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-
Kam Weiler
"Look
at the free publicity I'm getting for the museum and the
collection. Do you know how many millions that's worth?"
-
Norton Simon
Free
Publicity Can Make You Rich
By
Paul Lawrence
Picture
this: It was 1992. I woke up and, as I did every morning, groggily
walked over to the answering machine. Just like many "kitchen-table" entrepreneurs,
I took all my business calls at home.
This
answering machine had one of those lights that blink once for
each message that you have. As I walked toward it, I noticed
that it was blinking the maximum number of times. I thought
that was strange, but before I could begin to check my messages
the phone rang.
I
answered it and was surprised to find an eager person on the
line who said she'd just read about my ballroom dance classes
and wanted to immediately schedule a lesson with me. As I proceeded
to schedule her, I tried to figure out where she'd read about
me.
Then
the call-waiting sound clicked. I apologized and asked her
to hold while I fielded the other call. When I clicked over,
I found myself speaking with another very enthusiastic person
who wanted to schedule a ballroom dance lesson with me.
Here's
what happened: I'd interviewed with a reporter for a major
metropolitan newspaper about a month before, and the article
had just appeared in the paper.
The
calls continued to pour in at that same frantic rate for the
entire day. And it took me hours to retrieve the messages that
were already on my answering machine. I managed to schedule
55 private lessons that week, and ended up with a waiting list
of about 200 potential clients. In one day, I went from being
a struggling ballroom dance teacher who survived on hot dogs
and macaroni and cheese to perhaps the busiest one in the entire
country.
I
went from teaching 8 to 10 lessons a week to teaching over
50 every week for the next year. And I used that extra income
to fund my business expansion so that I was able to maintain
that kind of schedule permanently.
I've
moved into other (even more lucrative) businesses over the
years, and have accumulated a file of about 12 major articles/interviews
about me that have benefited me in those businesses as well.
In
addition to the immediate cash benefit of a big public relations
release, you also reap powerful credibility points. It's human
nature for people to be impressed by celebrities. And though
an article in the local paper won't have the paparazzi stalking
you, you'd be surprised by how excited people will be to meet
you and, more importantly, do business with you after reading
it.
The
article that brought so much attention to my ballroom dance
classes described, in glowing terms, the impressions of a reporter
who watched me give a lesson to a young married couple in their
home. It was clear that the couple was really pleased, and
the reporter's writing reflected their enjoyment.
My
article took up about one-half of the front page of a section
of the paper - the type of prime placement that you couldn't
possibly buy for an ad, because it's not for sale. But, based
on somewhat comparable advertising rates, I'd estimate that
- if it could have been bought - that spread was worth around
$10,000.
How
can you get free publicity for your business? There are many
techniques, and I suggest using a multi-pronged approach. But
today I'm going to focus on just one of them - what I call "Relationship
Development."
Most
news organizations assign reporters to cover certain "beats." If
you want to get coverage for your business, it can be helpful
to determine which reporter might handle the beat you fit into
and develop a relationship with him or her.
You
never want to try to bribe a reporter to cover your story.
But keep in mind that a reporter will naturally be more receptive
to considering an article that is proposed by someone they
have a good relationship with. So if you can develop rapport
with the reporter who covers your beat, you increase your odds
of getting good media coverage.
Almost
all reporters' e-mail addresses are readily available, either
on the publication's website or (if it's a print publication)
within the actual publication. Reporters don't usually get
a lot of feedback on their articles (although controversial
subjects can generate a lot of mail). So, quite often, you
will get a personalized reply if you send the reporter a letter
or e-mail.
A
great way to get a dialogue going is to give the reporter a
sincere compliment. This is especially easy if the reporter
writes articles that are related to your field, because you'll
have a genuine interest and background in the subject matter.
Once you begin a dialogue, you can follow up by mentioning
your credentials and offering to provide input on articles
the reporter will be writing in the future. Even if the relationship
goes no further, you can count on having a receptive ear when
you pitch the idea of a story based on your business.
On
one occasion, I developed a relationship with a reporter who
covered the local entertainment scene. I was able to interest
him in writing an article on an "open to the public" ballroom
dance party that I was shooting for a cable TV show.
It
was important for me to have a "full house" for the
camera - and I needed to sell enough tickets to help defray
the cost of the event. Once again, the results garnered from
the article were mind-blowing. Before it even ran, I had enough
reservations to fill about one-third of the 300 seats. Even
though the article came out the day before the event, the phone
calls just poured in. Not only did we sell every available
seat, we actually sold standing-room-only - because people
wanted to get in so badly they were willing to pay to line
up against the wall!
Recently,
I developed a relationship with a reporter who covers the local
comedy scene. And he now includes my sketch comedy group's
events in his write-ups of what's going on in the area. He's
just doing his job - but he's only got so much space to work
with, so he has to make decisions as to who gets mentioned
and who doesn't.
That's
how the world of publicity works.
[Ed.
Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter, direct-mail
copywriter, and business author. He is also the creator of
the Quick
and Easy Microbusiness System, ETR's program for starting
a business for under $100.
Learn
more of Paul's publicity secrets with his Interview
DVD]
* Highly
Recommended *
The
IRS Only Wants One Thing - Everything You Own...
