SEO is important for public companies for many reasons and in today’s competitive market, SEO marketing is more important than ever.
Search engines serve millions of users per day looking for answers to their questions or solutions to their problems. A properly executed SEO investor relation optimization program can help public companies develop and maintain market value. Without a doubt SEO is important for public companies!
Search engine optimization is essential because:
The majority of search engines users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the results pages (SERPS), so to take advantage of this and attract potential investors, analysts and journalists to your web site you need to be in the top positions.
SEO is not only about search engines but good SEO practices improve the user experience and usability of a web site.
Users trust search engines and having a presence in the top positions for the keywords the user is searching, increases the web site’s trust.
SEO is important for public companies because it is good for the social promotion of your web site. People who find your web site by searching Google or Yahoo are more likely to promote it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other social media channels.
SEO is important for public companies because the smooth running of a big web site. Web sites with more than one author can benefit from SEO in a direct and indirect way. Their direct benefit is increase in search engine traffic and their indirect benefit is having a common framework (checklists) to use before publishing content on the site.
SEO can put you ahead of the competition. If two web sites are selling the same thing, the search engine optimized web site is more likely to have more customers and make more sales and investor exposure.
Everyone has their own opinion on what makes a “Great Investor Relations Website”, keeping up with regulations and disclosure is always top of the list. But without good SEO practices you will not be able to attract new clients and potential investors. SEO is a must for every web property.
To sum it up, Search engine optimization or SEO is a way to optimize your website so that search engines will understand it better and give you higher rankings. It’s not just the general public that locates you on the web to keep in mind; you must consider potential investors, current shareholders, analysts and journalists. This is where working with an experienced IR firm can make this difficult job much easier.
At OTC PR Group we provide a full suite of investor relation’s services utilizing the latest web and SEO solutions coupled with relationship building processes to develop and maintain interest from your shareholder base. We work to build shareholder value by engaging with key-stakeholders and effectively following up and communicating your message, investment potential and corporate vision.
Investor relations is all about grabbing attention and creating an audience. OTC PR Group networks with only the “Top Rated” service providers and advertising partners, which include our In house and external newsletter publishers, social media specialist, editors, analysts, research writers, and video talk show producers, are utilized in our corporate outreach visibility programs.
Working closely with our clients and professional network partners in conjunction with our newsletter publishing sites we can create and implement marketing and advertising programs that deliver high impact exposure campaigns.
When trying to get exposure and gain investor attention it’s crucial that you maintain your web presence. Site Speed Influences SEO. Performing Site speed SEO optimization practices is more important than ever!
Site Speed Influences SEO and Google has said time and again that a fast website helps you rank better. Recently, Google launched the ‘Speed Update’ making site speed a ranking factor for mobile searches. Google stressed it would only affect the slowest sites and that fast sites getting faster won’t get a boost, but they are surely looking at site speed across the internet.
For now the slowest sites take the hit, but what about the future?
New articles are published almost daily, telling us that optimizing for speed is one of the most important things you can do right now. And they’re right, of course! Site speed influences SEO in many ways. Here’s a small overview of how site speed and SEO go together.
If you don’t put in a lot of effort to make sure that your site works well there will be a significant drop-off and a lot fewer people will visit your site. It’s important to have great structure that includes fabulous targeted and relevant content. You need the first experience your potential visitor/investor/consumer has with your site to be flawless. They need to load your site first before they can access company content. If it takes ages to load, A much faster competitor is just a single click away. Site Speed Influences SEO and not investing in a fast site is almost like you don’t care about your corporate image. No reason for them to stay, right?
On mobile, site speed is even more of an issue. According to research by Google, the average mobile site takes over fifteen seconds to load while people expect them to load in less than three seconds before they consider leaving altogether. Every second counts, as conversions drop sharply with every second longer, your site takes to load.
OTC PR Group founders utilize over 25 years of experience in managing awareness campaigns. We understand that SEO optimization, increasing investor recognition, as well as broker awareness through network advertising, can be an extremely daunting task. Having a properly coordinated marketing plan can provide a positive impact and accelerate trading activity, brand and investor awareness.
We use our knowledge of the markets and industry to provide our clients with a better understanding on how to approach their marketing decisions. Your goals are our goals, which is why OTC PR engages in a true partnership with our clients. OTC PR has worked with a diverse group of talented and respected professionals whom have joined forces with us in order to create a cost effective advertising network dedicated to publicly traded Companies.
We all know that stocks are sometimes undervalued or for the fortunate sometimes overvalued.
In most cases this can be due to general market conditions, such as a trending industry sector. If you are lucky enough to be in an industry that is in the news the positive side can be enormous.
Nothing motivates investors to buy a stock more than a rising share price. Such situations can become self-fulfilling prophecies when a rising stock price attracts more investors, who are willing to pay more for the stock. Momentum traders buy stocks simply on the assumption that once an uptrend starts, it is likely to continue.
Most CEOs or CFOs ever admit their share price is too high — at least not to the public. This obsession with seeing your company shares as “cheap” can lead to some unfortunate corporate actions.
Given all the time corporate executives spend generating investor interest in their stock, it would be very hard for them to ever see, much less say, their stock is overvalued.
First and foremost is the desire to buy back shares at the peak of the market. In the peak stock market year of 2007, many members of the S&P 500 index bought back billions worth of their own stock, which was much more stock than they repurchased in 2009 when the S&P 500 index hit their lows.
The problem of course is that investors used the same approach, however, undervalued most stocks were during the credit crisis of 2009. The problem is often recognizing this at the time. Overvaluation or undervaluation can also be applied to an industry or individual company that is running hot or cold.
It’s troubling that even when the overall market is hot, most senior executives tend to believe their own stock is undervalued. This mindset is often reinforced by investment bankers who won’t even use the term “overvalued,” preferring instead to refer to companies using terms such as “fully valued.”
If you are fortunate enough to have a share price that is overvalued now is the time to “strike the match” following these four actions can increase shareholder value when the share price is high.
Issue Shares. This might be a good time to reduce leverage below the long-term target to build in a cushion to soften the next downturn. This can also help build the financing capacity needed to make opportunistic acquisitions when stocks again become undervalued in bad times. As a general rule, it is better to have more leverage during an up-cycle to increase the share-price appreciation and to have less leverage during a downturn to dampen the decline.
But be careful, since investors may react negatively in the short term, it’s crucial that management have a disciplined process of making only investments that truly create value.
Issue Convertible Debt. For managements concerns that they cannot convince investors of the merits of stock issuance, issuing convertible debt is a good way to at least take some advantage of an unusually high share price.
When stock prices are at cyclical peaks, they are less likely to rise in the coming years and so convertible debt is less likely to convert — making this a attractive form of financing when stock prices are high.
Use Your Stock to Make Acquisitions. Cash acquisitions usually don’t create value at the top of the stock market cycle. In many cases exchanging your companies overvalued stock for the stock of the acquired company mitigates the risk of overpaying.
This strategy can lead a company that believes they are particularly overvalued to actually seek acquisitions to take advantage of the high-valued currency their shares represent.
Avoid Buybacks. Companies that buy back stock when the price is high earn much lower returns on their buybacks than those that buy when the price is low. Refraining from share repurchases should go without saying. But it’s worth repeating that most companies should avoid the temptation to buy back stock when the market is high.
Always assess your valuation and maintain objectivity. If the company appears overvalued or undervalued, make sure to take strategic actions. At OTC PR Group we can help you capitalize on any given condition and help increase shareholder value.
According to Econsultancy, “88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience” and this explains why brands invest big in UX design. Once you frustrate a user, they’re probably gone for life – and that’s a lead you’ll never get back again. This really hurts your profit margins when you’ve worked so hard to get each of these visitors to your site.
