In a ”how-to” story I wrote recently, published by Chief Marketer, I share 13 Rules Your Brand ID Guide Should Be Enforcing. Read on …

Denise B. Hearden

Does it succinctly describe what, where, when and how your business does what it does and for whom … in one paragraph? Does it offer bite-size chunks of information and links to additional details for those who seek it? Does it explain how your customers benefit from doing business with you, and competitively position your company against all other options?

The purpose of a website’s About Us page is to explain its value proposition to its most valued audiences. An About Us page should effectively explain the company’s purpose and what it stands for.

Most importantly, it should demonstrate exactly why the visitor should buy the company’s products or services.

When coming to an online About Us page, visitors should instantly find useful fact-based company information that: 

• Supports his/her  decision to do business with the company
• Makes him/her feel that the company is trying to create a relationship
• Boosts his/her perception of the company’s credibility

Seems like a no-brainer, right? Apparently not.  Jakob Nielsen reported in ’08 that while there’s been a 9% improvement in the usability of About Us information on websites over the previous 5 years, many, many companies still can’t (or choose not to) explain what they do in one paragraph.

What’s a Company to Do?

If you take a closer look at the Nielsen study, or the websites referred to by experts as usability-focused, you’ll find that many have the following elements in common:

• The About Us link is titled as such
• The About Us link is offered in the primary navigation – not necessarily the most prominent link, but clearly visible
• The About us information is offered in 4 levels of detail:*

1. Tagline on the homepage: A few words or a brief sentence summarizing what the organization does.
2. Summary: 1-2 paragraphs at the top of the main About Us page that offer a bit more detail about the organization’s goal and main accomplishments.
3. Fact sheet: A section following the summary that elaborates on its key points and other essential facts about the organization.
4. Detailed information: secondary pages with more depth for people who want to learn more about the organization.

This layered content presentation forms an inverted pyramid that uses hypertext (text links) to shield users from overwhelming details, while making specific information available to those who need it.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Objective, fluff-free facts are a great way to differentiate your business, and address all of the decision-making criteria your customers and prospects consider when choosing to continue or begin doing business with your company.

Here are some ideas for an online Fact Sheet. Remember, facts are also a great way to support the fluffier promises and claims you make!

Say It with Video

One definite trend in About Us content is higher user interest in video. Multi-media presentations are a great way to highlight the people within your organization, your satisfied customers and their testimonies and video can really showcase the personality of your organization’s leaders. Caveat: Web users are still impatient and prefer short videos.

A video I recently came across that fits this bill is for Uline, a shipping supply distributor. View it.

Where to Start

Auditing your own About Us page, section or entire website isn’t easy. An objective eye from an experienced outsider can often identify opportunities for improvement that may surprise you. Improvements may take the form of copy enhancements, page re-organization, link architecture, navigation, usability techniques or design.

The goal for any content improvement (copy, design, organization) is of course to present your information in a more relevant manner, making the site’s content and tools more accessible and user-friendly.

An objective 3^rd party audit will lead you to site changes that will ultimately result in higher visitor usage rates and satisfaction.

The Approach

The way I typically go about a website audit is to: 

• Detail the current page/section/site’s contents and cite overall pros and cons
• Research, review and reference industry trends, case studies, best practices as they relate to this type of website and the client’s objectives
• Identify opportunities to improve current pages
• Develop recommendations for specific improvements and changes
• Visually illustrate recommendations where appropriate
• Present to the client; gather feedback
• Adjust and deliver final documentation based on the client’s feedback

If you’re not sure your About Us page is stacking up, and you believe that it should, contact me.

Denise B. Hearden

*Source: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/about-us-pages.html

Image courtesy of PRSA

PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) recently published an article (http://bit.ly/8Ar1KY) that summarizes the findings of several reports about the impact of public relations for various industries, its role in the integrated marketing mix and how PR will help companies survive and thrive during and beyond this recession. Here are some highlights from those findings:

• Public relations often may be more important to brand value than advertising, especially for purchasing decisions related to complex products. 
• Public relations might have more of an impact on the bottom line during a recession than any other marketing communications activity.
• Media coverage relates to not just a company’s reputation but the actual financial value of the brand.
• The most effective messages will be those that are transmitted through trusted third parties or by word-of-mouth.
• Public relations is more likely to be effective in building consumer confidence in financial institutions.
• Public relations is just as effective, and often far more cost-efficient, than advertising for building long-term brand value.

 The moral of the PRSA story:

The article’s author, Aedhmar Hynes concludes, “The current economy only serves to amplify the importance of marketing via third-party influencers and neutral venues. Since unpaid media placement is more credible to buyers, it should play a key role in building brand value for high-involvement brands — especially during the recession. Brands that invest in building their reputations this way will come out of this economic downturn stronger, while competitors who don’t will likely suffer.”

What this means for your business:

Every company or organization has an image, position and level of awareness in the marketplace merely because it exists. Whether or not a company takes an active role in the development of that image is another story.

Public relations is a powerful component of the marketing mix that can affect how customers, employees, stakeholders and the general public view your organization or company and its products. An organization’s public relations may be consistent, proactive, structured and driven by sound marketing goals. Or it may be allowed to develop unchecked in response to market conditions, competition and public sentiment.

Public relations cannot correct flaws in your products or services, nor does it work overnight. What it can do is communicate the benefits of your product or service to targeted audiences and help create relationships with them. And if there is a problem or crisis, it can help you actively communicate how your organization is solving the problem and perhaps soften the blow.

What you can do about it:

With a fresh, strategic and proactive perspective, Be Heard Marketing provides comprehensive public relations services. Get in touch to find out how an ongoing public relations program can help your business.

“The results of the PR work we’ve hired Be Heard Marketing to handle over the past year has helped us get our message out directly to influencers and decision makers in our very targeted market niche,” explains William Behrmann, WPS Global president. “The media have welcomed our case studies and expertise. And, the publicity we’ve received to date has proven to our target audiences that surviving in a highly competitive and economically strained marketplace, they must think out-of-the-box when it comes to reducing costs.” (Scroll down to find links to PR placements)

Be Heard Marketing partners with business executives and marketing leaders to provide marketing, public relations and web solutions designed to address specific needs and achieve critical goals. To learn more, visit www.BeHeardMarketing.com or contact Denise B. Hearden at 414.218.5452.

Recent WPS Global case study news releases and publicity placements:

Cover Feature, Exclusive Story
Official Board Markets
How IPC Cut Energy Costs
January 3, 2009

News Release (View it)
Board Converting News
WPS Global Helps Niagara ‘Pinch Pennies’
January 18, 2010

Official Board Markets
Corrugators Are Finding Creative Ways to Cut Costs
January 16, 2010

Placements Pending
Paper Film & Foil Converter
Converting Magazine
Corrugated Today

If your biggest challenges in creating an effective newsletter (eNewsletter or traditional print) involve the following dilemmas, you’re not alone. Here are a few tips to overcome them.

 1. Setting Goals
Don’t underestimate the power of putting your goals in writing. Your goals might be to generate leads, drive traffic to your Website or to keep your company’s name in front of prospects and customers.

2. Creating an Effective Subscription Page
Getting people to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter isn’t easy, but it is critical. If you request too much information on the subscription page or the e-mail newsletter description is weak, you’ll lose prospects.

Remember to include a brief description of your e-mail newsletter. It must be written to appeal to your audience and should define: 

• Who should read your e-mail newsletter
• The type of content your e-mail newsletter offers
• Benefits to the reader of subscribing/reading the e-mail newsletter
• How often you publish
• Exactly how to subscribe

3. Finding and Creating Appropriate Editorial Content
Finding good quality articles highly targeted to your audience is often difficult. However, there are many ways to create editorial content. For example: 

• Case Studies/Testimonials
• How-to articles
• Interviews
• Seminar coverage
• Guest columnists
• Previously published pieces

Finding quality content takes time, whether you create it from scratch or subscribe to a syndicated service. To produce a higher quality e-mail newsletter, be organized and plan each issue ahead, with enough time to write and edit articles.

For more newsletter ideas, contact Be Heard Marketing.

Customer testimonials – quotes from your customers about the services and products you provide – are a great way to hit home your business’ unique selling proposition(s).

I’m working on a new marketing campaign for a commercial envelope printing business in Wisconsin, Express Envelopes Unlimited. Most of its client-base are commercial printers and mailhouses who need thousands or millions of envelopes printed quickly, with high quality standards and at a fair price.

Express Envelopes Unlimited’s value proposition is:

In an effort to add new printer customers to Express Envelopes Unlimited’s client roster, the foundation for the new campaign will be real testimonial quotes from actual customers.

