It’s time to look at how you are going about generating new clients…

More and more I have been running into clients who are running into problems with their promotional strategies to drive in new business. I spoke to a business owner last week who was spending $5000-$6000 per month of marketing, postcards and radio and is getting little to no return.

 

I can’t help but scratch my head and wonder why anyone continues to pay huge amounts of money on loss leader advertising and marketing campaigns with little to no net results.

 

The only way that I know of that any sale is made is through generating interest which is the result of being able to effectively “get in front” of a prospective client either through a phone call, referral, email or in person meeting and introduction. So the idea is, how do you get in front of your target prospects to make an introduction and gain interest in your product or service?

 

If you really look at it, the majority of all business owner and potential buyers are currently online so this accounts for a massive public to go after. The fact is that the internet is one huge networking and prospecting pool! Why bother looking elsewhere? Your prospective clients are online and the only reason they are not buying your product or service is because they don’t know about you yet!

 

By effectively using the internet in every aspect, you could have more business than you know what to do with. Your problem won’t be prospects but how to organize them and service them. 

The only two things you should be focused on when it comes to bringing in new prospects to sell are generating massive attention online to promote and gain interest and get your salespeople to sell to all of these prospects!! Simple!

 

Forget the other options and forms of “promotion”, your future clients are online, every one of them. Get their attention and interest them in what you offer and your really won’t have a “lack of business” or “lack of sales” problem.

 

Robert Cornish

www.whywebpr.com

robert@richter10point2.com

The movie promotion strategy…

I was just reading several different magazines that all had the same person in each magazine and while reading I thought about the different demographics of each magazine. I was wondering why this particular celebrity was in the magazine I was reading because it didn’t seem to relate; and then it occurred to me that the strategy is to gain the attention of every single media outlet and demographic to promote their new and upcoming movie.

I realize this may sound like a “no brainer” sort of speak however I hadn’t thought of it before. I am now thinking about what a brilliant strategy Hollywood applies to promote their new up and coming movies and how they seem to be absolutely recession proof. Take a look at it yourself and you can start to think about how you are currently promoting your company in comparison to how you SHOULD be promoting your company….on a Hollywood scale!!!

Let’s look at it for a minute, here are some of the strategies Hollywood applies to promote a new movie:

• An article with the lead actor in the movie in every single magazine they can be featured in
• Newspaper articles, reviews and advertisements
• Billboards
• Park Benches
• Postcards
• TV Commercials
• Internet Banners
• Websites
• MySpace
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Posters on the side of buses
• Taxi cab signs on top
• Posters in movie theaters
• Trailers on every media rich site online

Just think for a second if you didn’t think about how much this all costs but what it would mean to your company and your bottom-line. Imagine creating this level of attention and controlling all of these medias to generate interest in your company. 

This level of promotion would drive in sales and revenue on a massive scale. Now, take a second and look at what you are currently doing to promote your company, really look at it. How are you promoting? 

Now although you may not be able to afford the same strategy Hollywood applies to promoting new movies, there are ways to gain a massive amount of attention and promote your company online that serve the same purpose and cost a fraction in comparison. While the entire world is going online for everything they need both business and personal, it is absolutely vital to utilize the internet to promote your company and get the attention needed to drive in sales and boost revenue. 

Take a full Web PR strategy as an example, this can include:

• Company blogs

• Articles

• Web Video

• Press Releases

• Communication tools

• Social Media outlets

• Press Kits

• RSS Feeds

This is just to name a few, now imagine if your company had a thorough quality Web PR campaign strategy that put your company name in a huge amount of pockets online to dramatically increase attention and actively make your company known which resulted in generating interest, reaches, sales and revenue. 

What is your online strategy now? Do you have a campaign in place? 

When there are little or big dips in the economy, the safest path to surviving is to dramatically increase your promotional actions that help to increase your sales actions and steadily increase your revenue. I realize that most people start cutting back and contracting their promotion efforts but those same people typically go out of business all together. 

From recent news I have read on some of the latest movies, Iron Man ($314M Gross), Indiana Jones ($317M Gross) and Tropic Thunder ($120M Gross), it doesn’t appear that the economy has affected Hollywood in any way which leads me to the idea of promoting your company on a Hollywood scale to gain a massive amount of attention and generate interest to drive in sales and run revenue through the roof while sailing your way through the “bad economy”

By Robert Cornish

Managing Director of Richter10.2 Media Group

www.whywebpr.com

Client Acquisition…..

There are many many ways to acquire new clients as a company, some difficult that require a lot of effort and persistence and some methods can be very effortless if done smartly and strategically.

I wanted to mention a few of the latter….

Here is a first thought, if you are trying to acquire new clients, the first step in doing so is name out who your target public actually is. In other words, who typically buys your product or service. This will be your easiest sale and most likely to buy. This is an important step if you want to make your life easier as it applies to sales. So here are few items to think about and use…

People like to do business with who they know, which means if they know you because you are neighbors or you went to high school together then the chances of them using you for a service or to buy product that they actually need are much greater. Just think about every time you purchased something, if you know a dentist and you need your teeth cleaned, chances are you are going to call the person you know. So with that said, there are ways to use this strategy online to become someone your target public “knows”. How about the many social media sites, by having your bio, picture and info about yourself etc, once you make connections, people feel they know you and will be more inclined to go to you for what they need.

Another item to think about is the fact of how many people there are in the world that most likely need your product or service but never buy from you simply on the basis that they don’t know about you and have never heard about you. There is millions of potential clients out there for your product or service yet they will never buy from you because you are unknown to them. So how can you make yourself known to this huge pool of potential buyers? Well, for starters I am guessing that every person you know has a computer and has an internet connection which means they are all online. With that said, all you have to do is figure out how to harness the vast reach of the internet to be able to make yourself known and to get in front or introduced to these people. That’s it!! Just make your product or service known to your potential public using the huge reach and easy access of the internet and drive sales through the roof.

The key objective for any company is to make relations with your target public in order to control and increase revenue growth. Don’t waste time on people who are never going to need or buy your service or product, make relations with your target public to introduce yourself and create huge amounts of sales opportunities. 

Now, you can go about it in a passive manner (ads, keywords etc) and hope that someone types in the correct keyword or clicks on your ad that hopefully caught their attention so they can land on your site and hopefully call you. Or you can take an ACTIVE approach to prospecting and go out and find your target public demographic online, make an introduction, build relations and create reaches that results in sales for your company. Go and find the business, make your product or service known and get reaches to sell. Simple. 

In order to execute the above steps, it is vitally important to use all of the tools and methods available today to broadly get attention, make yourself known and be visible online as well as actively using the tools to find your target public to make relations with. 

Go out and get the business and take an active approach to boosting your sales!

Robert Cornish

Managing Director

Richter10.2 Media Group

www.richter10point2.com

Michael Jackson Lives On . . . As He Becomes Facebook’s Most Popular Icon

Michael Jackson - King of Pop

Michael Jackson was one of the most well-known celebrities in the world – no questions asked. Despite having been being a controversial figure, he never ceased to attract the media’s spotlight.

Yesterday morning, Michael Jackson’s fan page officially became the most popular fan page on Facebook. It has now surpassed President Barack Obama’s page, which was the most popular prior to yesterday. Since his death, MJ’s fan page grew from over 80,000 to 6.4 million fans, which is the largest increase on a Facebook page ever! His fan page numbers are growing at a rate of 20 fans per second and sometimes higher. This is extreme for Facebook and proves that even though we have lost the beloved King of Pop, he continues to live on through his fans and, apparently, his Facebook page.

It seems that the only sources you need to keep up with Michael Jackson (in the afterlife) are the new/social media sites on the Web. These sites are globally affecting how people retrieve news. Personally, paper is hardly a part of my day anymore.

Click here to become a fan of Michael Jackson on Facebook.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

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Skittles tasting success with the latest Social Media experiment?

Skittles has relaunched their website so that it is essentially a Twitter search for the word “skittles”.

Visitors to Skittles.com are now directed to the Twitter search result for the term “skittles” and invited to navigate their way about Skittles’ social web presence by using the flash navigation menu that overlays the page. (Their homepage is now a Facebook page.)

We have experienced a lot of controversy on the Skittles new Social Media campaign. Some think that the “colors of the rainbow” have experienced an epic fail on launching this new campaign but as reported by Marketing Pilgrim in a recent post, the Skittles web site traffic experienced a “1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.” Pretty impressive considering only one day had passed since Skittles launched this social media experiment, which was quite a risk.

A consideration that I am hearing a lot is that, what about the ordinary people that aren’t as experienced with Social Media? And is Social Media really a way to represent a corporate website like Skittles?

Buying a piece of candy is an impulsive thing. You’re not buying a car or a house or something that you will need a lot of information on about the product and the price. Skittles is just a sweet, innocent and colorful candy, with a huge corporation. Do they really need an informative ad on their product? Not really. They are focusing on building their presence on the web, and Social Media has proved to be the way to do that. And are there really any regular web users who have never heard of social networking and the most common web apps?

I suspect not. So, after all, great work Skittles.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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10 Ways to Wake-Up in the Morning and Get through Your Work Day!

You know the feeling. That alarm clock goes off, you press the snooze (even though you know that only means that you’ll have to make your shower five minutes shorter), rush out the door and hopefully make it to work on time. The feeling seems unavoidable. As well as after your lunch break at work, when the clock reads 2 pm and you know that you have a few more hours of work to do, but you just can’t help feeling lethargic and annoyed at the thought of having to stay awake.
So what do you do? I have found some simple ways to get you through your work day and arrive at work in the morning feeling fresh and awake.

1) Don’t Eat Dinner Right before Bed

If you have the munchies before bed, a good thing to have is a little bit of fruit or some tomato juice. Something light and fruity. You don’t want to eat an entire meal right before you go to bed because the digestion process takes awhile. Try and leave a few hours in between your last meal and your bedtime and see how you feel in the morning.

2) Leave the Curtains Cracked

Leaving the curtains a little bit open will let some natural light into your room in the morning, which will help you wake up. The natural light can be strong but soothing.

3) Wake Up To The Smell Of Coffee

Get a coffee machine that has a setting for automatic brewing. Set it for a few minutes before your alarm clock goes off and when you wake up you will have a refreshing and lovely smell of freshly ground coffee in your room. Get fresh coffee beans!

4) Stretch Every Extremity

Stretching your arms and fingers out for about 15 seconds right after you wake up will help more than you think. It will get your blood circulating again in your body and helps you feel more energetic.

5) Eat A High Energy Breakfast

You would be surprised how just skipping your first meal of the day affects your energy level. You need to eat breakfast to get your metabolism going and to tell your body you are awake and ready to start digesting food again and making energy for your body. You can drink a protein smoothie, or some complex carbohydrates like a bowl of oatmeal or whole grain cereal topped with some fruit and skim milk.

6) Eat Protein Throughout The Day

Eating protein with your lunch will give your energy levels a boost. Snacking on nuts will also give you more energy, because they are high in protein.

7) Listen To Some Good Music In The Car

Find some good music, and get together an assortment of CDs to play on your way to work in the morning. Turn up the volume. If the weather permits it, open the windows instead of turning on the AC. The fresh air will wake you up, with the sound of the music, and get you ready for the day.

Take A Break

Take a break from your work desk when you’ve been sitting for a long time. Walking around to get a little exercise gets your blood flowing and can make you feel refreshed.

9) Chew Sugar-Free Peppermint Gum

There is something about the strong flavor of peppermint that makes you feel refreshed.

10) Cold Water

Cold water is refreshing, especially when it gets hot outside. Keeping your self hydrated throughout the day, and starting with a cold glass of water in the morning, will keep you refreshed and awake. Drink a cold glass roughly every hour, and splash some on your face when you need it.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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DREAM JOB: $70k to use Twitter and Facebook!

I was reading this article…http://mashable.com/2009/05/09/twitter-facebook-job/

And, honestly, I’m not really surprised. A county in Oregon wants to pay someone $60k-$70k a year for a job that requires using facebook and twitter. Seems a bit outrageous, but take a look.

Nowadays there are so many social media butterflies around that Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have become a huge part of promotion. It is the most efficient way of reaching more target public in less time.

The most expensive method of advertising in America today is through television commercials, averaging about $400,000.00. Now, promotion of your business through television is obviously going to reach many people around the nation who happen to be watching TV at the moment of your commercial, so I’m not necessarily against it. But promotion of your business through the Social Media tools available to all of your target public on the web, internationally, is guaranteed to get a lot of people in the know about who you are and what you do.

