Paso Robles Marketing

Social Media: Old-School Business in Shiny New Packaging

2011-01-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

Back in the good ol’ days, self-respecting business people would wake up and scan over the newspaper in the mornings to read the latest “status updates” and the opinions of influential leaders. In the time so wonderfully glorified in the popular show Mad Men, print and television advertisements were the path to success. A jingle and a billboard were the currency of capitalism.

Times have changed.

Media has changed.

But old-school ways are yet to be found in the modern business world.

Lurking behind a veil of new-fangled technology called “social media,” there lie the same old, tried-and-true tenets of marketing. And the big-time, long-standing, Fortune 500 companies that have been around since long before television—let alone internet—have recognized that common thread.

Case in point: Procter & Gamble recently announced a switch from 77 years of doing TV ads and soap operas to going full-steam ahead with Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

For those businesses holding out to watch the online social media “fads” fade, this is one hefty piece of evidence that social media marketing is here to stay. Like an older sibling wisely lets the little one test the waters before plunging in, P&G and other movers and shakers have bided their time, collected the evidence, and will now likely dominate the social sphere just as they have in other forms of media.

The classic company may seem laudable for their liberal-minded, forward thinking and adaptability. But, in fact, the opposite is true: they are sticking to what they know, and what they know works.

The P&G marketing chief Marc Pritchard said it best in a recent AP News article, “It's kind of the oldest form of marketing — word of mouth — with the newest form of technology."

You see, people don’t actually use their mouths anymore—that would be so primitive. We have invented cool new ways of sharing what we like, and the results are trackable.

P&G’s Old Spice YouTube commercials resulted in 140 million viewings and a 2,700 percent increase in Twitter followers for the brand. Which answers the question, “How do you make a product called ‘Old Spice’ new?”

Social media solutions to marketing are dynamic and undeniably changing the way people shop, and the wisest brands are taking advantage of the versatile new media possibilities. Where does your business stand? If it’s time to join the old-school of thought on new media, you can find out more about how to turn 140 characters or a 30-second video into free, effective advertising here. Or, you could wait for the next commercial break…

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Social Media: Old-School Business in Shiny New Packaging" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:
Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Gift Wrapping for Your Business

2010-12-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why we go to such lengths to wrap our Christmas presents? If you think about it, you’ve already gone to the trouble of shopping for and buying personalized gifts, loading them up in the car and carting them over to grandma’s house; after all that, why is it still expected that the wrapping be beautiful, expensive, and flamboyant, as well? Isn’t the gift enough?

If wrapping were just for the element of surprise, it would be sufficient to throw a blanket over our presents. It’s more than that. As we all know, it’s the presentation of the present that matters to us. It tells us something extra about that present. It can imply the gift-giver’s forethought or lack of concern for the recipient. It can instill added excitement about the gift or reduce expectations.

Whatever message it communicates to those around the tree, packaging does matter—on Christmas morning and in your business. The way you package your services or products impacts their reception by your target market.

In the business world, packaging comes in many forms: it is any of the ways your business is communicated to the public, be it press releases to the media, website design, advertising, literal product packaging, logo design, messaging on brochures and other company materials, etc. These are all opportunities for adding elaborate bows and shiny paper to your business—touches that, like it or not, matter to the consumer.

By choosing to invest a little extra time and resources in packaging your product or service, you can swiftly transform your business’s image from a crinkled lump under the tree (lost amid brighter, crisper, more attractive alternatives) to a clear treasure among lesser businesses.

Of course, a professional wrapper can always give a gift just the right touch of whimsy and allure, and for businesses seeking a clean, bright, shiny, and impressive wrap job, AR & Co. is Santa’s little helper this year. Take advantage of limited-time FREE consultations and complimentary assistance with marketing campaigns from the “A-Team” of skilled and experienced public relations, graphic design, web design, copywriting, and marketing experts. Call or email today while the frenzy of holiday generosity lasts.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Gift Wrapping for Your Business" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Micro-Marketing and the Shelf Life of Promo Items

2010-11-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

I have a favorite bottle opener. I’ve had it for years. There’s nothing in particular about the look of it—it simply works well and has not gotten lost yet. When there is another option in the drawer, I always go for my favorite. It sits out on the table at dinner parties and comes on picnics and barbecues with me.

