Newsletter - If you are not aware of it, newsletters are an awesome tool to communicate with existing customers and tell possible prospects about your company. This could be a printed newsletter that is mailed or available at your location or you could create one online or start an email newsletter. Start today to gather your customers email addresses so you can communicate with them.

Software - There are many software programs out there that tout that they will submit your site to hundreds or thousands of search engines. Buyer beware! Make sure to know what they submit to (search engines, link farms, FFA's, directories, etc). Do they update software to keep up to date with search engine scripts and algorithms? You will find that there are really 15-25 key engines/directories out there and then another 50-60 fringe engines to submit to.

Web Site Content - Your web site should have up-to-date, relevant and quality content pertaining to your industry and your company. Make your site somewhat resourceful and interactive with your customers or prospects with local/national news, weather, maps, related links, newsletters, specials, FAQ's, surveys, polls, questionnaires and list could go on. Give good quality content and people will continue to come back to your site.

Referrals - Make sure you have a referral feature on every page of your web site. This little feature allows users to click a button or link that sends an email to a friend or associate about your web site.

There are some technical areas that need to be addressed as well regarding making sure that your web site is search engine ready. We call it Search Engine Optimization and Submission. That is an entirely different and very extensive topic. This is an ongoing process in life of your web site.

There is definitely a need to have a Strategic Marketing Plan in place for your online presence whether you are going to take full advantage of above tips or outsource this project. If you want to make your web site have an impact on your business you have to make a conscious effort at getting it noticed. You have opportunity for your business to be online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year and available to an estimated Internet population of 149 million in United States and over 450 million worldwide (CyberAtlas), so why not take full advantage of this medium. Enjoy ride!!!

©2003 BMRW & Associates, Inc.

3. Is your company clearly an expert in studying, confronting or solving this problem?

If answer is yes to all three questions, you have a solid candidate for a threat that you can tackle in news media.

To work as a news story, threat must be something that will worry average reader or viewer. To work as a news source, you or your company must present itself as an expert about problem.

Here’s a very important point to remember about “expert” factor: It’s not necessary for you to have an immediate solution to problem. In fact, it’s usually better that threat not have an immediate solution.

Here’s an example from recent history: “energy crisis” from summer of 2001. For weeks, national news was dominated by soaring prices at gas pump and by rolling electrical blackouts along West Coast.

Judging from intensity of coverage, one might have thought civilization was about to end. Behind scenes, federal government took action to increase supplies of both gasoline and electricity.

Prices fell. Blackouts ended.

Suddenly, story was no longer a story.

Is problem gone? Of course not. The United States remains far too dependent upon foreign oil. But immediate threat was solved, and news value was destroyed.

The threat remains news only as long as it remains a threat. A solution resolves on-going news story, and thus kills its news value.

However, as an expert, it is good for you to propose a solution that is:

1. Innovative. You identify a problem, then propose a solution that other experts are missing.

2. In works. You identify a problem, then propose a solution that is plausible, but that will require commitment from someone important – public, government, private sector, etc. – to develop and produce. If you can demonstrate that your company is taking lead in discovering this solution, that’s even better.

The PR Rainmaker knows: When you choose a controversy, make sure it’s one with a long shelf life.

Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.