The 5 unbreakable rules
In our work as journalists, we noticed that the businesses which regularly got publicity, all did the same things. So we spent many a beery evening working out what they were, and formulating the 5 Unbreakable Rules of Free Publicity:
1. Know your target audience and deliver to it. You’re pitching to journalists so you have to understand them and their audience
2. Find a hook to catch attention. Your business needs to be different to your competitors to stand out; it’s exactly the same when you are selling stories to journalists
3. Position yourself as an expert. It’s the single most powerful idea in publicity. If journalists know you’re the leading expert in your industry, they’ll turn to you first, time and time again, for information and comment on your industry. And that means your customers will know you’re the leading expert too. Incidentally, it doesn’t matter who is the true leading expert… it matters more who positions themselves first to the journalists and their audience
4. Give journalists what they want and need, when they want and need it. Remember that 90% of business’s press releases go straight in the bin? It’s because the people who write them don’t understand what journalists want, so can’t give it to them. Even some expensive PR companies don’t get it all the time. If you’re going to hire a company to help you get publicity, make sure they know the truth about how the media actually works
5. Be creative. Getting publicity is great fun! Unleash creative minds on your business, and watch the publicity roll in… the sales should follow