Chapter Four
Free Marketing and Maximum Profits
(How to Leverage Your PR and Publicity)
Leveraging your PR and Publicity is a phenomenal way to not spend a lot of money or time to get great coverage and marketing.
One year I tallied this up and I got over $4,000,000 in marketing, publicity and exposure from the national evening news to radio shows and print and publishing.
If you look at what it costs for a full page of advertising in any magazine, whether it’s an industry standard ad or a general press ad, it’s at least $4,000 or $5,000. If you can get your pretty little face in the ad in pictures, captions, articles, whatever it is, that’s the value that other people are paying for.
The fun thing is that it’s more valuable being in an article or being quoted in an article than it is actually paying for advertising that doesn’t work as well. So let’s get focused on that.
Wouldn’t it be terrific if you could find a regular place where you can contribute on a regular basis? People are waiting to hear from you plus they become part of your email list as well.
Erma Bombeck said, “Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one, Helen Keller is the other.”
Madonna is a rock and roll lady who changes her style from year to year and does outrageous things from time to time although she’s settled down as a mother and now she’s a children’s author. Don’t confuse fame with success.
The interesting part of this quote I think is: you can get tons of publicity and not get anything out of it. And that’s fame. Success, and obviously on the other side here, is Helen Keller, famous for helping the blind and developing systems for communication.
From a marketing point of view, how many people are actually calling you? Do you have a call to action in your publicity?
What is the thing that you can offer during a public relations event that’s going to make you money, that’s going to drive people to your Web site, that’s going to add them to your list building exercises? Don’t confuse fame with success.
People also confuse activity with productivity. You can phone one hundred people a day on a consistent basis but unless you’re actually getting them on your list or selling them something, you’re not being productive and you’re not creating profit.
Isn’t it inspiring to know that there are things that you can do? And that’s what we’re going to cover-how to use publicity to drive your business so you can sell more books, get more customers, or offer more information products online. Whatever it is you do, you can use publicity.
“All publicity is good except an obituary notice.” - Brendan Behan. I think this quote is interesting because there is a debate whether all publicity is good. If I’m being marched out of the federal FBI building in handcuffs because I was involved in Enron, I don’t know that that publicity is good and certainly the end result for many of those people wasn’t either. So it’s certainly debatable.
If you are in control of your publicity, do you have a strategy? If you know what your objectives are, then publicity is good because you are to a certain extent, in charge of the result that you get. You aren’t always going to be in control.
This morning I was downtown in the financial district. The people doing the national news called me to come and talk to them about banks using iPods, and other little gifts, to get people to change accounts or open personal checking accounts and so on.
This was probably going to be 30 seconds to one minute online but the caption on television along with the logo for the national news desk was www.CustomerCatcher.com.
Customer Catcher Tip: Make sure that you give your Web site address as your business name. Legally my business name is www.CustomerCatcher.com.
If you’re in the news and your company name is Wilson and Associates but your Web site is www.GreatAccounting.com, people aren’t necessarily going to find you. They are not going to take the time to go to the Web, do a search, find your Web site and then click on it. Too busy. Make it simple for them. NOT work.
It’s hard enough that you’ve got to inspire them to type in your Web address even though they’re seeing it on television. It’s certainly easier to have online publicity if people just need to click on your domain name. It can be a hot link or your Web site. It doesn’t matter.
Let’s define the difference between publicity and public relations.
We need to agree that if you can understand the subtle distinctions then you’re going to get more leverage. Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of the subject.
What I look at as publicity in a layperson’s sense, I call it “face time.” It’s getting someone else to put your face in a magazine. It’s getting someone else to say good things about you on the radio. It’s getting somebody to interview you, which is positioning you as the expert in your industry. That’s what the power of publicity is.
You get credibility from that. You get positioning and bio building which means building your biography. If you’re an author, wouldn’t you be delighted to have “You may have seen (your name) on NBC, ABC or Larry King” on the back of your book?
When you can include mass media, it adds value to your product or service regardless of what’s between the covers of the book, inside the info product or part of the training program.
I host radio from time to time. I’m now the executive producer of PayPal Radio. I’ve hosted radio for Microsoft. I’ve done things for Hewlett Packard. I’ve come from the technology industry as you might guess.
Having those brand names behind you gives your prospects confidence to become your customer. How’s publicity different than public relations? Publicity, to me, is getting that face time, getting that picture placed or whatever it is that puts you out in front of the public.
