Small businesses have always known the importance of word of mouth. Manysuccessful businesses have been built on word of mouth referrals, and many havebeen killed by bad word of mouth. But now the landscape is changing, making word of mouth more important thanever - only now, that word of mouth is being communicated on the Internet. People - your customers - are turning to the Internet as their primary source ofinformation on products and services. Instead of opening the yellow pages of theirp More..

Read more About Knowing the Community

Community Based Marketing Strategies

As small businesses we have an opportunity and an obligation to help keep our communities strong. As small business people we have an awesome distribution system, reaching hundreds of people every day who come into our stores. If we are a mobile service business we see hundreds per day on our route. If you volunteer to deliver flyers to all your customers for an upcoming club event, you can develop incredible rapport with these groups. The word of mouth referrals will be great. Consider the fact More..

What? You Havent Got a Capability Statement?

What's a Capability Statement? As the name suggests, it tells potential clients what you, or your organisation and staff are capable of. It highlights what your future capability is and reflects on your past successes. Capability statements are usually produced as brochures or booklets and are now increasingly appearing in online formats eg, HTML, PDF and self-executable ebooks. (The Entrepreneur Magazine section of "The Weekend Australian" of 25 Feb 2005 ran an article advising that legal and More..

PR Power: How to Write a Killer Press Release

I'm what we in the business (the "business" being journalism) call a poacher turned gamekeeper -- that is, a journalist turned press officer. As a reporter I spent a huge part of my day sifting through a slush pile of press releases, all sent out by eager business owners desperate to get some publicity for their latest project. As a press officer, I was the one writing the press releases and trying desperately to get them published. Quite apart from leaving me with some pretty good conversation More..

The Medias Muscle: Make it Work for You

The least expensive, most effective way for you to promote your product is through media coverage. Reporters are excellent communicators. They can often tell your story better than you can. They also have the attention of the public. No promotional tool is more underused than product news coverage. I know because my company, Media Relations, Inc. has been arranging product news stories for 18 years. We are forced to be an aggressive sales organization because of the limited demand for what we s More..

Competition in the News Creates Spin

In larger cities with many outlets they are competing for more news that other outlets cannot get as fast. "THE SCOOP" and also the spin, this spin thing is so that articles can cater to the readership or so they say. I have found that many reporters including at the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Christian Science Monitor, etc completely spin articles. How would I know this? Well I have my sources and I will not tell you!!! Just kidding, thought you might want to hear that excuse one more More..

Press Release Preparation

Small Business Owners should send press releases out at least once a month to local newspapers, cable TV, local magazines and radio stations. You will be surprised how often they get published or air time. After doing this a while you can figure out what types of news get the best results. Some typical and simple press releases can be new employee hirees, new accounts with large local corporations or non-profit endeavors you are assisting with. All press releases should be typed double-spaced w More..

Franchise Work Vehicles Should Have a Flag on Them

If you own a franchise and have company vehicles, be sure you have a flag on it. First let's discuss the American flag. Franchising is the epitome of the free enterprise system. It's what makes America great. The entire United States government is a franchise system. The federal government grants powers to states to govern exclusive territories. They have the power to tax. They give royalties to the federal government in the form of tax revenue. Each state consists of counties. Again, counties a More..

Auto Detailing Public Relations; United Way Withholding

As a mobile detailing company it is important to have some key corporate accounts where you can show up weekly and wash and detail cars for executives. One promotion you can do to help secure such accounts is to join in with the United Way in their promotion. The United Way depends on employees of large companies to donate 1% or 1.5% of their income through payroll withholding. Many employees obviously might be reluctant to do this. So along with representatives from the United Way, you take yo More..

TV Reporter Shares the Secrets to Getting Covered on the News

Do you have a great idea for a story, but no clue how to get it in the news? Are you tired of pitching press releases the news media simply ignores? After twenty years of beating the street as a TV reporter, I have a scoop for you: the media needs good stories. But most stories are pitched so poorly, they are lost in the blizzard of faxes that blanket every newsroom. So, here are five steps to increase your chances of getting covered that even some PR pros don't know: 1) BE UNUSUAL The old a More..

