Author: Lisa Chapman

Four Easy Tips to Capture Your Readers

If your headline doesn’t grab your readers’ attention in a few short seconds, you’ve lost them.

We live in a universe of scanners. No one has time to actually read everything that comes across our computer screens. So you MUST write effective headlines that pull them in. And you have one shot at it – exactly 3 seconds.

Here are some tips to get the edge on your competition:

1. Make the headline easy to read

When we scan, our eyes look quickly for certain words. If it looks complex – with big words that take focus and brain strain, our minds (perhaps subconsciously) tend to avoid it. So keep it simple. Make it easy to scan.

Instead of:

“Choose either pre-configured or custom-configured spaces for your equipment”

Simplify it:

“Standard or custom storage”

2. Lose the advertising hype

The internet has changed the way consumers want to hear messages. It’s no longer a one-way “push” campaign. Consumers want to be educated, engaged, and respected. We tend to tune out the old style “push” message. It doesn’t serve us!

Instead of:

“100% Opt-in Audience that has the Highest Response Rates, Guaranteed!”

Make it more believable:

“Need a reliable traffic magnet that delivers long-term clients?”

3. Include your top keyword

Ideally, it would be the first word in the headline. Both for the reader and for search engines, this gives weight to the topic of your text. If not the first word, place your top keyword as close to the beginning as possible. This gives the reader assurance that they’ve landed on the topic they’re looking for.

Instead of:

“New gel guaranteed to cure athlete’s foot”

Try:

“Athlete’s foot cure – guaranteed”

4. Use subheads

This tip is perhaps the single most important thing to KEEP the reader engaged.

If you grab their attention in the headline, you want to immediately draw them in on the subhead! Like a one-two punch, deliver the subhead with intrigue, and promise value in the text below.

Using the previous headline, try a subhead like this, which gives the benefits of the promise:

HEADING: “Athlete’s foot cure – guaranteed”

SUBHEAD: “Quick results, no mess, and low cost! Learn more here.”

(Thanks to Ginger Makela at Google for the inspiration.)

Do you have any MAGIC BULLETS for effective headline writing?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Fascinating! One of the most fun and challenging aspects of marketing – now exposed. Ad Age magazine just published their professional look at successful viral ads.

According to Ad Age reporter Michael Learmonth, 100 million views is the top tier of viral. The very top of the top is, “Will it Blend?” by Blendtec. It’s a brilliant creative that’s been around for four years. The company found a winning formula and stuck with it.

Interested in tracking the top viral ads? Keep this link among your favorites and enjoy the wonder of those who achieve the top viral distinction – against all odds: Ad Age’s Viral Chart.

The Top 10 Viral Videos of All Time

	Brand	Campaign	Agency	All Time Views*	Launch Date
	Blendtec	Will It Blend?	In-house	134,256,499	10/30/06
	Evian	Live Young	BETC Euro RSCG	103,867,704	6/4/09
	Old Spice	Responses	Wieden & Kennedy	57,132,669	7/12/10
	Pepsi	Gladiator	AMV BBDO	46,742,892	1/1/04
	Microsoft	Xbox Project Natal	World Famous	42,698,599	6/1/09
	Dove	Evolution	Ogilvy & Mather	41,100,418	10/1/06
	T-Mobile	T-Mobile Dance	Saatchi & Saatchi	35,487,575	1/15/09
	Doritos	Crash The Super Bowl 2010	Goodby Silverstein & Partners	34,168,845	1/5/10
	Old Spice	Odor Blocker	Wieden & Kennedy	33,986,750	3/31/10
	DC Shoes	Gymkhana Two	In-house	32,872,531	9/3/09
Source: Visible Measures

For the full Ad Age article, see The Top 10 Viral Videos of All Time

How to make an ad go viral

Your marketing message doesn’t have to be a video to go viral – but it helps. Basically, several common elements are essential to launch your ad to viral status.

1. It’s emotional. Both positive and negative emotional experiences are ripe for passing around. In fact, the more emotionally intense, the greater likelihood that it will travel.
2. It performs a public service. “Just click here and this sponsor will donate a can of dog food to the rescue shelter. Then forward to six friends.” Awwww. Who can hit delete?
3. It’s funny. We all need an ear-to-ear feel-good during our harried and overwhelming schedules.

What’s your favorite viral ad? Why?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

We are all over-messaged in this harried world – absolutely bombarded with thousands of messages every single day. So how can your business stand out?

