If you are an honest, hard-working business professional who has more than a modicum of interest in helping others get through this whacked-out world we live in, then I say it is your obligation to let us know you exist and are here to help us.
The secret is, (and keep this to yourself, as it seems very few people know this) you have to do something.
- Piggyback your story off a well-publicized current event.
- Call local media personnel and ask them, “How can I help you?”
- Always keep the audience in mind.
- Build your media mailing list TODAY.
- Do not make this thing harder than it has to be.
- Know that publicity is not advertising.
- Find more fun ways to grow your business.
Every business professional knows the value of visibility, consistency, and being positioned as the go-to resource. I would be preaching to the choir if I began waxing eloquent on any one of these most important business truths.
But then again, if these truths are so self-evident, why do so many business professionals fail to get the message? Why does it take an uncanny number of whacks on the head for so many smart people to finally “get it.”
The simple fact is that, during a great portion of our adult lives, we all assume the role of “AIS.” This is a softer, easier-to-accept term for the highly educated physician’s name for the ever popular and quickly spreading Adult Idiots Syndrome.
I want you to understand the following: PUBLICITY is free, and it is a good thing for your business. Go get some.
But publicity is not about you or your business. It is all about the reader, listener, viewer, or recipient of your release. If you finally find the time to do your business some good at the expense of pushing a pile of papers from point “A” to position “B,” then I want you to tell the recipient something (anything) they might want to hear.
Like how your company has recently announced the time-saving, vacation-saving, marriage-saving Special Report titled How To Pack For a 2 Week Vacation Without Breaking Your Back or The Bank. (There is not a married man over 30 who will not pay a weeks salary to read these nuggets of interest you jammed into this little jewel.)
When you introduce new and exciting information, your targeted audience can both identify with and find interest in, you are onto bigger and better things in the business world. You are now becoming the go-to resource.
The media experts will be glad to include you in their programs because you are helping them. And, according to me, that is exactly how the process is supposed to work.
Think of a whole bunch of stuff your audience wants (needs) to know. Remember that “wants to know” is more powerful than “needs to know.” And while you are thinking, I want you to begin building your personal media database. This is nothing more than a list of local media contacts along with their address, phone number, email and, if you are really getting into this thing, their golfing handicap.
Then begin writing from the heart. Shoot from the hip. Use little words. (But always, always, always be ready to dodge a handful of darts from some professorial guru-types who do not take misused hanging participles or gerunds requiring possessives very lightly.)
Mike Marchev is always looking for a few more proactive travel professionals to join his Sales and Marketing Club. Send for details.
