Online to Survival

Here’s the news from the front. Video News Releases and Online promos are the next big thing. This is a presentation I used to illustrate how new media can be used to enhance the marketing mix of any small business during my time at Wirral TV.

Marketing and PR for Small Business 2 97

Any PR pro who doesn’t embrace the new technologies has about five years left in the business. I am not saying newspapers will disappear. It’s clear that their branding is strong enough to provide a viable advertising medium. So yes we’ll still be putting out news releases until the cows come home. But there’s no doubt that the landscape will continue changing as budgets are placed with CPC (Cost Per Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Here is a simple example of how a small business could benefit: An online promo could be produced which is placed on the home page of their website. This is becomes the pivot. The video is then tagged to reflect the business it is there to promote. So if it’s “widgets for dogs,” the tags in the HTML should reflect variation of the same. Next to the video should be a newsletter where people can subscribe. Converting viewers to potential customers is a long shot but it just might work!

This is all very well but how do you stimulate more customers to the website? There are various ways and not necessarily expensive:-

Social Media

I am coming out. I tried to avoid Facebook and co. like the plague for as long as I had to avoid answering messages such as “RU ok. Gud to see ya xxxx” or discuss my relationship status to all and sundry. But it’s here to stay. The branding of these sites might change over the years but the principle of networking stays the same. The internet defined is simply people saying “hello.” In history they’d say “hello” in a field and then  a telephone box, a home phone, a mobile and now online. Nothing has changed! Some of the facilities on Facebook allow you to invite people to events, share ideas and hey even sell products!

Cost Per Click

What’s a PR guy bleating on about Cost Per Click for? Well this PR guy was actually on the launch for Microsoft Ad Center UK. Having had access to private accounts, I was knocked out by the potential for serious money to be made on the internet. Choose the correct keywords for your niche, fine tune your demographics and you have THE most precise marketing method known to this species. This will drive traffic to your online promo.

Media Relations

Obviously articles in the local paper, radio and TV help, but let’s think outside the box here. If you have a video news release or online promo you should send it to the digital editors of the websites owned by the newspaper groups.  It can’t be assumed that the editorial policy for one follows the other. When I was promoting a concert in Liverpool, I asked if our promo could be placed in the editorial section of Liverpool.com. Sometimes they will run the footage for up to to three weeks. Despite the ongoing training of journalists to use camera and sound equipment, these website are still short of quality footage.  If they can link it back to your site, the effort is worthwhile. Do be aware though that editors might ask for a shorter version than the one you have.

Look out for future posts about integrated online marketing and PR when I will be exploring in greater detail some of the “how to” and prevalent issues.