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Posts Tagged ‘PR’
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Online PR is very effective because you can reach huge numbers of people. But the first thing you need to do is catch their attention, which can be difficult to do when everyone else is trying to do the same thing. Rather than simply set up a sales page and a website to sell your services or products, participating in a little online PR is a great way to boost your sales. It requires a little extra work, but you can´t expect people to come flocking to your small business if you are just sitting around, twiddling your thumbs.
Press releases. Sending out a press release is a pretty basic PR move, but don´t just send them to the big press. Look for blogs and websites that are related to your topic and send them email press releases. Many won´t publish anything, but you never know!
Free tips. Offering free tips on just about any subject is an excellent and very effective method of PR. People will flock to your site to download your free videos, ebooks or reports that will help them improve their lives. You will require a name and email address, of course, before they can get the freebie.
Article marketing. This is still a very good way to boost your online PR. Many news-type publications pick up on articles that contain information that they can use, so if you can provide it, you´re in luck.
Contest. Many people will participate in a contest, even if they wouldn´t normally give your website a second glance. Put this to work for you and offer a contest. You´ll see lots of websites and blogs picking up a great contest and promoting it to their readers, especially if that gets them an extra entry.
Online PR really isn´t that different from offline, but it is definitely more cost effective and you can reach a far wider audience than you would with offline PR. This is a big factor for small businesses who need to keep on top of things without spending much money.
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: online PR, PR
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
PR for small business is extremely important and with more and more information being made available online, it´s important to be able to write press releases specifically for the internet. This is actually quite different from the traditional press release for a variety of reasons. Let´s take a look at what an internet PR campaign should include.
PR for the Internet
- Keep your press release under 300 words. It´s more difficult to read online and most people won´t read much more than 200 words of your online press release.
- Use bullet points and subheadings to make the press release easier to read. The majority of editors will only skim at first to see if there is anything of interest, so make sure your highlighted points sell the press release!
- Use the press release as an opportunity to build PR and get the editor to check out your website or blog for more information. You don´t need to include everything in this release, but it should be indicative of what they can expect from you.
- Keep the style casual. Most online publications are pretty easy going and are looking for a writing style that can communicate rather than preach. Match the site´s style in your press release and you´ll do better.
Online press releases will need to be shorter and easier to read than an offline one. People simply can´t read as long on the computer screen as they can on a printed page, so keep that in mind when you are working on your online PR. You want to capture their attention, but not ramble on so long that their eyes are burning by the end of it!
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
Any PR is good PR, right? Not necessarily. While bad PR might work for Britney Spears, it isn´t good for a small business, but many businesses make some big mistakes when they are getting started.
Sending out ads instead of info. Whether you are sending a press release or an email newsletter, making it an ad in disguise is a bad idea and will get you nowhere. In fact, it can destroy your reputation and cause you to lose potential clients. Send out press releases that are actual news and email newsletters that contain real, useful content and you´ll be fine.
Spamming forums. We all know that forums can be a great PR place, but too many small businesses use them as simply an advertising medium. Answering questions with something like “Please check out my website for the solution to your problem.” will probably get you banned, though even if it doesn´t, very few people will look at your site because they already have a bad impression.
Using technical jargon. While you might be trying to impress someone, using technical words in any type of PR is probably a bad idea unless the vocabulary is pretty common. Editors don´t have the time needed to dig out the dictionary just to understand your press release and they probably won´t bother with it since their audience won´t understand either.
Sending emails to hundreds of editors. This is considered spamming, even if you have a fairly decent news story. Pick a few relevant people to send your information to and it is far more likely to get picked up.
Bad PR can sink your business, or at the very least, not help it move forward. If you bug people or spam them, you can bet you´ll be blacklisted and your press releases will never make it through, so be careful, be responsible and be successful.
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: bad PR, PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
PR is especially vital for small businesses because often they don´t yet have the brand to maintain a steady stream of clients coming in. However, doing a little PR once in a while isn´t exactly going to bring you a massive amount of traffic. In order to really make it effective, you´ll need to keep your business in the public eye on a continuous basis. One way to do that is to build a relationship with the press.
You should be sending out press releases at least three or more times a year. Each time you do so, you are asking the press to help you out and give you some of their precious space. If you maintain a good relationship with someone influential in the media, you have a far better chance of getting your press releases and even interviews accepted.
It´s usually a good idea to foster at least a couple of relationships. You´ll want one with the local newspaper and perhaps the local radio or cable station as well as an online medium. Rather than just send off a press release or announcement, strike up a conversation. If the editor publishes something on your business, send him or her a thank you card. Be appreciative and they will be happy to do more.
While you don´t want to be a pest, writing or speaking with your contacts outside of PR related things can be quite beneficial. You are able to build a better relationship and they won´t feel that the only reason you speak with them is to get free publicity. In some cases, these PR relationships can even turn into something more . . . a friendship.
Tags: PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Do you have an online business? Use pay per click and other online advertising methods? Then you are probably ready to branch out into the world of offline advertising for online benefits.
That´s right, advertising outside of the internet can be excellent for your online business. There are still people out there who look to traditional print materials like newspapers and magazines for their daily info input and by advertising to this market, you can reach people who might not normally look for you online, but who will be sufficiently curious to go ahead and look your URL up once they have read about you in print.
You´re probably thinking that offline PR can get pretty expensive and this is very true. That´s where press releases come in. Newspapers, radios and local television stations need content. If you have something newsworthy to report, chances are you can get it into several local media types and get quite a bit of publicity. If this happens, you definitely want to make sure that you´ve got an easy to remember website address, so people can hear it on the radio and then remember it to look you up online.
Offline PR helps you reach a market that might want more information about you but simply isn´t into using the internet to research. However, when given your URL, most people are likely to look for you online, if they are interested in your product or service. So, why not try a little Offline PR?
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: offline PR, PR, press release
Posted in PR for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
There has been some discussion in the comments lately about using widgets as a form of SEO and PR. While I´m not an expert in the area, I can definitely tell you that widgets are a great idea and a very good method of creating backlinks. Here is the definition, according to ByteSurgery:
Widgets are standalone application containers that can be shared between users. Typically embedded within another application or web page to distribute information, provide an interface to a larger application or for branding purposes.
Common examples of popular widgets include Facebook Applications, Google Desktop Gadgets, sidebar badges, YouTube embeds and news or weather tickers. Many widgets read their data in from the internet using standard data feeds which are often provided with an API key to perform requests.
You see widgets used all over the place to boost SEO and brand recognition. I´m sure you´ve added a widget or two to your own blog or website at some point, most people have. Whether you use something like BlogRush or any other community widget to your blog, you are giving these companies links. It´s a very useful method of getting one way links, and a lot of them. But there are a few things to keep in mind when you create your widget.
- Make it useful. A widget that doesn´t really add any value to someone else´s website won´t get used.
- Offer color options. A lot of people won´t use a widget that clashes with their blog design, so offering different colors will help your widget get used more, also boosting your SEO.
- Make it work. If you don´t know anything about code, hire someone else to do the job. This isn´t a good place to be cobbling things together from assorted articles that you´ve read. A non-working widget won´t bring you any SEO traffic!
A good widget that offers some quality and usefulness to other people´s websites will be used often and is not only great PR, but will provide the backlinks to boost your SEO and help you move up in the search engines.
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
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Tags: PR, SEO, widgets
Posted in PR for Small Business, SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
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