The Power Publicist

Archive for February, 2010

It’s the one issue I consistently see with my business and PR mentoring clients. They don’t specialize.

And it’s quite common. Specialization is something feared by a lot of business owners. They think that they will lose an enormous amount of business by tailoring their marketing to a smaller target market.

They’re mistaken. In fact, trying to get your message across to every consumer can be incredibly expensive and these mass market campaigns usually mean a far lower return on investment for your marketing dollar.

You could see your business thrive by getting your message to the target market consisting of the people who are probably, rather than possibly interested in your products and services.

You can’t be all things to all people anyway and it’s best to not even try to be. Experts in marketing  already know that identifying a target market and crafting a marketing message to reach them is more effective. After all,he more focused your niche is, the more successful your marketing is likely to be.

But what is your business’ target market?

You can figure this out without too much trouble if yours is an established business. Analyze your customer records to look at:

• Who are the individuals or companies who you do business with the most often and what do they buy from you?
• The demographic patterns which unite your best customers. Are they men or women? Married or single? What age group do they tend to fall into? What kind of income do they have? All of these factors can help you to get a clear idea of what sort of target market you want to appeal to.
• If you do a mostly business to business trade, examine your records to see what kinds of businesses are your best customers and how large these businesses are.

If you’re just starting your business, then you have an advantage in that you can start by identifying your niche and working to get your message to your target market from day one. Ask yourself what you most enjoy doing and what your talents are. This can determine which niche will be best suited for your business.

Look at what your competition is doing:  who are they marketing to and how? Their customers could be your customers if you can position yourself in this niche. Surveys can also help you to put together a database of potential customers.

You might be a little nervous about specializing, but ask yourself this: would you rather throw your money away on marketing campaigns and publicity strategies which give you a low return on your investment, or focus your resources on the people who already want to do business with you?

If you are still struggling to get your market right (and want to make sure the market you choose will PAY you for what you offer), I found a very affordable report that will help you from a very successful Internet market, I know personally and trust.

Susanne Myers’ “How to Uncover a Hot Profitable Niche” shows you everything you need in just 18 pages, including :

• Start by figuring out exactly what a niche and a target market are so you can start determining who you want to market to – If you know exactly who to “speak” to in your marketing messages, it’s easy to find the right words to close the sale.
• How you can leverage certain websites to determine the profit potential of just about many niche.
• The two factors that combine to make a profitable niche.
• and much more

I know she wrote this for affiliate marketers, but as a service provider in marketing, I must say I purchased a copy myself and learned so much to help my clients (and myself) even more!

Grab a copy today for only $7 at http://bit.ly/HotNiche

(Yes, that is an affiliate link. But as I said, I bought the product and highly recommend it!)

At NAMS at couple of weeks ago, I shared a unique way to build your list quickly with the advanced group of attendees.

They were quite surprised and realized how easy it was to do. Why? Because basically it involves a form of a publicity stunt.

In a world where every small business owner is clamoring for attention by customers, you need to stand out in the crowd. You need to create news. And to do that, you need to create a PR stunt.

A small newspaper publisher started a bicycle road race to promote his paper back in 1903. Now it’s the major bike race in the world: The Tour de France.

So do you want to get some attention? Follow these tips to create your own publicity stunt:

• Make it big. If you want to get noticed, you need to make sure it attracts a large following.
• Be creative. Think ‘outside the box’ and find something that resonates with your target market. Try a contest or even something that breaks a world record.
• Make sure you tell everyone it’s happening, including the media.
• Don’t forget to tell ‘em it’s you. Get your message and your logo out there… or what’s the point?

Want a PR pro to help create it for you? One of Shannon’s PR stunts got her client 1000 new subscribers in just 1 day. Grab a publicity breakthrough 30-minute or 60-minute session, to create an idea – and a complete publicity plan you’ll love.

You may have heard about NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems), a conference to help folks make money online using Internet and affiliate marketing. Social media was certainly all a-buzz about NAMS 3, which was held in Atlanta the last weekend of January.

And I was one of the lucky people who got to attend this sold-out event. (A sold-out live event is a rarity in these economic times.) I explain my reasons for going to NAMS in a previous post.

Sure, I can sell you a ‘ticket’ to the next NAMS event by singing its praises (and there are many praises to sing). However, there are some reasons why NAMS may not be for you.

My review of the event is below. I’ve even added some ideas to improve it for attendees. Let’s start with the really good stuff about NAMS.

