Written by Melanie Broemsen and originally published in DMNews July 27, 2005. It also appeared in The Direct Marketer’s Essential Guide to Search Engine Marketing (PDF).

Though I don’t have OnStar in my car, a recent tour of its command center was enough to convince me that everyone should have it. From the hands-free phone to satellite tracking in case of theft or accidents, OnStar and General Motors offer features that deliver a safer driving experience.

Before my tour, I was lucky enough to listen to Gary F. Grates, GM’s vice president of corporate communications/ North America. One of the items he communicated was GM’s key marketing message to consumers: “Quality and safety.”

If you’ve seen the OnStar or Hot Button commercials, you know their advertising is on track. However, as a Web marketer with a communications background, I was eager to see how GM promoted this “quality and safety” message through the search engines.

I’m sad to say they don’t.

I searched on Google for safe cars, anti-theft devices, family cars and more. There were no results in the top 30! I opened the source code, checked the meta keywords and searched again.

Other than phrases that used “OnStar” in the query, only “air bag deployment” returned a first-page result. Unfortunately, it linked to an OnStar.com pop-up window (no navigation) that created the dreaded user trap. It’s a useless link. Most users will leave the site, do another search and find a competitor’s site.

Since 65 percent of car buyers go online to research models before buying, according to an Autoshopper.com study, and the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) reach more than 80 percent of Internet users, implementing a plan to promote the “safety and quality” message online only makes sense.

Could GM and OnStar better communicate the safety and quality message through search channels? Yes. Yet even these world-renowned industry leaders have missed out on three basic search engine optimization steps:

• Optimize content for safety and security key phrases.
• Create additional content related to these terms, including optimized news releases.
• Advertise through Google AdWords or Yahoo Search for important or problem key phrases, especially those where competitors already advertise.

If I were Gary Grates or others in the driver’s seat at GM, I would recommend consulting with search engine marketing experts to develop a strategy that integrates the quality and safety message. With this guidance, GM and OnStar undoubtedly would earn first-page rankings for the terms that car buyers most commonly use in their online research.

Searches for Key Phrases

These key phrases from OnStar’s meta keyword tag generate approximately the listed number of searches each day, as reported by the popular keyword research tool WordTracker.

The only term to deliver a first-page result is “air bag deployment.”

As you can see, the GPS-related phrases generate the most traffic. GM and OnStar executives could consider this valuable insight into the mind of potential customers. One way to take advantage of it would be to create and optimize additional content that upsells OnStar’s GPS capability.

As you can see, the GPS-related phrases generate the most traffic. GM and OnStar executives could consider this valuable insight into the mind of potential customers. One way to take advantage of it would be to create and optimize additional content that upsells OnStar’s GPS capability.

Written by Craig McGuire and Melanie Broemsen, and originally published in PRWeek on February 28, 2005.

Overview

When DoctorSolve Healthcare Solutions, one of the top-rated online Canadian pharmacy intermediaries, wanted to improve its Web sales, the company approached a Web development and Internet Marketing firm in Canton, Ohio, that specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and online Public Relations, and PR Newswire, the leader in global commercial news distribution, targeting and monitoring services. DoctorSolve had to overcome a major obstacle: The average consumer was hesitant to believe that prescription medications imported from Canada were legitimate and safe.

“The biggest challenge for DoctorSolve was convincing consumers that purchasing prescription medications from their pharmacy was safe because the U.S. government, via the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was disseminating a contrary message to the general public,” says Melanie Broemsen, an SEO and online Public Relations specialist. “We felt that when presented with objective information about the safety of these drugs, U.S. consumers would realize that not only were the drugs safe, but that DoctorSolve offered a valuable service to Americans that otherwise could not afford necessary, life-sustaining medication.”

After studying current trends and opinions on the U.S. healthcare system, Broemsen helped DoctorSolve build an arsenal of factual information regarding the safety of imported prescription medications and collected additional patient testimonials.  These would be used throughout campaign to build credibility for the company, as well as dispel myths circulated by the FDA about the safety of imported drugs. The extensive medical background of the two founders, Dr. Paul Zickler and Dr. Paul Assad, added additional credibility to the campaign.

Challenge

DoctorSolve’s goal was to gain wide-range exposure, particularly in the senior market, says Phyllis Gerhardt, Marketing and Public Relations Director for DoctorSolve.  Since the company was primarily Web-based, it needed to take its Public Relations campaign online in order to reach its primary audience.  Broemsen planned an aggressive strategy which focused on developing news releases optimized for the search engines and distributed over PR Newswire, and educating consumers about the safety of drugs imported from Canada.

“The news releases not only offered our company a way to change the false perception that prescription medications ordered from an online pharmacy were unsafe, but also positioned DoctorSolve as one of the most credible online pharmacies, “ says Gerhardt. “At the same time, we were able to draw additional online traffic through careful optimization of the releases.”

Solution

Broemsen crafted monthly news releases that integrated information about the safety of Canadian drugs, as well as targeted specific key phrases that Internet users type in a search engine to find the company’s products. The news releases were distributed over PR Newswire’s US1 national newsline because of its extensive reach into newsrooms around the country as well as its significant Internet reach.  To ensure that the releases reached appropriate editors, the broad distribution of US1 was supported with distribution to PR Newswire’s prescription medication and senior interest microslists.

To build additional momentum and help position the company as an authority, Broemsen provided daily monitoring of PR Newswire’s ProfNet Leads, queries that are sent out from journalists who are seeking experts for stories.  Two such examples were stories that appeared on Fox TV in Phoenix and Bloomberg as the result of a ProfNet pitch.  In addition, profiles of the company’s founding physicians, Dr. Paul Assad and Dr. Paul Zickler, were added to the ProfNet Expert Database for access by journalists.

Results

Within three months of beginning the campaign, DoctorSolve experienced a 302 percent increase in new orders (August 2004 compared to January 2004) and a two percent increase in refill orders for the same time period, for a total increase in orders of 16 percent.  Six months into the campaign, the company has maintained its initial growth and is averaging a 200 to 250 increase in new orders when compared to the same month in 2003.

As well as receiving numerous pick-up and mentions, both doctors have received interviews with national and local media, including:

Pickups & Mentions

• Newsweek, September 27 2004
• KING5.com, Seattle, October 22 2004
• Seattle Times, May 2004
• Business in Vancouver, February 17 2004
• Dallas Morning News, August 2004
• FOX TV News, Phoenix 2004

National & Local Media Interviews

• Inside Edition, 2004
• KING TV, Seattle, February 15 2004
• KIRO TV, Seattle, May 2002
• Boomer Times & Senior Life, September 2003

In addition, the Web site ranked 12th among all online pharmacy sites for the number of senior visitors (42.4 percent) by Hitwise for the week ending Sept. 11, 2004, and 30th most popular among all U.S. Internet users.

Written by Emma Brownell and originally published on imediaconnection.com on April 11, 2005.

Online pharmacies are experiencing an increase in site traffic. comScore Networks has released a study indicating that affordability, convenience and selection are major factors in the ever-increasing popularity of online pharmacies.

comScore’s study shows that between Q3 and Q4 2004 the number of Americans who visited online pharmacy websites increased 14 percent, to 17.4 million.

Price incentives for online shopping are great. Sixty-six percent of those who took an online survey reported internet pharmacies as “providing healthy competition” to regular pharmacies; 45 percent of respondents said they visited online pharmacies to research prices; and 64 percent of those who made online purchases did so primarily because they were cheaper than in stores.

Another major incentive to shop online is time. Fifty-seven percent of online shoppers saw saving time as a reason to purchase pharmaceuticals online.

Despite the popularity of online pharmacies, the legitimacy of online drugs is a concern. Fifty-four percent of respondents to the online survey were “very concerned about the safety of drugs available online.”

But even so, many respondents to the survey felt that restrictions on certain drugs should be eased. Fifty percent of those surveyed did not agree with the statement that “The FDA should regulate all drugs that are consumed in the United States.”

Bridget O’Toole, senior vice president, comScore Networks, notes, “62 percent of respondents feel some prescription drugs that have been proven effective should be available to the public despite possible secondary effects — even in light of the recent controversy surrounding COX-II drugs.”

Sixty-three percent of online pharmacy visits in Q4 2004 were to sites that don’t require a prescription to buy pharmaceuticals. These non-traditional websites saw a 36 percent gain in visits between Q3 and Q4 2004, more than double the 14 percent industry average.

So while safety is a concern for those visiting online pharmacies, the offer of greater choice and less restriction on purchases is also an incentive to shop online.

What are the implications of these findings for online pharmaceutical marketing?

While online shoppers favor online pharmacies for their prices, accessibility and selection, convincing shoppers that their purchase is safe, and worth repeating, is the major task of marketers.

One online Canadian pharmacy, DoctorSolve.com, partnered with a web development and marketing company in northeast Ohio to deliver regularly released news articles, optimizing hits as well as credibility with the online market.

Melanie Broemsen, an SEO and public relations specialist in Canton, Ohio, says, “The biggest challenge for DoctorSolve was convincing consumers that purchasing prescription medications from their pharmacy was safe because the U.S. government, via the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was disseminating a contrary message to the general public. We felt that when presented with objective information about the safety of these drugs, U.S. consumers would realize that not only were the drugs safe, but that DoctorSolve offered a valuable service to Americans that otherwise could not afford necessary, life-sustaining medication.”

Written by EVE TAHMINCIOGLU and originally published in The New York Times on February 22, 2004.

MELANIE BROEMSEN, a technology specialist from Canton, Ohio, has moved several times over the last few years, and almost every time she has had to set up new land-line telephone service or change numbers. She did neither when she moved to another part of town in December.

Just a month before she got her new apartment, the federal government made it possible for her and other people who live in the 100 largest metropolitan areas to keep their land-line home numbers when they switch their regular phone service to a wireless carrier. ”I wanted the stability of keeping my home number for me, my family and friends,” Ms. Broemsen, 33, said. ”Changing my land-line into my cell number, and therefore only paying one bill, seemed like the perfect solution.”

It could also prove beneficial in the long term. Telecommunications experts predict that cellular service will improve significantly over the next few years as companies move toward consolidation. Last week, Cingular Wireless agreed to acquire AT&T Wireless for $41 billion; the deal would create the largest wireless company in the nation. Bigger players, the experts say, are likely to complete more network upgrades and service improvements, which ultimately could mean fewer dropped calls, clearer reception and larger coverage areas for customers. But they also warned that fewer competitors could mean fewer deals down the line.

For now, though, Ms. Broemsen sees financial benefits to going wireless. She said that disconnecting from a land line saved her about $30 a month. (It would have been more, she said, had she not decided to upgrade her wireless service by adding calling minutes to her plan. The extra minutes were needed because she would no longer have a land line.)

When the Federal Communications Commission announced its new policy on phone-number portability last year, most attention was focused on how consumers could transfer their cellphone numbers from one wireless carrier to another. Adam Guy, an analyst at the Yankee Group, a market research firm, said that happened because the federal government did not issue its ruling on the land-line number transfers until just before the portability rule took effect on Nov. 24.

Of the nearly 1.5 million numbers that have been transferred, only about 36,000 have been from land-line to wireless phones, the Federal Communications Commission said. But Mr. Guy and other analysts predict that more consumers will choose to keep their land-line phone numbers, which some have had for decades, and switch to wireless service altogether as the service improves and after realizing how much money they can save.

In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress tried to foster competition by opening the regional Bell system to smaller competitors. But consumers still have few choices in land-line service. As of 2002, only 13.2 percent of the nation’s 188 million local phone lines were served by competing carriers, a 2003 report by the Federal Communications Commission said. The small amount of competition is evident in the cost of service, analysts say. The average cost for local services, including features like call waiting and caller identification, and excluding long distance, has risen 25 percent, on average, since the Telecommunications Act was passed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, versus general inflation of 17 percent over the same period. Even customers who subscribe to bare-bones service had rate increases of 17 percent, on average. The F.C.C. report found that basic local monthly charges for residential phone service averaged $23.38 in 2002, up from $19.95 in 1996.

By contrast, the cost of cellphone services has fallen nearly 30 percent since 1998, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking such rates. Today, a cellphone user can get large ”buckets” of calling minutes in plans starting as low as $30 a month, and many include long-distance service and free calls at night and on weekends, noted Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com, a Web site that compares wireless plans. In most cases, he added, features like caller ID and voice mail are considered standard in wireless plans but as extras on local land-line service.

Wireless providers keep upping the ante. In late January, Verizon Wireless announced that it would allow unlimited calling between its subscribers. AT&T Wireless does the same. Cingular Wireless quickly introduced a similar plan, limiting the calls to 6,000 minutes a month.

Local phone companies, though, say they are not afraid that subscribers will cut their land lines en masse. And in many cases, the local companies have ownership stakes in wireless carriers anyhow.

Jim Smith, a spokesman for Verizon Communications, which owns a controlling stake of Verizon Wireless, said the number of customers who had transferred their home numbers to wireless was minuscule. Michael Coe, a spokesman for SBC Communications in San Antonio, agreed there had not been ”a noticeable impact.” (SBC and BellSouth own Cingular Wireless in a joint venture.)

STILL, a survey by the Yankee Group last year of nearly 2,500 wireless subscribers suggested that the all-wireless movement was gaining some momentum. Four percent of the respondents said they did not have a home phone in 2003, up from 3 percent in 2002, and 15 percent planned to replace their land-line phone within five years. (Mr. Guy estimated that 2 percent of all American households now have no home phone service and rely only on wireless.)

Some local phone companies have been offering incentives to keep customers. SBC, through Cingular Wireless, recently introduced FastForward service, which reroutes all cellular calls to the subscribers’ home numbers whenever they drop their mobile handset into a $40 cradle that doubles as a phone charger. The service costs $2.99 a month or is free with some packages.

Some people may be reluctant to cut the cord, however, after hearing about other consumers’ problems in doing so. Since number portability began, nearly 5,000 consumer complaints have been filed with the F.C.C. Five percent had to do with land-line-to-wireless number transfers, it said.

Although Ms. Broemsen said she was happy she went wireless, she said it took several weeks and many phone calls to switch her home phone number from SBC to Nextel Communications, her wireless carrier.

Neither company took responsibility for the delays. Dennis Koenig, a spokesman for SBC, said it had never received an order request from Nextel concerning Ms. Broemsen’s service. Nextel said only that transferring a land-line number to a wireless phone could take four weeks ”due to system processing with land-line telephone carriers.”

Besides dealing with delays, consumers should consider other factors before disconnecting their land lines, according to telecommunications industry experts:

Although consolidation is likely to improve service, land-line service still beats wireless in quality and reliability. The experts suggest testing a cellphone service to make sure it works throughout a home before signing up. Most wireless providers offer 15- to 30-day money-back guarantees to test coverage; usually, customers are liable only for the minutes used.

Future mergers may bring headaches, at least initially. Consumer groups are already warning customers of AT&T Wireless and Cingular to brace for problems — like billing errors and difficulties in reaching customer service representatives — that typically occur when two large companies combine operations.

Internet connections may be affected. Those who get access to the Internet via a phone modem or D.S.L. may have to find an alternative like a cable modem or a satellite Internet connection.

Cellphone batteries need recharging. Cellphones with color screens, for example, may require recharging after about 90 minutes of talk time, said Scott Ellison, an analyst at IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass.

Wireless plans often require a contract. Most cellphone providers make customers sign one- or two-year agreements to get the best deals on plans and phones, with penalties for canceling early. Land-line phone service usually requires no contracts.

Land-line phones are generally better for emergencies. Police and fire departments can pinpoint a caller’s location when an emergency call is made on a land line. While wireless phone companies have been required to adopt a similar service across their networks, Mr. Guy of the Yankee Group said that it would be a year or so before the service was rolled out nationally.

One cellphone may not be enough for a household. Buying a wireless phone for everyone at home may be too expensive. An increasing number of plans, though, offer free phones and a large amount of minutes that can be shared by family members.

Land-line service is better for local calling. Despite the high numbers of calling minutes that wireless companies are promoting in their plans, most land-line plans offer unlimited local phone calls — the bulk of the calls made by most consumers. Wireless companies typically charge local calls as part of the minutes used. The average consumer makes 700 to 800 minutes of local and long-distance calls a month, according to industry estimates. Industry analysts suggest that consumers who are considering going wireless keep a log of all their local and long-distance calls for one or two months to calculate how many minutes they use. That will help determine which plan is best for them, since it can be expensive for wireless customers who go over their allotted minutes. (And remember that incoming calls on wireless phones are typically charged as minutes used.)

JORDAN J. BALLOR, 25, a theology student from Kentwood, Mich., said he understood the drawbacks of going totally wireless. He was told by T-Mobile that the transfer of his home phone number to his mobile phone could take up to 90 days before it was completed. But his decision, he added, came down to dollars and cents. He said his wife, Amy, 23, an administrative assistant for a publishing company in Grand Rapids, wanted a high-speed Internet connection at their home but could not afford that service on top of their home phone and cellular bills. So when number portability became an option, the couple started the process of switching to wireless phone service and getting a cable modem for the Internet.

The couple had spent about $45 a month for land-line service and $25 a month for cellphone service, for a total of $70. (They did not subscribe to an Internet service.) They signed up for a family cellphone plan from T-Mobile at $49.99 and added cable modem service at $42. So, for $20 more a month, they will add high-speed Internet to their mix of telecommunications services.

”We will be able to keep our home phone number,” Mr. Ballor said, adding, ”We are getting a lot more now for spending a comparable amount of money.”

Originally published in Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Newsletter on August 18, 2004.

Public Relations is more than distributing a news release. It’s the art of effectively communicating a specific message to a target audience. In many cases, that audience is comprised of media representatives that help you generate publicity. However, that audience may also be your investors, employees, clients or community.

A good online PR campaign can help you increase your Web presence, improve your rankings and enhance your company’s image – especially when combined with proven search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. This might be a new concept for some of you, but I know it works. Using these techniques combined with traditional SEO and PPC, I was able to achieve a 400 percent sales increase in only 18 months for a former employer.

Right now, I have a client that operates a business in an industry that is a “hot topic” – one that tends to spark media interest. Our client was ready to start tooting their own horn, so I put together a small PR plan for them. We put the first phrase into motion with a feature release at the end of June. Since then, we have distributed two more news releases. We’re also working with them to make some small changes to the site that will enhance credibility and usability.

Anyway, I compared statistics from the week before to the week after the first release:

• There was an 8 percent increase in unique visitors.
• There was a 7.2 percent traffic increase to the order form page.
• Order form downloads increased by 42 percent. (Conversion rate increased.)

In addition:

• Return visitors, which usually average around 30 – 32 percent, spiked at 43.4 percent the day after the most recent release.
• Google backlinks have increased 270 percent since the beginning of the campaign.
• Traffic peaked with about 18,000 unique visitors per week prior to the start of the campaign. Since then, the traffic has been steadily climbing, with the highest number of visitors last week (nearly 24,000).

Now, we’re still working on measuring the effect in terms of phone calls and print exposure, but as you see, the results so far have been fantastic. Can you imagine what kind of results a long-term, dedicated online Public Relations campaign might achieve?

As SEOs, I think we tend to forget that there are other ways to generate business: we are trained to think search engines (Google), search engines (Yahoo), search engines (MSN)! Not that it’s bad– all Web sites need good SEO work to be successful. However, there are other methods out there beyond SEO and PPC. Just like you should include the four food groups in your diet, you should be sure to include a mix of techniques in your Web marketing plans: SEO, paid marketing/advertising, and online Public Relations. The key to maximizing your Web site’s effectiveness is finding the right combination for your business.

Of course, there are many other benefits of online Public Relations.

Some of the “side effects” include:

1. Increased exposure offline;
2. Ability to spot key trends among target audiences (before the competition);
3. Higher conversion rates;
4. Ranking for “problematic” terms;
5. Improved credibility and public image;
6. Formation of relationships with key media representatives.

Even if you have a news section on your site, there IS more you can do. If you have questions or need some help, just ask.