Lizzy Shaw

If you’ve just gotten a great piece of press, it’s important to know how to capitalize on it so that you get the most benefit out of it.

Here are some things you can do:

Brag on your home page – place an image of the magazine cover on your home page with an “As seen in…” or “Featured this month in…”. For celebrity press, go big on your home page with a photo of the celeb next to a photo of the item and the magazine cover. If it's video, post that.

On the product page, add an image of the magazine cover; it’s another natural place you can say “As seen in…”

Make a one-sheet of the piece of press that includes the story/image and an image of the magazine cover or the headline bar of the website. Print it up, put it on an easel back and send it out to your top stores

Send a newsletter out to your subscribers with images of the product and the magazine cover; if it’s online or a video, include a link to the story. This is really great with a piece of celebrity press. You could offer a discount on the item to “celebrate” your big placement.

Tweet about it to your followers; post on Facebook, post video on YouTube, post on Pinterest.

Mention it in press pitches; if it’s a big magazine or newspaper (People, InStyle, New York Times), it adds to your credibility.

Add it to the press page on your website; I recommend an image of the cover of the magazine that is a clickable link to your nicely-designed one sheet of the story. For ideas, visit my Pressbook page.

Add it to your bio or About Us – “Susie’s designs have been seen on the arms of Celebrity A and featured in the pages of Marie Claire, Elle and US Weekly”, or “Williamson was mentioned in the Philadelphia Inquirer as ‘ 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year’”.

Mention it in your blog – let your peeps know your good news.

If you’ve gotten a big piece of press, be proud and show it off. A big story shows off your business and should appear front and center. After all, if you’ve been featured in the Wall St. Journal or Harper’s Bazaar, that’s a big deal and you are justified in blowing your own horn.

Congratulations! You're a media superstar!

Friend Power

When launching a new business, product or service, or when adding something new to an existing business, it’s always good to tap into your network of friends and associates.

You never know whom they know; maybe one friend’s childhood bestie is a big tech blogger. Maybe another has a sister who is an editor at a big glossy magazine. Or maybe you never realized that another is super-active in Social Media and will tweet out your news to her thousands of followers. And maybe another has a brother who is producing a big hit TV series and can get your products to the star.

But make a list of your peeps and then get on the horn, let them know what you’re up to and then ask them to spread the word within their own networks – to paraphrase the old commercial: they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends and so on and so on and so on. And you’ll be a star!

There are certain golden rules of dieting that actually apply to PR as well. If you follow them, I can’t guarantee that you’ll lose weight, but you will be more successful in your PR efforts. This will make you and your company look beautiful and glamorous – which is the object of any diet. So here is

The PR Diet

Don’t Save the Best for Last – In the same way that diet gurus tell you to eat your favorite part first, so you don’t stuff yourself unnecessarily with the part you don’t love, the same holds true for your pitches. Put the “yummy part” right up front on the phone or right at the top of your pitch letter or press release. Give the journo your Who, What, Where, When & Why, plus all important contact info right away – don’t make them wade through endless verbiage to get to the good stuff; they don’t have the time.

Don’t go to an Event Hungry – In the same way you want to make sure to eat before you go to an event or party so that you aren’t so hungry you can’t make an intelligent choice at the buffet table, when you go to a networking event or industry event, make sure you have done your research before you go, so you are “full” of the information you need; that way, you are disciplined and focused in your pitching – you can talk about the right aspect of your business or the right part of your line to the journalists, potential clients/customers or potential business contacts you meet.

Stay Away From Junk Food – In the same way that junk food looks great, tastes delicious, but doesn’t do a whole lot for your overall health, “junk” publications, websites or blogs might look good or appealing to pitch, but if you check them out properly, they won’t do a whole lot for the overall health of your business, product or service as they may attract the wrong audience, or their reach may be too small. So, just as you would check the nutritional label on a snack, check out the stats and target audience of any media outlet before you pitch to them or send them samples to make sure they are good for you and your business.

Get Off Your Duff – Just as you know, deep down inside, that to lose weight, you actually need to get off the couch, get out there and move your body, to have success in your PR campaigns you need to do the same. That means, get out from behind your computer – go to events, go to trade shows, get out to places where you’ll meet customers, clients and journalists.  While I am of course a big believer in email and telephone outreach, there really is nothing like a personal meeting; the connection is better and more memorable.

