Carson and Company

Update news. I’ll keep this short, as there isn’t much to say after I make my statement.

It was just over a year ago when I wrote about Google’s introduction of their WAVE concept. At the time, it was going to change how email and social media is used by business and consumers. The article I wrote titled: Is your PR  Marketing Strategy ready for the next “WAVE” was written in May 2009. Today, Google announced it was canceling the program by the end of this year.

Seems that even the people with all the money just can’t demand to change things if people are not willing to accept it. A lesson I hope was learned by Google. So what then happens to all these followers who jumped in? They will just have to go back to the old fashioned email programs that they have been using for the last 15 years.

So if you are a pr marketing person, or a pr client who thought this would change how we communicate, dust off that old email account and get back to business.

Everyone is offering his or her “secret” how to become a successful social media genius. If you are looking for a quick fix solution, or a one-step process to solve your pr marketing strategy problems, then you are not going to like the “TRUTH”.

The real secret to social media success is to start with a Plan. Yes, you need to plan your pr marketing strategy. Just like a road map, if you don’t have a solid plan, then you are doing a shotgun approach with your pr marketing strategy only to hope something will work. It will take time to build a good social media campaign. And it should not be alone; it should be part of your overall pr marketing strategy. That is another reason why companies fail.

Ford Motor Company has been one of the few major corporations to understand how to use social media. Many others are trying to follow their steps, but what they are missing is the plan that was set by Ford.

These are some of the real secrets to creating a successful social media campaign:

First, you need to realize that social media is NOT a marketing channel to push your message or products.

Second, you need to make social media engaging to your network of people.

Third, people will not respond until they build a trust with you and/or your company.

Fourth, it is not about the sale, but about developing relationships.

Fifth, you need to be active with people, where they frequent, sites they visit, etc.

Sixth, establish guideline. These are the guideline for your employees. You need to set how they should communicate about your company on their own blogs, twitter and facebook accounts. You cannot control what they say, but if your corporate culture is positive, then your employees’ communications will also be positive.

Social networks are growing and it is only becoming a path for what the future will be in terms of how we communicate. For example, there are many networks like “upcoming” and “SCRIB” besides Twitter and Facebook that your company should be involved with. Do you need help in getting a social network campaign to be part of your pr marketing strategy? If so, give George Carson, Carson Marketing, Inc., a call at 949-477-9400. It’s time to get serious and grow your company using these marketing efforts with your pr marketing strategy.

Recently our advertising company, Carson Marketing, Inc. was awarded two new accounts. They are: Yamaha Music Centers and Spa OTANI. Both pr clients understand the power of branding as a key ingredient for a successful marketing and advertising campaign. We presented our pr marketing strategies to these pr clients, and they quickly noticed how we incorporated the branding as an integral part of the overall advertising, marketing and publicity campaign.

Yamaha Music Centers are known worldwide and have the highest percentage of graduates who have become famous songwriters, musicians, and composers. Not all schools understand the Yamaha philosophy. That’s why the campaign we developed will further explain how children at a young age (from 18 months to 8 years) can improve their learning skills when music is part of their education. It is a fact that students who take music lessons have higher scores in math, and written skills. Carson Marketing, Inc. is now completing a new web site for the Yamaha Music Centers locations and creating various promotional, collateral materials for the schools. A publicity campaign is currently being developed as part of the complete branding program.

For the Spa, our company analyzed the current spa and found through research and a sampling focus study the former name (Spa Da Vinci) was not as appealing as once considered 8 years ago. Our client had recently acquired the company and was looking to increase its customer base. By changing the name (which our agency developed) to Spa OTANI and adding the tag line “Treat Your Body”  helped to establish the new spa as a place of enjoyment and relaxation. As part of our overall pr marketing strategy, we designed the logo for the new name, created a web site and developed all the sales materials for the spa. To further change the old image and to build a new branding image, we worked with the client by re-designing the interior rooms and selected new paint colors. A tie-in promotional campaign with hotels, and businesses is already in the works.

As you can see, sometimes branding could include a new name with a full image campaign or just a re-positioning of an existing name as in the case of Yamaha Music Centers. If your company isn’t sure of how to increase sales for the coming year, it might be time to contact George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc. (949-477-9400) and get his expert opinion as what is needed for your company.

Part of a publicity campaign includes someone to be appointed as the company spokesperson. Most pr clients do not take this seriously. By that I mean, pr clients think the media, or reporters should only call them when they are available. This is the first rule in What NOT to do! Make sure your pr marketing strategy includes this in the plan.

Ok, let’s go through a few tips as what a pr client should do to become a great spokesperson.

1- Make yourself available.  You, the client should be easily reached, and always be prepared to speak with the media. It might be a good idea to have an “elevator speech” ready so when the media calls, you can quickly tell your story.

2- Know that your main objective to get media exposure is to gain more visibility for your company. Don’t try to “sell” reporters. Instead, make your story relate to something of current interest. If you know the publication, or the media that is calling, make your story (or angle) relate to that industry.

