How to Generate Leads and Increase Sales

Many small business owners are experts at their job but struggle when it comes to marketing. Because news coverage is free and perceived as more credible than advertising, publicity is a cost-effective way to generate leads and increase sales. The following tips distilled from my booklet Top Ten Tips™: Getting Publicity will help you publicise your business so that instead of having to look for customers, they will find you!

Tip #1: Target Your Market Segment

Targeting people with a potential interest in your particular product or service will enable you to approach the media outlets that are most likely to publish your story. It also makes it more likely that people who read your story will become customers.

The first step is to figure out what types of media are consumed by people who are in your market segment. For example, if your target demographic is teenage girls, they pay attention to web sites like MySpace and cell phone applications like Twitter. If your target audience is older, they might be more interested in traditional media like newspapers and magazines. Narrow your focus to
the types of media that are most likely to be used by potential customers.

The last step is to figure out which outlets are the most appropriate in each category. For example, is there a magazine dedicated to people who use your type of product? The Standard Rate & Data Service listings available at college and municipal libraries are an excellent resource for identifying traditional media outlets. To find web sites including blogs that are related to your industry, search for keywords describing your product or service on Google at www.google.com. Make a list of the outlets you’ll contact when you start making connections with the media.

Tip #4: Cultivate Media Relationships

Once you’ve developed a press kit, it’s time to establish yourself as a reliable source of information for the specific media outlets you’ve targeted. Start by finding out who is the best potential contact person for you at each organization. The easiest way to do that is to skim their publication or search their web site for the stories most relevant to your business, and then look at who wrote them. You can also call or email to ask who is the editor or beat reporter for topics in your area.

The next step is to begin establishing credibility with your potential contacts. Feeding them inside information about your industry related to articles they’ve recently written is a great place to start. For example, “I enjoyed your recent article on blah blah blah and thought you might be interested to know blah blah blah.” Ask them if they’re working on any stories related to your market segment and offer to provide additional information or your press kit.

Posting comments on blogs is also a quick and easy way to start building credibility, but be sure they’re not off-topic. The idea is that you’re establishing a relationship, rather than annoying people by mindlessly sending them press releases or your press kit. The result is that when you do have something newsworthy to announce in a press release, they’ll be much more likely to pay attention.

Tip #5: Find an Angle

Finding an angle means giving people a reason to care about what your business has to offer. To get free publicity, you have to give journalists something newsworthy to report by creating an interesting story. This can be done in many different ways:

• Relate your topic to current events
• Take a controversial stand on an issue
• Support a good cause
• Lower your environmental impact
• Offer tips or how-to information
• Show an unusual use for your product
• Create localized versions of products
• Get endorsements from quirky people
• Feature an employee or customer
• Win or give out an award
• Report the results of a survey

Because of the herd mentality of journalists, I believe the angle that’s most likely to get you coverage is one that relates your topic to events currently being covered by the media. Pitching stories related to national news on a local level is a great way to go about this. For example, the mortgage-related financial crisis is currently receiving heavy national coverage. If I were an investment advisor I would write a press release about how I’m helping local businesses protect their employees’ retirement accounts.

Tip #6: Include Keywords in Press Releases

Keywords are words that people would use to search for your product or service. It’s important to include keywords in press releases because they are what will lead people to your press release through search engines like Google, once your press release is posted online. Tips 8 and 9 cover how to post your press release on the Internet.

The first step is to figure out what words people are most likely to use to search for what you have to offer. To do this, you have to use a tool that will give you actual numbers for how many Internet searches are being done each month for each of your potential keywords. To get this data, visit www.bitmojo.com/tips/keywords for an updated link to Google’s free Keyword Tool.

Once you figure out which keywords are the most popular for your particular product or service, use them throughout your press release, but don’t over-do it or search engines will penalize you. Be sure to include them in your headline and the first few sentences of body copy, since what comes first is given more weight by search engines.

Press releases need to follow a specific, pre-defined format in order to be taken seriously by journalists. For an example see www.bitmojo.com/tips/releases.

Tip #9: Use an Online Newswire Service

One reason to use a newswire service to distribute a press release is to try to get your story published by media outlets. However, with the huge number of press releases competing for their attention, I see this as a long shot at best unless your press release is a real zinger. Well-established newswire services like PR Newswire and Business Wire give you the best chance of getting your press release picked up by the mainstream media, but they are expensive and there is no guarantee you press release will get used. So, I don’t recommend this approach.

A more realistic goal for using a distribution service is to help bring more visitors to your web site. The greatest benefit of using a high quality distribution service is that Google can feature your press release as news when it appears in search results, so it’s more likely to be viewed. Also, when a distribution service posts your press release on their web site, the listing includes a link to your site. This can help your site’s ranking on search engines like Google.

I recommend PRWeb for online distribution because unlike PR Newswire and Business Wire, PRWeb publishes their prices. You can get started for fairly cheap and pay more for greater levels of distribution. For an updated link to their “Features and Pricing” page, see www.bitmojo.com/tips/prweb.