13
Jul
2010
Use Press Releases To Give You Visibility In Your Local Business News
To become more visible in your local business news, you must become consistent in releasing timely press releases. A press release is basically a news story striving to get media attention for a company. It focuses on such things as a specific event, product launch, or company update.
Your first press release (also known as a news release) should introduce your business locally (or to the world, depending on your product or service). Write a release as if you’re a reporter who’s doing an interview with a business owner.
A press release should not come off sounding like an advertisement. It should be more of a news-style story. This is what will make it appealing to the media.
If you’re not confident in your abilities to write a release there are services available that can do a professional job for you. They can also submit it for you.
Another challenge for some is trying to come up with ideas for continuing press releases. Here are a few tips that may help you with this thought process:
-It can be used to educate readers about something unusual or new about a product, service or technique in your local market. The more unique, the better your chances are of gaining wide distribution in your local business news.
-Relate your product or service to a time of celebration such as a holiday or famous birthday, etc. Local events taking place in your area are something you can become involved with.
-You can write it as a form of entertainment. If something humorous happens at your company, or a customer has a funny story to share, this can make for interesting reading. You can even offer discounts or gift certificates to people who participate in your “fun” contests.
-Similar to educating is “informing”. A release, for example, can be used to provide readers with news updates about technology or new procedures within your industry. Readers are always interested in electronics, software, or items of self improvement.
-Tie it into volunteerism. You can get involved with business volunteering in many ways. Once you gain insight, experience and information about whatever charity you assist, you can write about it in an informing way.
Write about what you’ve learned concerning the disease or cause. Use the voices of others for more perspective.
-Give away stuff! Draw people to either your place of business or your website by giving away promotional items (shirts, hats, knick-knacks), e-books with great information, or actual products. Denny’s annual super bowl promotion gives away a free breakfast each year which draws huge media coverage.
You can build a deep customer list this way by asking for email addresses in return for the free stuff. This allows you to now follow up with email advertising and information campaigns, giving you additional exposure to your customers.
Using press releases to become more visible in your local business news serves at least two great purposes. You not only take advantage of free advertising, but you are communicating valuable information to your customers.
If you enjoyed this article by Jeff Schuman about press releases for local business news please visit our Links local business website:
today. We help small business owners use the internet to grow their business in their local market. http://www.LocalBusinessGroup.com
________________________________________
________________________________________
8
Apr
2010
Local Business Companies Should Utilize The Internet For Their Benefit More Often
Local business companies sometimes get complacent with their marketing strategies and ignore using the internet. What they fail to realize is that the local demographic can change and with that change comes a new or different attitude of the consumer.
If local businesses aren’t taking advantage of the internet for advertising purposes they will miss out on some business. And if they aren’t keeping up with modern technology they can also quickly fall behind their competition. These are common mistakes often made by small business owners.
I’ve seen companies that have obviously invested more and placed a higher importance on technology than they did on their people. And I’ve been in businesses that have wonderful people working there but are clueless about modern technology.
It’s like many things in life: it’s often best to be somewhere in the middle than too far left or too far right. As a small business today, you must have great employees and keep up with beneficial technology.
Keeping up with modern technology can be confusing though. Trying to figure out what computer systems and software are most beneficial, in addition to a phone system best suited for your needs, can be overwhelming.
Perhaps the biggest area of improvement many small business can make is in utilizing their online website to better promote their business. The internet can be a tremendous ally of yours if used correctly. Here are a few examples of internet mistakes commonly made by local business companies:
-Putting up a website and then not managing it. It has to be more than an online brochure. It’s used most effectively for two-way communication.
-Substituting a blog for a website. Any business owner serious about their business won’t allow an “online journal” to take the place of an actual website.
-Not tracking traffic to the site. Not collecting information about who is visiting your site could be the difference between experiencing huge growth and failing.
-Not taking advantage of search engine optimization. Successful online businesses understand this, but many traditional brick and mortar business are losing customers left and right because they don’t.
-Not using a professional email at your domain. Once you’ve registered your URL, you need to begin using the email address for that domain for all business purposes.
-Focusing too much on the website’s design and not enough on the content. The more relevant pages of content you have the better the site will perform despite its design. Don’t get me wrong, a nice professional-looking site is important but your time and money should be spent on the content.
Local business companies must take advantage of today’s technology in order for their business to not only compete, but to also survive. A strong focus should be placed on how you can utilize your website to grow your business.
If you enjoyed this article by Jeff Schuman on local business companies and the internet please visit our local business website today. Learn how you can use local business marketing to rank highly on search engines and get more traffic to your small business website.
________________________________________
25
Mar
2010
Sending Online Coupons Increases Sales And Promotes Your Local Business Information
An effective way to promote your local business information and also increase sales at the same time is to include coupons with an email marketing campaign. Those receiving the promotional emails are more likely to open them when discounts for products or services are involved.
A recent survey by Experian discovered that when marketing emails also included a coupon there was a higher transaction-to-click rate than those without. The results were the same whether the full list received the email or if only a segmented group received it.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s important for all small local businesses to understand the importance of having an auto-responder and some type of opt-in subscription form on their website. Once in place, business can be more efficient and effective with sending marketing emails.
With most consumers now thinking of ways to save money, businesses need to be keenly aware of the importance of offering deals. Those that understand this and meet those demands will be more successful than those businesses that underestimate the importance of doing so.
In fact, Experian has also found that 66 percent of United States households now use coupons. It’s important for businesses to send out coupons via email because there’s an increase of nearly 50 percent of people using coupons from that source since 2007.
The value of email coupons is that they increase interaction or participation of the readers and can be seen in these statistics: marketing emails including coupons are opened approximately 25 percent of the time compared to only about 17 percent if they don’t include them. When coupons were redeemed online, there was a 17 percent higher click-through rate.
There are some best practices that local businesses should consider when planning an email marketing campaign that includes coupons:
- Make sure the offers you send out match the type of list you’re targeting.
- To find out what gives you the highest return, test your coupon amount and frequency.
- To make your coupon recipient feel special, use the words “exclusive” or “selected” on the coupon.
- To create an urgency to “react now” to the offer, mention a time frame or specific date that it must be used by.
- To aid in inventory clearance, time your coupons to your business cycles and offer deep discounts on products nearing a season’s end.
- Add a link to the email that gives the recipient the opportunity to “share with a friend” or “tell your group”, etc.
Coupons can be a real win-win for everyone. Customers get the deal they’re looking for and you get extra sales while clearing out inventory, and a chance to promote your local business information.
If you found this article informative by Jeff Schuman about local business information and emailing coupons please visit our local business website today. Learn how you can use local business marketing to rank highly on search engines and get more traffic to your small business website.
________________________________________