Marketing Yourself to the Media
A guest post for Baby Boomer entrepreneurs by Beverly Mahone
At midlife, the transition from Corporate America entrepreneurship can be challenging. Basically it means you’re starting all over again. But the good part of it is you at least you are doing something you really want to do. After all, that’s why you took the leap of faith right?
In order to put your business front and center during the second half of your life, there are some things you need to do to drum up some publicity.
The first thing you have to determine is how you want to market yourself. TV News always likes a “hook.” If you’ve got one, you should present it WITHOUT HESITATION. For example, let’s say there was a bomb scare on a plane you were on or if you were in the airport at the time of the scare/evacuation, don’t hesitate to contact the nearest TV/radio/newspaper station (all of them, in fact) and let them know your connection to the NEWS OF THE DAY.
Chances are, they will want to interview you and that’s your in road to throw in why you were in the airport/on the plane in the first place (something hopefully tied to your business, which you can casually throw in). It not only gives you some FACE TIME but exposure for what you do and best of all—it’s FREE. You can’t pay for that kind of advertising. Then you can turn around and put out a press release saying you were interviewed on such and such a station about your business venture.
If you have an upcoming event you’d like coverage on, that can be harder. Once again, TV likes a “hook” If you’re doing a seminar on marketing your business (for example), you should try to find a way to make it involve public service somehow. TV stations frown upon promoting business ventures for FREE but if it fulfills a community service or need, they will bite because they have an obligation to the FCC to provide so much airtime to that kind of coverage.
So let’s say you’re doing a seminar on marketing your business. Bring in a representative from the local homeless shelter or boy scouts or women’s domestic violence hotline to demonstrate how they can get greater exposure and benefit monetarily. Then tailor your release so that the emphasis is on the Public Service vs. your “self” venture. Once again, you get a little FACE TIME and back door publicity for your business. Ask the station for a news clip of what they did and once you get it, you’ve got a video testimonial of news coverage for your event.
As always, be sure to thank the station (get a specific name). Journalists aren’t supposed to accept gifts—but if you send some sort of token to a specific name, they will accept it (on the down low) and be more inclined to interview you again the next time you have a particular project.
Attention-grabbing press releases should go out at least three weeks in advance of your event, with follow-up phone calls. You can never make too many follow-up calls. We don’t like it on our end—but persistence and personality could make the difference on a SLOW NEWS DAY.
BAM Enterprises is a media consulting firm owned by veteran journalist Beverly Mahone. Beverly, who spent more than 25 years as a radio and television journalist, is now using her media expertise to train novices on communicating effectively and how to market themselves and their businesses to radio, television and newspapers professionals. If it’s your time to shine, she’ll help you turn on the spotlight!
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