Daily Tips On Using PR To Establish Yourself As An Expert In Your Field -Strategy A

January 17, 2012 Leave a comment

One of the main values of a public relations campaign is that it helps establish you as an expert in your field.  But you need to help the media help you.  Your job is to let them know why you’re an expert and make it as easy as possible for them to use you as a resource.  With that in mind, this week, I’m going to focus on daily tips on how to use PR and media relations to establish you as an expert in your field.

PR Strategy A: You can’t expect the media to see you as a resource, unless you’ve positioned yourself as one.  With that in mind, job #1 is to present yourself as a resource who will resonate with the media’s readers, listeners and/or viewers.  Begin by making a list of the topics that you can address.  You have a specialty; a topic or area that you’re expert in.  That’s the main area you want to address, but if you move a little right or left of center, chances are you can come up with a much wider list of topics you can discuss.  For example, if you’re a cardiologist, can you discuss the various ways that social media and the internet are changing the practice of medicine?  That’s not exactly a cardiology story, but it does deal with medicine, the culture at large and can help establish yourself as an expert.  Remember the bigger the media bull’s-eye, the greater your chances of success.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012


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Learning the PR Mindset

December 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Launching and sustaining a public relations campaign is an ongoing process.  In the PR world, you are continually refining and modifying your approach, pitches, story ideas, and media lists.  If a basic pitch is working, you want to stay with it for a bit.  One mistake I’ve seen companies make is that they try to continually send out new pitches and releases simply for the sake of getting new information out to the media. This mindset of continually writing press releases that aren’t newsworthy in order to keep new information flowing, is a dangerous one.   Yes you want to offer the media new angles, pitches and media hooks, but you don’t want to send out new information unless it’s truly warranted.

Monitor how your media pitches and press releases are being received.  If a pitch you sent out six weeks ago is gaining traction and garnering media coverage, stay with that story.  Work it; develop it; use the media coverage you’re now landing to garner more media coverage.  Don’t shift your focus simply because your calendar says it’s time for a new media release.  Truth is that media relations is more of an art than a science (which drives most left brainers crazy).  If you try to simply set up a mechanical or statistical PR gameplan and allow that to dictate the campaign, you’re in trouble

As with the media itself an effective public relations campaign is fluid.  It is both proactive and reactive. If a national story breaks and you can tie your story to it, you need to be able to react, move quickly and change your approach.  If, on the other hand, a pitch is working and gaining traction, you want to stay with it, work it and keep it moving.  Media relations can be difficult for those who need to follow a specific course set-in-stone approach.  It is an ever changing, continually evolving practice.

Begin by creating a list of objectives that you want to achieve before launching a media relations campaign.  Now come up with a list of story angles and media pitches that you can use.   When it comes to PR brainstorming, your goal is to create a list of the most important story ideas including: new business concepts, the unique value you offer, important information you can give, and anecdotal stories.  Part of that process is to give some thought to how and why you can be presented as an expert in your overall field.

Initially you want to come up with your story ideas and media pitches, followed by your target media lists.  Create specific objectives, but allow the campaign the ability to shift and change course.  Developing an effective PR strategy is not unlike creating an effective sports gameplan.  You develop a strategy and draw up specific plays, but you also allow yourself the ability to act and react depending on what comes at you. There is an intuitive aspect to the PR process that has to allow for action and reaction.  You want to set up a specific target and gameplan, but you need to be able to shift and alter your plan as needed.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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Media Training Secrets for Business Success

December 16, 2011 Leave a comment

When I began in the public relations world over twenty years ago (that’s daunting), I quickly realized that landing an interview or a story for a client was only a part of the process.  Early on that first part of the process was my primary focus.  My job was to garner media coverage for my clients on TV, print or radio (this was actually pre social media days) and that was that.  Well I soon learned there was a huge difference between simply landing an interview and having the client give the media a successful interview.

Clients need to be prepared to speak to the media.  Although the best interviews seem like conversations, in fact they are not.  Both the interviewer and the interviewee have an agenda.  The interviewer wants to interest his or her target audience; the interviewee wants to get his or her message across, which should include a call to action.  Interviews work when the questions and answers flow and the agendas don’t clash.  But this is easier said than done.  After having producers and editors give me some tough but needed feedback about clients who were either boring or were too pushy, I realized that in order to achieve real PR success, media training was needed.

