HARO, which stands for Help a Reporter Out, was started in 2008 by Peter Shankman as a Facebook group. It soon moved onto its own website (http://www.helpareporter.com/) and built a mailing list in the hundreds of thousands of free subscribers. HARO is such a big deal that, in 2010, Vocus bought the site. (In case you’re unfamiliar, Vocus also owns PR Web.) While Vocus did add some fee-based subscriptions to HARO, it essentially remained as it always had been.

How HARO Works
HARO is free, which is awesome. All you need to do is go to the website and subscribe. You can choose the specific lists to which you subscribe or get all of them. Then you just wait for the emails. They’re sent to your inbox three times daily on weekdays (except bank holidays). You then review all of the leads and see which is for you.

Answering a HARO Lead
You might think it’s pretty obvious to answer a lead on HARO, but too many people go way overboard when doing so. The biggest hint I can give is: Follow the directions! Provide what is asked of you, preferably in a quotable snippet. Do not refer to a video, website, or attachment (unless requested). Typically, journalists receive 50–150 responses from their submission, and they just don’t have time to go through all of them in detail, mostly because they’re up against a deadline. They need quotes that are quick and easy to include in their article. Do include your city and state and contact information, in case they want to follow up.

Also, don’t keep contacting the journalist to see if you will be quoted. Instead, run Google Alerts on your name and business name so you’ll know when something comes up about this (and it’s good to do for reputation management anyway). Also, when the story hits, the journalist will likely send you a link. When I was quoted in a book, the author sent me a copy of the book with my page earmarked, and I’ve also received links to my radio and TV spots.

Keep Track of Where You’re Quoted
Once you start getting free press coverage from the journalists you connect with via HARO, be sure you keep a portfolio of your links and stories. Remember that when prospective clients see that you’ve been quoted on reputable sites, your credibility will increase!

Curious how to really leverage free press coverage and build a comprehensive campaign? Contact info@grammardocs.com to get a quote!

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Define Your Sales Funnel

In order to create your call to action, you need to know what your sales funnel looks like. How do prospective customers become paying customers and repeat customers who send referrals? This is an area where many young businesses struggle because they haven’t taken the time to figure out exactly what their sales funnel is or how it looks. But you need to know if you want prospective customers to call you, email you, or stop into your store (if you have one), and how long it takes for them to become customers. This is vital information for ensuring your success overall, not just in your content marketing.

Determine Your Tone

How do you want to speak with your customers? Are you professional or silly? Straightforward or a storyteller? The tone of your piece will play a part in how they respond to your company and what you’re trying to share. If you’re a psychologist, you don’t want to scare prospective customers with threats to call you, but that approach may work well if you’re a motivational coach. You’ll have to figure out your tone and the way you want to be perceived by your readers before you start to write any documents, whether online or offline.

Decide What’s Next

One of the key components when you create your call to action is to identify what you want prospective customers to do next. This should have become apparent when you defined your sales funnel because now you know how long it takes to push someone through, as well as how many “touches” they need. Do you want your prospects to sign up for your email newsletter list? Call your office to schedule an appointment? Follow you on a social media channel? Watch a video? You may even determine that you have different calls to action depending on the particular service or product you’re touting, or even on the audience you’re targeting at the moment.

Create Your Call to Action

Curious how to create your call to action so that it really drives people to take the next step? Call on The Grammar Doctors to triage, diagnose, and treat your content marketing strategy today: 480-518-4462.

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If one is anxious, one is worried or trepidatious. So while you can certainly be anxious about the holidays, that means you’re worried about something associated with it, such as hosting dinner, seeing the in-laws, or completing your gift list. Unfortunately, too many people say they’re anxious for the holidays, and they mean they’re looking forward to the presents they’ll receive from a certain bearded fellow in a red and white suit. In that instance, the word they’re really looking for is eager, which means anticipatory or looking forward to something.

So don’t confuse people this December. If you tell me you’re anxious about the holidays, I’m going to ask why you’re so worried… and then I’ll wish you:

Happy holidays from The Grammar Doctors!

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Gratitude is typically associated with Thanksgiving, but who says you can’t run your business from this place the rest of the year? The holidays are a perfect time to say thank you to your customers for their business, loyalty, and referrals in 2012. It’s also a great time to share good wishes for the coming year. Instead of a holiday sale, why not give a gratitude discount? Marketing is, after all, all about how you package it, so you may choose to spin it in a whole different way this year.

And are you sending cards or a holiday email newsletter? Skip the marketing and just share holiday wishes. There’s a saying: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Caring means a lot to people, and if you’re sincere with it, your customers will hear you loud and clear. And don’t worry about your bottom line: If your holiday marketing is about giving rather than getting, you’ll get more than you ever expected.

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When I say tips, I don’t mean monetary (but I definitely won’t turn down free money!). Jeremy said that the word “tip” was originally an acronym for “To Insure Promptness,” and was offered before services were rendered. Just the fact that the word should really be ensure rubbed my Grammar Doctor the wrong way, so I looked it up. Lo and behold, that etymology is just a bunch of hooey, but that doesn’t mean the idea loses any of its appeal.

Let’s forget the fact that the true etymology of tip originated as a slang term and imagine, instead, that the acronym is correct and tips are a way to ensure — or reward — prompt, courteous service. What a fantastic idea! Truly, don’t you leave a tip after a meal, haircut, or any other service because you appreciated the service? And if the service is lacking, you’re less likely to leave the customary 15-20%. So, indeed, tips are tied to service.