For this reason, and perhaps this reason only, I will never forget the name of the local business whose logo stretches down the side of the opener.

There is marketing power in minutiae. Little gimmicks, promotional items, and other branded personal items and accessories can go a long way in creating brand awareness. Not only can items like tee-shirts, tote bags and mugs have the luck of becoming your target customer’s favorite—these items also communicate brand strength, sophistication, and success to anyone who sees them. Little by little, hats, business cards, uniforms, and other personal marketing items can build a big picture that your customers will remember and trust.

Of course, you can go wrong with promotional items. Since products like pens and envelope openers often stick around a long time and pass from person to person, you want to be sure that the item presents your company in the best light possible. One typo on a hat or sticker will go on to haunt you. And though it may seem simple enough to create a pint glass or a golf shirt with your company name on it, that does not mean you should skimp on the graphic design or handle the ordering yourself.

Think of promo items as small but important brand ambassadors. They should be outfitted in the company’s finest: a well-designed, four-color logo that leaves a lasting impression, as well as additional contact information and website, as appropriate. Other written materials, such as tag lines and company selling points, should be crafted and scrutinized by a reliable copy writer to avoid errors, off-messages, and missed opportunities. Furthermore, a marketing professional should consider options like size and placement of logo, print quality, and paper or material selection, as these will impact the overall effectiveness of the item in the long run.

But don’t take it too seriously. Promotional items, merchandise and company marketing materials are the fun and light-hearted part of marketing. With a solid marketing strategy to back it up, a promotional item like my bottle opener can be the quickest, easiest, least expensive way to get your brand into your customers’ hands. And, when done right, you can bet it will stay in their hands--and minds--for a long time to come.

Get started on dispatching your brand messengers—in the form of business cards, complimentary tasting cards, stationary, envelopes, letterhead, rack card, and more—by searching the easy-to-use library of over 850,000 promotional items at http://www.arandcompany.com/promo_items/, or contact a marketing maven to learn more about how easy it is to give your branding a boost.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Micro-Marketing and the Shelf Life of Promo Items" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Hitting Send on Strategic Email Marketing

2010-10-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

If your business has access to a list of email addresses for past and/or current clients, don’t miss out on one of the easiest and most powerful marketing tools the modern world offers: Email Marketing.

With the click of a mouse, your messaging reaches hundreds or even thousands of potential customers where most of them probably prefer to be contacted. Thanks to the digital age, these emails are checked regularly, allowing businesses the opportunity to stay on the top of the mind of their target consumers, and the effects of email marketing campaigns are highly trackable (unlike print media marketing), allowing businesses to hone their strategies according to the most successful tactics and proven results.

The key, however, to email marketing campaigns parallels that of print media campaigns in that high quality design, copywriting, and well-thought-out execution are crucial to distinguishing your crafted material from the rest of the cyberspace junk ignored by your target readers.

Set Yourself Apart from Junk Mail
Successful email marketing, much like successful print marketing, is all about the packaging. If your email looks like junk and reads like junk, then guess where it will end up? It takes just one misdirected, unappealing, or typo-laden email to lose your recipient’s interest and be banished to the junk box for good.

On the other hand, clean, strategic design combined with concise, attention-demanding writing, directed at the appropriate audience for your message will build trust among consumers. With this trust, your business gets the golden window of opportunity to capitalize on low-cost, highly effective marketing via email.

The Golden Opportunities of Email Marketing

Name Recognition
Once you’ve earned a spot in the non-junk section of your readers’ inboxes, you’re in, whether they read your email or not. The reason is that even if they do not read your carefully crafted message, they will see your regularly appearing mail and be reminded of your business, if only by the subject line. This consistent repetition is one of the golden tickets to name recognition and brand loyalty.

Trackability and Message Tailoring
Another advantage of email marketing is the incredible wealth of information that can be gathered with the click of a button. It’s the cyber-stalker-version of advertising, where you can find out who opened your email, who didn’t, how many people read your email at least long enough to click on the link to your website, and then, what happened from there. Email marketing provides the transparency you’ve always looked for in advertising. With this clear view of your marketing successes and failures, you can more easily tailor your messages to increase their productivity and focus on the proper targets.

