What to Say to the Media

I’ve found that this simple script works best to land Free PR and I’ve used it since 1986:

Start with “Hi, my name is [Your Name].  Do you have a couple of minutes, I think I have a great story for you?”

The writer will say one of the following:

a)   “Sure. What have you got?”  – To which you say – “Well, I have this cool story about this  [Your Angle].  Here are a couple of quick bullet points.”  Then, like a salesperson, you ask: “What do you think?”. Continue to ask questions, and listen.

b)   “Sorry. I’m on a deadline” – to which you say – “OK, I’ll call you tomorrow or would the day after be better?”

c)    You also have the opportunity to ask what they’re working on and listen. When you’re trying to pitch your angle, ask them what stories they’re working on currently.  Suggest helpful options for achieving their goals, and you’ll be achieving your own at the same time.  Potentially suggest ways you could be an expert with comments for their current story.

As the saying goes, in sales, you have two ears and one mouth–use them in that ratio!  The conversation should go something like this: you ask questions, you listen, you listen, you ask questions, you listen, and you listen some more.

And then, remember this:   Don’t show up and throw up.  Don’t start giving them the entire story.  Instead, give them your quick little angle. It’s a seduction. Say, “What do you think?” after you’ve offered them a taste. They’ll give you their thoughts, and then you can narrow your angle a little bit from what they say, or switch to your second angle, or your third angle that fits better. If you are alert, you can turn an apprehensive writer into a zealous fan, just by listening.

Everyone asks me about email pitches.  Sorry, that’s not my gig.  I’m all about picking up the phone, so I’m not writing about how to email members of the media because everyone is doing that –this is like competing where there is no competitor!

There really isn’t much difference in terms of my approach for radio or blogs.  In fact, in speaking with many bloggers, it’s clear they’re getting frustrated with people spamming them by email with story ideas and they’d love a phone call too.

If I have to leave voice mail, I usually leave a message like this: “Hi Susan, sorry I missed you, but I think I have a great story angle for you.  I’ll give you a call tomorrow about it.  If you have a chance before then, you can call me at: 604-XXX-XXXX.”

Follow-up emails are fine for thanking the writers for their time.  Follow-up emails are perfect after a writer covers you, but a handwritten thank you note mailed (with a stamp) to them is far more memorable.  No one sends thank you cards to just say thanks anymore – and you should—you’ll stand out. This is how you’ll land tons of Free PR.

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

The Free PR Sales Funnel

The number of calls you need to make before you land stories varies based on who you are, what your angle is, what’s happening in the news, and how accurately you’re targeting the writers.

For example, your numbers will be horrible if you are calling writers who cover the oil and gas industry but you’re pitching them about a small business angle.  Even though they’re business writers, none will ever cover you.

Assuming you’re targeting writers who write about your field, in media outlets that have an interested readership, then this is a rough estimate of the numbers you might expect from a PR person once they have been trained on your product and company knowledge.

It takes a couple months before even the best sales person knows enough about the products or company to close better than a long-time employee.You should keep in mind that new hires won’t become pros overnight.

• Monthly: You should expect five stories per PR person at minimum
• Daily: They can make six outbound pitches to journalists (this is based on doing it every day for a month)
• It accounts for tracking what was said on the call
• Setting up follow up times to call them back
• Research on the target
• Getting the correct contact info
• Sending out follow up information
• Following up with prospects from calls made in weeks prior
• That means – 6 calls a day x 5 days a week x 4 weeks a month = 120 outbound calls a month, which should generate five stories a month

These numbers are pretty accurate and cover national, regional, and local media.  They also cover spreading the calls out over TV, radio, print, online, newsletters, and bloggers. The numbers are also pretty conservative, too.  If the angles are well thought out, and if the PR person sells well, they’ll land even more.

You should try and do this yourself – if possible – before your new PR person starts. That way, you’ll have some idea of the environment they will be dealing with. Maybe your numbers are better than my example, and you already have a compelling story. If you can’t find a writer who will listen to you for more than 2 minutes, then you know it is time to go back and rethink your angle.

