Turbo-charge Your Business with Publicity

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By Joe Cooke

RISMEDIA, March 29, 2007-When you read the paper or listen to the news, do you focus on the advertisements or the stories? Most people focus on the stories. That is why an article on you or your business is more effective than an ad.

What you may not know is that many news stories are provided by the company or the person that is the subject of the story. That is because good publicity hounds know three secrets:

(1) Reporters are extremely busy and are looking for good leads, experts to interview and fresh ideas.
(2) An article, radio interview or even just a short quote by you can be worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars in advertising.
(3) Publicity generates more publicity. A news article will prompt a radio interview. A radio interview could lead to a guest appearance on a TV show.

How To Get Publicity

You won't make the news for watching "Lost" on Wednesday night. Look around your community and find a need. Maybe your town is suffering from growing pains. Do some research: become an expert on urban growth, affordable housing or the environment. Find something you are passionate about and then dive into it. Testify at county or city hearings, contact your local radio talk show and offer to share information on a hot topic. Find a niche that you love and then go for it.

The second rule for publicity is to learn how to write a press release. Learn about the hook and the slant and create a distribution list. Send good releases-don't pummel your media contacts with fluff. And always send a picture. Get a professional promo shot. Readers will skip sections of text, but a picture catches their attention. Besides press releases, use your promo shot on your Web site, your business card, brochures and mailings. You are branding yourself.

The third rule is to learn to present your ideas and your position clearly and eloquently. Join your local Toastmasters club. It will make you a better public speaker and a better one-on-one communicator. Find some good media training and learn how to speak on radio and TV. I never expected to be on a major regional TV show, but it happened. If you are doing it right, your publicity will generate more demand for you.

There is one thing that is even more important than the writing of the press release: what to do with it after it is written.

Developing Relationships

Even if you have a good slant, a newsworthy story and a well-written press release, without some kind of personal connection it will likely "end up on the cutting room floor."

According to national publicity expert Joan Stewart, also known as the Publicity Hound, the number one thing a real estate agent can do to help launch an ongoing publicity campaign is to develop personal relationships with the reporters who cover real estate issues.

"Reporters are looking for sources," says Stewart. "Get to know the reporters who cover real estate and then send them leads."

You can invite your local reporters to lunch or coffee, but be sensitive to the fact that some publications prohibit their staff from accepting gifts. There's an easy way to handle this though. Simply say to your reporter-friend, "I'd be happy to pick up the tab today, but I'm not sure what your company policy is. How would you like to handle the check?"

You may think that these reporters already have a line-up of real estate agents doting on them. Don't make that assumption. Unless you have a publicity hound in your area, your local real estate reporter may be hungry for a good real estate expert.

Why? Because, according to Stewart, the second mistake that real estate agents make is that they go underground when the market is cool or the news is bad. The way to build a strong relationship with the media is to offer tips, interviews or expertise, even when times are tough.

Getting Published

I had a very simple method that got all of my releases published and even resulted in interviews, stories and feature articles, all of which added to my credibility in the community as a real estate expert.

About once every other month, as part of my follow-up campaign, my wife would bake cookies. We packaged them up a dozen to a bag and put a business card and a nice note on them and then I took them around to my very best clients. In addition, I gave cookies to each reporter in the newsroom-from business to community to arts and entertainment. I also gave them to the advertising manager and his key people, and of course to the publisher. I also delivered cookies to the local radio hosts and other "gatekeepers" for the media. In addition to making great inroads into the media world, most of these contacts became my customers!

Well-written press releases with a timely slant, a willingness to be quoted as an expert and a regular stream of follow-up all allowed me to build a local publicity campaign that had the other agents in town jealous and drooling.

The Value of Your Image

One day, just a few months after I hung my license, someone I barely knew came up to me on the street and said, "Wow, you must be doing well. I see your signs all over town."

I puzzled over this comment for a while. I had several listings at the time, but not "signs all over town," and the only advertising I was doing was a bench on the 10th hole of the local golf course.

However, in addition to a monthly column in the local paper, I was pushing out at least one press release a week, and since I knew what the press room was looking for, most of them got published. Week after week, month after month, my picture was in the paper. I submitted regular tip-sheets on topics such as why and how to install egress windows, how to stage your house and even one on how to choose an agent.

Offering objective real estate advice in the local paper communicated my expertise to people far better than any advertising. The best part of all this publicity? It cost me nothing but a little time. My business boomed as a result.

The Publicity Snowball

Publicity always generates more publicity.

For instance, my work in the community, my networking with reporters and my ability to write and speak in public landed me a feature article in a major magazine. A photographer followed me around for a day. A freelance writer interviewed me (that was a switch!) I leveraged the feature article into another article in our local paper. The local article got me on the radio. I hired someone to transcribe the radio interview and turned that into an on-line article that appeared on several popular Web sites.

Take your public image up a notch by developing a strong relationship with key reporters in your town. Remember to be a friend in good times and bad, be a source of good leads and always ask the question, "How can I help you?"

Joe Cooke is an author, speaker and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in marketing, management and real estate. You can contact him via his Web site - www.joecooke.info.

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