PeakStrategy

Respond to Publicity Generated Leads Immediately!

If you are like me, you receive sales literature in the mail and email and sometimes wonder why it was sent to you. If you reflect on for a few moments you may remember that several weeks earlier you had an interest and requested it. A cold lead is a dead lead. If you are going to the effort and expense to obtain publicity be sure to respond to the leads promptly. We live in a society of instant gratification. If you need a carton of milk at 1:00 am you can go to the local convenience store. If you want a photocopy at 3:00 am you can go to the local all night copy center. We don’t like to wait for anything and we don’t have to. If you are unwilling or unable to respond immediately your competition can.

Respond to leads received the very day, or at worse the next day. Get to them while they are hot. Interest wanes fast. And usually when someone is requesting information they are requesting it from several sources. The first to respond has the greatest chance of getting the business.
They’ve not seen it all! Creativity Counts!

Direct marketers expend great effort trying to figure out how to get your attention. With the mountains of promotional solicitations received these days and the busy schedules we all keep, they know that they have to be creative if they are to have their promotional message noticed.

Since you are but one of hundreds or thousands contacting the media to gain publicity, it will be in your interest to think like the most creative direct marketers. No, the press has not seen everything. Creativity pays off. Anything that you can do, in good taste, to encourage your pitch for publicity to be noticed and responded to as you desire will be beneficial.

Some writers on the subject of publicity and public relations advise that all interactions with the media be in ways only proven by tradition. Often this is a good practice, but be careful that you don’t follow tradition so closely that your communications to the media don’t get noticed. Members of the press are impacted by many of the changes that you and I are. This sometimes permits you to depart from the way things have always been done. I would rather receive coverage than strictly adhere to tradition.

Press Begets Press

The more coverage you receive from the press the more you will receive. If you, your product, your project or your cause is to become a “household” word, you want as much favorable press as possible. And getting press is one of the best ways to get more press.

You may have noticed that certain sources seem to be quoted repeatedly. They are not only frequently mentioned in a given publication, but in the media in general. Here’s why...

Most journalists keep a contact file of sources by subject matter. When working on a story, they turn to the appropriate file. If you are there you will likely get a call or email and be asked for your opinion or for information. If there is no one under the category or an insufficient number of sources, the reporter is likely to take a look at other articles on the subject. If you were mentioned or quoted there you are likely to get a call. That is why it is important not only to look at traditional media outlets but also blogs and online newsletters to show up in more search requests. The more times you show up online in a publication or in the traditional media, the more media coverage you can anticipate.

Simply put -- press begets press!

Blogging for Consultants
Blogging is a natural extension of your business because, as in the consulting world your reputation means everything.   Once you make a commitment to write a blog, you must follow through and regularly update the content.  However, the rewards are well worth the effort!

Inexpensive Contact Management Tools

As a business consultant, you need to maintain closely-knit contacts with the business and industry. You also need to nurture these links with a lot of hard work and skills over long periods of time. Blogging can help consultants keep in touch with a wide spectrum of the business community, nurture further contacts and keep networked with other business consultants.

Simply put, blogging is another way of getting the message across to a target audience. It is all about optimizing sales by maximizing relationships with your target audience. Blogging is cheap compared to almost any other marketing method.

Boosts Online Branding
As a consultant, you can effectively boost your online presence by blogging about the products and services you offer. Just like nobody knows how tall you are on the radio, nobody knows the size of your business on the Web. Talk like you own the market on your blogging topic and you probably will.

Better Tool for Media and PR

Blogs are an excellent PR and media relation tool too, as every marketing manager knows. If you place advertisements in traditional media like newspapers and television, they can be extremely expensive. Whereas, the cost benefits offered by blogging are extremely inexpensive compared to a television or a newspaper campaign and your material will generally have much longer life — in theory, forever.