Mother’s Day Gift Roundup

Sometimes it can be hard to come up with fun, innovative, and practical gifts for our moms. This Mother’s Day, leave your gift-buying stress at the door because the Marketing Maven team is here to help you out with a Mother’s Day gift roundup!

a. Hot Iron Holster / b. M3K Anti-aging Skin Cream / c. Bulu Box / d. Focus Education Jungle Rangers / e. Baby Trend Products: Inertia Car seat

The Hot Iron Holster is a heat resistant silicone pouch that solves the problem of where to put hot styling tools, adding counter space to cluttered sinks. The proprietary silicone material allows the Hot Iron Holster to cling to any smooth surface without suction cups or adhesives and will hold anything from your curling iron, to your blow dryer, to make-up—whatever you would like out of the way. It is perfect for the “mom on the go” because it keeps the hot tools off the counter and in a heat resistant pouch, to avoid burns, melted make-up containers and burned counter tops.

This premium Optimized Matrix Regenerative Face Cream is scientifically formulated and uniquely combines five key ingredients cited as critical to the anti-aging process. The light rich formula leaves you feeling hydrated and refreshed from the first use, and helps you to reveal a smoother and more refined skin, returning that youthful luster.

Give your mom a gift that will keep on giving. Bulu Box is the first ever vitamin, supplement and general health subscription sample box. Every month, your mom will get a box filled with 4 to 5 premium, curated samples from top brands. Members can look forward to a new mix of products including vitamins, weight loss, sports nutrition, protein, diet energy, detox, digestion, sexual health, herbs, natural remedies, endurance and more. The best part is that members can rack up points, and then use those points to buy the full size versions once they discover what they like!

For moms who are focused on their children’s education, Jungle Rangers is the perfect gift! Unlike any other system available to parents, The ifocus System™ is a different approach to improving children’s attention, memory and focus. At the core of The ifocus System™ is Jungle Rangers, an interactive computer game that turns learning into a game. What sets Jungle Rangers aside from other educational video games is the iFocus parent’s dashboard. With the game, comes a platform that record’s the child’s skill level and tells the parents exactly how their child is performing in the game as it relates to the child’s developmental and behavioral strategies. The platform includes a physical exercise plan and nutrition plan for that specific child that the parent can follow. This way, the parent can balance an educational video game, with diet and exercise to keep their child healthy and on-track for success.

Expecting mothers everywhere can expect the best from Baby Trend. If you’re not sure what to get for the to-be or recent mother, sticking to the basics is the safest route! Every mom and her baby need a car seat and the Inertia car seat from Baby Trend is the revolutionary new way for both mom and baby to enjoy the beauty in safety. Reinventing the latest innovations and capabilities on the baby product market, Baby Trend introduces the Inertia Infant Car Seat as an answer to parents’ concerns about installation mistakes, comfort and mobility. Features such as their standard five-point safety harness and EPS energy-absorbing foam work together with Baby Trend’s all new technology. The controlled motion base is engineered with a deceleration mechanism. This allows a child to ride comfortably, in a more reclined position. In the unlikely event of a car accident, it responds instantly to crash forces by rotating more upright to better distribute impact. For the easiest and fastest installation with maximum safety, the Inertia Infant Car Seat also features push-button RIGID LATCH connectors making installation virtually error-free. Baby Trend, a leading manufacturer of juvenile products in North America, is an innovator and recognized for several unique juvenile products such the FastBack 3-in-1 Car Seat, Flex-Loc Infant Car Seat, EuroRide Travel System, Snap-N-Go and the Sit N’ Stand strollers among others. Throughout the 23-year history of Baby Trend, the company has been at the forefront of safety introducing new and innovative solutions. Baby Trend provides safe, feature rich and reliable products at affordable prices.

We hope our roundup helped you! What do you plan on getting your loved one for Mother’s Day? Tweet or Facebook us.

Anatomy of a Press Release

Last week, you learned about press releases, what they are, and how they can help your company. Today, you get a chance to look at the basic outline of a press release, and how to get started on writing your own!

image

Although press releases follow an inverted pyramid style of writing in terms of important information, the last parts of the release are also important! The ending paragraph of the sentence prior to the boilerplate has the relevant contact information and a call-to-action that can help drive leads and customers to your site.