We went to Express Envelope Unlimited’s top tier of clients for the initial round of testimonials. Within three days, all customer contacts had responded enthusiastically to our request for “a quote about the benefits of doing business with Express Envelope Unlimited.” Here are just some of the quotes I pulled from these responses:

“They print ALL of our envelopes – more than 4 million in ’09.”
 “More than pleased with EEU’s exceptional quality and service.”
“Unsurpassed quality, service and price.”
“EEU puts us in good standing with our clients.”
 “Every order is printed correctly, delivered on time and at the price quoted.”
“EEU is our preferred envelope vendor … great customer service and they deliver on time.”
“Consistently makes our deadlines and delivers quality work.”
“EEU is a terrific vendor … a rarity these days!”
“Fantastic customer service.”
“EEU helps us to stay competitive in this tough economy.”
“They commit to our deadlines so our customers will not be let down.”
“We love EEU’s fast turnaround for quotes.”
“Our orders are always delivered on time, within budget, and exactly the
quality we need.”
“EEU is very competitive on price.”
“They produce our envelopes faster than any other printer – by far.”

As you can see, the key points Express Envelopes Unlimited makes in its value proposition — which is consistently conveyed across all marketing efforts from its brochures to its website — are expressed by these customers in their own words.

There are so many ways to collect and use testimonials effectively in your marketing efforts including ads, direct mail, collateral, email marketing, websites, and public relations, to name a few. If you need help soliciting or applying testimonials to your marketing initiatives, please contact me.

Denise B. Hearden

Caller: 
“Does my business really need an online press room?”

In many, many cases, the answer is YES! Your media contacts can benefit greatly from a press room (a.k.a. news room) – managed by your PR team – to keep them abreast of your company’s latest endeavors, innovations, accomplishments and much more.

Press Room Contents
The best way to make use of an online press room is to make it an easy-to-find and user-friendly “asset” management tool for your media contacts. A place they can go to easy access information, images or videos about your company, its spokespersons and products/services.

In a typical press room, the media will appreciate the following information and materials:

- Media Relations Contacts

- Current Annual Report

            – Annual Report Archive

- Company Backgrounder

- Company & Product Fact Sheets

- Executive Bios

- Image & Video Library

            – Executive Headshots

            – Facility Interior and Exterior Shots

            – Product Beauty Shots

            – Product Application Shots

            – Videos (by type: education/how-to; promotional; social; etc.)

- Recent News Releases

            – Archive of Past News Releases

- Resource Library

            – Technical Papers

            – Research Reports

            – Company History

            – White Papers

Ultimately your press room should be tailored to suit the specific needs of your media contacts, your business and PR/marketing objectives.

Publicity Placement Archive
For your company’s own benefit, you’ll also want to maintain a page within the press room that provides a detailed list of publicity placements (name of media outlet, title of placement, publish date, type of placement, author) along with a link to each placement (a PDF copy of the placement or link to the media outlet’s archived version of the article/video/audio placement).

Your Press Room’s Home
When communicating with your media contacts, you’ll frequently and consistently point them to your online press room to access information, images, etc. In electronic communications, you’ll include a hotlink (hyperlink) that takes your media contact directly to your press room.

But don’t stop there. Any great resource to the media becomes accessible day or night. You never know when a story idea will hit an editor, and if your press room is useful and memorable, he or she may just firm-up their story idea by taking a look at the information you’ve made easily available online. So, make sure that the URL of your press room is short, sweet and makes total sense. For example, “WidgetsUSA.com/pressroom.” Or, “WidgetsUSAPressRoom.com.”

Of course, you’ll make sure your press room pages comply with all of the basic search engine optimization best practices so that when a reporter searches Google for “Widget USA annual report” she’ll be a click away from your press room.

Finally, you’ll want to make your press room easily available from your site’s Home Page and About Us section. Intuitively, the media will look for a Press Room link on these pages.

For public relations counsel, press release (news release) development guidance, press release distribution or media relations support, get in touch with me.

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing

Before you distribute any release, please objectively edit it to ensure it meets at least the basic criteria for a well-written, timely and newsworthy story. Here are the basics that are most commonly overlooked:

Contact Information
Be sure to include the name, title, and complete contact information for your media representative/ spokesperson. Include phone number (office and cell), fax number and e-mail address. As a PR veteran of 16 years, my advice is to be as accessible and responsive as possible.

Press Release Headline
State your most exciting news, finding or announcement in as few words as possible. Emulate the headlines you see in highly regarded newspapers or trade publications. Your copy should be factual, not sensational.

The Press Release Subhead
Subheads are remarkably useful tools, yet usually overlooked by inexperienced press release writers. Basically, the press release subhead gives you the opportunity to flesh out your angle and further hook the reporter, without stepping on the drama of the press release headline.

