Daily Biz Solutions

Product Publicity or Business Publicity? Is there a difference and which one is right for you?

Guest Post by Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc.

To some entrepreneurs and business owners, the answer to this question might be, “it doesn’t matter — publicity is publicity and I’ll take all I can get.”  True to a degree, but the smart entrepreneur knows that there is a strong difference between product and business publicity and their respective effects on your bottom line.

Sure, the bottom line is to create consumer/industry awareness of the product or business and increase sales. But how you go about increasing that awareness, that brand recognition, can mean the difference between publicity and obscurity.

Determining which type of publicity campaign you need is really all about timing.
What I recommend to my clients is what I call “Diversified Publicity”. Just as stockbrokers tell their clients to diversify their portfolios, the same holds true for publicity. A diversified publicity portfolio is a vibrant and active portfolio. What I mean by Diversified Publicity is creating different publicity angles based on your business’ life cycle and timing those pitches to the media for optimum exposure.

In a typical business plan, I would recommend PR campaigns/pitches in the following order:
1) Product Publicity  – described below in A)
2) Business Publicity  – described below in B)

* This cycle can be repeated over and over based on product improvements, additional product launches, business development and expansion, etc..

A) Diversified Publicity typically begins with a nationwide “new product publicity” campaign designed to create multiple media placements and subsequent consumer/industry interest. Many media outlets are seeking the latest in new products and will give you solid product profiles/reviews in their publications or on their shows.

B) A few months after the product campaign, we would launch a “business publicity” campaign or what I would consider a “corporate campaign”. This is a people-behind-the-product campaign, which of course indirectly plays up the product again, further generating sales. In this instance, I like to highlight new developments that have occurred since the product was first launched — product acceptance, sales milestones, the product’s impact on the industry or an individual customer, strategic alliances with other businesses, etc. This is also a great opportunity to play up newsworthy stories that may have occurred during the development of the product or business.

It should be noted that many times, especially in startup businesses, new product publicity IS business publicity — the business for all intensive purposes IS the product. You’ve all read the stories in the media describing an innovative new product. Even though the product is the main focus of the story, invariably the company behind the product is mentioned as well. If a well-known company, say Panasonic, Schwinn, or Kellogg’s launches the product, the reporter won’t go into a whole lot of detail about the company – at least in this story. But if the company or business is new, the reporter or producer will most likely include more information to introduce the company behind this innovative new product. However, a brief mention about the company in any new product stories does not qualify as a corporate campaign. You should still follow up a few months down the road with a quality corporate campaign that will detail the success of the recent product launch.

Many businesses that have launched product campaigns over the past few months or even years have never followed up with the corporate campaigns. They only rolled one of their publicity bowling balls and there are still pins standing in this frame. Perhaps the business simply tried to ride out the product publicity as long as the media would allow and now are just hoping for continued sales. As good as the product may be, it must be understood that product publicity has a shelf life – meaning you can only take advantage of new product publicity angles for a limited amount of time. Once that shelf life is over, it is time for the next step in you Diversified Publicity campaign. As a former TV reporter and producer, I can tell you from a media standpoint — I always wanted fresh meat, different stories and new angles. Whether a reporter/editor/producer used your new product pitch or passed on it, hit them again with how the product is now impacting the industry – a newsworthy angle that has developed since the product was launched a few months back. Ideally, you’ll get coverage from both pitches.

The media targets for these campaigns differ greatly as well. The new product campaign is going to have a strong consumer and general interest editorial base. The corporate campaign will have a much stronger business/industry slant and will therefore be focused toward completely different editors or producers. Researching the expansive media markets and outlets to find the most applicable media targets is the key to your publicity success.

Whether you are at the new product publicity stage or the business publicity stage, use these tips of diversified publicity to take advantage of the ever-increasing media market –keeping you, your product and your business in the equally diversified public eye.
Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products & services.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

(785) 842-8909

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Gold

Guest Post by Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc.

When it comes to generating publicity for a product, business or website, one of the hardest decisions entrepreneurs have to make is whether to launch the campaign themselves. What makes it tough is trying to determine the amount of time it might take to launch and maintain a successful publicity campaign. This article will help address a couple of those critical elements: the length of your publicity efforts and; the respective number of hours it may take to get the job done effectively.

In my PR career, I have launched campaigns that needed the blast of just a few weeks of publicity and I have also maintained lengthy campaigns that generated media exposure for years. From my professional experience, I can tell you that a single distribution of a media release is rarely effective.

