A response to idea that PR isn't necessary any more
People are talking about how Vincent Bugliiosi has sold lots and lots of books by word of mouth, blogs, and without reviews and commentary by major media.
One comment on one of the discussion lists I follow stated:
“So I would advise writers who can’t afford a real PR firm to find a niche magazine for your work with ideally national circulation and get an article on your stuff in there.”
My opinion is that this is good advice for some and not for others.
What you see as being a vehicle for your success with PR is not what others may see when using PR. Media PR and marketing success is based on what each target audience reads, watches or listens to particularly when they are in the receptive mood or mode for whatever is being offered.
In one case it makes perfect sense that certain magazines are a good place, one type of products and services while radio and other places won’t be fruitful at all.
This is because media publish or cover based on the answers to just two key questions:
1. how many people in the audience will be interested?
2. what’s in it for the audience?
The answer to both questions has to be:
A = A lot.
This varies by the type of product or service or information offered and to what people are accustomed to reading, hearing or watching in the target media. My experience is that everyone needs to figure out what works for themselves. There is no single process or technique that works for everyone.
The chord you strike, the media response you get, and the actions you see once published depends on the perceptions and expectations you create with your news release.
This week, we saw blogs produce significant and near instant success for a book about remarkable artwork created by people with autism. We saw TV and radio and print respond well to a timely problem solving tips article and interview pitch based on a book about career re-invention for people over the age of 40. We saw FOX TV and national and local business magazines and newspapers respond well to an article based on a book for CEO’s. We saw magazines and newspapers and radio and tv respond well to a new high fashion cosmetic product. We saw radio and TV respond well to a country music video titled ‘pain at the pump’.
Each message was different and went to different media. What’s interesting is the number and quality of media who responded favorably, and what happened after the publications came out. In some cases the article were published within 24 to 48 hours and results were observed immediately. In other cases, requests were made, interviews were booked and results won’t be ascertained for a while to come. But we saw the right media audience respond predictably to each.
The experience shows that the media response depends what you have to offer and what the message is. Each product and message has to be tailored and targeted intelligently. The message has to be galvanizing to produce the desired action. If it’s not, then the publicity fails to produce the desired sales.
The media response will tend to parallel the market response very well. This is critical business intelligence for people with startup products. This intelligence can be used to grow a business. It’s valuable information if properly used.
The goal of publicity is to create national or targeted name recognition in the right pool of people. Targeting and mastering the messages that produce the action you desire (e.g., sales) takes research and intelligent design and repeat practice so that the message produces results reliably and consistently.
But this often takes time to develop.
Just think how much time and effort and repetition goes into mastering your particular product mix or skill set. You go to school for years, get degrees, then work gaining experience, all so that you get versatile and know what to do in a range of siutations. You wouldn’t use specific tactics in all situations. You’d only use specific tactics in certain situations.
The same type of decision making processes apply with PR to produce sales. You have to develop the experience and knowledge regarding where and when and how to use which tactics and messages.
And once you figure out what works, then you can use technology as a force multiplier and repeat the message in front of the right pool of people.
Of course, this is a process of testing and improving. Many first time publishers can only afford to do it once and the economics then don’t allow them to continue on. If they survive the startup process and do actually create a business, then doing PR regularly helps them grow their business. It’s the same with marketing.
One thing is for certain. If you stop marketing, your business dies.
PR is not a substitute for direct marketing. It’s a tool to help your marketing. It has to be wisely and properly used. Often times, it’s not only the instant effect on sales that the publication has when it is first released that is most valuable. Often times the follow on effect of the author/owner when using the PR success for marketing afterward is what produces most sales. The article has the effect regardless when it is seen or heard.
I wrote an article that’s worth looking at if you want to see a systematic view of how to evaluate and track the effectiveness of pr efforts. Here’s the link.
The worst news release you ever saw. Extreme copywriting mistakes illustrated.
Oh the mistakes people make when they write a news release.
The copywriting errors I see every day as a publicist and a copywriter are plentiful. It can be costly to those who send news releases that contain copywriting errors since all the copywriting efforts and the cost of conducting the publicity outreach produce absolutely nothing from a media coverage point of view. In fact, it can be harmful to the company and to the publicist. A badly written news release actually produces ill will and has a negative impact on the reputation of those involved in the effort. It can also be costly to the service that transmits the news release because many media upon receipt of the offensive time wasting communication will request removal from the whole service. This hurts their future business forever since they lose so many media.
