2006 October

Help wanted with difficult marketing client

10/30/2006 By Joan 9 Comments

Marketing consultant Karla Swita of Mosinee, Wisconsin writes:

“You know the guy who says ‘Word of mouth has gotten me this far, so why should I pay for marketing now?’ Well, he’s my client.

“I’d love some ideas on how to promote a custom kitchen and bath manufacturing shop without sending him into sticker shock. I’m tapped out of ideas on how to help with his modest budget.

“There’s a showroom open to the public where they can see options related to constructing the entire kitchen cabinet. I’d also like to hear how others handle the client who believes word of mouth is the only way to go.”

“I know a good marketing plan is what he needs, but I’m having more influence by easing into this and proving to him how a good idea works. I’d like to hear how others have been successful in getting publicity for a small manufacturer.”

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Publicity for Niche Markets

Author reads to kids on YouTube

10/30/2006 By Joan 2 Comments

Author Dora Crow wrote to tell me about a clever way she’s using YouTube to promote her book.

She writes:

“In order to share the story of Winky & Wonder, I’ve begun reading my children’s book on YouTube as an online ‘Children’s Storytime.’ I uploaded the prologue a few days ago, and today I uploaded the first chapter (in Part 1 and Part 2, 10 minutes each). I plan to upload one chapter
each week.”

Dora says she is linking to the videos from her website. She welcomes feedback on the videos, so here’s mine:

If I were a kid, I’d like it a whole lot more if, after your greeting, you started reading the story with your back to me so I could see the illustrations.

P.S. The cat’s a nice touch!

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Publicity on the Internet

8 kinds of visuals to enhance your story

10/30/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

If you pitch environmental journalists, take a look at this post from the Green Media Toolshed about the importance of visuals with a story, and eight different types of visuals.

The tips come from journalists at the Society of Environmental Journalists convention. During a panel discussion called Visualizing your Stories, three award-winning environmental reporters shared their strategies for coming up with the perfect visual to help complete their story—and make it more attractive to their readership.

They mentioned a graphic for timelines, data trends over time, maps, comparative data, sequential events, report cards, explaining complicated processes, and multi-layers of data, such as showing the relation between income, race and pollution.

In my ebook, “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign,” I quote a magane editor who says that a good visual can sometimes move a story from the back of the magazine to the front.

Filed Under: Magazine Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media

PRWeb ends free service

10/27/2006 By Joan 3 Comments

PRWeb has discontinued its free press release distribution service which is probably just as well, because these freebie sites are usually worthless because your release isn’t distributed anywhere. It’s simply parked at a website.

That means you have to pay at least $80 to have your release distributed by PRWeb—a service that pushes your releases into the Google and Yahoo News feeds. I’ve heard Publicity Hounds rave about the results.

I’m curious about whether anyone has had any luck with free press release distributions sites.

There are probably hundreds of them out there. Most exist for two reasons: to either upsell you to a paid service, or to generate revenue from Google Adsense ads.

Let me know your experiences.

Filed Under: Press Releases/News Releases

Scobleizer gives blogging tips for PR pros

10/18/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

Bulldog Reporter has an excellent interview with Robert Scoble whose popular Scobleizer technology blog ranks 34 on Technorati’s list of top blogs, with over 19,458 links. (Scroll about one-third down the page to the headline “Blog or Bust”.)

Scoble offers many convincing arguments on why PR pros must start paying attention to blogs.

I think those who don’t aren’t worth hiring.

His tips underscore the advice I gave in a teleseminar I conducted several weeks ago with Denise Wakemand and Patsi Krakoff, a.k.a. The Blog Squad. We called it “How to Pitch the Best Bloggers and Crreate a Publicity Explosion.”

No one-size-fits-all pitches to bloggers. No blatant self-promotion. And start a conversation first before you pitch.

Filed Under: Blogs, Business Promotion, Pitching the Media, Publicity on the Internet