What is a landing page?

Sometimes known as a lead capture page it is used for online marketing. It is a web page a visitor reaches after clicking an online ad or link. It is a way to convert web clicks into clients. The page will contain detailed content of the product or service mentioned.

There are two types of landing pages:

1. Organic or “reference” landing page:

An organic or reference landing page presents information that is relevant to the visitor and used for advertising or campaigns and usually not part of the main site but geared toward a specific source of traffic. These can display text, images and links to direct to the main site.

2. Transactional landing page:

A transactional landing page’s goal is to persuade the visitor to complete a transaction and buy the product or service by filling out a form or being involved with the advertisement on the page.

5 must have components for your landing page:

1. Strategy – create an interesting headline, since that is the first thing the visitors read. Create a Unique Value Proposition that will describe the market and the difference between your competitors and your own business

2. Lead – must be interesting enough to capture your visitor’s attention and make them want to keep reading

3. Benefits – this is your chance to really sell your product. List the benefits of your product and what it has to offer your visitors

4. Offer – this asks your visitors to purchase, sign up or opt-in

5. Look and feel – make sure the page has critical elements that builds trust and worthiness to the visitor

5 practices to keep in mind:

1.

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Most people associate the word personality with individuals. But businesses can have personalities too, and the image and feeling of a more distinctive business are likely to remain with customers.

Think of all the different types of stores. Their personalities are defined by their unique style or atmosphere, as well as by selection of products and customer service. This combination makes up their personalities. Some have friendly approachable workers; others are more upscale, discriminating and offer wine and champagne while trying on clothes.

Other types of personality businesses such as Harley Davidson are known for their rough and loud personality. (Believe me – if you didn’t want people to know you are coming, you wouldn’t buy a Harley!)

You can give your business a personality make-over by taking it in any of the above directions. Even if you don’t have the resources to completely redesign your image, you can be creative and make changes over time.

Personality also includes a friendly staff (and the willingness of staff to go the extra mile for customers). You should always remember that what customers remember most about your business is how efficiently any transactions are carried out by sales help – whether you are a retail business, technology business or professional consultant such as a lawyer, consultant or real estate agent. You, as the owner, may have the best intentions of giving outstanding customer service. But if your front-line staff doesn’t follow through, your efforts to be known as a business with a wonderful personality will be wasted.

As the owner, put yourself on the front line as often as possible, working with customers and directly influencing how your staff treats anyone who walks through the door. Find out what customers want. Don’t hide yourself in the back office. That’s the surest way to lose touch.

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Creating your Key Messages – Part One

WHAT are Key Messages?
Key messages are phrases of different lengths that provide a description of your company in very succinct understandable terms. These messages take several forms and can be used in multiple ways. One of the forms is called an Elevator Pitch, which is essentially a description of your company in 10 seconds or less (the time it takes for a short elevator ride). In fact this is one of the more critical messages since 10 seconds is usually all you get to describe your company to someone. There are also short messages and long messages depending on the objective you are trying to serve. Additionally, you will need a company profile (“About ABC Company”) and/or personal biography for your media releases.

WHY do you need Key Messages?
You need key messages to communicate to the outside world, whether to media or clients. Your key message must be consistent and communicate why you are different – or your unique selling proposition (USP). It also helps your employees when they are speaking with clients. Have you ever asked someone what he or she does, or what his or her business does and still not really know after they have told you? This is because they have not developed key messages.

Key messages will help you in all aspects of your business – from sales and advertising, to media relations and speaking engagements. Every time you speak to people and they ask, “What do you do?” it is an opportunity to sell your services/products.

When embarking on a media relations program, you never know when the media might call – messages done ahead of time help you to always be prepared.

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Converging forces are at work to revolutionize public relations as practiced in today’s social media landscape. Business now finds itself compelled to open new channels of communications in its’ quest to influence its’ publics and to establish a position of “thought leadership.”  Thought leadership is rapidly emerging as the key to enhancing company, and entrepreneurial, credibility and to influence decision-makers in every field of endeavor.

