MediaFirst PR - Atlanta - marketing

MediaFirst Email Newsletter 3/3/2012: Marketing, PR, Social Media, & Websites for Lead Generation

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:16:17 +0000

xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml" xmlns:og="http://opengraph.org/schema/">

MediaFirst.net"> Got the right marketing mix? Moving to online tactics like blogs, social and content? Finding time or the right help? Tips here or at MediaFirst.net

Got the right marketing mix? Moving to online tactics like blogs, social and content? Finding time or the right help? Here are some guidelines on hiring an inbound marketing agency.

	Like us on Facebook
	Follow on Twitter
	Forward to a Friend

Contents:

10 Free SEO Tips To Improve Web Traffic
JumpStart Inbound Marketing & Lead Generation
Elementary Social Media Strategies for the Business Owner: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and others

Marketing

For more than 10 years, MediaFirst has been helping clients with an array of PR, Advertising, SEO, Websites, and Social Media support.

Success

MediaFirst has helped power clients to success via:

- Awareness and market standing versus competition
- Knowledge and clarity of brand and value proposition
- Positive perception and lead generation
- Acquisition and exit for owners, shareholders, and VCs

Updates from

MediaFirst's Marketing Blog

10 Free SEO Tips To Improve Web Traffic

By Wil Caruso on Feb 29, 2012 09:35 pm

As we all know getting more web traffic is a good thing if you want your business to grow and gain revenue. However, not everyone knows some of the best ways to get more web traffic that are free.

Here are 10 free ways that you can increase your website traffic:

1) Directories: Directory Listings

A directory is a place where your company information is available to see for everyone and if they're interested they will click on your website. DMOZ.org is one of the best known free directories.

2) Link Exchange

Link exchange is when two companies exchange links with each other, and help boost both of their SEO ranking. Its best if both of the companies are similar.

3) Alliance Partner Websites: Including Suppliers, Resellers, Technology Providers, etc.

This is link exchange with a partner. Many companies, large and small with partner programs, offer you a listing that includes a link to your website.

4) Article Submission: Submit to Websites That Aggregate Content

Write an article under your own name and get it published on content aggregation websites, which accept any article and where they link back to your website.

5) Bylined Articles: Articles Written By You, Featured In An Industry Magazine, Online Or In Print

Write an article under your own name and get it published in a real magazine or on a blog where they link back to your website.

6) Posting On Other Blogs: Post A Useful Comment Or Observation & Leave A Link Back To Your Site

When you post on another blog, in many cases (and if you are not spammy) you can leave a link back to your website.

7) Location Based Services (LBS)

Go onto different applications like Google Places and Google Latitude, Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook check-in, and submit a link to your website.

8) Association Membership Listings

Join an association, because Associations often have directories of members that include a link to your website.

9) Free Press Release Sites

Although paid press releases, issued over a wire service give you greater credibility and better links. These do create links.

10) Guest Blog: Write A Post For Another, Industry Blog & Get A Link Back

Write an article for another blog and get them to link back to you.

There You Are, 10 Free Tips For SEO To Raise Search Rank

Now, these are free, in that they don't cost you any fee. However, they do cost somebody time and effort. In addition, you need to know how to do all of these, such as what sites accept article submissions or what magazine would like to have your bylined article.

The author, Wil Caruso, is a marketing intern at MediaFirst. He is blogging to support websites running WordPress; Drupal, like this site; and Hubspot (this site runs the Hubspot tracking code). Wil is a student of Japanese and Judo. Email him at wil@mediafirst.net or call him at 770.642.2080.

Terms: 10 Free SEO Tips, 10 free ways, Free SEO Tips, Improve Web Traffic, SEO Tips, Web Traffic

Read in browser »

JumpStart Inbound Marketing & Lead Generation

By jimcaruso on Feb 27, 2012 11:33 pm

p>Many clients want to get their inbound marketing efforts off to a strong start, writing blog content and Lead Nurturing Email campaigns. Blogging, offers (giveaways), Calls-To-Action, and Landing Pages comprise best practices for online lead generation. For success, you need to deliver blog posts regularly.

