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Archive for the ‘book marketing’ Category

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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10 Social Media Tips for Effective Book Marketing

August 31st, 2014

Hi All!

With the boom of self-publishing, most authors don’t have the backing of a traditional Publishing House to handle the marketing of their books. And, nowadays, even if you do land a book publishing contract, many Publishers don’t provide the marketing support they used to.Social media concept

So, regardless of whether you self-publish your book OR sign a book deal, you’ll find yourself having to be your own Publicist and Marketing Expert. Unless, of course, you can hire someone to do it for you. However most authors who contact me are on a tight budget and can’t afford a costly Publicist. That’s why authors hire me to provide them with customized strategies and plans that they can execute themselves and/or with the help of a cost-effective Virtual Assistant.

Please keep in mind that Social Media is just ONE strategy in your overall book marketing mix. You need to also include PR, media outreach, and other marketing strategies for effective book marketing. And I’ve written plenty of blogs and articles on those, too.

But in this article, I’d like to focus on 10 tips that you can use to promote your book, increase your book sales, and build your brand, using Social Media:

1. Embed a Retweet Button

Who doesn’t love a free sample? Give one chapter away for free to your audience and embed a retweet button in strategic locations, motivating readers to easily share it with their followers on Twitter. Side Note: Avoid just sending tweets that are all about “Buy my book!” with a link to it on Amazon.

2. Promote Your Personal Brand

Promoting your Personal Brand as the author is as important as promoting your book! So in your Social Media posts, make your prospects want to connect with you. Share stuff about your hobbies, interests, your writing process, and expertise. Let the audience (who could be prospective buyers of your book) get to know you as a person by not JUST focusing your content all about your book.

3. Ask Readers to Spread the Word

Ask readers of your book to tell their networks about it. This is something MANY authors don’t think of doing. Don’t think that just because someone loved your book they’re going to remember to share the news with others. People get busy and forget! Remind them about your book and give them a little nudge to tell their networks about it.

4. Network with Other Writers in Your Genre

Find authors who target the same audience that you do for your book. Don’t look at them as competitors even if those authors have written books on the same topic as yours. Promoting other writers can help attract readers to your book, and those authors may reciprocate. Get involved in their social networks: “Like” their Facebook Pages, follow them on Twitter and retweet their posts, and ask them to write a Guest Blog for your blog, and ask if they would accept a blog post from you for theirs. Building relationships with other authors in your genre is a great strategy for cross-promotion that benefits you both!

5. Create a Video Contest

Run a contest asking readers of your book to share a video about why they liked your book so much, and award the person who provides the best one with a $25 or $50 Gift Card (i.e. for Starbucks or a VISA gift card). You can then post the Top 10 videos (or all of them) on your YouTube Channel, your Facebook Page, on your website, tweet the links to the vids, share them in your e-newsletter, etc. Those videos all become marketing tools to promote your book in a wide variety of ways.

6. Use Hashtags

Use hashtags of your industry to promote your book on Twitter (and elsewhere) to reach a larger audience who are interested in your topic. Confused by hashtags? Read this great article for an overview and tips!

7. Participate in the Conversation

Monitor the conversation about your book online, and post responses to comments. Engaging with your audience will grow your audience base and encourage others to join the conversation. Again, it’s another strategy for people to get to know you as a person, and that can forge bonds with them.

8. Go Niche

Search Google to find social networks in the same niche as your book. Become a fan of these networks or pages. Participate in the conversations and when appropriate, mention your book. But be sure to avoid only posting comments promoting your book because that will annoy people.

9. Mention Your Book in Your Social Network Bios

I’m always shocked by how many authors who contact me DON’T have their books mentioned in their bios on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. Your book, and a link to it, should be added to every online bio you have.

10. Add the Book Title to Your Email Signature

Again, this is another very simple thing to do that many authors don’t think of. Add your book title and a link to it in your email signature block so that EVERY person who receives an email from you sees it.

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Three Ways Authors Can Get Media Coverage for Free

June 18th, 2014

Hi All!

On a regular basis, I have Authors contact me who are extremely frustrated because they’ve spent tons of time and effort (and oftentimes, a lot of money) writing their books only to see the sales of it minimal. But typically this isn’t because their books aren’t good! Rather, the lack-of-interest and low book sales are the result of most people not knowing their books exists.

