Day 3 - Offline Publicity

Welcome back ,

It may seem odd that in a short course about
Internet Marketing we bring up the topic of
Offline Publicity.  You need to understand
right away that you should never limit your
promotions to the Internet.  There are a
great many avenues for bringing people to
your site that lie *off* the Internet
entirely.

Let us explore one of the most powerful
methods available.

Savvy marketers know that the news media is
an awesome way to generate publicity.  Think
about it.  Many publications have the eyes
and ears of thousands and sometimes millions
of people.  If you can get your message in
front of those people don't you think it
would be valuable?

You bet it would!  In fact, statistics have
shown that even a small article or feature
about a company or product is far more
effective than a full page ad in a magazine
or TV commercial.

The beauty here is that the resulting
publicity if *free*.  You just need to
convince the appropriate members of the
media that your story is worth telling.

So, how is that done?  The traditional
route is to send a press release to a
list of appropriate media contacts.  To do
this, you will need three things:

1.  A properly written press release.

2.  A list of appropriate media contacts.

3.  A means for sending your release to
the list (usually via fax, email, or postal
mail).

First, let us talk about the writing of
the release.  If you can manage to get your
release on the desk of thousands of editors,
it won't be worth anything if your release
is poorly written or not in the proper
format.
 

I have seen so many press releases out there
that look something like this:

 Press Release

 There is a new website at
 http://www.iownawebsite.com/
 We have all kinds of cool stuff. Come check
 us out.

Honestly, do you think any editor in their
right mind would be interested in this?
Firstly, it doesn't promote an event. A new
website is not an event and is certainly not
newsworthy (unless you're Bill Gates).

A press release needs to be these things:
 

1. Newsworthy
No editor will print about your event unless
they think other people will be interested
in it. There are certain media that cater to
new websites, most of them being web based.
You should certainly let these people know,
but they probably won't require a press
release. The thing to remember is that what
is newsworthy to one editor may be totally
bland to another. Find out who will be
interested in your story.

2. Timely
If it is about a past event, it's probably
not news unless it's something quite
significant (election results, disasters
etc...)
 

3. Concise
Most editors don't have time to sit around
and read a novel about your event. Make it
to the point. Put the bottom line up front.
The release should read like a good
newspaper article. That is, use the
"inverted pyramid". The main meat of the
story goes in the first paragraph (who,
what, when, where, why). The remaining
details go in the following paragraph in
descending order of importance. A full page
is acceptable, but a release of just a
couple short paragraphs will be far more
successful.
 

OK, so what does a good release look like?
You should probably go to the websites of
some major companies that have something to
do with your topic and look at their press
release archive. Don't just look at one.
Look at several. You will see some good
examples and some bad. Compare them to the
criteria you see above and ask yourself "if
I were a busy editor, would I print about
this"?

The following format will almost always be
acceptable (italics are for emphasis, don't
italicize your entire press release as you
see here):

<release format begins after this line>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editors: News, General Media (change as needed)
Contact: Peter North, Aesop Marketing
Corporation, 323-692-2940, peter@aesop.com

_________________________________
Your Headline Here. Make it Catchy.
If it's not, the editor won't read
the rest.
_________________________________
 

Lawton, OK - 7 September, 1997 -- Here is
the text of your release. Remember to use
the inverted pyramid. Five W's here.

<release format ends above this line>

In the following paragraphs, place other
important information in descending order
of importance. If it isn't necessary to tell
the story or relay critical information,
don't put it in. Be concise!

OK, now you know how to write a good press
release. So who do you send it to? Well,
that's the tricky part. It will take you a
while to build a good database of release
recipients.

There are several options here.  You can
build a list yourself, or you can purchase
an existing database.  Unfortunately, press
contact databases normally run from a few
hundred to a few thousand dollars.  This
makes putting together your own list seem
like the way to go, but this can get very
time consuming.

**Right now, we are running a special where
you will get a 6,000 contact press database
FREE when you order The New Webmasters
Internet Business Disc.  It includes email
addresses  of 6,000 important
national press contacts.  We could sell
this database for much more, so there is
no telling how long this special will last...
Get your copy now:
http://members.tripod.com/~jmfishman3/index-2.html

Now, if you want to build your own list,
here are some tips and resources to help you.

First, identify media that will be interested in
your event. Send an email to someone there
and ask who you should send your release to.
If you are courteous and professional, they
will probably point you in the right
direction. Send your release to as many
people as possible, but don't waste your
time sending it to people that won't be
interested.  That will just give you a bad
name.

Here are some resources that you will find
extremely helpful:

AJR Newslink
http://ajr.newslink.org/menu.html
Contains links to just about every media
(newspapers, radio stations, TV) source that
has a website. Follow the links to the media
you think will be interested in your release
and find out who to send it to. This is
great for building your contact base. Also
contains some great articles and many other
convenient resources.

Reporter's Network
http://www.reporters.net/
Among other things, contains a great
searchable database of reporters. Want to
find a reporter interested in silver
widgets? Do a search here for "silver
widgets" and a list of reporters who have
reported interest in this will pop up. Very
cool.

Now that you have a killer release and have
a quality list of press contacts, you are
ready to send the release.  There are
three general routes you can go here:
1. Postal Mail, 2. Fax, 3. Email.

Fax is the most common method and will
probably get your release more notice.  Email
is great as well. Both
of these methods require some special
tools.  This is an important topic
and requires a bit more room than we
have here.  Generally, for an email
release, you want to find a "Mail
Merge" program and for Fax, you should
subscribe to a "Fax Broadcast" service.
You can find a list of these resources
in any search engine or software site.
If you want a list of what we've used and
know is reliable, please check out

The New Webmasters Internet Business Disc
http://members.tripod.com/~jmfishman3/index-2.html

You may be asking yourself, "what if I
don't have an event to publicize?" To this
I say: "make one!" Use your ingenuity. Host
an online event like a celebrity chat or
forum. The only limits here are your
imagination.  The New Webmasters Internet Business Disc
also has a  how to
generate publicity  for stunning
off-line promotion of your site.

Tomorrow we'll talk about using Newsgroups
and bulletin boards as a powerful marketing
tool.

Until tomorrow,