Waking up Online Marketing Efforts

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Jeff Demers

Google and Wakefly are Waking up Online Marketing Efforts

Wakefly has been producing ongoing seminars throughout Massachusetts with the goal of enhancing marketing professionals’ knowledge and skill in the field of digital marketing.  Thanks to the success of past events, we have announced two new workshops that will be held in the Waltham area this September and October.

Individuals and organizations are invited to join us for two workshops that are sure to be enlightening— AdWords 101: Creating Success Using Pay-Per-Click Advertising and AdWords 201: Advanced Pay-Per-Click Advertising.

The first workshop, AdWords 101, is tailored to beginners, as well as anyone who wants an AdWords refresher course in order to get more from their online advertising investment.  Attendees can expect to learn much more than what it seems we’d be able to fit into just two hours.  In fact, the list of topics ranges from targeting the right audience, to creating powerful ads that sell, to tracking results using Google Analytics.

AdWords 201, is geared toward the more advanced online marketing professional who wants to achieve a more predictable ROI.  During this three hour workshop, attendees will learn, among other topics:  the psychology of choosing keywords, advanced techniques for ad copy and creative, and keeping tabs on the competition.

We are really jazzed about these workshops, especially since they will be led by our very own Jeff Demers, Director of Search Engine Marketing, who also happens to be a Google Certified Trainer.  In fact, multiple Google experts will be on hand for a powerful Q&A session and to address individual Google account questions or concerns.

In order to make it easier for those interested to attend, we’re offering both workshops on two different dates: September 22 and October 11.  The cost is only $99 for AdWords 101 and $149 for AdWords 201. However, if you register to attend both workshops, you’ll receive a $49 discount, for a total of only $199 for both.  As with our previous events, a sell-out is expected.  Registration is required, so make sure to sign up today.

Details:

AdWords 101: September 22, 2011; 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

October 11, 2011; 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

AdWords 201: September 22, 2011; 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

October 11, 2011; 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Location: Hilton Garden Inn Waltham; 420 Totten Pond Road; Waltham, MA 02451

Phone: 1-781-890-0100

Registration Fee: $99 for AdWords 101; $149 for AdWords 201; $199 if attending both

Registration: To register for either workshop on 9-22-11, visit: www.regonline.com/googleadwordssuccess101walthamma_995158

To register for either workshop on 10-11-11, visit:

http://www.regonline.com/googleadwordssuccess101201walthamma

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Creating User Specific, Editable BizForms

Posted on September 9, 2011 by ddorazio

Creating User Specific, Editable BizForms In Kentico

In this article I’ll show you how to create a special type of BizForm that will allow each user to edit their specific form data over and over. When a user returns to a page that has the BizForm on it, their data will be automatically loaded from the BizForm table.

This is a simple and easy way to store per user data, without mucking with the System Tables which aren’t intended to store this type of data.

Read my full article here.

About the Author
John Bubriski is a Senior Software Developer who has been with Wakefly for 3 years.  John develops websites and web applications for clients, mainly using C# and ASP.NET. He’s a certified Kentico and SiteCore developer and is Wakefly’s certified Kentico trainer.

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How to Sell Online Marketing Programs

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Jeff Demers

How to Sell Online Marketing Programs and Budgets to Corporate Chiefs

Whether it is labor, operations or marketing, the first sell of any budget for these business sectors or departments is the company’s big chiefs:  CEO, CIO and/or CFO.  The challenge for the chief marketing officer (CMO) when developing and presenting any marketing program and budget, including the online portion, is to convince the big chiefs that marketing is an investment, rather than an expenditure, that is returned in the form of increased revenue.  There are a number of strategies and initiatives that the CMO can take to change the boss’ mindset.

1. Presenting Optional Budgets.

A CMO is more likely to receive approval of his or her preferred online marketing budget if the CEO is provided with contrasting budgets to compare their revenue-generating power.  The first should always respond to the CEO’s instructions, while the second (or even third) shows how much more ROI is possible with a larger, or different, investment.

2. Identifying the Revenue Sequence.

Pinpointing the exact effect of an online marketing budget, in terms of ROI, is no easier than any traditional media.  There are plenty of metrics about what happened, but none will predict what will specifically happen in advance of implementing the program and spending the money.  What a CMO can do is identify the company’s revenue sequence and the progress of prospects through that sequence.  This will also help the CMO to identify specific online marketing opportunities that are tied to prospects’ movement.

A company should be able to establish reliable metrics for most stages of its sales, or revenue, sequence:  What percentage of prospects was converted to paying customers during which stages.  That data become benchmarks for both the sales team and the CMO.  As each stage is identified, it is also important to recognize the drivers, or reasons, that propel prospects from one stage to the next.

Such an exercise creates a “big picture” view for the CMO of the revenue sequence so he or she can determine where active marketing efforts will have the most impact on increasing sales at those stages.  Now, the CMO has the kind of numbers to justify an alternative online marketing budget that costs more but generates larger revenue numbers which is the ultimate goal of the big chiefs and the yardstick by which they approve budgets.  When the CMO can prepare and present marketing budgets with this process and then deliver the projected revenue numbers, he or she has solidified his or her position in the company and is able to operate the department with more autonomy and control.

3. Creating a Better Model of Online Marketing Operations.

Another component of successfully selling an online marketing budget to the CEO et al is to reinvent the online marketing department.  This is necessary so the company can be more competitive in that effort and affect the revenue stream as the CMO predicted (promised) during the budget presentation.

Too many companies have made the commitment to interactive media but haven’t sufficiently staffed the effort.  More importantly, they are still too channel-centric instead of customer-centric, which is the essential advantage that interactive media promises.  In a December 2010 Forrester Research survey of U.S. interactive marketing executives, 30 percent of the respondents (companies with more than $500 million in revenue) stated their interactive marketing departments had fewer than 15 staff members.  The survey also found that only 20 percent of larger companies had more than 100 employees in online marketing.

Many companies find the best solution to be utilizing outside online marketing experts whose sole focus is on online marketing.  Wakefly offers many of these solutions.  Check out our Marketing on Demand information to find out more.

Gaining approval for an online marketing budget from the executive staff involves more than just the numbers, data and dollars.  It’s also developing a sufficiently staffed and well-trained online marketing department that is able to convert more of the custom content and customer interactions into the revenue projected in the CMO’s budget.

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Google Place Pages

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Jeff Demers

Google Place Pages—Examining the Effect of Google’s Content Limitation Decision on Small Businesses

For many kinds and sizes of businesses, especially small businesses, a Google Place Page has become a significant component of their Internet marketing, especially since so many consumers search for local businesses online.  A company’s Google Place Page doesn’t just provide location and contact information.  It is also where customers can find photos, videos and in-depth content about that company.  Some of that in-depth content is in the form of reviews and ratings.  Local businesses rely on what others say about them to help attract new customers and retain current ones.

With Google’s announcement in late July 2011 that it would cease copying content from other Internet sources to include on its customers’ Place Pages, a conundrum has occurred.  Local businesses will no longer benefit from that third-party content which Google has added or linked to their Place Pages.  However, Google’s competitors, such as Yelp, are pleased that the search-engine giant is no longer taking content from them that their users originally created.  To succeed in the shadow of Google, review sites like Yelp must be able to post exclusive reviews and ratings that don’t also appear on Google Place Pages or any other search engine.

Digital, computer and Internet technologies may be powerful forces and important tools in modern life, but they are still in their infancy from a historical perspective. It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, that some companies are able to acquire a much greater share of the marketplace than might be the case 100 years from today.  The same phenomenon occurred during the early years of the railroad, oil, steel and automobile industries, to name the most obvious.  A few individuals/companies dominated those industries until the government and the law decided they were competing unfairly and stepped in to regulate their hold on the market.

