Promote U Guru Blog

Posts Tagged ‘personal branding’

The Beauty of Branding: What It Means to Your Business Success

July 07th, 2015

The benefit of consciously shaping a Personal or Company Brand is focus. When you know with utmost clarity what you want you, or your company, to be known for, it is easier to develop an effective brand platform…and that will impact everything you do as a small business owner, book author, or professional speaker!

So, what is a “brand”? It is a person’s emotional feeling about you and your company and it is a promise for a specific experience with you and/or your business. Your branding touches everything pertaining to your company…everything you say and don’t say, and everything you do and don’t do.

Lisa was voted one of the "Most Influential Brand Gurus in the World" in 2013 & 2014 by over 22,000 industry professionals

Lisa Orrell was voted one of the “Most Influential Brand Gurus in the World” in 2013 & 2014 by over 22,000 industry professionals.

A key concept that I strongly recommend burning into your brain is this:

When someone has contact with your brand in-person or virtually, one of two things happens: your brand is reinforced…or it is weakened.

This is why it is so important to know what your brand value, brand differentiators, brand positioning, brand promise, and brand personality, are. They need to be reinforced and reflected in everything you say, do, write, and create. However, many small business owners don’t focus on this and then wonder why their business isn’t doing well.

Once you “know who you are”, it makes it much easier to express it to potential customers. Plus, it enables you to have consistency across all of your business-building efforts, such as: your website, social media networks, marketing & sales materials, PR efforts, etc.

And, for those of you who have (or will have) employees or contractors working for you, they need to be aware of your brand promise and values, too. As the leader, you’re the brand evangelist of you and your company, and that means making sure anyone working for you focuses on also positively reinforcing your brand, not weakening it. Basically, they are not only representing themselves, but they are also representing you.

One of the best things you can do to create a positive brand platform is focus on being people-centric. This means to: always be open to listening to feedback; have a top-to-bottom commitment to making your customers, employees and co-workers your #1 priority; and always look at your decisions from their perspective, not just yours.

Think about it as a consumer of the brands YOU like. You’re a customer for a wide variety of products and services. Why are YOU loyal to their brand(s)? I bet it’s probably because they promise a specific experience with their product or service and consistently deliver on it. So if you can make a person’s experience with your Personal and/or Company Brand consistently consistent with your brand promise, you are heading down the right path.

However, it ALL has start with you getting clarity, and then effectively projecting that in everything you do. And, although you may have a tight budget, please be mindful of how your marketing materials look, especially your website. If you need help, hire a Consultant to help you!

That may sound like common sense BUT it’s not common practice…think about how many awful websites you come across! Be aware of these fast facts:

  • Potential buyers judge companies 90% by how they appear
  • “Designed” brands rate considerably higher on virtually ALL financial measurements

Make sure all of your marketing, business, and sales tools look professional, and that things like colors and fonts are consistent across all of them. Don’t have purple and green the main colors on your website but then use yellow and blue on your business cards, collateral, or even on things like your invoices.

You also want to make sure your social media page designs are consistent with your website. Again, branding is not just about how you describe and run your business; it’s also about how your business appears visually.

In a nutshell, Personal or Company Branding becomes the “behavior barometer” for you as a small business owner. Once it’s established, you’ll find yourself often asking: “Is this decision going to support or weaken my brand?”

And THAT type of mindset will enable you to build positive awareness for your brand, increase your sales, and grow your business!

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Bad Social Media Etiquette Could Be Killing Your Brand

March 19th, 2015

Hi All!

Back in 2012  I wrote a blog post entitled “Do You Suffer from Social ‘Me’dia Syndrome?”. It was picked up by tons of other blogs and also led to my being asked to write variations of it for several online business communities and magazines.

I bring this up because yesterday I spoke to a client of mine who was asking me about Social Media strategies. After my chat with her I realized that it was a good time to revisit this topic in 2015. Why? Because MANY people are still clueless about proper Social Media etiquette! And that impacts your Personal Branding!

Have YOU forgotten the word "social" in Social Media?

Have YOU forgotten the word “social” in Social Media?

Here’s the deal…you have to participate to make it work for you. If you make it all “about you”, you’ve lost the entire essence of what Social Media is about! I find that many new clients who come to me are not getting much out of their Social Media and online marketing efforts because they’ve forgotten ONE little detail…they forgot about the word “social” in their Social Media strategy.

Here are a few tips that will quickly illustrate my point:

1. Comment on other peoples’ blog posts. If you have a blog and want people to comment on your posts, you have to comment on OTHER peoples’ blog posts to start generating traffic to yours. It’s simple: If you read a blog post you like or have an opinion on, don’t just “keep it to yourself”. POST A COMMENT!

2. Retweet other peoples’ tweets: If you like a tweet from someone else, take a split second to click on the retweet button to share it with your followers. That’s why the retweet icon exists! To SHARE info with everyone and help cross-promote each other to help increase awareness for other people. It’s amazing how much more tweet-love and traffic you’ll get if you retweet, reply and comment on other peoples’ tweets. AGAIN…it’s part of being “social” in tweet-ville…and it’s part of Social Media etiquette!

3. Comment or Like other peoples’ posts on Facebook or in LinkedIn Groups: If you want more people to comment and/or click on the “like” button on your Fan Page or Profile posts, then do it more for other people! It takes less than one second to click “like” under someone’s post and sometimes just a couple of seconds to write a comment. Again, if you see a post that you like or find interesting, rather than just THINK to yourself, “That’s funny!” or “That’s cool!” or “That’s interesting!” or “That’s really helpful info!”, move your cursor up to the word “like” under it and simply click. Or type a short comment to acknowledge what that person posted!

This may all sounds like common sense BUT it’s NOT common practice…which is why millions of social media hobbyists and small business owners are involved in Social Media but frustrated with it. They constantly just focus on posting stuff about THEM, their businesses, their products or events, their books, their families, their vacations, their kids, the songs they like, food they like to eat, etc., but they rarely take the time to acknowledge what other people post and share online.

So…here’s my challenge to YOU: If any of this describes how YOU participate in the world of Social Media, make “improve my Social Media etiquette in 2015″ one of YOUR resolutions this year! You’ll be pleased with the results and will truly be participating the way the world of Social Media was intended.

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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10 Tips to Write Articles to Build Your Personal Brand

December 07th, 2014

Hi All!

If you want to increase awareness for your Personal Brand and drive more traffic to your website, you need to write articles. personal brand in wood type

Not only can this strategy immediately position you as an expert in your field, it can attract clients and media interviews to you.

And, if you’re an Author, writing short articles with content from your book, even AS you’re writing it, is a way to also generate interest in your book and increase your book sales! It’s also a way to continue interest in your book topic even if it has been out for a few years.

Here are ten tips to make the articles you write get results and become a valuable marketing tool for you:

  1. Grab The Reader’s Attention Fast: Make sure to create an interesting title for your article, and you can even make it a thought-provoking question. Also, in your opening paragraph set-up the “pain point” you’re going to solve and why it’s important to them. Writing articles that will solve a problem for your target audience is a great strategy for the angles you develop.
  2. Keep the Articles Simple, Short and Easy to Understand Quickly: People want to read quick-hit information that they can grasp fast and benefit from. So make sure the articles you write provide good, helpful information and are written in a succinct style. A good way to achieve this is to use bullet points or numbered points so that your key messages and tips are easy to reference and follow. Having your key points “buried” in paragraphs will make it frustrating for your readers.
  3. Add Keywords for Online Search: Your articles will be posted in numerous ways online and will often be found by people doing keyword searches on your topic matter. So you want to make sure that you use the Google keyword tool and add those popular search terms in the body of your articles. I know many experts who rapidly increase their search rankings because of writing articles, and oftentimes their articles start ranking higher in search results than their main websites do. Therefore, you want to implement this strategy!
  4. Don’t Pitch Your Services and Products: When you write articles it’s only about providing helpful info to your target audience. It is not about making your articles big infomercials to pitch yourself and/or your products. If you write good articles that people truly learn from, they will typically want to learn more about you and they will visit your website. The fastest way to kill your credibility and lose a potential “fan” is by trying to sell them on something in your article content.
  5. Be Yourself in Your Writing Style: Conveying yourself as likeable is important! If you’re a fun person, be sure to bring out your personality in your articles. This is the same advice I give to clients who hire me as a coach and consultant to launch their speaking careers! Don’t be one person on the stage and another person off stage. People can see through that because you’re not being authentic. And when you write articles, it may be the FIRST contact anyone has with you; even before seeing your website. So you want to make sure who you really are comes through in your writing.
  6. Don’t Quote Other Experts: The purpose of your articles is to showcase you; not someone who could be a competitor. You normally only want to quote other people in your articles if their information really adds to your message and content quality. Sure, you can quote stats and research results from studies you find, but try to avoid quoting or mentioning other experts who are similar to you.
  7. Offer Your Articles on Your Website & Submit Them to Online Distribution Services: When I submit articles online, I also add them to my website, in Word, so that people can download them to use as content on their blogs, ezines, websites and newsletters. And, on my article web page, I clearly state they can use my articles as long as they are shown in their entirety, and the short bio about me provided at the end of each article is included. I also ask that they send me a link to it when it’s used. Millions of people are constantly seeking for content and understand they have to source the author who wrote it. This is great for driving their traffic to you!
  8. Write Them Consistently: If possible, try to write and submit at least one article per month online. I know experts who do one-per-week because they receive so much benefit from doing so, but that may be tough for many of you. Start by writing a few, and after you get the hang of it and start developing a “formula” for cranking them out (or hire a ghostwriter to do them for you), you can start to increase how many you publish monthly.
  9. Share Your Links: Many article distribution services will create a web page for your article that will be found through online searches. You’ll have a unique url for your article’s page and can share that link to drive traffic to your article on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and in emails to your contact database.
  10. Embed Links in Your Articles: When you write an article, make sure to have certain words or phrases that have hyperlinks to pages on your website, your blog posts, Twitter page, Facebook page, and/or to other articles you have written and that are posted online. Just make sure the links take them to info that is relevant to what you’re writing about and to points you are making.

