Internet Marketing Made Easy

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. It’s a tremendous one here in beautiful downtown Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. 25 degrees Celsius 77 degrees Fahrenheit and not a cloud to be seen, and the same tomorrow. It makes you appreciate how lucky we are to be here to enjoy it.

I mentioned about three weeks ago how I’m trying to get back into the habit of reading for an hour a day. I’ve been doing pretty well with it but not perfectly. I’ve missed a few days and it’s taking me longer than I thought it would to finish this book by Robin Sharma I’ve been talking about, “The Greatness Guide”.

I’ve been really enjoying it and it’s full of great advice presented in an easy to read format, very straight forward. I’ve been writing about some of his advice and I hope you’re enjoying it because I find it helps me absorb it better after I read it and then write about it.

I would like to talk about as Sharma calls them those two magic words that I don’t believe any of us hear often enough, “Thank You.” Sharma talks about having had breakfeast one morning with a friend who had helped so many people in his organization reach their full potential and his friend said he could count on one hand the number of people who actually said “Thank You” for doing what you’ve done for me.

According to Gallup research the number one reason people leave their Employer’s to go to the competition is not because of the money, but because they felt unappreciated at their current workplace. Becaause no one said Thank You. Max Depree the former CEO of Herman Miller sagely observed: “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say Thank You.”

So today let’s take a minute to think about the people in your life who need to be cherished, appreciated and told that their support has been helpful. Offer a heartfelt and enthusiastic Thank You. Those two little words don’t cost anything. But they make a world of difference. (Excerpts from Robin Sharma’s “The Greatness Guide.”

Today I wanted to write about “Press Releases” and the tremendous impact they can have on any internet marketing strategy.

Press releases are media independent and they can use any format and any distribution means accepted by the media. They are a form of propaganda and are official statements issued by companies and organizations to print, television and radio media. They are written in order to promote a constructed image of a company to consumers who read these articles.

Press releases are often sent alone, by e-mail, fax or snail mail and are the most common form of Public Relations writing. They are kicked off with a headline, which is a catchy title designed to explain the news angle while at the same time grabbing journalists’ attention. Online press releases are the new PR strategy that stamp out boring, expensive, zero result advertising that cost money and delivers none.

Online releases are normal press releases that are distributed through the Internet and can be picked up by news sites, newspapers, online magazines, trade websites, blogs and e-mail newsletters. Press releases are by far one of the best marketing tools that remained viable to internet users throughout the years.

They are technically news items that can serve your marketing purposes as well by writing ads that have elements of straight news contained in the message. Online Press Releases are an important way to publicize your company’s newsworthy events on the Internet. They are meant to relay newsworthy information about a company, product, service or event.

Online press releases are one of the most cost effective and easiest ways to get your company name, product or service visible. They are most effective when sent out to target channels at least twice a month. Online releases are also a good way to integrate target words and phrases into the content so that your SEO consultant is accomplishing two tasks with one marketing strategy: keyword usage and promotion of the website.

They are an excellent way to communicate with potential clients and are often indexed by major search engines, such as Yahoo, MSN and Google. Online Press releases are carriers of your site’s message and they are an excellent way to build branding, credibility and to get tons of new visitors to your site through back links resulting from being published on websites that syndicate press releases.

Online releases are a great way to announce a new product or to report exciting developments in your industry. They are an important component of your internet marketing strategy because they are a cost effective method of extending your company’s message to a much wider audience. Releases can appear on the Google News and News Now news aggregation sites and may be submitted to social media sites.

Releases offer a convenient method of accurately transmitting the same information to many publications. They should be noteworthy and answer who, what, where, when, why and how, and can be developed in house or contracted out. Releases should not be longer than three pages and announcements that are more than one page in length should state more or continued on the bottom of the first page so that reporters look for the next page.

Releases are sent on the sponsoring organization’s letterhead with a date of release and a contact person’s name clearly listed at the top, along with a phone number where journalists can reach the contact.

Planning is essential in all phases of marketing with press releases. They are very effective marketing tools that you can use for promoting your web site or affiliate products, when done correctly. Schedule your press releases for the year and plan in advance an integrated “press release marketing campaign”. As with any marketing effort, after the content is distributed, it’s important to track effectiveness.

Not only are press releases an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers, they can easily be syndicated creating an excellent opportunity to attract incoming links. It’s important that your marketing time is productive and that your press releases actually generate publicity. Optimized press releases are an integral part of a successful Internet marketing strategy.

Bob Withers