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Category: Marketing

Branding a Village: Identity Beyond Logos : Reader Q&A

Posted on December 16, 2008

A reader writes “Would love to have your thoughts on our new village logo.” Attached to the message, I found a file with over 30 different logo options. Do you have a question you’d like to ask? Leave your reply in the comment box.

Answer:
Branding a village – ah yes – a project we’ve contributed to before. Make that “Branding a village as a shopping district.”

And therein lies my first question back to my reader: What – within the village – are you branding, specifically?

If you’re like most villages, you have government, departments, corporations and more towns/districts within your town.

Branding a Village Projects – Taking the Identity Beyond Logos

One thing you can be sure of – everyone will have an opinion. Unless, you make your identity so bland that no one will notice. In the project I referenced above, the key decision makers were village business people. People that had a vision of what their village should look like to the world. Ten concepts got presented. The final look blended a few together. An artist drew up people and backdrops to illustrate a feeling. Words conveyed a mood.

To be successful, you need to sustain a brand campaign. It’s not just about imagery, it’s about extending the experience beyond the graphic identity. But, since we got started talking about logos, here are some . . .

Identity Branding Guidelines We Give Our Clients

  • Branding – anything – is not one size fits all. But, for villages sometimes you need to come up with a look that works for lots of people, departments and purposes.
  • Make sure whatever you go with looks good in one color and in black – if you’ll be using for print
  • Consider using the name, in this case the village, as an anchor with no add-on graphics if the brand will be used for more than one department – think HOLLYWOOD
  • Change out for taglines for village, police, parks, etc.
  • Make sure you get a design guide with standards and CDs you can give to departments and vendors [like printers] who will be using the image
  • Ask the designer to narrow concepts down to their top three. Why do they like the ones they do? What’s the story behind the concept?

and a few . . .

Questions for a Village Government Branding Committee

Why are we doing this?

What do we want to be known for?

Who is our competition? What do they look like?

Who do we want to look like?

How will it look on the water towers and residential trash cans? – consider all the out there, yet common, places where municipal logos end up

Is the village government’s branding campaign a good use of taxpayer’s money?

Have we considered the cost savings from consolidating government branch branding into one common government branded typeface?

What are our plans for village [or federal] government branding 2.0?

How will we get buy in and comments from residents, business owners and community groups?

What do you think?

How do you think logos tie into public relations?

0 Comments - Posted in Branding, Marketing

Advanced Link Building | Search Engine Strategies Twitter Transcripts

Posted on December 11, 2008

Twitter transcripts for this session follow. As always, the updates are as exactly as posted with no changes – and they are in reverse order. So, start at the bottom and read from the top. This is one in series of articles. Browse my Chicago Search Engine Strategies 2008 category for the complete collection. Visit Search Engine Strategies’ blog for total conference coverage. Here’s the session description from the program guide . . .

Advanced Link Building from the Chicago Search Engine Strategies 2008 Program Guide 
How far is too far in optimizing your internal link structure? If you operate a network of sites, can natural interlinking be perceived as link spam? How should you handle affiliate links? Advanced linking issues like these and more will be explored during this session. This session is designed for experienced marketers. Beginners should only attend if they’ve gone through the Link Building Basics session earlier in the day.

  • Moderator:
    PJ Fusco, Natural Search Director, Netconcepts
  • Speakers:
    Michael Gray, President, Atlas Web Service
    Wil Reynolds, Founder, SEER Interactive
    Chris Boggs, Manager, SEO, Brulant, Inc., recently acquired by Rosetta

Advanced Link Building Twitter Transcript by Barbara Rozgonyi for Wired PR Works


wiredprworks: .edu links-every university has student pages, every student has access, get an intern, might put a link to your co/client #ses

wiredprworks: .edu links actually become conversions, especially with discounts for profs #ses

wiredprworks: aim for regional .gov, typically involved with you giving something back #ses, show up a meeting, take notes and post to blog for links

wiredprworks: .edu lists contests-client in an industry get them in there as a sponsor, had a lot of success, build curriculum to class @davesnyder #ses

wiredprworks: to get .edu links, go to local college department, offer to speak or sponsor, then give them your link for their site #ses

wiredprworks: dmoz still what uses as a Google defacto directory, submit it once and let it go, content builds links #ses 
 
wiredprworks: directories: does it rank for its own term, search industry+directory to find them, submit to better ones first #ses

wiredprworks: paid links: check referrer’s logs to see if they’re sending traffic #ses

wiredprworks: affiliate links should come straight through, even better without an affiliate id could create a duplicate content problem for yourself #ses

