Press Release On Time Serenade

Bearing in mind the wide range of news
I need a job with better pay...
In mind for change of little blues
The horses whickered from where they lay.

You might announce and the wide range...
But a listenable rhyme contributes a smile
I love to eat an orange
That upon a fortnight could bring a pile

Time Your News Release For Maximum Publicity

"Cindy, where's that story? I need it yesterday!"

"Coming right up, boss. I'll have it to you soon," Cindy shouted back.

"Yesterday isn't soon enough!"

Cindy clicked on her screen. "You have mail." She looked at the messages. "Three news releases," she murmured. "I don't have time for this now." [delete] [delete] [delete]

Stop! Was that your news release Cindy just deleted? Too bad you sent it to her at the wrong time. You may have heard that "timing is everything" and that is even more true in a newsroom. But how do you know when is the best time to send a news release?

Media relations is an art more than a science, so there is no single rule. If there was, everyone would be a media star. Here are a few guidelines to help you zoom ahead of your competition for the media's attention:

Each type of media and each type of journalist is different. Here are just a few of the variables:

National or local media

TV, newspaper, radio or magazine

News reporter, features reporter or columnist

Consumer magazine or trade journal

Daily, weekly or monthly publication

Print or electronic

Each company or organization is different, as is its news. Here are just a few of the variables:

Local, national or international operations

Pre-scheduled news release, or last-minute reaction to today's news.

Product announcement, policy announcement, financial announcement

Bearing in mind the wide range of news you might announce and the wide range of media targets, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. tends to be the best time of day to release news. You want to give the assignment editor time to send them out to cover your news. If you hope to get into the noon news, you don't want to go too late, because you run into TV deadlines. Early afternoon is a second-best time, but if you get much past 2:30, you will catch Cindy's [delete] button at most daily newspapers and television stations.

I have been asked about the best day of the week to send out a news release. There isn't one. I have seen plenty of debates on this. From personal experience, the only difference I ever noticed is when I could pick a slow news day. For instance, if in your city the daily newspaper can be reached on Sunday and not too much tends to happen that day in your subject area, you may find it easier to get into Monday's newspaper than if you try later in the week. But on average, there is not much difference.

Best time of month, year, etc? Again, there is no single best time. There is one golden rule. Do not send out a release when the world is wrapped up in some all-consuming event like the death of Princess Diana or the attack on the World Trade Center. Remember how much TV airtime and newspaper print space were devoted to those events? The media and its audiences had other things on their minds than your news. You can't control events, but you can control the timing of your release (most of the time).

How far in advance should you send out your release? Some book reviewers usually need several months. Others don't want to see your release until the book is on the store shelves. Many consumer magazines have a six-month editorial preview. Features editors often run several weeks ahead of time, but sometimes squeeze things in on short notice. News departments want only breaking news. Yesterday's news is ... well, yesterday's news. Your release is already forgotten.

Does all this sound confusing. It is. The bottom line in any marketing is to know your target market and give it what it wants. Same with the media. The guidelines above give a very abbreviated list of what you need to consider. If you are still unsure, a media coach might be a good investment. But be forewarned – find someone with enough experience and success to coach you in the right direction.

After a decade and a half as one of Canada's top consumer advocates, often conducting over 600 media interviews each year, David Leonhardt is sharing his knowledge with others. Pick up a copy of his special report "Get In The News!" at http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/PR.html.. Home page is http://www.TheHappyGuy.com

amabaie@phastnet.com.

More and Better Marketing Verse

Many sales problems can be solved
By sickly sweet smell of lost touch as they have...
Reality through the brain is the world involved
floating in the quiet ecstasy of cobalt wave.

Does Your Company Need More Marketing? Or Just Better Marketing?

Many sales problems can be solved by improved marketing. Selling harder is often not the solution. More . . . or just better . . . marketing may be what's needed. Marketing presents a special problem for any company that has not yet developed a professionally staffed marketing department. This article looks at the various marketing functions. It describes some successful approaches to determining when to add "more" marketing to your company.
In The Beginning
Most successful companies grow from a small enterprise based on the founder's idea or vision. In the early stages, the founder usually plays many roles. It's common to see a founder handling engineering and/or sales roles. As the company succeeds and grows, many of these tasks are delegated to others.
The one area most often key to the long term success of the company is the function of marketing. This article covers:

• The marketing functions
  
• The problems they can prevent or solve
  
• The contributions you can expect from marketing
  

Marketing: The Difference Between Buying And Selling

The definition of marketing has been attempted by many authors. It is commonly referred to as the process of relating the potential customers' needs and wants to the company, and then addressing the company's solutions to meet those needs and wants back to the marketplace.

We have described marketing as the process of focusing on Who the customer really is, and What the customer is actually buying from you . . . rather than what you're selling. What customers can buy from your firm . . . that they cannot buy from another . . . is the real reason they do business with you.

The marketing functions within your company that support this work can be divided into product marketing and marketing services to support demand creation and sales. Both functions are necessary to have an effective marketing effort. However, they are distinct. How much of each you need . . . and who should perform these duties . . . are important issues.

What Is Product Marketing?

The classic definition of product marketing includes the issues of product, price, promotion, and sales channel (place). The concept of product marketing holds true whether your company is a "product" or a "service" company. In the case of a service company, your "product" is the service provided.

To succeed, these product marketing issues (product, price, promotion, and place) must be handled so they are effective from the customer's point of view. In the beginning, these issues are usually a key part of the founder's vision. When the company succeeds, they often become too complex . . . and too important . . . to be handled part-time, by the chief executive.

Product marketing works over two different frameworks, each important, and fundamentally very different. These two areas are strategic and tactical.

Strategic Marketing

Strategic product marketing is the future component of the marketing problem. Strategic issues include:

• What business is your company in?
  
• What business should you be in?
  
• What products or services should be designed and offered?
  
• What technical capabilities need to be developed within the company or acquired from outside the company?
  

Other related strategic issues include:

• Marketing channel strategies (How do you reach your customers, then sell and deliver the goods?)
  
• Competitive positioning (What sets your company apart in the minds of your customers?)
  
• A complete understanding of, and ability to communicate to customers, What they can buy from your company that they cannot buy from any other company.
  

The strategic role requires a person who is a generalist, with a broad view of the market, the industry, and the company. This is the role most usually maintained by the founder/CEO. Portions of this strategic function may be provided by a senior marketing manager or by outside consultants.

Tactical Marketing

Tactical product marketing deals with issues that relate to the success of current products or services. These include:

• New products or services introductions
  
• Promotion of existing products
  
• Development of marketing programs and literature that are effective in reaching the customer
  
• Communicating the unique position that separates your company from your competitors
  
• Ensuring that the sales channels are being used effectively to reach customers
  

The development of tactical plans is a product marketing function. The execution of some of these tactical items may be accomplished by marketing services, as described next.

The tactical role requires a person with the desire and skills to "get it done." Both tactical and strategic roles require great communications skills, and the ability to deal successfully with a wide range of peo-ple, both inside and outside your company.

What Are Marketing Services?

Marketing Services executes tactical marketing programs. This may include sales contests, public relations, advertising, trade shows, dealer programs, direct mail campaigns, etc. This function manages or provides the creative, and produces items such as brochures, advertisements, press releases, trade shows, etc.

There is obviously an overlap between tactical marketing and marketing services in the area of defining and planning these programs. A senior, experienced, marketing services professional may be able to perform some of the functions of tactical marketing. Unfortunately, many times we place an excellent marketing services person in a position which really is tactical marketing . . . and the results are not satisfactory.

Marketing Services' function is to create and manage the tools, support materials, and collateral that tactical marketing has determined necessary to effectively implement the programs designed to achieve the strategy.

Skilled marketing services professionals have excellent input regarding these tools and materials to assure effective results. Asking them to perform the tactical product marketing function is quite another thing!

What Do Marketing Problems Look Like?

Sometimes it's easy to see a marketing problem. One example of this is a stalled product.

You've spent many months developing a new product and feel sure of its merits in the marketplace. You've introduced the product, but it seems to be going nowhere. What do you need to do to take advantage of your investment and ensure the success of the new product (and perhaps your company)?

• Should you lower the price?
  
• Should you raise the price?
  
• Do you need to spend money on advertising?
  
• Do you need to kick off a public relations campaign?
  
• Do you need new sales channels, or do you need a program to "kick start" your existing channels?
  

Obviously some of these issues are tactical product marketing. Some may involve marketing services, or the problem may be fundamentally strategic.

Possibly, you have an unneeded or unwanted product or service. Maybe you have not fully determined what the differences are your product or service provides which are valuable to potential customers.

Another example of a potential marketing challenge is an important new product introduction.

• How do you ensure that you get the best press coverage?
  
• Should you introduce the product at a trade show? Or with a press conference? Or with a press tour?
  
• What literature and sales tools will you need?
  
• Does this new product (or service) fit your existing sales channel?
  
• What is the competitive environment in which this product will be introduced?
  
• How should the product be priced and positioned to take maximum advantage of the competitive situation
  
• What do your prospective customers think of the new product?
  

Again, some of these problems are tactical and some are Marketing Services. Executing an effective new product launch by relegating the planning and execution to Marketing Services, or worse, to your advertising agency, is a mistake. Given that 90% of new product introductions fail to achieve their sales goals, perhaps it's time to consider that the execution may not be the problem. Perhaps there was never a viable plan.

Sometimes it's more difficult to recognize the problem as belonging to marketing. It can still clearly be rooted there however. An example of this is the conflict between sales and the factory. Often the conflict looks like this:

The salespeople are frustrated. They see opportunity they can't turn into business, and they blame the factory for not listening to them, and for being unresponsive.

The sales person says, "Why don't they hear what I am telling them?" The factory staff in this case is often frustrated with field sales. "Why can't they just sell what we have?", is a common question from the factory.

Are the salespeople just complaining, so you should disregard them? Are the factory people being too "hardheaded?" Or is it possible that a marketing job, clearly defining the position of the product and communication of this to sales, has not been done?

If sales does not know the positioning, you will be getting inconsistent results and information from them. Has this happened to you?

Some marketing problems are easier to identify. You have an idea for a wonderful new product. But,

• What features should it have?
  
• What is the importance to your customers of each feature?
  
• Is there something else even more important about which you are unaware?
  
• How do you tell the story of the product so that you can get your sales people excited, and your customers to buy?
  

To answer these questions, what do you do? Do you conduct a focus group? Or a user survey? By phone, or letter, or face-to-face interviews? Or just design it, release it, and hope you were right?

The bottomline is that all of the above scenarios describe marketing problems which can be solved with the right marketing talent. Whether that expertise is full-time or a part-time, on-staff or from outside services are trade-offs you make to get the best solution your budget can afford.

Final Thoughts

The key to marketing is to see your company as you are seen by your customers. If you're satisfied with your company's results and feel that the future of your company is secure, then you may have all the marketing you need.

If you feel better results are needed, that you should be selling more, or your profits should be higher, or you should be doing a better job of satisfying your customers . . . then you should seriously consider adding marketing talent to your team.

(c) 1991, 2002 Customer Manufacturing Group

Author, Mitchell Gooze, is the president and founder of Customer Manufacturing Group. For a free subscription to Customer Manufacturing Updates, e-mail us at info@customermfg.com, call (800) 947-0140 or visit the company website at www.customermanufacturing.com.

Forgotten Marketing Opus

Tactical marketing processes are once again -
It's probably pining for the fiords.
They are been hunting grandmas pain:
A terrible tastless seemless word.

Forget Conventional Marketing - Embrace the Web!

Tactical marketing processes are once again undergoing fundamental shifts from traditional to web-based processes. Many traditional marketing firms/agencies are still touting the tried and true to their clients; i.e. Tradeshow attendance, Print, Traditional PR, TV and Radio. However, these conventional marketing processes work best for broad market awareness and/or branding, especially for a Fortune 1K company with significant resources to spend on demographic analysis, test marketing and more test marketing. It's much more difficult for a smaller company (startup to $50M per annum) to leverage the economies of scale that are typically available for a larger company for the media buy and operational efficiencies.

It's obvious that lifestyle and business processes are shifting towards a much greater dependence on digital media - people are traveling less due to cost issues and the ever-increasing speed of business is underscoring the usage of the Internet for information and research. If you're a small to medium sized business the chances are that you've probably cut your marketing budget significantly - by eliminating or scaling back tradeshow attendance, trade magazine advertising and/or direct mail in favor of response driven marketing on the web that can be deployed faster and more cost-effectively than traditional marketing methods.

Capturing leads from a web site generated by opt-in e-mail, newsletter inserts, text link advertising and/or other forms of pay per click marketing is still the absolute best way to generate leads that are quantifiable as soon as they are generated. You have the ability to easily track where the lead came from and via what interactive advertising process; assuming this has been setup for you by your interactive ad agency or with the online publisher. And, there are typically no lead times like more traditional marketing processes - we've created and deployed campaigns (creative, media buy, testing, ROI analysis, etc.) for our clients in 3-5 working days in some cases.

There are some pitfalls to web-based lead generation and follow through that you need to be aware of as you deploy an interactive campaign. Here are five of the most important "gotchas" that you need to think about as you build an interactive lead generation program around your web site:

1) Don't make it difficult for people to contact your company - make sure your web site really communicates with your prospects - by "communicating" I mean by providing telephone contacts, e-mail address and/or a lead capture form that is short. Note: this form has to be supported by a published Privacy Policy ("we won't divulge your info to a third party under any circumstances") and it absolutely must be short; i.e. don't request any more than baseline information, name, phone, e-mail and address, augmented with a comment box.

2) Your marketing objectives have to be supported by your sales team - the sales team has to be incentivized to respond to inbound e-mails and requests for information via a contact form in a timely manner, within 24 hours or sooner. If you have a geographically dispersed sales team then make this clear on the web site by providing specific contact points for states, regions and countries.

3) Make sure you IT person/department attends your marketing planning meetings with your sales team - your web site will need some type of a lead capture setup that redistributes leads based on function and/or geographical responsibility. Your IT staff has to create a database solution that captures, stores and distributes leads - this does not need to be done in-house, products like Act (the market leader in contact management software) are now web-enabled, you can capture leads via a web server and share leads with others via a browser and very inexpensively.

4) We don't advocate popup advertising for most of our client's advertising campaigns. But, we have "crossed over to the other side" and we do (highly) recommend using popups on our clients' web sites to present opportunities that in turn capture leads. Studies have shown effective popup lead captures increase lead generation by 40-85% depending on the market segment. Popups can be set so they only launch on a frequency basis per session (visit to a web site) or a number of times for a specific visitor - they don't have to setup so they are intrusive and annoying.

5) Last but not least (drum roll) - make the customer's usability experience the most important aspect of your web site. Create a user interface ("experience") that is pleasant for your visitors; i.e. use standard universal (top of page and local page left) menus, utilize 2-3 sentence paragraphs with lots of white space, don't overload your pages with graphics that slow down load times and make sure your contact points (phone, e-mail) are readily available from every page.

So, to summarize; advertising is shifting from traditional to web-based or interactive if you will - so, to get on board this tsunami build a web site that communicates with your prospects/customers, provide contact points via telephone and e-mail via the site, involve your IT and Sales staff with the lead capture process so they are all stakeholders and utilize popups to accelerate your lead capturing.

Author, Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet "Beyond the Search Engines" for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html. Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com.

E-Mail Marketing Real Ode

Spam e-mail is no longer the mild
Of all aspirations like fish on the bank.
But how could I I'm just a child!
But hey, the fish out of water stank!

New Realities for E-Mail Marketing

Spam e-mail is no longer the mild irritant it once was - it's clogging corporate networks and ISP mail servers and has become a real productivity drain, forcing corporate and consumer e-mail users to spend 20-30 minutes a day dealing with this deluge of junk! According to recent figures, unsolicited bulk e-mail now makes up to 36% of all e-mail, up from under 8% just over a year ago. And, what's worse, more and more legitimate e-mail is not getting through to recipients due to Spam filtering taking place via ISPs and/or corporate networks.

Opt-in E-Mail Marketing 30K foot Picture

Opt-in e-mail marketing is clearly losing some of its effectiveness as a viable marketing tool much to the consternation of those of us who have been advocating its effectiveness for years! This is not to say opt-in e-mail isn't a viable way to market goods and services - but ROI (read response rates) is heading south quickly and needs to be considered when assessing the viability of this marketing process, as response rates have dropped on average from 10-20% to 3-10%.

However, opt-in e-mail is not disappearing off the marketing horizons - Forrester forecasts spending on e-mail marketing will grow from $1.3B (USD) in 2001 to $6.8B in 2006 and Jupiter Media Metrix is even more optimistic, forecasting growth rates from $1B in 2001 to $9.4B in 2006. But, there is a dark undercurrent to these numbers that is fueling the market growth and driving down response rates - some opt-in agencies, brokers and media representatives are "flogging" lists by overselling them - so caveat emptor.

Five Offsetting Marketing Strategies

1) Deploy opt-in e-mail campaigns very selectively (!) - buy opt-in e-mail lists from legitimate top-tier broker/list managers who are well established, are not "over-sending" messages to list subscribers and who are constantly refreshing their list quality by adding new subscribers. Critical questions to ask brokers include: how many messages ("frequency" in ad speak) are sent to each list recipient per month, how are new subscribers added and what is the percentage of new members added per month, are they using "third party" (someone else's list) lists to augment their own, are their lists "double opt in" (meaning, you sign up and then must reply to a signup confirmation to be added to a list) and last but not least, what is their privacy policy and how strictly do they adhere to published industry standards.

2) Utilize plain vanilla text link advertising - find web sites or portals that have traffic that is comprised of customers who are in your market segment. Then, add a text link (banner ad or graphic button if you will) to a page or pages and negotiate a media buy that is based upon a "cost per click" basis; i.e. paying only for traffic that clicks through to your web site.

3) Creating and deploying a "link strategy" campaign (i.e. getting a site listed via other web sites) is one of the best self-sustaining interactive marketing processes available to any company seeking to drive qualified traffic to a web site. This process is not based upon the more traditional "reciprocal links" procedure but incorporates some web-based competitive analysis. You start by analyzing the links that are pointing back to your top 3-5 competitors' web sites and then establish relationships with these sites and also submit your site to top and second tier directories to augment the number of links.

4) Newsletter insert advertising used to be considered rather mundane and not very effective. But, if you contrast the effectiveness of this process versus the new opt-in e-mail response rates the heretofore-lowly newsletter advertising has new and vastly improved luster! Also, in the past it was difficult to track when and if people clicked on a text link ad in a newsletter - but new technology enables virtually any publisher to provide you with this information, enabling you to track your ROI for the media buy. Finally, the real beauty of newsletter text advertising is that it is very targeted and people want to receive the information so you can be confident your ad will at least be viewed by some finite number of prospects.

5) Search Engine Ranking has come of age in the last 12-24 months - you can now easily create and deploy a traditional (title, description, keywords inserts in content, submissions and optimization) search engine ranking process that is augmented with a pay per click ("PPC") process. Deploying both ensures you derive long term (traditional rankings) and short term (pay per click) results, with the latter being driven by the amount of funds you have in your marketing budget.

Author, Lee Traupel, has 20 plus years of marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com a marketing services company which provides strategic and tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium sized companies. Lee@intelective.com Reprinted with permission from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted freely, provided this attribution box remains intact. (c) by Intelective Communications, Inc.
Lee@intelective.com.

Wrong Marketing Poem

Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

This is a pretty tough global economy and it is critical for a company to leverage every bit of their marketing resources. So, if this is the case, why are so many companies shooting themselves in the proverbial foot by breaking some of the most fundamental rules of marketing? It's a very simple question with complex answers - here are some of the pitfalls to avoid:

1) Believing a second rate web site communicates integrity: So many web sites are just plain funky looking (graphics, text, menus, etc.) - nice professional term, but it's descriptive of some of the dreck that passes for web site design. A company should not forget that perception is reality on the web and people aren't going to do business with a company that can't field a decent web site - end of story!