Okay! Brainstorm some topics and start writing to build your brand, credibility and online traffic!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

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Four Ways to Market Your Content (that Most People Don’t Do)

July 14th, 2014

Hi All!

You feel you have created a masterpiece in the form of your long-form content, such as an article or blog post. But it is of no value to you until others read it. You need to spread the word to attract traffic. So your content needs publicity; just like big brands that advertises products regularly to stay fresh in the minds of their target audience.

Here’s a phrase I use a lot because it’s true: This may all seem like common sense BUT it’s not common practice.

Everyday I’m contacted by small business owners, speakers, other types of self-employed people, and authors wanting to increase book sales, who want my help with their company or personal branding, PR, publicity, and

Do YOU Market Your Content Effectively? Most people don't!

Do YOU Market Your Content Effectively? Most people don’t!

marketing. So I can honestly say that the following tips are NOT regularly used because the people who initially contact me aren’t doing them!

How can you market your content? Keep reading:

Smart Use of Keywords

SEO is more about smart placement of keywords. There is no place for keyword stuffing in Google. Any articles that are flooded with keywords won’t rank well in the search engines. Therefore, proper keyword placement is important.

Let’s say you HAVE done your homework of accurately placing keywords at the right places in the content. But it won’t help much if you do not include keywords as #hashtags in your text. Remember to use your brand name, main topic, and subtopics as hashtags. However, avoid crowding your posts with hashtags.

Use Interesting Images

Your headline won’t always attract readers. With so many status updates and posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook from friends, relatives, colleagues, etc. flooding their profiles, most social media users simply move on unless you grab them. And oftentimes it’s an interesting pic that will get their attention first and cause them to pause to look at your topic headline.

Expert Advice

When sharing your content on social media sites, do not forget to make smart use of expert advice in your posts. Consumers today look for advice from experts in the industry, and if you can prove yourself as an expert, you will likely attract more readers of your content. You can also include the insights, quotes, and tips from other experts in your industry in your content to “enhance” your position as an expert, too. You’ll be “guilty by association” and that’s a good thing!

Share to Get Shared

Again, this may sound like common sense BUT it’s not common practice by most of the new clients who come to me. They spend all their time focusing on “them” versus sharing other people’s content. Bad move! How can you expect people to retweet your tweets, share your posts and spread the word to THEIR followers if you NEVER do that for them?

Several years ago I wrote a very popular article about how people suffer from Social “ME”dia Syndrome, and the concept is STILL relevant TODAY…if you’re suffering from that get help quickly and start supporting others in your social networks. Ya gotta GIVE to GET!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

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7 Ways to Improve the Stickiness Of Your Website

April 21st, 2013

Hi All!

The following article is a Guest Post written by Michael Fleischner, an Internet marketing expert and the President of MarketingScoop.com. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. You can visit MarketingScoop.com for further details and more marketing articles including tips on how to improve search engine rankings for your web site.

Check out this great advice from this seasoned pro!

7 Ways to Improve the Stickiness Of Your Website

Today more than ever, consumers are overwhelmed with choices, and distractions. The cost of attracting users to your website continues to increase and keeping them engaged is more important than ever.

Engagement doesn’t end with an individual browser reading content or clicking on an ad. Rather, engagement is an ongoing process that results in loyal customers who come back again and again, becoming more vested in your web site.

How can you make sure you’re engaging and keeping customers?

In order to create a loyal following, there are some basic principles you need to consider. From first impressions to life-long membership, put yourself in the shoes of your browsers and make their experience a valuable one.

  1. Reduce Clutter. How many times have you visited a website only to be overwhelmed and confused? What is this site about you may have asked yourself. Or perhaps you found yourself asking, ‘Where is the information I’m looking for?’Don’t ask your browsers or potential customers to figure this out. Make your site clutter free and create a visual priority that emphasizes the information, resources, or actions your browsers want. By reducing obstacles you build trust among new web site visitors and allow for simple decision making – which benefits everyone.
  2. Make Navigation Intuitive. There are many ways to navigate a web page but intuition rules the day. Don’t try to get fancy with your navigation or overuse java script. Basic navigation that follows current convention is the best way to lead individuals through your web site to the information they’re looking for.
  3. Make The Initial Site Interaction Relevant. When a browser reaches your web site, you have less than seven seconds to get them engaged. Making your initial site interaction relevant to what individuals are looking for is essential for keeping them interacting long term.If you are promoting your web site with Google Adwords, or any pay per click advertising for that matter, be sure to create customer landing pages that are truly relevant to the individual who clicks-through your ad. Once you’ve established relevancy, you can move them deeper into your content, tools, and resources.
  4. Ensure That Your Content Is Up-to-date. Web site content that isn’t up to date does not serve your audience and browsers are likely to move on. One way to ensure that information is timely is by providing a feed of relevant news or information. If including static text on your web pages, try not to include specific dates. However, if you must publish dates, be sure to update this information on a regular basis.
  5. Start An Interaction With Your Users. Each time a browser views your web page, you have an opportunity to interact with them. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. One great way to interact is to offer something of value at no cost. This can be a white paper, access to an exclusive list, or simply a 30 day free trial. Be sure to capture an individual’s valid email address and include them on your mailing list. An auto-responder is best if you wish to engage these individuals on an ongoing basis.
  6. Provide Plenty Of Support. Don’t hesitate to offer support right from your home page. Prominently display your 800 number, support email address, and additional information for your prospects and customers such as mailing address. This information is viewed favorably by search engines and also creates a sense of legitimacy. Contact information builds trust among prospects and elicits interest in your company.
  7. Make Sharing Easy. Once you’ve made your web site easy to use, don’t hesitate to offer browsers the ability to share your web site with others. This can be in the form of a simple widget that allows users to bookmark your page, subscribe to an Rss feed, or submit your content to popular news sites like Digg.com.Individuals are much more likely to visit a web site based on a friend’s recommendation versus some other type of marketing initiative. Leverage the power of viral marketing with easy sharing tools.

Your web site can be your greatest asset. Unfortunately, many marketers and website owners are so focused on increasing traffic that they lose site of the audience that’s already visiting their web pages but are simply not converting.

Don’t make the same mistake. Improve the quality of you site through relevant content that is up-to-date and easy to find. Once you’ve engaged users, encourage them to share. Doing so will make your site perform better, increase conversions, and deliver value for all involved.

Thank you, Michael, for sharing that great info! And I hope all of you found it helpful for increasing awareness and respect for your personal and business brands!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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Customer Service Lesson from Carnival Cruise Ship Disaster

February 20th, 2013

Hi All!

By now I’m sure most of you have heard about the recent Carnival Cruise debacle that occurred on their Triumph Ship in the Gulf of Mexico on February 10, 2013 due to a fuel line leak, and that left 4,200 passengers stranded on board without power or working toilets for five days. Not a fun way to spend a vacation! And also certainly not a “fun” time for Carnival either.

However, now that everyone is safely off the ship, this unfortunate situation made me think about what I could learn from Carnival’s recent public relations, business, legal, and Customer Service nightmare. I don’t plan to dissect “how” they handled everything on board during the fiasco, but rather wanted to focus on what they did during and after it from a Customer Service standpoint “off the ship”.

According to news reports, Carnival is not only refunding all passengers 100% BUT they are also providing travel vouchers for future cruises. And, according to cruise experts, this type of compensation is not “normal” in the cruise world; normally passengers are only given a partial refund when things go bad (or even really bad) on a cruise.

That said, all small business owners should adhere to the following: When you have a client or customer who is unhappy, go above and beyond what is expected of you to repair the situation! I know many business owners who look at customer complaints as an “annoyance” and complain the person(s) is simply whining…but that’s not always true and that’s NOT the right perspective.

Here’s a personal example: Recently someone purchased my e-book, Promote U Thru PR: How to Get Mass Media Coverage to Build Your Brand and Income, and for whatever reason there was a technical glitch in my shopping cart for THAT one order, that one day, that caused his credit card payment to process but it did NOT deliver the buyer a link to download the e-book.

I received a scathing email from the person saying they were ripped off. But, rather than just email them the e-book directly with an apology (for the sake of keeping the $17 bucks), I refunded their credit card, AND sent them the e-book, AND offered them a FREE 30-minute consultation. That was WAY more than I needed to offer for a $17 product ordering mishap, but the effort to maintain my brand integrity was worth it.

Why? Because the person ended up hiring me for on-going Marketing, Branding, PR, Publicity and Social Media consultation…which yielded way more revenue for me than losing a measly $17 bucks on the e-book sale. However, even if he hadn’t hired me, I could walk away from that situation knowing I did everything possible to make him happy.

My prediction is that MANY of the passengers who went on that awful Carnival Cruise WILL use their vouchers in the future with Carnival and have a great time…like a majority of people who cruise every year yet never experience any mishaps, large or small.

So learn from this recent news story, and learn from the personal example I provided, and when things (possibly) go awry with a client you may have, go above and beyond to fix the situation…it’s YOUR brand and it’s YOUR job to protect it!

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Ten Tips for Writing Articles to Build Your Brand, Book Sales and Web Traffic

August 01st, 2012

Hi All!

I wrote about this last year but felt it was worth doing again. Why? Because a great strategy for building your Topic Expert brand, and for increasing traffic to your website, is to write articles.

By doing this, you can immediately be positioned 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, relax! Hire a ghostwriter (inexpensively) to do them for you. All you have to do is provide them with the topics you think will appeal to your target audience and they’ll do the heavy lifting for you.

And, for any of you Authors, writing short articles with content from your book, even AS you’re writing it, is a way to also generate interest in your book and increase your book sales! It’s also a way to continue interest in your book topic even if it has been out for a few years.

That said, here are 10 quick tips for making them compelling and using them as a valuable marketing tool:

