Posts Tagged ‘press-release’
Can Honest Copywriting Succeed?
I confess–I’m a marketing heretic! I’ve built my career on breaking all the rules–and one of the rules I break is that I don’t hype.
Do I put the best possible “spin” on the truth? Of course! But I refuse to deceive my readers into action.
What are some of the common copywriter tricks that I *leave on the table?*
Here are a few to start:
* If you order in the next 24 hours, you get… (face it. If you come back tomorrow, the offer will almost always still hold)
* Get all these bonuses, valued at $999, for FREE with your $100 order (yeah, right! And who set the value of these gifts? And are they for sale, anywhere, on the open market at these prices?)
*Here’s the information you requested (a GREAT statement–IF it’s true– but I get five or six a day in my e-box, from companies I’ve never heard of)
* Hi there, long-lost friend (and you sent it BCC?)
So why don’t I like the copywriter’s lies? And how do I write copy without resorting to these deceits?
Well, first of all, I believe that if I want my words to sell a product, that product should be strong enough to do so without tricking the buyer. I know that if I trick someone, I may make a sale–but I’ve lost a customer for life! Whereas if I show the merits, back up my claims, and focus on the way this product solves a problem, eases a hurt or fear, or satisfies a need, I will build that lifetime relationship.
Oh, and one more thing. I like to look in the mirror and see someone who is doing good for the world–and I don’t think lies and trickery will accomplish that. I happen to have a gift for writing, and I use that gift to make the world better. That includes being honest with my self and with my readers.
Much of the work I do is in the publishing industry. And here, the competition is fierce. Roughly 175,000 new books are published in the U.S. each year. Most of them will fail. My job is to help my clients’ books stand out in this dense crowd.
Example: I wrote a press release for a book on electronic privacy issues. Here’s my headline and lead. (Another rule I broke–never use the headline as the lead sentence. It’s the only time I’ve ever done it that way, but in this case, I think the repetition made the point stronger. Names have been changed to protect the author’s privacy.)
It’s 10 O’Clock–Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?
HIBBING, MN: It’s 10 O’clock–Do you know where your credit history is? How about your employment records? Your confidential medical information?
How would you feel if you found out this sensitive and should-be-private material is “vacationing” in computer databanks around the world– accessible to corporate interests who can afford to track down and purchase it, but not necessarily open to your own inspection.
According to electronic privacy journalist and technology consultant Mortimer Gaines, this scenario is all-too-common?
No falsehoods, no hype–but a whole lot more captivating than the usual “New Book on Electronic Privacy Released by Publisher.”
Without tricking people, I want to capture interest…move the reader to action…and still feel good about myself in the morning.
Yes, it can be done! I do it for clients every day, and have done so for more than 20 years.
Shel Horowitz, author of *Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First,* *Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World,* and four other books, offers affordable, effective copywriting and strategic marketing planning to clients on three continents. He is the originator of the Ethical Business Pledge Campaign to change the World at http:// www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html. His sites at http:// www.frugalmarketing.com and http://www.principledprofits.com offer hundreds of useful articles for entrepreneurs and marketers, including the complete back issues of his FREE Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips. Shel will be glad to help you create your next press release, sell sheet, web site, or other marketing material. He can be reached at shel@principledprofits.com, 800-683-WORD.
Small / Medium Business Blog Process Outsourcing as a Website Traffic Building Service
You are a small or a medium business owner. You have a well designed business website. It is a Search Engine Optimized (SEO) website for a limited set of keywords. However, with changing rules of SEO and new competitors entering the market, your select keywords stand a slim chance of surviving the onslaught. What are the chances that your website will remain on the top when a potential customer searches those special keywords on a search engine? To make matters worse, Search engines change their algorithms without any notice and suddenly your site is no longer in top 10 results. So what is the solution?
How about hiring a Blog Outsourcing company to add a Business Blog to your website? (If you are not familiar with Business Blogs, read my earlier article here: http://ezinearticles.com/?id=50041 ).
A business blog can do the SEO magic when it is embedded to your business website. Business blogging needs discipline to write every other day to bring potential customers to your business website. If you have the time and inclination, you may write the business blog yourself. However, if you feel, you should concentrate on your business; you can outsource this task to a Blog Outsourcing Company. Here is a link to first such company: http://www.ideologicllc.com.
What are the benefits of a Business Blog?
1. Improves searchability of your business website, thus increasing the chances of prospective clients visiting your business website.
2. A Business Blog provides instantaneous Customer feedback with comments.
3. A Business Blog has a potential to become centralized knowledgebase with articles containing tips and tutorials about correct usage of the products or services.
4. You can use a Business Blog to share product development status, thus passively achieving pre-launch marketing of the product.
