Reply to a ProfNet Lead Brings “Getting Known” Expertise to a Much Wider Audience

Two days ago, I replied to a media query from ProfNet by offering one of my media relations articles for editorial consideration. Today, I received a “Google Alert” and an email from the publisher that my article had been posted to the “Making the News” blog. I love that. Now more people will have access to the information so they can get into action to grow the buzz about their business. Read the article and be inspired to act to build the buzz about your business.

Are you a newbie and unsure how to write a pitch in the first place? Here is the text I shared to make my pitch:

Hi Michael,

I am a “Media Savvy” newspaper columnist for the Puget Sound Business Journal — one of the most prestigious business journals that actually boasts growing circulation. I have prior served as a “Media Savvy” columnist for the Snohomish County Business Journal. Business owners rave about the quality of the practical information I provide to help them negotiate the media to earn attention for their winning ways. Below my signature is an article offering tips to get known as an expert in your field resonates, given today’s challenging economic times.

You can learn more about me at http://www.mainstreetmediasavvy.com/about. You can access a number of my articles at http://www.mainstreetmediasavvy.com/press-room/print-press-room. Here is a link to make it easy for you to preview a number of articles I’ve written about how to earn free publicity for www.ezinearticles.com.

Of course, I’d be happy to edit any of these submissions to 500 words to meet your editorial requirements. Most are in the 750-800 word range now. Tell me which topics resonate most powerfully for you, and I’ll get started! Thank you for your consideration.

You can reply to similar media queries by following the same format. The key is to be responsive to the pitch at hand, make it easy for the decision maker to value your qualifications, and provide winning content that is on target for the venue at hand.

As an agency owner, I can subscribe to ProfNet — which brings me hundreds of media queries to review every week. As an independent business person, you can subscribe to PR Leads. It’s essentially the same service and just about the same price. And boy it is worth it. To have my guidance travel far and wide with a reply to a pitch is a beautiful thing — for readers who get into action to follow the tips and for me!

And, if you want to hear even more about building the buzz about your business, be sure to sign up for the noon teleseminar on June 26 with me and Stacy Karacostas. Here is the link to make signing up a breeze.

Have You Posted Your Articles to www.EzineArticles.com Yet?

“I took Nancy’s recommendation to place my wedding and marriage articles on a well-known ezine site called www.ezinearticles. Just two days later, I now have expert author status, and my articles have already been viewed 1,245 times. My website’s traffic levels are the highest they’ve been since it launched. Thanks Nancy.”

Krista Dunk, CEO and Founder, Northwest Wedding Place, Olympia, WA

Don’t you want the same results for your company? Just visit www.ezinearticles.com. Sign up for free. And start posting articles that celebrate your expertise. Article by article, tip by tip, you will invite readership of the right people who want to know more about you and your business. This site offers useful reports that demonstrate about how many people read your articles and publish them in their ezines. The reports even show how many visits to your website flow as a direct result of your article posting.

Just for kicks, I “Googled” Krista’s name, and her Ezine Expert Author bio came up first in the search. Gotta love that. By the way, Krista attended the publicity presentation I gave at the North Seattle Community College Network Breakfast on June 6. We ran into each other again at the Make Mine a Million $ Business event on June 11. She has made all this excellent progress just since then. Gotta love that, too.

I always tell my Publici-Tea™ students and audience members, “If the first five ‘Google’ references that come up with a search for your name reinforce how you want to be known, you are on the right track. And if the first five references offer the slow times you ran in your last five 10K races from ten years ago, you’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Believe it or not, that was my situation when I first took my own name’s temperature on “Google” a few short years ago. And, I am not a fast runner by any means!

My oh my, how that has changed. “Google” my name now, and the results offer an entirely different story that reinforces my DIY publicity expertise, thanks to the power of DIY publicity.

Start posting your articles that celebrate your expertise at this site. There is so much to gain and so little to lose. What are you waiting for?

One Good Thing Continues to Lead to Another, Plus Last Call for Anniversary Sale Purchases

In January, I had the good fortune to have one of my do-it-yourself publicity columns run in a nationally syndicated newspaper column called the Small Business Professor via the Scripps Howard News Service. Today, I received a “Google Alert” that this same column ran as the top story in the Alumni Connect newsletter for Binghamton University. Bruce Freeman, the small business professor himself, has been named the featured speaker at this university’s homecoming event about the entrepreneurial mind, and this column served as a vehicle to announce that good news. That is good for him — and good for me. Now, small business owners in upstate New York can benefit from my tips, and I stand to earn new fans in the process.

Today I also was alerted that my “Don’t ignore your hometown media” column was picked up by a blog called local deals mall. This two examples offer proof positive that one good thing leads to another, thanks to the power of good content and cyberspace. If you haven’t yet started submitting your quality content to the free online article directories, please do. Start with ezinearticles.com and take this tactic out for a spin. You’ll be glad that you did.

Right now, many business owners are trying to figure out the best ways to deploy their marketing dollars — especially given all the gyrations in the economy. The good thing about publicity is that it brings your message far and wide. Best of all, when you deploy this tactic on a do-it-yourself basis, you make it work without breaking the bank. Right now, that is very good news.

Speaking of great content that doesn’t break the bank, I gave an engaging presentation at the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Forum on 3-26 about why and how to earn a reputation as an expert in your field and earned rave reviews. I’ve decided to offer both the audio file and the written transcript for a screaming deal of just $7.

