iilinks

Screen shot of TFL website on 10.06.2009. Journey time from West to East London, usually around 1 hour.////

Strategy: Testimonials

Sharing a testimonial is the most powerful advertising you can ever do. Many customers don’t readily believe advertising anymore, they think it is false, overstating, exaggerated and discount it. Ask your customers for testimonials. If you have gone out of your way to satisfy your customer they will happily give you one. Post them everywhere a customer goes so your prospective customers can see how you will treat them when they become customers.

CustomInk has amassed 10,000+ testimonials. When they can get a customer to visit their testimonial webpage they have a five times higher chance in making a sale! Does any of your current marketing have a response rate this high? I’d suggest that you visit their testimonial page and learn from them.

Gather and post as many testimonials as you can. It will have a significant impact on your customers buying decisions!

Examples of Testimonials

“These guys are great! It is a pleasure to do business with them, every time. I wish every e-store was this easy to work with.”
-D. Rasmussen

“Brian went out of his way to give me excellent customer service and very sincerely addressed any concerns I had.”
-A. Hymans

“This shopping experience is everything a person could ask for.”
-Jaime Stanczyk

This one can be found on Filson

“I was attacked by an enraged bull. I was hit hard and thrown up about 15 feet, tumbling head over heels. I landed in front of the bull who then butted me, rolling me to my back and running over me, planting his left foot squarely on my upper chest. When he stomped on my chest I was certain that he would crush it and my heart and lungs. Amazingly, my only injuries were a broken sternum and some subluxed ribs and clavicle joints. Quite sore but alive! Next day I cleaned the muddy hoof print off the left upper chest surface of the coat I had been wearing…my FILSON TIN CLOTH PACKER COAT. I feel that the almost armor-like quality of the caped part of that coat probably saved my life.”

-Bruce Ashley

West Union, OH

WOW! It is because of testimonials like this that I own a Filson product! How about you and your products… Are you using testimonials to help you sell? Testimonials are a competitive edge you can use!

Strategy: Evaluating Products

A good way to help your customers make decisions is to help them categorize you product. Some ways to segment products are: categorizing products, Good/Better/Best categories, and Step-By-Step / How-to / Customer Reviews / Ours vs. Theirs comparisons / Don’t Forget instructions. Whenever you can simplify the buying decision you are helping your customers take on more of a co-productions position, which is when the customer provides at least part of his/her own service. You give them the power to make faster and more educated decisions. Usually resulting it purchasing higher priced products.

An Example of Evaluating Products

Categorizing

Camp Chef, makers of Outdoor cookers categorizes its product line into distinct product lines. Their high-end catering style stoves are in the 1. Professional Series, their rugged camping style stoves are in the 2. Outdoorsman Series, their portable/car camping stoves are in the 3. Sport Utility Series, and their grilling/tailgating stoves are in the 4. Sport Grill Series. You can easily identify what type of stove to start investigating by your intended activity or usage.

How can you apply this to your business?

Categorize products for your customer. Make posters or brochures. Help your customers easily make choices about your product line. Say there are eight different sleeping bags to choose from. Divide the bags into logical categories that make it easier for your customer to choose a bag. Consider categories such as, If you camp in -20′ - -5′ temperatures consider these bags. If you camp in 0′ - 40′ temperatures consider these bags. If you camp 40′+ temperatures consider these bags. -or- If you car camp consider these bags…If you backpack consider these bags… If you camp in your yard consider these bags…

Look for ways to compare the products you sell. You will quickly begin to sell more of the better products because your customers will be able to see they difference.

Daniel C. Felsted is Marketing Director of The Image Foundry, a corporate marketing training consultancy. Specializing in Marketing, Design, Signage & Teaching business how to sell more products to more people more often for higher profits with direct marketing best practices. danis@TheImageFoundry.biz
The Image Foundry (TheImageFoundry.biz) Visit my blog: http://TheInternetDarkAges.blogspot.com

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How many methods do we know to promote a very good customer service.

Apart from sending a small one or two lined email with a small thank you not much more left.

Yes, we can call a company and let them know, we can fax them, send a small thank you gift but would we really be so bothered?

I do not think so.

If it comes however to a bad customer service we all suddenly know what to do and what options we may have.

First a complain, of course, sent via email to customer service or complaints department.

If this does not work we will start again but this time with a letter.