The official definition of public relations is the managing of outside communication of an organization or business to create and maintain a positive image. Public relations is anything you do in public or with the public to further your objectives and goals.
I can create an event. I can do a car wash that supports the local Cub Scouts. I can do a live seminar and invite guest speakers. I do that for free for people who are currently unemployed. These are events that I create so that the news has a reason to come and cover me.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they’ll send out a press release or they’ll call the media. What they’re calling about is not news worthy. This is an important point. You need to be news worthy.
Having a new version of a software release is not news worthy. Moving office space is not news worthy. Moving someone from manager to vice president is not really news worthy, although you see companies doing these things. They spend $6,000 to announce that Susan is the new vice president of Human Resources.
They do that to possibly impress the investors. Maybe it has to do with the ego building of the career path of the person. As a guerrilla marketer, I look for low cost, no cost solutions. I’m not spending $6,000 to tell somebody that I hired somebody. Why would you want to do that?
You can create events online. Internet marketing people talk about online launches. Offline it may be a new business or a ribbon cutting. A ribbon cutting is news worthy because if you can get the mayor there, people are following him around.
They’re conditioned to find out. "Hey, what’s the mayor up to today? What’s the president doing? What’s the governor doing? If you can get somebody who’s already news worthy that makes what you’re doing become news worthy. Think about that.
Who can you partner with? What events can you create? A teleseminar is an event. A free teleseminar is certainly an event. Giving away a free CD to help small businesses grow is an event.
Providing a free coaching session or sending free copies of your book to a non-profit organization is news worthy.
By the way, publicity wise, the higher up the chain you go from community to regional to state to national to global coverage, the more news worthy you have to be. The more interesting and intriguing you need to be.
It is much harder to get into national news than it is to get into local and regional news. Local and regional are looking for what’s going on in the community. How often do you see the local sports team from an elementary school on the front page of your local paper? That’s because they don’t have anything else.
They’re looking for opportunities. They’re looking for fundraisers. They’re looking for exciting news. Local entrepreneur makes good, goes big, and comes home, whatever those things are. You need to come up with those news worthy things.
You also need to maintain a positive image. Another mistake people make in publicity is not continually putting their name out there. You need to continually find reasons and the means to be in the public eye.
Public relations are anything you do in the public eye. Don’t just think about getting into radio, television and newspapers. What do you do at seminars? When you stand up at the mic to introduce yourself, what do you say? We’re going to talk about that. Those things are called alternative public relation channels..
When you have the opportunity to be on a teleseminar, prior to it starting, very often people say, “Please introduce yourself.” You need to have a nice five to ten second little thing that you can say. “Hi, it’s Martin from www.CustomerCatcher.com where we help you get customers until you beg us to stop.” Done.
“It’s Martin from www.CustomerCatcher.com.” It’s not Martin from Toronto. You need to say your domain name in all your publicity. If somebody’s interviewing me and they say, “What do you think is important in growing a small business?”
I say, “Well most of our clients at www.CustomerCatcher.com really,” blah, blah, blah. I introduced the web site name into my offline publicity by being recorded at a live event. I’m speaking on a stage so that’s public relations. Any thing you do in the public eye is public relations.
I want you to have a clear understanding about public relations. It is something you can do all the time, from the way you answer the phone to the your phone messages play. Those are all public relations opportunities.
Why is publicity something you need? Well, can you see the benefit of having someone else pay to print paper? Pay to have radio shows on? Pay to have television million dollar studios filming you?
Wouldn’t you be glad if it were you they were calling instead of someone else? They may put up your name that says Internet marketing specialist or newly published author, whatever it is that you want to have in that caption. Do you know who decides what goes there 90% of the time? You. They ask you, "What would you like on the caption?"
A reporter asked me if I was a marketing consultant. I said, “No, no don’t call me a marketing consultant on the news.” Be a marketing expert or marketing specialist. People like to go to specialists. If you have something wrong with your heart, do you want to go to a general practitioner, a GP or an MD, or do you want to see the heart specialist?
Let them know that you are a specialist or an expert, and also find a way to get your Web site mentioned.
Why publicity? It gets you cash. Opportunities, sales, people call in and say, “I heard you on that radio show. I’d like to buy your book.”
Sponsors may identify you. When Microsoft sponsored my past radio show they called me because they found an audio archive online. Keep your publicity out there. Some of it has a long shelf life. The Internet has the longest shelf life.
Some trade magazines have a good shelf life depending on how much reference material they have in them. But really, what also happens is when you get in the newspaper you tend to get on television. Television producers, segment spot producers and so on, pick up the paper every morning and say, “What’s hot? What are people talking about?”
They actually pull a lot of their leads, stories and ideas from the newspaper. So it gets you cash first of all. Why else do you want publicity? Wouldn’t it make a difference if you could save your time and your money? That’s right. Publicity saves you spending that $500 on the local newspaper ad, that $5,000 in a full-page four-color ad in a magazine.
You don’t need to do that. Publicity saves you money. Next, it gives you instant credibility and I mean instant. If you want instant concrete credibility, then publicity can do it for you.
I’m a co-author of a book. It’s an anthology called Walking with the Wise Entrepreneur. I got to be listed among recognized names such as Suze Orman, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. Writing a chapter in a book, by the way, is good public relations. Offline publicity sources drive the traffic online.
If you write on a regular basis for an industry magazine, you become a columnist. It can be either an online or offline magazine. That’s instant credibility.
Third-party referrals are also very powerful. You realize the importance of having someone else say how wonderful you are. You realize the importance of having someone else say, “You really should buy this product. You really should take a look at this service. I can’t believe how interesting this book was. You really need to take a good read.”
If you can be in a national newspaper on the front of the business section or in the life section, if you’re a life coach, you can drive traffic online.
Customer Catcher Tip: Make sure you have a “Call To Action” in all your publicity and that you’re giving something away free.
Use a 1-800 number. Use a Web site. Give away a free report. Give a trial or sell a trial at a minimal amount to get the people in the door. Build your list online by using more offline publicity.
Your Product Funnel
The funnel theory of marketing is a very useful tool. It’s a way of getting customers and keep them continually buying from you. That’s where your product funnel comes in.
You want to get as many people as possible who are good prospects to get close to the top of your funnel. This is where you might give away a free special report or an excerpt or chapter of your book.
If you’re speaking, you can give out a photocopy or postcard that’s got a checklist of things that drive people to want to buy your product or service.
Publicity and PR are gathering points for new prospects and customers.
If you can imagine that you’re the building in the middle of a traffic circle and all the roads lead to you. You want to use all possible sources to drive traffic to you.
You can use online and offline publicity, Internet radio, traditional broadcast radio, newspapers, online and offline magazines and blogs. You want all sorts of tentacles out there offering free stuff, driving them to the one site that has the highest productivity.
That will get them into your funnel. Now once I give them their free report I can make them the offer for the $49 e-book and then the $179 home study course, then the $497 extended version, and then the $2,000 coaching and training program. You get the picture.
Remember that publicity and PR are gathering points for new prospects and customers. So give them as much as you can. Make it about the audience.
Most of the time the host or reporter who’s interviewing you is going to be okay with that. Sometimes you run into reporters who are on a power trip and they won’t let you do any promotions or mention you Web site name.
If given the choice, I won’t do those because what’s the point of me doing that unless it’s highly credible? If you were going to be on Nightline or 20/20 or 60 Minutes, I would go for that because the credibility is more important than the leads.
Build Your Credibility
That raises a great point. Sometimes you interview, etc. just for the credibility. Driving downtown in rush hour traffic to do a five or ten minute interview and then a couple of B roll shots is worth your time if it’s going to build your credibility. A “B roll” is when they show the person opening the door and walking to their office or sitting at their computer typing on the phone, some sort of activity outside the interview while they continue to report.
Sometimes taking that much effort to get customers is worth it. What you’ll find when you’re getting publicity is you can start developing relationships, especially with local and regional media.
If you give some great tips and help them one time, they’ll call you again the next time. They’ll say, “Oh yeah, I remember that guy. We used him to talk about credit cards.”
I try to get on each network. I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada we have the Global Television News Network. We also have CTV and we have CBC. I’ve been on all of those.
Then if you’re speaking to someone, you can just sort of drop in that information. “Well you know, having appeared on all of the national networks in helping them with their marketing, they always ask me these questions...”
It’s just this little credibility nick that you can drop in a meeting with a prospect for a consulting client. It’s something you can include in the back lip of your book when you list all the media that’s been covered in the topic in your book.
All of these things add up. People don’t necessarily notice but they almost expect to see that you were on 20/20. A lot of people who are authors try to get on Oprah.
You might be on the Wall Street Journal’s best seller list a lot easier than you can be on the New York Times’ best seller list. Those are public relation opportunities. It’s not just marketing; it’s public relations by appearing in those things.
Publicity equals influence. When people see that you’re on ABC News, they assume that you’ve been vetted. They assume that the ABC people have put you through a filter so they’re not having some yahoo on their network. They’re a national network news team so that helps build your credibility.
When you’re a person of influence, prospects value your expertise more. What that means is you can charge more. Once you’re a nationally published author and you have the distinction of being a best selling author, when you put down that business card telling about your book, then you have an expertise.
You have perceived value and you can raise your prices without as much of a blink from some people.
Publicity equals influence and it makes you more interesting. Sounds simple but how often do you find yourself bored with other people’s marketing? How often do you find yourself bored reading someone’s Web site?
If it’s not interesting, it’s boring and they click away. If it’s not interesting on television, what do they do? Same thing, they click away. They flip to the next ad in a magazine. They’re not looking at it if it’s not interesting.
Third-party credibility is an extremely powerful marketing too. It’s someone else promoting you. It’s someone else picking you out from thousands of possible other candidates to go in a newspaper or in the magazine or on a radio, way more exciting.
Publicity creates marketing materials and content. This is where a lot of people miss the boat. They don’t think they need publicity because they get lots of traffic doing pay-per-click or whatever else.
Most of the time, you can use video that the TV people shoot. There may be legal issues so consult your own attorney first. That’s my disclaimer.
I use the marketing materials to create content for promotional videos. If you go to www.CustomerCatcherTV.com, you’ll see an example. That’s a list building page, a landing page where I’ve taken television content that somebody else filmed for $1,000 a minute with a quarter-million dollar camera and taken those one minute tips and turned them into www.CustomerCatcherTV.com.
How can you create twenty-six little one minute tips that you can send out every two weeks from your Web site? Create your own public relations material using publicity that you’ve received.
If you could get a television station to invite you to be a tipster and come in on a weekly basis to provide a tip on parenting, personal finances, weight loss or health or whatever is your expertise, then you can use that content most of the time.
I actually provided tips and I wasn’t paid cash, but I had rights to use the material. I’ve been using that material for at least two or three years now. You can do the same thing.
A very important point - publicity helps you create marketing materials and content. If you weave that credibility into your actual product or your marketing, it’s going to help you succeed.
Which is better, being in the media or using the media? Actually, it’s okay to do both.
You can certainly get in print, radio and television. But by looking at publicity you can learn where to get more business, where to offer your book, and where you can get more new customers.
Let’s look at traditional publicity - print, radio and television. Print is great. If you can get in an industry magazine it’s usually a lot easier. That’s what I call infinite voids.
You need to take the opportunity to fill those voids. There’s over 30,000 or 40,000 industry trade publications and whatever your niche is, you can get into your main one but then also look for complimentary ones as well.
For example, I come from the technology industry. There are customer interactions, telemarketing magazines, computer telephony magazines. These are all industry specific magazines.
That’s a great opportunity for you if you’re a productivity coach and you’ve written a book on stress management or time management to actually have pictures of people like you or your clients and work them into the magazine.
Most of these publications know that they’re not as interesting as they could be; they know that they need fresh content and they’re quite happy to accept your material or articles.
Newspapers are great for a couple of reasons. They don’t have a very long shelf life but here’s a tip. If you get in a newspaper, get several copies of the newspaper the day it comes out.
Second, if there’s a picture of you being interviewed, laminate it for longevity.
Next, go and see someone. To use that piece of publicity to get a marketing consulting project or long-term project, I’ll bring in a portfolio. If you want to leave a copy of it, don’t leave them the newspaper. Leave a photocopy of it.
When I use a newsletter article in my marketing campaign, I hand the prospective client the newspaper. I hand them the newspaper because the feeling of holding the paper, smelling the paper, sensing the newspaper that I’ve been opening every day reading for information has credibility just by the activity itself.
“Check this out. We were covered in the New York Times.”
They look at the paper and go, “That’s interesting I’d like to read that.”
“Great."
"I’ll leave you a copy of that or I’ll get you a copy of that.” Then I take back the original article.
With new online stuff, you can link back to articles if they also publish them online. We’ll talk a little more about that later.
Traditional broadcast radio is good for credibility building in your bio. You want to have in your bio all these tick marks. Being on radio, television, print, if you’re kind of everywhere in your bio that gets you more credibility.
Traditional broadcast radio can have a limited audience reach. It may only be local or regional. It’s at a specific time on a specific date. If people who aren’t listening aren’t listening, then they aren’t listening. Hope that makes sense to you.
It’s a moment in time and you can get good things out of it. If your book has general mass appeal - if it’s about saving on your mortgage, if it’s about relationships and getting along better, if it’s about writing love letters and it’s Valentine’s Day, then you could get on nationally syndicated shows or morning drive time shows. You can see some results from that.
However, long-term, people over estimate the ability of one publicity moment, especially local or regional radio, to have one hundred people calling in to buy your books. It depends on the credibility of the host. It depends on the time of day. It depends on people’s willingness to write down the number and go back to your Web site. There are a lot of things you’re not in control of.
However, that said if you can get it, get it. Internet radio is another great opportunity. That’s more interesting and something I specialize in. If you want to know about that and haven’t seen it, go to www.RadioTalkShowHost.com to see more about it... Internet radio is not time specific.
People can listen to a segment or a topic any time they want. It’s about the listener finding you, searching for you online. If you can get on Internet radio, that’s great. I get people on PayPal radio.
Ryan Lee was a speaker at a Stompernet event in Atlanta several weeks ago. After he spoke I approached him and said, “Hi I’m Martin Wales. I’m the executive producer of PayPal radio. I’d be interested in having you on as a guest.”
Ryan was quite willing to do that of course. It’s a recognized brand name. And the most important thing that I said to Ryan was, “You know what? People often ask me how many people listen to Internet radio.
In my opinion, as a publicity specialist I say, “It doesn’t really matter. On your show, sales letter, offer page or wherever you’re positioning your product, you can put a logo that says ‘As featured on PayPal radio’.”
The people who didn’t even hear the interview will take some confidence in recognizing a brand that’s trusted that takes peoples money and credit card information.
It comes back to credibility. Internet radio allows people to click and buy right away. If you’re driving in your car and you hear Stephen King talking about his book you go, “Oh I’ve got to get that. Make note to self to stop at bookstore and get Stephen King’s new book.”
Do I do it? Maybe. However, the marketing hill is a lot harder to climb, isn’t it? What if it was Internet radio? I’m at my computer. I’m checking my e-mail. I hear the radio show say, “You know Stephen King’s on. Here’s his new book. If you’d like a first chapter, click here.”
Then it’s almost instantaneous. So Internet radio allows an impulse action or purchase. Television can be another great resource. Wouldn’t it be helpful to your success if you could be on recognized brand name shows? Absolutely. How do you do that? You can either work with a publicity person, a publicist or an agent. That tends to be expensive. $5,000 to $10,000.
If you’re a published author obviously you can use your book as a credibility piece. When I’m hosting radio or television spots, authors will often send me their books to introduce themselves. I think that’s a great idea.
The important thing about sending a book to get recognition is to have a great title. More importantly though is the note that comes with it. You need to start telling your audience what’s good about your book.
You need to know who the audience is on the show that you’re contacting. You need to know the demographics of the show. Go to the show’s Web site, opt-in on their own press or media kit.
Customer Catcher Tip: If you want to get into a magazine, look up that magazine’s press or media kit. Look at their “Rate Card.” Their rate card is the amount they charge for their advertising, whether classified or display, along with other specialty items like inserts.
The media kit will reveal the socio demographics of the magazine readers. That’s very important. If you’re actually looking for investors, you’re writing articles for the magazine that reaches 100,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs.
You can find out lots of information about where your PR and publicity can go by checking out the web sites and mastheads of the magazines. If you’re looking for contacts, look at the masthead. The masthead is the name of that list, the publisher and the editor. It may also tell you where their offices are located.
The media kit often tells you where to send press releases or tells you about the segment editors. Let’s say Good Housekeeping has a floral editor. They also might have an interior decorator editor and a diet editor. You need to send the information through the right channels to the right people for them to have interest.
One time I was featured in a national m