Carson and Company

Publicity in Orange County doesn’t really get as much recognition for those pr agencies, pr clients as it should. For example, we recently were awarded the complete publicity, marketing and advertising for Azzurro Wheels based in St Charles, Illinois. The company, not being a major consumer product, makes Publicity in Orange County for our company limited to only pr clients that are national in the sense of name recognition, not national in scope.

The new client, which sells to the go-kart industry, manufactures different racing wheels for indoor and outside tracks for go-karts. Not a big impact for the general awareness, but big enough in the karting industry.

We began the campaign by developing a theme “Simply The Finest. Period.” with a new fractional page ad. This is being enhanced with a web marketing plan to get more customers to visit the web site. We also created the company’s web site. In addition, we will be doing press releases, publicity press kits, negotiate pr articles, and will be responsible for all the marketing and advertising materials for the company.

When someone mentions the words “Publicity in Orange County” you think of only a few companies. That’s even true with Ad Agencies. Why? Those few get press becasue they may work with a larger, nationally known branded company.  Yet, many successful publicity and advertising agencies are in Orange County. There are different organizations and clubs that pr clients, pr agencies, and ad agencies can join. One for example is the OC Ad Club. Another, for those in publicity in Orange County you can join the Orange County Public Relations Society of America (OCPRSA).

Get Visitors To trust You

Sounds like a great idea to get visitors to trust you and your company, right? Not as easy as you might think. But when you see the list to getting trust, you will think, "hey, I already know this stuff". If so, then why haven’t you incorporated that into your publicity campaign, your web site and all the means of communication you now do for your company.

Pr Clients, public relations specialists know and use trust in the campaigns they develop. Now it’s time you implement these tips. Before you toss out the "easy tips" make sure you add those you are not already using.

1- Do you have a phone and contact info on the web site?
Right, you already have that, but is it easy for customers to find the contact info?

2- If you are doing any consumer marketing, consider registering the site with BBB and TrustE.org. These are recognizable non-profit organizations that can give your company that seal of approval in customers eyes.

3- Is your ABOUT US page current? Not everyone thinks of updating their site, especially this page. It is the first place most potential customers will visit to learn about you.

4- Press Room. Make sure you write press releases and place them into your press room on the web site. This also means anything of importance like, new people in the company, or civic events that your company helps to sponsor, etc.

5- Offer Refunds, and guarantees. Most people may not use these even if someting isn’t what they want, but it gives your site credibility and that feeling of TRUST.

These are but a few tips to make your web site more trustworthy by customers. To learn how your site can get more consumer friendly, give us a call.

See Also

• How to gain trust
  Your web site is your sales person, give it personality

Make your web site a publicity magnet

Do you currently have a web site? Is it attracting clients? What about the media?

If you are ready to launch a new web site, or about to modify your existing site, you need to do these things first!
What I am about to explain, is based on your site being SEO friendly. That means it has been optimized correctly, the use of flash is correctly displayed and that your site is NOT built with frames. Optimizing a site is more than placing a bunch of keywords into your HTML or in your main text. If you are not sure if the site you are about to launch, contact a company who understands web marketing to help you increase the traffic and publicity attention your company needs.

INCOMING LINKS
You have heard this many times before, but building external links is still a high priority with all the major search engines. Make sure the links you setup are with those who have a Page Rank in excess of 3/10.

PRESS RELEASES
I can’t stress enough that this section of your site can be a main channel to the media. Your site should include a "press room". In this area you should place all your press releases that are optimized. Yes, even press releases, articles and short stories about the company need to be optimized. If not, then your pressroom is only another page. Also, be sure to submit the releases to all the appropriate online media. If you need help with your publicity, hire a company that can help you.

PURCHASE TEXT LINKS
Yes, there are times that you need to make some purchases to get the site in a high position and to attract clients/customers. Be wise in your purchase. One company that can help is called text link ads.

LINK EXCHANGE
Another excellent marketing tip. Be sure to get as many relevant links exchanged. Make sure these are companies in your related industry.

BLOG SITE
I cannot say this enough times. A blog "company" site, or a blog site from the CEO, President, or other noteworthy person in your company can be another excellent marketing tool. It does require daily attention. This can be done with the assistance of other staff members of the company that the author can then review the blogs prior to posting.

Want more leads, more traffic? Try these tips and if you really want to jump start a Publicity program, give us a call.