I do not want to mention that a great number of calls will also be made to support our case.

Our opinion as a customer matters very much if it is about a local business which would not survive without customers from a nearest neighbourhood.

What if a company sell online and their presence is only virtual?

In this case as customers are from not only your local town but can be from the entire UK our voice weakens.

What are the options then:

1. Review this company online so more than a local community can read.

Always try to find the board which displays true reviews and you can see that the feedback is from real people.

2. Try to provoke a dialogue.

What if by posting a review or complaint or maybe a compliment you would trigger a small chain reaction and the company would be obliged to respond?

This is what e-customer-satisfaction.com is all about.

- You write a review

- We send it to a company you want to review

- We ask them for a feedback and communicating with you

- The entire correspondence is available online

3. What is the difference between e Customer Satisfaction and other review boards?

- First of all we do not stand still and allow anybody to write whatever they want without a chance to respond by other party.

- We are not just another forum where discussion can go the only way - bad for the company.

- We want to make a difference in the world by promoting only those who care about their customer relations.

- We help to maintain a company’s great reputation.

The only place to post a review or feedback should be interactive e Customer Satisfaction.

Opinions, Complaints, Compliments have never been so important and been making such a big impact on customers’ confidence.

Customer Reviews on e Customer Satisfaction you can trust.

Customer Complaints on e Customer Satisfaction you have to take into account.
e Customer Satisfaction’s Customer compliments which make your company look more reliable.
e Customer Satisfaction’s Customer Feedback is the most important.

Help us to promote great companies or provoke and fight bad ones.

Write about any of your good and bad experiences and see that this time it will make a difference.

Link building is a strategy done by people on the internet to improve their Page Ranking thus increasing their popularity and importance in search engines. There are many ways on how to do effective link building and some of them will be tackled in this article.

Link Baiting

One of the most effective and most important ways to get links is through link baiting. Link baiting is all about the content of your website or web pages. People or internet users will be more interested to link to you if you have very good and very useful content. But if you have crappy content and useless information on your website, then you can expect that the opposite will happen.

Directories and Link Building

You can make effective use of directories in link building. There are 4 different kinds of directories you can choose from: reciprocal required, pay for inclusion, free directories and niche directories. Among all the four types of directories, pay for inclusion would prove to be the best though it will require you to shell out some money. But if you are on a tight budget, you can always use free directories but do not expect to see the effects right away.

Join Communities in the Internet

Another effective way of link building is to join communities such as bulletin boards, forums, etc. But you do not join just any online community. You should be in a community that has the same niche as your own website. Participating in different discussions will boost your importance in the community especially if you share with them substantial ideas and not just crap.

This is a very good venue for link building. And it is most effective if you have proven yourself to be a very important asset to the community. People will start linking to your page in the hopes that you will link to them to.

Ask the Help of Bloggers

This method of link building is for those people who are willing to shell out money. You can ask bloggers to blog about your site and link to it. This will be more effective if you choose a blogger whose blog is also on top of the food chain in the world of blogs.

Article Submissions

Link building through article submissions is yet another effective method that you may want to try. There are two approaches to this method. First is if you have the talent and time for writing then you can write the articles yourself and submit it to article directories. The second approach is if you do not have the talent nor the time to write articles, then you can ask ghost writers to do it for you.

Make Reviews and Testimonials

Another effective way of link building is by giving your 2 cents about a product, an item, or an idea that is related to your niche. Be very careful of the words that you use so as you do not displease anyone. You can always look at this as an opportunity to show internet users that you are worth linking.

http://seo.xon.us - SEO.xon

Vanessa A. Doctor from Jump2Top - SEO Company

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Link popularity is one of the important website promotion tools. The more website linking to your website, the more popular your website is. Link building is getting other website to link to your website. This benefits your website in terms of increasing the popularity of the website, traffic volume and also to improve the search engine ranking of your website. There are a few types of link building:

1) Back or inbound links- this is a one-way link where other website link to your website, but you do not link your website back. This is the most effective and valuable type of link. This is especially true when websites with high quality, high value and high topic relevancy link to your

2) Reciprocal links- this is a partnership where other websites link to your website and you return the favour by linking back to the other websites.

3) Three-way link- this is the most complicated link building where it involves one way link with each other and the relationship is between three domain names.

