The New Rules of Marketing

David Meerman Scott

Third Edition

Study Guide
April 2012
Copyright Penn Foster

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 1

To the student...
Your textbook has three main divisions:
 Part I: A rigorous overview of how the web and online tools have changed
the rules and practice of marketing and Public Relations.
 Part II: Detailed examination of the major web-enabled media and their role
in marketing and PR
 Part III: Detailed how-to information and techniques to plan and put the new
rules into action on behalf of your organization.
The book features many real-world examples to illustrate the ideas put forth. You
should read these accounts and even check out the web sites referenced. The
important point is to understand how the author's ideas and recommendations are
reflected in the stories and accounts he presents.

Objectives:
When you complete this course, you'll be able to:
 Describe the revolution in the practice of marketing and public relations
brought about by the internet
 Discuss the major online and web tools and their role in web-enabled
marketing and PR
 Distinguish between the traditional approach to press releases and the new
web-enabled strategies
 Describe the major social-media sites and their role in an internet marketing
and PR program
 Delineate the components of an internet marketing and PR campaign
 Discuss the role of quality content as the major element in web marketing
 Discuss the various formats of web content and the relative values of each of
these.
 Explain how to integrate the various formats (text, video, audio, graphics, e-
books, etc.) in support of a web marketing and PR strategy
 Describe the phenomenon of viral marketing and how to take advantage of it
 Decide what is needed to start and manage a blog and its role in an internet
marketing and PR strategy

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 2

  Describe how social-media and social-networking fit in an internet
marketing strategy
 Explain how to establish and optimize an Online Media Room
 Describe the theory and practice of search engine marketing

How to study:
After each lesson of the Study Guide, there will be a multiple choice quiz covering
the content of the chapters included in the lesson. Each quiz has been designed to
make sure you have absorbed the key ideas of the chapter. The answers will be
found at the end of the study guide. These quizzes will not be graded: they are
designed to help you assess your own progress. We suggest that if you miss a
question, then go back to the appropriate section of the textbook and study guide
and review the material.

Final Examination:
The final examination for this course will consist of several essay questions that
will cover the content of the text book. The questions are designed to test how well
you have understood the material and your ability to synthesize and apply it to a
web marketing and PR program.

Foreword
"Word-of-mouth" has always been the most effective form of advertising and
marketing because it sends a message directly to a potential consumer. Plus, it
comes from a trustworthy source. But, Word-of Mouth does not translate easily
into the larger world of global and national product sales. Traditionally, marketers
had to depend on broadcast or print media and press releases. These techniques
were expensive and targeted at groups-a one-size-fits-all approach that assures
minimal success. Today, however, the Internet and the World Wide Web has
opened a tremendous opportunity to reach buyers directly with targeted
information that costs a fraction of what big-budget advertising costs. This is the
essence of the internet revolution in Marketing and Public Relations: the ability to
communicate more directly and immediately to customers. These new rules apply
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to organizations of all kinds: corporations, non-profits, churches, schools, political
parties, etc. The overall organizing principle of this book it that understanding
buyers and publishing information on the web especially targeted to them will
drive action.

A note on terminology:
In this study guide as throughout the textbook itself, we use the term “buyers” or
“customers” to signify those who will buy a product or service (if the organization
is a business) or will donate, subscribe, join or apply if the organization is a non-
profit. It follows, then, that terms like “company” equate to “agency” or “church”
or “political party” etc. Likewise, “sales” are equivalent to “donations”,
“subscriptions”, “new members” etc.

Part I: How the Web Has Changed the Rules of

Marketing and PR
Overview: This Lesson corresponds to Chapters 1-3 in your textbook. It discusses
how web tools and techniques have changed traditional approaches to marketing
and Public Relations.

Objectives: When you complete this lesson you'll be able to

 Discuss the impact of the internet on marketing and public relations
 Explain why “interruption marketing” is becoming less effective
 Explain how public relations and press releases relate in the internet-based
economy
 Define the concept of the “long tail” of marketing and PR
 Detail the new rules of marketing and PR
 Understand the importance of reaching buyers directly
 Understand the concept of buyer personas as a way of reaching customers
with meaningful web content
 Discuss how content is the most important aspect of an online and PR
strategy

Chapter 1: The Old Rules of Marketing and PR are Ineffective

in an Online World.
Before the coming of the web, companies could attract attention to their products
or services by either buying advertising or getting a third party media outlet to
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cover them. Now, the key is for companies to develop relationships directly with
consumers using web and internet tools. It was built on campaigns constructed by
ad agencies who often were concerned with more with awards for creativity that
with sales for their clients. Even many of the websites for large consumer
companies are focused more on selling to the customer rather than on building a
relationship.

These rules are no longer the guiding principles. The web has transformed the
rules. Success demands that organizations of all sizes transform their marketing
approach to make the most of the web-enabled marketplace of ideas.

Advertising: A Money Pit of Wasted Resources

Traditional advertising is a poor way to target specific users with individualized
messages because it is so broad and general in its messages. There may still a place
for traditional marketing (e.g. newspaper advertising, Yellow Page listings, etc.),
but they should be evaluated in the light of the new opportunities afforded by the
web. The reality is that many people when faced with a problem or a purchasing
decision turn to the web for background and unbiased information. These are the
buyers who can be targeted on the web at a fraction of the cost of big-budget
advertising.

One-Way Interruption Marketing is Yesterday's Message

Traditional advertising messages are sent one-way: from seller to consumer while
Marketing on the web is centered on interaction, information, education, and
choice. The Old Rules equated marketing with advertising of brand-named, mass-
market products using lowest-common-denominator messages delivered via
interruption techniques.

The Old Rules of Marketing

 Marketing meant advertising and branding
 Advertising appealed to the masses
 Advertising relied on interrupting people to get them to pay attention to a
message
 Advertising was one-way: company to consumer
 Advertising was based on campaigns that had a limited life
 Creativity was the most important component of advertising and ad agencies
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 needed to win awards to win new customers.
 Advertising and Public Relations were separate disciplines with different
goals and measurement techniques

Yes, the Media Are Still Important

High visibility media is still important, but the Internet has made public relations
public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media. Blogs, online video,
news releases, and other forms of web content let organizations communicate
directly with buyers.

Press Releases and the Journalistic Black Hole

The old rules of PR held that press releases were the only mechanism and the
media was the only way to get out the message. The entire field was closed with
only journalists seeing press releases and buyers only getting information if
journalists decided to write about the subject of a press release. PR and Marketing
were separate activities in a company. Again, like earlier, the web has transformed
these rules. PR for some large organizations may still be able to survive on media
exposure alone. For smaller and less famous organizations, however, the web is a
great place to get across a message, directly and inexpensively. In fact, these
concepts of marketing and public relations apply equally to organizations that sell
products, solicit donations, sign-up volunteers or submit their names as leads.

The Old Rules of PR

 The only way to get attention was through the media
 Companies communicated to journalists via press releases
 The actual press release was seen only by reporters and editors
 Only significant news merited a press release
 Jargon was OK because journalists understood it
 Press releases required quotes from third parties such as customers, analysts
and experts
 Buyers would learn of the content of a press release only if the media
covered it
 Press releases were considered effective only if a large number of media
outlets picked them up
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  Advertising and Public Relations were separate disciplines with different
goals and measurement techniques

Learn to Ignore the Old Rules

To take advantage of the power that the web gives to marketers and PR
practitioners, start to let go of the old rules. The new techniques will enable you to
communicate directly to buyers and in the process get them to buy.

Chapter 2: The New Rules of Marketing and PR

The internet offers marketing and PR opportunities to small and niche companies
unattainable under the old rules of advertising and press releases.

The Long Tail of Marketing

The theory of the Long Tail holds that the web enables a shift away from focusing
on mainstream products and markets at the head of the demand curve to a huge
number of niche markets at the tail. It's possible to sell unique products with a
small demand without actually warehousing them. So, narrowly targeted goods and
services can be marketed just like mainstream high-demand products. The
implication for design is to abandon a one-size-fits-all website and create many
different micro-sites with content targeted to specific demographic groups.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know, Please

Marketing on the web is not about using flashy graphics and colorful typefaces. It
is about understanding the keywords and concepts customers use and drive them to
specialized links to provide the information they are seeking that will help make a
decision.

Bricks-and-Mortar News
The new rules for web marketing and PR apply to any organization regardless of
product or service offered. It all comes down to the content. Great content brands
an organization as a trusted resource and calls people to action—to buy, subscribe,
apply, or donate. And great content means that interested people return again and
again. To be successful in reaching buyers directly, organizations must tap the
power of content marketing, search engine optimization, and information sent
direct-to-consumer such as news releases.
The long tail applied to Public Relations means targeting the plugged-in bloggers,
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online news sites, micro-publications, public speakers, analysts, and consultants
who reach the targeted audiences who are looking for what an organization has to
offer. This approach contrasts with spending tens of thousands of dollars per month
on a media relations program that tries to convince a handful of reporters at select
magazines, newspapers, and TV stations.

Advice from the Company President

The president of the Concrete Network who has been an early adopter of the new
rules of internet marketing advises others to provide useful information on the web
and be confident that this sharing will bring increased sales over time.

The Long Tail of PR

The notion of a Long Tail in marketing advocates focusing on the huge numbers
of niche markets at the tail of the demand curve. Just so, for PR it means to direct
your efforts toward the bloggers, online news sites, micro-publications and
analysts who reach niche markets. This approach means a departure from focusing
on a few big media outlets.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

 Marketing is more than just advertising.
 PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience.
 You are what you publish
 People want authenticity, not spin.
 People want participation, not propaganda.
 Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering
content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.
 Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the
masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of under-served
audiences via the web. PR is not about your boss seeing your
company on TV. It's about your buyers seeing your company on the
web.
 Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. It's about your
organization winning business.
 The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of
almost exclusive focus on media.
 Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 8
 online content.
 Blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and other forms of
online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a
form they appreciate.
 Social networks allow people all over the world to share content and
connect with the people and companies they do business with.
 On the web, the lines between marketing and PR have blurred.

