Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You
Day Eight: Play Hard to Get

Sometimes it’s good to retain a layer of mystery. After all, no one wants to be seen as being too desperate. Whilst you do need to make regular contact with the press, you also need to have something worth contacting them about. Don’t just email or call for the sake of it.

If you Twitter, Facebook or regularly use public forums, regulate how often you go on. If you’re on there too much you run the risk of looking like

A. an addict
B. person with no work to do

I am not sure which is worse!

Make sure you are in the public eye for the right persons, and, when you are, you have something worth saying or showing.

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Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You
Day Seven: Don’t wear the same perfume as everyone else

Remember the BIG perfume fads of the 80s when almost every other woman was wearing Obsession or Poison? I always wondered why on earth you would want to wear something that made you smell like everyone else?

When you approach the press (or, indeed, potential clients), it’s nice to have something that makes you stand out. This could be a great story, your brand image, or indeed the fact that you are selling something so unusual they will remember it anyway.

Take a look at your competitors and work out where you are different. If it feels right, push that and use it as they key to getting people and press to remember you. In short, wear your own unique perfume.

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Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You

Day Six: The Ones that Get Away

There will be some publications that aren’t interested. In fact, there will be many that aren’t interested. Would you chase after someone who just isn’t interested? NO? Does the thought that they are just not interested now change anything?

I had a chat with a client recently. We talked about the fact that her target market was pre-teen and young teen girls, and their parents. She had Junior magazine down on her target list and I queried this.

I wasn’t sure if they covered the pre-teen age and suggested she should make a quick phone call. Asking them straight out would clear up the matter. If the age group wasn’t right, she would be wasting time contacting them, and it would be far better to take them off her list now. It’s not worth chasing someone you know will never be interested.

There were other magazines she had approached that hadn’t yet shown an interest, but these were worth keeping on her list as there was still an opportunity that given time, some great stories, and a bit of phone rapport, the curiosity would come.

If you’re not getting anywhere with a publication, stand back and ask yourself if you are barking up the wrong tree here and wasting time on a publication you have no chance with, or is it worth persevering because someday their heart may melt?


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Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You

 Day Five: Flirt, flirt, flirt

When you speak to the press you need to be up. I don’t mean giggly, girlie or just overly schmoozy. These are things that would put most potential lovers off.

What we want is confidence and sassiness. Don’t be afraid to be cheeky. Beginning your call with this may be cheeky but is going to get their ears pricking up a lot more than I sent you a press release last week and..

And I should know. I cheekily asked a company for a job in just a way, and got it!

Find out what works for you and gets you in the zone. One of my clients makes sure she goes for a run first thing in the morning on her phone days, and she stays up for hours afterwards. Another finds that rewarding himself for a great morning of calls works better. Here are some other ideas that work for my clients

• Making a few networking calls before hand, to get in the mood
• Paying a VA to do it!
• Playing my Black Eyed Peas album for ten minutes before I start calling
• Clearing my desk space of clutter
• Exercising 
• Imagining/visualising the call and what I am going to say
• Writing a script and practising 
• Having a glass of wine. I wouldn’t quite recommend this one, but it works for him!

Finally, one important part of flirting is remembering whom you talked to. I suggest making notes about each person after a conversation. You’ll never remember that the news Ed of the regional daily likes you to just get on with it, but the girl from Chat likes a bit of  small-talk before-hand. Again, if they touch on anything personal, write it down and use it in your next conversation. They’ll be amazed at how good your memory is!

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Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You

Day Four: Tap Into Your Network

Friends are often eager to match-make. If you ask (and sometimes if you don’t), at least one of them always knows someone who will be perfect for you. And most people are keen to pitch in with opinions and suggestions.

So, tap into your network in the same way. If you’re launching something, tell people about it in a friendly personal (this is very important!) email and ask for help. Who do they know press-wise that you could contact? You’d be surprised what turns up – who has a brother who does the engineering for the Vanessa Feltz show or a wife who works for the local evening paper.

At the very least, who has a blog or a newsletter that you could contribute an article to?

And, to take match-making that step further, consider joining our Divine Publicity Club where journalists put out requests for experts, case studies and lifestyle stories. We also send out a bi-monthly list of our members to a large press database, as a reminder that you are available to write articles and feature in publications. Currently under twenty pounds a month, this is probably the most useful low-cost PR investment you can make (and will bring you a better return than a dating site!)


For a free PR resource pack and ten day trial of our media request service click here

Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You

Day Three: Look the Part

Okay, a friend says so and so will be perfect for you. What do you do next? It’s quite likely you’ll check them out on line. You maybe Google them, see if they’ve got a Facebook page or maybe see if they Tweet on Twitter. This isn’t stalking, just getting a feel for them. And we all do it.

And it’s just what a journalist will do if you come onto their radar and they want to know more. They’ll check out your website. They’ll tap your name into Google. They may even go so far as to track you down on Twitter or Facebook if they’re really serious.


The point is that you have to try to make all your public material as cohesive as possible. Tweet under your business name, not your own (unless you are your business, of course!), and do everything online with your brand in mind.

It’s worth investing money to make the brand look attractive, whether that’s getting a logo designed, having a professional portrait taken, or going on a course to learn how to take great shots of your own products. It may seem a fag at the moment but it will pay off in the long run.



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Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You

Day Two: Don’t Waste Your Time Flirting With Everybody

Lets’ face it, you’ve got a business to run, and a life to lead. You can’t devote every second to your PR campaign, which is why it’s important to pick and choose who you want to woo.

I encourage many of my clients to have an A list of their top publications. These are the ones that they know will make a significant difference to their business. These ate not necessarily the ones that their egos would like them to be in.

You may be lusting after a feature in She or the Daily Telegraph but a high quality Internet write-up with a direct link through to your site might bring you more sales.

Again, a regional business, however exciting, is much more likely to be picked up by regional press. If you spend your time chasing after mainstream national press, you may find that wasted time. You wouldn’t waste time chasing after someone you know isn’t going to be right for you, so don’t do it with the press.

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Valentine PR Special : How To Get The Press To Fall In Love With You

Day one: Managing Expectations

It takes time to build up a relationship. Just like approaching a potential mate, or even making a friend, be prepared to take it slowly. There’s a certain etiquette involved. Break it and you’ll come over as a pain in the proverbial, or just plain unprofessional. Or even, god forbid, a desperate stalker.

You’ll have to work at it. Be prepared to get on the phone and introduce yourself. Chat to them to find out what they actually need, not what you think they need. Listen carefully and you might find out that all they want are products or pieces with a celebrity angle, or that their editor won’t include anything unless it quotes serious surveys and resources.

Be patient. One press release is not necessarily going to bring in forty press enquiries and an invitation to Loose Women.  One of my clients, Julie Woodard of http://www.maroque.co.uk sent out a press release about her latest import, giant couscous. Almost a year (and many press releases and product shots later) it was featured in Woman and Home. This is not unusual. Have faith, keep wooing, and it will happen.


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