10 Critical Points To Get Your Press Release Accepted Publicity is one of the best ways and most cost effective ways to drive traffic to your site. You already know it is an excellent marketing tool for your business overall. Because it is very cost effective it makes a great tool for small business owners and entrepreneurs. The key to success is understanding when, where, and how to submit press releases so they get accepted. Many of our clients use press releases on PR wire and PR Web as a way to drive serious traffic ( 1000’s of new visitors) to their sites, promote upcoming events, and they never even talk to the editors. Others send releases to the media (not online sites) and end up with the governor coming to their event. That is the power of publicity from the media. If you seek printing in publications, here’s an important fact -  publications with under 30,000 subscribers – local publications  - are THRIVING as the rest of the bigger boys are seriously struggling to stay in business. Keep your local focus, use your local publications, and build your local presence. You never know where that will lead since the A/P picks up lots of local stories for national coverage. Join us at our workshop Aug 31, 2011 and find out the Insider Secrets to Getting Publicity on a Shoestring Budget. Getting started:

1. At the top f your press release give the instructions about what the release is for. FOR RELEASE AUGUST 28^th, 2011 or FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Also include the type of release:  News Release above the instructions .Submit releases about 1-2 weeks before an event if you want to attract media coverage. Submit them within the week for shorter turn times and if you have some relationship with the editor or reporter(s)
2. Type ,don’t hand write releases. Use double spacing and a large margin. Editors use the margin for their notes and get huffy if you use “their” space.  Huffy means they easily may toss your release. They get hundreds per day for significant publications.
3. Use your logo and header above the actual press release.  Send in as a .pdf attachment, submitted to the editors site online, or sent in by snail mail – not my favorite, but can work.
4. Use a headline that grabs attention and invites the reader to want more. Some examples: (Name of Company) launches new website for Your Target Market Free Information Available at Type of (Critical Business Resource, etc) Taylor Made Small Biz launches new website for Military Entrepreneurs Online
5. Start with the place the story originates as the first two words. Looks like this (City, State)…in parentheses and three dots or 3 dashes  after. Denver, Colorado---August 28^th, 2011- A new website launched this week to help our soldiers coming home realize the benefits and ease of starting their own business. MilitaryEntrepreneursOnline.com offers free training to our veterans on how to start their business using online marketing strategies that are low cost, high tech, and very effective at getting more customers in the door.
6. KISS – Keep It Simple Sweetheart – Most of us struggle a little here, so get a good editor. Make sure your first paragraph answers who, what, when and why. ( See above example)
7. At the bottom include your short paragraph about your company About Your Company (Company Website)
8. Below the about the company provide the contact’s name.  Include the first and last name of your contact person to call for more information. Show the email and if you really want to get contacted include home phone (or cell phone), as well as the business number.
9. Keep the release to a single page. If you have more than 1 page, number the rest at the bottom. Put  “more”-centered at the bottom of each page. Don’t add another subject reference or headline on the other pages.
10. And most critical - At the end of the release, add –END- or three # signs centered on the page. Who knew                  ###                  could be so vital !

Best of luck as you present your grammy award winning story. So .. .Do you have a great or horrible PR story to share ? We love your comments so tell us your story. Join us at our workshop Aug 31, 2011 and find out the Insider Secrets to Getting Publicity on a Shoestring Budget. To get more information and assistance on creating your press releases and even launching a simple PR campaign check here.

Fellow  Entrepreneurs, Marketing Directors, & Business Owners; Maybe you have a website, a Facebook  fan page or LinkedIN profile, but are you seeing results  - people connecting and buying from you online? http://taylormadesmallbiz.isd-genesis.com/rapidachievement/rapid-achievement-vip.html I have to admit, when I started shifting our business to bringing in leads from online sources, early on in the change, I had a few successes but a lot more failures.  With the help of my team we now have more than 50% of our leads coming from online sources. More than half our clients using this system have doubled ( 100% increase) their sales within 90 days.  We have taken all those lessons we learned and developed the Just Results - Rapid Achievement Program and  the Get More Customers Online Bootcamp.

• If you are not getting the results from your current marketing
• If you want to expand your marketing reach to attract more customers
• If you are tired of networking and want faster results, more clients, more money 

In this course:

• Find out how to go from 10 steps to just 2 steps to have prospects calling you
• Get the 3 keys to creating your online sales funnel
• Craft  your online marketing message that gets heard and gets response
• Discover 5 ways to get your Facebook fans to interact with you
• How to use video marketing to drive traffic to your site
• Learn how to structure your irresistable offer  (hint its different than your face-to-face offer)
• Discover where to find LEADS online  at the lowest cost and highest return 
• Learn  how mobile phones are bringing in fast cash at 10X over other marketing strategies
• Know exactly what to do each month with our easy to use marketing calendar

Customize the system to your business and hit the "GO" button.