Your Inbound Marketing initiative needs:

Project manager overseeing writers, delivering on time, and implementing graphics and layout
Senior staff with experience writing website content, blog posts, and press releases
A review of keywords to assure that these are buyer keywords for targeted segments
Content ideas for approval as proposed titles, keywords, or drip campaigns for the buyer(s)
Case Studies in an easily readable format that is as appealing as a blog post
Emails for Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation that guides prospects through the sales funnel
Interviews of your staff or customers for blog and case study content with customer quotes
A Call-To-Action (CTA) paired with an offer (giveaway) for lead capture and email nurturing
Additional CTAs that are Bottom-of-the-Funnel, for prospects that are ready to buy now
Landing Page paired with a Lead Capture Form that asks for enough info, but not too much
SEO Meta tags: Alt text, keywords, and description to accompany a blog post or landing page

Author, Jim Caruso, discusses inbound marketing for lead generation. B2B companies leverage internet marketing using the analytics and methodology provided by Hubspot. MediaFirst is a Hubspot Certified Partner. If you need help, call 770.642.2080 and MediaFirst can help you get started.

Read in browser »

Elementary Social Media Strategies for the Business Owner: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and others

By QuiQue Lopez on Feb 27, 2012 11:13 pm

As a business owner, marketing your business today can be both costly and time consuming, and with social media strategies now becoming a major factor in your marketing effectiveness, you can no longer afford to ignore the impact this could have on your business.

There are many demands on your time in a day, and ensuring you stay up to date with what your clients and prospective clients are saying about you in the social media sphere is important on lots of different levels.

Many non-technical business people dismiss social media as not being important, and it is the business owner who suffers in the long term as their business becomes totally unresponsive to the viral nature and feedback of social networks.

Staying in touch with your clients, interacting on the social blogs, and social networks, while time consuming is imperative. I recommend devoting a specific time during your day to social media, even if it is only for half an hour in the morning before your business begins operations. This time can become an important part of your overall social media strategy by discovering what people and clients of your business are saying about you. It provides you the opportunity to respond, and provide your own feedback.

Gone are the days, where all communication was a one way street, and one bad customer couldn't really hurt your business. These days the businesses that are growing and prospering are those that show they are interacting with their customers. These have defined social media strategies, show concern about their customers’ thoughts, and respond promptly - are now prospering. Whether your tactics involve the use of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or others… you need to become involved! It doesn’t have to take over your life. Definitely restrict the amount of time you spend on social networks, but don't pretend it is not effective or important. Ignoring social media in your business is tantamount to committing business suicide, especially these days.

For expert help in developing a sound social media strategy for your business contact me at quique@mediafirst.net or call me at 678-391-9136.

The author, QuiQue Lopez, directs business growth strategies and is a respected advisor to business owners.

Read in browser »

What is Content Marketing?

Becky Boyd — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:12:11 +0000

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Every great piece of content has a content mapping strategy behind it. Just writing a press release or a nice blog post simply isn’t enough. There has to be a strategy behind the content or else nobody is going to see it. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent.

So, what kind of content should you be using in your content marketing efforts? Content Marketing covers everything from blog posts to tweets to press release generation. You need to have a strategic plan behind your content marketing to make sure you are generating the right content for the right audience. Here’s a list of content marketing techniques you can use.

Blogs – You must create blog posts that your target audience wants to read and you must blog often. This not only helps with creating customers and building loyalty, but it helps with search engine optimization (SEO).

Press Releases - Press releases are one of the oldest forms of content marketing and they also help with SEO. You need to be consistent in issuing press releases that are news worthy, say at least one per month. When you issue a press release over the news wire, you also need to push it out to various social media channels. Join LinkedIn Groups and add your press release to their Promotion Sections. Tweet about your release. Add it to Google+ and Facebook pages. Send your press releases directly to reporters that cover your beat. Also send it to “friends” of your business, which can be partners, industry analysts, and customers. Also make sure you have an online newsroom so your release is easy to find on your website.

Email Newsletters – Newsletters are a great form of marketing content that can communicate now only your business news, but can summarize customer case studies, detail industry issues, and promote events. Newsletters should be sent out monthly on a consistent basis. We use MailChimp to issue our email newsletters. MailChimp helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, send them to your mail list, and track your results.

Social Media – Posting to your social media channels is an effective way to engage in content marketing. Make sure your daily posts link back to your website so you build traffic to it. Remember that only 1 in 10 posts should be self-promoting. The other posts should address industry issues, customer news, new products, company news, events, etc. Make sure your posts engage with your audience, i.e. inviting them to comment or retweet. Have buttons on your homepage that connect to your various social media outlets so it is easy for site visitors to find them.

