Unleash the Power of The Press

public relations

Upcoming seminar: Turning Your Website into a “Lead Generation Machine”

If you own a service company, there are ways to direct traffic to your site without spending a lot of time or energy and without the high cost of purchasing leads.  Would you like to learn more?

Join us at an upcoming seminar led by Roland Lacey, founder of MediaRight Technologies and an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
“The New Sales Tool – Turning your Website into a Lead Generation Machine” Seminar
When: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 from 8 to 10:30 a.m.
Where:  25 Braintree Hill Office Park, Suite 200, Braintree, MA

Learn strategies on how your company can dominate the local search market for your services.

Discussion topics include:

* SEO
* Google Adwords
* Web development that works
* The best way to bring motivated prospects to your company’s website

Cost to attend is $25
All proceeds from the seminar will be donated to the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield

Light refreshments will be served.  Space is limited.

To reserve a seat at the seminar or for more information –
Contact Roland Lacey at (781) 924-1141.

Sponsored by PR Works.

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Speech! Speech! How giving speeches can win you business.

Speaking at seminars, networking events, professional or trade gatherings or teaching a class is a great way to not only strut your stuff and show off your expertise, but market your company.

Why? Much like the credibility factor you gain when a newspaper or magazine writes a story on your company as opposed to you placing an ad in that publication, being an in-person authority via a speaking engagement gives you considerable cache. It also gives you the very best opportunity to showcase your expertise. 

Developing a speaking engagement program takes a game plan. For starters, you’ll want to:
  • Decide which product or service you want to showcase. It can be an existing product or service or the launch of a new one. Sometimes the best way to get a new product or service off the ground is via a speaking engagement.
  • Select the right speaker from your organization – Sometimes the head honcho isn’t the right fit for certain audiences; some of your executives may not be as polished. You need to select the speaker that puts your company in the best light.
  • Target an audience; geographic region – Sure, you want to speak in front of people who might actually buy your product or service. Yet sometimes in speaking to a non-profit group or to students, you can strike a chord with somebody who knows somebody. In other words, there’s never really a bad speaking opportunity. In designing your speaking program, you want to target the most likely potential customers in the desired geographic location.
  • Assign ownership of your speaking program – Designate one person in your organization to be in charge of finding speaking opps so it’s an active part or your marketing. It also makes it easier because your go-to person for speaking engagements will be more familiar with the application process and working with event coordinators.
  • Make a splash with your presentation – While speaking engagements can be a great way to market, you can also fall flat on your face if your presentation doesn’t grab your audience. Invest the time and, if necessary, the expense in making your speech captivating.
While it may take a bit to get your speaking program off the ground, it’s well worth it. Not only will you be able to market your company to the people you’re speaking to, but it provides a number of opportunities to publicize appearances-before and after-with press releases and links. But that’s a subject for another PR Pointer.

Speech! Speech! How giving speeches can win you business.Read More

Repurposing your press releases

Joe D'Eramo
Joe D'Eramo

(Editor’s note – Thanks to Joe D’Eramo who gave us permission to REPURPOSE this article.)

So, you want to get some publicity for your company’s latest product, new hire, move, whatever the topic. You put out a press release with the ultimate goal of getting some type of coverage. And while that type of free media is great, there are a number of other uses for a press release.

For starters, besides sending the release to media outlets, there are any number of free press release submission sites out there. For example, prfree.com. Submitting your release on these sites with a link back to your Web site can improve your place in the search engine rankings.

Speaking of rankings, by all means your press releases should go on your Web site’s news room. If you don’t have a newsroom, you should have one. It’s a great place to store press releases and any coverage you might get.

One more thing about press releases on your own Web site. Since releases are generally on a topic for which you want your company to be known, it’s a great opportunity to load up on keywords. That means the press release you send out to the media doesn’t necessarily have to be verbatim from the one you post on your site. You can load that one up with extra keywords and keyword phrases to improve your search engine rankings.

If you’re writing your press releases in a tone and format where a newspaper could easily run it verbatim, it’s quite easy to repurpose the news release for some other use. For example, a bylined article. All it takes is changing the format slightly—take the “For Immediate Release” dateline and boiler plate and you have the making of a short article suitable for a company newsletter or e-zine.

For companies that have their own blogs, news releases can also quite easily be converted to blog material. There are also dozens of free submission sites for articles. Again, if you link the article back to your company Web site, you have another vehicle for boosting your search engine rankings.

Ironically, you don’t have to repurpose the news release altogether to give it even more power. A press release makes an invaluable collateral piece, particularly if it’s informative in nature. It’s often a nice leave-behind piece for your sales force. You can even use it as a quasi company newsletter for your employees and your clients.

In fact, sending press releases to clients and employees is one underutilized way to get the full benefit of a press release. Employees certainly appreciate being kept in the loop. You’d be surprised how few companies keep their employees abreast of breaking news.

As for clients, it’s a perfect way to stay in touch in between newsletters, if you have one of those. It can almost act as a substitute for one if you don’t. A press release can remind your client base of not only of what you’re doing, but new or other services you offer that they might not know about.

Ideally, a press release gets you in the press. Repurposing your press release for other media gives you the most bang for your press release buck.

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Seven Deadly Business Clichés That Need to be Stopped

A green light to drawing traffic to your Web site

(Note: Larry Rice, Director of Business Development, for Rodman & Rodman, P.C. authored this topic. We thought PR Pointer readers would enjoy it.)

OK, it is January.  This is when we rid ourselves of old baggage and begin again. What is that phrase – “Out with the old and in with the new?”

Well I am going to focus on getting rid of the old this month.  Specifically, I would like to propose my list of seven business clichés that need to get kicked to the curb. If you see any that you use, don’t feel guilty. I use nearly all of these phrases myself. But it needs to be stopped, for a variety of reasons:

They sound pretentious; They don’t really mean anything; They no longer mean what they were originally intended to mean; and They’re annoying as hell.

I won’t bother putting these in some sort of order or ranking. Take them for what they are:  Overused clichés that need to take a two decade vacation, or longer.

#1 “Solution” – Everything everyone does these days is a solution, but is it really?  When someone provides you a solution, does it end up being the correct answer? That is what I think a solution is; it is an answer. Time for ‘solution’ to go.

#2 “Re-invented” – You cannot re-invent anything. See, I am already annoyed. Only one person or group gets to invent something. Everyone else is either changing that invention or improving it.

#3 “Just my 2 cents” – This one simply needs to be adjusted for inflation. We should at least be up to a buck and a quarter by now.

#4 “Organic growth” – Am I the only one who gets visions of unsightly molds when they hear this cliché used? I get so distracted by the visual I don’t hear a single thing said after that phrase is uttered. We cannot have that. Good bye.

#5 “At the end of the day” – This one has British roots I believe, but so does the English language so I am not blaming anyone from the United Kingdom for this one. All I know is that at the end of the day, you go home and that is what one should focus on – Heading home to your reason for working and building a business in the first place: Your family.

#6 “Thinking outside of the box” – I am sure someone knows the etymology of this phrase, and I admit I use this phrase a lot, but I am going to stop. Largely because I think there is a better word we should use more: Creativity. Just saying the word beckons more open thinking to me. Boxes? They should be recycled – end of story.

#7 “Throw him under the bus” – Last but not least is this classic.  You can thank me later – but some day you are going to be talking with someone important to your business that has actually had a loved one hit by a bus. You will be so thankful that “THUTB” was out of your cliché repertoire when you do.

So there they are. You have your own I am sure.  Think about the phrases you say a lot, maybe too much. Then find a new way of saying it.  If you catch me using these, confront me. I’ll appreciate it I assure you.

Footnote:
Larry Rice, Director of Business Development, for Rodman & Rodman. The company was founded in 1961, Rodman & Rodman, P.C. provides accounting, tax and business services to small and medium-sized companies throughout New England.  With a focus on strategic planning, Rodman & Rodman goes beyond traditional accounting services and takes a proactive approach when serving clients to increase, preserve and sustain clients’ financial net worth.  For more details, please see www.Rodmancpa.com.

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A Look at Social Media/Social Networking” presented by South Shore Ad Club

Because social Media and Social Networking are among the “hot” topics in our industries, you won’t want to miss the next South Shore Ad Club sponsored event.

 

What is Social Networking? How is it used in marketing? What are some of the useful tips and tools? These are the topics that will be covered at a Tuesday, January 13 panel discussion from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Granite Links Country Club in the Veranda Room, Quincy.

 

Brian Bram from Last Panda, a Cambridge Interactive Media Company, and Tom and Reiko Beach of TRB Design, Inc., video production/web marketing from Norwell, MA, will talk about the importance of Social Networking. In addition to how it is used in marketing and the tips and tools to make it effective, the panel will also focus on how to make it more successful with proper audience alignment and content voicing – as well as how to get started simply and inexpensively with an existing website.

 

 “Social Networking and Social Marketing is here to stay,” said Steve Dubin,” said Steve Dubin, owner of PR Works and member of the South Shore Ad Club’s board of directors. “As marketers, we need to make sure our websites and the strategies we use to market ourselves represent the very latest and very best in technology. This presentation will help streamline one’s understanding of the challenges, and benefits, of social networking and social marketing.”

 

The event will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, 6 p.m. at Granite Links Country Club’s Veranda Room, 100 Quarry Hills Drive, Quincy. The price of admission is $25 for non-members, $20 for members. Light refreshments will be served. Copywriters, graphic designers, Web designers, ad agencies, pr agencies, photographers, printers, typesetters, corporate communications professionals, marketing professionals, printers, videographers and all small businesses are welcome to attend.

 

To RSVP, please contact Colleen Jacobsen, Webster Printing Co., Inc., Hanson, Massachusetts at 781-447-5484 or e-mail colleen@websterprinting.com.  Payment for the event can be made online at www.southshoreadclub.com or you

can print out the registration form on the Web site and mail check, payable to “South Shore Ad Club,” to: South Shore Ad Club, 1069 West Washington Street, Hanson, MA  02341. Cash or checks will also be accepted at the door.

 

 

About the South Shore Ad Club

 

The South Shore Ad Club is a non-profit organization committed to the personal and professional development of communications professional located south of Boston. It’s the club’s mission to improve, strengthen and advance

career goals through learning and networking opportunities; and to serve as a resource for local and Boston-area businesses requiring marketing, advertising, public relations and/or communications services. For more information and membership rates, please visit the South Shore Ad Club’s Web site at www.southshoreadclub.com.

 

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It is that THANKING TIME OF YEAR.

 

In taking an ever so brief pause, here are THANKFUL thoughts:

Thanks for editors who return our calls.

Thanks for editors who don’t require us to call.

Thanks for coverage that is included online and can be repurposed.

Thanks for clients who respond to emails.

Thanks for online news sites that spider so well.

Thanks for online press lists that get us direct to the right editor.

Thanks for flights that take off on time. And land early.

Thanks for fast speed Internet connections at Panera Bread.

Thanks for networking groups that deliver new opportunities.

Thanks for BRIEF teleconference calls.

Thanks for recognition when deserved, criticism when needed.

Thanks for colleagues, clients and encounters that make us laugh.

Thanks for our families who tolerate our hours, moods and distractions.  

 

It is that THANKING TIME OF YEAR.Read More