Interactive & Social

Does your organization really need an online press room?

In Interactive & Social, Multichannel & Integrated, Public Relations
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YES! Your media contacts can benefit greatly from a press room (a.k.a. news room) – managed by your PR team – to keep them abreast of your company’s latest endeavors, innovations, accomplishments and much more.

Press Room Contents
The best way to make use of an online press room is to make it an easy-to-find and user-friendly “asset” management tool for your media contacts. A place they can go to easily access information, images or videos about your company, its spokespersons and products/services.

In a typical press room, the media will appreciate the following information and materials:

Media Relations Contacts 

Current Annual Report

– Annual Report Archive

 

Company Backgrounder

 

Image & Video Library

– Executive Headshots

– Facility Interior and Exterior Shots

– Product Beauty Shots

– Product Application Shots

– Videos (by type)

 Company & Product Fact Sheets 

Executive Bios

 

Recent News Releases

– Archive of Past News Releases

 

Resource Library

– Technical Papers

– Research Reports

– Company History

– White Papers

Ultimately your press room should be tailored to suit the specific needs of your media contacts, your business and your PR/marketing objectives.

Publicity Placement Archive
For your company’s own benefit, you’ll also want to maintain a page within the press room that provides a detailed list of publicity placements (name of media outlet, title of placement, publish date, type of placement, author) along with a link to each placement (a PDF copy of the placement or link to the media outlet’s archived version of the article/video/audio placement).

Your Press Room’s Home
When communicating with your media contacts, you’ll frequently and consistently point them to your online press room to access information, images, etc. In electronic communications, you’ll include a hotlink (hyperlink) that takes your media contact directly to your press room.

But don’t stop there. Any great resource to the media becomes accessible day or night. You never know when a story idea will hit an editor, and if your press room is useful and memorable, he or she may just firm-up their story idea by taking a look at the information you’ve made easily available online. So, make sure that the URL of your press room is short, sweet and makes total sense. For example, “WidgetsUSA.com/pressroom.” Or, “WidgetsUSAPressRoom.com.”

Of course, you’ll make sure your press room pages comply with all of the basic search engine optimization best practices so that when a reporter searches Google for “Widget USA annual report” she’ll be a click away from your press room.

Finally, you’ll want to make your press room easily available from your site’s Home Page and About Us section. Intuitively, the media will look for a Press Room link on these pages.

For public relations counsel, press room development guidance or media relations support, get in touch with the PR pros at Johnson Direct today.

What’s your E-mail Marketing Story?

In Interactive & Social, Multichannel & Integrated, News & Events, Uncategorized
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Want to get better results from your email campaigns? Why not try telling a compelling story?

Yes, the list and offers you make are important to your success, but so are copy platforms and how you present the information you want to convey. But why test a story?

Marketers may not always put the topic of storytelling at the top of their to-do list, but they should. Storytelling, in this context, is the art of telling an emotional and compelling story in e-mail, or other advertising medium, to effectively convey a call to action that sells a product or service, or gains a donation from the recipient.

Stories engage people because they are entertaining, allow the recipient to relate and connect with the characters, draw on emotion and can lead the reader to a conclusion and often do a better job of being genuine and relevant. And in today’s over-communicated media landscape, when consumers tend to be more entertainment-oriented than ever, stories might be just what your email correspondence needs to lift your ROMI.

Psychologically, we also tend to remember stories. The Bible is based on stories. So are fairytales, most children’s books, many great songs, movies, plays and TV plots. “What’s the storyline” in news and sports? If it’s compelling we tend to migrate to it, or at least pay more attention. A story helps you break through the clutter.

Storytelling is more commonly used in long form, one-step emails where the products or services have a high price point, but even these marketers could benefit by telling different, more compelling stories to move their wares.

By incorporating storytelling in your efforts, you are really taking a back to the basics approach to your marketing. For centuries, the world’s greatest teachers and leaders have used stories to more successfully communicate with people and motivate them to take action. In direct mail, e-mail’s marketing cousin, you may have seen some of the top-performing storytelling direct mail packages, including those from The Wall Street Journal, Time-Life, Rodale Inc., Covenant House, Greenpeace, Nightingale-Conant and National Wildlife Federation, among many others. You continue to see them for one very simple reason: they work. That’s another reason to test this approach in e-mail.

A good story is something the recipient can read easily and which effectively touches that something inside of them that urges them to take action. We can relate better to stories.

Let me give you an example. Imagine turning the this Omaha Steaks email into a story.

The sender might say, “How I saved 67% and used the savings to make my party even better…”

Look at another example here.

In this case, some compelling, credible stories could be featured on how the books above helped changed a mindset and were critical to the reader’s newfound success. It will be relevant to many of the recipients and will likely work better than shouting savings. Heck, you could even keep the savings and tell the stories.

A few guidelines to follow include not fabricating a story – the more real and true-to-life the better the results typically are, the more detail you provide, the more credible the story will be,  and be on the lookout for new stories all the time. They are like testimonials on steroids for your marketing.

Go ahead, pump up your e-mail marketing with storytelling starting today. Then, share your story with me and all of us at Johnson Direct.

Ignoring Ongoing Email Marketing Opportunities?

In Interactive & Social, News & Events, Uncategorized
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You may be among the many businesses and organizations that completely ignore the enormous opportunity to connect with its customers and most viable prospects via email. When executed professionally, a relevant and regular email program will keep your brand and solutions front-of-mind among key influencers and decision makers, making it easier than ever for your company to be in the right place at the right time.

Here’s the rub …
A professional, proactive and well-planned email program requires time and resources, and that’s where many organizations can’t make a commitment. With so many marketing channels to manage and fewer resources to work with, marketing and sales departments are in REACTIVE mode, dealing with the most urgent promotional requests and opportunities first and setting everything else on the backburner.

Here’s the solution …
Johnson Direct’s Interactive Team has all the resources and expertise required to build an ongoing email marketing program AND execute it for you. That means we’ll create the proactive plan, we’ll develop the on-brand creative and templates, we’ll develop the editorial schedule and write each issue’s content, we’ll produce the monthly or quarterly issues, we’ll manage the subscriber databases (and help you build them up or build them from scratch), we’ll distribute each issue, and we’ll track and analyze each issue’s results.

It’s really that simple. But don’t just take our word for it! Johnson Direct provides full-service email marketing for VFW and its She Serves outreach. Here’s what they have to say about the program we built for them from scratch:

“From day one, we’ve been very impressed with the email marketing campaign Johnson Direct has created for our She Serves outreach and has been maintaining for us for over 18 months. The outstanding results have enlightened us and continue to fuel our investment in additional online marketing efforts. The Johnson Direct team has put forth the highest level of strategic counsel, creativity and dedication.”

Matt Claussen, National Director for Membership, Veterans of Foreign Wars

An ExactTarget Partner
While Johnson Direct’s team is able to employ any email marketing platform our clients’ prefer (we’re well-versed in many tools like Silverpop, Benchmark and Vertical Response), ExactTarget is Johnson Direct’s preferred emarketing platform.Named “leader of the pack” by Forrester Research against the top 14 email marketing service providers, ExactTarget is the tool we use to power our full-service email marketing clients’ campaigns with personalized, targeted messages that drive engagement and ROI. Even at peak sending times, your mission-critical messages will always reach your subscribers. And with an average system up-time of 99.99%, you’ll never have to worry about lost revenue or productivity. ExactTarget’s prestigious deliverability reputation truly sets them apart in the industry, and there’s no message we can’t deliver.

Don’t Ignore this Tremendous Marketing Channel
If you could effortlessly reach out to your target audiences on a monthly basis with ultra-relevant messages and a strong call-to-action, would you? And, how much value would you assign to that high-quality ongoing communication? If you’re like the marketers we know, the answers to these questions are “YES!” and “PRICELESS!”

Together, you and your Johnson Direct team can plan, build and manage an ongoing email marketing program to build relationships, loyalty and trust among your customers and most viable prospects. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Johnson Direct can typically have a new campaign hitting your subscribers’ inbox within a few weeks of our kick-off meeting.
  • For a brand-new, build-it-from-scratch, FULL-SERVICE 12-month enewsletter campaign, the average client budgets $6,500 to $15,000 per month.
  • You provide the subject matter and experts and our interactive strategists, data specialists, copywriters, designers and producers do the rest.

Don’t wait another minute to get your messages in front of your most valuable target audiences on a regular basis. Contact Johnson Direct now: 800.710.2750 or info@johnsondirect.com.

DOES YOUR WEBSITE’S ‘ABOUT US’ PAGE STACK UP?

In Branding & Creative, Business Intelligence, Interactive & Social
On

Does your ABOUT US page Stack Up?Does it succinctly describe what, where, when and how your business does what it does and for whom … in one paragraph? Does it offer bite-size chunks of information and links to additional details for those who seek it? Does it explain how your customers benefit from doing business with you, and competitively position your company against all other options?

The purpose of a website’s About Us page is to explain its value proposition to its most valued audiences. An About Us page should effectively explain the company’s purpose and what it stands for.

Most importantly, it should demonstrate exactly why the visitor should buy the company’s products or services.

When coming to an online About Us page, visitors should instantly find useful fact-based company information that:

  • Supports his/her  decision to do business with the company
  • Makes him/her feel that the company is trying to create a relationship
  • Boosts his/her perception of the company’s credibility

Seems like a no-brainer, right? Apparently not.  Jakob Nielsen reported in ’08 that while there’s been a 9% improvement in the usability of About Us information on websites over the previous 5 years, many, many companies still can’t (or choose not to) explain what they do in one paragraph.

What’s a Company to Do?

If you take a closer look at the Nielsen study, or the websites referred to by experts as usability-focused, you’ll find that many have the following elements in common:

  • The About Us link is titled as such
  • The About Us link is offered in the primary navigation – not necessarily the most prominent link, but clearly visible
  • The About us information is offered in 4 levels of detail:*
  1. Tagline on the homepage: A few words or a brief sentence summarizing what the organization does.
  2. Summary: 1-2 paragraphs at the top of the main About Us page that offer a bit more detail about the organization’s goal and main accomplishments.
  3. Fact sheet: A section following the summary that elaborates on its key points and other essential facts about the organization.
  4. Detailed information: secondary pages with more depth for people who want to learn more about the organization.

This layered content presentation forms an inverted pyramid that uses hypertext (text links) to shield users from overwhelming details, while making specific information available to those who need it.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Objective, fluff-free facts are a great way to differentiate your business, and address all of the decision-making criteria your customers and prospects consider when choosing to continue or begin doing business with your company.

Here are some ideas for an online Fact Sheet. Remember, facts are also a great way to support the fluffier promises and claims you make!

  • Number of employees
  • Size of facilities
  • Number of customers
  • Sales ($ or #)
  • Order accuracy rate
  • Safety record
  • Customer service responsiveness (e.g., calls answered within 20 seconds)
  • Customer satisfaction rate
  • Number of products available
  • Number of suppliers (worldwide)
  • Number and location of distribution facilities
  • Industry rankings / Awards
  • Shipping/delivery turnaround
  • Sales channels (online, phone, fax)
  • Specialized market expertise
    		•

    Say It with Video

    One definite trend in About Us content is higher user interest in video. Multi-media presentations are a great way to highlight the people within your organization, your satisfied customers and their testimonies and video can really showcase the personality of your organization’s leaders. Caveat: Web users are still impatient and prefer short videos.

    A video I recently came across that fits this bill is for Uline, a shipping supply distributor. View it.

    Where to Start

    Auditing your own About Us page, section or entire website isn’t easy. An objective eye from an experienced outsider can often identify opportunities for improvement that may surprise you. Improvements may take the form of copy enhancements, page re-organization, link architecture, navigation, usability techniques or design.

    The goal for any content improvement (copy, design, organization) is of course to present your information in a more relevant manner, making the site’s content and tools more accessible and user-friendly.

    An objective 3rd party audit will lead you to site changes that will ultimately result in higher visitor usage rates and satisfaction.

    The Approach

    The way I typically go about a website audit is to:

    • Detail the current page/section/site’s contents and cite overall pros and cons
    • Research, review and reference industry trends, case studies, best practices as they relate to this type of website and the client’s objectives
    • Identify opportunities to improve current pages
    • Develop recommendations for specific improvements and changes
    • Visually illustrate recommendations where appropriate
    • Present to the client; gather feedback
    • Adjust and deliver final documentation based on the client’s feedback

    If you’re not sure your About Us page is stacking up, and you believe that it should, contact us.

    Denise B. Hearden
    Johnson Direct

    Google Instant: How will it Impact Your Search Campaign?

    In Interactive & Social
    On

    On September 8th, Google unveiled the latest and greatest in search technology. It started with a ton of hype, with the search giant sending an email to reporters and tech journalists saying it was an event they “didn’t want to miss”. Did it live up to expectations? Oh, yes it did.

    What is it?

    Google Instant aims to take some time off the average 9 seconds it takes for a searcher to query any given term. Using a technologically innovative AJAX interface, it displays query results almost instantly without having to hit “search”. The focus is on providing useful, relevant results to the user in a minimal amount of time.
    Continue reading →