wiredprworks: try to stay within your PR [page rank] neighborhood, understand your industry #ses

wiredprworks: bookmarking your own stuff on delicious can turn you into a commercial account #ses

wiredprworks: watch out for hacking and encrypted text with links in sidebars or footers – visible or invisible #ses

wiredprworks: link injection- not good, some plugins carry a hidden trojan that inserts links into blogroll, check your blogroll #ses

wiredprworks: black hat-questionable strategies to link building by @graywolf #ses

wiredprworks: @wilreynolds squeezes in more delicious tips: find “librarians” in towns, subscribe to tags, use MechanicalTurk to rank sites #ses

wiredprworks: tag sites in delicious to profile sites and then order sites in terms of most link value based on Alexa, Technorati, etc. #ses

wiredprworks: ways to get links: write a testimonial, sponsor a large charity, search for ways to give in-kind donations #ses

wiredprworks: seo company doing PR outreach for links [now, there's a new concept!] #ses 

wiredprworks: ask tons of questions to find out what people are talking about to find pockets and opps for links #ses

wiredprworks: @ltrosien ‘s twitter grader profile up on screen, helped speaker plan trips to Chicago, use twitter grader to find out more #ses

wiredprworks: twitter bi-weekly contest for free AC unit, created by @adamm based on twitter search, works for anything that fixes people’s problems #ses

wiredprworks: next speaker, Wil Reynolds from SEER, link buying should be evaluated based on ability to assess risk, #ses

wiredprworks: @boggles – thanks for the remediation linking tips :) #ses

wiredprworks: Google webmaster tools go to links, to pages with external links, look at 404 pages and try to reclaim links #ses

wiredprworks: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com to get inbound links to your site, look for external links to entire site #ses

wiredprworks: Advanced Link-building #ses remediation tactics for inbound links: free yahoo site explorer, Google Webmaster, WeBuildPages

2 Comments - Posted in Online PR, SEO Tagged with: ,

SEO PR Chicago Search Engine Strategies | Twitter Transcripts

Posted on December 9, 2008

Twitter transcripts for this session follow. Apologies to those of you who checked in and found a coveritlive.com template. NOW I know how to use it – testing new technology on the fly is, uh, iffy. But, I think more people enjoyed the twitter updates anyway. So, thanks for your patience and to those of you who commented while I was updating – thanks for being part of the conversation. As always, the updates are as exactly as posted with no changes – and they are in reverse order. So, start at the bottom and read from the top.

Basics Track

Turning PR Efforts into SEO Results – Session Description from Chicago Search Engine Strategies Program Guide

Search engine optimization is one of the most effective ways to reach target audiences. Unfortunately, most organizations are focused solely on how SEO impacts marketing and advertising and are failing to take advantage of the unique and very impactful results that are generated when SEO is applied to public relations. Organizations that capitalize on the convergence of marketing, advertising and public relations stand to benefit from more successful, less-costly campaigns, while organizations that fail to integrate PR into SEO efforts stand to miss out on a valuable opportunity.

Optimizing press releases for natural search offers organizations the opportunity to drive traffic from authoritative third party sites. It also provides another means to generate fresh content for the organization’s web site and the ability to determine whether or not an organization’s message is connecting with intended audiences. In addition, natural search optimization can generate new leads and show measurable results. These tools are often less costly than traditional advertising programs and leverage existing advertising content to communicate more directly with consumers.

This session will provide real-life examples to show how organizations can achieve maximum results for any communications campaign through natural search optimization of press releases.

LisaAdamsWalter: To all PR Peeps, follow Barbara Rozgonyi @wiredprworks for up to the minute notes from #ses – good information!

wiredprworks: match the type of content to the channel that’s most appropriate, not so much about biggest bang for your buck #ses

wiredprworks: #ses trick from @leeodden, separate out elements:news+blog post for social

wiredprworks: technorati doesn’t pick up press release so adding tags is useless #ses

wiredprworks: search for “social media release is a meatball sundae” greg jarboe, it’s an oxymoron, 2 things that don’t belong together #ses

wiredprworks: google social media release and will see template, some initial studies show high traffic-tech or corp, but no broad scale studies done #ses

wiredprworks: social media news release 20% of room is familiar with concept #ses

wiredprworks: establish processes in the review cycle, optimize from the beginning #ses

wiredprworks: @CarriBugbee http://tinyurl.com/5ju698 (expand) see turning PR efforts into SEO results #ses

wiredprworks: online press release optimization make sure same keyword is in headline, first paragraph and landing page – be consistent #ses

gavoweb: RT @wiredprworks: use Google AdWords keyword tool to plug in a URL and get some keyword suggestions #ses (thanks for the tip barbara)