That’s when I brought on Ann Convery.  Ann has served as our media trainer since then.  She is now an international speaker, seminar leader, trainer and author who has prepared clients for interviews on Oprah, CNN, 60 Minutes, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, as well as hundreds of local, regional and trade-oriented media outlets.  Ann’s gift is to teach clients how to distill their message and speak to the media in a way that meets the media’s needs but also meets the client’s needs.

For a PR or media relations campaign to be successful, landing interviews and media coverage is not enough.  Clients need to be able to deliver their message in a clear, succulent, informative and entertaining manner.  Easier said than done, but it is a skill that can be learned.   For years Ann has prepared our clients to do just that, deliver effective and successful media interviews.

But her real genius was her ability to connect the dots and realize that the ability to effectively communicate with the media could be just as powerful and effective when communicating in the business world.  Using her media training skills and techniques, she developed Speak Your Business in 30 Seconds or Less.  Speak Your Business is a system that shows you how to find very specific words and numbers – found only in your business – so that you are effortlessly speaking and writing directly to the hidden, hungry “buying” brain in your prospects, every time.  Utilizing these tools, many of Ann’s clients have generated up to thousands of dollars in business within months with her Signature Series program, “You’re So Brilliant. Why Don’t They Buy?”

The bottom line is if you’re going to launch a public relations campaign for you and your business, you first need to master the art of effectively communicating.  Just last month a client who assured me he had been media trained and was set to do interviews, came off looking like a deer in the headlights when we landed him a spot on a TV news program.   Believe me, media training is a skill that will serve you well.   More importantly, as Ann teaches, these communication tools and skills work whether you’re talking to the media, delivering a speech, networking or making a phone call to a prospect.

For more information visit:   www.annconvery.com     

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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You Don’t Have to Be in a Major Media Market to Benefit from PR

December 3, 2011 Leave a comment

If you’re looking to promote your business, company or product and you’re not in one of the major markets such as Los Angeles or New York, PR should be high on your marketing to do list.  Public relations is a way to position yourself as an expert in your field and to gain the credibility and validation to allow you to compete with the competition in larger markets.

This type of media coverage can benefit you in several ways.  It can garner you media coverage in your target market, it can establish you as an expert nationally and locally and it can gain you the same credibility as your larger competitors.  If you’re a small business, chances are you could never compete with your larger competitors when it comes to traditional advertising or direct marketing.  Doing so is just too cost prohibitive.  But media relations can help level the playing field.  Being featured in a newspaper, magazine or TV segment presents you as the expert, and your company or product becomes the news.

The upside is that a public relations campaign offers you an affordable option to take your message directly to your target market.  If you’re in a smaller media market, and you professionally present your story to the local media, your chances of landing a story are maximized.  The large markets have heavy competition.  Everyone is looking for coverage there.  By initially focusing on the smaller markets you can gain local coverage and start establishing your business.  You can then take that media and magnify it online.  Post it on your blog,  Tweet the link to the article, post it on Facebook and other social media sites.  The internet allows you to turn a local story into an international story.

You can then use your local media to pitch the national outlets.   Once you’ve landed local media coverage, you are legitimately a story.  Use that initial coverage to position yourself as an expert and pitch your story to larger media outlets.

If you have a locally based business, the local and regional  media reaches your market.  It speaks directly to your clients and customers. The national media then offers your business the validation and credibility of the major players in your field.  Both have their uses, but by combining the two approaches you’ll get the most bang for your PR buck.  Remember, media begets media.  It’s a cumulative process.  Start local and then build.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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How to Successfully Use Traditional & Online PR

November 30, 2011 Leave a comment

When it comes to traditional PR if your main focus is being featured in the media, what you’re truly looking for is media relations which falls under the umbrella of public relations.  With the advent of online magazines, blogs and social media, there have been so many changes in how media and public relations work that it can get confusing.  You have some who still choose to ignore bloggers and social media and others who insist that traditional media is dead and focus only on their 2.0 approach.  Both of those approaches can be dangerous.  You don’t want to get into an either/or approach and at the same time you want to maximize the results you’ll get for your efforts.

For example, the blogosphere is huge.  There are millions of blogs out there and more are being added everyday.  You could get your company or product mentioned on a large number of blogs that have very little traffic.  In that sense it could feel like you’re gaining traction for your public relations campaign, but are you really reaching your ultimate goals?  Getting as much coverage as possible online is important, but only if you’re doing so with a game plan in mind.  For example if you are approaching and pitching blogs in the blogosphere as a way to help your SEO efforts and as a way to help build your credibility and build a critical mass, then yes, you’re heading in the right direction, but if you are approaching this as though all blogs are created equal, you’re in trouble.