Get the tools we use and strategies we recommend for our private consulting clients who pay $2500- $4500 +  for their custom system. Includes: 30 day free access to GENESIS our online marketing platform

GET THE LIVE COURSE & PRIVATE CONSULTING

"Systems are the elevator to the top floor of success"  

~ Patrice Barber begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Join us and learn the system we use and how to super charge your marketing by attracting business online, converting contacts to cash online, and staying in touch    all online. Lots of online courses give you materials and then leave you without any help ...."high and dry."

This is different and here is why

Instead of just telling you what to do, we will SHOW you what to do and how to do it for the lowest costs and maximum results. Each week we provide the education you need. Our strategists review and give you feedback and recommendations. Finally, we include 3 months consulting to make sure you have your system running smoothly.

Join us from the comfort of your computer. 

• Six weeks of LIVE interactive webinar training (similar courses priced at $1500-$2800)
• All modules recorded for you to watch and listen to as often as you like
• Each module comes with Guides, pre-done Templates and recommended Tools
• Life time updates- as long as you are a member of the Rapid Achievement Program
• Just Results - Rapid Achievement Program - Gold Level

Just Results - Rapid Achievement Program - Gold Level 

 (3 months at locked in rate) 

 

• Monthly workshops and Q&A sessions Stay on top of changing trends and technology Workshops are recorded and stored in the members area During the first 6 weeks you can start attending these technology workshops

• VIP access to the Members area which contains
  • Get More Customers Online  - Boot camp materials
  • Power point, video and audio of step by step instructions to use the  Guides, Templates and Tools.
  • Put Your Year In Gear  - home study course materials, audio and video training,
  • Prior workshops and resources - (archived periodically) Use these resources as often as you like 24/7
• Monthly email access Got a specific question? Get a specific answer!
• Monthly Break Through call Feeling stuck? Use the fast paced Break Through call and stay on track
• Monthly Private One-on-one consulting Together we review your goals, action plan, and give you the answers you need for success

---

During the boot camp you get everything you need to complete

• Your Marketing Plan & Calendar by month
• Your Sales funnel Offline and Online
• Your Irresistible Offer ready to put on your new sales page or home page
• Your Follow up email campaign
• Your Social Media channels setup
• Your Media Kit
• Your Sales Page ready for your offer
• Your Text Message campaign
• Instructions on tracking contacts, emails, web visitors,e-commerce, all using your Online Dashboard

It's exactly what you need to launch your successful online marketing campaign  (use GENESIS our integrated online platform or your own tools)

In this article below there are great stats about social media growth that you need to know about. Pay special attention to your specific target market and the growth you can expect. Here is what the article doesn’t tell you. If you are not using social media effectively and you don’t get on board with using social media to convert contacts to cash with a  relationship based approach. You will be loosing 53% of your business  and more every month . Where will it go? To your competition who IS using social media. You don’t need double digit growth to see ROI. You do need to get going on your social media strategies. Here is where you can get started with  FREE social media strategies and how to get ROI ( insert your link  to online tuneup.) Read on: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008288

We all run short of ideas about what to talk about and how to help our sphere of influence. Keep this list handy to keep fresh ideas flowing and prevent your writers block.

• Reuse and Repurpose: If you already created some popular content, see where you can expand it or possibly target a certain aspect of it in finer detail.
• FAQ: Ask your followers and clients what their top questions are at several stages of working with you. Focus on Before, During, After - Before they chose you , what were their reasons for hesitation, after they got started were there areas of confusion that you need to address or change and help new clients be aware of, when complete what did they expect to happen next. There's gold in the questions and answers you hear over and over again.
• Be the news: Set up your RSS feeds or alerts to get the specific type of news that you report out on sent directly to you. Pay attention to what's happening in your area of expertise in the news and many times you'll find something that ties in perfectly to your audience's interests. For example, if your target market is counseling teens, stories that describe successful teens or stories that warn of various online dangers is a potential subject to share and comment on. If you have a coaching business for other business owners, sharing ways to get financing, tax breaks for business owners and other related topics will be appreciated.  Even if that is not your main focus – sharing related tips is great.
• Give Product Reviews: When you come across tools or other products that help you. Share it. People always appreciate someone else’s research and honest product reviews. Include who is best suited to use the tool or product and the features and benefits you experienced. If there were things you didn’t like or thought it should have provided, include that too. Integrity is key.
• Share Case studies about Your Clients / Customers: Case studies are an excellent way to provide highly-informative success stories and they become amazing testimonials for your business.
• Interview other Experts / Celebrities in your Market: Your local celebrities and you interviewing or being interviewed by the experts in your field shows that you know the right people and you know them well. Implied in the celebrity factor is that you must be a celebrity or close to it if you are connected to other celebrities. This is the beginnings of a great PR campaign for online and offline PR.
• Have Someone Interview You: This is an excellent way to create content using the audio and transcript of your interview. Create great social media buzz by having your own followers submit questions for the interview.
• Have fun : A top reason face book has replaced the porn sites as most viewed site and why You Tube is about to take over Face book is that people are BORED. They seek information but also entertainment. You don't always have to come up with earth-shattering information to impress your audience. Have fun, inspire them or make them laugh. Share your personal side (not too personal mind youJ)

Feeling inspired? Great! Write down your new ideas now. In fact setup a list and put it in your smart phone,  then add more.  Sometimes a little story about what happened to you at a restaurant or at your kid's soccer game can become a relevant lesson to your readers. To get more details on how to put these ideas into place in your business check out our next Get More Customers bootcamp. Apply now to get on our VIP invite list as space is limited to the first 20 and these usually sell out. To your success!

When Eric Schmidt of Google says google is doing all its development on a mobile platform first, that should tell the rest of us what we should think about too. This video explains  a lot about why putting mobile marketing into your business is critical and that there is NO time to wait and see. When Eric Schmidt of Google says google is doing all its development on a mobile platform first, that should tell the rest of us what we should think about too.  

This video explains  a lot about why putting mobile marketing into your business is critical and that there is NO time to wait and see.

Lets dig into the controversy about using Facebook to grow your business. Most business owners still think it is a pretty silly social networking site that doesn't really have much to do with attracting "real" clients who will buy from you. Guess what ...they are RIGHT. Social Media is a place to build trust , its not about buying. At least  its not about buying right now. Once a business owner understands the purpose they can also learn how Facebook DOES provide return on the investment of time and the very small financial investment in things like ads. A recent study found that  78% of consumers trust peer reviews and only 14% trust advertisements.  Can you see KA_CHING  in those numbers It is crucial to be involved in your community. Ready to put the KA-CHING into your Facebook fan page? Client Response: My decision not to use Facebook has nothing to do with it being a social networking site. I won't use it because the owners will not guarantee privacy of personal information. In fact, they have stated publically that they believe all info should be available to everyone in this social networking age. As a woman who has been stalked in the past (a very frightening experience) and who is concerned about abused women trying to hide from abusers, I am absolutely opposed to this stance. I find it naive and arrogant. I welcome your comments. Reply: I completely agree with you and love the approach you are verbalizing about Facebook. AND I think there is an alternate to consider. First I too have been stalked in college and ended up putting the guy in jail , so I understand about the need for privacy, having escape plans from ones home and other settings  and completely agree with your stance. I have also had the experience of living in the Middle East – seven countries in fact and as a white girl  - very much the minority, I am keenly aware of the need to be cautious and keep my ears and eyes open as well as not to lead others directly to me and my home. If I were consulting with an abused woman I would advise they use a pseudo nym on facebook and every other marketing medium if they need to be  marketing on facebook at all. If your business doesn’t require marketing then don’t put your name out there as your real name. On Facebook , remember you don’t have to  use your real name or have a real picture so it is pretty easy to be anonymous when necessary.  In advising  individuals with that type of concern I would agree with you that I would not even be on facebook or any other social medium. Further I would advise people who are concerned about being stalked in the future,  that they had best get a Po box or alternate address – in the US this is pretty easy and can look like a regular street address. The much greater concern in the US is that if I google my maiden name, the TOP response on a goolge search is my full address for over 20 years history ( 7 addresses) , my children’s full names, my husband and my families addresses – all from the department of motor vehicles. TALK about scary! I am very glad that my name I use now is not my legal name so is not contained in the government databases as is my maiden name. So its back to being a pseudo name EVERYWHERE.

A recent study found that  78% of consumers trust peer reviews and only 14% trust advertisements. Can you see KA_CHING  in those numbers?  It is crucial to be involved in your community and have a good reputation. What are people saying about your brand? About 25% of search results for a brand name links  to user generated content –  that means other peoples judgment gets to the top of the pile of information about YOU. Nourish these relationships. Best offense is a good defense - over deliver and under promise.  Then talk about it and have happy clients talk about it too!  This includes  Twitter, Face book, blogs, forums, industry publications and media. Monitor the conversation, join in on the conversation, be sincere and show that you care. Here are a few ways that I found to work for myself. Facebook can be a little tricky on how to get more fans. You will see an increase in fans if you do these following steps: 1) Creating a "List" of your friends and name it business. Find this when you login to Facebook and it is on the left hand side, click friends, edit friends, create list, then click on all your friends that you want to "Like" your page. (Note: every time you add a new friend put them in this business list) 2) When you create your page use the widget code that Facebook gives you to add a "Like" box on your website. 3) Add your Facebook Page link on your email signature. 4) Send an email out through your email system like GENESIS, Constant Contact, Aweber, iContact, ETC telling them you are on Social Media and inviting them to "Like" your page. You can give some type of incentive for those who like your page if you want. Example: "Like" our business page and receive 10% off your next order. 5) Make a compelling video to put on your welcome page on Facebook, show people who you are, what your personality is like, and what you do. (You can add a Welcome tab on your page through www.Tabsite.com) 6) Have customers tag photos of you and your products, leaving a testimonial with it. 7) Using Facebook Ads to get more fans. 8) Run a contest for just your Facebook fans, this creates interaction on the page. 9) You can use Mobile marketing to have people check out your Facebook page and "Like" it when they like it they get entered into a drawing, free prize, discount something along those lines. 10) Have your Facebook Page link on all of your marketing materials. 11) Funnel your Twitter followers to your Facebook page. 12) Use the Suggest to friends on page and suggest to the list you have been creating, from step 1. By implementing these few things you will see an increase in fans. Encourage your customers/clients to leave comments, feedback and questions to your page. Facebook ads are a great way to get fans quickly and easily, BUT you want to make sure you are doing the ads correctly. Make the message in the ad compelling so people want to come to your page and "Like" it. Facebook is a great way to make connections with people all over the world and a great place to get closer to your customers/clients. Remember it is all about building relationships! I hope this  was helpful. Have questions?  Have requests for other details? What have you done to increase your fans that you want to share? Post your comments and questions below.

I could scream from the roof tops on this one! At our recent Put Your Year in Gear event held in Golden Colorado, we had great discussions on social media and getting it started the RIGHT way. Our attendees came away understanding what it really takes to be successful online , BUT so many of the new business owners I have spoken with lately seriously don’t “get it”. Online Marketing is still a foreign concept. Having a website, a twitter account and making posts on facebook does NOT a strategy make. Thankfully our attendees went away, knowing how to make their online marketing work for their specific business. Want to know the secret? It starts with a game plan, end results, a financially driven goal. For any specific campaign how much money do you want to make and how will they (your new found friends and well built relationships) be shown what value you bring beyond the pleasant conversation so they WANT to buy your stuff  ( and you can make that money)? No you are not in business just to be nice, you are in business to be richly rewarded for the information you have worked hard to acquire, products you have built and wisdom you can share. What is most often missing is the path – the step by step of how to get from that first contact email or social media post into the relationship and onto the clarity of sharing your value and getting paid for it. If you’re going into social media without an end goal in mind, why are you even going in? Where’s the benefit? Is it because you see everyone else has a  Twitter  profile and Facebook page and they look like they’re having fun while they talk with people? Excellent observation – but are you looking into the details….what is actually being said , what direction and options are given, where does it lead to next?  Is there an end goal?  OR Is it simply building relations online like going to a networking event to collect cards or having a ribbon cutting so you get known in your community? Whatever it is, if you’re not getting any results,  it’s because you didn’t really plan to get results. Now that’s cleared up -  what to do about it? What are the possible results you could get? How do you use social media so that you have a system that leads to results? Start with key questions

• How many connected conversations will it take to create a sale.
• How many products will you need to give away so your audience knows likes and trusts you enough to take action.

• How many people will you need to  address the incoming posts, questions, comments in the social arenas you are building relations in.

• Set an End date – this is when you STOP track and tweak

For many business owners and marketing directors in the Denver Boulder area and around the US , success is just a few steps away – not miles. We have found that by just putting a few clear steps into place , creating their online marketing plan, a communications plan, and using a system to automate it to lead to their end game  -  success follows.