What if you are not marketing a product, but a service? A service is something someone needs to experience in order to love and use again. Often a friend will take your recommendation of an auto shop, beauty salon, or restaurant. Our strategies here however, are for those whom you will likely not speak to one on one – journalists.

Here’s a quick guide on how to go about pitching products vs. services:

1. The Pitch. In previous posts we discussed what a pitch is, why it is important, and how it should be formatted. Both products and services should be introduced to journalists and reporters with a professional pitch.

Product: Offer a free sample in your pitch.

Service: Offer an opportunity to try the service for free.

2. Next Steps. Once you’ve sent the pitch, if a journalist responds favorably to you, take these follow up actions:

Product: It is not advisable to send the real thing with the first pitch for several reasons (expense, journalistic interest, etc.), but when you have received the journalist’s green light indicating interest, you should send a sample along with what we at Three Girls Media & Marketing call a “Sample Letter.”

Write a catchy phrase at the top, like “Your Sample of XX Has Arrived!” with your logo and contact information. Below that include a professional picture of the product, and useful facts that a reporter would want to know: what is does (product specs), what it costs, where is it made and when did it launch, where can people buy it, and so on. You can even include a few brief testimonials from real users. Make the page look inviting and to the point; don’t saturate it with verbiage, and send it along with the product to the press.

Don’t expect the sample to be returned! You want the press to use it, keep it and write about it.

Service: The service equivalent of the Sample Letter is the Fact Sheet. Since you can’t send your service through the mail, you want to invite the reporter to experience it. Include a snappy title like, “Enjoy the Luxurious Experience of XYZ On Us!” with your logo and contact information. If appropriate, include a picture of someone using the service, and possibly one or two short testimonials from satisfied customers.

Make a reasonable offer: a free dinner for two, one night’s stay at your hotel, 3-month free trial of your app’s premium version.

3. Follow Up! As we love to say, “The Fortune is in the Follow Up!” Neglect this, and all your efforts are wasted.

Product: Wait until the media professional has had your product in-hand at least three days before following up. Email or call, asking what she thought of the product and if she will be able to include it in a story.

Services: The first follow up on a service might be assisting the journalist to schedule his appointment. Don’t hesitate to ask if he is interested, and would like you to help set up an appointment for him Once the reporter has tried your service, follow up with an email or phone call, asking what he thought of the experience, and if he would be able to include it in a story.

Successfully marketing for products and services takes time, attention to detail and legwork. But the payoffs in media attention are worth all the effort.

Special Offer: Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. loves working with small and emerging companies to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. Email info@ThreeGirlsMedia.com to make your appointment today!

Photo Credit: VFS Digital Design

“Pitch” is simply the Public Relations (PR) industry’s term for a customized letter—sent via email, never snail mail anymore— to journalists, in an effort to persuade them to cover your story. Here’s the nitty gritty.

1. The email subject line. Write this to generate the interest required for the journalist to want to read more. No smiley faces or other catchy tricks, which will likely backfire. Keep it professional and intriguing. Think of a newspaper headline, as a model to work from.
2. The first sentence. This is the most important part of the pitch. In the first sentence, explain exactly what it is that you do, what you produce or how you work. Include why it is unique or interesting. If you run a cafeteria, that’s great, but the fact that formerly drug addicted, reformed teens run it without extensive supervision is truly noteworthy! Yet, this sentence will be brief and to the point. You will not explain every detail of your production process, or how you came to own your business. Just the facts, in one neat, attention-grabbing opening sentence.
3. The first paragraph. The first sentence should be followed by just a few —not more than three or four— subsequent sentences, which explain the reason you are seeking media coverage, followed by an “ask.” You will ask for what you want: an interview, a chance to send samples, an on-site visit by the journalist, or simply to be able to provide him more information.
4. The second paragraph. The body should include any celebrity or VIP connections that you may have, or other outstanding supporting facts about the company, product or person. Again, don’t overdo the content of this paragraph: three to four sentences should suffice.
5. The third paragraph. This should either be the close of the pitch or one more brief informational paragraph if there are important secondary facts that did not go into your second paragraph. Be very discerning here. You need to hold some information back so that the journalist will be hungry for more. Walk the fine line between telling enough, and not too much. This is not the place to include everything but the kitchen sink. Think of it as a “tease” —give them enough to let them know what the story is, and whet their appetite. If they want more info, they will definitely be in touch. If you don’t truly have more super important info to share, omit the third paragraph and move right onto the close.
6. Close the pitch. Graciously conclude your pitch. Thank the journalist for her time reading it. Reiterate your offer to arrange an interview, send samples or provide more information. Always include the following phrase: “If you’re not the best contact for this will you please let me know?” You’d be surprised how many journalists will respond and put you in touch with a better connection for your story.
7. Images and Attachments. Never send attachments with your pitch. There’s a high likelihood of it hitting spam filters if you do. However, definitely include a link to high-resolution images (at least 3×5, and 300dpi) inside the body of the email if they’re available. Links to your website or product pages are critical. Test links to be sure they work before you send the pitch.
8. Samples. Journalists appreciate the opportunity to see your product first hand. Be sure to include an offer of free samples, if appropriate.

