If you are good at PR, there is no need for spin or even a pitch. All you have to do is tell the truth. Give out the information you have and answer questions directly and concisely. Really. No used car salesman tactics needed. No neuro-marketing research required. If the products or services are important to the audience, they will bite. The days of the hard sell and mass press releases are over.

With the rise of social media, and public relations merging and meshing into the technological world, being transparent and concise is absolutely critical. Take full advantage of the uber-niches that social media provides. Don’t pitch these people and talk at them.  Engage and talk with them. According to the Bad Pitch Blog, participation is key.

Northland International University was founded in 1976 and exists to train pastors, teachers, missionaries and godly laymen of tomorrow. Northland is located in Dunbar, Wisconsin, and enrolls 650 undergraduates and 100 graduate students, representing 45 states and 11 foreign countries.

“Northland is responding to what’s happening around the globe today,” said Ollila. “Northland International University is our answer to providing the necessary biblical and practical training and resources to local churches and Christians worldwide as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission in today’s exciting global culture.”

The website was designed and developed by Jackson-Dawson on an incredibly short time line, and the process of updating much of the site’s content continues.  The old website was spread across numerous sub domains making the information hard to find and not as user-friendly as it could have been.

Jackson-Dawson revamped the new website with an HTML/CSS framework custom to the needs of the Northland web team. Combining CSS, Javascript and Flash, JD was able to build the structure with standards-based and accessible markup and style.

To get more insight into the rebranded, check out their latest press release.

The B2B CMOs had a more positive outlook on the economy overall and their companies specifically.  Granted, even their outlook wasn’t particularly sunny, but it did show more significant gains from 2008 than the B2C results.  B2B marketers moved from 81% who felt less optimistic about the future in 2008 to 50% who felt less optimistic in 2009, while B2C marketers only moved from 71% to 67% on the same measure.

B2B marketers also reported plans to increase overall marketing spending by 3% in the next twelve months, with the largest percentage increases in Internet marketing activities and new product introductions.  B2C marketers plan to cut overall spending by as much as 4%, but do plan shifts of resources into the same focus areas as B2B marketers. 

B2B marketers also seem to recognize the value of good market intelligence at a time when each marketing dollar has to achieve the maximum possible ROI.  B2B firms reported increasing spending on market research and intelligence by nearly 4% this year, compared to B2C product marketers who are cutting their budgets by approximately that amount.

Across all segments there seems to be a stronger focus on developing and using consumer insights.  The professionals surveyed rated their firms’ performance in this area 35% higher than last year and have set goals even 20% higher for the next twelve months.  Clearly, top marketers are not discontinuing their efforts during the downturn; instead, they are channeling more of their resources towards making highly targeted appeals based on current research.  How does that compare to your strategy for 2009?  

To review the complete study results, check out the CMO Survey site that the Fuqua School of Business has developed.

“I may know a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I know every blogger. Take something like Mashable, they have ten reporters. I don’t know all ten of them. I don’t know which one is the most logical for me,” he said.

He pointed out that in addition to providing “arm and leg” support such as scheduling media briefings, PR pros should provide strategic-level thinking–which outlets to use, who to contact, clarifying the message, etc.  ”You wouldn’t just buy QuickBooks and then decide to do all your books, you would hire an accounting firm. And this is the same thing, you hire the pros who know how to do it.”

Kawasaki also said it’s important for PR firms to “just beat the crap out of you and get you prepared for the tough questions.” He doesn’t want his PR firm to be an “entourage of suck-ups.”  Kawasaki said it is PR’s moral obligation not to do this and to provide constructive feedback.

Take a look at our promotional video and find out how Jackson-Dawson in Greenville South Carolina can take your company to the next level and incorporate your brand into every possible medium.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Jackson-Dawson.

1. Credibility - No other form of communication is as credible as PR. Why? PR lets unbiased decision makers tell your story for you. Think about it? If you read from an unbiased columnist that a widget works or a restaurant is great, doesn’t it resonate with you more than an advertisement or direct mail piece? What if you read it on someone’s blog or your best friend tells you about it? It’s powerful and it works!
2. Value - PR provides better ROI than other forms of communication. Sometimes, a simple phone call to an editor can result in a story that reaches thousands of people and is worth tens of thousands of dollars.
3. Perception - No other form of communication can persuade and change public opinion better than public relations.
4. Trust - Consumers are constantly looking for trustworthy sources, especially now with all the negativity that is surrounding the economy. PR pros are that trustworthy source for companies and consumers. If you are an executive or high ranking manager on the corporate side, seek and get honest feedback from your communications team. It is needed. If you are working with an agency, let them inside and trust them with sensitive information. Sometimes the truth initially hurts, but it certainly pays to have trustworthy advice that can lead to positive solutions.
5. Message Strength - Public Relations allows you to say all of the things that you can’t communicate in an advertisement or on a billboard. It tells a much deeper and broader story that evokes emotion and addresses the values and attitudes of your audience.
6. Relationships - Newspapers, trade publications, television and radio stations are feeling the effects of the economy, too. They are short staffed and underfunded. The need for PR pros with solid editorial connections is at a premium.
7. Short term vs. Long term - Don’t sacrifice long-term marketing objectives with short-term financial problems. PR can help you weather the short-term storm and meet your long-term objectives when the market returns ahead of the curve.
8. Facts - It is normal for rumors to fly and mountains to be made from mole hills during tough economic times. People are edgy and nervous. It is even more important now to deal with facts and truth, both from the client side and the editorial side. Fact checking and trustworthy sources are needed more than ever. Inaccuracy can be a death wish.
9. Don’t play Hide-and Seek - As a formal journalist, nothing is more frustrating than the “PR pro” who is only there when times are good and nowhere to be found when times are bad. Too many companies, executives, clients, etc. are hiding behind their attorneys or getting rid of their communications departments to cut costs. This is not the right approach. Be seen and be heard - good and bad. It will build trust, credibility, and relationships, and will pay you back 10-fold when times are good.
10. Bite Into Market Share - There is no better time than now to bite into your competitor’s market share. It follows the same principle as the stock market of buy low and sell high. When your competitors are not doing all of the things mentioned above, and you are, the results will be increased market share and better brand awareness. Times are bad. So invest. The market will return and consumers will purchase again. The key is: will they then purchase from you?

Sure there are a lot of good tools out there but if you think about your keyword research in a logical manner than chances are you’re going to get the same keywords as everyone else.

Wordtracker, one of the industry’s most used keyword research tools is more than just a tool. Wordtracker also has an academy section that references numerous ways to get more creative with your keyword research.

The Wordtracker academy has various sections on:

• Keywords
• Keyword Research
• Keyword Creativity
• PPC
• SEO
• Link Building

The next time you have to research keywords for a new site, try thinking about things in an illogical manner. Often times you can stumble across keywords that have a lot of traffic with very little competition.

Now if you’re in the market for a great toaster oven (and who isn’t?) you can find three different independent reviews (including Consumer Reports) and hundreds of personal opinions on just about any model after .15 seconds of a Google search.   Product research has become so easy it has forever changed the way we shop and even the way we define shopping.

Mark Penn, the author of Microtrends, recently wrote a Wall Street Journal article highlighting the kind of consumer that he calls the “new info shopper.” This consumer has adapted their shopping behavior to the detailed information available online for just about all products and services.  Before they purchase a product (whether at a brick-and-mortar store or online), they first search online for all the information they can find - including the company’s site, independent review sites and consumer opinion sites.  The more detail they can get, the better.  Gone are the days when they would feel comfortable making the decision on a new car purchase based on some great ads, a brochure from the dealer and Uncle Darrell’s recommendation.  

Penn’s study found that this pre-purchase research by consumers is spreading from big ticket items to the more mundane, such as a new vacuum cleaner or cell phone service.  Items that only the most passionate deal-seekers would once have researched with their well-worn copies of Consumer Reports are now the subjects of thousands of websites and blogs.  The “new info shopper” wants that feeling of getting the best deal on the best product regardless if it is an electric car or an electric toothbrush.

Penn readily admits that the “new info shopper” is much more than a microtrend; it is significant change in the way the majority of consumers look at making a purchasing decision.  He reports, “An astonishing 70% of Americans now say they consult product reviews or consumer ratings before they make their buying decisions.”  The powerful influence of the customer testimonial has long been accepted, and now it is evolving to touch nearly every product and service available (a kind of Angie’s List of Everything).  A Marketing Sherpa study (2007) found that 58% of Internet users preferred a site that offered customer reviews of their product or service.  And only 5% of users in that same study reported any negative association with sites that showed reviews.

So how can we as marketers use this insight into the consumer’s buying process to sell more product?  Here are two suggestions -

1)  Provide as much detail on your website about your product or service as possible. 

This doesn’t mean you have to give up the well-written sales copy you have on your product pages, but it does mean you should also have real data on the specifications and features of your product or service readily available.  And why not include a comparison chart of your features compared to the competition?  You know your potential customer is creating just such a chart in their head as they review all their options so why not fill in a few of the cells for them?  The more details they can get from your site, the less additional sites they will need to visit before they feel comfortable making their purchase decision.

2)  Post customer testimonials and allow customers to post their product or service reviews.

