Create an Internet Marketing Plan for Your Business
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When you are ready to launch your website or improve your online presence, there are many things you can do to improve your chances of long-term success. With a few simple tips, you can be on your way to a flourishing business with the success you have always strived for. Since so many consumers turn to the Internet for shopping, setting appointments, and many other needs, a website is the only way for a business to grow into the future. No matter what products or services your business offers, Internet marketing will be a key component in your success.
All businesses will understand the role of planning in success business practices. When it comes to Internet marketing, a business marketing plan will be crucial. Before you move forward with any marketing strategies, you must ensure that you will find the success you are after through careful research and selection of the right advertising tools and the right target market for your product or service.
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When planning your Internet marketing strategy, you’ll have to know your target market. In fact, your target market will help you develop your brand and create your business from the very beginning, so it is the most important step after creating the product or service. If you do not know whom it is you are trying to reach, it will be difficult to find any level of success with your business venture. Just as important as knowing your target market will be identifying your competition. In order to beat them out for customer’s loyalty, you’ll need to know your main competitors so you can set yourself apart from them. Learn from them and find out how to be better.
Compelling advertising is the only way to reach potential customers and find success in your Internet marketing strategy. With well-written and well-designed ads, you will be able to stand out from the competition and make your way to success. As part of your advertising campaign, branding will be key to your success. Your brand will create a unique identity with customers and allow them to connect with you. Creative branding is one of the most important components of your Internet marketing campaign. Without branding, a business would get lost in the Internet. A creative logo that appears on every website, social media site, or blog should be the same. The design elements of these websites should also be similar. When you use sporadic design in your brand, it can confuse the customer.
4 Rules For National Media Interviews
Television and video segments create value for a long period of time–they showcase the company and do more than just inform, they also sustain credibility for years. Video interviews are also tough to live down when they go wrong.
Our firm, Write2Market is a leading Atlanta PR firm with an investor relations team that preps our CEOs to handle any kind of interview, and you can see from their performances on national television they came to us with tremendous skill already–and it’s our privilege to polish it.
What I find with transparent, intelligent, passionate CEOs is they make a few of the same mistakes and they’re easy to correct.
Here are the four rules for CEOs–if you do these things, you can be sure the interview opportunity is building investor value big time.
The memory device for these rules is .
Executive pace is even, calm, collected and unflappable. A measured pace–think Walter Kronkite reading the news–OOZES “I’m capable and so is my company.” It’s POWERFUL. Many execs, especially innovative and enterpreneurial ones, are too fast, flighty and uber-energetic. That doesn’t play well. Your “SOLID” feel is an asset. (PS: see me on Inc. Magazine: I have to work on this one myself!)
DON’T change your openness. You are naturally open and trusting. You are a connector of people and ideas. Your transparent comments communicate in a “real” way to people who have been oversold. I know your legal department and your CFO are chapping your hide on this and have a long list of things you can’t discuss, but lead with your gut on this point. Trust your instincts. If it’s not NDA, you can share it–you’re the CEO and the company’s vision and its communication ARE YOUR PRIMARY MANDATE.
POINT one is “big sandbox.” If you communicate one thing well, this is it. So most CEOs– DO change your first POINT. Most CEOs are asked, and will always be asked in the first couple questions, to tell how your company “fits in.” That question can sound like this:
? which market do you serve?
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? who are your biggest customers?
? what do you do?
? tell us about “your company?”
You can get this SANDBOX question in any number of ways.
? First, recognize it.
? Second, go for the BIGGEST SANDBOX.
You do that concisely by giving the biggest number that is truthful. Then clarify that number however you like.
So, I would suggest you always answer the SANDBOX questions like this example from a recent live interview:
: So how do you compare to “competitor” and other companies that do “your thing?”
: “Over a billion dollars in business flows through our platform every *month for companies like (name big client.)”
Another option:
: So how do you compare to “competitor” and other companies that do “your thing?”
: “We are the only company that leads in (hedgehog!), and that’s why companies like (key client) rely on our (product).”
This is how you answer the question most CEOs hate about the competition or their industry.
It hits you like this, drawn from an interview I watched last week for one of our clients:
: SO Mr. E-commerce CEO, HOW DO YOU STACK UP TO COMPANIES LIKE MAGENTO?
