Generating Publicity

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TRANSCRIPT:
Avish: Alright Fred, let’s talk about generating publicity for your event. And I know this is a pretty big topic, but what are your thoughts in general about using publicity to get people to your seminars.

Fred: Well, I think publicity can be a great tool. One of the things I want to confess upfront is that this is not my expertise. And in most cases, I defer to other experts. And since we’re talking about other experts, allow me to say and mention Burke Allen at Allen Media Strategies. That’s A-L-L-E-N Media Strategies dot com (allenmediastrategies.com) It’s Burke is his name, tell him I sent you, or that we sent you.

And Burke is really an expert in this and most of what I’ve learned and will share here comes from Burke Allen. So, it certainly can be something that can help you out a lot. Now, a lot of times you may try and get publicity for your event and be unsuccessful. Don’t be daunted by that. But it takes a true professional to understand what kind of angle you should use to attack your specific events. So, there are a few things, though, that you can learn online very easily which is. There are a number of good articles about how to write a good press release, which is basically where you should start. And then after that, the question is, “okay, how do you distribute those press releases?” In the old days, we used to fax them directly to the various media outlets and that’s sort of a little passé at this point.

Now, once you get your publicity, your PR piece together, your press release, you’re going to — you probably use one of the big services, like the PR Web or PR Buzz and some of those are better than others. And again, do this with caution. Usually, to get a media release and have you done this Avish, I forget?

Avish: Not in a long time. I did it when I was doing improv comedy, all those shows, but I haven’t used much in terms of press releases recently.

Fred: Got it. So, well, one of the things that you can do – you can, you know use a service like this and I’ve seen a couple of people we know have moderate success with getting this out. Now, these were not specifically for seminars or events, but you’ve got to try and find a way to make what you’re doing news worthy or tie in somehow to current events so that the reporters or someone who picks up the release will see a connection those. So that’s what really what you need to do. And again, not being an expert, I just want to tell you that there are, you know, some great places to go and learn this stuff but I don’t think it’s really my place to train and give information about this topic which I think is important but I’m certainly not the expert on it.

Avish: Okay, but you do think it’s worth exploring? Because if you get publicity that’s this quick free advertising for your event, correct?

Fred: Absolutely! So, here’s the calculus that you’re got to make. Let’s say for example, the PR web – one of their packages costs around 200 bucks. Now, in the event that you cleverly word your PR, your press release, and you do get coverage, let’s say your event costs, you know a hundred bucks to attend per person, all you need is two people to break even. And the nice thing to publicity as opposed to advertising is in the event that one of the local media outlets or even a national outlet say, picked up your story about the seminar or about the event that you are having and ran with it, it’s always perceived as more credible to have a new source reporting on an event rather having an ad in there. So that if you had an ad that was X-sized and an article that’s written of the same size, the article that was written about you will probably generate, you know, 10 to 20 times more calls than with the advertising.

Avish: OK and then as you do the seminars, you can say, “As seen in…”

Fred: Yes!

Avish: Enquirer, Time Magazine or you know, wherever you get placed, basically.

Fred: Yeah. Exactly! So, it’s really a good thing to – and once you get that press, you can save your “clippings,” as they’re called and you can you know, basically, sort of take pictures of them and put them on your website. And otherwise, you could use that as a credibility enhancer both possibly in your direct mail or in any other forms of promotions. So, it’s worth pursuing. It’s just that I don’t want to give anybody the, you know, the impression that I am a PR genius or guru.

Avish: OK! Sounds good, Fred!