Daily Biz Solutions

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

We all know what an electricity generator is and does, but when it comes to getting media exposure for your business, how good is your “publicity generator?” If you think about it, there are a lot of similarities between the two. Whether it’s your business’ electricity generator or its publicity generator that fails …either way you will be left in the dark. The key to “seeing the light” is knowing how to generate your own “publicity electricity” and plugging yourself into multiple outlets – media outlets that is.

Whether its magazines, newspapers, TV, radio or the increasingly popular online news outlets, media sources all over the nation are constantly in search of stories from small and large businesses. EVERY business in the world has at least some element of it that is newsworthy. It just requires you to fire up that publicity generator and shine some light on it for the media to see.

WHERE DOES “PUBLICITY ELECTRICITY” COME FROM?
There are a number of publicity angles, but the most well received publicity campaigns I have ever managed involved “problem/solution” businesses or products. Media outlets, especially trade specific ones, will often profile businesses or products that are uniquely solving a problem in a respective industry. It helps to present the editor with the problem, then provide some brief research or statistics – not sales or ad text, just facts – and show how your business/product can help solve the problem. Case studies work great. Show an editor or reporter how your business positively affected one of your clients and how it can provide similar benefits to others. This may also help get some free publicity for your client as well.

Other great “newspegs” are novelty or human-interest elements. If your business has a product or service that is truly unique, unprecedented or cutting-edge, that lends itself very strongly to an effective publicity campaign. A “newspeg” gives the editor/reporter/producer the reason to run your story as opposed to the hundreds, if not thousands of other story ideas that he/she sees each week. To say that you have a new “widget” is not enough. What is different about this widget? What implications does the business/product have and how would it affect the industry or consumer market? And finally, and most times overlooked, is there an intriguing human-interest story involved? Where did the idea come from? Did anything interesting happen during the business/product development stage? Or do the people “behind the scenes” of the business have interesting story to tell? All of these newspegs are potential publicity generators for you and your business.

PLUGGING IT IN
Now that you have your viable publicity generating prongs, how do you find the media outlets in which to plug them? Conduct meticulous media market research to find those outlets applicable to your campaign. In my extensive research for my clients, I find media outlets whose editorial profiles match the client’s business/product profile and pitch accordingly. You or your staff can do the media research at a local library or you can find a PR specialist or agency that can help you. Another great way is to use editorial calendars of media outlets and plug yourself into those opportunities. If you find that a magazine or newspaper is planning an upcoming feature on Innovative New Office Products, prepare your media kit for your “new widget” and pitch the appropriate editor.
One bit of advice — “don’t expect exclusive and extensive.” Very few businesses or products (with the exception of publicly traded ones) get multi-page stories written exclusively about them. Although that can certainly happen, most mentions are in the context of a themed story or article, but can generate very strong responses.

I’m sure you’ll find that once you generate your best “publicity electricity” — you will be “shocked” at the interest you can generate.
Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and websites.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

(785) 842-8909

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

As a former TV news reporter/producer and a current PR professional, I have been on both sides of the media interview game. I like to think I have a good eye for what makes a good interview source, how to conduct an interesting interview, and how to give a compelling interview. There are a few tricks of the trade that can make you come off like a pro — which will make the reporter’s job easier and most likely translate into a better PR placement for you.

Here are a few basic tips to follow:

* When a publicity campaign generates a media response, respond as promptly as possible. The media is on constant deadline. If they don’t get what they want from you quickly — they WON’T wait — they WILL move on to another source.

* State facts, not fireworks, keeping superlatives to a minimum. Proving your product is indeed the “BEST” is impossible. So don’t. Simply state the specific benefits of your product matter of factly. As long as you have a quality product, something that should be evident by the time you implement a publicity campaign, your product won’t need “BEST EVER” or “NUMBER 1” claims to come out in a positive light.

* Speak in sentences, not phrases.
Articulate your answers in the following manner: Subject — Verb — Object — Reason

Ex: “We (subject) are launching (verb) our new product (object)
to give consumers a healthy new option in beverages (reason).”

This will help you give answers that are straightforward and easily understood. Beginning sentences with phrases, tends to make your answers seem drawn out, disjointed and most times unresponsive. This is not to say you should never begin a sentence with a phrase. Granted, some media savvy interviewees can pull it off with articulation. But until you get to that level — stick to the fundamentals.

