Publicity Magic

This site is dedicated to letting you in on some of the "insider secrets" of great publicity agents.

We all know they're out there.

Somewhere, hidden in some remote corner of some obscure office there's a person who makes things happen. They manage to make pet rocks a household item. They convince us that smoking is the "in" thing. They make the fact that "9 out of 10 people surveyed said…" sound important. They're the promotional gurus that make Madison Ave. and Main Street USA intersect.

They don't do it by being traditional. The plans they orchestrate are anything but "common". Talking dogs, walkathons, bumper stickers and kids meal toys all somehow become the tools of their trade.

That's what this site is all about. We're going to dive into the minds of some of the great publicity agents and explore the reasoning that led to their masterpieces. Then we're going to show you how to do it.

Let's begin by taking a close look at the concept of publicity. Exactly what is it?

Publicity is the sum total of all that is said about your company or product or yourself.

So our goal here isn't just to get publicity. Our focus is more aimed at finding ways to make sure we get plenty of good, profit-producing publicity. And that starts in-house.

First look at your business and how it's run. Do you have any skeletons hiding in your closets? What parts of your customer relations can come back to haunt you? Do customers have to wait an inordinate amount of time to talk to a live person on the phone? Is shipping regularly late? Are you late in paying your bills? These things may not sound like much, but down the road when your name starts showing up in lights, they're the kind of things the gossips at the cooler love to talk about. And they'll ultimately cost you millions in publicity.

They'll also force you to be less than forthcoming in your attack. If you know your delivery is notoriously slow, it might make you a bit timid to accept a speaking engagement at a club that has 3 members who are currently complaining about your service. You might shy away from local interviews with the paper or on radio, because you're afraid someone might "tell them your secret".

Being as clean on the inside as you'd like people to see you on the outside is ultimately worth its weight in sales receipts. It's something called integrity, and it's the easiest commodity to promote.

Once you "clean house" you have to find a way to become newsworthy.

There are two ways to sell a product.

First, there's the traditional route that includes buying ads, mailing out direct mail pieces and giving away t-shirts to customers. When you consider that people traditionally forget what they read or hear about in a relatively short time, you'll realize how expensive this method can get. It's not worth anything unless you can continue to pay for your advertising. People might walk in for a special sale, but they'll assume they don't need to come back until they read about your next "special event".

The second way to promote a business (or person, or product) is the topic of my do-it-yourself publicity kit (www.MillionDollarPublicity.com). It happens when you make your product newsworthy and then get the media to tell the world for you.

Nothing could be more powerful.

Most of us agree that reporters are the watchdogs of our society. They tell us when someone has committed a crime and they let us know when our team won the prize. They report on corrupt politicians and they list the winners of the local spelling bee. These are the eyes and ears of the world. There couldn't be a better spokesperson for your cause. The trick is, getting them on your side.

And that starts by you making news. You have to have something to offer that the general public is interested in hearing about. You need to find the angle you can offer that's unique in your industry. For example, what do you do that nobody else does? What can you offer that'll surprise, interest or intrigue the market? Find things (or create things) that sound like the stuff you'd read about in USA Today or the National Enquirer. Every business and person on the face of this planet has things like this.

You need a message that's short, sharp and irresistible. If you can't think of one, make one up. No, I'm not suggesting you lie about it, I'm suggesting you find something that's newsworthy to do, and then do it.

Everybody offers free trips to the Bahamas (or Vegas, or Hawaii). How about taking the exact same trip and instead of using it as an excuse to gather names for a mailing list, offer it as a grand prize for the family of a kid who can write the best letter explaining why The Red Cross (or the United Way or any other charitable organization) is so important in our world today. By tying in with a charity, your cause qualifies for Public Service Announcements and is much more likely to be considered news if you send out press releases.

The trick is to be sure your name is associated with the event - something like the "Elco Insurance 'I Believe in America' Essay Contest". You won't get to do long speeches about Elco Insurance, but the name will certainly get out there.

Or how about hiring someone to do a walkathon or a program for inner city kids? McDonalds certainly gets their share of free publicity by sponsoring the Ronald MacDonald houses.

Once you finish cleaning house, determining your long-range goals and finding an angle you can promote, you then put together a powerful press release. I cover that topic at my www.PressReleasesMadeEasy.com web site.

Finally you get your releases in the hands of the media and get ready to do your radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews. If you need help learning how to organize a publicity package, who to send it to & how and what to do once you get calls from reporters, you should invest in my "How to Get $1 Million Worth of Publicity…FREE" kit, which is available online at: www.MillionDollarPublicity.com

It doesn't take much to get going. Just getting organized, polishing your image and letting news people around the world know you're around. Once that's done, the media will gladly send a never-ending parade of customers to your door, eager to hear about what you have to offer them.

Want to discover more about how publicity can help you? Click on the links to the left.

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