Today’s economy has made more and more businesses forego marketing because of economic concerns. At a time when businesses should be doing more marketing, many are losing clients and sales because of the expense of hiring a PR professional or losing the assistance of a marketing department due to budget cuts. Fortunately, on February 1 that changes. Beginning on that date, authors and businesses will be able to discover the techniques needed to get great publicity by attending the Publicity Success Series http://tinyurl.com/62btshj

The Publicity Success Series is intended to help businesses master PR skills and get the publicity needed to succeed. The same techniques that the marketing department used to handle is now being taught by public relations specialist, Diana Ennen. Ennen states that over the last few years, a clear new role is emerging where businesses are required to handle more and more marketing tasks. Many businesses just aren’t equipped to do it right. But by learning the basics to writing and distributing press releases, mastering social media, understanding the secrets to pitching the media and more, businesses will now be competing and getting the word out about products and services and get great results.

Ennen has been successfully getting PR for clients for 25 years and has received or secured clients media mentions in such major media as USA Today, Woman’s World, Fox News, CNN Radio, Reader’s Digest, Entrepreneur, Forbes, and so many more. Ennen is eager to reveal the secrets to success.

Ruth Martin of MapleWood Virtual Assistant had this to say about the Publicity Success Series. “Diana covers how to pitch concisely written and topic focused ideas for optimum exposure. It’s like having your very own coach guiding you through the hurdles towards the ultimate goal of getting more PR.”

The classes take place weekly starting on February 1st. All classes are recorded and available via download to listen at any time. Email assistance is also available throughout the course.

For more information contact Ennen at http://tinyurl.com/62btshj or email directly at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com. For those that want to hire a PR professional, Ennen is also available.

If You’re Not Upselling, You’re Leaving Money on the Table
———————————————————

A while back, my hubby and I were on our way back from one of my
speaking engagements, and decided to pick up dinner to go. So we
called one of our favorite teriyaki joints (Seattle’s Best, on 1st
Ave S), to place an order.

Since it’s a little out of the way for us normally, we hadn’t eaten
there in a while. So we were rather excited to have it conveniently
located on our route home.

Then life got even better…

The woman who took my husband’s order asked if we’d like brown rice
instead of white!

Now I don’t each much white rice. But I love brown rice! In fact I’ll
order it every time if given the option. So this was a very pleasant
surprise.

My husband said yes right away even though it cost a bit more. And
boy was it good! This place has the yummiest teriyaki sauce, and it
is divine on rice (white or brown).

I can say for sure we’ll now be going out of our way to eat there
more …And I bet we’re not alone.

My husband and I were very impressed from a sales and marketing
standpoint too. Because they’re clearly paying attention to changes
in people’s eating habits, and changing their menu to suit. And
they’re maki ng sure customers know about this new option…They
actually asked for the upsell!

—–
Upselling doesn’t have to be hard or uncomfortable
—–

With the simple act of asking if we’d like their newest menu item as
a substitute, Seattle’s Best made $1.90 more. And now we’ll be there
more often, and spending more money each time to get that fine brown
rice.

All they had to do was let us know this option is now available, and
boom, they grew their business. Best of all, I’m thrilled to have
spent the extra money.

This was upselling at its finest. And it’s most simple.

What’s interesting is that big companies and chains often train their
employees to ask if you want to make it a combo, add fries with that,
try their new dessert, etc. Yet it’s rare to see this done in small
restaurants (or any small busines s).

Which is silly. Because it’s one of the easiest things to do. And
almost any business can do it (not just restaurants!).

When I worked in my parent’s animal hospital, we boarded pets. And we
always asked if clients wanted their pets bathed before going home.
More than 50% said yes.

Added convenience for them, more revenue for us!

The key here is…We were trained to ask.

All too often small business owners (or their employees) just don’t
ask. Maybe because they aren’t comfortable selling.

Or they feel like they don’t have time to train employees in this
much detail.

Or don’t know how to get the employees to do it.

Or, even worse, they think the employees are asking, when in reality
it’s not happening (When was the last time you had a “secret shopper”
call in to see what employee s really say when they answer the
phone???).

In the last case, the poor business owner is usually left thinking
the promotion isn’t working. Or the new product or service is a dud.

When in reality clients don’t know it exists!

The bottom line is, you have to let people know about other options,
or you probably won’t sell very many. Thankfully, you don’t even have
to be there in person to do an effective upsell.

