Web Ink Now

New complimentary e-book - The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly

The Web has changed the rules for press releases. The thing is, most old-line PR professionals just don’t know it yet. But YOU need to understand the new rules. To help you, I just published a complimentary e-book called: The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly. Please download it and pass it on.

Because the rules for relating to the public have changed so slowly over the past ten years (since the Web has allowed people to read press releases directly), practitioners who learned based on the old rules have been equally slow to change. In fact, most old-school experts have refused to change altogether. It is time to step it up and consider the promise Web 2.0 public relations holds.

Today, savvy marketing professionals use press releases to reach buyers directly.

While many marketing and PR people understand that press releases sent over the wires appear in near real-time on services like Google News, very few understand the implications for how they must dramatically alter their press release strategy in order to maximize the effectiveness of the press release as a direct consumer-communication channel.

The media has been disintermediated. The Web has changed the rules. Buyers read your press releases directly and you need to be talking their language.

This is not to suggest that media relations are no longer important; mainstream media and the trade press must be part of an overall communications strategy. In some businesses, mainstream media and the trade press remain critically important and, of course, the media still derives some of its content from press releases.

But your primary audience is no longer just a handful of journalists. Your audience is millions of people with Internet connections and access to search engines and RSS readers.

Download my complimentary e-book The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly and see for yourself what all the buzz is about.

CollectSPACE: the premier site for Space buffs and collectors

Rabid collectors in virtually any field are unquestionably experts. Providing content to a community of collectors is an especially tricky undertaking because of the level of expertise already attained. CollectSPACE has done a terrific job building a portal for collectors of space memorabilia, artifacts, and autographs. The site covers the early days of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo through to the Shuttle age of today.

On the site, you will find message boards, history, auction information, places to buy and sell, and many other resources. The design is clean and crisp and organized into categories to make browsing easy. It is not uncommon for space buffs to spend hours on the message boards.

CollectSPACE debuted online on July 20, 1999, the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Conceived as a hobby site, collectSPACE has since grown to become the leading resource and community website for space history enthusiasts and space artifact collectors through the provision of original news reporting, collecting guides, and as a virtual meeting place for a truly global audience.

CollectSPACE is run by Robert Pearlman, one of the first independent developers to recognize the Internet as an effective means of popularizing space exploration. Pearlman has driven the content and creation of some of the most popular and influential sites devoted to the space.

Anyone considering creating a hobby site should look to CollectSPACE as a model for what to do right.

Don't trust an advertising agency to build your Web site

Sure, "Don't trust an advertising agency to build your Web site" is a sweeping generalization. While some advertising agencies may build great sites, the majority fail big time and their clients suffer as a result.

By understanding the Ad agency model marketers in all kinds of organizations you can all learn ways to make our own sites more effective. If you understand these flaws, you can work with your agency and help them be successful. And agency staffers may be able to learn how to do a more effective job with their own Web site work.

My article Don't trust an advertising agency to build your Web site was published in the RainToday.com monthly newsletter and site. RainToday.com is the premier online source for insight, advice, and tools for service business rainmakers, marketers, and leaders. Read the entire article and learn how to work with your agency partners for success.

My new book -- Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers Into Buyers

I’m excited that my new book Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers Into Buyers is close to being released. I'm told by the publisher that it is now at the printer and that we can expect that it will be available online and in stores in August or September.

You can download a complimentary e-book preview of Cashing in with Content.  This is a PDF file and the size is about 1MB.

This huge project has been about three years in the making. In Cashing In With Content, I demonstrate how content-savvy organizations are succeeding with a strategy that drives visitors to action - to purchase, donate, join, or subscribe.

It's all about the content.

Whether your focus is business-to-business, consumer e-commerce, non-profit services, or fundraising, I show that the key to web marketing success is delivering content that exceeds visitor expectations every time. My interviews with 20 of today's most innovative marketers reveal how they use content to build brand loyalty, unleash the power of viral marketing, and turn browsers into buyers.

Content drives revenue.

