And the death march continues. Yet, again, we read about more job cuts and newspapers folding:

• Time Inc. will cut 600 jobs
• Christian Science Monitor quit publishing a weekday paper
• Gannett will cut up to 3,000 people, or 10 percent of its workforce 
• The Tribune Co. will cut the Los Angeles Times newsroom by 75 people
• The Star-Ledger of Newark will cut its editorial staff by 40 percent
  

As The New York Times points out: It’s not an audience problem, but a consumer problem.

It’s not that people have simply stopped reading the news; most have just stopped reading the newspaper.

With the advent of handheld devices, RSS feeds and news alerts, these conveniences have eliminated the need to sit and read the newspaper cover to cover. People can now get news at just about any location and not just from front stoops.

But as more readers find less use for the printed newspaper, publishers have more trouble attracting advertisers — hence job cuts, slimmer papers and even newspaper deaths. And it is going to get tougher.

As emerging technologies become part of everyday life (if they’re not already), newspapers must find a way to create advertising opportunities for each one of these avenues, such as pay-per-click, mobile ads, day-parting, ads targeted at specific user profiles, and more. They must get creative on how they sell ads: Bundle packages that include print, but attract advertisers with technologically advanced advertising streams.

The audience is still there, and advertisers still need to reach it. Newspapers just need to find a way to connect the two.

Related Posts:

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 — Print Media Is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

Lyndsey Walker is a Consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. After five years in the journalism field, she is happy to have made the switch to public relations. 

Traditionally, press releases have been used to reach media contacts in hopes of getting your news published.  Optimized press releases are the new guys in town.  They are keyword-rich marketing tools, distributed online and designed to simultaneously reach traditional media, social media and consumers directly, as well as generate inbound links to your Website. 

As the industry shifts toward inbound marketing, optimized press releases are becoming more common. However, as the concept is still fairly new, there will inevitably be some companies that offer optimized release distribution, but may not generate the results you're hoping for.  Here are some questions to keep in mind when evaluating optimized press release distribution services:

 

1.  How does the system recognize keywords?

Including keywords in your release is the cornerstone of an effective optimized press release.  Make sure that you choose the keywords your release is tagged with, and that the system doesn’t just pull out the most frequently used words in the release for you.

2.  How does it handle anchor text?

Those keywords mentioned above should appear several times in the release, and at least one time, each keyword should be hyperlinked to an applicable page on your Website, creating an anchor-texted link that will give your site credibility for this keyword, and also generate qualified site traffic.  These are essential to an optimized press release (that's an anchor-texted link) — so make sure that the system is capable of including them. 

 

3.  How many Websites will my release go out to?

Clearly, the more, the better.  The more sites it goes out to, the more people will see it.

     3a.  How many of those Websites render the anchor-texted links?   
     Not all sites will recognize hyperlinks.  Make sure that a good number will, or else your
     efforts will not be rewarded.

4.  What are the reporting capabilities for results?

A good release distribution service will provide you with reports that show all of the sites that picked up your release, how many people accessed it (and preferably weed out the real people from the search engine spiders, or else this number will be skewed), what kind of media it was sent to (if you sent it over a wire also) and how people found your release online.

Outside of talking to the release distribution itself, it’s worth a bit of extra research on your part to see what people are saying about the company in forums and social networks, to make sure that the company is reputable and handles its customers well.

Internally, it’s a good idea to keep track of a few things to see how your site is performing, both before and after the release is sent.  For example:

•   How did your site rank in search results for the keywords used in the release before you sent the release?  After?
•   How many inbound links did your site have before the release was sent?  How many new inbound links did the release generate?

Laurel Miltner is a Consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Her favorite color is green. She tweets as @laurelmackenzie.

 

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So your pay-per-click advertisement offer of “free shoes with the purchase of every shoelace” caught the attention of a search engine searcher. They’ve clicked on your ad, Google charged your account the $5.50 you bid for the term “shoe fastening devices,” and the potential customer is on your site. Now what?

What can you do to your site to encourage customers to take the desired call to action? Below are a few tips that may help to improve the effectiveness of PPC landing pages.

1. Align the Keywords

Align the keywords you purchased with the content on your page. Make sure your keywords are scattered throughout the copy, specifically headlines, so the visitor knows right away that they are on a site that covers “shoe fastening devices.”

2. Searchers Don’t Like to Search

Put the most important information front and center, so visitors don’t have to look around for it. The easier you make it for them to find the information they are looking for, the longer they will stick around. Bold face or enlarge the main points and keywords on the page to allow for quick scanning. Also, images of the product or service are a good idea because they draw attention easier.

3. Clearly TELL Them What to Do

A quick, clear and concise call to action is easier to understand than a wordy one. “Click Here to Purchase” puts the action as the first word, leaving little confusion on how to purchase the product. “If you would like to purchase shoelaces, click here,” isn’t as powerful and doesn’t give the same type of urgency.

4. Above the Fold (Unlike this)

A main point to remember is that the call to action (CTA) should be above the fold. The fold refers to the bottom of the page that isn’t visible without scrolling down. The most common spot for a CTA is at the top of the right-hand column, but check out the sites that you frequent and see where they put theirs. You can also test the best place for a CTA with A/B testing. Put the CTA in two different locations on the Web page, and then study the analytics to see which version customers responded to better. Google offers a great, free A/B testing tool.

I did a guest post today on the HubSpot Internet marketing blog that asks the question, "Are the Four Ps of Marketing Dead?"

Here's the intro:

"In Marketing 101, we are taught the four Ps of traditional marketing - Product, Price, Place and Promotion. While these fundamental elements are still relevant, they may not be as important in business today as the four Ps of inbound marketing - Personas, Participation, Publishing and PageRank. . . ."

Read the full post on the four Ps of inbound marketing and let me know what you think.

(Part 4 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

Shrinking newspapers. Rising job cuts. Declining circulation numbers. Shifting advertising dollars. As a PR and marketing consultant, why should I care? It’s simple: mainstream media coverage is the result of the core services I provide to my clients.

How can I offer results for my clients if newspapers and magazines are cutting sections, leaving less room for my press release, and laying off jobs, leaving me with fewer contacts with whom to build relationships and are too busy to take my call?

Listed here are some of the findings from a recent study conducted by journalist Tyler Marshall and the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, based on face-to-face interviews in 250 newsrooms across the country:

• More than half of the editors at larger papers and a third at smaller ones expect more cutbacks in the next year.

• Nearly two-thirds of papers surveyed have cut back on foreign news, more than half have trimmed national news and more than a third have reduced business coverage.

• Forty-eight percent of editors surveyed say they are conflicted by the trade-offs between the speed, depth and interactivity of the Web and what those benefits are costing in terms of accuracy and journalistic standards, while 43 percent think the Web “will be the savior of what we once thought of as newspaper newsrooms.”

Just as mainstream media is struggling to adapt its core services and survive online, the public relations industry must do the same to remain relevant.  

So what fundamental services do PR and marketing consultants require in an inbound marketing toolkit?

1. Search Engine Optimization: Increases a Website’s visibility and value in search engines through On-page Optimization, Keyword Analysis and Off-page Optimization/Link Building.
2. Pay-Per-Click Campaigns: Paid advertising through search-engine results.
3. Social Media: Websites encouraging user participation and user-generated content, including Social Bookmarking (delicious.com) and Social Networking (Linkedin.com) Websites.
4. Content Publishing: Publishing keyword-rich content online, including optimized press releases, eBooks and blogging.
5. Web Analytics: The ability to analyze user activity and measure ROI.
   

In this business — and all businesses, for that matter — adopting the new fundamentals is a key to survival.

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 — Print Media Is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

(Part 3 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

“We face the most difficult advertising environment in our history … ,” wrote Terry Egger, publisher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in a letter to readers after restructuring the paper in June 2008. Major sections of the newspaper now appear online only.

According to Ad Age, the top 100 U.S. advertisers — who account for 41 percent of the total advertising spending — increased measured Internet spending by $1 billion, slashed newspaper spending by $674 million and cut TV budgets by $406 million last year.

It’s true that print media is losing out to the Web. The list goes on:

• Online media companies like Google are enjoying huge advertising revenue increases, while mainstream media outlets are suffering.
• Real estate revenues are shifting online.
  
• Auto ad dollars are shifting online.
• Department stores are shifting ad dollars online.
  

With social media, online forums, blogs and the interactivity of the Web growing and expanding so quickly, newspapers and magazines struggle to compete with the printed version weakening their bottom lines.

The advent of pay-per-click, mobile ads, dayparting, and ads sold by user profiles offer newspapers the ability to master the online monster. Eventually, the print industry will adapt and shift its printed counterpart online entirely — as soon as it integrates these emerging online technologies.

So, where does PR go from here? Less focus in print, more attention to Internet marketing campaigns, pay-per-click services, mobile ads, social networking, social media, blogging and search-engine optimization — the list goes on. The needle is shifting toward inbound marketing.

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 —  Print Media is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

 

(Part 1 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

A weekend ritual, I woke up mid-morning on a Sunday in June, brewed some fresh Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and plopped down on the couch to read the newspaper — online. As I logged on to Cleveland.com, the Cleveland Plain Dealer online outlet, a letter from the publisher was staring back at me.

“In addition to coping with the cyclical economic realities affecting everyone, our industry is reacting to a revolution in how Americans get their news and information,” wrote Terry Egger, publisher of Ohio’s largest provider of news and information.

Additional content, as well as the full versions of the brief print articles, were to appear online.  

As I read on, I couldn’t help but wonder, is the day when newspapers and magazines will abandon their print versions closer than we think?

Major dailies and other publications are rapidly shrinking, cutting hundreds of jobs and hemorrhaging dollars because of plummeting circulation numbers. The week of Aug. 18, 2008, The Plain Dealer offered buyouts to its non-union workers.

The Plain Dealer is not alone. In fact, the PD’s radical changes reflect a national trend:

• In late April 2008, The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., stopped printing to devote itself to publishing its daily report entirely on the Web.
• The Washington Post plans to merge its Web and Print newsrooms, bringing job-cut fears to Post editors.
• In March 2008, Minneapolis’ The Rake abandoned its printed magazine for the online space.

I am a statistic myself. After working as a journalist for four years, I am now building a career as a public relations and marketing consultant. Based on my experiences, I offer the following blog series, “The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media,” where I will discuss the future of the printed newspaper and what the shifting landscape means to those of us on this side (the PR side) of the fence.

Blog Series — The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media

Part 1 — Newspapers without the Paper?

Part 2 — Views from the Mainstream

Part 3 —  Print Media is Losing

Part 4 — Public Relations: The New Fundamentals

 

The PR industry is in the midst of an identity crisis, fueled by a mass-market revolution that threatens to make traditional PR agencies obsolete, and spawn a new generation of industry leaders and influentials.

In a wildly competitive and cluttered media landscape, one that is increasingly being dominated by the social Web of mass collaboration, consumer-generated content and social networks, innovative PR firms are emerging to meet growing demand for Internet-based expertise and services.

These organizations, which are being informally referred to as “wired PR firms,” “digital PR firms” and “Internet PR firms,” will redefine the industry, and, in the process, give birth to a new category of agency — the inbound marketing agency.

Why Now?

Technology and the Social Web.

Technology has made it possible to create remarkably efficient management systems (e.g. time tracking, project management, CRM, professional development) that significantly lower operating costs.

As a result, agencies can shift to a less restrictive value-based pricing model that reaches the mass market with lower prices, while increasing profit margins.

At the same time, the social Web (aka Web 2.0) has given savvy PR firms the ability to dramatically expand their service offerings in the areas of content publishing, social media, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, Website development and analytics.

Traditional PR Agency Snapshot

In essence, traditional PR agencies have been built on the ability to generate editorial coverage (or publicity) through mainstream media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines).

However, mainstream media (MSM) outlets are shrinking. And while still essential vehicles to reach and influence publics, MSM is challenged to retain the readers, viewers and listeners needed to generate revenue and maintain future stability and influence.

Plus, most traditional PR agencies are small — the average firm has six employees, and 92 percent of the nearly 25,000 firms do less than $1 million per year in revenue [1] — and most likely are not positioned to invest significant time and financial resources in evolving their model.

Intro to Inbound Marketing

First coined by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, co-founders of HubSpot, inbound marketing refers to permission-based marketing strategies in which consumers choose to learn more about you by conducting a keyword search online, subscribing to your RSS feed, downloading your white paper, opting into your email newsletter, watching your videos, listening to your podcasts, visiting your social network or commenting on your blog.

So, rather than interrupt the unqualified masses with outbound marketing strategies such as direct mail, telemarketing, advertising and email spamming, you connect with qualified consumers online when they are actively looking for what you offer.

Enter the Inbound Marketing Agency

Inbound marketing is powered by content. In order to grow smarter and faster than the competition, organizations must continually publish great content online through blogs, podcasts, videos, optimized press releases, case studies, white papers, eBooks and by-lined articles.

Thus, the advent of the inbound marketing agency. Here’s a profile of what a typical inbound marketing agency will look like:

• Staff: Expert copywriters (as most PR professionals are), who are trained in authentic on-page and off-page search engine optimization methodology, and function as Internet marketing consultants. All employees/consultants are heavily engaged in social media.
• Services: Content publishing, social media consulting, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, mobile marketing, Website development and analytics, as well as evolved forms of publicity, brand marketing and crisis communications. 
• Pricing: Value-based with wider appeal to the mass market of small businesses. 
• Results: While traditional PR firms rely on clippings, impressions and advertising equivalency for arbitrary measurements of success, inbound marketing firms consistently produce more measurable outcomes, including: inbound links, Website traffic, leads and sales.
• Leadership: Most likely founded/lead by Generation X (ages 28-43) or Generation Y (ages 18-27). 
• Technology: Extremely tech-savvy. There may even be a crossover into software research and development (either in-house or outsourced) if the current industry providers do not innovate fast enough.
• Infrastructure: More agile and tolerant to risk than most traditional PR firms. Built to be highly scalable in terms of number of clients and employees, geographic markets, and revenue.
• Growth: Dramatically more aggressive growth models due to mass-market appeal. As a result, angel and venture funding of leading firms is a greater probability than with traditional PR agencies. A wave of mergers and acquisitions of complementary firms — SEO, Web developers, email marketing, mobile marketing, etc. — also is probable.
• Market Focus: The industry leaders will have a mass-market focus, and international appeal (the Internet has no borders), but like any emerging industry, there will be plenty of room for smaller agencies to prosper by concentrating on niche market segments and/or services.
  

The Inbound Marketing Revolution Has Begun

I was in Boston on Sept. 8, 2008 for the Inbound Marketing Summit. I knew that the one-day event would be well attended and educational, but what I witnessed was the start of an industry revolution. The inaugural Summit drew more than 300 attendees (which was a sell out), 1,300 live stream viewers, 10,000 Website visitors, and 100,000 social media connections.

If you’re a PR firm, you can’t ignore or resist where the market is taking us. It’s time to expand our knowledge and services. Think critically about the value we deliver to clients. Consider the state of MSM, and the future of our industry.

And for businesses, ask yourselves, when was the last time you responded to a direct mail piece, answered the call-to-action in a print ad, or were sold by a telemarketer? Now ask yourselves what you’re going to do to break through the clutter, and grow smarter and faster than your competitors.

Welcome to the age of inbound marketing. The time is now to get started.


[1] http://www.entrepreneur.com/benchmark/details72.html

 

I consider myself a fairly intelligent individual, someone who if put in a locked room and given the key, would eventually find my way out after the claustrophobic panic screams subsided. Well, during the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit I had the pleasure of sitting through a session about Optimizing Landing Pages that made me question this assumption.

The session was hosted by David Reske, managing director of Nowspeed Marketing  and he discussed several best practices on how to structure a landing page to encourage more visitors to take the desired call to action.

There were three points he talked about that left me scratching my head. Not in the “I’m confused” or “my shampoo doesn’t moisturize” kind of way, but in the “Why didn’t I think of that?” kind of way. They are genius in their simplicity and now that I’m aware of them, completely obvious.

1.  Show Pictures of the Offer

I didn’t really appreciate the impact of this tactic until I saw an example (below). The example site was promoting a white paper, and included an image of the white paper with a quick, clear call to action (Free White Paper) on a button. The image (the only one on the screen) immediately caught my attention. Within 2 seconds I knew exactly how to get to the white paper. 

[Note the white paper image in the top left.] 

2.  Remove the Internal Links to Other Pages

How often are you on a web page with a lot happening, when you get distracted from the reason you went to that page and click on an unrelated link?

Reske suggests that you take away the distraction and limit the visitors’ ability to go to another page by limiting the links on the page. On specific product or service pages, only include a link to the home page and your call to action. If they want to go to a different page, they still have the back button, or can go to the home page, which includes links to all the site’s other pages.

3.  Include Your Privacy Statement

If you’re like me, you’re a little hesitant to freely give away your information, especially credit card information, to a Website that you know relatively nothing about. The thoughts of “spam emails” and “identity theft” scamper through your brain, giggling their mischievous little giggles.

Why not put your customers at ease by including your Privacy Statement clearly on the page that asks for their information. As soon as you get their business, hopefully your customer relations and product service will keep them coming back, but that first sale is going to be the hardest. Take every step possible to help them trust you.

 

Inbound marketing masterminds and thought-leaders converged at the first Inbound Marketing Summit Sept. 8 at the Boston Marriott Cambridge, and the entire office of PR 20/20 was fortunate enough to be a part of it.

Hubspot, creator of the industry's leading inbound marketing system and WebsiteGrader.com, organized the event, garnering 300 guests in attendance and reaching nearly 100,000 people through social media connections.  Click here to visit the stream page with Summit activity throughout the Web. 

PR 20/20 joined a host of companies that sponsored the one-day event filled with educational presentations, networking opportunities, ideas exchange and more.

Highlighted by keynote speakers David Meerman Scott and Seth Godin in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively, PR 20/20 marketing consultants spent their day attending seminars, and sharing information and insights. Check out the full Flickr slideshow for pictures of the keynote speakers.

We'd highly recommend planning to attend a future Inbound Marketing Summit and checking out the resources available at www.InboundMarketingSummit.com.

 

 

Paul discussing a slide in his "Blogging for Business" presentation.

      

 

PR 20/20 consultants Keith and Lyndsey at the table during a session break.