The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Publicity needed for seminar on teen problems

11 Responses

1. Eric Gruber Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 12:14 am

   Susan:

   If your independent medical practice has a website, you should be taking advantage of various online opportunities. One such opportunity is to write an article and submit it to the top directories like Ezinearticles.com, IdeaMarketers.com, Goarticles.com, Buzzle.com etc, niche directories like selfgrowth.com, and targeted websites like About.com Parenting, Healthywealthynwise.com, and the Moms Network. At the end of the article, you get to include a link to your website. This link should go to a landing page that promotes your programs. You may also want the link to go to a newsletter page asking reading to subscribe for a free weekly or monthly e-newsletter. The more names you capture, the more leads you receive for your programs. In your newsletters, you would be reminding readers about your programs and you can even sell other products and services.

   Eric Gruber
   Director of Operations
   PR LEADS Article Marketing
   http://www.prleads.com/article.htm

2. D. Vincent Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 12:19 am

   One route to take is to collaborate with a local Boys and Girls Club, YWCA and YMCAs, Girls On The Run, local non-profits with teen focused missions, etc. to advertise your classes and programs. If you hook up with a local health club they may help out by loaning an expert in fitness and wellness for teens as well as advertise. Local PTAs and church bulletins are extremly effective as well.

3. Theresa Kump Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 12:29 am

   Why not partner with your local PTA Council to get the word out to parents? PTA has strict rules against promoting businesses, but might pass along information on an educational conference like this. You might also send letters about the event to the Presidents of the individual PTAs in your area and ask them to let their members know about this educational opportunity.

4. Mari Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 12:43 am

   Send your information to churches -listed in the phone book - and schools. Contact organizations such as Boy & Girl Scouts, the Y kids programs and such.

5. Anahid Lisa Derbabian, Integrity Communications Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 12:56 am

   Grass-roots initiatives often are very effective in acquiring support and attention. In your case, I might suggest developing an advisory board of, let’s say, the presidents of your pta’s in your city. You can meet just once or even quarterly to discuss and acquire their thoughts/ideas and to garner their support in promoting this event (and upcoming events) to their parent population. You also can ask each pta president for their parent mailing list or acquire this information from those who attend your April event; you then can utilize this larger database of parents for future communications.

6. Robert Kotler, MD Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 3:13 am

   The ( free) publicity–which should be the key element in your marketing campaign for this event– should be garnered by the charity which will be the perceived beneficiary. Your city is too big to spend money on mail lists, etc. Those are best for neighborhood events.

   The charity’s publicists and you should collaborate but they should be the one’s to carry the banner. One reason is that TV stations are obliged by the FCC to give some exposure to non-profits. May be same for papers. Downplay your practice’s participation; you can market to those who attend. But, the first mission is to get the attendees there. Let the charity carry the PR ball.
   It will be more palatable to the media since you will not appear as self-serving.

7. H. C. Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 3:25 am

   -Pitch some of your teen experts to local feature/health/lifestyle writers with a catchy pitch (maybe “10 most common misunderstandings about today’s teens”) Since your event is in April - you can pitch local/regional long-leads now, and closer to event pitch to television, radio & newspapers.

   -Another low-cost option is to post flyer at various community venues — cafes, supermarkets, even restaurants often have “community bulleting” boards & desks for you to place this kind of information.

   -Also, check out local event/guide Websites and see if you can post your event on their e-calendar.

8. Leandra Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 4:50 am

   Contact your local Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce) chapter in Dallas area. They work with young people and are a young people’s organization for 21-40 yrs young professionals. They often have a lot of contacts in the local community that you can work with and also often allow some form of advertising/sponsorships of their events at low cost.

9. Donna Strout Says:
   October 18th, 2006 at 11:50 am

   What works? Canvassing! Utilize area schools or young people’s groups (adult supervision, of course). Divide out target neighborhoods and let them go door to door. Give them a small script and instructions to knock on people’s doors to personally invite them to come. Best time to canvass is late afternoon and Saturday mornings. Have the non-profit girls program go to a local printer sympathic to teen issues and ask for a discount or free creative and printing of door hangers. Get businesses and organizations involved with adolescent issues to sponsor all or part of creative in exchange for putting their “sponsored by,” name on the piece. What organization would not want that kind of direct marketing. While having the non-profit be the face of the publicity does have its benefits because the publicity is free, it can also be a hinderance. Coming from a PR background for a non-profit humanitarian organization, our events were often buried in the “fluff” media pieces and mixed in with hundreds of other public service announcements. Frankly, when our focus was getting people to an event — such as one of our community-wide outdoor food distributions for the poor — we canvassed. We went through the local churches because that’s who knew who needed the help most. And, they knew their community. Our attendees for a day-long event was often in excess of 1200. For your event, you need parents? Go directly to the kids. Hope this helps.

10. Lois Carter Fay Says:
    October 19th, 2006 at 6:02 am

    I suggest you write several short articles in a tips format, such as “10 Ways to Communicate With Your Teen in a Crisis,” “5 Positive Ways to Deal with Whatever!”, “8 Ways to Keep Your Teen Off Drugs,” and other topics that are relevant to teens these days. In your 5-line bio, add a plug for your website (I assume you have one), where there is a big, bold link to the upcoming event(s). Send these articles to the local media as filler, post them online at your website, and distribute them through online sources like http://www.PRWeb.com . Joan has some great products for teaching you how to write your tips articles!

11. meryl Says:
    October 26th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

    I’m a member of several school PTAs and we have had several speakers who have seminars and classes. When they speak to our parents, they get a chance to promote themselves and parents who like their presentations sometimes go to their seminars and classes. So consider contacting local PTAs and the Practical Parenting office in Plano for speaking opportunities.

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