The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

The thousands of run-of-the-mill small business owners who can’t figure out how to generate publicity for their businesses can learn a lesson or two from Michael Bohdan.

He’s an exterminator who runs The Pest Shop in North Texas. And whenever there’s a problem with fire ants or roof rats, he alerts the local media, and they feature him as an expert.

My friend, TV reporter Jeff Crilley, has a great newsletter about generating publicity, and in this week’s issue, here’s what he writes about Bohdan:

“His biggest claim to fame is his Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum. Two decades ago, he held a national contest asking people to dress up dead cockroaches as their favorite celebrity and send them in to his extermination store in Plano, Texas. This little PR stunt cost him nothing and it has earned him hundreds of media hits including The Tonight Show, Regis, CNN and Fox News.”

In fact, Jeff says, even though it’s been 20 years since Bohdan held the contest, he’s still featured in stories about his museum and the visitors who come from coast to coast to The Pest Shop to see exhibits like Liberoache, David Letteroach, and Madonnaroach.

Jeff writes:

“There are lots of exterminators in this country. Michael Bohdan is one of the few who has figured out a way to become a public relations praying mantis without ever being a pest.”

So what can small businesses learn from Michael Bohdan?

—Use humor. In Bohdan’s book “What’s Bugging You?,” he even includes reviews of bug movies. 

—Consider starting a Hall of Fame for your business, and promote it like crazy with online press releases, and pitches to media outlets and bloggers.

—Make it interactive. Ask your customers to nominate Hall of Fame entries.

—Position yourself as an expert in your topic, and piggyback off local, regional and national news.      

If you’re promoting a small business, a nonprofit, or any product, service, cause or issue, you’ll find lots more clever publicity tips in my two free ebooks, “The Best of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week of 2005″ and “The Best of The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week of 2006.”  

Posted In: Blogs, Business Promotion, Photos & Graphics, Press Releases/News Releases, The Local Angle
posted On: 8/27/2007: 11:13 pm: By Joan
Comments: 1 Comment

If you’re pitching Chicago-area business news, watch for BusinessWeek Chicago to debut in November.  

About 60,000 of BusinessWeek’s local subscribers and other Chicago-area businesses will receive the free-distribution magazine. 

Michael Arndt, a senior correspondent in BusinessWeek’s local bureau, will be the editor. The magazine, he says, will focus on long, analytical articles. Each issue is expected to be about 36 pages.

He told Crain’s Chicago:

“I don’t think our readers would stop reading Crain’s or (the Chicago Tribune) to read what happened last week, but they’d look to us for what it means and what’s important and to provide a deeper analysis and richer writing.” 

That probably means you shouldn’t bother pitching routine business stories.

If history is any barometer, the new magazine will have a difficult time getting a foothold in the competitive Chicago news market. That’s because new magazines have a high failure rate. And sending a free publication to people who have not asked to receive it means potential advertisers are suspicious of exactly how many people are reading it.

I also find it odd that the magazine is debuting without a dedicated website “in order to focus its resources on the print edition.”  Many of the magazine’s stories, however, will appear on BusinessWeek’s website. 

Posted In: Newspaper Publicity
posted On: : 8:29 am: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Julie Ann Kodmur from St. Helena, California writes:

“How do you get American writers and, of course, families, interested in Shawnigan Lake School, a Canadian boarding school?

“I’ve been doing publicity for the wonderful school where my step-son goes and now find that we need some fresh ideas. The school is frankly a cousin of Hogwarts—uniform Tudor architecture in all the buildings on campus which slope down to a lake, then bordered by a forest and a huge ‘great hall’ dining room with fireplaces. The faculty are not only very intelligent but enormously empathetic and caring.

“We’ve thought of having J.K. Rowling come to do a reading or present an award. We’ve thought of having the headmaster write some op-ed pieces for U.S. papers.

“We’re trying to ‘junket’ some writers up to the campus to shadow some students and go back to their U.S. papers and write up the experience. Do your Hounds have any fresh ideas for publicity?”

Posted In: Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Publicity for Niche Markets, Radio Publicity
posted On: 8/18/2007: 7:45 pm: By Joan
Comments: 5 Comments

Thanks to Publicity Hound Beth Bilderback, public relations specialist for Nauticus, a marine science center in Norfolk, Virginia, for this tip that can be used by anyone who receives grant money:

“This summer, we received a hefty grant to fund two oceanography camps for two separate groups of 10th-graders. One requirement was that the students put together a PowerPoint presentation detailing all of their marine biology activities throughout the week and show it on the last day of the camp.

“For one of these last days, we invited both the board of the funding organization and a local reporter, who sent a photographer to follow the kids on their field trip that afternoon so they could get a good visual.

“It was win-win all around. The granters got to see the very real return on their investment. The students were delighted at the attention (parents were of course also invited). The hard work of all who put the camp together was recognized, and the media highlighted a really successful partnership.

“We ended up getting an article on the front page of the local news section. Lesson: Don’t just announce that you’ve received grant money. Follow up with a happy ending.”

That’s great advice, Beth. OK, Hounds. If you’ve put grant money to good use, let the media know the rest of the story. This tip is for non-profits as well as for-profit companies.

Nonprofits, by the way, don’t face more obstacles to generating publicity. It just seems like they do because many of them are on such slim budgets.

Paul Hartunian, who was my guest during a teleseminar called “Failproof Publicity Tips for Your Nonprofit” says one low-cost idea is to set up a free hotline with a tip of the day that relates to the cause or issue you’re promoting. All you need is a telephone and an answering machine. Once you’ve created the hotline, write a press release about it and post the release online.

Posted In: Nonprofits, Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: 8/15/2007: 9:34 pm: By Joan
Comments: No Comments

Frustrated because your website isn’t pulling the traffic you expect?

I’ll bet part of your problem isn’t just a lack of traffic, but that you aren’t converting existing traffic into paying customers.

Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff, aka The Blog Squad, have a free 12-page white paper called “The Great Internet Challenge–How to get your business found on the Web.” It lists six critical components that websites must have to attract and keep traffic.  One of those components is something I’m struggling with at my own website and hope to have resolved in the next week or two.

Denise and Patsi are the real deal. I’ve been following them loyally for the last two years.

Posted In: General
posted On: 8/13/2007: 10:40 am: By Joan
Comments: 2 Comments