Yeah! You came back for more! Welcome to day two!
Remember, you can do two things:
1. Watch the video below.
2. Read the text here.
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Pitching is just step one. Ensure you’re taking the steps to get publicity from your initial reach out until coverage is aired, printed, or published. (Yes, there is a process.)
Don’t just think because you’ve pitched something, it’s going to land and end in coverage right away because that’s a rare case. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that you can earn publicity by pitching using the tactics we talked about yesterday… if you follow up.
Most of what you land is going to be on the follow-up. So, I’m going to share some ways to follow up – without being annoying.
First, you need to get the Boomerang extension in Chrome if you use Gmail. This serves as your reminder to follow up. If you’re not using it, you’ll forget to follow up and you will be leaving media coverage, and money, on the table.
I set my boomerang to come back to me every 4 to 7 days. After following up on the same email for three weeks, I go back to the drawing board. If you’re being timely with your pitch, it’s probably dated after about three weeks anyway.
Sometimes in a follow-up email, I let the person know I’m going to call them on a specific day at a specific time. Because so many people don’t like phone calls, they will respond just so you don’t call them. But, if you say you’re going to call them, you should… and it doesn’t feel like a cold call because you’re making them aware that it is in your schedule.
So, what happens after a journalist or editor shows interest? Well, that’s when you give them everything on a silver platter to increase your chances of coverage. Today, members of the media are overworked and underpaid. The more you can do for them, the more likely you will get that coverage AND be invited back later for more. I even include this in the pitch and add, “I’ll get you everything you need if you’re interested in moving forward”.
When I was a reporter and worked with publicists to get their clients coverage, it’s shocking how many are not prepared and not willing to just give you what you need to turn the story. It’s your job to help the journalist. That’s how you will earn publicity.
So, in your pitching and in your follow-ups, always come from a place of helping them to their job. The number one mistake I saw as a reporter and anchor was people being overly promotional. Now, I know the reason you want coverage is to promote yourself, but it’s not the media’s job to promote you or your business.
When you help them, you will earn the promotion in a more natural way that doesn’t come across as an ad and that’s how you get leads. What you do with those leads determines if you get money.
Tomorrow, in our third video we are going to talk about that – how to turn that publicity into profit so you’re not only nurturing those leads, but you’re getting more and more of them.
But first, I have a cheat sheet for you on how to give a good interview. So be sure to grab that because a great interview will lead to more coverage, more leads, and more money. If you bomb it, you’re not going to be invited back and you’re going to lose future opportunities.
For example, everyone wants national TV. But there is not one national TV network that would put you on their air without seeing local coverage first. If they don’t like it, you’re not getting it.
I’m not going to go over everything in the cheat sheet here, but I will share one point with you, so you can get an idea of what’s included:
Know what you want to say.
Many media interviews are short, especially TV, and you only get a small amount of time to get your message across.
Don’t memorize what you’re going to say. That’s when you get tripped up and stumble over your words.
Instead, make a list of no more than five bullet points that are vital to your brand and the story being covered. Use those points to answer questions and drive the conversation. Depending on the angle, these points are going to change. If the audience is B2B, you’re going to speak differently than if it’s B2C. Same if you’re on a podcast speaking with another Boss Mom or if you’re speaking to a writer for the local newspaper.
So get that Boomerang for Chrome to make your follow-up seamless and grab that cheat sheet and tomorrow… it’s all about the profit.