Why PR Can be Effective Medicine

When properly applied by business, non-profit and association managers, public relations "medicine" does something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of theirs that MOST affect their operations. It's easy-to-swallow "medicine" when it leads managersto persuade those key outside folks to their way of thinking, then move them to take actions that allow the manager's department, division or subsidiary to succeed. In other words, effective public relations "medicine More..

Youve Done PR the Hard Way Long Enough

As a business, non-profit or association manager, let thetacticians handle the special events, brochures and pressreleases from now on. You have better things to do. Like demanding the real results you're entitled to, and forwhich you've paid good money! Results, that is, that willcome about when you do something positive about thebehaviors of those important external audiences of yoursthat most affect your operation. In particular, whenyou persuade those key outside folks to your way ofthinki More..

What Some Pros Know About PR

They know they had better do something positive aboutthose outside audiences that MOST affect theirorganizations. Especially business, non-profit or associationmanagers, who also know they must persuade those keyexternal "publics" to the manager's way of thinking, thenmove those people to actions that allow that manager'sdepartment, division or subsidiary to succeed. It all works because public relations applies its underlyingpremise to deliver external stakeholder behavior change,the kind that More..

Top Ten Tips For Great Sound Bites

If you're an online business using public relations (PR) to help increase traffic at your site, you've found a great way to gain exposure at little cost. And before you know it, the day will come when you are invited to do an interview with a reporter. It's exciting, but scary. What do you do? How do you prepare? First, be prepared when the telephone rings. If you sent out a release recently, have it at your fingertips. Get some information yourself before you answer any questions: Ask the rep More..

For Financial Planners, Marketing and Publicity Is About You

For financial planners, getting publicity, in the end, isn't about having contacts in the media. Or about writing a great press release. In the end, it's about one thing: it's about you. You, and the knowledge and expertise you share every day with your clients. The same knowledge that helps you recommend the right stocks, mutual funds, or municipal bonds. The same expertise that your clients seek out when they want to plan a savings account for their child's education, formulate a retireme More..

How Marketing-Minded Financial Planners Get Publicity

ou've probably noticed, if you live on this planet, that we live in a media-driven world. You may have mixed feelings, personally or philosophically, about this. But it's a fact of modern life. And in at least one very important way, it's good news. This is how: Living in a media-driven world is very good for professional practices, like financial planners. For anyone, in fact, who makes a living or runs an organization that is based on using their know-how or getting a message across. Becau More..

What to Do When the Reporter Calls: Five Tips for New (and not-so-new) Business Owners

New business owners often miss out on publicity opportunities because they think it's a nuisance to talk to reporters. In fact, publicity can be far more valuable than advertising. Media exposure can give your business profile a huge boost. You'll attract clients, customers and recruiters. More important, you gain credibility as an "expert" when you can post a copy of a published article on your website, office wall, or portfolio. Getting attention can be challenging, so when you get a call, be More..

Do You See PRs Real Value?

As a business, non-profit or association manager, do yousee the value in doing something positive about thebehaviors of those important external audiences of yoursthat most affect your operation? Do you see the value in persuading those key outsidefolks to your way of thinking? Do you see the value in moving them to take actions thatallow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed? Then you must see the value in good public relations thatalters individual perception leading to changed More..

Publicity and Marketing Magic For Financial Planners: The Four Mores

Publicity will take your financial planning practice, your business, and your life to the next level. It's going to bring you: * more recognition * more credibility * more value to the marketplace * more business It's obvious that getting more publicity - exposure in the media - will yield you more marketplace recognition. But how do the other three "mores" work? By magic mostly, I have concluded. You see, there's something powerful, magical, and perhaps even a little irration More..

Permanent Press: Using Press Releases to Keep Your Company in the News

When is your best advertisement not an advertisement? When it's a press release. In the competition for consumer attention, a well-written press release is one of your most valuable marketing tools. Why is it vital to put yourself in the news? Because most of us attend differently to the news than we do to advertisements. We make certain assumptions about the news, for example, that it is important, simply because it is news. We count on news editors and publishers to carefully sift through p More..

Media Relations: Should You Pay For News Coverage?

Dear New York Times: I'd like to be quoted in one of your news stories. Enclosed is a check for $500. Please call me to arrange the interview sometime this week. Evenings are best. Thank you. Imagine how such a letter would be greeted in the New York Times newsroom. The recipient would likely laugh out loud and might even post it on the bulletin board so other reporters could walk by and enjoy a good chuckle. The letter wrongly assumed that the New York Times would accept "pay for play," or w More..

Media Training: How To Speak During a Media Interview

WHITE NOISE A client recently told me about a fascinating new approach to television advertising. Some advertisers, she said, are producing 30 second commercials without even a hint of sound. That approach goes counter to every rule of television advertising. Since the combination of visual messages and audio allows for the greatest probability of the advertiser's message actually sinking in, sound is a critical element. Plus, since so many people leave the room during commercials, advertisers More..

Managers: Do You Trust Your PR?

You can if, as a business, non-profit or association manager, you can honestly say you are doing something positive about the behaviors of those important externalaudiences of yours that most affect your department,group, division or subsidiary. And particularly so when you persuade those key outsidefolks to your way of thinking, and move them to takeactions that allow you to succeed. In its simplest form, of course, what you are doing ishelping achieve your managerial objectives by the simple More..

Submitting A Press Release Can Benefit Your Business

A Press Release is a captive story that can be about a person, a business or organizational group that is submitted to the media. The distribution of a release can be targeted to media outlets in newspapers, TV, radio stations, magazines and global newswire networks. Like with any other form of marketing, a well-submitted press release will give added publicity and creditability to an individual or a business. Journalists look for newsworthy stories that they can use in their publications. News More..

10 Tips to Give Your Press Release The Edge It Needs to Make the News

Writing a press (or media) release is quite an art (and a science) but don't let that scare you. Here are 10 tips to point you in the right direction... (1) Make sure the information is newsworthy. (2) Tell the audience that the information is intended for them and why they should continue to read it. (3) Start with a brief description of the news, then distinguish who announced it, and not the other way around. (4) Ask yourself, "How are people going to relate to this and will they be able More..

10 Tips to Give Your Press Release The Edge It Needs to Make the News

How PR Helps Managers Win

Anything that lets managers achieve their managerialobjectives is a winner. It's a bullseye when the right public relations altersindividual perception leading to changed behaviorsamong key outside audiences. How that comes about is the story of the day! As a business, non-profit or association manager,you've got to do something positive about thebehaviors of those important external audiences ofyours that most affect your operation. Especially sowhen you persuade those key outside folks to y More..

What Determines PR Success?

As a business, non-profit or association manager,occasions will arise when you'll need to employ tacticslike a brochure, a special event or a press release. But it will be your work that precedes those tactics that willdetermine the success of your public relations effort. Here's the underlying premise: people act on their ownperception of the facts before them, which leads topredictable behaviors about which something can bedone. When we create, change or reinforce that opinionby reaching, per More..

Financial Planners, Why Advertise When Free Publicity and Marketing Is Better?

Commit this to memory, please: To get in the media, being good is good enough. You don't need to be perfect, or even the best in your profession. There's no elaborate entrance exam or competition to determine who gets media coverage. The prize goes to those professionals who are competent or better, and who understand how to play the publicity game. I have absolutely nothing against advertising as a means of getting exposure and a wider audience. In many cases, it's just what you need, and de More..

Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, the Media Wants to Give You Free Publicity

In this great country of ours, there are basically three ways to get yourself tons of media coverage. You can be a celebrity. Try becoming a TV, movie or sports star. That's a good start. You can become notorious. Getting arrested, or enmeshed in a juicy scandal, will do nicely. But I recommend that you follow the third route. You can become an expert. Experts, you see, are quoted in the media all the time. All the time. The media need experts to interview and quote, just like puppies need b More..

Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Its Not Who You Know But What You Know

Almost every day, I hear the same question, over and over, from motivated, well-meaning financial planners who want to use publicity in their marketing mix. It goes something like this: "Who do you know in the media? (Or, sometimes they frame it as, "Who do I need to know in the media?") Can you get me publicity?" My answer is always the same. Who you know in the media is only half the game. And it's the easier half. I'm a former newspaper reporter, and am on a first name basis with plenty of More..

