Using Creativity and PR to Sell my Home

Due to a job relocation, we need to sell our Fort Myers Florida home. After 3 months of letting an agent use traditional marketing methods, I took action on my own.

My husband and I came up with a marketing idea to create dueling top 10 lists of the best features about the home. We thought this would appeal to men and women who tend to look for different things when they buy a home.

I used the PR web advanced release package to distribute a release about the top 10 lists to areas snowbirds come to Florida from: Boston (for Red Sox spring training), Minneapolis (for Twins spring training), Detroit, Chicago and Columbus.

On the day the release went live, more than 30 people viewed our listing on www.realtor.com. That number may seem small to some, but from 0 hits one day to 30 the next was exciting. Those were 30 more people than would have seen the listing otherwise. In addition, the release infiltrated the news feeds on real estate websites worldwide.

I also distributed the release to my Fort Myers media contacts. As a result, an article ran Sunday, September 19, in The Fort Myers News-Press. It appeared on the front page of the real estate section and featured several pictures of the home. The publication of this article also infiltrated the web and populated the news feeds on real estate websites around the globe.

Another tactic I used for this campaign was a blog. I created a blog to tell the stories of the home to help potential buyers see what a lovely, family-oriented home 11471 Persimmon Court is. Check it out: http://11471persimmoncourt.blogspot.com. Each time I write a new blog entry, I post it on Facebook and Twitter.

One exciting aspect of this campaign was that the Florida Association of Realtors wrote an article declaring the dueling top 10 lists a new "marketing tactic" in their newsletter. This was particularly exciting since part of what we were trying to do was create some action, activity and momentum in the real estate world! Perhaps this one little idea will help generate many more!

Two books were instrumental in my inspiration to create this campaign. The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott and A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. If you haven't already read them, get going!

Will keep you posted when the house sells!

Top 5 Tips to Craft a Media Release that’s worth a Million Bucks

Media releases have gained tremendous strength in recent years as search engine optimization has gained steam. Now, just by writing a news release and posting it online, you can drive visitors to your website – IF you do it right!

I learned a lot by writing and distributing the Million Dollar Coupon media release last year, so I thought I’d share a few tidbits about writing SEO releases with you in this column.

1. Write a fantastic, newsworthy release that is rich with key words targeted to your audience. Keep it short – around 500 words.

2. If you can, give your release a unique URL on your website, using key words.

3. Write a short summary to go under your headline – just one or two sentences – using as many of your key words as possible.

4. Include web page links to other pages on your web site – keep it to a maximum of one link for each 100 words in your release.

5. Take advantage of multi-media – add a downloadable photo and/or a short video. This gives journalists all the tools they need to write a story.

Although you can pay hundreds of dollars to have your SEO release distributed, there are many free and inexpensive news release distribution services out there today. You have nothing to lose by trying it!

Local PR Pro Susan Bennett, APR, CPRC told me about www.prlog.org, and a local colleague of mine, Tara Geissinger, co-founded www.onlineprnews.com. Check them out to learn more about how SEO releases can work for you!

The Power of Creating Buyer Personas

Wow! I read in David Meerman Scott's book the New Rules of Marketing & PR that you should create buyer personas for your website and create separate content on the site for those people -- content that will help them solve their problems.

I took this approach with my client, Master Life Coach Lynne Pietrzyk. Her website is www.shiftandwakeup.com.

We started with three primary buyers who might need life coaching -- stay-at-home moms, working moms and step-moms. Although we are just beginning to get content onto the site, we have already been rewarded with the approach.

A couple of people have already apparently Googled something along the lines of "life coach step-mom." Whoa! I think she found herself a niche! As a result, she's already scheduled a life-coaching workshop about step-parenting!

Plus, the timing was perfect with a release we had just sent out on her current book club -- a double whammy!

Her last week was incredible with one lead coming in after another! Much of that had to do with our approach with the website. #1. Create buyer persona's. #2. Create content to help those buyers.

