Sunday, August 31, 2014

Incredible results of well-written press release

Press releases are one of the most important elements in the marketing strategy that provides for the maximum exposure of your company and reminds your clients about important developments in your company. The most important aim of the press release is to win the trust of your steadfast clients and inform new customers about your company and its activities. Each of the press releases should contain some indispensable elements such as intriguing and attractive headline, the body of the press release that should describe the developments of your company (for instance you company starts providing new services, it might start manufacturing new products or it launches some new projects). Remember that the most efficient press release must attract the attention of your reader immediately-only few of your potential readers have the time to read numerous press releases submitted to the desk.

The issuing of your pres release should be timely. That is why it is important to cooperate with your marketing professionals who should evaluate and research the market before your press release is issued. The press release should reveal what you are trying to accomplish and why you are publishing it. Your headline is one of the most important elements of your press release; it should be appealing, attracting and interesting; however it must in several words tell whole story. One should try to avoid generalization; press release should communicate with your reader in easy-to-read, coherent and logical style. The text must impress your reader and should not exaggerate, one should remember that the press release is issued to the mass media representatives, who are highly skeptical and are used to treat the information cautiously.

There are just of several tips on how the press release can be completed. Certainly there is plenty of information in the internet on how the press release can be completed. One might read it and try to complete the press release by oneself, however it is advisable to hire experienced professional who has several years of experience and is well-skilled to complete your task. Press release service will guide through this complicated and difficult process. Once the press releases have been completed by press release services you can use press release written by them as a guide.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

How to have lasting relationship with clients?

Clients are the most precious assets for a business. Without clients, there can be no business. With poor quality of clients, the business will be poor and if you manage to get very good clients and retain their loyalty, your business will only go up and up. This all sounds very exciting. But it is not easy to get very good clients and all the more difficult to retain them. After all, whatever you do, your competition is trying the same and may use better techniques to get business. Are there any innovative approaches to client relationships?

We are talking about direct sales in this discussion and not about selling merchandise to large consumer base. For example if you are a contractor maintaining air conditioners in clients work places. Or a direct seller of computer hardware to business buyers, and all such businesses where your sales to individual clients are large, and you are in direct contact with clients.

The first need is of course client satisfaction. If the client is satisfied with your response time, after sales service and can depend on you, pricing may become secondary. All clients do not buy from a supplier whose sales at the lowest price. If your product cost is a small percentage of clients total expense or if your product is essential for your clients, you are onto something good. How to retain such clients despite all the competition? What are the other factors than client satisfaction?

Relationship is one such other major factor. Do you relate with your clients only professionally, or are very good friends? Both these extremes can hurt. For a long-term business relationship, good friendship is not good for health of your business. Any problem in the personal friendship will directly affect your business. What if you relate to your clients mechanically in a professional style totally devoid of personal touch? You know the answer yourself.

What is needed is a relationship that does not border on personal friendships, but crosses mechanical approach. A fine balance between personal and professional.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Greetings Card – What, When and How

The holiday season is around the season. There are lots of cards and gifts being exchanged, with lots of money being spent in the air. This is the season to be jolly, and also to make others jolly through greeting cards and phone calls.

When the holiday season comes, one starts deciding on whom to send business greeting cards to, and on whom not to send cards to. Then comes the decision of what kind of business greeting card to choose, and how to address the envelope. The main reasons business greeting cards are exchanged are to attract new customers to your business, enhance your current business relationships with people, to show appreciation to all your supportive clients and to remind old clients that you are still existing! Whatever the reason, proper business greeting card etiquette has to be exercised as a well meaning gesture may offend the person you tend to impress, if not done properly.

When sending business greeting cards, it is important that you buy and send good quality greeting cards. It is better to start with a good quality business greeting card to show the value you hold of your clients and colleagues. If you do skimp in your selection, it may be interpreted in a number of ways, to thus lead to misunderstandings like that the business is not doing good or that the clients aren’t worth a little investment. Even though you may have preprinted information on the business greeting card, it is important that you add your own handwritten signature on the card. Even the most elegant of business cards should have your personal signature and a handwritten message to give that personal touch to the business greeting card. The recipient is sure to feel happy at seeing your personal signature on the card. Before starting on sending business greeting cards, it is important that your list is up-to-date with correct names and addresses. It will be easier if you do this on a regular basis, to avoid it becoming a dreaded holiday chore. Change changed addresses periodically to avoid embarrassing yourself by sending the card to the old address!

Avoid using computer generated labels when addressing the envelopes as these are impersonal and make your holiday wishes seem like mass mailing. If you don’t have the time to write the addresses, at least have someone else address the envelope for you. Make sure you use titles of Mr. or Mrs. when addressing the envelope to an individual or couple as a sign of respect to the customer or client. If you know the small business owner around the corner, mailing the business greeting card to the home produces better and happier effects on the recipient’s part. If married, include the spouse’s name on the envelope as it is not always that you find both the husband and wife working at the same establishment. Be sensitive with traditions. Find out if the recipient follows Christmas, Deposal or Hanukah, and then find out if the message is appropriate for the individual. Or else, you may go in for a card which will not offend anyone like “Season’s Greetings”.

