BroadBased Communications: Marketing, Public Relations, Graphic Design

Although not all news releases will be picked up and covered by journalists, the content can be great for your company’s or organization’s website.

Much has been said about the dying art of the news release, including that it’s outdated and unnecessary. However, if content is king, then a more perfect news release can go a long way to support your SEO strategies and goals.

Although not all news releases will be picked up and covered by journalists, the content can be great for your company’s or organization’s website, thus giving you more content for social media sites. And if you’re creating content, shouldn’t it be perfect content that supports your SEO?

How does the perfect release support SEO?

The most powerful search engine-optimized news release should incorporate the keywords you’ve researched and rely on for search engines to find and rank your organization’s website. Including these keywords gives you another powerful piece of new content on the web. News releases often allow more space, longer forms of the keywords, and repetitive usage.

SEO releases should also include links to the most important content in your website. This requires your meta-tags and page URLs to fit with your keyword and SEO strategies. So instead of just sending readers to your website, we want to increase the clicks to certain pages. For example, if you’re launching a new product, you’ll want the release to include links to the specific product pages of the website.

Where does an SEO release help the most?

Hosting a regularly updated news section of your organization’s website is a great place for releases like this. Also, if you’re pushing out a release to a wire service like PR Newswire or BusinessWire, you will want your news release to be search engine optimized, as these types of releases tend to get posted online in various sites. If content is king, then inbound links are the prince.

Here’s a great article about how PR can help startups grow: 10 Essential PR Tips for Startups

Posted in Public/Media Relations, Web/Interactive Development

In an October 2011 marketing article for 904 Magazine, Jan Korb, BroadBased’s CEO, writes about how to set a marketing budget. In the article entitled “Think Strategically” on page 24, Korb differentiates between a marketing plan and a marketing budget, and offers strategies to identify benchmark budget numbers in your own industry.

Posted in BroadBased

Briefly, news releases are tools PR pros use to entice someone into taking a larger interest in a story.

A conversation we often have with new or prospective public relations clients concerns the role of a news release. While PR consultants still rely on news releases to help achieve client communication goals, a release is one small piece of a public relations strategy.

Briefly, news releases are tools PR pros use to entice someone into taking a larger interest in a story. They are not designed to capture emotion or the “story behind the story.” A news release should put forth facts about an event in the manner preferred by news media. They should be kept to one page and be written in the style of an inverted pyramid (news writing standard), succinctly, factually and in AP Style. Stray from this format and your carefully crafted news release might go straight into the trash.

If your goal is to promote a new employee, an industry award or charitable donation, a news release sent to a media outlet might earn you a mention. If you need to post news on your website, a news release is an acceptable tool. But if you are looking to promote a larger story about your company, that’s where a PR pro earns her keep: with the story pitch. She puts the facts together in the manner that editors and producers like to receive them and becomes your passionate storyteller. The thoughtful strategy behind a story pitch is what usually earns feature articles or profiles.

If you think you might have a story that is appropriate for larger media coverage, ask yourself the following questions. If you can provide a persuasive argument as to why your news is compelling to a broad audience, your idea might be pitch-worthy.

• Timeliness: Did the event happen recently?
• Proximity: Did the event happen near the target media?
• Impact: Who and how many does this affect?
• Prominence: How important is this? Who’s involved?
• Conflict: Is it controversial?
• Novelty: Is it the first, only, newest, best, etc.?

If the answers to these questions lead you to think you have a compelling, newsworthy story, the next step is to reach out to a public relations pro to help develop and plan your strategy.

Posted in Public/Media Relations

…the Police Athletic League of Jacksonville (PAL)! BroadBased is excited to announce PAL of Jacksonville has been chosen to receive our 2012 non-profit partner award, which includes a $25,000 donation of marketing, design and public relations support.

“It was a competitive process,” said Jan Korb, BroadBased’s owner and CEO. “Our entire staff is very much looking forward to working with the team at PAL. We decided a couple of years ago we could make a more significant impact in the non-profit community by dedicating our resources to one organization a year instead of donating bits and pieces to many.”

The Police Athletic League is a non-profit 501(c)(3) youth-serving organization working with the cooperative effort of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. PAL, in an effort to reduce juvenile crime and instill positive values, character and leadership skills, provides safe activities for Jacksonville youth. Its athletic and educational programs emphasize positive interaction with law enforcement officers and other adult role models.

Reneé Naughton, Managing Director of PAL, said, “PAL is so honored and grateful to be selected for this award. This generous donation clearly shows what a caring company BroadBased is. The true beneficiaries of this community partnership will be the 2,800 at-risk children served by the Police Athletic League.”

Learn more about PAL at JaxPal.com.

Posted in BroadBased

Perhaps a better question is do you calculate the return on your investment in marketing initiatives? If so, which method do you use? Below, we offer a variety of formulas commonly used in the marketing industry.