Good web design helps investor exposure.
Which mistakes annoy users the most?
Web designers and developers have come up with thousands of ways to annoy users over the years, but here are some frustrations that really stand out, even today:
Slow loading times:Almost half of users leave a site that doesn’t load within two seconds. Poor navigation: If users can’t find their way around your site, you’ve already lost them. Shoddy mobile experience: Despite all the talk about mobile optimisation, too many sites fail to deliver for users on the go. Annoying popups: There’s a reason ad blocking has become such a thing – take the hint. Complex forms: People don’t like giving away personal information and they certainly don’t like filling out forms more than once because of an error. Checkout problems: Making it difficult for people to hand over their hard-earned cash is never a good idea.
What is UX and how can it help my business?
UX design is one of those topics you can’t ignore as a marketer because it has deep roots in everything you do for an online brand. It’s something you and everyone in your team must understand, even if you’re not experts in the field. So what exactly is UX and why is it important to every business?
This is the question we’ll be answering today so there’s no more confusion about the role of UX design in marketing.
What is UX design?
At its most basic, UX design simply stands for user experience design, but what do we really mean when we say ‘user experience’?
When a user lands on a website or opens an app, they’re locked into that platform for a certain period of time. Everything that happens during this session builds a mental experience in that user’s mind about the platform and the brand it represents.
The role of UX design is to ensure this experience is a positive one.
What makes a good user experience?
The answer to this question depends on the kind of platform you intend to design/market and the users it’s targeting. The concept of a ‘good’ user experience can vary from one person to another – and this is why it’s so important to test and tweak your designs over time.
That said, there are a number of key factors in creating a user experience that maximises your marketing efforts:
Information architecture and navigation
Information architecture is the structural design of information – pages, content, labels, etc. – and navigation is the pathway that connects them all. Mastering these two principles is vital to getting your brand story across and creating sales funnels for users to, you know, navigate.
Speed and performance
In most cases, website performance refers to the speed of a website – how long pages and content take to load. However, performance should also consider mobile optimisation, bugs and other quirks that might get in the way of people using a site/platform.
UI design
User interface (UI) design is the visual and functional design of elements people use to interact with a website or application. This includes buttons, icons, navigational elements, advanced search options and anything else users click or touch. The trick is these things need to visually communicate what they do so users quickly understand what they can do and how.
Getting the job done
You could argue this is the most important element of UX design. In most cases, users land on your website looking to do something, to achieve some kind of tasks. The same goes for mobile apps, chatbots and any other platform you design. They have to be useful, intuitive and get the job done in the most efficient way possible.
Another element of user experience that often gets forgotten these days is the enjoyment factor. If users love using your site, app or whatever else, they’re going to be a lot more forgiving about the occasional UX gripe. So don’t forget the human element and strive to create something people actually enjoy using.
Why is UX important to every business?
UX design has become one of the most important aspects of modern marketing. Take a look at the leading brands in any industry and you’ll see how much time and money they invest in creating and maintaining a user experience that keeps people involved with their brand and coming back for more.
Generally speaking, the goals of UX design are as follows:
Make a positive first impression with users Create a pleasing experience that people associate with your brand Reduce the percentage of users who leave before completing an action Increase the percentage of users who come back to your website/platform Encourage users to come back to your site in the future
UX design’s role in marketing is growing, though. Google now considers user experience factors in its search algorithm (e.g: mobile optimisation) but even its core metrics are influenced by UX design. The number of pages people visit, the time they spend on them, the moment they choose to leave and various other factors are a reflection of the user experience you create.
That gives you an idea of some of the things users hate the most but there’s more to UX design than suppressing internet rage. Creating a profitable user experience means analysing every detail of your brand – down to the colours of your CTA buttons and your choice of fonts – to understand what generates the most conversions.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of UX design in modern marketing. In fact, with the rise of chatbots, personal assistants and the latest wave of web technologies, UX design is fast becoming the new web design. It’s something that incorporates every interaction between users and brands, from the moment they see you in search until they confirm their payment – on your website, in-store or via a third-party platform.