If you do these things you are well on your way to establishing an effective content marketing strategy that will boost your site in the search engines, engage with your audience, and generate leads for your business.

4 Competencies of Highly Effective Inbound Marketing Agencies

Becky Boyd — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:59:05 +0000

Inbound Marketing combines great content and website engagement that forms a superior foundation for sales and marketing efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and revenue growth. Shifting from outbound to inbound marketing provides accelerated return on investment (ROI).

Today’s CMOs are shifting marketing dollars from traditional outbound methods such as PR and e-mail marketing to online tactics like blogging, social media, content marketing and more. While these tactics work exceptionally, they require time and internal resources. The answer is to outsource these needs to an inbound marketing agency that can use its deep online experience to help companies and businesses increase their online visibility and lead generation efforts.

There are 4 competencies that an inbound marketing agency must meet.

1) Ability to Generate Traffic to Website: Inbound marketing agencies generate traffic to your website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blogging, and social media campaigns.

2) Ability to Generate Premium Content: Inbound marketing agencies develop premium, engaging, targeted content that capitalizes on web traffic by building landing pages, offering calls to action, and managing online lead generation efforts.

3) Ability to Construct Lead-Nurturing Campaigns: Inbound marketing agencies offer targeted lead-nurturing campaigns that convert leads into customers.

4) Analysis and Measurement Capabilities: Inbound marketing agencies must be able to analyze the results of online efforts on a regular basis and repeat successes while fine-tuning campaigns to get better results.

Why Marketing Analytics is So Important

Becky Boyd — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:12:41 +0000

Busy marketing managers often question how to analyze their marketing campaigns. In addition to asking how to perform marketing analysis, marketers aren’t sure what they need to measure. They are often overwhelmed by all the information out there, let alone which data to measure and how.

Let’s look at how analytics can help marketers. Measuring your marketing campaigns can identify what is working and what isn’t working, identify ways to improve, and show tactics that work to improve your marketing performance. Measuring and analyzing your campaigns allows you to make informed decisions about what programs to continue and which ones to focus on.

So, what should be measured?

Lots of tools exist that make measuring and analyzing your Internet marketing campaigns easier. These tools include Google Analytics, HubSpot, and others. Here are some of the things that can be measured on your website and landing pages:

Unique Visitors: Shows content & campaigns are driving visitors to your site

Repeat Visitors: Shows how valuable your content is for visitors, making them want to visit your website often.

Traffic Sources: Shows where your traffic comes from, such as a referral site.

Referring URLs: Confirms whether SEO Link Building Campaign of inbound links is working.

Page Popularity: Helps you understand which pages visitors find most interesting.

Indexed Pages: Tells how many of your pages are indexed by search engines so they can be found by visitors.

Conversion Rates: Tells you where you are converting visitors to customers. Gives valuable insight into what pages work for generating leads.

Bounce Rate: Gives info on which pages visitors leave immediately without further interaction. Could be due to confusing navigation, poor content, and no calls-to-action.

Who Owns Social Media? PR or Marketing?

Becky Boyd — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:44:42 +0000

Marketing is all about pushing the company messages out to target audiences through a variety of channels, which can include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. However, social media is about engaging in conversations with your target audience, something that push marketers aren’t that skilled at. Try promoting your business on Twitter and Facebook, and you will lose followers. Social media is not specifically for lead generation (marketing) but more for raising brand awareness and thought leadership (PR).

PR is responsible for the public face of the company. This team influences how the public (target audience) views the company, its brand, its products, and its employees. PR knows what to say when and how to say it. While PR does “push” messages out, they push them out in a way that is more engaging and invites the reader to learn more. Social media best practices really call for jargon-free, clear, and authentic communications — which PR pros are best trained to provide. Social media is all about interaction with the “public” which is a vital part of the role as public relations professionals.

Still, everyone views ownership of social media differently. Some think the marketing team should control social media for the entire organization while others feel a more decentralized approach is more effective. We recommend the many to one approach. Many people within your organization can create Twitter tweets or Facebook posts, but these need to be funneled through one person (or small group) who understands the key messaging of the organization.

Why do this? Because you don’t want someone announcing new products before issuing a press release or talking to the media; they will just think its old news and ignore it. You don’t want a recently fired, disgruntled employee who knows the corporate social media password to be able to post negative comments about the company or its people and products. You don’t want overlapping and conflicted messages issued either.

