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Virtual Marketing Newsletter - February 28th, 2006 - http://www.marketingsource.com/


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In this issue:
Marketing Article: How To Avoid Being a Marketing Flop
Marketing Article: Secrets to Writing Powerful Press Releases

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How To Avoid Being a Marketing Flop
by Jo Han Mok © 2006


Most companies are just not customer focused in their advertising and marketing.

It’s almost always about themselves, how long they have been in the business, how many branches they have, how many awards they have won, how organized they are… They actually think that all these would make people into customers. The truth cannot be further from this.

People really don’t care about hearing about you. You must make them see how you can benefit them. Remember WIIFM – What’s in it for me?

You really need to sneak your way into your customers’ head and speak to their needs, their wants, their wishes, their dreams, their fears, their desires.

You must then offer them benefits, and show them how your products and services can help solve their problems, achieve results they only dreamt about, take away pain that they might have been feeling in a particular area.

Another problem in most advertising is that people are selling the wrong things when they should be selling benefits.

Most people simply talk about features of their products and services, eg. Comes in an elegant box, Has 100 moving parts, Handmade by craftsmen. All these features do very little to sell.

You really have to show your customers how all these features is going to benefit them.

Whenever possible, you should also sell them the benefits they are going get from your products and services, and push them hard repeatedly in your copy and marketing.

How much time they would save?

How is it going to make their life easier?

How much money they can save in the long run?

Most people are not very adventurous when it comes to promoting their products and services.

They are usually constrained to a set type of sales copy or ad that they feel is appropriate for their industry and end up just like everyone else in that industry.

The question then becomes why would a customer even notice you among your competition. You should really aim to interrupt and demand attention from your customers.

Being different, brutally honest and in your face will make you stand out from the crowd. Avoid advertising based on facts and logic but rather promote and advertise based on emotion, your customers’ emotion.

Being enthusiastic in your copy sometimes to the point of over the top strengthen your chances of your customers registering your messages emotionally. People attach emotions to the thoughts they have, so you need to grab them by their emotion.

You need to get people to focus emotionally in order to get them to pay attention to what they have read.

People buy based on emotion, then justify it based on logic. We buy something we want, then justify and rationalize our decision with explanations in our mind.

When writing your sales copy for your products and services, you should reach out to people, appeal to their emotions, make them want what you have to offer and justify it with the rest of your copy.

Most importantly, have the guts to make a call to action at the end, which is the close. Remember the advertising formula AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

It is also of great importance that when you get to the call to action and the close, you take your customer by the hand and tell them exactly what you want them to do so they do not have any doubts on what they have to do. “Fill Up This Form And Mail It To This Address With Payment Of $97,” Call Bill At 123456789,” “Click The To Checkout Button Now,” “Send $97 To This Paypal Address Now.”

You have to walk them through as if they are a child, telling them exactly step by step what they need to do. At this point, if they are ready to buy, they will be waiting for your direction, and it’s really your responsibility to do it well.

Failing to do so will result in losing sales that you would otherwise have gotten.

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Jo Han Mok is a frequent guest and featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences on subjects such as copywriting and Joint Venture Marketing. Visit his website to find out how he can help you turn mere words into cash! http://www.MasterWordsmith.com

Press Release Writing and Distribution


Press Release Services from Concept Marketing Group, Inc announce your company and products to the Internet and general media!

• Internet-Only distribution options
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Throughout January, receive free PR writing services with any distribution package over $399. See our PR Distribution Packages for more details.

Secrets to Writing Powerful Press Releases
by Ted Kushner © 2005


Using press releases for marketing purposes has become increasingly popular lately.

There has been an increase of firms springing up online offering optimized press release services for individuals or firms wanting to get the word out about their web sites, newsletters, products or services.

Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if constructed properly. Learning to write a powerful optimized press release can often drive tons of targeted traffic to your web site.

The real secret behind writing any effective press release is to plan your release out carefully before publishing it.

A poorly constructed or planned press release is just a waste of your time and resources. You want to target the message of your press release for the purpose it was meant for.

So, the first thing you must do before writing your press release is to figure out just what do you want to accomplish with it?

-- Do you want to create some brand awareness for your site or products?

-- Do you want to add additional subscribers to your newsletter or ezine?

-- Or are you trying to promote a new product or service you have developed or are marketing?

Once you've decided what the most compelling reason is for your press release, you can then get down to the business of writing it.

The first thing you may want to do is sketch out a rough draft of your press release to see how it flows. Does it provide the needed information to get the word out and has it been properly formatted?

Most press releases have a certain format that they follow. If you're unsure of how to format your press release correctly you can view a sample press release template here at http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php#template .

The number one most important aspect of your press release is your headline.

Get it wrong and you will limit the effectiveness of your release.

Your headline is what the search engines are going to pick up on first. So make sure you use it advantageously. List any key points here, using your keywords or a catchy headline so that it will grab your reader's attention.

Again planning is essential. If promoting a new site include the URL in the headline. If promoting a product or service then include some keywords in the headline.

Some press release services use a summary box. I normally write a catchy one-paragraph recap of my press release using some of my targeted keywords.

Without being spammy, I will normally optimize my press release by using some of my targeted keywords in the first and last paragraph. I will also include some of them throughout the release for a keyword exposure of approximately 2-3% saturation.

Tip: if you're promoting a web site, I will normally mention my URL around three times within the release for the maximum benefit.

One of the first questions I had when I first started writing press releases was what was considered a great release? What did it consist of and how was it constructed?

Being curious, I emailed my contact at http://www.prweb.com/ and asked them if they could show me a few press releases that they considered as excellent examples.

These releases have received their editorial scores of 5 on their scale of 1 to 5; with five being the highest.

They sent me three of them for review and you can see each one of them here:

http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb136748.htm

http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb149213.htm

http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb203448.htm

Study each one of these against the press release template to see what is required for an effective release.

Note: to get additional exposure for your press release via www.emediawire.com you have to have an editorial score of 4 or higher. So it is to your benefit to write the best release you can the first time around.

Once you have studied the examples and want to try submitting you own press release you need to know which ones are the most popular ones being used.

Here are some of the press release services I have used and found to be effective:

http://prweb.com/

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/index.html

http://www.webwire.com/default.asp

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/

With most of press release services you can submit your press release for free or via paid inclusion. Paying for inclusion gives you the benefit of faster indexing into the search engine news services and natural search engine result pages.

Normally your release will be picked up by Google news within a few hours after its release. From there it will normally show up in the natural search results within a few days or a week.

I have used both of these services in the past but have found that paying them at least the minimum amount allows me to view my stats online. It also allows me to choose different categories for my press release to be displayed in, giving my release a chance for wider coverage.

So using press releases can and is a very effective marketing tool that you can use for promoting your web site or affiliate products if done correctly.

By using press releases, I have been able to create a steady flow of targeted visitors to my web site and affiliate programs while generating dozens of back links to my web site.

Even though the effects of each individual press release may be short lived, they still have provided me with both free and inexpensive ways for getting hundreds of new visitors to my site and quite a few top ten positions in Google for my targeted keywords.

So get to it and write a few press releases your self and see what they can do for you!

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Ted Kushner of AffiliateRevenueSources.com can show you the powerful benefits of writing press releases for promoting any product, service or affiliate program. Learn how you too can get multiple top ten positions in Google using press releases at: http://www.affiliaterevenuesources.com/powerful-press-releases.htm

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