by Chip Cooper
Posted on July 1, 2010

Read more: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/General/Proposed-Online-Shoppers-Confidence-Act-Huge-Impact-on-eCommerce-Membership-Sites.html#ixzz0spe33A32

Having well-written material that is relevant to your business can not only be used to draw new customers in, but can help establish your company’s credibility.  Choosing appropriate and interesting topics for your target market will give you a leg up in attracting new clients.  Also, by producing articles that have informative and professional content and sending them through the media, your company will be deemed the expert.  This will allow you to better create the image that you want for your business.

PR can also give the perception that your company is active and constantly moving forward.  Occasional press releases are a great way to spread public awareness on any related events happening with your business.  They can also be helpful if ever needing to manage a crisis happening within your industry.  PR tends to be much more effective than other forms of marketing communications like advertising, especially when trying to relay an important message.

As a new, up-and-coming form of communication, PR is a fast and effective way to reach large audiences.  You’ll have a much easier time reaching your target market through extensive media coverage, and with different, but relevant, content you’ll be able to better reach out to new clientele.  Circulating new blog posts and articles each week or month is a relatively easy way to socialize with new and old clients and business connections.

Online PR can be especially helpful in spreading awareness.  By using key words in your website content and a strong site structure, you’ll be able to heighten your search engine rankings and improve your online presence.  Having authority content online can also better connect you with other websites associated with relevant and quality businesses.  It’s a great way to increase the flow of traffic to your company or keep it at an all time high.

Though you may have to work with a PR specialist to get your desired results, the amount of media coverage you’ll get is well worth the dollars spent.  You’ll have a flexible and efficient way of communicating with different markets that other forms of advertising have a hard time accomplishing.  Different media like newspapers, magazines, and online databases don’t charge for publishing your articles, so you’ll be gaining mass coverage for next to nothing.

Overall, Public Relation’s is a less expensive form of paid communication that can leave you with a controlled image of your company and a positive public perception.  Companies that rely on PR for getting their message across often reach their initial goals quickly and without complaint.  If you’re looking to give your business a boost, consider taking a dive into the world of PR, and discover a new market of opportunity.

Need help with your PR strategy?  Contact LuCorp Marketing.

Sales of consumer staples tell us a lot about consumers’ bottom lines. And these days, with Americans paying extra for quality tissue, a soft landing may be in sight.

See this great article at MSN from Anthony Mirhaydari

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn-how-to-invest/your-toilet-paper-and-the-recovery.aspx

Pets in the Classroom would be just another website without the potent

outreach afforded by social media sites. Since teaming up with LuCorp Marketing

of Phoenix, AZ, PIC has gone viral through Facebook, teacher blogs, online article

distribution services and other social media sites.

Cindy Woudenberg of LuCorp initially analyzed the Pets in the Classroom website

for keywords that Google and other search engines would find when someone

searched for information on pets and classroom grants. Next, information about PIC

was distributed to hundreds of grant sites for public schools and on teacher blog

sites. Articles on the PIC program were sent to sites such as www.edutopia.org and

www.teacherlingo.com that are frequented by teachers. A Pets in the Classroom

blog was added to the PIC website to allow for two-way communications between

the Trust and teachers.

The net result of all of this activity has been an explosion of grant requests

from teachers. From fewer than 40 grant requests received before social media marketing

was implemented in March, we have received more than 300 requests in the

two months since. “This has been an eye-opening experience for me,” commented

Pet Care Trust Executive Director Steve King. “The increased exposure that social

media tools have provided this program has been astounding, and we have spent

relatively little money making it happen, leaving more funds for teacher grants.”

I, for one, enjoyed playing PacMan again!  I hope Google keeps this up for the week for all to enjoy!

With the popularity of Facebook continuing to surge, Facebook ads have become a uniquely effective way to advertise online.  The ad appears on the sidebar of user’s Facebook page, and includes a headline which is hyper-linked to your website or Facebook page, an image, 135-character message, and a spot that displays Facebook connections who “like” the ad as well as a “like” button for those who view the ads to weigh in as advocates.

Facebook ads can be targeted in a number of different ways: age, gender, marital status, geographic area by country, state or city; education level and even selected schools, and interests.  So if you were opening a fitness center in Phoenix with a target market of busy corporate executives, you could select men aged 30-55 within 25 miles of Phoenix who are college graduates and have listed fitness as an interest in their Facebook profile.

Facebook is now offering a beta version of ad tracking, which reports on the number of views and the number of click-throughs on your ad.  Not getting the results you want?  You can edit your ad at any time to tweak it and improve results. The cost of the ads is based on bidding for either cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM).  CPC is recommended when your goal is actual purchases or registrations, while CPM is great for just increasing exposure and awareness of your company.

One powerful benefit of Facebook ads is the “like” feature in the ads. In a study on Facebook ads done by Nielsen, purchase intent increased from 2% to 8% when a Facebook user advocated for an ad – so users are four times more likely to purchase.  The study also showed that ad recall increased from 10% to 16% and awareness doubled from 4% to 8% by including this form of social advocacy.

If you are not capitalizing on the popularity of Facebook, you may just be missing out on one of the most effective ways to advertise in the online age.

Facebook offers a great resource for testing ads: http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/FB_Ads_A_B_Testing.pdf

Annual Page Value: $7,549   with 2,479 fans.

Another client:  $5,343 value with 1,789 fans.

Just something to brag about!

Wondering where to find these mystical words?  According to a recent survey of marketers, the most highly rated keyword research tactics use site log files (website analytics are a great source!).  Analyzing site log files for highly converting search words and for frequent keywords were ranked as the two most highly effective tactics. Keyword experts know how to use the art and science of their research by mining the data found in site log files for the most effective keywords.

Site logs contain vital data such as the number of visitors to your site, where they live, what time they visited, and if they are new or return visitors.  They also show how people got to your site: Did they type in the address directly? Did they come from a referrer page such as an article or industry listing? How much traffic are you getting from individual search engines?  In addition to that wealth of information, you will also find the keywords used on the search engines by your site visitors.  Clearly this is a great source of keyword data that represents the interests of the real visitors to your website.

Other tactics chosen as “highly effective” by lower percentages of survey participants include analysis of internal site search (once visitors are on your site, what are they hoping to find?), competitors’ sites and competitive tools such as SpyFu.

Your target market’s language is waiting to be uncovered in your site log files, and an experienced keyword researcher can serve as the translator that allows you to implement the most effective keywords.

Can’t figure out the best keywords to use?  Give LuCorp Marketing a call and we will help you analyze the best keywords to use.

More example searches: [american lung association], [tobacco-free kids], [earthquake info center]

To see some of our current work, check out these Google Search Stories on 2 of our clients, Paul Martin’s American Bistro in California and Arizona River Runners:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9HhIpEps-8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxSIXQkwuxY

Great marketing takes effort, consistency and LuCorp Marketing works diligently to provide great services that have exceptional ROI for marketing dollars spent.  Contact us today for a Free Marketing Assessment.