Issue #1113 April 8, 2017
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Easy Product Description Formula
- Create Quizzes That Go Viral
- Skills Journalists Need
- Hound Video of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
I’m immersing myself in three full days of Internet marketing classes this weekend. When I’m done, I’ll start counting down the days until my two sisters from Ohio visit Wisconsin the weekend of May 19. I’m already planning six days of food and fun that we’ll try to squeeze into four days.
1. Easy Product Description Formula
Can you describe your product in only one sentence? Founders of two popular technology services have figured out how to make what they offer sound so simple, a child can understand it.
Here’s how Travis Kalanick describes Uber: A mobile app where “you push a button and in five minutes a Mercedes picks you up and takes you where you want to go.”
In the early days before Facebook’s IPO, here’s how Mark Zuckerberg described Facebook: “Something where you can type someone’s name and find out a bunch of information about them.”
Dave Bailey, a serial entrepreneur, says both descriptions follow the same simple formula. “You do X and Y happens.”
In an article for Inc. magazine, he writes: “Facebook and Uber have thousands of features, yet Mark and Travis elevate a single feature above the others, making the product easy to understand, easy to remember, and, most importantly, easy to talk about.”
To do: Read his article “The Art of Describing a Product in One Sentence.” Then take a crack at it and see if you can do the same.
#ProductMarketing #ProductDescription
2. Create Quizzes That Go Viral
People love to talk about themselves.
That’s why a quiz that helps them test or rate themselves is one of the best pieces of content you can create if you want it to go viral.
“What famous entrepreneur are you most like?”
“What is your social media personality type?”
“What’s your skin grade?”
“Test your marketing IQ”
People love taking quizzes using their mobile phones while they’re scrolling through their social media feeds, multitasking on their computers or taking a quick break from whatever else they’re doing. If you’re a subject matter expert, or you want to create a quiz to help you pull traffic to your website or create a new product, but you don’s know where to start, I’ve found the perfect how-to guide. Quizzes are one of three things that Tom Antion teaches you how to create in his new ebook, “Kick Start Viral: How to Get Thousands of People to Share Your Content and Send You Money.”
Tom gives ideas for quizzes, advice on how long they should be, and he lists five plug-ins or software he has used, tested and recommends. The ebook also explains how to use contests and content lockers to make people share your blog posts, articles and videos.
To do: His flash sale was still under way yesterday and you can grab the book for $17 before the price goes up, using this affiliate link.
#ViralQuizzes #Quizzes #ViralContent
3. Skills Journalists Need
On Tuesday, I told you about a free email course that will teach you 15 digital skills you will need to do PR and marketing and communicate with journalists.
Turns out they have their own list of skills they must learn to communicate with you. The top three:
- Building an audience and engaging on social media
- Writing clickbait headlines that include keywords for SEO
- Design and video
To do: Read “The unbelievable list of skills required by a modern journalist.”
#JournalistsSkills #DigitalJournalist
4. Hound Video of the Week
Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund and brother Oakley play a fun game of ball hockey, repping their hometown teams of the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
[Tweet “#PublicityTips –Easy Product Description Formula #ViralMarketing #JournalistSkills”]
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