Good web design helps investor exposure, if your website isn’t performing as well as it should be, we would highly recommend a UX review before investing any further budget in your current site. A UX review will reveal under-performing areas and provide you with a list of recommendations that will have the biggest impact on your site. This removes any guess work and means your budget will be spent in the right areas.
OTC PR Group specializes in creating modern and esthetically pleasing-attention grabbing websites that cater to potential investors along with your existing clientele. While many company website’s today are outdated; we understand the importance of design and provide our business partners with the most modern website designs.
When we talk about advertising on Google AdWords we tend to focus on selling products or services. Increase Stock Awareness with Google AdWords.
Selling products isn’t the only reason to advertise on AdWords.
There are times where your goal is to increase brand awareness and find new shareholders at an earlier stage of the research process. So today we’ve got some tips on how to do this effectively in AdWords.
Start with the Display Network to Increase Stock Awareness with Google AdWords
The most obvious place to start with your brand awareness campaigns is the Display Network. Google has refined its targeting options over the years, which means you can narrow down your target audience with a combination of settings:
Keyword targeting: Target pages on relevant websites containing your chosen keywords.
Topic targeting: Target websites based on the topic of their content.
Placement targeting: Target specific websites, known to be of interest to your target audience.
Affinity audiences: Target users who have shown an interest in certain topics or products.
In-market audiences: Target customers who are actively searching for products or services related to your brand.
Location and language targeting: Target languages and specific countries, regions or cities.
Device targeting: Choose which device types you want users to see your display ads.
Demographic targeting: Target users based on gender and age.
That list gives you a lot of control over who sees your display ads – so you can really hone in on the kind of people you want to introduce your brand to. You can also combine a number of those targeting options, depending on how narrow/specific you want your reach to be.
Use the Search Network to build brand awareness
Google’s Search Network may not be the most obvious place to build brand awareness, but text ads can be one of the fastest ways to reach a wider audience. The first thing you need to do is to create a new list of keywords – search terms that will give you an opportunity to reach your target audience, even if there’s minimal buying intent.
Most of these will probably be long-tail keywords, but they’re the kind of queries that should already be inspiring your blog content anyway. However, for these campaigns, you’ll want to step up the content efforts even more and create something noticeably better than everything else that appears on page one for each keyword. Create eBooks, video reviews, detailed guides and put the time into creating headlines that really grab attention.
Next, you’ll promote these pieces of content with AdWords text ads. The great thing about this approach is your content will jump right to the top of page one and, assuming your content is good enough, people won’t hesitate to click for a moment.
Now for the magic part. Before your ads go live, set up AdWords remarketing on each landing page so you can continue to target them even after they’ve finished with your content.
This approach is doing three things. First, it introduces your brand to a wider audience and then it provides them with content that actually has something to offer. Second, remarketing means they see your ad as they continue to use the web, reminding them about your brand for a set period of time.
Just remember to use frequency capping and end date for remarketing to stop people getting fed up with seeing the same adverts.
So there you have it – AdWords isn’t just for promoting product and services pages. You can use both the display and search networks to build brand awareness and find new shareholders at an earlier stage of the buying process.
We Deliver Your Message
We will become your “total” Public Relations firm with strategic Network Advertising. As a result of our extensive experience with particular client’s needs, we’ve developed programs that meet your specific goals.
Many growth companies have great potential but no real retail buying. We have powerful systems of investor participation throughout the world targeting not only investors… we also market to stockbrokers as well by using all the latest digital and social marketing venues available.
Working closely with our clients and professional network partners in conjunction with our newsletter publishing sites we can create and implement marketing and advertising programs that deliver high impact exposure campaigns.