By now all of the mainstream media outlets have their own blogs whether the media outlet is The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, or the Today Show.  Believe me even a small mention on one of those blogs is going to be worth more to you than feature coverage on a dozen of small unknown blogs. Why?  A couple of reasons. To begin with the mainstream media blogs get traffic.  More eyeballs are looking at the story.  But it’s also not only the fact that you’re being featured in the blog, it’s the credibility and validation that comes with a hit in the mainstream media.  You are now a news story.  So it’s true that all blogs are not created equal.  Still you don’t need to land coverage in a mainstream media blog, to reap the benefits of being featured in one.

More and more blogs are becoming significant influencers.  The more bloggers you can interest in your story, the more your coverage will grow.  A strong blogger relations approach can be tremendously important.

As I mentioned at the start, the important thing is not to view this as an either/or approach.  Pitching mainstream media does not mean you should ignore blogs and focusing on online coverage does not necessitate ignoring the traditional media outlets.  All of these outlets are important.  Your most effective and successful approach is to come up with a PR game plan that is targeted yet inclusive.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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5 Steps to Creating Successful PR Pitches

November 17, 2011 Leave a comment

Whereas you want to keep your marketing efforts active and on the front burner, you also want to take time to reflect and come up with public relations and promotional ideas that are new and interesting.  You don’t want to keep focusing on or pitching the same ideas.  If your marketing or PR focus is working great, keep with it; if it’s not, shift it, but either way be working on a new and different approach that you can utilize when the time is right.  Don’t be afraid to try or at least consider different or initially uncomfortable ideas.

For example, a while back I found out that Time Magazine was doing a cover story on sex.  One of the clients we were working with was a long term health care center.  Not a very good fit, right?  Or so I thought until I talked to my client and found out that it can be quite an issue.  I pitched that story to the Time magazine editor that was working on the story and we came away with a full side bar on sex and seniors.  A Time cover story usually leads to quite a bit of other media coverage, which this did.  If we hadn’t given the angle a shot, we would have never landed the story.  This particular story might have nothing to do with you, your business or your product, but the moral is step outside of your comfort zone.

So how do you develop story ideas that work?

  1. Be creative.  Make a list of ten story ideas that you could pitch.  Let them be crazy.  Remember, this is an exercise you don’t have to use them.
  2. Refine that list and narrow it down to stories that you could actually pitch.
  3. Now pick two of those stories and write a press release based on those ideas.
  4. Next build a media list that you want to pitch the story to.
  5. Now – pitch it.

Remember media relations and PR can provide you with relatively inexpensive coverage and can connect you and your company with large and diverse audiences.  Unlike an ad or a direct marketing piece a news story or segment can give you ongoing and in-depth coverage.  Once you place one story you can use that initial placement to generate other media coverage.  Being covered on TV, magazines, newspapers or on the radio offers you validation and legitimacy.   News stories can offer a comprehensive explanation of your company, your product or your service.

Try the five step exercise above.  Keep creating and refining your PR ideas.  Some will miss the mark, but others will hit, and when they do, be ready to grow your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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What’s a Zinger and How Can it Bring You Faster Money?

November 7, 2011 Leave a comment

Deborah was a business growth coach whose clients raved about her work.

So why was she struggling for business?

“This is humiliating!” she said.  “I’m the growth coach. What am I doing wrong?”

Deborah wasn’t using Zingers.

Deborah was logical, rational, and explained just what she did:

“My clients go from struggling to successful in 12 to 18 months.”

There are no Zingers here.

A Zinger is a little suggestion or phrase that tells your audience you know their pain.

A Zinger tells them:

“I’m here inside your head. I know just how you feel.”

No Zingers, no feeling.

No feeling, no clients.

In order for someone to take action with you,

1. They have to feel the gap between where they are and where they could be
2. You need to allow them to feel this gap, frequently

Where can you find great Zingers? Look at the complaints your clients have.

When Deborah started dropping Zingers such as…

“When I met Jean she was too broke to hire help, and so burned out it was making her sick..”