—–
5 Easy Ways to Upsell Your Products and Services
—–

1) If you sell and ship products, put an ad or coupon for a related
product or an upgrade in the box.

2) Send new clients a thank you card with a promotion for or mention
of one of your other services.

3) Put a sign up in your store or office announcing a new offering or
special deal. Just make sure it doesn’t get lost in the clutter. And
ideal ly train your staff to point it out.

4) Send targeted follow-up emails to clients or customers offering
them a related product or service (you can do this automatically with
a good email autoresponder and shopping cart)

5) On your Website, offer an added discount for buying two products
or services together (Amazon does a great job of this by always
offering a second book on the same subject below your main selection).

Remember, upselling is really just a matter of offering something
else your customer is likely to want, based on what they’re buying
now. Simple as that.

You’re doing your clients a HUGE disservice if you don’t tell them
you have something else they may want or need. And you’re leaving
money on the table in your own business.

**********************************************
ON THE BLOG
***************************************** *****

Get useful tips and interesting marketing info on my blog at

http://www.marketing-junkie.com.

Tawk to me!! I created this blog to be a 2-way street so we can chat
about marketing together. I’d love to know what you think of the
articles and ideas I’m posting.

This week on http://www.marketing-junkie.com:

+ “12 Proven Ways to Power up Your Next Sales Letter”

+ “Make Every Minute Count by Donna Amos”

Visit http://www.marketing-junkie.com, read, and leave a comment.

**********************************************
USEFUL TIPS
**********************************************

Facebook is Now Open for Business (es)

Or at least it’s now set up for businesses to more easily market
their products and services on the site thanks to the new fan pages,
and the ability to get your own custom URL once yo u have 25 fans.

For example, I now have http://www.facebook.com/unchainedentrepreneur
as the fan page for TheUnchainedEntrepreneur.com. Easy, memorable and
a perfect place to communicate all things business separate from my
personal Facebook page.

Just make sure you create the personal page first, then a separate
fan page for your business. Otherwise you’ll run into problems down
the road. Once you’re on there, start a conversation, join other
conversations and offer info of value. Before you know you’ll be
building your own online community of fans.

©2010 Stacy Karacostas. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com

Practical Marketing Expert Stacy Karacostas specializes in taking the
stress, struggle and confusion out of growing your business. Get tons
of marketing tips and ideas, plus grab a copy of her info-packed FREE
REPORT “The 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins…Are You
Guilty?” at http://www.success-stream.com

Have you ever read a great press release and wondered how it is done? Or perhaps you’ve seen an author comment on how their books started selling and thought, what did they do to achieve that success?  The answer is simple.  They teamed up with a publicity virtual assistant who is handling all their PR Marketing needs.  That’s right!  A publicity virtual assistant is the one who is helping them get more PR by writing and sending out all those press releases, taking over their social media campaign, setting up and maintaining book blog tours, and pitching the media.   I bet you wish you had one right now!

Fortunately Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com is proud to offer the Publicity Virtual Assistant Summer Success Series.   The series is intended to help virtual assistants master their publicity skills so they can offer that niche to clients, but it’s also a great resource for those that want to learn how to get more publicity on their own.  The series will cover how to write articles, press releases and blogs, how to pitch to the media, master social networking for your marketing campaign, and so much more.   The program will also offer insights into how a publicity virtual assistant can be a valuable and affordable addition to your business.

The classes will be held for the next 5 Tuesdays at 2:00 P.M. EST and all classes are recorded so you can download and listen at your convenience.  As a bonus you can now receive the audio to the free call that discussed 5 ways to get more PR, 3 secrets to pitching the media and mistakes often made in getting PR.  Simply contact Diana Ennen at Diana@virtualwordpublishing.com for that recording.  All of this and more for just $99.00. (Early bird special for $69.00 ends June 20^th.)

Diana Ennen, President of Virtual Word Publishing, will be teaching the classes.  Ennen specializes in publicity and marketing and has appeared or gotten her clients in such major media as USA Today, Woman’s World, Fox News, CNN Radio, Reader’s Digest, Entrepreneur, Forbes, and so many more.   Ennen is also available to handle your PR campaigns if you’d prefer to let a pro take over.

If you need help with your PR Campaign and want to learn how to write killer press releases, articles, and blogs, then sign up now.   For more information contact Ennen at Virtual Word Publishing http://tinyurl.com/23h48nr or email her at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com.