Pay Attention to How Much You’re Eating – Depending on your diet regimen, you may be counting calories, eschewing carbs, powering the protein, juicing or cleansing, but the bottom line of all of them is – stop over-eating. Well, when you’re launching a PR campaign, it’s important that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Just because there are thousands of publications out there doesn’t mean that all of them are right for you or that you need to get into all of them. Restrict your media list to those that are actually interested in you or your product, but then distill the list even more, so that you are just going for the best out of the list. That way, you won’t feel so overwhelmed and you will be pitching to a targeted, manageable list. Once you’re successful, you can add more contacts.

With attention to these rules, you will become a lean, mean PR machine, so make a pact with yourself and get started on the PR Diet – let us know how you do!

Do you have any other PR Diet rules?

The Power of Email

Learn how to harness the power of email marketing to move your brand forward – whether with clients & customers or with press. If you’re not already sending them, email blasts and newsletters are a great way to let press know that you’ve launched a new service, collection or product; they are a great way to let customers know what you’re up to, or if you have a sale or special going on. If you’re a service provider, they are a great way to dispense knowledge, tips and information.

Do you even have an email list? Do you automatically gather the email addresses of your customers? Do you have a place on your website for people to sign up for a newsletter? Have you ever even written a newsletter?

If you said no to any of these questions, you’re squandering a major opportunity to communicate with people who already are predisposed to listen to you. Email marketing is simple and is so well priced, you can’t afford to NOT do it.

Not sure what to do? If you sign up with one of the biggies like Constant Contact, they offer tutorials and all kinds of instruction to help you figure out how to gather emails, how to properly segment your list, what to say in emails and when to send them. I use Constant Contact, but other great services are Mail Chimp and Mad Mimi; do your research and find the one that offers the level of features, service and help you need.

Now ask all your peeps to opt-in to your list (please don’t add anyone without their permission) and start spreading the word to your fans!

Good luck! Got any email marketing tips for our readers?

With Passover only about a month away, the Four Questions asked at the Seder popped into my mind. While those are the first Four Questions I learned about, my career as first a TV movie producer and now as a publicist have taught me that there are Four Questions in business, too.

These Four Questions are the four things that any customer or consumer is going to want to know about you, your product or your service. If or when you meet your customer in person, these are the basic things they will ask – directly or indirectly. If your potential customer or client visits your website, they need to be able to get their questions answered without a big hunt. And remember that any journalist who is interested in you needs these questions answered as well – and with as little effort as possible on their part.

If you can’t answer these comfortably, fluently and economically, you aren’t communicating well and you may lose your customer to someone who can.

Here is what they are asking:

1. Who are you?

This is the most basic of the four. In person, this is your elevator speech; online, it’s your website – both on your home page and on your “About Us” page; in press outreach, this information should be right up top in any press release or pitch letter.

2. What are you selling?

It’s important to be able to fluently talk or write about whatever it is you’re selling – whether it’s a product or service – in such a way that your listener or reader understands immediately what it is. If you have a highly technical product or service and you are speaking to a layperson, it’s good to have practiced pitching yourself in everyday terms; a web developer needs to be able to talk about a program or app to an end user so that they can understand what it is and how it works; which takes you to number 3:

3. Why do I need it?

Or, to paraphrase the Passover question: Why is this product different from all other products? In other words, what makes your product or service different from all the other widgets out there and why do I need to buy it? How is it going to solve my problems or make my life better? It’s important to have the answer or answers for this question. There are a million handbags, lipsticks, hand creams, tax attorneys, dry cleaners and iPhone apps out there – so have some solid reasons why people need YOU or YOURS. For press, the “why” helps reporters or editors craft compelling stories about you.

4. Where can I get it?

Be prepared to tell people how to get your product or service; if you have stores carrying your product, be ready to list top stores. If you have a website (and you should), list that; it’s best if you have a good URL that contains the name of the business, isn’t too long and isn’t hard to spell or remember; hopefully without numbers as abbreviations or too many hyphens or underscores; if you can’t get a good URL, it may be an indicator that you need to come up with a better or different name for your business. If you are too hard to find, customers, clients and journalists won’t know you’re there.

Being able to answer the Four Questions will help you push your business, product or service into the public eye so that you can achieve the success you deserve. You will be more comfortable being interviewed, and you will have better luck pitching to press. You will be relaxed, comfortable, concise and informative – the answer to any journalist’s prayers.

Get Your Father’s Day on!

