copywriting news releases publicity performance improvement personal development press releases excellence confidence author tips

What is personal development?

In the world of PR that I work in, personal development is a crucial element. The media responds to people at their peak. Driven people seeking to achieve their best attracts interest. What people create and achieve when they are out there pushing themselves and striving for incredible heights is galvanizing. You can be maximally effective in attracting media attention when you offer something that represents your best.

So I am constantly asking my clients to tell me what they can do or say that will help the people they can help the most.

When you give people your best, people will give you attention. They will respect what you say or offer. This is one of the most important rules of getting publicity. Be your best. Offer your best. Give your best. Entertain, educate, advise, help, do the very best you can.

And pack these golden nuggets of wisdom that you can offer into a news release of about 250 words or less so that you can communicate your best in ten to thirty seconds.

Okay, it’s not that easy to do, but if you focus on personal development, you’ll understand what I mean. This is a very powerful and important tactic. This is what lies at the core of the problem solving tips article or the talk show interview.

It’s worth the time and effort it takes to develop yourself personally and professionally.

It takes guts and time and effort. You also have to look inward and acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses.

You also need to decide to do something to better yourself. This is a choice. You choose to improve. You act to improve. You get better.

Of course, the alternative is to do nothing, and stay the way you are.

When you develop yourself you improve how you behave with other people. You communicate better. You deliver better advice, information, problem solving analysis, and you also learn to be more useful and more effective in a wider range of situations.

This makes you versatile and capable. People listen. They act upon your advice. They learn to trust you. This is what expertise and a track record of successful performance brings to you.

This is what comes from personal development.

Media are attracted to confidence, energy, exuberence, and they know quality when they see it. This is why personal development is so important to your ability to get publicity.

This video packs a lot of punch in a very short period of time. Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Les Brown, Jeffrey Gitomer, Jim Rohn, talk about what it is you need to know to improve yourself.

author tips, book publicity, confidence, copywriting, excellence, News releases, performance improvement, personal development, pr effectiveness, pr tactics, press releases

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One of the biggest challenges I face as a publicist is that I spend a lot of time educating my clients trying to get them to understand what you can’t do in a news release if you want to be successful with media. It doesn’t matter whether you are seeking book publicity, have just published an ebook, are trying to get media to cover your fundraising or entertainment event, your business or professional services, get more publicity for a new invention or one invented a year or two ago.

The rubber meets the road in the news release because this single sheet of paper is the key nexus for all communications with the media. The importance of the copy on a news release cannot be overstated. It has to be free of negative issues or factors that will reduce or eliminate media interest and response. The media basically stops paying attention to you. One fatal error and it’s all over.

This is not what you want to happen.

So identifying the problems and revising the news releases is crucial. I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to avoid sending out news releases with problems still in them.

The issue is that when people send me news releases, it often takes a long, long time to identify and communicate the problems, and then more time again to explain and negotiate all the word changes with the clients, and more time still to finalize the news release and have it ready and approved for transmittal.

Honestly ­ it can be very painful for all involved. I’m quite brutal on my clients, since their success is all that matters. I don’t pull any punches. My comment process can bruise a lot of highly inflated egos of
some otherwise very accomplished people, on the way to a problem free news release that maximizes the chances of success when finally sent. Lots of people think they can write a news release. Very few of them can do it very well.

Fixing the problems I see in the news releases people send me takes forever. It is also very painful. I’ve seen a lot of news release failure over the years, and I now know what the key problems look like and how to fix them.

The issues listed here have all been identified as reasons for the failure of a news release. This is based on over 20 plus years of experience in dealing with the aftermath ­– the actual number and quality of responses generated from the transmittal of a news release.

So here are the most common reasons why news releases fail and a quick instruction on how to avoid hitting the landmine:

1. You wrote an advertisement. It’s not a news release at all. It sells product. It fails to offer solid news of real tangible interest, value-added information, education or entertainment.

2. You wrote for a minority, not for a majority of people in the audience. You simply won’t compete with other news releases that clearly are written for a larger demographic of the media audience.

3. You are the center of attention, not the media audience. You focus on your business and your marketing, instead of things the editor and his or her audience will be interested in.

4. You forgot to put the five W’s up front. (WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTERESTED). You didn’t clearly and succinctly tell the media why the audience would be interested in this.

5. You are too wordy and text dense. You focused on details and minutia, instead of the most important ideas, issues, factors, facts, and news angles. You fail to address the real significant impacts your story
has on people.

6. You place too much information on one page ­ the one page news release has a font size so small an editor needs a magnifying glass to read it.

7. You included corporate logos and other non-persuasive low value added graphics that distract the editor from your key message. You may have also used an unusual fancy font or a file format that turns to
gobbledygook when it goes through a fax machine.

8. You wrote a personally biased article for the media to publish, instead of pitching the idea to the media and the objective reasons why the media audience will be interested.

9. You wrote about features and facts, and forgot to explain what it means to real people. Tell a story about real people. Add in real life human interest.

10. You wrote about how your news ties in to someone else’s fame and glory. Forget it. Never stand in the shadow of someone else. Make your own light. Tell your own story.

11. Your news release responds to something that just happened. You’re too late. You’re behind the eight ball. Forget it. Get out in front of the news.

12. You included too much hype, self-laudatory praise, pithy quotes, useless testimonials, jargon or gobbledygook. Get rid of it.

13. You may have also identified prior media coverage, which indicates it’s no longer a new issue. Get rid of it. Let each news release stand on it’s own two feet.

14. You tried to impress and be clever or innovative but you come off naïve, less than expert, biased, flippant, arrogant, or crazy. Tone it down. Get straight.

15. You made vague and unsubstantiated claims, or wild and outrageous claims, or you included a statement that simply rubs the media the wrong way. Get rid of them.

16. You are trying to be different, just for the sake of it, but you come off eccentric. Forget it. Don’t create a false or inflated image. Be yourself.

17. You wrote a rant and rave, worthy of a letter to the editor, instead of a problem solving tips article, worthy of a feature story. Decide what you want, put your best effort into it.

18. You are simply not credible. It could be your ideas are simply not well thought out, or that you’ve offered old well-worn material, or that you are too extreme or controversial, or not qualified. You may not be
expert enough, or sufficiently qualified, to make the statements, compared to others in your field. You need to present information that qualifies you properly and adequately.

19. You provided poor contact information. You need to identify the best single point of contact and the correct phone number so interested media can reach you and get the best possible attention and response from you to meet their needs. One key person, one phone, no fax, one email address, and one URL (with no long string addresses).

20. You did not include a clear media call for action. You didn’t tell the media what you want them to do with your news release. You need to tell them what you are asking for or suggesting or offering. Then you need to offer the media incentives value-added reasons to do so, like free review copies, free test samples, interview questions and answers, media kits with story angles and stats and data, relevant photographs, etc.

21. You did not incorporate and integrate a primary response mechanism. You need to include a value-added reason, which motivates the editor to publish or mention your contact information, which will generate calls, traffic, interviews, or requests for more information. This usually means something unique and of special value to the audience, that the editor feels good about mentioning. Use an offer for a free problem solving report.

22. You sent the release to the wrong media. Target the media that your clients read, watch and listen to when they are in the right mood, that is, receptive to hearing about your news, and willing to take action when they get your message. Work with your publicist to target the right media.

23. You rely on a single fax or an email to produce an avalanche of media calls. You conduct no follow up. Get real. Follow up properly and you can triple or quadruple your media response rate. Better still, you can
ask the editors “what can I give you to support a feature story and meet your needs”.

Finally, the biggest reason for news release failure is one of attitude.

How do you define success or failure? It’s called unrealistic expectations.

Get real. You won’t get rich off one news release. You’re chances of getting famous are just about as slim.

You might be able to break even.

Look at your investment and compare it to what you need to break even on your investment. If you need to sell 100 books to cover the costs of a $500 outreach effort, you need ten articles because each article only produces ten sales. So that’s your breakeven goal. More books per article, means less articles will satisfy your needs.

You may simply have to be realistic and understand that while you are wildly interested in the topic, it may not have the broad general public interest that you have for the subject. If you wrote an article that has
local interest and you expect national media to pay attention, think again.

If you want to be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, then you’d better pray because chances of doing it off one news release are very slim, near zero in fact.

Get real. If she calls, then congratulations are in order. But don’t count on it.

If you wrote an advertisement and wanted a feature story and interviews, don’t be surprised if the only media to call is the advertising manager offering you a package deal. You get what you ask for. What you offer is often times what you will get.

Even if you do get publicity, it may not come out exactly the way you want it. More often than not, the bigger the media, the less likely they are to run contact information.

Often times, the quality may be there while the numbers are not.

One or two quality media responses may be what you want or need. If you get that, it’s a success.

One article in USA Today may out perform ten articles in small dailies and weeklies in the mid-west.

On the other hand, it may not. The small high quality articles may outperform the small mention in the big media.

Similarly, one quality 30-minute interview on a well-liked talk show on a radio station in the middle of nowhere out in the mid-west, will likely outsell a five-minute interview on an Arbitron rated radio station in the
middle of the morning talk show in a major metropolitan area. You can’t tell the listening quality of the audience.

So listen to your publicist. Heed these warnings and reduce the risks of failure. Fail to pay attention to these issues, proceed at your own risk.

So when you write a news release please review it against these criteria to see if you’ve made any of these errors. Then fix each and every one of them yourself, and when you are done, feel free to send me your final draft.

I’ll be happy to take a look at it.

book publicity, copywriting, ebooks, marketing, media coverage, News releases, promotion, publicity

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Question came up on one of the publishing discussion groups that i participate in.

>>I have two books that tie-in with the recent news concerning the raid
>>on the polygamist ranch in Texas. … I need to know how to use recent
>>events to market both these books as soon as possible.

Here’s my perspective.

Current events do present opportunities for media coverage. But you have to be very smart and very careful. To see whether you can get involved requires you to analyze what you have and quickly identify what you can bring to the table that the media needs. Obviously you do not want to be seen as an ambulance chaser. But there are ways to get out in front of the news, regardless of what happens.

There are very special questions you have to ask which will allow you to determine if you have what it takes to become an asset to media once a hot topic surfaces in the media. There are also risks that must be avoided.

If you think about what media does in response to an event, they go through several stages of activity. Break these stages down and identify specifically what these activities involve.

On any event of note the media needs:

- relevant facts and explanation to provide insights into what this event means to the watching public

- expert commentary with an ability to assess and relate history and the past to the present and the future

- analysis of impacts and consequences

- opinion on what individuals, organizations and cognizant governments should or shouldn’t do

- evaluation of developing trends and consequences

- prevention, protection, remeditation or financial protection ideas and strategies and remedies for the people involved directly or the next touched and the support network for both.

If you can clearly identify and then flesh out your ideas and credentials, you can send a news release and draw attention to yourself (or your client) and offer to provide the information to the media for their use.

The real key is to not look backward but look forward. The actual news releases you write do need to contain some key information. Successful event follow-up news releases:

1. Have a short and to the point headline

2. they clearly state what, when, where, why, and how the ideas benefit the targeted impacted group of people

3. it also clearly states why the information is of interest to the media audience.

4. Provide a quick, solid, easy to use statement of facts, issues, analysis points, conclusions, questions and answers, talking points, or whatever it is you have to offer.

5. Presents your credentials quickly, which qualify you as an expert worth trusting.

6. Provides clear contact information (name, phone and email) that allows for quick booking of the interview.

7. Offers the media more free additional information quickly (review copies, white papers, pdf files, etc by web site, e-mail, fax, overnight).

You should send out your news release as soon as you can after the event occurs because the clock is running once the event starts.

One key guerrilla tactic, once an event occurs, is to create a likely timeline whereby you predict what will happen over time, and identify the key events and breaking opportunites and even identify and present the key people for timely media intervention and coverage. Then you pitch and let the media know what’s going to happen.

If you want to see more you can read an article I wrote on how to hitch a ride on current events.

I have a real time example of this type of opportunity to demonstrate how it’s done right now.

Earlier this week I wrote and transmitted a news release for Jim Trippon, a financial planner, author of the new book China Stock Guru, and expert editor of the China Stock Digest.

We offered up a counter point to the three US candidates for President all appearing to endorse the idea that the US should boycott the Olympics over the China actions in Tibet. His point - to do so shows a lack of understanding of the Chinese and won’t help settle things at all. He then offered up some expert views and ideas on what we our top management and leadership should be doing instead.

We transmitted the release and as a result got many calls for the book and booked interviews with FOX News (twice and they even sent a limo to pick him up at his office in Houston for the interview) , the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, and a bunch of others.

If you want to see the actual news release that resulted in this media success please send me an email message .

book publicity, copywriting, current events, marketing, News releases, pr tactics, press releases, promotion, publicity, publicity planning

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I’m beginning an in depth study of the media coverage of bloggers and blogging.  I will be seeking to identify characteristics, tactics, and the content that is needed to achieve coverage with prime media.  This is the first of what will be a weekly installment.  Lessons learned are at the end of the articles identified and discussed.

Stories identified this week: 

• Newspaper series looking to build local blog directory in The OC Register (March 7. 2008, Orange, CA) Who’s Blogging in Ladera Ranch?

• Numerous stories of live blogging real time from political reporters at state legislatures in session or in conference example Tri-City Herald covering the Washington State Legislature (March 7, 2008) 

• NBC TV News Channel 12 (March 6, 2008) Phoenix, Arizona feature about US Army Captain Brian Love blogging from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Online version links to verbatim print versions of posts on his blog. 

• Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (March 4, 2008) article titled Area teacher blogs from Iraq. 

• Knoxville News Sentinel (March 7, 2008) article Blogging gardeners connect with others talks aout a group of women gardeners who banded together to create Garden Rant in mid-2006.  “A blend of gossip, news, crusade and, yes, raw rant, it blows the cobwebs out of gardening’s mustier corners.”   

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blogging, blogs. bloggers, copywriting, publicity

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Many of my clients ask me why I don’t think much of sending out a news release to publicize the fact that their book has been nominated for a book award.

The reason is that I have not seen media respond well to what basically is a marketing fact.  While the nomination, or by golly even to be a gold award winner, in a contest where you pay to be considered and which has dozens of categories might seem like an accomplishment to you, well, to me, it’s a paid sort of endorsement.  

Even if you get a gold medal or award and are the absolute top winner in a contest where it’s truly a national honor to have been independently reviewed and selected, well then maybe media might take note, depending what else you could say that would create a good story for their audience.  

Getting a silver or a bronze, is sort of like coming in second or third place.   So what are media to think when you tell them about it?  Do you ever see sports articles about people who come in second or third place?  Articles are always focused on the top achievers.  Coverage goes to the best, not the second best.

I think the proof is in the pudding when it comes to actually seeing what media do with these types of announcements.  Let’s look at how media uses “book awards” in their actual coverage.

You can do a Google News search on the words “book awards” and study the results to ascertain media coverage of these items.   Sort the results by date then look at the first page.  There are 3 news releases, 2 online only media, 2 university info snippets, and 3 local newspaper articles.  No major media features of note.

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author tips, book publicity, copywriting, News releases, publicity, publicity planning

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Localizing your news release is the easiest way you can get more media coverage.  The success of your media strategy will largely depend on what you offer to the media.   No matter what you want to accomplish in terms of your publicity goal business wise, you will maximize your media response and the coverage you receive if you give the media what they want and need to interest their particular audience.   Whenever a media person contemplates whether to cover a topic, key questions they asks are: 

1. How many people in my audience will be interested in this?

2. What’s in it for my audience and why will they be interested?

To localize means that you go out of your way to explain and develop information that helps media see that you have what they want.    To do this successfully is a two step process.  First you must recognize the nature, demographics, and desires of the media audience.  Then you must localize your news release and provide content that caters to their needs.    Local media typically demand local news, locally relevant education and local entertainment information.  That’s what they publish.  To get these media to publish your information, you must give them what they need and are accustomed to publishing.   If it is a local news paper, then local means that you must identify what it is that affects local people or the local area.  If it is a topical media, like a trade magazine or publication, to localize requires you explain your proposal in terms of how it affects people who subscribe to that media.   How do you localize? 

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author tips, book publicity, copywriting, News releases, press releases, publicity planning

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I received a question about how one should best get publicity for a high school theatre event.  Here’s my suggestion:

You can write localized event news release and send it to your local media.

Offer the media the opportunity to come to a tech week rehearsal and take pictures and ask questions to the key players.

Write the news release so it has plenty of human interest and identifies the times, costs of tickets, show venue locations and local phone and email for ticket information.

Get a targeted custom media list and send out the news release three weeks before the show so newspapers, radio and TV have plenty of lead time. Call and follow up to get the media interested in doing a feature story.

That’s the basics steps. Here’s more information and explanation to help you really understand what to do to getr the maximum response and achieve success and a real return on investment.  

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copywriting, high school events, News releases, publicity planning, theatre performances publicity

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This one just caught my eye and it hit one of my hot buttons.   

Some one on one of the discussion groups I participate in wrote:       Also, the company I formerly used for free press releases began charging for all releases this year.  Does anyone know of any other alternatives that are still free?   (I have doubts that press releases are worth paying $150 for….).

I know it’s just my opinion, but I’ve been doing publicity for authors and publishing companies so long that it’s still boggles my mind to see people who think that free is as good as fee.   To me it’s like is there a difference between a five dollar latte and a $1.25 cent cup from the cappuccino machine at the highway convenience store?  

Oh I know and have kept an eye on the wonderful stories people write about the “New PR”, but I also follow what happens to the majority of people who use these services and talk with many a client about what happens to them.   I believe it’s very important to learn how the free services work and to know the differences between free online service and a more realistic active publicity outreach.    Free news release services are basically just archive websites where you place a text page of information.  They may have a headline and meta tags and they may be searchable from certain types of search engines, like the news search engines, at least for a while.    The real distinction is that the news release is not delivered to target media people for their evaluation directly.  Media have to search and find the content.  They generally do this only if they are actively researching in the first place.   Then once they digest it, they still get to decide whether it’s good enough to use. This is a very passive way to get publicity and if this is all you do, then you may be waiting a long time.    

Yes there are exceptions,

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book publicity., copywriting, News releases, press releases, publicity

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