PR, Advertising and Coffee

I've just come off a phone call with an electrical contractor who told me had had just spent £800 on advertising which had produced absolutely nothing at all for him in the way of work. As a PR person I'm naturally a believer in PR over advertising, mainly because it tends to take repeated exposure to adverts before they make a difference - unless there is something really new.

I'm always banging on about how your PR needs to have a newsworthy hook, but I would say that the same applies to advertising.

This was brought home to me by a survey I recently took part in. It asked me which coffee brands I had noticed advertising on TV and on buses in the last month. There was only one - kenco - that i could think of, and I had remembered that only because they are bringing out new foil packs of coffee. See - it's new and newsworthy so it caught my eye.

Whether you are advertising, marketing or publicising via a PR campaign, always think - what's new and newsworthy here?

Inject a Little Charisma Into Your PR

On Monday 23rd November I will be holding an informal networking evening with vocal coach Susan Heaton Wright of Executive Voice. You might think that charisma is something you've either got, or not, but Susan believes that charisma is actually something that can be worked and she'll be giving us some tips on the night.

Whether you are picking up the phone to speak to a journalist, or taking the stage at a networking do or even conference, Susan has some advice to help you sparkle.

Our event takes place at Dion, a St Pauls's wine bar, easily accessed by the tube, and will run from 6-8.30pm. There's no fee, but places are strictly limited. If you'd like to come along please email me on paula (at) doyourownpr.com, letting me know your contact number and number of people attending.

There will be plenty of opportunity for networking and to chat to Susan and myself and I look forward to meeting lots of new and familiar faces.

Paula Gardner's PR workbook Get Noticed, How to Boost your Business Profile in 30 days or less provides you with lots of actions and less theory that will really make a difference to your visibility. Available from Amazon here

The Secret of Media Requests and Finding Freelance Journalist Contact Details

Yesterday I met for coffee with Susan Heaton Wright of NSN Productions and Executive Voice.

Susan is a past consultation client and has been a member of my Divine Publicity Club for many months. I took the opportunity to catch up with how media requests were working for her.

Some of the titles that she has got into since joining the club have included Essentials, Prima, Leith FM, The Secretary, a number of trade hospitality publications and an over 60s publication.

Whilst some of these were short sound-bites, others have been articles that are directly reaching her target market.

How has she been doing it?

Susan has been replying directly to media requests - requests for case-studies or just regular information and stories that journalists put out.

Susan has been doing well, but she admits that it's been a bit of a learning curve. "I started off only approaching smaller titles, but I've learnt that you have to just pick up the courage and go for it."

Susan's Tops Tips on Making Media Requests Work For You

* Put the fact that you are replying to a specific request clearly in the subject line of your email.
* See what you can add - what's your story and how is it unique?

I have another client, Kate, who hardly ever responds to specific requests. She has been using media requests to gather a fantastic list of freelance journalists that she now communicates with via tips and press releases. She admits that it would have been hard and time-consuming to come by her list any other way.

How Can You Find These Media Requests?

They are often posted in forums on the Internet, both business and specialist forums. Sometime networking groups are approached by journalists looking for case studies and the networking group passes it on, or just suggests a relevant member.

How About Freelance Journalists? How Can I get hold of their details?

Some groups of journalists like Travel Journalists, or the Circle of Wine Writers, have their own association and you can buy a list of journalists or members for a fee.

If you see something written by a person you think is a freelancer, Google them. Freelance Journalists are business people just like you and I and most of them have their own website, Facebook page or something similar.

Look at the Publications. Some publications, especially national newspapers, actually do print a freelancer’s email address at the bottom of an article. Often it’s a generic paula.gardner@telegraph.co.uk but it’s better than nothing.

Etiquette?

* If you're replying to a specific media request, keep to that subject and don't be tempetd to say "I also do.." Keep that for another time. Journalists often have to wade through hundreds of replies so they need yours to be succinct and concise.

* Time is of the essence. You need to act straight away. Journalists don't sit around thinking "I'll wait until I've got 200 replies and go through them then". If they find one in the first ten they can happily delete all the rest.

* Leave the photos and attachments off. Keep what you want to say in the body of your email.

* If you're not sure about adding a freelancer to your list, ask them. Give them a quick call or drop them an email. Would they be interesting in hearing about...? If they don't cover that kind of story you are saving both their time and your own in not adding them to your list.

The Divine Publicity Club

I can make this easier for you, you know! Our Divine Publicity Club sends media requests into your inbox twice a week. In the past few weeks we've had lifestyle requests, business magazines, Manchester TV, requests for fitness people, wedding planners and gadgets and gifts for Christmas.

We also update you on new publications, blogs and websites you can add to your press lists. It costs £19.99 a month and - best of all - you get 15 mins of PR coaching with me once a month during our regular PR clinics.

You can find out more here, or give me a call on 0208 504 4557.

The Federation Of Image Consultants

I spoke to the Federation of Image Consultants last weekend at the beautiful Beaumont House in Windsor.

My subject was Building the Buzz and I was talking about how identifying whether your strengths lay in speaking, writing or networking (or moving and shaking as I prefer to call it,) will make a huge difference to the profile of your business and the success of your PR campaigns.

Now, I'm always slightly nervous before a talk. It starts about an hour before and feels nothing more than a strangled feeling in my stomach.I look upon it as a good thing - it sharpens my edge, and I know that five minutes into most talks I've found my feet and relaxed a bit.

Last Saturday was different, because not only was I giving my talk to a group of fifty strangers, they were all Image Consultants who would all be looking at me and - I thought - passing judgements on what I was wearing. The nerves started as soon as I wondered what to wear that morning!

When it came to the day, nothing could be further from the truth. Or at least if it wasn't they didn't show it! In fact I ended up talking to a group of some of the smartest, most supportive women I had ever met - and yes they were all women and they were all very smartly dressed. But strangely, I didn't feel intimidated at all.

It was an extremely enjoyable hour and a half, the high point of which was Janet Malphus of www.bforb.co.uk giving us an impromptu speech on how Toastmasters had changed her life. I also got to catch up with an ex client of mine, the lovely Sue Donnelly. Fanstatic!



To book Paula Gardner to speak at your conference, networking event or organisation, please call her on 07941 244343.