It seems like just about every niche is covered by a blog.  Some niches have dedicated blog evangelists.  The advantage of the variety of blog publishers out there is that you can get nearly instant access to readership.  As traditional marketing continues to change, users online are taking more and more control over freedom of speech.  Press releases can be freely distributed, products reviewed, and opinions shared about business is all freely posted and indexed online (good or bad).  Any business or corporation should be concerned about what’s being said online and how they can influence their image among users.

A press release can be written and submitted to blog publishers to share your story.  Press releases use to be restricted to large media organizations filtering content, whereas now there are very little limitations.   If you have a newsworthy event or interesting information for a specific niche- write up your story and submit it to blog evangelists who tend to be very supportive (make sure they include a link back to your site!).

A new trend of business reviews by participating publishers, are on the rise.  Most blog evangelists welcome a free product, book, or service to review and in return for a posted summary on their website.  This instantly gives your product a strong testimonial and positive reaction among regular visitors to a blog.  The price of a product to reach 10,000 niche impressions in a month is much cheaper and more effective than many advertising strategies.

Opinions about business in blogs and forums are regularly shared.  Any employee interested in PR for their company should quickly do a search for their name by keyword and pull up results.  In most cases you might be surprised at what you’ll find.  Your overall image and brand could be largely influenced (good or bad) online and you may be completely unaware.

A tag line (and logo) is the most important ad you’ll ever run, because if strategically sound, it can leave a lasting impression of your brand or identity.  It should simply and clearly encompass the single most important impression you want your target market to retain.  A lot of professionals have come up with formulas to create a tag line, which really is a series of brainstorming sessions worded in creative ways to make their claim to fame unique.  Don’t make the mistake of diving in without a clue!  Brainstorming is critical, but don’t forget about starting from square one.

Here’s my opinion for those who stay up all night wondering where to start:  Take a tag line, boil it down and you’ll discover it closely resembles a business’ position statement, which is just as critical to your identity creation.  Your positioning should define in a solid, competitive statement what makes your business unique, such as, “We will position Sally’s flowers as the freshest in the market.”  Notice Sally doesn’t ramble on with, “and wonderfulest, and beautifulest, and bestest and just everything you would ever want in a flower- oh yeah, and redest too.”  Your brand can’t be everything to everyone.  Stick with one concept, one defining element, and the ultimate void in the market your product or service is filling.  Whatever the “one” is, be sure it is clearly communicated in your tag line (with a clever twist).   Once you have the one impression you want to make, create a logo and start brainstorming tag lines.