Besides, social media isn’t about “pushing,” it’s about engaging. Bottom line, there need to be social media policies in place within an organization. The different departments and product managers should contribute news, tidbits, and ideas to the conversations, but there should be a funnel through which these messages go through to make sure they meet corporate guidelines and objectives.

Brian Solis, author of the acclaimed book on social media and business, “Engage!,” and principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm perhaps sums it up best by saying, “In the social Web, a brand’s perception reputation is in the hands of the new influencers – those customers, peers, and prospects who leverage social media to voice their views, opinions, and questions. It’s how you discover and engage in these discussions that determine the brand’s resonance.”

Social Media: The Difference in Small Biz & Big Brand Social Media

Becky Boyd — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:20:29 +0000

With all this socializing going on, the challenge of coordinating and integrating messages across multiple social networks platforms has become top-of-mind. Businesses, large and small, are using social media platforms – but for very different reasons.

According to Erik Qualman’s book, Socialnomics – How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business, “If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest country in the world behind only China and India. Yet, some of the core marketing and business principles of the last few centuries will still apply; whilst other basic practices will become as extinct as the companies that continue to try to force them on the unwilling public. Businesses don’t have the choice on whether or not they do social media, the choice is on how well they do it.”

Studies show that the integration of multiple platforms collectively boosts the chance that a message will reach its target. But, first, marketers need to begin with their business objectives – Do you want to drive awareness or create engagement?

Small businesses generally use social media to drive awareness. Measurement is in the form of tracking website visitors, leads, and fans or followers. Small businesses aren’t really focused on engaging in conversations. Rather they prefer to generate awareness of their offerings in hopes that this will create a lead that will lead to a sale.

Big brands prefer to create engagement with social media with the goal of building quality contacts. Marketers want to stimulate conversation and will present the same message differently on the various social media platforms. Measurement is in the form of positive mentions in mainstream media and improved sentiment analysis.

Whether you are a marketer in a small or large company, the key is to take the plunge into social media, and to use social media across all platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more.

20 Twitter Marketing Tips for Social Media Success | MediaFirst PR

Becky Boyd — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:17:29 +0000

20 Twitter Marketing Tips for Social Media Success Everyone tweets these days, but some people just don't get it. Social Media can be a great marketing tool for spreading the word about your company, yourself, your industry, your customers, etc. Here are some tips to make you successful!

1. To avoid readers’ annoyance, don’t make your profile background appear like an advertisement.

2. Display your photo and let people know they’re NOT chatting with some faceless marketer.

3. Follow people on the basis of your interest and significance, not because the crowd is following them.

4. Post frequently (this means more than once daily!) to let people know you’re an active and responsive Twitter user.

5. Your Twitter profile must not be based on the “I” factor. Nobody is interested in your daily meal intake, and instead your posts should be more relevant to what users would actually like to see.

6. Make your discussions interesting by sending links of relevant info. For example, discussion surrounding SEO can be accompanied with a link of “best SEO tips for beginners”.

7. Be personalized when you communicate with others. After all, people should know there’s a human being on the other end and not some anonymous company advertising its products/services.

8. Whenever somebody becomes your follower, thank them by generating personalized ‘thank you’ emails. If you can’t thank every single follower yourself, employ auto-generated software that does the job for you.

9. Don’t wait for people to respond and start chatting yourself using the ‘@ directive’. For example, you can write @ john: I totally agree with your point, but don’t you think it’s better if… (Your argument here) …this will make people answer you back and provide their own feedback.

10. Don’t forget to reply to people who’ve used the similar ‘@ command’ or direct message at you. It’s your responsibility to respond to people who are taking time out to write to you.

11. If you have a small followers list, don’t worry. What matters is how active and influential those people are around the twitter community. So build quality followers, not quantity!

12. If you are following useless and inactive people, remove them from your list.

13. Don't send useless information; people will think you are a spammer.

14. Add your twitter name to business cards. Add a Twitter button to your website so people can follow you easily. (same goes for LinkedIn and Facebook)

15. To know your reputation on Twitter and to make sure it’s clear, search your Twitter name through the ‘Twitter Search’ option.

16. If you find people on Twitter search commenting about you (either in favor or against), participate in the conversation. If they’re talking good, thank them. If they’re talking bad, remove their misconceptions by pointing out the good.