See Also

• Web Marketing for Publicity Awareness
  How to attract the media with your web site

Start with your web site

Everyone knows that journalists are constantly on tight deadlines. In order for them to do a good job, they need to get the information fast and easily.

Your web site should have a pressroom that showcases all the releases, media fact sheet, personnel profiles, among other important media information. Your online pressroom makes it easy for even the sales team to direct clients and potential clients to see how the media views the company.

Yes, I did say the sales team. What pr clients and pr professionals need to do is work together. Everyone in the company, from the front office person to the warehouse and shippers, need to work together. They all contribute to the culture of the company, which in general is your branding. But that’s another subject.

Let’s get back to the pressroom.

If you feel that you don’t have anything to put in the pressroom, then it’s time to have a meeting with the sales people, the marketing staff and the publicity members. Bringing everyone together to contribute to this can be rewarding. It can also get out-of-hand. So a clear agenda needs to be in place for the meeting to adhere to.

I saw a blog on PowerPR’s site that discussed working in groups. This is kinda like that idea. In his blog, they speak of brainstorming. Well, if that’s what it takes, then go for it!

If you need some help in developing a brainstorming session, then read this article in Business Week to help inspire your team. Thanks again to PowerPR for this tip.

See Also

• Build an online pressroom for the media
  Give your company an awareness

The Media Will Listen If You Speak

We have already accepted that everyone wants to build traffic to his or her site. Publicity people want the media to visit the site. And the marketing/sales staff wants the site to sell more products. So what’s the answer? How about a talking head?

Sounds silly, but if you haven’t looked into this unique talking head add-on, then check it out. The web site is called SitePal.

I’m not a rep for them, nor do I get any commissions, I want you to know of this neat add-on for your web site. Marketing people will probably like it, publicity people will not be sure how to use it. If that’s your problem, then it’s time you put on the creative thinking cap.

Imagine this. The "press room" on the web site introduces the visitor to the different articles and the press releases about the company. Now you have a talking head that will capture the attention of the visitor and they will more likely listen and then download the press kit and other information. This can be a clever tool for publicity professionals or pr clients who feel that the words they write can be more powerful if only the visitor could “hear” them rather than read them. Just a suggestion.

An important note: you don’t go overboard using this feature. Just like creating a PowerPoint presentation, you shouldn’t use all the different slide techniques and effects in a presentation; here too you need to restrain yourself from using this feature too much.

See Also

• Get Noticed With Creative Web Tools
  Publicity can now speak to the media

Your web site colors can affect your image

Publicity and your web site have a lot in common. Colors, which is my topic for this blog, have a common thread. They both cause you to react.

Choosing the right colors for your site can be critical, depending on the business your web site is in. Be sure to not use too many colors, instead, select a color that is your base and build upon from that.

And you want to make sure the colors you use don’t clash with each other.

All this relates to publicity as well. You wouldn’t type or produce a press release in five or six different colors. For example, the headline in orange, the sub-head in blue, the text in black, the contact info in green, and closing sentence in bright red.

Well, a web site is like a press release or article. You want the viewer to read the information, spend time on the site and above all have a pleasant experience to want to come back again.

Here are some colors and how they affect people:

• RED: Creates action, energy, strength passion fire, etc. Although it is a strong masculine color, you wouldn’t use this if the company offers financial advice, or is in the banking industry.
• BLUE: Presents the feelings of freedom, travel, professionalism, wealth and power. This is one of the most popular colors in business and is the most overused color. You would not want to use this if you are in the snack food or other food business/industry.
• GREEN: Money, wealth, prosperity, calm, health, foods, nature, etc. It is a great color to use as the main color or as an accent in a web site.
• ORANGE: Health and vitality, youthfulness, fire, courage, confidence, friendliness, warmth, etc. This is again a good strong color and should be used wisely.
• YELLOW: Light, purity, understanding, caution, intelligence, joy. A great color to help boost a sites weak areas.
• PURPLE, BROWN, BLACK, WHITE AND GREY.
  I would like to share these colors and their affects, but I am running too long and little time. Contact me if you want to know what these colors represent.

So remember to take advantage of how color can impact your site and how color in a press release or a public relations campaign it can generate a stronger awareness when used properly.

A press kit can have these same reactions, so choose your colors with care. Be sure to choose colors that will work with your clients logo, that should be your main starting point when working in any media, print or web design.

See Also

• Web Design and Publicity
  Choosing the right colors is a major part in designing a site