eFAQs – ANSWERS TO eMARKETING
QUESTIONS

TOPIC: THE EXPERT’S PUBLICIST PROGRAM

Our friends and associates all know brandUNITY is forever on the go, scoping out new marketing trends, continually researching emerging techniques to promote our Clients’ interests. So our Clients like to call us, at least monthly, asking:

"So….What’s new at brandUNITY "

ANSWER - The Expert’s Publicist Program:
You know brandUNITY as a company that provides marketing strategies and award-winning creative services for print and web. You know that we are founded on the premise that powerful brands are built across media.

So now, we’re adding another tier of consistent mediasupport. It’s called:

The Expert’s
Publicist Program.

WHAT IT DOES FOR YOU:
Studies show that if your brand message is consistently delivered across print, web, and other modes of communication, your marketing results will exponentially increase.

Everyone likes to see their name in the news, especially when referred to as an expert and quoted. Equally important, the media needs to quote experts. In fact, every day
journalists search the globe for experts on specific topics to add content and credibility to their articles.

But, journalists are busy, harried folk, working impossible deadlines to get us the news. Cold pitching your publicity interests to an over-booked writer on a tight deadline is like throwing gold nuggets into the Grand Canyon, aching for dreams to come true.

If, instead, you tap into what reporters need, when they need it, you’ll hit platinum with a whole lot less angst.

Here’s what brandUNITY’s Expert’s Publicist Program does for you:

• helps the media find you and quote you
• builds awareness about your expertise
• increases perceived value of your business
• decreases price sensitivity about your offerings

WHO CAN
BENEFIT:
Companies launching new product lines
CEO, high-level Executives
Professional Services
Medical Professionals
Attorneys
Consultants
Public Speakers
Book Authors
Corporate Trainer

HOW IT WORKS:
To begin, brandUNITY works with you to create an expertise profile that we update and keep primed for rapid distribution. We transmit your photo, bio, and approved contact information when reporters query our membership databases for expertise relevant to your knowledgebase. We introduce the reporter to you, pointing to your expertise, opening discussion between you and the reporter.

Every day, brandUNITY monitors our realtime publicity databases and blogs of over 20,000 professional communicators who are looking for experts to quote or interview. We locate the media
conversations that are important to you, our Client, and make the introductions, connecting you with relevant requests that you could be answering.

If your focus is acquiring speaking engagements, we are also able to match media calls to your interests.

brandUNITY’s Expert’s Publicist Program starts at $500 per month, six month minimum commitment. Call for a complimentary 30-minute consultation. Be among the first five Clients to sign-up and receive one month free.

IN THE NEWS:

Welcome to our new clients:
Mora Ice Cream Company
Kathleen Macferran – Strength of Connection
Saffronia Baldwin Interior Design

New and Ongoing Projects – Progress Notes:
eCommerce for The Gallery at BAC: bacart.org
Site Redesign for artshum.org
Managing Conflict, Blog & Search Optimization
JNyden & Company Blog & Search Optimization
Mastery of Practice Book Covers, eCommerce, PPC

DMA07 - Chicago :
Ann Warman, president and founder of brandUNITY, traveled to the National Direct Marketing Conference, DMA07, in Chicago, for a full
week of marketing optimization intensives during the week of October 12 - 19.

She arrived back to Seattle, bursting with ideas, ready to dig in. Recommended reading: "Call to Action: Secret
Formulas to Improve Online Results" by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg. It’s a New York Times best seller about persona-based persuasion applied to website content to sell optimally to personality types. Meyers-Briggs move over, this is thought-provoking!

Today’s Leading eFAQs HEADLINES . . .

• Online Holiday Shopping: Cyber Mondays Earn Big
• Long Tail Search: It’s the Little Words that Count
• brandUNITY Friends in the News:
  Kathleen Macferran, Strength of Connection, LLC
  Dale Terwedo, Terwedo Financial Services

ONLINE HOLIDAY SHOPPING: Cyber Mondays Earn Big

What Black Friday is to the Malls, Cyber Mondays are to the Internet.

This online holiday spending phenomenon was formally acknowledged in 2005 by the National Retail Federation. It is the spike in online buying that occurs each Monday following Thanksgiving, up until the Monday before Christmas.

Research at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reveals that Cyber Monday buying spikes continue to grow at a significant pace year after year. Out of convenience, and possibly lack of time, people are buying online, while at work. Full Story at DMA Direct…>>

Long Tail Search: It’s the Little Words that Count

A search phrase we’re hearing a lot lately is  "the long tail of search," a term first the topic in October 2004, and later released a book with the title. At the recent DMA07 conference in Chicago search marketers were vocal in using “long tail” in their discussions about best search optimization practices in 2007.

What’s a Long Tail?
Long tail keywords are terms that are less popular, so less competitive, but when used consistently over-time, they can be responsible for driving significant levels of website traffic, equal to that of the most popular, competitive keywords.

Long tail phrases are multi-phrase search queries used by visitors to find your website. These seemingly less-valuable words are much more targeted than general keywords and because of their specificity, they are more representative of buyers nearing the purchase stage of their buying process.

In fact, buyers arriving at your site as the result of a multi-phrase search term have been shown to have higher conversion rates, buy more, and buy at higher prices: MORE>>

brandUNITY
FRIENDS IN THE NEWS:

Though the holidays bring family members together, communication challenges are sometimes never more apparent. If you’d like to move through this season with greater ease than previous years, consider taking a holiday communication workshop from Kathleen Macferren, a leading non-violent communication expert.

Kathleen Macferren, founder of Strength of Connection, LLC, is an in-demand keynote speaker and seminar leader who travels around the world, addressing community groups, prisons, churches, and hospitals. She focuses on integrating personal development with social change to bring about constructive exchange and conflict resolution.

She will be offering several workshops for individuals, families, and youth, beginning November 30. The first workshop, "Communicating Across Difference," addresses the dimensions of diversity. Two other trainings offered in December are for adults and youth, creating connection and mutual respect through proven, non-violent techniques.

To learn more, or to register for the workshops, visit the Strength of Connection website.

Dale Terwedo of Terwedo Financial Services, one of brandUNITY’s trusted advisors at Vistage, writes a regular financial column for the Snohomish County Business Journal.

In his recent eNews he reports that despite the slumping housing market, rising oil prices and a weak dollar, the U.S. economy will not slip into recession, according to University of Michigan economists. Experts report that there is enough resilience in the economy to keep output expanding. The Fed’s actions to contain credit crises are lending support to economic activity.

That’s great news for Q1 2008. comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released the first in a series of twice weekly holiday season e-commerce updates, revealing that the first 18 days of the holiday season saw more than $7 billion in online retail spending, a 17-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year.

Here’s to all of us wrapping up 2007 strong! We here at brandUNITY wish all of you a happy and prosperous Q4!