So
wouldn't you like to tell your boss - and all the others...
'Get
Your Stinkin' Hand Out Of My Wallet!'
If
you're serious about getting out from under the 9 to 5 daily
grind, I'd like to introduce you to a man who’s been helping
people...
He’ll
tell you exactly what to do... so you can tell all of
them to shove it!
-
Charlie Byrne
A
Case Against Coddling Your Employees
By
Michael Masterson
"When
employees feel appreciated, they're happy, and when they're
happy, they work best." This is a common view among workers
and new managers - but it's not one held by me. Nor is it held
by many of the experienced managers I know.
Effective
managers don't spend their time trying to make employees feel
appreciated. Why? Because it doesn't work. And because it doesn't
help.
A
manager's job is to make the business grow by producing and
selling good products. This is an outward-looking goal: It's
about your customers and the value you give them. Worrying
about how your employees think and feel is an inward goal which,
like most inward goals, is futile and self-destructive.
This
is, I recognize, a harsh-sounding thing to say. But leading
your business with an outwardly looking perspective is, at
least in my experience, the best way to keep your employees
motivated and happy.
This
doesn't mean that you should be insensitive to employees' working
conditions, health benefits, fringe benefits, and compensation.
My rule on that: Give as much as you can. Having a healthy
business means retaining good people. And if you're always
losing good employees to the competition, you will never be
a truly healthy company.
So
treat your employees as well as or better than your competition.
But don't think that will make them happy. Happiness will come
... but only when their focus, as well as yours, is on your
customers and the quality of your products and services.
[Ed.
Note: For more of Michael Masterson's ideas about leadership,
pick up a copy of Power
and Persuasion]
The
Truth About the So-Called "Dangerously High Fat" American
Diet
By
Al Sears, MD
There's
a debate over whether or not America's health problems are
the consequences of our notoriously "high-fat" diet.
Have you picked a side? Here's my take: Americans are not eating
a diet abnormally high in fat. And we never did. Before the
idea became commercialized, politicized, distorted by sentimental
vegetarian wishes, and adopted by a "groupthink" mass
media, no one really ever proved it.
Our "dangerously
high in fat" American cuisine averages 35 percent of calories
from fat. Surviving native pre-agrarian cultures average 38
percent of their calories from fat. It's not uncommon for them
to derive 50 percent or more of their calories from fat. Yet
they do not suffer from the epidemic of maturity-onset heart
disease afflicting America.
(Source: The
Paleo Diet by L. Cordain)
What's
more, many of these hunter-gatherers have added new starches
over the last several thousand years. Before they assimilated
these semi-domesticated crops of sorghum, yucca, yams, plantains,
or maize, their fat intake would have been considerably higher.
That
is our prototypical diet. We ate it for millions of years while
natural selection perfected the complementary match between
dietary intake and metabolic needs.
To
be sure, there are problems with modern dietary fat. But lowering
your fat intake will only worsen your deviation from your natural
diet. Notice from the graph that we also eat much more carbohydrates
than we used to. So try to lower your total carbohydrates and
stay away from the recent additions to our diet that have a
high glycemic index. (See ETR
#1773.) Some of the worst offenders are cereals, potatoes,
breads, and pastas.
Apart
from eating foods with a low glycemic index, there is an important
step you can take to begin to fix this problem you inherited
with your birth into the modern world. Tomorrow, I'll show
you how.
[Ed.
Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The
Doctor's Heart Cure and 12 Secrets to Virility, is a leading
authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]
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It's
Good to Know: The Relationship Between the Economy and Your
Investments
By
Charles Delvalle
Big
companies generally do better than small ones during economic
slowdowns, and growth companies generally do better than value
companies when the economy is strong. When you're choosing
investments, you should always take these business cycles into
account.
If
you're not sure which business cycle we're in at the moment,
look to the government for clues. According to Keynesian economic
theory, here's how the government can smooth out market cycles:
During
an economic boom, the government should cut spending, increase
taxes, and choke the money supply.
During
an economic slowdown, the government should increase spending
(on deficits), give tax breaks, and flood the markets with
money.
You
see the government practicing this brand of economics today
(although how well these actions work in practice is another
story). During the 2001 recession, taxes dropped and government
spending increased. Because gas prices and interest rates have
risen and act like a tax, this economic stimulus remained even
after the economy recovered.
But
now we're well into the economic recovery period - and, according
to some economists, in the early stages of an economic slowdown.
In other words, we're entering a cycle where you should orient
your portfolio toward big companies and value companies. Your
portfolio will weather the coming economic hard times much
better if you do.
[Ed.
Note: Charles Delvalle is the Managing Editor of ETR's Money
Insightnewsletter]
Word
to the Wise: Opprobrium
"Opprobrium" (uh-PRO-bree-um)
is scornful reproach or contempt.
Example
(as used by Janice
A. Radway in A Feeling for Books "Typically academic,
they disdainfully observed about many university press books
- 'too dry, too specialized, too self-absorbed for us.' In
their world, the word 'academic' was as much a term of opprobrium
as the word 'middlebrow' was in mine."
