"Getting Press": 8 Essential Tips

Let's clarify how to get publicity and properly write a press release to get better results.

1. First, it's critical to look at overall marketing strategy to see how 'media' fits into the bigger picture. If you haven't a good website or promotional materials that explain and help you sell your product or services, then publicity can drive lots of callers to you whom you cannot convert to customers or clients. So then, what's the purpose?

2. If you have the groundwork laid to convert visitors to sales, then the next step is understand that the media is looking for stories. Whether it's online media, tv, radio or print media (newspapers, magazines, newsletters, trade journals, etc.) their purpose is to educate, entertain or inform their readers. So, you must offer them a story that fits their publication (or website, podcast, or similar).

3. If your pitch doesn't fit their publication, you're just wasting their time, and yours, so target your publications well. When I edited some of these print publications, I just threw out any faxes or emails from certain people because I knew they were just spamming me with pitches that didn't apply to my readers. And who has time to waste like that? So, don't be rude. Be thoughtful about whom you pitch which story to.

4. Create a database with your media list. Ideally, you want to develop a relationship with your target media, just like with prospective clients, so be sure to track all communications, pitches, responses and notes about all your media relations so you remember to follow up, as requested by your contacts on time. Do not send gifts or samples unless requested. In many cases (like broadcast news) it's simply not allowed. So, you'll be wasting time, money and making the reporter feel bad that they can't use your sample (it's kind of considered a bribe to 'get ink' or get included in the news). Read a few books by media experts to get advice on building media relations, but know that you'll figure it out once you get a foothold in certain media, too.

5. Don't ignore small websites or even newsletters. Imagine this: you're a massage therapist and you're targeting people with pain. Wouldn't you want to pitch stories to a newsletter for athletes about how your style of massage can help them overcome injuries or prolong their stamina so they're better at their sport? The newsletter might only have a readership of 300 members, but virtually all of these athletes might be your ideal target client. Then, why would you (as so many people do) target the SF Chronicle instead?

You'd have a million readers from the 'Chronicle' but statistically only 100 might see your article and click on your site. Of those 100 that click, only 2 will be super interested - and if your site doesn't give them exactly what they seek, like the ability to schedule with you online, they'll click somewhere else! Then all your time and effort is simply wasted. I often see this strategy of targeting smaller publications overlooked. So, don't forget the small and targeted publications when you develop media lists.

6. Once you've created your media list to pitch your story, draft your press release, which is an announcement of your newsworthy event, story or notice. It's not an ad! Be certain to have someone else read it to ensure it doesn't sound like you're selling something - which is what an ad is. If it's news, it should include the five W's: "Who", "What", "When", "Why" and "Where".

It's often very hard for people to realize their latest, greatest offering is really an ad, not a news release, (a news release is the same thing as a press release) so best to get professional advice on this before you develop a reputation as one of those 'spammers' or a publicity amateur. Once your pitch or press release is ready, you can distribute it yourself (the ideal method) via email or fax - as each media outlet requests - or you can use a web based distribution service like PRweb.com. Costs depend on the breadth of distribution.

7. When you've developed your pitch, you can either send in a press release and hope you'll get called for an interview. Or you can send a 'query' to pitch a story to the editor/publisher or section (i.e.; sports, business, travel section) editor.

What's a query? It's a 1-2 paragraph 'inquiry' to the editor to find out if they'd be interested in having you submit a story to them about your topic. Remember, it's not an ad, but a topic of interest to their readers. Many websites will offer writer guidelines should the editor decide to pick up your story. But top rated publications usually have their own writers so will not allow others to submit stories. If they're interested, they'll contact you to get more information. It's not proper to call them except in very specific instances, which are too detailed to note. (if you need info on this, call us for a consultation).

8. Be prepared for an interview or to submit your story if it's a publication that allows submissions. Do not make the publication wait longer than 24 hrs. or you may blow your chance of getting your story picked up. Be sure to submit any relevant general interest stories to online article sites like ezinearticles.com or those specific to your industry. If you get an interview, it's best to have facts and statistics or other data at hand. Best to plan the most likely questions you expect the reporter to ask and prepare your answers so you're ready.

Having done perhaps a thousand interviews, I can tell you the one thing that drives a reporter bonkers is to get generic, not-well-thought-out answers from people who are holding back the goods. So, try to be as specific as you can. Have examples or stories that demonstrate your main points in your newsworthy item ready to share. Be relaxed. It's people with engaging personalities who are most often asked to share their stories, so be yourself, be open, and most importantly be vibrantly interesting!

If you need customized publicity guidance for your business or full service publicity to handle all the above, call us for advice. We'll either have our teams help you or send you to an expert in your industry. Just remember, Knowledge is Bliss, so be authentic, forthcoming and truthful in all your media endeavors. And make it fun, too!

A 'Feminine' Business Model?

I wonder if this radical shift in our economy recently can force us to shift our business models a bit? My colleague, Sasha Sabbeth, a Leadership Soul Coach^TM in the Bay Area, recently suggested some of the principles she advises for transitioning to a ‘feminine’ business model. While I’m not sure of the gender, certainly it seems to me the ideas are ripe for our times and worth mulling over as we plan our business development:

· To get what you want in work, give up the ‘masculine’ war model requiring one person wins at the expense of another. The recommended alternative is to craft your suggestions (or pitch ideas) from the ‘feminine’ model showing how your idea is for the greater good of all concerned.

· Bring your intuition and compassion to the forefront of your business, without solely relying on rational, material proof, or digital thinking. The old style of doing business is about using force and power rather than reliance on inspired action.

Sasha shares her top tips for success in today’s world:

Succeed In Sync With Your Soul^SM - find your fastest access into your intuition, your values, your passions, and your sense of life purpose destiny.

Honor your soul. Identify your passions, purpose, deepest values and intuition. Then craft yourself and your life so that you are bringing a dauntless commitment to live your life by those 4 elements. That way, regardless of what happens in your life, you will be able to have these principles guide you.

SEO webinar date changing

Before you register, please note the date for the SEO (search engine optimization) webinar mentioned below is changing. updates will be noted here as soon as humanly possible. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Allison

Search Engine Optimization Webinar

Hi;

Just wanted everyone to know about this in case you still haven't learned how to get your site found on Google. My friend Caterina is hosting. Details:

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008, 1PM PT/4PM ET
WEBINAR
How to Maximize Your Search Engine Optimization to Attract Clients with Ease
Instructor Allison Bliss, Principal of Allison Bliss Consulting
Hosted by Caterina Rando

Your investment: $47

You want high search engine rankings. You want more website traffic. You want new clients who find you on the Internet. But how do you get them? There are lots of ways and we are going to show you how. This webinar will teach you to understand SEO – Search Engine Optimization – more than most designers and webmasters. Plus you will learn dozens of tips to get you started on your own Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so that your website can be found by those who you want to find you – your potential clients.

Click here to register.

(registration takes place on the attractclientswithease.com website)

In this informative, cutting edge session you will learn:

• Tips to convert "looky loos" into clients
• Internet vs. traditional marketing – What are the big mistakes to avoid
• The truth behind keywords and how to pick the best ones for you
• Tips to make your website work so you can take some time off
• What gets your site kicked off of Google and how to stay in their good graces
• Ranking, page rank and linking – How to use these strategies to your advantage
• The role of social media and how to capitalize on all your new friends
• How to choose the right Internet team to ensure you get what you want
• Understanding Internet stats to get more clients with ease

Click here to register.
(registration takes place on the attractclientswithease.com website)

INSTRUCTOR:

Allison Bliss Consulting is a Marketing & Communications Agency for corporations requiring an outsourced marketing department, creating branding, strategies and promotional materials that aren’t just visually appealing, but actually bring in business. Marketing Coaching rescues business owners who are completely bogged down with their day-to-day survival, and often lack the knowledge or perspective needed to reach their target market.
Resources, Websites, Optimizing, Promotional Material, Connections, Sales Training and Total Support.

With a background in communications as a musician, actor, producer and director for Hollywood feature films & TV commercials, Allison has worked with Frances Ford Coppola, Sean Connery and Robin Williams, as well as on campaigns for United Airlines, Apple Computer, Chevron, Honda and hundreds of others. Her current focus – delivering small companies the intelligence of large branding campaigns at much less cost – validates her belief that "Knowledge is Bliss & Ignorance is Expensive."

The agency’s SEO service, getting clients to the top of Google, is proven on their own website, which is found on Google’s top page when searching “Marketing & Communications Consultant." The agency’s marketing products also sell internationally where you can find their product that “writes a company profile” on six of the top ten links on Google – where the agency has held top page status for over six years. These same techniques are applied to clients’ websites. Many of these ‘insider’ tips will be taught in this webinar.

Click here to register.
(registration takes place on the attractclientswithease.com website)

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THIS BLOG NOW RESIDES AT THIS ADDRESS; http://knowledge-is-bliss-marketing.blogspot.com/

Marketing; The Magic Pill

Because we all just want to offer our great services (or products) to clients who really need us, we've all hoped for a magic marketing pill at some point. After 30 years of helping businesses grow, the only truly magical pill I know for marketing is really good strategy with consistently diligent work to reach one's goals. If a company has a few million to spend on some great tv ads, I've certainly helped with some of the best heart-wrenching campaigns for Coca Cola, branding for Honda and launching call-waiting for SBC (then Pacbell) which acted like magic 'attention getting' pills.

But for businesses without multi-million dollar marketing budgets, an affordable & useful business evaluation that generates great customer testimonials is really the key to optimally understanding & promoting one's services.

LUCK CAN HAPPEN
That's not to say luck doesn't happen. Remember all the dotcom boomers who had enormous funding from venture capitalists? They were able to afford enormous broadcast tv, print & publicity campaigns to try to generate a large enough buzz before their competitor launched a similar tech solution. While so many went bust, certainly there were the lucky ones who had the right idea with the right funding at the right time in a lucrative market. So, there's luck in your timing, too.

FINDING A PERFECT MARKET
Sometimes a business can find a totally unfulfilled market while trying to promote their core business. I had a client who was a web design firm (of which there were almost a million competitors in their region who offered basically the same exact service). Once we recommended the strategy to focus on their web optimizing services --something they really enjoyed that didn't have nearly the same level of competitors-- their business took off. But they still have to work at it: return calls, meet with clients, send proposals, educate their target market to keep an influx of work coming in, stay abreast of current technology and search engine requirements, continue their networking & speaking plus follow up on all the great outreach they'd already started.

MARKET NICHE
When a business has their market niche and they have a great service that is well defined in fixed price packages, good customer service and a marketing plan they can actually launch, then they are well on their way to finding that "magic pill" of attracting the customers who are truly appreciative of their service and who are right for them. The 'comfort level' of this marketing that really works (and is profitable) is just as tasty as any kind of magic pill.

One of the businesses we helped demonstrates that this success really is possible with good strategy coupled with their diligent work: "When I first met Allison I was near tears with frustration. I did not have the clarity of action to grow my anemic business properly to the agency model I dreamed of. Now, with her consulting, I feel confident that I have a viable agency that is competitive and ready to move past our launch and gain some real success. Allison figured out how to take it to the next level."- Cynthia Mackey, Winning Strategies

HOW IT WORKS
This optimizing business, for example, targeted medium-sized companies with websites that ranked low in the search engines. We had them create package pricing so they weren't selling vague, hourly service that no one knew if they could afford or not. And once we showed them how to start educating the market with some great introductory 'elevator speeches' and great follow up processes, the sales started rolling in. Best of all, they're truly happier with optimizing than basic website design where they were just being price-shopped rather than being valued for their intelligent web design. They've been able to take advantage of some of our low cost marketing tools & special reports and put a plan into action that they really feel good about, ahhhh what a nice feeling. http://www.allisonbliss.com.

WHAT ARE YOUR STRUGGLES?I'm interested to learn what companies are really grappling with in today's market. I plan to submit a business article on this topic to some top publications later this year. So, please let me know what your biggest problems are. Who knows, maybe I'll even have a magic pill to offer you by then!

Sincerely, Allison Bliss 510-864-8500

Why specialize OR FIND A NICHE?

In marketing, it is often recommended that a company specialize to 'target' a specific niche of clients. I think this can be effective for many companies because they can narrow their market thereby gaining name recognition, credibility, marketing focus or 'vertical marketing' which takes less time to promote and generates more sales. However, newer companies (1-5 years of growth) need a certain amount of growth time and experience, and it's invaluable to explore offering all their talents, products or services to anyone they feel could benefit. This is how one learns which market(s) to focus on ultimately.

While it might ultimately slow down their focus on a more profitable niche, it allows a company to explore what THEY like to do, what services or products THEY most enjoy offering, enables them to get staff trained, systems worked out to fulfill their offerings as efficiently and affordably as possible, gives them time to hone those products and most importantly -- to get client feedback, so that when they do decide to find a particular market, they have finessed how they'll deliver their service or work the kinks out of their products.

Client feedback is the key to positioning, helping companies stand out from the crowd, know what to say to promote their services or products and it can actually be as much fun as it is valuable. Our knowledge is bliss package offers just that, when a company is ready for it: href="http://www.allisonbliss.com/services">


STIFLING A BUSINESS IS LIKE STIFLING A CHILD
Just as a parent wouldn't stifle a child from trying baseball, soccer, tetherball, and ice skating, I think a marketing director/consultant or coach shouldn't pressure a growing company to 'play pro baseball' or 'target in one specialty' until they've had time to play the field a bit. I'd like to hear from business owners who have had this advice to squelch their offerings too soon and find out what happened to you. That might just be the subject of one of my next articles.

Look forward to your comments, Allison Bliss