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Marketing Buzz 08/04

Marketing during slow news times, rich Web content for less and more
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Good Timing

Scott Testa loves August. "It's generally the slowest news month," says the 38-year-old COO and co-founder of Mindbridge Software Inc. in Norristown, Pennsylvania. "We plan product releases for the July/August time frame, and we're not competing [for publicity] with the larger companies, which are waiting until September through the beginning of the year."

Tom Ciesielka, president of Chicago PR firm TC Public Relations, thinks taking advantage of slow news times to break through the monumental clutter that editors face is a good idea. Ciesielka applied that very strategy to one of his clients, pitching a seasonally themed story for the not-so-newsy July 4th holiday. It worked, even garnering coverage in the Chicago Tribune. A more popular holiday tie-in might not have yielded the same results.

While slow-news-day coverage may yield you slightly less readership, it can be a good move strategically. "When you're building your media portfolio, you're looking for that credit to say that you were in the Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," Ciesielka says. "Most people are impressed by that, and it may help you break into trade or national publications. No one is going to look at the date that you were in it, just that you were in it."


Quick Pick
Now it doesn't cost a fortune to create rich-media content for your Web site. "Camtasia Studio is finding a following among entrepreneurs who want to show rather than tell customers how to use their products and Web sites. At an affordable $299 for a single-user license, you can create streaming tutorials and demonstrations. Import video, or use Camtasia Studio to record screen activity in real time, which allows you to demonstrate software, Web site interactivity or other on-screen functions. Users can also add narration, call outs, annotations and interactive hot spots if they like. Most important, Camtasia Studio is easy to learn and use. But if you still get stuck, the package comes with free technical support.
The foreign-born population in the United States rose by
57%
from 1990 to 2000, to
31
MILLION.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau
25%
of e-mail marketers continue to send messages to recipients who have requested to unsubscribe.
SOURCE:Jupitermedia


Gwen Moran is a consultant and writer specializing in marketing. Reach her at .

This story appears in the August 2004 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »