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Press Release Distribution: Top 10 Services + 4 Mistakes to Avoid

Public Relations
August 25, 2021/by
Press Release Distribution: Top 10 Services + 4 Mistakes to Avoid To thrive as a small business, you need press coverage. But, unfortunately, coverage doesn't just come naturally – you need to work for it. Enter: the press release. Press releases are important for increasing your brand awareness and helping your public relations (PR). But if nobody sees your release, you won't get very far. You need to distribute it effectively to get your story picked up by local and/or national newspapers, magazines, or blogs. In this guide to press release distribution, we'll cover the following to help you put together a plan of action that results in coverage: What is press release distribution? Why is press release distribution important? How to distribute your press release Distribution mistakes to avoid Should you use distribution services? Keep reading to learn how you can properly create, pitch, and distribute a press release for optimal brand awareness. What is press release distribution? Before we dive any deeper, let's iron out exactly what press release distribution is. It's the process of circulating or seeding out your press release to journalists, publishers, and members of the press. Your press release normally provides updates on your company's products and/or services, projects, partnerships, organization structure, and more. With distribution, you allow various publications to share your press release and thus, reach a wider audience. Why should you submit a press release? The purpose of distributing a press release...
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18 Compelling Above the Fold Content Examples to Inspire Your Own

Conversion Rate Optimization
August 24, 2021/by
18 Compelling Above the Fold Content Examples to Inspire Your Own The human attention span is short. This means that your website’s content has to inspire, delight, and engage your target audience in mere seconds. Maybe your content is performing well on social media. It's resonating with audiences and earning engagement. But it's possible that when you look at website metrics, there's a different story being told. If your session time is low and your bounce rate is high, then your above-the-fold content may be to blame. Not to worry: We’ll go over everything you need to know about above-the-fold content, including best practices and examples that will inspire you. Your above-the-fold website content directly impacts your engagement metrics, because it can inspire users to explore the rest of the website and its offerings. If it’s not properly optimized, you’ll likely see a boost in bounce rate and a decrease in conversions. A web page that is slow to load, congested with information, and hard to use will probably not draw the reader in the same way a page with the opposite design would. This can hurt your website’s lead generation potential. Let’s say you’ve been losing traffic. It’s possible the content website visitors see when they first visit your page isn't interesting enough to keep them there. Your page might be compelling by the time visitors start scrolling, but if the content isn’t dazzling and user-friendly right off the bat, visitors can easily click away. This means that...
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How to Build a Detailed Business Plan That Stands Out [Free Template]

Business Calculators
August 24, 2021/by
How to Build a Detailed Business Plan That Stands Out Nowadays, it seems like a new company is starting every hour. While starting a company may seem easier now than ever before, entrepreneurs have an uphill battle from the moment they start a business. On average, a new business competes with 25 competitors to stand out and thrive in its industry. Aspiring business owners who go in blind without a clear, actionable plan for marketing, hiring, finances, and operations are destined to face significant challenges. This is why crafting a business plan is an essential step in the entrepreneurial process. In this post, we'll walk you through the process of filling out your business plan template, like this free, editable version: Download a free, editable one-page business plan template. We know that when looking at a blank page on a laptop screen, the idea of writing your business plan can seem impossible. However, it's a mandatory step to take if you want to turn your business dreams into a reality. That's why we've crafted a business plan template for you to download and use to build your new company. You can download it here for free. It contains prompts for all of the essential parts of a business plan, all of which are elaborated on, below. This way, you'll be able to show them how organized and well-thought-out your business idea is, and provide them with answers to whatever questions they may have. Featured Resource: Free Business Plan...
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Want to Learn Graphic Design? 9 Tips & Tricks for Beginners

Design
August 24, 2021/by
Want to Learn Graphic Design? 9 Tips & Tricks for Beginners We see graphic design at work every day. Everything from logos, posters, magazines, product packaging, ads, and more. It’s an industry that’s always in demand. Why? Because brands always need designers, whether it’s to create branding assets or design an upcoming event flyer. If it’s an industry you’re interested in, discover the steps you can take today to learn graphic design and find out what you need to keep in mind as you start your career. 1. Learn key design principles. Graphic design is a visual communication tool that combines the use of graphics, typography, color, and illustration to communicate a message. And while there are endless ways to communicate a message (that’s where the creative part comes into play), there are key principles that every graphic designer must follow: Hierarchy Alignment Contrast Space Color Proximity Repetition Balance These fundamental concepts ensure that a design is cohesive, impactful, and clear. In addition to these principles, there are other elements that come into play, such as typography and color theory. The former relates to the way in which your copy (i.e. text) is arranged while the former refers to how people perceive color and how it impacts messaging. Once you understand these concepts, you can then dive a little deeper. More on that in the next section. 2. Find a course. Contrary to popular belief, having an eye...
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How to Discover Your Long-term Career Goals, According to Experts

Leadership
August 21, 2021/by
How to Discover Your Long-term Career Goals, According to Experts "Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?" Of all the job interview questions out there, this has always been one of the most difficult. These days, the next steps in your career aren't always linear. The age-old corporate ladder model of putting in a few years as an associate contributor, becoming a manager of a small team, and climbing your way to the senior management or director level is not right for everyone. And considering you'll spend roughly one-third of your life at work, it's critical you take the time to reflect and choose the best career path for you. To help you figure out your short and long term career goals, I spoke with four career coaches. Here, we'll explore how you can determine your own career goals for long-term professional fulfillment. Let's dive in. What are career goals? Career goals are any short or long term milestones you hope to achieve throughout your career to get you where you want to be. While your personal goals might include starting a family or buying a house, your career goals are entirely focused on the trajectory of your professional life.  Your long term career goals are the adult answer to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Perhaps you hope to become CFO, business owner, or VP of Marketing. Alternatively, maybe you want to become a lecturer at a college, open...
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Brainstorming Techniques: 15 Creative Activities to Do Solo or as a Team

Creativity
August 21, 2021/by
Brainstorming Techniques: 15 Creative Activities to Do Solo or as a Team We're all familiar with traditional brainstorming as a way to produce new ideas. You sit in a room with a whiteboard and work with whatever comes to mind. Maybe you play a few rounds of word association to strengthen your ideas, or pull up Google and use research to flesh them out. But there are many alternative exercises for tackling problems and developing new ideas, both individually and in a group setting. Ranging from structured to silly, here are the best creative brainstorming exercises and techniques to help you get your problem-solving juices flowing. This list is a modified excerpt from my guide Creative Ideation for Digital Marketers: Theory to Practice. 1. Storyboarding If you're trying to design a process, storyboarding can help you see where your collective understanding of a problem supports or conflicts with a proposed solution, and where more thought/research is needed. By developing a visual story to explore the problem as a narrative, your team will be able to see how ideas interact and connect to form a solution. Sticky notes are your friend. Take a few minutes to write out your ideas as individual notes. These don't have to be complete thoughts — physically pinning up quotes, pictures, user info, and the like can help you see new relationships between different components. Once you have a group of sticky notes to work from, start arranging them on the board as...
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UTM Codes: How to Create UTM Tracking URLs on Google Analytics

Marketing Campaigns
August 21, 2021/by
UTM Codes: How to Create UTM Tracking URLs on Google Analytics Crucial aspects of being a great marketer are being able to measure your success and measure your impact. No matter which metrics you use, you want to prove to your boss (and the company) that you're worth your salt. You deserve your budget — and maybe need more of it — and you deserve to dedicate time to the marketing activities that work. Building UTM codes that track your campaigns' success is the best way to prove it. In this blog post, you'll learn what UTM codes are, how to use them, and how to build them in both Google Analytics and HubSpot. UTM codes are also known as UTM parameters — or tracking tags — because they help you "track" website traffic from its origin. Now, you might be thinking, "Ginny, I have HubSpot, so I already know if my website traffic is coming from Google, email, social media, and similar marketing channels. What does a UTM code tell me that I don't already know?" HubSpot Marketing Hub provides you with these high-level sources of traffic, but UTM also helps you drill down into specific pages and posts within these traffic sources. UTM Code Example If you're promoting a campaign on social media, for example, you'll know how much traffic came from social media. Building a UTM code, however, can tell you how much of that traffic came from Facebook or even a particular post on...
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Best Personal Websites: 19 Examples to Blow Your Mind

Job Search
August 20, 2021/by
Best Personal Websites: 19 Examples to Blow Your Mind Here's the thing about resumes and cover letters: No matter how unique you try to make your own, for the most part, they tend to read dry. And there's a good reason for it: It's supposed to be a single, no-frills page that documents your work experience. And while being concise is good, there's very little opportunity to convey your uniqueness, or for your personality to shine through at all for that matter. While a resume is a sole, largely unchanging document, a personal website can be customized and updated according to what you're working on, or what you want to emphasize. It's both fluid and current. Did you know 80% of businesses say a personal website is important when evaluating job candidates? Recruiters are looking you up online, and a personal website that tells the story you want to tell can make all the difference between you and a competing candidate. If you're thinking about creating a personal website of your very own, check out the examples below that hit the nail on the head. Inspired by a particular type of website? Click one of the following links to jump to that section of this article: Personal Resume Websites Personal Portfolios Personal Blogs Personal Demo Websites Best Personal Websites Gary Sheng Brandon Johnson Quinton Harris Sean Halpin ...
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What is Public Relations? The Definition of PR in 100 Words or Less

Public Relations
August 20, 2021/by
What is Public Relations? The Definition of PR in 100 Words or Less Image is an important aspect of brand awareness, which influences whether your potential customers know, like, and trust you. Where publicity is outside a brand's control, public relations (PR) is an effective way to contribute to the conversation. There’s an old saying: “Advertising is what you pay for; publicity is what you pray for.” Public relations isn’t an easy profession to define. In fact, in 2012, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) accepted a few thousand submissions before finally agreeing on one: So how can an organization take its beneficial relationship to the public and turn it into good press? Are you really “praying” for something, like the old saying goes, if you’re using a strategic process to get results? If public relations is a bridge for that relationship, then public relations professionals are the bridge builders. Let's talk about them a little more specifically: What is a public relations professional? A public relations professional is in charge of creating and executing a PR strategy, helping a business or individual cultivate a positive reputation through various unpaid or earned channels and formats, including press, social media, and in-person engagements. They also help clients defend their reputations during crises that threaten their credibility. In order to understand this, you must first consider the two sides of PR: the positive storytelling side and the negative damage-controle side. Positive Public Relations If an organization is proactive about...
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What Is Guerrilla Marketing? 11 Examples to Inspire Your Brand

Marketing Campaigns
August 18, 2021/by
What Is Guerrilla Marketing? 11 Examples to Inspire Your Brand The word "guerrilla," in its written form, seems very intense. It conjures images of rebellion and conflict. Put it next to the word "marketing," and it makes a lot of people ask, "Huh?" But guerrilla marketing isn't some sort of combative form of communication. In fact, it's actually a very unconventional form of marketing in that it raises brand awareness among large audiences without interrupting them. The term itself was created in the early 1980s by the late business writer Jay Conrad Levinson, who wrote several books about guerrilla tactics in a number of professional areas. Of course, at that time, marketing in general looked very different, and while guerrilla marketing is still used today, the ever-growing digital landscape is changing what it looks like. Roots of Warfare When we hear the term “guerrilla marketing,” it’s hard not to think of guerrilla warfare -- which makes sense, since that’s where this style of marketing got its name. In the warfare context, guerrilla tactics depend largely on the element of surprise. Think: “Ambushes, sabotage, raids,” according to Creative Guerrilla Marketing. But how does that translate into the work we do every day? In marketing, guerrilla techniques mostly play on the element of surprise. It sets out to create highly unconventional campaigns that catch people unexpectedly in the course of their day-to-day routines. Budget-Friendly What marketers really enjoy about guerrilla marketing is its fairly low-cost nature. The real investment here is...
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