We love to hear success stories! If you’ve used these techniques and gained some media mention or press coverage, let us know. We want your business to thrive.

Special Offer: Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. loves working with small and emerging companies to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. Email info@ThreeGirlsMedia.com to make your appointment today!

Photo Credit: madmolecule

1. Know your goals. Be specific in this regard. Do you want publicity for publicity’s sake or do you have an event coming up? Are you just looking to get more foot traffic in the door, or do you have a measurable sales goal in mind?
2. Know your audience. Again, specifics help! You can only reach your audience if you know who you are aiming for.
3. Listen first. This is especially important where social media is concerned. Identify the key power-brokers in your field and follow them on Twitter, keep up with their Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, read their blogs.
4. Offer value. Share articles or provide tips that your audience will find useful. We’re all bombarded by information every day – so make sure what you’re putting out is truly informative.
5. Link. A lot. Linking to other people’s blogs or websites tells people you’ve been listening to them. They’ll be more likely to keep you in mind for stories, sales or referrals in the future.
6. Offer to write a guest blog. Writing for someone else’s blog is an instant way to reach a whole new audience. If you have expertise, share it!
7. Build relationships. This is especially true when working with members of the media. Get to know which reporters cover your business and find out what kinds of stories they are looking for.
8. Make it easy. Keep your website up-to-date and relevant and make sure all of your public outreach reflects your company’s mission in clear, concise language. Reporters (and for that matter, potential clients) should not have to go digging around for information.

1. It all starts with a “Pitch.” To get media coverage, it requires a professional, polished and strategic approach. Almost every single press placement in the media today started with a “pitch.”

2. What is a Pitch? “Pitch” is the industry term for a written introduction, usually an email. Fundamentally, it is a request. You are asking for someone in the media to do something for you. You are asking him or her to help you promote your business in a professional manner. Keep in mind that you are trying to sell the reporter on helping you with your need. How is it best to do that?

3. Keep it Brief. Media professionals are inundated with pitches every day. The Internet makes it simple for anyone to bombard them with words, many not carefully crafted, so the competition for their attention is fierce due to sheer volume. How will your pitch rise to the surface? Consider what you would rather read: a full page of solid type, or a few brief, concise paragraphs? Keep your audience in mind as you craft your pitch. Never exceed four brief paragraphs; two paragraphs will often suffice.

4. Write a Compelling Subject Line. Your pitch starts in the subject line of your email. Grab the reporter’s attention here. Don’t use special characters, smiley faces or other cute tricks. Be straightforward and to the point. Four or five words are usually sufficient for a subject line; anything more may be overkill.

5. Keep Their Attention. Strive to keep the recipient’s attention through the first sentence of your pitch. Let them know why you’re writing, and why they should care. Why is your service or product important, timely or different? If you can quickly and concisely convince the media professional that their audience will appreciate knowing about your product, that is the win-win situation most are looking for. Media professionals are only interested in things their audience will like and respond to. Tell them very clearly how your product or service will provide that.

6. Keep Their Attention By Deliberate Omission. Don’t include everything under the sun about your product, service or cause. Whet the reporter’s appetite so they want to learn more. If they do, they’ll definitely contact you!

7. Keep it Real. People love tangibles and samples. Be sure to include an offer of free samples, if appropriate. Definitely include a link to high-resolution images—at least 3×5, and 300dpi inside the body of the email. Dropping a few low-res images into the body of the email can be helpful too, especially if your product is visually striking. Links to your website or product pages are critical. Test links to be sure they work before you send the pitch.

8. Other Critical Elements. Make sure to include your contact information, phone and email. NEVER send attachments. They will likely get filtered to spam and you will have to reproduce your efforts, wasting time, energy and money.

9. A Pitch is NOT a Press Release. . . . although the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Remember, a pitch is a request for help, for exposure, for attention. A press release is a news announcement. If your request for exposure coincides with some important news, then include the press release below your brief pitch summarizing the news (see how to format a successful press release in last week’s post). Again, include it in the body of your email, NOT as an attachment.

Special Offer: Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. loves working with small and emerging companies to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. Email info@ThreeGirlsMedia.com to make your appointment today!

Photo Credit: Will Folsom

Three Girls Media and Marketing’s Helpful Insider Tips:

1. What to promote: Most business owners focus mainly on products. Promote not only your services, but also gift certificates and events for the holidays, too! Announce events to local event calendars such as those in regional and neighborhood newspapers’ community sections. Many magazines list holiday events as well, the key is getting the proper information to the media outlet in the appropriate time frame.

2. Have the media FIND YOU. Believe it or not, you can actually have reporters and media professionals come to you! These are three free, legitimate internet services you can use to help the press connect with your company: www.HelpAReporter.com, PitchRate.com, and ReporterConnection.com. On these sites, media professionals indicate the kinds of stories, products or services they are looking to highlight in their media outlet (magazine, television, newspaper etc.), and will seek you out if you respond to them with a well-designed pitch.

Simply sign up for a free account and you’ll see press queries in your inbox every day! If you are unsure how to respond to these queries, or do not have time to manage the required follow up, contact Three Girls Media and Marketing to see how we can assist you. These services are a gold mine of publicity opportunities; don’t pass them by.

3. Be Proactive. You need to be proactive in order to reap the benefits of press coverage during the holidays. Find a website you like, and get in touch with the person producing their gift guide, community calendar etc. Do the same with other types of press. If you are friendly and helpful, and have something the press is legitimately interested in, they may want to work with you first.

4. Be Prepared! All this great work will pay off, so you need to be ready to respond! Have samples ready to send, have an offer of services the press can use to get familiar with you, and be ready with high-resolution pictures (at least 300dpi and 3×5 in size), or additional information as needed.

If preparing your business for the holidays seems like a big undertaking, it is. We at Three Girls Media have proven results in obtaining holiday publicity. We would be happy to meet with you to discuss your holiday strategy, so that you, too, can see your name and product featured prominently and gather market share during the height of spending season.

Special Offer: Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. loves working with small and emerging companies to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. Email info@ThreeGirlsMedia.com to make your appointment today!

Photo Credit: stevendepolo

Editors, reporters, bloggers and producers begin laying groundwork for holiday promotions well ahead of time.

1. Plan your Pitch. Getting holiday publicity starts with an effective pitch. “Pitch” is the media industry term for a brief introductory letter sent via email. A pitch needs to be concise and to the point, not more than three short paragraphs. Highlight the features and benefits of your product or service explaining why you think it deserves space in the desired media outlet. Offer a free sample, if applicable. Editors and reporters can spot a poor pitch from a mile and you only get one shot. If you are unsure how to design an effective pitch, please call us and we can help, and look for a future blog post on this topic. Timeline for Planning Your Pitch: May/June (6-7 months ahead) for print magazines; August/September (3-4 months ahead) for newspapers, websites, blogs and television.

2. Send Your Pitch. You’ve strategized your pitch, designing it to highlight its features and benefits for the press. Now target the recipients. Focus on magazines that are good showcases for your products or services. What TV shows are appropriate? Most national talk shows such as Today, The View and Ellen do holiday gift programs. Submit your pitch to blogs and websites with holiday gift guides, or sites with contents that dovetail with your product or services. Timeline for Sending Pitches: June/July (5-6 months ahead) for print magazines; mid-August/September (2.5 – 3 months ahead) for newspapers, websites, blog sites, and television.

3. Stay Organized. Put all the pitch recipients on a spreadsheet, with contact information and the date that you sent your information. This is very important for several reasons. You don’t want your hard work (and money spent) to go down the drain because you lost track of an important contact, and you don’t want to be inappropriate with your follow up. A good rule of thumb for following up if you have not been contacted is to do it two weeks after you sent your pitch. Never ask, “Did you get my information?” The best sources are inundated and surely did receive yours. When you follow up, either by phone or by another brief email, be sure to be helpful and interesting: Send an additional piece of information or include facts you didn’t send in the initial pitch.

We hope that this timeline of recommended activities is useful in giving you a game plan for action to achieve holiday media coverage. Next time, we will highlight four additional tips you should know to get free media coverage during the holidays.

Special Offer: Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. loves working with small and emerging companies to raise their brand awareness and name recognition. We offer a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation. Email info@ThreeGirlsMedia.com to make your appointment today!

