DIY PR Archives | Jane Tabachnick & Co

Are You The Best-Kept Secret in Your Niche ?

Being the best-kept secret in your market is a disservice to you, your clients and the world. Most brands, like my clients, LOVE what they do. They also create great impact in the lives and businesses of those that they work with.

This inspires me and makes me proud.

It also makes me mad…

What? It makes you mad Jane?

I know this applies to some of your companies, my dear, talented readers….

The problem is…..

You may still the best-kept secret…

So… the best-kept secret I want you to meet is YOUR COMPANY! You have a gift, you have a message that needs to be heard. Your brand can make a difference in peoples’ lives, health, wealth…. And so your not being seen enough – that makes me mad – how can your brand share it’s gifts, services and products if the right people don’t know about you?

I want to help you so that more people know about you and what you can offer. Simple mindset shifts, as well as learning more about simple publicity you can do for your business can be both fun and profitable. Often the solution is simpler than you think!

So I have a question – what stops you? Why isn’t your company getting the word out, getting more visibility and reaching more people who want and need you and what you offer?

I have a sneaky suspicion…. As well as how to fix it… and I’ll share with you in an upcoming post. I am also going to be talking about this on Facebook, so please follow me there and like my page so you get notified when I add content or go Live. I’ve also created a new program to help you Magnify Your Message.

Of course, I love to hear from you… Please comment below.

PR vs. Public Relations

In this Flash Briefing – I explain the difference between Public Relations and Publicity.

2020 PR and Authority Marketing Predictions

Hear from experts: David Meerman Scott, Michelle Garrett, Lisa Fahoury….

I invited a few experts to share their 2020 PR and Authority Marketing Predictions
on my Flash Briefing – The PR Authority Minute

Our first prediction comes from:

David Meerman Scott is a Business Growth Strategist, entrepreneur, advisor to emerging companies, and bestselling author of 11 books including “Fanocracy” and “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.”

[click_to_tweet tweet=”The decade of the 2020s and the year 2020 is about true human connection – David Meerman Scott @DMScott #2020PRPredictions http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions ” quote=”The decade of the 2020s and the year 2020 is about true human connection – David Meerman Scott “]

Listen to David’s entire prediction:

Michelle Garrett is a PR consultant and writer whose work regularly appears in PR Daily, Muck Rack, Meltwater and more.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”As trust declines, organizations will need to focus on building and maintaining their reputations – Michelle Garrett @PRisUS #2020PRPredictions #PR #Predictions http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions” quote=”As trust declines, organizations will need to focus on building and maintaining their reputations – Michelle Garrett”]

Listen to Michelle’s entire prediction:

Lisa Fahoury is a long-time copywriter and chief creative officer at NJ-based content marketing firm Fahoury Ink. [click_to_tweet tweet=”2020 is going to be the tipping point for content overload – Lisa Fahoury @FahouryInk #2020PRPredictions #PR #Predictions #Content http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions” quote=”2020 is going to be the tipping point for content overload – Lisa Fahoury “]

Listen to Lisa’s entire prediction:

Check back for more expert predictions – soon!

What are your 2020 PR Predictions? Share them in the comments below

2020 PR Predictions Authority Marketing David Meerman Scott Flash Briefings PR Authority Minute PR Predictions

Why You Need to Promote the Media Mentions You Get

Many companies make the mistake of sitting back and waiting for sales and opportunities to come in as a result of the media mentions they get. This is both a mistake and a missed opportunity.

The reason that your media mentions are better than advertising, content you create, or social shares, is that being written about in the media gives you free visibility and instant expert positioning as well as the impression that you are being endorsed by the media. Since people trust the media, for the most part, this provides third-party credibility.

Getting featured in the media is a positive nod to your brand. Media mentions are also the best type of content possible. They are sometimes referred to as earned media. This is because your brand has done something the media deems worthy of writing about. This could be can be anything from successful projects, a unique perspective, the way you are transforming an industry or sector, your methodology….

Let’s face it – no one cares what you say about your brand – but they do listen to what someone else says about it.

Here is why not promoting the media mentions you get is a mistake and missed opportunity:

The mistake – assuming your media mention gets seen by your ideal audience and as much of that audience as possible

It is a noisy world. We are all bombarded with messages in our inbox, online, at the supermarket checkout line.

Imagine for a moment that your company gets featured in the print edition of the New York Times. Congratulations – you just got in front of over 400,000 new people. Of course, not all of them will be your ideal prospect, but there will be a segment that is.

Consider for a moment the following:
only a portion of the 400,000 will read the article
Some of your existing customers, partners or prospects in your pipeline may not see the article or read it

The missed opportunity – not leveraging and amplifying your earned media. Now that you have third party credibility from a recognized media outlet, this may be the best brand asset you have – today and years down the road. It’s news worth sharing widely and often. This includes all of your stakeholders – from your employees, partners, vendors, customers to prospects.

5 Bad Behaviors That’ll Leave You on a Journalist’s Blacklist

5 Bad behaviors that will land you on a journalist's blacklist

The inbox and the telephone are tools of the trade for a journalist. They can be useful platforms that deliver the next exceptional story or be the bane of their existence. Due to the latter, the journalist’s blacklist was created.

While it’s their job to be open to unsolicited pitches, journalists draw the line at certain behaviors that they will not tolerate. Do one of them even once, and you could get banned forever.

While this isn’t brain surgery, it’s worth revisiting these basic rules for successful pitching. Bad behavior, just like bad pitches, can come from individuals, PR professionals, corporate staff, influencers, or bloggers alike. Don’t be that person.

Here are the top five things that will get you banned by journalists.

1. Lying

Never lie to a journalist. They are smart, trained professionals who will find out the truth eventually. While this may seem obvious, any of these behaviors will brand you as less than truthful by journalists:

• Outright lies

• The omission of key details

• Withholding information

• Not presenting a ‘downside’ to the story, the product, or the main subject [that you are aware of]

Journalists never appreciate being blindsided or embarrassed when information ‘they should have known about’ comes to light after they have pitched a story to their editor, or even worse when it becomes known about a story that has already been published.

While your initial pitch should be brief, once a journalist has expressed interest it’s time to reveal everything you know about the story or risk being banned later.

2. Offering bribes

Do not offer any kind of compensation for coverage; this includes money, gifts or barter offers. Offering to share their article with your army of followers on social media as an incentive to write about you, your product, or client, is also taboo if intended as a bribe. Gifts of any kind, including an offer of any form of compensation, are against journalism’s code of ethics and will get you shown the exit faster than you can blink.

Instead, pitch a better story, one that they will want to write about. Make sure it’s on a topic that they cover.

3. Pitching the same story

Most journalists prefer or insist on an exclusive on a story. If you are pitching more than one outlet on a story with the same angle, you need to let the journalist know about this up front.

Don’t pitch the same story that has been covered before in a similar outlet or market, and most definitely don’t keep that fact hidden.

Journalists don’t want to appear as though they have an inside track and like to be the first to break an original story. No one likes to be a copycat.

Instead, find a new angle or an update to your story that hasn’t been covered before. Offer the journalist an exclusive for a limited period, and you will have much greater chance of success.

4. Making demands

There is no situation where it is appropriate to make firm demands or requests of journalists. This includes asking for specific placement, insisting a photo or hyperlink gets included or any other requests.

Whether or not a journalist or publication decides to run a story is at their discretion.

The specifics of what they choose to include in their coverage is totally up to them. Asking nicely, pleading, or hounding the can all get you banned from ever working with them again.

5. Late or missed deadlines

Journalists work on deadlines, and as a reliable source, you want to meet requested delivery dates for information, a quote, or a photo that has been promised.

The worst thing you can do is leave a journalist hanging on a story or miss a deadline by which you agreed to get back to them.

Not returning calls in a prompt fashion, can also cause them to miss a deadline altogether, which can be catastrophic on their end, giving them a good reason to decide to sever your relationship.

Things happen in life. Perhaps you can’t gather the information they are seeking from you or can’t get approval to use a photo they requested. Let the journalist know as soon as possible so that they can find an alternate source or kill the story with enough time not to leave a blank hole in their publication.

I like to think about how I can make it easier for a journalist to do their job. If you can do that, as well as bring them excellent stories, and follow these simple rules, you don’t need to worry about being banned. In fact, you can develop great working relationships with journalists. You will often see them start to treat you like a trusted resource, seeking you out when they need a source for a story.

