Let’s take a look at 3 ways technology can boost public relations:

1. The Electronic Newsletter, often referred to as an “ezine”, is a newsletter that is electronically delivered to a list of email addresses using email marketing software such as:

• Aweber: www.aweber.com
  - 30 day money back guarantee
  - $1 for 1st month / $19 month up to 500 subscribers
  - Price increases based on number of subscribers
  - Price includes unlimited email  & auto-responders
   
•  Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com
  - 60 day free trial
  - $15 month for up to 500 subscribers
  - Price increases based on number of subscribers
  - Limited auto-responders
  - Additional features extra (online surveys, event marketing)
  - Most user friendly & best templates
   
• - Vertical Response: www.verticalresponse.com
  - $10 month up to 500 subscribers
  - Price increases based on number of subscribers
  - Limited auto-responders
  - Additional features extra (online surveys, postcards)
  - Offers pay-as-you-go option to purchase email credits for the number of emails you want to send

Benefits:

• Cheaper than a printed newsletter; monthly & annual pricing options, annual pre-pay discounts, and non-profit discounts available.
• Faster delivery time; goes straight to recipient’s email inbox.
• People are used to receiving electronic newsletters.
• Can be integrated with Facebook and Twitter.

Tips:

• Publish regularly and provide valuable content.
• Create an opt-in form to use on your web site or blog.  Include a free giveaway or incentive for those who subscribe to your newsletter.
• Don’t purchase email lists.  Build your own targeted list from the ground up.

2. Make Use of Free Social Networking Sites

• Twitter is limited to 140 characters. Use it as a way to let your targeted audience get to know you.
• Facebook is more interactive. Use it to build more intimate relationships with your target audience (group, fan page, discussion boards, videos, links, photos)
• LinkedIn is great because you can recommend the work of professionals you’ve worked with and they can recommend  you and your work.

3. Web Video Marketing allows you to take a direct to audience approach with your message.

• You can embed or link to video on your web site, blog and social networking sites.

Ways to Use Your Web Video:

• offer reviews & tutorials
• record presentations or special events you’re included in; be sure to ask for permission
• introduce your office staff
• product demonstrations
• create welcome video for home page of web site
• highlight what makes your product/service unique
• create video posts for your blog if you don’t like writing

How to Record Your Web Video:
The Flip is a small portable high definition video camera that provides web ready video.  For under $200 it provides a quick easy way to record & publish video content online.  Free video editing software included; accessories available.

Tip:
Host your videos on YouTube.  It’s the 2nd largest search engine on the web.

All 3 methods:

• the electronic newsletter
• free social networking sites &
• web video marketing

are affordable, cost effective ways technology can boost public relations.  

Would you like to develop a public relations plan for your business using these same 3 methods? Get started today!  Contact me directly to schedule a free 30-min consultation.

About the Author:

Katrina Chesney is Founder & President of Portable Hands, a Virtual Assistance firm that provides leverage for small businesses.

“An ezine is an electronic newsletter that subscribers receive via email.”

You can use ezines to:

• Increase sales
• Market to your ideal client
• Gain online exposure for your product or service
• Grow your ezine subscriber base
• Decrease postage & printing associated with printed newsletters

You can promote your ezine by:

• Adding a subscription link on your business card
• Adding a subscription link to both your written & email signature blocks
• Adding the subscription details to your company voice mail greeting
• Promoting your ezine on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn
• Legitimately collecting email addresses
• Telling others about it

I found a really great article on the Internet that lists 46 Ideas for Ezine Marketing.  It’s an article written by Larry Dotson that provides some very intriguing ideas on how to market your ezine.  I even use several of the techniques myself.  So, if you are really serious about publishing an ezine, you’ll definitely want to take the time to read his article!

By publishing an ezine, you can create additional platforms for your client base.  Let’s look at a large church with a pre-school for example.  The church could essentially publish two ezines.  One ezine could be published for church members and the other for parents of pre-schoolers.  This would create two additional church-related platforms for keeping everyone in the loop.

Because ezine publishing allows you to deepen the connection with your target market, it only makes sense to at least investigate your options.

Here’s a few resources you can check out to find the ezine solution that’s right for you:

• Aweber
• Constant Contact
• iContact

A Few Additional Pointers
You’re responsible for providing the written content for your ezine.  After all, it is your ezine.

The written content should consist of at least the following:

• A chatty intro about what you’ve been doing
• An article your customers will find valuable
• Announcements, Ads, etc. (optional)

Ask yourself the following questions when writing ezine articles:

1. Is this an article my customers would be interested in reading?
2. Does it contain information my customers can use for added value?
3. In what way(s) will this article help my customers?

Remember, when writing your ezine articles, it’s extremely important to make sure the articles are valuable.  No one wants to read a useless newsletter, no matter how pretty the colors.  I stress this because valuable articles will greatly impact the growth of your subscriber database.

Eliminate the Work – Partner with a Virtual Assistant (VA)
As you get more into the art of ezine publishing you may find it’s created additional work for you.  Even if it’s not time consuming, you still have to work on professionalism, quality, content, and marketing.  There’s just absolutely no way around it!

The simplest solution is to obtain the services of a qualified VA to handle the work associated with publishing and distributing your ezine.  Of course, you’ll need to make sure the VA you partner with has the skill and ability to handle this task for you.  Or you can quickly get the help you need by contacting Portable Hands.  Specializing in ezine services, Portable Hands can easily manage publication and distribution services, including subscriber database management.

If you decide to partner with a VA, I highly recommend setting up a monthly ezine publishing schedule that clearly defines all deadlines for both parties.  Here’s what yours might look like:

• Week 1: You work on written content/article
• Week 2: You complete written content/article & submit to VA
• Week 3: VA completes design, content, layout, & testing of ezine
• Week 4: VA publishes/distributes ezine

Still have questions? 
Get answers to your ezine questions by posting them on the “Discussion” tab of our Fan Page.

About the Author:

Katrina Chesney is Founder & President of Portable Hands, a Virtual Assistance firm that provides leverage for small businesses.

Just as your subscribers are responsible for providing accurate email addresses to ensure they receive your ezine, YOU are responsible for making sure the ezine is deliverable.

More often than not, most deliverability issues occur during the ezine preparation phase. Here are 7 tips to enhance your preparation efforts and guarantee deliverability every time.

1.  Sign-up with an ezine marketing service that will deliver your ezines to your subscriber list. Three great resources are Aweber, Constant Contact & iContact. Here are a few advantages of each.

Aweber - offers unlimited autoreponders, provides templates
https://www.aweber.com

Constant Contact - very user friendly system, provides great templates
http://www.constantcontact.com

iContact - inexpensive
http://www.icontact.com

NOTE: Do not send ezines directly from your email client. This creates a huge potential for both your ezine and email address to be flagged as spam and could possibly get you blacklisted with your Internet service provider.

2.  Prepare both an html & text version of your ezine for distribution. If you MUST choose only one version, stick with the text version. It’s readable across most platforms and easier to deliver due to the absence of html code.

3.  Set the character width of your text ezine to 43 characters per line. This ensures it’s readable in most email readers and on most cell phones. A great tool to use to quickly set the character width for your text ezine is formatit.com. http://www.formatit.com 

4.  Use a template, customized or provided in your ezine package, instead of none at all for your html version. This helps keeps things properly aligned and formatted. If you don’t want to use an html template, be sure to set character width to 43 characters per line using formatit.com.  http://www.formatit.com 

5.  After you’ve prepared your ezine be sure to check the spam score and address any issues that may arise. You should be able to check your spam score using your ezine marketing service.  

6.  Test, test & re-test links, formatting and display properties prior to distribution. It’s best to test both the html & text versions of your ezine in several email clients such as AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo & ISP email accounts. You also want to be sure to run a spell-check and proof the ezine for clarity and punctuation.

7.  Sometimes mistakes and misspellings will not readily stick out to you. Prior to distribution, send a test of your ezine (html & text versions) to someone else for review. Based on the feedback, determine if you need to make any final revisions. Once any necessary revisions have been made you can send your ezine with confidence.

About the Author:

Katrina Chesney is Founder & President of Portable Hands, a Virtual Assistance firm that provides leverage for small businesses.