“THERE ARE THREE TESTS OF E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS: SCALE, STABILITY and SIMPLICITY. So you bring up the world of opensource or community-sourced e-commerce, and that’s not very SIMPLE. Platforms like SHOPVISIBLE however…
The technique to handle this competitive landscape issue is called BROADENING the scope of the question. Try not to mention your competition by name, and if you do, mention at least two more companies along with them so your comments cannot be misconstrued as inflammatory or libel.
I think it’s handy to think in 3′s. When you talk about just one competitor, like MAGENTO, you create potential issues. But if you go BROAD, you will find it’s very hard for legal or others to get hands on you.
Follow up your broadening tactic with a mini story (a case study) if you have time. Like this, “To illustrate how important scale is, when Vapour Beauty went on Oprah… To illustrate how important SIMPLE is, when Office Depot wanted to put all of Canada on one platform in three months…”
For media, start large and go small. You may be serving small companies mostly but that’s not the point. Journalists are into soundbites because that is how they grab audience attention to read the depth of the story. It’s not bad, it’s just reality. Your true audience WILL read at depth because they care about your subject like you do, so this fact isn’t even working against you. Use the medium. Become a media artisan.
Another broadening approach for you numbers and analyst minded CEOs– think of the Cartesian coordinate system and the x/y axis, just quad 1. Think of the two axes you like to be compared on–is it PRICE and FEATURE SET? Is it SERVICE and INNOVATION? Pick your two favorite, outstanding items, and then rank all your competitors on those items so that you are clearly the “top right” of the quad–max value. Share this illustration with journalists. It’s killer. : )
Write2Market the leading Atlanta PR firm could put that together for you!
Seriously, I hope these 4 rules have helped you (memory device!) with your next national interview in ways that make you both more comfortable and more communicative at the highest level. Drop me a note and let me know what you think.
Write2Market is one of the leading technology PR agencies, famous for creating recognizable industry leadership for clients in energy, technology and healthcare. Empowered by our proprietary Triple A industry leadership methodology, we help companies get the national recognition they deserve through building awareness in new and traditional media, winning high profile awards, and creating access to decision makers at conferences and tradeshows.
Article optimization services provided by Atlanta SEO Company VayuMedia. VayuMedia offers customized search engine optimization strategies to domestic and international companies.
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The Difference Between Public Relations and Marketing
By Darrell L. Browning
Many people confuse public relations and marketing, yet they are two very distinct things. Marketing connects products or services to a particular group or audience. This allows tailored approaches and makes it easier to measure results.
Public Relations are about building and maintaining relationships–truthful, honest connections between your organization’s internal and external stakeholders. Public relations should help set the tone of your company. Public Relations, like marketing, should be managed communication. At BrowningLaFrankie, we describe Public Relations as the art of identifying, establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with the media, the community, your customers, employees and others.
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Ironically, Public Relations suffer from its own public relations image.
Although public relations professionals are often seen as simple party planners, Public Relations can–and should–play a central role in any organization. Public Relations should not simply be viewed as a tool to promote good things about the company–bad things happen too. The key is honesty.
Your company’s image should stem from reality. From that, develop powerful messages that resonate with all audiences. In today’s information age, organizations need to recognize Public Relations should be on the leadership team–not simply relegated to plan a ribbon cutting, write a press release or respond to a crisis when they haven’t been in the Boardroom.
Public relations professionals should also serve as opinion leaders when it comes to corporate communication–helping identify, create and direct strategic messages. Ideally, public relations professionals serve as a liaison between your company and those with a stake in your organization.
Tragically, many companies take an axe to Public Relations staff when budget problems arise. Big mistake. Studies have repeatedly shown that successful companies prepare to emerge from economic downturns—and Public Relations are an integral part of that process. We recommend enhanced communication between company leaders and public relations personnel who will–you’ll see– earn the support of the leadership team.
For more information see http://www.browninglafrankie.com.
©BrowningLaFrankie 2009
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5 Tips to Creating Brand Credibility with Public Relations
How PR can reach your consumers through avenues that marketing cannot touch.
PR is all about presenting your company in a way that is not possible with advertising which is one of the many reasons PR is significantly different than marketing. PR and marketing are both essential to the sustainability of your business and a top-notch PR professional knows how to integrate both units to position your company as you envision it and create a great return on investment.
