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Guest Post by Anissa Wardell of PublicityInABox.com

Are you actively marketing and branding your business, service or yourself? If not, you are missing out on a ton of free publicity.

Just like Nike, Kellogg’s and Apple brand themselves you should too!

Whether you realize it or not, you face competition every day, just the same as they do and in order to stand out in the crowd, you must brand your product, service or yourself.

When you think of how you can market and brand yourself, you most likely think of social sites where you interact and/or press release submission.

Most online business owners write a press release and submit it to the search engines, but, not many actually know exactly why they are doing this, other than they were told that it was a good thing to do…

Some assume that it’s just for the keywords and the link back to their site, and some think that a reporter or journalist will find their story out of the thousands that are submitted each day, and will want to interview them or send new customers their way.

In today’s world, it’s important to evaluate how we are marketing ourselves and our businesses. No matter your product or service or your expertise, you need to have a unique selling point, or at the very least a good story pitch or “hook”.

Maybe you have in-depth knowledge, experience, or a passionate interest in a particular area, if so, this is what you want to use when you create your “hook” or story.

Sending a press release is definitely a valuable tool, but in a world where reporters and journalists are bombarded with information, you need to hire a publicist or become your own publicity expert and go to work connecting with the media that will best suit your niche or expertise.

Use Social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter to build relationships with the media. Once the media see’s that you are there to help them, they will call on you for your expertise over and over again.

How do you get started?

The first step is to put together a contact list of reports in your local community.

Local media is generally separated into two categories: Print Media and Broadcast Media. Print includes anything written – newspapers and magazines – while broadcast media includes television and radio.

You will also want to put together a list of online websites or blogs that fit into your niche as well.

Identify the managing editor or writers in your niche that cover your local newspapers and magazines. For television and radio stations, identify the correct reporters and general assignment reporters who cover local community news or your area of expertise.

Assignment editors at the stations will be able to direct you to the right reporters. If your local stations have local talk shows, identify the producers of those shows as well. Once you have the list, you can begin to contact these people.

It’s always best to call the news desk or assignment desk and ask what type of contact the specific reporter or writer prefers, some will want email, fax, phone or regular mail. It’s important to know how they like to receive story pitches.

In order to ensure that the media is well informed about you or your event (product, service or expertise), you can use several communication tools to get their attention. In this example we will assume it’s an event, yet, these techniques can be used for product announcements, services, and for your expertise in a particular area as well.

Media Advisories: Send media advisories (about three weeks prior) to let the print media know of any events you might be holding. An advisory briefly summarizes the Who, What, Where and When of an event. A few days before the event, send another advisory with updated information and then make calls to the key people on your list to follow up.

Press Releases: Develop a press release about your event. The press release should emphasize the local angle and use quotes from the local community. Distribute this release to the online press release services.

Public Service Announcements: Contact local radio stations and ask them to broadcast PSA’s (public service announcements) prior to your event. Provide public affairs directors with scripts for a 15 second and a 30 second PSA. You should have these scripts to them about three weeks prior to your event. Send the scripts again one week prior to your event. Follow up with a phone call at this time.

Advance request for coverage: Several weeks before the event, send an advance request for coverage to local television and radio station reporters. Be sure to let them know in advance what your event is and provide them with the Who, What, When and Where of your event. A few days before the event, send another request for coverage, and follow up with a phone call to all reporters on your contact list.

To get coverage without a specific event

Even if you are not hosting a specific event, you can still encourage your local media to cover your niche or subject matter. For example, in any given month there are several Awareness days or topics that are covered at the same time every year, and you can use these topics as your hook. Using the same list of media contacts, the following tools might get you some local coverage:

Press release: Distribute a general press release about National Catfish Month or National Hunger Awareness Month. Insert local statistics to the best of your ability or facts and information that may be less known or that may be intriguing. Try to get local quotes about the importance of recognizing this day or month, contact someone to be quoted, find public figures or do highlights on a local story/person or a new product/service being released.

Press kit: Send a press kit with a cover letter to the reporters on your contact list. Include in this kit the press release fact sheets to give the reporters the background to write a story. Include in the letter a brief summary of your story or your connection to the subject or your own bio or personal press kit.

Offer your willingness to be interviewed and to help find other sources for interviews. Specifically request that they do a feature on the particular campaign you are suggesting. These kits should be sent to reporters 3-6 weeks (or more depending on how far out they plan their segments), with follow-up calls a week or so later.

Letter to the Editor: Write a personalized letter to the editor for all your local print media. Write a cover highlighting a story or news piece and ask that your letter be included in an upcoming issue.

Op-Ed: Many newspapers offer a “guest editorial” slot – not a letter to the editor, but an opinion column. Contact the person in charge of the editorial page of your local paper and ask them to print your op-ed piece.

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About the Author:
Anissa Wardell owns The Publicists Assistant, LLC, a publicity, marketing and outsourcing agency. She helps people become more successful at blogging, driving traffic to their sites, branding, marketing, selling products and services and boosting their overall branding & business.

Her companies handle national and international PR campaigns, her staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://RSSApplied.com. Learn how to create Free PR with PublicityInABox!

Original post by Lynn Terry and software by Elliott Back