Can you learn what not to do? Can you learn how to write a news release? Can you improve your copywriting skills?
Of course you can! It does take time to write a good news release, and you must study the existing news coverage, study the experts, and practice, and improve. It is not something you do well the first time or even the tenth time. Copywriting is a specialty and is not learned overnight.
First he presents the “worst news release” he ever received and does a quick and succinct word by word analysis of what’s wrong with it. Then he ends with a two minute re-write of Mary Had a Little Lamb, as done by the alleged copywriter of the news release. It’s hilarious.
For more advice on what not to do when you write a news release and how to fix it, you can read my article Why News Releases Fail.
Back from the PMA University and the Book Expo America in Los Angeles - what an incredible week.
Just before I left for LA, I donated my copywriting and news release distribution services to a fundraising effort in NYC to help the Chinese recovery from the devastating earthquake two weeks ago.
I wrote a news release and transmitted it to the NYC media highlighting the efforts of a small but exquisite restaurant who was going to donate the entire day’s receipts to the relief effort. This email news release was transmitted May 23 for the one day May 28 event.
Marc Preven, owner of the Neurotic New York City Tours company wrote me an email to tell me what happened. Here is his email:
>> Paul
Thank You, once again for your help.
it’s nice to know there are a few mensches left in this world.
the PR went out a week ago from this past Friday.
I walk into the restaurant and the joint was packed.
Helen tells me the NY Times called but didn’t show up.
I finally get a seat at a table, my neighbor is a round eyed dude
we are distinctly in the minority amongst the patrons.
“hey man, have you eaten here before?” I say to my neighbor at the table next to me.
he replies in the negative.
i start telling him about how much I enjoy the food and helped them issue a press release.
I then tell the gentleman that the owner told me about a reporter from the NY Times called but he didn’t show up.
the dude next to me looks at me kind of funny
he says, “I’m the reporter from the NY Times.”
It was my turn to express surprise, “No shit, man!”
He then goes on to explain how his colleague in China saw what you sent and forwarded it back to the US of A.
Because he is working on the story about relief efforts here.
Below is the the quote from Sundays NY Times Story
see link below for the whole piece.
as I was writing you this email the handyman from the building has asked me to write him a pair of simple letters for one of his neighbors.
Time to pay it forward . . .
Cuz-N Marc E Marc
Excerpt from the article:
Helen Thong, the owner of Taste Good, a popular Malaysian restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens, held a benefit on Wednesday, allocating the day’s proceeds — more than $9,000 — to earthquake relief. At dinnertime, the line of patrons, representing a broad swath of the Chinese diaspora, snaked out the door of the small restaurant and onto the sidewalk.
“You see those pictures on TV, right?” she said. “The children and the people who are helpless under the rubble? It breaks your heart. Basically we are all human. We have compassion. That’s what motivates us.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Marc Preven
Date: June 1, 2008 11:32:45 AM EDT
To: Marc Preven
Subject: helen taste good China Earthquake - NYTimes.com
Book publicity, event publicity, and product publicity success stories this week
I love it when clients are happy, especially when we produce publicity sucess for them. This week was incredibly busy, sending out news releases, responding to media requests for review copies, product samples and interviews.
Andy Andrews, author of the NY Times Best Seller The Traveler’s Gift, was in Salt Lake City doing an event on his new book The Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success, at Kingsbury Hall, at the University of Utah. The event was free, open to the public, 7 to 10 PM, Tuesday night. Our news release and phone campaign for this one time community event netted Andy a few radio talk show interviews, an invite to interview with utah Public radio, a daytime and evening interview on KSL TV and a feature in the Salt Lake City Herald on Monday before the event.
On Tuesday we sent out a news release for Cynthia Frank at Cypress House for author Todd Walton and his new book Buddha in a Teacup. The news releases triggered over 44 media requests for books to review and interviews with Mr. Walton, from newspapers, magazines and radio and tv shows from all over the country. Media requests included Family Circle, Gannett news Services, the Chicago Tribune, Scripps Howard, and dozens of other top media.
Also on Tuesday we sent out a news release and did a phone campaign for Jennifer Bahney at Longhair Lovers for her remarkable new hair product, a emu butter. We saw over three dozen media ask to have product review samples sent to them. We saw media requests from many of the top womens and beauty magazines in the country including: Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, In Style, Shape, Woman’s World, Self, Vanity Fair, More, and more and more.
On Wednesday we did a news release project for a new product. The news release headline says: Dazzling cool colors in bouncing reusable shopping bags. These amazing shopping bags are manufactured totally by Katrina survivors in New Orleans, Louisiana. We received over 20 media requests for product samples from major media within 24 hours.
Also on Wednesday, we sent out a news release for Carol and Phil White, authors of the book, Live Your Road trip Dream. Carol had written a problem solving tips article titled, Five Reasons Why Gas Prices Shouldn’t Cancel Your Summer Fun and i sent it out to outdoor recreation, travel and rv editors and media in the US and Canada. Late in the day, Carol wrote me an email describing what happened. She said: “We sent out the news release this morning… So far, it is already up on 4 websites, 2 major market booked radio interviews, 1 regional market (Indianapolis) using it in a story, and 5 review copy requests including Travel + Leisure.” Pretty cool.
The news release also generated a heated response from one not to be named media editor of a national rock climbing magazine who wrote, ” I cannot believe that you have sent this to me. These republican baby boomer ideas are repulsive and destructive. This is nothing more than dumb propaganda designed to put us at ease about our environmentally destructive bad habits, and rotten ideas such as these should not be spread around with such a straight face. Please consider sending a retraction to this e-mail and an apology to everyone on your list. I hope that the author spends good quality time explaining to her family telling them why grandma didn’t mind killing all of the polar bears and penguins.”
Whew! I guess he must ride his bicycle to work and doesn’t use cars or airplanes to get to his world class destination rock climbing locations and vacations.
describes copywriting tactics and strategy for getting publicity after receiving a book award
For those of you who do get a book award these next few weeks, I thought I’d give you my thoughts and advice on how to make the best use of your award as far as how to get publicity with it.
First I’d take a quick breather after getting the award and within a day or two sit down and do some quick research to calibrate what you are really trying to accomplish next.
My best suggestion on how to use a book award in your copywriting and news releases is to study what is being published by media and see and learn how the book award information is being used and incorporated into stories. You can do this online by using news search engines.
There are several interesting things you can learn by studying the results.
1. This is the season! There are lots of little local stories about book award winners.
2. The book award information is in the headline half the time. The book, the author and the importance of the book or the ideas surrounding the book are the lead.
3. Most of the stories being published feature the top award winners. Stories about authors who receive second or third place are much less frequent.
4. The biggest media write articles which feature the books who receive the top national awards in the top national literary contests.
5. The regional and local media writer about the lesser well-know or recognized awards.
Here you’ll pick up a few additional news clips and see that many authors are creating news releases which they submit to several of the online news release distribution services. But most of the articles that you’ll see don’t cover books that are nominated. A few do mention these especially when it is coupled with other newsworthy facts.
One of the more amazing things I learned when I did this search and studied the results is that there are tons of book awards. Just in the top ten pages of these two searches, I was able to make a list of over 50 different individually named book awards in the current window of news coverage (two to three weeks):
Commonwealth Writers Book Award
City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Award
Next Generation Indie Book Award
Hawaii Book of the Year Award
Nautilus Book Award
USA Book Award
IPPY Book Award
Ben Franklin Book Award
National Book Award
California Book Award
Harvard Book Award
UK Christian Book Award
Grampian Children’s Book Award
BC Award for Best Canadian Non-Fiction Book
BC Award for National Business Book
Children’s Choice Book Award
National Business Book Award
Arizona Book Award
LA Times Book Award
New England Book Award
US National Book Award
Reader Views Book Award
Dartmouth Book Award
Vadaphone Crossword Book Award
McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book Award
Governor’s Literary Book Award
Julia Ward Howe Book Award
National Outdoor Book Award
PEN/Beyond Margins Award
Independent Book Award
Catholic Book Award
Corretta Scott King Book Award
Schneider Book Award (ALA)
Flicker Tale Book Award
Human Rights Book Award
Michigan Notable Book Award
Irish Book Award
International Reader’s Association Book Award
Jane Addam’s Children’s Book Award
Great Lakes Book Award
Saskatewan Book Award
AAPOR Book Award
Christianity Today book Award
American Book Award
Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
Northern Minnesota Book Award
Toronto Book Award
Phi Eta Sigma Book Award
Science Fiction Book Award
Hugo Book Award
Edgar Award
Newberry book Award
Trillium Book Award
Ohioana book Award
Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award
Pushcart Press Editors Book Award
Now multiply by the number of categories, and then by 3 for gold, silver and bronze for the top three prizes in each category, and you’ll get a picture of how many people are getting awards and potentially competing for news coverage using book awards as a factor this week.