• The hotel. Organizer David Perdew gets a great deal on the rooms for attendees. (I can’t remember the last time I paid less than $100 per night per room!) Plus there’s free wifi everywhere – which is still not true in most hotels I go to! The wait staff were very good, as well as the front desk folks.
• The beginner’s workshop. This workshop had a product that all the participants helped create. And what’s more they got to sell the product online, right at the event, and make money. That’s exciting stuff! There is no better way to learn than to actually do the work with tons of aides and experts right on hand to help. This was not only a great educational experience but real confidence booster for those just starting out.
• Off-the-record brainstorming. Folks in the advanced track room got to open up and be honest about their businesses without worrying about revealing too much that the world may hear later in a recording. That really helped the group bond! Plus, I was very proud to hear that one of my best practices in list building promotions that I shared struck a nerve with most of the advanced attendees. Be on the lookout for more list building promotions from these folks soon!
• It’s about the networking! Can I tell you how many amazing people I got to meet? I learned so much form my one-on-one time with so many people, it was worth the price of admission. I also learned almost everyone is willing to talk to you, but you need to be respectful of their time. I was approached a few times by people who interrupted conversations I was having with others.
• Instant course corrections! I was blown away by David’s unique method of taking feedback for the day and actually revising the schedule on the fly for the following day. I’ve been to more than 50 conferences and even put some on myself, and have never seen this done so effectively. So know that David really is on your side to make this work for you.

Knowing that the conference organizers act on constructive criticism to improve everyone’s experience, I do have a few negatives to report from my perspective.

• The hotel food. I know I listed some great things about the hotel, but the food at the hotel’s restaurant wasn’t that good, and even got many people sick. Twice I had to wait more than an hour for a meal–and that’s not good when you have meetings to get back to. To add insult to injury, instead of apologizing for the excessive delays, the restaurant managers were rude to the customers. When this problem is combined with a rule that you aren’t ‘allowed’ to bring in food from outside the hotel, it detracts from the overall experience.
• There’s a ‘hymnal’ on Sunday morning. Maybe I am overly sensitive about such things because my husband works at the UN to bring people of all beliefs together, but this made some feel uncomfortable. (There were people from several different countries and different faiths at this event.) Unfortunately, if you didn’t know there was going to be a religious singing event ahead of time, you were stuck there without escape. I suggest changing the selection to be more inclusive, or putting a list of songs on the schedule so people can make an informed choice about attending.
• If you don’t have a laptop, you’ll miss out. If you are in the beginner’s room, you’ll miss out on the product creation and selling if you don’t have access to a computer. Plus presentation slides and downloads from speakers, as well as the schedule, are only available online. (There was one printed schedule on the doors of the three classrooms, as well). It’s always going to be better with a laptop, but why make it harder than it needs to be for those without by not even passing out the schedule? Besides, I’m a paper person. I like having something to hold other than my laptop to refer to. Yes, I realize I could have printed the schedule at home, but I honestly thought it would be available at the event.
• There’s nothing as good as the beginners’ product creation for the other levels. I was mainly in the advanced room and also popped into the intermediate room twice. I found both not very advanced at all, although I did get great snippets from the presenters, (Nicole Dean was the highlight of the event for many advanced people, including me!) but nothing as amazing as creating a product! The main focus on the advanced room was outsourcing, a topic I think should go into the intermediate section as most folks in the room were already outsourcing pretty effectively. And my feelings were echoed by many people who felt the more advanced rooms weren’t what they had hoped for either.

There’s my honest take on NAMS. So if you think NAMS is right for you, mark you calendar for August 20-23. (And if you are truly committed to go now, I suggest buying your ticket at the reduced price while available!)

Ever wonder what makes us pick up the latest issue of a magazine when we had no intention of buying it? Journalists know that most people don’t plan to buy that newspaper or magazine.

They’re aware that they must grasp the person’s interest enough to make them want to buy it. And that means creating a headline that draws the reader in.

If you think back to the times when you’ve purchased a magazine and what
headlines were on the cover, you’ll understand that the method writers use
really works.

Here’s some ideas on creating attention-grabbing headlines:

Know your audience. Being able to identify your audience allows you to direct your message and make it more specific.

The more vague your headline is, the less your readers will feel like you’re speaking to them. Therefore, being aware of who is reading your target publications helps improve communication between you and your desired audience.

Make it instructive. Many people are looking for guidance and a lot of the time don’t know where to turn. This is where your headline comes in. Adding a “How to…”or “Top ways to…” tells your readers that in the article, you are about to inform them on their topic of interest. Since many writers use this particular method, you’ll have to get a bit more creative with your
headline.

State the unpredicted. If you’re having trouble coming up with a headline, think about some problems that are associated with a topic and try to look at the positive things that come from that matter.

For example a concern with working from home may be learning to keep business and personal life separate. By seeing the situation positively, you can present an unexpected ending with the following headline: You are your best boss: How working from home makes you work harder.

Using this particular method you are feeding into the curiosity of your readers and making them want to read more.

Present a debatable topic. Stating an issue in a headline must be done carefully. If not done properly, this can instigate conflict with some readers. You’ll want to clarify both sides of the topic in your release. However you’ll want to create a bold headline yet stay neutral at the same time, which will require some originality.

Ask a question. Everyone has questions that they’d like answers to, but not all people voice those questions out loud and not all of them are given answers. Here is where your expertise plays a vital role. You should be very
knowledgeable in the subject of your question and it may take some research but the more questions you answer, the higher the value is placed on your release and in the long run, on your business.

What headlines have worked for your press releases? I’d love to read your examples in the comments section!

It’s a fact: you’re competing with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people both online and offline. How to you stand out from everyone providing the same products or services you do?

It’s about uniqueness… Find out more in today’s Monday Media Marketing Minute.