Five Publicity Buckets For Marketing-Minded Financial Planners

Maybe you've seen another financial planner on TV, and thought, "Hey, I'm just as good as she. Why didn't the press pick me?" Well, chances are, as you now know, they picked her for at least two good reasons: # She is a proficient - though not necessarily top?financial planner, and # She did something, somewhere, to get on their radar screen. Just as you're going to learn how to do. If you'll just keep learning about publicity. Truth is, you can't just walk into a TV station or magazine offi More..

Financial Planners, Want Free Marketing and Publicity? The Key is Understanding the Media

The media need you. Need the information and expertise you offer, that is. But they are not encyclopedias. They don't serve up information. They serve up stories. That heap of paper that thuds onto your doorstep early each morning - it's called a newspaper, not an information paper. And that evening broadcast you watch to catch up on the day's events? They call it the Evening News, don't they? Not the Evening Information. The media take the huge mass and swirl of information out there every d More..

Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Create Your Very Own Story to Get Free Publicity

One big mistake that many marketing-minded financial planners make when contacting the media is to drop what's called an "information dump." Sending a reporter statistics on the growth of your business (no matter how impressive) or on the success rate of your stock picks (no matter how propitious) will simply overwhelm them and will not garner publicity. What reporters want is a story - a smaller piece of information that is likely to hold their attention and help their readers, viewers or lis More..

Financial Planners, Follow These Guidelines to Get Free Publicity

Be a Resource The media people that are likely to want to speak to financial planners are usually working on stories that will help people: help them get out of debt, make smarter investment decisions, or save for retirement. They look to financial planners to be a resource for these people. When you become a resource, the media will come back to you again and again. A resource on what? On the same subject matter and topics that are the everyday stuff of your business, your practice, your in More..

Financial Planner Marketing - Problems Are Good (For Financial Planners Seeking Free Publicity)

A common complaint you'll hear is that the media is fixated on negative stories. But, let's face it, that's what people watch. Jerry Springer and Maury Povich wouldn't make millions of dollars a year if people hated watching spouses fight and jilted lovers weep. And have you ever heard of a publication or show that thrived on telling happy stories about good news? The fact is, the media love problems. The more problems you help clients or customers deal with, the better. People, bless their More..

Financial Planners Publicity and Marketing - Live By The Calendar

The media live by the calendar. Your story pitch might miss the mark with them the first time out, solely because it's out of whack with the seasonal cycle (obvious examples: just try pitching another tax story on April 16, or offering the media your 10 tips on backyard barbecue safety the morning after Labor Day). But come back when the time's right, and you just might be golden: Personal finance and the holiday season? Record keeping techniques for tax time... Saving for college at back-to-sc More..

Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Dont Hold Back Information From the Media

Some financial planners think that they shouldn't share their top tips with the media. I can see some validity in thinking this way. After all, the media is going to deliver these tips to the public at practically no charge. Then all those people who might have been paying customers won't have any use for their services. But there's two things wrong with this: First of all, it's true that most people are likely to use your information and never contact you. Then again, most people aren't like More..

Your Financial Planning Clients May Hold the Key to Free Publicity

Every reporter, from the cub at the small town paper to the high-paid anchor on 60 Minutes, dreams of finding a lead to that news story that everyone will want to read. Any marketing-minded financial planner will start to do the same if they are serious about getting free publicity through the media. See, the media has a pretty good idea of what appeals to the public. That's a big part of their job--determining what stories are likely to attract their customers: readers, viewers or listeners. More..

Financial Planners Garner Free Publicity by Making it Easy for the Media

Would you advise clients to buy a stock based on the say so of an investor relations person, or something you overheard at a restaurant? Of course not. You want to see at least some independent research before suggesting it be added to your clients' portfolios. Media people are just as protective of their "clients," the reading and viewing public. Your word about a new trend in investing or the latest tip for retirement planning might be enough to get a media person interested, but it usually More..

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