Saturday, November 19, 2011

Liveblogging IndieConf: Low and No Cost Marketing and Public Relations Tools - Tactics & Techniques


Presenter: Neil Tortorella

What Marketing Is & Isn't
  • What marketing is
    • Marketing is everything you do to warm up the playing field for sales
    • Every touch point forms your image... your brand... in the minds of your audience
    • It's how your marketing materials look and what they say (what differentiate you from the others)
    • It's how you answer the phone
    • It's your business' interior design and even how you dress
    • Every point of contact with your audience builds on the next
    • It's done in a planned way
    • Marketing is building awareness
    • Sales is closing the deal
Problems with Marketing
  • Not doing anything
  • Not understanding your audience and focusing on their needs (they don't care about YOU)
  • Placing all your hopes and dreams in one activity
  • Not having a plan
  • Not focusing on a niche or specialty
  • Not actively marketing when you're at your busiest
  • Being a nervous rabbit
  • Not understanding that marketing takes time
  • Not having a referral system in place
  • Not marketing to current clients / customers
  • Forgetting that whatever your business is about and what you do it is really all about marketing
Advertising
  • Based on multiple impressions (people have to see it multiple times)
  • Requires a strong offer (it must entice the prospect to call you)
  • Trackable with codes, coupons, etc. 
  • Choose media cafefully - Is there a lot of waste?
  • It's expsensive
  • Brand advertising is not effective for small businesses
Direct Response
  • Also requires a strong offer
  • Have a secondary offer
  • Focus on benefits, not features - prospects want to know what's in it for them
  • Build your own list (it can be time consuming, but it's better than buying a list from someone else)
  • Response rates typically run between .5% - 2%
  • Always follow up by phone (don't sell all your products at once)
Website
  • Make sure the content reflects the value you bring to people (it's not about YOU)
  • Content is king
  • Have a website and optimize it for the search engines
  • Backlinks (incoming links to your site)
  • Optimize page titles with keywords
  • Use Google's Keyword Tool to find what your prospects are using for search terms
  • Metadata in place
E-Newsletters, Blogs, & Social Media
  • E-newsletters
    • Email marketing yields over $43 for every dollar spent
    • What can you do with it?
      • Build relationships
      • Provide tips, how-tos, and articles
      • Distribute business news releases
      • Promote special offers to subscribers
  • Blogs
    • Builds community
    • Easy web publishing solution
    • Aids in search engine rank and results
    • Low cost
    • Passive revenue (adsense, Amazon, or affiliates)
    • Generate publicity
    • Aids in expert position
    • Easily syndicated
    • Easy to use (Blogger or WordPress)
    • Develop engaging, relevant content that's useful to your audience
    • Develop content in advance & schedule future posts
    • Submit blog to Technorati and other blog search engines
    • Cross-promote blog and e-newsletter with social media, discussion groups, etc.
    • Post often to stay visible
  • Discussion Groups/Forums
    • Find where your audience hangs out
    • Be active - post questions, answer questions, links, resources, etc.
    • Use a signature to promote site, blog, e-newsletter, etc.
  • Public Relations
    • Build a media list
    • Standard Rate & Data
    • Check newspapers, magazines at booksellers for editor and writer contacts
    • Develop a press kit
      • Backgrounder
      • Key personnel bios with headshots
      • Products/Services info
      • Brochures, catalogs, etc.
      • High resolution images (300 dpi)
      • Logos (vector format - Illustrator, eps, FreeHand)
      • Spot color, RGB, and CMYK
    • Most recent news releases
      • Authentic news
      • Think like a report (5W's)
      • Most important infor at the top (editors cut from the bottom)
      • Use online release syndicates to gain backlinks to your site
      • Become consistent news source for editors and reporters
    • Writing articles
      • Start with tip sheet - "Top 10 reasons..."
      • Good for handouts, downloads on site, secondary mailing offer
      • Gather tip sheets into articles
      • Gather blog posts into articles
      • Focus on common audience problems/needs
      • Be conversational (write like you talk)
    • Interviews
      • Excellent way to position yourself as an expert
      • Subscribe to services as PRLeads.com, HelpAReporterOut.com & Reporters Source
      • Connects experts with writers looking for quotes & interviewees
      • When possible get questions prior to interview
      • Do your homework - prepare, then prepare some more
    • Speaking engagements
      • "Stressful things to do list"
      • Great way to position yourself as an expert
      • Puts you in front of a captive audience
      • Rehearse
      • Join Toastmasters to hone your speaking skills
      • Speak at Rotary and other business gatherings - they are always looking for speakers
    • Networking
      • Look for places where your audience hangs out.
      • Look for educational events
      • Volunteer
      • Folks see how you work
      • Good for generating news for releases

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Damond L. Nollan, M.B.A.

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