* “Echo-answer” the main questions.
If a reporter asks: “What’s so great about your new product?” — try to paraphrase and answer: “The great thing about our product is…” That quote/soundbite is much more likely to be used because that answer can stand on its own without needing a “set-up” sentence in the article/story. A reporter can throw that quote in anywhere and it is a logical, understandable statement about the product.

* Keep quotes and sound bites concise and articulate.
If you must have a “canned response” to a question speak conversationally, not like a robot. A good rule of thumb for answer lengths: Effective TV/radio news broadcast soundbites should be around 4-10 seconds — something you can speak comfortably in about 3 or 4 normal breaths. Anything longer and it may seem to drone on. That’s why they are called sound bites. Regardless, stick to the S-V-O formula and there’s no real way you can get off track and therefore open you up to awkward follow-up questions.

* Be a well, not a fountain.
By that I mean allow the interviewer to dip in and draw out your responses instead of spewing forth a tirade of unsolicited information. (Don’t worry – most interviewers will “lead” you into discussing the most relevant aspects of your product) You will seem more genuine and less self-serving if you answer the interviewer’s questions succinctly and professionally. This is especially true in “firefighting” publicity — when your
product/business/company is being interviewed in the wake of a problem.

* Speak to the interviewer, not the medium.
Don’t get blinded by the “stage lights”. Whether you are speaking to the editor of a small town weekly newspaper or Oprah, consider the reporter just a single person in your extensive targeted audience. Treat the interview as a one on one conversation with the reporter. That will make you more at ease, allow you to think more clearly and let you be more genuine in your responses.

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, services & experts.
(785) 842-8909

http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

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

Turning your media pitch into a media hit. Increase your coverage by increasing your pitches.

Anyone who has ever read a book on sales or taken a sales course has heard it – on average it takes anywhere from 3 to 10 contacts before a sale is reached. Although sales and publicity are very different animals, the same rule of thumb applies when pitching your release/story idea to the media. Because of the Internet and email, media outlets today are bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of media pitches each week. So, it’s more important than ever that to make sure your release gets noticed. This doesn’t mean pitching to more media outlets — it means your publicist or PR staff should take the time to pitch to your specific media market…multiple times.

Whether you pitched the release yourself or hired someone to do it for you — did the release make contact? Sure it arrived, but is that the release that editor needs that day, for that article or for that issue. Hopefully so, but many times that is not the case. So the release is either saved for future use (again hopefully) or more than likely it is set aside, trashed or deleted. The releases/pitches that get used are the ones that are, in fact, newsworthy, media-friendly and arrive at opportune times. As you might imagine a perfect combination of all three translates into your best chances of media coverage and publicity.

Using a release distribution service gets your release pitched ONCE. But the most successful campaigns are those that are strategically and effectively maintained and/or re-pitched with calculated frequency. Most media outlets don’t or can’t respond to your initial release or pitch.
Based on my professional experience as a PR/Publicity Specialist, I would estimate that media placements occur in the following manner:

33% occur after the 1st – 2nd month of pitching
50% occur after the 3rd – 4th month of pitching
17% occur after the 5th+ months of pitching

Sometimes (in fact most times) a strong placement happens when a release hits an editor at the right place at the right time. Sure you may have pitch that media contact three times over the last few weeks, but perhaps that reporter/editor/producer didn’t have the time or the editorial space to work your release into a placement. Your opportunity for placements increases with meticulous, media follow-ups and re-pitches. What many business owners/entrepreneurs don’t realize is the majority of media outlets fail to respond until after the third or fourth pitch. I continue to be amazed and amused at the editor/producer who, upon receiving a pitch for the fourth time says, “I’m so glad you reminded me of this release!” or “Great timing! This will fit perfectly in a feature were doing this week/month!” If the release had just been pitched once and not followed up, those placements would not have taken place.

So make sure your PR staff isn’t afraid to wind up and pitch your campaign multiple times. Just like in baseball, the more pitches there are – the better chances you get to make a hit.
Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and ventures.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

(785) 842-8909

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

Let’s say you have a uniquely innovative product/business/invention/venture on your hands…one that’s generated some nice media exposure/publicity (whether it was the product of your hard work or generated by a hired PR specialist or agency). Other than using the mounds of tear sheets as wallpaper and those stacks of videotapes as door stops — USE YOUR NEWS.