Search Engine Optimization
Email promotional material is built to bring people to your online marketplace, your website. Not only does a monthly email serve to direct readers to your site through embedded links, but the material can also be archived on your site (in an appropriate “news” section) to add valuable, keyword-rich content—the key to boosting your rank in search engine results. For that reason, archiving email newsletters and eblasts is like doubling your marketing money, for nothing.

Ready to hit send on email marketing? Read more helpful hints or schedule an appointment with email marketing experts at www.arandcompany.com.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Hitting Send on Strategic Email Marketing" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Design to Survive

2010-09-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

The old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” may work well as a metaphor for gauging the character of a person, but it has no place in the cut-throat modern business world. Anyone in publishing—book, magazine or newspaper—will tell you the truth: it’s all about the cover.

The “cover” of any business (meaning packaging, design, logo, signage) should be the strongest possible appeal to its market, signaling to consumers that this is a product they want and a company they can trust. Just like the peacock woos the hen with its flashy feathers, a company’s branding should dazzle the consumer’s eyes with high resolution imagery and crafted, strategically mesmerizing design. It’s not shallow. It’s survival of the fittest.

True, the contents should live up to the fancy façade; but when it comes down to making money, appearance matters. That’s because modern consumers, and humans in general, are visual creatures living in a fast-paced visual world of tv, magazines, and fashion. In spite of the superficiality involved, they have learned to survive by correctly and quickly sizing up their surroundings—making them exceedingly astute in the art of efficiently judging “covers.” Small distinctions like image quality, font, and aesthetic appeal speak volumes.

As such, sophisticated graphic design is to a business what a license is to a lawyer or doctor: instant and undeniable proof. Strong design puts the consumer’s mind at ease. It validates a business as not only legitimate, but as pertaining to the upper-class of quality services and products.

This distinction is just as--and possibly even more—important in an economic climate where people are looking to save. Consumers do not want to pay top-dollar, but they also do not want to waste money on poor-quality items. Top-notch design points consumers to dependable, optimum options.

There is perhaps no better example currently at work in the marketplace than wine label design. As the democratization of wine continues to draw all classes of consumers in to the alcohol & spirits aisles of grocery stores, wineries are learning that it is no longer enough to make a superb wine. With so many competitors vying for a spot in the grocery basket, even the best wines must be distinguished by stellar, eye-catching design in order to stand out to a shopper—a shopper who may not be versed in the jargon of enology, but who is certainly adept in reading the language of graphic design.

This shopper learns all that they need to know in a split-second survey of a wine label: mediocre, cheap, unsophisticated, forgettable, outstanding, well-made, high-quality, elite—these are the qualities shoppers read in a wine label. A less-expensive wine, for instance, must look expensive and unique, yet accessible, telling the buyer that this bottle will please palates without causing headaches, but is also not taking itself too seriously. It’s a fun, no-regrets, no-shame purchase they can feel good about. On the other hand, a label of equal value that is neither attractive nor sophisticated will collect dust because it tells the consumer nothing of the experience they will have with that wine; it makes no visual promises and is therefore not a promising investment.

Wine is not a singular example. There are plenty of specialized products and services that relatively uninformed consumers make cover-judgment calls on everyday, such as cars, computers, phones, and, yes, books. For instance, a consumer who knows little about cars still needs a tune-up. When looking for a local mechanic they can trust, they may glance in the yellow pages or scan Google results, and those options without a logo will instantly pale in comparison to the branded alternatives. The service may be truly above-average at “Bob’s Auto Shop,” but to the graphically-literate consumer, its plain, black-and-white sign really says “cheap but questionable service,” while a four-color artistically-rendered logo reads “better and more reliable.”

In the end, a bad sign is, well… a bad sign.

Brush up on your sign survival instincts at www.arandcompany.com, or call 805-239-4443 to make an appointment with a graphic designer who knows how to make your logo turn heads.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Design to Survive" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Search Engine Marketing: Reaching Real Users

2010-08-12T13:07:00.001-07:00

As the name implies, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the process of marketing your website to “search engines,” or online website directories (such as Google, Yahoo and Bing); however, as search engines are used by people, and people are the end consumers of your business, people are the true primary targets of Search Engine Marketing.

