8 Key Secrets To Consistently Getting TonsOf Free Publicity- And How To Use ItTo Send Your Sales Through The Roof

by-Bob Serling

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o1 8 Key Secrets To Free PubliciW Notes

8 Key Secrets To ConsistentlyGetting Tons Of Free Publicity- And How To Use It To Send YourSales Through The Roof

Lets start by clearing up a prominent misconception aboutpublicity. Most people believe that publicity is so valuable becauseits free. Sorry, but that just isnt so. Now, its certainly a valuablebonus - but it isnt th.._ee major factor that makes publicity sodesirable.

CREDIBILITY is what makes publicity such a valuable tool.You see, people today are far more sophisticated than theyve everbeen when it comes to advertising. They realize that advertising ispaid for. And that companies can buy space to say whatever theywish about their products and services. Because of this, yourpotential customers are far more skeptical then theyve ever been.

But publicity leaps this hurdle of skepticism. Because publicitycannot be bought, it appears to be endorsed by the medium thatmakes your announcement. And since people tend to trust themedia they watch, listen to, or read regularly, they accept yourmessage as being completely credible.

Thats why publicity can win you many more sales than anyform of paid advertising or promotion. Taking advantage of thisaccepted state of credibility can result in a windfall for yourcompany.

Why You Arent Getting As Much FREE PublicityAs You Could Be!

Youve just heard the good news, now heres the bad. Despitethe fact that publicity can bc so valuable to you- and despite thefact that publicity is actually pretty easy to get- most companies fall fiat on their faces when it comes to winningthis valuable coverage.

2 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters. And Web Marketin~ Pieee.,,Notes

This happens because you dont understand and use the fewsimple rules of publicity to your advantage. Which means that atremendous amount of waste is taking place because you should begetting nearly all of the publicity you want on a regular,consistent basis.

This situation is about to change. Because once you fmish thisreport, youll have everything you need to get all of the publicityyour business needs. When you start to put these techniques intoaction, you can easily double or triple the publicity coverage youget.

Well start by looking at the 8 Key Secrets that can skyrocketyour publicity results. Then Ill give you a toolkit of high-poweredtechniques you can use to become your own successful publicist.And finally, Ill reveal my Cant Miss Formula for winningcoverage from your most coveted media sources.

When were done, youll have everything you need to startcapitalizing on endless publicity opportunities. In just a short time,you should begin to experience a steady stream of qualified leadsand outright sales that result from a properly tuned publicityprogram.

The 8 Key Secrets to Consistently GettingTons of FREE Publicity

Getting consistent media coverage is actually much easier thanyou might think. Like anything else, there are rules to the game.The only problem is, most of the rules are kept secret. They arentwritten down and they take years to discover on your own.

But youve come to the right place. Here are the 8 Key Secretsthat you can use to make sure your publicity generates sizableexposure and profits!

KEY SECRET #1 You Must Generate Honest-to-goodnessNews About Your Product Or Service

Keep in mind that the primary job of newspapers, magazines,

3 8 Key Secrets To Free Publici~ Notes

radio, and television stations is to bring news to their audiences.Some media may also entertain, but their fundamental purpose isto deliver news that is of value to their particular audience.

What this means is that you have to translate the message aboutyour product or service into newsworthy information. Take heart -this doesnt mean that youll have to hire a moonlighting reporteror television anchor to help you create news. You simply have togenerate a news angle for presenting your information.

Now theres one more ingredient thats necessary to besuccessful on this point. The news that you generate must be ofvital interest to your targeted medias audience. Products often havea variety of appealing characteristics or benefits. You increase yourchances of getting coverage if you base your news on the strongestbenefit to your medias audience.

The best ways to generate news is to develop an angle aboutyour product or service that will either:

I. Solve a vital problem that the audience has

2. Show the audience how to achieve a highly desirable goal

3. Offer the audience something for FREE

The third point needs a little more explanation. Givingsomething away for FREE is a powerful publicity weapon. Peoplelove to get things for FREE. FREE samples, FREE demonstrations,FREE informational booklets, and FREE consultations all workexceptionally well in getting your prospects to respond.

The other distinct advantage to using a FREE offer is that itstrongly increases your chances of getting media coverage. Editorsand station managers love to give things away to their audiences -especially when its at your expense. So if you want to increase thecoverage you get, try this powerful weapon.

