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In this issue:
Marketing Article: Avoiding "Me Too" Marketing with a Competitive Advantage
Marketing Article: Secrets to Writing Powerful Press Releases

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When I was probing a client on what made his business special, he replied, "Actually, I'm just like everyone else. What's wrong with that? I'll just be another burger place."

But with a "me too" presentation and no distinctiveness, your firm becomes harder to remember, harder to recommend and difficult to market in a focused way. Why create such challenges deliberately?

Instead, select something appealing for customers around which to create your identity. Possibilities are endless.

Your key differentiator might be:

* Personality (humorous, friendly, frank, drill-sergeant disciplinarian, motherly, non-judgmental). Don't assume that what appeals to you most also appeals most to your target market. For instance, while you might enjoy associating with individuals who have a joke for every occasion, many clients might not like this quality in a surgeon, an accountant or a fitness trainer. On the other hand, since personality transplants haven't been perfected yet, the image for your firm should more or less match the people working in it. Even so, everyone has more than one side or tendency, and the idea here is to choose a quality that sets you apart from competitors and has attracting power for your target market.

* Values (respect for tradition, pet-friendly, honesty above all). A friend owns a bed-and-breakfast inn that serves only organic food. This appeals to people who hold certain beliefs about what is good to eat and who prefer not to compromise those beliefs while traveling. Likewise, you might be selling office supplies but set yourself apart from the pack by letting it be known that you donate excess or discontinued inventory to a local homeless shelter.

* Specialization (burgers for meat lovers or for dieters). Folks who like juicy, tasty hamburgers will go out of their way for yours if you explain how yours differ from those at fast-food joints. If you're a financial advisor, working primarily with women, or with women business owners, or with widows increases the interest of members of those groups in doing business with you.

* Price (lowest, highest, depending on results). Price-consciousness doesn't always favor bargains. Some people shopping for gifts or service providers prefer top-drawer pricing because it implies quality, prestige or thoughtfulness.

* Relationship (constant contact, distant but on-call). You can stand apart from competitors by being the one who proactively checks in with clients and returns all phone calls within an hour. Or you can set yourself up as the expert who will never schmooze or go out to lunch with clients, but work hard to save their neck when trouble comes calling.

* Experience (first in Philadelphia, new and fresh, in business since 1886). Years ago, when I asked an Atlanta-based communications consultant what distinguished her from competitors, she had a terrific answer: "There are people here who understand technology, but they don't know Atlanta. Mine is the only communications firm that understands technology and knows Atlanta inside out - I've been here for 25 years."

* Method of working (speedy, methodical, creative). I'm not just another marketing consultant, since I emphasize that my forte is creative marketing. If you're a web designer, perhaps your specialty is impossible deadlines - or slower production but a guarantee of no bugginess and no typos.

When you're just another burger place, you're a replaceable commodity, enduring mediocre sales and having to fight for new and repeat business. With a distinct identity, there's a compelling reason for your ideal clients to hire you rather than those #&%$@* competitors.

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Marcia Yudkin <marcia@yudkin.com> is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity and 10 other books. She runs an online mentorship program for business owners who want to refocus their business, institute shrewder marketing and earn more. Learn more and sign up for her weekly nugget on creative marketing, The Marketing Minute, at http://www.marketingformore.com .

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