DYI PR Campaign Advice

So many people ask me for PR advice that I decided to provide you with some links:

1. The first one needs to be read right away, because, though it is available for free right now, it will only be open to the public until April 11th!

It’s called:

How to Do Your Own PR Campaign: 8 Steps & 3 Mistakes to Avoid

And it was written by Charles Epstein of BackBone Inc. I found it in MarketingSherpa’s newsletter and I would say, if you haven’t joined their free newsletter, you should definitely do that, too. Or at least check out their free reports section. I wish I had time to read everything in there, because just about everything I’ve read from their site has been useful!

Now about this PR advice, Epstein states a lot of good info, but this was one of my favorite things he wrote:

Tip: Think about what is going to happen during the next 3-6 months. What initiatives, new products, new partnerships can be announced? Come up with a rough schedule so you can plan when you will release the first, second and third press releases.

I think people tend to do one press release and leave it at that. But aren’t you always involved with new things, so why not make each one its own release?

For example:

1. New website or new blog - this is a great start, you are doing something fresh, tell people what your plans are and why you started the site/blog. What are you hoping to offer your visitors?

2. Partnering with someone - I often hear from authors that when they do book tours now-a-days they partner with another author. Isn’t that press worthy? After all, not only one great book author, but two are appearing at a store near you! If you let the press know, even if a particular publication is only interested in one of you, it is still more exposure for both, when people who read about it show up!

3. Awards - Karl Hirschmann (who designed my UniqueThink logo) of Hirschmann Design recently won 10 awards from a single competition. 10 awards is definitely news worthy, but so is one! Write about it!

These are just a couple of examples to get you started. But really, there is always something happening, so why not write up a simple release. Here’s what Charles says about writing up your first release:

The first press release should achieve three things:
o Let people know what you’re offering
o Let people know what problem you can solve
o Let people know why your solution is better than anything else

So, go read his article while it is available on MarketingSherpa.com - and sign up for their newsletter.

2. Publicity Hound - This is a great set of tips, 89 in all!

Joan Stewart of Publicity Hound offers up great advice. I signed up for this a year or two ago and I still go back and reference it. Your never too old or experienced to learn something new. Even though I have done PR since I can’t remember, it is not something I focus my business on (I am more interested in helping people build their online presence and things like that). So, when a client does ask me for help with a PR campaign, I like to check in and see what others are saying. Joan’s advice offers a lot of “new” PR insights.

What I mean by new PR is that traditional methods of doing press releases have been altered, like everything else, by the Internet.

Joan addresses that, and she does it for free!

So sign up for her 89 tips. You’ll receive them in your inbox each day.

If you can’t wait to read them all, she does sell an ebook with all 89 Tips in it for only $27. Having read the tips, I still consider purchasing the ebook, because then I’d have them handy when I went to look for them. (Oh, and I don’t get any commission on this ebook, I just really think it is well worth it).

Consider signing up for her free email of the tips, and decide later if you want to purchase the book, but sign up now. Because it is well worth the read.

Well, I hope that helps.

Let me know if you have a specific question about P.R., but first check out these links, because they might have already answered it.