2) Deploying a marketing strategy that's all over the map: Is Yahoo a Search Engine, a Portal or a Hollywood Media company? They are the classic 3D hologram advertisement for a company that can't figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. A company must pick a marketing strategy and then stay the course - changing direction every time the wind shifts is not a good business strategy and creates more motion than action.

3) Forgetting real brand development: Branding became the ".com" rallying cry for every newby wet behind the ears with an Internet dream to become a billionaire by selling dog food on the web (I'll leave the sock puppet out of this) - we all know this didn't work. But that does not mean a company should ignore brand development - it's important to remember that a good brand is built one marketing process at a time; everything that a company publishes, develops or communicate is part of the brand building process, which in turn defines the company's market position.

4) Ignoring distribution channels by selling direct via an ecommerce web site: A company should not build and launch an ecommerce site and start selling direct to customers and forget about a distribution channel. It's imperative to give the customer the choice to buy direct from your company or locate a distribution channel partner via a look up capability on the site. And, if you really want to win the hearts and mind of a channel never sell below retail (SRP) - and afford the channel the opportunity to discount your product so they can compete effectively with you.

5) Making competitive analysis a low priority: Too many companies forget about their competitors after the business plan has been written. They don't take the time to review them on a periodic basis and try and figure out how to deliver goods and services differently, which in turn drives competitive advantage and a long-term sustainable business model.

6) Poorly thought out Investor Relations press release: Do companies actually think investors are just plain stupid and don't really read an IR (Investor Relations) directed Press Release carefully? Investors are typically very bottom line oriented - they want to know about revenue growth and real strategic partnership developments that help the company grow and not much else. Just throwing fluff out in the market and hoping this will drive investors to invest is just plain shortsighted stupidity.

7) Thinking any/all consultants know your business better than you: Reporters and consultants (including this one) have driven just as many companies into the ground with bad advice as much as they have helped them - companies must realize a consultant is typically not down in the trenches and they can make some bad calls - it's important to filter their advice.

8) Letting the inmates run the asylum - customers should help a company refine its product marketing strategy by working as partners. If engineering tells marketing "the customer doesn't really know what they want but we do" the red lights should start flashing danger - the company may be in serious peril and at the very least need new focus and direction for product marketing.

Author, Lee Traupel, has 20 plus years of marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com a marketing services company which provides strategic and tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium sized companies. Lee@intelective.com Reprinted with permission from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted freely, provided this attribution box remains intact. (c) by Intelective Communications, Inc. Lee@intelective.com.

Competitive Traffic Serenade

Need more traffic? There's a lot you can
Searching they are... for a bit of thrill-age?
As when they ponder iced tea and a fan
With mouths that chew tasty sausage...

What Your Competition Knows About Traffic

Need more traffic? There's a lot you can learn from spying on your competition. Your competition has traffic sources that you can easily swipe by following these steps.

Step One: Who should you spy on? You probably can name six to thirty online competitors. If not, you need to go through Google and Yahoo with the key terms you target. Who comes up? Write down everyone who has a business similar to yours, even if they aren't identical.

Now you need to figure out who you should spy on first. Begin with the most successful websites. How do you find them? It's easy with a couple tools.

The Google toolbar (toolbar.google.com) is essential for spying. The Google toolbar features a little bar labeled "PageRank." Depending on each site, this bar may be gray, white, or (usually) a combination of green and white. The more green, the higher Google ranks that page. To get an exact PageRank, put your cursor over the PageRank graph and hold it there. Your competitors with the highest PageRank are the ones you want to look at very closely.

You also want to spy on the competitors with the most traffic. To figure out the relative traffic position of your competition (compared to all web sites), go to alexa.com and download their toolbar. The Alexa toolbar will display a number for each website ­ it?s traffic rank. The lower the number, the higher the traffic. (For example, Yahoo?s Alexa rank is 1, while Blockbuster?s is 2,220.)

Step two: Snoop through your competitor's log files to see which sites and search terms send them the most traffic. Is there a public stats tracker on your competitor's site? If so, check it out. If not, try typing in your competitor's URL with /stats.html and /stats/ on the end of it. Often times, web hosts put statistics here - without password protection. Still can't find your competitor's stats? Try Googling their URL and "statistics." It's a long shot, but sometimes statistics pages will turn up this way.

Step three: Look at who is linking to your competitor. The easiest way to do this is to run a backward link search in Google and Altavista. Simply type in link:http://www.yourcompetition.com (using your competitor's URL). You'll find most of the pages that link to your competitor this way. How do you know which links are the best? By using the Google toolbar. The pages linking to your competitor with the highest PageRank are the ones you should look to for links of your own.

To steal those links, email all the webmasters that are linking to your competitor without getting a link back in return. Figure out why they link to your competitor (good free content, subject fits site, etc), and give them a better reason to link to you. Chances are, most of these webmasters will give you a link as well.

Once you have these new sites linking to yours, positive changes in your Google ranking are likely. You may even overtake your competitor for your targeted search terms ­ especially if you get links from spying on multiple sites. All from a little reconnaissance work and some emailing!

Author, Kari Freckleton, aka Greedy Girl, shares her unconventional ideas for free at http://www.greedygirl.com.. Ready to smoke the competition? Email Kari at girl@greedygirl.com to join her Too Good To Publish marketing club.

Marketing Verse Out

Outsourcing your Web Marketing

The online world is still very new, and constantly evolving. You may be thinking about outsourcing your Web promotion to an expert who is immersed in this world as their fulltime occupation, rather than trying to acquire this knowledge, and cope with the pace of change in-house.

So, what should you look for in a consultant, and what guarantees can you expect?

Choosing the consultant

The consultant should ask a lot of questions about your business and your objectives. They need to be very clear about the strategic and specific goals of your site. Do you want as many visitors as possible (as in: “We get millions of hits on our Web site”), or are you more interested in attracting qualified leads for your association? Are you selling products? Are you looking for new members, sign-ups for your newsletter or events, media coverage, etc.

It’s possible that there could be different markets for each of your objectives. The consultant needs to demonstrate that they clearly understand the demographics of the audience you want to attract. This includes whether your markets are currently online, whether they are comfortable using e-mail, etc. It’s also important to clarify any restrictions on your marketing – for example, if you are only targeting specific locations.

The key to effective Web marketing is to have a comprehensive, integrated plan that focuses on where your markets “hang out” online. It’s absolutely not enough to concentrate your efforts on search engines – that’s a passive rather than an active approach. You want to reach out to your potential visitors, not wait for them to come to you. And, you want to ensure that your offline marketing includes your Web site – up to a third of your traffic can now come from real-world sources.

So, the consultant should propose to you a wide-ranging plan (assuming that’s appropriate for your goals) that includes:

• Search engine strategies
  
• Paid (bid for placement) listings
  
• Review sites and directories
  
• Linking with other appropriate sites
  
• Advertising / e-zine sponsorships (depending on your budget)
  
• Online public relations opportunities
  
• Integration with your real-world marketing
  

Effective Web marketing must also include an e-mail strategy. The consultant should include in their proposal some ideas for targeted, personalized (and fully opt-in) e-mail. This requires a contact database that you can use to select out the different audiences that you might have for these messages. The consultant should also be able to help you create this, if required.

And finally, the consultant should explain how they propose to evaluate the success of any marketing campaign your goals and objectives. Marketing is an ongoing process, during which you’ll learn a lot about your site and about your visitors. This knowledge should be analyzed and used to tweak your site and refine your business strategies. A good consultant will be able to work with you to achieve this.

What guarantees can you expect?

Let’s be very clear – there is a distinction, which often gets blurred, between sales and marketing. The job of a marketing consultant is to bring qualified traffic to your site (or in other words, into your storefront). Completing the sale is then a separate challenge.

Marketing is also a very gray area, in which it’s difficult to provide cast-iron guarantees of results. This is particularly true in the area of search engine optimization, since the search engines are so unpredictable. In my opinion, if a consultant promises you “top ten placement” you should be very wary – it’s possible that they are using tactics that could be classified as spam – soon if not now.

But obviously you do want to check that the consultant has a good track record, and that they can provide references from other clients. I believe that good Web knowledge and proven online marketing tactics are as important as an in-depth familiarity with your industry.

In setting your contract with the consultant, it’s important to have a mutual comfort level with your goals, expectations and budget. There are many opportunities for free promotion online, but if you’re prepared to spend some money, you can potentially build your traffic faster. Since building awareness of a site takes time, perhaps a minimum six-month period would be advisable, but with appropriate get-out clauses for both parties.

Conclusion

Good Web marketing is a team effort! Hire a consultant who you feel very comfortable with, who asks lots of questions to really understand your business and your goals, and who seems genuinely interested in promoting you. But then be prepared to work with them – respect and consider their suggestions, and allow them to be creative in their approach.

Author, Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet "Beyond the Search Engines" for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html.

Free Advertisement Opus

Best Approach For Free Advertisement

Best approach for free publicity...

Product/service publicity is the superhighway to business success everyone dreams. Then imagine having your product/service written on newspapers, trade publications, aired on radio and viewed on television absolutely for free!!! That’s going to skyrocket your profit target only if you know how to use the best method of getting free publicity.

The million-dollar question now is, what’s the best method for a free publicity? It is the PRESS or NEWS RELEASE. The knowledge about how it works is the key to your success. This knowledge depends entirely on how you understand the psychology of the editors and new directors that publish or air your press release. This article will show you how their psychology works and how best to manipulate them for your benefits.

Number one. These editors and news directors are very busy people. Don’t bother them with your trials and tribulations or your plans for the future. They are only interested in something new and profitable to their readers or viewers. So the rule here is to sell him first. Convince him that your business fills a need to his readers, viewers or listeners. Then your press release will be welcomed.

Number two. Editors and news directors move with the trend. They concern themselves more with current issues and events. So timing of your press release with current news events is an important factor. For example a story on job layoff and increased unemployment carried out on newspapers, on TV and radio should prompt you to get a publicity release out to all the media on help and opportunity offered by your product/service.

Another kind of timing to keep in mind is publication. For Articles you’d like to appear in the Sunday paper, you’ll generally have your release in at least nine days prior to the date of publication.

Number three. Media men appreciate polite gestures. When an editor uses your publicity release, always follow-up with a customized “thank you” note. Next time you send out your publicity release with others, his more likely to pick yours. If he doesn’t use your publicity release, never call him demanding to know why he didn’t use it or only gave you a mention. Do this once, that particular media will “round file” my further material received from you, unopened! If your first effort is not used, change the story, perhaps write it form a different angle and try again and again.

Number four. They appreciate a formal press release. Finally you need an actual publicity release that’s well written and expected to be used by the media. It must be typed, double spaced, and short (1/2 page total length). About an inch from the top of the paper, with an inch and half margin on the side of the paper; from the left hand margin, type in capital letters: PRESS RELEASE. Then, underline this word. Immediately following the colon, in small letters put the date. Note to put the date forward, at least one day after you intend to mail the release.

On the same line, but on the right hand side of the page, all in capital letters, FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: underline it, and immediately below type your name, your phone number and your address all in small letters.

Skip a couple of spaces, then in capital letters-centered between the margin type story headline, and underline it… skip a couple of spaces, and from the left margin, all in capital letters, type the words, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: from there on, it’s the news or publicity story itself.

Use these four basic psychologies of the media men and enjoy a free publication of your product/service always.

Author, Am Emma Okafor, an online market researcher and writer.

http://bizacumen.8k.com.

Media Marketing Ode

Can Media Coverage Build An Online Business? You Bet It Can!

As someone with expertise in media relations, I've been asked if media coverage and publicity can build an online business. The real question is whether what happens offline really matters online. And the answer is unquestionably, "Yes!"

Here are ten reasons why media coverage can help your online business grow:

• Every one of us, even if we spend four to eight hours a day in front of a computer screen in our underwear, still lives in the real world. Our opinions, desires, priorities, and decisions are heavily influenced by television, radio, books, magazines, and newspapers. Every business, online or offline, can benefit from positive media exposure.
  
• Almost no business can afford to be absent from the Internet these days; even a local real estate agent gains a competitive edge from having a web site. By the same token, an online business gains a strong advantage by having an offline presence. Online and offline marketing of all types support each other.
  
• Search engines won't bring most web site owners business. I just did a Google search for "books", and found about 85.2 million entries. Ninety-five percent of searchers will likely click on the first two (Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com), most of the others will never get to the second page of the searches. This means that 85,199,990 web site book sellers cannot rely on search engines. How about searching for the word bookstore? Still almost seven million entries, and guess who the top two are?
  
• You can't cheat the search engines. Try a search for books and carpentry. The odds are much better, with only 106,000 entries. That still means 105,990 web site book sellers will rarely be found. How about books and promotion? Almost two million entries. If a million carpentry book sellers are reading this article, five are smiling. The rest will only smile with an offline presence, such as a great article in their local newspaper or a call-in show on a radio station half way across the world.
  
• The media can create interest in your product or service if they feature you as part of an interesting story. Online or offline, that's what media coverage does. A good story is gold.
  
• The media is just starting now to wake up to the exciting things happening online. Timing is everything and this is the time.
  
• The media are now working increasingly online. The online and offline worlds are converging more than ever before. Articles that appear in local papers, industry magazines and even commentary on radio broadcasts find themselves on the Internet. That can often mean powerful links to your web site. Publicity offline means promotion online.
  
• If you are running a contest, placing a new interactive program on your site, winning an award, taking donations for a charity or doing anything noteworthy online, it is of interest in the offline world. The media can act as a funnel for people who spend less time than you and I do in front of a computer screen.
  