As such, the highly technical world, ostensibly governed by algorithms, robots and spiders, must inevitably answer to the demands of the humans using it. Search Engine Marketing has therefore evolved from a technical process into an appropriately user-targeted process, each element of which considers the human as much as, if not more than, the robot element of the internet.

Like marketing in the real world, SEM is a broad and multi-faceted process comprised by such factors as search engine optimization (SEO), advertising, and link-back strategies. Each of these factors can play a significant role in an overall campaign, and each must first cater to the human end-user.

Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization sounds incredibly technical. And, indeed, it is a process that entails playing into the hands of such ambiguous powers as algorithms and spiders. However, SEO is largely an intuitive and human-oriented process. It really just means making websites that are Searcher-Friendly, User-Friendly, and User-Approved:

Searcher-Friendly – Strategically abundant in relevant search terms, or “keywords,” that humans would use in search engine queries
User-Friendly – Easily navigable by both people and web crawlers
User-Approved – Widely acknowledged and validated by other reliable and relevant websites and social media sources, which link back to show support

Search Engine Optimization is best implemented from the very beginning, as it involves everything from the way a site is laid out to the words used. However, any website can be optimized at any time by rewriting copy with more keywords, improving the website’s navigation, or replacing non-crawlable elements. While SEO can take time to generate results in search engine directories, it is crucial to the success of your website in turning up in relevant search engine queries … That is, unless you’ve paid to turn up in those queries …

Advertising
Advertising online, through pay-per-click ads such as Google AdWords, offers businesses two benefits: guaranteed placement in search engine directories, and prompt placement in search engine directories. But, as in the real world, you can’t buy love – that is, you can’t just pay a fee to gain online popularity. As with traditional advertisement, the visibility purchased is not as valuable or effective as user-generated and “word-of-mouth” promotion (which, on the internet, manifest in high-ranking organic search engine results; link-backs on websites, blogs and social media; or high traffic). Furthermore, as with traditional advertisement, you pay to gain instantly the kind of visibility that could be gained the hard way, with time and proper Search Engine Optimization. Advertising can, however, go hand-in-hand with an SEO effort, since the same words determined as keywords for the optimized website would be best used in the ads as well.

Linking Strategies
Linking strategies present a happy medium between SEO and ads, in a way. Both paid-for advertisement and Search Engine Optimization can contribute to a widely-linked site since any method of increasing traffic to your site improves the likelihood of users linking back.

Other methods of generating links to your site consist of paying to be included in online directories and relevant industry directories, as well as free, grass-roots methods of generating links such as a social media marketing effort (broadcasting links on Facebook and Twitter), creating a blog that links back to your website, and reaching out to groups, supporters and non-competitors to link to your site.

Finally, a highly-linked website is the result of a high-quality website: people will want to share a link to your site with friends, customers and associates if they find the content to be useful, entertaining, aesthetically-appealing, and/or interesting. Unique Youtube videos, valuable tips, calendars, constant updates and other items that make people want to visit your site repeatedly are worth their weight in links, so to speak. (For instance, we are linking back to www.seo-news.com and www.searchenginesbook.com because we found their sites to be informative, reliable and relevant resources for this blog post, and recommend them to readers looking to learn more on search engine marketing—thus, we are increasing their sites’ search engine optimization).

So, the moral of the story is that Search Engine Marketing is just like any consumer marketing: it appeals to humans. If your marketing strategies could use a human touch, call (805) 239-4443 to speak to a real, live SEM expert, who is also well-versed in the language of spiders, crawlers and robots.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Search Engine Marketing: Reaching Real Users" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

5 More Reasons to Like Facebook for Business

2010-05-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

What the new “Like” Button Means for Social Media Marketing

Due to the recent introduction of a web-wide “Like” button, businesses have five more reasons to love Facebook.