The boilerplate is also important because it provides the media, journalists, and readers and synopsis of your company, what you are about, what you stand for, and informs them of any other products and services that your company offers.

image

What do you think are the crucial parts of a press release? Share in the comments below, on our Facebook or our Twitter!

Press Release 101

What is a Press Release?

image

The Power of an Optimized Press Release

A press release is a short, compelling news story written by a public relations professional and sent to targeted members of the media.

Bill Stoller provides a simplified definition: A press release is a pseudo-news story, written in third person, that seeks to demonstrate to an editor or reporter the newsworthiness of a particular person, event, service or product.

Note: Press releases follow the Associated Press (AP) style of writing.

Goal of a press release:

The goal of a press release is to interest a journalist, publication, or other media outlet with your news story.

A press release should contain the basics:

All the essential information: who? What? When? Where? Why? How?. The information in the press release should be thorough enough that a reader or journalist can pull what they need to put together something of their own.

In other words, outline the major facts of a news story in journalistic style.

Why write and send out press releases?

There are 1.3 billion search queries that produce organic search results on Google. As an entrepreneur, small business owner, or even as an individual part of a large corporation, exposure is key.

1. Whether companies are launching a product or service, releasing a book, signing a big client, or sharing other equally important news, they can make the most out of it by letting as many people know about it as possible. A press release combined with the reach of a newswire can do that.

2. Press release can help you target a niche market or geographic area.

3. Press releases can help bring in leads and add customers to your sales funnel with a proper call-to-action.

4. You can add anchor text and URLs in press releases that will help with your SEO to help your appear on the first page of Google for a competitive term which can drive traffic and create increased awareness to your site.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is where information from your company’s website and other online materials are “tagged” in order to ensure that the information is more readily found by “natural search” results.

5. Press releases help a company get media attention. With help from newswires (which is the outlet used to upload and send out press releases), companies are hardwired into a system of thousand of newsrooms and journalists.

Come back next week to learn about the Anatomy of a Press Release!

The Importance of Knowing Your Audience

So far this month, we’ve covered managing your SEO (building your keywords) and building your social media presence. As you build the foundation of your growing business, it’s important to know who it is you’re trying to reach. Although you may have your foundation in tact, it is strengthened by it’s backbone—your audience, who eventually become your brand ambassadors.

Overarching Questions

Here are some questions to ask yourself as proposed by marketingprofs.com:

1. Does the majority of my target market spend more time watching television or using iPads, mobile devices, and other types of new media?

2. Given the demographics of my audience, are they more likely to respond to my offer when driving, waiting at the airport, or taking a break at work—versus sitting at home watching television?

3. Will I be better able to reach a significant number of my target market with a strategic buy of a combination [of outreach tactics]?

To answer these questions, it’s important to listen to what your audience tells you and learn everything you can about them so that you build trust and in the process, build a relationship. While listening to your audience and researching about them, try to decipher what it is that they want. The result of your research should produce a sample profile of your demographic, including gender, age, single/married, education, college, geography, etc.

Presentation is Key

Once you have an idea of who your audience is, the next step is to connect. Tailor your message to meet their lifestyles and interests. Within the interesting messaging should be a snippet of your brand, what you stand for, and how you are different from your competition. Proper branding will help you build a relationship—your messaging should evoke some emotions that encourage your audience to connect with your brand.

Get your branding in line, find your audience and let them do the marketing for you!

Here are some tips to get you started:

http://pdubmedia.com

The Importance Of Social Networking And How To Do It Without Being A Nuisance To The Market

With the Internet forming the basis of nearly all business use, social networking is playing a crucial role in entrepreneurship.

Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are helping entrepreneurs gain contacts, clients and spread brand awareness to help their company grow. Setting up a global presence using social networking sites means understanding the concept of social networking to successfully apply it to the growth of your business.

image

image source

Expand Connections

With social networking, use existing contacts to meet new people. Avoid being a nuisance and being labeled as spam by Facebook or other sites by not friending or messaging more than a handful of people per day. Instead of making a first online impression with someone without knowing anyone in their circle, consider meeting them at community events or by participating in trade shows. Utilizing social media means combining traditional tactics with modern ones.

