Marketing Your Business Online

Press releases are probably the best form of marketing available today.  Although I do recommend paid services such as http://PRWEB.Com and others, there is only one service that I have found that is free: http://www.i-newswire.com/submit.php.

It appears on Google and Yahoo almost instantly.  The reason I like the 80$ PRweb service is because it generates many more links back to your website.  Do a release through i-newswire.com and then do a links: yourdomain on google and then see the results.  Then, do the same release on PRWeb and see the results.

However, for low-cost marketing, i-newswire.com is an incredible option to get your news out on the internet.  You would be amazed at how many services pick up the news from this free resource.

Writing press releases is quite simple.  You first need a Headline, a Sub-Headline and then a Body of the message.  In PRWeb you will need some other information such as the contact person of the press release, website name, keywords, and you can attach pictures, pdf brochures and more.  PRWeb also specifies who gets the release and you will need to choose specific categories.  I-newswire.com doesn’t require this info, and just focuses on blasting it out to the internet.  It doesn’t seem to go directly into the hands of editors and writers.

The headline is the most important part of the press release.  You would like to have your hot keywords in there and make it catchy.  Go to one of the press release services mentioned above to see a list of the recent releases for examples of what you can do.   Example:  Dog Business releases new product for Small Dogs

The subheadline can delve into more specifics about the headline.  You would like to keep the headline short.  Therefore, you can expand the idea more in the subheadline.  Example:  New product helps small dogs to be healthier and happier.

The Body is the core of your press release.  You start with the Location of your business and the date and then start off with a reiteration of the title.  Go into detail and explain the product and its benefits.  Then give a link for more information, a contact number, and then you give the company blurb.  The company blurb is a standard paragraph that talks about what the company offers, who is the owner of the company and other basic information.  This blurb is generally added to all of your press releases.

We know that social networks such as Twitter, Myspace and Facebook are very powerful tools to utilize for your business.  Just by searching google alone you will see that google places these properties high in its rankings.  It is amazing to me how a twitter message I send out today can outrank a website that has been on the net for years.

Anyway, this is all I am saying for this posting:  Since google is giving such power to these entities, you should consider using social networks as part of your regular networking.  One way to do this is to add your social network to the signature block of all your outbound emails.

To make it easier for people to remember your social network or facebook page, give it its own domain name.  For example:  chooseyourname.com and then go into your domain screen and point it at your twitter, myspace or facebook page.  It is way easier than telling someone to remember http://facebook.com/whatever your screename is.  People are used to domain names.  Once you add the forward slash and some other screen name people start to forget or make mistakes.  Make it easy for them.  Domains start as low as 8.75 and give you free pointing and masking services.  Masking allows you to change the title that appears at the top of the browser.  If people save a link to your page, this can be very powerful and a useful tool. Rather than publicizing Twitter.com or Facebook.com you can publicize your name or your product instead.  Obviously you don’t need a hosting plan since you are just pointing to a hosted social network.

Also, another reason to do this is that let’s say you ever get kicked off of twitter or whatever, all the work you did to drive traffic to that page is not lost.  You own the rights to YOUR DOMAIN so you can now point your domain at a new website, another social network, or wherever you want.  This is powerful!

Publicity begins within and then you take it to the public.  You need to identify what it is you want to say about your company.  How do you describe yourself?  What specific service/product do you offer.  Drill it into your staff, create scripts for your sales people and then you are ready to take it to the public.  The last thing you want to do is have a public face and a private face.  You want everyone in your organization (including your outsourced workers) to be on the same page and know what you do and what to say if asked.

Now you can start writing your press releases.  If you aren’t good at writing them, perhaps someone in your organization can write them for you or you can outsource it.  But beware.  Public Relations firms cost an arm and a leg.  You can outsource to our firm or many others that offer basic press release writing services and submission services for a few hundred dollars, as opposed to several thousands for a Public Relations firm.  Most PR firms also are newbies when it comes to search engine optimization.  I write press releases for several companies, and one of the biggest areas I focus on is creating search engine optimized text in the header, sub header and body.  I do my keyword research and select the most powerful words for the release. So, whoever you hire, be sure they are SEO savvy and will do the keyword analysis and integration into your PR copy.

Standard submissions start at around $80 with PRWeb.com and you can attach PDF’s, brochures, pictures and other ancillary items to the release.  I sent out one release for an Italian distributor of cosmetics over 3 years ago.  I had my contact info on there and I still get emails and phone calls from editors looking to write a story or businesses looking to sell their products.  Press Releases are amazing if they are written well and submitted well.  Submission is the key to a good press release.  Not only do you have to fill in all the fields you can so you don’t miss any opportunity, but there are several areas that I have realized give more bang for the buck.  One area is submitting to RSS feeds.  RSS is Real Simple Sindication.  It is a news wire source in electronic format.  Always choose this as one of the distribution options.  It is very powerful.

After you set up your press release, don’t forget to send it to your staff.  You definitely want your staff to know what you are publicizing.  The last thing you want is a client to ask a staff member about something they read in a press release or a followup story and have your staff be unaware of the information.  For example, let’s say you publicize the acquisition of a top flyer sales person.  A client says, “hey I know Johnny X when he was with xxx and I see you guys got him.”  Your staff should be prepared with a proper response, “Yes, Johnny is quite a catch.  We were very happy when he joined our firm.  He is a great guy, and provides great customer service–something we strive for.”

Publicity involves much more than just press releases.  However, a press release is the first place to begin your campaign.  You should write on anything that is important to your firm.  Any award, new hire, new product, new website, new focus, new anything that is newsworthy should be publicized.  If you can produced 4 press releases a month you are really gearing up a quality publicity campaign.  Almost every company should be able to do 1 press release per month.  If you don’t have anything worth publicizing, get to work!  Alot of awards are very winable if you just put in half an effort.

If you are serious about your company, you should have a sound byte that everyone in your organization has memorized.  So many times have I asked employees of a company what they do, only to be given a blank stare and a mumbling of some kind of title.  Every employee needs to know what you do and how you can help them.  Here are some short examples:

“I am a copywriter.  I help people convert visitors to their websites into buying customers”

“I am a lawyer.  We provide help provide bankruptcy relief to struggling businesses.

“I sell shoes at www.______.com.  We ship shoes to you with 100% satisfaction guarantee.”

Come up with your catch phrase today.  If you have dificulty, it is often caused by lack of focus in your business.  You may be trying to be everything to everybody.  That isn’t effective.  Pick the one thing you do, or want to focus on and market it.  Clients will be pleasantly shocked to know you do other things as well, but if you focus on one thing, they will always remember it.  If you focus on too many things they may get the impression that you are unfocused and may provide poor service.

Publicity is a catch phrase for many types of marketing techniques.  It is different from Advertising.  Many publicity techniques are free, but require time and hard work.  And, as I have found, some publicity that does cost money (such as doing press releases) can be some of the cheapest overall marketing you could possibly do. Seriously, if you look at any kind of advertising, you could easily spend thousands of dollars.  A local business magazine with local circulation could charge $1500 or more per 1/4 inch ads.  OR MORE.  Google ads start at 5 cents but if you really want traffic, you have to have a competitive bid which could amount to $10 a click.  This can add up.  A press release through PRWeb starts at $80 and is extremely efficient at bringing one-way links back to your site, while also allowing you to write significant content and information about your company.  A 1/4 page ad gives you only enough room to put the name of the company and highlight your business in a catch phrase  or a list of services you provide.  You could do nearly 10 press releases for the price of a single advertisement.

Publicity as a whole is a much lower cost way to bring in business over advertising.  Publicity involves Websites, writing articles, giving speeches, participating in panel events, and volunteering your services to others.  It also involves speaking to and getting on various lists as an expert.  Writing a Book can both establish your credibility as an expert while at the same time providing significant Publicity for your core business.

Matt Cutts is a Google engineer who is in charge of the Google Webspam team.  Basically if he speaks, nearly every SEO expert listens.  His blog can be found here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ The reason is that he gives insight on the google algorithm and what they may be making “Black-Hat” next.  

Recently Cutts has been focusing on the Universal Search capabilities that Google is striving for.  This means that Google is beginning to integrate Video, Flash and other media into its search algorithm.  Previously the websearch had a preference towards Text Only websites.  This is still the case, however google has improved its ability to catalog Flash and Video.

Also, Cutts asked for input on what he should be targeting.  He gave a listing of what people are annoyed with here http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/webspam-in-2009/#comment-218697 .  This should give you an insight into what Google may slap you with over the next year or two.

One thing is social media.  In fact google places huge emphasis and power on social media sites like Facebook, myspace and others.  However, website owners believe it should rank lower than their main website. Social media works now.  However in the future it may not be so powerful.

Also, owners want harsher penalties including banning of Black Hat SEOs.  Matt emphasizes that they want long-term websites that are interested in developing good content and want to be powerful in the long-run.

However, there are interesting admissions about what black hat techniques still work:

Keyword Rich Domain Names

Wiki’s

Social Networking such as Facebook Myspace Twitter Digg and more

Press Releases

keyword Stuffing, hidden links, article bank sites, forum spammers, doorway pages

Link Exchanges

Paid Links

RSS scraper sites

Cloaking of other sites.

I am not saying that doing any of the above is recommended.  In fact I would stay away from some of it.  But, by Cutt’s admission, it seems that these are still valid ways to get high google rankings, even if Google is actively trying to eliminate the spam.

If you read an SEO book from the late 1990’s you undoubtedly would have read about ways to exchange links with other website owners.  Great tools came out to help assist the link exchange process.  The idea here was to show the search engines that you are relevant and that your site deserves to rank high for specific key phrases.  However, Google changed the rating of link exchange and started to penalize sites if there was rampant abuse of linking.  Specifically they targeted paid links.    Read more here…

No matter what type of website you may have, you absolutely must have descriptive links rather than generic topic links.  The more specific the better.  Let’s take an example of someone selling cars.  Rather than saying in your link structure:

Home
Products
Contact Us

Click Here For More…

First, duplicate content can come in three parts:

1.  Content that is on your site and then duplicated on other pages on your site.

2. Content that is on your site and may also be on other blogs and article directories.

3.  Multiple pages, perhaps doorway pages that have identical content and may have different paths, domain names pointing to it, etc.

Click Here for More

The best site design is much simpler than you may think.  It is a structure where you have a top banner, a left side navigation bar and a right side content screen.  At the bottom is a footer.  So when you create your table you need to have 3 rows and 2 columns.  On the top and bottom row, merge the 2 columns so it appears as one.

If necessary, you can add a row under the header row that has links to HOME, SHOPPING CART, ABOUT US.  But make this bar in Flash or Javascript so the search engines don’t try to rank you for the keywords home, shopping cart, etc. which are meaningless.

Your left navigation bar should have a structure that  can be really long.  Be fully descriptive with the links and use the basic blue underlined linking structure.  The home page should have your main categories.  For example:

Domain Name Registration
Web Hosting
Web Design

It may not look pretty, but people understand that the blue underline text is something that can be clicked on.  You then create your sub structure on the next pages and put links to your products.

Your footer can be used to put in misspellings, alternate ways to say your key products, plurals, and put direct links to those pages.

Your content section in the right middle column should be used to target your main keywords.  Use H1 title tags and use descriptive language.

It seems simple enough.  But why do you see alot of flash websites, and sites that don’t use this basic structure?

Once you have realized that this is the best site structure and implement it, you can tweak so much of it to optimize the # of click throughs you are getting and sales that you are getting.  You need to use things like compare your sales offers and split A/B testing to test whether people will click more in this senario or the other.  However, if you aren’t getting enough traffic, then split testing is a waste of time until you do.  Keep it in mind as something you will need to do once your site is rolling and doing decent business.

A few things you may want to consider right away with your web design right from the beginning:

• Show the credit cards you accept on the home page
• Show the SSL and Secure Site certificates
• Put your phone number on the top
• If you offer free shipping, free sales tax, match offers from other sites, say so on the home page
• If you have a money back guarantee–say so on the home page.
• Use HTML for the entire site.  You can still have a search box, but make all your product pages in basic HTML.
• Have an Opt-In to a newsletter, free offer, discount coupon.  You want to capture their information immediately.  This is potential gold for you in case you want to make repeat sales and in some cases, first time sales.

This is just a short list of a few things I look at for my clients.  Of course there is much more.  But it is easy to get overwhelmed into inaction.  The best thing to do is follow these few ideas and finsh them and then move on to the next level things to further optimize your site.