I always tell my PR clients that we want a publicity campaign to be a “controlled burn, not a flash fire.” One way to keep those PR embers glowing even after the flashes of placements have been generated is to use those tear sheets and tapes to figuratively “fan the flames.” USE YOUR NEWS as part of your business presentation to your market. For instance, if I am seeking venture capital for my new product/invention, I look alot more attractive to the prospective investor if I can show them previous/current media exposure. Sure, your PR campaign generated a great 1/3 page editorial placement last month in Entrepreneur Magazine. However, was this prospective investor/customer one of the magazine’s 525,000 subscribers? Did he/she even see or hear about the article? Make sure he/she does!

USE YOUR NEWS by Packaging your PR!
That Entrepreneur Magazine tear sheet atop a Chicago Tribune Business Page tear sheet along with the videotaped segments of you/your product on TV newscasts and audio-taped clips of morning-drive radio shows probably looks pretty good to that investor. Just think of the publicity and subsequent consumer interest you could generate with some strong financial backing! Your PR campaign has helped prove to the investor the viability of the product/venture in the micro-media-market, imagine the exponential interest both of you could generate on the next level in the macro-media-market.

Positive media placement is a solid validation as to the potential marketability of your venture, especially if those placements were generated in media outlets trade-specific to your market/industry. Be advised…publicity/PR can’t market FOR you; it certainly can and should market WITH you. When it comes to the publicity/marketing of your venture, the old adage “no news is good news” couldn’t be more wrong. So, if your PR campaign has been effective enough to generate news, turn that into NEWS YOU CAN USE!
Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and ventures.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

(785) 842-8909

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

When it comes to launching a new business or product, some marketing consultants might say that EVERY product is appropriate for a publicity or media exposure campaign. That is true to a degree, but as a PR/publicity professional and former media person, I would qualify that statement by saying that although new products would benefit from a solid publicity campaign, not all businesses or products and their pitches will grab the attention of the media.

A number of strategically generated features or product mentions in magazines, newspapers and TV/radio/cable shows nationwide can lend strong credibility to a new product. That “media bullhorn” can also do wonders toward educating consumers about your product. But does your product — and its media pitch — have what it takes to attract the media into giving you coverage in their pages or on their airwaves? As I mentioned, many products or businesses can generate some type of publicity and media interest, but in my professional experience, the types of products and pitches that lend themselves to the best media exposure include:

• home/garden products
• kitchen/cooking/food products
• consumer electronics
• automotive accessories
• home repair/DIY tools
• personal health/medical/fitness products
• recreational/outdoor products
• experts (business, health, technology)

If you have a new or under-publicized product in one of these categories, the media could be a good friend to you. However, you first have be a friend to the media. Your product (and pitch) needs to have what the media calls a “news peg” — that gives them a logical and newsworthy reason to feature YOUR product as opposed to the 200 other media pitches that are on their desks right now. Additionally, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do your story or they WILL move onto a competitor’s pitch and product that is easier to cover.

• Can you provide a media sample?
• Do you have quality photos of the product?
• How can the product be purchased: in stores, catalogs, online, by phone?
• Can you arrange a quick interview if needed?

Products/services that don’t really lend themselves to media interest or publicity are things like:

• website developers
• cell phone/printer cartridge sales
• vitamin supplements
• insurance
• financial planning
• realtors
• MLM/downline schemes

I’m not implying that these types of businesses aren’t media worthy. I’m simply saying that from a media interest, editorial standpoint, there are thousands of competing product and businesses like these on the market and unless they are offering something truly unique, they lack that “news peg” that will attract the media’s attention. If you are launching, let’s say, a new garden tool that is very similar to many other garden tools on the market, don’t expect much interest from the media in putting together a feature. You can create that news peg by answering a few questions:

• How does your product differ from competing products already on the market?
• Why should the media and subsequent consumers be interested in your product?
• Does it provide a solution to an existing problem for consumers?

Bottom line – a properly maintained publicity campaign can help forge wonderfully reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationships with the media. Reciprocal, in that the media constantly need interesting information to put together their product profiles and business features — and YOU need constant media exposure to get the word out. If your product or business can meet the media standards mentioned above, you could benefit greatly from some solid nationwide media exposure. Getting your product mentioned in print articles and on TV/radio shows nationwide will help spread the word to customers — and at a fraction of the cost of a nationwide advertising campaign.

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, businesses, experts and inventions.
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com

(785) 842-8909