This post first appeared on Muckrack.com

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Does an Author Need Both PR and Social Media

I was recently asked by a fellow publisher “whether an author with limited time and resources should put them into social media strategies rather than trying to include publicity or even going exclusively the publicity route.” Does an author need PR and Social Media to succeed?

Here is my response:

Good question. The first thing I always want to know is where does your audience live, as it should inform a lot of where to put your efforts. If you target an audience that is rarely on social media, then that would not be a great use of all your efforts.

I consider social media as part of ‘the media’ nowadays

Earned media [others writing about you, talking about you…] is the most valuable type of content you can have [no one cares or believes what you say about you to some extent, especially on social media]. Others talking about you is social proof, third party credibility, perceived as an endorsement…

In our review economy [also called trust economy], people trust:

recommendations from friends and family
online reviews & recommendations and
the media [source: Nielson]

You have probably heard it said that people buy from those they know, like and trust… so media coverage/mentions are in the top 3 factors that influence buying decisions

The media are respected, and as it is they who decide what they write about; being the ‘selected one’ has additional value – i.e. they featured you over all the other experts out there.

When you are featured in the media, you get the halo effect of being associated with their respected brands…. that is why we say, as seen in the NY Times or cite a NY Times book review, and we don’t say “as seen on Facebook” or cite a Facebook book review, no matter how glowing.

As you can probably tell by now, I think that authors need PR and Social Media to succeed; I recommend authors use a combination of PR and social media… yes, even when time and resources are challenged [when aren’t they?]… all the more reason to learn how each medium works and learn how to maximize your efforts.

Want to learn more about how to do your own publicity? Please check out our Magnify Your Message program

book marketing book promotion publicity for authors self-publishing Social Media

Do Your Own Book Publicity

The top 3 challenges authors have with book publicity

If you build it, they will come. It turns out that readers and clients don’t just show up. Even established authors use book publicity to promote their work.

With one book published on Amazon every 5 minutes, it can be hard to get your book in front of your target readers. Unfortunately, this can be a tough realization for you authors who work so hard on your book to then publish it, only to hear crickets.

I hear this unfortunate story all too often. The two biggest concerns I hear from authors are getting more visibility and how to leverage their book to get more clients. The fastest way to accomplish these two is with book publicity.

Publicity done right can put you in front of your ideal audience, establish instant credibility, instant expert status and be perceived as an endorsement from the media. It gives you free access to a wider audience, while positioning you as a top expert. It also creates a sense of ‘know, like and trust’ that is needed before people will buy from you. Because of these factors, book publicity can help you convert your media coverage into paying clients when done right.

Many of the authors that I speak with aren’t using publicity due to 3 major challenges. I hear these challenges so often, that I have come to call them the Big 3:

Lack of Time
Lack of Money
Lack of Know-how

Due to these 3 factors, authors often stay stuck and don’t do anything regarding publicity for themselves and their book. Or, they mistakenly think that they need a big, expensive PR firm to do the publicity for them. Billionaire and Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban has said, “Never hire a PR firm.” He and I believe that you are the best person to do your own book publicity because you are the most passionate about your book and work, and know the most about it.

Why I Created the Author Visibility Builder Program

I feel so strongly that authors like you are missing out on what can be the single biggest leverage point in getting more visibility, readers and new clients – publicity, and it doesn’t have to be that way. I want to show you how to succeed with PR even if you have little time, a tiny budget and have little or no PR know-how. I felt I had to help authors; you put so much work into your book, you deserve to reap the benefits book publicity can provide.

That’s why I created the Author Visibility Builder program. It’s for non-fiction authors just like you who want to do your own book publicity. You know that if you just get in front of your ideal audience, you can share more of your gifts as well as turn more of your audience into paying clients.

The Author Visibility Builder program will empower you to do your own book publicity, give you a simple system you can easily follow to do your publicity and get results. I’ll also show you how to leverage the publicity you get to generate more opportunities – publicity, speaking gigs, new clients…

Preview the program here

book marketing book promotion Famous PR Quotes public relations Publicity publicity for authors

How a Business Coach Landed Clients and Profits With His Book

When I speak to prospective authors about the book they want to write, the conversation often turns to what they can expect when it comes to a return on their investment. As I work primarily with non fiction authors, I encourage them to look at the profits they will get from the doors their book will open and the opportunities it will bring, then on the actual dollars from the sale of their books in retail and online stores. One business coach has landed clients with his book, increased his branding and visibility and his bottom line, as you will see in the case study below; this result can easily be achieved by you too.