To be successful, your company’s marketing must be creatively distinctive. That’s what it takes to:

• Capture the attention of your target audience, and
• Deliver a clear and memorable message.

Your marketing must be laser-focused. It cannot be everything to everybody. What should your marketing message achieve?

• Image & Branding
• Recognition, Credibility & Trust
• Call to Action

Business branding basics

Your company is only as powerful as your BRAND. A company’s brand, like an individual’s personality, is unique – and should clearly convey the culture of your organization.

In a nutshell, effective branding takes:

• Strategizing about who your company is,
• Aligning your brand with the your company’s core values,
• Creating an image and advertising that is distinctive, &
• Integrating all media into an effective and memorable brand message.

These are the basics of business branding. The most successful brands maintain a consistent voice – in the media, on the web, and in person.

What is a brand strategy?

Brand strategy is the who, what, why, where, and how of branding. A well-crafted brand strategy:

• Captures your company’s personality
• Creates messaging that resonates with prospects
• Establishes your company’s competitive advantage
• Converts prospects’ interest into revenue

A good marketing firm with experience in your competitive niche can listen to key employees (and even customers) to craft a message that clearly and succinctly speaks to your target audience. It’s an important investment in your entire marketing effort – and will make your future advertising expenditures powerful.

For a great example of a rebranding campaign that achieved these objectives, consider Financial Marketing Solutions’ creative work for FirstBank. These concepts can be applied to any business in any industry.

Branding food for thought:
What’s your company’s brand?
How do customers and prospects perceive your company’s personality?
Is it what you want them to think and feel about you?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

. . ________ . .

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Guest Post by Robert Stretch

Monitor Your Web Presence

Since anybody can publish anything online, protecting your brand is more critical than ever. One or two bad reviews wield more power than ever by influencing potential customers and colleagues.

Damage control in the form of (ORM) needs to be one of your top priorities. Online reputation management is monitoring your company’s web presence across the internet. It means watching competitors’ websites, keeping up to date on social media mentions, and monitoring what is said about you through the search engines.

What is ORM?

The gist of ORM is to keep negative content about you, your company and/or brand from popping up on the World Wide Web. Though it sounds tasking, ORM requires little time as long as it’s conducted routinely. To get started, follow a few easy steps to keep your online rep clean.

Think Like the Slanderers

People who want to ruin your reputation—such as disgruntled ex-employees or angry customers — may go to unthinkable lengths to do so. However, if you try to anticipate their moves, you give yourself an advantage. For example, it’s a good idea to buy domains similar to your primary one. But your slanderers might buy domains that defame you, such as johndoefails.com. Of course, if you buy these first, no one else can claim them.

Defend Yourself

ORM is just as much about creating new content as it is countering existing content. First, you need to discover complaints before you post a rebuttal. Start by creating a Google alert. An example for our company would be VA Mortgage Center.com complaint, and variations of that. Once you know where the content is, you may appropriately defend yourself. Getting loyal customers to write testimonials is a great strategy. There’s no harm in asking customers for their support via positive reviews on websites such as Yelp.

Stay Up To Date

Though that Google alert will help, it’s a search confined only to Google’s servers. Scavenging the rest of the information superhighway means manually searching certain terms on Yahoo!, Bing, AltaVista and Dogpile. Branch out, and try different phrases that include your name/brand/company.

Produce and Publish

Now that you know what you’re up against, it’s time to produce content. Blogs are a great, inexpensive method of publishing content. From there, you can share what you’ve done on social networking sites. Don’t get too carried away in your work by boasting excessively, but highlight some recent accomplishments.

Consider making your work a weekly or bi-monthly piece that covers everything you or your company has done. Remember, ORM is about proving that you’re a professional in your field and keeping that image squeaky clean.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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Guest Author Robert Stretch works in web development for VA Mortgage Center.com.

Guest post by Drew Gerber

PR expert Drew Gerber has insider advice for us – quite exciting for small business owners:

National Media Coverage

Getting national media coverage in top print, broadcast or online media can boost your business in ways it is hard to imagine.

A single placement in a glossy national magazine is worth tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes a lot more, and not just in the value of ad space in the publication. Getting covered by national media lends a level of credibility, prestige and buzz that money cannot buy.

Sales Skyrocket

At Wasabi Publicity Inc., we sent out a pitch that landed author Dr. Jill Murray on Dr. Phil’s TV show less than eight hours after she had signed up as a client. Within one week, that same pitch also got her coverage with CNN Weekend News, Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell, 20/20, syndicated radio shows, and several magazine articles. Sales rankings of Dr. Jill’s newest book “But He Never Hit M” shot up to number 16 on Amazon.com and number 23 on Barnes & Noble within hours of her Dr. Phil appearance (see the exact pitch at http://www.publicityresults.com).

Despite the enormous value of national publicity, many business owners and entrepreneurs don’t understand how to go about attracting the media’s attention. It’s not complicated if you follow six basic steps:

1. Brand Your Message

Be crystal clear about who you are, what makes you unique and why the media should care. Assure you have a consistent message by having all your press materials ready before the press calls. A great way to do this is to get an online press kit. We created a technology called PressKit 24/7 (http://www.presskit247.com) which allows people to create press kits simply and easily without any special technical knowledge. More than 90 percent of journalists prefer to get their information from the Web. Having an online press kit is crucial to giving them the facts they need to cover you, your product, service or business.

2. Develop Your Pitch

Pretend you are in an elevator with Oprah and have 30 seconds to tell her why she should have you on her show. Your pitch should be concise, reflect your passion and stress what makes you unique. As PR professionals we have found that short pitches are often more effective for getting the media’s attention than long press releases.

3. Find the Media

The Internet provides countless ways to research media that may be interested in you. Pitchrate.com (http://www.pitchrate.com) is a free service we created to connect media and sources. You can also research media list sites such as http://www.usnpl.com. Watch your favorite show and find out the producer’s name from the credits, or read your favorite newspapers and magazines to find out who covers your topic area. When you contact reporters, compliment their work to let them know you have taken the time to research.

4. Respond Immediately

When the media calls or emails expressing interest in covering you, respond immediately. Reporters usually work on very tight deadlines, so the sources that respond fastest with the most concise and useful information are most likely to get covered.

5. Be Prepared

Thoroughly prepare for your interview. Decide what you want to say and practice saying it in short, concise sound bites. This is where professional media coaching can be valuable, since many people have had little experience in front of cameras and microphones.

6. Keep it Simple

Try practicing what you plan to say in front of an 8-year-old. Really! If you do this and the child can repeat back to you what you have said, you know that you’re communicating in a way that’s easy to understand.

So remember: brand your message, hone your pitch, find your media and give them what they need to make interviewing you interesting and rewarding. That brings us to a final piece of most important advice: Focus on what the reporter needs and how you can provide content that is useful to the audience, rather than hard-selling yourself or your product. Remember, you are getting great publicity for free, and pay it forward!

Have you garnered great free publicity? Share your story with us.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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About the Author:

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media connection service for journalists, experts, and publicists. Sign up now for free publicity advice including a free online marketing course. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: [email protected] or call him at 828-749-3548.

Guest post by Drew Gerber

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to a PR expert, Drew Gerber, with plenty of helpful tips and insights for small business owners. This article was written by Drew Gerber:

Your PR Campaign

Hiring a publicist or doing your own PR isn’t something most small business owners or entrepreneurs really want to do. You’re busy running the day-to-day operations that keep the doors to your business open and investing the little time and money you may have just doesn’t seem feasible or realistic. Sound familiar? But think about this. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for a few years, media exposure is valuable to your success — just a little work on your PR campaign a day can produce tremendous results.

Valuable and Unique Message

At the very least you have to have a strong brand and message. They’re what define you, and what will help differentiate you from your competition. When creating your brand and message, look to combine what makes you a) unique and b) valuable to your target market. Valuable and unique messages produce great PR campaigns and will attract better and more loyal customers.

Your Unique Message – Your Mantra

After you’ve created your brand and message it’s important to employ consistency into all aspects of your business. You have to give the same messages over and over again through interviews, your pitches and your press materials, so be consistent and make your message your mantra. A repeatable and unique message is what will make you stand out from the crowd, forcing people to remember you and your product.

Your logos have to be a direct reflection of your branding and messaging too, along with all the little things like your voicemail message, how you answer your phone, your website design, etc. Think about it: If you’re branding your business as a fun and carefree company and your voicemail is dull and unenthusiastic, you’re not really holding true to your brand.

The thing about PR is that it’s in everything you do. It’s not just about landing interviews on television, it’s about how you interact with the public — how you deliver your message to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

What ways have you found to stand out from the crowd?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media connection service for journalists, experts, and publicists. Sign up now for free publicity advice including a free online marketing course. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: [email protected] or call him at 828-749-3548.