  1. Grab The Reader’s Attention Fast: Make sure to create an interesting title for your article, and you can even make it a thought-provoking question. Also, in your opening paragraph set-up the “pain point” you’re going to solve and why it’s important to them. Writing articles that will solve a problem for your target audience is a great strategy for the angles you develop.
  2. Keep the Articles Simple, Short and Easy to Understand Quickly: People want to read quick-hit information that they can grasp fast and benefit from. So make sure the articles you write provide good, helpful information and are written in a succinct style. A good way to achieve this is to use bullet points or numbered points so that your key messages and tips are easy to reference and follow. Having your key points “buried” in paragraphs will make it frustrating for your readers.
  3. Add Keywords for Online Search: Your articles will be posted in numerous ways online and will often be found by people doing keyword searches on your topic matter. So you want to make sure that you use the Google keyword tool that I mentioned back in the chapter about writing an effective Press Release, and add those popular search terms in the body of your articles. I know many experts who rapidly increase their search rankings because of writing articles, and oftentimes their articles start ranking higher in search results than their main websites do. Therefore, you want to implement this strategy!
  4. Don’t Pitch Your Services and Products: When you write articles it’s only about providing helpful info to your target audience. It is not about making your articles big infomercials to pitch yourself and/or your products. If you write good articles that people truly learn from, they will typically want to learn more about you and they will visit your website. The fastest way to kill your credibility and lose a potential “fan” is by trying to sell them on something in your article content.
  5. Be Yourself in Your Writing Style: Conveying yourself as likeable is important! If you’re a fun person, be sure to bring out your personality in your articles. This is the same advice I give to clients who hire me as a coach and consultant to launch their speaking careers! Don’t be one person on the stage and another person off stage. People can see through that because you’re not being authentic. And when you write articles, it may be the FIRST contact anyone has with you; even before seeing your website. So you want to make sure who you really are comes through in your writing.
  6. Don’t Quote Other Experts: The purpose of your articles is to showcase you; not someone who could be a competitor. You normally only want to quote other people in your articles if their information really adds to your message and content quality. Sure, you can quote stats and research results from studies you find, but try to avoid quoting or mentioning other experts who are similar to you.
  7. Offer Your Articles on Your Website & Submit Them to Online Distribution Services: When I submit articles online, I also add them to my website, in Word, so that people can download them to use as content on their blogs, ezines, websites and newsletters. And, on my article web page, I clearly state they can use my articles as long as they are shown in their entirety, and the short bio about me provided at the end of each article is included. I also ask that they send me a link to it when it’s used. Millions of people are constantly seeking for content and understand they have to source the author who wrote it. This is great for driving their traffic to you!
  8. Write Them Consistently: If possible, try to write and submit at least one article per month online. I know experts who do one-per-week because they receive so much benefit from doing so, but that may be tough for many of you. Start by writing a few, and after you get the hang of it and start developing a “formula” for cranking them out (or hire a ghostwriter to do them for you), you can start to increase how many you publish monthly.
  9. Share Your Links: Many article distribution services will create a web page for your article that will be found through online searches. You’ll have a unique url for your article’s page and can share that link to drive traffic to your article on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and in emails to your contact database.
  10. Embed Links in Your Articles: When you write an article, make sure to have certain words or phrases that have hyperlinks to pages on your website, your blog posts, Twitter page, Facebook page, and/or to other articles you have written and that are posted online. Just make sure the links take them to info that is relevant to what you’re writing about and to points you are making.

Okay! There are 10 quick tips to get you started on writing articles to build your brand, revenue, credibility and online traffic!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

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Beyond a Press Release: Two More Strategies to Get Media Interviews

February 05th, 2012

Hi All!

By writing and distributing Press Releases for myself, I have been interviewed by well-known media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, and many others. And when you give them a great interview or sound bite, they come back to you. I have one reporter who has contacted me 3 different times in the past 6 months for 3 different articles she was writing. That is FREE publicity to the world!

Press Releases can also prompt the media to ask you to write an article for them. Why? They perceive you as an “expert”! In a short period of time I was asked by BNET.com, WomenEntrepreneur.com, and PersonalBrandingBlog.com to write articles for them – all because they received a Press Release from me and it put me on their radar as a “go to” expert in my niche.

But once you’ve crafted a newsworthy Press Release, and deployed it through a distribution service like PRWeb.com, what else can you do as a small business owner on a budget to get media interviews? Here are 2 strategies to consider:

Spoon Feeding the Media Segment Ideas

In addition to sending out “mass news” Press Releases, there is another strategy for getting publicity. I call it “spoon feeding” the media. The media loves it when you approach them with specific story ideas. This can be along the lines of topics like: “Is Your Career Suffering? 5 Unique Tips for Success”, or “Do You Struggle With Money? 3 Surefire Tips for Finding Financial Bliss”, or “Is Stress Ruining Your Life? 4 Proven Ways to Overcome It”.

The key here is you’re doing the “thinking” for the Reporters, Editors, Producers, etc. They are always looking for ideas, and appreciate when they get some! So focus on topics that fit within your niche as a Coach, develop compelling topics that would be great interview topics for print, online, radio or TV, find several media outlets that cover stories related to your expertise and that reach your target audience, and pitch them your idea(s). This strategy has worked very well for me, personally, and my clients!

And you can approach the media contacts via phone or email. But, and here’s a key point, whether you send them a Press Release or contact them with a specific topic idea, you need to follow-up. Sending them one email or leaving one voicemail message is typically not enough. Try 3-5 follow up attempts before you give up. Most members of the media are approached with many news stories and topic ideas daily, so being the “squeaky wheel” is often necessary. And even if they don’t jump on the first one you present, continue to the send them new ones. Eventually you will get their attention!

