Dear [blank]:

Thank you for your untargeted pitch. I can see you don’t read my blog about PR and how to pitch. Although your brief mention of my most recent post shows you can indeed read.

Although I find your [boring news] fascinating, I don’t write about cars/dog grooming/IT. You would know that if you read more than one blog post of mine.

Perhaps you should read my blog. It gives great advice about how to pitch. Rule #1: don’t give a canned pitch to someone who works in PR. You will get called out. On the internet. By me.

Best of luck to you! Maybe I’ll see you flipping burgers soon.

Sincerely,

The Marketing Eggspert

What do you think? Too harsh??

I get releases that are simply a cut/paste of a press release. That has nothing to do with my interests. Trash. I get endlessly long email pitches that take forever to get to the point. Trash.

Here are 5 ways you can be sure to end up in the trash. If that’s where you want to be.

1. Don’t read the blog or website. You’re a busy person. Why bother reading the source you’re pitching? They’ll be interested in your fantastic news no matter what.

2. Cut and paste. Again, busy. It saves time to just cut and paste your pitch (including the snazzy Dear Editor title) for each email you send.

3. Make it long. The more info, the better, right? Besides, you’re such a good writer you know they’ll be hanging on to the edge of their seats until you get to the point…waaay at the bottom.

4. Don’t bother with goals. You just want to spread the world with your news, so coming up with objectives and goals for your PR campaign ain’t worth the trouble.

On the other hand, a well-crafted pitch gets my attention, even if I may not be interested in the subject. Take Natalie Sisson, of ConnectionPoint Systems Inc. She recently sent me this pitch.

Hi Susan

I read your Facebook pages blog sometime back and thought you’d be a super handy person to contact since you’re so clued up on Facebook, blogging and social networks. We’re a Vancouver startup that recently launched our Facebook application  FundRazr – the easiest way to collect money and manage members on Facebook. We believe we can change the face of fundraising and payments in social networks.

Is there anyway we can talk to you about our application and doing a story that would be interesting to your readers?

I’ve attached our latest press release so you can read more.

Thanks in advance

Natalie

Why I like it.

• Flattery works. She said she read some of my work. Then she said I’d be the best person to share this with. (watch my peacock feathers ruffle)
• She told me in 1 sentence what her company does. Rock.
• She politely asked if I’d want to share this info.

While this is a little off from what I write about, I did decide to include FundRazr in an upcoming post…because she pitched me correctly.

What did you learn from this?

It’s clear that the public relations landscape is changing. No longer does emailing a journalist a press release always result in coverage on major news channels (there are exceptions, naturally, but the average business doesn’t get on Oprah). These days, journalists (and yes, bloggers too) are inundated with press releases. It’s easy to hit delete and move on.

How do you get your pitch heard above the din? Conversation. Engagement. Interaction.

Social Media is Key in Your Pitch

Pamela Johnston of PJ Inc. Public Relations says she avoids doing certain things on Twitter () that are looked upon negatively, like:

• pimping client news

• straight out traditional pitching

• sending random things to people/journalists she doesn’t know

I like that she doesn’t use traditional methods of pitching on social media. You can’t apply the same methods you used 10 years ago to Twitter. It’s impossible. Instead, you must find new ways to reach media contacts.

The world is small these days. Social media tools like Twitter, Facebook , LinkedIn, Kirtsy, Digg, blogs, video and web sites are quickly becoming integrated. It’s fairly easy to connect with someone and keep up with what they’re doing. Journalists and bloggers are no different.

Social Media as a Learning Tool

I make notes in my contact database with links to all her sources. I then make a plan to interact with the journalist in her own space. I comment on posts I like. I retweet her content on Twitter. I send a brief note on Facebook (not pitching a story, but sharing one of her posts I liked and asking to connect). This way, by the time I’m ready to pitch her, I’m already on her radar.

Pitching a media contact is a process. It’s not something that will happen overnight. Plan ahead and work for several weeks to get to know a journalist or blogger for best results.