Linkedin is the most popular tool right now for business and networking, with Facebook up and coming right behind. It has been predicted that 2009 is going to be a huge year for business networking. So, makes sense, right? And all this great PR for you and your business for a fraction of the cost of a television commercial.

This doesn’t mean that advertising and public relations through Social Media has to cost $70k a year, but for Oregon, it does. Don’t be surprised when you get a friend requested by Multnomah County in Oregon or any of the other Counties around America that have started creating Social Media sites as a way to keep you up to date.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

www.whywebpr.com

White House Embraces Social Media

What is Social Media? Wikipedia defines it. “At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content.”

With the success of Barack Obama’s campaign through the use of social media web tools to gain fundraising and support, the White House has officially launched pages on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. This transition keeps web savvy citizens up to date on the latest news and information. You can probably imagine that Obama himself is too busy lately to keep up with his old Twitter account, so this new account is the perfect way for others in the White House to “tweet” on his behalf and keep people informed about what’s going on.

In their ways of “old habits and stale thinking”, as stated by Obama, they are fundamentally changing the way that they do business in the White House. I believe the plan is to build a new foundation for the 21st century and the way to go about it is by reforming the government so it is more efficient and more creative-through social media.

In a recent blog post titled WhiteHouse 2.0, the White House says,
“In addition to WhiteHouse.gov, you can now find us in a number of other spots on the Web: Facebook .com/WhiteHouse, Myspace.com/WhiteHouse and Twitter.com/WhiteHouse.”

As you can see, technology has profoundly impacted how and where we gain information. These sites like Myspace, and Facebook have become the ways of communication to one another. If you look, you can see the demographics continue to shift. Now more than half of the Myspace visitors are age 35 or older. New users pour onto these sites every day, not only to keep up the communication with their friends but also to get insight on what’s happening around the world.

It seems the White House has noticed that WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administrators effort to reach the public quickly and effectively-but it isn’t the only way.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group

www.richter10point2.com

This will explain it… Http://whywebpr.com

Whywebpr.com

Here it is, the site to explain it…

whywebpr

Best

-Robert

Manners and Professionalism

This is a slightly different blog than I typically write, I own a Web PR firm so the norm for me to write about typically relates to social media, PR etc

I wanted to make a comment on how to operate in business as I see it. People these days seem to have lost some feeling or personal discipline, I observe it almost everyday. Telephone calls with rude people, airplane check in people who argue with their clients/customers, obnoxious clients and on and on….

I can’t figure out what changed in these now adults I watch act this way along the path from being a kid to arriving at who they are today? Are people bitter, frustrated, impatient, maybe all of the above but let me be clear about what is needed and how people must act and operate if we are to make strong progress as a country.

1. First, people like to be treated well, like they are respected and if done, they will in turn treat you the same. Make an active point to treat people nicely.

2. Manners are an absolute must, remember what you parents tried to teach you, please and thank you’s, hello goodmornings etc. It takes very little effort but I have found that using manners in all aspects of business and life will take you a long way and you are shooting yourself in the foot to bypass this. Treat people well, respect them, use manners and watch the results.. You will do well with this

3. Professionalism- who are you? What is your title and role in your company? Be the part FULLY! If you are the manager, be the manager to the absolute best of your ability, push all of your strengths to become the best. Be a true professional. Don’t take advantage of your position ever, just do your job like a pro and represent your company fully. If you do this, you will succeed and be greatly appreciated in any company whether your own or another. Don’t be pompous or use positional altitude on others, just BE a pro at what you do.

4. Notice good work and commend others for it. I see people to fabulous work daily and very rarely ever get commended for it. Thank people for doing a great job and let them know that they are valuable to you and the company. Push them as much as you want to hit targets etc but don’t forget to commend them and thank them. This will go a long way, people are the most valuable asset any company anywhere has to offer.

So my point of this blog is to simply get you to think about how you communicate with others, how you treat others as well as yourself and use manners, be courteous, thank people and just simply be a friendly human being and this alone will take you far in life.

I hope you read this and it helps you to improve your life as well as give you a better chance of getting ahead because people like other people who are pleasant to be around.

Warm regards

-Robert

Wow!! Google to buy Twitter…. Link to come soon