3- Elevator speech.  As mentioned earlier, have at least two of these prepared. One will be a short intro about your company. The other is a summary of what you want to tell the media. It could be about a new product/service, expansion, new contract, etc. Just keep it short and interesting. The reporter will ask questions if your story is of interest.

4- Support facts. This is important. Having tangible facts to back up your claims will show reporters you are knowledgeable of how your products improve customer’s daily lives, or how it helps businesses become more efficient.

5- Have your publicity professional outline a few of what are called “difficult questions”. By practicing the answers to these questions, you will feel more comfortable when asked.

6- Reference cards. You never know when a reporter will contact you. So in order to be prepared, have all the information I discussed on reference cards. This will keep you from trying to remember what to say, or how to handle those challenging questions.

These are just a few tips on how to become a great spokesperson with the media. If you need further coaching, give George Carson a call at Carson Marketing, Inc. 949-477-9400.

It’s great to see when competition helps to change the Internet landscape. Since Twitter became an overnight smash, the big SEO’s like Google, and Yahoo are now learning their “searches” need to be more targeted. This is good news when developing pr marketing strategies, or a marketing and advertising plan. Have you checked out some of the new features that Google has added? If not, it is worth it.

Basically, you can now get more indepth info rather than surfing hundreds of  web pages. The new feature, listed near the top and next to the word “Web” is called Options. This neat feature will give you more options for your search. Such as, videos, forums, results in the past 24 hours, or up to a year ago. Then there is the wonder wheel. This is a circle with spokes that give you further areas to review and develop your pr marketing strategy. Let’s say you type the word “encryption”. With the Wonder Wheel, it gives you options that read: encryption samples, history of encryption, java encryption, and several others. If you don’t want all of these “options” you can click “hide options” and it brings you back to the normal Google search of web sites.

A writer pointed out that even Facebook is looking to Twitter to see how they can improve their pages to be more real time and usable. A WebProNews Blog Partner, Bill Hartz, commented “From what I am seeing, the ’search engine optimization’ industry is actually turning back around to what it used to be: good old fashioned website marketing.” This again is good news. Search was getting confusing, because the way you received results was ovewhelming. Now the SEO’s are answering our needs, finally.

I have said this in past blogs, we are just starting to open the door of the Internet Future. Who knows what we will be saying and using in the next 12 months. I don’t know about you, but I sure am looking forward to this new passage.

Just when the advertisng community thinks their pr clients have a good pr marketing strategy, it gets hit  with this comment: “Center Store Is Back!“. That’s a statement by a research company about the retail food stores that the center area is now becoming good prime advertising, again.

Wow, didn’t these bright people notice this before? Seems like the food makers (advertisers) or is it the marketers (ad people) are just now discovering this new arena. To no surprise, it has been going this way for about 8 months or more. But then, when you are a large company (doesn’t matter if an agency or food maker) they all take a long time to realize what is in front of their nose.

Then when I read a statement like, “This is the time to advertise. We are going to innovate” by a self-proclaimed supermarket guru named Phil Lampert, I can’t help wonder who is this guy? Was he asleep all these months? But then, when you proclaim yourself with a title as his, I guess no one listens, or if they do, they too are always behind the growth curve.

Why is it that a pr client will not listen to us smaller pr marketing people who have the insight and capability to move faster than the snails pace like the major pr and ad firms? I guess when you pay the high fees you have to believe these are the smart ones. Wrong! They are the onses who finally listen to the real movers and shakers. It’s us, the proactive marketers and pr consultants who are seeing and working with programs and campaigns that get noticed. We can change directions quickly and become proactive rather than re-active. Maybe we should charge more for our services, but then again, I’d rather be the leader of a marketing direction than be another follower. What’s your take on this?

In this tough economy it is necessary to keep your potential customers at your site and convert them to buyers. This pr marketing strategy is a must for you to have a successful eCommerce web site. So how do you do this? It all begins with Optimization. Yes, that word keeps popping up, but this time, I will provide you some pr marketing strategy tips to spot if your site is well optimized or if it is time to re-design the site and optimize it.

To understand the right way, you need to know the “failure” signs of a poor web site. For example here is a short list of what a poor failing web site contains:

1- Poor Copy. Too often the copy talks about too many things, and is not focused on how your site, or the products will benefit your customers.

2- Difficult to navigate. If you have visited a site and thought how poorly it was to find things, or navigate, then use this to really see if your site falls in this category.

3- Difficult to find items. Many web sites try to pack as much products into their site, only to get the visitor lost and confused as what to buy. Keep your products limited to a few, or to a specific category.

4- Broken links to web pages. This happens too often. It will also cause you to get poor ranking on the search engines. Check all your links, make sure they work, and if you have links to other sites, make sure they work as well.

5- Poor design. This should be at the top. If your site is too busy, or lacks interest, then you need to re-design the site to be more pleasing for visitors.