Cashing in with Content explores how successful organizations publish content on the Web and organize it to get the readers of that content to do something: buy, subscribe, apply, join, or contribute. These Web sites use content in effective, unusual, and innovative ways and succeed in bringing in the numbers.

Case studies as told by successful marketers.

Since this is the first book presenting the stories of how organizations use content to cash in, I felt it was critical that the marketers tell their tales directly. Their candid insights were gathered throughout a year of research, conversations, and e-mail exchanges. One constant that makes these sites informative case studies is the inexorable focus on using content to drive action. Content does more than just sell itself, a product, or an idea--it sells an organization by branding it as an expert or a trusted friend. The marketers interviewed here understand this. They use content as a tool to turn browsers into buyers.

Best practices.

There are a dozen best practices in Cashing in with Content and each possesses the potential to benefit you, your Web site, and your larger organizational goals and objectives. Rather than spend time on basic techniques that are outlined in many general “how to” books on Web site creation, I focus on higher-level content strategies, which fuel successful sites.

Pre-publication buzz.

I’m thrilled that many well-known authors, marketers and strategic thinkers have started buzzing about the book before it is even out. I thank them for reading the galley proofs. As the book nears its release date and reviews and other information comes in, I’ll share it here.

Take my money, please!

I read about a cool product called PC PhoneHome in a New York Times article called "Combating Gadget Theft" by Johanna Jainchill. A link to the NYT article is here, but you need to be a registered with the NYT to read it.

Basically PC PhoneHome is a cheap ($29.95) piece of "track and recover" software that you download onto a notebook computer (or other gadget).  If your computer is stolen, you notify the people at PC PhoneHome and they stealthily monitor your unit through IP addresses to see if it is is connected to the Internet. If they find your computer somewhere on the 'Net, they tell you where and you notify authorities.

Sounded great to me. So I TRIED to buy the product.

It seems the company didn't want my business. The PC PhoneHome site made it difficult to learn about the software and nearly impossible to actually purchase it.  I had my credit card ready and I wanted to give PC PhoneHome my money, but it was impossible on the first try.

I followed the directions on the PC PhoneHome site which asked me to enter an email address and password. I was told I would receive an email from the company "within seconds." I got no message. It said "If you do not receive the email from step 2, please check your spamfilter software." I checked. Still no message. Then I was told "Email sales@pcphonehome asking for a copy of the message that should have been sent to you." I did that, but  nobody at "sales" contacted me.

Several days later I went through the process again. I got the information "within seconds" this time as promised, but a follow-up message about installing the software said: "Should you have any questions or problems (such as the zip file being stripped out of this message by your network security), please contact technical support at." Huh? At where? There was no contact information for technical support.

Remember, this is a product that promises to track your computer if it is stolen and contact you so it can be found. As a buyer, I was skeptical -- if the company cannot walk me through the e-commerce sales process, how can they find my notebook computer through e-technology?

Yes, I purchased the software anyway the second time around. I hope I don't ever have to test it out, but I'm glad I have it.

It is important for any company selling online to test, test, and re-test all sign-up forms, email messages and instructions for complete accuracy. Using this kind of service should be flawless. There should be no doubts in the buyers mind as they pull out a credit card.

And if you ever get a mention of your product in the New York Times or other big media outlet -- make certain everything on your site and in your e-commerce engine works perfectly. Add extra people to respond to incoming email messages and questions on the day the article appears. With coverage in a major media outlet such as the NYT, this is your best shot to break out.

Animal Rubber Bands -- not a commodity

One of the best things compelling Web content can do is show that your product or service is not a commodity. And by doing so, you can command premium prices and differentiate the product from everything else in the marketplace. This is true in every product or service category.

In my daughter's middle school, the fad of the month is animal rubber bands -- a very cool and interesting version of a very basic commodity product. The kids love these things, they wear the multicolored ones on their wrists just like Lance Armstrong Live Strong bracelets.  They trade them with one another and use them in school projects.

It is amazing how different Animal Rubber Bands are from plain old commodity priced and packaged rubber bands.  A package of 2500 plain ones cost only $4.99 for 2500 at Staples, but the special animal ones command a premium price of $8.00 for 24 bands.

All products and services will benefit from a focus on creating content describing what's different and unique. And with that description comes the ability to cash in at premium prices and to differentiate from the run-of-the-mill versions of similar offerings from other companies.

Socrates: Best practices at work

Recently I stumbled upon a terrific site for "know-how solutions" called Socrates.  I think their innovative Web marketing techniques are worth studying by anyone who wants to cash in with Web content.

What these guys do is sell legal forms (contracts, wills, business agreements, real-estate transaction agreements, etc.) on the Internet. Many marketers at Web-based e-commerce sites would just sit back and say something like  "everyone needs what we have to offer" and use that thinking to justify a poorly designed site.

Not Socrates -- marketers at this e-commerce company employ best practices throughout this great site. 

Front and center on the homepage are appropriate self-select paths based on what kind of form you need: business, personal, real-estate, and contractor. In short, Socrates is organized the way visitors think rather than the way that Socrates happens to be managed.

To the right are "buy" links to immediately purchase and download "best seller" forms. In a clever move, all of the best sellers listed are at the low $9.95 price point. This "show, don't tell" technique makes people aware right on the homepage that the forms are affordable.  Near the bottom are featured products and the left navigation sports a listing of the types of forms available.

What I really like about this site is that you see it all right on the homepage. But the marketers at Socrates don't stop there. Once inside, each form's information page features well-written content describing what the form is and why it is useful. There's a nice "you may also need" link to related forms and documents ready for purchase.

I purchased a contract document I needed for my business and the transaction was quick and easy. I got my PDF document immediately and in a nice content marketing technique, I was offered a package of additional information to download for free. This is a great way to show customers what else is available to cultivate repeat business.

I spoke with several executives of the company and learned that they are doing extremely well. The site is responsible for selling a boatload of forms. Sales are going strong and a huge percentage of customers come back for additional forms. There's no doubt that the company's success comes from the site itself which employs best practices throughout.

Why don't traditional publishers leverage content on the Web?

With my new book “Cashing in with Content” now five months away from publication, I visited the midwinter meeting of the American Library Association this weekend. The huge show featured 800 exhibitor booths including hundreds of publishers plus other companies serving the library market (stuff like shelves and furniture, audio/visual equipment, databases, and so on).

I was hoping to see what’s new in the world of book promotion. Although it was certainly fun to pick up pre-publication editions of the featured titles publishers are pushing to be hot for upcoming release, I was disappointed by how similar the online marketing of books is.

Consider one category—Children’s Books. I jotted down the names of the publishers that had the largest and most trafficked booths and then went back to check out the Web sites. The sites all feature a photo album approach of pretty book covers with marketing blurbs. There didn’t seem to be any innovative organization, other than by age category (young kids, middle school readers, etc.)  Sure the sites were all well designed, but the basic navigation was forcing a visitor to wade through countless books. Harcourt and Hyperion did a better job than some of the others with the book listings themselves, offering links such as How To Buy (both consumer and book trade buyers), More Titles by This Author, Author's Biography, and Author's Website.

It’s just amazing to me that companies with the most content at their disposal – publishers – seem to do a poor job of cashing in with that content.  Also interesting is the online version of the show guide , which has all the information about each exhibitor, does not include a listing for the company Web site. I had to use a search engine to even find these publishers on the Web.  It seems that print publishers are simply rooted in print marketing.

Here are some children’s book sites to check out:

Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers

Harcourt Children's Books

Hyperion Books for Children

Penguin Young Readers Group

Random House Children's Books

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

The Future of the Internet

A broad-ranging group of 1,200 “respected technology experts, scholars, industry officials, and social analysts” were asked by the Pew Internet and American Life Project for their opinions and thoughts about the future of the Internet.

I was thrilled to be included in the group who was asked by the Pew Internet & American Life Project to provide thoughts. I filled out a questionnaire and was also able to add specific text to clarify my ideas and predictions.

Download the Pew report “The Future of the Internet”

This report has wide ranging importance and is a must-read for any organization that cashes in with content. “The Future of the Internet” is a complimentary download and is well worth the time to read.