Your Nisaba's Monthly Online PR service
When you type your business name into Google, are you proud of the results?
When you're interested in a product or service, or thinking about making a deal with somebody, do you type their business name into Google and see what comes up? Have you ever used the web to find out whether someone you've met is who they say they are, and whether to trust them or not?
I'm willing to bet that you have. And I'm willing to bet that your customers and prospects do the same when they're thinking about doing business with you too.
What do the Google results say about your online credibility?
So what does come up in the results when you search for your business? Go take a look, it's ok, I can wait.
Usually your website is at the top. If it isn't, that's a whole other problem, and you might need to address that first. But let's assume it's there. What are the results underneath? Directory listings? Mentions of your business on other company websites? Depending on your business, you might be mentioned on a blog or two, or even an article from the local paper's website.
Do the results excite you? Do you read them and feel proud? Are the messages about your business interesting, accurate and positive?
Would you want to contact your business if you saw those results?
There's no getting away from the fact that the internet influences the way that people perceive a business – often before they reach your website. I've spoken to so many business owners who simply feel powerless when it comes to their online presence. “I can't control what other people say about my business,” they say. “I just don't understand how to get my message out there other than on my website.” I've even heard “It's impossible to get anything useful other than my website onto Google, why even try?”
You can take control of your online presence.
Any of these sound familiar? These statements make me so sad, because it simply doesn't have to be this way. There is a solution. Of course you can't control what other people say about your business, but you can control what you say, and if your message is more prominent than what other people are saying, that's all that matters. Of course, when most people think about online content, they only think about websites, we can't be experts in everything. And as for getting anything else into Google results, well, that's just a matter of knowing what kind of content to create, and where to put it online.
I can solve all three of these issues: giving you control over what appears high up in searches about your business, getting your message out there and most importantly into the hugely powerful Google search results. My online PR service provides additional benefits to your website performance too, but I'm getting ahead of myself; you need to know how this whole online PR thing works first, right?
A quick and not very dirty guide to Your Nisaba's monthly online PR service
The process is so simple, you'll wonder why you're not doing it already. Every month I interview you or a key member of staff in your company to find out the news. We talk about what you've been up to and what is coming up soon, such as events or high profile business deals. If you're worried that you'll never have any news, don't worry, I've written over 250 press releases for clients and most of those were produced after a conversation beginning with "Well, I don't think I have any news." If you still don't believe me, then take a look at my free guide to press release ideas; The Four Pillars of Positive Online PR.
After the interview, I write three press releases conveying your message, containing the all important keywords associated with your company and its place in your industry, and I put it in all the right places online. Then the process starts again the next month. If you have a place for them on your website, I'll put them there too.
What do these press releases do exactly?
There are five major benefits that come from my online press release service:
- Press releases appear high up in search engine queries about your business. When someone types your business name into Google, press releases tend to do very well in the results. This has two primary psychological effects: it gives the impression that your business is substantial and important enough to have press releases about it, and it reassures potential customers that your business is not only legitimate, but also a major player in its industry.
- It increases your profile in your industry. One of my clients was mentioned in the newsletter of the global body that oversees all training in their industry, as a direct result of the press releases I wrote and distributed for them.
- It can lead directly to enquiries. If active online pr is maintained over time, the press releases tend to disseminate to many nooks and crannies of the internet. If the press release is targeted to a narrow target niche, it can achieve fantastic results in Google. Several clients have received enquiries as a direct result of a person reading a press release regarding an issue that they had been researching online.
- It creates inbound links to your website. There's a lot to be said for doing this. Over time, it will help the performance of your core website in search engine results.
- It creates new content for your site every month with no effort on your part. And not just any old content, no: keyword laden, well-written content that says all the right things about your business. What's not to love?
Common questions about online PR
What results can you guarantee?
Let's get this one out of the way first: I cannot guarantee that you will get a huge increase in traffic to your site. That's not what this is about. If that's what you're looking for, you need to go elsewhere, or have a think about why you might be wanting the wrong thing anyway.
I can guarantee that the press release will get into Google – it will be in the news results for at least a day, if it's a slow moving niche it will be longer.
I can also guarantee that the press releases will appear high up in results when people research your business using a search engine.
Everything else is impossible to measure in any scientific manner, so that goes into hard sales manipulation stuff, and I don't want to go there.
What return on investment will I see?
Perhaps a more pertinent question is “How much business are we losing through a lack of online credibility?” It's hard to measure, but there may be many people who might have come to you if they thought you were a substantial business, if the search results had shown just how good your business is before they even got to your website.
If you have a suspicion that you're losing business by having a neglected website and no other presence online, then online PR is worth investing in. It will take up no more than ninety minutes per month in terms of your time, with potentially huge benefits.
How much does it cost?
The online PR service (including the creation of an optimised business profile that you can use elsewhere online) costs £350 per month (including VAT).
What's on your mind?
That sounds pretty good, but I'm not sure it will suit my company. Can we talk about it? I would love to do that; simply drop me a line with your contact details and I will be in touch.
I'm not sure that we can afford it now, but I might be interested when things pick up again. I understand, and if you really don't want to make the investment now, why don't you sign up to my newsletter in the mean time? That way you can get to know me and what I do, and you'll get tips and advice about the online business world too.
Can we do a trial month to see if it works for us? I really do believe that this works best for people who are willing to give it three months; it takes time to see the effects, as I said before, this is not an instant traffic generator and gives very different benefits. Why not get in touch so we can explore your concerns?
We are a charity and can't afford to pay that amount, do you do freebies for charities? If I was rich and didn't have a mortgage, I would gladly. Alas I do have a mortgage and cannot offer this service for free. However, I do allocate a certain amount of time per month to charities I support, resulting in a reduced monthly rate, so feel free to get in touch.