6- Contact Information. Again, this important area is one of the main causes of people moving on from your site. If visitors have questions, or want to contact you, give them an easy email, phone number, or form for them to get in touch. People want to know you are real, so don’t provide a “yahoo” email account, or a PO Box for an address.

These are just a few of the pr marketing strategies that you can do to improve the conversion rate of visitors to your web site. If you want a FREE analysis of your web site, give Carson Marketing a call. We will give you FREE tips on how to improve your site. Or you can keep going on as usual and watch your competitors take all the business from you.

Whenever you can use a top name to endorse your product/service that is associated within the industry your pr client serves, then do it! That’s exactly what we did. When planning our pr marketing strategy rather than hire a spokesperson like an athlete, or movie star, we choose to have one of the nations recognized guru’s in the tech industry endorse our pr clients product– SkyLOCK At-Rest encryption software. Leo Laporte, the TECH GUY, is highly visible, and he only endorses products that work!

Our client, Encryption Solutions, Inc. developed the encryption software. The SkyLOCK At-Rest product is NIST/FIPS Certified encryption at 140-2, level 2 at 256 bits, HIPAA Compliant, and DAR approved. That may sound like a lot, and believe me it is. This stuff really works, and is used by the military and the US government. It is so powerful, that it is restricted to be sold to certain countries. Now that’s security at it’s best!

So when we wanted to make this available to everyone, we could only think of one way to publicize the product, use Leo Laporte. When he tried the software, he quickly learned how powerful and easy it was to use. ” I am encrypting everything now…hackers can never, ever, ever access your data…even if you email it through an unsecured system,” commented Leo. When we heard that, it was a natural for my pr client to run radio spots on his Saturday show (11 AM to 2 PM) the local KFI radio station (640 AM) in LA. You can also hear Leo on his Tech Guy Labs web site. To further prove that this is the best encryption software; our pr client is allowing consumers to download a FREE 30-Day Trial. Just go to www.skylockesi.com for a Free Trail. Then if you like it and see how easy it is to install and use, you might just want to let your friends know so they too can protect their data. One more thing, if your laptop is ever stolen, your data is protected. No hacker can crack this encryption software.

So if your pr client has a product or service that is truly great and meets the needs of today’s consumers or businesses, think of the best way to jump-start your pr marketing campaign. Think of someone that is visible, believable, and will endorse the product. Need help; call George Carson today for a free consultation about your pr marketing strategy needs.

Carson Marketing, Inc. was recently selected by Encryption Solutions, Inc (a pr client) to develop a user-friendly web site for their B2Consumer campaign. As part of the overall pr marketing strategy, we began the branding campaign with the design of the logo for the name SkyLOCK. Then we created the web site. The pr marketing strategy for the web site was to make it consumer friendly. The navigation as well as the information was written to help the consumer make the right choice for their encryption needs. This included a useful comparison chart on the products page.

The header area changes scenes with the words that show different people using their computers in different environments, letting the consumer know that your data can be hacked anytime, by anyone. Even if your laptop, or desktop were stolen, the SkyLOCK encryption will protect the computers data from any situation.

The branding campaign for the pr client will consist of blogging, social networking, and a local media broadcast campaign. We plan to launch the various pr marketing strategies within the next 10 days. The campaign will run for26 weeks, and will expand to various markets.

If your company needs a branding campaign, or a new branding approach, give George Carson a call at 949-477-9400. It could be the best investment to get your company ahead of the competition in today’s market.

It isn’t until after a press release, or an article is published, you then see the results of your pr marketing strategies take place. Well, have you thought about all the publicity in the news these past few months? Such as the financial markets, the auto industry and retailers?

Publicity is everywhere! That’s what I have professed for over a decade. As we all read about how bad something is, we tend to shy away from them. So let’s talk about the auto industry. The big three–GM, Chrysler and Ford. The negative pr these companies have had is going to hurt FUTURE sales. Yeah, they are having great deals on cars, trucks and SUV’s. But now people hear about them going broke, or having serious financial trouble. Would you consider buying from any of them? I don’t think so. Why? Because if you need a part in four years, or have trouble with the vehicle, you begin to ask…will they be there to help? Will the dealership I bought from be around anymore? A recent article in Media Post gets deeper into this topic discussing a survey to illustrate this point. Service is a major concern with any product. That too is what causes the slowdown on many retailers. Why buy from them, if they are closing?

What all this negative publicity does is help the competition. Again, look at the auto industry. Sales are going to increase for all the imports. Not just because they build better vehicles, or are price competitive. It’s because there hasn’t been negative publicity about any of the better known imports having financial problems. At least we do not hear about them like we do with the domestic auto companies.

This also applies to the banking industry, and retailers. If your company is in a good position, financially, then consider creating a “positive publicity campaign”. This is when branding should be a major part of your pr marketing strategy. This window of opportunity is now open, take the leap. Just make sure you work with a professional publicity company to help guide you through this timely event.