Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Getting Publicity for Your Business

BY RHONDA ABRAMS
Gannett News Service Small Business Columnist and President of The Planning Shop

“Alert the media!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get free publicity for your business? Imagine what it would do for your business if newspapers, magazines, or TV or radio stations ran stories praising your amazing products or outstanding service. We’d all like good publicity for our companies, but how do we get reporters and editors to notice us?

The basic building block for any publicity effort is the press release (also called a media release).

Of course, it takes a lot more than just sending out a press release to get coverage, but writing a good press release is a critical first step.

When designing your press release, remember most people in the media are overworked. If you make your story “easy” for them – in the sense that all the details are there – the better your chances of getting publicity.

Most importantly, you’ve got to have something the readers, listeners, or viewers of a media outlet will find interesting. Sure, you think it’s important you’ve promoted Ann Wong to vice president, but why would others care? Is she the first woman/minority/disabled person to reach this level? Is she only 17 years old?

What you need is a “hook.” A hook is an aspect of your story that connects readers to other things they know or care about; a hook makes your news compelling. Some stories are naturally compelling: a closely-contested election, a hot sports contest, a really cool new consumer product. But let’s face it: most of us don’t have stories that are naturally attention-grabbing.

Instead, we need an angle showing our story is timely, amusing, informative. One easy way is to tie your story to outside events that generate their own publicity, such as holidays, local celebrations, sporting events, or new legislation. Reporters always need timely tie-ins.

Here are other tips to help your press release be successful:

• Be creative. Reporters are tired of seeing the same old stories. The offbeat and unusual grab attention. Sometimes just a little “twist” on a story is enough, for instance, if you’re an accountant, you might want to send out a list of the “Ten Worst Tax Deductions” instead of the Ten Best.
• Be visual: Television, in particular, needs visually stimulating stories, but having a good photo opportunity also increases your chance of making it into the newspaper. Find ways to make your story visual: like the pet store that holds an Easter parade with pets in Easter bonnets.
• Work with others: Leverage the power of other organizations to gain visibility; consider unlikely coalitions, not just similar interest groups. Often, these organizations will have their own public relations staff or existing relationships with reporters, thus increasing the chance of you getting coverage.
• Use statistics: Media outlets love numbers. If you can provide objective, trustworthy information related to your industry or market, you’ve got a better chance of having the story covered. You’re likely to get more coverage if you include colorful graphic representations of the statistics if possible.
• Be available: No one can cover or quote you if they can’t reach you. Include all your phone numbers and contact information at the top right corner of your press release. And don’t send out a press release and then leave on vacation.
• Follow-up: Reporters get hundreds of press releases a week. They’re not necessarily going to read yours. Make a follow-up phone call, or two, and send an email to bring attention to your story.
• Respect deadlines: Don’t call reporters when they’re “on deadline,” typically late afternoon for daily journalists. Mid-morning is usually the best time.
• Do your homework: Get to know which media outlets (TV, radio, newspapers, Internet sites, trade publications) cover your industry or the type of story you’re likely to have.
• Develop a database of appropriate journalists. There’s no use sending a press release about your cooking school to the sports editor (unless a sports star is one of your students). If possible, get to know key journalists personally.

Finally, keep trying – over and over! You’re much more likely to get coverage if you send press releases regularly and repeatedly. Don’t give up!

About Rhonda Abrams
For over 15 years, Rhonda Abrams has provided business planning expertise to literally hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and businesses. She is the author of the best-selling The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies, now in its fourth edition, and several other business planning books. Rhonda is the Gannett News Service Small Business Columnist. Her nationally-syndicated column on small business strategies appears in about 100 newspapers and also USAToday.com as well as the Costco Connection reaching 20 million readers a week. A popular public speaker, Rhonda is frequently invited to speak at conferences, corporate meetings, and workshops. She is a graduate of UCLA and holds a master’s degree from Harvard. Learn more about Rhonda, her writings, and her speaking engagements at www.PlanningShop.com. You’ll also find all sorts of business tidbits on her blog.

Posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2005 at 4:11 pm and is filed under PR, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.