The Power Publicist

Archive for August, 2009

If you are looking to promote you and your business, speaking in public is one of the most cost effective techniques there is.

And it can also increase your credibility and visibility while position you as the go-to expert.

Each speaking opportunity is a chance to promote yourself and your organization. But are you taking advantage of the additional publicity you can get when you are booked as a speaker?

Here are several ideas to help you use your presentation to get even more exposure and visibility.

1. Use editorial calendars to boost speaking opportunities. Most publications and many TV and radio talk shows offer insights on what topics they will be covering in the future.If you speech matches one of the future topics, you can notify producers or journalists well ahead of schedule and set yourself in a good position to be noticed.
2. Initiate pre-event publicity. You can generate pre-event publicity in a number of ways, ranging from sending out a media alert, including it in a community calendar, publicizing it on your website, or posting an announcement with newsletters and ezines relevant to the topic you’re speaking on. This will help you increase attendance at your presentation and your chance of finding good prospects who may be interested in doing business with you.
3. Write your own introduction. By doing so, you can include things you would like to say, or brag, about yourself without seeming like a walking advertisement.
4. Do the obvious: Practice, practice, practice. This may seem like silly advice, but you never really know who is in the audience. There can be a journalist, a producer, or a potential client. Be clear, concise, and prepared for anything to happen!  I often get a know-it-all or skeptic in my audiences, so I am always preparing for good comebacks!
5. Make sure you tell people who you are, what your expertise is and what your business is every time you speak. Whether it’s a classroom aspiring public relations pros or a group of  success-minded individuals who wish to start their own business, always let your audience know what you do and how it can benefit them. Being clear about your expertise and letting people know of its meaning can generate positive references, potential clients, and unexpected media coverage.
6. Offer to submit a synopsis to a newsletter. When you lecture for an organization, offer to submit a summary of what you covered to their newsletter. Be sure to include a photograph and contact information. Many organizations send their newsletters to the media, so you can piggyback of their coverage.
7. Don’t forget about publicity after your presentation is through. After each event, send out a notice or news release to your local area journalists. Make the information newsworthy by tying it in with a topical headline or discover ways to make your field more appealing and exciting.  Also, mention the background information of the event, how it relates to your line of work, and what you presented and benefit the audience.

As summer is winding down, many people are starting to book more time in their schedules for networking meetings and events.  After all, they can be great for promoting one’s business.

And I have to admit, I am not one of them.  I hate networking events, even though I know the can be beneficial to my business.

If you are like me, you also dread going to networking events.  Why? Because many networking events seem just like a endless stream of sales pitches and canned elevator speeches- with everyone trying to get the elusive client or customer. I call these people the net-jerks. (Get it? Jerk rhymes with work… Oh, never mind.)

I know it isn’t easy to grow a small business. The sales function is a time consuming task with a constant need to fill your “sales funnel” with fresh, qualified prospects on a regular basis. That’s the reson so many people suggest using networking as a great way to build your presence and attract more customers.

But the thing is: networking is about making contacts and building relationships. And you can’t do that with just a 30-second pitch. Sure, you need one of those, too, but if you really want to get warm prospects and build a better network for referrals, you need to get more creative..

To be remembered and build a powerful presence, you need to stop talking about how you and your wares are so wonderful — and start listening. Find out others needs and wants (even if they don’t apply to your business) and offer to help them find the answer.

So if you want to see me at your networking event this fall, can you do me a favor and follow these tips?

• Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. It means asking questions that make people answer more than just yes or no. For example, instead of asking if they know of anyone who needs public relations services, ask how they are currently approaching the media. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.
• Become known as a powerful resource for others. When you are known as a reliable resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc.  Not only do people see you as credible and sincere, but also keeps you on-top-of-mind, meaning they remember you more often than others.
• Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, “How may I help you?” and no immediate answer comes to mind. Oh yeah… and don’t just say, “I am looking for someone who need<fill-in-your-product-or service-here>” answer.
• Make sure you follow up as soon as you can. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.
• Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice versa. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas.

If you are serious about creating a powerful presence and get media coverage, you need an online media room. By creating an area of your site specifically for the media can save you the expense and time of using postal mail (which most reporters hate anyway), assist journalists in their research, and impress your target audience and potential clients.

The following is a list of items you should include in an online media room:

• Contact information. Make sure you provide quick and easy ways for reporters to reach you any day at any time. This may include after hours phone numbers.
• A link to prior press releases. Demonstrate your credibility by posting press releases that either you have written or has been written about you.
• About the company. In the media room online, offer briefly the mission of the company and remind them what it is that your business can do.
• Bios. Journalists need to know more about you in order to interview you. So make sure you provide them will a biography that’s well written and relevant to what you are doing in business. (After all, no one cares if you were on the college badminton team unless it’s relevant to what you are doing now.)
• Company fact sheet. A fact sheet offers the basic information about your business that clients and media outlets would want to know.
• Facts concerning your expertise. Offer findings and statistics to emphasize the importance of your field and how those facts are newsworthy.
• FAQs. Listing frequently asked questions can help address what reporters and clients want to ask about in addition to their concerns without wasting the time of exchanging emails.
• A photograph. A picture can be used by reporters or producers when quoting you as an expert source and also creates a source of familiarity with clients over the vastness of the Internet.
• Client list. Mention clients that you have dealt with in the past. This can establish the success of your business with your client list and provide you with the credibility to prove you are an expert.
• Story ideas. Listing story ideas in your field of expertise can give reporters topic ideas to cover. Journalists sometimes are looking for stories to write about. By doing some of the legwork for them, you are more likely to get coverage.
• Articles. Including articles that you have written shows and establishes you as the expert. Also, with your permission, these articles can also be used by media outlets to republish.