Link building is not easy as it someone is required to take the initiative. There are several strategies to link building.

1) Article writing- this is the most effective strategy as it can increase the popularity of your website and promote your website to others. However, write only relevant and informative articles because these are the articles that people will actually read. Even if you are promoting your products, the article should focus on giving information and indirectly include your products and links with the article. The most important element is to have a high keywords density in your articles.

2) Outsourcing- this should be done cautiously. Only outsource to trustworthy individuals and services that can provide you with good quality links. It will be a waste of money if you outsource to people who only provide low quality links which can negatively affect your website. Ask around for reliable services.

3) Link building directories- there are free link directories where you can submit your website link. But, only submit your website link after making sure that the directories have high page rank and with high quality.

Link building is not something that can be ignored for your website as it affects your page rank given by the search engines. It is not easy as there are a number of factors to consider during the process such as which type of link-building works the best and suits your website. The website that links to your website is important too as the higher value and quality that website is, the higher is the ranking given by search engines to your website.

Nizzura is a full time internet marketer and has helped hundreds of Internet marketers create wealth from their own online business using various F-R-E-E traffic tactics, secrets and techniques.

Click here to find out how: http://FreeMoneyMethod.com

The author grants full reprint rights to this article. You may reprint and electronically distribute this article so long as its contents remain unchanged, and the author’s byline remains in place.

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Country Home Accessories
by: Lisa French

Country home d?cor is the most sought after home interior and it?s no wonder since country d?cor invites a casual friendly lifestyle.

Make sure you carefully study the specific style, and color scheme then carefully coordinate the colors of each element of your country d?cor.

Although the kitchen is primarily a working area little touches can make a big difference:

Pie safes or glass door cabinets can be used for displaying antique china.

Hanging potted plants from the ceiling or placing them in the window.

You can also display:

* Cookbooks
* Wooden spoons
* Bowls or baskets of fruits or vegetables
* Vases of fresh flowers
* Pottery
* Old tin canister:

Pot racks are great for hanging:

* Copper pots
* Baskets
* Dried herbs

You can add a touch of country to your bathroom simply by adding:

Old glass jars, which are great, for holding cotton balls, Q-tips, or a fresh flower.

Decorative baskets, a galvanized pot, or a wine rack used in the bathroom are good for holding towels.

Baskets and pots can hold magazines, books, towels, oils, soaps, shampoos, sponges, and lotions.

Shelves can be used to display a collection of:

* Knickknacks
* Candles
* Potpourri

Don?t forget you can hang pictures or display your kid?s artwork, in the bathroom.

You will want your living room to have a comfortable lived in look that will always make your friends and family feel welcome.

Some charming accents can be displaying:

* Beautiful hand made quilts
* Throw pillows
* Rugs

In your living room you can also arrange:

* Candles
* Potpourri
* Plants
* Flowers

Be consistent in your choice of home interior color, styles and materials so as to avoid a patchwork look that is indicative of bad planning.

About the Author: Author: Lisa French is a freelance writer specializing in home decor.Use of this article requires a link tohttp://www.decorating-country-home.com

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Most people experience some degree of shyness from time to time in certain situations. In fact, only about 7% of the population claims that they never feel shy. For the rest of us, shyness can range from being an occasional, minor inconvenience, to being a major problem.

Some people however, are afflicted with a degree of shyness so severe that it is almost disabling. This type of acute shyness is not only very painful to experience, but it can have devastating effects on a person?s social life, happiness, and career.

Severe shyness is a complex mix of biology, upbringing, traumatic experiences, and negative self-talk. Severe shyness can co-exist with other debilitating psychological conditions such as low self-esteem, perfectionism, depression and anxiety.

Extreme shyness can take many forms, and can show up differently in different people. Some very shy people have problems being in large gatherings, yet feel comfortable in small groups. Some shy people only feel acute discomfort with persons they have just met, while others are never comfortable around people, even those they have known a long time.

Psychiatrists and psychologists use the term ?social anxiety disorder (SAD)? to describe extremely debilitating shyness. There isn?t complete agreement about whether severe, disabling social anxiety disorder is simply a more severe type of shyness, or whether it is another type of disorder altogether.

Some very shy people are able to overcome their fears by learning social skills and practicing them frequently in social situations. Many also find it useful to gain some measure of control over their uncomfortable physical reactions such as sweating and trembling, by using special relaxation techniques and bio-feedback training.