The Convergence of Marketing and PR on the Web

Marketing and PR as concepts have converged in an online world. They are no
longer separate disciplines. The new rules apply to any product or service,
including commodities. The same technique applies: create interesting information,
share ideas, tell stories and people will respond positively.

Chapter 3: Reaching Your Buyers Directly

In previous chapters, we saw organizations that used expensive advertising and
relied on media for their marketing and PR needs were operating under the old and
discredited set of rules. The new rules say that the more effective and less
expensive way to reach buyers directly is through the web. Using social media
such as Twitter and Facebook make it much simpler to influence people.

The Right Marketing in a Wired World

In an online world, many people use the internet to research products and demos,
get online demos, find unbiased reviews, and complete other pre-buying activities.
Many companies that previously spent large amounts on mass-media advertising
now have shifted the bulk of their marketing to the web. (For example, large real
estate brokerages).

Let the World Know about Your Expertise

Their emphasis now is to tell their stories and spread their ideas online in a timely
and open manner. The idea is to deliver the right information to buyers right at the
point where they are most receptive to the information. These savvy organizations
act like "publishers" of pertinent information. The web also allows them to interact
with prospective buyers through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook,
etc.

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Develop Information Your Buyers Want to Consume
The old marketing model that used broadcast advertising primarily on TV is no
longer as effective as it once was. Today, there are networks and cable channels
offering hundreds of options. The mass appeal has to give way to building content
specifically for the niche audiences who are part of the long tail.

Buyer Personas: The Basics

It is essential to understand the characteristics of the people who visit your
organization's website. To begin, break the buyers into distinct groups and catalog
everything known about each one. Then, create and deliver content that delivers
information relevant to each group's needs or problems.
Simply describing an organization's purpose or products satisfies the author and
not the prospective buyer. The content has to be written and presented from the
point of view of the target audience and its needs in mind. An effective content
strategy, then, will lead visitors to the organization's website through the sales
cycle to the point where they are ready to buy or to commit to the organization's
appeal. This is accomplished by having links from the content to an action such as
making a purchase, requesting more information or looking at demo videos.
Valuable content will produce sales.

Think like a Publisher

The new web publishing model is about delivering content when and where needed
and not about hype and spin. This involves a focus on buyers problems and needs.
As publishers, web marketers are purveyors of information with content as a
valuable asset. An effective web marketing and PR strategy that delivers
compelling content to buyers gets them to take action.

Tell Your Organization's Story Directly

Just like publishers, web marketers profile target audiences, define their
motivations and problems, and develop content that will cause the audience
member to make a purchase or commitment. The means to this end is to develop a
buyer-centric rather than a product-centric site.

Know the Goals and Let Content Drive Action

It's also essential to have a clear goal, such as increased revenue and customer
retention. Focusing on such a goal will yield meaningful results in measurable
terms whereas counting the traffic to a website may or may not translate into
increased revenue. Marketing then becomes aligned with the organization's goals
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and is seen as a strategic unit.

Content and Thought Leadership

The main takeaway from this section of the book is that content, focused on buyer's
needs and problems, is what sells or persuades.

Part II: Web-Based Communications to Reach

Buyers Directly
Overview: Details about each of the media tools available for online marketing
and PR.

Objectives: When you complete this lesson you'll be able to

 Describe, compare and contrast the primary forms of social-media
 Understand the strengths of Facebook vs Twitter vs other forms of social-
media
 Explain how to plan for and start a blog
 Describe how web content goes viral and how to manage a viral event
 Understand the importance of quick response and speed in an environment
of real time marketing
 Explain the notion of crowdsourcing and its relation to web-enabled
marketing

Chapter 4: Social Media and Your Targeted Audience

This part of the textbook introduces the technologies and tools of social media that
enable users to express their opinions online. As used in this book, here is the
definition of social media: Online text, audio, video, images and communities that
enable people to share ideas, content and relationships. They differ from
mainstream media in that anyone can create, comment on and add to social media
content. They rely on technologies and tools but should be considered as the means
to communicate directly with buyers in the present.

In detail, here are the primary forms of social media:

 Social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn where users share
information with a community of friends. Every online community has a
real-world community associated with it.
 Blogs: The term is derived from Web Log. It is an online personal journal or
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 set of personal observations on a topic of passionate interest by the writer.
People subscribe to the blog and comment on the postings of the author.
 Video and photo sharing sites: YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, Picasa among
others make it easy to share, view and comment on postings.
 Chat rooms and message boards: These are online meeting places
organized around shared topics of interest.
 Listservs: similar to chat rooms but are not interactive: rather, messages are
sent via email to registered members.
 Wikis: Information sites that anyone can edit or update (e.g. Wikipedia)
 Social bookmarking (e.g., StumbleUpon) where users can suggest
interesting content to others and even rate it
 Mobile applications with GPS location services

Social Media Is a Cocktail Party

Social media is the umbrella term while social networking is part of this overall set
of elements. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace
and others ask users to create personal profiles and become part of a community of
friends and like-minded people to share information.
The internet can be thought of as a city with web sites representing stores or
bulletin boards. Further, by extension, one can think or Social Media is a kind of
social function- almost like a party. A traditional advertising approach to selling a
product or service at a social gathering (interrupting, monopolizing the
conversation) would be inappropriate, tone-deaf and offensive. But, talking
directly to potential buyers by offering information that might help them with
problems is more in keeping with a social setting and can result in a relationship
that will lead to commitment to an organization's goals.

Facebook Group Drives 15,000 People to Singapore Tattoo Show

An effective technique using social media is to create a Facebook group prior to
the introduction of a product or start of an event. Interest in the group can add to
the momentum and excitement surrounding the event. It is a powerful tool for
follow up as well.

The New Rules of Job Search

Applying the new rules to job search means less reliance on sending out resumes.
Rather, in keeping with the notion of being a publisher of information, job seekers
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need to create an online presence where they share knowledge and expertise.

How David Murray Found a New Job via Twitter

In fact, social media services like Twitter is being used successfully by job seekers
as well as potential employers. One of the functions of Twitter is its Search
capability which keeps track of all postings and makes them retrievable via
keyword search. So, someone looking for a job in a particular discipline might
search under the words associated with that field for relevant conversations. From
there, the job searcher may be able to research deeper using Google or by direct
contact with the Twitter account making the posting.

Insignificant Backwaters or Valuable Places to Connect?

Online discussions have traditionally been dismissed by marketers and PR
practitioners as too fringe-oriented or arcane. The proliferation of serious
commentary, however, has changed that perception. These areas are well worth
monitoring and participating in to learn what is happening in your industry to
establish your bona fides in the industry.

Your Best Customers Participate in Online Forums – So Should You

Online forums provide an opportunity to marketers to learn what customers are
saying about their products and services. But it is important to participate in these
forums as contributors as well. It builds credibility for an organization and enables
it to respond quickly and positively to any problems that surface.

Your Space in the Forums

By participating actively in online discussions and forums, you are seen as a
trusted member of the community and not simply as a salesperson trying to push
products or services. When people want information on a product, they are likely
to trust a community member and companies who are seen as members first will
benefit exponentially.

Wikis, Listservs and Your Audience

Listservs are less interactive than online forums. On a listserv, members post
messages, but the listserv itself sends the messages out by email to registered users.
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Wikis are websites where users can create, update, delete or edit the content. The
most well known is Wikipedia which strives for accuracy and neutrality on its
entries. It is a good place to provide factual information about an organization.

Creating Your Own Wiki

If your organization's area of expertise has no online presence, consider starting a
wiki to cover the relevant material. This step will bring prestige to your
organization and establish you as a thought leader.

Chapter 5: Blogs: Tapping Millions of Evangelists to Tell

Your Story
Weblogs or blogs are an easy, efficient and inexpensive what to get the viewpoints
of an organization into the market. The Return on Investment (ROI) from
blogging is difficult to measure, but anecdotal evidence suggests that there will be
positive returns to any organization that creates an interesting blog and keeps it
updated.

Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers

A blog (short for web log) is a special kind of website created and maintained by
an individual or group that wants to communicate their special area of expertise or
interests. The mechanics of a blog are straightforward. It is put together with easy-
to-use software (content management system) that automatically puts posts in
reverse chronological order (latest post first). It also assigns tags that put the
information in searchable categories. Readers can leave comments, although
inappropriate content is usually deleted by the blog owner. Opinions different from
the author are usually permitted to encourage discussion. Blogs are coming to take
the place of regular websites for many organizations because they require no
technical skills to set-up and maintain.

A Blog (or Not a Blog)

There is occasionally a negative connotation to the term “blog” as being trivial or
inconsequential. In that case, it might be useful to drop the term and continue to
publish useful content using a different title. As independent journals, they are not
obliged to be balanced or neutral like a newspaper or magazine might be. The web
should not be viewed as a large online newspaper that must maintain journalistic
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 14
neutrality. Blogs, particularly, are opinionated by their nature and not everything
that appears on a blog is necessarily accurate in the way a newspaper is supposed
to be accurate.

Understanding Blogs in the World of the Web

Many current marketers and PR practitioners create and monitor blogs. They post
information on the company's products and services. These blog postings get
indexed by search engines like Google and Yahoo. Then, when someone searches
for information on any of these ideas, they are routed to the blog posting. If well
received, the original author of the blog post and the product or service become
better known resulting in increased visibility and revenue.

The Four Uses of Blogs for Marketing and PR

1. Monitor what people are saying about your company and products and the
marketplace for them. Monitoring Blogs is an essential activity in order to
measure media effectiveness and determine the organization's reputation.
Blogs contain market intelligence that can be used to analyse trends based
on free, instantaneous and unsolicited comments from the public.
2. Participate by leaving comments to get known to other bloggers.
Commenting on blogs is a great way to participate in the conversation. But,
as a marketer, you should avoid making comments that appear to be sales
pitches for your organization. Rather, leave a method for readers of the blog
to contact you.
3. Work with bloggers who talk about you. Since a blog is a two-way
exchange, successful online marketers listen and integrate blogger's
comments into their strategies. Many even invite bloggers to events where
they are shown new products or services so that they in turn will blog about
them to their readers. Company reps need to treat bloggers as individuals
and provide them with targeted and useful information.
4. Shape conversations by starting a blog or by encouraging employees to blog
about the organization. These blogs should be written with a set of
guidelines in place. Rather than a rigid set of do's and don'ts, these blogs
should be presented as the personal opinion of the individual author and not
the organization.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 15

Monitor Blogs – Your Organization's Reputation Depends on It
What happens in blogs can impact your organization's reputation and ultimately its
bottom line. There are blog search tools to help with the process, such as
Technorati and Google Blog Search. Over time, you can observe and track trends.
The particular value is that these comments on blogs are instantaneous and
unsolicited.