If you want to go all the way and win the most coveragepossible, develop a news angle that incorporates all three of theseelements. At the end of this report, youll find a news release

4 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters, And Web Marketlna PiPepciii Notes

(Sample Number 1) I created to promote my quarterly newsletter.It puts all three of these elements to work. Every time Ive mailedit out, Ive had exceptional results. Feel free to adapt it to yourspecific needs.

KEY SECRET #2 You Must Create And Carry Out A SolidPublicity Plan

O.K, so Key Secret #I was easy enough - a piece of cake, infact. But along comes Key Secret #2 and things start to get ugly.I can just imagine the curses against my heritage youre coming upwith. Because, bottom line, nobody likes to ~ (and very few ofus do any planning at all).

Bear with me for a minute. In a little while, Im going to showyou a fairly painless way to create your publicity plan. But moreimportantly, I want to show you why its absolutely CRITICALthat you take the time up from to create a publicity plan. Hereswhy:

Your level of success in winning valuable mediacoverage is directly proportional to how well youplan and carry out your campaign!

If you dont have a plan, you have no control over whatpublicity you get. The coverage you get will be due either to luckor the arbitrary decision of a media decision maker. By developinga solid, simple plan, you gain a measure of control over where youget coverage. A plan lets you take positive action. No plan reducesyour efforts to weak reactions to outside forces.

Creating your publicity plan is simple. All it takes is a littlehomework. Here are the steps to follow:

I. Select the audience (or audiences) most likely to buy yourproduct or service.

.

For each audience, select all of the media that they read,watch, and listen to. Ill give you precise details for doingthis in Key Secret #3).

5 8 Key Secrets To Free Publici~ Notes

3. Set a reasonable schedule for contacting each of thesemedia sources. This should cover a period of 3-6 months.

,

Follow your schedule and track your results. SampleNumber 2 at the back of this report gives you a form to layout your schedule and track your results.

.

Persistently follow-up those media sources that could bemost profitable to you. See Key Secret #4 for completedetails on this point.

Once you discover how simple it is to lay out a publicity plan,youll wonder why you resisted doing this for so long. As you cansee, its really easy to do. Which reminds me, dont let itssimplicity fool you. A plan as simple as the one in the example canyield potent results.

Heres why. First, it forces you to clearly and logically thinkout everything youre going to do for the next 3-6 months.Charting your course makes sure you know where youre startingfrom and where you want to get to.

Second, it makes carrying out an effective, ongoing campaigneasier. You just schedule your tasks and make sure they get done.

Third, its a great management tool that gives you all kinds ofexcellent feedback. Such as: Which media regularly respond toyour promotions? How long does it take key media sources torespond? Which media sources produce such strong results youllwant to give them increased priority?

Create your personal publicity plan today. Carry it out likeclockwork. Then reap the benefits!

KEY SECRET #3 How To Get The Best Results From YourMedia Sources

If youve read other books or reports on getting publicity,youll find that the majority instruct you to develop businessrelationships with every media source that you possibly can. Andto follow up every news release with a phone call. I say thats a

6 Million Dollar Ads, Sales Letters. And Web Mgrkefina Pi~o..--I- ..... w Notes

load of garbage.

First of all, if you follow that line of thinking, youll neverhave time to do anything else in your business besides run yourpublicity campaign! Getting the most from a good publicitycampaign is really just a matter of common sense and timemanagement.

Heres how you really get things done. You have to use ahybrid shotgun/rifle approach. Lets start with the shotgunapproach. To run this portion of your campaign, youll need tobuild a list of ~ magazine, newspaper, radio show, andtelevision show that you want coverage from. These are the sourcesyoull want to send a copy of every news release you generate.

To accomplish this, use the following reference books. Most areavailable at your public library.

BACONS PUBLICITY CHECKERR.H. Bacon Company332 S. Michigan AveChicago, IL 60604Features thousands of newspapers and magazines

HUDSONS NEWSLETTER DIRECTORYThe Newsletter Clearinghouse44 W. Market StreetRhinebeck, NY 12572Features more than 3000 newsletters

STANDARD PERIODICAL DIRECTORYOxbridge Communications150 Fifth Avenue #301New York, NY 10011Features over 30,000 magazines and newsletters

WORKING PRESS OF THE NATIONNational Research Bureau310 S. Michigan AvenueChicago, IL 60604Features over 25,000 newspapers, magazines,

7 8 Key Secrets To Free PublicityJ Notes

radio, and television stations

U.S. PUBLICITY DIRECTORYJohn Wiley & Sons605 Third AvenueNew York, NY 10158Features thousands of newspapers, magazines,radio, and television stations

Once youve built your list, youll want to extract a limitedsubset of important contacts who you might want to follow up witha phone call. This is your hit-them-between-the-eyes rifle list. Theproper use of this list is where effective time management comesinto play.