If you do, however, want to connect with someone whom you’ve never meet, ensure that you know someone in their circle. Remember, social networking means connecting through connections. Your future connection must be part of your web of current connections.

Keep it Consistent

Practice good social networking techniques by being an active member and quickly becoming a social media expert. In order to avoid being a social media troll, have an online presence that reflects your professional standing. Your page should reflect the atmosphere of your business and exude professionalism—even an online first impression can be a bad one.

Exert yourself online and your social networking skills to help grow your company and group of fellow entrepreneurs and business leaders.

What are the best social media or social networking tips you’ve received?

Here’s a fun look at “Vintage Social Networking” by Talentzoo.com:

Organically Managing SEO

blog.hubspot.com

In a world of acronyms and three-lettered emotions, LOL, DIY, IDK, one three-letter “word” should be of utmost importance to the success of your company: SEO.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization affects organic search results. When done properly, SEO can lead customers to your site leading to what would hopefully be high-conversion rates. Proper SEO practices not only organically ranks you higher on search results, but it keeps people on your web page, outranks your competition, and if you keep it up, can work wonders for your company’s marketing.

Renovate to Boost your Online Presence

Boosting your online presence starts with keyword research. When it comes to SEO, keywords are the building blocks to your SEO marketing strategies. To find keywords, use keyword tracking tools such as Google AdWords to see what keywords on your site are picking up the most attention. To see how your competition is doing, see what keywords are helping your competitor enjoy high ranks.

What is a “good” keyword?

According to SEOdesignSolutions, a keyword should:

1. Provide more than 5-10 searches per day (actual type in search traffic).

2. Be capable of stemming to encompass broad match terms. Are your rankings volatile and dynamic?, methodical and calculated (known for the gradual ascent over time)?, bold and daring or subdued?

For example, using the three fundamentals of how search engines assess on page and off page site synergy, the facets of allinanchor, allintext and allintitle come into play. Open a Google search and then add the following search command to find out where your site stands in the grand scheme of things.

In the search box, check these by using the search command followed by a colon, then a space and the keyword.

allintitle: keyword to check

This lists which sites have the highest number of keywords in the title

allinanchor: keyword to check

This lists which domains have the strongest inbound links

allintext: keyword to check

This lists which domains have the strongest on page relevance

allinurl: keyword to check

This lists which domains have the strongest relevance

Word Up!

With the right keywords in hand, utilize the following SEO marketing techniques to get you on the path to renovating your web page for positive conversions:

1. Write articles or upkeep a blog post where you can write content that uses your keywords. This will help your ranking as more and more of those keywords get tied back to your site.

2. Social networks are royalty of the internet. Use social bookmarketing website or networks to get backlinks to your site for more keyword buildup.

3. Popularize your website by working with other bloggers or writing articles for other sites—this will not only gain you credibility but it will boost your page views. Imagine being quoted on Wall Street Journal or Better Homes and Garden! Your credibility will immediately become more legitimate.

An article from practical ecommerce finds that in a presentation given by Andrea Fishman, vice president of global strategy at BGT Partners — a marketing and design firm — at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2011, “57% of digital marketing impact is derived from SEO.” But search engine optimization also has a symbiotic relationship with social media, press relations, paid search, offline advertising, and other marketing channels.

Be sure to nurture your site with internal and external links, and multitask and manage various facets of opt¬¬¬imization. Build your site with a strong foundation and soon your page will be overflowing with visits and conversions.

How do you build SEO? Share with us on Facebook and don’t forget to Tweet us your ideas too!

Keeping up with the Consumer

How to spot key trends and capitalize on them before they disappear

Whether your team won or lost the Super Bowl, one thing is for certain: Super Bowl ads hold everyone’s attention—or at least they should.

Spending millions upon billions of dollars is no road untraveled for big brands and their Super Bowl investments. The funniest and most captivating ads of the year air aiming to hold your hearts, move you to tears (did you catch the Budweiser commercial with the Clydesdale?) and make you laugh like you’ve never laughed before. Creating these ads, however, means a year of research trying to keep up with the consumer. This means appealing to current trends and tastes, crowdsourcing to have your audience do your work for you. The ability to connect with a mobile audience is essential, too.

