Content Marketing Today

As they rush to make their deadlines, be sure reporters can find great content on your website.

Just because your customers are consuming less traditional print news and feature content does not mean that don't still crave information that helps them find solutions to their problems.  Thus, a great news story or feature article that includes information about your company, its people, and its products can drive a ton of new business your way. After all, that's what public relations is all about.

Although you may not have a budget for a public relations staffer or a PR agency, you can still increase the likelihood that you will get solid press coverage by creating a virtual home for reporters. Make it easy for them to do their job by creating a reporter-friendly online media room.  Think of this strategy as content marketing designed to provide relevant and compelling content--not to your customers--but to reporters.

Read More

Check Out These Gigantic Goofs So You Can Avoid Them in 2009

We all love top 10 lists, whether they are of the wonderful or of the woeful variety. We can learn from both. 

In that educational spirit and with thanks to the folks at Fineman PR, who put together this hall of shame, here is the list of really awful public relations gaffs from a year that is happily almost over.

1. AIG All-Expense-Paid Retreats ... Paid By YOU

Mere days after receiving an $85 billion federal bailout package, American International Group Inc. dropped nearly half a million dollars on an executive retreat to the posh St. Regis resort, complete with "spa treatments, banquets and golf outings," according to the Associated Press. Public reaction, as many watched 401(k) and other investments deflate, was heated. Ousted AIG CEO Robert Willumstad condemned the fete as "very inappropriate" when questioned by Congress, and presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said participating executives "should be fired" during a debate with Sen. John McCain. AIG compounded the damage when it proceeded with an $86,000 New England hunting retreat. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo promptly launched a fraud probe, saying "our message to AIG today is simple: The party is over."

Read More

Learn from their mistakes so you can score an 'A' on your news communications

You don't have to be a billion dollar bank to send out an effective news release.  But you can learn from their mistakes without having to spend a nickel. 

The folks at HubSpot have created another useful--and free--tool to assess whether your press releases deserve a passing grade within the all important web environment. We had previously written about their awesome website grader.  Click here to read that article.

Unfortunately, Fifth Third Bank scores a dismal 29 out of 100 based on HubSpot's analysis. Their tool evaluates Internet press releases by examining the elements that make it easy to read and respond to the release.

Read More

Our readers flocked to a broad range of content marketing-related issues over the past 12 months. In fact, the breadth of topics surprised me. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of what you can find:

• Unlearn Traditional PR
• Transform website into sales machine
• The Secret to Online Marketing
• Authenticity at Starbucks
• Sexy Headline Secrets from Cosmo
• A Really Bad Website Concept
• 6 Reasons to Publish an eNewsletter
• 5 Reasons to Launch a Blog-powered Website
• 6 Ways to Survive the Recession with Content Marketing
• Is it Time to Abandon Yellow Pages Advertising

Read on for a quick take on the posts that readers like you made made most popular.

Read More

More than 10,000 visitors voted with their mouse clicks to make these the 6 hottest articles out of 126 that we have posted in the virtual pages of ContentMarketingToday.com from January through June 2008.

They range from transforming an old-fashioned brochure site into a killer sales machine...to why you need to unlearn traditional PR in the 21st century...to why you must publish an eNewsletter. 

Read on to find out why these articles were so popular with so many marketers.

Read More

Why? Because connecting with the media is important but connecting with the public is vital! In the Internet era, this distinction is crucial.

It's easy to confuse the two concepts.  When most of us think of public relations, we think of the PR professionals who are skilled at getting coverage for our organizations in print, on the radio or on TV. Traditionally, that was the most effective way to put our companies and our message in front of the public.  That is no longer true. And, that is why understanding the difference between media relations and public relations becomes even more important.

Read More

Don't get me wrong.  Public relations is still a critical component to any marketing strategy for companies of all sizes.  Nonetheless, I am convinced that we need to turn our notions of public relations upside down so that it functions within a content marketing context. I was inspired to think again about the transformation of public relations by a recent post from David Meerman Scott in his WebInkNow.com blog.  He was sharing some top of mind ideas relating to successful public relations strategies for small businesses.  Here are his top two out of ten: Read More

A typical professional services website will explain what services the professional provides, offer a brief bio of the principal or principals, provide basic contact information, and perhaps show a list of clients.  That information is necessary but sadly insufficient.

By adding two simple but powerful content marketing elements, any professional can stand out from his or her peers. 

1. Provide a basic primer on the subject area in which the professional is an expert.  For example, an accountant could do basic articles on the importance of cash flow, how to minimize tax exposure, and what to look for in a business loan.
2. Provide regular news about topics that would be important to clients.  For our hypothetical accountant this might be the impact of new tax laws, health insurance changes or new withholding requirements.

Check out a live PR website prototype to see what's not just possible--but easy

Read More

When zillions of baby boomers have their own Facebook and MySpace pages, you know that social media has gone mainstream.  That means that the all text, cookie-cutter press release needs to be sent off to the great PR ranch in the sky.

David Meerman Scott has written extensively about the new rules of PR and marketing in his book of the same name and on his blog, WebInkNow.  He stresses the need to communicate with a universe much broader than the traditional press sources who held the keys to publicity for your company.  Embracing this reality is the all important first step.  But there's more that you can do.

When you are reaching out to this broader group, you should also consider using a completely different version of what used to be called a press release--and is now more properly called a social media press is release. Todd Defren of Shift Communications is a pioneer in the creation of this 21st-century tool.  As he explains it in a quote on the MarketingProfs.com eNewsletter:

Read More

You can achieve measurable results for your company or for your clients.  But it may involve changing your press release approach dramatically. You have to write for the Internet and for the search engines.

If your primary public relations strategy still amounts to sending press releases to a finite number of media contacts, you fail to take advantage of the Internet.  You are not reaching the new influencers, to use Paul Gillen's term. Even if you are sending your news release to a wider audience by using one of the excellent online PR tools, you are still making a mistake if you don't optimize your release for the search engines.

In a superb post on the "Online Marketing Blog," Lee Odden compiles the best advice from the folks who are running the major online news release outlets such as PR News wire, PRWeb, and Business Wire.  Here are some key takeaways:

Read More