Essentially, the social site has offered a button which companies can add to their websites allowing those visitors with Facebook accounts to select “Like.” In doing so, all of the people in that visitor’s Facebook circle will receive notifications of their Friend’s new-found preference. Furthermore, when a Facebook user visits a webpage one of their own “Friends” has “Liked,” they will see that person’s thumb’s up on the screen.

For Example: Let’s say Joe and Jane are “Friends” on Facebook. Your business installs a “Like” button on its homepage, and Joe visits and says he “Likes” the page. Jane will see this in her newsfeed on Facebook, or, if she misses it there, she will see Joe’s Facebook profile picture next to a thumb’s up when she visits the page herself.

Think of these “Likes” s those cute little sticky notes with arrows on them that point out what you should pay attention to amid the abyss of unimportant fine print you can ignore. If your business gets tagged, it becomes more relevant and valuable to the tagger’s Friends than competitors’ sites, or any other un-“Liked” sites for that matter.

What does this mean for your business?

1. Greater Visibility for Your Company
Even if none of Joe’s friends visit your website as a result of his “Like,” they will SEE your name and logo. Repeat this a few times and you have the makings of brand recognition without having done any promotion of your own!

2. Greater Traffic to Your Website.
Another part of the new Facebook developments adds web links to the user’s profile anytime they “Like” a website. So, in the place of text lists of preferences like favorite restaurants or wineries, will be the business’s web link. With your business’s name and link popping up in newsfeeds and profiles, you are bound to see more traffic to your site.

3. Greater Connection with Your Viewers
Before the like button, you could only track the number of visitors to your site and the length of their visit, etc. Your only personal connection occurred if they emailed, left a comment, or signed up for a newsletter. NOW, you can actually identify them. And better yet, you can stay in touch with them. For example, if you’re a restaurant and a Facebook user clicks “Like” on your Weekly Specials page, you can then send them a message when you introduce a new special offer or have a limited time discount.

4. Greater Targeted Marketing
Of course, the natural progression of being more directly connected with your viewers is that you can react and respond to their preferences to your business’s advantage. If 30 people “Like” a page detailing a certain new product, while none “Like” another product, you can begin ordering, promoting and marketing according to the trends.

5. Greater use of Social Influence
Other features of Facebook’s latest plug-ins allow websites to show a newsfeed log of the viewer’s friends’ activity on the site, or recommendations based on the preferences of their friends. Essentially, this means you can easily recruit your website viewers as peer reviewers to sway more Friends to join in the love.
So what do you think, do you “Like” this blog post? Tell us what you think…and then tell your Friends.

Information in this blog post was gathered primarily from The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the Facebook release: (wsj.com). More information on the “Like” button and additional features can be found at developers.facebook.com/plugins, or feel free to contact the social media marketing experts at AR & Co to learn more about using the “Like” to your advantage.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "5 More Reasons to Like Facebook for Business" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Shhh, Don’t Tweet!—Twitter May Be the Secret to Marketing Paso Robles Businesses

2010-04-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

Understanding the Mystery, Mystique, and Marketing Magic of Twitter
If you’ve ever heard the old phrase, “A little bird told me ...” followed by a piece of valuable information, you understand the sense of power and intrigue that all Twitter users experience each day as they find insider information from this quick, up-to-the-minute social media source.

Due in part to its ability to capitalize on our society’s love of secrets, Twitter has become a valuable tool in the public relations and marketing realm. And on that note, here’s another juicy one for you: Using Twitter for business pursuits and as a marketing tool may be the easiest and cheapest marketing secret for your Paso Robles business.

Twitter offers instantaneous access to and dispersal of “secrets”—including personal or proprietary insights, news, rumors, special sales or promotions. With billons of people using Twitter at all hours, everywhere they go, to find out what they didn’t know that they absolutely need to know, Twitter is a real-life Grapevine reaching out to hook your consumers. It is easy to use; an abbreviated form of blogging; and, of course, it can be almost entirely free.

The downside is you have to invest time in becoming a part of that chain of whispers by reading, following, tweeting, retweeting and otherwise engaging with a world-wide web of “little birds.” It is also important to note that Twitter may not be the right social media avenue to reach your business’s target demographic; latest trends show that Twitter skews younger than Facebook with the fastest growing segment of users in the 18-24 bracket (http://www.marketingcharts.com/).