Most times, editors and reporters are working on multiple stories at once and need some time to consider your pitch. Although your release may indeed be interesting and newsworthy, the editor may simply not have the space to use your pitch at that point in the media outlet’s editorial calendar. So make sure he/she sees it again when that editorial calendar opens up a few weeks down the line.

Keep in mind also that because media outlets receive so many media releases and story pitches these days, it can sometimes take them weeks before they actually get to something you may have sent their way. That’s why it’s important to conduct extensive media follow-ups over the course of several months to ensure media reception, proper media digestion and hopefully media acceptance of your release or pitch.

I tell my clients, “No PR agency or publicist in the world can FORCE the media to use their releases, but they CAN make sure that by the end of the campaign, the media has seen or heard about your message in one form or another – which will lead to solid media coverage.”

One of the keys to determining the length of a successful campaign is knowing when you have fired all your publicity bullets; when it’s time to re-pack the chambers with new ammo; or when you should move onto other marketing targets. Over the past several years, here’s how the campaign lengths have broken down for my clients:

1-2 month campaigns :   9%
3-6 month campaigns: 38%
6-9 month campaigns: 37%
9+  month campaigns: 16%

• 1 – 2 month campaigns are most often timely, date-sensitive campaigns — a release or message tied to a current event that may be outdated in 6 – 8 weeks. A while back, one client of mine quickly produced a website aimed at stopping Napster’s file sharing services. We launched a campaign a few weeks before the Supreme Court ruling and generated some great spot coverage in newspapers and TV news shows nationwide — the site and the campaign were finished in 6 weeks.
• Most new product publicity campaigns are best suited for the 3 – 6 month time frame — allowing for the often drawn out lead-times of some media outlets. Having said that though, some product campaigns can be extended for several more months based on media reaction and subsequent consumer interest. For instance, a recent consumer electronics product publicity campaign started out as a six-month program, but that was stretched out over a year because of the sales fervor and popularity of the product.
• The longest campaigns are for those clients whose businesses or expertise are “evergreen and regenerative” – meaning they are not tied to the shelf life of a new product launch; aren’t linked to a specific date; and can be re-stoked for a new round of media interest every few months. One of my longtime clients is a “tradeshow specialist”. Her expert advice is newsworthy anytime of year and can be covered editorially year after year – especially in business and trade magazines. That lends itself to multiple articles and features month after month in a wide array of media outlets. Remember — creativity and media pitching ingenuity can help add months of success to your publicity campaign.

HOW MANY HOURS:
A large number of hours will be spent planning and shaping your publicity campaign for the media market. The preparation of the media market research and the polishing of the media release may seem painstaking, but when done right, they are well worth the effort. After the initial launch of the campaign, be prepared to spend at least an hour or two each day maintaining it: conducting numerous media follow-ups and making new media pitches, (emails, faxes, mailings and phone calls); fulfilling media requests (forwarding product photos, media kits/product samples, arranging interviews) and tracking/clipping articles and features.

Here’s a brief rundown on the number of hours that may be involved in a typical campaign:
(These hours are averaged estimates. Many PR specialists might be able to get the work done more efficiently for you.)

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
Media Release Writing/Editing: 10 hours
Media Market Research:  15 hours
Media Distribution:   10 hours
——————————————————————
TOTAL LAUNCH HOURS:  35 hours

CAMPAIGN MAINTENANCE: 30+ hours /month
(3-Month Campaign)   (90 hours)
——————————————————————-
TOTAL CAMPAIGN HOURS 125+ work hours

If you have the time, staff and expertise to launch your own campaign, then take advantage of the media and get your message to them. But if your expertise lies in another area, and you or your staff lack publicity generating skills (or have little or no experience in dealing with the media) it might be best to hand it off to someone who can make sure its done right – the first time. Ask yourself these questions when deciding whether you can handle your own publicity campaign:

• Do I have the expertise and time to get it done effectively without hampering my current workload or that of my staff?
• Do I have the writing capabilities to put together a media release or feature pitch to which editors, reporters and producers will respond?
• Do I have the resources to conduct the media research and distribute my release to those media outlets?

If you answered “yes” to all, not just some of these questions, then perhaps you can benefit from launching your own publicity campaign. Best of luck!