Many very shy people deal with their extreme anxiety by simply avoiding any social situations that might trigger their discomfort. This may mean turning down invitations to parties and other social events, crossing the street in order to avoid running into someone they know, and even turning down promotions at work.

Although avoiding the feared situation may seem to the shy person like the perfect solution, it actually makes the problem worse in the long run. Every time a shy person chooses to avoid social interaction, he reinforces in his mind how much he fears dealing with other people.

By choosing the short-term benefit of avoiding his anxious feelings, he reinforces the power that his fear holds over him

Psychologists who specialize in the treatment of shyness disorders have discovered that avoiding social situations can actually make the problem worse. Many psychologists who treat people aflicted by shyness recommend a program of repeated and gradually increasing exposure to the feared situation, combined with helping the client learn new ways of thinking.

Various psychological therapies have been used to treat extreme shyness, most of them with limited success. The most successful approaches use some variation of cognitive therapy, or behavioral therapy, or both of these, combined with graduated and increasing exposure to the feared situation.

In cognitive therapy, the patient is taught to notice the thoughts he is thinking while he is in the feared situation. The client learns to challenge his thoughts to see if they fit reality. If these thoughts do not match the reality, the client is taught to substitute more realistic thoughts in their place.

Behavioral therapy aims to change the client?s behavior using a program of positive reinforcement of the desired behavior, and negative reinforcement of the undesired behavior.

Both cognitive therapy and behavior therapy focus on teaching the client to deal with situations and symptoms in the present. Neither form of therapy delves into situations in the client?s distant past. Those forms of psychotherapy that attempt to deal with shyness by delving into the client?s past history have not been shown to be effective. in cognitive therapy techniques.

There are many books that can teach the reader to effectively use cognitive therapy techniques for both depression and loneliness. If your case is not particularly severe, you can often learn enough from reading a book and doing the recommended exercises to greatly relieve your symptoms of shyness or depression. Dr. David Burns, one of the pioneers in bringing cognitive therapy to a wider audience, has written several very useful books and workbooks for the general public, including ?Intimate Connections? and ?Feeling Good–the New Mood Therapy.?

In the past decade, researchers have discovered that some anti-depressant medications, particularly the so-called SSRI?s (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors), can also be very helpful in the treatment of extreme shyness. One of these SSRI drugs, Paxil, was the first to receive American F.D.A. approval as an effective treatment for social anxiety. In fact, ads for Paxil as a treatment for social anxiety have been marketed directly to the public, not just to doctors. Other anti-depressant drugs in the SSRI group are also believed to help in reliving social anxiety.

Does drug treatment for shyness really work? Some very socially anxious people have tried everything that regular psychotherapy has to offer, including cognitive therapy, yet they still suffer debilitating symptoms of shyness until they try SSRI drugs. In some cases, the improvement in sociability after taking SSRI drugs can be swift and profound. This class of drugs seems to help the socially anxious person turn down the excessive volume of their inner judgmental thoughts.

About the Author: This article is taken from the new downloadable book by Royane Real titled “How You Can Have All the Friends You Want - Your Complete Guide to Finding Friends, Making Friends, and Keeping Friends” available at www.royanereal.com

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With the help of MSN, recently I?ve been reminiscing about the Google of old. Remember those days? When you could take a good quality site, add a few keywords, get a few incoming links and bada-bing, bada-boom, it?d be #1 on Google? Remember the old days, pre-Florida, pre-sandbox? The days when we, as search engine optimization specialists, didn?t feel like a private schoolgirl smoking in the bathroom? When we didn?t feel like the iron fist would come crashing down at any moment? Yes, those were the good old days. And MSN has finally brought them back, though on a much smaller scale.

Google hit it right on the nose back then. Search results were almost never irrelevant - venturing to the second page of results was an event that drew gasps. There was never, ever any reason to leave Google and search for the same query on another search engine. Satisfied users the world over, it was the search engine of choice almost everywhere searches were conducted. I myself never strayed from Google, I was loyal and I was rewarded for my loyalty with consistently relevant results.

But has Google taken their quest for perfection a few steps too far? Case in point: http://www.jimmylerner.com - this web site is the official site of an author. Search on MSN for his name, ?jimmy lerner? and his web site is the top result. Now, try the same search on Google.