It is best to avoid the mail rush by mailing the business greeting cards way before the actual festival. This is because around the festival time there will be a mad rush of cards for the postal department to sort out, and that in turn may that take lots of time. If needed, you could also think of inserting a business card along with the business greeting card to remind the recipient of the services or product you excel in. It is actually a good idea of getting next year’s Boxer Day cards a few days after this year’s Boxer Day. This saves a lot in terms of time and money! Not only can you send clients and friends business greeting cards; in fact, you can also send them to employee for employee motivation. As everyone enjoys being recognized, you could build team spirit by having everyone to sign on a colleague’s holiday greeting card. Avoid having corporate logos printed on the business greeting card; else it may look like it has been pulled off the company stationery shelf.

The best time to send business greeting cards are went the recipient least expects it. Perhaps you could send it during the customer’s birthday or something. So whatever business greeting card you do send, and for whatever reason it may be, make sure you use the right etiquette when sending greeting cards for the holiday season, or birthday!

How to Create a Better News Release

Many organizations and businesses want media coverage of their activities, and at the same time many newsrooms are looking for local (or even national and international) topics to cover. If you're belong to an organization that wants coverage, you can increase the odds of getting it by following a few simple news release (or press release) conventions.

First, you must have something new or different to say. As the name News implies, the media want information that's new or at least updated. At the same time, reporters and editors want information that's relevant to their readers; choose your media targets carefully, and tailor the content of the release to their audience).

Second, your headline should be as interesting as a newspaper headline. It should promise something new, dramatic, or timely. Make the editor or reporter want to know more. Remember, though, the claim should be credible and relevant.

Third, in the first paragraph of the body, get in what journalists call the Five Ws: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. In fact, try to get them into the first sentence, and if you can't, at least start with a clear concise statement that summarizes the story.

Traditionally, reporters have tried to get the essence of every story into the first paragraph because they didn't know where, or whether, their stories would be cut. So, they start with the most important information and end with the least important. That way, no matter where the story was cut, the best material stayed.

Fourth, write and rewrite your news release many times before 'releasing' it. Use active verbs and transitions (from sentence to sentence, and paragraph to paragraph). Boil down the content as much as you can; two pages is acceptable, but one is better.

Fifth, follow this standard format:
At the top of the page, write this, in all caps:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Usually this will be left-justified)

Or, if you want the release to be held until specific date/time, write something like this:
FOR RELEASE AT 10 A.M., AUGUST 23
(But don't necessarily expect the embargo to be honored)

Skip a line and then put in contact information, as in:
Contact: Robert Abbott
Telephone: 403 555-1234
Email: robertabbott@anycompany.com

Skip another line and add your headline (centered, and use title case or all-caps):
Perpetual Motion Machine Unveiled

Now, the body of your news release, which should not exceed two pages.

At the end of the body, add three number marks with single spaces between them, as in:
# # #

Repeat your contact information at the end , as in:
Robert Abbott welcomes your inquiries at 403 555-1234 or by email at: robertabbott@anycompany.com

Sixth, prepare yourself for reporters' questions
It goes without saying, of course, that you would prepare yourself for questions from reporters if you send out a release. I would recommend you write out a list of questions that seem likely and prepare bullet-point answers for each of them. That way you'll be ready for most of the questions. However, don't read the answers back to reporters; just use them as a guide. At the same time, assume you'll get questions you simply can't predict. Answer them as well as you can; and if you can't answer, your best bet is to tell the interviewer you'll need to get more information, and will call back after you do.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Harvard Drug Research Fraud and Cover-up: How Off-Label Profiteering Works

Harvard Drug Research Fraud and Cover-up: How Off-Label Profiteering Works

Drug company money influences and corrupts research. That is a given.

What is less understood is why drug manufacturers spend billions for research on off-label uses for their products - uses that were never cleared with the FDA when the drug was submitted for approval.

Off-label use allows drug companies to get "through the back door" what they could never, and I mean never, get away with by going directly to the FDA for approval for a new use of a product - what is known today as an off-label use.

You would hope that researchers wouldn't corrupt the commercial experimentation of a new, or off-label, use of a drug to treat children by covering up their consulting fees from Big Pharma. But that's what happened.

More important than what happened is why it happened and at the bottom of all this is a terrible mistake the U.S. has made in allowing the exploitation of off-label use.

The devil is in the details, so here is the story as it has unfolded.

Leading Harvard professors studying off-label uses, the gold mine of the drug industry, have violated National Institute of Health reporting requirements when more than $10,000 has been received from a subject company, according to the New York Times, "Researchers Fail to Reveal Drug Pay" June 8, 2008. nytimes 2008/06/08/us/08conflict.html?em&ex=1213070400&en=9971013dfd33290a&ei=508720say20are%20sorry&st=cse isn't enough.

If Harvard doesn't fire them, it will be complicit in the cover-up.