17. If you’re finding difficulty to fit in conversations, ‘Twitter Mashups’ can help provide you the relevant information you’re seeking.

18. Follow a controllable amount of people on Twitter who you can easily track. If your following list is too long, you’re likely to miss a lot of important discussions because the streams may pass by too quickly!

19. Use TweetDeck or a similar application to help you follow what you want to follow. For example, I follow keywords like SEO, Logistics, Marketing, MediaFirst, and my clients' companies. TweetDeck filters each keyword into a separate column so I can easily track what my clients or others are saying.

20. Keep on Tweeting! The more you tweet (relevant info only please), the more you will be followed, and the more you will be treated as a Thought Leader.

PR Really Helps Clients During Bust Times - Outsource PR Instead

Becky Boyd — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:10:02 +0000

Early on, companies tend to cut marketing communications (marcom) staff, often a little too deeply. Then they realize that there's still a lot of work that needs to get done to maintain or establish a market presence. Public relations and other marcom services are essential to creating awareness, connecting with customers, building brands and driving sales. Outsource your PR instead to a boutique PR firm who eliminates the traditional, large agency inefficiencies by running lean, fast, and smart! No more retaining a "brand name" PR agency with a posh downtown address. No more paying for the name of a CEO who doesn't work directly on their account, and who typically hasn't contacted a reporter about a client in years. Here are some tips to finding the perfect PR team (like MediaFirst PR): • Make sure that your agency has a conceptual understanding of your company, the technology and your marketplace—but don't look for a clone of yourself. Can they communicate with your target audiences? Their business acumen and life experience will compliment your pedigree. • Location, location, location is out: You want to pay for results, not the view from your agency's office. • Agencies love to drop names of contacts, but these may not be the right reporters, editors and analysts for your company. With downsizing and media mergers, journalists change jobs and beats frequently. Experienced pros develop new relationships as needed. • Ask what they've accomplished for clients that are about your size and budget. The people showing you these results should be the same people who will do the actual work on your account. • Chemistry counts—you'll have regular contact with your agency. Nobody will ever provide a bad reference, so trust your gut instinct. Marketing communications is an investment. Selecting a source that matches your company's culture and personality is likely to give you the best return. • Make sure they're not just a recent victim of downsizing. Beware of someone taking on project work until a job offer comes along, or you risk work stopping in the middle of your project.

Market Smarter - But Keep On Marketing!

Becky Boyd — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:51:23 +0000

Per a recent survey from Alterian titled, "Marketing: The Year Ahead," marketers, in 2009, will focus on delivering programs that save their organizations money, while attracting new and repeat business using focused engagement strategies. One key point of the survey is that in previous downturns, the firms that learned to market smarter have fared better than those that decreased their marketing budgets. The following top 10 predictions fall under a broad theme of focusing more on existing customers, being more innovative with marketing, and using technology to make marketing more effective and accountable. Marketing: the Year Ahead-10 Predictions for 2009 1) Smart organizations will continue to market throughout the downturn. 2) Marketing activities will be increasingly under the microscope and marketers will now be held accountable for the success or failure of those activities. 3) Marketers will turn to their website as the single most important and flexible lead generation and customer engagement channel. 4) Marketing programs that do not show a return quickly are not going to make it. 5) Mobile marketing has had a tough 2008, so 2009 will be a make-or-break year. 6) Marketers will act on a need to get more value from their existing CRM systems. 7) Marketing will not be about just creating content for the people; it will be about getting content to the people, meaning multichannel, social networks, and consistent marketing. 8) Companies will shift focus toward increasing revenue from current customers. 9) Digital media and social networks will continue to provide cost-effective delivery channels for customer messaging, but will be most effective when integrated with other marketing channels. 10) With consistently tighter budgets, it will increasingly fall to marketers rather than IT staff to drive marketing technology. This will change the buying process for such systems and will favor suppliers that have marketer-friendly software with a quick implementation time. So, how can marketers make their budgets work harder? - PR is one of the most cost effective marketing activities you can do to generate leads and build your brand - Expand PR beyond the traditional newsroom to social media outlets

Public Relations Careers: Inquire About Flexible, Rewarding Careers For Consumer & Technology Business Evangelists

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:39:24 +0000

Know Thyself: Before you call or e-mail, make sure our Technology PR, Business PR, and Consumer PR focus matches yours

Thank you for inquiring about careers at Media First PR - Atlanta. Our main office is located in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, Georgia. Roswell is located about twenty five miles north of downtown and along Georgia 400, a technology corridor. The firm maintains other offices, is flexible about location, and routinely works with clients from Asia to Europe, and across North America.