Strategic “thought leadership” focused public relations is now an essential tool in the quest to enhance company image by differentiating one’s philosophy and offerings in our highly commoditized, information-cluttered mediascape. It helps to build a favorable attitude toward a company, its products and management through the recognition that the company is a master of its business, considers the needs of its’ customers and the larger society, and comprehends the direction of the marketplace.

Many Still Spewing … While many companies are still content to spew news releases into the Internet through myriad paid or free PR distribution channels, such scatter-shot efforts pay few dividends and do little to position a company for leadership. What is required instead are strategic campaigns that emerge from a company’s mission and that consistently communicate an original, forward-looking perspective on core industry challenges.A thought leader company actively promotes ideas relevant to its marketplace and to the larger society which its processes impact. By joining the industry conversation, and addressing pivotal issues with authority, one will, with consistent effort, come to be recognized as a leader in that field. The resulting leadership aura demonstrates to the market that your company has the experience and knowledge to support its words – that you can walk the talk.

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At 11.35 p.m. on August 25, 1956, I stepped out of the Gimbel Brothers’ Building, Rue Saint Honoré in Paris, together with James Vaneys. I had just been appointed General Manager of Gimbel Brother’s Benelux Inc. , viz. Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. I had acquired experience as assistant to James during four years. He had been confirmed as General Manager at the helm of the German company earlier that day. I was twenty-six.

James had picked me up at Charles de Gaulle, and told me that Adam Gimbel, the owner of the Gimbel chain, and the Saks Fifth Avenue Stores, had arrived just an hour earlier from the States, and was waiting for us in the Gimbel offices. He turned out to be a handsome man, suave, and bronzed by the Florida sun. His clothes were definitely Brooks Brothers. He did show jet lag.  Albert Derris, President of Gimbel Europe, immediately set off the negotiation in French. He said that James Vaneys had convinced him that I had what it took to run the business, and offered me the job at fifty percent more than my previous assistant salary – way off James salary – and the use of his two-year-old car. Mr. Gimbel watched and listened quietly. After a deep breath , I countered Mr.Derris saying it would be reasonable to expect a US$ 25.000 annual salary as General Manager in view of the responsibility. Furthermore I elaborated, I had long dreamed to drive a new Ford Captain; a Mr. Vaneys leftover did not appeal to me.  Albert Derris’s face revealed his increasing amazement and irritation; a dark red flush appeared and steam seemed to be coming out of his ears. Immediately Adam Gimbel sensed a problem and caught on to the mood change. He intervened and asked sharply, “Derris is there a problem ? What’s he saying; what’s he saying ?” Derris answered, “He wants $ 25.000 annual and a new car.”

In turn Mr. Gimbel’s face revealed his amazement.

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The simple answer is, it depends.One factor to consider is the purpose of the blog.Is it to communicate with:

• Staff
• Partners
• Prospects
• Clients
• Shareholders

If you are a public company CEO, you need to be very diligent as to what you write. You cannot comment on things that may move the stock.

Is it to build your personal brand?
Most public company CEO’s stick to some area of expertise like Jim Estill. With respect to Jim’s blog, he focuses on leadership and has quite a following. He is highly respected because he delivers value to his readership. This value word is key in social media. It can be challenging for him to blog about happenings at Nu Horizons all the time, because there may not be items of interest for his audience. Jim has chosen the personal brand route and that works for him.

Other considerations for blogging are time and desire
Many CEO’s don’t want or need one more thing on their to do list. They need to see the value of blogging in order to deliver value. So, trying to convince all CEO’s to blog is an uphill battle even after outlining all the clear benefits of:

• Brand building of the corporation
• Personal Brand building of the CEO
• Effective employee communication
• Positive effect on organic search for the corporate web site
• Free Public Relations
• Low Cost
• Direct communications with stakeholders
• Differentiate from your competition

Those CEO’s that are ready to blog, will. Some may use ghost writers which is OK as long as the content reflects their views.

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In this article, I’m not going to be teaching you “how to” do something, but rather I’m going to be talking about the benefits of writing and recording “How to” information for your customers. 

