5 Tips for Crafting Effective Headlines That Click

headlinesDirecting more traffic to your website or blog is important for building and maintaining customer relationships, but it’s not always easy. Even amazing deals and innovative content won’t draw mass views without your ability to reel in the crucial first clicks.

Headlines can make or break your click-through rate. After all, they’re what help a reader decide whether or not they’re interested in learning more – in fact, according to David Ogilvy, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. If the headlines aren’t engaging, readers won’t click.

Writing headlines well takes time and practice. Many copywriters believe that you should spend half of your time on the headline, and half of your time writing the rest of the piece.

Here are 5 easy tips to help you increase click-throughs: Continue reading

Six Ways to Spring Clean Your Social Media

Social media is light-hearted and fun, but it also has a measurable impact on your bottom line. Your social media strategy should support the objectives of your business. In order to be successful, find out if your existing social strategy is working for you. The first thing you should ask yourself is: Have your goals changed since the previous year?

If so, then you need to ensure your social media presence supports your new objectives. The platforms you’re currently utilizing might not be the best suited for your updated needs. A great way to determine if you’re in the right place is to perform a social media audit, if you don’t know what this is, get help from the melbourne social media agency.

Here are six tips for your social media spring cleaning: Continue reading

Small Business Saturday Fuels the American Dream

Most of us have very interesting ancestry stories which map out a heroic quest on the part of our grandparents and great grandparents; many of whom dreamt of making a better life for their families. Our country was founded on the American Dream, which encouraged individuals to start businesses, build communities and fuel the economic welfare for its members.

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Since 2010, there has been a movement to help kick start the holiday buying season for small businesses by allocating a special day that promotes “Shop Small.” This day is called Small Business Saturday, and it takes place on the Saturday following Thanksgiving each year. Continue reading

“Share a Coke” or ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

share a cokeHave you ever played that game when you give someone two choices like chocolate or vanilla, Burger King or McDonalds, Coke or Pepsi, and they have to choose their favorite of the two? In the 80s I remember taking the Pepsi Challenge and hands down choosing Coke. We all have food preferences or brand allegiances and most of us stay loyal to the brands that treat us well. Something quite drastic would have to happen to jump from vanilla to chocolate or vice versa.

In recent days, it has become quite clear how powerful the world of social media has become. This summer, Coke launched its Share-a-Coke Campaign in North America to get customers excited about a personalized beverage that they could take a photo of and share through social media. Upon arriving home from my summer vacation, my husband and I were presented with personalized Coke bottles with our names prominently featured from a co-worker. Continue reading

Entrepreneurship 101

A few weeks back, I had the privilege of presenting to both the local elementary and middle school a course on entrepreneurship. It was truly eye opening to see how sharp and brand conscious these young students were.

My first experience consisted of sharing with my son Luke’s sixth grade Seminar English class the importance and power of PR when launching a new business or product into the market. Like sponges, these kids soaked in all of the key points I delivered knowing they were going to be asked to create their own business and promote it in a launch event.

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The small San Diego community where our kids go to school is much like Mayberry. Families try their best to support local merchants and keep business in the “family.” One of the community’s favorite Chinese restaurants recently closed shop, leaving a nice opportunity for a new small business to gain easy freeway access and a local community following. So I asked, “Kids, if you could create a business that would reside in the former La China spot, what would it be?” Continue reading

These Brands Are No Fools… When It Comes to April Fool’s Day

While the Super Bowl offers brands an opportunity to capture the attention of a wide, television-viewing audience, April Fool’s Day is ideal for marketers looking to get online attention and show off their more humorous sides.

Take Redbox, for example. They advertised a promotion where people could pay for a lunch meat snack along with their DVD rental. While amusing, the idea wasn’t without its believers — after all, lunch meat would fit perfectly into those plastic DVD cases. People who did fall for the prank received $0.50 off a DVD, making this joke all in good fun.

