4 Ways to Get Your Online News Release to Rank Higher in Searches

If you’re trying to increase the ranking for news releases you’re posting on line, consider these simple tips offered by Adam Sherk with Ragan.com:

1. Identify keywords likely to be searched for. You can find out popular words by using tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Google Insights.
2. Include some key words—but don’t go overboard—in the text, title and quotes if you can.
3. Include links (3–4 tops).
4. Keep your release short.

Want more details? Read his full article.

Five Things You Should Know About Advertising With 2D Barcodes

The use of 2D barcodes (which come in varieties like QR Codes or Microsoft Tags) continues to escalate because of the immediacy possibilities they present. Put simply, 2D barcodes let people respond to a call to action at the time they are interested—when they’re more likely to respond. Most of us won’t respond to a call to action if there’s a delay between the impulse and access to your computer. But mobile closes that gap, making now the perfect time to respond.

Here’s what you should know about 2D barcodes:

1. They can lead to contact entries, calendar items, video, apps, directions, coupons, menus, links to reviews, virtual tours—you name it. But make no mistake—users expect valuable content, entertainment value, or time or money savings (like downloading a coupon, or contact information).
2. Linking to a Web page is the old way—linking to content devised for mobile is the new way.
3. They can be customized visually.
4. Test, test, test before you launch.
5. Be wary now of malicious QR codes with malware. Criminals can replace the QR code on your Web site or even put a sticker onto existing marketing material, reports PC World.

Don’t overlook the possibilities of using barcodes in your advertising campaign. The possibilities are both endless and promising.

15 Ways Communications Will Change the Way You Live and Work

Whether you are a consumer or in the world of business, changes in communications will alter the way all of us live and work in the future. For us as professionals, this makes the world of communications exciting, challenging and at times, sobering. 

Below you'll find 15 significant changes we’re observing in the industry—changes that will have a huge impact on all of us—and on the world of business.

Everything’s going mobile
Our mobile phone is no longer just a phone. It’s  a remote control for navigating our personal and professional lives: communication device, portal to entertainment, camera, organizer, travel and commuting guide, connection to the world of knowledge. No communication plan should overlook the central role mobile is playing in our lives—and no company should fail to resource at least some key mobile strategies.

Creating our own realities
If you haven’t watched Eli Pariser’s TED Talk, it’s a must see.

Pariser reminds us that while human editors once served as gatekeepers for information, this responsibility is shifting to algorithmic gatekeepers, which don’t have embedded the ethics humans are capable of. These algorithms—filtering techniques for the likes of Google and Facebook—are increasingly deciding not what we ought to see or what’s actually occurring in the world around us, but what we want to see—based on what’s relevant to us.

Two people can search for Egypt, for example—and one will get travel information, while the other gets news of political unrest. This creates a filtered view of the world—one in which we are at the center, and reality is created to serve our preferences. It prohibits us from seeing differing points of view and information that is important, uncomfortable and perhaps even challenging—but that is necessary to make informed judgments of the world around us.
 
Anonymity, detachment and the decline of civility
Anonymity promotes a lack of accountability, truthfulness and civility. Marked by crude and even hateful language, anonymous comments dehumanize our relationships, causing us to behave differently than if we were speaking face-to-face with someone. 

And even when we’re not communicating anonymously, electronic communications create distance, shielding us from body language, facial expressions and tone of voice—all key aspects of communicating. This changes our behavior towards others and diminishes the kindness and civility that contributes to a more humane society.
 
Shift in power
The consumer now owns your business’ message, and this will only intensify. As we talk with clients about how to deal with online critics, they’re justifiably concerned. Businesses are more vulnerable and can more easily sustain damage by individuals who may or may not have a legitimate criticism or be informed, honest, civil or truthful.

On the other hand, this calls businesses to a higher level of accountability—and that’s good. Positive news can spread quickly, so endorsements from your customers can also increase the value of your brand. We hope this will cause all of us in business to focus as much on who we are as on what we communicate.

A rise in cynicism
Access to overwhelming levels of information, inability to discern authoritative sources from those that aren’t, and limited time to explore the truth of a claim or point of view can make us all feel like deer in the headlights. We may have more information, but we also have less certainty about its truth and credibility—and little time to sort it out. As a result, a healthy cynicism clouds our minds, making us skeptical of any communication. Successful businesses have to work harder now to break through that barrier to build trust.
 
Exploding technologies
The explosion of new technology allows us to deliver information in new and more personal ways. This is exciting but also difficult to sort through for businesses that are overwhelmed by the options. But it also provides some very exciting new possibilities for communicating. One positive outcome is that we now have more access to our customers’ stories, which can be used to reinforce the brand message.
 
Talking with, not talking to
Stories in print are static, but stories online develop organically and quickly, resulting in conversations rather than speeches. Today's customers want deals and dialogue with companies they follow—“talking to” them is no longer the most effective way to deliver your message.

A demographic of one
It’s hard to imagine today that the term mass media ever existed. Demographic slices are becoming smaller and smaller as microcosms of our culture connect more around ideas and interests than geography. As businesses, our job is to create and feed our tribes with the information and experiences they’re craving. It’s also much more complicated—and time-intensive—for businesses to create messages for many smaller marketers, rather than one mass market.
 
Information destinations vs. selling
Yes, there's still a place for messages that sell. But consumers are demanding information and experiences that fit their interests. Shifting our Web strategies from a focus on sales messages to an information destination is an imperative if we want to build a tribe that follows us.
 
Harder to get the consumer’s attention
We are all chased by too much information. In the rising sea of communication, it’s harder and harder to get the attention of the person you want to reach. This means that our messaging, visuals and methods all have to be sharper, more compelling and more original than your best competitor's.
 
More sophisticated visual appetites
Remember the PowerPoint presentations crammed full of charts, graphs and full-on prose? In today’s market, those will never do. In a culture that expects Target to sell artful kitchen spatulas, we must deliver increasingly higher quality visuals. Mediocre pictures, design and writing will instantly brand your company as second rate—even more than in the past.

The video imperative
If you’re not using video and motion graphics to tell your stories, you’re falling behind your competitors. Video can add authenticity and increase Web traffic. It brings stories to life more than any other medium, and by adding motion, voice and music it increases engagement.

Entertain us, please
Our culture’s insatiable appetite for entertainment is impacting the world of business in big ways, as businesses are finding their messages get better traction when they also entertain. This has proven to be a very effective way to generate consumer interest in a topic they might not otherwise seek out. Regardless of whether we think it’s a good idea to select our information on the basis of whether it can amuse or even shock us, this is a reality we can’t ignore.

Restraint: the other side of freedom
One can't observe these changes without thinking philosophically about their impact on culture. Because we can now speak on any topic to a much broader audience, our messages carry more weight. We must govern ourselves with restraint and responsibility, consciously considering the impact of our words and messages.

Decentralizing company communications
Communications will no longer come only from a business' official communication team. Employees, friends and stakeholders are all voices of the company, and while they can’t be controlled they do have the added value of authenticity. Attempts to script these voices are usually detected and chided. As this shift continues, the role of the organization’s chief communicator will need to adapt to fit this new paradigm.
 
Communication remains the engine of societies. No building is built, no product launched, no democracy preserved without it. It’s up to each of us to write our own script about how we’ll navigate these changes. At CMBell Company, we're embracing these changes, thinking about how they'll impact our clients, and creating communication strategies that will work in a very new paradigm.

The Overlooked Sign: Increase Your Business With Better Signage

We designed a window graphic for this medical group in Colorado in an effort help differentiate it from its retail neighbors—and promote the clinic. Walk-in business increased by 333% the first two months, and those who set up appointments because they saw the sign while driving by went up by 380%.

If you’re spending money on media buys but not looking at how well your own signage is working, maybe it’s time to take a second look. It could be your most effective—and least expensive—ad ever.

Ad Envy: Uptown Community Clinic

Did this ad make you read the copy clear to the end? It did us.

This ad (click to view larger) from a series created by a Minneapolis-based agency cleverly plays off research findings which revealed that people were more likely to have a sympathetic reaction to images of abused animals than to photos of abused children.

It works on several levels:

1. The headline and the photo are arresting, and evoke an immediate response—drawing the reader in.
2. The copy is compellingly written, and does a fine job of telling a story and making a point with limited words.
3. It’s simple, and pared down to the most necessary elements.

This didn’t require an expensive photo shoot, but just a big idea that was executed well.

Building Physician Practices: Success Stories

For more than two decades we’ve worked with physicians to build their practices, and this experience has helped us create a formula for driving patients to a new practice—which accelerates the revenue stream needed to sustain them. Using our proprietary methods, we’ve been able to track up to 57 new patients per month which can be linked back to a very modest investment in advertising. One practice resulted in a 25% increase in hospital surgical cases—just two months after the campaign was launched. (We know this because this practice was already in business when they hired us, and the volumes went up after the campaign launched.)

It’s good to use a mix of advertising media—and fine-tuning this over the years has helped us devise an optimal mix for launching a physician practice. The best results occur:

• Where there’s sufficient market demand for the specialty
• When the physicians have good patient relationships
• When the physicians and hospital have a strong partnership

Even without this, it’s possible to accelerate patient volumes through marketing—but when all of variables above align, the growth can be stunning.

Consumers Prefer Direct Mail and E-mail

According to a 2011 study,  consumers prefer to receive direct mail and email when hearing from companies who want to do business with them.

• Three in four people (71%) welcome receiving direct mail from organizations they are already customers of, and 57% said it was appropriate communication for prospective customers, as well.
• 78% of people say they willingly accept emails from companies they patronize; the figure dropped to 52% for prospective customers.
• Less than one in 10 (9%) of existing customers feel that receiving marketing text messages is appropriate, and just 4% feel it is acceptable for companies to contact prospective customers this way.

Consumers are using technology to control their relationships with brands and filter out unwanted communications. Chris Combemale, executive director of the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) UK states: “As Acxiom’s survey highlights, consumers are very clear about how they want to be contacted, with mail and email continuing to be their preferred channels. Above all they respond best when the communication is timely, relevant, and targeted. This should be at the forefront of every marketer’s mind in these tough times, as they fight to retain customers and win new ones.”

Source:  Marketing Magazine, Consumers Use Technology to Filter Relationships with Brands, Says Report, September 1, 2011. The survey, commissioned in July among 1,000 UK consumers and 200 marketers.  The full results can be found in: 'Tug of Love: How technology is changing the relationship between consumers and brands – and what marketers can do about it'.

Communication Trends: How Google and Facebook are Shaping Your View of Reality

In this TED Talk, Eli Pariser pulls back the curtain on the filtering techniques of Google and Facebook, reminding us that your news and information is now being filtered by someone else. Searches now bring up information tailored to you—so two people sitting next to each other and searching for the same thing will get entirely different results.

Pariser says the torch is being passed from human gatekeepers to algorithmic gatekeepers, which don’t have imbedded the ethics that humans are capable of. Right now these algorithms decide what we get to see—and what we don’t get to see—based on relevance to us. What they don’t show us are differing points of view, information that is important, uncomfortable and perhaps even challenging—creating a reality with us as the center.

Pariser suggests that these algorithms must be coded in a way that supports a sense of public life, a sense of civic responsibility—and that they are transparent enough so that we can both understand and have some control over the kinds of information we access.

This 8-minute video is a must-see.

2011 Web Trends: Part 2

Our last post highlighted some trends in Web design for 2011. We continue that here.

Adventurous Domain Names—The common .com is going out of style. Look for more creative addresses like .me or which is becoming more common for blogs or portfolios or .us for business pages.

Quick Response Codes—You may have noticed these appearing on business cards, ads, billboards, etc. This is one trend that has a multitude of uses and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Here are some cool uses for a QR code: 

1. Put a QR code on the back of your business card so people can easily visit your Web site.
2. Place a QR code on ads or store fronts so that smartphone users can access special offers, coupons or giveaways.
3. Use QR codes on T-shirts so you can be a walking promotion for whatever it is you are wanting to promote.
4. QR codes can also be used to make phone calls or send texts when scanned. Think of all the possibilities with this one!

Thumbnail Design—Thanks to Google's new thumbnail browsing you no longer have to click through to see the contents of a Web site, so expect your site to be judged based on a thumbnail as users become more acquainted with this new way of browsing. This poses a problem for Flash sites because that part of your design will not display in the preview.

Constant Connection / Life Stream—In our quest to make the internet more personable, we have taken to sharing all aspects of our lives online. Expect to see more integrated live feeds on Web sites such as the site below.

Article Source

Marketers Continue to Increase Use of Video

Onemarketmedia.com reports that video will be ubiquitous on the Web—and is a top priority for marketers.  Here’s what they say:

According to a survey by Marketing Sherpa, for the second year in a row video marketing is the top priority for marketers surveyed, ahead of SEO, PPC, social media, email marketing and all other online marketing tactics. Turnhere has also released a study in the fall which revealed the same results —“When asked to rank various online marketing priorities for 2010, video was ranked as the top priority.”

In a recent post conference interview Jeremey Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, summarized the outlook for Web-based video this way:

“Video will become as ubiquitous as text on the web.... What weʼve seen happening over the last year is this incredible growth in the number of organizations and corporations, of all types, of all industries, of all sectors of societies, embracing video to enhance what they are doing on the web.”

Image Source