The antitrust case filed against Microsoft by the U.S. Department of Justice and other nations more than 10 years ago is a more recent example of the government’s willingness to regulate big business to achieve fairness in the marketplace.  Microsoft simply pursued the opportunities presented to it in a wide-open industry, the implications of which the government didn’t understand at first.  The situation may not have been quite as dramatic but Microsoft had to be shown the limits of its business, just as the railroad tycoons and oil and steel barons of the 19th century had to be corralled to create a fairer, more even playing field.

With the 2010 antitrust probe of Google by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission decided to initiate its own investigation during June 2011. Like Microsoft, Google has allowed its entrepreneurial zeal to take it in whatever directions the industry has grown.  Its growth isn’t necessarily about being a bad guy, but just too big of a guy to maintain a healthy, competitive economic environment.

For instance, the U.S. Department of Justice recently approved Google’s purchase of ITA.  It manufactures travel-data software many travel sites use, so their customers can quickly search for the latest airline seating and pricing.  To receive that approval, Google had to agree to a number of restrictions and a specific structuring of its business, and any future online travel site it might launch, that would protect the interests of its competitors that rely on ITA software.

Many of Google’s critics think the company (and the government) has only taken a small step to limit the practice of copying content from its competitors’ sites and services. Those critics state that Google continues to take other content and hasn’t yet said that it will remove content it may have copied in the past.  Until the digital world reaches an age of maturity, as the unregulated new businesses of the 19th century and early 20th century had 100 to 150 years ago, there will be many voices asking their governments for relief from industry domination of companies, such as Microsoft and Google, and others yet unknown.

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Wildcard URL’s in Kentico

Posted on August 31, 2011 by ddorazio

A little known feature in Kentico is the ability to have “Wildcard URL’s”. Wildcard URL’s are essentially the ability to route multiple URL’s to the same page. It’s similar to the routing features in ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET 4.0.

In this post I’ll show you how to setup complex wildcard URLs in Kentico and it will require zero programming!

Read my full article here.

About the Author
John Bubriski is a Senior Software Developer who has been with Wakefly for 3 years.  John develops websites and web applications for clients, mainly using C# and ASP.NET. He’s a certified Kentico and SiteCore developer and is Wakefly’s certified Kentico trainer.

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Content that Drives Sales

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Jeff Demers

With the rapid growth of the Internet as the “ultimate” content portal, content is one of the new drivers of sales performance. Providing the right content to the right person helps capture leads and transform them into paying customers.

Marketing is the group at the wheel when it comes to creating and delivering content. Marketers must be able to identify and communicate with prospects, according to their role or profession, to pinpoint targeted verticals and to determine what specific content attracts and captures prospects that the sales staff can then work. This requires the use of sophisticated marketing automation and analytics technology so the marketing department has creditable data about prospects’ Internet experiences. Marketers then know what kind of content to create that will most likely provide prospects with the information that relates specifically to the problem(s) they are trying to solve.

For one company, simply being more active with the technology of LinkedIn resulted in 10 times the number of average leads per week. The company went from a passive listener communicating occasionally with other members to a proactive marketer creating articles, case studies and white papers that were matched with specific members. Another effective LinkedIn tactic that is working for this company is participating in existing discussions and forums. This has generated leads that request direct communications with the company’s social marketer. Those online conversations draw prospects closer and create opportunities for the marketer to provide prospects with the free content that will draw them even closer and eventually to the sales department.

A critical component of a company’s high-performance content engine is the capability to identify which content contributed to generating which leads and sales. Again, it’s a mix of marketing and various technologies that allows a company to track the efficacy of all of its content as well as making that content available to the sales team. Not only will this help salespeople to reinforce the brand, but also to present the specific sales conversion content that marketing knows works.

