The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Do you generate such great publicity that you can boast about your website traffic? If so, that’s OK.

But all the traffic in the world is useless unless it’s putting money in your pocket. That’s why if you’re selling ANYTHING online, you should sign up for Tom Antion’s teleseminar “Increase Your Web Sales: 27 Ways to Get ‘em to Buy” at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Feb. 26.

What makes Tom the expert?

About eight years ago, he promoted a teleseminar he was hosting on Thanksgiving night. Maybe he booked it on that date accidentally without looking at the calendar. Or maybe he figured, “Hey, what else do people do on Thanksgiving night except sit around and watch TV?”

He sold 60 seats at the teleseminar at $29.95 a pop. One hour on the phone = $1,797.00. But that’s not all.

Just one technique he used during that call enticed 21 of those people to spend an additional $97 with him, or a total of $2,037.00 additional dollars.

Add that to the original amount of $1,770.00 and you get a whopping $3,834.00 for one hour on the phone—on Thanksgiving night.

I’ve been following Tom ever since I created my website about 12 years ago, and I’m familiar with most of the tips he’s going to share. One of my very favorites is a technique he calls ”Do you want fries with that?” When a customer buys something, his shopping cart asks if the customer wants to buy a related product, sometimes for only $5 or $10.  I’ve tried it myself hundreds of times, and it works.  All those extra $5 and $10 sales really add up.

You don’t have to try all 27 tips, or even most of them, or even 10 of them. Just one or two can help you sell thousands more dollars of products and services.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Information Products, Magazine Publicity
posted On: 2/24/2009: 2:29 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Jill Cranford of Livermore, Colo. writes:
“My company, Stone2Furniture, which makes indoor and outdoor furniture from stone, is having an Ugly Patio Furniture Contest and we’ll be giving away a set of our stone furniture valued at $4,100. The contest runs through August. “So here I am with the rules drawn up, and it’s live on our website and in the Media Room. I sent out 130 snail-mail flyers and emails to editors. “My next step is getting it to the local news channels. But I am wondering if I am missing a step? I haven’t heard from any editors. I know this will be fun but I’m just not sure how to launch it.”

Posted In: Business Promotion, Contests, Photos & Graphics, Pitching the Media, TV Publicity
posted On: : 9:53 am: By Joan
Comments: 4 Comments

Local Real Estate Deals, a bi-monthly nationwide magazine, needs expert articles that provide helpful advice for investors, first-time home buyers, real estate agents, loan officers and people who may have had credit problems.

The June/July issue focuses on green topics and the Denver real estate market. For more information, email editor Emily Cass.

Posted In: Magazine Publicity, Writing Articles
posted On: : 7:28 am: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

Tying celebrities to your news story can generate publicity you never dreamed of. But if the celebrity responds, the publicity can multiply.

That’s what happened to Elliott’s Hardware in Dallas, Texas yesterday when former President George W. Bush stopped in for a one-hour visit, bought a few items and joked that he was looking for a job. The Associated Press, which distributed the original story to its member media outlets when the hardware store offered Bush a job, distributed yesterday’s story after the visit, and it appeared, once again, in many newspapers and at news sites.

Here are three tips about piggybacking onto celebrity news, taken from my “Special Report #50: How to Pibbyback onto Celebrity News to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue”:

1. Sponsor a contest that piggybacks off celebrity news.

For as long as I can remember, the tabloids have been reporting on Oprah’s roller-coaster weight. First it’s up, then it’s down, then it’s up, then it’s down. If you’re a weight loss expert, you can sponsor a contest called “How Oprah Can Take off Those Last 20 Pounds—Forever.” Then write a press release and post it online. Or if you don’t want to go to the trouble of sponsoring a contest, and you can still find a tie-in, go with it.

That’s what Author Laura K. Bryant did. She wrote a press release about her book, “Trust Yourself to Transform Your Body: A Woman’s Guide to Health and Weight Loss Without Diets” and used a clever tie-in to Oprah. (You can read the release which is part of Lesson 50 in my free tutorial “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”)

“I sent the press release to all the local news stations in Chicago,” she said. “This particular release got an immediate (within 2 minutes of it being sent) call from a WGN News producer, who requested my media kit. Once the kit was received, my book was highlighted on WGN News, as a ‘Hot Summer Read.’”

2. Piggyback your stories onto hot movie titles.

When the movie “Anger Management” was in theaters, I saw all sorts of stories that tied into that title. Ditto with the “Mission: Impossible” movies. Sometimes all you have to do is incorporate a hot movie title into your pitch and you’ll catch the media’s attention. Example: Trying to lose weight to fit into that new bikini? It isn’t Mission: Impossible.

3. Piggyback onto a network Movie of the Week.

Keep your eyes on the big network movies during sweeps months in May, November and February. Pitch story ideas that piggyback off movies. For example, when “The Burning Bed” with Farrah Fawcett was a major TV movie in 1984, I remember the local women’s abuse shelter in my community was the lead story on the local news that night, right after the movie ended, because it tied into the movie. If your company or nonprofit is “the local angle” to a big TV movie, contact the TV station that’s airing the movie. You could be the lead story on the 10 or 11 o’clock news that night. Also contact the TV stations if you want to weigh in with an opinion about a controversial movie.

Posted In: Celebrity tie-ins, Contests, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases, TV Publicity, The Local Angle
posted On: 2/22/2009: 10:04 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

This month’s guest blogger Mark Macias, author of the book “Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media,” shares terrific tips on how businesses can grab media attention. How about using his questions below as a checklist every few months?

The story ideas you’ll generate are just as good for bloggers, ezine editors and other “new media” as they are for traditional media. Mark has worked as an executive producer with WNBC, a senior producer with WCBS, producer with NBC and KTVK in Phoenix, and investigative producer with American Journal. You can read more chapter excerpts from his book on how to pitch the media at his website.

* * *

By Mark Macias

It’s the one question every person wants to know. How do the news producers and newspaper editors decide what to print and publish?

Most people ask this question like there is a magical formula that scientifically reveals whether a story should be pursed or scrapped. If it were this easy to identify news stories, you can bet the formula would have been hacked and posted on the Internet by now. The fact is, news selection is an art, and just like any other profession involving creativity, opinions and experiences, it is subjective to where you stand.

If you want a story written about you or your business, you need to first identify what is different, new or unique about your story. News is based on the root “new,” which is something no publicist should ever forget.

Are you helping underprivileged children in a way that others are ignoring? Is your business contributing to the local community in a unique way we might not expect? Are you about to accomplish a feat where others have failed? The more you can clarify and focus your pitch, the better odds you will have of getting your story idea approved by the news organization.

How to identify story ideas

You can help discover your newsworthy element by asking yourself the following questions:

—What is different about my business?

—How does my business help the public and why is that service unique?

—Is there something timely about my business or product?

—Is there a personal story to tell about my business, like maybe a grandfather is passing the 75-year-old family business onto his grandchildren in a public ceremony? Or maybe the owner is battling cancer and running the business at the same time.

—Is there a new trend arising in my business field that will affect the pocket books of consumers? For example, is the rising cost of wheat starting to put a damper on profits for bagel shop or Italian restaurant owners? Will my business soon be forced to raise prices on the menus because the price of wheat keeps rising?

—Have any trade organizations recognized my business as a leader in innovation that will help shape the future? If so, what is that innovation and how will it change lives?

Finding a unique angle is not as difficult as it may sound. You just need to open your mind to timely events that impact and influence sales of your product or service. If you own a fashion or jewelry store, try to link your product to high-profile events like the Academy Awards or the Grammy Awards. If your business is geared towards a niche audience, like traveling business executives, scan the headlines in the business sections of various newspapers for possible tie-ins to current events.

Define the story

Not properly defining the story is one of the biggest mistakes most publicists make.

Your success with pitching depends greatly on how well you define that story because in many cases, you may only get one shot at pitching your story idea. You can focus your story by understanding and applying the five W’s (who, what, when, where, why and how).

Who is this story about? Who is the character in the center of the story? If you are pitching an organization, business or nonprofit, you must identify a person to revolve the story around because the best stories involve people. You will improve your chances of coverage by identifying a sympathetic character that viewers and readers can relate to.

What is this story about? What is unique about it? What is different? What is the conflict? What is the story you want to tell? By identifying the “What” you will have an edge in pitching the story because your story idea will be more focused.

Where is this story taking place? Does the location have any value or importance in the community? A diner in Iowa has little national news value, unless it is a presidential election year when all of the candidates are pressing the flesh with patrons over ham and eggs. Take a moment to examine your entire surroundings before pitching the story because you might uncover something that increases the value of the story idea.

When does your story take place? Does it have any timely components? Will your story take place on a single night or day? Is your story relevant at a certain time of the month? All of these questions could make your story timely, which will increase the value of your story. Why should anyone care about your story? Why is this story happening?

Why are people coming to your event or why are people buying your product or service? Once you identify why your story is important to the public, you have focused your pitch down to the core and uncovered why your story is newsworthy.

How is your story, business, service or product changing lives? How are you helping people? How will your business or product save people money or better their lives? Not every story has a “how” factor, but it is still important to ask yourself this question.

The more you understand the definition and value of “newsworthy” the better chance you will have of getting media coverage for you or your business. And once you are successfully pitching story ideas, you are better able to shape the message and spin the media into your favor.

Mark Macias is a journalist working and living in New York City.

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Newspaper Publicity, Pitching the Media, The Local Angle
posted On: 2/21/2009: 6:58 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment