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Archive for April of 2006
April 24, 2006
If you're anything like me, you've probably seen thousands of
stories on the news, or read about them in the paper, that made
you think, "Don't they have anything better to cover?"
The truth is, the media probably only covered those questionable
stories because someone suggested it to them. The question is, do
you have a better story for them? Because if you do, that could
mean tons of free publicity for you.
The trick to getting free media publicity is in the presentation.
Here are a few common angles to take on your idea:
New ideas and technologies - Do you offer a product or service
that makes peoples' lives easier or more convenient? Think of an
angle along the lines of convenience that came with credit card
gas pumps, email take-out, and convenience store/chain
restaurants.
Follow-ups - If you see a news story or article about a product
or service similar to yours, call the reporter who did the story
and offer another angle or a follow-up. The first story could be
for people who want to learn more.
Try Piggybacking - This means you put a fresh twist on something
already in the news. You can piggyback on news items, trends,
holidays, community events, any hot news item on which you can
supply a new angle--one that promotes you!
Posted in Press Releases
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April 24, 2006
There are several way you may become more confident in your business one of them is to role play. Being confident is probably the most important quality a business person can have.
The more confident you are, the more sales you will close. Role-playing is an easy and effective way to help salespeople build their confidence. It gives salespeople the opportunity to learn new information, test their selling skills, and try different approaches. Try splitting your role-playing session into two parts. After the first session, have a brief discussion of what the observers saw. Then do the same role-play again, then discuss. Usually your second attempt will be much better.
Use a camcorder to record each role-play to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your sessions. Often it is easier to see both the mistakes that were made and what was done well when you are watching it yourself. Later, you will have a library of sessions you can go back on and see your improvement. Selling can be a difficult process. Customers judge you and compare you to the competition. Many companies use sales training to improve their odds, but no training program would be complete without practice sessions.
One of the ways to get the sales training you need is from an excellent online training course that I use and recomend for the people I work with. Take a look at www.barefootmentor.com This is the most complete hands on training I have found to increase confidence and your marketing skills on the net.
Posted in Marketing Mindset | Motivation Tools
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April 24, 2006
Here is an excellent article about press releases... so you say why would I need to do a press release? The answer is simple... if you are in marketing or sales you should be doing press releases. Anytime you are starting a business or new campaign you should announce it through a press release. If you have a new product or service you are offering announce it through a press release. I look at press releases as marketing 101. Enough said, learn from a master at press releases, here is the article in his own words. Read and Learn...
By:Dr.Kevin Nunley
I'm a big believer in EMAILING press releases. Not only is email
dirt cheap, email can often get you in front of editors a lot
faster than regular mail or fax.
Here's why. Media outlets like radio stations, TV stations, and
newspapers get a TON of press releases. During my 20 years
working in radio and TV, we got bag loads of mailed press
releases every day.
Probably 90 percent of them came from politicians and local
college athletic programs. Their publicity people are told to
send out a release several times a week--whether they have any
real news to tell or not. Consequently, media get a release
every time a congress person helps someone or an athletic field
house gets a new folding chair.
Are these mailed press releases ignored? You bet they are.
Most go straight from the mail bag to the trash. Who has time to
open 150 envelopes when most of them are pushing some story you
will never be able to use? I know I'll get some notes from
media workers who will say "WE don't do it that way at our
place." And you can be sure a few news rooms are very organized
about opening, reading, filing, and using releases.
Faxed releases work better, but not that much better given the
expense. I worked at one station where the manager got tired of
the fax machine burning up cartridges printing releases. Faxed
releases were routed to the receptionist's computer where she
deleted them.
At another media outlet, faxes, ads, and all the other things
that get faxed spilled out on the floor. Some were read, others
were used for scratch paper, and most were trampled on until
somebody bundled them into the trash.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE! If nobody is reading press releases, why do
studies claim that 75% of the stories you read in newspapers
originate from press releases?
The answer lies in email. Email makes it easy to receive a
release, forward it to the staff person who covers that
particular topic, then store the release in an email "futures"
file where it can be pulled up as needed.
It's incredibly easy for newspaper people to import the email
release into their writing program, change the headline, tweak a
few things, and run it as a story. Editors don't like to admit
they do this, but we've seen big city newspapers run our releases
as articles with very few changes.
You can't blame journalists for doing this. Media outlets
have cut staffs over and over again during the past 15 years.
One person now does the work of three staffers.
Here are some tips for making your emailed release the starting
point for a media report:
1. Start your subject line with RELEASE. Then follow with the
most newsworthy/titillating part of your story.
2. Make your headline the first thing in the body of your email.
I like to use two headlines, the second adding more information
the first didn't have room to mention. The media person should
be able to tell what your release is about just by reading the
headlines.
3. Include your contact information after the body of the
release. This is becoming the standard way to do things on the
Net. Journalists are now used to looking at the bottom for
contact info.
4. Keep your release under 400 words. Make sure you have good
information the media audience wants, otherwise you don't stand a
chance of getting coverage.
5. Take time to send your release to your local media. They are
more likely to use your story than out-of-town media. You
can find their email addresses by searching for their sites on
search engines.
6. Send your release to trade publications covering your field.
Even small developments can be of big interest to others in your
line of work. One photographer client sent her release to
photographic magazines and got coverage in almost every one.
7. Go national. Get the Gebbie Media Guide at Gebbie.com. It's
affordable and reliable.
Posted in Marketing Strategies
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April 06, 2006
Today was the last day of University of Veretekk. Are you a graduate? If so you are probably seeing some awesome results in your search engine rankings. I'm sorry I didn't get this recording up sooner. I tried to post it yesterday and had the whole thing written and ready to post... about that time blogger decided it was time to do some maintence on the blogger system. Oh well here it is.. better late than never.
Day 15 University of Veretekk RECORDING
In this last class Tom reviews everything he taught in all of the University of Veretekk classes. He discusses keyword research and has some of his students show their listings at the top of google. Another really good training tool in this recording is a PDF that explains daisy chaining for new people using a Veretekk Silver account. If I were you I would at listen and print off/ save the PDF file.. I know I have already used the PDF to help explain the daisy chaining process using 1-family classifieds.
Thanks again to Tom Prendergast for these great training sessions! Next week Tom will be starting a new series of classes that will cover writing email's, autoresponders, and I would imagine will teach us all the benefits of the new Veremail 2.
Posted in University of Veretekk
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