ll go looking for the features — meaning they WILLl bother to read the rest of your marketing message. 

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The lead article in the latest issue of MediaMinister’s Communiqué for Success reveals that far from being the kind of lovely lady who rejoices in handing out cough drops while sipping chamomile tea, Aunty AIDA is more akin to Checkpoint Charlie in character.

AIDA is in fact one of the most useful formulas for keeping your creative thinking on tap. And it has the potential to substitute flagging sales with a roaring trade . . . BUT only if you pay attention.

To read the full article and gain hidden links to recent CfS newsletter editions, you’ll have to become a subscriber. As well as being FREE, you’ll receive a business-building report and audio CD simply for signing up and trying it out. 

Subscribe here.

Recent CfS newsletter issues cover:

• The Most Important Action You Can Take For Your Business This Year 

• Recession-Proof Your Business
• Stand Apart From ‘Me-Too’ Competitors 
• Stop! Don’t Post that Letter!
• Common Mistakes that Can Kill Business
• When Push Comes to Shove
• How to Bolster Trust on Your Website 
• Just How Believable Are You? 

Subscribe here. 

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“Brace yourselves: We’re heading for a recession…” says one paper. “We’ve never had it so good,” says another.

While pundits argue (and confuse us) about whether there is an official ‘recession’ on the horizon – or not – what matters to those of us who are self-employed is how are we supposed to survive the very real credit crunch ‘fallout’.  

Some solopreneurs and SMEs are cutting costs where they can. Unfortunately, this happens to be in the very area where no one interested in staying in business can ill afford to ‘downsize’: marketing.

Experts agree that now is NOT the time to wind down your marketing spend. On the contrary, you’d be wise to up the spend. For investment in marketing now will help shield against any future revenue losses.

As the study Turning Adversity into Advantage: Does Proactive Marketing During a Recession Pay Off?, shows organisations that a) value marketing, b) feature a corporate culture that rewards risk-taking, and c) are willing to up the ante on marketing efforts are those who come out on top.

“The firms that had all three characteristics did very well in a recession. But firms that are missing any one of them, they’re in trouble,” says As Dr Gary Lilien, one of the report’s authors. 

It’s true that when times are tough competitors often fall by the wayside. Any steps you can take to enhance your efforts to find new customers/clients, and to turn existing ones into loyal long-term buyers of your goods/services will help you come of any recession [whether real or imagined] really, really well.

So do yourself a favour: Be bold and rejuvenate your marketing. You’ll thank yourself in the long run – regardless of whether or not we slide into a full-scale recession.  

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A readers asks:

Question: “Would you mind answering a quick question for me?  I received an email from XXXXXX (name removed for client confidentiality) earlier this week that they’ve developed a sample media release that members are free to modify and distribute to local media.  My question is, if I was to distribute this via email what do I put in the subject line and covering email?  Do I just say ‘Subject: For immediate release’ and in the email ‘Please find attached a press announcement for immediate release.’ Basically, what’s the code of conduct when sending these things?
 
Not sure if that’s turned out to be a quick question or not so I appreciate your comments.”

Answer: When you send a release via email put the actual heading or title of the release in the subject line. You can also add the fact that it’s a release, like this: “[news release] MediaMinister launches new service for the busy exec.”

Don’t bother putting “For immediate release” – that’s an antiquated tradition that doesn’t mean much. If it isn’t intended for immediate release, you’d say so. Hopefully!

Also, and this is a biggie, do NOT attach any attachment. Instead, simply copy and paste your release into the body of the email. (That said, it might be better to turn off HTML and send your email as a standard ‘text’ message, which could mean that the formatting/line spacing may need to be tweaked).

At the top of your message you might want to state that you have pictures (if true!) and whether the release available as a PDF or Word document. And ask editors to to get back to you should they want either of these or have any questions.

Immediately below this insert an obvious break in – like a solid line, or dotted – and then put line release.
Be sure to put the media contact (whomever will deal with press release enquiries) for editors, and of course their contact details. You’d be surprised how many people omit this vital information.

Hope this helps.

• For specific ideas on tailoring a news release to your business, and how to develop a PR campaign that can help you generate masses of free publicity, for less than the price of dinner, see:

http://freepublicitymadeeasy.mediaminister.co.uk

FREE CONSULTING ALERT: Got a burning question you want answered? Pop it in the ‘comments’ box and I’ll see what I can do. 

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