Appealing Away the Consumer Orange

Consumers can be fickle but they can also be loyal. As stores often say, the customer is always right. They are the core to every advertising campaign—whether your commercial is airing during the Super Bowl or during a weekly game show. The key to appealing to your consumer is to spot key trends and capitalize on them before they disappear.

Trendspotting

With the advent of mobile technology and waning attention spans, it is now more important than ever to expand conventional consumer research practices towards innovative tactics for gathering insights and spotting trends. Turn your advertising research techniques into rapid customer-centric processes that build on emerging trends. How? Listen to what your target market has to say based on conversations with key influencers, social media interests (i.e. hashtags, trending topics). Go beyond the questionnaires by using ads and more to ask your audience what they want.

Customer Engagement—Spotting and Setting Trends

Using engaging content to harness your customers’ attention is key to spotting and setting trends. During the Super Bowl, Coca Cola turned engagement into a fun exercise by asking the audience to choose a winner.

Source: Coke-YouTube

This case study as presented on Inc.com by Geoffrey James is an effective example of how engaging and asking your customer base can be helpful:

“Rather than asking a marketer, ask your prospective customers to write your sales message.

Case Studies: Axe Body Spray, Toro Lawnmowers

Some companies have already implemented this idea in their advertising. In the book Outside Innovation, author Patricia Seybold explains how Unilever created its marketing campaign for the Axe male body spray line by opening a private online forum for men aged 17 to 23. These prospective customers came up with marketing ideas, promotional ideas, advertising ideas, and even new products.

Where Unilever’s traditional marketers has assumed that that body spray was a lifestyle product, the young men explained that body spray was all about “getting the girl,” as Seybold somewhat delicately put it.

With that observation in hand, Unilever was able to open up a new demographic with a highly successful product offering reflecting what was most important to that demographic. Here’s the video—although you should be aware that it’s a little bit risqué.

This method works with less dramatic products, too. Seybold cites the example of Toro Lawnmowers who, rather than letting their marketers write the sales messages, brought professional groundskeepers together to get a sense of what was really important to their customers.

Turns out the groundskeepers couldn’t have been less interested in the kind of features and functions that seem to fascinate most marketers. Instead, groundskeepers were mostly interested in how a lawnmower would make their job easier by saving time.

That concept was reflected in the “Timemaster” line of Toro products, where the product’s features are expressed almost entirely in terms of how they save time.

What are you doing to spot trends? Share with us on Facebook and don’t forget to Tweet us your ideas too!

Fresh Mind or Experience?

How PR firms are hiring (recent grads v. experienced business people)

From full-time college student to a flopping fish out of water. Experienced hedge-fund manager turned bored money man. Whether you are fresh-faced to the marketing world or have a few wrinkles from time, public relations firms have a distinct procedure with how they hire and who they hire. As a small business, our hiring procedures are favorable to both experience and how well of a fit to the company culture you are.

Me in Team

Our doors are always open at Marketing Maven Public Relations. We look for talented individuals who have a drive to apply themselves to everything it is they do. In any marketing company, it’s important to be able to work in a team and have the motivation to finish work in a timely manner.

None of this should be news. With that in mind, when you walk into a company, set yourself up for a successful interview with confidence in what you do. Take the skills you have that are relevant to public relations and apply them to the best of your abilities…sell yourself!

Face of the Company

Clients want a representative that will make them look good, so you need be the good lookin’ face of the company. Your confidence over anything needs to exude how you will represent the company with your experience and willingness to go above and beyond client goals. Just as you would represent a client to the world, represent yourself in the same manner to your interviewer.

Chameleons Rule the PR World

With the diverse nature of client issues that face PR firms on a daily basis, it’s important that you tout your skills to handle these issues in as diverse a manner as they are. Whether you are new to marketing or have little background in but still want to pursue it, know that diversity is a key feature to your resume. For example, are you a college student who worked at a library, as a barista, and a teacher’s assistant with little to no background in public relations? Filter your skills from each of your past positions to be a problem-solver, coordinator, representative and more.