Be A Resource

It is quite common for reporters, news producers and anchors to post something along the lines of “looking for interesting stories about ______ to discuss today.” Being part of an agency, it is critical for me to capitalize on those opportunities for my clients. Often times, this doesn’t require a “pitch” as much as connecting a reporter with a resource (hopefully my client).

This goes back to monitoring social media. Your best successes might not come from a pitch at all, but rather the reward of being a good listener and paying attention to the journalists you can help. Journalists like being helped better than they like being pitched.

Keep reading the post on Mashable.com.

The Old Days

After World War I, a guy named Ivy Lee invented the press release. It was said that a press release helped foster a two-way street, where the client would listen to the public, but let’s be honest: it was more of the “enough about me, what do you think about me?”

In other words, companies wanted to know what the public thought of them, not just what they thought in general.

Fast Forward to Today

It’s been slow going to get to the conversations that are happening today: not just about brands, but about what consumers want. And I mean slow. A year ago, I didn’t see nearly the number of companies who got it. Who understood that social media and blogger outreach was part of the PR landscape that was not an option but rather a requirement for survival.

I go to these conferences today and see brands that don’t need me to explain why they should work with bloggers. They’re there, in the thick of things. They know that a well done product review by a blogger has 10 times the selling power that a print or even internet ad has.  They know that giving away free products on blogs helps get them traffic and interest. They want to be a part of the revolution.

And I sigh with relief.

Because I’ve spent the last year trying to swim upstream in a river of small businesses who want solid results. Apparent ROI. Familiarity. Companies who, because they didn’t know what a blog was assumed they should ignore them. Companies who were run by old white men who have secretaries do all their work and never ever used a computer.

All this is changing, and I am thrilled. It’s a new day in public relations, and I, for one, am happy to be part of the pack leading the way.

If you have a blog, or have thought about starting one, you may only be thinking in terms of how your blog will help generate attention for your product or service. But have you considered working with other blogs to get publicity? If not, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

We’re starting to see wider recognition of bloggers as a part of the media. After all, they write their opinions, introduce us to new ideas and news and tell us what they think of products and services. How does that differ from what a journalist does?

As a company, it behooves you to work with bloggers that talk to the demographic you seek to reach. By building relationships with bloggers, you not only garner attention for your company, but you also show that your company recognizes blogs as being important channels of communication. And that says a lot to consumers.

How to Identify the Right Blogs

You want your message out there, but don’t reach out to untargeted blogs. If you’re selling a garden hose, don’t contact the blogger who writes about pet products. With a little research, you can identify the blogs that are already connected with your target audience.

1. 1. Do a Search. Search for keywords that relate to your industry and products. Include blog” in the search. Visit each blog that appears relevant in this list.
2. 2. Read the Blog. You won’t get away with skimming the blog and contacting the blog owner. Do your homework to find out if the blog is a good fit. If you object to foul language, better to find out when reading the blog than to find it in a post about your company.
3. 3. Read the Fine Print. Read through the About page as well as any PR info that may be listed. Many blogs have specific instructions for what to do if you want them to review your product. Some charge. Gather all this information into a spreadsheet.
4. 4. Cull. Not every blog you come across is a good fit. Look for those with higher traffic for best results.
5. 5. Contact. Send a carefully crafted (read: NOT copy/paste) introduction letter that explains who you are and why you are interested in partnering with a particular blog. Mention specifics, as bloggers, like anyone, like to have their egos stroked. The more compelling reason you can give for why they should take time out of their schedules to work with you, the more likely you are to get a response.
6. 6. Follow Up. Bloggers are busy. Many have full time jobs or are raising children at home, so give it a week and send either a followup email or Tweet if you’re on Twitter (and you are, right?).

What’s Your ROI?

Unless you’ve got a tracking system that can tell you which sales came from a blog’s review of your product (and if you offer a service you don’t sell directly online, this won’t be possible), consider traffic your ROI. If you send a blogger your product, and it costs you $100, you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

The key in looking for a strong ROI is examining visitors to a blog. Before you decide to send any blogger a product, ask what their web traffic and RSS subscriber numbers are. If you send that $100 item to a blogger that gets 100 visitors per month, obviously your ROI won’t be as good as sending the same item to a blog that gets 10,000 visitors a month. And out of the number of people who view the post on your product, expect about 1% to actually click your link. That 100 visitors turns into 1 click, while the 10,000 visitors is 100.