Comment on Blogs to Get Your Viewpoint Out There

A first step in getting involved in blogging is to comment on existing blogs that
cover the same general territory as your industry or interests. This has to be done
with awareness so that you don't appear to be simply pushing your own agenda.
When commenting, you can leave a link to show who you are so that you acquire
some credibility in the online community served by this blog.

Work with the Bloggers Who Talk about You

Influential bloggers should be treated in the same way as media outlet contacts. So,
if you have an event that you would invite reporters to, include bloggers as well.

Bloggers Love Interesting Experiences

Many organizations set up special experiences for bloggers (and other citizen
journalists). The bloggers are given special access to executives and a unique view
of the operation of a company or other organization. The material they bring away
often becomes the subject of special commentary in their blogs and results in
positive coverage for the host organization.

How to Reach Bloggers around the World

The vast majority of bloggers welcome contact from companies involved in the
areas they write about. But they are not open to simply posting corporate press
releases. Deal with them on an individual basis by sending material that
complements what they already work on.

Do You Allow Employees to Send Email? How about Letting Them

Blog?
If you allow employees to write blogs about company matters, have general
guidelines about what they can and cannot do at work but not specific blogging
regulations. Cover matters such as sexual harassment, inside stock information,
company secrets, etc. These are the same as for any communication such as
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 16
speeches, white papers, etc.

Breaking Boundaries: Blogging at McDonald's

McDonald's publishes a public blog that focuses on social responsibility at the
company. By being part of the blogging community, the company has credibility
when a controversy about McDonald's erupts on other blogs.

The Power of Blogs

An informative and up-to-date blog is an excellent way to communicate with
customers and with employees. It is a way to get information out that is useful but
may not merit an official press release.

Get Started Today

There are still opportunities for first-mover advantage by starting a blog within
many industries and subject areas. The benefit is a perception of the company as
innovative.

Chapter 6: Audio and Video Drive Action

Several technologies are now available that make it feasible and simple for the
average user to create and upload content-rich audio and video. High-speed
Internet connections are pretty common and YouTube and iTunes make the
process easy.

Digging Digg Video

The website Digg is a good example of a video channel that delivers information
and news on tech products to its watchers. It uses the interview form to great
effect as it is easy to produce.

What University Should I Attend?

This section describes the effective use of video by the University of Pennsylvania
to recruit students. This strategy relies on the fact that a Google search can return a
link to a video as well as other content formats. The video is a very compelling
medium for specific buyer segments such as prospective college students.
Some organizations encourage their customers and fans to make videos about their
products. Make the audio and/or video part of a concerted campaign that use as
many platforms as possible, such as traditional media, social media, etc.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 17

Best Job in the World
Marketing a commodity product on the internet follows the same new rules as
marketing other products or services. It comes down to creating interesting
information and people will find it and share it.

Have Fun with Your Videos

Humor can be very effective in videos in communicating to buyers, even for
business-to-business pitches.

Audio Content Delivery through Podcasting

Audio enhancements can be found in the form of radio station-like podcasts.
Traditional broadcasting is very expensive and needs large audiences and lots of
advertising. Podcasting or Internet Broadcasting is inexpensive to produce and can
serve small and targeted audiences. The enabling technologies here are notification
through RSS (Remote Syndication Service) and distribution through iTunes. RSS
allows subscribers to an audio feed to download new updates as soon as released.
And iTunes automatically updates shows onto a mobile device and the user can
listen to it at any time and in any setting. Marketers, therefore, can develop audio
content that targets the needs of listeners who are interested in their products and
services

Putting Marketing Back in Musicians' Control

In the past, a musician or band needed the resources of a big recording label to get
global distribution of their work. Now, however, with simple and inexpensive
equipment, any musician or band can create a podcast that gives them instant
global distribution. This technology has greatly expanded the range for the
musician and the choices for the audience. If a listener likes the music, he or she
can buy it through iTunes, CD Baby or other sites. The illegal sharing and
downloading of music and copyright violation is a persistent problem. Podcasters,
however, usually obtain permission before playing copyrighted material. Artists
often feel it is worth the risk of having their music copied to reach wider audiences
and bring in new fans.

Podcasting: More Than Just Music

Podcasting applies to non-music marketing and coexists with blogging, a great
website and other programs as a component of a larger content-marketing strategy.
Podcasts complement and enhance other marketing tools. Their tone is neutral and
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 18
informational. This approach tends to establish the blogger as someone who is in
the know and worth doing business with.

Grammar Girl Podcast

Describes a successful enterprise built on a podcast that provides short tips to
improve writing. The key to the success is that the site avoids hyping its own
services but rather brands the developer as someone worth doing business with.

Chapter 7: The New Rules of News Releases

The traditional notion of a press release is the method that an organization, through
its Public Relations department, communicates with the media . Yet press releases
have never been exclusively for the press. Individuals have always read them and
now millions of people read press releases daily on the internet. The role of public
relations is to communicate to the public and that also means directly and not
solely through the press. Therefore, the term for information aimed at consumers
should be “News Releases”.

News Releases in a Web World

On the web, news releases are not aimed at a handful of journalists, but rather at
anyone with access to the Internet. News releases can be a key element in the
overall strategy to move people into the sales process.

The New Rules of News Releases

 Send news releases regularly, not just when there is a big event to announce
 Target buyers not just journalists or other media professionals
 Write the news release copy using words familiar to buyers.
 Include offers that compel customers to respond in some way
 Put web links in the release that bring readers back to the organization's
website or to related content like videos, podcasts, etc.
 Use keywords and phrases in the text that will be picked up by search
engines and browsers.
 Add social media tags (e.g. for Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon) to make it
easier for the release to be found
 Drive people into the sales process with news releases

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 19

If They Find You, They Will Come
By incorporating keywords and phrases that are meaningful to buyers in the news
release, smart web-enabled PR will leverage its impact. That's because search
engines will pick up the phrases and they in turn will lead to the news release and
to the company website.

Driving Buyers into the Sales Process

News releases should be end-user focused even if the media is receiving them. In
addition, there are direct-to-consumer news releases.

Reach Your Buyers Directly

Thinking as a publisher, organizations craft news releases that go directly to buyers
on the web without the involvement of mass media.

Chapter 8: Going Viral: The Web Helps Audiences Catch the

Fever
When a product or service becomes the subject of enormous attention on the web,
the resulting explosion of interest is described as 'viral'. This is usually an
unplanned phenomenon and trying to force it to happen rarely succeeds. When
marketers are able to harness the power, however, they get the equivalent of
millions of dollars of advertising free. But since these events just happen
spontaneously and can reflect either positively or negatively to an organization,
marketers need to monitor the web for viral eruptions of interest in their product or
service.

Minty-Fresh Explosive Marketing

Occasionally on the web, an idea becomes so popular or engaging or just so weird
that it takes off. This phenomenon can bring fame to a company for free. The
formula is a combination of great web content plus a network of people to stir up
enthusiasm and the inherent linkages of the web to make it easy to share.

Monitoring the Blogosphere for Viral Eruptions

The “blogosphere” is the sum total of blogs, podcasts, video, Twitter, Facebook
and Google + postings. At a minimum, marketers need to know when their
organization or its employees are mentioned. The next step is to analyse these
mentions for trends and where appropriate, react to take advantage of the direction
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 20
shown in the trend .

Creating a World Wide Rave

This phenomenon occurs when people around the world are talking about your
organization and/or its products and services. It can be triggered by creating
something valuable that people want to share and make it easy for them to do so
using the web.

Rules of the Rave

How to create something worth sharing:
 Avoid focusing on or hyping the organization's products or services and
create something interesting in itself.
 Don't use coercion in the form of free enticements
 Make the valuable content free and don't try to measure outcome in the form
of sales leads.
 Be involved in the online communities themselves.
 Create triggers to encourage sharing

Film Producer Creates a World Wide Rave by Making Soundtrack Free

for Download
Making desirable content free is one technique to help move a web phenomenon to
a viral state.

Using Creative Commons to Facilitate Mashups and Spread Your

Ideas
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that makes it easy to share and
build on the digital creations of others by issuing licenses to use the information.
The creators/authors essentially give up control over the publishing rights through
Creative Commons in exchange for ease of sharing. When someone uses an item
with a Creative Commons license, the original creator is cited by attribution. A
“mashup” is the reuse or remix of original content by another and its use is
facilitated by a Creative Commons license and attribution.

Viral Buzz for Fun and Profit

When purposely creating viral marketing buzz or a viral campaign, expect to fail
most of the time. A good success average is 5% or one in twenty.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 21

The Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Jerry Garcia's Toilet
Discusses some of the promotions became viral. The promotion itself was so
unique that it brought enormous attention and in the process, resulted in enormous
attention to the sponsors.

Clip This Coupon for $1 Million Off Fort Meyers, Florida Home
This is a stunt or gimmick that brought interest in itself and in the process created a
lot of buzz and interest in the sponsor.

When You Have Explosive News, Make It Go Viral

Some news is inherently important and needs to be distributed to as wide an
audience as possible. To get the maximum effect, it's necessary to have a plan and
detailed time-line of whom to tell the news to and when to do it. An important
piece of news can go viral, but it can also be managed to the maximum effect by
organizations that understand traditional media and the new rules brought about by
the Internet.

Chapter 9: The Content-Rich Website

All of the elements of an Internet-based marketing and PR effort are all brought
together in a content-rich website. It should be the intersection of every online
initiative including blogs, podcasts, news releases, social-media efforts, etc. The
focus should be on content that informs buyers and not primarily on the technology
and design elements.

