PR Test Cases: It’s Not All Greek to Us ~ by Phil Butler

by Phil Butler

The last few months we’ve been conducting a series of test cases to once and for all prove out the overall effectiveness of public relations within the scope of an overall business communications success story. By the end of this series of reports, business owners and the communicators that help power their stories, will have several templates of PR success on a small scale, to apply to the larger scale projects some undertake. What our parent company, Pamil Visions PR has undertaken, any communications professionals can surely emulate. More importantly than this though, businesses for so long suspicious of marketing and PR strategies, will soon have a far better understanding of correct channel management.

What Is PR? Not Just Press Releases, Oh Please!

Once, PR was often at the head of marketing and advertising as the three dominant means of conveying message, and converting business. In the digital realm, marketing and ads naturally preceded a viable PR initiative. At least this is how Web 2.0 and ensuing digital business panned out. Now, agencies from the most powerful of all, Edelman and APCO, to an array of boutique PR firms and even so-called publicists finally play integral roles. My first two reports on this were featured on Social Media Today, as the next will be. I thought it appropriate though, that the first mention of a client of our firm should be here on Everything PR News. Part three of a series of reports to prove out for business how best to deploy the triad of marketing, PR, and advertising will show how story, and the right “mix”, even with some negative aspects, can still lead to very positive bookings ROI for hospitality players.

The long and short of today’s report focused on a Crete event, a hotel there, and an all too familiar “unwired” element that can crash any communications campaign. My previous articles referencing PR’s place in the promotion of all things digital dealt with generalities in the media outreach end of things, and to a degree social media might, etc. Part one focused on a hotel group in Scandinavia, and an individual effort to “heighten” that group’s visibility (Nordic Choice Hotels) unsupported by their PR and marketing team. While part two brought a major hospitality marketing firm into the picture (WIHP).

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Taking a Professional Approach To Email Marketing

Marketing should be done by all companies, but not all do it effectively.  Running affordable email marketing campaigns are a great way to  promote your business. Keep reading to find out how you can send out effective  emails.

Sending  emails is a fast and personal way to keep in touch with your customers. Keep  your emails short to ensure you hang on to your reader’s attention. Few people  will care to read a lengthy, thousand-word wall of text about a single product  or service. Include links to your website. This way, your customers will be able  to get more information there.

Never send emails to consumers without gaining their permission first. People  don’t like spam, and spam is unsolicited email. Sending out unannounced email  messages can have a negative impact on your brand. Start off the right way, and  be certain that your efforts are going to people who agree to hear from you.

Your email subscribers are very likely to be reading your emails from a  mobile device such as a smartphone. These devices lack the resolution of high  end computers, so word count and careful use of graphics becomes very important.  Recognize the constraints of mobile devices and always be sure that your emails  can be easily read, regardless of such constraints.

Create your content for your customers, not just crafted to evade the spam  filters. If you write your messages properly and limit the sales talk, you’ll  escape the spam filters. If you solely focus on using methods that will pass a  spam filter, your messages will likely be boring and readers will quickly delete  them. Worse, they’ll unsubscribe from your mailing list.

During the opt-in process, ask for your customers’ names, or at least their  first names. By having the recipients name, you can customize a message that is  more personal in its tone. Your emails will be different from other emails and  your recipient will feel less anonymous.

Provide several different ways for people to opt-in to your emails on your  site, but do not exert pressure for them to do so. Assure your customers that  their information will never be compromised and that you are worthy of trust.  Make certain to also inform them how they will benefit from signing up with you.  An e-mail marketing plan that is successful depends on the ability to get  customer information.

Offer  your visitors a free learning course conducted via email. You’ll need to develop  a set amount of auto responders, breaking up the lesson into sections. Four to  six sections should be an appropriate amount. Make sure the content is both  informative and unique. Schedule the sections to be sent out one at a time every  24 hours. This can provide you with a host of benefits, such as enhancing your  website, gaining your customers’ confidence, developing your authority, and  building your email base.

Be sure that you provide people with a way to opt out of your email marketing  newsletters. Using an autoresponder service like Aweber means you can do very affordable email marketing (you can send out emails to a  large number of subscribers for just a couple of dollars). You can create  separate email lists for different products, services and/or websites, market to  specific lists or send emails to all your subscribers. Compartmentalizing your  lists this way is very important to keeping things organized.

You will be very successful at email marketing if you know how to go about it  correctly. You’ll be able to use this method to build your business, increase  your profits and reach customers you never would have otherwise. The more you  learn about email marketing, the more you will realize just how effective a  marketing technique it can be. Once you start using email to promote your  business, you will never turn back.

Tags:Email Lists,  Marketing Campaign,  Email Marketing

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Check out the Internet Marketing Help blog for more great articles like   http://webbizkb.com/email-marketing/taking-a-professional-approach-to-email-marketing/ which was syndicated here at 12:42 pm on April 5, 2013. ______________________________________________________________________

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