We use our publishing sites and knowledge of the markets and industry to provide our clients with a better understanding on how to approach their marketing decisions. Your goals are our goals, which is why OTC PR engages in a true partnership with our clients. OTC PR has worked with a diverse group of talented and respected professionals whom have joined forces with us in order to create a cost effective advertising network dedicated to publicly traded Companies
Investor and Public relations professionals do more than draft press releases. Top Public Relations Firms craft persuasive messages and implement key communication tactics while building relationships with media representatives. Good PR is the telling of a good story. We all know the public wants to hear a good story. The better the story, the better the acceptance by the public and the better the public relations. Of course if the story is especially appealing, hitting on the all the hot buttons of investors and clients, then you could have a PR slam-dunk. In this case, it is communication with not just your target market but also all possible media outlets that puts your company on the map.
At OTCPRGroup.com we feel there is nothing more rewarding than helping an organization overcome business challenges with all the benefits outlined below. Learn More:
Public relations produces media results including articles, radio interviews, and op-eds that provide strong marketing materials and credibility. As an example: a well-executed media placement can be distributed as an e-mail blast, physical mailer, and social media post. Further, that content can be sent to existing customers or member bases, as well as potential ones, to demonstrate company value.
Brand visibility, placing your company name, products and expertise in front of your target audience is powerful. In most forms, media coverage often validates a company in the eyes of the public, and makes them more familiar with the brand when they see it again, be it from an e-mail blast, sales call, and other marketing technique.
Top Public Relations Firms know how to influence an audience, and can position a company or individual as an expert within their industry. For companies with very targeted audiences, when impactful news occurs or trends develop, it is important to make your voice heard through a story in the press, blog, or a strategically placed op-ed/byline.
Driving lead generation for your brand, effective PR can influence and motivate your target audience. As people continue to see your company or product in the media, it increases the chance of them making a call, sending an e-mail requesting more information, subscribing to a newsletter, visiting a website, and/or other calls to action.
Public relations addresses brand competition by ensuring that your company is presented with the same opportunities to get in front of targeted audiences as others in your industry. It is important to be seen in similar media coverage as your competitors in terms of story ideas, trends, product features, and more.
Over the course of time, PR can certainly improve a company’s website rankings based on a high volume of high quality media placements. Public relations efforts can be leveraged across social media to drive more traffic to the article, which will result in SEO Optimization for the page and the links within it, and will continue establishing the brand publishing via social media to increase visibility.
The bottom line is to get the word out about your company, your products and services to those who could potentially be interested in you. If your business is able to do this, PR may help your company look more influential, bigger, and more important in the public eye. Public relations are an important part of marketing and advertising and needs to be considered in your advertising budget. The good news about PR is when done effectively can lead to strong community and industrial partnerships, and even financial support.
Top Public Relations Firms for Emerging Companies
Our investor relations firm is a complete financial public relations firm. Our unique and persistent market exposure techniques have consistently motivated the investor/brokerage community to take action on our clients’ stock offerings.
We Deliver Your Message
We will become your “total” Public Relations firm. As a result of our extensive experience with particular client’s needs, we’ve developed programs that meet your specific goals.
Many growth companies have great potential but no real retail buying. We have powerful systems of investor participation throughout the world targeting not only investors… we also market to stockbrokers as well by using all the latest digital and social marketing venues available.
Our program affords you the greatest coverage in developing stock support and higher market capitalization utilizing the largest and most popular database providers in the industry who can take positions in your company stock.
These services have proven to help create and maintain strong relationships with a corporation’s investor base, resulting in strong valuations in the marketplace and the establishment of leadership positions for our clients. From day one you will be on your way to an effective and well-organized program with short-term results. By delivering effective communications and investor relation services entrepreneurs, corporate executives and investors can realize their visions and achieve their goals.
