Affsum Session: The Ultimate Pitching Guide
Date: Sunday, January 11th, 2009. Session 2d, 1:30pm.
Session Description: Experts share their best (and most outrageous) secrets for getting attention from merchants, media and the masses. You’ll learn the tips, tricks and techniques to get the attention you seek. The panel consisted of:
- Lisa Picarille, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Revenue Magazine (Moderator)
- Anita Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, SmallBizTrends.com
- Jim Kukral, Owner, TheBizWebCoach.com
- Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter (HARO)
I was looking forward to this panel, and it didn’t disappoint. I also learned that Peter Shankman never needs more coffee – he’s animated enough as it is!
Bullet Point Review!
- A good pitch solves a problem.
- This might be common sense, but DON’T PLAGIARIZE!
- Make sure you have a discussion with young PR people that plagiarizing is NOT ok.
- Know who you’re pitching to! It will help determine the angle of your pitch.
- Resource: The Bad Pitch Blog
- Take 5 seconds and read what a reporter wants & oblige – that will get you in the door to just follow submission directions.
- No attachments – filters often delete those emails.
- A reporter must be able to get the point of your pitch in 7 seconds.
- Getting attention from a blogger is different than getting attention from traditional media.
- Leave comments consistently to get noticed.
- If you develop a personal relationship, it’ll help.
- Use the reporter’s name in blog posts.
- Make your pitch sound like a scoop, like you’re an industry insider.
- Do something timely and a little different to get noticed.
- Book: Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them
- Some reporters now will only accept pitches via Twitter.
- If you can’t pitch in 140 characters, you need to work on brevity anyway.
- Try live streaming and letting people interact with you in real time.
- Twitter has replaced focus groups with the use of search.
- Publish your news wherever you can, like blogs.
- Book: Marketing Outrageously: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts!
- Press releases will be obsolete very soon.
- Resource: Twittering Journalists Wiki
I don’t remember there actually being a Q&A in this session. If there was, I think I included any good points in my notes already.
Overall this was an excellent session. They really didn’t use any slides, so I can’t share any. But with a session like this, it was more about their past experience and real-world knowledge than any special slides or data.
Read MoreOnline Marketing Glossary: Interactive Agency
Interactive Agency:
- An agency offering a mix of Web design and development, Internet advertising and online marketing, or e-business/e-commerce consulting.
Speak of the devil, we finally come to a definition that describes my new company, New Edge Media! We offer PPC, SEO, Affiliate Marketing, and Email Marketing. Some stop by and take a look!
This actually concludes this series of glossary items! Huge thanks to Alexandra Wharton for having written this article and to Lisa Picarille for allowing me to republish them!
Have a series you want to see? Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know!
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Residual Earnings
Residual Earnings:
- A program that pays affiliates not just for the first sale, but all additional sales made at the merchant’s site over the life of the customer.
It’s my understanding that not many programs offer this anymore due to the incredible expense it could lead to if the customer is a good customer. More often programs are offering second tiers and giving commissions to the affiliate on the sales affiliates they’ve referred to the program are making.
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Widget
Widget:
- A small application designed to reside on a PC desktop or within a web-based portal or social network site offering useful or entertaining functionality.
These also appear on many blogs, even having a few in my sidebar. WordPress refers to any sidebar module as a widget, and there are millions of widgets out there. A great blog I read that keeps me up-to-date with what new widgets are coming out and what new released versions is Widgets Lab.
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Link Bait
Link Bait:
- A useful, entertaining, creative Web content or Web tool that encourages website owners to link to it.
A lot of bloggers do this – write a post that has a headline that’s just RIPE for linking back. Create some controversy to get your blog linked to. Or, just create some damn good content to pass along for others. There’s nothing wrong with this; it’s a skillful art that some people have mastered and some haven’t.
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Super Affiliates
Super Affiliates:
- The best affiliates in a program based on performance and earnings, usually the top 1%, who generate the majority of revenue for a program.
I’ve also used this term to refer to an affiliate who is well known across multiple programs to run a super successful affiliate site participating in many programs. Such well known super affiliates include John Chow, Zac Johnson, Connie Berg, Mike Allen, and Amit Mehta.
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Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