If you are going to create a news release and seek publicity for your award, then here my suggestions on the essential facts you need to include in your copy:
1. headline – Author wins prize/award
2. one sentence killer – knock their socks off description of what the book is about
3. unusual or interesting facts about the situation/the book/the author/the topic/the issues
4. the specifics of the award – what, where when, or how much and why is this award so important and prestigious
5. three to four paragraphs about the book, who it features, what’s amazing about it, why people will like it
6. basic book facts and marketing information so people can find it and buy it
7. author bio and information
8. book cover photo and author photo
9. contact information
10. offer for review copy and interviews if you want to offer these items.
Finally, once you have the news release written, it needs to be distributed to the right media. Proper targeting will maximize your chances of getting the right type of coverage in front of the people you can interest and help the most. So a children’s book needs to go to children’s media and editors, and a travel book needs to go to travel book media and editors and so forth.
You’ve worked hard to get this award. So congratulations. I hope this helps you take a few more stapes so you can now make the most of it.
If you get an award and want my help finalizing your news release and creating the right custom media list and getting the word out, just call me or send me an email with the facts and the book cover jpeg.
Why News Releases Fail - 23 Publicity Landmines and How to Avoid Them
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.
Getting More Book Publicity for fiction, non-fiction or ebooks, it really doesn't matter
The type of book you have doesn’t matter to the media.
I’ll say it again.
The type of book you have doesn’t matter to the media.
I do a lot of work with fiction authors. I do a lot of work with non-fiction authors. I do a lot of work with ebook producers.
I used to distinguish how I wrote news releases for fiction compared to non-fiction, but over the years I’ve found that when it comes to getting publicity, it really doesn’t matter what the book is. Also, my experience to date is that I am not very enthused about book reviews, and I favor galvanizing feature stories and interviews. Book reviews tend to be most helpful to those who seek library and book store sales. For people who are working beyond the bookstore and library, and for those who sell direct, just rely on Amazon or online sales and web sites, or are pushing for quantity and special sales, problem solving tips articles, feature stories and in depth topical interviews produce far better return on investment. This is where I’ve seen the greatest gains for authors and publishers.
That’s because, from a publicity point of view, the media actually don’t care a lot about what the product is. They are only interested in publishing three things: news, education and entertainment. They honestly couldn’t care less about whether you wrote a book or have one available for sale. To most media that fact that you wrote a book is just a credential to you being a person who’s qualified to give a newsworthy comment.
Sure if they like the book, if it has real added value to a lot of people in their particular audience, then media may choose to write about the book. But for the most part, they aren’t real inclined to help you sell product. Their view is that if you want them to promote your product so you can sell books, then take out an ad.
What the media really wants to publish and what they respond to best is galvanizing quality content that is interesting to lots of people in their particular audience and that has real added value to them. This is what they need to satisfy their audience and keep the subscription and advertising revenues flowing. This is also what you need to provide them, if you want to get media coverage.
I can get people publicity whether they’ve written and published a book or not. I do this day in day out. All we have to do to be successful is focus on what the media needs. They respond to that.
Even a fiction book makes you an expert of a sort, who can offer helpful insights and information on topics germane and relevant to the book.
What that means is that we focus on using problem solving tips articles, human interest, delving into issues that people want to know about.
Some fiction examples that produced media success this year:
* For Ayna Meppelink’s book ‘I See a Red Door’, we present content talking about what it’s like to be just like her characters, a reluctant, psychic, doubting what her senses are telling her.
* For Mary Anna Evans book ‘Effigies’, we pitch talking points that explore the deep Southern culture, ethics, and biases that her characters encounter.
* For Molly Dwyers book ‘Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein’, we pitch interview and feature content that explores the feminist politic and what it’s like to be a revolutionary woman rising above desperate times.
* For Nick Ruth’s Dark Dreamweaver series, we emphasize the esteem building, character developing themes for young people, and the power of dreams and goal setting.
* For the children’s book, ‘Grandpa Grouper’, by Don Arends, we focused on the idea that the book delivers underwater adventure and contains distinctly innovative human interest. The lead sentence to the news release declares, “Grandpa Don Arends looks a lot like the main character in his new children’s book, ‘Grandpa Grouper, The Fish With Glasses.’
What you have to resist and avoid is telling the media anything at all about how your publishing struggles, marketing plans, publishing and promotional activities, and book sales. This will result in coverage that is all about you, but offers very little motivation to a reading or listening or watching audience to learn more about your products, and the knowledge, feelings, benefits and the personal experiences they can receive by getting what you offer. You need to focus what you offer on the media audience. That is your mission. That has to be your focus.
More important, you can’t just describe it, and say, it’s in the book. Your news release has to actually persuade media to call you and ask for the book to review, and to do that the release has to actually trigger some feelings, desire, want, and emotion. The news release has to do what your book does and achieve that emotional engagement in about 30 seconds. You have to deliver a thrill, a pleasure, an emotion and a personal experience. I wrote this up a while ago as a ‘rule for getting publicity success’ like this:
Tell me story (a short, bed time story), give me a local news angle (of interest to my particular audience), hit me in the pocket book (make me or save me money), teach me something I didn’t know before (educate me), amaze me or astound me (like in WOW!), make my stomach churn (in horror or fear), or turn me on (yes, sex sizzles).
No matter what type of book or service you have, getting publicity is a completely separate task and requires you to use different ideas and actions. And to get publicity that sells books you have to be very interesting, have incredible things to say, or offer truly helpful, educational, entertaining or humorous, or galvanizing ideas that interest people in who you are and what you have to offer.
This is a process of testing and refining what you say until you know that if you communicate certain things, a known action will result. You can interest media in writing about you if what you offer is exceptionally good. If create and offer something interesting, then you will improve your chances of getting favorable publicity significantly. Communicating that what you have to offer is good is crucial.
If you are at a loss for what to do here is a quick way to identify and develop your core material.
What I tell my clients is this:
Imagine being in front of 20 to 30 of the very best people you think would be most interested and who in your service. Describe these people to me. These are your target customers so describe who they are.
Now identify the most important and interesting topic, challenges, or problem situation that will interest the maximum number of people you can think of in this pool of people, that relate to what you can speak about based on what you have created.
Think about being entertaining and informative with your points and develop the ideas at your story telling best. Think about how you talk to people about your book, especially when the conversation results in a sale. Look at your reviewer testimonials. Why do people like what you do? Use what you learned to guide you.
Then give me your ten best tips, problem solving actions or stories and ideas or lessons learned for your target audience. Can you give these people your ten commandments? Your best quips? The most important things you learned by writing?
Pretend you have three to five minutes to give these people ten absolutely phenomenal show stoppers. That means for ten items, you have less than 30 seconds for each one, plus a one minute intro and a one minute ending.
The goal is to create a vision for the media that clearly illustrates and allows them to visualize in their minds what your presentation and their article or interview is going to look like — How you can help them put an article that gets favorable thank you’s by mail phone and email, or a good show that entertains and educates the people in their audience.
Focus less on passive ideas and more on actions or positions people can take that people can take today! that deliver immediate or tangible real time or near term benefits, impacts, or predictable consequences. Use real stories about things that happened to you or other people to add human interest.
These ‘show stoppers’ could be “Do This Today” types of actions if it is advice you are giving to solve a problem or “Get a Load of This” type of emotionally engaging stories that are dramatic and personal and illustrate some achievement in the face of adversity.
This forms the core content to the news release/show proposal pitch.
In many cases ,these will also be publishable as an article with some caveats we can add to the beginning and ending of the core content to turn it into a proper news release offering. It will also become the core script for a Q & A style interview, so they serve many purposes.
You can do five do’s and five don’ts or whatever. You just have to be your wittiest and most galvanizing self. You can be humorous and/or serious, just be good and make them memorable. Keep them G Rated.
Hence the key to your success is being truly great at what you do. Help the people you can help the most. Please them and satisfy their needs beyond expectations. That’s what will get you attention. That’s how you create and deliver value.
That’s also how you market and achieve success and happiness.
I wrote an extensive article on this topic which you can see at my web site. It is titled:
BTW – if you follow this advice, make sure you send what you create to me by email. I’ll be happy to take a look at them and give you some recommendations on what else to do next to get more publicity.
As a publicist who sees hundreds of books of all types each year, I don’t believe that ebooks are a hot product in and of themselves. There are only certain types of people who will buy them and use them. The marketplace is actually pretty small and most people still buy and read regular books.
So in my view, and what I advise my clients is this: Once you own a body of intellectual property, sell it every way you can. An ebook is just one form of publishing. You can print it POD, publish it in with Kindle, package it in a pdf file, break it into pieces and let people subscribe to it, you can teach with it, use it as a freebie for people who pay for a workshop, you can use it as a calling card for higher cost services, and lots more.
I think you can benefit a lot if you look at what you are doing as if you are making candy.
Sweet, enjoyable, memorable candy.
It comes in all sorts of flavors and colors and sizes.
I see four types of candy on the Internet: products, services, software and information.
* Products need to be manufactured and delivered.
* Services need to be performed.
* Software can be delivered in a box or a download, and can be easily updated.
* Information can be provided in lots of ways.
There are lots of hybrid forms to these four basic types of candy on the Internet.
You can make mind candy — intellectual candy. This is candy that teaches people something and helps them grow.
People always remember where they get good candy. It produces a physical sensation that creates the sensation of physical pleasure and specific chemicals are released in the body — chemical memory is the result. This is the branding that takes place when we see or even better experience, something remarkable.
So no matter how you publish, focus first on creating something truly incredible. Then when people hear about it, they’ll want it, and they’ll be interested in anything else you sell.
So write to sell. Write content for information or code for programs. Write what you are best at.
Don’t stop the development process till you can reliably demonstrate that what you have created actually sells repeatedly to different people at a known rate. Do this once, twice, three, four, five times to different groups of people until you vereify that the communication you use produce the same action on the part of the people you present to. If you talk to, email, or communicate with ten people, and sell one product, that’s a ten percent response rate. Two products, then that’s a twenty percent response rate. Three products, and that’s thirty percent.
And that’s incredible for any product and marketing communications.
Then publish. Publish your ebook, publish your hard copies, publish your videos, and your dvd’s and mp3’s. Promote your speaking, your wrkshops and your consulting.
You can see more of my ideas on this how this translates into marketing and publicity at the free articles at my Direct Contact PR website
From a publicity point of view, the media actually don’t care what the product is. They are only interested in publishing three things: news, education and entertainment. They honestly couldn’t care less about whether you wrote a book. To most media that fact that you wrote a book is just a credential to you being a person who’s qualified to give a newsworthy comment. if they like the book, if it has real added value to a lot of people in their particular audience, then they may choose to write about the book. But for the most part, they aren’t real inclined to help you sell product. Their view is that if you want them to advertise your product, then take out an ad.
What they want to publish is the news. education and entertainment that satisfies their audience. This is what you need to provide them, if you want to be published.
So we can get people publicity whether they’ve written and published a book or not. All we focus on is what they media needs.
So no matter what type of book or service you have, getting publicity is a completely separate task and requires you to use different ideas and actions.
You can interest media in writing about you if what you offer is exceptionally good. If create and offer something interesting, then you will improve your chances of getting favorable publicity significantly.
Hence the key to your success is being truly great at what you do. Help the people you can help the most. Please them and satisfy their needs beyond expectations. That’s what will get you attention. That’s how you create and deliver value.
That’s also how you market and achieve success and happiness.
tips and tactics for writing a news release that gets publicity related to hot items in current events
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.
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 .
How do you create something remark-able? Seth Godin talk on creating remarkable products.
The incredible Seth Godin talks about sliced bread and other marketing ideas in this amazing 18 minute You Tube video posted by the TED Ideas Worth Spreading.
Can you get your ideas to spread? How do you do that? What do you say and to whom? Where? You can also read my own thoughts and a process I describe on how to develop and create something ‘remark-able’ (e.g., worth talking about) in my article The Magic of Business (published as Chapter 27 in in Elite Books Einstein’s Business (Jan 2007) . Here is the link to a pdf file of the same article. By the way, the picture at the beginning of the chapter/article is me standing in front of a famous picture at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. My kids think this is proof of reincarnation. See the wrinkles? Same place!
The key to marketing effectively is to create something that certain people just really really like, and figure out where they are and how to talk to them. Pretty simple to say. very hard to do. But it’s a goal that you can describe in a phrase and that’s a big start.
Best quote in this video is when he points up to his presentation slide and says “That’s Soap Lake in Washington. If that’s nowhere, Soap Lake is right in the middle of it.” Followed by audience laughter…