Part of the work I do is to strategize with clients about how to best leverage their book to grow their brand and their bottom line. It’s essential that as an author, you leverage your published book and make sure you are maximizing visibility for your book and encouraging opportunities.

A great example of how to do this, is from my client, business and money mindset coach Wei Houng. He is the co-author of the book, “Breakthrough Leadership – Conversations With Innovative Leaders.”

Wei is an active business networker, and took his book to all his events. This became an easy conversation starter and instant expert positioning for him.

According to Wei, a few of the people he networks with regularly became interested in knowing more about working with him, once they saw the book. This lead to a new client from his existing network, in the first month the book was out.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The branding & positioning from becoming a published author is priceless – Wei Houng” quote=”The branding & positioning component from becoming a published author is priceless – Wei Houng”]

“So the book itself has received really good feedback and has been a great marketing and positioning piece. Since launch, I have personally sold about 200 copies as a way to monetize my speaking opportunities. This alone resulted in $2k in revenue.

As a result of those speaking engagements, countless leads were created which, to date, have resulted in thousands of dollars in new business…with, I’m sure, more to come. When all is said and done, I suspect, branding aside, the book will have been responsible for helping me generate 5 figures worth of new revenue in my business. And, the branding and positioning component is priceless.

So, thanks! Looking forward to experiencing more of the ripple effects!” – Wei Houng, Founder The 6 Figure Academy, Co-Author Breakthrough Leadership

Highlights of how Wei leveraged his book to add an additional 10k to his bottom line in the first few months of publishing his book:

Bring the book to every networking event he attends. It opens conversations and positions you in a new enhanced and elevated way as an authority, even with people who have known you for a while.

A Book Landing Page. This provides an online destination to send potential readers, as well as to build his email list.

Public Speaking – Wei enjoys public speaking, and uses the opportunity to engage with prospective readers /clients. He always mentions the book in his talk and has books available for sale. Wei always includes a call to action, which in his case, is an invitation to the audience to sign up for a complimentary strategy session. At a recent event, he had 30% of the audience sign up for strategy sessions [a nice increase from speaking gigs given before he was an author]

Publicity. Wei has used a simple PR strategy [our Author Visibility Builder system] to get podcast and radio interviews, as well as mentions on ABC, CBS, NBC. This helps him attract prospects from outside his own network. He always uses a call to action in his interviews, which also leads to book sales, inquiries, strategy sessions and ultimately clients.

Social Media. Wei uses social media regularly. He offers valuable tips via postings and Facebook Live videos, which help give a taste of who he is and the value he brings. He regularly mentions his book as where to purchase it. He also has been actively promoting his co-authors which helps put him in front of their networks as well.

As a business coach, becoming a published author can easily lead to landed clients and profits with your book. The key is to have a plan and a strategy to maximize your book and leverage opportunities. You can start leveraging your own book to land clients, by signing up for my webinar on how to use publicity to land clients.

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Webinar:

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Speaking in Soundbites: How Nonfiction Authors Turn Readers Into Clients Using Publicity Register here

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book marketing book promotion Business Planning customer experience PR Strategy profit from your book Publicity publicity for authors

How Thinking Big Can Be Bad for Building Authority

How Thinking Big Can Be Bad For Building Authority

Think big. Create a big hairy audacious goal BHAG. You have all been encouraged to do that. The truth is that thinking big can hurt you in the short term when it comes to everything from building authority, seeking publicity to book reviews and more.
It’s great to create that big hairy audacious goal and to think big, however if it’s not put in perspective it can actually hurt you when it comes to achieving some of your goals, especially when those goals involve third parties such as building authority, getting media coverage, being a radio show guest or getting book reviews.

Prospects sometimes come to me stating their desire to be featured in Entrepreneur magazine, The New York Times or in the ultimate outlet – Oprah magazine. Those are great goals, however, sometimes you have to start out in the minor league, before the majors take notice of you.