The crazy part of all of this is that we debated what to do about a website, because we do not have a big budget for it. In the past, websites cost thousands of dollars to create. Well, this time around, Lynne decided that something home-made was better than nothing at all. She did it herself using www.godaddy.com.

At this point, we can't wait to add more content! Keep your eye out!

The Public Relations Secret Behind the $1 Million Coupon Phenomenon

Did that headline make you think I was going to tell you the secret behind the Million Dollar Coupon PR campaign? Well, I'm not!

But Content Marketing Strategist Newt Barrett will. He wrote about it in Friday’s edition of Content Marketing Today.

Visit www.contentmarketingtoday.com to read the article. Then let me know what you think! I hope you learn some hands-on tips that will help you in your job.

I don’t know how you feel, but I’m very excited about the new way of doing PR! I’m feeling re-energized and re-dedicated to my clients and my profession!

Major Excitement

Happy Monday morning! I'm writing to you from Illinois where I am finishing up my family vacation -- my brother got married!

While here I received two VERY exciting emails! One from Marketing Guru Newt Barrett, who said he would like to feature the Million Dollar Coupon on his content marketing blog! I'll be speaking to him later this week, and I'll be sure to post the link when it is published!

The other email was from David Meerman Scott. He is updating his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR and would like to include the Million Dollar Coupon! Major Wow! David is an amazing Marketing and PR expert, and I am honored to be considered as an example for the book!

In case you haven't heard of the book, it is one of the top marketing books in the world, a BusinessWeek bestseller and is published in 24 languages! David says many universities are using it as text! The new edition is expected to come out in early 2010. Wow. How lucky am I?

I am so excited about the new way of doing Marketing and PR. It has totally revved up my excitement about my business! I'm just chomping at the bit for the next adventure! I saw just how effective it is with the Million Dollar Coupon. I was totally wowed by it! If you haven't yet read David's book -- get it now!

The Top 10 Things I Learned from the FPRA Social Media Cafe'

I attended the FPRA Social Media Cafe' Last Friday and learned some really cool things about social media! I swear I've heard some of these things before, but I guess I just need to keep pounding them into my brain to make them functional!

Here's my Top 10 List! Enjoy!

1. You press releases should have key words that link back to your site – keywords that would come up in a Google search. (Got this one down with the Million Dollar Coupon campaign!)

2. You can search www.twitter.com with a # symbol in front of the word you are looking for.

3. You can use www.Tweetlater.com to schedule your tweets. How cool is that?

4. www.socialmention.com – monitors blogs and sends you alerts.

5. www.StartPR.com – monitors Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs. Try it!

6. Social media clubs are the wave of the future. To find one in your area, visit www.socialmediaclub.org.

7. You should use Twitter to link back to your site. (Whew! Already doing this one!)

8. You can use www.ping.fm and www.posterous.com for cross-posting! Way cool!

9. Online Newsrooms are not just for news releases and media kits -- you should also have video and photos...and links to your blogs, YouTube channel and Twitter and Facebook accounts.

10. Also, online newsrooms should have their own dedicated web address. The most common is www.news.YourCompanyName.com.

There you have it! Hope this helps!

Looking forward to FPRA's Social Media Cafe'

Ever since reading David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing & PR, I've been dangling my toes deeper into the social media waters.

Obviously, I learned VERY quickly how well it works with the Million Dollar Coupon campaign, but there is SO much more to be learned.

Thanks to FPRA's Southwest Florida Chapter, I'll be attending the Social Media Cafe' Second Course on Friday. It's a day-long social media professional development seminar that costs only $25 for FPRA members and $50 for FPRA non-members. Seriously, you can't go wrong! I won't go into detail about what will be covered, but you can view the schedule here.

The first course was held in May. It was only a half-day -- but what a GREAT half-day it was! I learned so much I could hardly stand it! Can't wait for this Friday!

I'll be sure to post some of what I learn!