The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Marketing consultant Karla Swita of Mosinee, Wisconsin writes:

“You know the guy who says ‘Word of mouth has gotten me this far, so why should I pay for marketing now?’ Well, he’s my client.

“I’d love some ideas on how to promote a custom kitchen and bath manufacturing shop without sending him into sticker shock. I’m tapped out of ideas on how to help with his modest budget.

“There’s a showroom open to the public where they can see options related to constructing the entire kitchen cabinet. I’d also like to hear how others handle the client who believes word of mouth is the only way to go.”
 
“I know a good marketing plan is what he needs, but I’m having more influence by easing into this and proving to him how a good idea works. I’d like to hear how others have been successful in getting publicity for a small manufacturer.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: 10/30/2006: 4:10 pm: By Joan
Comments: 9 Comments

Author Dora Crow wrote to tell me about a clever way she’s using YouTube to promote her book.

She writes:

“In order to share the story of Winky & Wonder, I’ve begun reading my children’s book on YouTube as an online ‘Children’s Storytime.’ I uploaded the prologue a few days ago, and today I uploaded the first chapter (in Part 1 and Part 2, 10 minutes each). I plan to upload one chapter
each week.”

Dora says she is linking to the videos from her website. She welcomes feedback on the videos, so here’s mine:

If I were a kid, I’d like it a whole lot more if, after your greeting, you started reading the story with your back to me so I could see the illustrations.

P.S. The cat’s a nice touch!

Posted In: Authors & Publishers, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: : 10:05 am: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments

If you pitch environmental journalists, take a look at this post from the Green Media Toolshed about the importance of visuals with a story, and eight different types of visuals.

The tips come from journalists at the Society of Environmental Journalists convention. During a panel discussion called Visualizing your Stories, three award-winning environmental reporters shared their strategies for coming up with the perfect visual to help complete their story—and make it more attractive to their readership.

They mentioned a graphic for timelines, data trends over time, maps, comparative data, sequential events, report cards, explaining complicated processes, and multi-layers of data, such as showing the relation between income, race and pollution.

In my ebook, “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign,” I quote a magane editor who says that a good visual can sometimes move a story from the back of the magazine to the front.  
 

Posted In: Magazine Publicity, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media
posted On: : 7:39 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

PRWeb has discontinued its free press release distribution service which is probably just as well, because these freebie sites are usually worthless because your release isn’t distributed anywhere. It’s simply parked at a website.

That means you have to pay at least $80 to have your release distributed by PRWeb—a service that pushes your releases into the Google and Yahoo News feeds. I’ve heard Publicity Hounds rave about the results. 

I’m curious about whether anyone has had any luck with free press release distributions sites.

There are probably hundreds of them out there. Most exist for two reasons: to either upsell you to a paid service, or to generate revenue from Google Adsense ads. 

Let me know your experiences.

Posted In: Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 10/27/2006: 2:35 pm: By Joan
Comments: 3 Comments

Joey Lo of Hong Kong, China writes:

“I’m starting my own financial services company which specializes in factoring to help small- and micro-enterprises, that offer credit terms to customers, generate cash flow without a loan.

Factoring is buying outstanding invoices at an amount less than face value so companies can receive cash today instead of having to wait for 30 to 90 days. My target clients are growth-oriented companies that are turned down by banks due to their small sizes and insufficient financial histories.

With immediate cash on hand, companies can expand their business by taking advantage of large discounts offered by suppliers, fulfill large orders by hiring additional staff and buying new equipment, and improve the balance sheet (because it is not a loan, it’s turning paper asset into cash asset) to eventually qualify for banks or venture capital firms etc.

I’ll be using a serviced office so I can’t host any events there. Besides, I can’t think of any event that would attract media attention given the small size of the operation.

Do your Hounds have any creative ideas for publicity campaigns?

The objectives are:

1. To gain credibility for the business.

2. To generate exposure for the launch (can be a soft launch which leverages online publicity techniques).

3. To draw in business referrals from lawyers and accountants (they will receive commission for every successful transaction).

It would be great if Hounds could recommend some of their products or services that are suitable for my situation. 

Posted In: Business Promotion, Information Products, Publicity for Niche Markets, Publicity on the Internet
posted On: 10/24/2006: 12:15 pm: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments