So you want to promote you, your company or your product. You can advertise (at considerable cost), or you can get some free publicity. In the ‘business’ we say that you pay for Advertising and you pray for Publicity. But where can you get this publicity and what will encourage the media outlets to choose you? Do you have the hook, skills, and tool’s necessary to have TV, radio, newspapers or magazines interested in you? These six steps will help you get ready for media.
1. Evaluate what you have to offer. First of all, these media outlets actually need good stories and information, so they are looking for you if you have a good angle or hook. You have to give them something that they will be excited about. You can get publicity if you've written a book, become an expert, developed a unique product, built a dynamic company, planned an event or you can get publicity if you tie into a timely news item.
2. Then determine your marketing angle. A marketing angle is your strongest information tailored for a specific audience Analyze your book, expertise, product, company, and event or news tie-in and then decide what's promotable. This may change depending on the media type you are seeking. For television, use something that is visual. For radio, newspapers and magazines, your words need to be informative and interesting to the audience of the media outlet.
3. Write a pitch letter to the media outlet you are interested in being interviewed by. Be sure your message is not a commercial for your product. If your message becomes an advertisement for you, your product or company you will go right into the round file-the garbage. Publicity is a result of solving the audience’s problem in a general way and the publicity that you get at the bottom or end of the interview is what you are looking for. Keep your information sheet to one page and it is a good idea to use bullet points in the body of the letter.
4. Prepare a media release to send to the media outlets. A press release or media release is the industry standard for sending details about the event, product or company. It tells the who, the what, the where, and the when in a short interesting way. A release should not be more than two pages double-spaced. Be sure to include a line at the top that says, "For Immediate Release", the name of the contact person for more information, the phone number and the email link.
5. Find the media contact that you wish to send your pitch or release to on the Internet. I often call and make sure that the person is still in the job. Then send the item to them via email, fax or mail. I use the formula call - send - call. Often you will only get a voice mail message. I have a short idea of what I want to say about my release and then I tell them that I am sending the information to them. I wait about a week and follow it up with another call.
6. Prepare for the interview for when you receive a return call or email. It does not automatically move on to the next contact. There are hundreds of opportunities to place your material in the media. I tell all of my students that come and take my one day seminar that "No" just mean “next”. This is a numbers game and you will need to make several outreach contacts in the process of landing the one that will promote you and your business. Remember that editorials are read 7 times more than advertisements. When you land an editorial placement it can be a huge boom to your success. Some people say that it takes 7 impressions to gain a customer. Those impressions are great when it brings customers and these customers rely on the media to give them good leads and information.
Dian will be teaching her next 1 day seminar in Orem on February 9, 2011. She will also be teaching on in St. George toward the end of Oct.
Link to Orem PR seminar
Interested in the St. George seminar please email Dian@dianthomas.com
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