Better Ideas Blog

Do you shun or cringe at the thought of having to create your own press release? Well fear no more! This blog is going to provide you with the basics of press release writing to help you overcome your writing block.

Before diving in- let’s cover what exactly a ‘press release’ is. By definition, a press release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks.

Put simply, a press release is simply a statement prepared for distribution to the media. The purpose of a press release is to give journalists information that is accurate, newsworthy, and useful.

Press releases conform to an established format. Once you get the hang of writing them, all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Journalists receive so many press releases a day, they have set standards and expectations that you must conform to just to have your release read, let alone published. If your press release is printed ‘as is’, without changing even one word, then you know you have conformed to the journalistic standards of that particular medium.
“Write on”, you’re doing a fabulous job!

The content of the Press Release is what is essential, because with the right framework; the message can be able to shine in its own right. There are seven basic elements that every press release should have in terms of content and how it appears:

1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: These words should appear in the upper left-hand margin, just under your letterhead. You should capitalize every letter.

2. Contact Information: Skip a line or two after release statement and list the name, title, telephone and fax numbers of your company spokesperson (the person with the most information). It is important to give your home number since reporters often work on deadlines and may not be available until after hours.

3.Headline: Skip two lines after your Contact information and use a boldface type.

4. Dateline: This should be the city your press release is issued from and the date you are mailing your release.
Lead Paragraph: The first paragraph needs to grasp the reader’s attention and should contain the relevant information to your message such as the five w’s.

5 W’s: (who, what, when, where, why).

6.Text & Content: The main body of your press release where your message should fully develop. The content of the press release, beginning with the date and city of origin, should be typed in a clear, basic font (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.) and double-spaced. If your press release exceeds one page, the second page should indicate ‘ Page Two’ in the upper right hand corner.

7. Journalistic standards have set basic parameters to define the end of a press release: ###. Three # symbols, centered directly underneath the last line of the release indicate the end of a press release.

Recap: At the lower left hand corner of your last page restate your product’s specifications, highlight a product release date.
PRESS RELEASE CHECKLIST
• Company Letterhead, Name, Address, Phone Number, Web Address
• PRESS RELEASE in all caps
• Contact Person’s Name
• Immediate Release or Release Date(all caps)
• HEADLINE or TITLE in BOLD/CAPS
• BODY-Date/City-(who,what,when,where and why)
• Catchy Text- What is it that is unique about this story
• Sum it up…
• Basic Font, Double Spaced, Page Numbers, and ###
• Action Plan/Calendar
After reading this blog, we hope you feel more confident in your press writing ability. Look to us for more useful tips for PR writing in the future!

Contributed by Christina Gurtowsky, Sales Coordinator and Guest Blogger
Market Insights, LLC

You can increase your sales through social media networking by better understanding “Subtle Selling.” It’s a much less evasive approach to getting your client to invest in your product. Marketing is attracting new customers and Selling is completing a commercial transaction.

You will find you will be more successful in selling more of yourself and product through Social Media Networking when you utilize this innovative sales process. As we know, Social Media is a part of the much larger Spectrum of Media tools. This area of self promotion is an area where you must be very cautious if your primary goal of engaging is to sell more. Think of it more like any other giant audience where you are gathering with many people for something in common; As opposed to thinking of it as a giant audience to throw your marketing message (translated sales pitch) out into the crowd.

The Social Media area of the New Media is NOT a selling platform; It’s a LISTENING Platform

Grow your network. Give generously and people will follow you; and hopefully back to your store! Use it to engage people. Some may become fans, while others may even become friends.
The New Media includes a great variety of different tools to market and communicate your message.

Blogs (your community involvement),
Business websites (your store), and customer search capabilities are the essentials to providing a platform to share your story, and discuss the benefits of your product or service. Think of these social media sites as the common areas of the mall– where people gather outside of the business stores.

Another form of social communication can be found through, Twitter. Twitter is comparable to conversations in the common area among stores in the mall. You can display your product in the store front window. Window displays offer the mall shoppers a quick preview of the store, and invite them to come inside your store. This gives the client the choice whether or not to enter your store, but if you “get in their face” out in the common area, you might cause more harm to your brand and actually scare away a potential customer. So use discretion with these tactics, and DO NOT you blurt out your message. Put long thought into it first.