If you are new to Atlanta, we suggest attending events at the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT), Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA), the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), Social Media Club of Atlanta, the TweetUp, or tech events posted on Upcoming, MeetUp, etc. These give you a perspective on the local technology community.

Find What You Are Good At That You Love To Do

Evaluate the environment in which you enjoy working and the types of industries, technologies, and clients. Assess the work and specific tasks that you enjoy. Search your strengths to match the tasks you enjoy with those at which you excell.

Richard Nelson Bolles wrote an excellent book, "What Color Is Your Parachute" that helps you assess your ideal carrer. This book is updated yearly. MediaFirst careers focus on business to business promotion of technology solutions.

Quality Is Conformance To Expectations

Our clients typically want to reach audiences of business customers, prospective and current employees, analysts, and business partners. We also promote firms to consumer audiences when there is a technology angle. Broadly, we cover telecommunications, the Internet, and computing; whether equipment, software, or services.

The technology focus means that clients expect a clear understanding of their business markets and competitive landscape. We understand our clients's customer in order to phrase our writing in words that resonate with the target audience. MediaFirst's flexibility supports dedicated, effective professionals We believe that careers are more than just jobs.

Today's employment climate requires that employer and employee respect mutual goals and needs. If, in your job search, you seek a flexible opportunity, we offer reliable employees and contractors flexibility, such as the freedom to telecommute. The business culture reflects our effort to best balance the needs of client with those of employee or contractor, within an unique, virtual company model. Meeting client demands is expected, but considerable personal or family flexibility may be available.

Current Openings:

Today we have no specific opening.

Example, recent postings:

Social Media Evangelist with project implementation and budget responsibility. Typical projects involve creating the proper presence and raising awareness of clients via a combination of LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or FriendFeed.
PR Researcher responsible for researching and compiling Editorial Calendars (seasonal). Also, responsible to find Reporters covering specifc beats and making database updates.
Writing or editing opportunity, depending upon qualifications. Worldwide:

Principals and Alliance Partners

The firm is interested in discussing affiliation with professionals that can successfully manage daily client relationships and workloads with the assistance of headquarters support for sales, contracts, billing, editing, graphic design, website building, hosting, and back-office support. These are team efforts within a virtual company model.

Contact for Career & Alliance Inquiries

Please e-mail your resume and writing sample to "jim" [at] "mediafirst" [dot] "net" or call Jim at 770.642.2080, x218.

A PR Agency With More Than Ten Years of Tech PR & Consumer PR Client Success

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:00:25 +0000

We live for your success. According to Peter Drucker, effectiveness is enablement. We enable client success with proven process, continual improvement, and relentless dedication in applying unmatched business and technical understanding. No other PR firm assigns their best PR staff to your account—staff with experience on the front lines of selling to top executives and across marketing, product marketing and engineering—customers exactly like yours.

Clients Seek Us Out to Win New Customers & Markets

The careers of MediaFirst staff are always focused on the promotion of technology. Clients claim we execute superbly, understand complexity, and communicate in the authentic vocabulary of your customer and industry. The firm was founded by Jim Caruso, bringing a background in the convergence of telecommunications, computing, and new media. Our first clients were from Canada, France, the UK, Thailand, and the USA. Jim's success in winning contracts at British Telecom, NYNEX and GTE (now both Verizon) attracted these first clients. Our effectiveness creates new customers and opens new markets for our clients. Clients seek out MediaFirst's unique market understanding and effectiveness, such as PR that brings both market awareness and funding, acquisition, or exit.

Clients Grow With Unique Marketing Tactics

Becky Boyd joined, enabling here to offer marketing services to her former HP customers and business partners. Recognized among the top 100 sales representatives worldwide, Becky won Hewlett-Packard's "President's Award" from Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard. At MediaFirst, she becomes part of her customer's team, launching new software businesses for Bradley Ward Systems and Industrial Computer Corporation (ICC), working with Brad Ward and Frank Wingate. At HP, she guided customers through channel development and marketing.

MediaFirst Grows Mind Share, Revenues, Profits, and Valuation

We helped these firms on their way to success, funding, IPO or acquisition: Aether [NASDAQ: AETH], Baymont, Bitam (Mexico) Bradley Ward Systems, Cadabra (New Zealand), CCBN, Canvas Systems, Commotion Pictures, Dickens Data Systems, Digital Wireless Corporation, Eircom [NASDAQ: EIR] (Ireland/USA), Eurecarte (France), Extreme Logic, Frontline Selling, iMedeon, Industrial Computer Corporation (ICC), Insight, Intergraph (Finland) Oy, Just Happy, Kubota, LeanLogistics, Machine Kinetics, Mason Land Surveys (UK), Merlot, MONENCO (Canada), Libit (Israel/USA), OHC LLC, Optiant, Optimus Solutions, PointServe, PowerTV, TARGIT (Denmark), TG Cadabra (Thailand), UNISYS, and many others.

INSIGHT Offers First & Only Strategic Planning Tool Incorporating Both Marketing & Supply Chain Strategy

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000

INSIGHT Integrated Enterprise Strategy Improves Return on Marketing Investment

MANASSAS, VA -- January 6, 2009 -- INSIGHT, Inc., a top international provider of supply chain planning solutions for the world's foremost companies, announces the first and only strategic planning tool that explicitly incorporates both marketing and supply chain strategy and operations, thus enabling companies to develop a corporate strategy focused on the premier goal of executive management -- profit maximization. Jointly developed with Dybvig Consulting, a supply chain consulting organization, INSIGHT Integrated Enterprise Strategy (IES) builds on the functionality of INSIGHT's flagship product, SAILS 21(R), adding sophisticated marketing-oriented analytical features.

"Currently, in most organization, supply chain executives and marketing managers plan independently except for periodic meetings, potentially causing significant impacts on the supply chain, and eventually on customers," said Jeff Karrenbauer, president of INSIGHT. "This is a win/win collaboration for the marketing and supply chain communities. IES directly addresses the principal issue confronting C-level executives today: how to simultaneously balance all corporate resources so as to maximize profitability and return on shareholder equity."

"IES extends the most recent thinking of how to link strategy with execution, as described in Kaplan and Norton's book, 'The Execution Premium,' by simultaneously and optimally solving the three separate steps of Plan Operations: sales forecasts, resource capacity, and dynamic budgets," adds Alan Dybvig, president of Dybvig Consulting. "Competitive advantage, optimal resource allocation, and increased revenues result from clearly defined strategies that are linked to operations."

IES drops the traditional assumption of fixed demand for a given planning scenario, replacing it with marketing campaigns, wherein both the cost and demand impact of proposed marketing strategies take their place alongside supply chain strategies and costs. The solution opportunistically assigns targeted marketing expenditures to those markets, channels, and products with the greatest margin, given available supply chain capacity, thereby increasing demand and maximizing profit. Equally important, especially in times of business turbulence and contraction, the solution can remove, subject to client limits, resources and demand from unprofitable markets, channels, and products, once again increasing overall profit.

IES avoids a common strategic planning mistake associated with silo management-the essentially independent preparation of marketing and supply chain strategies-and goes far beyond the most sophisticated sales and operations planning (S&OP) and Business Intelligence (BI) tools available today.

"The key differentiator is the simultaneous optimization of the supply chain and marketing, taking into account all relevant costs, capacities and service requirements, under the assumption of changeable demand as a function of both marketing response and supply chain capability," adds Jeff Karrenbauer of INSIGHT.

INSIGHT's IES benefits include:

-- Maximizes profit by aligning sales and marketing expenditures with the most profitable forecast available resources can achieve

-- Identifies least and most profitable customers, channels, brands, andproducts, in any combination

-- Builds demand scenarios and "what-if" analyses

-- Incorporates all corporate operations simultaneously, including procurement, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing

-- Identifies the marketing initiatives, or campaigns (from among many proposals) that should actually be implemented (as well as those that you should not approve) and allocates those budgets to the markets, channels, and products that yield the greatest margin, while simultaneously evaluating the impact on the entire supply chain, from raw material procurement to final customer delivery

-- Explicitly includes procurement costs and capacities, manufacturing costs and capacities, all transportation, warehousing, duty, tax, port handling, and in-transit inventory costs, customer service requirements, and marketing costs and budget limits

-- Identifies the optimal set of locations: suppliers, manufacturing, distribution centers, ports, cross-docks, and so on

-- Develops a strategic sourcing plan in the context of the entire supply chain, not in isolation. In the process, it rigorously evaluates global outsourcing and other "make or buy" decisions

-- Identifies where capital should be allocated, both short and long term

-- Identifies vulnerabilities in the supply chain and suggests mitigating strategies

INSIGHT IES, which can run on a laptop, uses a powerful mathematical optimization engine and comes equipped with a host of support databases. It can tap into detailed corporate business systems and optimize strategic planning anywhere in the world. Exceptionally easy to use, it is the evolutionary result of continuous research, development and collaboration over many decades of use by a significant percentage of the Fortune 500.

