Rembrandt’s PR and Copywriting Blog for Startup Success

Good Monday Morning!

Before you contact the media or post a press release this week, ask yourself if a reporter will really care about what you have to say. If not, you need to conduct more research, develop a new story angle and edit your announcement accordingly.

Try to focus on a valuable benefit, current industry trend or unique idea. Once you rework your pitch, share it with an appropriate customer, co-worker, friend, or family member. You’ll be able to tell if your idea is boring or sparks interest.

Plus, it will give you some practice telling your story before approaching the press. Now, this process does take extra work, but it can definitely mean the difference between getting press attention and wasting time, money and effort.

And if you are having trouble developing newsworthy ideas to share with the press, here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Participate in an event.

Look for upcoming charity events in your local area. And if you can’t find anything appropriate, create your own. Work with non-profit organizations, targeted business partners, potential customers, etc. to give something back to the community. While helping others, you’ll create a newsworthy event that press members will want to cover.

Resources include: Chamber of Commerce, Network for Good Non-profit Events,  Give.org Charity List, Fundraising Answers

2. Create a report or list.

Thanks to David Letterman, people love “Top 10 Lists.” Write your own list or report. Be creative and develop an interesting, short document regarding a big industry trend, current news, survey results, or a solution to a problem. Provide valuable, reader-friendly information and expertise without asking for anything in return.

3. Submit an Op Ed.

Write to your local newspaper and provide your opinion about a published story or current news item. When written in a positive, controversial or helpful way, this media attention can build credibility and business awareness cost-effectively.

4. Share your expertise.

Develop a presentation that provides valuable information and simple tips. Then schedule, promote and give your speech to your target audience at a local community college, business group or other organization. While offering your expertise and meeting potential new customers, you’ll also garner some media attention.

5. Promote successes.

On a regular basis, talk to your clients, employees, co-workers, and partners to discover success stories. Ask customers how your products and services have helped them increase business growth, reduce costs, find new hires, save time, etc.

Obtain their approvals, and use these testimonials in your publicity and marketing efforts. You’ll have interesting case studies and pitches to share with the media and potential, new customers.

These are just a few, simple tips to help you start developing newsworthy stories. Thanks for reading. Until next time, feel free to send me your ideas, comments and suggestions (or sign-up for my free newsletter at www.rembrandtwrites.com). I’d love to hear from you!

If you just opened for business and want to spread the word, you don’t need a lot of money to hire a big PR agency. You can get some great publicity on your own. It is just going to take some extra time and effort.

Where do you start?

To begin, you will need to do some research and answer a few important questions. Here are some quick steps for starting your research process.

1. Know your target market.

What do your customers read online and in print, listen to on the radio and watch on television?

Figure out the most popular media venues for your target audience. Depending on your products and services, conduct online searches by typing in keywords such as: “medical service magazines,”  “realtor periodicals,” “online recipe businesses,” “gardening blogs,” “technology radio programs,” etc.

Some of the search sites I use include the following:

Google, www.google.com

Yahoo Search, http://search.yahoo.com/

Search.com,  www.search.com

Dogpile, www.dogpile.com

Rollyo, http://www.rollyo.com/index.html

(You probably know some other good research sites too. Please feel free to share them with everyone in our comments section.)

Start with some general searches online and then look for more specific sites pertinent to your target market.

2. Find the right reporters.

Once you discover the media venues that your target audience finds interesting, you’ll want to look for the reporters at each of these venues who cover your particular area of interest or “beat.”

Visit your local library or bookstore, look online, listen to the various radio programs, or watch the shows on television. Figure out who will be interested in talking about your business.

3. Learn the reporter’s style.

After you’ve narrowed down your choices and understand which media venues and reporters you want to target, familiarize yourself with their particular columns or segments. This way, you’ll learn more about each reporter’s tone and style and the topics he or she targets on a regular basis.

And as you review the information, think about ways you can fit into each of these media venues. What kind of interesting and unique trends, stories, case studies, information, and ideas can you offer each reporter or writer?

4. Create a contact list.

As you make notes about various reporters and how your business can fit into potential stories in the future, you’ll also want to start your own media-contact database.