Photo Credit: mysza831

Before seeking editorial media coverage, it’s wise to produce a press kit. Press kits used to be hefty packets, sent via mail or fax, to editors and contacts in traditional media fields. They are expensive to produce and mail and ultimately end up in the trash bin. Today, Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc. advocates virtual press kits (VPKs), containing key information and downloadable hi-resolution photographs, accessible over the Internet 24/7 by any interested party.

One way a professional PR agency like Three Girls Media helps their clients is to secure editorial media placements. By keeping abreast of various industries, a good marketing partner ‘pitches’ the press offering newsworthy information about you, your business or product. If the media is interested in the pitch, they will often ask for additional information, images or an interview. Once the journalist writes the story and it is published, you have a media placement. These build brand awareness and name recognition and bring credibility to your company.

So now you have a stellar press kit, your marketing message is targeted and launched, and coverage begins. Next, evaluate the media coverage you are actually getting to determine its true PR value.

1. Is your information accurate? Is a picture of yourself, your product or a business logo included? Does your website or other key contact information appear?
2. Is your business the story’s sole focus, or are you mentioned alongside competitors? If you are mentioned with competitors, is it a favorable mention? If it’s negative, is there truth in it? Can you learn something valuable about yourself or your competition?
3. Does the story invite further discussion? Can you link this media coverage to your social sites or blog? Does it encourage potential customers to want to find out more?

If you find inaccuracies in your media coverage, by all means seek to correct it. An outright error is more likely to be corrected than a simple preference, for example, a more flattering picture. Free publicity is free publicity and, libel notwithstanding, is usually good. Decide what is worth your effort to correct – a misspelled company name or wrong web address absolutely, an opinion about your business is not.

Three Girls Media’s 25 years of experience working with journalists in media outlets nationwide ensure our clients regular press exposure. Making you look good often and in the right places is what we love to do. Where can we Spread the News About You?

“Media Relations” focuses on the human relationship aspect of publicity. Television producers, talk show hosts, newspaper editors and website and blog writers are bombarded hourly by many significant announcements, queries and requests by people wanting their story covered. In order for your important message to be conveyed to the public, you need to have an excellent messenger: someone who has cultivated relevant relationships.

Media Relations is about managing all aspects of one’s contacts in the media. At Three Girls Media & Marketing, we pride ourselves on being in touch with the needs, focus and deadlines of our targeted media contacts. We research the kinds of news and announcements different media promote, and don’t waste time promoting your message to the wrong outlet.

A good media relations professional will know whether to deliver your news in a press release format via email or wire service, in a short video message, or via email. She will be in tune to what a reporter looks for: a detailed story, offers for samples, or ‘just the facts, ma’am.’ There is a real person behind each editorial “desk” and understanding all aspects of this is critical. A media relations professional develops these relationships over time, updating them constantly as contacts come and go.

A great media relations partner will take the time to keep “relations” in the media equation, by sending the right news, in the right format, at the right time, to the right people, who then work on your behalf, getting it out to the public.

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1. Put your writing on a diet: 10 word-loss tips http://ow.ly/5iU3p – Great tips for making your writing even more concise.
2. 8 great proofreading tips http://ow.ly/5rg4i – Mistakes and typos are inevitable. Here are suggestions for making sure your proofreading is effective.
3. 7 Reasons Your E-mail Pitches Are Failing http://ow.ly/55dCg – These are the common mistakes small business owners make when trying to pitch the media.
4. Infographic: Every 60 seconds, there are more than 98,000 tweets http://ow.ly/5p8Kk – This is a fun infographic that shows how many searches, email, updates, registrations, etc take place every 60 seconds.
5. 4 Ways Social Media Impacts Media Relations http://ow.ly/5eABR – This post shares how social media has changed media relations for the better.

Photo Credit: Craig Murphy

Media Advisories are used to tell journalists about upcoming events their readers might be interested in.

Media Advisories are sister documents to a Press Releases or Pitches in which the focus is an event. Like a pitch, you want the information to be as clear and concise as possible. The main difference is the formatting.

The important information to include is:

Contact Info – Your phone number and email address.
What – Generally 2-3 sentences about the event.
When – The date and time.
Where – The name of the venue in addition to the address.
Why – The purpose of the event and why their readers / other locals should care.
Who – 1-2 sentences about you or your organization.
More Info – A link to the event page for more information.

We generally recommend you send Media Advisories to the media 6-8 weeks in advance of the event. If the event is a press conference, we also recommend you distribute the advisory a couple of times: once as far in advance of the event as possible (preferably 6-8 weeks) and again a day or two in advance of the event to remind the media.

Photo Credit: englishpen

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