Big v. Little

There are major differences between working for an enterprise and working for your county’s premier marketing agency. If you have little to no experience in marketing, target smaller PR firms who are willing to tend to your growth. Although you may have to work for free as an intern, the experience you gain and the connections you create are absolutely invaluable.

Big firms want big people—people who have created a bubble of expertise in their field. They are not as forthcoming to “newbies” as smaller firms are.

What made you shift to a career in marketing and PR? Share with us on Facebook and don’t forget to Tweet us your ideas too!

David V. Goliath

Pros and Cons of Big and Small Companies

ComeRecommended

Celebrities are rarely seen wearing affordable clothing and accessories but when they do, E! spreads the news like wildfire. In a similar fashion (no pun intended), large companies often want to work with other large companies. “How will a small agency be able to service us?” is a common enterprise moniker but it’s time we take a look at the small guys’ big picture.

Leave Your Emotions at the Door

Big companies offer a cool and sexy image with their long list of notable clients and day-to-day high-level decision making. It’s come time for companies to leave their desire for a status symbol at the door.

Small companies are often run by experienced leaders, who have a background of working with large agencies. These are leaders who have honed in on their skills and are applying them to the formation of their own company and client growth. Due to their focus and drive for success, small companies pay much more attention to clients and their needs. Face-to-face meetings occur more often and client enjoys a more personalized touch with every campaign related task they do.

The biggest advantage to working with small companies is that they are far more affordable than large, “designer” companies.

Large Companies Have the Glam and Cost the Glitz

Unlike most small companies, large companies are a one stop shop. Their intentions and goals are what differ the most from that of small companies. Large companies are more focused on their growth and your account manager will likely be an average worker out of their hundreds of employees. Although their work may be exceptional, service may be lacking. Pay the big bucks for the designer price; just make sure you’re getting what you pay for!

Go with your Gut

If you are looking for a company knee-deep in the entertainment industry and tied to a plethora of connections, then a large agency is probably for you. If you are looking for a personalized and specialized service from a company that works for you and with you, then contacting a small business should be your next step.

What do you do to ensure that you are in touch with your account manager on a personal level? Share with us on Facebook and don’t forget to Tweet us your ideas, too!

So Long Oregon Trail, Move into the New World with Mobile

From coffee shops to watching you sleep at night, one thing creeps and lingers. It’s attached to your hand and lights up with news, stories, and posts of who’s near. Cell phones are taking over the world and have quickly become another appendage to our technology dependent selves.

It has brought information into the lives of many and should be the spark that ignites companies and marketers to take advantage of social media mobile marketing.

No Longer Secondary

Tablets and mobile devices are quickly phasing out of being part of a second screen experience. Mobile devices are becoming the primary experience and are taking center as the informational hubs for many around the world. With that in mind, companies should move forward to brand and create their website with a responsive design and contextual design. Remember, mobile screens are considerably smaller and context becomes important.

Instagram Captures Consumers Pinterest

It would be unwise to not take advantage of the 100 million current Instagram users (Mashable) and Pinterest every day. Although mobile users are literate, they like to see graphics on a screen the size of their palm. Even though Instagram has changing Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, individuals still continue to sign up for this app that makes taking pictures into an art.

Applications like Pinterest and Instagram offers individuals a way of seeing your product on their mobile device, tablet or smartphone. Aljolynn Sperber, our Social Media Manager and Account Executive says, “While individuals are going mobile to make their purchasing decisions, they should never discredit the use by consumers of the laptop or desktop – those could never be replaced. Brands can also find their influencers through mobile using Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.”

At Your Service

Restaurant or dry cleaners? You have just as much an effect on consumers as other companies do. Service companies can use mobile applications like FourSquare and a competitive game on Yelp! to get positive reviews and encourage use of your services with mobile coupons. Look into applications like Gowalla and Whrrl to make eating at your restaurant a community event and strike-up a friendly mobile conversation with your target consumers.

What do you do to stay ahead of the mobile curve? Share with us on Facebook and don’t forget to Tweet us your ideas too!

What’s Mobile Usage Like Worldwide?