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
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16
Jun
2010
Adhere To These Press Release Tips For Local Business Promotion
A well-written professional press release should be designed to gain excellent exposure for local businesses. A press release will announce a business, their products, and news-related information of interest to the media and consumers.
It must be written in a journalistic style rather than a marketing style, so as not to come across as an advertisement.
There are specific guidelines to follow when writing and placing press releases. By adhering to these press release tips, you increase your chances of being seen and picked up by more outlets. It can also improve search engine optimization.
The headline for a press release is very important. To encourage the readers, it must grab their attention quickly.
It needs to be short, but descriptive. It should be limited to 12 words or under. Send yourself an email with the headline as the subject. If you can’t read the entire headline in your in box without having to open it, it’s probably too long.
The headline should only summarize the main part of the story, so it doesn’t need lots of detail. Your main goal is to get the readers to open and read the rest of the press release.
It also needs to be accurate and relevant to what the article is about. Stay away from writing clever-type headlines. Those should be mainly used by newspapers; press releases should steer clear of them.
Finally, keep the font the same style as your text (Times New Roman is the most accepted and professional) but use a bigger font size. Your press release text should be a size 12 with the headline either a 14 or 16.
Your hook needs to be in the first paragraph. Summarizing the five W’s is a good guideline to follow. Who and What is it about? Why would the reader find this important? Where and When does it happen?
By answering these you will be able to hook the reader easier. Many readers will not proceed through the rest of the story if the hook isn’t sufficiently planted.
By placing the most important information at the top of the article, you take advantage of a journalistic tip and “trick”. This is a rule of journalism that is tried and true.
The reason? If the readers don’t take the time to read the entire press release, you want to make sure they at least read the necessary information. The most prominent or consequential material should not be held until the end of the article.
Readers like to see stories of local business promotion. It gives them a sense of pride. Local businesses need to be aware of that and should strive to distribute press releases often and whenever they have information that will appeal to local consumers. Hopefully these press release tips will encourage them to do so.
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If you enjoyed this article by Terry Schuman about press releases, please visit our website today. We help local businesses increase their online presence and provide press release writer services to small local businesses in addition to many other local business marketing services. http://www.localbusinessgroup.com
6
Jun
2010
Did You Purchase Another Internet Marketing Info Product Today?
Info products on Internet marketing are to me what shoes are to my wife. Even though my hard drive is loaded with products I purchased with good intentions, I probably will buy another one today or at the very least sometime this week.
Some people would say that my hard drive is where Internet marketing information products go to die. How about you, when the last time you bought an Internet marketing info product?
There was a time when I first started early in my Internet marketing career that some of the best investments I made were in quality education products. I bought the “Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business On The Internet” for $175 back about eight years ago. To this day they are still sitting on my shelf and I have read those many times.
However in reality many things that I purchase I never get to. Today you can buy so many different ebooks and reports for virtually nothing that it is tempting not to grab them with the idea that I will get to it.
I’d like to offer you a couple of valuable pieces of advice when it comes to purchasing info products online.
1. Do you have anything similar to it that you have recently purchased? If you do have you read it?
There really is no sense purchasing more of something you have not gotten to yet. Read what you have first before buying anything new.
2. Do you really need it? It really is tempting to purchase PLR products that come with an unbelievable amount of bonuses attached to them.
I can not tell you how many times I’ve purchased something like this with the idea that I will use the PLR product to make money quick. What usually happens is I do not ever get around to using it, and the bonuses go untouched as well.
It certainly is important to stay educated on new trends in the marketplace if you are in the business of making money online. However you need to be cautious you are not just buying recycled information that savvy Internet marketers pushing.
For example, there is nothing wrong with purchasing reports or ebooks on hot trends in social media. I have read several recently on Twitter that have helped me increased my number of followers.
On the flip side if you already have info on doing that then purchasing another ebook on building a list is probably a waste of money. Plus you can generally find all kinds of good tips in article directories and discussion forums.
I would hope that before you purchases another Internet marketing info product you would step back adn look at whether you really need it. You also should determine exactly how you are going to use it to help you make money online!
Jeff Schuman is the owner of Team-Schuman.com and a local business membership site. He helps internet marketers and small business owners grow using the internet.
15
Apr
2010
An Online Local Business Forum Is Effective For Word Of Mouth Advertising
One of the most effective types of advertising since the first-ever business has been Word of Mouth advertising. Now with the addition of social media sites, an online local business forum is not only more effective, but creates very affordable advertising.
If businesses utilize their forums correctly they can initiate and direct the conversations in a very positive way. The readers and forum participants are those that spread the word, often bringing in new clients and valuable repeat business.
By allowing site visitors to post reviews to your local business forum you’re giving those customers a chance to influence others on a global scale. That’s how the popularity of social media has changed the playing field: word of mouth marketing is now more than just beauty shop discussion or letters to the editor of the local newspaper.
One person who has hundreds, thousands or even millions of online followers can have a huge impact on a product or service. Think of Oprah online. Big companies have been tapping into this social media, or as they call it, social marketing, for years.
But it’s also readily available for small local businesses. Including a forum on your website to encourage customer involvement and interaction is simple to do. You might need to initiate conversation and encourage participation, but once you get the ball rolling they will do the rest.
Adding a business blog in addition to a forum is another effective idea. Blogs allow you the opportunity to share up-to-the-minute thoughts and ideas about your business. They should be linked to your website for easy customer access.
Blogs become free publicity for your business as they influence search engines when potential customers search online for products and services that you offer. As you can see, this type of “ad campaign” is an awesome and affordable way to drive traffic to your site.
You can even include videos- they can be produced fairly inexpensively- which can spread quickly online. Your business’ return on investment for this type of marketing will be incredible.
As with any type of word or mouth marketing, you do have to be aware of negative communication or misinformation being spread. A disgruntled customer or a competitor out to sabotage you can certainly cause some damage.
That is why you will need to be very aggressive in getting out as much positive and accurate information as you can. Don’t overlook the importance of timeliness and consistency. Make known your achievements and successes and add positive customer reviews and testimonials.
Most people are realistic and can see through the few sour grapes that show up, especially if there is a huge ratio disparity between the positive and negative.
Summary: You can reap great benefits by offering a local business forum to tap into the thoughts of your customers. You can also utilize social media to expand on your forum and to take advantage of the free publicity that it brings.
If you enjoyed this article by Jeff Schuman on local business forums please visit our local business website today. We help small business owners grow their business in their local market using the power of the internet. http://www.LocalBusinessGroup.com
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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.
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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.
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