Vanishing PR Clients

The Publicity Hound’s
Tips of the Week
Issue #436 Feb. 3, 2009

Publisher: Joan Stewart

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“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
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In This Issue
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1. Vanishing PR Clients

2. Grade Your Facebook Profile

3. Get Out of the Pile

4. Beware of the Shock Jocks

5. Formula Five Sweetens the Deal

6. Help This Hound

7. Hound Joke of the Week

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1. Vanishing PR Clients
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On the message boards, PR pros and publicists are lamenting the fact that the lousy economy has forced companies to slash their budgets for PR like never before.

In some cases, their client base has dried up completely. Projects they were counting on this year have been canceled. And they have no fresh leads coming into the funnel.

If you want to avoid that happening to you, here are four tips on how to pull in PR prospects and convert them to clients:

–Hit the public speaking circuit and talk about how companies can use traditional and social media to promote when lots of other companies, paralyzed with fear, are doing nothing to market themselves. Explain the value of the publicity and what happened as a result of that front-page story you got for your client in the local business journal, or that two-minute interview with the local TV station.

–If you’re looking for local clients, and you’re a member of the Chamber of Commerce, start shooting video of chamber events all over town, and offer it to the chamber for use on their website. The chamber will let its members know, and turn you into a star. Also submit the video to local newspapers and TV stations, for their websites. Guess who the chamber will recommend when a company calls asking for a referral to a good PR person?

–Create a presence on the social networking sites. Use the question-and-answer feature on LinkedIn to promote your expertise and answer questions about PR. Create a group of fans on Facebook and share PR tips with them regularly. On Twitter, refer your followers to interesting articles and tips about PR and publicity.

–Form alliances with local delivery services and ask them to drop off your brochure with each package they deliver. If you must, bribe the driver with a $20 bill. You never know who might be looking for a PR person.

That last tip is courtesy of Illinois publicist Robert Smith, who built his PR business from scratch in 1998, in part, by forming alliances with a local shipping company and actually paying the drivers to drop off his brochures. He has resorted to lots of other off-the-wall tactics, like buying and selling leads, to acquire clients.

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2. Get Out of the Pile
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It’s the Number One Secret of Publicity Hounds who want big-time publicity.

And it starts with getting out of the pile.

“The pile” refers to the mountain of boring press releases, bulging media kits, books with chintzy covers that scream “self published!”, product samples in hard-to-open packages, folders, catalogs, brochures, videos and other unsolicited junk that people send to newspaper editors and TV show guest bookers.

Journalists HATE digging into the pile each day because so much of what’s there is awful.

So how do you get out of the pile?

One of the very best ways is to meet journalists face to face at an event they’re attending with one purpose in mind–to find interesting people to write about in their newspapers and magazines or feature on their radio and TV programs. A face-to-face meeting lets them hear the enthusiasm in your voice and see the sparkle in your eye as you’re delivering your 15-second pitch.

Steve Harrison’s National Publicity Summit has been introducing journalists at top-tier media to Publicity Hounds who have interesting stories to tell. As a result:

–Ron & Lisa Beres were booked on the “Today” show.

–Steve Shapiro was the subject of a big story in “O the Oprah Magazine” after meeting the writer at the summit.

–Lauri Loewenberg appeared on ABC’s “The View” and “Good Morning America.”

–Jim Vonmier got on the “CBS Evening News” and “The Early Show” as a result of the training and contacts he got at the summit.

–Kelly McCloskey used what she learned to get booked on “Oprah.”

–Barry Spilchuk was interviewed on Fox News Channel within just five hours of meeting the producer at the summit.

–Sandy Clemmons was written-up in Health Magazine, Money Magazine and TV Guide–all from meeting journalists face-to-face at the summit.

Only 100 attendees will be admitted and the early-bird registration deal goes away after Wednesday, February 11.

If you’re not interested in attending, watch Steve’s video anyway and learn about two other great ways to meet journalists face to face.

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3. Beware of the Shock Jocks
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Before pitching a radio show, research the show and know what you’re getting into.

Publicity Hound Kristie Tamsevicius, a work-at-home expert, is downright proud of the mountains of favorable publicity she generates each year in the week leading up to “Doing Business in Your Bathrobe Day” on Feb. 9.

Until yesterday.

A guest booker for WKLS-FM in Atlanta called Kristie and invited her to be a guest on the morning drive-time show to talk about her special holiday.

“When I called in and heard heavy metal music, I wondered what I was in for,” she said.

She soon found out when “Giant Brian,” the host, welcomed her and asked the standard questions. Then he took a call from “Bruce” who threw Kristie a curve and started talking about some yucky topics she would rather have not discussed. Kristie details the whole ugly episode at her blog.

“I should have done more homework about the station before the interview,” she writes. “I asked about the audience and demographics…should have insisted on getting info about the host and their website to research.”

Lesson learned.

If this ever happens to you, and you need information quickly on
a particular radio show or media outlet, ask your Twitter
followers. I’m astounded at how quickly my own followers answer
questions I throw out, or retweet the questions to their
followers. You can follow me on Twitter.

Kristie, by the way, encourages work-at-home Hounds to piggyback
onto “Do Business in Your Bathrobe Day.” Red Deer College in
Canada is using her holiday to promote its classes for
entrepreneurs. Two professors are even sponsoring a contest in
which work-at-homers can submit YouTube videos of themselves in
their bathrobes. Is that fun or what?

Despite Kristie’s bad experience, big radio shows can be a gold
mine for Publicity Hounds. Alex Carroll has done more than 1,264
radio interviews, grabbed more than $4.5 million worth of free
radio airtime and raked in $1.2 million in direct sales in the
process. He was my guest expert during a teleseminar called “Get
Booked on Big Radio Shows in the Top 20 Markets” and he revealed
the step-by-step process involved in identifying the biggest
shows, pitching them, and then being the kind of guest who hosts
invite back.

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5. Formula Five Sweetens the Deal
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If you’ve been on the fence about Stompernet’s Formula Five, the
business-building program I’ve been raving about, and price was a
factor, you’ll want to know about several new enticements that
really sweeten the deal and make it well within the budget of
almost any business.

People said they love the idea behind the program but can’t
commit to paying for it all up front.

Here’s how Stompernet responded:

–They’ve lowered the price.

–They’re offering a new payment plan that spreads payments over
12 months.

–They’re adding a sixth module on how to create products,
regardless of whether you’re a chiropractor, window cleaning
company, Internet marketer or a publicist.

Formula Five will be available for just a few more days, and then
the shopping cart closes down, so grab yours now. I’ve reviewed
the entire product and give it my highest recommendation.

P.S. If you’ve already purchased FormulaFive, Stompernet
is going to be rewarding you with some really sweet extras that
you’re going to love.

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6. Help This Hound
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Yikes! I accidentally wiped out my entire blog last week,
including the Help This Hound question from Michele Lessirard of
Vero Beach, Fla.

But my webmaster, Jason Saeler, backs up my blog weekly and had
the entire thing back online within minutes.

I’m using last week’s question again this week in case you wanted
to contribute an idea but couldn’t find the post–or the blog.

Michele writes:

“I have been blogging for more than seven years at New Moon
Journal and my blog.

“Now, there’s a high-profile Harry Potter-type author named
Stephanie Myer who’s written a series of vampire novels. One
best-seller is New Moon. Of course, I am competing now for search
engine optimization with her New Moon book and soon-to-be movie.
The New Moon Journal is an astrology blog dedicated to creativity
and personal growth using the lunar cycles for power, healing and
problem solving.

“How can I use this name recognition and ride on the coattails of
her book. Is it possible?”

The Publicity Hound says:

It sure is. The many authors, publishers and book publicity
experts who read this newsletter can post their best ideas to my
blog.

Here’s my idea. Go over to Amazon.com and review Stephanie’s
books, which will let you link back to your blogs. You can also
create “best of” lists dealing with your topic and all kinds of
other content to attract the attention of her readers.

Randy Gilbert and Don Mitchell are all over that website and pull
in tons of traffic to their own sites as a result. They were my
guests during a teleseminar on “How to Make Amazon a River of
Gold (for Authors, Speakers & Experts).”

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7. Hound Joke of the Week
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Who needs cats?

Dogs will look at you intensely and try to understand every word
you utter. Cats will ignore you and go to sleep.

When you come home from work, your dog will be pleased and lick
your hand. Cats will still be cross at you for going out to begin
with.

Dogs will give you unconditional love until the day they pass on.
Cats will make you pay for every mistake you’ve made since the
day they arrived at your home.