|
|
| www.1001TopWords.com |
|
|
Publicity - How to Write a Headline That Will Garner Free Publicity
Taking your ad and turning it into paragraph-style prose is not a press release ? chances are it will only lead the publisher to call and invite you to run it as a paid ad. A press release is for news or for information about a topic the audience needs to know. Any press release that reads too much like an ad will likely lead a media person to forward it to the advertising department. For example, here's a headline that sounds too much like an ad: "Financial Planner Chet Thompson Saved Families $600,000 On Estate Taxes Last Year" This headline is attention-getting, but for the wrong reasons. It doesn't tell the media person anything other than that Chet Thompson is a good financial planner. This isn't news. But that same headline can easily be rewritten to sound more "newsy": "Estate Planning Tips Saved Local Families More Than $600,000 Last Year" This same information is now a headline that will grab a media person's attention. It suggests questions that their readers will be interested in: What tips? Remember-you are never the news. News is information. As much as possible, keep ego tripping out of a press release and focus on the information that will help improve the lives of readers/listeners/viewers. Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Writing a Press Release: The Medias Dirty Secret There's a dirty little secret about press releases that the media doesn't want you to know. The fact is, most of them travel directly from the sender's computer to the reporter's trash box. Or from out of the envelope into the "round file." Media Relations: Should You Pay For News Coverage, Part II Last month, we told you about "pay for play," a practice in which news organizations charge sources to appear on their programs. In other words, if you ante up enough cash, these "news" programs will air a puff piece about your company or organization. Add Some Firepower to your PR Sure, as tactics usually presented to business, non-profit and association managers, special events, brochures and news releases are fine. Writing a Press Release: How to Write Quotes Ideally, you will have two types of quotes in your press release. A quote from yourself is mandatory. To give your release extra impact, get a quote from a third-party. Television Reporters - Questions to Ask Before Agreeing to an Interview Prior to a TV interview it is guaranteed the journalist involved will spend time preparing, writing down questions or goals for the interview either quickly or more in-depth as well as conducting some background research. As the interview subject it is important to undergo a similar preparation process to make the most out of your media opportunity.By asking your own question you are able to perform at your best and be prepared for the interview. Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Focus on Main Points During an Interview You never want to inundate a reporter with information, but you don't want to be branded a one-trick pony either. That's why I recommend coming up with three key points for every interview you do. Grandma Says... Southern grandmothers have often said, "there are only three times a respectable person's name should be in the paper: when you are born, when you are married, and when you die." This is the one area in which I part company with my grandmothers. Publicity is more critical today for the success of a business than it has ever been. Why do I believe it's critical? Let's review what publicity ? particularly publicity in business and trade publications - can do for your business. Provides Neutral Third-party Endorsement. Even though many think the media are biased, consumers still cling to the belief that people who are quoted by the media have something worthwhile to say. Boosts Your Competitive Advantage. Positive publicity confirms for your customers that they made the smart choice when they elected to use your products or services. Enables Referrals. Your "smart" customers become evangelists by handing out articles about you to their business contacts. Shortens Your Sales Cycle. Media coverage often does a better job of explaining what you do than an ad can. So, readers will have a level of knowledge about you before you meet. Builds Your Marketing Library. Print and web-based articles can become excellent marketing material that costs little to develop. Positions You. Publish or perish is the academic motto. Experts from outside the world of academia also know that by being quoted by the media they can improve their position as industry experts. Builds Value. For every speaker like Tom Peters earning thousands of dollars for appearances, there are hundreds who are paid a pittance for speaking engagements. Can you guess the difference? As you can see, there are a wide variety of reasons for you to be publicizing yourself and your business. Just this once, don't listen to Grandma. Go get your name in the paper. The Working Case Study Next to white papers, case studies are the most popular tool in the technical marketer's toolkit Why PR is an Engine for Economic Growth Business, non-profit and association managers committing their public relations resources to (1) doing something about the behaviors of those important outside audiences that most affect their operation, (2) creating the kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving their managerial objectives, and (3) doing so by persuading those key outside folks to their way of thinking by helping to move them to take actions that allow their department, division or subsidiary to succeed ? greatly increase the chances of success for their operation. Creating Your Online News Room: How To Build a Site The Media Will Love From time to time, people ask me how public relations has changedduring the two decades in which I've been seeking publicity. Myanswer: technology. Twenty years ago, the fax machine was anewfangled novelty. Our primary means of communicating withjournalists was the telephone and the US Mail. The advent of e-mail and the web has made life easier in many regards and tougherin others - namely, thanks to hordes of clowns with money makingschemes and software that "blasts" press releasesindiscriminately to reporters, it's become very hard to get youre-mails through to spam-weary reporters. PR Buyers Beware! It can bite you and waste your public relations budget when the program emphasizes communications tactics instead of how to make certain your key outside audiences understand who and what you are. What is News? What may be the more appropriate question is: What makes a story newsworthy enough to get picked up by the media? Here are a few rules of thumb to determine if you have a news angle worthy of press coverage. Tough Times, Tough Tactics When times are tough, it's no time to ignore those external audiences whose behaviors matter so much to your organization. Meet The Media Although media relations is not all there is to PR, it is a darned good, low cost way to spread the word. So here are a few media contacts to help you out. PR? Why? Well, for starters, because good public relations can alterindividual perception and lead to changed behaviors amongyour key outside audiences. And that can help business, non-profit and association managers like you achieve yourmanagerial objectives. Want to Light a Fire Under Your PR? Yes? Then do something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of yours that MOST affect your operation. Cross Cultural Communication & PR The Public Relations (PR) industry is responsible for creating and maintaining relationships between clients and customers. Through areas such as brand management, advertising, media relations and crisis management, PR practitioners seek to foster interest, trust and belief in a product or company. Dont Do This to Your News Release! Hundreds of thousands of News Releases are sent out all the timeand many people will show you different ways to write a news release in a way that will result in publicity for you or for your company.However, many people over look the 17 Deadly Sins that you should never do or have in a news release. These can cause your news release to end up in the shredder! Do I Really Need a Publicist? Are you hesitating about hiring a publicist or, if you haveone, do you stop before writing that final zero on the monthlycheck, and think "I can do that myself." Suuure, you can! Media Relations: Should You Pay For News Coverage? Dear New York Times:
|
| © Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |
