A great way to lift the spirits of your employees and remind customers about your firm can be to surprise them with company-branded items such as these:

Stress balls: Hand exercises with the help of a stress baseball can help relieve stress. Giving one to customers can help keep your company name on their minds.

Golf balls and tees: From golf course meetings to tournaments, the green is a great place to get your message out, with a logo on everything from golf balls to clubs, bags, markers and even shoes.

Water bottles: Custom-im-printed bottles now come in a wide choice of sizes, colors and styles. Polycarbonate bottles are even available with their no-taste, no-smell composition to make water and drinks taste better. Sports bottles with corporate logos can be great for sporting events and company picnics.

First-aid kits: Keep your workers, students and families prepared with custom first-aid kits.

Gardening supplies: You can give just about anything from branded gardening kits to seed packets, according to leading online promotional items vendor Branders.com. For more ideas and information, visit http://www.branders.com or call (877) 272-6337.

The most difficult thing about being a public relations professional is correcting a client’s perceptions about the field of PR itself.

PR people are depicted in the movies as “spin doctors,” stretching the truth or lying outright to present their clients in the best possible light.

That characterization couldn’t be further from the truth, and not because the portrayals are exaggerated and phony, but rather, because they proceed from the false assumption that a PR agent’s work is just about “selling” his client. The truth is, public relations is a marketing tool that is most effective when it isn’t trying to sell anything. At the heart and soul of any good PR effort is the desire to provide the news media with a story worth telling, plain and simple.

The hard truth that a PR agency has to help clients understand is that journalists and host don’t care about selling your book, your product, your story or your messages.

What they do care about is serving their viewers, listeners and readers with information and entertainment that keep them tuned in and paying attention. The more eyes and ears that are focused on their shows and publications means more advertising dollars for those organizations. And that is the “bottom line” in those industries.

Keeping that reality in mind, the best way to have successful interviews is to forget you’re selling something and work your marketing efforts around the goal of being the perfect radio guest. The key tactics to this strategy are:

Don’t position yourself as an author or executive. Instead, position yourself as an expert in your topic or your industry. Don’t try to sell anything other than your depth of knowledge and your ability to help answer key questions about some aspect of your topic that may have been in the news recently. For instance, a realtor can talk about escaping foreclosures. A stockbroker can talk about how to manage your own portfolio. Experts on just about any topic can look to the newspaper and find stories related to their expertise. Find that news story and shape your interview pitch around it, and include the fact that you have expertise in the field.

Make the host your friend. Talk candidly and openly about your topic in relationship to the current events surrounding it, and engage the host. In a recent interview, Lee Habeeb, co-creator of The Laura Ingraham Show and media coach to many of today’s top talk radio hosts, said, “The most important audience is the host. If you can engage the host, you will have engaged his audience. For example, the only reason most people gather around “The Savage Nation” is because they’re interested in what Michael Savage has to say and what he is interested in. So by proxy, you don’t have to worry about entertaining Michael’s audience; you simply have to engage and entertain Michael.”

Don’t sell. Stay on topic during the interview, and when appropriate, mention the free material on your web site that could benefit the host’s listeners. If you engage the host, give a great interview and offer helpful information, you don’t have to worry about selling anything. The host will do it for you. He’ll make sure his audience knows you’re an expert, he’ll give out your web site, he’ll mention the name of your book or he’ll talk about the value of your product. He’ll do the promotion for you.

Have a web site that does more than sell your product. If you are an author, provide free “tips articles” that explain your topic or your viewpoint in an informational manner. If you’re selling a product, create free reports or articles for your site that lay out the problem your product solves, again, in an educational tone.

How does this help you promote your book or your products?

Simple – one of the primary points of sale for almost every industry today is the Internet. Your web site is your virtual storefront or sales team, and companies pay big money for search engine marketing ads that are designed to drive traffic to your site. With your free report, you can drive radio listeners to your site in a non-commercial way that doesn’t lead them to believe you are selling anything. All it does is make you look smart. The host, tired of people using their shows to promote themselves, appreciates you not sounding like an infomercial and even urges his loyal audience to visit your site. If you’re really good, the host may even ask you back another time.

And you achieved all this simply by resisting the instinct to “sell,” and instead re-focusing your efforts toward helping the radio host offer listeners a good show!

About the Author:

Marsha Friedman is a 20-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations http://www.emsincorporated.com, a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also hosts a national weekly radio talk show, The Family Round Table, and is author of the book, Celebritize Yourself

Everyone enjoys getting a pat on the back — and, in a time when social media has become part of our global consciousness, the power of social proof is perhaps stronger than ever before.