• In the mainstream media, you are trustworthy. If they see it on TV or in the newspaper, people believe it. (Funny, they SAY they don't trust the media, but their actions speak louder.) Since web marketing is about relationships and trust (That is your strategy, right?), you can build that relationship with people who are only now getting online or who may not even be online for another couple years. By the time they are ready to buy from you, the relationship has already begun because they have carried your offline credibility (that's the biggest value of media coverage) with them onto the Internet.
  
• In the mainstream media, you are real. I know many people who still don't buy anything online. They simply do not trust someone they cannot see. Sure, you might be honest, but how do they know? You could disappear into the ether tomorrow. While bricks-and-mortar stores can close just as fast, there is an impression that they are more real and more permanent. You can increase your realness and permanence through a media presence, and thereby increase your customer base.
  

Media relations is not always easy and not everyone can make it. You have to have something interesting to tell and have a creative way to make it newsworthy. But it is a low-cost way to drive traffic to your web site. And you may not need to get onto the front page of USA Today to succeed. You may simply want a mention in a few niche magazines where your targeted traffic can be found.

So if you don't like the idea of being a million entries down on a web search, or even 60 entries down, consider a low-cost, effective alternative – the media. With the right angle, media relations and publicity can expand your engine faster than search engines.

After a decade and a half as one of Canada's top consumer advocates, often conducting over 600 media interviews each year, David Leonhardt is sharing his knowledge with others. Pick up a copy of his special report "Get In The News!" at http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/publicity-self-promotion-report.html.

Profit Poem

Share Ad Expenses to Boost Profits

The challenges of the small business owner are well documented. They must battle for market share larger competitors, run all aspects of their business, and even pay higher rates for advertising and other marketing related expenses. Small businesses generally do not qualify for volume discounts when it comes to buying advertising space or marketing materials, and thus they end up paying higher rates for the same ad space or marketing materials purchased by their corporate counterparts.

In recent years, there have been some changes in the marketplace that are of benefit to small business owners. For example, Internet procurement sites have emerged offering discount rates on everyday office supplies such as toner or paper. However, the high cost of advertising has not been formally addressed. That’s why many small businesses are taking matters into their own hands and joining forces in marketing “co-ops”.

Here’s an example of how it works. Andy’s Accounting Firm and Larry’s Legal Firm are both small businesses operating in the business-to-business sector. Andy services small businesses with their accounting needs, and Larry is a lawyer specializing in small business issues. Andy and Larry both wish to purchase advertising space in a popular small business magazine. The rate they are quoted individually is $5000 for the back page of the magazine. Since they are not repeat advertisers, neither Andy nor Larry receives any kind of discount. So how do they save money on this advertising venture? A co-op approach on one of two fronts will cut their advertising costs significantly:

Share the ad: Since they are not direct competitors, Andy and Larry could split the ad space 50/50, acting almost as if they were partners although their businesses are distinct. This drops the cost to $2500 for each business and they still receive broad exposure in their chosen publication. In fact, by putting their heads together they should be able promote their collective business expertise as “Total Solutions for Small Business”.

Purchase separately at a discount – There may be some occasions where a business does not wish to share its ad space. Even in these cases a co-op approach can offer a lower cost. Andy could call the publication and ask for a quote on the back page for next month. Once the price of $5000 is quoted, he then offers the publication a deal “What if I bring on another advertiser for you. Would I get a small discount?” Most publications live or die on the sales of their advertising space, and are usually willing to offer someone like Andy a 10% discount for bringing someone like Larry in to purchase an ad elsewhere in the publication. Andy and Larry split the savings and Andy ends up paying $4750 for a $5000 ad. Although the savings were smaller in this case than the shared ad example, remember that Andy now has the entire back page to himself and saves $250.

Advertising is not the only example of co-ops at work. Web Designers would jump at the chance to line up two clients in one shot, and would likely offer a discount to do so. The same applies to a printing company that prints brochures or business cards. The possibilities are endless, including the size of the co-op you choose to join.

When faced with a major advertising buying decision or the need for new marketing materials, find out how much you will have to pay as a small business. Then form alliances with similar small business, and negotiate a better deal for all parties involved.

Written by Will Dylan, Author of Small Business Big Marketing and owner of www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com. Will also offers article and news release writing services through his website. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com.

Small Business Marketing Serenade

Small Business Marketing, According to Seinfeld

What could Seinfeld possibly have to do with marketing a small business? As it turns out, all small business owners could take a few lessons from the show that brought us such popular phrases as “Man Hands” and “master of your domain”.

The Coffee Shop – Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine spent countless hours in the coffee shop, talking about “nothing.” You should spend some time there as well, but instead of talking about your parents or your date last night, get together with other small business owners and talk about your respective business and marketing activities. Many of you already participate in local business clubs and organizations, but the feedback and shared ideas that are generated in an informal business chat over a coffee are often the most valuable. My “coffee shop group” consists of 3 small businesses owners from different industries. Between us, we generate great marketing ideas for each other or in my case, new topics for small business articles. You can easily gather a few small business owners together for this type of meeting. Just be sure they are not competitors!

The Short-Term Relationship – It seemed that every Thursday, Jerry was dating a different woman. In fact, outside of Elaine he rarely dated a woman for any length of time. Jerry understood that sometimes, you don’t want to be tied down to a long-term relationship. The same rule applies to your small business marketing activities. Too many small businesses get drawn in to long-term advertising relationships by committing to a certain amount of advertising in exchange for a discount. Those who sell advertising try to convince business owners that you can’t evaluate a particular form of advertising based on just a small sampling period, and thus a longer contract is required. This is simply not true. In the small business world, ads must at least pay for themselves before you agree to investigate any long-term advertising commitment. You’re not building the next mega conglomerate (not yet, anyway), so ad money that doesn’t produce a positive ROI is wasted money. Jerry understood that if the early part of the relationship wasn’t perfect, the rest was bound to go downhill. Apply that rule to your marketing and advertising purchases and you’ll maximize the effectiveness of your advertising. If it works on a sample basis, consider a long term plan. If it doesn’t work in the short term, give them the “it’s not you, it’s me” routine and move on.

The Superman Effect – Did you know that Superman appears or is mentioned in every Seinfeld episode? It’s true, largely because Jerry kept a Superman figurine in his apartment that popped up in the background numerous times during each episode. For small business marketers, Jerry’s Superman equates to your core business. With so many marketing opportunities to consider, it’s easy to lose sight of your primary business in pursuit of new revenue streams. Unfortunately, this can often leads to the collapse of your business. Take a page out of Jerry’s book, and be sure to keep your core business (your “Superman”) a part of everything you do, even if it is only in the background. Every opportunity and every possible marketing strategy that you consider must relate back to your core product/service offering to ensure the continuity of your business. Don’t allow yourself to become so sidetracked that you end up chasing marketing opportunities that detract from your current strengths. When evaluating a new business opportunity, ask yourself “How will this new marketing or business idea impact on my core business?” before you begin a new marketing venture.

