Archive for the ‘PR and Publicity’ CategoryHow I’m Celebrating 2011 National Small Business WeekMay 16th, 2011Hi All! This week, May 16-May 20, is National Small Business Week! It’s an annual event, mandated by the President of the United States, and was started in 1963 to pay tribute to all the small businesses across America each year (now totaling 27.2 million in 2011!). Other quick factoids: More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and small businesses also create 60-80 percent of new jobs in the country…so we contribute to the economy big time! And, because I coach and consult with small business owners, coaches, consultants, speakers and authors, and I see how much they struggle with their branding, marketing, PR, sales, book marketing, and/or social media strategies (prior to hiring me, of course!), I wanted to celebrate this annual event by providing you with a special offer to help your business succeed. Special Offer Details: - Receive a 15% discount on ANY consulting package that I offer. I provide a wide variety of package options ranging in cost so you are sure to find one that fits your budget! - In addition to the special savings, I will also ADD one “bonus” consulting session to any package you choose! - This is limited to the first 5 people who contact me by the end of this national event (by Friday, May 20th). So if you are struggling with your branding, marketing, PR, social media, sales and/or book marketing efforts, contact me right away. I can also help you develop a “topic expert” personal brand platform to attract paid public speaking opportunities and media interviews…I help most of my clients with that! Again, this is limited to 5 people and you need to contact me by May 20th. Just send me an email or give me a call and I will email you my complete Services & Options Overview Package. Contact info: Lisa@PromoteUGuru.com or call 408-340-8789. Let’s get your brand, business and bottom-line booming in 2011! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa  How to Write Articles for Branding and Web Traffic: Part TwoMarch 22nd, 2011Hi All! This is Part Two of a 2-part series, so hopefully you read Part One and are ready to continue with learning more about article writing for brand building! Okay! So, you’ve outlined a list of article topics your target audience will benefit from, and you’ve written your first article. Now what? There are a wide variety of online article submission and distribution services available that operate in different ways and that serve different purposes. Here is a brief overview of the types that you’ll encounter. They will: Require you to pay a minimal fee, or not charge anything, to distribute your article online and will create a web page for your article that can be found in search results; or, they will have subscribers who pay a monthly fee to access fresh content (i.e. articles submitted by experts like you) and those people will use your article in their blogs, ezines, websites, publications or newsletters; or, the service will pay you a minimal fee if they approve your article and choose to offer it on their website for others to publish; or, they will charge you a minimal fee to distribute your articles to targeted outlets (not just distribute it online) interested in your topic matter. You can find examples of services that match the variety I just provided by performing online searches using phrases like: Free services to submit articles; online article submission; getting paid to write or submit articles; and services to distribute articles online. You will quickly see there are hundreds of options to get your article distributed and found by your target audience! It can be a bit overwhelming, so start by picking a few and try them out. Another option, if you have the budget, is to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) or a freelance article submission expert, and they can do all of this for you. You can find people who can help you by posting a request on a service like eLance.com and you’ll receive responses from many individuals who offer this type of support. Plus, you can also find article ghostwriters on eLance.com who are reasonably priced! But, if you plan to get your articles out to the masses by yourself, here is a link to a compiled list of article submission services…it’s very comprehensive and many of them are FREE!!! But before I conclude this 2-part series, I’d like to share one more strategy you can implement for getting your articles distributed: Contact publications and blogs directly that reach your target audience. No matter what your area of expertise is, there are going to be tons of magazines, ezines, newsletters (print and online), websites, social media community websites, and blogs seeking content from outside authors. You can do online searches to find the ones who reach your target audience and then create a targeted hit-list to inquire if they accept guest articles. You will find that some of them will even have article submission guidelines available on their websites! If they find your topic ideas interesting, feel their audience will benefit from your information, and find your articles to be well-written, there’s a very good chance they will publish your content. And, even better, you will begin to establish a relationship with these targeted contacts and that can lead to their accepting your articles on a regular basis. This is a fabulous scenario because their audience will become more familiar with you and that is a key factor for building your topic expert brand! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Write Articles for Branding and Web Traffic: Part OneMarch 07th, 2011Hi All! A very powerful strategy for building your topic expert brand positioning, and for driving traffic to your website, is to write articles and submit them to online article distribution services. Some small business owners also choose to do this for additional income (because there are some article services and media that will pay for your articles), but many experts don’t do it for pay; they write articles for the 2 other key reasons I mentioned. In Part One of this 2-part series I’d like to outline 12 ways to make your articles compelling and how they can become significant traffic-drivers to your website. I’ll then conclude this 2-part series next week by providing you with a list of some popular online article submission and distribution services that you can use to get your articles distributed to the masses. 12 Ways to Create Articles for Brand Building: When you write interesting articles in your area of expertise, it immediately positions you as an expert in your field. It also gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge and this can attract clients to you, as well as attract media interviews for you. But, if you’re not a great writer, don’t panic! You can hire ghostwriters (inexpensively) who will write them for you, and you can simply provide them with the topics you think will benefit your target audience. However, regardless of whether you write the articles or someone does it for you, here are 12 tips for making them compelling and a valuable marketing tool for you:
Okay! Get started on creating a list of article topics that will interest your target audience and showcase your topic expert knowledge. And be sure to read Part Two of this series for services that can distribute them for you to obtain massive website traffic and readers! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 7 Easy Steps to An Effective Marketing Strategy For 2011January 01st, 2011Hi All! The New Year is here…are you ready with a Marketing Plan and Strategy to enter 2011 organized, poised for revenue growth and career success? If you are, fabulous! However, if you’re like many of the new clients who hire me, you’re probably “hoping” 2011 will be better but don’t really have a plan to make it happen. You may even know your previous marketing efforts have been ineffective, but have no clue what to do to fix and improve them. Oftentimes, I find that small business owners, speakers, authors, coaches, consultants, etc. are good at what they do in their profession, but aren’t that great at marketing themselves, their businesses, and/or their products. They run in circles in a “reactive” mode (versus create a strategic plan) and then wonder why they are struggling to land new clients, sell books, secure speaking opportunities, or generate more income for their businesses through other avenues. If any of this resonates with you, keep reading! Here are 7 steps to help you create an effective Marketing Plan and Strategy for the New Year:
Sure, this 7 step process is a simplistic approach (there are some Marketing Plans that are much more detailed and complex), but you don’t need to make it complicated; that’s what can scare you from even trying to create a basic plan! I’ve helped clients outline an effective Marketing Plan in an hour, so trust me when I say this doesn’t have to be a drawn-out process. I don’t care whether your plan ends up being one-page or 50…just make sure you have some sort of strategic plan so you enter 2011 feeling more organized and in control of your new year! And here’s a link to a Marketing Plan software solution that can help you: Marketing Plan Pro. Cheers to a Prosperous New Year and Happy Marketing! Lisa Literary Agent vs Publicist: What Is the Difference?November 27th, 2010Many new authors are confused by the different roles of support professionals in the publishing world. It can be a very overwhelming world! So the goal of this article is to shed some light on the basic differences between 2 support professionals who often cause new authors to scratch their heads: Literary Agents and Publicists. Literary Agent Overview: You’ve written a book manuscript and you don’t want to self-publish it…your dream is to land a publishing deal with a major publishing house. Great goal, but what many new authors don’t realize is that nowadays you typically need to land a Literary Agent to represent you FIRST, and then they’ll shop your manuscript to Publishers. Most Publishers won’t even accept a manuscript unless a legitimate Literary Agent delivers it to them. And, quite honestly, finding a Literary Agent to represent you can take quite some time – months and even years. This is a big reason many authors choose the self-publishing route…out of total frustration! But, for the sake of this article, let’s say you are totally determined to land a publishing deal with a traditional publishing house. Here is some general info you need to know about Literary Agents. What exactly is a Literary Agent and what do they do? In general, they are marketing and sales experts who know how to give your manuscript pizzazz. Their purpose is to determine the compelling pitch that (they hope) will make Publishers want to review your manuscript and offer you a publishing deal. Literary Agents also negotiate the book deals for their clients (often with an attorney involved). How do they charge? Like a Talent Agent, they work on commission based on the deal they get for you. So if you contact an agent and they say they will charge a fee to represent you, RUN! That’s a scam. Legitimate agents only get paid if they land you a publishing contract. Here’s a bit more detail from AgentQuery.com about this: Literary Agents charge a commission whenever they sell the publishing rights (and various sub-rights) of a book. Standard commissions range from 10-15% for the sale of domestic rights and 15-20% for foreign rights. Major Publishers pay authors an advance against royalties. A Literary Agent negotiates the terms of the sale, and then collects a commission for their hard work. Publicist Overview: Whether you are self-published or traditionally published, you can hire a Publicist. And their main purpose is to get you, and your book, mass exposure. So a Publicist typically comes into the picture when your book is close to being published (or after it is) and assists with the book marketing. What exactly is a Publicist and what do they do? Basically, a good Publicist comes up with strategic ideas for event promotions, tries to get book reviews, finds opportunities where you and/or you book would fit nicely (like speaking at an event or coordinating a virtual book tour), contacts the media on your behalf to land interviews, and also “cooks up” interesting story angles to grab the media’s attention. Plus, if you’re “famous” and run into trouble that becomes public, your Publicist is there to protect you from bad press OR (try to) address the issue with a positive spin…think Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods! How do they charge? Unlike Literary Agents, Publicists do not work on commission. Most of them have an hourly rate or monthly retainer fee. However, there are some who charge based on “pay for placement” (i.e. charging $3000 if they secure you 10 radio interviews), but under those placement arrangements they are not helping with all the other services I mentioned above. And you typically have to come up with the “story angle” yourself to pitch the media and then they contact the media they think will be interested. But, most authors I work with need help with more than just landing a few media interviews. They need help with Marketing, PR, Branding, and Social Media strategies, too. So I assess and strategize all of the elements needed to market the book and the author – and I consider “publicity” just one piece of the big puzzle. Therefore, I don’t just limit my services to being a “Publicist”. I bring this up so you know what to ask a Publicist before hiring one! I know one author who was pitched by a Publicist and for $2500 a month all she was going to do was contact the media. This so-called “Publicist” had no experience with all of the other puzzle pieces needed to successfully market the author or their book, and my (now) client, who was new to the “publicity” world, came close to signing a contract with her. That could have been a very expensive lesson with very little return! Bottom line? If you contact a Publicist and they don’t mention strategies beyond contacting the media (such as conducting a Virtual Book Tour, or assessing your marketing materials, website and positioning), don’t waste your money on their services. In terms of retainer fees, they vary greatly. You’ll see some Publicists who charge $1,000 per month (for a limited amount of hours), and others who charge $25,000+ per month. Most of the “bigger” well-known Publicists I’m aware of won’t take on clients for less than $10,000 per month, and they require 6-month contracts – a pretty hefty price tag for most authors I know. So, there you have it. I hope this snapshot of differences between Literary Agents and Publicists has given you some clarity. They each play very different roles in the publishing world, and (the good ones) can often make a big difference in your quest for publishing greatness! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa How to Conduct A Virtual Book Tour to Increase Your SalesNovember 13th, 2010Hi All! Book authors are on a never-ending quest to promote their books, sell their books, and increase awareness for them. Yet, many authors struggle with this. I know this first hand because I have a lot of clients who are authors and seek my help with their book marketing. One effective book marketing strategy that most authors do not use is conducting a Virtual Book Tour; using blogs as the vehicle. There are many ways to do one, so this post will give you some general guidelines to follow and you can adjust, alter and brainstorm additional ideas for your tour. And the great thing about Virtual Book Tours is that it doesn’t matter if your book is new or not! There are many authors who have books that are several years old and their Virtual Book Tour brings the book back-to-life, generates interest for the book amongst people who didn’t know about it when it first came out, and ramps sales again. So don’t think this strategy is just for NEW books! And, it doesn’t matter whether you self-publish or not! I know authors who get hung-up on the self-published status of their book, but it’s NOT an issue! 1.) Establish a timeframe for your tour. This can range from one week to one month. And you’ll want to start organizing it 1-2 months ahead of time for effective planning. 2.) Find blogs that reach the audience you want to target for your book, and contact the owners of those blogs. This can range anywhere from 10 to a million blogs! How many blogs involved on your tour just depends on the time you have to do this outreach and how many blogs are the right fit for your book’s topic. 3.) Tell each blogger the tour’s timeframe and what your expectations are when they participate in the tour. This may include: During the tour, they need to write a review of your book that includes the book’s cover linked to your Amazon page or wherever your book is sold; and you’ll provide them with 1-3 articles that pertain to your book’s topic that they will run during the tour as “guest blog posts” (from you) on their blog. And in the articles you provide them, they’ll include your short bio, pic of your book (or of you), and link to your website. You’ll provide EACH of the blogs that participate the same articles and each of them can run the articles in any order they want during the tour. 4.) Send each participating blogger an organized “kit” for the tour (via email). This should include: General tour info (restate expectations, tour timeframe, roll-out schedule, etc.); file of your book cover; file of your headshot; and the articles you wrote for them to use as “guest posts” (as Word docs with links embedded to your website, Amazon page, etc.). Don’t rely on the bloggers to find the correct links to YOUR stuff! 5.) Mail each blogger a copy of your book. Obviously you need to do this so they can read it BEFORE the book tour launches. And, no, don’t ask them buy it! Mail them a free copy! 6.) Offer several copies of your book to each blogger who participates to use as a giveaway item for a contest they can create (or use it as a free gift for something the blogger wants to promote). You may not want to do this with every blogger who participates (if you have TONS of blogs on the tour), but you’ll want to offer it to the ones who have a lot of traffic. This is a good strategy because aside from them writing a review for your book and running the articles you provide to them during the tour, they can create a contest (or promotion) “around your book” which will be additional exposure for your book. 7.) Thank and mention the blogs who participate on YOUR blog throughout the tour, on Twitter tweet the links to the blog posts they do about (and from) you, mention them on your Facebook Fan Page, etc. Doing all of this is critical because you are giving the participating blogs exposure to YOUR social networks, and that’s good business. The bloggers who participate on your tour are doing YOU a favor so giving them some “link love” and exposure is only right. 8.) Consider sending each blogger who participated in your tour a Thank You gift when it’s over. Again, show them gratitude for their time, effort and help in promoting YOUR book! Okay! That’s a general overview of how to do a Virtual Book Tour. Yes, I could go on & on with more ideas for conducting a successful tour, and ways to make it more elaborate (but that can get costly), so this gives you a good starting point. The “basic” approach I provided can get you great results as long as you PLAN ahead of time and connect with enthusiastic bloggers who are excited to participate in your Virtual Book Tour. And if you want help with ideas, planning, and execution of your tour, or need other book marketing strategies, you know where to find me… Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Cool Online Tools to Reach Targeted Media Interested in Your NewsNovember 01st, 2010Hi All! I wanted to share some very cool tools that can help you reach TARGETED media and industry influencers; who are specifically interested in YOUR news and expertise. By using these tools, you can attract media interviews and get mass media coverage to build your personal or business branding platform, increase your income, and increase the sales of your products (i.e. your book if you wrote one!). AND, I don’t care whether you’re a one-person company, small business, self-published book author, etc. The media (print, broadcast and online) is on the hunt for interesting news and topics 24/7, 365-days a year. So you don’t have to be famous or have earth-shattering news to get their attention! They just want interesting news or segment ideas that will appeal to their audiences. I recently helped an author-client land a featured interview on a popular talk show on Lifetime! And she is a self-published author who just started working with me…getting media exposure rolling CAN happen fast if you make some effort! SO…go for it! 1.) PitchEngine.com Overview: Unlike traditional wire services, PitchEngine enabled users to openly create and share their own content, while including images, videos and attachments at no cost. In 2009, more than 70,000 pitches were shared by 27,000 organizations looking to get the word out to not just journalists, but to bloggers, consumers and other influencers as well. PitchEngine’s “Co-op SEO” concept enables brands big and small to experience exceptional indexing in major search engines. 2.) MediaSyncOnline.com (FREE!) Overview: MediaSync is a free Web-based service from mBLAST that allows Marketers to easily research and use detailed, up-to-date media intelligence on print and online publications, their staff and their areas of coverage. With MediaSync, you can find:
MediaSync allows users to search for the information they need (on their companies, clients OR the competition), refine the results, save their search and receive alerts when new information is available that matches their criteria. They can also upload existing media lists and/or create and maintain new ones, and export it all into a contact list or briefing book. Overview: Check-out my info-packed Learning Guide that outlines the PR & Publicity strategies I help my clients with, and the ones I personally use (which have landed me over 100 media interviews!). This special guide typically sales for $37, but for a limited time I’m offering it for $27. I charge a lot more than $37, let alone $27, for the seminars, workshops and webinars I conduct on this topic…and the info in this Learning Guide is the same as I share in those more expensive events. It covers everything you need to know about attracting the media, pitching the media, writing a killer Press Release, online tools and resources, and MUCH MORE. Simply CLICK HERE for the details of what you’ll learn…it’s on the Products Page of my website. So there you have it…3 very cool tools that can help you reach the media YOU want to reach, and who are interested in YOUR news. Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 5 Ways to Use Video to Build Your Brand and Create ProductsSeptember 30th, 2010Hi All! I just posted my newest video on my YouTube Channel. In this video I share 5 quick tips on how you can use video, easily, to build awareness for your brand, blog, products, website, etc. I also share a great tip on how you can quickly and inexpensively create video products that you can sell on your blog or website to generate income online. And, in this vid, I also mention Kristi Hines (follow her on Twitter @Kikolani), social media expert an blogger, because some of the tips I share are from a blog post of hers. In that post she focused on “5 Types of Videos for Bloggers“, but I expanded on those with additional info to help you. Whether you’re a small business owner, solopreneur, speaker or author, you’ll find the tips helpful. And you’ll quickly see that creating promotional videos, how to videos, tutorials, or video products is VERY easily (you don’t need to be a video producer to create them!)…and they can be done (nicely) for free! Ok! I’ll keep this blog post short because the info you really need can be found in the video! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa 5 Tips to Get You Mass Media Exposure for Brand BuildingJuly 25th, 2010Hi All, I just uploaded my newest video on my “The Promote U Guru” YouTube Channel. In it, I provide 5 effective tips to help you get the media coverage you want to build your brand and business, and increase your credibility as an “expert” in your industry. So, if you’re an author, speaker, small business owner, entrepreneur or solopreneur (coach, consultant, trainer, etc.), check out the 5 tips! The video is short (less than 8 minutes!) and info-packed. You’ll learn: - How to write an effective press release - What NOT to do when writing your press release - Where and how to deploy your press release online - Why creating your own targeted Media List is critical - How you can get more traction for your press release by promoting it through you social media channels That’s all for now… Cheers and Happy Marketing! Lisa 4 Ways to Sabotage Getting the Media Coverage You WantMay 14th, 2010Hi All! I recently wrote a blog about “How to Write a Killer Press Release & Where to Deploy It Online“. This is an impromptu follow-up to that topic, and was prompted by a consulting session I had with a client this week. My client is a (new) book author, so we wrote and distributed her first ever Press Release a few weeks ago. We deployed it online, and it was also sent to a targeted list of specific media we identified (newspapers, magazines, radio/tv shows and blogs). Fast forward to this week…she is very unhappy that her phone hasn’t been ringing off the hook with interview requests. I clearly explained that if it was “that easy” we’d all be featured in the Wall Street Journal or on The Today Show whenever we wanted. It takes effort! Here are the key tips and strategies I told her to do right after the Press Release went out…and as of this week she had NOT done any of them…hence the “not getting much coverage” issue. And, by the way, this is where most speakers, authors, small business owners and entrepreneurs drop the ball when it comes to getting media coverage through their PR efforts (so it’s not just her): 1. They Don’t Follow Up: When you send a Press Release to a targeted list of media, you have to follow up with them. And sometimes you have to follow up quite a few times. The media is bombarded daily with news, so you have to be the “squeaky wheel” to get their attention. Yes, it’s like doing sales calls, and it’s not the most fun thing to do in the world, but unless you have a Publicist to do it for you, it’s a task you must take on. It is critical!!!! 2. They Don’t Share With Their Social Media Communities: Once your Press Release is done, share the link to it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. First of all, you don’t know who may see it and share it. Secondly, you have no idea who are all the followers your followers have. For example, on Twitter, I had someone retweet a tweet of mine about a Press Release. One of her followers is the host of a very popular BlogTalk Radio show, that reaches my target audience, and that person contacted me for an interview. I also was contacted by a reporter from the NY Times, and have been interviewed by her several times, because of a retweet. 3. They Don’t Post On Their Website: When you write a Press Release, create a page for it, optimize it with keywords and phrases, and upload it. Not only can it get found in search results for on-going traffic generation, but it’s important to share the news on your website. And even when the Press Release becomes “old” it can still drive traffic to you and attract media interviews for you. 4. They Don’t Post It On Their Blog: Use your Press Release as a blog post. It’s okay to occasionally promote news about yourself there. And if you’re on WordPress, and have added the All in One SEO Pack plug-in, this will also help get your news found online. So, there is your crash course in what to do AFTER your Press Release has been written and distributed. It takes EFFORT to get media interviews (unless you have truly earth-shattering news or you’re fairly well-known). But, the media is always looking for news, they have a lot of air time or pages to fill, so you can get your share of coverage if you’re consistent and persistent! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa
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