The media sources youll be using are fraTxled, overworkedpeople with impossible deadlines. Its not uncommon for it to takeI0-20 phone calls just to get through to one of these sources. Infact, count on this as a rule[ As you can see, this can be a verytime consuming process. So youll need to be very conservativeabout how many sources you select for follow up calls to keep thisfrom becoming an overwhelming task.

Heres one more reason why I dont feel a lot of follow upcalls are necessary. You see, the media is hungry, even desperatefor good news. They have a tremendous amount of space to filleach and every day. Because this is unfailingly true, your chancesof getting coverage for a truly appropriate item are excellent,regardless of whether you call someone or not.

What I recommend is a campaign where 95% of your contactsare made exclusively by mail. To track your results, use a replypostcard like the one in Sample Number 3 at the back of thisreport. For the remaining 5%, youll need to determine when itstruly of value to invest your valuable time trying to break throughthe telephone barrier. The criteria you should use to determine thisare:

1. How valuable would this coverage be to you?

2. How likely are you to win this coverage?

8 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters. And Web Marketino pi.~..~IU7 ...... ,.N. otes

If you sell accounting software for personal computers, yourtypical customers would be small businesses and investors. It isntlikely that youd be Johnny Carsons featured guest. But a keymention in Success, Entrepreneur, or Business Week could returnhandsome profits. Those are the media sources youll want toconcentrate on following up with a phone call. So pick your shots,and pick them carefully[

KEY SECRET #4 Heres The Main Reason Companies FailTo Get All Of The FREE Publicity TheyNeed

Time and time again, clients ask me this question, "How do Iimprove the results of my publicity campaign?" For the vastmajority of my clients - and this probably includes you- the answer is:

PERSISTENCE

See, most people already know this, but they want to foolthemselves. They want to believe that I can impart some mysticalsecret that will solve all of their problems. But you see, every timeI wave my marketing wand, I come up with exactly the sameanswer: PERSISTENCE

Persistence means that you develop a solid publicity plan andstick to it. This is the vital ingredient that will bring you thesuccess you want so badly. Because you have to realize that a goodcampaign takes 3-6 months to work effectively, and sometimeslonger.

Also, a publicity campaign is often most successful if itscarried out in phases. Here again, persistence is a key ingredient.Lets say your ultimate goal is to get coverage in large circulationnational magazines. During the first phase, youll send your mediakit to all of the vital sources on your list. These will include localsources, sources within your state, and sources on a national level.

Some of these sources will give you some coverage whileothers wont. Thats to be expected. In the first phase, the majorityof the coverage that you get will be from local media sources. You

9 8 Key Secrets To Free Publici~ Notes

might also get some statewide exposure and occasionally somenational exposure. But, for all practical purposes, lets assume thatthe coverage you get is local.

Being a savvy marketer, your next phase involves making a clipsheet that features quotes from the publicity you received in thefirst phase. Now you mail your media packet again - but this timeyou include your clip sheet.

Youll fund that a snowball affect takes place. Publicitygenerates more publicity. Publicity clips increase your credibility.They also force your key sources to think about whether othersources arc offering vital information that they arent. Whichresults in more of these sources jumping on the bandwagon, andmore publicity for you.

Heres another reason why persistence is so crucial. Manymedia sources receive thousands of media packets every week.These folks arc overloaded with material and work at a hectic pace.

Often, theyll barely notice your first media kit, but yourproduct or company name may enter their subconscious. It maytake two or three or ten times before you win the coverage youwant - but persistence wil._.Al make it happen.

Want a great example of persistence at work? I know of anauthor who wanted to get an important columnist to review hisbook. He sent the reviewer a media kit with updated clipping sheetsevery month for over a year.

At first, the reviewer was mildly annoyed. Then hc becameirritated. But fmaUy, he decided to review the book. The columnisttold mc that anyone who was so determined deserved a bit ofspecial consideration. Always remember: persistence pays off!.