About Insight, Inc.

INSIGHT provides optimization-based supply chain design software and consulting services developed specifically to meet the dynamic business challenges of globalization, disruptions, and mergers/acquisitions prevalent in today's business environment. Founded by supply chain and logistics experts in 1978 with the goal of using world-class technology to add intelligence to decision making, INSIGHT solves the supply chain management issues of the world's foremost companies, including Abbott Laboratories, BASF, Clorox, ExxonMobil, Goodyear, GE, Kellogg, Nestle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, and Unilever.

SAILS, INSIGHT's award-winning flagship product, can accurately represent a company's current business practices, from raw materials sourcing to capacity planning through delivery to the end customer. The X-System(R), a proprietary optimization engine, powers a family of planning and scheduling solutions, from the design of a global supply chains to crew scheduling, troop deployments, and transportation procurement. In addition, INSIGHT provides optimization components, partnering with third party software providers to deliver best-of-breed solutions. Our software and services help design optimal supply chain networks that minimize costs and free up capital, streamline operations, maximize profits, and increase customer service levels.

For more information, please visit us on the Web at http://www.insight-mss.com.

For more information, please contact:

Becky Boyd MediaFirst PR - Atlanta becky [at] mediafirst [dot] net (770) 642-2080 x 214

MediaFirst PR - Atlanta - marketing

MediaFirst Email Newsletter 3/3/2012: Marketing, PR, Social Media, & Websites for Lead Generation

Like 'Got the right marketing mix? Moving to online tactics like blogs, social and content? Finding time or the right help? Tips here or at MediaFirst.net' on Facebook

Share 'Got the right marketing mix? Moving to online tactics like blogs, social and content? Finding time or the right help? Tips here or at MediaFirst.net' on Facebook

Marketing

Success

MediaFirst's Marketing Blog

10 Free SEO Tips To Improve Web Traffic

1) Directories: Directory Listings

2) Link Exchange

3) Alliance Partner Websites: Including Suppliers, Resellers, Technology Providers, etc.

4) Article Submission: Submit to Websites That Aggregate Content

5) Bylined Articles: Articles Written By You, Featured In An Industry Magazine, Online Or In Print

6) Posting On Other Blogs: Post A Useful Comment Or Observation & Leave A Link Back To Your Site

7) Location Based Services (LBS)

8) Association Membership Listings

9) Free Press Release Sites

10) Guest Blog: Write A Post For Another, Industry Blog & Get A Link Back

There You Are, 10 Free Tips For SEO To Raise Search Rank

JumpStart Inbound Marketing & Lead Generation

Elementary Social Media Strategies for the Business Owner: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and others

More to read:

What is Content Marketing?

4 Competencies of Highly Effective Inbound Marketing Agencies

Why Marketing Analytics is So Important

Who Owns Social Media? PR or Marketing?

Social Media: The Difference in Small Biz & Big Brand Social Media

20 Twitter Marketing Tips for Social Media Success | MediaFirst PR

PR Really Helps Clients During Bust Times - Outsource PR Instead

Market Smarter - But Keep On Marketing!

Public Relations Careers: Inquire About Flexible, Rewarding Careers For Consumer & Technology Business Evangelists

Know Thyself: Before you call or e-mail, make sure our Technology PR, Business PR, and Consumer PR focus matches yours

Find What You Are Good At That You Love To Do

Quality Is Conformance To Expectations

Current Openings:

Example, recent postings:

Principals and Alliance Partners

Contact for Career & Alliance Inquiries

A PR Agency With More Than Ten Years of Tech PR & Consumer PR Client Success

Clients Seek Us Out to Win New Customers & Markets

Clients Grow With Unique Marketing Tactics

MediaFirst Grows Mind Share, Revenues, Profits, and Valuation

INSIGHT Offers First & Only Strategic Planning Tool Incorporating Both Marketing & Supply Chain Strategy