Business-to-business marketers can get in on the April Fool’s Day fun, too. Continue reading

Image and Reputation….What a Difference A Day Makes

eyetoeyelogoIn the world of Public Relations, image is extremely important. When you take “image” and “reputation” and blend them together, you end up with “credibility.” Consumers carry images in their minds about products and brands. So, it’s important for a company to be clear on the impressions it wants to make to its customers, the benefits it provides and what are its key differentiators. PR can make a difference in this area.

While “image” is planned and crafted, “reputation” comes from the actual experience a consumer has with the brand. Did the product work? Are the service levels and quality impressive? Based on the customer experience, a brand is either provided a positive or negative reputation. That’s why social media has had such a big impact on branding. Actual customer ratings and comments influence the reputation of the brand, product or service in real-time. Social ratings from friends carry even more weight. Our client Wajam knows a thing or two about social recommendations.

The Academy Awards reflect positively on the reputation of people in movie industry who are nominated and judged by the Academy, which is made of of actors, writers, directors, designers, cinematographers, film editors, make-up artists, musicians and producers. For months, members of the Academy experience every film first-hand and evaluate their choices. Receiving an Oscar propels an actor’s reputation to the highest levels. While I’m sure every actor hopes to one day receive an Academy Award, only those who actually have their names called know what a difference that day makes. New opportunities open, winners’ pay rates increase and their credibility within their given specialty increases too. Continue reading

Humor, Love & Creativity: Ingredients for the Best Super Bowl Sunday Appetizer

Every year, the Super Bowl is the most watched American television broadcast. As a result, the coveted advertising spots have increased in value to an average cost of $4 million for a 30-second spot. Some viewers, who aren’t necessarily football fans, pay attention to the broadcast just to watch the commercials for their creative genius, clever storylines and sense of humor.

Over the past couple decades, Super Bowl commercials have gone from selling a product to becoming the product. Formerly consumers eagerly awaited to view these ads to learn about new products and services, yet since the 21st-century consumer can find out anything he or she needs to know about new products online, most viewers are looking to be dazzled by the entertainment value of the ad rather than the educational value.

That said, it seems that every year, Super Bowl commercials get more and more outrageous. This year, though, commercials were surprisingly subdued and overwhelmingly heartwarming.

One of our collective favorites this year was also one of the most simple. The Doritos commercial was both funny and memorable. It reinforced the brand throughout the 30-second spot while also entertaining. Amazingly, the ad cost only $300 to produce, demonstrating that elaborate graphics and celebrity endorsements don’t necessarily beget the biggest payoff. The photographer of this ad earned $1 million for being selected as the best Super Bowl ad. Continue reading

One Word.

We’ve all heard of the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” but what is one word worth? This year, rather than take the time to create a list of New Year’s resolutions, which on average last 14 days, we have decided to select one word to focus on for the entire year at Eye-To-Eye. Each team member and the company as a whole has come up with “one word” to proclaim as a mission for 2014. We even developed our own word for each of our clients.

Why one word? Over the course of the first week of January, four people hit me up with this one-word notion: my chiropractor, my best friend, my mom’s group and one of my clients. On all four occasions, as I pondered this idea, it was clear that the word, HOPE would be my mantra for 2014. Here’s an example of what other team members have declared: Continue reading

5 Guys Demonstrate the Power of PR

Have you ever eaten at Five Guys? I hadn’t before I stumbled upon the red and white checkered storefront in my haste to grab a quick meal last week. I’m not a fast food fan. I never eat at McDonald’s. But the bold signs boasting Five Guys serves the best burgers on the gulf coast piqued my interest. As I entered the joint, I immediately thought to myself, “This restaurant knows the power of PR.”

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Bold pull-quote signs with excerpts from food critics and copies of full articles promoting the taste, brand, and experience of eating at Five Guys decorated each wall. This hamburger chain had figured a way to maximize the benefits of its press coverage. Continue reading