KEY SECRET #5 The Difference Between Mediocre ResultsAnd Winning Results Is OftenINGENUITY

When youre trying to get publicity coverage, youre one ofliterally thousands who are competing for the same coverage. To

10 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters. And Web Marketina Pier,,wr - --- Notes

increase your chances of becoming successful at consistentlywinning the coverage you need, it helps to stand out from thecrowd.

How do you achieve this? By using ingenuity. And bybecoming an ingenious opportunist! A little ingenuity costsnothing, but can return lucrative results. To put your ingenuity towork, you need to do two things.

First, you need to start thinking of news angles that are a bitmore creative than your competition. Heres a great example of aningenious opportunist at work. A few years back, Melvin Powers(who has sold over 200 million books for his publishing company!)needed to publicize his line of books for horse lovers. These bookswere going to be exhibited at a trade show. He sent press kits to allof the reviewers whose readership included horse lovers.

Now, heres the ingenious part! Included in his press kit was aposter of a lithesome, nude young lady leading a horse through ameadow of wildflowers. The caption on the poster read, "Followmc to Booth 1381 at the Booksellers Trade Show! Ill personallyautograph your poster."

When members of the press and major book buyers arrived atthe show, hordes of them headed straight for Booth 1381! And sureenough, the lovely model was there to greet them (but this time shewas fully clothed).

And let me tell you, Melvin Powers sold tons of his books!

You too can become an ingenious opportunist. Another way toaccomplish this is by seeking out publicity angles in the everydayevents that are going on all around you. There are unlimitedopportunities for creating news about your product or service.

Heres another example of what I mean. Recently, while drivingto work, I heard a limousine company make ingenious use ofpublicity. A woman called a popular FM radio station to complainabout the service she had received from Limousine Service A. Thelimo had broken down, the company refused to correct the problem- which ruined her evening, and was giving her the runaround

II 8 Key Secrets To Free Publici~ Notes

about refunding her money.

The DJ proceeded to get the manager of Limo Service A on thephone to see if he could correct the situation. On the air, themanager of Limo Service A proceeded to be rude and evasive,refusing to do anything at all to resolve the problem.

Upon hearing this, the manager of Limo Service B, who was aningenious oppornmist, seized the opportunity. He called in, went onthe air, and offered the woman a FREE evening of Iimo servicewith a complimentary bottle of champagne. He said he wanted tohelp solve the womans problem and demonstrate that not all limoservices were unscrupulous. He was friendly, helpful, and ready toserve.

For the remainder of the show, the DJ kept talking about howwonderful Limo Service B was. This savvy marketer generatedover an hours worth of FREE coverage on a major radio stationthat appeals directly to his target audience.

And how did he do this? By solving a problem, helping hisprospect achieve an important goal, and giving away something forFREE! An ingenious use of an opporumity as it happened!

You too can become an ingenious oppornmist. Try this littleexercise. For the next three days, read your newspaper and listento the radio. Pick out at least three opportunities that you couldturn into publicity for your product. Once youve been bitten by thebug, youll start to see opportunities all over the place!.

One last thing. Start a swipe file of ingenious promotions.Every time you hear of something that someone else has done toeffectively promote their company, jot it down in your swipe file.This will get your creative juices flowing and give you an ongoingsource of inspiration.

KEY SECRET #6 Piggybacking: How To Pyramid ThePublicity You Get Into Immense SalesSuccess

In Key Secret ~, I showed you how to generate waves of

12 Million Dollar Ads, Sales Letters. And Web Marketino Pieeo~u Notes

publicity by running your campaign in phases. That is, starting outlocally and progressing to national exposure. Key Secret #6 takesadvantage of a similar concept as it relates to your advertising.Here Ill show you how to marry your publicity efforts to youradvertising for maximum results. I call this techniquePIGGYBACKING.

The object of PIGGYBACKING is to use your publicity tofortify your advertising campaign. Here are four piggybacktechniques you should try.

Reprint your publicity and include it in mailings to yourcustomers. This can be an entire article or a sheet withexcerpts from your best coverage. Always be sure toprominently include the name of your source. And use theirlogo whenever you can.

.

Have one or more of your most favorable pieces blown upto poster size and display it prominently in your place ofbusiness. This is especially successful if" you place it in awaiting or lounging area.

