Let’s say you have a uniquely innovative product/business/invention/venture on your hands… one that’s generated some nice media exposure/publicity (whether it was the product of your hard work or generated by a hired PR specialist or agency). Instead of using the mounds of tear sheets as wallpaper and those stacks of DVDs as door stops–USE YOUR NEWS.
I always tell my Public Relations clients that we want a publicity campaign to be a “controlled burn, not a flash fire.” One way to keep those PR embers glowing even after the flash of placements have been generated is to use those tear sheets and tapes to figuratively “fan the flames.”
USE YOUR NEWS as part of your business presentation to your market. For instance, if I am seeking venture capital for my new product or invention, I look a lot more attractive to the prospective investor if I can show them media exposure. Sure, your PR campaign generated a great 1/3 page editorial placement last month in Entrepreneur Magazine. However, was this prospective investor or customer one of the magazine’s 525,000 subscribers? Did s/he even see or hear about the article? Make sure s/he does!
USE YOUR NEWS by Packaging your PR! That Entrepreneur Magazine tear sheet, atop a Chicago Tribune Business Page tear sheet, along with the video segments of you or your product on TV newscasts and audio-taped clips of morning-drive radio shows probably looks pretty good to that investor. Just think of the publicity and subsequent consumer interest you could generate with some strong financial backing! Your PR campaign has helped prove to the investor the viability of the product/venture in the micro-media-market; imagine the exponential interest both of you could generate on the next level in the macro-media-market. Positive media placement is a solid validation of the potential marketability of your venture, especially if those placements were generated in media outlets trade-specific to your market/industry.
Be advised…publicity and PR can’t market FOR you; it certainly can and should market WITH you. When it comes to the publicity and marketing of your venture, the old adage, “no news is good news,” couldn’t be more wrong. So, if your PR campaign has been effective enough to generate news, turn that into NEWS YOU CAN USE!
Todd Brabender is the President of Spread the News PR. His business specializes in generating widespread media exposure for innovative products, services and experts.