The top results are pages devoted to reviewing his book, book stores selling his book, a press release I sent out to announce his new site and a few times I?ve even seen sites show up in the top ten that simply have a link to his site from theirs and are completely unrelated. His site has been jumping from the second page to the first and back again.

This begs the question, optimization or no optimization, what, exactly, is the problem with a quality, informative web site reaching number one for a search query that is probably conducted specifically to find that exact site? Has the focus and aim of Google changed from offering relevancy to satisfied searchers to simply impeding the progress of SEOs? Is Google?s main concern now, to stop individuals from helping a site reach number one? It can seem that way, can?t it? And I can only say one thing about it. Bad move, Google.

I?ve heard a few people say that it?s just a transition period. That all web sites are in the same boat, everyone?s waiting to see the fruits of their optimization labour. Perhaps this is true, and perhaps over the next little while we will see changes at Google that make our jaws drop, impressed at the level of perfection we never thought possible. But I think maybe Google needs to re-focus their energies. Take the focus back to the user, not the SEOs. Get back to the near-impeccable relevancy level before I start using MSN to learn about all my favorite authors.

About the Author: Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, a search engine optimization company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney’s articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/.

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Have you ever wondered why the phones aren’t ringing the waythey should? Or maybe sales are flat and you’re not achievingthe revenue and profit targets you set for your business.There’s one sure-fire way to uncover the problems to get yourcompany back on track. The answers are right in front of yournose.

> > > Why Your Ads May Say Nothing & Everything About YourBusiness! < < <

Many business owners rely on platitudes and ego gratificationwhen promoting their businesses. They think customers willflock to their establishments to buy products and services justbecause they’re there or just because they’re “nice folks”.Their ads extol the same drearily predictable phrases: “We’vebeen in business umpteen years!”, or “We’re family owned andoperated!”, or “We sell the best for less!”. Trite andcommonplace position statements such as these have been used somuch, by so many advertisers, they simply have no meaning andno impact.

> > > Your Customers Are A Goldmine Of Information < < <

When it comes to your industry, your customers represent awealth of experience. Why not tap into that knowledge-baseto see how you can increase your bottom line profits? Have youever taken an extensive customer survey and asked why peoplebuy from you? If you haven’t, you’re missing vital feedbackthat can tell you exactly how to craft your marketing messagefor maximum impact. Try it and you’ll learn the best way tospeak to your target audience. Their responses will guide youin developing your irresistible marketing message. You’lluncover all the customer “Hot Buttons”, the problems,frustrations, and annoying situations your target audienceexperiences before and when doing business in your industry.When you know what “makes your target market tick” and what”ticks them off”, your approach will be more confident andinformed.

This will cause people to be more receptive, becauseprospects can now see that you completely understand them andtheir situation.

In addition, you can learn just as much from prospects whodecided not to buy from you as you can from those who do. Why?When prospects fail to buy from you, there’s a good chance thatthe issue was not “price”. Knowing why allows you to look atways of innovating your company, products, or your services.You know precisely how to make your business more attractive.

> > > Customer Survey Types < < <

Conduct your surveys and direct them toward:

1) Current Prospects2) Prospects who are still stuck in the buying process3) Current Customers4) Former Customers5) Unhappy Customers

According to Jim Rohn, renowned business philosopher, the keycomponents to powerful communication are: first having somethinggood to say, then saying it well, and finally saying it often,using the appropriate mediums. Your customer surveys will giveyou plenty of good things to say. Pay attention, because yourcustomers may even say it for you, in the form of testimonials!

Get a FREE Customer Survey Template entitled, “Everything YouShould Ask Your Customers And How!” Simply email your requestto mailto:surveytemplate@aweber.com and learn how to get yourcustomers to tell you everything you need to know about whatmakes them “tick” and what “ticks them off”.

Learn more about this innovative and convenient way to helpbuild your business by viewing a short video clipat: http://www.mymondemand.info/page/page/1685007.htm

May your marketing efforts be profitable.

About the Author: James Bell, the author, teaches business owners, entrepreneurs,and professionals how to acheive bigger, bottom line results from their advertising & marketing efforts without spending moretime, effort, or money. Learn marketing strategies and tactics to separate yourself from your competition and become the obvious choice to do business with. To learn more about how to improve your own Marketing Efforts and Achieve Better Results, visit: http://www.MYMOnDemand.com. Email: mailto:jbell@mymondemand.com

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For business, non-profit and association managers, is itpublicity that delivers newspaper and talk show mentionsbacked up by colorful brochures and videos, combinedwith special events that attract a lot of people?