After speaking with Jeremy, I have chosen to implement tips in The Grammar Doctors’ business model. It’s a contingency plan: If my team delivers clients’ projects within the agreed-upon timeline, our tip will be a written recommendation. It will give us something to which to aspire, and although my team is better at this than I am, I am all about sharing the love and giving them kudos as well.

Do you think that tips could be a good way for you to maintain your commitments, either personally or in your business? Leave a comment as to how you can implement this approach in your life and up your game.

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Drip marketing essentially means that you “drip” your marketing message to your clients. That is best achieved through email or direct-mail marketing. But most of these companies aren’t capturing my email address (or physical address, for that matter) when I use my Groupon, and I’ve yet to hear from any of them. What a waste for them!

If you’re not familiar with how Groupon-style coupons work, here’s a quick tutorial: the product or service is offered at 50% or more off the regular price. Groupon then gets 50% of what’s sold, giving the rest to the business. So if you buy a Groupon for $20 at a restaurant and pay $10, the company makes $5. It is NOT a money-making endeavor by a long shot. What it IS, though, is a marketing opportunity. More people get to hear about the business because of the sheer reach of Groupon, etc., putting the company name in front of more people.

But most people who buy and use these Groupons are looking for a deal. They want to try a new restaurant, have a cheap night out, or whatever. I have used a ton of these coupons and, honestly, couldn’t tell you where. And that’s where the opportunity has been missed.

Waffle Dawg, a new quick-serve restaurant at Desert Ridge, is the first that has asked for my email address. I commended them on it when they did. I haven’t yet heard from them, but I welcome the interaction. Other companies can learn from them. Take note: if you run a daily deal special, capture the information of the people who come in. Stay in touch with them. Offer more incentives for them to return. Otherwise, you’ve just thrown your money out the window and lost a HUGE opportunity.

Need help setting up and maintaining your drip-marketing campaign? Contact us.

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I conduct the social media marketing for a number of clients, and I recently posted a simple picture of a new employee for one of my clients. That little picture garnered 15 likes and 7 comments, hitting the views of 308 people. You may not think that’s a lot, but it’s more than anything else that I’ve posted for this particular client, and when this company only has 226 likes, that’s a pretty big deal.

Why is that? No real information was shared, there wasn’t a link, and we didn’t really educate anyone… so what gives?

The reason this one little picture resonated so much is that it was personal. Social media marketing is all about creating a social experience, yet that’s what most people miss on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. These are people-powered environments, and people like to see pictures of other people or something that makes them smile or giggle. Those things that “go viral” are the things that touch us. Most of the times, they are not links and boring status updates.

So how do you tap into this social aspect of social media marketing? Share what happens in your office! Birthdays, events, silly jokes, and even a picture of that half-eaten donut you’re enjoying may all resonate with your audience. The trick is to try a few different things and see what happens. On The Grammar Doctors’ Facebook page, pictures of spelling and grammatical errors are what have the most traction. I didn’t plan it that way, but that’s what people shared and liked, so I followed their lead.

Listen to your followers. See what they want. That’s how you’ll keep social media marketing efforts truly social.

The post Social Media Marketing: It’s Called “Social Media” for a Reason appeared first on The Grammar Doctors.

Too many people don’t even think about using a comma to set off the subject in such a statement. On Facebook, I see, “Happy birthday Joe” often. But when I said this to my dog Phoenix, I thought that “crazy” would be a good name to use to teach people how to use commas effectively.

There’s a big difference between “let’s go crazy” and “let’s go, crazy.” The first is a 1984 song by Prince popularized in the movie Purple Rain. The latter is a declarative sentence telling someone to whom you’re referring as crazy to go with you somewhere.

Since English can be a very confusing language, I like to use tricks to help people remember various rules. When writing something with someone’s name in it, substitute “crazy” for the person’s name. If crazy seems like an adjective (modifies a noun), you should offset the name with a comma: “You’re looking gorgeous crazy” vs. “You’re looking gorgeous, crazy.”

I’d love to hear what hints you have to remember some of English’s wackier rules. Feel free to share them in the comments below.

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If it were written out, this person would have been completely correct, but when we heard it, it sounded like “you guyses,” which, admittedly, sounds a little funny. So that got me thinking about grammar education and making plurals possessive.

Unfortunately for the question asker, he was correct, yet the panel made fun of him and kept it going when another question asker repeated the guys’ word—pronouncing it the same way. I see words in my head, and I knew right away that the person who said guys’ was correct, but the real question is: How SHOULD you pronounce s’?

Usually, it sounds a little odd to say that double S sound, so most people don’t. My charge for you today is to think about how you say plural possessives and if you pronounce the second S or not. Then share what you learned below.

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As a writer, I do much more than just write. No matter what I’m tasked to create, I start by asking questions. For instance, if it’s a website, I may ask:

• Why do you want to create a website?
• What is the goal of the site?
• Who’s your target market?
• What do you want people to do when they get there?
• How long is your sales cycle?
• What tone do you want the site to set?
• Do you want the copy to be “you” based or “client” based?

This is all before I start writing anything.

If clients don’t know the answers, we have to talk about them and determine what they are. Often, the pre-writing conversation includes a bit of coaching to determine the why, what, and who of the piece. I like to get a sense of what the client is going to do and all of the marketing components that either are, or need to be, in place to support the sales cycle. Without these questions and initial research, the words may not be very effective.

So, although you can write, can you write copy that engages, entertains, and educates your target market? Can you drive them to action? If you’re hesitant on these answers, you may want to consider hiring a copywriter.

Learn more about working with The Grammar Doctors by contacting us to discuss your project.

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