Marketing Matters

Ten Steps to a Successful Product Launch

1. Look at what the market will be when you are ready to launch, not where it is      now.
2. Reinvent  your website to reflect the importance of your new product or service.
3. Maximize your web sites and blogs to be seen by your potential clients, Google and Yahoo. There are more than 21 unique point-by-point elements you can use to drive web traffic that will get you to the top of the search engines.
4. Use business  blogs to promote your launch, including one specifically dedicated to your  new product.
5. Participate in forums that you identify as reaching your target audiences. Be sure to link back to your blogs.
6. Select  customers for early trials of the product so that they can help identify and  solve problems. They can also supply testimonials.
7. Make each employee an evangelist.
8. Ask good questions before you launch – to want your customers to fall in love      with the product. Ask customers what they value.
9. Lead all marketing pieces with benefits, not features.
10. Conduct “expert interviews” one-on-one with industry leaders and analysts to get buy-in.

http://martingrossman.net

 

 

If I Had a Product Launcher

Are you about to launch a new product? You very well may be. There have been considerably more launches this year than in any of the past three. It seems to me that the economy may just be improving quickly enough so that the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of the next will see more new launches than we’ve seen since the glory days of the Internet Gold Rush. And this time the growth will be based on more realistic expectations. 

A good part of my business is directly tied to spending levels related to product launches – my projects are often funded from discretionary disposable spending related to new product introductions. I’m an expert on creating content related to innovative new products. I create imaginative marketing materials that can be used either for websites, blogs, webinars, online or offline symposia or for generating more sales leads (and isn’t that what a white paper ultimately is used for). These tools are the contemporary equivalent of the communications that we used to create for companies back in the 90’s just before the changes the Internet brought really had a chance to kick in. It really can help you to have someone working with you who is an expert on these subjects.  

I profit – pun intentional -- from creating new material that helps high tech (and other) companies express themselves clearly and effectively. In the past, these were pretty much printed documents (although there might have been the occasional video or even a PowerPoint document) and these documents were distributed by sales people handing them out, in response to advertisements, or maybe handed out at tradeshows. The document more or less was independent of the distribution vehicle.

Now that’s all changed and these two roles – documents and distribution vehicles – have merged. This is where I come in.

As John Katsaros of The Internet Research Group says of me: “When I look at your skill set (as seen from working with you and from talking with you about some of the ventures you have been part of) you seem to be one of the few people that can actually span both of these concepts. You are someone who knows both what the raw material content needs to be as well as how to optimize the delivery of that information to key constituencies.”

I think of myself as the CEO of a modern media firm focused on marketing content lifecycle – from the creation of the idea to the successful distribution (web-based, e-mail, physical seminars, Webinars) of these concepts to targeted audiences (customers, media, investors).  Sure, it’s just me (and some key trusted subcontractors).  But when you look closely, the support staff that you need to implement these ideas exists – both in-house and with the help of a gunslinger like me.

If you’re producing a white paper, going the web tutorial route is a really good distribution vehicle. If you’re doing a webinar for a network company, Ziff Davis is a reasonable vehicle for recruiting participants to our online presentation. The Internet really has changed everything and leveraging the all of the new tools for Internet marketing – from SEO to blogging, from e-books to the new PR – will make a big difference in reaching your target markets. Call me now and let’s talk. One brainstorming session will get us started. Let’s swim in the revenue stream. Let’s get wet.

http://martingrossman.net

 

SEO Matters

In the brave new world of blogging, forums, URLS and SEO, PR is morphing into a whole a very new kind of business. PR is about getting noticed and the Internet has changed much of how savvy companies and individuals go about it. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the new techniques that is changing the way PR is done. Simply put, it’s using the potential of technology to make websites buzz, hum, and suddenly become visible to thousands if not millions of netizens. A new industry is busy being born: Search Engine Marketing (SEM).SEO types may not even realize they are PR practitioners, but they are and the hippest PR practitioners increasingly are leveraging their expertise in service of gaining the right kind of recognition for their clients. If you’re tech savvy, you may even be able to go the DIY route.

As a PR guy, you want to generate recognition via a third-party media source without DIRECTLY paying for placement. In fact, if you pay, it’s advertising, not PR and it just doesn’t have the same clout. Story ideas, online or off, frequently begin with a push from a PR person. Sometime if you do it right, your timing is right, or you just get lucky, some media outlet will write a positive story. Your company or client will become the story, be featured in it, or at least have its name mentioned. The credibility of the media outlet (if it’s a good one) may rub off on a reader’s opinion. This is called the halo effect. A third-party you didn’t pay to mention your company or client will be worth far more to you than any ad. Hey, the Wall Street Journal thinks we’re important!

This is old stuff, The new wrinkle is doing what is needed to gain top search engine rankings. SEO is THE tool to get this done. You will want to be high up in the rankings for Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Overture. This means you are gaining the attention of an important third-party source. That’s what search engines are, as well as the mote traditional arbiters. This is NOT search engine advertising. Not at all. It’s a whole different game. Google, MSN and Yahoo, won’t let you buy a good ranking any more than The New York Times or Newsweek will let you buy favorable news coverage. But it’s quite kosher to do whatever you can to influence the rankings with the use of savvy techniques that leverage the power of online communications to gain more attention from search engine spiders. This is exactly what PR practitioners do, but it originated and lives in Geeksville.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

 A new technique that supplements the already mature practice of SEO is RSS. It can deliver news about a company or client using a developing Internet technology that uses the XML web formatting language. Whenever new content is posted to a website, RSS will let viewers know. Search engines that track RSS, such as Feedster, will to instantly alert people interested in particular kinds of content when new content is available. They don’t have to do a thing, not even visit a website. It comes to them. If you have clients interested in anything from silicon wafers to new tax law, they can be notified whenever there is something new to see or learn.

For all of the various types of RSS, content providers -- online news vendors, corporate sites, blogs, and forums will create RSS documents that provide a brief summary of new content, i.e., author, title, description and links to the full content. Anyone user who links to the RSS feed gets the summary instantly. Many journalists and others in the media are finding this a more convenient way to acquire information than they have ever had. Focusing on a particular industry becomes as easy as a mouse click. You still have to get them to subscribe to the feeds though and this may require some knowledge of the older kind of PR savvy.

Forums: Where the Target Audience Gathers

Web forums have been around for a while but they are now gaining new importance. More professionals are using them than ever. Even CEOS are joining in. But some postings (hiding behind the Internet’s anonymity) can become a nightmare for companies that are singled out for criticism and complaint. Rumors must be squelched before they spread virally through the Web and the blogosphere. You can also use Google  to monitor usenet newsgroups and not only shoot down rumors but make subtle pitches for products and services within the freewheeling exchange of ideas that goes on there.

eXpert Systems SEO module will guide you through all of the steps you’re going to need to become a master of SEO and SEM. With xxxx questions, comprehensive lists of resources, and a keyword primer and a proprietary function for generating them, we are ready to help you take advantage of the newest way to make your PR efforts soar.