Another marketer has discovered that content developed for a specific campaign has a much longer shelf life than the campaign run. The lesson here is that content shouldn’t be “siloed” in this manner but become part of the general resources a company provides online. That content can continue to generate leads and sales from an entirely new audience without the need to mount another campaign.

For many companies, a particular content-management challenge is reconnecting with opt-in email subscribers that have become passive: no longer opening or responding to email campaigns. There are a number of relatively simple tactics that can reactivate those subscribers and develop them into solid leads.
• Match visits to the company’s Web site with the opt-in subscriber list. Someone may not be paying attention to emails, but continues to visit the site, presumably looking for specific information. Now the marketer knows what subject is of current interest to the subscriber, which can then be referenced in a custom email message. That email could also include new or additional content related to the topic.

• Try and try again. If the content of the unopened emails is both excellent and has proven to drive leads and sales, then a marketer can send them again. There are numerous reasons that those messages may not have penetrated the first time and many are beyond the control of a marketing department and its content-management tools and technologies. Reconnections are also more likely if those previous emails are resent with new subject lines, perhaps using words and/or phrases that have worked during recent campaigns.

• Examine the last email(s) the inactive subscriber opened. There is apt to be a hint about what topic(s) previously attracted his or her attention. A marketer can build on the subscriber’s earlier interest and send a custom email with content that goes deeper into the topic.

From an online marketing department’s perspective, it’s easy to declare that content is king; however, it only reigns when marketers are able to identify the exact content that matches the needs of the prospects and then have the tools and technologies in place to deliver that content.

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Demystifying Online Marketing Budgets

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Jeff Demers

It’s not surprising that many companies are confused about how to use and budget the Internet as a marketing medium. For example, in a March 2011 American Express poll, small and medium size businesses (SMBs) responded that social media was their Internet marketing tactic of choice, but many think search engine marketing does a better job. The same poll reveals that 25 percent of respondents “don’t intend to implement any online marketing efforts for my business during 2011.” Since the Internet has become as ubiquitous a public medium as any has ever been (and quite likely quicker), it’s difficult to understand why one-quarter of the businesses responding to the American Express poll would allow their competitors such an advantage.

Online marketing budget allocation is a function of the size and organization of a business. In another recent survey conducted by Altimeter Group of companies with more than 1,000 employees, it was determined that the average spending on social media during 2011 will be approximately $1 million. The survey defined some of those companies as “advanced users”: formal social media programs, dedicated teams and line items in their budgets and more than two and a half years managing social media activities. These companies were expected to spend an average of $1.86 million on social media during 2011. More of those “advanced users” are B2B companies, compared to B2Cs.

How these “advanced users” plan to allocate that $1.86 million is an important lesson for many businesses trying to demystify their online marketing budgets. The three major line items for “advanced users” are internal soft costs, customer-contact programs and investment in custom technology. These companies know that the quality and effectiveness of social interaction via the Internet depends on their staff and training, which is why just less than $500,000 will be allocated for those soft costs.

These companies also plan to spend almost three times more of their online marketing budgets with boutique marketing agencies than traditional agencies. “Advanced users” are also keenly aware that their budgets can no longer be as effective as possible and deliver a maximum ROI with standard technology. That’s why they are committed to spending approximately $760,000 of that $1.86 million on customizing the social media technology they use. These include technology development, community platforms, brand-monitoring platforms, social CRM and management of social publishing.

At the level of small to medium size businesses (small being less than 100 employees, medium being less than 500), the focus of online marketing budgets is somewhat different. The same American Express poll also reveals what online marketing tactics SMBs plan to add during 2011 and why their choices are not necessarily the best. For example, the respondents to this survey rank traditional SEO fourth on the list of what they’ll add to their online marketing mix, but beyond basic SEO content to compete locally, this tactic is not as important for SMBs as it is for large companies.

They also think Internet display advertising is a good use of their budgets (ranks sixth). These same companies rank rich local listings, such as Google Places, as ninth on the list, when in reality, this is one of the important tactics for SMBs because so many local consumers search for a store, product or service via mobile devices. Many of the respondents to the American Express poll are making wiser choices when they rank “social media” and “mass email” as second and third on their lists of the tactics they will implement during 2011.

For those small and medium size businesses that operate multiple locations, especially retail, in one or more markets, there are a number of other online marketing tactics that are important budgetary items. For example, sponsored local ads will continue to fortify SMBs with well-established brands and many stores, as well as driving more traffic from free local listings. Plus, those companies selling local ads, such as Superpages, Insiderpages and CitySearch, are more likely to “discount” a significant buy.

Franchise operations often find PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns very effective as measured by cost per acquisition. Individual franchisees can implement these campaigns especially if they have marketing budgets to manage; or corporate can initiate PPC campaigns based on geographic areas which are then part of the corporate online marketing budget.

Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst, may have demystified the future of online marketing budgets best when she stated, “…a substantial portion of marketers’ expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales. Paid advertising will not be the primary focus, but it will serve to drive traffic and engagement with the larger social network presence.”

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Billboards Have a Future in the Digital Age

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Jeff Demers

Billboards and other outdoor media methods have been ubiquitous forms of advertising since before the first automobile. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, the earliest known billboard rentals occurred during 1867, while the classic Burma Shave continuous-message signs first appeared during 1925. Today, many advertisers, especially those targeting consumers, still rely on billboards to attract motorists and pedestrians’ attention to those companies’ products. Some experts claim that outdoor advertising is the only true public media, since the public doesn’t have much of a choice, as they do with print, broadcast (radio and TV) and even the internet.

Billboards Have a Future in the Digital AgeEven after decades of use and improvements, advertisers are still challenged to create designs and messages that viewers can recognize and register on their brains within a few seconds. The “golden rule” of outdoor media is six words, six seconds. Traffic moves so fast, and the public is bombarded with so many advertising messages, that an effective billboard must communicate its message in very few words and within a very short period of time. In many instances, billboards on interstate highways are visible, readable and must be remembered in fewer than six seconds.

It comes as no surprise that many advertisers break this golden rule constantly. Of course, this goal is often somewhat easier if the advertiser is branding a product that is generally well known or easily available. The golden arches logo communicates “McDonalds” without using the actual name of the restaurant. Plus, a billboard of a well-known brand often doesn’t need any contact information, such as an address, phone number or Web site URL. Many experts cite research that seems to suggest that billboard viewers remember an URL better than a phone number. Thus outdoor advertisers were some of the first to develop tie ins between the use of billboards and web-based advertising; and it has worked well in many cases.

Now, outdoor advertising has taken a major leap forward with a new category of billboards currently being installed in Japanese malls. Based on technology developed by NEC, these new billboards utilize facial recognition software to identify a shopper’s gender, ethnicity and age. It’s accurate 85–90 percent of the time. Integrated with a database of content, the billboard automatically selects and displays a message that is targeted to the specific shopper viewing the board. Advertisers, of course, understand immediately the implication of such technology because it brings them closer to what is important about virtually any form of advertising: the number of impressions and the outcome of those impressions (Did the viewer purchase a product?) and ROI. Is the advertising method paying for itself?

An example of even more advanced technology is the digital mirror, a new software application designed to combine social media with a customer’s in-store experience. One such mirror is Yeahpoint’s MiMirror, introduced at the 2011 Digital Signage World Exposition. MiMirror is more than a mere mirror (think jewelry, clothing, eyewear, etc.) in which a customer views and decides if an item is appropriate for him or her. Instead, MiMirror allows a customer checking how a particular item looks in the mirror to be able to contact friends for advice and feedback.

Of course, technology of this nature often raises privacy issues in the West, which is why Japan is an excellent test market. The Japanese tend to be less concerned about what large companies may know about their buying habits. Western audiences, however, like to protect their privacy a bit more, and thus, are more likely to reject NEC’s claims that since its system does not store customers’ faces, but only data, such as age and gender, the technology is not intrusive or violates anyone’s privacy. Some early testing indicates that conversion rates with these systems increase by more than 15 percent.

Regardless of the sci-fi nature of the latest billboard technologies, experts say the most important factor is not the IT or software, but the content, just as it was for the very first billboards. Virtually as important is the total integration of all parts of such systems: the location, time, image, sound, emotions conveyed, and even in some instances the scent (perfumes, food, etc.) these billboards can eject into the surrounding air. As one speaker at the 2011 Digital Signage World Expo advised, “There are five requirements to sustain digital signage successfully: It must engage the user without alienating the sales staff; it must make business sense; it must be valuable to the venue; it must be integrated with the entire business; and it must provide a ROI.” As much as outdoor advertising has and will change, its purpose and goals remain the same.

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Collateral Marketing Materials at the Speed of the Internet

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Jeff Demers

Collateral marketing materials in the form of sales brochures, product sheets, white papers, etc., have long been important aids to most B2B marketing and sales. Traditional B2B advertising methods were designed to target a company’s primary audience(s) with messages about the most important benefits of its products and services. Such messages (often consisting of a one-page ad, sales letter, etc.) were intended to generate interest in those products and services, so when the company’s salespeople contacted prospective and existing customers, they would have some pre-knowledge of what the company offered.

However, a major limitation of traditional B2B advertising is that such messaging often didn’t have the capacity to inform a company’s target audience about the details of its products and services (especially complex equipment with many specifications). Collateral marketing materials were then employed at the point of contact (typically as a physical sales call) to provide prospective and existing customers with additional information that would help them better understand the products or services being offered, which in turn, helped salespeople close more sales. If a sale wasn’t made during this initial contact, then salespeople would regularly send customers more collateral pieces to maintain their contacts and hopefully convince customers to buy in the future.

Collateral Marketing Materials at the Speed of the Internet | WakeflyOf course, it should come as no surprise that traditional collateral marketing tended to comprise a significant portion of a company’s total marketing/advertising budget. Multiple pieces were required, especially if a company sold scores or hundreds of individual parts and components. In addition, quantities in the thousands, of each piece, were printed to achieve economies of scale. They were then stored and managed in a physical “document library.” Salespeople generally had to be located where the collateral marketing materials were stored or wait for them to be shipped to wherever they were working.

Collateral marketing materials are still important aids for many companies, but many have converted the process to a Web-based system. There are many benefits of bringing collateral marketing materials into the digital age.

Materials no longer need to be printed in vast quantities. Salespeople print the pieces as needed (on-demand printing) or, better yet, the piece remains digital and is included as part of an email campaign or an attachment in an email to a client for whom a salesperson has already established a relationship.

  • Materials no longer have to be stored in a physical space. Salespeople can locate and access the collateral at any time, often through a company’s cloud.
  • The contents of collateral marketing materials can easily be revised. In the past, each revision would cause a company to discard all the outdated printed quantities, which was both costly and a waste of paper (read trees).
  • Although a person still must be assigned to the management of the collateral marketing materials in digital form, he or she can do so from any computer. No longer does this person have to work as a “librarian,” keeping a document room clean and organized, doing regular inventory, ordering more quantities to be printed and fulfilling requests from off-location salespeople for a specific set of materials in specific quantities.
  • A digitized system for storing and distributing collateral marketing materials essentially levels the playing field, since the smallest company is no longer faced with large printing and distribution costs. This allows them to operate lean and compete with larger companies.

Today, many companies place their collateral marketing materials in their document management system, or enterprise content management (ECM). ECM typically includes all documents and data that relate to a company’s total operations.

The effect of the rapid development of the digital component of content management is evident in the changing definition of ECM, as provided by The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) International, the worldwide organization for enterprise content management. As recently as late 2005, it defined ECM as follows:

“Enterprise content management is the technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes.”