Sharing Your News Through Social Media

Once you have uploaded and deployed your Press Release through PRWeb.com or another online distribution service, the services create a web page for it with a unique url. So not only post your Press Release on your website but also be sure share the link to it with all of your Social Media channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. You can also use the Press Release as a post for your blog.

And, when you start to get media interviews, be sure to add the links to the articles or appearances on your website. Plus, share links to those, too, with your Social Media communities. Please note, it’s not only totally acceptable to toot your own horn by sharing these things, it is necessary for building your business and brand!

OKAY! There is your crash course in how implementing effective PR strategies can benefit your business. Again, this is a key marketing tool for building brand awareness, positioning yourself as an expert (ie: personal branding), generating sales for events and products, attracting new clients, and landing speaking engagements.

Being persistent and consistent with your PR efforts can bring you substantial returns…and prospects will be impressed by the media coverage you post on your website. It really will build your credibility as an expert in your field!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

 

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Lisa Orrell Voted “Top 30 Brand Gurus in the World”

June 01st, 2011

Hi All!

Okay, so I have some cool news to share, therefore this post is a bit self-serving…but I can occasionally share news about me, and not just helpful tips, on my own blog…right???

Here’s the news I wanted to tell you about…it’s the actual Press Release that was deployed on PRWeb.com:

Lisa Orrell, Branding Expert and Marketing Consultant, Recently Voted “Top 30 Most Influential Brand Gurus in the World”

Voted on by over 22,000 industry peers and business professionals, Lisa Orrell makes BrandGurus.net’s prestigious Top 30 Brand Gurus List along with other globally known marketing experts, such as: Stephen Denny, Martin Roll, Sally Hogshead and Dan Schawbel.

Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru, is a well-known 20-year Branding Expert, Marketing Consultant and Certified Success Coach who works with small business owners, entrepreneurs, entertainers, professional and aspiring speakers, and book authors. And, based on her track record, she was recently included on BrandGurus.net’s “Top 30 Most Influential Brand Gurus in the World” List. According to BrandGurus.net, the winners who made their final Top 30 list were voted on by more than 22,000 industry and business professionals around the globe. 

“I didn’t even know I had been nominated to be considered for this list. Apparently they had a rather large list of candidates and then put it out to their industry database and social media networks for voting,” explains Lisa Orrell. “I wasn’t notified until the Top 30 List had been selected, so it was a total surprise! And, after looking at the experts who were on there with me, I realized I was in great company. I actually know some of them personally or I have read their popular business and branding books.”

Aside from coaching and consulting with clients, Lisa is also the author of 3 business books: “Millennials Incorporated”, “Millennials into Leadership, and of her highly anticipated new one coming out in August 2011, “Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement”. And, as a professional speaker herself, Lisa conducts popular workshops and seminars on Personal and Business Branding, Marketing, PR, Publicity, Social Media, Book Marketing and Publishing, and launching a Speaker Platform.

“I think Lisa totally deserves to be on that list,” says one of Orrell’s clients, Stacey Vulakh, a Time Management Coach, founder of the Timestyle Time Management Approach, aspiring author, and professional speaker. “She has been amazing at helping me create my branding and positioning, launching my coaching and consulting business, building my speaker platform, and helping me develop the concept for my first book. Lisa is so good at what she does…it’s what she’s done her entire professional life!” 

Because of her vast business experience and notoriety, Orrell has been interviewed by, or written articles for, a wide variety of media, including: ABC, MSNBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, NY Times, U.S. News & World Report, Cosmo, China’s Her World Magazine, BNET.com, WomenEntrepreneur.com, and countless others. Plus, aside from being selected for The Top 30 Brand Guru’s List, Lisa is also the recipient of over 75 national and international awards for marketing, creative and strategic excellence.

People follow Lisa’s business insights, tips and advice on Twitter @PromoteUGuru, through her Promote U Guru blog, and on her Facebook Fan Page: Facebook.com/PromoteUGuru.

