Carson and Company

Learn how to create an effective email campaign.

Advertising agencies and publicity firms do not understand fully how to help pr clients with their email marketing. That’s because they have not taken the time to learn the new rules of cyber marketing. Anyone can send an email. And yes, I am sure you get a lot of junk mail. It is estimated that business people receive over 300 emails per week (a low average I would guess), and of that, 62% is junk email.

PR Clients should understand that potential customers could open their messages as well as existing customers when the proper use of email marketing is performed. Several topics exist on this subject. And if you Google the term “email marketing”, you will get 415 million results to search through. Instead of struggling through all this, you can start with a company called Elite Marketing. I don’t know this company personally, but know of them. The company’s site offers a lot of great information to point your email campaign in the right direction.

Publicity is everywhere, that’s what I profess all the time. Email is part of publicity. If you are a pr client, or a publicity company creating pr campaigns, be sure to use the proper ways to implement an effective email program.

A few tips for a successful eMail Campaign. These and more tips can be found in the Elite Email site.

1- The Subject Line. This is most poorly worded section. Yet, it is the most important because the “subject’ is how people decide if the email has any value to them.

2-Keep it short. Long explanations in the subject are not good. Keep the description short. And to the point.

3- Overly Exaggerated Subjects Doesn’t Fool Anyone. For example, don’t make claims that people know are false, such as “we can make your dreams come true”. Be honest and direct. Your email will have a better chance of being read.

4- Have a call to action. Be sure to give a reason for the reader to contact your company. Sometimes it can be through a “coupon” campaign, or a special offer at the end of the message.

There are dozens of tips you can find on the site mentioned and as well as other sites. So take the time to make sure your subject and the message are well written. Have a pr professional or copywriter help construct the message. Email is part of a pr marketing strategy. Use it wisely and your pr clients will results.

If you need additional help with your pr marketing, we offer FREE advice. Contact George Carson, or visit our web site, Carson Marketing Inc.

Few CEO’s, and presidents will admit that they get sidetracked when growing their company. This can cause negative branding as well as losses. Usually a weak pr marketing strategy or none is in place when this happens.

What is the answer? Keep the focus on your core products and services that are offered. As companies grow, they tend to diverse into other areas to expand their market reach or to increase profits. What happens typically, a company will either purchase smaller competitors or find “similar” products to market. If the strategy is to become more diversified within the company, then the direction the CEO and president had initially intended to grow the company, soon gets lost.

Having a strong pr marketing strategy is important. Connected with any pr marketing strategy is the branding of your company and/or the products you offer. A recent article in Brandweek illustrates this topic that discusses how Heinz made a turnaround to become more profitable. A man named Nelson Peltz had to re-direct the companies products and begin to focus on those that were the core to the company’s future. By increasing spending on marketing the company will gain the awareness to have a successful pr marketing strategy tied into higher profit core products. Peltz is known for his turnaround at Snapple, so he is both liked and hated by various leaders in the industry because he strategizes for what makes a company survive rather than be an executive with blinders.

We are in an age of branding. It is now more important to understand how to create a branding campaign along with a strong pr marketing strategy. Together these can be powerful when implemented correctly. If you need to increase your brand identity, then start now, not later. If you need help, give George Carson a call at Carson Marketing, Inc. You will be pleased with the results when you become one of his clients.

Publicity is Everywhere Series- “Follow-ups”

Almost all companies, including PR Clients, advertising agencies and  major manufacturers do not make follow-up calls to exisitng customers. Why? Because sales people are too busy making calls to “potential”, or new customers. Usually it is considered a sure account when a customer is already buying from your company.

That type of thinking is what causes PR Clients to fall and loose profits. Stop for a minute and think about that. If you, as a pr client, or any company has the sales team always calling “new and potential” customers, who are they calling? It is your competitors customers, right? Well, then wouldn’t you think they (competitors) are calling YOUR customers as well! Why not have your sales team use some pr marketing strategies and other publicity tactics that are a sure fire winner. One of those tactics is called “follow-up calls”. Simple, isn’t it? Consider yourself being the customer. Or better yet, isn’t it great when a vendor calls just to see if everything they are doing is working for you.

Makes you feel good about them because they took the time to be interested in your company. This simple form of publicity can gain you favorable and positive rewards with clients. We try to remind our pr clients that they can increase sales by staying in close communication with existing customers. Why wait until you get a letter of cancelation from them to make a call. Or find out later that your competitor is gaining a tight relationship with the new buyer.

If you don’t believe me, then go to an expert in the communication field who speaks of this exact topic. His name is Ari Galper. His company is called Unlock The Game. Ari has many different topics to help companies look beyond their traditional work habits and change their thinking to be more proactive.