Or could your business, non-profit or association PR dollarbe better spent on public relations activity that createsbehavior change among your key outside audiences thatleads directly to achieving your managerial objectives? Anddoes so by persuading your most important outsideaudiences to your way of thinking, then moves them to takeactions that help your department, division or subsidiarysucceed?

What we?re talking about is the kind of PR that lets youdo something positive about the behaviors of those externalstakeholders of yours that MOST affect your organization.Which means the right PR really CAN alter individualperception and lead to changed behaviors that help youwin.

Here?s a recipe for you: people act on their own perceptionof the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviorsabout which something can be done. When we create, changeor reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect theorganization the most, the public relations mission isaccomplished.

And it can generate results like increased membershipapplications; prospects starting to work with you; customersmaking repeat purchases; capital givers or specifying sourceslooking your way; stronger relationships with the educational,labor, financial and healthcare communities; and evenimproved relations with government agencies and legislativebodies,

Once the program gets rolling, you also should see resultssuch as new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures;rebounds in showroom visits; community service andsponsorship opportunities; enhanced activist group relations,and expanded feedback channels, not to mention newthoughtleader and special event contacts.

To garner such results your PR crew ? agency or staff ? mustbe committed to you, as the senior project manager, to the PRblueprint and its implementation, starting with target audienceperception monitoring.

As you know, its extremely important that your key outsideaudiences see your operations, products or services in the mostpositive light. So make certain that your PR staff has boughtinto the whole effort. For example, do they accept the realitythat perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can helpor hurt your unit?

Review the PR blueprint with your PR team, especially theplan for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioningmembers of your most important outside audiences. Questionslike these: how much do you know about our organization?How much do you know about our services or products andemployees? Have you had prior contact with us and were youpleased with the interchange? Have you experienced problemswith our people or procedures?

IF the budget is available, survey firms obviously can handle theperception monitoring phases of your program. But rememberthat your PR people are also in the perception and behaviorbusiness and can pursue the same objective: identify untruths,false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies,misconceptions and any other negative perception that mighttranslate into hurtful behaviors.

But what about your public relations goal? You need a goalstatement that speaks to the aberrations that showed upduring your key audience perception monitoring. And itcould call for straightening out that dangerous misconception,or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or doing something aboutthat damaging rumor.

PR 101 says when you set a goal, you need a strategy thatshows you how to get there. Here, you have three strategicchoices when it comes to handling a perception or opinionchallenge: create perception where there may be none, changethe perception, or reinforce it. A bad strategy pick will tastelike lime zest on your veal chops, so be certain the newstrategy fits well with your new public relations goal. Forexample, you don?t want to select ?change? when thefacts dictate a ?reinforce? strategy.

Your PR team has their work cut out for them because nowthey must come up with just the right, corrective languagethat will persuade an audience to your way of thinking. Wordsthat are compelling, persuasive and believable AND clear andfactual.

You have little choice if you are to correct a perceptionby shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading tothe desired behaviors.

Message impact is also key in such a message, so sit downagain with your communications specialists and review yourmessage for that quality as well.. Then, select the communicationstactics most likely to carry your words to the attention of yourtarget audience. You can pick from dozens that are available.From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumerbriefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings andmany others. But be sure that the tactics you pick are known toreach folks just like your audience members.

The credibility of a message can depend on its delivery method.So, think about introducing it to smaller gatherings rather thanusing higher-profile tactics such as news releases or talk showappearances.

Calls for progress reports will send you and your PR folks backto the field for a second perception monitoring session withmembers of your external audience. Using many of the samequestions used in the first benchmark session, you?ll now bewatching very carefully for signs that the bad news perceptionis being altered in your direction.

If colleagues (or bosses) seem impatient for results, you can always accelerate things with more communications tactics and increased frequencies.

Folks act on their perceptions of the facts they hear about youand your operation. Which means you have next to no choicebut to deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions bydoing what is necessary to reach and move those key externalaudiences of yours to actions you desire.

About the Author: Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi-cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com

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