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

If  you’re reading this article, you’re probably interested in performing PR functions yourself, or in hiring team members to do so (or both). It will help you find the right people to execute the PR sales role in your organization, and secure free publicity for your company.Even though this falls under the category of public relations, what you’re really hiring for is a person who likes to do telephone sales.  You’re looking for someone who loves to pitch people, and is technically savvy enough to compile resources online and monitor the media response to your campaign. The first rule -

Work to secure awards and press coverage about all the great aspects of your company’s culture.  Get the press talking about you and potential employees will flock to your organization.

In the early days of College Pro Painters, I learned to get media coverage to attract customers and employees due to the culture of the painting company I was running. While building 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, we worked hard to get written up by the media and bloggers.  We told them about the tours we’d take people on if they wanted to learn about our culture – and they came.  The more we told the media about our tours, the more people started coming to witness the awesome company culture they’d read or heard about.  We fueled the buzz.

I’ve mentored companies like CanvasPop.com and Achievers (formerly I Love Rewards) leverage their culture and free press about their company to generate thousands of media articles.  What have you been doing to generate free PR ?

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

Pitching The Writer

• Entrepreneurs & their teams have access to Cameron monthly
• They get access to his skills at 1/10th the cost of hiring him full-time.
• They get access to him whenever they need – just like having him in their back pocket
• They aren’t locked in to expensive contracts
• They don’t have the office space, equipment, HR, and insurance costs of a full-time employee.

For the last couple of months Robert Graham Designs has been dressing me for all my speaking events, and social engagements where I’m around other CEOs and business people.

Yesterday while attending a charity event in the city filled with Vancouver business elite I was asked 5 times where I got the shirt I was wearing. a) Made me feel great cuz no one asked when I was wearing a boring button down and b) Robert Graham Designs got more word of mouth and buzz being generated.

You’ll see me for the rest of 2010 & 2011 wearing Robert Graham clothing. The brand’s Credo “Knowledge Wisdom Truth” is embroidered on every shirt. As a business coach and mentor, I always want to look my best when I talk to CEO’s all over the world. Who’s dressing you?

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

I’d love to say that I was chilling out at Whistler and I came up with this brilliant idea to let you promote your blog here, but I cannot take credit.

This will get you free PR. I learned about this idea from a great friend Gini Dietrich of The Fight Against Destructive Spin.

Turns out she learned about it a couple of weeks ago, from Toronto HAPPO champion, Danny Brown, invited his blog readers to pimp their blogs in the comments of his blog. You should go check it out – An Invite to Pimp Your Blog

So, you can do the same here. Let’s see what kinds of blogs you have and let’s see if we can find you some new readers.

Please include the following:

1. The blog’s name and link

2. A one sentence description about why someone should read your blog.

3. Your full name

4. Your Twitter handle (if you have one)

As an alternative, if you don’t have a blog, give us one blog post you’d like me to write about in the comments.

Go ahead! Promote your blog here…

And for more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.

I just realized how lucky I am. 

Over the past twenty years that I’ve been a business coach, I’ve worked REALLY hard to build awesome companies, build great teams, and build the trust of entrepreneurs around the world.

I was just getting ready to upload this photo and realized that these six companies are ones I’m humbled to have built the trust of.

Five of these great brands have paid $2,500 each to put their logo on my laptop for 2010.

The companies are: Outsourcing Things Done, Maverick Business Adventures, Grasshopper.com, Media Temple, and Hire Better.  I got so lucky to find such awesome ones.  And in the process I turned down many others (some who just didn’t get in early enough, and others who weren’t just the perfect fit yet).  Anyway – thanks to all of them.

Yes they are paying me – but you all know me – I wouldn’t rave about them if I didn’t love them.  And if anything changed – I’d be the first to give them there money back and take the sticker off too.

I’m lucky to have such great brands supporting me that you’d be smart to check out too.

Lastly, yes there are 6 stickers here.  I gave one free spot away to the non-profit that I support.  I contacted the CEO of Kiva.org and asked him if he’d like to be on my laptop with the other brands.  He loved the idea and said yes.  I then told him I’d give them the spot for free because their mission was so similar to mine.  They are all about helping entrepreneurs grow too.

This year, I’ll be speaking in front of tens of thousands of entrepreneurs.  They’ll all see these six logos.  And trust me, I’ll be raving about them all year too.

For more information on this topic, check out: Generating Free PR.