So if the two units are completely different, how do you integrate them to produce a great result? Ah…..that is the power of an experienced PR professional so if you do not already have one on board you should start considering hiring a competent Public Relations company that knows how to do this. Meanwhile, here are a few tips on how to integrate marketing and PR and the effect it can have on your company when implemented correctly.
If you are marketing your product and not getting results it is highly likely you are not backing your marketing strategy with a great PR campaign. Marketing encourages people to make a decision about your product where PR positions your company in the mind of the consumer before they have to make a decision about your product. If people go, “Oh, those are the guys who do……” then your PR campaign is working. When it comes time to purchase a product the consumer will choose yours over the competition because they will say, “Well, I am going to go with this product since I know this company.”
As part of your PR strategy you should create profitable images. These are tactics you use to create a visual image in the mind of the consumer that becomes profitable to you in some way. People tend to remember visual images better than they remember something they read. For example, if you see a business executive shaking hands with a celebrity, this paints a picture in your mind that you will be likely to remember. If you read an article about the same business executive meeting a celebrity will you remember this when you see their product? Yes. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but in place of that are words, concepts and ideas.
Communication is the tool of a PR. How things are said, presented and placed in the public’s mind is the skill of an adept PR. The pictures only back-up what is being said. Profitable images include awards, endorsements by opinion leaders in the community, proclamations, etc., etc. The list is endless. But you have to make sure that the images presented represent the company or product that is using them – otherwise it can backfire.
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What? I thought PR was marketing! No. Marketing is how you present your service or product when you take it to market to be sold – and should support your PR message. So make sure you save marketing for its intended purpose which is to encourage decision making after the consumer knows who you are and what you are about. Never use PR to advertise your product! That is one of the ways “PR” gets misused. This is the whole reason why PR can present your company in an entirely different light than advertising can because it is about credibility and not peddling your product or service. PR can tell your story in a myriad of ways to a multitude of people that marketing simply cannot.
Although we just said that PR and marketing are different there is a point where they overlap. PR professionals who are masterful at their craft know exactly when and how to overlap PR with marketing. Timing is crucial from this standpoint because if you wait too long to start the marketing after you have launched your PR campaign the gap will create problems with your return on investment. On the other hand, if you implement marketing too soon this can also be detrimental to the end result. There is a point where PR and marketing must meet before you begin to accelerate the marketing campaign.
I know I said 5, but I thought of one more.
If your company is a startup chances are you are thinking in your mind, “Well maybe I should start getting revenue before I think about PR.” This is a perfectly natural way to think because you want to get going, however it is important to remember to start PR as you are ramping up because it will shorten the road to success and get you there much quicker. Without PR, nobody knows who you are or if they like you and are less apt to want to know anything about what you are selling.
Remember not to give in to the temptation of waiting to get established before you do PR. PR can lend so much credibility to your venture by communicating your story, passion or vision. This creates a connection whereby people understand you better, and the end result is that they become more comfortable in doing business with you. PR done the right way is less costly and more beneficial to your bottom line in the long run – and therefore is always better at the outset than an afterthought.
If you are in this for the long haul, do it right and work with a PR professional that will get you started off on the right foot. This will save you a lot of hassles not to mention it will be the shorter route to take to your success. With powerful PR backing you up, your company will also last over the long term and through tough economic times as well.
After managing Public Relations for an Inc 500 company for several years was ready to launch out onto her own and bring her unique take on PR to businesses both large and small. “PR is a powerful tool that can garner wide acceptance and delve into arenas that marketing cannot touch,” says Karla Jo, PR Strategist and CEO of . Helms got her start creating and implementing PR Strategies for entrepreneurs and developed a keen eye for how to hone in on the best use of PR to increase the Return on Investment of one’s marketing dollars.
ability to attain critical mass by utilizing all methods of PR allows her to put together complete strategies for clients that attain measurable results. A background in sales, business management and media relations has given her a well-rounded understanding of how to harness the power of PR for business…the end result being a wider sphere of influence and the invaluable commodity of goodwill garnered on a broad basis for her clients. Visit her at www.jotopr.com
The Importance of Marketing Planning to Financial Advisor Firms
Woody Allen had a great quote; “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” And while this may be so, the other twenty percent involves diligent planning, flawless execution and introspective performance reviews to assess results and actualize learning. Ironically, it is the starting point in the process, that is often overlooked by independent financial advisor firms… planning.