By early 2010, this statement had been expanded significantly:

“Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM covers the management of information within the entire scope of an enterprise whether that information is in the form of a paper document, an electronic file, a database print stream or even an email.”

The trend is clear that most, or all, printed materials in any form (including newspapers and magazines) will eventually disappear, and probably sooner than predicted. Regardless of size, the quicker a company migrates their traditional collateral marketing materials to a digital form and distribution system, the more money it will save and the more competitive it will become.

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A Shift from Traditional to Online Media

Posted on June 17, 2011 by demersj0

When PR (public relations) is mentioned, people typically think about traditional media relations: working with television, radio and print outlets to obtain a glowing story on one’s company or product. Everyone wants a positive recommendation from a trustworthy source—that leads to more business, higher profits and a faster ticket to the good life. However this constant jockeying for product or company exposure means that the news outlets are bombarded with stories via news releases, pitch letters, calendar announcements and media alerts.

Merging Tradiional PR with Online PR | WakeflyNow, take a step back from the maelstrom of traditional PR tactics . . . what are you doing right now? You are reading this blog on the Internet. How much of your news and information is coming from online resources?

According to Pew Research’s State of the News Media 2011, 46 percent of people say they get news online at least three times a week—considering that statistic, it’s no wonder that newsrooms have shrunk 30 percent in the last decade. Today, 47 percent of people also say they get some form of their local news on a mobile device.

What makes media coverage credible is its integrity—a third party endorsement of a product is generally free of bias. Unlike advertising that is paid for (PR), third party coverage can be extremely valuable to an organization. Just look at the number of products that had skyrocketing sales after an appearance on the Oprah show!

So, how do you best utilize online channels for free PR? Today, reaching out to news outlets includes email submission of pitch letters and press releases.

Press releases are vital to your success online. Not only do they encourage more credibility for your business, but they also encourage backlinks to your website. With these additional links, your business website will rank higher in Google rankings, which encourages more website visitors. All of this attention from a well-written press release allows you to build and to strengthen your company’s brand awareness on the Internet.

Many publications separate the print or traditional editor from the online editor, so it is important to know which editor to contact when submitting your organization’s latest news via email. Of key importance is gaining the reporter’s attention with an attention-catching subject line. The information contained within the body of the email should include a short pitch letter to entice the editor, reporter or news director to pick up your story by suggesting how it ties into a recent story or how the news would be of interest to the readers. Press releases should be incorporated within the body of the email. Be sure to have a link to your website in the article. Additional material like photos, charts and other information should be accessible in your organization’s online newsroom or sent upon request to the media.

When writing the press release, make sure it is newsworthy. Don’t try to promote every little step your company takes; those small events are unlikely to be picked up as a news story. Use a release for the announcement of an event, personnel changes, new product lines, quarterly earnings or new partnerships. The key to getting good coverage is multiple follow-ups and creative approaches.

With traditional media, it may take several weeks or even months to see the resulting story. Online coverage is practically immediate, with some outlets picking up stories the same day they receive them. Your news items may appear on the first page of your company’s results within days. Well covered articles also help with search engine optimization (SEO) by getting higher visibility in the search engine ranking results (i.e. top of Google, Yahoo or Bing), which means more people will read that article and then visit your site.

Press releases may also reach the media through a distribution service. Although there are free online press release distribution services, paid online distribution services are extremely effective and relatively inexpensive. Sent at the $200 level, a recent press release went to 2,264 media outlets; received 475,369 impressions; and had eight solid pages of Google results of media outlets that had picked it up.

Some companies combine the two strategies in getting the word out, using both an in-house list of PR contacts and a distribution service to maximize the possibilities.

Today, PR can have a great impact on your bottom line — even more than advertising. A recent blog in the Harvard Business Review discussed how even Coca Cola is shifting dollars from advertising impressions to online expressions to reach their markets. How will you incorporate online PR into your marketing strategy? Are you ready to make the shift?

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