Even Modest Publicity Pays Dividends. . .

 

Stories Get Read While Ads Get Avoided 

 

-- By Joseph Riden

 

Success in public relations moves your business beyond ad space, which is being ignored, and into story space, where readers are spending their time.  Oddly enough, ad space is expensive, while story space is free.  Getting into the news does involve some effort and expense.  But the payoff can be huge.

 

Unlike advertising copy, stories and articles that reach the public eye are highly credible.  In today’s over-marketed world, readers automatically discount ads to match their pre-existing beliefs.  Today’s readers tend to be jaded, distrustful, and even cynical, after decades of being assailed by hyperbole and falsehood.  Readers see impartial news stories and magazine articles differently – non-advertisements carry believability similar to word-of-mouth.  A neutral writer’s commentary is far more convincing than anything you can say about yourself in paid advertisements.  So your best promotional strategy is to prioritize budget for PR ahead of advertising.

 

The media are constantly seeking new and interesting story ideas.  Why not your story?  The typical reporter’s professional life is a never-ending string of deadlines.  The busier reporters often have two or three stories due per day.  There’s nothing a harried reporter likes better than having a fresh and interesting story idea just show up on his desk, especially if everything he needs to develop the story is being provided. 

 

Be bold.  Publicize yourself.  If your business is newsworthy, or if you, or your business, can do something that would make an interesting story, your chances of being picked up somewhere are excellent, providing you follow a good strategy and don’t blunder in the process.

 

A newspaper story, magazine article, or broadcast spot can catapult you into the public eye.   Media exposure can instantly create broader awareness of your brand, and the value you deliver to customers.  In fact, many businesses have reached ‘critical mass’ after media-induced upsurges.  Media coverage also helps keep the revenue machine humming once it comes up to speed.  That’s why massive corporate money and effort are expended on PR.

 

If your budget doesn’t include an in-house publicist, no matter.  Every business, even a one-person shop, can capture free media coverage. There are ways to get by until your empire grows enough to hire a high-flying PR firm.  You can campaign effectively for cost-free media coverage using a modest strategy.  Like advertising, there are no guarantees.  But if you don’t play, you can’t win. 

 

There are several methods for getting media attention.  They all involve issuing some written message.  Composition and targeting are critical to success. These modest approaches can be used to good effect.

 

• Press Release – A message about something newsworthy that goes out to print and broadcast media, offering story ideas and assistance with story development.  A standardized format is expected.  Press releases must be written with a particular discipline or they may alienate the very reporters you are pitching.  Professional expertise is essential in writing press releases.  What you leave out is just as important as what you say.  When you issue a press release, the stories are usually written by a reporter or staff writer.

 

• Speculative Story – A story about you, your business, and your customers could be written and then pitched to media editors.  Sometimes this results in publication, but a spec story risks becoming an orphan, because the article may not conform to guidelines, or won’t be targeted to a readership.  Also, professionally written stories cost more than press releases. As a do-it-yourself project, writing a story would be an impractical distraction for most business owners.  This approach is less likely to get results economically. 

 

• Queried Story – The first step is to select and research target publications, considering their readership and guidelines.  Then you send targeted editors letters of inquiry about concepts for relevant stories that will be written in their preferred style.  Editors like to influence and shape stories to match their audience’s interests and speak in a certain voice.  The payoff for having queries picked up is greater, as are the chances of having the final story published.  Query letters and final stories are best written by a professional who understands how to make it all work. 

 

The queried story approach has a higher cost, since it requires research, query letter writing, and story writing, but it has the highest probability of publication.  And the stories will be about what you want to publicize.  In essence, the editor is pre-approving the story concept.  This is a way to place stories in publications that your target market reads.  It’s right for magazines that have limited writing staff, or a specific audience you want to reach.

 

Odds of getting noticed improve with a steady, unrelenting effort.  Persevere with an economical, modest strategy, and eventually you’ll be picked up.  It often happens on the first try. But do get expertly targeted, high-quality writing.  Unless you’re a professional quality writer and willing to go the distance to learn the fine points of PR, hire a professional.  Then you can stick to business.  And get ready to handle the flood of calls.

 

There is a PR strategy that makes sense for each business.  What is yours?  Speculative stories are not recommended unless for some reason you must go that way.  Cost/effectiveness guidelines for the other avenues shape up like this -- an enticing press release can be professionally written and circulated for a few hundred dollars.  A two page, magazine-ready, queried story can be written for perhaps a couple thousand.  The effort to place the story varies.  So does the cost.

 

I believe in the power of modest PR.  My former one-man manual therapy business was launched by a single newspaper story in a Sunday supplement that reached thousands of readers.  A lone press release I sent out was picked up.  My ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ created three years of solid income.  I was swamped answering phone calls for two weeks.  The clients who came in for appointments were all helped, some dramatically.  They told their friends, word-of-mouth spread, and my Movement Workshop business was born. 

 

Modest PR works.  The recent query I sent out for my writing business went to an email newsletter with a permission-based distribution of over 20,000, primarily in the computer-aided design (CAD) industry.  I pitched the editor on running a story based on my CAD experience and expertise, and provided several story ideas for him to consider.  Within half an hour after the email, he called me on the phone.  He didn’t want one of the stories.  He wanted them all.  He offered me a permanent column in the newsletter, which would give me monthly exposure to their distribution.  My first 3 articles are submitted and scheduled for publication.  Hmmm, 20,000 pairs of eyeballs on my prose each month.  I just wonder what will happen.

 

You can access the power of modest PR using Your Personal Publicist services. You can accomplish something worthwhile for a skinny thousand or perhaps even less.  What is a story in a major publication worth in new revenue?  I provide custom quotes on request.  Call or email today for more information.  Get a free hour of consultation to discuss how you could have, at a modest cost, your own Personal Publicist.  No hype, I promise – just solid facts you can use.

 

Click here to email Joseph Riden or call 714-402-3217.

 

© Joseph Riden 2006, All Rights Reserved