2006 December

Publicity tips for construction trade mags

12/11/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

If you work for a construction company, or you’re pitching the construction trade magazines, don’t miss this article in which several editors from the trades offer their best tips on how to get their attention.

They discuss several things I’ve written about in “Special Report #49: 17 Ways to Build Valuable Relationships with Media People”:

—Use editorial calendars

—Send follow-up information to journalists as soon as they ask for it

—Pitch story ideas that don’t have anything to do with you or your client

Once journalists know you care, they’ll care about what you know.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Magazine Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity for Niche Markets

Art marketing gets a boost with eBay

12/9/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

Here’s a tip for artists who are looking for another marketing channel.

It’s courtesy of artist Susan Greaves, an oil painter in Redding, California.

About seven years ago, Susan was on eBay and noticed that someone had bought an expensive Persian rug without even seeing it up close. She found that difficult to believe because she’d never do anything so foolish, particularly when buying something worth several hundred dollars.

But that gave her an idea. If somebody would buy a Persian rug without actually being able to see it, why wouldn’t they buy her oil paintings?

She decided to experiment and started offering them for sale on eBay. She posted some of her artwork as ”Buy Now” items, and sold several others at eBay auctions.

People started bidding and buying. In fact, a floral painting brought in a high bid of $800. The winning bidders? Senator and Mrs. John Edwards.

“With eBay, an artist can rope in all kinds of shoppers,” she told me.

eBay, it turns out, can be a phenomenal marketing tool for any type of artist, regardless of whether they’re selling pottery, jewelry, photos, art clothing or paintings.

Susan will be joining me and about 10 other art marketing experts at the smARTist Tele-summit in January, hosted by art marketing expert Ariane Goodwin. The entire program will be presented on the telephone. And it’s ideal for artists who feels their “business” is a glorfied hobby because it isn’t generating the kinds of sales they want.

The tele-summit will show artists how to become recognized online and offine, how to get their artwork into galleries, how to create an inexpensive website that sells their artwork for them, and the biggest mistakes artists make that prevent them from selliong their artwork for what it’s really worth.

If you’re an artist, or want to be, sign up for the event. Spaces are limited, and the tele-summit is filling up fast!

I’m speaking from 2 to 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Jan. 22, on how artists can position themselves as experts in a particular medium, then market themselves as experts online and offline.

Learn more about the event here.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Publicity on the Internet, Special Events

More ideas for holiday pitches

12/8/2006 By Joan Leave a Comment

The weeks leading up to Christmas are the very best times to pitch the media with your story idea.

I offered several controversial holiday ideas earlier this week, and I just found a great list of more story ideas with holiday hooks, courtesy of the PRLeap blog.

Many of them would be great to pitch to TV stations. My friend Shawne Duperon, who I interviewed on “How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow,” says TV news producers want great visuals. So when pitching, describe the people, color and motion that can be captured on camera.

Then pitch away!

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Holidays, Pitching the Media, TV Publicity

Stuart Elliot, NYT ad columnist, offers tips

12/8/2006 By Joan 1 Comment

If you’re dying to get yourself or your PR client in front of longtime New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliot, read his pitching tips, courtesy of Marketing Sherpa.

He tells you how to get your story into print and how to get onto his podcast.

You can access this article for free until December 18.

Filed Under: Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, Publicity on the Internet

Writing tip: Make statistics come alive

12/7/2006 By Joan 2 Comments

One of the best ways to help journalists and consumers understand statistics in your press releases, articles and marketing copy is to turn a statistic into a picture they can see in their minds.

I just saw a great example of this today.

Greg Stromberg, CEO of Toobee International, sells a toy called “The Amazing Flying Can.” It looks like a one-third-size chunk of a soda can, without the metal top. Designed by two aeronautical engineers, it sails, soars, swoops and curves when thrown. And it’s safe for kids because it has no rough edges.

Three phrases in Greg’s marketing copy make me smile:

—”Toobee weighs less than a marshmallow”

—”Toss it for distance. World distance record 283 feet (94 yards). That’s just 9 yards short of a football field.” (I think his math is wrong. It’s actually 6 yards short of a football field. But you get the point.)

—You can have your company name or logo imprinted on the can. So Greg calls it “a business card with wings.”

I know how light a marshmallow is and I know how long a football field is. Those two simple descriptions gave me a much better idea of the product. And I can envision what a business card with wings looks like.

Don’t let your readers’ eyes glaze over when you use statistics. Instead, offer a simile or metaphor that helps the reader understand.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Press Releases/News Releases, Writing Articles