It is with this thought in mind that Jim Mueller and his partners launched Propadoo.

Propadoo puts your testimonials & referral requests on auto-pilot. Here’s how it works:

• Streams Real-Time Testimonials on your website — increasing your conversions
• Generates Leads with referrals from happy customers
• Boosts SEO with user generated content & search-engine friendly Propadoo profile

Yesterday I had the chance to sit down with Jim to discuss how he got started, why folks should use Propadoo, and how this service can fit into your overall marketing strategy. In this twenty minute audio, you’ll quickly discover why Propadoo should be in every small business arsenal.

by: Melih Oztalay, CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing

If your business is dependent upon the local consumer for revenue then you will need to start paying attention to your local business listing.

You, also, need to know that paying attention to your local business listing is not about one location. There are over 60 different local listing websites and search engines in four different categories. Most allow the local consumer to post their experience about your business, products and services without your knowledge or involvement. While this has more importance for B2C companies, it does indeed apply to B2B companies as well.

One way of describing local business listings is to call them the interactive internet yellow pages. I say “interactive” because it is a two way street. Local business listings are a convergence of search, social media and mobile marketing. More importantly they have evolved to be an excellent marketing tool for the local business. Local business listings show up in search results on the first page and on mobile searches when the local consumer is around town.

Local businesses are defined as large local businesses, franchises, restaurants, banks, professional services, and small business. Pretty much any business that is dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue.

The business can do more with local listings then they ever could with the traditional yellow pages. Aside from the basic business information, you can add photos, videos, coupons, and events to showcase your business, your products and services. More importantly you can update them 24×7×365.

The consumer also is interactive in this case. They get to post their review of your business, their experience with you, your products and services. What is interesting is that the business does not have to be engaged in local business listings in order for consumers to post their reviews. Websites like Angie’s List, Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Bing, City Search and more are a good example how consumers have been very engaged in posting their commentary about a business (good or bad).

If you think that “getting listed” inexpensively is the solution then you need to reconsider what you know about local business listings. The trick is to claim your listing at multiple local listing websites in order to update them with your marketing material and manage them on a regular basis. It is estimated that less than 15% of all local business listings are claimed, therefore there is large number of local businesses that neglect this as a marketing tool and their reputation.

These local business listings represent your company’s brand and your customers feel about their experience with you. Isolated negative reviews are not to be taken lightly because your prospective customers that don’t know you and can only make a decision based on what they read. Any negative review will reduce the perception about your brand and consumers will think twice where to spend their money. These online reviews of your business are a powerful first impression of your brand credibility as well as a sense of security for new customers. They need to know they can trust you.

Consumers are tuning out the commercial messages that bombard them everywhere at all the times. Any opinion coming from another customer gives confidence with prospective customers. The opinion given from an existing customer with no economic interest helps to facilitate a foundation of trust.

If you’re wondering how a business utilizes this marketing tool effectively at all these locations with limited time resources, then the answer lies in local business listing management services that support the business to take care of this at multiple local listing websites. The only thing you have to be careful here is that most of the companies out there are about “getting listed”, which is not really what the business needs since most businesses, unless they are new, are already listed. What you need is someone who will help you setup an account, claim your listings, update, manage and maintain them for you.

Local business listing management services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.

About the Author:
SmartFinds Internet Marketing provides Local Business Listing Management Services and can not only help you claim your local business listing, but also, manage the ongoing maintenance at multiple local listing websites. Not only to help you update the listings with your information, but also with promotions, coupons, QR-Codes, offers, videos and photos. SmartFinds Internet Marketing – http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com, and http://www.smartfindslocallisting.com.

Active Modules, Inc. has announced the latest version of Active Social, an extremely flexible and user-friendly social networking solution that builds and promotes strong online communities.

Both site administrators and users will benefit from this version, which includes several new features and many enhancements to existing features.

“Active Social delivers the most complete, out of the box social networking solution for DotNetNuke. We knew, based on Active Modules’ long track record of delivering high quality, enterprise class and extensible modules for DotNetNuke that their latest release of Active Social would be perfect for us to move beyond a vertical market forum into an organic specialty social network. “ says Steven Webster, owner of BikeClicks.com. “Active Social allows us to have our site up and running quickly, but still customized every last detail from how it works to what it looks like without writing code. This flexibility has allowed us to incorporate Active Social into our site seamlessly.”

“BikeClicks.com is a perfect example of how Active Social can take a large, but simple forum based community to the next level of social networking and on-line communities. Active Social provides site owners with the tools necessary to attract new members and encourage site participation,” says Will Morgenweck, President of Active Modules, Inc. “We know we have a successful product when we see sites such as BikeClicks.com achieve their own goals using Active Social.”

BikeClicks.com was part of the Active Social Beta release, which enabled them to upgrade their site and launch with Active Social 1.3 two weeks’ early. On the results, Webster explains, “The results have already paid off. Since re-launching our site on Active Social 1.3 we’ve seen an immediate increase in traffic, membership, activity and can literally watch new user to user connections being made in real time.”

Active Social 1.3 includes several new features including: Social Summary, Categories, Auto Friend, RSS Manager, Welcome Messages and more. The template and skinning systems have also been updated, which allows for simpler customization of the module and better site design integration out of the box.

With the ability to create customized member profiles, groups, forums, private messages, events, photo albums, and much more, Active Social offers all the tools needed to start a strong, online community or to enhance an existing site. To learn more about Active Social, please visit http://www.activemodules.com or http://www.activesocial.com.

Information technology startup EggZack has announced the launch of its new service to help small businesses manage all of their online marketing and communications in one place.

The EggZack.com digital marketing and broadcasting platform lets businesses post their local content, such as news, events, press releases and special offers, in one easy step and then automatically broadcasts it to all of the places that customers look for it, including local and national websites, blogs, social networks, and selected email lists.

EggZack.com also makes it easy for business owners to manage their digital marketing – their websites, social media, blogs, SEO and PR in the same one place. Businesses can track where and how many people have read their material all in real time.

“Small businesses have been frustrated by the Internet. They’ve struggled to make it useful for them, because it’s time-consuming and overwhelming. Business owners don’t have the time to learn about every new social media or hyper local content sites that they might want to market on, let alone manage them day to day. We solve that problem for them and show them the results. We help small businesses make the whole web work for them with just a few clicks,” says Founder and CEO, Jon Zack.

“We saw that the issue for the small business owner was that local content got stuck in places where people couldn’t find it. As a result, they realized little value in publishing online, and today the majority of local content, the stuff that consumers want to know, is still not on the web” added Zack.

Co-founder and CTO Rick Morrison says, “We solve these problems by providing a one-stop digital publishing, marketing, and broadcasting platform. Our small business customers can focus on their message without having to worry about where to post their content; we automatically post it for them.”

Zack added, “The time savings are tremendous. With EggZack.com, businesses can easily get their message to the right people, their customers and their prospective customers. This means that local content will be more available and easy to find everywhere on the web, directly benefiting our customers, consumers and local communities.”

Visit http://EggZack.com to learn more and to sign up for the service.

Finding quality customers during tough times really is achievable.

Here’s some repression-proven steps any business can take to attract great customers—directly from a leading marketer who’s business was nearly crushed by the economy.

Following the dot com crash of 2002, entrepreneur Michael Stelzner had a crazy idea. Scrambling with few leads, a sinking business and a family to feed, he decided to woo customers by literally putting his trade secrets in writing and giving them away for free.

“My business was sinking faster than the Titanic before I used this simple method.” said Stelzner. Unsure whether his big risk would pay off, Stelzner’s skepticism quickly turned to wide-eyed amazement as the results first trickled in—then exploded. Despite the economy, Stelzner’s “crazy idea” is still putting money in his pocket.

Giving away his best ideas propelled him right through tough economic times, delivering more than 80,000 leads, a steady stream of “ready-to-buy” customers, millions in revenue, a best-selling book and business ventures beyond his wildest dreams.

Stelzner went on to launch a successful 25,000-subscriber newsletter and a thriving conference business and wrote the best-selling book Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged. Now he teaches business owners and marketers how to grow their companies using the very techniques he pioneered.

What’s Stelzner’s secret to quadrupling his business during not one, but two major recessions? Using educational white papers as a way to sell “under the radar.” By packaging the right information in the right way, Stelzner has taught thousands how to transform anonymous readers into paying customers. The press calls him “The grandfather of white papers.”

Studies show white papers remain the most effective lead generation tools, bar none. Prospects turn to white papers when making large purchasing decisions. These marketing tools are so powerful that corporations repeatedly pay up to $10,000 to professionals to craft them.

But you don’t have to spend a lot of money or hire someone else to put the power of white papers to work for you. Anyone who can pen a business letter can learn to successfully market his or her business with white papers.

Here are 5 of Stelzner’s 10 essential rules to help you create “ready-to-buy” customers with white papers:

Embrace readers by talking about their issues.
Actually write about your prospects’ fears and frustrations. What are their problems? Lay it out in writing. Then go ahead and tell them how to solve their challenges.