After you listen to a few of his topics, then give us a call. We can then help you with the marketing, publicity and promotional programs to make great things happen for your company.

It is the effectiveness to develop a plan that will grow, or increase a company’s revenue. Simple, right?

Not sure what this means? That’s ok, because every marketing expert and every marketing consultant will define marketing strategies in their own words. It still remains the same. Marketing Strategies are the campaign elements you create then implement that will build a business.

If you want to get more detailed, go to the advanced marketing consultants site. There it explains, in a lot of words, that by using just three marketing strategies you can build up to 101 strategies. Isn’t that great! OK, maybe it is a bit too much. Having all that information is ok, but who is going to develop this great plan, and then who is going to maintain and implement that plan? If you don’t have anyone in your company that knows how marketing strategies work, then call in an expert. Just don’t go through the yellow pages to find one. because it is like finding a doctor, or mechanic…there are hundreds to choose from. Contact someone in your industry and ask who they may have used. If that doesn’t work, give us a call. We are unbiased, yet have the expertise to get you in the right direction.

It is a win, win situation. We are marketing strategy experts who know how to combine all your publicity and advertising campaigns into a strong image branding campaign. We can show you how to save money, reduce wasted time and efforts with campaign elements that are not necessary, and show you how to increase awareness while increasing sales. Is it that simple, you ask? No, it isn’t. We just make it seem that way, because we use our 30+ years working with top accounts and apply the core elements you need to get back on track which will make your company profitable.

Start a PR Marketing Strategy Program today. It can be the beginning of a positive year unless you wait until your competition jumps ahead of you. It’s your decision.

It’s not graffiti anymore, it’s pr

When you first hear or read the word TAGGING, you probably think of taggers who do graffiti on the walls. Well, think publicity and then think Internet, now you’re getting closer to tagging in today’s terms.

It is the linking of web sites. This old term is what describes how we use links to each other sites making search engines locate us faster.

It seems that this "linking" has been around in the earlier days of the Internet. Spammers were probably using this technique of marketing and when we were all hit hard with spam, search engines became more intelligent by counter acting their tactics.

You or your web designer, programmers often use tagging with your site. You have heard the words meta tags, keywords, right? Well, that is a form of tagging.

When a company wants to optimize your web site, this is one of the tagging areas that are often refined.

If you are in publicity and think this stuff is too deep in conversation and you don’t have an IT person, then use this handy tool for creating links. It is Yahoo’s Del.iclo.us. This is a tool bar that you can download from Yahoo’s site.

Tagging can help your publicity in many ways. For example, tagging can be done with pictures that are in your press release (which should be in your pressroom’s web site), or online video. Many sites have this available such as Yahoo 360, or Technorati’s blog that addresses tagging.

Publicity campaigns are no longer a list of releases or articles; it is your web site and making it SEO friendly with tagging, as well as other unique optimizing tricks. But that’s another subject.

See Also

• Create a powerful Web Site with Tagging
  Publicity needs to be tagged

YouTube and Google

Google likes being in the news and takes a lot of chances. But that is one of their marketing strategies, to keep in front of the computer user public.

I have read many articles lately about the purchase of YouTube by Google. Some good, some are not.

One interesting viewpoint was by Bill Wise of Did-It, a search marketing agency.

He tells us that Google could have made a blunder in the $1.6 billion purchase. Bill gives three reasons for his theory:

• YouTube is still young and in a market that has attracted a young audience and still hasn’t turned a profit
• YouTube has only 65 employees compared to Google with 8,000 and MySpace with 300
• Last is the legal issues that YouTube and Google are facing with copyright infringement

No matter your perspective, Google will win in the long run. It is possible that YouTube could be a short lived fad, or be taken over (in the market share) by Microsoft’s version (Soapbox), or other networks like CBS allowing downloads of shows and who knows, maybe videos. What Google is gaining is a lot of Publicity. You cannot pick up a publication, newspaper or watch TV, listen to radio without hearing something about this acquisition.

So the question remains, Is google creating a major publicity campaign around YouTube? If so, I think they will get back their investment just by the fact that many new people will now be attracted to YouTube and be exposed to the advertisers that Google hopes to reap the profits from. I’m also sure that Google learned it’s lesson with the failure of the ad venture, GooglePrint. Maybe they can apply the right marketing with this new venture.

See Also

• How to get more publicity
  Marketing is part of the secret

Where do you start?

In order to build a successful branding program for a company name, or a product requires several steps. To begin, you need to make sure you have a plan in place.

Branding is more than plastering your name on ads, flyers, or on your web site. It is more than running a bunch of radio or TV spots. Yes, this will get your company noticed, but only for the period of the media schedule.

