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The Increasing Power of Publicity/Media Exposure
By Todd Brabender (c) 2007

The call came into my office and the voice on the other end
was very energetic, almost giddy: "I have finalized my marketing
budget and need your help launching an advertising campaign for
my new product," he breathed. "Congratulations," I replied, "but
before we implement an ad campaign, I want to make sure you have
explored potential PUBLICITY opportunities that could generate
some cost-efficient media exposure first." Then, silence. "I
never thought about that," he sighed. "Frankly, I don't know
much about it."

He is not alone. It's a common conversation. Although many
entrepreneurs or business people know a bit about publicity or
media exposure, the majority of them simply don't understand
the full benefits of "publicity placements" or how to go about
generating them successfully. Publicity placements have always
been a cost-efficient way to market a product/business and
generate clients or customers, but because of lack of knowledge
or a misunderstanding of what publicity is and does, many
entrepreneurs don't take full advantage of publicity
opportunities -- and that can lead to missed marketing chances.

I recently surveyed a few dozen business owners and entrepreneurs
in some newsgroups and business chat rooms about their knowledge
of "publicity placements" in the media. I found out that only 37%
knew that a simple "product profile" in a magazine was generated
as a result of publicity efforts. Most thought the company had
paid the media outlet to run the feature, much like an ad. And
of that 37%, less than half of them knew HOW to generate a
similar placement.

Another interesting fact, because of the recent slowdown in the
economy, expensive advertising budgets have been slashed. As a
result, many businesses, like your competitors, are turning to
publicity/PR campaigns as a more affordable means of marketing
to compete with other companies. Here are some ways to use
publicity placements to help your business:

Editorial Placements/Media Notification

What some entrepreneurs might not realize is that we see
editorial placements from publicity efforts everyday in the
media: product profiles, feature articles and contributed
by-lined articles in magazines, newspapers, trade industry
newsletters or on TV/radio/cable newscasts & shows. This is not
advertising, this is "EDITORIAL Placement" or "Media
Notification" of a product, business or industry expert. Notify
the appropriate media that your newsworthy product is on the
market or your business is offering a unique new service and
let them run a feature placement that will spread that message
to your consumer market. These placements can detail your
product or business very effectively, giving consumers some
objective, pertinent information that may well entice them to
become future customers.

These editorial placements are looked upon much more credibly
than ad placements. That is not a slam on advertising. Paying
for advertising placements is indeed an effective way to market
your product. But the fact is, a positive editorial placement
such as a product profile in a magazine or a newspaper can be
much more persuasive than a glossy, over-hyped advertisement -
and a fraction of the cost. My point is that editorial placements
are an often time overlooked marketing vehicle for a business,
and that entrepreneurs should understand the full benefits of
these placements to make the most of their marketing efforts.

Editorial placements are a wonderfully reciprocal way for you
and the media to work together for the betterment of your
business. The media needs to fill its pages and airtime with
interesting information -- and you need to get the word out to
your market. Research the media market to find those media
outlets and editorial contacts with which you can forge that
mutually beneficial relationship. But you have to do your part
and do it right - or the media will forge that relationship with
your competitor. Make sure your media message is solid, contains
newsworthy angles and isn't disguised as overly commercialized
ad copy. Have high-quality photos and media samples available
and do all you can to make the media's job of featuring your
product as simple as possible. It also helps to have some sort
of clipping service in place to track your placements and get
you copies so you can use them in your secondary marketing
programs.

Expert Branding

This type of publicity placement generating takes advantage of
the expert knowledge within a particular business. It is an
effective tool for entrepreneurs whose businesses are more
service related, like consultants or specialists. Expert branding
basically treats the expert like a product. Alert the media as to
your expertise on a specific topic and avail yourself to serve as
an expert interview resource for future articles or news feature
segments. Additionally, the expert should write a few brief
articles on a specialized topic and make them available to
editors for review and possible publication. The challenge of
this type of publicity placement is the tedious task of finding
out which outlets accept "expert editorial contributions" or
contributed by-lined articles in their publications. Again, it
comes down to meticulously researching your media market to find
those media outlets that may be in need of the editorial content
that you can provide them.

With some creativity, expert branding can be effective for
product-based businesses as well. One client of mine runs a
fresh wild salmon distribution business in the Pacific Northwest
and was looking to increase consumer awareness of his products.
Based on his more than 20 years of experience in the wild salmon
harvesting business, we are expert branding him as a viable
interview resource to health/food editors for features detailing
the differences and benefits of wild salmon over farm-raised
fish, as well as other related topics. In this case, my client
(the expert) is identified and quoted in features and the name
of the business and even a link to a website are often included
for consumers to check out. This is great credibility building
exposure at little or no cost.

Overall, when using the media to help market your product or
business, take advantage of as many FREE media opportunities as
you can. If you lack the expertise or time, a PR agency or
publicist can generate the editorial placements for you. But the
fee you pay them is a FRACTION of what it would cost you to buy
similar sized ad placements. And those publicity placements
typically lead to a much better consumer response right out of
the gate - which is just what you need to boost your business
to the next level.
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Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public
Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media
exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses,
experts and inventions. http://www.spreadthenewspr.com
todd@spreadthenewspr.com  (785) 842-8909
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