Trust me. I’ve reaped the benefit of creating “How to” material 1000 times over. Creating “How to” information: 

• Positions you as the expert
• Gives people the chance to ‘try out’ what you do
• Allows people to get to know you and your views
• Promotes your business time and time again as different people will read and listen to your “How to” 

In fact, I can’t really think of a reason not to create a “How to” for your business. 

Your “How to” can take many forms. It doesn’t have to be long – in fact it can be an article just like this one. Or you can write something longer like an e-book. If you don’t like writing, you can record your “How to” and give it away as a downloadable audio or even put it onto a CD. 

OK – you could possibly argue that creating a “How to” is time consuming, might need a lot of research and may take you away from doing other, more productive activities. 

But, then I would argue back that you probably have most, if not all the knowledge you need to write a short “How to” like this one in your head already. I know I’m very used to writing articles (I write around 1 a week), but once you get into the hang of it, it will usually only take you around ½ an hour to create. 

I would then get my article out on-line (just type in “Free article websites” into Google to find tons of places that you can post your article for free – all with a link back to your website), use it in my newsletter and put it out as a special report to certain customers. 

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One question that I often get asked is “Should I buy some promotional products for my business?” By this, people mean should they buy pens, car stickers, calendars, t-shirts and so on. The theory behind is that these items will be used by people and will remind people of the business every time they look at them. 

My argument on the other hand goes like this. It’s all very well buying these items, but as they can be very expensive, it depends what you’re going to use them for. 

For instance, if you’re going to get some t-shirts printed and donate them to the local school football team because parents are your target market, then great. Likewise, if you’re going to use your t-shirts for all your staff to wear while you compete in a charity race and get some publicity too, that could be a wise use of money. 

If however, you’re going to spend your money on placing your company’s advert on a wall calendar so that businesses will be aware of your company all year round or send out diaries to all of your contacts, then chances are you’re just wasting your money. 

I remember having a wall calendar in our office last year and it had lots of companies around the outside with details of their products and services. Believe me, we didn’t use that calendar for anything else apart from marking up staff holidays and I couldn’t tell you the names of any of the companies around the edge – in fact I don’t think I even looked at them. 

Likewise, we currently have small pop up calendars on each of our desks – they’re very useful thank you very much. But, I couldn’t tell you the name of the company who supplied them at all. And having just looked at mine (while writing this article), the name doesn’t actually ring any bells at all. 

Same thing goes for pens. I pick up tons of pens when I go to exhibitions etc. Why?

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As a veteran PR counselor specializing in the creative marketing services space, I avidly track the evolution of media channels, especially the growing challenge that “social media” poses to “traditional media” for marketplace dominance. When working to develop leadership positions for emerging companies an understanding of which media will most profoundly impact one’s reputation and positively influence prospective clients, is key. So a radical shift in the media landscape poses new challenges to practitioners as they develop media relations campaigns designed to elevate clients’ to industry spokes-company status.

The Big PR Question
The big PR question of the day is how to design and target programs in such a challenging communications environment? Should one focus on social media first, or exclusively, stick with traditional media and its recognized “credibility” factor, or strive to balance the two?  In almost all cases, I would recommend a blend. According to new research by Ad-ology Research, small business owners say the benefits of social networking are lead generation, keeping up with the industry, and monitoring the online conversation about their business. “Social media optimization,” – how to maximize the impact of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube –in that rank order) is obviously a key communications/marketing concern.

Ad-ology’s study continues, reporting that SBOs get the social media message and hope to engage customers in new ways in 2010. 28% say they plan to spend more on online video in 2010, up 75% over last year; 25% say they will increase their social networking spend; 21% plan to commit more resources to mobile advertising.

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As a PR and digital marketing firm we often get calls and emails from friends and family after they have done a DIY attempt at a web site.

But as with every question asked of us, we have more questions. It starts with the goals of the site. Is it just to have an online business card that has a few more details where you can send prospects (not a good idea).

Or do they see it as a channel to help generate leads, with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media and Banner or Google ads as part of the digital strategy (better).

Sometimes folks think, build it and they will come… Not today… Build it properly and then market the crap out of it is more the strategy.

But the latter requires investment of time and money.