It starts within the company. It is the culture that is developed. Some people mix their branding with a company’s "mission statement", or their company philosophy. These are separate and need to remain separate. Building a brand takes time. Some company’s are impatient and cannot wait the few months it takes to gain recognition, so they spend a lot of money on various media to get the word out.

This will help jump start any branding campaign, but it is short lived. You need to have a consistent plan that is more than a one shot campaign. I could go on to explain this further, but it will only become a long blog. <a href="http://www.technorati.com/claim/uwjgsy8u4d" rel="me">Technorati Profile</a>My point in writing this is to help pr clients realize that branding should be a very important part of your business plan and should be implemented in order to compete in today’s market.

If your company needs some guidance in developing a branding campaign, please give us a call. Our free consultation can show you how to incorporate a successful branding campaign into your company.

See Also

• How to create a succcessful brand
  You need to create a positive business culture

Know what you are doing first

Everyone who builds a web site claims to know optimizing. The same is true about those small startups saying they can get you listed at the top of SE’s (Search Engines). How is this relating to publicity? Because “Publicity is Everywhere!” If you direct the media to your site, but they forget the URL, they probably will type specific keywords in the SE to locate the web site.

Ok, first let me say not all these companies are out to make a fast buck. But it appears that most of them are selling software or just doing a blast listing to all the SE’s out there. How can these really help? Well, you won’t see any progress for weeks, maybe a couple of months at best. That’s how they get your money and then you just shake off that bad experience when nothing happens and your still listed 348 on Google, or Yahoo.

Web Site Optimization is more than placing a bunch of keywords into the HTML of your site. It isn’t the key phrase either. Because if you do this incorrectly, the search engines will pass you by!

The keywords you selected…how did you find them? If these are the most popular, then you are going to get zero traffic for a long time. Knowing which are the best keywords and what people are using is completely different. Plus, using multiple words can be even more productive and generate traffic. Ok, stop for a moment. Is traffic what you want? I hope not. Because I can get you thousands of people a month easily, but they won’t be qualified to purchase your products or services.

Qualified buyers are what you need. The number of visitors is important, if they are qualified. Keep that in perspective. We can give you the optimization to get listed at the top of Google, Yahoo and MSN among other search engines.

See Also

• Use an expet to get optimization
  This will get positive results

How to get productive in pr

I am sure that the word "optimize" is overused, over said, and most likely is more than overdue. How can it be overdue? When it relates to publicity. Such things as press releases, or articles for the media all should be optimized for maximum exposure.

The Internet has re-born how we write press releases and how they are distributed. Just as know that a web site needs to be optimized, so do your press releases.

There are a lot of articles that help people learn what to do to optimize their web site. One for example by Yaro Stark gives his 10 tips for web site optimization.

Many of the same optimizing tips for web sites apply to press releases. Let’s look at a few of them:

• Title Tags. Make sure your title has the important words that best describe your release.
• Keyword density. Use your keywords and any phrases wisley, don’t repeat them too often. Your text should read clearly, not like a book on all your keywords.
• Structure. Keep the structure simple. Unlike a hard copy, an Internet media release should follow the traditional rules for online publishing.
• Links. Yes, with those allowing to use HTML, use links properly and that will help SEO’s find your site faster as well as the media.
• Contact Info. Without this, the reporters cannot waste time locating the person to interview or ask questions. Make sure all contact information is easily noticed.

If you need more help with the web site or press release optimizing, give us a call. We can make things happen for you. Call us at: 949-477-9400.

See Also

• Press release optimizing
  Make your releases get noticed

Publicity is everywhere series

The term "tagging" is now part of the Internet culture. No longer is it reserved for the graffiti on walls or buildings that we see everyday.

This type of tagging is more accepted. Just like the graffiti taggers are sending a message, the Internet tagging craze is how we title messages. It can become an excellent publicity and marketing tool when used correctly.

So how does this become publicity related? Publicity is everywhere.

Public Relations professionals should be more than aware that everything around us is connected to pr and pr clients. It is all communication. No matter the source or the media outlet used, when we communicate, we are expressing some type of publicity. Reporters are always looking for a story. Publicists are always looking for an angle. So why do so many pr professionals and pr clients close their eyes to new technology? Maybe because we have grown too lax by using the same marketing and publicity tools that we tend to not want to "learn" how to change these habits.

You cannot turn away and think that social networks like MySpace, Friendster, or YouTube are just fads. These social networks are changing the way we communicate. It is a new era that will mold the next movement with the Internet. PR Firms need to stay on-board to see how this form of communication affects the world of publicity.

It is important that we don’t ignore this fast moving network. It can be a publicity source for your pr clients or for your products.

See Also

• How to use the media for Publicity
  Tagging is a social network pr opportunity