For media inquiries, to contact Lisa about her services, or to have her speak at your next Professional Association event, contact her at: Lisa@PromoteUGuru.com, phone: 408-340-8789, website: PromoteUGuru.com

OKAY! So that’s the cool news I wanted to share!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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How to Write Articles for Branding and Web Traffic: Part One

March 07th, 2011

Hi 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:

  1. Grab The Reader’s Attention Fast: Make sure to create an interesting title for your article, and you can even make it a thought-provoking question. Also, in your opening paragraph set-up the “pain point” you’re going to solve and why it’s important to them. Writing articles that will solve a problem for your target audience is a great strategy for the angles you develop.
  2. Keep the Articles Simple and Easy to Understand Quickly: People want to read quick-hit information that they can grasp fast and benefit from. So make sure the articles you write provide good, helpful information and are written in a succinct style. A good way to achieve this is to use bullet points or numbered points so that your key messages and tips are easy to reference and follow. Having your key points “buried” in paragraphs will make it frustrating for your readers.
  3. Add Keywords for Online Search: Your articles will be posted in numerous ways online and will often be found by people doing keyword searches on your topic matter. So you want to make sure that you use the Google keyword tool that I mentioned back in the chapter about writing an effective Press Release, and add those popular search terms in the body of your articles. I know many experts who rapidly increase their search rankings because of writing articles, and oftentimes their articles start ranking higher in search results than their main websites do. Therefore, you want to implement this strategy!
  4. Make Your Articles Short: You don’t need to write super long articles to make them good. This is about quality not quantity! Most articles that I, and other experts write, are around 400-700 words. Keeping them short not only makes it easier for your readers but makes it easier for you to write them on an on-going basis.
  5. Don’t Pitch Your Services and Products: When you write articles it’s only about providing helpful info to your target audience. It is not about making your articles big infomercials to pitch yourself and/or your products. If you write good articles that people truly learn from, they will typically want to learn more about you and they will visit your website. The fastest way to kill your credibility and lose a potential “fan” is by trying to sell them on something in your article content.
  6. Be Yourself in Your Writing Style: Conveying yourself as likeable is important! If you’re a fun person, be sure to bring out your personality in your articles. This is the same advice I give to clients who hire me as a coach and consultant to launch their speaking careers! Don’t be one person on the stage and another person off stage. People can see through that because you’re not being authentic. And when you write articles, it may be the FIRST contact anyone has with you; even before seeing your website. So you want to make sure who you really are comes through in your writing. A good example of this is my writing style. I write in a very conversational way, and write very close to how I speak. I’m not afraid to add in sarcastic comments, casual verbiage or silly phrases to anything I write because that’s “who” I am…and I want my readers to get to know “me”!
  7. Don’t Quote Other Experts: The purpose of your articles is to showcase you; not someone who could be a competitor. You normally only want to quote other people in your articles if their information really adds to your message and content quality. Sure, you can quote stats and research results from studies you find, but try to avoid quoting or mentioning other experts who are similar to you.
  8. Offer Your Articles on Your Website: When I submit articles online, I also add them to my website, in Word, so that people can download them to use as content on their blogs, ezines, websites and newsletters. And, on my article web page, I clearly state they can use my articles as long as they are shown in their entirety, and the short bio about me provided at the end of each article is included. I also ask that they send me a link to it when it’s used. Millions of people are constantly seeking for content and understand they have to source the author who wrote it. This is great for driving their traffic to you!
  9. Create an E-book: Once you have several articles done, you can also compile them into an e-book and either offer it as a free gift on your website (as long as people provide you with their contact info to download it), or you can sell it. Either way, this is a good strategy for creating simple products and for building your contact list.
  10. Write Them Consistently: If possible, try to write and submit at least one article per month online. I know experts who do one-per-week because they receive so much benefit from doing so, but that may be tough for many of you. Start by writing a few, and after you get the hang of it and start developing a “formula” for cranking them out (or hire a ghostwriter to do them for you), you can start to increase how many you publish monthly.
  11. Share Your Links: Many article distribution services will create a web page for your article that will be found through online searches. You’ll have a unique url for your article’s page and can share that link to drive traffic to your article on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and in emails to your contact database.
  12. Embed Links in Your Articles: When you write an article, make sure to have certain words or phrases that have hyperlinks to pages on your website, your blog posts, Twitter page, Facebook page, and/or to other articles you have written and that are posted online. Just make sure the links take them to info that is relevant to what you’re writing about and to points you are making.

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

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