1. “No Comment” - If you have no comment, why contact the press in the first place?! It makes you come across as suspicious and untrustworthy.
2. “This is off the record, right?” -  When you’re talking to the media, there is no such thing as ‘off the record.’ Reporters can’t erase things from their memory, so once it’s said, it’s said…and expect to see it in print.
3. “I’m not sure you’ll understand this, so I’ll speak slowly.” - Journalists are smart people. Talking down to them is only going to result in YOU looking like the idiot.
4. “Would you like to see all the media coverage I’ve received?” - NO! The press doesn’t want to know your story has already been covered by other media outlets; they want a scoop! Offering to share your clips comes across like bragging and could very well ace you OUT of a story.
5. “I’m sorry, I can’t meet your deadline. Can you call me back next week?” - NO! A deadline is a deadline and it’s NOW OR NEVER. Be prepared with information BEFORE you contact the media, so you’ll have it at the ready when they need it – not when it’s convenient for you.

Alan’s latest book is called The Pocket Media Coach, available on Amazon.com.

I didn’t start my own public relations company, Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc., or my national radio show, PR 101 Radio, with visions of grandeur and instant riches. Although I had never been a business owner before, I anticipated plenty of hard work and long hours before I saw any real pay-off. Starting your business isn’t much different than delivering a baby, you can’t truly comprehend the labor – or entrepreneur – experience until you’ve been through it yourself. As someone who has been through both, I speak with some authority.

All mothers share an intimate understanding of those excruciatingly exhausting, painful, worry-filled, joyous and celebratory hours. Birth pains experienced by entrepreneurs are much the same. I haven’t talked to a fellow small business owner yet who hasn’t lived through crisis weeks – or months – of 20 hours days, blurred meetings and meals. I’m right in the middle of one of those myself.

So, here I sit, at 10:30pm on the living room couch, Tivo on in the background, the family fed, dogs treated and asleep, plants watered, recycling taken out, friend called, coffee poured (I freely admit to a beer earlier), and ready to embark on yet another ‘work day.’ I call it that because inevitably, despite my best efforts, I’m rarely able to knock-out much on my own To-do list during Three Girls’ regular workday. That’s when I’m responsible for my other family and child – the Three Girls’ Team and the day-to-day needs of the Company.

I know 11pm will come before I know it, and so will 1am, 3am and sometimes 4 or 5. I’m hoping to make it to bed by midnight tonight, because I’m giving a speech at 7am and would prefer to not have dark circles under my eyes be the first impression people have of me. We’ll see if I make it…. I’m not complaining about the endless ‘erase-1-thing-add-7-more’ To-do list, or routine sleep deprivation; and my family has gotten pretty used to finding me asleep on the couch with the computer on my lap and a plate of cold food on the coffee table (if the dogs haven’t snagged it first).

But sometimes, while I’m banging away at the keyboard in the wee-hours, I think of the other entrepreneurs out there whose families often likely find them snoring on the couch with drool running onto their client files. They’re just as tired, overwhelmed, worried, afraid, confident, passionate, driven and crazy as I am. When I feel like no one else in my world gets what life is really like for the owner of a small business start-up, I know they do.

So, in my pj’s, coffee and chocolate cookie standing by, I embark on another ‘work day’ and raise my glass them. I get you my fellow entrepreneurs; and it’s comforting to know you’re out there pushing thorough your ‘work day’ too. And even at 3am, it’s reassuring to know that I’m not really alone.

Feel the same way or have a story of your own to share? Post a comment and tell me about it!

Cheers,

Erika

Liz Goodgold, author of Red Fire Branding and CEO of The Nuancing Group, focusing on the nuances of branding, was a guest on segments 1 & 2 of PR 101 Radio’s November 12th show. With over 25 years of marketing & branding experience for companies like Quaker Oats and Arco Oil, Liz is a true branding expert. She’s provided these Tips & Tricks for branding your business, with additional comments by PR 101 Radio’s Host, Erika Taylor:

1. Use your voice mail as your personal radio commecial. – Erika adds: Mention the #1 thing you want your business to be known for. At my PR agency, Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc., our claim to fame is that we’re the only public relations firm in the nation to literally guarantee editorial media coverage. The second message point is that our services are all designed to specifically serve small and medium-sized businesses. These two points are not only on our outgoing voicemail, but in every piece of collateral, my elevator speech and all of our other marketing efforts.

2. Always use a complete signature at the bottom of your email. Erika adds: This means not only your name and title, but your website address, snail mail, phone, fax and even a marketing message or phrase.

3. Even if you’re just starting out, use solid email techniques. Erika adds: You should consider email messages PROFESSIONAL businesss letters. Using ‘web abbreviations’ like BTW (by the way), LOL (laugh out loud), OTP (on the phone) or BRB (be right back), are taboo in business email and can hurt your personal and professional image. Spelling, grammer and proper capitalization are equally important.

4. Never forget the “F” word: Follow-up! Erika adds: 8 our of 10 of both Three Girls Media and PR 101 Radio’s clients don’t come from our initial contact – they come from taking the time to follow-up dilignently (sometimes 3-4 times over a couple of months). Same goes for the media coverage Three Girls secures for it’s clients…good follow-up with the press is key to securing stories.

5. EVERY interaction counts. Know that as a business owner, you always need to be ‘on,’ so be prepared. Erika adds: This means being able to tell someone in 7-15 seconds who you are and what you do in a compelling, informative way.

Thanks for the great advice Liz!

PR 101 is on vacation! As I’m sure our more faithful listeners know, today was Erika’s wedding, and she is going on a beautiful ten day honeymoon cruise down the Mexican Riviera. Though we tried our best, we were unable to get the green light to do the show on the cruise ship, so PR 101 is going on a temporary two week break. We will resume the show on Wednesday, October 29th at the regular time with fantastic guests Mark Fortier and Eric Yaverbaum. Until then, catch up on all the fantastic advice you may have missed by going to www.pr101radio.com and clicking on “archives.”