Compare it to pay-per-click advertising. If you’re willing to pay $1.00 per click on Google AdWords, consider that your threshold of measurement for blog outreach. If the blog review gets 100 clicks to your website, you’ve spent your budget of $1.00 per click on a $100 item. But you want better than that, since working with bloggers requires more effort than setting up a PPC campaign. The lower that cost per click, the better your ROI. Now you just have to worry about converting them to sales on your site!

After the Post

Once you secure a few reviews on different blogs, don’t stand idly by! Help promote each review through whatever channels you use: Twitter, Facebook, your own blog or website, email, etc. Consider it similar to a press clipping and boast about it. Keep a list on your company’s Press page and link to all blogs that have reviewed your products.

Sponsorship to Reach Bloggers

Another way to reach masses of bloggers, who will then spread the word about your product to their audiences, is to connect with them at blogging conferences. Now, not every company can afford the hefty Exhibitor fees, which can mount up to $10,000 or more, but sponsoring an individual to go to the conferences on your behalf is a great way to infiltrate the conference and get in front of bloggers.

In 2008, Epson sponsored the Sparkplugging blog team at BlogWorld Expo. The team of 11 (I was one) wore Epson shirts and talked to people about the brand. Each blog post mentioned Epson during the conference. The team also held a special contest at the conference where people following the team on Twitter could get clues to solve to win an Epson printer. The buzz about Epson lasted long past the actual event.

For a fraction of the cost of exhibiting, a company can get products and marketing collateral handed out to conference attendees, videos taken of brand perception and new contacts made. It’s an invaluable tool in today’s ever-changing PR landscape.

No matter what you do, realize that PR is changing daily. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, bloggers and conferences are becoming new ways to reach wider audiences. Find your own method and see what works for you.

And yes I just realized this was a How-To Tuesday post published on a Thursday. Oops!

Anyone who does PR for a brand knows that getting the attention of the media is like trying to get President Obama’s attention. Reporters and editors all seem too busy to care about our stories, intriguing though they may be. Sure, they are bombarded with pitches and press releases daily, but how do you cut through the crap and rise to the top of that stack?

One trick of the trade I’ve discovered is Twitter. When I’m researching contacts at publications, blogs and websites, I look to see if an editor or the company has a Twitter account. Then, a week after I send the email pitch (carefully crafted, of course), I send a tweet as a followup.

Most journalists don’t seem to mind being contacted via Twitter. After all, it’s not exactly a private channel. For a recent client of mine, ioSafe, who makes external hard drives, 90% of the media placement I got was as a result of following up on Twitter.

Some of the writers hadn’t received my emails (thanks, CAN-SPAM Act!). Others had forgotten about it and were glad to be reminded of it. I found the immediacy of the interaction on Twitter to be gratifying. After all, it’s harder to ignore a tweet than it is an email.

I’ve also pitched directly through Twitter. I’ll send a quick note saying I think XYZ product is a good fit for their website/magazine/blog, and are they interested in learning more? I include a link so they can easily click it and decide if they want more information. If they do, we exchange emails and the process is set in motion.

My final words of advice are: target, target, target. Even though Twitter provides a new channel for public relations, it’s still essential to do your homework and understand the channel you’re pitching. Read the articles or blog posts. Read the editor’s bio to see if he even writes product reviews. Pretend you’re going to be quizzed on the company and be that prepared. The editor you’re reaching out to will be that much more likely to take you up on your pitch, and hey, who knows? Maybe you’ll actually develop a relationship with that media contact!

1. Visit Google Alerts.

2. Enter what you want to search for. Here are some ideas:

• Your company name
• Your name
• industry keywords (internet marketing, social media marketing, public relations for me)

3. Select “comprehensive” to get blogs, news, and websites.

4. Decide how often you want alerts. You can get them as they come if time is of the essence, or once a day or week if you prefer.