“When I started with Sue, she just broke down sobbing.  She’d put on 30 lbs since her business started.  Just eating to calm the panic…”

“At first, my client Jo was so deeply in debt she’d stopped looking at her bank statements…”

And then Deborah followed up with where her clients are now…

“When I started with Mary, she was too scared to charge what she was worth, and she couldn’t pay her phone bill.  Now she has two part-time employees and she’s set to break six figures this year.”

A good Zinger:

Suddenly makes you the Trusted Ally, instead of the Salesy Expert

Instantly places you mentally and emotionally close to your prospect

Speeds up the buying cycle, bringing you faster money.

Breaks through dozens of mental and emotional barriers

Surprises your clients because they thought no one knew how they felt inside

Enters the conversation inside their heads and keeps it going

Positions you as the Uber-Guide who knows how to lead them out of the swamp

and MOST IMPORTANT:

Good Zingers make your clients FEEL.

No feeling, no action.

No action, no clients.

Look at the complaints you get from your current clients.

Get every juicy little detail.

Then drop them into your conversation, your tweets, your social media, and your website.

Try it.

It works.

For more nuggets about how to increase your money and client flow, visit me at www.annconvery.com

Copyright © Ann Convery 2011

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Why You Should Launch Next Year’s PR Campaign this November

November 4, 2011 Leave a comment

You want the fourth quarter to end on a strong note, which is why it’s so important to launch a media relations campaign for the holidays, but even if your end of year plans are set and you’re looking to launch in a big way for the upcoming year, you need to start your PR and marketing no later than November.

There are a few practical reasons for this. To start, if you’re looking to place stories in any of the national monthly publications, keep in mind they work on a three to four month lead time; which means, at least as far as those media outlets are concerned, you need to pitch them in September or October to have any chance of landing coverage in January. Although other media outlets work on much shorter lead times, you want to place stories during the end of the current year to help build your brand going into the new year. You also want to start pitching in November to get on the media’s radar for New Year-oriented stories. January is going to be filled with stories that have to do with new gadgets, diets, approaches, products, and services that can help people get a fresh start in the new year.

Remember the media is looking for a hook and an angle that works for them, so approach your pitch from their perspective. For example, if you’re an accountant your pitch might be:
5 Insider Tips On How To Start Your New Year Accounting And Bookkeeping On The Right Foot,
or 5 Tips To Prepare For The Upcoming Tax Season

If your in the beauty, fitness or weight loss business, focus on such pitches as
How To Achieve Your Optimum New Look For The New Year


Focus on what makes your business, service or product special. Is there a different approach you use that can help people start the new year right? What problems do you solve? How do you, your product or service differ from others in the field? Maybe you’ve updated or modified your product or service for the New Year. Look at it from all angles; is it smaller, larger, brighter, less expensive, more user friendly, or more effective? How could you present what you do or sell in a way that’s different, offers a story and ties in with the New Year theme?
And don’t forget the most important focus; how does your business or product affect others? How has it helped change people’s lives? What solutions does it offer? Does it make life easier? Does it make people richer, thinner, smarter, faster, or happier? Perhaps you have clients who would be able to tell their story to the media? The most effective PR campaigns are those that tell transformational stories. If by launching an effective public relations campaign you can illustrate how your business has positively affected the life of others, people who see read or hear your story will want to know if you can do the same for them. And your phone will start ringing.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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More Holiday PR Pitch Tips

November 3, 2011 Leave a comment

For the past few blogs, I’ve been reviewing why and how to launch a PR campaign for the holiday season.  To quickly recap, the three primary reasons are:

1)      People are prepared to spend more money during this time of year.

2)      The media is more open to stories and pitches during the holiday season.

3)      You can more firmly establish your brand in the fourth quarter and carry that on into the New Year.

As I discussed earlier, whether you should launch a marketing and public relations campaign during the holiday season is not the question; the real questions are when will you launch and what will your primary focus be.  Remember your job when pitching stories to the media is to make the media’s job easier.  You want to give them stories that are interesting, entertaining, educational, intriguing and, during this time frame, pitches that tie into the spirit of the season.

That doesn’t mean all of our pitches have to be up, cheery and ho ho ho.  The holidays have different sides, if you can address helping runaways during the holidays, or holiday food drives for those who need a hand during the season, or dealing with holiday depression, those are not only important stories, but they make for compelling features for print and TV.  Regardless what your business or profession is, you can develop a holiday story idea to pitch.  Although I covered a few PR pitch ideas in my previous article, below are a few more to review.

