Welcome to the December newsletter

This month:

Be your own publisher
Publicising products
What’s word of mouth publicity?
Hidden Jewel Awards launched

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Be Your Own Publisher

Publicity is all about you as a small business person persuading someone else - a journalist or broadcaster - to publish a story about you. The problem you face is having to compete with so many other stories for a limited amount of space or airtime.

Imagine now that the publication of your story is guaranteed - you don’t have to persuade the media that it’s worth publishing.

Now think of your website as a magazine about the issues that surround your business, instead of a brochure about your business.

Shift your thinking - become your own publisher - establish a blog - and away you go. Publish your own stories and optimise them so that not only does your audience find and read them, but journalists pick up on them too.

Suddenly you’re the one in charge.

Jane and Glenn love talking to small business people about how they can become their own publisher. So if this idea resonates with you, give us a call on 1800 468 416 or email ps@publicityship.com.au.

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Publicising Products

When you see a story in the media that talks about a new product, there’s a very high chance that the business behind the product has paid for that space.

The media are quick to reject stories that they perceive to be giving a business free promotion. Why use valuable space or airtime giving someone a free ad?

Even when your press release gets onto the story list, there’s a good chance it’ll get knocked off in favour of an issues-based or celebrity-based story. Product stories take low priority.

To get free editorial or airtime that promotes your product, you have to have a damn good back story - or you have to think laterally.

For ideas, read my blog post.

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What’s Word-of-Mouth Publicity?

Are your clients publicising your business for you?

You already know how important testimonials are, but have you thought about other ways to use this valuable marketing material?

There are heaps of statistics around telling us that peer reviews are far and away the most influential in determining customer choice.

For example, research from FutureLab tells us that peer reviews are preferred over expert reviews by a massive 6 to 1 margin. We listen to other people much more carefully than we read brochures or ads, or even newspaper articles.

We also know that a huge number of online browsers are reading user-generated content - that means information posted on blogs and forums by other people, recommending (or slamming) products and services.

For example, ProductReview is a user-generated product review site. And Thorntree is Lonely Planet’s travel forum.

How great would it be if your satisfied customers were going online and entering glowing comments about their experience of your business on sites like these?

Next time you ask for a testimonial, give your clients the address of the best user-generated content site for your business, and ask them to tap the testimonial into that as well.

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Hidden Jewel Awards

Registrations are now open for the newly named OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards. We have substituted OM4Tourism for PublicityShip because OM4Tourism.com is our new site dedicated solely to the tourism industry.

The Awards are an opportunity for small tourism operators to get the attention they deserve.

Register your interest now by going to the Hidden Jewel page and filling out the form.

Details on the judging panel and prizes will be released when entries open in early January.
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To find out more about how online marketing and publicity can benefit your business, call Glenn or Jane on 1800 468 416 or email ps@publicityship.com.au.

Best wishes

Jane Hammond Foster
PublicityShip
Phone: 1800 468 416
Email: jane@publicityship.com.au

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About PublicityShip

PublicityShip helps small business get publicity and market online. Publicity can be more effective than advertising and give an excellent return on investment. PublicityShip helps you uncover the most newsworthy aspects of your business and get your message to the right media contacts. And PublicityShip online marketers help you attract and convert potential clients online.