Sincerely,

Jim Watson

Notice that the whole email is only a paragraph, because writers are flooded with emails and tweets from business people pitching their ventures. If you don’t hear back in a week, then place a call and say the following, whether you reach them in person or leave a voice mail:

Mary, Jim Watson from Power Games. I just wanted to make sure you got my e-mail last week about our new product that teaches immigrants about how to learn our history and culture. Please give me a call if you have an interest in speaking about it. Have a great day!

10 things that interest the media

Like the stock market, it’s hard to time the media and figure out what they are interested in at any given time, but here are 10 ways to enhance your chances:

1. Expertise— Look at the reporter’s area of expertise/assigned coverage. Are they focused on apps, biotechnology, entrepreneurship, money management, real estate, retail, small business or technology?
2. Geography— Are they local reporters, or do they write to a national audience? Know where you best fit.
3. Themes — If you are pitching to a magazine, you might look online to see what advertising theme they are pitching to advertisers, which will be in lockstep with their editorial content.
4. New products/services —- A unique new product like Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s wireless earbuds grab attention, or a law firm that provides free services to college entrepreneurs.
5. Social entrepreneurship — Businesses that effect the populace in a positive way, such as Roar for Good, which created a piece of jewelry that screams when the wearer is in trouble and sends a text message to let friends, family and the police where the wearer is located.
6. Causes — The media loves when a company gets behind a social problem that has gone overlooked.
7. Special discounts — If you are a major player in your region and you heavily discount your product/service, such as a pizzeria celebrating its anniversary by selling whole pies at 1980 prices.
8. Mergers — If you buy out a local competitor or get acquired by a large national company.
9. Awards — Whether you’re the Inc. Entrepreneur of the Year, the local chamber of commerce business person of the year or your company wins an award for innovation, service or best places to work, let the media know.
10. Television appearance— Your company is selected for Shark Tank or your product is being sold on QVC. All powerful and note worthy.

5 things the media isn’t interested In

The media is under siege in a way they have never experienced before. They need quality, interesting content, because there are so many competitors for people’s time. Major media has watched their reader and listener base shrink because of the variety of places to get information. Here is what the media isn’t interested in.

1. New website— Unless you’re Facebook and serve 15 percent of the world, no one cares about your revised website. There are exceptions s to the rule. If you developed a cool technology that makes your website provide holograms of your product, that might be cool.
2. New clients— The local paper might be interested if a decorator won the contract to redecorate the White House or the State Capitol, but isn’t interested in just a list of new clients.
3. New offices— Unless you have rehabbed a historical site or are taking the largest amount of space in your region, no one cares.
4. Hiring— Publications often have a section for new hires, and if you bring on a new CEO and you are a major employer, that is interesting. If you just hired a new manager for one of your stores, don’t bother sending an e-mail.
5. Press releases— The vast majority of press releases are never read because there is nothing unique, and often the information is too much to read. Just think about how busy you are and multiply it by 10, and now you understand what the media deals with. Also, try not to waste the media’s time with things no one would care about, or they will stop reading your emails/press releases.

Hiring A PR Firm

If you decide you are not going to handle publicity internally but hire a professional publicist, you should consider the following:

• Expertise— It isn’t a requirement for the PR firm to be expert in your product, service or industry, but it helps, because they know the media in a particular space.
• Bait and switch— You often meet a partner at a firm, and then once you are signed, someone else is running your account. Always ask to meet with the person responsible to make sure you are comfortable with them.
• Process and methodology— Ask them how they learn about your business, develop their pitch and make the pitch. They should provide a spreadsheet of who was contacted and when.
• Guarantees — There are no guarantees, and if anyone tells you they can get you in specific media, that rarely happens, even if the PR professional has a special relationship. The best a PR person can do is get you an audience. Your information has to intersect with their need or interest, and that comes down to right place, right time.

Lastly, if you want to know what the media is looking for join Haro. They list daily experts the media is looking for.