Political Advocacy on the Web

The National Resources Defense Council is an organization that promotes
environmental action. It has an online strategy that is a model for advocacy in
general. NRDC's website has an enormous amount of content that not only
represents its positions, but provides tools for other activists and bloggers to spread
the group's message. It offers news, online publications, links to laws, a glossary,
audio, video and presentations that can be viewed, shared and reused. In addition,
the site contains “widgets” or small applications that bloggers can use to spread the
message further. The site makes it easy to subscribe to updates and to contribute
directly to the organization.

Putting It All Together with Content

Consolidated corporate websites for large companies with multiple product lines
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 22
and brands are harder to build than for a small organization with a highly focused
mission. Individual divisions may also have their own websites. All together, they
require coordination between all divisions to keep content fresh. Processes and
procedures to facilitate sharing and updating of information between departments
and the owner of the website must be in place and followed. A content
management process helps to make sure everything is fresh, properly reviewed and
legal. The customer's interests and needs should also be monitored and factored in
to selecting the content for all the websites.

Great Websites: More Art than Science

Great websites are marked by subtle factors that go beyond design and even
content. They have a quality that reflects the passion and care that went into the
construction and operation of the site. They reflect the personality and authenticity
of the website owner and sponsor. There is no right or wrong way as long as the
site has an individual and important story to tell.

Chapter 10: Marketing and PR in Real Time

The Internet has fundamentally changed the pace of business, compressing time
and rewarding speed. For marketing and PR, this means creating initiatives in real
time, that is, right now while the moment is ripe. Among other tactics, this
approach requires the ability to operate quickly. Real time means news that breaks
over minutes, not days. It means instant customer service and product revisions
based on feedback from events in the marketplace. There is a huge advantage to
being first in this kind of setting. As a result, speed and agility are more important
than size for a company.

Develop Your Real-Time Mind-Set

It is not enough to understand the changes brought about by web technologies. The
successful marketer and PR practitioner will need to develop an attitude of instant
engagement that values moving quickly when the time is right and not taking a
wait and see approach.

Real-Time Blog Post Drives $1 Million in New Business

It is possible to plan for the future while still being nimble enough to respond in
real time to an opportunity. A real-time blog post that scoops the competition could
be the source of additional business and future leads.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 23

The Time is Now
To communicate instantly, there are many strategies. Here are some that worked
well for savvy web marketers:
 Donate your product to those in need
 Use Twitter to comment on broadcasts as they take place and make them
available to your market to read as they watch.
 Comment on regulatory change in your industry in blogs, with news releases
and with links to journalists.
 Use a news release to react to another company's announcement

Crowdsourced Support
All it takes is one person with an Internet connection and a Twitter feed to start a
movement by communicating in real time. Crowdsourcing means 'outsourcing to a
crowd'. It involves taking a task usually performed by one or a few people and
distributing it among a crowd via social-media in real-time.

Part III:
Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules
The marketing and PR planning process begins when you work at understanding
your target audience and figure out how they should be divided into distinct
segments. Next, identify situations each segment may find themselves in, what
problems they face, what are their business issues and what are their needs. When
you start to write, start with the buyers not with your product.

Objectives: When you complete this lesson you'll be able to

 Explain the process of developing a buyer persona
 Use the Marketing Strategy Planning template
 Describe how to create thoughtful content that will make you a thought
leader
 Explain how RSS works within a web strategy
Describe the impact of mobile users on internet marketing
 Discuss the role of video, podcasting and e-books in your marketing strategy
 Explain the expanded use of news releases
 Explain the concept and use of an Online Media Room
 Explain search engine marketing and search engine optimization

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 24

Chapter 11: You Are What You Publish: Building Your
Marketing and PR Plan
Summary: This chapter covers identifying organizational goals, building a set of
buyer personas, researching the words and phrases buyers use, what you want each
of the personas to believe about your organization.
The key element in a “new rules” web-based marketing and PR plan is to focus
more on the customer/buyer and ways to solve their problems than on the specific
features of your product or service. This is a new mindset for many but it will pay
off by bringing you closer to achieving your goals. The four Ps of Marketing-
product, place, price and promotion-are secondary to understanding buyers and
creating content that will reach them. The plan must focus on the buyer but be
developed within the context of your organization's goals.

What Are Your Organization's Goals

Marketing and PR department goals are often out of sync with the rest of the
company. For example, counts of web traffic are irrelevant if they do not result in
more sales. For most organizations, the ultimate goal is more revenue (or more
donations, members, etc.) The goals need to be clearly stated and be measurable,
such as “increase sales in California by 20% in the next quarter”. With this goal in
mind, the next step is to learn about the customers and segment them into groups
that can be targeted by web-enabled strategies.

Buyer Personas and Your Organization

Planning begins by identifying one or more buyer personas to target. A persona
(also called a microtarget) is a representative buyer who has a specific interest in
your organization or has a specific problem that your product solves. Political
parties do this when planning a marketing strategy. They segment voters into
categories and target their pitch to those categories rather than take a one-size-fits-
all approach.

The Buyer Personal Profile

This is a kind of biography for each identified group. Determine what are their
goals and aspirations, what are their problems, what media do they rely on for
answers to their problems, what words and phrases do they use, what sort of
images and multimedia appeal to them. Write down the answers to these questions
and also do research by reading the publications they use.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 25

The most effective way to to build the persona is to interview people to find out
from them the answers to the questions above. Pay attention to the exact words and
phrases used. The interview will help you empathize with the buyer and the more
experience you have in their market, and the problems they face, the better the
profile.
How many personas will you need? That depends on what markets your
organization is pursuing and how do each of those markets differ in their needs and
problems.

Reaching Senior Executives

Contrary to common belief, senior executives consider the web to be the most
valuable resource for gathering business information. This includes a strong use of
online video.

The Importance of Buyer Personas in Web Marketing

At this point you should have quantifiable organizational goals and the buyer
personas you want to reach. Through the interviews you conducted, you will know
the buyer's problems that your product or service solve and which media the buyer
turns to for answers: search engines, which blogs, forums or online news services,
audio or video resources. Knowing the answer to these questions is essential before
proceeding.

In Your Buyers' Own Words

Your plan requires an understanding of the words and phrases buyers. You will
want to incorporate those terms so that your website will be familiar but also that
search engines will pick up your website when buyers query for information. These
key words and phrases may differ between the different buyer personas you
develop, or with potential buyers in other countries or cultures. Be very specific
when gathering these key words in interviews and in the publications or blogs your
buyers read.

What Do You Want Your Buyers to Believe?

This phase involves identifying what message is most appropriate for each buyer
persona type. Decide what each buyer persona is buying from you over and above
the product itself. Develop information specifically for each buyer persona rather
than a generic message for all buyers. You are not creating a big electronic
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 26
brochure but informing specific buyers.

Developing Content to Reach Buyers

The marketing plan should now be developed as a publisher might develop an
editorial plan for each buyer persona. The end is to reach buyers with focused
content in media formats they prefer. Websites, for example, should contain
individual pages targeted to each of the buyer personas. Perhaps your research
shows that some buyers prefer video or podcasts. For in-depth discussions of
solutions to problems faced by buyers, a downloadable white paper might be
appropriate. At no time, of course, should these detailed profiles or plans appear on
the website. A marketing plan based on detailed understanding of buyer personas
will be more successful than one based strictly on talking about your products and
services.

Marketing Strategy Planning Template

The template in the textbook helps address two implementation challenges:
1. Making the shift from focus on products and services to focus on buyer
personas.
2. Shift from off-line marketing techniques (advertising, direct mail, etc.) to
web-based approaches.
Page one of the template takes you through the steps of building a detailed profile
of one of the buyer personas you identified earlier. Answers questions such as who
is this person, what problems do they face that your product or service can solve,
where do they look for information on the web and how do you structure the
information using the right design, tone, and content strategy to move them to buy.
Page two helps to focus on publishing content on the web that will surface in
search engine results. It works as a check-list to make sure your cover all types of
content categories and mechanisms for publishing it.
Page three reminds you of your goal, namely action: to buy, donate, subscribe:
with appropriate links to take the action.

The New Rules of Measurement

The old rules of measurement were built on the ROI concept (Return On
Investment). Marketing success was measured by sales leads and PR by the
number of no-cost mentions of the organization were made in print media. These
techniques don't work with internet marketing.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 27
Ask Your Buyer For a Date
The author uses an analogy of dating to illustrate the mistake of applying the old
rules of off-line marketing to the web-enabled world. Poorly designed web
strategies require disclosing personal information before being able to speak to
someone.

Measuring the Power of Free

The traditional method to measure the effectiveness of PR is by the number of
mentions made in conventional media. But that is not enough. It does not take into
consideration the web factors such as mentions in blogs, number of YouTube video
views, links on Facebook, or position in Google search results.

What You Should Measure

Refer back to page one of the marketing and PR strategy planning template. The
Goals section does give some things to measure:
 How many people subscribe to your blog, like you on Facebook, sign up for
newsletter, view videos, etc.
 How many people download your e-books, presentations, videos and other
content?
 How often are you mentioned in blogs and what are bloggers saying?
 How many people are contacting you to speak about your offerings?
 How are sales doing?

Registration or Not? Data from an e-Book Offer

You are trying to measure the total exposure of your ideas from your web strategy
and not just the number of people willing to give you private information through
registration. Research shows that you get between 10 and 50 times more
downloads of content if you don't require registration (by giving your email
address, for example). It's more likely that your content offer will be passed on to
others if there is no registration requirement. But in order to derive the benefit from
the content in generating sales leads, a hybrid solution is suggested. Make the first
offer free, but within the free content, make a secondary offer that requires
registration.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 28

Educating Your Salespeople about the New Sales Cycle
The old model for marketing and sales consisted of the marketing department
generating leads, then handing them over to salespeople to close. The result was
often adversarial with one group blaming the other for lack of success. The new
model presented in this book enables sales and marketing to cooperate throughout
the entire sales process. Buyers are evaluating your offerings throughout the sales
cycle based on what they see and do on your website and in social networks. This
content is a parallel way of communicating the kind of information that typically
comes from a salesperson. Particularly, this cooperation is essential for complex,
high-value sales that require long decision times and involve many buyers who
need to be influenced. Web-enabled marketers need to educate salespeople
understand the parallel effort that must inform each step of the sales process. And
web-savvy salespeople can use social-media to drive buyers just as marketers.