Still, with 20 million visitors to the website in 2009 (up 900% from just 2 million visitors in 2008) it may be worth your while to learn about the benefits that reservoir of consumer “tweeps” holds, and how to harness its powers for the benefit of your Paso Robles business.

The Power of Omniscience:
Like the infamous little bird, Twitter has eyes and ears everywhere. You can use this all-knowing social medium that never sleeps to track tremors in the market, find out what your consumers are saying about you and your product, read what they are saying about your competitors, and more. And, as they say, information is power.

The Power of Omnipresence:
Twitter offers business owners the often wished-for ability to be in many places at once. This highly grass-roots social media resource allows CEOs and high profile personalities to walk out among their people, so to speak. You may not have time to answer the phones or respond to every email or letter from your customers, but with Twitter, you can quickly and easily relate to them on both a customer service level and a personal level. Even if you are not a celebrity, this gives your consumers insider-status to your company—key to fueling their loyalty and enthusiasm about your products and services.

The Power of Free, Instant PR
The beauty of using Twitter for business marketing and promotion is that it’s instantaneous and free. Twitter can help your business stay on top of customer service issues, brand management concerns, and market trends as they develop, so that you can nip problems in the bud, or capitalize on opportunities. For instance, you can share up-to-the-minute news about a sale coming up, recent press your company received, or news articles and reports that indirectly support your product or service—without waiting or paying for posters and other promotional materials.

This information not only has the potential of reaching all of your followers right away, but is searchable in Google searches, can be retweeted to others who have not followed you yet, and otherwise multiplies. Information from tweets is regularly cited in news articles and broadcasts as well, meaning that your little 140-character message really could be heard by the whole world. That’s one powerful little bird.

If you still have questions, it couldn’t hurt to schedule a social media consultation with the A-Team, your Paso Robles marketing power-house. Since AR & Co. specializes in social media as well as traditional media, internet marketing, and website development, you may just hit two little birds with one stone.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Shhh, Don’t Tweet!—Twitter May Be the Secret to Marketing Paso Robles Businesses" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com/ and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

How to Make Friends, Influence People, and Save Face on Facebook

2010-03-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

In our last post, The New Facebook of Business, we came to terms with the idea that social media is a key factor for Paso Robles businesses in this decade. But before you get too enthused, take a moment to consider the risks, challenges, dos and don’t of one of the most popular social networking sites, and the first we will face, Facebook.

Facebook can be seen as your online storefront for a global market. So, be ready to take care of it like you would a public physical venue, with all of the attendant branding, business plans, and business culture considerations in place. For instance, how will you build your client or customer base (i.e. get more friends or fans)? How much will you invest in Facebook? How will you implement initiatives to make it more valuable?

Most importantly, just like in a physical store, salesmanship comes into play online too. Not just any tech-monkey can do the job; you must be savvy to the sacred codes of online social commerce. To offer you some face-saving tips for employing Facebook as part of a multifaceted and modern marketing scheme, we look to the wisdom of salesmanship guru, Dale Carnegie, and his famous 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. His words ring true even in today’s high-tech market.

Become genuinely interested in other people. It’s part of the “business” of Facebook to nose around on other people’s walls and photo albums. While you do so, send friend requests, ask questions, and leave comments—this builds your presence in a positive way.

Smile. In developing your Facebook storefront or virtual salesperson image, keep in mind the online environmental cues that will affect the way your virtual customers perceive your business. Put some thought into your profile and profile picture—goofy, casual, or professional? Stay upbeat and encouraging in your status updates and comments. Think carefully about what kind of information you will share and what it will reveal about your brand. And be sure to manage your account for foul comments, images, or associations that reflect poorly on your business. People are free to share their opinions here, but there is no need to let negativity run rampant either.

Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Initiate opportunities to give others a shout out on Facebook: Encourage, congratulate, wish well, say happy birthday, tag people in photos, and otherwise massage the egos of your Facebook friends.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. Give a thumbs-up when your friends send messages or post updates. Show that you are listening. This makes them feel good about their affiliation with you and about themselves.

