Aboriginal Buying Group

Many of the lower-end press release distribution services are now allowing you to specify a release time. The large wire service providers have always allowed you to specify the release time and time zone.  Your PR or marketing agency should be able to advise you on the best time for a release; but if you don’t have one here is some guidance ?

Unless you are trying to stem a crisis or doing a timed product release that’s linked to an event, we have found 7:30am-8:00am in your “target timezone” to be the most effective.It is early enough in the morning to meet most journalist’s deadlines and late enough to catch them after their java. Releasing early in the morning will allow get you to the top of Inbox’s if you are pitching via email. It also gives the public relations agency the entire day to line up interviews with company executives, if requested.

Your “target timezone” can be different than where your business is actually located. If your company headquarters is in New York, but you primarily sell on the West Coast, a 7:30am PST release time would be best. Early AM release submissions have given us the best media pickup. Remember though, you always have to option of sending reporters releases “under embargo” which means you can send them ahead of time and, by ethics, the receiver agreees not to publish until your specified date and time.  {However, we find sending releases “under embargo” is not as effective as a timed morning distribution}. Some editors and reporters also frown upon embargoed releases or they just simply forget about a release when it was sent to them days before.

For a press release distribution service consider Marketwire.com.Marketwire’s state-only distribution channels are excellent bargains if you only sell locally.And their SEO-enhanced options at $200 is highly-recommended as anchor-text links remain intact even in online news sites such as Google News and Yahoo! News. If you can’t afford Marketwire for a nationwide release, then use PRWeb at $80 if you’re really budget-limited, or the $200 PRWeb SEO-enhanced package with anchor text links. However with the PRWeb package, you cannot choose your distribution time - the default is midnight- the $80 option releases only at midnight}.

Copyright 2006 James Wilson

One of the hardest things to do in marketing is to get people’s attention.

Controversy gets people’s attention.

Controversy not only gets other people’s attention, it also gets the media’s attention.

The media knows that people love controversy and so they jump at the chance to cover controversial topics.  A few months ago, my wife and I were at odds (friendly odds) about our children sleeping in our bedroom.

I was pondering a way to turn this friendly disagreement, into a “Media Event”.

As I was sitting at my desk around 8pm one evening, I did some brainstorming for a few minutes, and then it hit me!

I decided to move to the roof of my house as a sign of protest against my wife for insisting that our children sleep in our bed. So, I immediately got on my computer and cranked out a press release announcing my strike, and my online petition drive.

The petition was used to collect email addresses, so I could “UPDATE” visitors on my progress.  This led to over 14,000 Opt-In emails.    I knew that this story had tremendous potential, because of the unusual nature of my strike.  As you can imagine, my wheels were spinning a thousand miles per hour, as to the quickest way to drive people to my Husband On Strike web site.

I knew the quickest way to do that was through FREE Publicity!  It took me less than 20 MINUTES to write my press release.

The next morning, I blasted my press release out to all the media outlets in my state.

By 10am two days later, I received “THOUSANDS” of hits to my HUSBAND ON STRIKE web site, people were signing my “petition” by the thousands, because of several mentions on a local talk radio show.

By the 2nd day, the site was getting 20-40,000 hits per hour, to check on the signature count and view updates on my blog.  It was truly an incredible event!

I had not paid ONE penny for all this FREE publicity!

But it gets even better…

On the 5th day after my press release was sent out, three local television news stations, CNN, MSNBC, GERALDO, DR.Phil, and hundreds of other media outlets did segments about my strike.   As you can imagine, after these outlets featured my story, I had thousands and thousands more visitors coming to my site.

Now, many of you are asking your-self what benefit I got out of this other than a bunch of people visiting the web site.  Well, let me tell you the simple thing I did to generate thousands of dollars in product sales.

I put text link ads to affiliate products and Google Adsense ads on my homepage…

I knew that tens of thousands of people would continue visiting my web site homepage, to check for updates on my strike.  This meant that every person who visited the web site, got to see my text link affiliate product ads along with the Google adsense ads.

I was getting “thousands” of click thru’s to my ads, without spending ONE CENT on advertising. I sold thousands of dollars in products and my Google adsense income was in the many thousands of dollars. Best of all, it cost me NOTHING!

This is the power of FREE publicity, and seeing opportunities that NO ONE else sees!

The Message I’m Trying To Convey: Think OUTSIDE THE BOX

Even if you only get 50 visitors per day through FREE publicity, that’s 50 visitors that didn’t cost you one red cent!

For a promoter starting out they have to work hard and on a budget to get an audience of a few hundred people to fill a venue. Flyers, word-of-mouth and media name checks are some of the tools promoters use to fill small venues or club nights. It is not easy building up a loyal following from scratch. Attracting enough people to fill even the smallest of venues can be a challenge for any up and coming band and those promoting the band shouldn’t miss the opportunity to establish a relationship with the audience that will continue beyond the end of the evening.

With a minimal outlay and a little thought online surveys will help the promoter gather valuable feedback and the opportunity to establish a long term relationship with their audience. Using online Survey Software a promoter can now quickly and easily create an online survey.

With an online survey a promoter can find out exactly:-

• who attended;
• what persuaded them;
• what they thought of the event;
• would they expect to attend again;
• would they recommend future events to their friends.

A good way to ensure a good response is to have a supply of business sized cards that are marked clearly with a slogan like “Feedback”, “Your opinion counts”, “Tell us what you thought”. Each card would display an address that points either directly to the survey or to a website where a link to the survey can be placed. The cards can be issued at the door with the tickets, or handed out among the audience and being the size of business cards they are small enough to be stuck in a pocket, purse or wallet. A small incentive may improve the response rate, perhaps the chance to win a free guest pass for a future event, a signed CD or T shirt.

Using the results from online surveys the promoter is able to:

• Obtain a profile of the audience
• Gauge the overall success of the event;
• Measure the effectiveness of different promotion;
• Receive feedback on the venue and facilities;
• Receive feedback on the act;
• Promote on a one on one basis;
• Build a targeted database for future events;
• Build a loyal audience;
• Link to merchandise and other promotions.

It takes considering effort to promote an event and only a little extra effort to use online surveys to encourage further contact and reap a number of short and long term benefits that contact will bring.

The following sample survey shows the feedback that could be used for a breaking band. Not only does it gather valuable feedback, but continues to promote the band, their recorded music and establishes the opportunity to encourage further contact.

Sample Feedback Survey

To view the summary results of the survey: Sample Survey Results

Many promoters starting out have to work hard and on a shoestring to get an audience of a few hundred people to fill a venue. Flyers, word-of-mouth and media name checks are some of the tools promoters use to fill small venues or club nights. It is not easy building up a loyal following from scratch. For an up and coming band a lot of effort can go into attracting enough people to fill even the smallest of venues and those promoting the event need to take every opportunity to establish a relationship with the audience that will continue beyond the end of the performance.

With a little thought and small outlay online surveys can be used to provide the promoter with valuable feedback and the opportunity to engage in further contact with the audience. Using online Survey Software a promoter can now quickly and easily create an online survey.

With an online survey a promoter can find out exactly:-

• who attended;
• what persuaded them;
• what they thought of the event;
• would they expect to attend again;
• would they recommend future events to their friends.

A good way to ensure a good response is to have a supply of business sized cards that are marked clearly with a slogan like “Feedback”, “Your opinion counts”, “Tell us what you thought”. Each card would have a web address pointing either directly to the survey or to a website where a link to the survey can be placed. Cards can be issued at the door with the tickets, or handed out among the crowd and if they are made the size of business cards they will be small enough to be slipped into a pocket, purse or wallet. Small incentives such as a chance to win a free guest pass for a future event, a signed CD or T shirt would help towards improving the response rate.

Using the results from online surveys the promoter is able to:

• Obtain a profile of the audience
• Gauge the overall success of the event;
• Measure the effectiveness of different promotion;
• Receive feedback on the venue and facilities;
• Receive feedback on the act;
• Promote on a one on one basis;
• Build a targeted database for future events;
• Build a loyal audience;
• Link to merchandise and other promotions.

Considering the effort that it takes to promote an event and the little extra effort required in using online surveys to encourage further contact and all the immediate and long term benefits that will bring – it really couldn’t be any easier.

The following sample survey shows the feedback that could be used for a breaking band. It not only gathers valuable feedback, but continues to promote the band, their CD and gives the opportunity to encourage further contact.

Sample Feedback Survey

To view the summary results of the survey: Sample Survey Results