Another use tool is Facebook. A facebook profile page is like your home; whereas a facebook page is more like your blog.

It may help to compare the old sales process to a new one. Sales Reps used to manage the process, whereas today, the customer is in control. You can use either as your sales strategy, but sell appropriately with a sensible marketing strategy.

Here is an Example for Further Understanding:
The 7 Steps of the old sales process Vs. The 7 Steps of the new sales process:
a href=”http://view.picapp.com/default.aspx?term=selling&iid=289975″ target=”_blank”>
Old Sales Process vs. New Sales Process
1. Sales Rep Gets Leads vs. Customers perform online search for wants and needs.
2. Sales Rep Qualifies Leads vs. Customers research their favorite choices from what they found in their initial search.
3. Sales Rep Makes Appointments vs. Customers follow and watch their favorite vendors visibly or silently.
4. Sales Rep Presents Product/Service vs. Customers decide what they want before first contact (maybe even trial or test an offering).
5. Sales Rep Questions and Handles Objections vs. Customer invites vendor to take their order.
6. Sales Rep Closes the Sale vs. Customer becomes a fan through a satisfactory experience.
7. Sales Rep Moves on to next Lead vs. Customer posts public review of his/her experience with the vendor, good or bad.

This is why you cannot ignore the New Media and where Social Media fits into the bigger picture. With a more in depth understanding of the new sales process, today we are better educated to redistribute our time towards more marketing in the New Media, and less pushy towards our selling activity in the Social Media.

It’s always been about building relationships first. Social Media can help you attract new relationships that may lead to new customers; but understand that selling happens at another place and a different time.

Contributed by Christina Gurtowsky, Sales Coordinator & Guest Blogger
Market Insights, LLC

As entrepreneurs, we are constantly looking for new and clever ways to get our name out there. The majority of us are (or should be) pretty well versed in the workings of the infamous “social networking website” — mastering the trade of the “tweet,” and staying connected through the ever so popular, “Facebook.” Professionals of all ages utilize these free websites to stay on top of the game, and stay in constant contact with friends, family, and other fellow professionals.

And just when we think we are finally up to speed with the latest trends, and involved in all the latest techniques of self promotion; we come across a term coined, “geotagging.”No, this isn’t a new show on National Geographic, or a lesson you fell asleep during in geography class. Put simply, “geotagging” is a process of attaching geographical data (longitude and latitude) to photographs, videos, websites, status updates and even emails.

This concept may be a lot to take in at first, but once you begin to understand it’s usage and benefits, it really can be a great marketing tool for you and your local business.

“Geotagging” is made possible by adding geographical identification metadata to various media, as a form of geospatial metadata. This data usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names.

It originally started off as a feature, but entrepreneurs such as Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crawley predicted that this technology would grow into a larger phenomenon. With this in mind, Selvadurai and Crawley created “foursquare,” with foundations based solely on “geotagging.”

So what is Foursquare?
“Foursquare” is a social network fused with a game that just about anybody in the world can participate in. It allows people to “check in” to any location they visit. In order to play, all you need is a cell phone that can browse the internet (and a decent signal!).

Players are rewarded for their continued check-ins via a point scheme by earning status ranks, and acquiring badges. Foursquare will give the “local” badge to users who check into the same venue more than three times in one week. If that same person checks into a location more than anyone else, they will become “Mayor.”

Foursquare is great for drawing attention to, and around your brand. It creates an additional avenue for you to showcase offers to a more diverse audience through viral sharing. It also invites people to visit your business.

This latest trend is growing at a steady rate with a user base of around 150,000 people and is gaining momentum with new deals and partnerships…

So whether you own a retail store, restaurant, or coffee shop; Foursquare and Geotagging will prove as ideal marketing tools for your local business. Along with the ingredients of engagement, compulsion and loyalty, among others, you can successfully guide users into your desired sales funnel. According to Technology Talks, in 2009, Zynga earned $145 million in less than 6 months as a result of their flagship Facebook game, Farmville.

With the last figure in mind, what are your thoughts on this latest marketing tool? Do you think there’s potential for your business to offer perks to customers through Foursquare? If anything, I will keep you informed on the next latest trend.