If you have a product or service that appeals to dads, now is the time to be pitching like a demon. Long lead magazines are almost done with their Father’s Day stories, but you still have time to get in there with your great pitch. By this I mean, your product or service REALLY is something good for Father’s Day and isn’t a reach. Magazines need your product or service for their gift guides; remember that the June issue of magazines generally hits the stands between May 15-20th, so jump on it!

For regional magazines, blogs and newspapers, you have even more time, so don’t worry; no matter what, you’ll get yourself some press if you’ve crafted great materials and a fabulous pitch.

Good luck!

Yes, he's pretty suave*

It’s important to find a way to speak to your audience/customers/clients in such a way that they can hear you and get what you’re saying.

Each of us has our own authentic voice; you’ll notice that when you’re telling a great story in which you’re totally involved, your listeners are also fully engaged; they are responding to your passion and enthusiasm for the subject, as well as to the actual way you speak and the words you use.

When you talk about your business, product or service, it’s important to find a way to speak about it in your own voice, not just the industry-speak. This is the voice of you and your brand; it’s the YOU that makes it different from others in your field or market. Just because some people in your industry describe something in a particular way, it doesn’t mean that that’s the only way to talk about that thing – you may have a slant or perspective on it that others don’t; it’s good to find those points of differentiation.

This is on my mind because at the moment, I’m doing a lot of writing for a new client. I’ve had to think a lot about their target audience, of course, but I’ve also had to think about them and how they think and speak about their product. You may be walking a fine line between speaking to your spot-on target audience, speaking to as many people as possible, or finding the lowest possible common denominator that might appeal to an even bigger audience; you need to make a decision about who you’re actually trying to reach.

Your language, idioms and references help your core audience feel comfortable with you. If you have a product that appeals to a higher-end, higher-educated audience, I think it’s important to use language that appeals to this group, without being 100% inaccessible to the rest of the world. So bust out your big vocabulary if it’s applicable. If you have a product for teenagers, you need to speak in a voice that appeals to them; it’s a good idea to know your market and know their cultural references – you may think George Clooney is the epitome of suavity, but to a 13 year old, he’s older than their dad (gulp!). And when pitching to women, a lot of people (read: men) think you need to use “girly” language, when actually, it’s important to talk to women the way you actually talk to women – the way you do when you’re engaged in the subject and are excited to tell them all about it; use those words and that voice – that’s the real you.

To reiterate, I don’t believe in dumbing down your language to a 3rd grade level; people are smarter than you think, and no one appreciates being talked down to – man, woman or child. So think about your target audience; talk directly to them as if you’re talking to a friend. Be clear, be engaging and most of all, be YOU.

* Sorry – don't have the credit for this image

No, not this kind of pitching, but you gotta love Mariano Duncan! *

We had a fabulous Bonus “Ask Lizzy” call today with Beauty blogger extraordinaire Lianne Farbes, the founder of www.themakeupgirl.net. Lianne is also an expert at throwing live Twitter events that help to radically increase one’s Twitter reach and following.

Today, we talked about Lianne’s tips for effectively pitching to bloggers. She emphasized building good relationships – do your research; address the pitch to the right person; personalize it; make sure you check your emails before sending them out so that they have the right name, right details, right blog or publication, etc.  She gave examples of what to do and what not to do.  Lianne also addressed when to send samples, how to “vet” a blogger, how and when to follow up (the difference between persistence and stalking) and much, much more.

We also talked about Twitter events – what they are, how they can help you and also some of the ins and outs of creating a Twitter event (Lianne’s own Cocktails & Couture live event is in New York on February 11).

We had great questions from the listeners, covering such diverse topics as what kind of products can be pitched to a Beauty blogger, how to pitch an existing skin care line (that doesn’t have new products to introduce); how to tie your pitches to holidays or current events to make them topical and much, much more.

You can listen to the recording HERE.

Lianne was so generous as to create two info docs for “Ask Lizzy” listeners and fans. You can read them here, or download the PDFs if you prefer.

Lianne Farbes’ 14 Tips for Pitching to Bloggers:

1.    Comment First Pitch Later – Be genuine in these interactions, add value to the conversation happening on the blog and show that you’re not just there to ‘take’ but to ‘give’. If a blogger has a genuine connection with you they are much more willing to respond positively to you than if you approach them cold. The longer you interact with them the better. Networking is a great way to accomplish this.

2.    Personalize it – Nothing is a bigger turn off to most bloggers than an auto generated email (or one that lacks any personal touches). Use their name, mention their blog, show that you’re not sending out an email to thousands of people but are talking directly to them.

3.    Get The Details Right – Another turn off for bloggers is being pitched to by someone who gets the personal details wrong. I’ve been on the end of many of these – where the person pitching the idea has gone to the trouble of copying and pasting unique details into an email – only to forget to change a detail from the last email on some important part – like my name. OR the email will start out like this, [Insert Blogger Name Here] and even paragraphs at the beginning that say things like “make sure you compliment the blogger on her site, say something nice”. Getting the person’s name and URL spelling right is a basic. I have received packages meant for other bloggers as well as emails addressed “Hey Felicia”

4.    Show You Know Who They Are – To touch on that last point, mention something that they’ve recently written, compliment them on something unique to them, ask them a question that shows you’ve dug a little deeper than finding their name and email address on a list in preparing your pitch.

5.    Introduce Yourself  - This might sound very basic – but I’m amazed by the ‘out of the blue’ nature of many pitches.  Take the time to get to know who you are pitching.  If you have met them before, consider reminding people who you are and how you’ve interacted with them before if you’ve had contact with them previously. They may remember – but they may not.  Also use clever subject lines if you want me to open your email.  I get hundreds of emails per day – so make yours stand out any way you can.

6.    Images & Press Releases – If you are doing a mailing – the preferable way to receive press info is a thumb drive.  If I get a paper press release from you and then have to ask again for low-res images that’s a waste of time and resources because the paper ones are just going to get recycled anyway.

7.    Please Don’t Pitch Me a “Partnership” if There Is None – I can’t count how many times I have been pitched an “exclusive partnership” that involved me doing a bunch of work for nothing in return.  I will not place a link on my blog for nothing – that’s called advertising.

8.    Research Your Question – Many of the questions that people ask bloggers could be answered by simply taking a moment or two to look around their blog. Look on their about page – see if they have a FAQ page and do a search of their blog to see if they’ve written on the topic that your question is on. Similarly – if you’re pitching a story idea – check to see that they haven’t already written about it by scanning their archives.

9.    Don’t Stalk – Obsessively emailing a person multiple times in a short period of time to ask question after question doesn’t tend to go over well. If you think you’ll have multiple things to ask – hold off on sending an email until you have them all in the one place, then send one email with bullet points.

10.    Be Persistent – On the flip side of the obsessive stalking is the pitcher who gives up too quickly. Don’t be afraid to send a reminder email asking nicely if they got your first one. I don’t mind getting these myself as I do find it difficult to respond to everyone on the first try.

11.    Keep On Topic – If you’re pitching story ideas you can do yourself a lot of damage by pitching irrelevant stories to bloggers. If their blog is about makeup, don’t send them information on sunglasses.

12.    Vet Bloggers Before Sending Product – Protect yourself.  Check out the blogger before you blindly send product.  Many but not all bloggers are in it just for the free product.  Do your homework and check their traffic, Twitter, Klout score, Facebook Fan network, and how their readers react/relate to them.  Most times, I prefer sample sizes unless it is skincare which I like to test for a longer period of time.

13.    Offer an Exclusive – Bloggers love to break stories. It helps them build traffic, establish credibility and profile and gives them the perception of being more connected in their niche. Offering some sort of exclusive angle on a story, access to interview a key person or even given them the exclusive rights to be first with a story is something that might help you get your story featured on a blog. A quick warning though – if you tell someone that they have an exclusive but end up offering it to numerous others you could end up doing more harm than good.

14.    Build Relationships – Interact with bloggers.  I have built some amazing relationships over the years with PR Reps. I support their products and releases because they work well with me.  I go out of my way to make appointments to see them and find out what the latest offerings are.

You can download the PDF HERE

Lianne Farbes’ 10 Tips for Having a Successful Twitter Event:

So you want to have a tweet-up huh? Tweetups are serious business these days and a fantastic way to build your brand and gain loyal followers in the process.  I have organized and executed my event Cocktails & Couture for the past 5 seasons at New York Fashion Week.  Here are my top ten tips for a successful, stress free event!

•     Tweet Tweet Once your locations and sponsors are confirmed, promote your tweet-up through your social channels.  Get the word out so you can have a good turnout!

•     Location…Location Depending on the size of your event, you may need different types of locations.  Always try and barter for the location in exchange for promotion.  Remember, you are bringing them business.

•     Sponsors If you aren’t good at sales, get good at it. If you want sponsors for your event you have to convince the sponsors that it will give them a good ROI (return on investment) so that they feel comfortable giving you their money.

