THINKing

Op-Ed Pitching

Nice piece in Cision’s The Navigator concerning how to pitch op-ed pieces. Also, here’s a piece I wrote on writing op-ed pieces.

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Internet Displaces Radio As Fourth Biggest Ad Medium - 08/31/2007

Well, there goes another traditional medium. Radio has fallen behind the Internet in terms of ad revenue, according to eMarketer. A story in this morning’s MediaPost says,

eMarketer’s report comes as the Internet already has surpassed outdoor ad spending, and as a recent report from equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson predicts that the Internet will displace television as the No. 1 ad medium by 2011. INTERNET AD REVENUES ARE SET to pass radio’s for the first time, according to eMarketer, a firm that tracks and analyzes spending trends across various media. EMarketer is pegging Internet ad spending at $21.7 billion, compared to $20.4 billion for radio.

Radio executives need to look at this as an opportunity to increase their revenues. The major radio companies also control high traffic volume websites, so they have the ability to package radio and online ads.

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Top 20 One-A-Day Small Business Marketing Vitamins

Sometimes people hesitate from starting a full-blown marketing program because of the time involved to develop and implement it. I am in favor of the strategic, disciplined approach to marketing, but sometimes a business just needs to do something to kickstart its program. Here are my top 20 marketing ideas that can be implemented over the course of a month.

1. Consider starting a monthly e-newsletter. They are a great way to communicate with existing customers, and to remind them of other services you provide.

2. Call a customer at random just to thank him for the business he has given you.

3. Develop a signature for inclusion on every email and ensure that all employees are using it. Here’s mine:

We Make You Look Good
My Creative Team, Inc.
Harry Hoover
harry@My-CreativeTeam.com
tel: +1 (704) 953-3406
fax: +1 (704) 896-2760
http://www.my-creativeteam.com

4. Send hand-written thank you notes to customers or other people who have helped your business.

5. Call a former customer to find out why she left you.

6. If well educated business professionals are your target, consider becoming a sponsor on your local public radio station.

7. Give a speech. If you need help with public speaking, sign up for Zipline, the e-newsletter I do for Ty Boyd, one of America’s top presentation coaches. Even better, take one of his courses.

8. Read a marketing book.

9. Write and place articles in ezines.

10. Ask a customer what you can do to help his business.

11. Distribute releases about newsworthy events.

12. Set up a marketing and advisory group consisting of people from outside your industry.

13. Consider setting up a local online web search advertising campaign. Check out ReachLocal.

14. Gather competitors’ ads and literature to see what they are promoting, and how they are approaching their target market.

15. Offer free samples of your product or service.

16. Call some current clients and ask them why they hired you and how you could expand your business with them.

17. Get a college student who is in a communications program to do a summer internship for you. UNC-Chapel Hill has a very good internship program.

18. Join - and get involved in - a professional or civic group.

19. Write a letter to the editor or an Op-Ed piece to establish your expertise in an issue.

20. This is self-serving, but after all it is my list: hire My Creative Team.

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New WSJ Small Business Channel

The Wall Street Journal is adding a free channel for small business and entrepreneurs. This new channel supersedes the old StartUp Journal. This new, free channel on WSJ.com provides complete coverage of small business issues, from the earliest planning stages to financing growth and expansion. Use the channel to:

Research small business issues, from securing financing to hiring and retaining employees.

Learn the pluses and minuses of owning a franchise and browse many of the nation’s hottest franchise opportunities, plus a host of other small business information.

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Small Business Publicity

A new way for small businesses - using a twist on old media - to publicize themselves has popped up in my hometown of Charlotte. It’s called Broadcast Charlotte.

The founder says, “My motivation for launching the channel has been a continued frustration with the lack of coverage in the mainstream media (specifically local media) of small business events and educational content. I am certainly not upset with traditional media, as the economics require a hit-driven solution where only big companies, big personalities and big interests are served. If I had their expense burden I would do the same thing.”

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8 Of 10 Americans Know About Blogs

Blogs aren’t just a passing fad. New research from Marketing Daily indicates that blogs are incremental to old media and that more than half of all connected Americans visit blogs daily. This opens up the question about blogs as a viable advertising platform.

Newspapers are in the most danger from this emerging media, I think. The print media as a whole has - like the dinosaur - not seen the meteor strike coming. In a related story, one of the developers of the Internet says that TV is dying, too.

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WSJ Editorial Contacts

Thought I’d share a few Wall Street Journal contacts with you today.

Here’s the primary contact information:

200 Liberty Street, World Financial Center, Room 200, New York, NY 10281, 212-416-2000. Send email to the newsroom at nywireroom@dowjones.com.

The email protocol is first name.last name@wsj.com. For instance, News Editor Mike McCarthy is mike.mccarthy@wsj.com. Paul Gigot is editorial page editor. Melinda Beck is marketplace editor. Robert Sabat is workplace editor.

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Politics Goes Online

The 2008 presidential campaign will be the first to fully utilize online tactics. If you want to keep up-to-date on which candidates are effectively driving traffic to their websites, visit Hitwise election center. Or, you can keep up with a visit to Compete, where you can compare the candidates of your choice.

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MASHABLE: Behance Officially Launches Network for Creatives

Behance, the online portfolio and networking service, has officially launched. You’ll remember that we reviewed the site here during its private beta test phase last week.

With the official launch, Behance is taking the opportunity to note how it differs from your average network for creative professionals, highlighting its provision for those beyond artists, including those involved with marketing, media production, design, writing, and anyone else that may benefit from an online portfolio and inclusive networking tool. As Behance streams projects through private and public circles, makes content available in a sortable gallery, and onto other sites, the platform offered by Behance can be used as a multi-faceted tool for networking, promotion and professional advancement.

Behance Officially Launches Network for Creative Professionals

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8 Pitch Tips so You Get Featured in the Chicago Sun-Times

Nice piece in MarketingSherpa about how to get ink in the Chicago Sun-Times. (See an historic Sun-Times front page above). A few of the pointers:

Business Editor Daniel Miller’s four tips:
#1. Know whom to call. “Read the stories, note the bylines so you know who covers what beats.”

#2. Know when to call. Daily newspaper headlines are different from weekly ones, and reporters’ deadlines are different from editor’s deadlines. “When you pitch by phone or email, ask what time of day, day of week is best for a pitch that’s breaking news or features.”

#3. Know what to call with. Miller emphasizes the range of articles that area newspapers run: “A Sun-Times story is different from a Crain’s story or a Tribune story, and all are different from a WSJ story.” Note the section’s departments to find the appropriate space for your story.

#4. Know when to retreat. Their editors may not be interested in another story on the same tired topic or the subject may just not resonate with the editor. “Don’t try to argue him into accepting the story.” Spirrison concurs: “It’s annoying when publicists can’t take no for an answer.”

The contacts:

Daniel Miller
Business Editor
Chicago Sun-Times
350 N. Orleans St., 10th Floor
Chicago, IL 60654
312-321-3000
DMiller(at)SunTimes(dot)com

Brad Spirrison
Business Columnist
Chicago Sun-Times
312-804-9844
brad(at)midwestbusiness(dot)com

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