The next time you are watching a Seinfeld Rerun, be sure to look for the hidden small business tips in each episode. You might find that it wasn’t a show about nothing after all.

Written by Will Dylan, Author of Small Business Big Marketing and owner of www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com. Will also offers article and news release writing services through his website. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com.

Ezine Improving Verse

10 Easy Tips to Improve Your Ezine

Writing and publishing an ezine is a very important part of your online business so you want to make it the best possible ezine you can. I have made mistakes and changed and re-changed my ezine many times to make it the best it can be. I am still always looking for ways to improve MOE. Over the years I have learned a few simple ways to improve my ezine. You can easily implement these tips into your ezine.

1. ALWAYS, ALWAYS have your email, along with your name and url right at the top of your ezine. Unbelievably, I have read ezines where I could NOT find the email or even the name of the publisher!!! Also at the end of your ezine have name, address, phone number, and email and url again for easy access. Nothing is worse than trying to find contact info that for some reason is invisible!

2. Make sure you also always provide your subscribe and unsubscribe info as well. I would suggest putting this info at the bottom of the ezine. If you post your unsubscribe url right at the top of your ezine it is like you are inviting your subscribers to unsubscribe.

3. Provide a forum for your readers to interact with you and your other readers. A section entitled, Reader's Corner or Reader's Comments, where they can send in their comments, questions, feedback or whatever. This gives them a chance to become a part of the ezine. This also helps build the reader- publisher relationship that is very important!

4. Keep your ezine clean and sharp looking. Don't add too many of the squiggles and decorations. They may look *cute* but they sometimes make it hard to read your ezine, thus prompting the ole' delete finger to become activated!

5. ALWAYS provide some original content. Writing articles is a great way of doing this. If you are not yet comfortable writing articles, (Yes, you can), write an editorial in each issue. Talk a bit about yourself, the latest happenings in the business, what is going on around the net, etc., things of that nature. This is a chance to bring out your personality, the main thing that makes your ezine unique!!

6. Having too many ads in each issue is a great way of bringing down the value of your ezine. I would suggest no more than 4 or 5 per issue. Reading an ezine that has 20 or 30 ads (oh yeah, I've seen them) is not very interesting or realistic. Most people would not even go through the whole thing. Here comes that delete finger again!! You want your advertisers to get more value for their money and having a limited number of ads is one of the best ways of doing this.

7. I think adding a small section for this 'n that is a good idea also. Some humor, a little fun, interesting tidbits, jokes, stories, etc. We are business men and women, but we don't have to be 100% business, 100% of the time!!

8. Privacy Policy - Put a privacy policy towards the top of the ezine. Let your readers know their privacy is safe with you and your ezine.

9. Proofread - Always proofread and double-check your text. You do not want your ezine to look like it was written by a 10 year old. Correct all spelling and grammatical errors.

10. Give your ezine an interesting and pulling name. I have subscribed to most ezines just by the name alone. If the name gets my attention, I subscribe.

Names like:

Power Promotion Ezine

Marketing Mania Ezine

Web Success Ezine

are short and to the point. They also make me want to read more.

Names like:

Internet Marketing News

John Doe's Ezine

Home Business News

are more generic and do not get my attention! They lack the "oomf" that make me want to subscribe.

I hope some of these tips give you an idea of how you can improve your ezine and make it the best it can be. Remember that ezine publishing is one of the most essential aspects of your online success. If you are in this business, you should be able to say, "I have My Own Ezine! " ;-) Good luck and success to you all!!

Author, Terri Seymour, owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com. Learn to publish and promote your own ezine. subscribe@myownezine.com.

Press Release Mythical Opus

Smashing the Myth of the Press Release

A musician spends years honing his craft. He writes world-class songs and performs them in a manner that moves his listeners to tears. He records a demo tape and sends it to record labels. He gets a contract and becomes rich, famous and adored.

The lesson: demo tapes are the secret of becoming a famous musician.

Wait, you say, the demo tape was just a tool, just his way of conveying his talent. It's his ability as a musician that got him the contract and made him famous.

You're right, of course. He could have become just as famous if a record executive saw him in person, or heard about him from a friend, or as a result of a variety of other events.

Which brings us to the press release.

Somehow, the press release has taken on a magical reputation as the alpha and omega of publicity. Wanna become rich? Send out a press release. Wanna become famous? Press release. Wanna get on the cover of Newsweek? Press release.

Publicity "gurus" are springing up all over the Internet touting the press release as the answer to all marketing ills. Just knock out a release, mass e-mail it to journalists, sit back and wait for Oprah to call.

It's a cruel joke.

Here's the reality: the press release is no more important to your potential of scoring free publicity than the demo tape was to our musician friend. If he had no talent, if his songs sounded like garbage, the best recorded demo tape in the world wouldn't get him signed. Ditto for the publicity seeker. If you don't have a story to tell, your press release is utterly worthless.

I'm not knocking the press release -- it's an important tool. But it's just that: a tool. It's not the first thing you need to think about when it comes time to seek publicity. In fact, it's one of the last. And it's not even absolutely necessary (I've gotten plenty of publicity with just a pitch letter, a quick e- mail or a phone call).

If you worship at the shrine of the press release, it's time to rearrange your priorities. Here, then, are the things that are MORE important than a press release in generating publicity:

• A newsworthy story. This is the equivalent of our musician's talent. It's the very basis for your publicity efforts. Without it, your press release means nothing. To learn about how to develop a newsworthy story, take a look at http://publicityinsider.com/questions.asp and scroll down to "Is my company/website/life really newsworthy?"
  
• Learning to think like an editor. Oh, what an edge you'll have in scoring publicity over all those press release worshippers once you learn how to get inside the head of an editor. Give an editor what he wants in the way he wants it and you'll do great. I've got an entire article on the subject at http://publicityinsider.com/freesecret.asp Go there now and absorb it all. Trust me, it will make a world of difference.
  
• Relevance. Tie in with a news event, make yourself part of a trend, piggyback on a larger competitor's story, but, by all means, make your story part of a picture that's bigger than just your company. Stories that exist in a vacuum quickly run out of oxygen.
  
• Persistence. Sending out a press release and waiting for results is lazy and ineffective. If you really believe in your story, and you believe that it's right for a particular media outlet, you need to fight to make it happen. Call or e-mail the editor to pitch your story BEFORE sending the release. If one editor says no, try somebody else. If they all say no, come back at them with a different story angle.
  

Getting publicity involves so much more than just sending out a press release. Treat it as seriously and with as much respect as our newly minted rock star treats his craft and you'll be well on your way to success.