About the Author

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc..
His business specializes in generating publicity & media exposure for innovative
products, businesses, & experts.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

785.842.8909

Here are a few more ways to know about Headache and Aircraft Paint. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Disuja

Guest Post by Todd Brabender, President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc.

Publicity/PR Success…And How You Can Do It Too.
The Client: New Deal Playing Card Company: “Making the best of the hand you are dealt.”

Several months ago I took a phone call from an executive at The New Deal Playing Card Company. Her husband had just invented, patented and launched a unique line of ergonomically correct playing cards designed to fit the natural curvature of the hand. The woman had come across a magazine article about another client of mine whose new product was receiving some widespread media exposure. “Can you do the same for us?” she inquired. We did and to our delight the campaign was even more successful than the other campaign she had initially inquired about.

We researched and implemented a multi-faceted campaign of publicity and media exposure that quickly spread the news about New Deal Playing Cards through the media market. We generated dozens of features in media outlets nationwide including: every local print and TV medium in their market; large general circulation magazines like Men’s Health, Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day and Child, to name a few; National Public Radio; and several newspapers and TV news broadcasts.

How Did We Do It? Diversified Publicity
The key to a successful media campaign is something I call Diversified Publicity. That is, generating exposure in as many different media outlets in as many different ways to optimize the chances of publicity for the product or business. Here’s how we dealt a winning hand to the
New Deal Playing Card Company:

1) Media Notification
We knew the client had a great product, but consumers simply didn’t know about it yet.
This isn’t advertising; this is “media notification” of an interesting new product that their readers and viewers would be interested in. We let the media be our bullhorn to educate consumers about New Deal. We researched and contacted media outlets whose profiles matched New Deal’s product line and submitted effective feature pitches to appropriate editors, reporters and producers. But that was just the beginning.

The key to generating the most media interest and placements is meticulous media interaction over an extended period of time: weekly/monthly follow-ups; prompt fulfillment of media requests (interviews, photos, samples); ongoing editorial calendar research and pitches, etc.. This is where many publicity campaigns fall short. Many business owners have the misconception that they can simply write a single release, submit it to a media release distribution service and the media interest will pour in. The majority of the media interest comes several weeks or sometimes months into the campaign, after the media has had a chance to see your pitch a few times and determine how/when they are going to lend it coverage. Just like when playing cards, sometimes you have to deal them several times before you win a hand — but that winning hand can be very beneficial to you.

2) Relative Releases
This is an aspect where business owners often fail to take full advantage of the media market. We interviewed all of the principals involved in the New Deal Playing Card Company and came up with information like hometowns, cities where they may have lived or been employed in the past, towns where they attended college, etc.. We then hit the media in those markets with what I call “relative releases” – a pitch alerting them that someone with a connection to their market (native/former resident/alumnus) is involved in an interesting, newsworthy venture –
i.e. “Former Waukesha Resident Launches Innovative Playing Card Company.”
Local media are typically very receptive to features that have a local connection. Those local features many times get picked up by news syndicates that may make the story go nationwide.
It’s a creative and effective way to turn a local story into a national one and generate extensive media exposure for your product or business.

3) Parallel-Media Targeting
One of the biggest mistakes with most publicity campaigns is improperly determining the media market. For New Deal Playing Cards we covered our bets by cross-referencing the entire North American media market to determine potential media targets for them. That is to say, in addition to obvious media targets like Children’s Editors or Feature Producers, we made many creative pitches to gain interest from several other contacts at magazines, newspapers & broadcast media nationwide. For instance, in the New Deal campaign we made three different pitches over the course of the nine-month campaign. We targeted media outlets whose editorial profiles focused on:

a) Games, Hobbies, Toys, Children, Family
b) Feature, Lifestyle, Elderly, Physically Challenged,
c) Business, Entrepreneurial, Consumer Interest,

By hitting these parallel media with our pitch, we were able to saturate the entire media market with newsworthy pitches and generate placements in multiple media outlets, from senior citizen magazines to kids shows to business news features. The key is to tailor the media pitch to the respective media market. A consumer product pitch to family magazines has a much different editorial slant and focus than an entrepreneurial feature pitch to business reporters at newspapers & TV shows.

Much like a game of cards, the success of your publicity campaign comes down how you take advantage of the cards you are dealt. The player who can create a winning hand will be the one who ends up with the most money in the end. And isn’t that the deal you want for you and your company.

About the Author

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products & services.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

(785) 842-8909