Musician – Put on a free holiday concert that benefits a charity for the holidays.  Or let the media know that you can discuss which holiday songs are the most important.  Come up with a list of the most important holiday songs.  Make it controversial and fun.

Spa – Create unique holiday packages.  Come up with special holiday treatments to help reduce stress, or create holiday gift packages that are unique and original.

Jeweler – Create that perfect holiday gift.  Even if the design is overly expensive or just works for the holidays, come up with something different that makes for a good story.  The perfect luxurious holiday gift.

Attorney – Put together consultation packages that you can offer, or can be given as gifts for the New Year.  Then come up with the 7 most important year end tips everyone should know.

Nutritionist – Develop a list of perfect holiday recipes.  Make a list of holiday eating myths that you can debunk.  Develop a roadmap for how to eat right and have fun during the holidays.

Assisted Living or Long Term Health Care Center – Let the media come in and experience a holiday meal or sing along with the residents.  Invite a local grammar or mid school to have a group of kids come and sing holiday songs for the seniors.  Put on a seniors Winter Olympics.

Acupuncturist – Create packages and treatments for keeping healthy during the holidays.  Or develop an acupuncture facelift procedure.  Give the gift of youth for the holidays.

Although these ideas might not cover your business or profession, you get the point.  See how you can tie in what you do with the season and start developing pitches.  Get creative.  Have fun with it.  This is a time when purse strings are loosened and the media looks for stories, use both of those facts to your advantage.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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PR for Fashion Designers

March 9, 2011 Leave a comment

So, you now have a number of media pitches, stories and hooks that you can present to various media outlets that don’t have a thing to do with celebrities.  Using this approach, you and your fashions are the stars.  This is the approach I suggest focusing on.  Then after you’ve made your splash and established yourself through the media as a hot designer, maybe, just maybe you’ll let one of those celebrities wear them.

Public relations is an important marketing component for nearly any company or product, but when it comes to fashion, beauty or style an effective PR campaign is not an option, it’s a necessity.  Think about it, fashion and style is directly linked in our culture with celebrity and fame.  When Entertainment Tonight or In Style feature the latest singing sensation or movie star, it’s not just the person who is being spotlighted it’s also what he or she is wearing including what bag, jewelry, blouse, pants, skirt, scarf or coat they are sporting at the time.

When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt prance down the red carpet, they’re not the only ones being scrutinized, the magnifying glass is also on their shoes, their blouse, the sunglasses – everything they are wearing is now suddenly in the grip of the star making machine.   A fashion designer we were working with had one of her designs worn by Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson in the same week.  That opened the door to the People magazines and In Style’s of the world.  That is a definite plus.  As a designer you want celebrities to wear your clothing.  It helps media-wise, there is no doubt about that.  But a mistake that designers often make is that they place their primary focus on chasing down celebrities and celebrity stylists thinking that the only way to establish themselves in the world of fashion is to get the latest A, B, C (and if all else fails) D-list celebrity to wear their designs.

As I mentioned, that helps, but your primary job is not to chase down Hollywood’s latest flavor of the month.  Your job is to create the best fashions you can.  You want to develop a line that the public reacts to.  The bottom line is you want your creations to be your star, not the celebrity that wears them.  So, how do you do this?

Here’s your exercise, forget (for a bit) that celebrities exist. Put aside your desire to have the latest celeb wear your designs.  For now, that approach is off the table.  Now, what are your stories?  What makes your designs special?  Who are they created for?  What are some ways that they can be used or worn that is a bit different?  What are some interesting visuals that can be used when pitching your fashion story? Is there a story that has to do with how your fashions are made?  Are unique materials used?  Keep drilling down this way.  Focus on what makes your designs unique, different or what makes them perfect for a certain target market.

Now what about you?  What makes your story interesting?  What was your journey to become a designer?  What obstacles did you have to overcome?  How was your life changed by your decision to enter the world of fashion?  Realize that your journey and your transformation offers you a wealth of media pitches and approaches.

So, you now have a number of media pitches, stories and hooks that you can present to various media outlets that don’t have a thing to do with celebrities.  Using this approach, you and your fashions are the stars.  This is the approach I suggest focusing on.  Then after you’ve made your splash and established yourself through the media as a hot designer, maybe, just maybe you’ll let one of those celebrities wear them.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under Entrepreneur PR, Fashion Design, Fashion PR, Media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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