Author, Bill Stoller, the "Publicity Insider", has spent two decades as one of America's top publicists. Now, through his website, eZine and subscription newsletter, Free Publicity: The Newsletter for PR-Hungry Businesses http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp he's sharing -- for the very first time -- his secrets of scoring big publicity. For free articles, killer publicity tips and much, much more, visit Bill's exclusive new site: http://www.PublicityInsider.com.

Marketing Striking Ode

When the Clock Strikes Twelve!

I just finished reading another sales copy ending with the Deadline Marketing!

And it's the sixth I see today saying "If you order by midnight, blah blah blah...."

I'm sure you've seen it. And I'm sure you're getting (if not very) a little bored.

The deadline trick has proven itself to be overwhelmingly successful. It's a deadly-effective "countdown trigger" that pushes reluctant people to ACT at the scene.

BUT right now the Internet is getting OVERCROWDED with sales letters that try to lure you in with the deadlines.

And now what happens is when prospects get to witness this technique too often, they learn to catch up. They learn NOT to buy it!

So be "extra careful". It's been OVERUSED!! Imagine how your prospects will feel when they come across your website and see that your sales copy is not different from others. Imagine yourself in their shoes!

What's WORSE is not keeping the deadlines...

A lot of marketers specifically use the deadlines to explode their sales faster. And their sales letters are forever like that....with the NEVER-ending deadlines. So prospects can't help but lose faith in the deadlines.

You could easily risk losing your credibility from your prospects, if they check up on your site again and still find the same "midnight deadline" technique.

This is critical. If you use the deadline, make sure you keep it. When you say the promotion is ending as soon as the clock "strikes at twelve", prove that you really MEAN it!

Once your prospects see that the discount really ends like you said it would, they'll regret not having bought from you earlier.

Now that they know you always keep your words, they'll keep in mind not to let the next opportunity slip away. Next time they won't wait for another second to buy from you!

What I have for you here is a groundbreaking idea for your deadline marketing...

Instead of saying,

"If you don't delay and order now, you'll get 50% off. The original price is $100, but order now and you pay only $50. Order before midnight and you'll get this special price. Remember if you order after midnight, expect to pay $100!"

SAY,

"Take an unfair advantage of our online marketing test. For 7 days only, our company decides to slash 50% off the original price in order to see whether pricing affects sales. In our doing so, you are the one who gains! During our marketing test, don't pay us $100. Keep $50 to yourself now!"

See the difference? Feel the impact?

If you decide to use the deadline marketing, don't forget to make it right and make the most out of it.

Apart from writing a HARD-TO-SAY-NO deadline, here is the "one-of-a-kind" tool to accelerate your prospects' buying decision....

Go get yourself a dynamic countdown javascript and put it on your site...

http://www.dynamicdrive.com

It's FREE! And it works like miracle. Believe it or not? People tend to feel the rush to act when they see the clock ticking!

P.S. Be different. You can still offer the deadlines, but make sure you take a different approach!

The author, Jaruda Boonsuwan, is offering one-of-its-kind, deadly-effective copywriting e-course -- at NO charge. Beat your competitors now at http://www.groundbreakcopywriting.com

5 Marketing Poems

The New 5 P's!

NO! When I say "5 P's", I'm not talking about the big 5 P's of marketing everyone's familiar with.

Here I'm NOT referring to Product, Price, Place, Promotion and Package!

But I'm talking about the FRESHEST 5 P's I believe will be extra useful for your websites and newsletters.

Are you ready to discover the hottest 5 P's?

1. P.S.

This writing technique alone will shoot your sales to the roof!

Count how many times this week you skip reading the whole sales copies and go right for a P.S.

We don't like reading a long letter. Most of the time, we skip. So, it's a clever idea to give your prospects a big bang with a P.S. They never skip reading a P.S.

Perhaps they're too bored or too tired to read "another" sales letter. Perhaps they like to cheat and want to see the final punch, if it's right for them or not.

So, make sure you wrap up all of your ICE-MELTING "selling points" in here! Shrink your message. Make it precise. Make your prospects feel they can't live "comfortably" without your product or service. After all, it's your last shot to make a sale!

2. PASS

People love a free pass, even if it's only temporary!

Don't worry if you don't know how to let people type in the password to access your restricted area. It's not the end of the world. Here's where you can get the script for FREE at...

http://www.dynamicdrive.com

Here's a cutting-edge trick: Give them a free password to access your newsletter/ article archives, for example, in exchange for their email addresses. Do not give them the password right at your website. Instead, send them the password by email.

Now, this is important...Set up an autoresponder to do this task. Make sure they get their passwords instantly. They can't wait another minute longer to access the free section. It's a MUST that you have an autoresponder, especially if you publish a newsletter. Get it at...

http://www.mailloop.com/t.cgi/769736/

Now this is important! Do not make this offer sound like a junk! You can say that you're giving away "free membership". Say it is a "privileged" or a "VIP" pass. Or simply say that they're "the chosen one". This way, your prospects will be eager to get the free access you're offering. It's human nature. We all want to be a Very Important Person!

3. PROMISE

You've got to promise your prospects something important...like money-back guarantee.

But don't just say "one-year, money-back guarantee"!

Do say..."And if 365 days from now, you decide you want your money back, I'll ask you absolutely no questions. And even if it's just because you're $27 short and can't buy some beers, I still won't ask you why. You'll get your money back as soon as you say so. I can guarantee you that!"

4. PICK OF THE DAY

When you go to a restaurant, the first thing you always notice is the "Menu of the Day"! Even if you don't order it, you're still curious to see what's new for today, right?

The same thing works with your website. Once your prospects leave your site -- without signing up for your free newsletter, your business depends on pure LUCK.

Too bad people don't buy the first time they see you. And if you still want to win them back, you might have to spend some more bucks on advertising.

Now, it doesn't have to be this way...The only one reason that'll keep people coming back to your site is something NEW every day!

Showcase the "Pick of the Day". And they'll come back to your site from time to time to see what's new.

See? You don't even have to pay for the traffic. It can be "Tip of the Day", "Site of the Week", "Star of the Month", ....anything you can think of!

5. PIECE OF ADVICE

How many times have you read newsletters chock full of the word "buy now"?

This is the mistake that can drive your subscribers away faster than jet speed! Your prospects want to read something useful. They simply don't want another junk mail. If you don't stop selling to them --just for a second-- you'll risk losing them forever. They'll disappear "out of your sight".

So, in your newsletter, try to give them little tips that teach them how to make their lives easier.

Suppose you're selling a beauty product, instead of hard selling, try giving them a short makeup tip of how to make their lips look fuller.

If you're an affiliate for a used car website and running your own ezine, instead of selling cars all the time, try giving them a reliable tip that teaches them how not to get ripped off buying a used car.

P.S. Give it a try. I'm sure these freshest 5 P's can easily add the punch to your websites or newsletters next time you decide to try something new.

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