Tag: how to promote your business

11 Ways To Maximize Any Publicity Your Business Gets

August 18, 2015 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

I always tell my clients that publicity may not transpire into the results they want right away, but it does offer a lot of opportunities for your business over time.

How to Turn Your Publicity Into MORE Publicity

Include the links to the article in your email signature with a call to action line such as, “Recently featured on the blog XYZ, read it here”. An email signature program such as WiseStamp will allow you to do this.
Add a link to the article in your website and/or shop’s About page, along with the line “Recently featured on the blog XYZ” to create credibility.
Add the mention to your website or shop banner.
Post to all of your social media sites, “We are honored to have our product featured this week on the XYZ blog” and be sure to tag the blog on all posts. They will likely share/retweet with their followers.
Go to the blog’s social media pages and post a message and/or comment on the post and thank them for including you.
Do the same on their Instagram and Pinterest pages, adding a comment, sharing and liking the post.
When you post/tweet the link to social media, also include the @Etsy or @Amazon tag (if you are an Etsy or Amazon store) in hopes that their social media people take note of your press and feel it is worth sharing on their social media sites.
Add any publicity you get to the back of your business card. This helps when handing it out to local shops for wholesale orders.
Approach a business writer at your local newspaper to see if you can turn this publicity into more publicity i.e. “Local business owner’s featured on XYZ blog”. Local press coverage will help to create interest among your local buyers as well as with local shops for wholesale offers.
Ask the blog if they have a “badge” or logo you can use on your site and in your marketing materials that says, “As seen on the XYZ blog”.
Include the mention and link in your monthly newsletter to customers.

Want me to write a pitch for you? Just see my very affordable Publicity Pitch Writing Service, for any type of product or business.

Try This Old Marketing Trick to Sell More Products and Services

August 6, 2015 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

I was in the drugstore yesterday and I saw an annual back to school favorite called the Teen Value Pack, which consists of 10 different skin and body care products from various brands packaged together in a box for a value price of $9.99 (retail value $42). Even though my kids may only need half the products in the packs (my son isn’t old enough to shave just yet), I still bought them because I felt like I was really just paying for one product and getting the rest for free.

The lesson here is that consumers love getting value for their money, and love getting many items at one expenditure almost feeling as if some were free. So, have you thought about bundling together your products and/or services?

There are a few advantages to this old marketing trick:

The customer might be more likely to go for the bundle because of the overall cost savings, allowing you to sell more product to one customer at one time, and hence make more money overall.
It is a good way to introduce new products and create future demand
You can take advantage of various selling occasions or events to create bundles or value sets around, such as Back to School, Having a Baby, Going on a Trip, New House, etc.

It can also be a way to quickly expand your customer base. Back when I was working for a computer software company, we wanted our customers to start buying the CD version of our software because it was much cheaper to produce. But a lot of people didn’t have CD-ROM drives in their computers (we’re going way back here). So the company bundled the CD version of the software with a top-notch CD-ROM drive (they worked out a deal with the manufacturer to buy them at a really good price). They packed the software and CD-ROM drive together in a box and called it the Blockbuster Bundle for the same price as buying the software on its own and they sold like hot cakes. Why not, it was a chance to essentially get a free CD-ROM drive. The end result was not only did we successfully get our customers to upgrade to CD-ROM, but we got a ton of new customers in the process.

So come up with a bundle that makes sense, offer it at a value price where you still make a decent profit, make it a limited time offer, and see what it does for your business.

No Sales? Get a Marketing Critique of Your Business for Just $99 and I’ll Tell You Why

My Latest Surefire Tip for Getting Publicity for Your Business

July 30, 2015 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Do you ever get frustrated trying to get publicity for your business with the media outlets specific to your industry? For example, fashion magazines are besieged with requests from vendors to use their products in editorial, so how good are your odds? But you do have other choices. Have you ever thought about stepping away from your industry’s mainstay magazines and blogs, and try a different approach?

Let’s say I owned a restaurant, I would typically be trying to get a review or included in articles from local magazines, lifestyle and travel blogs, and as such would be competing with many others for the same editorial. However, consider a story pitch that would work with a different type of publication and have the same effect.

For example, I was recently planning a trip to Boston and I searched on Google for “Top restaurants in Boston”. One of the articles that came up was from the business blog, Business Insider, entitled “The 10 Best Restaurants For A Business Lunch In Boston“. Do you see where I am going here? Would you normally expect to see restaurant suggestions in a business publication? But this article makes sense for this particular type of publication.

Maybe you have a pet products business. You are likely always targeting the pet-related media. However, earlier this year the men’s fashion magazine GQ ran an article called, “The Ultimate Dog Accessories for a Gentleman’s Best Friend“. Would you have thought to pitch to them?

If you own a resort or tourist-related business, I imagine you are always trying to get featured with the travel media. However, Time Magazine ran an article last summer entitled, “7 Great American Vacation Spots That Won’t Bust Your Budget” as part of their money feature, and it listed and linked to several hotels, restaurants, bars and attractions.

What if you sell beauty products and you have had no luck with the beauty editors at the popular beauty blogs. But did you know that Shape Magazine, which typically focuses on fitness-related editorial for women, also has regular beauty editorial, even an annual beauty awards?

I hope this gets you thinking about how you can increase your chances of getting publicity for your business by targeting non-industry media with a story relevant to their editorial.