One of the things I’ve learned from being a rather, *ahem*, obsessed self-taught student of publicity marketing is the importance of a well-designed, month-by-month publicity plan that allows you to milk (yikes!,did I say ‘milk’??!) every media opportunity available.

Start creating a strategy right now because some national magazines have lead times of 6 months so you will need to be pitching now, yes, 6 months before it even goes to press. Talk
about. Now I know the meaning of ‘early-bird’….

-Come up with some questions pertaining to your product/service/cause that will help you target media folks
who WANT to hear from you. You will be like a big juicy steak
to a starving clan of lions when they get your press release.

-Say good-bye to your dating life (sorry, honey!) and spend your Saturday nights reviewing all the materials/products you’ve purchased from PR gurus so that you can learn the art of generating story ideas about whatever it is you are selling. Oh, you will be much happier in your dating when your wallet is fat. um, so, I’m told.

-Put together a Priority A media “HIT list”. This has nothing to do with the mafia or that big guy from the Sopranos whose name I can’t spell out for you due to possibly being banned here.

Okay, I digress….

These are reporters/editors/journalist who are in a position to cover your story and help you get that yacht you’ve been eye-balling. Come on, admit it. You want it. I won’t tell.

-Become an expert at crafting the same story for different media. Why work hard when a gun isn’t being pointed to your head, eh? “5 Sizzling Stress-Busters For Stay At Home Moms” can become “5 Sizzling Stress-Busters For Lawyers”…you see? Alright. Alright. For the over-achievers in the bunch….feel free to bust a sweat by changing “sizzling” to “WOW!”. You get an ‘E’ for effort. (wink!)

-Don’t you dare pop a vein coming up with headlines yourselves. Steal, yes!, S-T-E-A-L headlines (forget the commandments for one day)

Ah, where was I?

Ahh…yes, steal headlines from that InstantHeadlineGenerator.com product. Walk with mini-scissors to clip headlines from women magazine covers promising you supple skin….now, what you do is, take another Saturday (that’s right, no date!) and lay them all on the table and switch them around. Trust me. Ideas will pop out at you that will give you winners. And if by chance the clip-outs start moving around by themselves, do not stop the creative ghosts. Don’t even cough.

I hope this helps you.

And if it doesn’t, then you’re on life-support.
I’ll light a candle for ya and
bring more oxygen.

Cheerios,

Is this another method you are prescribing?…”If a good story came in by catapult, tied to a rock, a good reporter will jump on it.”…If so, it sounds good to me and I’ll get right on it!

Roland.

Just wanted to say thank you for another brilliant article. Really struck a chord.

I saw you speak in London at Chris Cardell’s conference recently and was just totally engrossed. Everything you said made so much sense. Its now on my list of goals for the year to purchase your system and take some serious action with it! You’ll be hearing from me as one of your success stories!

Looking forward to your next newsletter,
Rebecca

Thanks for the kind comments about my publicity system. Sure do appreciate them.

I’m still dead set against unsolicited bulk emailing of press releases for my members. Very, very few of my members are in the high-tech world. Rather, they are chiropractors, financial planners, authors, small business owners, etc. Unsolicited bulk emailed press releases can get them in a lot of hot water.

Since you deal directly with the high-tech people who are already email oriented, emailed press releases work for you, but you would be the exception.

Online distribution of press releases is a “whole ‘nuther thing”. I’m going to be going into great detail about online distribution of press releases in my newsletter. I’m also finishing up a website with detailed videos on how to write and distribute a press release online.

But unsolicited, bulk emailing - not for my members.

I’m also dead set against my members following up each press release with a phone call. In my experience, the follow up phone calls yield very little. Often, you have to make 6, 8 or 10 calls before you connect with the right person. Lots of time spent for little benefit.

Again, in your work, you are dealing in a narrow niche with people you’ve already dealt with. That’s generally not the case for my members.

As for the woman who claims that she doesn’t read faxed press releases - with all due respect, I don’t believe her. If that is true, she’s a lousy reporter.

Reporters are looking everywhere for good stories. If a good story came in by catapult, tied to a rock, a good reporter will jump on it.

Some people feel it’s trendy to say “Oh, I never read faxes. That’s so yesterday.” Kind of like the people who claim to never watch TV - but bring up an episode of Friends in a discussion and they know every detail. Of course, they claim that was the only episode they saw.

I appreciate your input, your point of view and the time you took to post it.

Paul

I work primarily with the computer/high-tech media, who have more of an affinity to communicating via email than via fax. They also get the text in digital form so can write their stories faster than receiving the content via fax. Sure, some emails find a reporter’s spam folder, but I do follow-up by phone (no longer a no-no if done properly) with the most important contacts and, if they didn’t notice my email they ask me to resend it if they’re interested. Often I’ve had reporters THANK ME for calling to follow-up because they received the press release but hadn’t noticed it because they get so many emails from PR folks. Yes, that’s another knock on using emails to reach reporters, but that’s the world we live in today.

While you and many of your students have had great success with faxing press releases, one reporter I know at a daily paper on Palm Springs, Calif., said she and others in the news room NEVER check the fax machine for news. She says that once or twice a day some admin person scans all the inbound faxes and generally just tosses them, because they’re basically spam.

In closing, I wholeheartedly agree with your basic point that publicists should use any and all means available to communicate with reporters.

Keep up the great work!

Bill

I agree that there are many ways of getting publicity. However, in some parts of the world like Africa the media has come a long way and we still have a stretch to go.
It is has been a challenge in Africa since media houses need incentives to run a story. We still have a long way to go, before a media house picks a press release or a pitch for instance which is news worthy and runs the story. But am optimistic we will get there.

This article is dead on as usual.

We are living in a world where everyone claims to be an expert at whatever topic they are discussing. Be it publicity, traffic, list building, etc.

He is how I separate these false “experts” from the real ones. I ask them how they are applying what they are teaching in their own business every day. You will find, more often than not, that these people are NOT even doing the stuff they are teaching and that they learned “everything” they needed to know reading books of other people and articles. Either that or they paid someone else to come up with the product and now are proclaiming themselves as an expert.

The fact that you have not only taught thousands how to generate the maximum publicity possible, but are also still using the same methods to generate your own massive publicity makes you a true expert in my book.

I try to find people that are 25% teaching and 75% doing. If you find people who are more than 75% teaching, I would not consider that person a real expert on the subject.

Keep up the great work,

Chuck