Brought to you by Concept Marketing Group, Inc.

Unsubscribe instructions, past issues, and additional information can be found at the bottom of this email or by visiting http://www.marketingsource.com/newsletter/

In this issue:
Marketing Article: Top Ten Tips for Developing a Newsworthy PR Pitch
Marketing Article: The Opt-In Secret

A press release can give you the most credible and prominent exposure at a much lower cost than other methods of advertising. It's critical in today's business world to be seen, and press releases are considered a key element in any business plan.

Purchase a $399 or higher Distribution Package and we'll write your press release for free (a $299 savings) through July 31st! For more information on our distribution packages visit the following url: http://www.marketingsource.com/pressrelease/distribution.html

“Public sentiment is everything. With it nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed.”
— Abraham Lincoln

These days, the media plays a much larger role in our lives than it did in Abraham Lincoln’s time. The need to gain public sentiment, however, has not changed, causing public relations to be more important today than ever. Continued growth of the Internet also has increased the influence of public relations.

LOW COST, HIGH CREDIBILITY
It used to be that advertising was king, but not anymore. The rise of branding has shifted the priority of the elements that constitute an integrated branding campaign, which also now includes websites, public relations, marketing and other strategies, according to an article in IABC’s September 2004 CW Bulletin.

The article states,“Public relations (PR) has been a key beneficiary of this new order. When once PR was defined as “publicity”, and was nearly an afterthought in the marketing line-up, today PR can be a driver in a campaign. The two key reasons for this are: the relatively low cost of public relations and the credibility it delivers as compared to paid advertising or other types of marketing.”

TIPS TO HARNESS THE POWER OF PR
To break through the media clutter and harness the power of PR, keep the following ten tips in mind:

1. News is not advertising and promotion and what is important for your business or organization may or may not be important or of interest to the media. News value and relevance drive coverage; meaning that the media decide what is newsworthy by evaluating your story idea against news criteria.

2. Target the growing number of Internet and mainstream print and broadcast media outlets that reach your intended audience and/or market. Use media directories to create a customized media list.

3. Once you have identified the right media channel, identify the person you need to contact. With a daily newspaper it is most likely a reporter covering a specific beat such as business or health care or an editor who would assign the story to a reporter. If it is a weekly newspaper or a monthly magazine, contact the editor. If it is a TV station, contact a specific beat reporter and/or the assignment desk. If it is a radio station, you should contact either the News Director or the producer of a specific talk show.

4. Remember that today’s journalists, producers and editors prefer to receive news via e-mail and to instantly access company or organization web sites to secure the facts. Put your media materials and/or media kit, news releases, etc. in a special, but easy-to-find section on the site and keep it updated.

5. Consider news criteria. Having one or more of these news criteria will help sell the story idea:

* Timeliness - did it happen recently? Is it connected with a current trend that has been getting a lot of attention recently?
* Proximity - is it in the geographical area targeted by the media organization?
* Impact - will it affect a lot of people? Does it have consequences for the audience?
* Prominence – is someone famous involved? Is it important to the audience?
* Conflict – does it involve conflict, which captivates the attention of the audience?
* Novelty - is it unusual?

6. Determine specific PR goals to produce the best results. For example, are your PR goals to:

* Introduce your target audience to a new product or services?
* Increase your visibility to increase sales, members, and/or charitable contributions?
* Persuade people to buy your product or service rather than a competitor’s?
* Enhance the reputation of your company or organization to get more customers, members, etc.?
* Counteract misconceptions about your organization, industry or product?
* Attract shareholders and support your stock price?
* Get people to vote for legislation that will help your organization?

7. Develop your ‘news angle’ or ‘news hook’ to pique the media’s attention and increase the chances for media coverage. Ask yourself, who cares beyond your organization or company? Why is the story significant? How many people does it affect? Timeliness and proximity are important for “hard” news stories and novelty and impact are important for feature stories. Here are possible news angles:

* A new product or service that fills an unmet need in the marketplace
* Information that will make people’s lives easier
* Surprising results of a survey
* A new product
* An old product with a new name or package
* Product/service that ties into an economic trend
* Original discoveries and innovations
* New branch offices, headquarters or facilities
* Major contracts awarded
* Joint ventures
* Management reorganization
* Major achievements (sales, quarterly earnings, etc.)
* Unusual people or products
* Case histories of successful applications
* Tips, hints, “how-to” advice
* Change of company name or slogan
* Opening of a new business

8. Avoid hyperbole - Editors and reporters can tell whether your company, product or issue is newsworthy. They don’t need inflated prose or statements to persuade them.

9. Manage the message – Remember that you can’t control the media, but you can manage your message and help to shape media coverage and public perception of your business or organization.

10. And last, but not least, remember what one of my favorite journalism professors used to say: “When dog bites man, that’s not news. But, when man bites dog, that’s news!”

-----------------------
Barbara K. Mednick of BKM Consulting (www.bkmconsulting.com)is an independent PR/Communications Consultant from St. Paul, Minn. and can be reached at bmednick@yahoo.com

Postcards:
5,000 4 x 6 postcards printed with free shipping and
1 hour of design free (a $150 savings)

Don't overlook postcard marketing the next time you want to target potential customers. Postcards achieve almost a 100% readership and have an impressive ROI, while being inexpensive and simple to use. Flexible, informative, and creative - postcards generate sales and keep your name in front of potential customers. For more information, visit: http://www.marketingsource.com/printing/

Everyone knows that in order to be successful online you need build a large (quality) list through some type of Opt-In offer.

You see them now on virtually every site you visit on the internet, some type of form, whether from a pop-up window or directly on the site itself, that is asking for your name and email address in exchange for some type of offer (newsletter, e-course, free chapter etc.)

Unfortunately, many web site owners (yes, even the gurus) are not doing everything they can to maximize the number of people who opt-in from their website. In fact, many site’s opt-ins may actually be hurting their sales.

Here are a few tips on what to do and what not to do with your opt-in offer:

• You should definitely have a pop-up window with an opt-in form. While you may hate pop-ups, the fact is they work. There is even software available that makes it easy to create pop-ups that can not be blocked such as Armand Morin’s POPOver Generator. (http://www.money-teacher.com/popovergenerator.htm)

• Of course, you also need to place your opt-in on your web page. However, where you place it is extremely important. Your opt-in should be on the first fold in the upper left hand corner of EVERY page on your site.

• Always give a strong special bonus for people who opt-in. For example, “Sign up for my Teaching Newsletter and receive a free special report: How to Increase Reading Comprehension in the Classroom”

• DO NOT offer a free chapter of your e-book or even a free e-course. You may actually lose sales this way.

If you give away a free chapter of your e-book you are giving your customer the opportunity to not buy your book! Same is true with offering an e-course.

In both cases you may actually be providing enough free information so that the customer doesn’t actually have to buy your product. If nothing else, you are putting off the purchase which only gives the customer more time to not buy your product.

Again, what you want to do is capture your customer’s email address without giving them a reason to put off buying your product.

• DO offer something that compliments and is related to the product you are selling.

For example, it is fairly easy to create a newsletter about your niche market. Your can start by offering a monthly newsletter on tips, articles, Q&As, book reviews, web sites reviews etc. related to your niche market.

As you start to feel more comfortable, you can increase your delivery to bi-monthly, and eventually weekly. However, I would stay away from the daily newsletter. A daily newsletter is simply overkill and will decrease the value of the newsletter. Also, daily delivery will make broadcasts of special offers more difficult and less successful.

Many will tell you that it doesn’t matter too much what your opt-in is, so long as you capture the customer’s name/email. That’s utter nonsense.

Basically, the newsletter gives you a chance to drop in on potential customers for as long as they subscribe to your newsletter without ever distracting the customer away from your product.

However, if you are giving away a free chapter of your e-book, or even a 5-day e-course, after the initial follow-up email campaign is over (roughly 1 week), every email you send is simply advertising and your customers will see right through that (maybe even accuse you of spam).

As a middle school social studies teacher, I created an e-book on teaching strategies. When I changed my original web site opt-in offer from a free e-book chapter to a free newsletter, I not only increased my list, but also greatly increased the sales of my e-book.

---------------------
Adam Waxler owns and operates The Money Teacher web site and publishes The Money Teacher’s Home Business Tips Newsletter teaching others how to reach online success. To get your free newsletter subscription send a blank email to: newsletter@money-teacher.com or visit our web site at http://www.money-teacher.com