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

Back in the 1990’s not many businesses had fax machines. By the end of the decade your business was a relic if it didn’t have one. Whether you know it now or not a well produced commercial video for your business is going to become a necessity in the very near future. Being without a professional video will soon be equivalent to not having a website; it will be as necessary as it used to be to have a listing in the Yellow Pages. Some things just evolve into necessity. Some still don’t think it is important to have a company video. I’ll let you judge for yourself.

The comScore Video Metrix service says more than 173-million viewers watched an average of 187 videos during the month of January 2010. Using video as an online marketing source makes sense when considering that over 32-billion videos were viewed on-line in January alone.

According to the Unica State of Marketing 2010 study, video is the most adopted rich media marketing tactic today. Videos, created by marketing, rank first followed by streaming media, podcasts, YouTube, and ads within online videos represent the media tactics expected to be used most in the coming year. Year over year growth in the next 12 months for all these tactics is expected to be in the 20% range. Combine this study with what we already know about the internet. Search engines Google and Yahoo are the most visited websites on the internet. Number three is YouTube. Number four and climbing is Facebook. 99% of all videos viewed off Google originated from YouTube. And Facebook allows the posting of videos or of links to online video or streaming media. It’s increasingly evident that when a person is online they are looking at video more than they are looking for text or graphics.

Search engine optimization is actually the most obvious reason why you need video in your marketing scheme. So when you type into the search bar that which you seek and then click the search button the algorithms in Google or whatever site you may be using for your search heavily favor video as the answer to your query. Recently we started a group who meets specifically to help their You Tube videos rank higher in the search engines. Let me tell you that it is working and even better results are to be had if you include the URL for the company address within the caption of the video.

It is getting more cost effective to produce quality video. Generally a full 1-2 minute commercial shot and produced video is still going to cost you a few thousand dollars. But alternatives exist, including slide show video production. Several downriver firms including Photo Graphics USA offer 30 second video with text, graphics, scripting, and voice talent narrative for less than $300. If a business person is a good reader, and clear and dynamic speaker you can do an elevator speech for much less.

Of course the cheapest option is for you to produce a video on your own. And just like most persons who take do-it-your-self tasks of any kind it’s very likely to look like you did it yourself and the poor quality of the video will reflect accordingly on you and your business. Just like you need an electrician for electrical repairs, and a plumber for plumbing service and repair; you need professionals for production of your commercial video. Though it is also my opinion that you should not think about it too long. Sometimes just getting video up and tweaking it later is also a good way to get a jump on the competition.
With the exception of poor quality do-it-yourself video any form of video on your website, Fan Page, or email is helpful to your businesses marketing and branding goals. Even referring other videos is a great way to build referrals. So once again what will you do today to start producing your business video?

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

Ok, so you are posting on social media. Now what? How do you track if what you are doing is relevant or even producing any results? You can start by checking your results by reviewing these items:

What were your goals? Were you looking to increase sales or just to build a list of contacts? Both can be important depending on the type of business you own. Did you reach any of those goals?

How was your interaction to the content you posted? Not actively participating in social marketing is like being a wallflower at a party. If no one will know you’re there, what’s the point in even going? Has anyone conversed with your business?

How often did you communicate? Like other types of marketing, frequency is important in reinforcing your message and getting people to remember you. Just as you would not place an ad in a magazine for just one issue, you must also contribute to your social marketing presence on a regular basis. For many business owners, this can be anywhere from 15-60 minutes per day. Did you do your do diligence?

Do you know your audience? Who are your fans? Have you taken time to get to know them and understand why they may have joined your page? Did they join for a contest or do they have business that may result in business for you?

Do you coordinate with conventional marketing? Social marketing should not be treated as a stand alone program. To be effective it should be combined with traditional marketing. For example, if you send out a flyer by mail, mention that people can get notice of additional promotions by following you on Twitter. Or use Facebook to post photos of special events you were involved in.

Count the coupons. Or whatever other promotion you did on social media. What were the exact numbers you can attribute to your bottom line because of social on-line media.? I looked at my business numbers last year and it accounted for 37% of my business.

The value of tracking link posts. Say you post ten links with no results on PageRank, placement or anything else; you may as well have thrown them into the wide unknown. However, five people read your links and re-post (or link back) to those ten posts, and you now have fifty (free!) back links (not reciprocal!) leading to your site. Five other people find those re-posts and re-post again – 250 back links, plus the original 50, adds up to a whopping 300 links leading back to your site. All those links will normally be posted on sites relevant to your site, which gives your site authority, which raises your PageRank.