5. Assuming you have a Google account, choose the email address you want the alerts sent to.

6. Click “create alert.”

It can’t get simpler. I use Google Alerts to find the publicity I help generate for clients, as well as to see what’s happening in their industries. For example, my client ioSafe makes external hard drives, so I have alerts for major tech blogs talking about hard drives so I can check out the competition.  I also use it to see where I, Susan, am showing up. Often it’s an article or blog post I wrote that others are pulling from.

As you can see, Google Alerts is a great tool to help you manage your PR for free.

1. Research. First you need to decide on the publications you think would be a good target for your press release or product. What do your customers read? What industry are you trying to target? First make a list of these magazines, newspapers, blogs, and websites.

2. What section? Knowing the media source alone isn’t enough. If you notice, every magazine has different sections. Many have product review sections as well as news and others, so decide which is the best fit. Also don’t overlook product placement. Gardening publications have articles on gardens, so if you have a hose or garden product, you might be able to get it placed in the photo with attribution in the back of the magazine.

3. Now, who do I contact? Search the website (even if it’s a newspaper or magazine) for the editor over the section you decided on. Editors are better than journalists for your efforts, because they’re the decision makers. If you can’t find the editor, use the journalist who writes the section. Make sure to spell the contact’s name correctly and get their email and phone number. You can easily do this in a spreadsheet.

Tips

• Keep your lists updated. If you have an old list, make sure the contacts are still with the publication.
• Spend time reading each one. There’s nothing worse than pitching a publication that’s a bad fit because you didn’t do your homework!
• Don’t bug. Send a preliminary email and follow up by email or phone a week later. Don’t bombard your contact.
• Take good notes. If an editor asks not to be contacted, make a note.
• For the contacts who reply, put them in a special file, like in your Outlook, with notes on their friendliness. Makes it that much easier next go ’round.

]]> http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/reaching-media-contacts/feed/ 3 http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/ebook-review-pr-in-your-pajamas/ http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/ebook-review-pr-in-your-pajamas/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 14:12:34 +0000 Susan Payton http://www.sparkplugging.com/marketing/?p=920

I came across Elena Verlee’s ebook, “PR in Your Pajamas,” and just had to review it. It’s geared towards mothers with businesses, but the information applies to anyone doing his or her own PR.

This ebook is so simple and breaks down the public relations things I do every single day in a way that anyone can understand.

It breaks down the differences between publicity and advertising (free publicity = good; ads = not exactly bad, but people are tuning them out) as well as walks you through how to pitch an editor. I was glad to see that I’m doing the right things with Egg’s clients!

If you’re not already using PR as a means to get more sales, you need to be. Start with this ebook, reasonably priced at $29.

And guess what? One lucky reader will receive a copy of this ebook! Just tell me your PR disaster stories or why your business needs PR and this ebook. I’ll choose the story that amuses me the most. Contest ends 4/30.

Let’s say you’re Britney Spears’ agent. Or the owner of a jet-flying major car manufacturer. Or the producer of pork during swine flu season. You’re going to need a little help untarnishing your reputation. Especially in this digital age of Twitter and blogs, when bad news spreads faster than, well, swine flu.

How do you stop the bleeding and salvage some scrap of dignity for your business?

1. Address the problem head-on. You can’t hide from it. Tropicana did nothing more than a package redesign and was brutally slayed by the media. The best thing to do is admit there is a problem (reeks a bit of AA, doesn’t it?)
2. Develop open communication. If you’re stock’s in the toilet, shareholders want to know how you’ll fix it. If your company is filing bankruptcy, your customers may panic. Create open lines of communication to tell people how you plan to address the situation. (Take Obama. He walked into a hot mess with our economy and he’s done a great job of telling us what his next steps are.)
3. Don’t red herring. It may be tempting to donate massive amounts of money to a charity to get people to look the other way, but it won’t work. Just stick to the issue and do your best to resolve it.
4. Follow through. Do what you say you’ll do. Otherwise you’ll suffer more scrutiny, and the situation will last longer than it has to.
5. Move on. Once you’re past the crisis, learn from your mistakes and move forward.

Have you had a crisis you had to control? What did you do to fix it?

Put on the brakes. I do? I didn’t know I was on Alltop.

I spend the next five minutes searching Alltop, which to my knowledge I’ve never been a part of (not saying I wouldn’t love to, Guy Kawasaki, but you haven’t found me yet). Yes, I’m that vain that I have to go find myself on the internet. You do it too, so whatever. No, honestly, I’m always glad when people give me feedback about how they find me.

So my suspicions are confirmed. I am not on Alltop. So why would this person start out her letter with that? Ohhh, she didn’t properly target her pitch! I get it! Okay! She cut and pasted a letter and didn’t bother to check who she was sending it to.

Did I want to read on? Did I want to review the book after wasting time on my wild goose chase? I hate to be cold, people, but get it right.

Also the email was from a woman (probably the author’s PR person) but the letter was written from the male author. At least put a note at the top that says “here’s a letter from X book’s author.”

Lessons, boys and girls?

• Know who you’re pitching. Do personalize it by saying how you found them or the name of the publication.
• Spell the name right. People hate it when you spell their name wrong.
• Read the publication to make sure it’s a good fit. This book had nothing to do with marketing.

Have you ever sent/received a bad pitch? Tell us alllll about it.

Let me tell you why you need it, and why you’d be a fool not to get one.

First let me preface this by saying that I reached out to PRWeb and asked for a free subscription in exchange for this blog post. Just wanted to get that out there. I do NOT push products I don’t believe in, as I think you know.

You Have Better Things to do With Your Time

If I’ve already sold you on writing press releases and distributing them, do you have them updated on your website? It’s kind of a pain in the ass. Every time you put out a release you have to either

a) log into the backend of your website and get it posted. if you’re not technical, this could take a while.

b) contact your web designer and ask her to do it. Pray she replies in a timely manner.

But PRWeb’s newsroom does it automatically. Any release you distributed through PRWeb will automatically go to your newsroom. Clean and easy.

Makes You Look Like You’re Really Smart

The more professional you can look, the better. You might be working out of your garage, but if you have an impressive website, people might think you’re a giant corporation. And you want that. So the newsroom helps you lookeven more professional. No web design, no difficult decisions. It’s all taken care of.

Builds SEO

The more places your website appears online, the better you will place in search engine results for your keywords. PRWeb gets tremendous traffic to its website, so by having a newsroom, you’re building traffic to your website. And you want that. Trust me.

I link to my newsroom straight from my website. (Under Portfolio/Press Releases there’s a link). It saves me duplicating effort in posting the press releases we do for clients to my website. And anything that saves me time is golden.

Ready to learn more? PRWeb’s blog post on the newsroom offers great info.

Here’s a great interview of Jiyan Wei, PRWeb’s brand manager, that explains the newsroom.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NI6O1MoS14&eurl=http://www.newinfluencer.com/prweb-online-newsroom/&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Do you have questions about the newsroom? I’d be happy to answer them based on my experiences.

I won’t bore you with a lot of statistics, so here’s the nice condensed version from Anita Campbell. Still too lazy to click the link? Fine. I’ll tell you. It says people are paying attention to what bloggers have to say. You’re here, right? Hanging to my every word? Well it turns out people are tired of being attacked by commercials and cold calls. They actually listen to bloggers when they talk about brands.

Which comes naturally to us bloggers, by the way. Talking about brands, that is. I know I loooove talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly brands and what they’re doing in marketing and advertising. And I don’t get paid to do it. I’ll repeat that. I don’t get paid to do it.

So think about your brand and how you’re having trouble getting the word out. Consider blogs. Research bloggers who write about your industry. Follow them for a while. Comment on their blog. Then approach them about reviewing your product. But first, before you do, get some tips on what not to do by Back in Skinny Jeans.

Here’s how HARO works. Reporters from big and small publications and websites submit an inquiry for an article they’re writing, including the topic, deadline and how to contact them. They could be looking for experts on:

• 529 College Savings Plans
• Sex Lives
• Top Ten Stocking Stuffers that Save Money

(These are real recent inquiries, by the way). If you are able to give the reporter what they’re looking for, you simply email them and see if they choose you for the article. It’s an amazing way to get publicity without seeking it yourself.

Since I signed up a few months ago, I’ve contacted maybe 10-15 reporters. Out of the ones I replied to, I was interviewed on an entrepreneur blog and have an upcoming interview on a PR podcast. Not bad for a few minutes of effort each day.

If you’re looking for an affordable way to get your name or your company’s name out there, I highly recommend HARO. Sign up for your free account and you’ll start getting emails with inquiries from reporters today.

(I realize that when I really like a product or service and blog about it, I sound like an infomercial. SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE ACCOUNT TODAY!!!) I’m not getting paid for this, peeps. I just really like HARO.

Press Releases in a Technology-Driven World

Press Release 101: 24 Reasons to Toot Your Own Horn

Learn Press Release Secrets PR Pros Don’t Want You to Know

Do Press Releases Need a Facelift?

April Fools’, Talk Like a Pirate Day and Other PR Ploys

Bloggers: The World’s Most Overlooked PR Pitch

i Heart PRWeb

Why You’ll Never Get on Oprah…and Why That’s Okay

And if you want to learn how to write press releases, check out my ebook, Do-It-Yourself Press Releases.

• Small business owner or entrepreneur
• Small marketing budget (or..budget? what budget?)
• Want to do-it-yourself when it comes to marketing, but need a little guidance from me.

Am I right? Totally off? Let me know! While my comments have grown since I joined the Sparkplugging network, I find it difficult to get people to respond to questions I ask. So, dear reader, don’t let me down! Tell me who you are and what you want to get out of this blog. I’m open to tweaking my content, adding new things, et cetera. But it’s all for you. If I don’t know what you want, how can I give it to you (a lesson you should learn about marketing. See my recent post What Las Vegas Strip Bootie Brokers Need to Learn About Shotgun Marketing)

And to be fair, I think I should tell you about me. Since, thanks to Epson I now am all about my new flip camera here’s a little video of me.

and conclusion:

(Thanks to Chris Brogan for making me realize nothing but good comes from being more personable on my blog. Now if he’d only read my blog!!)

I currently use PRWeb. It’s affordable and focuses on SEO and social media. And now they have a new tool that I’m all over. Account holders can create their own News Room that displays all their releases over time. Here’s Egg’s:

http://www.prweb.com/newsroom/eggmarketing/

I love it because I have one place to house my clients’ press releases. It also gives them a boost of SEO. And it’s free! Yay!

The Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Hangout was a comprehensive promotion by Bandai America for its Spring 2008 Ben 10 toy line. The Ultimate Alien Hangout called on fans to complete their original Ben 10 toy collection (before the new Ben 10 Alien Force toy line hits shelves).

There were several components to the Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Hangout promotion, including television, public relations and promotions support; however, the core of the promotion was the online sweepstakes. The promotion kicked off on February 20, 2008 with an online sweepstakes. The grand-prize winner receives a complete Ben 10 bedroom transformation, and a hundred runner-up winners receive original show artwork or Ben 10 toy packs.

For the contest, Bandai partnered with the home makeover show Designing Spaces to illustrate a visual of the room transformation. The sweepstakes also benefited from an on-air promo on Cartoon Network, which urged fans to enter the sweepstakes online.

The promotion, handled by Mr. Youth, consisted of a street team accompanied by a Four Arms costumed character. A glass-display truck display – a truck with a Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Hangout bedroom displayed on its bed – also drove through 10 cities and generated additional impressions.

Public relations, handled by The Rogers Group, outreached to a variety of traditional and new media outlets. For example, public relations outreach included local market event listings to support the street team, as well as general market media that focused on toys and/or cartoons. A radio news release targeting parents also broadcasted a call to action to enter the sweepstakes. Outreach to the online community – including regional focused sites, parenting/mommy and sweepstakes blogs – shared both news of the online sweepstakes and the location of the Ben 10 Street team.

The contest received over 211,765 sweepstakes entries and tons of coverage online and in traditional media.

Takeaways:

• Do you notice a recurring theme with these case studies? They all use multiple channels to promote. The internet is a given, but they also use street teams and cross promotions to spread the word.
• Designing Spaces. Probably the last cross promo I would have expected for a cartoon contest! But it worked. Sometimes stepping outside of your industry can work wonders on a campaign.
• Unique prizes. These weren’t prizes kids could get at the store. By offering special collectors’ items, I’m sure they increased their sweepstakes entries substantially.

I’ve been blogging for a little over a year. I recently joined the Sparkplugging community, and I’m glad I did. At BlogHer, I met dozens of bloggers, many of whom blog about their personal experiences. I blog about marketing.

I don’t blog for money, although any money I do make as a result of blogging is great. For many people, blogging is their livelihood. As many of you know, I run a marketing and PR firm, so that is where my heart and income lie. If that’s the case, why do I blog?

I blog because I’m passionate about marketing. If you meet me and show even the slightest interest in marketing, I’m likely to chew your ear off about how you could totally get more return customers with an email campaign, or how press releases really do grow your business. So consider this blog my outpouring so I don’t frighten off the next person I meet.

That being said, I do run into a lot of small business owners who have a lot of questions about marketing. To me, it’s not a secret. It’s not complicated. But I realize submitting a press release online or even creating a newsletter is daunting for someone who’s doing so much for their business already.

So I blog to help. I blog to help entrepreneurs (and small business owners, if you’re not ready to take that leap in self-identification, Shannon) make their businesses better. I love hearing back from my readers (I think I met half of them at the conference, and hey, that was 2 people!) about some post that they found particularly useful.

For my own devices, my blog serves as my portfolio. I always refer potential clients here, so they can get an understanding for what Egg Marketing does. If they’re looking for big buck spending on print advertising, they’ll quickly learn my firm is probably not for them. Most come back and say, “Hey, I like what you’re saying. Let’s work together.” So it all works out in the end.

Sidenote: Something I admired at the blogging conference is how so many people are so personal on their blogs. I’ve deliberately tried to be a little more standoffish (I thought that would be more professional) but if you notice me being a little more like me (casual and blunt, though I’ll try not to be crass), blame it on 10 days in Napa Valley and San Francisco, and the little conference that could.

Attending BlogHer 08 reinforced what I already knew. Bloggers are the up-and-coming channels for media messages. At my marketing company, Egg Marketing & Public Relations, pitching press releases and product reviews is part of our process. A lot of my clients are still stuck on the idea that their news will make the Wall Street Journal or the Oprah Show. While anything is possible, I tell them they will get the bigger bang for their buck with bloggers.

And it’s not just about sending messages to bloggers. Now corporations are joining the blog world. Here’s a great example. Editor-in-Chief of Redbook Magazine, Stacey Morrison, has taken Hearst Publications by storm with her preposterous idea to develop Redbook’s website and, gasp, can you believe it? Add blogs to the mix. Now Redbook has an arsenal of blogs about sex, family, decorating, fashion and life. And people are treating them like any other blog, and not ostracizing them just because they’re corporate. Which means Redbook is finding a new way to reach people with its message and products.

In case you haven’t gotten the message on this blog: OLD SCHOOL MARKETING IS DEAD. You simply won’t reach your future clients with advertising and a fancy Flash website. There are frontiers yet to be reached in blogs, podcasting, videocasting, i-don’t-know-yet-casting. The biggest mistake you can make is to wait until everyone’s on the bandwagon. Embrace your inner marketing demons and forge a few of your own frontiers before someone else does.

• Look at what your competition is doing in marketing. Figure out what you can do to one-up them (not copy them)
• Read blogs online. Go to YouTube. See what’s out there.
• Talk to your audience. How are they receiving their messages?