Throw them off campus. Ring the bell loud and clear that no matter how renown or stellar, if you don't play by the rules, you can't play at all. And the NIH should forever ban them from receiving grants.

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Once appropriate punishment has been served, give these researchers a chance to polish their tarnished reputations. Allow them to conduct research under the supervision of a responsible administrator who knows that "veritas," means truth, accuracy, honesty, and uprightness and that it's more than just a motto.

Google News - Just another article announcer?

In Google's recent battle towards becoming an international news center, I've come to notice that the results delivered from Google News seems like nothing more than the articles we publish everyday. So I ask, doesn't it seem like Google News resembles an article directory of some sorts?

  * Google News World: news.google.com
  * Google News Canada: news.google.ca
  * Google News UK: news.google.co.uk

I only mention this because when submitting my internet marketing articles, I often wonder if they show up within Google News? 9 times out of 10, they do! In fact, they usually show up within 48 hours of being indexed from other top related websites.

How does Google News select it's content?

Right now, it seems that "news centers" & "press release companies" related to your field online are profiting from these search results. When you think about it, wouldn't a press release be a form of news anyways? Possibly...

If you take a good look at the websites who deliver the content within Google news, you will notice that only a select few are providing all of the results. Again, it's possible that Google's news algorithm is still in its infant stages and probably has a lot of uphill battles to conquer.

It may be in Google's best interest to assemble a team of experts in different fields to accept articles/news submissions in order to keep the news source within the Google kingdom.

There is Only A Fraction of Results Showing:

While searching through the GN section, you will also notice a relatively small portion of actual search results coming up. Only a fraction of a percentage of results get listed within the GN search results compared to the same results within the regular search results found on Google's main page.

Only the sections on the left deliver actual real-time news. These are: Top Stories | World | Business | Sci/Tech | Sports | Entertainment | Health. These links provide real-time results delivered from credible news sources online.

Google News Alerts - Ezine anyone?

When you think about it, you are giving Google your email address to get related articles to the search term delivered to your inbox, how does this differ from any other regular newsletter? Are we going to start seeing Google Adwords within the news alerts? Will they consider giving large corporations the opportunity to advertise within their email alerts as a one time mailing! I hope not.

More and more we are seeing less of the Google we once knew and have come to love (A search bar with some great results). Since Google's IPO, the development team at GG are starting to launch applications online that are starting to resemble what we now know as the great Yahoo Portal.

Will there be any difference? Probably not.

One Great Point About Google News:

They have given you the ability to customize your page to show whatever news topics you want. Simply look at the right side for a button that says "Customize this page New!". Once you click on this link a drop down box shows you all the main topics you have listed within your page. Simply click on the topic you wish to customize or remove. The best part of it all is that you can click on "Add a custom section" and simply search for the topic you wish to have listed on your page.

All in all you can create an entire custom news page (author articles) that relate to your industry.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Getting Word of Mouth Started: New Book PR Method

Authors and business people often go to extremes to publicize their book or product launch. Sometimes, the most successful method can appear in front of them. Take for example, book publicity. It is the one of the toughest cases to crack. Each year, at least 50,000 authors are published in the United States. Tens of thousands of authors publish electronic books. Most fail to get noticed. Very few achieve any of their goals as authors – to build up readership.

Here’s a way to get the word out and polish off your book before it hits the stores: sampling. Major corporations utilize focus groups, pollsters and other marketing experts to build up their brand name. This is similar to planting seeds to get a garden or orchard to grow. The more seeds you plant, the better your chances to grow vegetables or apple trees. As an author, you can use sampling or "seeding," to build up awareness of your book. During the publishing process, we discovered a clever way to attract readers, and at the same time, we can upgrade our book.

Having been through the publishing process for many decades, we experimented with what every author secretly fears: a peer review. But, we did it with a twist. Instead of waiting until the book is published to read the reviews, we posted the book on our website to accept all criticism in advance. We called this a "Public and Peer Review" of our book, entitled "Investing in the Great Uranium Bull Market: A Practical Investor’s Guide to Uranium Stocks."

Before posting the first eight chapters of the electronic version of this book, we notified subscribers, several days earlier, that the book would be available on June 18th at 11:59 P.M for Open Review. In the email notification, we included a reminder to "tell a friend" about the book’s pre-publication.

By the time this book was ready to be electronically published, our large number of subscribers had jumped by nearly 10 percent! In less than one week, we had gained more new subscribers than we had in the previous few months. Our Alexa rating, for the week had also jumped ahead of nearly 1 million other websites. The one-week draw from the email notification had also increased the 3-month average by 267 percent!

This marketing opportunity provided us with greater readership. It might now offer us a broader range of opinions, helping us improve the book. Hopefully, there will be those annoying copy editor types, who will help point out grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. Previous tests, similar to this, have also drawn experts from the industry we have written about. This adds more texture to our research, and ultimately creates a better product for our readers.

Stay tuned for our next publicity surprise, after we review the success of our public and peer review. The key is to plan out a series of teasers to keep drawing visitors to your website and intelligently persuade them that your book is something they absolutely have to read.