,

When you get a large response to a publicity piece,advertise in the media that gave you coverage. This is justplain common sense. Whenever you identify a vein of gold,work it!

Dont advertise in the issue where you get free coverage.Run your ad in the following issue so you make twosuccessive impressions on your prospective customers. Andalways quote from your favorable coverage in your ad.

.

Quote from your publicity in your advertising. "As Seen OnTV!" "As Seen On National Television!" Or, "Heres whatJane Jones of the Daily Blurb said about our money-savingWhamblasters!" Use statements like these to lendbelievability to your advertising.

These four techniques piggyback the credibility andbelievability youve garnered from your publicity onto youradvertising. Use them for maximum impact!

s K~v Secrets To Free PublicityNotes

KEY SECRET #7 Tapping Into The Immense Power OfCommunity Services

Working with your local community services groups is anexceptional way to win loads of publicity for your business. Ingeneral, these types of promotions work best for retail businesses.But with a little creativity, they can be adapted to nearly any typeof business.

Im going to show you two valuablc techniques for workingwith local charities and community groups. Although thesetechniques arc quite different, they both share a similar quality -theyre both activ.__..~c promotions.

By this, I mean that the object of them is to actively bring anew flow of customers into your business. This is quite differentthan how youve probably handled your community involvementprograms m the past. Usually, companies use passive techniqueslike donating a product to bc auctioned off or bc used as a doorprize. This really doesnt earn you much exposure at all. And itprobably brings in few, if any, new customers.

When you use a passive technique, heres what happens. A fewpeople hear your company name, but theyre really paying attentionto the gift itself. And nobody leaves with any information aboutyour product or company!

Thats all about to change! The techniques Im going to showyou arc specifically designed to help charitable organizations bygetting people to come into your place of business to collect theirreward.

The first technique takes a lot of planning and cfforL so youllonly want to do this once or twice a year. Lets say the Boy Scoutscontact you to help raise money to send needy kids to summercamp. Instead of a donation, recommend that you provide themwith a means of raising even more money. What youre going todo is sponsor a Boy Scout Day at your business.

Heres how it works. You donate 50% of all your profits(notice I said profits, not daily receipts) to the Boy Scouts. Their

14 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters. And Web Marketina Piprpc.Notes

job is to get as many people as possible into your place of businesson that day. The more people that come in, the more money theyllmake. Youll promote the event also, but its their effort that willreally boost your traffic.

O.K., theres only one thing missing to get maximum mileagefrom this promotion. Can you guess what it is? Thats right - itsyour piggyback.

Heres how you work your piggyback to increase your chancesof converting these new customers to repeat customers. You giveevery customer a "Thank You" coupon courtesy of the Boy Scouts.

As their way of thanking these good folks for helping themraise money, the Boy Scouts give every customer a coupon goodfor a discount the next time they visit your place of business.Youll profit from the extra business as well as standing a goodchance of gaining more repeat business.

The second technique is much less time consuming, so it canbe carried out on an ongoing basis. I call this technique theIncentive Donation because your donation is used as an incentiveto sell whatever the charitable group is offering.

For example, lets say you own an ice cream shop. Your localGirl Scout chapter is having a raffle to raise funds. They want youto donate free ice cream to be served at the raffle. In exchange,theyll give your business a plug at their event.

Hold on! Does this do anything to actually get people into yourstore? Are you getting any true benefit from this at all? Not achance!

What youre doing is as close to making a cash donation as youcan get. Now, theres nothing wrong with that if making a cashdonation is your true intention. Just be clear about what youredoing - and about how little youll actually gain.

Heres how you help the Girl Scouts and help yourselfi Youhave the Girl Scouts print your message on the back of their raffletickets. The back of the ticket bears a coupon that entities the

15 8 Key Secrets To Free Publici~ Notes

holder to fifty cents off of your double-dip cone, which ordinarilysells for $1.35.

Now the Girl Scouts can use this as a promotional angle to sellmore tickets. They tell prospective buyers that a ticket costs $1.00and they get fifty cents ba.ck when they buy your ice cream. TheGirl Scouts win, the ticket buyers win, and you win!

So far, so good - but were not quite through here. Now thatyoure fast becoming a savvy marketer, I probably dont have totell you that you have one more chance to piggyback thisopportunity. Youre going to seize this oppommity to get yourselfsome media exposure.

