Promotion and Public Relations Guide and Advice

Getting Your Website Seen at the Right Time, by the Right People, at the Right Price.

Public Relations

Public relations or PR is the activity of gaining positive coverage via third-party references and endorsements without direct payment for that coverage. If your promotional message “comes from” a third party, it can be seen to have more credibility and can be the best referral source to new customers. PR can be less expensive than other forms of communications, particularly when compared to advertising, but it is dependent on newsworthy timing and can be a full time task to control.

Offline Promotion

It's all about getting the balance right. If your business is new and is in need of gaining exposure in the communities that it is trying to serve, then clearly while online promotion efforts are being executed, it would be beneficial as an example for you to purchase long-term exposure (repetition) through classified ads in a local business paper at low cost. This would provide weekly or daily print exposure with an opportunity to have your website address prominently displayed in the classified ads. The correct promotional mix can double the chance of exposure in both online and offline efforts. Get the mix right by combining online and offline promotion efforts to work together and create results.

Copywriting

It can be difficult to get your message across when you have limited space, but remember that short copy can act as the glue that holds your marketing activities together. If every button on your menu, every ad, every link isn't as compelling and effective as it can be, you're not going to get the results you're hoping for, be it more sales, more subscriptions, more referrals, etc.

Here are some tips for copywriting that can be followed for even the shortest of copy to guarantee you always make the most profitable use of the little space you have.

1. Benefits, not Features

Try to always emphasise your product's or service's benefits, not features.

A feature is one of the components or functions of your product or service. For example, if you design websites that have the facility to be edited directly by clients, via their web browser, that's a feature--not a benefit.

A benefit is something your product or service will do for your buyer to somehow offer a solution to a problem. So if your website solutions make it easy for clients to keep their sites copy updated whenever they want to, without having to contact support, send files, or use extra software, then you've got yourself a benefit!

An online mortgage company advertising "real-time mortgage calculations" is advertising a feature of their site; however, if they write, "Avoid wasting time haggling at the bank with our real-time mortgage calculator," then they're advertising a benefit.

Emphasizing benefits is the number-one most overlooked rule of copywriting, and this lack of emphasis is one of the top reasons advertising falls flat. Short copy is no exception--and you don't need a lot of room to do it right.

2. Know Your Audience

You must write to a targeted audience. The fact is, your product or service is not going to appeal to everyone. And if you try to market it to everyone, you'll wind up with far fewer sales than if you choose a select group to direct your copy to. So once you've defined your target market, you need to turn your attention toward making sure your copy addresses them directly.
For example, let's look at pay-per-click advertising. Let's say you bid 20 pence per click in Overture.com for the key phrase "classical wedding music". Because you pay every time someone clicks through this link, whether they purchase from you or not, you want to make sure that your ad carefully targets your best potential customers.

Given that you're targeting people who want to find the right wedding music for their wedding service, you'd want to make sure your ad includes this vital piece of information. That way, you can be sure you won't waste money on people searching for "classical music cd"! And if you bid 30 pence per click for the key phrase "classical music," you'd want to make sure to write an ad that clearly states that your site features music for wedding services, so you don't waste your advertising money on people wanting to find out more on the history of classical music.

By writing a separate ad for each of your keywords that carefully targets your market, you'll ensure that you attract the most buyers for the least cost.

3. A Call to Action

You must include a call to action, you must determine exactly what action you want people to take, and you must provide a reason why people should take that action.

It's important to understand that all copy, if possible, should contain a call to action that clearly identifies what action is desired. Think about the buttons on your site menu. Each one is a call to action. And they're all very important. If they're not as direct as possible, telling visitors specifically what to do, they'll be useless.

For example, if you have a button labeled "Sales," you could be at risk of confusing your visitors, leaving them guessing whether you're referring to product sales (i.e., online ordering), products that are on sale (i.e., specials or discounts), or maybe the opportunity to sell your product (i.e., merchandising opportunities). But your visitors won't guess for long - why would they bother? They'll just leave your site.

If you change the button copy from "sales" to "order online," you're now asking visitors to take an action - to order your product. This clarifies the purpose of the button and tells the visitor what to do to get your product. Another example: Instead of writing "E-mail," you could ask visitors to "Contact Us." Again, you're asking visitors to take a specific action.

You won't always be able to include a call to action in every button; you won't always have the space. Your best bet in this case is to be as clear as possible.

4. Layout

You must pay attention to layout. Making the most of your layout is especially important when you're writing short copy. The right blend of emphasis and information is the best way to attract viewers. Don't underestimate the effectiveness of graphic design and copy layout.

On the other hand, too little emphasis leaves you in danger of never catching anyone's eye. If copy is totally boring, no one will ever even see it - and if they somehow do, they probably won't look at it long enough to find out what it's about.

Remember: No amount of copy is so small that it can be overlooked. Every link, button, banner and classified ad is either making or breaking your marketing campaign as we speak.

Press Release

A press release should be concise and to the point. The main goal is to direct "traffic" to your web site. A well written header, clear wording the company's contact details are the most important things to remember to include in your press release. We create well-written press releases for many of our clients and can provide press release packs that can help you create your own press releases.

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