Get our “FREE REPORT REVEALS… The 5 (Easy Secrets)
Tools we use TO SUCCESSFULLY USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR INVESTOR COMMUNICATIONS”
Small Cap Stock & OTC Investor Relations for Emerging Companies.Your company should have clear objectives from the get-go of what you want to achieve in broadening your investor base and retaining the current ones. Keeping both institutional and retail investors apprised of your company’s evolving business model in real-time — and measuring your investor relations program’s success for your entire management team is critical. Also, the investor relation function is now becoming more strategic in the organization, as they are now working closely on M&A, market analysis and corporate governance, which is a new and exciting pattern for this role. Measuring your effectiveness by your stock price alone is not enough; there are too many other external factors that affect it during the year. Rather your best measurement is found from gathering feedback from the buy- and sell-side analysts and what the general market says about you (i.e. retail investors, the media and general public.).
In this fast-paced market, Small Cap Stocks can easily be overlooked. Without the resources and funding of Fortune 500 firms, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent presence in the public’s eye. Whether you choose to hire an in-house professional or put an external advisor on retainer, your IR specialist must create buzz and guide your company’s strategic communication and beyond. The investor relations function involves educating the public about the company’s position in the industry, providing a regular update of forecasts and identifying any key business issues that could impact the company.
Persuasiveness: He or she should be able to draw the market’s interest and attract sell-side coverage and potential investors.
Creating buzz: Your IR professional should also be able to continually publish and generate articles for your company “Get you in the press”
Risk awareness: Your IR professional should also be able to manage the risks associated with the external messaging.
Storytelling: Your IR professional will have to continually retell the company’s story and fine-tune the investment value proposition, as well as provide the appropriate guidance on milestones and financial performance.
Integrity: Your IR professional must be transparent and honest, and instill confidence in your organization.
OTC PR Group is a complete Small Cap Stock & OTC Investor Relations firm. Our unique and persistent market exposure techniques have consistently motivated the investor/brokerage community to take action on our clients’ stock offerings.
We Deliver Your Message
We will become your “total”Public Relations firm. As a result of our extensive experience with particular client’s needs, we’ve developed programs that meet your specific goals.
Many growth companies have great potential but no real retail buying. We have powerful systems of investor participation throughout the world targeting not only investors… we also market to stockbrokers as well by using all the latest digital and social media marketing venues available.
Our program affords you the greatest coverage in developing stock support and higher market capitalization utilizing the largest and most popular database providers in the industry who can take positions in your company stock.
These services have proven to help create and maintain strong relationships with a corporation’s investor base, resulting in strong valuations in the marketplace and the establishment of leadership positions for our clients. From day one you will be on your way to an effective and well-organized program with short-term results. By delivering effective communications and investor relation services entrepreneurs, corporate executives and investors can realize their visions and achieve their goals.
Here are some of the main services and solutions we offer our clients:
News Releases
Newspaper and Magazine Articles
Media Relations and Publicity
Public Relations Strategy and Branding
Radio and Television Interviews
Social Media Applications
Social Media News
Videos Production
Web Site Content
Blogs and Micro Blogs
Bylined Articles
Case Studies
Crisis Communications
Customer Communications
EBooks and E-Newsletters
Illustrations and Graphics
Online Magazines
Investor Communications
Small Cap Stock & OTC Investor Relations firm
We will work with you to develop an investor relation awareness strategy that meets your company’s needs. Based on that strategy, we will develop an effective profile that focuses on the key messages that you want to convey to potential investors in addition to an ongoing narrative telling your story. In addition to reaching our extensive and targeted database, we also work with other investment professionals to distribute your company story. Through our years of networking with selected professionals we have expanded our distribution substantially. Learn More:
The data reveals How Press Releases drive traffic to your company. We are experts in creating shareable content and enabling sharing capabilities through the relevant channels that can dramatically increase the number of views for your company press releases.
Optimizing content for sharing pays off when it comes to amplification of news. Although press releases are more frequently shared on Facebook, shares on Twitter drive significantly more traffic back to releases than shares on Facebook. Optimizing content for sharing works for investor awareness and should be implemented for each release. Key conclusions from the analysis include:
Each press release share generates 2 new views; expands total audience by 70%.
