Publicity Now!
Planning a publicity calendar seems like a lot of trouble to most clients and they ask questions like, “What’s the use of planning one more press release?” or, “Why do I need to promote this month when the paper didn’t print anything last time?” I frequently hear complaints related to public relations because we’ve come to believe in instant gratification in all things.
Free publicity? Send a press release. If you release it, press will print it, right? And, free press means more customers, larger sales, and so on. This is only one of the myths of public relations. But I digress.
Realistically, even if your news is timely it may take a back seat to the happenings of the day. Sometimes a good feature story gets buried and you assume it will never see the light of day. The one constant I can promise: if you do nothing, nothing will happen.
Case in point: Betty’s Bath and Day Spa and the story of their interns. Elissa Breitbard, owner, supports the local Valley High School, two blocks from her business by offering student internships. In May 2007 she pitched a story about high school interns to Yes!, a teen section of the Albuquerque Journal.
Since school was near term completion the editor suggested calling back in the Fall. By then, other stories seemed to carry more importance. Elissa assumed that nothing would happen and was surprised to hear a story would run in February.
Moral: Publicity now may not necessarily mean today. Publicity, like farming, is a matter of planting seeds. That’s why an ongoing campaign works; good stories show up. Some times they are simply later. In the case of Betty’s Bath and Day Spa, the story and a favorable picture ran nearly 10 months after the idea was presented. It didn’t diminish the story’s importance or impact at all.
So, how’s your marketing? What seeds did you plant today?
Free publicity? Send a press release. If you release it, press will print it, right? And, free press means more customers, larger sales, and so on. This is only one of the myths of public relations. But I digress.
Realistically, even if your news is timely it may take a back seat to the happenings of the day. Sometimes a good feature story gets buried and you assume it will never see the light of day. The one constant I can promise: if you do nothing, nothing will happen.
Case in point: Betty’s Bath and Day Spa and the story of their interns. Elissa Breitbard, owner, supports the local Valley High School, two blocks from her business by offering student internships. In May 2007 she pitched a story about high school interns to Yes!, a teen section of the Albuquerque Journal.
Since school was near term completion the editor suggested calling back in the Fall. By then, other stories seemed to carry more importance. Elissa assumed that nothing would happen and was surprised to hear a story would run in February.
Moral: Publicity now may not necessarily mean today. Publicity, like farming, is a matter of planting seeds. That’s why an ongoing campaign works; good stories show up. Some times they are simply later. In the case of Betty’s Bath and Day Spa, the story and a favorable picture ran nearly 10 months after the idea was presented. It didn’t diminish the story’s importance or impact at all.
So, how’s your marketing? What seeds did you plant today?
Labels: critical audience media, public relations
posted by the profitmeister at
9:36 PM
1 Comments:
The biggest myths (perpetuated by those cookie cutter marketing "experts" against which I - ur - rant) is that:
1. Publicity is free.
2. PR is easy peasy. Here's the magic template for the press release - send to these thousands of people - and presto! You're famous.
As I tell clients - we shouldn't think of it as "Public" relations but "Personal" Relations. For example, I know a low-key PR sole proprietor that can pretty much get anything in NY Times - but he's not a big firm, he doesn't scream his credentials from the rooftops, he doesn't promise easy - he has, however, known the reporter at NYT for over 20 years - as well as many people at other top publications.
Oh - and you should have something newsworthy to talk about! ;-)
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