Almost as significant as the content of an media room online is the way in which the content is presented. Follow these tips to complete the establishment of a great press room on your website:

1. Make sure your media room is easy to discover. Put a link to the page on the main navigation of your site or on the home page. It can be called a ‘media room,’ ‘press room,’ or under ‘about us.’
2. Use the HTML format on regular web pages. PDFs are great, as well. You just want to make sure the information is esily accessible to as many people as possible.. This also keeps the content search engine friendly.
3. Include downloadable files. Always offer a link to past articles, photographs, or press releases to be used electronically or for print.
4. Remember that the Internet is global in search. Unless your company is only interested in generating business within a certain area, try to use words that are universal so that it can come up in searches made internationally. Make sure everyone can access and understand the content in your online media room.

A great way to attract business and also promote your business effectively is by using media coverage. Getting the media to feature you can be the boost your business needs, especially when your target market is seven times more likely to read or watch a news story than an advertisement.

However, the more influential the media, the more difficult it is to get their attention. If you want to get past the media’s defenses, you have to understand what they need.

Journalists tend to cover certain types of stories more often than not. Some of the topics they are always interested in include as sex and relationships, saving money, education and violence, corruption, sexual harassment, health and fitness, Hollywood and celebrities, sports, money making or saving, and travels.

Do you have a story idea for your business? If not, check out these ideas and see if you can relate one (or more) to your business.

1. Human-interest stories. These are those stories that evoke emotion, whether it’s about a person or a project. One effective approach is to tell a rags-to-riches tale in your business. Think about the odds and strifes you have gone through in your life as you built your business.
2. Tie soft news with a big current event. This is called ‘piggybacking’ in the news business, and is a great way to take a recent national headline and tie it in with your business, product or service. For example, if you are a wellness coach, you can establish yourself as an expert concerning obesity in children. You can comment on recent statistics on overweight children and how to reduce it. You are taking a headline that has already captured the attention of the audience and is providing a helpful solution.
3. The result of a customer survey or research. The media is always interested in findings of a research or a survey. Be sure that the topics are suitable for your area of expertise and also to include controversial questions that will surely capture the media’s attention.
4. A top 10 list. The simplicity of a top 10 list is fun to read and sure to attract attention. Use your area of expertise to create lists that will attract your media of choice’s target audience. If you are a lawyer, you can target those going through foreclosure through the Home and Living sections of the newspaper with such lists as “The Top Ways to Fix Your Credit” or “10 Ways to Budget Effectively to Prevent Foreclosures”.
5. Prove a popular belief wrong. Take a general assumption and put a controversial perspective to it. If you are trying to gain publicity for a credit card company, you can grab attention with headlines such as “If you think your credit card company will protect you against identity theft, think again!” However, do not turn this into an advertisement. Simply talk about the statistics of identity theft and the helplessness that accompanies it. Later in the article, provide the edge that the credit card company you represent has over its competitors in protecting its customers against the slightest possibility of being victimized by identity fraud.
6. Cash in for being the first. If your business is the first to have a free insurance protection plan or a 150% satisfaction guarantee policy, take advantage of  it! The media will be interested in this story because the audience will be attracted to how they can benefit.

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A tagline is a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product, or to reinforce the audience’s memory of a product. For example, Be Heard Solutions tagline is: Find your voice, tell your story and be heard.

When used in conjunction with a new marketing, advertising, or direct response campaign, a tagline can extend your brand message, enhance its perceived value and relevance, and help you forge a stronger connection with the prospects and customers you want.

But writing one, isn’t that easy. It’s hard to write just a few words to capture everything your business is about.

If your tagline is clever enough, people will remember it and forever correlate it with your business. You can craft an successful tagline by following theses steps:

1. Be aware of what captures YOUR attention. When you see an advertisement on a billboard, TV commercial, or in a magazine or newspaper that resonates with you, write down what it is that makes it so captivating. You already know it works because it affected you, so you know that you’re taking notes from the best of the business.

2. Take the time to write down all the key benefits that relate to your business. Start large and end small. List everything important and worth mentioning pertaining to your business, then narrow it down by eliminating anything too general or that is not a central point. Keep phrases like ‘helping people’ and ‘total business solutions’ out, since they are so generic. Read everything over and tactically decide what should be eliminated until you are left with 3-4 main points and take it from there.

3. Keep it short and sweet. Taglines should be no more than 8-10 meaningful words. Use words that are positive in nature and trigger appeal. For example, if you were writing a tagline for the word ‘tagline,’ you might come up with “Tagline… Simple and memorable.”

4. Come up with several ideas before choosing just one. With those 3-4 points, develop several taglines. Read them out loud to guarantee that they are easily repeated. Gather opinions by asking friends and even strangers what the tagline is telling them about your business and make sure that it’s the message you want to send. The key here is NOT to tell persons what your business does, but let them try to figure it out by the tagline.

5. Use your tagline everywhere. After selecting a tagline, put it everywhere! Make sure it’s on your business card, your website, located on your logo, email signature, etc. You want people to remember your tagline, so you need to get it out there!

6. Let it change. Although many taglines are timeless (“A diamond is forever,” “Unleash a jaguar,” “It’s the best part of waking up.”), you shouldn’t worry if your tagline needs to evlove, just like your business may evolve.