You do this by sending a news release to all of the appropriatemedia. And since you capitalize on every available oppornmity,you make sure that the news release is printed on the communityorganizations stationary. Just another example of tapping into thepower of community services!

KEY SECRET #8 Become A Numbers Addict

If you walk away with nothing else from this report, I hopeyoull remember this:

Measuring your results andknowledge youve gained frompublicity will increase yourexponentially.

applying thethis to yoursuccess rate

The truth is, marketing is primarily a science with just dabs ofart applied here and there. No kidding. The science of planning andcarrying out your plan followed by the science of measuring andapplying your results will bear more fruit than any "creative" fixyou can think of.

Heres whats needed to successfully capture all of theinvaluable information youll need. You have to start thinking ofevery publicity piece you place as direct marketing. Its absolutelyessential to include a key code with everything you send out andin every piece of coverage you get.

16 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters, And Web Marketincr Pipr.cNotes

I know - I can hear you groaning now about how tedious it isto key 600 news releases. Thats true. It does require some effort.But that effort will pay off big. Once you begin to track yourresponse, to see which media sources provide the best results,youve got the ammunition you need to drive your future publicityand advertising campaigns.

This market intelligence will help you target the golden areaswhere your most lucrative profits are. So key everything yougenerate with a special box number, department, or suite. If youdont, you re throwing away money.

Ingenious Ideas You Can Use To Start Cashing In OnFREE Publicity Today

Alright, youve learned the 8 Key Secrets that willgive yourpublicity campaigns a real shot in the arm. But were not throughyet. What follows is a wealth of ingenious ideas you can use fightaway to generate tons of valuable coverage.

Donate samples of your product to prominent publicfigures. If you get a response - which is quite likely withmembers of Congress and the Senate - publicize it. Themedia loves news involving prominent people.

Sponsor a contest. Restaurants can give away dinner forfour to the winner of a worst recipe contest. Travel agenciescan sponsor a weekend getaway. And your business caneasily come up with its own unique contest ideas to use forpublicity.

Sponsor an award. This is especially useful for servicecompanies and book publishers. But since it can be seriousor frivolous, nearly any business should be able to takeadvantage of this technique.

Cater to your local media. Local editors and producers lovehometown success stories. Since most media sources belongto national wire services or syndicates, its also possible thatthis could snowball into national coverage.

17 8 Key Secrets To Free Publici~,Notes

Send your news releases to the national wire services.Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI)are handled through regional offices. Call information to getthe phone numbers for your city. Then call and get theappropriate names and addresses for sending your newsrelease.

Become known as a quotable expert. Once youve receivedcoverage, be sure to let your media contact know thatyoure available for quotes at any time. Inform them of anyother areas related to your product that youre an expert on.This saves your media source valuable time when they rein a crunch for quotable information.

Send thank you notes whenever you receive coverage. Fewpeople follow this common courtesy. Editors and producersare human, and appreciate being treated courteously.

To create news, tie in to holidays, special events, curremevents, and popular trends. For example, two incomefamilies are a trend that many products and services arebeing developed for. These products are naturals forgenerating news for parenting magazines, lifestyle sectionsof newspapers, and productivity sections of executiveoriented publications.

Heres a gem you should know about and use regularly.Chases Annual Evems lists thousands of holidays andspecial events that you can tie your publicity to. Justthumbing through it will produce a wealth of valuableideas. You can fmd it in your public library or order it fromContemporary Books, 180 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago,IL 60601.

Trade journals publish news of conferences, conventions,seminars, and staff promotions. Use these to get frecvisibility for your company.

Donate your product or services to a charitable event. Thensend news releases to let the media know youve done so.Charity events are traditionally given ample coverage by themedia. You can help worthy causes and get valuable

18 Million Dollar Ads. Sales Letters. And Web Marketina P;.~..!i- ..... Notes

publicity at the same time.

Offer something for FREE whenever possible. I know Ivetalked about this many times before, but its worthrepeating. If your product is fight for a media source, aFREE offering is almost too juicy for an editor, or stationmanager to pass up.

This technique is my personal favorite because it works sowel...._JI! In fact I never put out a news release for my ownbusiness without offering something for FREE!

Trade Shows and Industry Conferences are perfect forpassing out fliers about your product. And savvy marketerthat you are, your fliers always include a FREE offer to getthe maximum response no_._ww. And a key code to allow youto track and measure that response.

Serlings Cant-Miss Formula For WinningFREE Coverage From Your Most HighlyCoveted Media Sources

What would you give to get FREE coverage in the I0 mostimportant media sources for your product? A lot, Ill bet. Well,start sending me those Ferraris and lewd propositions .now Oustkidding, gang). Because, Im going to show you how to doprecisely that!

Heres my Cant-Miss Formula:

Select the top 15 media sources youd like to see featureyour product. Send each of these sources a news release(along with a single sheet of your press clippings when youhave them) once a month - ~ month for the next 12months.

After your third mailing, call those sources who havent yetgiven you coverage. Ask them what you need to do tomake your information more appropriate for their audience.The key words here are your information, NOT yourproduct! Use what they tell you to modify your campaign

19 8 Key Secrets To Free Publicity_ Notes

accordingly.

Keep mailing every month and follow up with a phone callevery three months. Within a year, your persistence shouldpay off. You should easily win coverage from at least 10 ofthe crucial sources on your list!

A Few Last Words

Congratulations! Youve just completed your first step on thejourney to becoming a highly successful publicist. Youvediscovered the 8 Key Secrets that you can use to start boostingyour publicity success immediately. Ive also given you a varietyof ideas you can use for publicizing your business. And you nowknow how simple it is to generate the kind of publicity you needfrom your most crucial sources.

I hope youll put what youve learned into action starting now.Because information is just information until you give it someaction. Its action that really produces results. And what Ive shownyou here are dozens of opporttmities to take action.

If you dont take action, the results are predictable. . The sameold weak, hit-and-miss results that most companies settle for. Dontlet that happen to you!

You now know how easy it really is to generate consistent,hi zh-quality publicity. Go out and do it. Do it for the sake of yourbusiness. And do it for the sake of the people whose lives will bemade better from having used your product or service!

When you do put these opportunities into action, please let mehear from you. Im never done learning. Im always interested inhearing about techniques that work. The way you use the ideas inthis report will carry your personal touch. Id love to hear aboutyour results!

-.(,

Sample Number 1: A News Release that delivers real news, solves a problem,and offers something for free

news release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Bob Serling

(555) 555-5555

FREE BULLETIN FOR IMPROVING ADVERTISING RESULTSOFFERED TO SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

9 Key Points To Make Sure Your Ads And Promotions Get More Leads, More Sales, and MoreProfits is a bulletin especially created to help small business owners dramatically improve theresults of their advertising. Its particularly useful for small businesses, start-up operations, anden~eurs.

For many small businesses, creating effective advertising can be a guessing game. Too often, small

business owners find that their ads get disappointing results. Their attempts to determine why anad failed can also be confusing and frustrating.

To help solve this problem and its costly consequences, Los Angeles based marketing consultantBob Serling has created 9 Key Points To Make Sure Your Ads And Promotions Get More Leads,More Sales. And More Profits. "The most important factor in any ad campaign is who youre

trying to reach," Serling says. "This has to be your starting point." "Concentrating on other areasfirst can be a wasted effort."

With this primary concept as a foundation, the bulletin shows business owners how to solve theiradvertising problems and increase sales. It provides step-by-step techniques for developing the kind

of customer-oriented advertising that gets the best results. The bulletin also explains how to selectthe media and mailing lists that will draw maximum response from your target audience.

A free copy may be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Profit MarketingHotline, 123 Main Street, San Diego, CA 90000.

- END -

Sample Number 2: Form For Successfully Scheduling and Tracking Your Publicil3"

MEDIA PROMOTION NAME DATE RESULTS

1 Daily Press News release Sue Kendall 3/15 Will run- Free sample on 5/14

2 KLAE Called in Tom Bogard 3/22 70 orders- offered fr~dinner

3 Direct mail Free dessert 4/05 +24%with dinner business

4 Exchange with Discount coupon Wendy Jackson 4/21 to followWendys Wine See #34Tastings

34 Follow up 39 newclients

Sample Number 3: Your Action-Getting Reply Card

We have mceivsd your News Release about:

We will take the following action:

Your product will be featured on (date):

Your product will be featured in the near futurem

Please send a photograph of the productm

Please send a complimentary sample of the product

Name of publication of station:

Address:

cry:

Comments:

State: .-.-.--- Zip: