Getting some good publicity can be a great boost to your practice. It has more impact than advertising and it's F.R.E.E.! Unfortunately, the image people have of journalists sometimes puts them off getting in touch with them. Concerns over being mis-quoted or somehow caught out by the media abound. It's a shame,
because if you build a good relationship with a publication the coverage you get can be invaluable.
Here are some top tips on getting media coverage:
Do your research - find out as much as possible about who reads each publication. You need to know that your customers are going to look at it. Ask yourself questions like "Do company directors read the local free paper?", "Which magazines do working mums read?"
Check out their style - look at the topics that they usually write about. What kind of style do they use for example, factual news vs tongue-in- cheek silly articles.
Who writes for them - most journalists put their name against their articles. Try to find out which journalist writes on coaching-related topics. You'll have much more luck with them than if you pitch everything to the editor.
Get a story - journalists are always on the look-out for interesting stories. Sorry, but the fact that you're a coach and that coaching's a growing profession, isn't newsworthy enough. They will put you through to the advertising department. But if you're doing something different like a speed- coaching event - like
speed-dating - they'll be more interested.
Find out about forthcoming features - magazines usually produce a forward features list for their advertisers so that they can see which issues they'd like to advertise in. Ring up the advertising department, ask for this list, then send a press release relating to the topic to the features editor.
What next??
Get in touch with them! Ring up and ask for the relevant person (you'll have found this out when you did your research), say you'd like to tell them about an idea for a story and ask if it's a good time to talk. Always ask, because if they're on deadline, it's easier to say they're not interested in the story than it is to listen.
When it's ok to talk, you should be able to get across the main aspects of the story in less than 30 secs. They get people pitching to them all day every day, so make it interesting enough to stand out.
Have a press release ready to send to them, which is a one-page document giving them all the info they need to know to write the story.
And finally, if you have good stories and can be relied on to produce good comments that they can use in features, before long the journalists will be calling you whenever they're looking for a story!
Contact:
Agbolade Omowole
nigeriaslifecoach@gmail.com
+2347064649978
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