Talk in terms of the other person's interests. Don’t use Facebook as a soap box. Think about what your friends would like to know about: you might consider posting Youtube videos with how-to information, offering online specials, promoting contests and more. Incentives are always nice, but it doesn’t hurt to offer them in ways that will also fulfill objectives of increasing foot traffic or traffic to your site.

Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely. Sincerity is key on Facebook. Your friends will sniff out superficiality in a heartbeat. If you want to hard sell, stick to the real storefront; Facebook takes a little more patience and finesse before results will show. Find ways to incite and maintain friendly discussions by asking opinions, responding to comments, and engaging your friends. This friendly banter will put them at ease, gain their trust, and ensure a pleasant experience worth repeating. Whatever you do, keep the fresh content coming and, remember—do NOT use Facebook as a soap box.

The Bottom Line in Mind—Having given the soap box warning, and keeping above etiquette in mind, you probably are hoping to see some kind of results from your online storefront. It is wise to clarify your objectives first. Keeping your goal in mind and setting and meeting steps toward that goal will help you go about Facebooking with more vision and purpose. Set goals for numbers of friends, or set up ways to measure your Facebook success by telling friends to mention Facebook for a free appetizer or 10% discount. But remember: don’t be all business—that’s no way to make friends or influence people.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "How to Make Friends, Influence People, and Save Face on Facebook" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

The New Facebook of Business

2010-02-15T17:18:00.000-08:00

From Social Networking to Social Commerce
It appears we have made it through the worst of the recession, according to some, and are on our way back to stability. But the rough period has left its mark upon society; a new era of business has emerged from the ashes, and we must ready ourselves for the fact that it will not be the same kind of business as before. People are spending less and “getting back to basics” more. Consumers are starting to shop again, but thrift, coupon hunting and conserving resources are the new mottos to live by. And, most importantly, Social Commerce has taken root.

Yes, as if plain-old commerce and e-commerce weren’t challenging enough to navigate right now, we must now consider delving into to the daunting world of social networking if we want to remain relevant in 2010 and beyond. While this brings its challenges, we have found that marketing and PR via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social media can actually be fun, easy, and very rewarding (economically and on a personal level) for business owners.

According to some statistics on SocialMediaVision.com, 96 percent of your Generation Y market has joined a social network, and other sources say that people older than 55 make up the fastest growing Facebook demographic. SocialMediaVision even says that if Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia.

Imagine tapping in to a whole country, instantly. And if 78 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations, as sources say, then joining the bandwagon could be the most successful advertising campaign ever. It’s time to "Facebook" the music and get a piece of that social market share. You may just have some fun while you’re at it.

Stay posted for our next post on How to Win Friends and Influence People…on Facebook—some handy tips on social commerce etiquette and strategy.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "The New Facebook of Business" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Toot Your Own Horn to Help Others!

2010-01-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

Publicize Your Company’s Chosen Nonprofit—and You Profit Too!
This giving season, don’t miss the chance to get the most BANG for your charitable BUCKS! Use publicity to multiply your donations…And you’ll also give your own company a much-deserved PR bonus!

REMEMBER: The only thing nonprofits need as much as actual donations is public awareness. Any press you can give them is money in the coffers—so, this is no time to be selfishly modest!! For the sake of the community, please, toot your own horn a little!! Double up your donation by giving your nonprofit some play on your website, in your offices, and in company press and newsletters!!

Here’s HOW to Transform Philanthropy into Publicity for your Nonprofit (and Yourself):

Weave Webs of Generosity
Add the nonprofit organization’s logo to your website to make generosity go viral! Cross-linking with the nonprofit’s website will help increase their search engine results (and it won’t hurt yours either!). For help on cross-linking, adding logos, and writing and loading new material to your website, contact AR & Co. web development specialists.

Open the Door to MORE Giving
Place a sign in a visible place on your business door or window declaring your proud support for the nonprofit. Your customers will feel better about supporting your business—and they may just follow the sign as well! Want a custom door sign, poster, patch or sticker? Give our promo team a call: (805) 239-4443!

Spread the Good News!
The good news about “good news” is that it increases public awareness for the beneficiary as well as the benefactor. And there’s no shame in scratching your own back a little if it’s for a good cause!! So, write and distribute a press release to the local media, or write a paragraph in your company or client newsletters about what organization you’ve decided to support and why. Readers may be inspired to write a check too!!

Contact the AR & Co. team of writers and media relations specialists for help generating some quick, effective press for your nonprofit—and you! Having a publicity firm on your side can help you get the most from your seasonal giving, with taste and tact.

Planning your 2010 marketing budget?? Contact AR & Co. to set up a consultation!

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Toot Your Own Horn to Help Others!" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Central Coast Marketing Tip: The Three “I”s of Identity

2009-12-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

Create a Superior Business Identity with the Three “I”s of Branding
Business on the Central Coast is evolving; it is more sophisticated, innovative, and technologically savvy than ever before. And as competition grows and diversifies, it is essential that your branding makes you stand out as a cutting edge, upper-echelon market leader. Impress your target market and earn brand loyalty with these simple “I”s of Business Identity.

Identify your niche
Obviously the first step to creating any identity is to know yourself; know your business. Ask yourself, “What distinguishes my business from even the closest competitors?” Mark that territory and then own your space. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

Indicate your existence.
Once you know clearly and definitively who you are and what your competitive edge is, you have to find a way to communicate that message to the world in a clear, consistent and unique way. Find your voice, your identity indicator by combining visuals (like a logo, font, colors, advertisement personalities, and other graphic symbols) with written and verbal statements (taglines, voices, and other cues).

Infiltrate the public realm.
You know who you are, and how to express that identity; now, go tell it on the mountain by posting consistent, persistent indicators of your identity at every possible outpost. This means that everything from your email signature and business card to your website, building signage, and interior decorating should be emblazoned with your branding; all proprietary materials should look, sound, and feel like uniformed foot soldiers in one, unified branding campaign.

But Remember…There is no I in Team.
Great, innovative, and comprehensive branding takes many different kinds of thinking. A joining of the minds always provides greater results. If you need a team to back you up, get the A-Team: AR & Co. Pr & Marketing experts make up a dynamic branding solution squad, working together to fully conceptualize and implement a diverse and exhaustive branding strategy for you.

Call AR & Co. today at (805) 239.4443 or go to our website to Meet the A Team and learn more about our super branding solutions.

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Central Coast Marketing Tip: The Three “I”s of Identity" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Rev-up Your Company’s Search Engine Results

2009-11-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

Get a Website Engineered to Bring You Speedy Results
Navigating business on the information superhighway can feel like driving in uncharted territory. But, in fact, the internet is a rational place, and there are very specific paths that lead to success. The most important is Search Engine Optimization, a method of strategically putting your website on the “map” so that your target audience finds you every time, instead of getting lost in cyberspace.

AR & Co. PR & Marketing is fluent in the rules of the e-commerce road and can easily give your website a tune-up or write a new website engineered to execute. Our Search Engine Optimization services include a team of marketing, graphic design, web, and writing professionals working together to create a website that performs like a well-oiled, finely-tuned machine, gaining higher results for your business on organic searches and pointing e-consumers in your direction.

There are many ways to describe the products and services offered by your company—but there is only one way to make certain your consumers will read them on the internet. Let us translate your company into the language of World-Wide Web so that you can complete your search for internet success.

Click here to learn more about AR & Company’s Search Engine Optimization services on our website, www.arandcompany.com, or give them a test drive yourself by entering “PR & Marketing, Paso Robles” or “website writing, Paso Robles” into your search engine’s search bar. Does a search for your company’s unique services or products get comparable results? Go ahead, search for them. Does your name come up on the first page? The second? The third? If not, you need the A Team! Don’t Be a Tumbleweed! Google us Today!

Permission to Reprint: You may reprint any items from "Rev-up Your Company’s Search Engine Results" in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "Paso Robles Marketing," a blog featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity written by AR & Co PR & Marketing. Subscribe at http://www.pasoroblesmarketing.com and receive Blog updates by email.

If you like these tips, please pass them on to your friends, clients and colleagues.

Hello World!

2009-10-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Paso Marketing is now on Blogspot! Follow us on Twitter @pasomarketing