Finally a good site should reflect a personality, a brand, a differentiator. A blog, use of video, and good quality photos (all properly optimized for search) should be part of the plan.

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“We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.” – Gold Hat (Alfonso Bedoya), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Warner Bros – 1948)

Conventions/conferences are events that challenge a man’s (and woman’s) stamina. They push you to the limits of creativity and performance. Companies spend hundreds of thousands, no millions to attend them annually just to reach, educate, inform, persuade other companies and the media.

Two recent events are typical – Black Hat Technical Security Conference and NAB (National Association of Broadcasters).  Both in Las Vegas. Both at the same time. Both had the attendees you’d expect:

• Black Hat – NSA, FBI, Homeland Security, cybersecurity folks from around the globe
• NAB – broadcasters, movie producers, stations, indies, event videographers

Media were at both and naturally PR people were there pushing coverage for their companies’ better ideas, better products. The organizers of both used the popular idiom of having “green” press rooms. No big deal for media covering Black Hat. Folks at this show talk in whispers, text, IM, email, use, delete…everything.  There was also a lot of use of “location, location” connection apps (made popular at South By Southwest – SXSW).  Couldn’t you just call ‘em…you’re using your smartphone? NAB had media, publicists, undercurrent that not having paper press kits was a bad thing.

From our perspective being green is nice as long as it:

• doesn’t get in the way of our doing our job
• isn’t less effective
• doesn’t slow/inhibit getting the messages to the media
• isn’t less efficient
• doesn’t cost more money

So you have to ask yourself? Is your quality diminished with online materials? Is your reach, “influence” less with online kits?

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I often hear my clients tell me “I only use Facebook for family stuff and LinkedIn for business”. For sure that was the original intention of those social platforms. However, did you ever wonder how you make decisions on what is a personal contact and what is a business contact? Maybe that depends on your definition of friendship.

In the world of social networking it seems the lines are blurring somewhat. For example, I have a personal Facebook site where (for the most part) I try to keep it for personal friends and family content. But, what eventually happens is that business or networking contacts end up being part of my network. Some of the same folks I in my network on LinkedIn are in fact also my “friends” on Facebook.

One of my Facebook friends sells cars and every so often he posts a deal on a car. I know when I am in the market for a car, he will be top of mind because he is now part of my online world.  Is it because he is a friend, or a automotive sales person? I guess in the end it really doesn’t matter. The point here is to think about your social networking world in a more macro sense. Relationships rule the planet and the more folks you know (that you want to know) the better.

The only caveat is to know that each relationship online needs to be nurtured from time to time. Yes, the lines are blurred, but that may be a good thing…

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What is a landing page?
Sometimes known as a lead capture page it is used for online marketing.  It is a web page a visitor reaches after clicking an online ad or link.  It is a way to convert web clicks into clients.  The page will contain detailed content of the product or service mentioned.

There are two types of landing pages:

Organic or “reference” landing page:
An organic or reference landing page presents information that is relevant to the visitor and used for advertising or campaigns and usually not part of the main site but geared toward a specific source of traffic.  These can display text, images and links to direct to the main site.

Transactional landing page:
A transactional landing page’s goal is to persuade the visitor to complete a transaction and buy the product or service by filling out a form or being involved with the advertisement on the page.

Five must have components for your landing page:

1. Strategy – create an interesting headline, since that is the first thing the visitors read.  Create a Unique Value Proposition that will describe the market and the difference between your competitors and your own business 
2. Lead – must be interesting enough to capture your visitor’s attention and make them want to keep reading
3. Benefits – this is your chance to really sell your product.  List the benefits of your product and what it has to offer your visitors
4. Offer – this asks your visitors to purchase, sign up or opt-in
5. Look and feel – make sure the page has critical elements that builds trust and worthiness to the visitor

Five practices to keep in mind:

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As a child, you probably heard, “to thine own self be true.” But what does that really mean? When the newspapers are full of cheating and lying business owners, politicians, and academics, does it really make sense to maintain your integrity?

To me, the answer is a clear, unwaffling YES! Without your integrity, you really don’t have a business or a career-just a waiting game until you world comes crashing down around you. But fear of being caught isn’t the reason to live your life with integrity. The real reasons are that it helps you get to where you really want to be, and lets you feel really good about yourself.

Sometimes, integrity involves taking risks. Here’s an example from my own career:
A graphic artist and I were at a pitch meeting to produce some materials for our local Board of Realtors. The organization had registered a very obscure domain name that only had meaning for them.

The “safe” thing to do would have been to nod our heads and continue the conversation. But when we heard the domain name, the graphic artist and I exchanged looks, and we started telling the organization why the domain they’d picked would be a marketing disaster. I told the executive director to imagine giving out that name on the radio, and to look at a name that would reinforce the group’s identity and message.

We went out on a limb; this was a free consultation during a meeting to pitch for business, and if someone was really attached to the name, we might never have gotten the job. But we all brainstormed a bunch of better domain names-and then a few months later I got a call from the president of the largest real estate firm in the service area. He had been impressed at that meeting and came to me to rewrite the firm’s entire collection of a dozen or so brochures-a very juicy assignment.

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If you have been reading articles or listening to news reports about the job market, you are aware that you are in a tough job market and that you will have to do something to make yourself stand out from the rest of the crowd during your interview.

You realize that you are competing against the odds. The question is, “How can you make yourself stand out when there are so many other candidates looking at the same job?”

The answer is to “BRAND YOURSELF.”

What this means is you have to discover WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE.

Let’s assume that you have an outstanding resume and that you make it to the top of the stack of resumes of people to be called for an interview. You, and maybe nine or ten other equally qualified people for the position, that is.

Because companies have so many candidates to choose from they are interviewing more people so that they can select the “best.” When you are lucky enough to be invited to an interview it is essential that you be ready to sell yourself – to let the interviewer know what makes you unique – what makes you a “remembered” person – what added value you can bring to the position—in other words, why you are the best person for the job? Your goal is to leave behind an impression of your “brand.”

By doing some basic preparation, you can determine your uniqueness and where you should focus your attention. The first step in this process is to identify your five areas of strength. These strengths are the areas where you do very well. This will take some work and some thought on your part.

“What is your area of expertise?”

“What are your strengths?”

“What is your work ethic?”

“What would your co-workers or former bosses say about you?”

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Before we go any further, it’s probably a good idea to be able to define exactly what is meant by Sponsorship.  Now there are numerous different ways of defining Sponsorship, however, my preferred definition is as follows:-

“An investment, in cash or in kind, in an activity, in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with this activity.”1

What are the five steps towards identifying the right opportunity?

• What would be the objective of sponsorship?
• Which audiences’ essential to the organisation’s success would be reached through sponsorship?
• What activity or event is of most interest or concern to those audiences?
• Which geographical territories need to be covered?
• What is the desired image of the company, its products or brands?2

What would be the objective of sponsorship?

Above all there has to be a reasonable fit between what your company actually produces and the event that you are wishing to sponsor.

A few examples here would be:-

• A petrol company sponsoring a Formula 1 Team
• An IT company sponsoring a British Touring Car Team
• A Sporting Goods company sponsoring an Athletics Event
• A Consumer Electronics company sponsoring a Football Team

In the case of the first three, there is very clear, rational for the sponsoring company make the investment in that particular event.  Formula 1 cars wouldn’t go very far without the fuel they need to run on; a British Touring Car Team ultimately realise on IT to get the cars going in the first place; whilst there is a clear association between an Athletics Goods and sporting events what may not be so easy to understand is why a Consumer Electrics company would be sponsoring a football team?

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Challenging communications environment? Should one focus on social media first, or exclusively, stick with traditional media and its recognized “credibility” factor, or strive to balance the two?  In almost all cases, I would recommend a blend.

According to new research by Ad-ology Research, small business owners say the benefits of social networking are lead generation, keeping up with the industry, and monitoring the online conversation about their business. “Social media optimization,” – how to maximize the impact of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube –in that rank order) is obviously a key communications/marketing concern.