Let’s hope Erika has a fantastic honeymoon with her brand new husband, and a fantastic new show in just a few weeks.

Kyle

Penny Says:

• Get Testimonials! The word of others carries much more power than whatever you could say.
• Become an expert! The media loves experts and word of mouth will travel much more quickly.
• Don’t give your customers too many choices. The fewer they have, the more likely they will be to make a decision.
• Don’t overstate your service – customers and clients want honesty.
• Consumers don’t want to be sold. Stop selling the product, start selling the benefit.

Hank says:

• Every month, try to find a problem with your business and fix it.
• Study people and businesses you admire. You can learn from them.
• Your business is like a car. Drive responsibly, and bring it to the wash now and then.
• Sell with substance, sizzle and soul.
• Don’t be negative, and don’t pile on competition.

And don’t forget that if you missed the live Wednesday show, you can still listen to the archive by going to www.pr101radio.com and clicking on the “archives” link!

I’ve included more info about the event below – I hope you can make it! Of course, even if you can’t make it, donations are greatly appreciated and are fully tax deductible.

Benefit Concert to Reintroduce Importance of Art
As schools across the nation cut their art and music programs, Bay Area non-profit organization, Induz, hopes to raise funds for new projects in the US and India with the KRIA World Fusion Music & Dance Benefit Concert. The concert, featuring a blend of world music and dance performed by local and internationally acclaimed artists, hopes to bring attention to the countless benefits of art and expose children to different cultures. The event will include an art auction.

Guest of Honor: Actor Faran Tahir (Ironman, Lost, Star Trek)

Performances will feature:

• Santoor Maestro (Internationally Acclaimed Grammy Nominee)
• Pt Tarun Bhattacharya (Master Percussionist & Composer)
• Jim Wendt & Eric Everett (Jazz Musicians)
• Shivani Thakkar & Troupe, Holly Shaw, Project Pulse and Katy Barnhill (Dancers)

KRIA will be held September 20 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Find out more at www.Induz.org, 510-875-5006 or info@Induz.org.

First of all, it took us a few moments to figure out what it was and why the advertising and marketing agency sent it to him. That’s a HUGE problem.

It’s common for a Small Business Owner or Entrepreneurs to make marketing mistakes when creating their own collateral, but it’s extraordinarily rare for a professional agency to put out a piece of direct mail with such an overwhelming number of obvious problems. The good news is that it’s a great example of what NOT to do.

Here, I’ve outlined their errors so you can learn from their mistakes:
MISTAKE: The document said “Press Release” at the top, but was not a Press Release. It was a Fact Sheet.
HOW TO FIX IT: Make sure you include the vital criteria for a specific type of document. For example, a Press Release should be in paragraph format with “Who, What, Where, When and Why” answered in the first two sentences. The Associated Press is a great resource for this sort of help. A Fact Sheet should be a bulleted list of facts about a particular company, product or event. If you search “Press Release” or “Fact Sheet” online you will find basic criteria for each type of document.

MISTAKE: The “Press Release” had two dates on it: August 3, 2007 and August 13, 2007. I don’t know why any collateral should have two dates listed like this, but if you are mailing something like this out, it should not arrive a full 8 months after the release! We received it in April 2008!
HOW TO FIX IT: Make sure the document is timely. If it has a date on it, keep it within a few days of the actual release date.

MISTAKE: There were various inconsistencies between the bullets in the Advertising agency’s collateral, including the model’s name being in all caps sometimes, and not in all caps other times (i.e. EMILY vs. Emily).
HOW TO FIX IT: Make sure everything in your marketing materials is consistent. This includes making sure everything is spelled right, but think about formatting and the overall look of the document, too.

MISTAKE: The order of bullet points was not impressive. The agency that created the pieces listed the model’s age and that she recently graduated from high school (at least recently as of August 2007). This is not very powerful. Many students graduate from high school when they’re about 17 or 18 years old. When we create this sort of document at Three Girls, we put the most interesting or important information first.
HOW TO FIX IT: Put the most important, interesting and impressive information first. Answer the standard “Who? What? Where?” questions in addition to “Why should the person receiving this care?” If it isn’t obvious, the collateral isn’t doing its job.

MISTAKE: One of the bullet points in the collateral piece is that the model is a “true triple threat; singing in a Sony Records sanctioned all girl band.” What is a Sony Records sanctioned band? How is it different from other sorts of bands? What’s the name of the band is she in? If her band is that cool, name it!
HOW TO FIX IT: Don’t leave the person receiving your marketing materials asking any questions. Everything they would ask should be included.

MISTAKE: At the very end of the so-called “Press Release,” the headline is repeated again (“Roll With a Real Role Model”) and it is stated that this model “Is Perfect For The Role.” What role is she perfect for? Even the most talented actors/actresses are not perfect for every role. The other issue is that the headline implies the girl is role model. To whom? What makes her one? There is nothing included in this release to show how she is a role model to anyone.
HOW TO FIX IT: Make sure the title or headline you choose is completely factual, and if it leaves the recipient asking any questions, the answers are easy to find in the content of the release. Catchy is good, but it needs to make sense.

Looking over this piece of collateral, there were only two things the agency that created this collateral did well:
1. They kept the information to one page
2. They included contact information and a website

I just hate to think about how much money was wasted on a totally ineffective and embarrassing piece of collateral that’s doing more harm than good. Three Girls could have created something better, and we don’t even specialize in marketing models! When creating your own collateral, make sure you don’t leave the recipient asking more questions than they had to begin with.