Obama for America

The author holds that Barack Obama was elected president because his campaign
observed and acted on the same online opportunities that appear in this book. The
experiences and techniques can be applied to any business, non-profit, religious
organization, etc. Some of the things the campaign did very well:
 Focused on buyer personas, in this case, voters on a state-by-state basis to
move them to action (vote).
 They leveraged email lists, Facebook and subscriptions to text messages on
mobile phones
 The campaign delivered information primarily online and not as an
afterthought.
 The Obama campaign embraced non-traditional journalists such as bloggers
and podcasters.
 Also, his message was clear and simple: change. This is in line with the
principle that people don't care about products and services, but rather about
themselves and their products.
 Obama rarely talked about the competition, but rather focused on problems
facing voters.
 He put his fans first, releasing information on the web before mainstream
media.
 He stayed positive and did not based the message on fear.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 29
  He involved a lot of small donors through online contributions and kept
them informed.
 He also took time for his family and showed an attitude that people liked.

Stick to Your Plan

As you implement your plan, don't be surprised if you encounter resistance by
individuals or institutions who believe that only the old rules of marketing and PR
work. They are wrong as proved by the experience of the many successful online
marketers discussed in this book.

Chapter 12: Online Thought Leadership to Brand Your

Organization as a Trusted Resource
The material up to this point in the textbook shows that online marketing and PR
will be effective if the content presented is closely tied to the organization's goals.
The form of the content will depend to some extent by the capabilities of the
technology used, for example, a blog, video, podcast, etc. The differentiator is to
have content that marks your organization as a 'thought leader' giving it a
reputation as an idea-driven, expert and trusted resource. Web content in this form
can influence thousands of buyers in ways that traditional marketing and PR
cannot.

Developing Thought Leadership Content

Thought Leadership consists of focusing on the buyer's problems first and
foremost, without mentioning your product or service. Rather, by sharing the
knowledge and information you have from your experience in your field, you try to
become the vendor of choice when the buying process takes place. You provide
powerful information with a clear focus for readers who might hire you at some
point.

Forms of Thought Leadership Content

 White Papers: Argue a specific position of solution to a problem. They are
not product brochures but are marketing tools to help decision makers justify
implementing a particular solution. They are written for a business
audience,defines a problem and offers a solution but does not pitch a
particular product or company. They are free but often require registration as
a way to generate sales leads.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 30
  E-Books: Defined as a PDF-formatted document that solves a problem for
one of the buyer personas. They take advantage of the computer's ability to
display graphics and link to other content. They should be in landscape
format for easier reading on a screen. The style is light and the layout is
open. They should be free and not require registration.
 Email Newsletters: Used as a way to deliver content in small doses on a
regular basis to individual who have agreed to receive it. They should not be
simply advertising, but should contain content that presents solutions to one
or more buyer personas.
 Webinars: Online seminars often with audio, video, slides and guest
presenters. They are an examination of a specific problem that the
company's products or services can solve.
 Wikis: Software-based content repositories where users can post or edit
information about specific topics.
 Research and Survey Reports: Companies publish reports of work they have
done for free in order to share content and to show their capabilities.
 Photos, Images, Graphs, Charts, and Infographics: Particularly useful for
products and services that have visual appeal.
 Blogs: Benefits the company the blogger works for.
 Audio and Video: Podcasts are an ongoing series of downloads available by
subscription. Video or video blogs are easily accepted by customers. An
interview format for a video where you interview experts or even users can
be a good way to get thoughtful content out.

How to Create Thoughtful Content

 Do not write about your company or products. Thought Leadership is to
show that your company can solve buyer problems. It is not advertising.
 Define your goals first.
 Decide on whether to make the content free and with registration.
 Approach creating the content like a publisher considering stories for
specific readers and their concerns.
 Tell stories and give examples of interest to your audience.
 Have an attention-grabbing title, and descriptive headings and sub-headings
that contain searchable keywords.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 31
  Promote the effort
 Alert reporters, bloggers and analysts that the material is available and send
them a link to it.
 Measure the results and improve. Repeat.

Leveraging Thought Leaders Outside of Your Organization

Consider recruiting well-known experts in your field to prepare content for you,
write a blog, participate in a webinar, etc. This shows you are current with the
thinking in your industry.

How Much Money Does Your Buyer Make?

By conducting a survey on compensation, one company was able to emerge as a
thought leader in their market specialty.
The approach described in this chapter requires a different kind of thinking.
Marketers no longer concentrate on getting their message out, but to stop
advertising and get ideas out by understanding buyers and telling stories that
connect with and solve their problems.

Chapter 13: How to Create for Your Buyers

When developing content for your web-enabled strategies, you should create
specifically for one or more of the buyer personas you developed during the
planning. The material should address the specific problems your product or
service solves. Marketing and PR are the beginning of a relationship with buyers.
Well-written materials help buyers understand how you specifically will help them.
The writing should avoid technical jargon or industry-specific phrasing (aka
gobbledygook) that does not address the topic of solving the buyer's problems.

An Analysis of Gobbledygook
Typically, this consists of catchphrases that are so overused that they lose their
original meaning.

Poor Writing: How Did We Get Here?

The use of clichés often stands in for writing directly to buyer's problems. The
writer uses a catchphrase and expects that it takes the place of being relevant and
clear. The phrases get overused because the marketers don't understand the buyer's
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 32
problems and how their product solves these problems. Clichés keep your
company from standing out from the crowd.

Effective Writing for Marketing and PR

When you start to write, start with the buyers not with your product. Focus on the
problems and needs of each buyer persona or customer segment. Use real-world
language to convince customers that your product or service can solve their
problems.

The Power of Writing Feedback (from Your Blog)

Both online and off-line marketing content is meant to drive action, and hopefully
sales. This requires a focus on buyer's problems, expressed in their own words and
proof that your product or service can solve their problems.

Chapter 14: How Web Content Influences the Buying Process

Most prospective buyers today begin shopping by going online to do initial
research. When they reach your website, the challenge is to draw them into the
sales process. At that moment, you have the opportunity to deliver targeted
information when they need it. The ideal website takes buyers through the
gathering information stage to where they are ready to buy (or donate, join,
subscribe). All the technical aspects of the website must work properly and the
design must be attractive. The most important element is content, because it is
content that drives action.
The first consideration should be a buyer-centered navigation scheme that helps
visitors find what they need. The focus should be around the customer's needs and
not on the organization's structure, product line or other self-referential material.
Such a scheme will tell the website visitor that this company understands and cares
abut their problems. Consider what happens concurrently off-line during the
buying process in order to tune your web content to have the maximum impact on
the buying decision.

Segmenting Your Buyers

The online relationship with a potential customer begins on the home page of your
website. The site visitor needs to see a reflection of himself derived from the
persona you developed. With a clear understanding of the buyer, you create links
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 33
to move him quickly from the home page to a landing page built specifically for
him. For example, some organizations link landing pages to problems their product
or service solves. The prompt on the home page may be descriptions of the
situations each persona finds themselves in. Each path from these descriptions
leads to landing pages where you present your empathy for the problem and
explain how your product or service solves the problem.

Elements of a Buyer-Centric Website

 Think about Your Buyers' Preferred Media and Learning Style: People
have different learning styles and preferences for types of media. It is
worthwhile to accommodate these different factors on the website. You will
have the same message, but it may be in audio, video, e-book or other
format.
 Develop a Site Personality: The tone of voice and point of view of the
content creates a picture of your organization. Keep it consistent by making
certain that all content conforms to the defined tone. A website can evoke a
familiar and trusted voice in this way.
 Photos and Images Tell Your Story: Photos are powerful when they are
integrated into the content. Avoid clip-art and generic photos and large
complex images that take a long time to load on the website.
 Include Interactive Content Tools: These include live links to real-time
information (e.g. stock quotes), email links, and anything that causes visitors
to become involved in site content.
 Make Feedback Loops Available: Give visitors the chance to post
comments using tools like a Contact Us link, Rate This button, and Online
Forums.
 Provide Ways for Your Customers to Interact with Each Other: Set up a
forum or wiki to foster a community of customers talking about your
products or services.
 Make Sure Your Site Is Current: Audit your site regularly to make sure
content is still applicable.
 Include Social Media Share Buttons: Enables visitors to point to your
content on social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.). This is an
easy and effective way to share content on the web.
 Create Content with Pass-Along Value That Could Go Viral: Requires
you to say something interesting and valuable and make it easy to find and
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 34
 share. Make the URLs containing the information to be shared permanent.

Using RSS to Deliver Your Web Content to Targeted Niches

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standard delivery format for content on the
web. A visitor to a website subscribes to an RSS feed. Web browsers have RSS
capabilities and check the feed for new information and displays it. The
information is “pushed” or sent to the user rather than the user having to seek it
out. RSS software bypasses email and allows customization of the feed. The RSS
model allows you to fine tune your content, aiming it at highly specialized
audiences as opposed to a generic one-size-fits-all marketing approach.

Link Content Directly into the Sales Cycle

Your web content should be matched to each particular stage in the purchasing
cycle. For major purchases, the buyer may take a long period to research the
purchase, gather specifics on how a product meets their needs, compare and
contrast alternatives, and when ready to buy, be able to complete the purchase
effectively. This approach requires understanding buyers and delivering content
that leads visitors through the purchase cycle.

A Friendly Nudge
Especially during the middle stage of the buying process, remain focused on the
buyer's problems rather than making distinctions between products. Offer a
mechanism to inquire about your products and services. Respond to these inquiries
immediately.

Close the Sale and Continue the Conversation

Towards the end of the buying process, you must provide tools to help close the
sale such as video demos showing the applications for each product. After the sale,
continue the relationship with the new customer and provide methods for giving
feedback.

An Open-Source Marketing Model

Writer provides an example of a firm that built a content management system and
offered it at no cost like open-Source software such as Linux.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 35

Chapter 15: Mobile Marketing: Reaching Buyers Wherever
They Are
The growth in the number of browser-equipped mobile devices (smartphones and
tablets) means that buyers can look for products and services while on the road.
Increasingly, mobile connections are being used more than standard web
connections. Organizations can contact customers at the very moment they are near
and ready to buy. This technology has transformed marketing and sales practices
since real-time decisions and instant commercial transactions are now possible and
reliable.

Make Your Site Mobile Friendly

Content must optimized for rapid display on smaller screen mobile devices. Your
site can be equipped with code that recognize the kind of device the visitor is using
and displays the content in the best format. You want less complex pages for
mobile devices so they load faster since visitors are accessing the site wirelessly
and paying for the amount of data required to display the content. The image files
should be kept as small as possible. (question: reasons for designing mobile sites to
load quickly..cost to customer. ) Keep in mind that search engines have separate
ranking systems for mobile computing. Mobile Google gives preference to sites
that are mobile friendly. Design your site so that Google, for example, understands
where your mobile content is located by creating a site map for mobile users. For
local businesses, use geographic descriptors since Google refers to businesses
closest to the user making the search.

Build Your Audience via Mobile

By reaching mobile buyers at the moment they are ready to buy, you can also
move them to being a long-term customer. You have to give the buyer a reason to
want to have a relationship in the future. One technique is to set up SMS (Short
Message Service) codes whereby the customer sends their email address to an
SMS address and gets a benefit on their next purchase. The seller has the contact
for a buyer who already knows the products. Companies can also enroll someone
on their customer mailing list by leveraging other apps like Facebook, where your
contact information and other data is already stored. This makes the sign-up
capture process quick and error-free.

Geolocation: Where Your Buyer Is Nearby

GPS (Global Positioning System) functionality is built into many mobile devices
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 36
providing geolocation capability. When you use your mobile, your location is
pinpointed for marketers to use. Some services like Foursquare rely on this
technology to allow mobile users to find friends who are nearby at specific
business locations like restaurants and bars. This feature is most effective for brick
and mortar businesses situated near the mobile user.

The Mobile Media Room

The proliferation of mobile devices has led to the idea of a company putting its
most current content online in a kind of media room. Several firms also produce
their own online app that contains blog posts, videos, podcasts, press releases, e-
books, etc. These apps benefit reporters and analysts who need quick and reliable
access to information on a company they are covering as well as employees,
partners, and existing and potential customers.

An App For Anything

Mobile apps are available for all kinds of data. Some that provide real-time data
take their input right from the official source of the data, such as the official scorer
of an athletic event.

Cyber Graffiti with WiFi Network Names as Advertising

WiFi networks can be labled with a 32-character identifier. This ID can take the
form of an advertising message for the sponsoring business.
The take away message from this chapter is that in this new era of mobile
computing there are no hard and fast rules and the company that tries new things
will likely be successful delivering meaningful content directly.

Chapter 16: Social Networking Sites and Marketing

Note: These statistics are current as of Spring 2012 and update the information
found at the beginning of Chapter 16 in your textbook. The number of Facebook
users worldwide is over 800 million, and the number of Twitter accounts is over
500 million. As a marketing or PR practitioner, this is the potential audience for
your content and is perhaps more important than mainstream media

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 37

Television's Eugene Mirman is Very Nice and Likes Seafood
An example of how a comedian uses social media to primarily entertain and
secondarily to advertise himself.

Facebook: Not Just For Students

Facebook became available for non-students in 2006 and became extremely
popular with over 500 million logging on every day. Members are connected via a
friend request process. Until you approve someone as a Facebook Friend, your
personal information profile remains private. To use Facebook effectively as a
marketing tool, observe these four ways to deliver information:
1. Personal profile for friend-to-friend communication: Describes yourself with
relevant data and a photo. It contains updates or ongoing delivery of
information seen within your circle of friends.
2. Company pages: Essentially, a personal page for an organization. You can
link to current info, videos, blogs etc. and Facebook friends can click to
“like” something, thereby notifying their friends of the particular company
page. This process expands the reach of a company page exponentially.
3. Groups: These are community of Facebook users who share an in-depth
interest in a particular topic. Anyone can form a group and they can be open
to all or by invitation only. The optimum approach to putting content on a
group page is the same as the decision for blog entries: make valuable
information available.
4. Applications: Small software programs that exist for Facebook users and
serve as marketing tools for companies that sponsor them.
Bottom line: like other social networking sites, success on Facebook comes from
being a thought leader and developing content that readers want.

Check Me Out on MySpace

MySpace allows you to create a page that promotes causes or businesses. The trick
is to avoid any overt commercial messages. Marketing and promotion on this and
other sites consists of existing personalities or brands using the MySpace to draw
an online following.

Tweet Your Thoughts to the World

Twitter is an instant messaging system that lets a person send brief text
messages up to 140 characters in length to a list of followers. A common
type of instant message is one that tells people what they are doing in a
short form. This practice became known as microblogging which is the
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 38
essence of the Twitter service. Twitter works as a social network because
people must subscribe to your feed (“follow you”) in order to receive your
Twitter postings or Tweets. It also allows sharing links to videos, blog
posts, web sites, etc. You can update your Twitter feed from a computer or
smartphone. It takes a while to build a following, but you start by following
others and participating in discussions and exchanging messages.
To start, look at the Twitter search engine that shows what is being said
about your organization. There are third-party applications (e.g.
TweetDeck) that will monitor multiple keywords and phrases in real time so
you will know immediately when your organization or its leadership is
mentioned. **What is the benefit of using Twitter search engine on a
regular basis?
For marketing and PR, it's important not to use Twitter as an advertising
medium, just as we cautioned about using blogs to show interest in a topic,
to become a thought leader. To use Twitter as a marketing channel, first
show you are an interested member of the community. It can be used to
notify the public of special offers but you must be careful not to appear that
you are simply building up numbers and are not a thoughtful member of the
community.
Will social-media replace face-to-face business? The author maintains that
strong social networking builds stronger personal relationships because it
makes personal meetings easier.

Social Networking and Personal Branding

When getting involved with social networking sites, remember that your online
actions are a reflection of your “personal brand” or the image you project to the
world. It starts with your basic information/profile page. On Twitter, the elements
are:
 Twitter UserID: Choose an appropriate ID. It appears with an @ sign in
front (for example, @dmscott).
 Name: Use your real name and don't just use your UserId.
 Location: Use the town or city nearest to you to improve your chance of
making local contacts
 Web: Put your website or blog address here. Or, you can create a Google
profile.
 Bio: Say something succinct about yourself (you have only 160 characters).
Focus on your particular expertise and be specific.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 39
  Photo: Don't leave blank and don't use a stand in. Use a close-up (photos are
small on Twitter).
 Background image: Avoid using the default or the ones provided. Come up
with a unique photo to use as a background.

This list is specific to Twitter, but the concepts apply to other social networking
sites as well.

The Horse Twitterer

This section describes how Twitter is used by a veterinary practice to establish and
strengthen the relationships between horse owners and their vets. The individual
practitioners tweet practical and useful information. This sharing drives business to
the vets.

Connecting with Fans

This section describes the use of Twitter and other social media by musicians to
connect with fans. The key to a successful campaign is to share interesting
information and not use these outlets as advertising space. Twitter is an
increasingly important way for people to connect and communicate and
organizations and individuals are using it cleverly to benefit their businesses and
followers.

Which Social Networking Site is Right for You?

Each site appeals to different users, so you should consider which is appropriate
for your business. In addition to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, there are these:
 LinkedIn: Appropriate for buyer personas who work in businesses.
 Squidoo: Based on people's expertise in a particular subject. Organized
around online “lenses” which filter a person's expertise on a subject to a
single page. This page links to a set of useful websites and other online
resources. It allows marketers to build an online presence for free.
 Second Life: An online world where people interact in three virtual
dimensions. Once there, they use virtual characters (avatars) to interact with
others by buying , selling, and trading things using a virtual currency. Be
sure that the buyer personas you developed are amenable to this type of
involvement.
 Local Language Sites: Social networking sites may be different from the
ones you use in the USA. You can't assume that one-size-fits-all in the
global marketplace.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 40
  Shopping sites: While not strictly social networking entities, some shopping
sites do have communities that your company can be part of. Amazon's book
reviews, for example, allows you to be a prominent spokesperson for your
industry by posting a thoughtful book review.

You Can't Go to Every Party, So Why Even Try?

Because of the proliferation of social networking sites, you will need to choose a
few of the most active to participate in and focus on those. Decide which ones
based on the ones most likely to be of help to the buyer personas you already
developed.

Optimizing Social Networking Pages

To get the most from social networking sites;
 Target a specific audience: Focus on a group important to your organization.
It's better to zero in on a small niche category than make your appeal too
broad.
 Be a thought leader: Deliver valuable and interesting information that solves
buyer problems. Don't focus on your products.
 Be authentic and transparent: Don't try to impersonate someone else.
 Create lots of links: Let readers link to your own sites (blogs, website,
videos, etc.) but also to others in your industry.
 Encourage people to contact you. Make it easy to email or phone.
 Participate: Engage in online discussions.
 Make it easy to find you: Include tags that will come up on search engines
and use bookmarking services
 Experiment: Sites are easily updated, so try new things and if they don't
work, fix or abandon them.

Integrate Social Media into an Offline Conference or Event

The online world of physical networks is complemented by the physical world of
in-person networks. At conferences, for example, it's common for audience
members to discuss content while a presenter is speaking. And with live blogging
and tweets, an individual can experience events at a conference without physically
attending.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 41

Start a Movement
When people talk about your company as a result of activity on social-media sites,
the discussion is not under your influence. But you can guide the discussion by
deploying social networking concepts creatively.

Why Participating in Social Media is Like Exercise

The author suggests that you make participating in social media an important part
of your life, like exercise. Rather than try to find the time, make it a regular and
consistent activity that is part of your normal routine. The key is to participate
genuinely and not to try to take advantage. tk10672

Chapter 17: Blogging to Reach Your Buyers

Overview: Blogs are considered legitimate methods for communicating real and
unbiased ideas into the marketplace. They are more trusted in many cases than
advertising. This chapter presents the basics of how to start a blog. To begin,
monitor other blogs and participate by commenting.

What Should You Blog About?

The wrong thing is to just push your organization's products and services. Decide
first whom you want to reach. Then, find a topic you are excited about, but keep
the subject focus narrow with room to expand. Write honestly and provide valuable
information and your audience will grow. Keep the information specific and use
keywords so that search engines will accurately index the content. Although there
are millions of blogs on the web, yours will be noticed if you keep it specific and
focused on the needs and problems of your target audience.

Blogging Ethics and Employee Blogging Guide

Policy guidelines for blogging should come under those governing all
communications media. All guidelines should prohibit sexual harassment,
revealing company secrets and disparaging the competition in any communication
format. Unethical practices in blogs can hurt a company's reputation. Here are
some of the issues to consider:
 Transparency: Don't impersonate anyone on a blog or as a commenter to a
blog.
 Privacy: Get permission before blogging about material received from
others.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 42
  Disclosure: Use full disclosure when talking about your company or a client:
that is, acknowledge your affiliation.
 Truthfulness: Don't make up material or exaggerate for the sake of a good
story.
 Credit: Give credit to other sources. Don't paraphrase an idea and pass it off
as yours.

Blogging Basics: What You Need to Know to Get Started

You don't need any particular technical skill to start blogging. You will use already
available software. Here are the minimum steps:
 Think carefully about the name of your blog and its taglines. These will be
picked up by search engines and are hard to change.
 Select one of the available easy-to-use blogging services such as TypePad
or WordPress. Again, it is hard to change from one to another after the blog
is activated.
 Choose a URL or web address for your blog. The blogging services provide
customizable URLs or you can put it on a custom domain.
 Blogging software has the basics for design: layout and colors: and has the
option for customization.
 Test the blog with a few readers before opening it up to the world.
 Make your design complementary but not identical to your company's
website to stress the independent nature of the blog.
 Open the blog up to comments and accept all types, positive and negative.
 Allow trackbacks which are messages to say that your post has been
referenced by another blogger.
 Use the correct category and reference tag for your blog.
 Add social networking sharing services such as Facebook “Like” or Twitter
“Tweet this”
 Make RSS (Really Simple Syndication) available.
 Include an About page that gives your bio, picture and information about
your blog.
 Make it easy for people to contact you online and follow up on all contacts.
 Resist the urge to write about your company. Focus on your reader's
problems and provide information that educates and entertains.
 Link to other blogs, comment on other blogs, and involve other bloggers by
participating in the online community.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 43

Pimp Out Your Blog
To make your blog less generic, spend time adding links, additional graphics,
quick navigational tools and other enhancements that mark it as individual and
unique.

Building an Audience for Your New Blog

The audience for a new blog builds slowly. To help it along, place links to it in
your e-mail signature, on the organization website, and elsewhere. Update the blog
frequently. This practice helps in the search engine ratings as does posting about
topics of interest to your buyer personas and be sure to use the phrases they are
likely to use when searching. Comment on other blogs and include a link to yours.
Use the traffic information provided by blogging services to see where readers are
coming from to your blog and what they are searching on.

Tag, and Your Buyer Is It

Because of the vast number of blogs on the internet, a large number of false hits in
word and phrase make searching for content frustrating and time consuming. To
overcome this problem, Technorati, the blog search engine, developed tagging.
This feature enables bloggers to categorize precisely what each post is about,
making it easier for readers to find.

Fun with Sharpies (and SharpieFans)

The blog for Sharpies pens is a good example of making a site that showcases what
customers are doing with your products. In effect, the customers are marketing the
product in a very light-handed way.

Blogging Outside of North America

The practice is alive and well in Europe and Asia. TypePad offers services globally
as does Technorati. The techniques to launch and maintain a blog are the same.

What Are You Waiting For?

To summarize, start by following other blogs in your industry. Evaluate what you
like and what you would do differently. Then, start leaving comments on other
blogs. Finally, take the plunge.

New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 44

Chapter 18: Video and Podcasting Made, Well, as Easy as Possible.
Audio and video content should have the same attributes as the text content for
blogs and websites. It targets the buyer personas you developed and presents
information that solves problems. Video is an extension of blogging and proceeds
in the same way: find out what people are already saying about you and use that as
a starting point. Be open and transparent. Video is different in one way: it does
require additional equipment, software and time.

Video and Your Buyers

Some organizations deliver products and services that are easily marketed through
video. Others have begun experimenting with video content in their existing
websites and blogs.

Business-Casual Video
Like the trend toward less formal attire at work, business video is becoming less
formal. Previously, business (or 'industrial' ) was highly produced in a studio with
correct lighting, sound, make-up etc. Now, videos can be created in a short time at
little or no cost. They may not have the high production values of the formal kind,
but if they communicate interesting and useful information in an appealing way,
people will tolerate any minor production problems. The tone of these videos ought
to be friendly and engaging and suggests a company that is approachable and good
to do business with.

Stop Obsessing over Video Release Forms

To avoid the delay of having legal release forms approved, simply ask the
interview subject if you have their permission to post the video. Get their name and
title recorded, and they proceed.

A Flip Video Camera in Every Pocket

Carry a small, easy-to-use digital camera to take advantage of impromptu
interviews or product-related demonstrations. tk11812

Getting Started with Video

These are the major methods that organizations use to get their videos on the web:
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 45
Posting to video-sharing sites: The most popular is YouTube, but some others are
Vimeo and blip.tv. The process is to open an account on YouTube and upload your
video. The hope is that they will attract attention and even go viral. You can then
share the link through e-mail or embed the video link on your website.
Developing an online video channel with its own URL
Vlogging: (short for video blogging) Embedding video links in a blog.
Vodcasting: Like a podcast, but using video with iTunes and RSS syndication.
Inviting customers to submit videos: Can be a way to stimulate viral interest.

Video Created for Buyers Generates Sales Leads

Video, like all web content, should focus on the problems of your buyer personas.
Different personas may buy the same product or service, but each has unique
problems and have to be addressed on that basis. You then create content for each
of these segments. When a prospect requests information, salespeople will know
what kind of buyer they are dealing with based on which video portion they
responded to.

Podcasting 101
Definition: a podcast is audio content that you subscribe and receive regular
updates. To start in podcasting, you will need recording equipment and an external
service to store and distribute your material. The following are the key points for a
successful podcast:
 Show preparation: gather ideas and create a script based on the buyer
personas. For interviews, make sure you have the guest's name and its
pronunciation down pat.
 If recording on a computer, use a microphone and podcasting software like
GarageBand or Audacity.
 If recording in the field, you will need appropriate equipment.
 Phone interviews can be handled on a computer using Skype and recorded
on a digital recorder.
 Editing audio files is optional but can be done with podcasting software.
Post production editing to clean up the recorded signal is also optional.
 Tagging the audio makes it easier for people to find on search engines or
iTunes. It also shows up on playback devices.
 Hosting and distribution is available from several commercial services
 Promotion: Get links to the podcast out to as many sites as possible. Put
links on your blog and in your e-mail signature, on Facebook and Twitter
 Companion blog: Most podcasts use the blog to discuss the content of each
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 46
 show. The text will be indexed by search engines. Put the time codes for the
podcast in the blog to help listeners find the content they are interested in
much faster.

Chapter 19: How to Use News Releases to Reach Buyers

Directly
The web has changed the nature of news releases. In the past, the PR department
concentrated on mainstream media as their audience. Now, news releases are
published on the web and are accessible by everyone. The primary audience is no
longer just journalists but everyone who accesses the web. Here's a quick summary
of the “new rules” for direct-to-consumer news releases:
 Send news releases all the time, not just for big announcements
 Target buyers not just journalists
 Use keywords in the text of the release
 Include offers
 Put links in the releases to your website or other information
 Add social-media tags

Developing Your News Release Strategy

Approach news releases as if publishing an online news service. Focus on the
buyer personas you developed earlier. Content is king in news releases. Any
activity within your organization is a potential subject for a news release.

Publishing News Releases Through a Distribution Service

Distribution services (also known as wire services) send your news release to
online news services and to trade and industry websites. The primary reason for
buying this service is to assure that your news release will be indexed by the news
search engines and vertical market sites making it more likely that a potential
customer will be directed to your site. You buy a basic geographical area coverage
agreement from one of the news release distribution services. You can buy value-
added features such as national coverage.

Reaching Even More Interested Buyers with RSS

You can also buy RSS feeds of news releases assuring that your news release will
be sent to subscribers to the RSS content feeds in your market category.
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 47
Simultaneously Publishing Your News Releases to Your Website
When you issue a news release, also link to it on your website or set up a page to
serve as the repository of press/news releases. It will always be available even
when it is no longer carried by a distribution service.

The Importance of Links in Your News Releases

A link in the news release will make it easier for interested buyers to get more
information on your company. But even more important is the fact that search
engines will rank your site higher for every time someone accesses your website
from the news release. (tktkWhy is it important to include links to your website in
any news release? )

Focus on the Keywords and Phrases Your Buyers Use

The cardinal principle applies to news releases: understand the needs and problems
faced by the buyers as shown in their profiles or personas. Address those problems
using the terms and phrases they actually used when you interviewed them. In
other words, understand what people are searching on and what phrases they use
and put those phrases in your news release along with links on your website where
they can find the answers to their queries.

Include Appropriate Social Media Tags

If your news release distribution service allows you to use social-media tags (eg
Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon) then use them. These tags make your releases
easier to find.

If It's Important Enough to Tell the Media, Tell Your Clients and
Prospects Too!
Make use of content developed for one media or audience by repurposing it for
other media formats and buyer types. And make an effort to keep all of the
marketing and PR activities in synch with one another. A calendar of regular
releases will help in this effort.

Chapter 20: The Online Media Room: Your Front Door for
Much More Than the Media
The Online Media Room (OMR) is the part of your organization's website you
create specifically for the use of traditional media outlets. But, not just journalists
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 48
visit your OMR. Prospective customers, investors, partners, suppliers and
employees may just as likely visit the OMR. The news release or media section of
a website is likely to be updated more often than the more static pages.
Accordingly, you should design your OMR for buyers and in the process make a
better site for journalists. It is the most effective mechanism for controlling content
since it allows marketing and PR departments to update directly without needing
the intervention of the Information Technology department.

Your Online Media Room as (Free) Search Engine

The content of the OMR is likely to be updated more often. Because search
engines rank pages that are more actively maintained, then the OMR material will
rank higher in search engine ratings. Savvy companies will send out a lot of news
releases and post them on their OMR in order to get higher Google and other
search engine rankings.

Best Practices for Online Media Rooms

The most effective OMRs have the following characteristics:
 You Control the Content: Marketing and PR should design the OMR to
reach buyers and journalists. This section of the organization's website
should not be controlled by the IT department. Rather, the focus is on the
needs of buyers and journalists, not the technical needs of the website
managers. Consider a specialized software package for managing OMR
content.
 Start with a Needs Analysis: Understand how the OMR relates to your
overall marketing, PR and media strategy. Consider the needs of journalists
and the buyers whose profiles/personas you developed. Graphics, fonts, and
other design elements come only after the needs analysis phase.
 Optimize Your News Releases for Searching and for Browsing: Since
visitors to your OMR will be searching for specific information or browsing.
Your design and navigational aids should accommodate both activities.
Links should be labeled to appeal to different buyer types or different
problems faced by segments of the buyer universe. You might even link to
the same product in different ways, for example, by demographic or even
geographic factor when appropriate. Make it easy to print out your news
releases by providing PDF versions.
 Create Background Information That Helps Journalists Write Stories:
Provide an online media (press) kit in your OMR. It contains background
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 49
 information on your organization, executive biographies, board of directors
biographies, product/service information, links to recent media coverage.
Organize and select information from the customer's point-of-view. This kit
is intended to make it easy to write about your organization.
 Include Multimedia Content: Provide video clips, photos, graphics files of
logos that a journalist might use in a story.
 Include Detailed Product Specs and Other Valuable Data: By putting
detailed data on the OMR, you signal to journalists that they can write a
story that will be meaningful.
 If Appropriate, Go Global: Offer case studies from customers in different
countries and spec sheets using international standards. Have a page in the
language of the country you are targeting and a local contact, if available.
 Provide Content for All Levels of Media Understanding: Realize that some
journalists visiting your OMR may need background information on your
company while others are more knowledgeable. Provide the right level of
content to help journalists.
 List Executive Appearances, Conferences, and Tradeshow Participation: To
facilitate face-to-face meetings between journalists and company personnel,
list their schedules on the OMR. It will also raise your company's profile as
active participants in industry activities.
 Include Calls to Action for Journalists: Offer special access and other
inducements to journalists.
 Embrace Bloggers as You Do Traditional Journalists:
 Avoid Jargon, Acronyms, and Industry-Speak: You have only a short time to
attract the attention of journalists, so keep the diction on the OMR easy to
understand.

An Online Media Room to Reach Journalists, Customers, Bloggers,

and Employees
The OMR is not just for journalists, but for other user segments. Especially in
emergencies, the OMR becomes the focus for the latest information on a company
and its activities.

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Really Simple Marketing: The Importance of RSS Feeds in Your Online
Media Room
RSS is a digital delivery method for providing specific information to different
segments via subscription. The OMR can include multiple RSS subscription feeds
for a variety of journalists, customers, bloggers, employees and others. RSS feeds
can be set up for specific countries.

Chapter 21: The New Rules for Reaching the Media

The web has made it so easy to contact reporters and editors. As a result, they have
become overwhelmed with unsolicited and unfocused blasts of news releases. This
is the worst way to get reporters and editors to notice your company.

Nontargeted, Broadcast Pitches Are Spam

Rather than simply mass-mail media representatives, focus on what specific
journalists are interested in and send targeted pitches directly to them. Remember
to include bloggers who can be very influential. Otherwise your pitch will be
considered as spam and ignored.

The New Rules of Media Relations

The web has changed the traditional approach to PR/Media Relations and these are
the new rules:
 Nontargeted, broadcast pitches are spam.
 News releases sent to reporters in subject areas they do not cover are spam.
 Make sure reporters will find you on sites such as Google and Technorati.
 If you blog, reporters who cover the space will find you.
 Pitch bloggers, because being covered in important blogs will get you
noticed by mainstream media.
 Send news releases out regularly
 Build a great online media room that include video and photos
 Not all reporters love RSS feeds.
 Personal relationships with reporters are important.
 Don't tell journalists what your product does. Tell them how you solve
New Rules of Marketing: Study Guide Page 51
 customer problems.
 Follow journalists on Twitter to learn what interests them.
 Does the reporter have a blog? Read it. Comment on it. Track back to it
 Before you pitch, read (or listen to or watch) the publication (or radio
program or TV show) you'll be pitching to.
 Once you know what a reporter is interested in, send her an individualized
pitch crafted especially for her needs.

Blogs and Media Relations

It's increasingly important to get your organization mentioned on blogs as a way to
be noticed by mainstream media. Treat bloggers as you would media contacts, but
more importantly, become known as a blogger in your own right. You acquire
credibility as a member of the media in a sense and your blog content is magnified.

How Blog Mentions Drive Mainstream Media Stories

Link the content to the right audience with a targeted pitch. Gaining mentions in
blogs will help this process. Also, use hash tags or keywords to draw attention
from related subject areas.

Launching Ideas with the US Air Force

The USAF website's Online Media Room is a good example of how to provide the
right content to help journalists prepare stories. They find text, video, audio and the
names of contacts on USAF programs and activities.

How to Pitch the Media

Coverage in the media is still an important source of legitimacy for your
organization and its marketing efforts. When you target a publication, follow these
guidelines:
 Target one reporter at a time.
 Help the journalist to understand the big picture. You make a journalist's job
much easier if you describe the big picture of why
 your particular product or service is interesting.
 Explain how customers use your product or work with your organization.
Offer to set up interviews with customers.
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  Don't send email attachments unless asked. Send plain-text emails and
follow up with attachments, if requested.
 Make certain you follow up as promised.
 Don't forget, its a two-way street. Journalists want to know what you have to
say.
Successful PR practitioners in the age of the web have to not only understand how
to tell your story to prospects but also how to tell the story to journalists.

Chapter 22: Search Engine Marketing

The major difference in search engine marketing as opposed to the traditional
interruption technique is that the potential buyer is looking for content they want to
see. This entire book has been about building a search engine marketing program.
Starting with understanding buyer personas, developing content for these buyers,
using the words and phrases they are familiar with, and presenting the content in
online formats they prefer.

Definitions used in this chapter:

Search engine marketing means using Google, Bing, and Yahoo as well as
vertical market search engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) means to structure content so that it is
found by search engines and gets the highest ranking in the results.
Search engine advertising means to pay to have your content appear in a special
section of search results with higher visibility.

Making the First Page on Google

Becoming the first result of a Google search is a highly sought after goal for
marketers. One reliable way to do this is to know the terms buyers will use to
search on and incorporate them into your blog and provide links in the blog to your
organization's website.

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Search Engine Optimization
This is the art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases of your website,
blog and other online content are picked up by search engines and once found, get
the highest ranking in the results. This is often portrayed as a mysterious process.
In fact, the best way to achieve these results is by providing high quality content.
In addition, there are resources for learning how to tweak your content for optimal
results, such as the tutorials for Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing.

The Long Tail of Search

Avoid using broad, general search terms as keywords. They produce way too many
hits on search engines. Rather, create many different search engine marketing
programs with a large number of specific search terms.

Carve Out Your Own Search Engine Real Estate

Choose a product or company name that is unique and will be easy to find by
search engines and will not be confused with another entity. Test your selection by
looking on the web first to see if there are others using the proposed name. You
want to have a unique identity for your company.

Web Landing Pages to Drive Action

After the search engine finds sites based on your keyword search, the next step is
to click through to the website landing page. The landing page is the place to
publish targeted information for a particular buyer persona. It should be specific
and closely related to the search. This means you may need several landing pages
with specific content to hold the attention of the people who clicked over from the
search engine. The landing page serves to generate and develop customer interest
and conviction. Consider these guidelines:
 Make the landing page copy short and simple.
 Create the page with the same look and feel of all your company's other
marketing and branding material.
 Write the copy from the buyer's point-of-view and phrase it in terms of the
problems your product or service will solve.
 Landing pages are communication and not advertising. Advertising gets the
customer to the landing page and once there, it is about communicating
value.

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  Provide a quote from a happy customer.
 Make the landing page self contained so that customers can respond to an
offer directly without having to go to another page.
 Make it easy to take action, sign up, buy something.
 Make multiple kinds of appeals to stimulate action.
 Ask only for necessary information. Ask for too much and people will
abandon the form.
 Follow up to all responses as quickly as possible.

Search Engine Marketing in a Fragmented Business

When your business covers many different market segments, search engine
marketing is a primary technique. It's critical to use the same terminology and
industry terms of each targeted buyer segment. When new terms arise, you need to
develop content that responds to those terms. Other content formats like news
releases and blogs will also be reflected in search engine ranking.

Chapter 23: Make It Happen

The ideas in this book can be implemented incrementally. It's not necessary to do
all of them together. With a web strategy, you can implement quickly, test the
results and make changes on the fly. One way to start is with buyer persona
research. Or create a blog and make it available on a limited basis at first.

Getting the Help You Need (and Rejecting What You Don't)
 The One Question to Ask a Prospective Agency: What is the agency's social-
media presence? Do they have a blog, Twitter feed, YouTube video,
Facebook page, etc. This will show that they are using the very tools you
want them to advise you on.
 When Lawyers Get in the Way: Legal restrictions on social-media in
organizations is based on ignorance and lack of trust in employees. Lawyers
rarely use social-media and want to put controls on it. It's better to create
guidelines on how to communicate in general rather than specific controls on
social-media.
 Bring a Journalist onto Your Team: Journalists have the ideal skill set for
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 web communication: understanding readers and developing targeted content.
 Managing Your Colleagues and Bosses: Everyone in the marketing and sales
is working to build attention through advertising, media outlets, direct sales
or through the web-based marketing ideas of this book. A bias toward one or
the other of these approaches comes from each individual's background. To
increase the use of social-media and the web, you may need to explain the
importance of this trend to those objecting.

Great for Any Organization

Online marketing through social-media is effective and personally fulfilling. The
message stays the same, it is the medium that adapts.

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