In 30 minutes, you will learn:

• 15 powerful ways to earn a reputation as the go-to person in your field, complete with plenty of engaging, entertaining, and inspiring anecdotes to propel you forward in your own DIY publicity efforts.
• 8 publicity lessons to be learned from American Idol
• A whole host of fabulous resources and professional contacts you can deploy to support your DIY publicity success. That list alone is well worth the lucky $7 you pay to enjoy this information at your 24/7 convenience.

The reason I am offering the audio file AND the written transcript of the talk for just $7 is that I am celebrating the 7th anniversary of my business until March 31 and want to keep the joy flowing. Also, through the joys of technology, my digital recorder captured 30 minutes of this brand new talk — and cut off the last five minutes. The last few minutes offered the call to action, so the good news for you is that you get a great audio file without a sales pitch. This file will remain at the $7 price indefinitely. You can learn more about Audio Presentation #5 and buy it here.

Finally, the Media-Savvy-to-Go Anniversary Sale comes to a close at midnight tomorrow, March 31. You can still purchase the e-Toolkit for just $77 or the tips booklets that offer 147 powerful ways to profit from free publicity for just $7. Both purchases come with lots of extra bonuses that offer extra value for the price. Read more about it and act now so you can benefit from a powerful bundle of information that has the juice to propel your business forward through the power of local publicity.

And, if you’ve been looking for the perfect client appreciation gift or high value item to share at your next trade show or professional group meeting, buy the Media-Savvy-to-Go booklets by the bundle. I received orders for 1,150 booklets this month so far from groups that intend to do exactly that. I would love to invite more quantity purchases. If this is of interest to you, you can learn more at this link. No one among your clients or your audience members will be disappointed to receive these high value booklets that offer so much relevant, useful, and actionable information to support their success, and you will look like a winner for sharing them. You can apply your logo stickers to the front cover so everyone will know you are the source of the great gift. And, for large quantity orders, we can design booklet covers that look like your brand and include all your brand promises and special offers within the inside front pages. How cool is that? Think about it and get in touch at nancy@nsjmktg.com or 425-641-5214 if you’d like to get into action on this high value, affordable, and much appreciated business building idea.

Notes of Appreciation from Clients Do My Heart Good

Happy Valentine’s Day. Some great things have been happening for clients lately that show the power of the bylined article for building awareness and inviting new opportunities.

For example, the special sections editor for the Puget Sound Business Journal and the editor of the Snohomish County Business Journal got in touch with several folks for whom I pitched and placed bylined articles last year. In both cases, they invited the authors to make second article contributions for upcoming special sections because the prior articles they submitted were so timely, newsworthy, and relevant. I received immediate and heart-felt thank you notes and phone calls for setting the table for them to enjoy these new editorial opportunities.

Midori Yoshikawa sent a thank you note yesterday because she was so thrilled that her article about interior designing with love in mind earned a place in the Bellevue Reporter, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Midori took my suggestion to connect with Craig Groshart, editor of that paper, to invite his interest in running the article she had prepared. He agreed. Knowing just the right person to call made the difference for Midori to earn the ink in such a timely and local way for her Bellevue business.

And, yesterday, I met with a potential client who has been following my work for quite some time. He had a notebook, neatly organized with tabs, that included all of my “Media Savvy” columns from the Puget Sound Business Journal, my prior “Media-Savvy-to-Go” columns from the Snohomish County Business Journal, and recent copies of my Media-Savvy-to-Go ezine. He said he had no doubt that I was the right person to tell his story in the media.

All this feedback does my heart good and certainly gives a powerful boost to my business. And, I hope these examples propel you to start writing articles for the local media sooner versus later so you can experience similar benefits.

New “Media Savvy” Newspaper Column Spreads the Good News about Free Publicity

My new “Media Savvy” column debuted in the Puget Sound Business Journal on Friday, September 14, 2007. This well respected business journal reaches 62,000 business decision makers every week. Once a month, I’ll write a column to support the readers in their quest to get seen, heard, and celebrated in their own backyards and beyond through the impact and credibility of free publicity.

Having a soapbox like this to share my expertise with others is a very, Very, VERY big deal. It’s a powerful way to serve others’ success as I serve my own.

So many business owners tell me that they want to earn a regular column in their hometown business journal. If that is your goal, start first by earning your stripes by writing regularly for a variety of media outlets in your own backyard.

That’s what I did. I’ve been a ghostwriter for top CEO’s in the Puget Sound region for years. And over the last year, I’ve served as a columnist for the Snohomish County Business Journal as I’ve shared my Main Street Media Savvy tips and advice.

With tenacity, focus, and keen resolve, you will soon be a published author and have a platform from which to share your expertise as you serve others.

Click here to read the first column, and tell me what you think!

http://tinyurl.com/26bfvt

Editorial Placements Pack a Powerful Punch

Editorial placements are both effective and affordable ways to build awareness for products and services. David Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Mather pointed out: “Roughly six times as many people read the average article as read the average advertisement. Very few advertisements are read by more than one reader in 20.”

This suggests that a marketer would have to purchase six paid print ads to get the same impact of one editorial placement. Let’s put some hard numbers to that equation with a local print advertising example. Read the rest…