•     Food + Drinks This also depends on location and what type of party you are having.  If it is a private event then you can get a cocktail sponsor and then use your sponsor $ to get a caterer for nibbles.  If you are just having an event at a bar/lounge you may be able to negotiate reduced rates on bar items in exchange for logo placement.

•     Step + Repeat Red Carpet Runway has great deals on packages for a party backdrop.  Put your logo, the logo of the venue and any high dollar sponsors on it.

•     Photographer You will need photos of your event – hit up sites like Craigslist OR the job boards at local art schools.  Great ways to get quality photos of your event for low $ (make sure you look at their photos or ask if they have a website before you hire them!)

•     Raffles Some sponsors may want to donate items in lieu of sponsorship if you have a raffle.  Raffles are a fun way to get partygoers exited about the event.

•     Invites Hit up a student graphic artist or if you know photoshop – save your self some money and make your own.  Or you can use sites like www.pingg.com and www.paperlesspost.com to create invites.

•     Management If you are using an invite that you have created, you can use a management site like www.evite.com to keep track of RSVP’s and upload a mailing list.  They even have a feature that you can download a guest list for the door.

•      Have Fun No event is any fun if the host is frazzled, remember to smile and have fun with your guests.  Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, eat something and keep the drinks to a minimum so you can be alert if any issues arise.

You can download the PDF HERE

* Future Hall of Famer and current NY Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera is truly the greatest relief pitcher of all time. He is (as of this writing) a 12-time All-Star; he is MLB’s all-time leader in saves (603) and games finished (883); he is a five-time World Series Champion. During his illustrious career, he has garnered 5 AL Rolaids Relief Man Awards, the 1999 World Series MVP Award and the 2003 AL Championship Series MVP Award. His list of records is so long, it can’t be contained here. Check the Wikipedia page and be astonished. He is still playing for the Yankees and is a god of baseball.

Give it a Rest!

It’s a good idea to know when to NOT promote yourself or your business.

If you are being interviewed by a journalist or editor, keep in mind that the interview itself is promoting your brand – there’s no need to keep saying “my (product) does this…” or “my (service) does that” every answer or every few minutes. The interviewer really does know that you want to promote yourself; let the journalist’s questions naturally evoke the things people need to know about you.

And also remember that most of the time, there will be contact information included about you – whether it be a link, a print URL or phone number, or a verbal mention. Your interviewer will do their best to get your info out into the world.

Literacy is a relatively late development in our history, so we humans are hard-wired to respond to stories and good storytelling. When a good storyteller is speaking, both sides of his brain are active and engaged. For the listener, both sides of her brain are engaged. We are automatically more connected.

This applies in your PR and marketing efforts as well. When you are pitching to journalists or trying to capture the attention of your consumer or customer, a good story will almost always garner better results than a dry recitation of facts and figures. The more comfortable you are at talking about and telling stories about yourself and your business, the better results you will achieve in any PR efforts. You’re just more interesting and fun to talk to – your journalists are more likely to connect to you and what you’re pitching.

So…what’s your story?

Figuring out which stories to tell should be an early step in the planning of your PR/media strategy. This also helps with your collateral materials such as bios, company stories, “About Us” pages on your website, brochures and more. Figuring out your story or stories will help create a roadmap for how you talk about yourself and/or your business.

One important story in pitching and selling your business is the Origin story, or how you got started. Your unique story can be one of the things that can differentiate you from the pack. Let’s face it: many products and services are the same or very similar, so sometimes it’s very small points of differentiation that cause customers or clients to come to YOU. Talking about how you got started – or how you perceived a problem or lack in the marketplace and then envisioned a solution – can be very compelling for your clients or customers.

Another kind of important story is about your clients or customers. Anecdotes or vignettes about your clients, their issues and the solution(s) you provided can be really compelling to those in similar situations. Testimonials on your site from satisfied customers are a real vote of confidence. How often do you look something up on a site like Yelp or check reviews on Amazon before you buy? We all want to know other people’s experiences with our same issues. Eliciting these stories from your clients/customers can be very important to your success, and give you stories to tell about your business.

It’s also important to think about your vision for the future. Where are you headed? Where is your company headed? How are you helping create a better future for your clients or customers – or for yourself? Being able to provide this vision – either right now (when people hit your site or read your press kit) or when asked (when you’re corresponding or speaking with a journalist) can give your editor great insights for their potential article; it also gives them confidence that you are in it for the long haul.

Tell us your story – how have you used storytelling to sell your business?