Creating shareable content and enabling sharing capabilities through the relevant channels can dramatically increase the number of views for releases. PR Newswire and Crowd Factory found that each share generates an average of nearly 2 click-backs to the original press release. Additionally, sharing of press releases across social networks increases the total audience, or social reach, for this content by nearly 70 percent.
Press releases are shared more on Facebook, but Twitter sharing drives more traffic.
Among the three largest U.S. social networks, Facebook is tops when it comes to sharing of press releases: 48 percent of press release sharing happens on Facebook, 37 percent of sharing happens on Twitter and 15 percent happens on LinkedIn.
But not all shares are created equal: in spite of Facebook’s greater popularity for sharing, each share on Twitter actually drives about 30 percent more press release views than a share on Facebook.
Multimedia press releases generate 3.5 times more engagement than text-only releases.
Not surprisingly, multimedia press releases that include photos, videos or audio generate more views, shares and clicks than text-only press releases. Adding a photo to a press release increases engagement by 14 percent; adding a video and a photo actually doubles the engagement rate. Press releases that contain photos, video and audio generate the most engagement, with 3.5 times more engagement than text-only releases.
It has been known for some time that Twitter was more heavily used for news and business purposes, and the numbers confirm that Twitter takes the lead for driving traffic back to press releases. This data reiterates the importance of creating interesting content that people will want to share, whether that means pairing your release with a photo or video or simply creating a more tweetable headline. Given that a single share can drive two new people back to your press release, optimizing content for sharing can easily amplify the impact of your investment in news distribution.
In today’s social media era, understanding how many views or even shares your content has received is simply not enough – it’s important to know where and how your content is circulated among top influencers and which networks have the most impact.
Get our “FREE REPORT REVEALS… The 5 (Easy Secrets)
Tools we use TO SUCCESSFULLY USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR INVESTOR COMMUNICATIONS”
If you have no experience speaking with journalists or you’ve never gotten press before, the question of how to get your company published and get others to write about you? For even the most seemingly “boring” businesses, there are some basic strategies and tactics for getting major media coverage–regardless of your past marketing experience or budget.
If you want to get media coverage, you need to have something to say that others will want to hear. Start to think about ways in which your story is unique:
What do you believe?
Why did you start the business or create the product? Was there some personal, painful experience you went through that inspired you to take action to solve the problem?
How is your product or service delivered that makes it stand out?
What popular issues are people talking about today that relate to your business and how you run it? The economy? Healthcare? Income?
‘The advantages of getting press over other forms of marketing is powerful”
From an entrepreneur’s perspective what is press coverage? Why does everyone want it? It’s free advertising, that’s why, and more than that it’s someone else’s; with their own built up brand credibility talking about your business.
Here are the specific advantages of getting this free advertising via media coverage:
Exposure – People who haven’t heard about your business will hear about you
Increased recall – The more often a person hears about you, the more easily they can recall the name of your business in the future i.e. when talking with friends.
Temporary boost in website traffic, searches, social media shares – Temporary because what’s news today is pushed off the “front page” tomorrow.
Sales boost – Even if you get bad press, you can still see an increase in sales. I’ll talk more later about “bad” press…
More press – Getting published in one place often leads to interest from other journalists and bloggers. I call this a the “media echo effect.”
Boost in search rankings – If you’re published on one or more media websites with authority in the eyes of Google, your overall search rankings will increase.
Miscellaneous opportunities – Others in business will often reach out to you with partnership or joint marketing offers after they read about you.
Before you begin establish a strategy by deciding on what outcome you want to receive from executing your PR campaign:
Do you want to be able to list reputable 3rd party logos (e.g. The New York Times) on your website?
Do you want to grow sales and awareness?
Do you want to improve your traffic and search rankings?
Each of these goals requires a slightly different approach.