Ad-ology’s study continues, reporting that SBOs get the social media message and hope to engage customers in new ways in 2010. 28% say they plan to spend more on online video in 2010, up 75% over last year; 25% say they will increase their social networking spend; 21% plan to commit more resources to mobile advertising. However, e-mail marketing continues to be the most popular online tool for small businesses, and why not since it reaches the targeted individual directly.

But before you commit the bulk of your marketing spend and investment of executive time to social media, consider a few facts. The impact of social media is still largely unmeasured, and the ecology is potentially dangerous to reputation or budget, witness the fall from grace of MySpace and Friendster. Since social media is the uncensored “people’s media” agencies that make a living off their creative intellectual capital must carefully navigate these turbulent waters without throwing up mud storms of criticism from critics and competitors.

Blending Media Approaches

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When it comes to face-to-face networking, you should focus on two varieties:

1. Attending meetings or events where you will likely find your target market.
2. Attending meetings or events where you will likely build your Bridges of Influence.

There is a good chance that you already know who your target market is and that you are already attending networking events to find that target market (if not, check out my marketing resources at SkillPreneur.com). Though, many business owners who I work with fail to pay attention to events where they will find people who can be their Bridges of Influence.

Your Bridges of Influence are different than your target market. These are the people who won’t be buying your products and services, but they know the people who will. For example, if you are an interior designer, your Bridges of Influence could include realtors, home builders, and contractors. These are the groups of people who have direct contact with the home owners who can benefit from your service.

Your Bridges of Influence are the people who can create a connection between you and your target market by endorsing your credibility. They provide an introduction between you and your prospects, and help you initiate a relationship that builds trust quickly.

To foster relationships with your Bridges of Influence, start by locating them. Figure out where they congregate, the meetings and events they attend, and attend those meetings (or be a speaker at those meetings).

Take Action

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You’ve decided it’s time to launch your PR campaign.  You’re ready to move forward.  Now you need to figure out who your public relations partner in this journey is going to be.  Believe me, it is a journey (and can be a great one) and in the best of cases the PR company that you choose is going to be functioning as a trusted partner, at least in this one arena.  But how do you pick a firm that fits your particular needs?

The first mistake that you want to avoid is to only consider companies that specialize in your field.  You definitely want to consider them in the mix, but what you’re primarily looking for is a firm that knows PR, that knows how to develop and place stories in the media, if they’re good, they can use their expertise and know-how and apply that to any field.  Remember, PR is a communication business, for it to truly work, you need to be able to comfortably communicate with them and they need to expertly craft your message and communicate that to the media.  The following are a few topics to consider and questions to ask, when interviewing a PR firm.

Questions to ask your potential PR firm:
1)  How long have they been in business and which media outlets have they placed stories in?

2) How they would define a successful campaign.  Get a sense of their mindset and how they view the process.  Discuss how you would define success and see if there is a common thread.

3) How do they work when it comes to developing story ideas?  Are they looking for you to do all of the work?  Are they asking you for the story ideas and then simply turning those into pitches or are they a firm that will work with you to develop creative and unique pitch ideas?

4) What do they see as your campaign’s greatest potential strengths?

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Television production used to be pretty straight forward.  You had HUGE, HEAVY cameras three people pushed around.  In the control room you had sliders and BAM! magically the signal went over the air. At home you turned on the set.  Had dinner (families ate together then) and a half-hour later the tube was lit and you watched the Sid Caesar or Lone Ranger show.  It was so cool.

For years we all went to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show and the behemoths of the industry dominated the floor.  Big, sexy, expensive cameras.  Big, gorgeous, expensive control panels. TV sets, big/bigger, gorgeous, expensive. Then the cable and satellite folks emerged with “a better TV experience.”   Once you got tired of over-the-air only shows in they “offered” you 50-100 fantastic channels for $100 a month.  Suddenly our wife could watch HGTV, daughter could watch the gut-buster infomercial, and son could watch Telemundo (he’s practicing Spanish and the skirts are short).  According to Nielsen we started watching more TV – 4 hours, 34 minutes a day in 2006-07.  Not bad for the producers, network, cable operators, advertisers. Nielsen found:

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