You can get media coverage without a big budget or Publicist!

You can get media coverage without a big budget or Publicist!

That’s where PR and Publicity can help. Yet most Authors who I speak with never even issued a Press Release announcing their book was published; let alone put effort into an on-going media outreach strategy. PR and Publicity is a critical component to building awareness for your Personal Brand and attracting more interest in your book, so it shouldn’t be overlooked.

If you’re experiencing frustration and low book sales, keep reading. It’s time to be your own “Publicist” to achieve that “all important” awareness you’re lacking after you publish.

Here are three PR strategies that don’t require a financial investment. They simply require an investment of your time:

Don’t Make Your News General:

The media wants key tips, interesting lessons, and compelling angles that come from your book, and they normally want you to provide them with that info. Don’t make them have to dig for it in your Press Release (or book) because they rarely will.

Basically, GIVE THEM article or segment ideas. Don’t give them a “general” Press Release just about your new book and hope they’ll think of a reason to interview you.

But AFTER the release of your new book has become “old news”, the strategy above is one you can use on an on-going basis to continue getting media coverage…and your book will always be mentioned in any interviews you do. It’s like getting an Oscar! Once an actor is nominated or wins one, they are never introduced again without that being mentioned along with their name.

Be Sure to Pitch the Right Media:

Make sure the media you pitch actually reaches the target audience YOU want to reach! This may sound like common sense, but it’s not common practice. You have to create a targeted list of print media (i.e. magazines/newspapers), online media, blogs, podcasts, and Radio and TV shows that cover topics like yours.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re a Leadership Coach who has written a book on effective management skills, don’t waste your time pitching ideas to a Top 40 radio “morning zoo-type” of show that primarily reaches young people between 14-21 years old. The Producers won’t be interested in your topic so they won’t book you as a guest on the show.

Follow Up is Key:

After you have emailed the media contacts your pitch and/or Press Release, FOLLOW UP! This is where most non-professional PR people drop the ball. It normally takes more effort than just sending them one email. The media gets pitched a lot so it’s important to send several follow up emails and even leave 1-2 voicemail messages.

Being the squeaky wheel is sometimes required to get their attention. And once you do, they’ll quickly tell you whether they’re interested or not. But please note that just because they may not be interested in your topic right away, doesn’t mean they never will be.

Maybe they just covered a topic like yours so they don’t want to do another segment or article on it again quite yet. The good news to that is twofold: you know they ARE interested in topics like yours, AND you will now be on their radar as a “Topic Expert” for future stories they do.

In closing, getting PR and Publicity for your Personal Brand and book is not complicated. It just requires some time and effort. You really can get massive media coverage even without a budget or the help of a professional Publicist!

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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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Simple Strategies to Get More Business on Facebook

January 13th, 2013

Hi All!

Social Media is an area that I not only conduct workshops and seminars on for small business owners, speakers and authors, but one that I provide private consultation on with every single client who hires me.

Now, I realize that to some of you Social Media may not be a mystery for building your brand, lead generation  and increased sales, however I will tell you it IS a huge mystery to most anyone who contacts me.

The common questions I hear are: How can I get more followers on Twitter and attract customers? I have a Facebook Business (Fan) Page but how do I use for marketing to get more clients? I have no idea how to use LinkedIn, Pinterest or YouTube for business, so what should I be doing? How can I use social media for book or product marketing?

And on and on and on…I’m not exaggerating when I say those types of questions are posed to me several times a week.

Obviously each one of those inquiries could each be the topic of its own book (and many have been!), so I’ll narrow this down to ONE of those topics and tackle the others in future posts I write.

Today I’d like to share an excerpt from an informative article written by Angela Stringfellow, a Business Writer who just had this article published on American Express’s awesome website for Small Business Owners and entrepreneurs, OpenForum.com. Her article is entitled: “10 Tips for Using Facebook to Boost Business”.

To avoid copyright issues, here are just the first three tips she shares and then you can click on the link to read the final seven:

Here are some innovative ways small businesses can use Facebook and capitalize on the power of this social giant.

1. Integrate Facebook connect buttons into your company website. Website visitors can easily connect to Facebook with the click of a button, enabling small business owners to maintain contact with potential customers even if they never return to the website.

2. Be responsive. Josh Grossman of e-Coupon service SavingStar says his company uses Facebook to communicate with customers and makes a point to respond to every question and comment promptly. Small businesses often thrive on personal interaction, and Facebook is a useful tool.

3. Make it easy to share content. Grossman explains, “Every coupon we post on SavingStar has a Facebook like button. Each coupon gets dozens or even hundreds of likes, helping to spread the word with users’ Facebook friends. All of our blog posts also have Facebook like and send buttons, and we use the Facebook comments plugin to make it easy for users to comment and share those comments with their Facebook friends.”

The tips that Angela shares in her article are dead on, so I highly recommend CLICKING HERE to read the other seven!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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How to Optimize Your Press Release for Major Traffic

December 15th, 2012

Hi All,

There’s one key marketing and branding tool that most client who come to me have never used in their mix: Press Releases. These are critical to get mass awareness for you, your company, your products, your events and your services. Plus, if you write them yourself, the only cost is to deploy it through a service, like PRWeb.com. And the coverage you get after that is FREE publicity for you!

But, aside from writing a well-crafted Press Release that has newsworthy information to share, you’ll want to optimize it so that the Media and potential clients, on an on-going basis, through online search, can find it.

Inc. recently posted a great article with easy tips to do this, entitled: “The Perfectly Optimized Press Release” written by Aaron Aders, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Slingshot SEO.

In the article, he provided six strategies to optimize your next Press Release. Here are three of them but click on the article link to read the final three. You don’t want to miss all of them!

1. Use direct links with natural anchor text.

Be sure that your chosen online wire service does not redirect links within your press releases to another server before sending them to your website. Wire services typically do this to track the visitor through a cookie that is tracked during the redirect. This is good for the wire service, but bad for you. Just hover over a link in your press release and make sure the URL points to the desired page on your website to confirm a direct link. Also, in anchor text, it’s a bad practice to force keywords where they may sound a bit unnatural to the content of the article. Use keywords and phrases that are relevant to the article only.

2. Don’t use too many links.

Follow these simple guidelines when using links inside your press release. Use no more than one link if your press release is less than 250 words; two links for up to 400 words; three links for up to 750 words; and five links for up to 1,000 words. It’s good practice to keep your online press releases under 1,000 words. Using too many links can make a press release appear ‘spammy.’

3. Take advantage of multimedia attachments.

Press releases with multimedia typically have higher click-through rates. So, if your wire service allows multimedia attachments such as videos or pdf files then be sure to take advantage of this extended functionality. Here’s a little known trick: don’t forget to optimize the file names and titles of your multimedia attachments to your press release. This will boost the press release’s SEO power. Again, use keywords and phrases that are relevant to the press release only.

CLICK HERE TO READ ALL OF AARON’S GREAT ARTICLE!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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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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5 Key Strategies for Effective Facebook Advertising Campaigns

April 24th, 2012

Hi All!

I came across this extremely helpful article written by Melinda Emerson, The Small Biz Lady. Melinda always provides great content and info so you should follower her on Twitter @SmallBizLady and read her blog posts.

Many clients come to me either confused about Facebook Advertising, or have never even considered running Facebook Ads. And I typically find most of them think Facebook Ads are probably really expensive. But, that’s NOT true!

Not only can you choose the exact audience you want your ad to appear on the pages of, BUT you can also control how long it runs and how much you spend. Also, ads are great for promoting your events! You can run a Facebook Ad campaign leading up to your event and then stop the campaign once it’s over. Cool stuff! Again, you’re in total control of your campaigns and budget.

For more info on all the general stuff about “how” to run ads, visit the Facebook Ads page.

Okay…back to the purpose of this article! I’d like to share 5 tips Melinda offers once you’ve decided to run ads.

“5 Areas to Focus on When Setting Up Facebook Ads” by Melinda Emerson. Please note this is just an excerpt from the entire article she wrote, so click here to read the whole thing!

User Destination: Figure out where you want to send the users that click on your ad. There is a strong benefit to sending people to a Facebook Business Page, as well as sending them to a company website. It all depends on the marketing goal you are hoping to achieve. Costs per click will also vary based on where you direct people to go. A CPC landing page can make or break an ad campaign, but the landing page doesn’t necessarily need to be offsite. Facebook Business Pages allow for creative opportunities for landing pages including a contact form or a Facebook store among other options.

Ad Type: Determining which ad type to choose can directly impact the success of a campaign. Facebook Ads are a common ad type that is structured most similarly to traditional CPC ads. Sponsored stories, event, post, and application ads can also be successful for brands but focus on more specific content. There is a strong social advantage for running ads that highlight a brand’s status update or event because they show “likes” and shares associated with that post. These ad types often see increased click through rates because of the social association.

Targeting: You not only have the opportunity to target your current demographic, but can also connect with an audience that you would like to target as customers. Facebook allows you to target users based on every profile feature that they enter. Likes and interests are a feature that businesses need to take advantage of. If a business sells fitness products they have the opportunity to show their ads to anyone that “likes” fitness, health, working out, yoga, etc. The specific targeting allows for leads from a very qualified user group, which makes the Facebook Ad conversion rates much higher than traditional CPC campaigns.

Reporting: In addition to the basic reporting that Facebook offers, there are other ways to track your user’s activity after they click on your ad. You can setup goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics that can assist in determining the success of the ad campaign.

Optimization: Continuously managing your ad campaign is vital to its success but knowing how to optimize it is what can really drive results. Knowing which ads are performing and why is what you’ll need to know to carry that success to the other ad campaigns.

I hope her tips take some of the mystery out of Facebook Ad campaigns for you! Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, coach, consultant, entertainer, book author or speaker, Facebook Ads are a great way to generate traffic to your Fan Page (Business Page), website, events, products and BRAND…and it’s highly targeted and cost-effective for lead generation!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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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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How One Author’s Self Published Book Became a Best Seller

December 10th, 2011

Hi All!

Many of my clients are authors, or aspiring authors, who self publish their books or who have gotten traditional publishing deals. But regardless of how they published, they come to me for help with book marketing. And, as the author of 3 books myself, I can tell you first hand that just because your book is on Amazon (or available elsewhere) it doesn’t matter if no one knows it exists!

That said, I came across an interesting article published by The Wall Street Journal, written by Alexandra Alter, about how one self published author took matters into her own hands and ended up with a best-seller that has now sold over 400,000 copies!

I wanted to share this great story with you because it’s not only inspirational for any of you who are authors or planning to become one, but it also explains HOW she made this happen. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Article: “How I Became a Best-Selling Author”:

This summer, Darcie Chan’s debut novel became an unexpected hit. It  has sold more than 400,000 copies and landed on the best-seller lists  alongside brand-name authors like Michael Connelly, James Patterson and  Kathryn Stockett.

It’s been a success by any measure, save one. Ms. Chan still hasn’t found a publisher.

Five years ago, Ms. Chan’s novel, “The Mill River Recluse,” which  tells the story of a wealthy Vermont widow who bestows her fortune on  town residents who barely knew her, would have languished in a drawer. A dozen publishers and more than 100 literary agents rejected it.

“Nobody was willing to take a chance,” says Ms. Chan, a 37-year-old lawyer who drafts environmental  legislation. “It was too much of a publishing risk.”

This past May, Ms. Chan decided to digitally publish it herself,  hoping to gain a few readers and some feedback. She bought some ads on  Web sites targeting e-book readers, paid for a review from Kirkus  Reviews, and strategically priced her book at 99 cents to encourage  readers to try it. She’s now attracting bids from foreign imprints,  movie studios and audio-book publishers, without selling a single copy  in print.

The story of how Ms. Chan joined the  ranks of best sellers is as much a tale of digital marketing savvy and  strategic pricing as one of artistic triumph. Her breakout signals a  monumental shift in the way books are packaged, priced and sold in the  digital era. Just as music executives have been sidestepped by YouTube  sensations and indie iTunes hits, book publishers are losing ground to  independent authors and watching their powerful status as literary  gatekeepers wither.

Self-publishing has long been derided as a last resort for authors  who lack the talent or savvy to hack it in the publishing business. But  it has gained a patina of legitimacy as a growing number of  self-published authors land on best-seller lists. Last year, 133,036  self-published titles were released, up from 51,237 in 2006, according to Bowker, a company that tracks publishing trends.

To read the rest of this info-packed article and learn more about Ms. Chan’s amazing story, CLICK HERE!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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