For example:
If you just want the option to slap some “as seen in” logos on your website, you should go for just getting mentioned.
For growing sales, you should seek to get a full write-up on your business.
For improving traffic and search rankings guest blogging works well.
How do to get mentioned in an article
If you decide that getting mentioned will meet your PR marketing goals, the next question is, how do you do it?
How to get your company published starts by making a list of your target publications or venues. Your list might look something like this:
Wall St. Journal
Washington Times
NY Times
Venture Beat
Mashable
Fox Business News
The reason we use national outlets like these is are because it fits the profile of many mass market B2B service companies. Your company might be different though. The key is to aim for publications or blogs that are well known to your target customer.
How do you differentiate and pitch that to a journalist?
Remember, our strategy here is to get mentions, not to get a full write-up or anything like that. So that affects the tactical approach.
The easiest way is to begin by networking with bloggers and journalists.
The way that you do this is you take the list of target publications you listed in the step above (again, they should be relevant and/or respected by your target customer) and begin searching out articles, on Google and on the actual publication’s website.
Look for anything that is relevant to your business. What do I mean by relevant? Do a quick keyword brainstorm on words that are related to [your] business:
Local business
Local economy
Industry tips
Lower costs
The next step after that is to look up who the author of the article is that comes up in your search. Often, a writer’s email address will be directly on the publisher’s website, on the article, on past articles, or you can find it on his or her personal website. We recommend against contacting someone via Twitter or Facebook, because it is not as effective as email.
The final ingredient is the will to reach out to a journalist and make your case for why you can be a resource to them on an upcoming or future article. And yes, that’s the exact approach you need to take–it’s not about you when you reach out, it’s about helping them.
Here’s what a sample outreach email might look like:
Hey Thomas,
My name is [name] and I’m emailing you because I recently enjoyed reading your article here on some innovative ways consumers can lower their electric bill in the winter months.
[Link to article — putting the link on it’s own dedicated line makes it easier to click on if they’re reading your message on a mobile phone]
Here’s one other tip that I think could work well in a future article or if you decide to update this: [value added tip that positions you as an authority]
I’ve been running a growing electrical business in CA for the last X years, in which we’ve helped Y hundred household consumers — I would love to serve as a resource to you for any future articles since my expertise is in:
Electrical, bill economics, and small / local business formation and development
My direct number is below or you can email me back anytime you want a fresh perspective from someone with direct experience.
Thanks,
[name]
[number / signature line]
You can tweak and reword that template to fit your business but in my experience sending short, personal, valued-added messages like that helps to position you as an authority. And since many journalists never receive any direct email responses to their articles, they appreciate the effort and will respond.
I recommend sending at least 3 of these types of messages at a time for good measure since some percentage will not yield a response.
In closing, some other easy ways to get press mentions are to join a networking group like the YEC (Young Entrepreneurs Council), your local chamber of commerce, or another established group of individuals from your industry.
Journalists frequently will reach out the leadership of these organizations, asking for referrals to people who can talk on a certain subject or answer a specific question.
Some companies try to blur the lines between the words “mention” and “featured” but if you’re going to be intellectually honest, being featured in an article is a much bigger deal because that usually means the focus of the article is you and your business.
Many of the same key factors used for getting mentioned also apply for getting featured:
Uniqueness
Story
Niche Industry
Create a new category, or in a relatively new category created by someone else (think Living Social in the “Group Deal” space which started by Groupon)
However, because the end-goal is completely different this affects the specific tactics you should use. The main difference is that in order for it to be justifiable for anyone to write-up a full article on you, you have to be “news” which means you have to be saying or doing something new.
The key takeaway from this story is, if you want to get a full featured write-up, the kind that gets you sales and awareness, do or say something new and unique, and then reach out journalists via their “least crowded” means of communication: Email, in-person or Video chat. I believe that pretty much anyone with something new and compelling to say can with absolutely zero name recognition or reputation can get incredible exposure following these basic steps.