5. The Business Blogs can help in branding a product online.
6. Your Business blog can help in building your business reputation.
7. Believe it or not, a business blog can project you as an expert in your niche business area.
8. Business blog lets you do your own “press release” on the website.
What happens when a business blog is outsourced?
A blogger from the Business Blog Outsourcing Company meets with the business owner or representative once every month and strategically selects few topics which are of interest to the company’s current and prospective clients and prepares keyword rich articles to be published on the company’s blog either every other day or once in a week, depending on the plan selected by the company. Results can be phenomenal. Instead of select keywords for the website, each blog posting has separate keywords which are used by the potential customers searching the internet for specific products or services.
What is the justification for outsourcing a Business Blog?
It is said a business person must concentrate on expanding and improving the business. If he/she tries to do everything, then nothing gets done. So, if a task can be done by secretary, it must be done by a secretary and if a task is difficult or there is lack of time, hiring outside help maybe the best way to get that task done. Business blogging is same way. Writing is a time consuming task, so it is better left to a professional blogger or writer who can better construct the article, intersperse it with business-specific keywords keeping search engine criteria in mind.
Can a professional writer or a blogger do justice to the task of writing about a business, product or service, where he/she has no expertise? The answer is yes. This is no different from a situation where a professional writer writes articles in a magazine about various businesses, products and services. Knowledge can always be gained and then combined with the skills of a professional writer. End result is an article that captivates reader’s attention till very end and has a potential of converting a prospect to a loyal customer.
Harish Keshwani is a Strategic Blogging Consultant, Software Developer, Blogger and an Entrepreneur. He is focused on consulting and guiding small and medium businesses in setting up their blogs and managing it for them as an outsourced process.
He guides corporations of small and medium size to realize the potential of blogging for their business. With appropriate content, he helps companies to keep their customers satisfied and in close touch. He promotes blogging as a marketing and customer response tool to the companies.
His contact information is: Email: businessorati-at-gmail-dot-com Company: Ideologic L.L.C.-A Small/Medium Business Blog Process Outsourcing Company. Website: http://www.ideologicllc.com Blog: http://www.ideologicllc.com/wp
11 Extraordinary Ways To Expand Your Subscriber List
Here are 11 ways to expand your subscriber list:
1. Use a conversational writing tone. It makes a connection. Yet, don’t get lax on the grammar and spelling. Use personal pronouns (I, me, you and your). Limit the percentage of I’s to half or less of the yous.
2. Spread the knowledge even further by asking your readership to forward a copy of your ezine to family members, friends, colleagues, or co-workers. Create a “please forward this ezine to” line or two. Give them an incentive, offer a free but-not-free item. This can be challenging to design.
3. Do you give presentations with slides or a projection system? Add a paragraph about your ezine and how to get it on the test slide. A test slide is the slide you leave up there when they are seating themselves. Leave it displayed until a few minutes before your presentation and then turn it off. By turning it off, it creates a “loss feeling” and they will pay attention to it the next time you turn it on.
Turn the system on with the test slide displayed and then switch to the next slide. The next slide can explain how they can get your free but-not-for-free product and the directions on how to receive it. Return to this same slide at the end of your presentation.
4. At this same presentation, pass around a clipboard asking them if they want to register for ezine. Start passing at the beginning or even before you start. Use a short piece, different colored paper, with a note about the free but-not-free item. Give them three incentives to register at that time.
5. Send out a press release every time you have a new free but-not-free item available. Send whenever you have new context, new article published, or whenever anything else occurs. Since press releases require special writing, you might want to delegate this, especially if you are challenged with writing from another perspective. If you choose to learn the lingo, you can learn the how-tos with a Google search: Search example: “press release” and “how to”. Leave in the quote marks. Don’t be nervous about sending out too many, some are always missed. http://www.prweb.com/ is a great place to post your press releases.
6. Locate web sites that give out awards for outstanding ezines. Apply and keep applying. Keep tweaking. Look at previous winners and model. When you do win one, post it everywhere on your site and on every issue of your ezine for a year. Also, send out a press release when you do. If they create a press release as well, ask to use that one. Make copies of theirs and give it out at networking events. Remember, you can’t win the lotto unless you play. So, get in the game, and apply. Try: http://emailuniverse.com/bestezines/ or search on Google with: “ezine award”.
7. I’m frequently asked, “How much information should I ask for?” My recommendation is to KISS your subscriber form — “keep it short and simple.” Ask for the e-mail address and/or their first name. If you ask for their first name, tell them why. Example: We like to personalize our correspondence with our subscribers.”
8. Set up section for past issues of your e-newsletters. I recommend just listing their main topic or name of the article and not by date. People don’t like to read things that they consider “old news”. If you use a pdf format to deliver past issues there are pros and cons. The pros are: pdf files are smaller to store and send. The con is that you loose the opportunity for tagging the item for search engine listing.
9. After you post your articles in the ezine, expand or submit as is to multi-media web sites. Possibility: http://www.goarticles.com. Locations where publishers and editors will pick up the article. Normally, there are no fees paid, just opportunity for visibility. When published send out a press release. Link their site, not yours, in the press release, Send them a copy of the release.
10. Readers are tired of not getting any value and are dropping off lists fast. faster than ever. To keep them there you MUST provide valuable information (their perception not yours). The 25/75% rule (you give them 25% and sell them the remaining 75%) is acceptable. After reading thousands of ezines, I found many publishers don’t come close to providing that percentage.
11. Add an invitation to all your automatic e-mail signatures. Also, mention the free but-not-free item of the month. Include an expiration date for that free but-not- free offer. Change the e-mail signatures weekly to maintain interest.
Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.
Catherine Franz is a Marketing & Writing Coach, niches, product development, Internet marketing, nonfiction writing and training. Additional Articles: http://www.abundancecenter.comblog: http://abundance.blogs.com
Sowing the Seeds of Opportunity: How to Multiply Your Freelance (Writing) Work
You can turn your $200 fee to write a press release into $2,000 to carry out an entire PR campaign simply by convincing clients to invest in campaigns, instead of individual assignments. Campaigns achieve better results and cost less in the long-term for clients, compared to individual assignments. And, of course, as the freelancer, you get paid much more for turning out a succession of assignments that assimilate a successful campaign.
Here’s how to multiply your writing sales by convincing clients to invest in long-term campaigns, instead of short-term individual assignments.
? Know the short-term and long-term view results. A client approaches you to write a brochure. He may or may not know that his product can also benefit from other types of promotional pieces, such as ads, direct mail, news releases, websites, and so on, to sell his product or service. Your job is to educate the client. The brochure may be the first promotional piece in a consortium of promotional pieces. Here, you must know the short-term and long-term view results of the brochure.
The short-term view results are the results the brochure will achieve for the client; and the long-term results are the results the brochure will achieve/contribute for the entire campaign. It answers the questions, “How do the results of this brochure fit into the entire campaign?” and “How can these results be strengthened with other forms of promotional materials?”
Show the client how a campaign that’s comprised of a succession of assignments can achieve – and exceed – his expectations and outsell and outdo the performance of a single assignment.
? Use “tie-in” services. Whenever a client approaches you with a single assignment, ask yourself what tie-in services can supplement the single assignment. A news release achieves better results when it’s accompanied with a photo. And a press kit – complete with press releases, photos, brochures, and company information – can achieve better results than a single press release. All of these extra tie-in services can turn writing a single press release into multiple writing sales.
? Offer the “concept to completion” benefit. Instead of pitching yourself as a freelancer who can write newsletter copy, pitch yourself as a freelancer who produces newsletters, from copy to completion. You multiply your income by outsourcing parts of the job and delivering a finished product, not a piece of the product. You also can extend your “concept to completion” services by pitching yourself as a marketing consultant, in which you make recommendations to the client as to the best way to market the newsletter.
? Develop strong consultative skills. Besides selling your freelance services, also offer consulting services. Clients pay you to explain ideas, concepts, recommendations and turnkey solutions as to the best way to achieve the results they desire. Consulting with clients can lead to securing freelance work, since clients realize you have the skills and expertise to undertake the task.
? Know the future needs of clients. Clients come with present needs – and future needs. A client may hire you to write a newsletter now, but they’ll also consider you for future work if you know what their future needs are and how to fulfill them. The company may be ushering in a new product line, creating a new division within the company, sponsoring a charity event, or creating a website. All of these future events need a freelancer to do promotional writing and freelance work. That’s you. Your job is to show clients how you’ll address their future needs with solutions that’ll increase their profitability and/or productivity. This is usually accomplished with a proposal through which you pitch yourself as the freelancer who has the solutions to undertake the future tasks.
? Use proposals to secure work. Proposals are an inclusive persuasion tool to convince prospects that you can increase their profitability and/or productivity with your freelance services. Proposals specifically show the client how you intend to achieve the desired results, the time and costs involved, and why you and your solutions are the best choices to boost the company’s profits.
? Adaptations. Any of your freelance writing services can be adapted for websites, turning a single assignment into two assignments. Get paid to write a press release or brochure, and then get paid again to adapt the copy digitally.
? Add-on services, such as desktop publishing services, marketing consulting, compiling and selling media lists, and project coordinating can help multiply your work and your income.
About The Author
Brian Konradt is a former freelance copywriter and graphic designer, and founder of FreelanceWriting.Com (http://www.freelancewriting.com), a free web site dedicated to help writers master the business and creative sides of freelance writing.