Let’s take a page from Oprah’s path to success

Oprah didn’t start out as a nationally recognized, incredibly popular talk show host. She started out part time at a local black radio station in Tennessee. From there she went to another local station as both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville’s WLAC-TV. It wasn’t until 2 jobs later that she was discovered by a Chicago station that invited her to come work on a talk show, which soon lead to what we all know as The Oprah Winfrey show.

We might never have heard of Oprah if she only had her sights set on getting hired directly on a major network show, and wouldn’t consider anything less. Instead she began part time, at a local station and kept stepping up into bigger and more visible roles.

It’s important to not to overlook local or smaller opportunities because they often lead to other opportunities. You may be missing out if you’re overlooking opportunities, and holding out exclusively to land the big one first.

Starting smaller offers multiple benefits

By starting smaller or with lesser known media outlets, you get to do a few positive things:

Have an easier time getting opportunities – local media likes local stories, and there is often less competition seeking them
You can practice and polish your skills – better to flub in your small town paper than in The New York Times….
Larger media outlets, producers and book reviewers often scan local media or smaller blogs for story ideas.
The media mentions or reviews you receive are great content to fill your media room or press kit with

For the big win that you’re looking for, it just may not be the first publicity or place you get quoted.

Oprah got her break as an anchor on the news, because she was willing to work at a small local station.

So when it comes to getting publicity, being a guest on a podcast, getting your book reviewed and many other desirable situations, having some experience, even if it’s not from the top network or leading company counts.

Describing what journalists look for in a source, Dawn Reiss, freelance journalist /writer for various national outlets said,

“A lot of the major outlets will do a Google search on people to see where else they’ve been published.”

So being published, somewhere, counts. If you steadily and consistently build your authority and showcase it properly online, those big opportunities will come.

What opportunities are you overlooking because you think they are too small or insignificant?

This first appeared in Business2Community

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Why An Author Media Kit Helps You Get More Results

As an author, one of your goals is to have your books read by as many people as possible. To achieve this, you need to get as much visibility as possible. An author media kit will be a key component in assuring you succeed; whether you use publicity, public speaking or both of these strategies to get in front of your potential readers.

The Professional Standard

A media kit, is also called a press kit, or in its short form, a one sheet. By any name, a media kit is the standard professional tool used by authors, speakers and experts to present themselves to the media and event planners. Whether you are traditionally published or self published, you will be expected to have a media kit. It is not unusual to have a few versions of your media kit, from a one sheet to a full featured, detailed, multi-page media kit.

What exactly is a Media Kit

A media kit is like a folder of information about you and your book, containing the who, what, where and when. It should include a brief author bio, book blurb or synopsis, review or media mentions and contact information. It should also contain your book cover image, as well as an author head shot. The longer version of your media kit can also include a sample chapter, multiple reviews and longer versions of the author biography.

Just the Cliff Notes Please

In our busy world where information overload abounds, you don’t have much time to grab someone’s attention. People no longer read, but scan documents looking at headlines, bullet points and images. Busy journalists get bombarded with pitches and don’t have the time to read long documents. A concise, elegant and well crafted media kit is like Cliff Notes version of you and your book, providing just the right information to intrigue the reader, as well as make it easy for them to find out more about you online, and contact you.

How do I use my media kit?

Host your media kit on your website. You want to make sure it’s easy to find; an ideal location for it is in your online media room where you host your news and media mentions. You can also post your media kit on your about page; that way, it will also be viewed by your prospective readers who will want to learn more about you and decide whether they want to buy your book. When you send a pitch to a journalist or a book reviewer, link to the online version of your media kit, as many of them don’t accept attachments. Offering a media kit to those you are pitching for publicity or speaking, demonstrates you are a true professional.

A Media Kit Is A Living Document

Media kits should be updated routinely so as to reflect the latest news, reviews and information about you and your book. When you get a great book review or you get media coverage, you can add that to your media kit to showcase it, and keep it up to date.

A media kit is a professional tool that makes it easy for someone else to talk about you, write about you, and invite you to speak at an event, easily and efficiently. In some cases, they may not even feel the need to speak with you, as your media kit has done its job speaking on your behalf 24/7.

To get started creating your author press kit, check out our Easy Author One Sheets

This is excepted from an interview I did at the 9th Annual Book Marketing Conference Online: Reach More Readers. Listen to the full interview here