Press releases still have the power to get you the marketing results you want, but how to get the release in front of the right eyes is always a challenge. PR Log is a free press release distribution service that users have found to get good Google search results. PR Log feeds to 40,000 RSS feeds so your release will make it to related sites. You can also add live links, videos and photos to add vibrancy to your releases. Social media integration is key, and PR Log can help you get the word out plus create daily and weekly alerts. Need some advice on how to craft a press release? Check out the helpful outline provided.
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Web.com Small Business Toolkit: PR Log (Press Release Distribution)
March 18th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichEvent Marketing for Small Businesses Part 1: Getting Started
March 18th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen
So much of our life is now digital, conducted online and not with people. Many of us small business owners also work from home with limited-to-no regular, in-person contact with our clients – and that’s where event marketing comes into play.
Hosting or participating in an event is a unique, one-on-one experience that puts you in front of current and potential customers. There’s a reason people flock to big industry trade shows and conferences like SXSW (which encompasses film, interactive, and music):
- Events are a great way to get to know each other better, put a face and personality with a brand, and build a community.
- There’s a lot of serendipity involved – you never know who you are going to meet or get introduced to. At SXSW last year, I met Tony Hsieh and Steve Case, and I sat next one of the top venture capitalists in the country. (I also saw Willem Defoe – pretty cool!)
- People like to do business with people they know and like, so cementing a relationship in person can turn a lukewarm relationship into a long-term, mutually beneficial one.
- Unlike an email campaign, an event can make a lasting impression and leave people talking for a long time.
Event marketing is not limited to huge, days-long events of course. For a small business owner, it makes more sense to host or participate a smaller event for obvious reasons – time, expense, effort, noise, and quality of interactions.
Three types of events that are most useful for small businesses to either host or participate in include:
1. Seminars
Seminars can be one hour long or a half- or full-day event. Unless you are famous or widely recognized as an expert in your field, you might want to pull in partners for day-long events. With partners, you can each talk about your specific area of expertise around one topic – and attract more attendees.
2. Roundtables
A roundtable can be part of a seminar, or it can be a stand-alone event. Either way, attendees get to ask questions of a panel – all composed of experts – and learn how to do something better or get industry-insider knowledge.
3. Breakfasts, Lunches, or Dinners
Hosting a breakfast, lunch, or dinner is like networking on an intimate scale. It is a terrific opportunity to bring together a small group of people who can learn from each other and possibly work together – customers, prospects, partners, vendors, or a mix. Plus, you get to know everyone better!
Before you start planning an event, there’s one thing you have to do first: Decide why you are hosting the event so you can set goals. You can host an event to:
- Increase branding and awareness
- Generate leads
- Engage with your customers
- Educate attendees
- Some of the above
- All of the above
Whatever your goal, ultimately you want to grow your businesses by landing new customers.
In my next post in this series, we’ll look at how to promote your event. Til then, if you’ve hosted an event, what kind of event was it and what made it successful?
Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org
Google+America’s Stressed Out. Here’s How You Can Help (and Profit)
March 18th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky
By Rieva Lesonsky
When you think of “stressed-out” consumers, do you picture a frazzled CEO rushing from meeting to meeting while answering emails on one smartphone and holding a conversation on another? Well, you might need to refresh your visual to include a stressed-out teenager. That’s right: According to a new study from the American Psychological Association (APA), younger people are more likely than older ones to report high stress levels.
The study, Stress in America, found that while Americans of all ages report higher stress than they think is good for them, Millennials (ages 18 to 33) and Gen Xers (ages 34 to 47) reported the highest average stress levels.
On a 10-point scale where 1 is “little or no stress” and 10 is “a great deal of stress,” both Millennials and Gen Xers report an average stress level of 5.4. That’s much higher than Boomers’ (age 48 to 66) average stress level of 4.7 and Matures’ (age 67-plus) average stress level of 3.7.
Of course, you can’t avoid stress entirely, so the study asked respondents how much stress they felt was healthy, then measured the difference between what they saw as “healthy stress” and what they actually experienced. Younger generations had a bigger gap: The difference between Millennials’ stress levels and their perception of healthy stress was 1.4 points, compared with 1.6 points for Gen X, 1.3 points for Bommers and 0.7 points for Matures.
Stress is on the rise for everyone: Thirty-nine percent of Millennials say their stress has increased in the last year, as do 36 percent of Gen Xers, 33 percent of Boomers and 29 percent of Matures. But what’s stressing us out differs from generation to generation. Not surprisingly, work, money and job stability are the biggest sources of stress for Millennials and Gen Xers, while health issues affecting themselves and family members are the biggest stressors for Boomers and Matures.
In the past five years, a majority of all age groups have tried to reduce their stress, but while Boomers and Matures are succeeding fairly well at doing this, 25 percent of Millennials and Gen Xers admit they are falling short. They’re also more likely to use unhealthy behaviors, such as drinking, smoking or overeating, to manage stress. Interestingly for businesses, 19 percent of Millennials and 13 percent of Gen X said they shop to manage stress.
What does this trend mean to you?
- A marketing message emphasizing how your product or service can lessen stress, help manage stress, or be a well-deserved reward for a stressful day will resonate with all age groups.
- However, be aware of the different types of stress affecting different age groups. Work-related stress is a hot button for younger consumers, while health and wellness are trigger issues for older ones.
- Make sure your customer service creates less, not more, stress for your clients. If buying from you is easy and pleasant, they’ll come back again and again.
Image by Flickr user BLW Photography (Creative Commons)
Google+How to Reach Niche Markets on Social Media
March 15th, 2013 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
If your small business is targeting niche markets such as specific minority groups, age groups or other demographics, it’s important to know what social media tools these individuals are likely to use. New research from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project examined what social media networks are most popular with different user groups. Here’s what they found:
Overall, social media use is widespread. More than two-thirds (67 percent) of all Internet users use at least one social networking site. Those 18-29 are the most likely of any age group to do so (83 percent), but even among the 65-and-up age group, nearly one-third (32 percent) use social media. Women are more likely than men to use social media, and urban residents are more likely than rural Internet users to do so.
What sites are most popular? Pew took a look not only at the “biggies,” but also at some up-and-comers.
Facebook users
Facebook is still the most popular social networking platform, with two-thirds of online adults on the site. Women are more likely than men to be Facebook users (72 percent vs. 62 percent), and the 18-29 age group is most likely to use it (86 percent).
Twitter users
Twitter is showing steady growth, with the percentage of Internet users who use this social media site doubling since November 2010, to 16 percent. People under 50, and especially those 18-29, are more likely to use Twitter. Urban residents are more likely than both suburban and rural residents to use Twitter. African-Americans are the most frequent users of Twitter, with 26 percent reporting they use it, compared to 14 percent of white Internet users and 19 percent of Hispanics.
Pinterest users
Overall, 15 percent of Internet users use Pinterest, but this site is especially popular with the youngest cohort (18 to 29), those with higher educational attainment, and upper income consumers. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of Internet users with household incomes between $50,000 and $74,999 use Pinterest; so do 18 percent of people with incomes of $75,000 or above. Women are five times as likely to use Pinterest as men (25 percent vs. 5 percent).
Instagram users
Photo-sharing site Instagram is popular with 13 percent of Internet users overall. Women and younger users (under 50) are the most likely to use it; so are urban dwellers, African-Americans and Hispanics.
Tumblr users
While Tumblr is still the least popular social networking site users were asked about—used by just 6 percent of Internet users—keep in mind that just a few years ago, Twitter had similar numbers. In addition, Tumblr is far more popular among younger users, with 13 percent of 18-to-29-year olds blogging on the site. However, Instagram, which offers similar photo-oriented functionality, has become twice as popular overall in a shorter period of time.
What do these stats mean for your business?
- If you’re targeting younger customers, you definitely need to be on social media—and you need to be checking out the newest up-and-coming sites. Whether that’s Instagram, Tumblr or something even newer, take the time to explore it and see if your target customers are there.
- No matter who you’re targeting, you probably need to be on Facebook. With even the 65-plus-crowd hanging out here, Facebook is a smart marketing tool for just about every consumer-oriented small business.
- Trying to reach women or high-income customers? Get familiar with Pinterest, since a high proportion of those customers spend time there.
Image by Flickr user eldh (Creative Commons)
Google+8 Ways to Use SlideShare for Content Marketing
March 14th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen
Let me just preface this blog post by saying that SlideShare is owned by LinkedIn. That should already give you a clue as to why you should use SlideShare, especially based on my previous blog post about using LinkedIn to grow your business. But let me back up a sec.
SlideShare is the world’s largest content-sharing community for professionals. According to this nifty infographic created by Column Five Media, it gets 60 million visitors a month who view 3 billion slides. In fact, Slideshare gets way more traffic from business owners than Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
We all know content marketing is the name of the marketing game nowadays, so if you are B2B and want to reach business owners, SlideShare is it. Here are 8 ways to use this amazing community for content marketing:
1. Gussy up presentations
Take a look at your PowerPoint presentations – are they chock full of good information that your target market would find relevant, interesting, and useful? Great – turn it into a slide.
Make sure your content is simple and straightforward:
- Keep each slide focused on one idea
- Only use graphics and images that support your messages
- Rewrite content to make it self-explanatory
2. Convert ebooks and whitepapers
To really expand the reach of your ebooks and whitepapers, turn them into slides. Just use the above checklist to make sure they are good to go.
3. Tell stories
Put together a new slide based on customer success stories or use cases. Stories resonate with readers, so if they’re compelling, your slide could end up generating quite a few leads.
4. Add contact info and social links
At the end of your slide, add a page with contact information – an email, website address, and/or phone number – and links to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. accounts.
5. Include a call-to-action
If people like what you created, give them a good reason to contact you. Add a slide that explains what you do, how you can help them, and why they should contact you.
6. Double check for keywords and phrases
Search engines analyze the content in your slides when generating search results. Double check that your slides integrate the keywords and phrases you want to be found for.
7. Allow sharing
When you add your slide to SlideShare, you can choose to keep your slide public or private. Make it public so people can find it, view it, comment on it, and share it.
8. Provide an embed code
If you are comfortable letting other people use your content on their website or in their blog, choose to provide an embed code.
Do you use SlideShare? If yes, what content has done the best? If not, are you convinced you should start using it?
Image courtesy of SlideShare
Google+What You Must Know About Marketing to Baby Boomers
March 13th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky
By Rieva Lesonsky
As they enter their senior years, Baby Boomers are still one of the most powerful consumer demographics in the U.S. What do you need to know to target Boomers today? MediaPost recently spotlighted some research from Navigate Boomer Media on what Boomers are doing, buying and interested in. Here’s where the opportunities are:
Online Marketing
If you’re only marketing to Boomers in the newspaper or print media, you’re missing the boat. You might be surprised to learn that the average Boomer spends more time online than the average teenager (15 hours per week vs. 13 hours). Put your money into online advertising to reach this market.
Transition Time
Baby Boomers are currently experiencing huge life transitions as they enter their 50s and 60s. If you want to capture their emotions during these times, Navigate Boomer Media advises your marketing should include one or more of these three messages:
- We understand you.
- We make your life easier.
- We make your life better.
Wealth Transfer
Baby Boomers will be inheriting money from their parents and will spend it on luxuries including physical rejuvenation and health-related costs such as home gyms, trainers and spa visits; luxury travel; luxury cars (including Porsche, Mercedes and Corvette) and second homes.
Empty Nesters
As their children move out, Boomers will take advantage of the empty nest to pursue their passions, including traveling, pursuing education and volunteer opportunities, starting a business, and remodeling or redecorating the home, often including a home office. Many will also turn to pets (especially dogs) for companionship.
Boomers as Caregivers
With their parents living longer, many Boomers will find themselves in the unusual situation of caring for aging parents long past the time when prior generations were doing so. This creates opportunities for businesses that provide them with support, time off, or pampering to rejuvenate them to face the challenges of caregiving.
Divorce Means Change
For Boomers whose transition includes divorce, demands will include products and services to help them downsize their households and adapt to single life. Sales of condominiums and active adult communities will grow. Wealth management services will be in demand. Travel is popular with this group, with “girlfriend getaways” a hot commodity.
The Grandparent Life
Many Boomers are grandparents, and they’re ready to spend on travel with the grandkids (adventure or education-themed trips and cruises are popular). They also buy books and toys for their grandkids and start savings or college accounts for them.
Menopause and More
Menopausal Boomer women will seek products and services to help them learn about menopause, be comfortable and continue an active lifestyle. Information and education about menopause and solutions for its challenges will be a hot commodity.
How can your business market to Baby Boomers?
Image by Flickr user dannybirchall (Creative Commons)
Google+The Anatomy of an Effective B2B Landing Page
March 12th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen
One of the best ways to generate leads via your website is with landing pages. Landing pages are hidden pages (i.e., they’re not accessible via your site’s menu) that allow a visitor to download or access content – a demo, ebook, whitepaper, etc. – after they fill out a short form.
Whether you have a landing page or want to add one (or a few) to your site, here are the 4 elements you’ll need to incorporate on your page to make it as effective as possible:
1. Clear and visible messaging
The messaging and value proposition on your page should be written clearly and concisely and positioned front and center on your page.
- Include the value proposition in the headline
- List the benefits of acting on the offer
- If the offer was created by an industry expert, let the visitor know what makes that person so great
- Make it clear what the visitor will receive
2. Clean layout
Avoid the temptation to clutter the page with graphics, quotes, a laundry list of your products or services, or offers for other content.
- Keep design to a minimum – lots of white space is good
- Remove a menu or other navigation tools so the visitor stays on that page
- Make sure the download button is large and pops off the page
3. Short information-capture form
Decide what information you really need in order to 1) qualify the visitor as a lead, and 2) then contact them. There’s a big difference between must-have and nice-to-have, and the shorter your form, the easier it is for the visitor to access the offer.
- At the least, ask for name, company, job title and email
- To qualify them further, you could ask for location, company size, website and/or their biggest challenge in a certain area (a free form field)
- If an question is optional, make it clear
4. Thank you/access page
OK, so this is technically not part of the original landing page, but I wanted to include it. Once your visitor submits their information, take them to a new thank you page that has a similar look and feel to the landing page.
- Say thank you!
- Remind them what they’re getting
- Provide an access link to the offer, or let them know you just emailed access to them
- Provide links to other content or pages on your website where they can find more information on the subject
What else should a landing page include?
Image courtesy of the author
Google+ Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Mailigen’s Epic Free (Email Marketing)
March 11th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichIf you’re looking for a starter email marketing solution, Mailigen’s Epic Free email marketing solution lets small businesses have up to 5,000 subscribers before it charges a monthly fee. Create newsletters, signup forms and surveys from over 130 customizable templates. You’ll get real-time performance reports, plus, Mailigen integrates with Google Analytics. Mailigen’s branding is part of the emails, but if you ask them to remove it, they will. You can also post to your Facebook or Twitter account when you send out the emails and target your audience so subscribers get exactly the information they’re interested in.
Google+A 5-Step LinkedIn Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Business
March 11th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen
If you’ve been thinking about increasing your use of LinkedIn to boost visibility, find new leads, and snag more business, this post is for you. I’ve written about LinkedIn before, but it’s changed since then – LinkedIn Answers is gone and the layout now resembles Facebook in that you can like, comment on, or share updates from your network.
To get started, I decided to do some research on just who is using LinkedIn to make a strong case for why we all should embrace it. Hold on to your hats, because the stats I found at Quantcast are pretty awesome.
- LinkedIn users are affluent: 54% of LinkedIn users earn more than $60K per year and 36% earn more than $100K.
- LinkedIn users are educated: 46% have a college degree and 27% have a graduate degree.
- LinkedIn users love the site: Almost 25% use the site at least 30 times per month.
OK, so LinkedIn is definitely a good place to focus time and energy, especially if you have a robust network.
Here’s a 5-step LinkedIn marketing strategy to help you improve your visibility and get more leads as you grow your business:
1. Get in the habit of using LinkedIn on a regular basis.
LinkedIn will not work for you if you don’t take the time out of your schedule to nurture your LinkedIn presence. Whether you choose to spend time on it daily or weekly, get in the habit of sharing curated and original content and liking, commenting on, or sharing the content your network posts. Participate in groups (more on that below) and comb your network for leads (again, more on that below).
2. Expand your definition of who should be in your network.
I’m going to assume you already actively grow your network by sending personalized messages to the people you meet at events, conferences, etc., asking them to join your network. Don’t forget to send invites to friends and social acquaintances – they have networks too – along with clients, vendors, and partners.
3. Join active groups – and participate.
Instead of joining any group related to your industry or composed of your target audience, look for groups that are active with engaged members. Start joining the conversation, adding your viewpoint or expertise where appropriate. Don’t forget that you can also start your own conversations, but always keep in mind, you’re not there to sell your product or service, you are there to help others.
4. Consider advertising.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that LinkedIn is a better place to advertise than Facebook, because LinkedIn users are highly encouraged to complete their profiles. At Facebook, you’re not, so what users share in their profiles is all over the map.
With that said, you can highly target your ads to exactly who you want to reach – by industry, company, company size, location, title, etc. Once you start advertising, make it a habit to continually improve your ads to boost their effectiveness.
5. Look for leads and ask for introductions.
You’ve built a network for a reason, so use it! You can find leads within your network, in the newsfeed, on LinkedIn company pages, and in recommendations. Look for connections, and ask the people in your network for introductions. Immediately follow up with that person and let them know why you’d like to meet them and how working with you will benefit them.
Any other tips on using LinkedIn that I missed?
Image courtesy of simplyrest.com
Google+Does Your Retail Business Need a Mobile App?
March 11th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky
By Rieva Lesonsky
Does your small business need a mobile app? If you’re a retailer or etailer, maybe so. A new study from Flurry measured the time consumers spent using more than 1,800 iOS and Android shopping apps between December 2011 and December 2012.
The study divided apps into five categories:
- Retailer Apps (such as Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Gap, Saks 5th Avenue)
- Price Comparison Apps (such as RedLaser and Grocery iQ)
- Purchase Assistant Apps (such as ShopSavvy and ShopAdvisor)
- Online Marketplace Apps (such as eBay and Amazon)
- Daily Deals Apps (such as Groupon and Living Social)
Time spent on all five types of apps grew quite a bit, but time spent with retailer apps skyrocketed the most (by 525 percent). That percentage far outstrips the overall growth in the use of both shopping apps (274 percent) and apps as a whole (132 percent).
The time consumers spent with Price Comparison and Purchase Assistant apps also grew significantly, by 247 percent and 228 percent, respectively. Even Online Marketplace and Daily Deals apps grew, though at 178 percent and 126 percent, respectively, the growth rate was far less.
The big winner in the growth of app use is retailers. Overall, in 2012 consumers spent 27 percent of app use time on retail apps (up from 15 percent in 2011). By contrast, the share of time spent on Daily Deals shrank from 20% in 2011 to 13% in 2012, and the share of time spent on Online Marketplace apps decreased from 25% in 2011 to 20% in 2012.
Flurry concludes that smart retailers will begin examining their customer relationships through the “mobile-first” lens. The rise in mobile app use—and especially in retail app use—shows that it’s more important than ever to extend your customer relationships to a variety of channels.
Instead of focusing solely on getting customers into your store—or even onto your website—you need to also focus on attracting them via their mobile devices. “In the new mobile app economy, devices are always with you, always on and always connected,” Flurry writes. Yes, 95 percent of sales still occur in physical stores, but mobile allows you to intercept customers in store aisles and affect their purchasing decisions before they ever reach the cash register. Consider tapping into apps that let customers save their credit card info, apps that let them ship an item to their homes, or apps that let them scan an item with their phones to place an order.
How are you using mobile apps to enhance your customers’ retail and e-tail experience?
Image by Flickr user Dru Bloomfield – At Home in Scottsdale (Creative Commons)
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