Each of the three formulas begins with the gross profit or customer lifetime value of the initiative. From that number, you subtract the overall cost of the marketing investment (this can vary by definition), and divide the resulting figure by the same marketing investment number. Since ROI is generally measured as a percentage, you will multiply that number by 100. For example, if the gross profit was $15,000 on a marketing investment of $4,500, the ROI calculation would look like this:

$15,000 – $4,500 = $10,500 / $4,500 = 2.33 x 100 = 233% ROI

Basic Marketing ROI Formulas

1. Gross profit (GP) for units sold:

Gross Profit – Marketing Investment
Marketing Investment

2. Customer lifetime value (CLV) instead of gross profit:

Customer Lifetime Value – Marketing Investment
Marketing Investment

3. GP or CLV minus marketing investment and overhead:

Profit  – Marketing Investment – Overhead Allocation – Incremental Expenses
Marketing Investment

For more information on how to calculate ROI, please email BroadBased CEO, Jan Korb.

Posted in Marketing Planning

We are very pleased to announce that Catherine “Cat” Norton has joined BroadBased in the role of bookkeeper. In addition to A/P and A/R Cat will execute other finance-related activities. Cat earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting at the University of Oklahoma and brings more than 20 years of experience to BroadBased. Welcome, Cat!

And in intern news, the BroadBased fall design internship has been awarded to Stefanie Joseph, a senior at the University of North Florida. Stefanie will graduate in December with a bachelor of science degree in communication and advertising. We look forward to making this last semester a memorable one for her. Welcome, Stefanie!

Posted in BroadBased

A clear and cohesive plan will let you make the most of all marketing opportunities.

Yes, we said it: 2012. This year is more than half over, and as we find ourselves speeding toward Labor Day we are already working with many clients to budget for marketing activities well into next year. Maybe you have an existing marketing plan that just needs to be polished, eliminating those efforts that didn’t pay off in 2011. (How did those QR codes work out for you anyway?) Or maybe you need to develop a plan from scratch, complete with audience identification, goal setting, message creation, creative implementation, and results analysis.

The key benefits of developing a strategic marketing plan include:

• Developing a long-range view expediting decision-making.
• Building operating plans on market-driven research.
• Aligning and coordinating all efforts (print, web, radio, television, trade shows, etc.) to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
• Identifying goals, measurement metrics, course corrections, and successful initiatives that should be considered in future marketing plans.

A clear and cohesive plan will let you make the most of all opportunities to promote your product or service in the marketplace – at the right time, using the right media, with a clearly defined product and the right promotion strategy.

Posted in Marketing Planning

Please welcome Adam Price as the newest member of the BroadBased design team. Adam joined the firm in June as a junior graphic designer, assisting in the development of client print and web materials. A native of North Florida and a recent graduate of The Art Institute of Jacksonville , Adam previously worked for the U.S. Army as a veterinary technician.

Please join us in welcoming Adam to the BroadBased team!

Another new face you may spot in our office is Katie Jo Howell, who joined BroadBased in August as a fall semester PR intern from Florida State University. A Jacksonville native and a member of the Capital Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association, Katie holds a bachelor’s degree in studio art and is currently pursuing an additional bachelor’s degree in public relations. Welcome, Katie!

Posted in BroadBased

In August, Google reported that the average click-through rate (CTR) for banner ads dropped to .09% in 2010, down slightly from .1% in 2009.

This data tells us that most banner ads need 1,000 impressions to result in ONE click through to your website. One obvious lesson is how imperative it is for advertisers to take advantage of any performance edge they can find to increase their odds of success. The chart below presents click-through rates for different size banner ads, both static and flash-oriented.

View more results information on Google’s DoubleClick Advertiser Blog.

Posted in Marketing Planning, Web/Interactive Development

Writing for a speaking engagement is not that much different than writing for a customer, employee or investor communications piece (except for the “insert joke here” instruction). Getting in front of an audience is an excellent way to enhance an individual reputation as a subject matter expert. Of course, when speaking in front of a group, you want to have well-chosen, well-rehearsed and well-delivered words to get your message across. It’s no exaggeration the words you use to express your ideas are as important as the ideas themselves.

Speechwriting Tips

• Prepare early. Give yourself time to refine your ideas and track down facts.
• Keep it short. When was the last time you wished a speech would have been longer?
• Abandon formalities. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…” Or not.
• Know your audience. Ask an organizer about the group’s interests and issues, and tailor your message accordingly.
• End strong. In speechmaking, last impressions are even more important than first impressions.
• Practice, practice, practice. This is as much for your own peace of mind as it is for the enjoyment of your audience.

If you don’t have time to pen your next speech yourself, BroadBased offers speechwriting as part of our portfolio of services. Speechwriting is a natural extension of the corporate messaging that we perform on a daily basis. So whether you need a 15-minute talk for the company holiday party or a 45-minute presentation to a civic or industry organization, our writing partners provide a full range of services to address any topic.

Posted in Public/Media Relations