CarriBugbee: @wiredprworks This has always been my philosophy. What is #SES? ‘Cause I’m too lazy to research the event…

wiredprworks: use Google AdWords keyword tool to plug in a URL and get some keyword suggestions #ses

wiredprworks: language is a big disconnect between marketing-PR, don’t call it a recreational vehicle if people say RV, use advantageous keywords #ses

wiredprworks: so many opportunities left on the table, like when sales leads come in from press release, develop some continuity across organization #ses

wiredprworks: think in terms of the metrics and business effect that your communications are driving, share of voice and tonality #ses

wiredprworks: a lot easier to measure PR now, ask what are your goals? contrary to popular belief it’s really easy to get into the news #ses

wiredprworks: disconnect between marketing and PR – objectives, tactics and language #ses, stronger lifting if you use both arms

wiredprworks: have to really think about information we issue as really granular #ses, need to readjust thinking as to how info will be consumed online

wiredprworks: understanding “audience” bought earthworms on Internet, buy encapsulated cocoons, there is an audience for everything at a given time #ses

wiredprworks: think more about business results than a clip book, need to connect marketing and PR more, especially with traditional companies #ses

wiredprworks: Sarah Skerik from PR Newswire up now talking about integrating SEO and PR communicating optimally, her customers more traditional #ses

wiredprworks: journalists use Google Alerts for companies or high profile thought leaders, use optimization to become one of their preferred sources #ses

wiredprworks: press releases are just one type of news content, best practices optimize content throughout #ses

wiredprworks: contributed content: articles, letters to the editor and profiles #ses use keywords in headline& put anchor text in article, set up profiles

wiredprworks: publicize publicity – create blog post or newsroom to publicize pick up to leverage third party credibility, add content #ses

wiredprworks: Know the value of links: monitor online pickups, link to the pickup via bookmark #ses

wiredprworks: create online newsroom, post press release there first and that will be the one that ranks #ses

wiredprworks: top to bottom, left to right for keywords, #ses, 500 word release use keyword 2-4 times, add media into press release

wiredprworks: Optimize news, do media training – optimize speaking points, contributed articles-optimize content and use anchor text w/in copy #ses

wiredprworks: if it can be search on, it can be optimized #ses

wiredprworks: not being found online? you’re missing media opportunities #ses pull peopls to you w/PR, newsroom, social media

wiredprworks: how do you use search: 95% research stories, 91% news, 91% companies/people, 82% story ideas, press releases #ses

wiredprworks: most SEO optimizing for a searcher,, news optimization focuses on a diff audience,outcome: facts,experts, trends #ses

wiredprworks: Jolina Pettice now talking about how to improve SEO with digital PR from TopRank #ses

wiredprworks: PR people for 100 yrs trying to measure results, now can get headline impressions, full page reads, #brand searches up 38% in 1 study #ses

wiredprworks: photo contest for Parents had 4,000, 6 weeks after online PR had 88,296 entries, can generate measurable traffic, build database #ses

wiredprworks: whole segment of bloggers mommy bloggers, picked up on Parents news and commented on it, also got traditional media, both w/ links #ses

wiredprworks: radical transformation, for 100 yrs you had to get past the gatekeeper, now you can get your story in front of consumer-mommy bloggers #ses

wiredprworks: SEO-PR case study Better Homes and Gardens, realease ranked #1 for Parents Magazine in Google News w/optimized photo gets higher rank #ses

wiredprworks: greg jarboe asking # seo & PR in audience, real win-win here is when both sides learn from each other #ses

wiredprworks: @barbchamberlain #ses = search engine stratgies SEO-PR session now

wiredprworks: small biz-sales tool, reach&credibility, everyone wants increased visibility, PR see releases as tool for branding, mktrs as optimizer #ses

barbchamberlain: @wiredprworks What’s the #ses tag? Yr tweets are interesting research findings.

wiredprworks: mktg pros ranked consumer above media, also interested in going to webmaster, press releases diff by segment: PR, marketing, small biz #ses

wiredprworks: #1 measurement of success, # of sites where published online and #2 # of online views #ses, news aggregators ranked higher than news sites

wiredprworks: PR activities being targeted to 1 journalists,2 bloggers 3 consumers #ses

wiredprworks: SCNR study mixed qualitative and quantitative research – surveyed marketers and small biz owners #ses

wiredprworks: live tweeting seo-pr #ses starts now with Wei from @prweb

9 Comments - Posted in SEO Tagged with:

Email Marketing Course | Five Days to Better Email Results

Posted on December 5, 2008

It’s Friday. I just crossed the 2,100 mark update on twitter and decided to share this ecourse I wrote to go out to my MTN newsletter subscribers. Now, my newsletter wears the Wired PR Works brand. Sending out a sequenced system like this works with email providers like Aweber – affiliate link.

Hope you find it useful. Because the report is seven pages long, I’m only posting the outline and the day one sequence here. To read the entire course, click the link and read the report or print it out. Let me know what you think.

5 Day Email Marketing Transformations Course

Day One: Brand Your Identity

Day Two: Present Offers the Crowd Can’t Resist

Day Three: How to Trigger Rapid Response

Day Four: Grow Your Own Groupies

Day Five: Measure What Works

Day 1/5 Email Marketing Transformations: Brand Your Identity

Welcome to day one of your Email Marketing Transformations. I’ll be checking in with you every day for the next five days.

Today’s topic is selecting a sender name that gets you noticed, brands your product or service and communicates who you are immediately.

If you’re like most email readers, the first thing you do when you open your inbox is scan the list of sender’s names. You want to know right away who’s trying to get your attention.

This may seem like a simple lesson – it is – yet, choosing and using your sender email address is your first step to marketing your business, products or your services online successfully.

So, let’s start with the basics . . .

What is a sender name and how does it differ from my email address?

The sender name is the name you select in Outlook and other email interface tools that identifies the message source. So, depending on which account I’m using, you’ll see emails coming from -

Barbara Rozgonyi – or Barbara Rozgonyi CoryWest – or Barbara Rozgonyi Wired PR Works.

Up until a few months ago, I used CoryWest, which worked to brand my company and make us look bigger, but carried no personal connection. New contacts often called me Cory, not Barbara, because they were recognizing the email sender name as my name.

But I didn’t know how confusing this really was until someone confessed that they were having trouble distinguishing between Cory and Barbara in the minds. So, I decided to add my name to my company name. Now, users get more clarity when they communicate with our parent company.

Members of the Marketing Transformations Network may not come directly in contact with CoryWest, but they will know get to know me. That’s why they see – Barbara Rozgonyi MTN – in the sender line.

So, what would I advise you to do?

If you own a company, request that everyone who communicates from your email system use at least their first, and preferably also their last name, along with the company name. For example, Michael Regent Accounting Pros tells you who from Accounting Pros is trying to reach you.

If you’re self-employed or promoting a product, you can test different sender names like “Time Saver” or “Beauty Secrets” or “Money Manager.” This marketing tactic may either draw in readers or drive them away. That’s why we recommend testing sender names – you may even want to survey your top customers to see what they respond to.

How do you set up a sender name?

In Outlook, go to accounts and enter the name you want to use. Some email hosts will not offer this option – they will only allow you to select an email address. If that’s the case, always use a domain based email address. For example, if your site is www.wowdowehaveideas.com and your name is Beth, then a possible email address could be beth@wowdowehaveideas.com. This way, every time you give out your email address, you promote your business.

1 Comment - Posted in Marketing Blog Tagged with: ,

Marketing Strategies | How Far to Shift with the Economy

Posted on December 1, 2008

MarketingSherpa’s chart of the week shows how businesses are shifting marketing strategies. It’s not surprising that advertising is way down. Telemarketing is almost even on the reducing/adding sides. Look for more emails if you’re on a house list and additional ways to connect via social network marketing. Take some time to think about how you’ll remix. There’s no line for public relations in the chart, but you might assume online PR and blogging fit into the Web2.0 category.

marketing-tactics-marketingsherpa

Before you make any drastic shifts in your marketing plans, though, be careful.

If what you’re doing now works for you and your markets stay put or shift slightly. Canceling every ad may save you money, but will work against you when your competitors keep their ads going. While yellow pages ads can be costly, display ads on blogs or in email newsletters can be surprisingly cheap. So, keep advertising and adjust your frequency and reach to match your budget.

Jumping into social network marketing is trendy – and tough.

Unless you’re willing to study and participate by devoting several hours a week to connecting on your computer, you’ll need to be strategic with incremental, yet powerful steps. 

Consider outsourcing your marketing budgeting, planning, strategizing – and implementation.

You may save money, but if you can’t get the results a marketing communications and public relations professional can, then you’re losing not only money, but also precious time.

Your turn

How will your marketing budget change in the next six months?

1 Comment - Posted in Marketing, Social Media