Share your proprietary secrets.
Don’t hold back. Tell readers the very secrets that you’d normally only share with paying customers. The response will blow you away. It’s often, “How much more will I gain if I hire this company or buy this product”

Accept that your audience isn’t a clone of you.
Your readers don’t think the way you do. Get inside their heads, meet their needs and use language that doesn’t make you sound self-serving. Kill the fancy words, stop talking about yourself and simply speak your reader’s language.

Use the movie trailer open.
Your first words matter most. Craft an opening that sounds like a good movie trailer—it creates an interesting drama in the minds of readers without giving away the whole story, ensuring they keep reading.

Fire your silver bullet by writing a list only YOU can satisfy.
When you use educational content, there’s always the chance readers will compare you against the competition. You virtually eliminate your rivals when you tell readers how to shop. Generate a list of requirements that only your company can meet. The result: you provide great value your readers and help them filter out your competitors.

To read the rest of the list, visit http://whitepapersummit.com/10steps.

Tele-Pak, Inc., a plastic card printer, is proud to announce a new 24-hour printing service that ships custom-made plastic cards overnight anywhere in the world.

Tele-Pak, Inc. has introduced a new 24-hour plastic card printer service. Within 24 hours of signing off on artwork, credit-card-size cards, printed 4/4 colors with variable data are ready for delivery to the customers doorstep (48 to 72 hours for cards containing magnetic strips or scratch-off).

Tele-Pak offers key tags, hotel key cards, event cards, gift cards, and ID cards-anything with bar codes, magnetic strips, numbers, letters, or scratch-off strips. It also offers plastic card printing services. Additional uses could include school programs, discount programs, new store openings, customer loyalty programs, Pet IDs and much more.

Interested business owners may request a free sample card pack at http://www.cardprinting.us/samples-request.html. Art design and modification services are available.

Web Campus World Wide has released a comprehensive online eMedia training to help small business owners and their employees market and sell their products online in 2010.

Authors of the eMedia training include award-winning social and eMedia marketing strategist, Kim Power Stilson, global Internet guru, Tom Egan, eMedia education specialist, Debbie Cluff and Irish entrepreneur, David Ryan.

“eM or eMedia is the combination of the very powerful web forces that have come together to create the most effective web marketing environment since the introduction of the Internet to the World Community,” said Kim Power Stilson. “Web 2.0, Social Media, eCommerce, Sales 2.0, PR 2.0 and the Electronic Broadcast Mediums have now been combined under one definition referred to as eM.”

According to David Ryan, as an entrepreneur himself he realized eMedia offers an advantage that is hard to be ignored.

“With each marketing effort company owners gain a little more success and with each success the economy improves,” said David Ryan. “Small business owners can push to the forefront of global success with the eMedia intelligence in this training and gain an advantage.”

Business ownners can learn the 5 eMedia steps you can take to promote your business with the “eMedia for Your Business Training Series” — Strategy, Tools, Sales, Freedom, Velocity – and take the courses that teach Internet, Web, and Online Social Communications every business owner should know for 21st century success.

For more information, visit http://WcW.com or http://www.powerstrategies.TV.

Publicity is not rocket science. Any business owner can do publicity if they have access to the right tools, tactics and advice.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to get more positive media exposure can find many new services and tactics from publicity thought leader Dan Janal when they visit his new site, located at http://freepublicitytools.com.

The site features news of new websites that offer free publicity and marketing tools for small business and entrepreneurs, as well as reviews of new services that can help business owners get more publicity for their products, their companies and their books.

“There are a lot of free services on the Internet that can help business owners get the publicity they need to get new clients, grow their businesses and become thought leaders in their fields,” said Dan Janal, the leading authority how to turn publicity into profits.

Among the first set of sites reviewed are:

• Press Release Grader, a free service that shows how to improve press releases
• HootSuite – a tool to sent messages via Twitter and organize searches on Twitter
• Compete.com – a website that shows how much traffic your site and competing sites receives over several time periods

Business people can join an update service to receive notifications of new products and services reviewed on the website. Website owners can also receive an RSS feed of the content to post on their websites or LinkedIn Groups for free.

“I see this site as a way of serving the community and giving back to the community,” said Janal, who founded PRLEADS.com, one of the original sites that helped small business people get leads from reporters who were writing stories and needed to find sources to quote.

About Dan Janal
The Los Angeles Times called Dan Janal an “internet marketing expert.” He’s written six books on publicity and marketing for John Wiley. An in-demand keynote speaker, Dan Janal has spoken everywhere from Beijing to Budapest. He has taught at Stanford and Berkeley. He is an award-winning daily newspaper reporter and business editor and was on the PR team that launched AOL. Other clients include the National Football League, IBM and The Reader’s Digest.