Use a simple Word table or Excel spreadsheet and make columns that include: Media Name, Address, City, State, Zip, E-mail Address, Phone, Fax, Notes, and any other pertinent data you need.

Usually, media-contact information is available on the venue’s website or in the first few pages of the publication. Also note that you can always call the media venue directly and ask the receptionist for the information.

However, some office assistants may connect you directly with a reporter. Then what do you do?

If you are not ready to talk to that reporter yet, be sure to tell the receptionist that you just need the contact information. You do not want to make a bad, first impression!

If you are connected with the reporter, simply introduce yourself as a new business owner, and ask if he or she would like to receive the latest news and information about your company.

Hopefully, these simple tips will help you start your PR program. I also offer free information via my monthly newsletter, “Rembrandt Writes Insights.” Simply enter your e-mail address at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

Thanks for reading. And I’ll be in touch with more startup PR information soon. Until next time, feel free to send me your ideas, comments and suggestions. I’d love to hear from you!

Most small business owners immediately think of press releases when they think of publicity. However, I use press releases specifically as a relationship-building tool.

They are very helpful in reminding reporters, customers, new hires, and potential new partners that your business has current products, services and news.

But press releases alone do not guarantee big media placements.

If you have a tight budget and schedule, I suggest spending the majority of your publicity time talking to targeted reporters via phone or in person. This way, you can share your passion and introduce yourself to appropriate media members directly. And this is usually much more beneficial than writing a press release and simply distributing it to a blanketed list of media venues.

However, you can build business awareness and get your press release posted on the Internet at no cost. It will take some time and effort to register and post your release. But here is a list of 40 sites that offer (or did offer) free, press-release posting:

1.     1888 Press Release   

2.     ASPTheStreet

3.     BizEurope

4.     Click Press.com

5.     CubicleSpace.com

6.     Dime-co.com

7.     eBoom

8.     eCommwire.com

9.     Express Press Release

10.   EZ.Press

11.   FastPitch

12.   Free-News-Release

13.   Free-Press-Release.com

14.   Free-Press-Release-Center.info

15.   i-newswire.com

16.   Kazor.com

17.   LooselyCoupled.com

18.   Male Bits

19.   Newsreleaser

20.   PR.com

21.   PR9.net

22.   PRCompass

23.   Press Method

24.   Press Releases Blog Spot

25.   Press.ArriveNet.com

26.   Press-Base

27.   Pressbox UK

28.   Press-World

29.   PR-GB

30.   PRInside

31.   PRLeap

32.   PRlog.org

33.   PRNewsNow

34.   PRNuke.com

35.   PRZoom

36.   SBWire

37.   UK PRWire

38.   US PR Wire

39.   Web2Newswire
40.   PressReleasePoint.com

Now, these sites may change their polices. After reviewing them, regularly research new, online posting opportunities.

Also, there are many niche sites and blogs that may cater to your target audience. Look for various industry websites that offer free, press-release posting. Also check inexpensive posting sites such as PRWeb.

As a small business owner, it is possible to get some great media coverage on a limited budget. You just need to be willing to spend the time and do the work necessary.

And if you’d rather concentrate on core business activities, and outsource your publicity activities, please contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com. I can provide you with some tips and additional information.

We are all busy dealing with tight budgets, schedules and deadlines. But even with a hectic pace, you can still improve your writing to help communicate your message and increase sales.

As you sit down to write or review some copy, here are three quick tips to keep in mind:

1. Use Action Verbs.

Don’t write in the past. Try to use verbs in the present tense. You will add more excitement to your message if you talk about current activities rather than what happened, could happen or should happen!

2. Keep Sentences Short.

Busy people don’t have time to read cumbersome documents to get necessary information… so make it easy for them. Write short sentences that keep readers engaged .

Remove any extra fluff that isn’t important. Use adequate spacing between lines and paragraphs so that your copy is reader-friendly.

Also, find a co-worker or friend to proof your work and provide edits. It always helps to get an outsider’s opinion before publishing any document.

3. Add Subtitles and Bullet Points.

Whenever possible, try to include subtitles and bullet points packed with valuable benefits that tell readers “what’s in it for them.” This way, you’ll be more likely to reach potential customers who are skimming pages for fast information.

A Final Note

Obviously, there are many other points to consider as you continuously improve your writing skills. But when you are short on time, these three reminders may just what you need to jumpstart your copy and attract new customers, partners or advertisers.  

For my free, monthly newsletter packed with valuable information to help you with your publicity activities, please visit www.rembrandtwrites.com or provide your comments below. I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Monday morning, and welcome back to your work schedule.

After you’ve had a moment to drink your favorite wake-up beverage, take a moment to think about your schedule.  Ask yourself these three questions:

1. What are my priorities for the day?

2. How can I work smart and get things finished without wasting time?

3. What do I really want to accomplish this week?

If you’re like me, I just want to dive into my work and go. But if I just take a moment to think about my priorities and overall goals for the day and week, I tend to get a lot more done in less time. What do you think?

Have a great day, and if I can help you with your PR and writing needs, just let me know.

Melanie

Welcome to my blog (recently at Nielsen’s Small Business Resource Center)! I hope to provide you with valuable information you can use to increase sales, awareness and credibility via your PR and writing efforts.

To get started, here are a few tips to help you work with a publicist:

Working with your Publicist

If you just hired a publicist to handle your media-relations efforts, you may be a little nervous about the expense and getting the press exposure you desire. However, you made the right move.

Now that you have a professional handling your PR, you can focus on core business activities. And to make the best of your new relationship, here are a few pointers:

1. Set expectations.

When you start working with a new publicist, discuss what you both expect out of the relationship. Set firm goals and review the activities necessary to reach your objectives. By “being on the same page” from the beginning, you will have less conflict and accomplish things faster.

1. Don’t micro-manage.

You are paying for an expert to handle your publicity efforts, so let that person do his or her job. Schedule regular meetings to discuss current priorities, activities and future strategies and keep communications open. But avoid hassling your publicist. Remember, he or she is dealing with media members who need to be contacted at just the right time with just the right story angle.

1. Provide information quickly.

A publicist should act as a member of your team and know all of the benefits your business has to offer. However, many times it is necessary to collect client testimonials, current company statistics, recent photos, and more…fast. When your publicist asks for information, try to provide it as quickly as possible. It could mean the difference between getting a feature story and being passed up by the competition who acts quicker.

1. Be patient.

Give your publicist some time. When starting with a new client, it can take several weeks to develop a pertinent PR Plan, conduct the appropriate research, prepare targeted story-angles, and contact reporters, editors and producers. Then, it can take months before a media member actually requests an interview and publishes a story. However, if you don’t see some results within a reasonable amount of time, discuss your expectations with your publicist. Perhaps, you need to provide

1. Get reports.

On a regular basis, your publicist should keep you aware of what is going on with your current publicity activities and discuss future plans. Although you need to let your publicist do his or her job, you do need to keep abreast of how your publicity efforts are going and how you can work together more efficiently to meet goals.

1. Be Reasonable and smart.

If you are not happy with your publicity efforts because you have not received a feature story on “Oprah,” “Forbes,” “Time Magazine,” “The Wall Street Journal,” “The New York Times,” and others, take a moment to review your business and publicity efforts. Perhaps your message simply does not fit into the format of these media venues, and they are looking for organizations with higher revenues, more customers and employees or a completely different story angle. If this is the case, your publicist will not be able to get you coverage in these media venues until the appropriate changes take place within your business.

However, if you’ve paid a lot of money for very few placements and communicated your issues with your publicist with little results, it may be time to end the relationship and look for help elsewhere.

It can be nerve-wracking to spend the time and money on a publicist. Just like all other professions, there are good publicists who produce results and bad publicists who waste your time and money. However, if you conduct the appropriate research to find the right person, regularly communicate activities and goals with your publicist and let this expert do his or her job, you will garner media attention to help grow your business quickly and cost-effectively.

For my monthly newsletter packed with information to help you with your publicity activities, please visit www.rembrandtwrites.com. Thanks!