The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from Publicity Hounds is the one about what went wrong when they hired a big PR firm, or a lousy publicist.

The nightmares sound like this. Whopping monthly retainers but few media placements. Fresh-out-of-college graduates with little PR experience assigned to major accounts. Sweet-talking publicists who promised the world but had no media contacts. The sinking feeling that an agency’s huge fees were used not to hire talented employees but to pay for the 30th-floor view of downtown. Unexpected and inflated extra charges for things like faxes and phone calls. Some clients even admit failing to do the most basic task before hiring a publicist–checking references. Publicity Hounds often need PR firms or publicists. But they don’t know how to find the one that’s the best fit. They don’t know what traits to look for or what tough questions to ask candidates. They are clueless about the role that chemistry plays between the PR person and the client (hint: a lot). And they don’t know when to help and when to stay out of the way once a PR firm is hired.

My ebook HOW TO HIRE THE PERFECT PUBLICIST is chock-full of tips that will help you choose the publicist who’s the perfect fit for you and keep you from hiring the Publicist from Hell.

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Pitching the Media
posted On: 4/22/2005: 3:11 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Everyone loves free, helpful information. Your customers and clients are no different.

So why not create a free hotline where they can call and ask a question about how to use your product or service? Or suggest a product or service they’d like to see you offer. Or get a helpful recorded tip of the day. Or ask you a question about a particular dilemma they are facing, and hear a quick answer from a real live human being.

Hotlines keep you in touch with your customers and might even give you the chance to sell them something they need. Because the hotline is free, the media will be more inclined to give you free publicity because of it. You can even tell reporters you’d be willing to share with them from time to time the top five questions people are asking, to tip off the media to emerging trends you are seeing.

Every November, I see lots of print and broadcast coverage about the
Butterball hotline, designed to help even the most inept cook bake the
perfect bird. Butterball gets fabulous publicity by telling reporters about the most outlandish questions it receives such as “How do I turn on the oven?”

Hotlines are great for non-profits and government agencies, too. You can use hotlines to encourage people to file consumer complaints. Or to get more information about frequently asked questions. Or to access tips related to a particular holiday or season of the year.

If you work at a non-profit, particularly one that’s strapped for cash, Paul Hartunian has great suggestions on how to stretch your publicity budget as far as possible. “Fail-proof Publicity Tips for Your Non-Profit” is a recording of a teleseminar we conducted. Read more about the helpful tips Paul shares, including how to save time and money when writing news releases.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Nonprofits
posted On: : 2:59 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

One of the best ways to get free publicity for your company is winning a prestigious award.

If you’re a tech company, listen up. Nominations are now being accepted for Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, which ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in North America, and the Fast 50, which ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in 17 regions in the United States and Canada.

Learn more at the Deloitte website.

Posted In: Business Promotion
posted On: : 12:46 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

PR Week offers some great tips on how to prepare your CEO for TV interviews.

Most of these items are useful for print and radio, too. They’re courtesty of Jerry Doyle, EVP at CommCore Consulting Group.

1. How well does he know the subject matter for the interview?
It is perfectly reasonable to expect that the CEO has only top-line knowledge of the inner workings of the organization. You should gain a sense for how he would field a question that requires specificity. Avoidance or spin is not good advice. But, there are appropriate and credible ways to answer a “bull’s-eye” question with a “target” answer.

2. What does he think will be the first question?
The first question in an interview — and how it is handled — may very well set the tone and the “rules of engagement” for the entire Q/A. It can be disastrous if your CEO is expecting the first question to be a “softball” and it ends up hard and fast and trips him up.

3. What question does he think will never get asked?
CEOs frequently assume that issues resolved will not reappear. They will. Showcase this by having the media trainer bring it up in rehearsal. Better yet, do some quick, stealth soft-sounding of your friends in journalism and report back to your CEO.

If you’e willing to buy a subscription to the rest of the tips, you can read them at the PR News Online website. Click on “Article Archives” on the left, then search for “Top 10 Things” and then you can buy a subscription.

Posted In: How to Interview, TV Publicity
posted On: 4/21/2005: 2:11 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Small-business marketing expert Lois Carter Fay, APR suggests these 5 ways to drive sales with online publicity:

–Use others to promote you. Create something “viral”–something that people love to pass on to their associates–and you can really rake in the sales. When you think “viral,” think fun, useful or something that everyone wants, like a joke, a thought for the day, a tips list, a quiz or a survey with results sent to everyone who participates.

–Write articles and submit them online. When you write articles for online publications and people use a search engine to find out about you, your article will likely be included in the search results. (See item #1 above.)

–Post comments on listservs. It’s likely that every industry today has some sort of listserv or ongoing chat among members that you can join. If you can add something to the conversation, do so whenever possible because journalists lurk here. Always include your complete signature so people can contact you. When people search for information about you, these listserv messages will be included in the search results.

–Distribute your news releases to a wide audience. Even if you never get an actual article written about you or your company as a result of using online distribution services, like PR Web, PR Newswire and Business Wire, it’s a terrific idea to submit your releases through these services. That’s because search engines will pull them up when someone searches for you or your products. But don’t make the mistake of only using these services. Continue to use your tried-and-true outlets and methods, as well. (The Publicity Hound says: I love using Marketwire which reaches 30,000 individual editors, journalists and analysts. Their security and verification service is second to none, and they even caught a confusing word in one of my releases and alerted me to it so I could change it before they distributed the release.

–Use linking strategies to improve your ranking. If you want people to find your website easily when they do an online search, have as many incoming links as possible. Ask your business associates, friends and partners to link to your site.

Lois publishes “MarketingIdeaShop BRAINY Tidbits,” a weekly ezine of brainy marketing ideas and resources for marketers and small businesses.

If you market on the Internet, you can learn tips like these and many more by becoming a member of the Internet Association of Information Marketers.

Posted In: Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 4/20/2005: 7:13 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments