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10 Secrets for Free Media Placement
Why pay a high priced PR agent when you can get free media placement to promote your product, service, or book? Follow these top ten tips for 2005 and it will be your most profitable year yet! 1. Write an attention grabbing headline. Realize that your headline must immediately "hook" a busy producer or editor at first glance. If your headline doesn't hook them, they won't read further. 2. Be certain that your book is appropriate for the target audience. Do not send a media release about your romance novel to a radio show that interviews only nonfiction authors. Wishful thinking is well and good, but realize that shows KNOW their target market. 3. Realize that there is a difference in format when sending a release by email and by fax. A faxed release and release sent by mail can be identical. However, an email release requires careful crafting to get right and is an art onto itself. The key concept to remember is twofold. First, the subject line spells the difference between the release being opened or deleted. Second, you must target delivery of the email release carefully, or you risk being banned forever to the recipient's "bozo" file. 4. Be certain to include key information in a book release such as your ISBN number, publication date, page count and binding, and if you like a small .jpeg of the cover. 5. You can increase your chances of being booked on a radio station if you offer to give away books on the show in your release. 6. For media releases aimed at reviewers, include information on how they can get a book to review by email or fax. 7. Do not follow up to see if the recipient received the release. If this is a show or publication you are keenly interested in, call them with "new information" designed to create more excitement in featuring you. 8. Keep a notebook with you and jot down names of appropriate media contacts as you read publications and hear radio interviews. 9. Journalists and producers need you and your news, but will lose respect if you hammer them with releases that don't apply to their market or beat. Discriminate. 10. Keep a "swipe file" of clever advertisements or headlines you can refer to when you need a creative boost. --- Publishing Guidelines: You can publish this article in your print or electronic ezine as long as you include the resource box/signature line below. If you are using this for your web based ezine, please hyperlink to http://www.BuildingBuzz.com and send a courtesy link to mailto:mdvari@deg.com Marisa D'Vari is author of the new book Building Buzz: How to Reach and Impress Your Target Audience (Career Press, 2005 . Access a complimentary 76 page reports on free media placement, as well as additional articles, at http://www.BuildingBuzz.com and can be reached at mdvari@deg.com
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But beyond that they grow, evolve and get better with time, while maintaining their special qualities from the past.We all have a personal brand with social, cultural, intellectual, and personal needs that may not necessarily be addressed in our daily work. Address these needs and you begin to improve your brand. Here is my agenda for building your brand. Join and participate in community and professional organizations Generate media coverage about your brand Stay in touch, or renew old ties with friends, family and business associates Let's examine how each one improves your brand.Join and participate in professional and community organizationsThe best brands grow, evolve and get better with time, while maintaining their special qualities from the past.Professional and community organizations provide ample opportunity to learn and grow.They provide professional development opportunities. 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Consider it an investment in your future. Don't forget trade publications serving your industry and alumni publications.Seek out speaking engagements and write guest articles, too. This is yet another way to publicize your brand. And don't forget to do news releases when you make a speech or write an article. It's all about merchandising.To stay top of mind, you might even want to develop your own monthly e-newsletter like Think, the Hoover ink publication. 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