The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #501 April 20, 2010
Publisher: Joan Stewart
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“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
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In This Issue
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1. Food Freebies Soothe Tax Bite
2. PublicityHound.mobi
3. How to Use Surveys
4. Teleseminars This Week
5. Promoting Online Parenting Classes
6. Help This Hound
7. Hound Joke of the Week
8. And at My Blogs…
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1. Food Freebies Soothe Tax Bite
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Publicity Hounds can learn a thing or two from the restaurant
industry.
Offer free stuff on April 15.
Cinnabon, Maggie Moo’s and Dairy Queen handed out free samples on
tax filing day. Taco Del Mar offered free tacos. Starbucks gave
away free coffee.
McCormick & Schmick’s and P.F. Chang’s had food deals all day.
Whole Foods picked up the sales tax all day on grocery bills at
stores in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and
Georgia.
Publicity for the food freebies was EVERYWHERE.
I don’t know if any of the restaurants incorporated mobile
marketing into their campaigns, but this would have been the
perfect opportunity to send text messages to customers letting
them know how to soothe the tax bite.
Next year, make a note to yourself early in the year and think of
something fun you can give away on April 15. Then start promoting
it long before tax day arrives. The media love these local tie-
ins to filing taxes.
Upcoming holidays worth considering for freebies: Earth Day on
April 22 and Mother’s Day on May 9.
Don’t let these holidays sneak up on you! By creating a 12-month
media plan, you’ll have a systematic way to generate publicity,
be aware of long lead times for magazines, piggyback onto
breaking news so you get onto the TV news the same day you pitch,
and create more publicity online.
“How to Create a Media Plan,” one of my most popular courses,
walks you step-by-step through the entire process and even
includes handy, at-a-glance templates for keeping your 12 months
worth of ideas and publicity tasks well-organized. It comes with
more than 200 story ideas for every month of the year. Read more
about it at http://publicityhound.com/mediaplan.htm
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2. PublicityHound.mobi
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Have you seen my new mobile site at http://publicityhound.mobi/?
Here’s how I’m using it:
–To collect names and mobile phone numbers so I can text people
about special offers and news.
–To make it easier for journalists using mobile phones to learn
about me, without having to navigate my clunky PC site on a tiny
screen.
–To collect email addresses and grow the subscribers list for
this ezine.
–To make it easy for people on mobile phones to find links to my
blogs and social media profiles. More than half of all social
media activity takes place on mobile phones.
–To link to my mobile site from my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
and Google profiles.
–To offer testimonials from delighted clients and market my
mentor program, without making people read the entire sales page
on my PC site at
http://publicityhound.com/mentorprogram/intro.html
(Note: I have two openings in the program right now. Read that
page to see if you’re a good candidate.)
–There’s even a page with links to the best dog jokes and
videos.
Tonight, I’ll be attending the fourth of 10 classes in
StomperMobile, the mobile marketing course hosted by Stompernet.
We’ll learn how to use Twitter and Facebook to pull traffic to
our mobile sites.
Next week, we get a break, and then resume the following week.
Join today, and you’ll have an extra week to catch up, watch the
first of three webinars, and build your own site, before Lesson 5
on May 4.
As an affiliate, I can offer you a backstage pass where you can
register at $200 off the regular registration and spread payments
over six months. Learn more at
http://snipurl.com/mobilemarketingclass
How many of your competitors have mobile sites? Few, if any. Jump
onboard right now, and you’ll be light years ahead of them by the
time they finally “get it.”
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3. How to Use Surveys
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When I hired survey expert Jeanne Hurlbert to create my customer
profile survey last spring, I was hoping the results would give
me a few ideas for new products to create and services to offer.
Never, ever, did I think it would result in creating a spin-off
business to teach people how to incorporate social media into a
publicity campaign. Jeanne, it turns out, was the perfect
business partner. So we created My Social Media Solution, LLC,
and we both now have a new source of revenue.
Lots of businesses are hurting during this recession. The smart
ones that are still on their feet aren’t guessing about what to
offer people in their target markets. They’re asking them through
surveys. Then they’re using the survey data to:
–Add new product lines that customers are begging to buy.
–Increase click-through and conversion rates by as much as 45
percent.
–Get proof that lets them convert prospects and keep customers
buying over and over.
–Gather 100 testimonials at a time quickly, easily and
inexpensively.
–Generate publicity by letting journalists know how they’re
changing their businesses as a result of surveys.
–Find “pre-qualified” prospects who are ready to buy.
Jeanne, whose client roster includes the Tony Robbins Companies,
has teamed up with Mike Koenigs to present a series of free
videos that explain more about how to use surveys to not only
survive the recession, but thrive in it. You can access them at
http://snipurl.com/surveycustomers
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4. Teleseminars This Week
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Wednesday, April 21, 11 a.m. Eastern (90 minutes): “How To REALLY
Use Publicity as an Online Marketing Channel and ZIG When
Everybody Else Is ZAGGING!” Members of StomperNet, the Internet
marketing membership site, can join me as I bust publicity myths
and explain how to build relationships with journalists and
bloggers. Register at http://www.stompernet.com/
Thursday, April 22, at 2 and 7 p.m. (90 minutes): “Jack Canfield
Shares How To Get To Where You Want To Be As An Author/Speaker,”
2 and 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Jack, of the enormously famous
“Chicken Soup” books gives his best advice on how he and co-
creator Mark Victor Hansen kept going when “Chicken Soup” was
rejected by 144 publishers, what to do if you find yourself
reluctant to aggressively market, what to do if you need to make
money within 30 to 60 days, the two mindsets you need to create a
bestselling book, and how to find someone to sponsor your book.
I’m an affiliate. Register at
http://www.teleseminarwithjackcanfield.com/?10011
Download the replay of “Discover the Secrets to Speaking in the
Recession-Proof College Market” with James Malinchak, or listen
at your computer. Includes 17 most in-demand topics.
http://www.callwithjames.com/call
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5. Promoting Online Parenting Classes
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This week, eight Publicity Hounds have tips for Kathy Slattengren
of Kenmore, WA who is looking for the best way to promote her
online parenting classes.
From Katie Schwartz:
“Distribute fliers at sports centers for young children, and
through pediatricians and pediatric dentists.”
From Stephanie Trahd:
“It won’t be long before there?s another celebrity parenting
debacle in the news (think Britney Spears, Balloon Boy, etc.).
Have a press release and comment ready when this happens, and
then just plug in the name/event and send it out immediately.
Make yourself available as a parenting expert resource for media
covering the story.”
From Gail Sideman:
“Co-brand with businesses that attract the same demographic:
OB/GYNs, daycare centers, local baby stores, etc.
“There are so many people who say, ‘I wish there was an
instruction manual to raise children.’ Well, now they can
reference what you have to offer!”
The Publicity Hound says:
When you read all the responses to this week?s ?Help This Hound
question at http://tinyurl.com/parentingclasses make note of how
Kathy interacted with and thanked people who left comments. This
is a great social media lesson. Thanks, Kathy.
Send your own Help this Hound question to:
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com?subject=HelpThisHound
and include your city and state.
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6. Help This Hound
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Anne Roos of South Lake Tahoe, CA, writes:
“I am really struggling with time management. I’m a professional
musician and a published author, working on two upcoming CDs,
live performances, and an upcoming book.”
“I am also very physically active, taking classes in the martial
arts. These activities all involve practice/rehearsal and being
offline to concentrate on my writing.”
“I have very limited time to spend on the Internet, and in fact,
as a harpist, I am trying to pace myself when typing at the
computer to save my hands. I already work with a wonderful
virtual assistant, Christine Buffaloe, and she can handle many
tasks for me, but it’s not enough. I know that she can’t do
everything for me. It’s not a question of whether I know what I
need to do or whether I am capable of doing them. It’s a question
of finding time to do what really needs to be done.”
“So, I need to know what I absolutely must do at the computer and
what I can forego. What’s a time waster and what is not? What are
the activities that are necessary (other than the obvious—
answering my emails, replying to direct messages on social
networks, etc.), and what is a waste of time? And how do I
streamline my time doing these things?”
“OK, the harpist is tired of typing.”
The Publicity Hound says:
Anne, I blogged last week on why cutting way back on email is one
of the very best ways to make more time. You can read it, and
retweet it, at http://ow.ly/1yAbv. Many of my other Hounds will
post great suggestions for you at my blog at http://ow.ly/1AN3i
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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Thanks to Publicity Hound Meryl K. Evans, for this video of a dog
frolicking on a minor league ball field, and leaving behind a
little gift:
http://ow.ly/1Aytd DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes,
perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few
good laughs.
BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50
best websites for dog humor.
http://publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/
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8. And at My Blogs…
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Consider retweeting:
Publicity op: Columnist needs ideas on ethnic minorities &
updating job skills
http://ow.ly/1AyAp
How to get a recommendation from someone who’s not on LinkedIn.
Step-by-step directions.
http://ow.ly/1AKEA
No time for social media, but lots of time to waste on email
http://ow.ly/1yAbv
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Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound
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