We’ve all heard the myriad of excuses for why firms don’t embrace a formal marketing planning process, but let’s clear up one misconception out of the blocks. A formal marketing planning process doesn’t have to take endless hours or result in a document consisting of reams of pages that go into a three ring binder and gather dust on a shelf. Formalizing your firm’s marketing planning process involves asking the right questions to assist in establishing goals for the firm, that will then drive resource allocation decisions and ultimately the strategies and tactics that will be employed to achieve those goals. The types of questions that we’re referring to are simple and straight forward, but yield much in the way of feedback to fuel the firm’s positioning and marketing strategy decisions; What business are we in? What do we do? How do we do it? Who do we do it for? In addition, the answers to these questions can yield tactical fruit as well. For instance, converting the concise answers to the aforementioned questions into keywords that can be leveraged to drive the firm’s SEO and pay-per-click advertising tactics.
From a goal setting perspective, the key areas to address involve the key areas of your business; client retention, gross revenue, lead generation and profitability. As a rule, each of the goals should be time bound and measurable. For example; “Our goal is to increase revenue from existing clients by 6.0% in the coming fiscal year from .0 million to .06 million.” There are personal goals to be addressed as well that have an impact on the success of the firm; Do you want to work more or fewer hours this year versus last? Are you planning to invest more or less time with clients and prospects in the coming year? When considering the various marketing strategies available to the firm, it is best to evaluate them in the context of a particular objective. For instance, if your firm is seeking to increase the number of new clients in the coming year, you will have to consider strategies that will positively impact the combination of converting existing prospects and increasing the number of potential leads.
In terms of budgeting, your firm can use either a zero-based approach, whereby you establish your goals, select the strategies that will support those objectives and establish the budget required to implement those strategies. The other approach involves setting marketing spend based on a fixed percentage of gross annual revenue or as a percentage of the prior year’s marketing spend. Determining the appropriate spending level is dependent on a number of factors ranging from your firm’s growth posture, market position, market conditions and competitive activity. According to the 2010 FA Insight Study of Advisory Firms: Growth by Design, FA firms spend on average between 1.5% and 3.5% of their gross annual revenue on practice marketing. As a rule, newer firms, firms that are in the early stages of their growth trajectory and high growth firms spend at a higher percentage of gross annual revenue… makes sense. Perhaps the most important finding from the study, “Stand Out” firms that embraced growth by design (i.e. planning) outperform their counterparts on virtually every key measure ranging from revenue growth to owner income per dollar of revenue to operating profit.
5 Critical Reasons to Have a Marketing Plan for Your Healthcare Practice
It’s hard to practice medicine in the United States today, with diminished reimbursements from insurance company negotiated contracts, and more patients without insurance as the unemployment rate stays high. There is a whole new group of self pay patients. It is getting harder to collect the copayment and the co-insurance since many have to choose food or healthcare. The oath makes it hard to turn a sick person away. How about the cost of delivery of service and the cost of supplies, have they gone down in price? Are your durable goods and instrument supply companies keeping costs down for you? How about HIPAA regulations and now more “Meaningful, Use EMR” and 5010 format requirements? Is this making your life easier?
With all that is going on with your practice, who is helping you get more patients? How do you market your practice to the community and differentiate your practice from the other group down the street? Things are moving too fast and it is hard to get ahead of the curve, isn’t it?
Well, to survive and thrive, your practice needs to have a business and marketing plan. Included in the plan should be branding, marketing, advertising, community involvement and public relations, internet marketing, e-mail marketing and e-newsletters. This list is almost as long as the list in the first paragraph.
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If you don’t position your practice, then another practice in your niche will. They will leave you in the dust.
So, what are the 5 reasons you want to market your practice?
Your competition will market their practice and pull in patients from you and the others who don’t have a plan. If you have a plan now, is it effective? Are you meeting your goals and making your revenue numbers? Is your plan measurable?
Increase awareness. Having an event with the community that will get your name out there. Even if you have been in business for years, not everyone knows you. A public relations campaign and event could go a long way to maintain or improve your community image.
Improve your brand. Is your identity out dated? When was the last time that you looked at your logo? Does it still work? Does it say who you are?
Make your website work for you. Does your website generate new patients? Does it help keep call volume down? Is it easy to set an appointment or ask a question electronically?
Make your practice more appealing for any future plans to merge or sell. If you build your practice now, you will be very attractive to potential buyers or partners. Be the practice that others say, “what are they doing?”
Now, you could build a marketing team in house, but why? You practice medicine and delivery it. I don’t know many marketing companies that practice medicine on the side. Leave it to experts to help you. You will not have to pay employees. Many firms offer very experienced marketers that would cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire. They will work for you on an as needed or retainer basis as an outsource solution.
So, find a marketer and be the measure of success in your community. If you are already successful, keep it up or get even better. Every great ball player has several others nipping at his record. Be the lead dog – the view is better.
Learn how you can get a steady flow of leads online for your Herbalife businesss.. herbalife.myprosperityjourney.com http numisprosperitymastermind.com
Public Relations Jobs
In this article, I will describe the career profile of public relations jobs for you since an increasing number of people are opting for jobs in public relations.
Career profile of jobs in public relations
In public relations careers especially in small organizations, the PR personnel directing public relations or handling an individual’s publicity or public image, often has to deal with the job’s every single aspect which can be quite stressful and involves huge responsibility. These kinds of PR personnel have to conduct research, make planning, contact people and also prepare or supervise the preparation of materials that have to be distributed.
Another job of theirs is to offer support for marketing people by handling sales promotion or advertising. In contrast, the most important public relations officer in large corporations is usually the vice president who often sits down with the other executives and develops policies and overall plans. Public relationists in PR departments are employed for researching, writing, preparing materials, responding to queries and maintaining contacts.
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Some other roles in public relations careers that employees have to play are contacting media people who will broadcast or print the material prepared by PR personnel of a company, drafting of press releases, arranging press meets and so on.
In public relations employment, an employee has to prepare magazine articles, newspaper stories, television or radio or new media special reports and releases. Work in public relations departments means preparing ,say, a press release, the subject matter of which might be description of an organization, the role it plays in its community and the kinds of positive policies it has spearheaded for employees.
Just to give you an example, a press release might revolve around the description of a public issue, like the environment or energy or health and what methods and lines the organization has adopted to advance that particular issue.
In public relations employment, PR personnel also have to perform the duties of crisis management.
Often negative things occur, such as, due to some kind of accident or explosion, there are losses of lives or workers are injured in factories – such industrial accidents are very common. The oil spill in the Gulf of México that has caused widespread environmental damage and is being billed as an ecological disaster and which has crippled the fishing industry in 5 coastal states in southern USA is a case in point.
Under such crisis circumstances, a PR specialist will act as the company’s spokesperson; deftly handle media questions or vicious media attacks; state the company’s position on how it is treating or handling the accident and maintain the company’s positive public image.
Most politicians hire specialists in public relations jobs to portray poor public approval rating in positive lights.
Intranet Development: Providing an Enhanced Environment for Internal Communication and Collaboration
Offering an effective opportunity for in-house communications and collaboration is an intranet system. Technically speaking, an intranet is very much similar to the Internet. The only difference between the two lies in accessibility of the connections. While the Internet can be used by anyone from any part of the globe, an intranet can only be accessed by limited people with access rights. Since an intranet is a private network of computers designed for a private organization, it is always the members of the organization who are entitled to access the intranet network. A successful intranet design can not only improve the workflow of the organization but can also cut down its operational cost to certain extent.
Now let’s take a look at how your business can benefit by installing an intranet software application. First of all, the intranet acts as a platform for across board internal communications. The management can upload on the sites all important announcements including change of positions, new business policies and strategies, turnovers etc. Rather than sending e-mails to each and every employee, the communication can be delivered instantly and at one go. Similarly, it has become easy for the management to mobilize opinions and view points of the employees through online polls, discussion forums etc. Such forums are also a great place for sharing knowledge among the employees.
Another impact a successful intranet system can make relates to corporate transparency. Since the employees are aware of all the company policies and returns through the site, they also develop a positive feeling for their employers. They feel very much a member of the organization. Better the sense of loyalty among the employees, lesser is the attrition rate. Another area of benefit has to do with cost cutting. It has also been proved that intranet development can lessen the operational cost of an organization. Since many of the internal documents and records are available for instant access online, the need for maintaining physical documents is lessened to a great extent. This presents you with an opportunity to cut down the spending on buying papers, printing works etc.
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