Marketing your brand is a full time job so it’s little wonder that sometimes, exciting opportunities aren’t fully capitalised upon. Today we are going to looks at a few little ideas to help you turn good news into great news and make the most of the marketing opportunities that come your way.
Recently a client was featured in a high profile publication which was somewhat of a coup, they were involved in a great magazine spread with some beautiful pictures of their work and they very cleverly managed to get a nice piece on the publication’s website (including a valuable link back to their homepage). A brilliant a job well done, but are there any additional opportunities here that have not been leveraged?
What we have here is a fantastic marketing tool which is newsworthy and independently promoted so what can our client do to make the most out of it?
On Their Website
Blog about it, this is an interesting event that their readers (customers) are going to want to know about, so by writing an upbeat informative post they can explain what they have done and how great it is that a nationally recognised magazine is working with them. They should also of course link out to the article on the magazine’s site.
Update their page header with a snazzy graphic “as featured in xxx magazine”. This is no time to be shy about their involvement in the project. After all by doing things to promote their involvement with the enterprise, they are promoting the magazine at the same time as their own brand. This means the guys from the magazine are far more likely to want to work with them on future projects.
PR
This is the kind of news that our client would not have any difficulty placing with any number of the online PR syndication services. By writing an article that explains what their business is, how they got involved with the magazine, as well as some details about the resulting feature they can produce a truly newsworthy PR article. It’s important that they add a link to the PR piece if this is allowed (different distribution services will have different rules on links).
I know it’s old school but there is nothing wrong with them contacting their local papers, a tie in between a national magazine and a local business could be a great news item whilst providing another level of promotion for both our customer’s brand and the magazine. It’s amazing what can be done by just picking up the phone and calling the news desk and making them aware of what’s going on.
Social Media
Social media was tailor made for an event like this. The magazine spread would be a unique opportunity to create some interest on Facebook and Twitter. This can be achieved by letting their followers know they have some exciting news and a carefully managed teaser campaign could work wonders.
Social media will allow them to share links to their own blog post as well as the article on the magazine’s site. It’s important to name check the magazine, they’ll be pleased with the extra coverage. The value from the article can be further leveraged by searching out the magazine’s social media output, liking them, following them and interacting with them.
By contacting the magazine via social media and explaining how excited they are about the article, how much they enjoyed working with them there is another beneficial outcome. Our customer has introduced themselves to the magazine’s followers, this could be a great opportunity to offer to answer anyone’s questions that arise from the article.
Your Own Good News
These are just a few great ways to make the most of a good situation when it arises. It might seem a little old fashioned but it adds to the diversity of your link profile which is something Google will love. The trick is to have a “what if” approach and look for diverse ways to keep the event moving so it can be as valuable as possible to you.
Have you got a good news story that you’ve yet to take advantage of? Here are some ideas for things that with a little work could deliver some real extra value:
- Winning a big contract.
- Winning an industry award.
- Being featured in a big publication.
- Sponsoring a charity or local sport’s team.
- Talking at events.
- Testimonials from happy customers.
- Unsolicited celebrity endorsements.