No need to yell at your screen, I know what you are thinking: “But what if customers post negative reviews?”  Well, first of all, fix the issue that they had so their voice does not go unheard, and if you’re getting a great deal of negative reviews, you have bigger problems than which site they are being posted on.  But wouldn’t you rather hear the criticism directly and in a forum where you can address it than have a “YourProductSucks.com” site built for you? 

Even if you do feel the need to sanitize some of the criticism, you are still better off allowing the customer reviews.  Reviews on a company’s site are likely already seen as having a positive bias, but that doesn’t seem to negate their effectiveness; they just turn into mini-testimonials.

Have a better idea for capitalizing on the “new info shopper,” or just want to review my blog post?  Feel free to comment below; I promise not to screen it if it’s negative.

The problem is this… as an industry, we’ve got a lousy track record of accurately predicting consumer behavior.

Even though we have all these research tools and methodologies (focus groups, mall intercepts, attitudinal questionnaires, Likert scales, multivariate cluster analyses, perceptual maps, conjoint analyses, demographic and psychographic profiles, semantic differentials, etc.—all of which we stole from behavioral scientists many years ago) we still seem to get it all wrong. We have the capacity to know a lot, but we don’t seem to learn what really predicts behavior. Are we guilty of bad science the same way surgeons were guilty of bad medicine by blood-letting bad humours out of the human body just a handful of generations ago?

I heard one researcher state the other day that marketers are good at measuring consumer opinions and attitudes but, unfortunately, consumer opinions and attitudes do not necessarily correlate with future behavior. Consumers are great at telling us what they think and feel about something. The problem is they can’t articulate what truly drives their behavior. Many times they simply don’t know—at least not know in the conscious, cognitive sense. What we are now realizing is that we cannot use attitudinal research to predict consumer behavior. It’s like using a microphone to record the color blue.

This phenomenon probably explains why over 80% of all new product/service launches fail—even when they’ve been thoroughly researched with target groups. It also may explain why customer satisfaction has only an 8% predictive value in determining future customer purchases. Our research findings are misleading us.

To get better at predicting consumer behavior, we’re going to have to change the way we do research. There’s been a flash of interest in a new science called “neuromarketing” that’s done a great job proving how bad our current research methodologies truly are. They’ve found conclusive evidence the gap between what customers say they’ll do and what customers will actually do. Books like Neuromarketing, Buy-ology and Habit give us evidence of this. Neuromarketing research methodologies are powerful: fMRI and electroencephalography (EEG) technologies. But they are unwieldy, expensive and totally impractical for daily marketing use. But, the good news about them, they may bridge us to new ways of doing research in the future.

The best way to predict consumer behavior right now is by simple observation—what I call the “Jane Goodall” method of consumer research. Paco Underhill in his book Why We Buy demonstrates that technique. Consumer observation is good at revealing current behavior in already defined consumer experiences, but cannot offer us understanding when it comes to predicting behavior in new environments and with new products.

Consumer research is at the beginning of a new chapter of development. And it will be interesting to watch it write itself. Hopefully, there are a few brave souls out there who are interested in taking research to the next level.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR

Here’s a “must read” book that in my opinion, does a great job of presenting how the web has changed things in a big way for us marketers. The full title is The New Rules of Marketing and PR, How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.

The author, David Meerman Scott, is a well qualified authority and internet veteran having launched a marketing strategy with online content to reach buyers directly on the web way back in the early ’90s. He’s spent the last 18 years or so speaking and consulting with corporations on how to use web content to sell products and services. This book evolved out of David’s vast blog experience and an ebook he published called The New Rules of PR. After more than 200,000 downloads, David decided he had a hot topic on his hands so he went full bore into writing a hard cover. He broadened the subject matter to address marketing as well.

So here’s the essence of David’s insight…

The Internet has not only changed the way people communicate and interact with each other, it has also changed the way businesses can and should communicate with their customers and prospects. We all remember the old days when companies could only communicate indirectly through pricey mass advertising and press releases. The internet has changed all that because now a business can speak directly to and build closer relationships with customers and buyers.

Niche buyers can also be reached more selectively with targeted messages that cost a fraction of the traditional big-budget ad campaign. So rather than bombard them with advertising they’ll likely ignore, David advocates the internet allows a business to focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time. And when people visit a company’s Web site, he says they aren’t there to get more ad fluff. They want value, information, interaction, and choice. As the book cover overleaf states:

“This one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet, showing you how to identify audiences, create compelling messages, get those messages to the right people, and lead those consumers into the buying process.”

To top it all off he also includes some great case studies to prove his points.

In a separate presentation David made he summed up the old rules and the new rules of marketing like this:

The New Rules of Marketing™