The return. Even with conventional marketing, many business people are guilty of thinking they can expect a certain return for every dollar spent. If they don’t see that return in a specific period of time, they deem the campaign a failure. Social marketing can be even more abstract. In many cases, your posts or submissions will not be focused on generating sales, but instead providing information. As such, readers would be less likely to contact you looking to spend money. However if you choose to create a social campaign focused on driving sales, you may find yourself ignored as many people get turned off of sales pitches made through social media sites.

Track results through other sources. HowSociable is a great way to find out how visible your brand is on the social web.- http://www.howsociable.com/. Or with Xinureturns, get specific information regarding page rankings, back links, index pages and more SEO Tracking results. http://xinureturns.com/ .

Social marketing is less about what you can get and more about what you can give. More information, more posts, more contacts, more referrals – all of these can lead to an increase in business over time. Like a farmer planting seeds, if you plant enough of them, invest the effort, and be patient, eventually you will bear the fruits of success. All in all, social media is like MLM (multi-level marketing). So – plan your social media, post your social media, track your social media and the biggest networks win.

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

Elevator speeches are a great way to have a prepared consistent message for meeting new potential business. Most often you have about 30 seconds to make your introduction. You can use these tips for personal meetings and for video clips.

When creating your elevator speech, think about how you currently introduce yourself in person. Do you just talk about yourself or do you ask questions? Think long and hard and write down what specific things you do to help your clients. Think long and hard about what message you want to portray. Think about the types of people that you enjoy speaking with, how do they start the conversation? Think about the people you do not find interesting. Remember as in any marketing piece, anyone can have “quality item”, “great service” and wonderful pricing”, but what are you going to say that will “stick, “stand out” and be “memorable”? You want to intrigue the person enough to want to talk with you more.

For a 3 minute elevator speech you will want a bit more structure. You will still want to grab their attention in the first 30 seconds. Maybe start off with current events, a joke, or something personal, next the body of the speech should include tips or tidbits and a conclusion wraps up the conversation with a close or call to action, web site, phone # ect.

I found this video interesting for knowing what NOT to say in an elevator speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrG6tAmnxws and here is what myself and Market Insights are all about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_3JWx1H7FM

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

The entire marketing and advertising business is backed on testing. If you are not testing different media, different marketing methods, different advertisements, etc., then you will never know what works and what doesn’t. It’s not exactly rocket science, but the fact of the matter is that less than 5% of businesses test anything. Why aren’t more businesses doing it, if it is that simple? Based on my clients it stems from time constraints and lack of knowledge.

I’m all about simplicity and easy. So, I’ve come up with several ideas that are simple and don’t take much time. Try one – measure the results, then test another. Find one that works and stick with it!

(1) Never write any marketing pieces if you do not believe in what it is you are selling or trying to accomplish – it will be very obvious to the person reading it that you don’t believe it. Whatever you do, how will it make life easier for your client?

(2) Use clichés like “Are you ready to rumble?” People can relate to them and they tend to read further if the title is engaging. As well, most people talk in clichés – so you must write like you talk. But a word of caution, just do not over use them.

(3) Tell a story – one of the best ways to pull your readers into your marketing and engaging them to buy. Write an ad from your customers perspective, what would they say about you, how you helped them, why you are different?”

(4) Don’t try and be cute or sophisticated. Be sincere, educational and passionate in your writing. People are cautious of cute and nervous about sophisticated, again what’s in it for them?

(5) Write to a grade 7 reading level. This can be easily checked in Microsoft Word – go to “Tools at top – then – Options: then Spelling and Grammar: check the box that says Show Readability Stats. Every time you do a spell check form now on it will tell you what grade level your writing is at. Sad to say, but a proven fact it has to be written in the easiest form or it will not be read by the average consumer.

(6) Consider the toughest critic of your business. You know that they have some possible interest in what you are selling, but they are skeptical at the best of times. What would you say to them to get them to try it out? How would you say it to them? This is exactly what your ads need to read like.

These few simple ways to get better results in your marketing and advertising; but they are useless if you don’t try them. Try one this week in an ad, email, on line or creative piece and see what happens.

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

First decide what are your goals for your on-line social program. Do you want to increase awareness of your brand, increase web site, increase fans/followers, increase customer service ect.

2. Decide what groups make sense for your business. Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, Linked in, ect.

3. Set up your free accounts with your company name. Ie: www.twitter.com/abcbiz

4. Make a plan! The easiest way I have found for clients is to plan out 30 days of social posts. Google your business, add video, blog links, photos, web page links to relevant information, make sure to vary it in these 5 sections: Promotions, Your industry news, Your business trivia, Questions Relevant to Business & Industry Related Tips. This should take no more than an hour.

5. Schedule 10-15 minutes per business, per day to copy and paste your daily posts in your selected media and to follow up on conversations, add fans/followers ect.

6. Ask others to help promote your business. Join groups dedicated to promoting each members on line programs.

Make it part of your daily routine and it just comes naturally after a while!

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

So how would you like to introduce yourself before you met a potential client? Try recording an elevator speech, you can do it yourself quickly!

DO YOUR HOMEWORK:
Before recording your elevator speech for video…Consider your background, your dress, your logo, and your props.

The 3 items below should take no more than 15 minutes to write & 15 minutes to record.
1. Your catch statement. Who are you, where do you work, what do you do. (In 2 sentences or less)
2. Your specialties and what makes you different from the competition. (In 3 sentences or less)
3. Your jingle, your catch phrase, web site address or your tagline to end the clip. (remember no copyrighted songs)

What do you do with it? You have several options to choose for a very reasonable video production.
1. Post it on You Tube raw.
2. Do it yourself-upload your clips to Microsoft Movie maker or Muvee or other software to add transitions, words to the clip and music.
3. Use an amateur videographer. A student or a budding entrepreneur to make your video more interesting.
4. Hire a pro. When you hire a pro with script in hand, the price automatically goes down since all they need to do is shoot and edit
Or maybe even….
5. Hold a contest with a valid prize and have your choice of commercials submitted from all aspects of video talent

Then…get yourself a You Tube Channel (make sure to try and match your web site domain/company name user name) and upload it!

Make Sure to Promote Your Video. Send an e-mail requesting comments and suggestions on the link and make sure they rate your video too. Post the link on all your organization boards, association sites and social on-line discussion groups. Write about your new commercial/elevator speech to your friends and family and submit it to various web sites and contests. Use the link in your blog, web site and anything else you can think of. Consider joining or creating a video roundtable group dedicated to increasing video rankings and ultimately your business search results.

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC

So you’ve have your big mention in the local paper, magazine or business publication, great job! Editorial press is not easy to get, and when it does happen, it’s exciting! Picture or not, long or short, local weekly paper or national magazine, any media coverage is usually good media coverage.

Ok, it is out there, now what? Did you know that press coverage appearing for the first time is only the tip of the iceberg in how you can reap long-term benefits from just one media placement?

Look at the deeper message in your article. Look for positive key words and phrases the reporter used that you can pull as brief quotes to use in the future.

Post It On Your Website – Having an archive of press on your site featuring media coverage is an important page in your website. Link the the paper article to your site or if that is not available, re-post the article to a service such as www.prlog.com and use that link for your site. Showing off editorial placements gives your company credibility, both with those who did and did not see the original feature. Use your press page announce upcoming placements too – i.e. “Look for “Your Company” in the upcoming issue of ABC magazine!”

Include It In Printed Materials – When designing brochures, flyers, postcards or other printed marketing materials, consider adding images or quotes from the press. It adds tremendous credibility, and this is at least one instance when it is okay to brag!

Have it Mounted & Framed –Seeing framed articles shows consumers you are an expert when they visit your office.

Talk About It, in Person and Online– Make the news part of your elevator speech or introductory talking points at networking and speaking events. Include it in a blog post, tweet and e-newsletter too! People love hearing success stories and sharing your media success is an impressive and interesting way to begin a conversation.

Get the most out of your media fame and promote the news of awards you have won. Whatever you decide to do with your media coverage, don’t keep it a secret! Display it; provide copies of it, create marketing materials featuring it, send it to vendors, distributors and consumers. The key to marketing is to keep “Spreading the Good News About What Your Business Is Doing!”

My Best,
Kathy Kane
Market Insights, LLC