The Press Release Lead
Journalism 101 — the lead paragraph includes the who, what, when, where and how of the story. If the reporter were only to read the lead of a good press release, he’d have everything he needed to get started.  There’s no room for hype or sell. Just the facts.

The Rest of the Press Release
The balance of the press release serves to back up whatever claims were made in the lead and headline.  A quote should be included to help add perspective and enhance the relevance of the news story – not to state the obvious or present cliché remarks. 

Boilerplate
Finally, spend a sentence or two describing your company and what you do. This paragraph is known as the “boilerplate” — an old newspaper term meaning a block of standard text that’s used over and over again (e.g. the explanation of symbols on the stock price page). In this case, it’s text that you might use at the bottom of all your releases.   Place your boilerplate right above the # # #’s and include the company’s location, main phone number and website address.

Below the ###’s
Here’s the space you can use to provide the reporter/editor with additional information, notes regarding images, image thumbnails and captions, links to downloadable images or an online newsroom, etc. If one-on-one interviews or an on-site tour is an option, add a line that says something like: If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with John Smith, please call Jane Doe at 555.927.0066 or e-mail Jane.Doe@MediaRelations.com.

Some Key Things to Remember

• Stay away from hype-bloated phrases like “breakthrough”, “unique”, “state-of-the-art”, etc.
• Always write it from a journalist’s perspective. Never use “I” or “we” unless it’s in a quote.
• Read a lot of good newspaper writing, such as the New York Times or the Washington Post to get a feel for the style.
• Shorter is better. If you can say it in two pages, great. If you can say it in one page, even better.

Now that you’ve got the ingredients of a well-written press release, you might be wondering what other methods you should use to make yourself a really useful media resource. You may even wonder if a press room might be a good idea. Well, it is!

Your media contacts can benefit greatly from a press room (a.k.a. news room) – managed by your PR team – to keep them abreast of your company’s latest endeavors, innovations, accomplishments and much more. In next week’s post, I’ll reveal the contents of a truly useful press room.

For public relations counsel, press release (news release) development guidance, press release distribution or media relations support, get in touch with me.

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing

Great question!
There are dozens of online press release distribution services, some listed here, that will help you get your news out into the world wide web. Rather than submitting your news to any or all services, I recommend you carefully study which will help you reach your specific target audiences and media outlets.

Free online press release distribution should NOT replace a customized media relations initiative. Simply put, it is another way to increase online awareness about your news and drive traffic to your website(s).

Online Press Release Distribution Services

NakedPR blogger, Jennifer Mattern, published and updated this list of free online press release distribution services:

But before you distribute, please objectively edit your news release to ensure it meets at least the basic criteria for a well-written, timely and newsworthy story. Stay tuned for next week’s post where you’ll find the press release basics most often overlooked!

For public relations counsel, press release (news release) development guidance, press release distribution or media relations support, get in touch with me.

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing

by Denise B. Hearden

What will you get in return for spending the appropriate amount of time and resources on developing and employing a marketing plan?

Simply put, your business will realize its sales and marketing goals faster, more economically and with less hassle/red tape/resistance. Yes, I said “sales and marketing goals.” That means a marketing plan must actually define what those goals are … specifically.

This task is easier than you might think. Start with sales. What were your sales last year? What should they have been? What sales volume would result in success this year? How can this sales volume be defined? Actual revenue? Number of orders? Size of orders? All of these details are going to be included in your marketing plan.

Documenting your sales objectives is a no brainer, right? And, these are numbers your organization can track and measure very easily. However, there may be other goals just as important, but not as easy to quantify. For example, “awareness” can be difficult to measure with hard data. Your marketing plan will need to describe its awareness objectives, strategies to boost awareness, the tactics necessary to execute these strategies, and the metrics you’ll use to track and measure your efforts.

No matter what your objectives are, they should be clear and quantifiable (e.g., 22% sales revenue increase; $10 average order size; 30% boost in product X awareness among target audience; 50% increase in qualified sales leads; increase credibility in the marketplace with 6 company expert bylined article placements). Further, they should be attainable within the plan’s timeframe (e.g., 12 months).

While setting the objectives for your marketing plan is uber-critical, keep in mind that the remainder of your plan must be constructed with these goals firmly in its crosshairs. These components, including SWOTs, competitor analysis, market research, strategies, tactics, and budget allocations, must support and result in successes that will result in your business getting closer and closer to achieving its goals every step of the way.

Read other the Marketing Plan Blog Entries:

• Excuses, Excuses
• Your #1 Marketing Flaw Revealed

Denise B. Hearden
Be Heard Marketing
denise@beheardmarketing.com