Are you bleeding?

Like all businesses – and news reporting is a business – media outlets have a product to sell. Naïve media marketers labor under the misunderstanding the media is only concerned with reporting news, not so.

Journalism is an entertainment industry. The more provocative and compelling the stories, the more readers, viewers and listeners they attract and the more advertising dollars they generate. With this is mind, it’s easy to see why news programs lead with the most provocative “teasers” and newspapers print the most tantalizing headlines they can conceive. In the media world, the adage “if it bleeds, it leads” is more than a catch phrase, it’s a goal.

This fixation with the provocative stems from the intense competition in the industry, which has quadrupled in recent years. Today business related stories, if they get any coverage at all, are relegated to low readership specialty sections, trade publications, business journals and early morning broadcasts.

Although any exposure is better than none, the larger audiences of mainstream newspapers and prime time news programs are vastly preferable. And with a little creativity and imagination you too can exploit the media’s desire to titillate, regardless of your product or service.

However, your story must be “packaged” in such a way reporters and producers can see the potential for attracting an audience.

All news has a story, yet all stories are not news. What’s story is your product or service keeping hidden but waiting to tell? How does it improve the lives of others or change the way people think or feel? Discover the story behind what your product or service’s does and the media will beat a path to your door to help you tell it!

"Get Ink"

The media is the most powerful, practical marketing entity ever conceived. A story on you or your firm provides something no amount of print, radio or television advertising can buy, at any price - The Implied Endorsement. One well-placed newspaper article or television or radio interview can build instant credibility, name recognition and attention for your product, service or business. Learn how to write and distribute compelling press releases and you're well on you way to a publicity windfall.

People that produce news programs and newspapers rely heavily on outside sources for story ideas and most of these ideas come in the form of press releases. Large corporations have people whose only job is to release news to the thousands of available media outlets.

It's that important.

Some release ideas include sharing trends developing in your industry. Update reporters on new innovations and advances. Send a release announcing promotions in your firm, product rollouts company awards, staff additions, banquets, conventions, the possibilities are as endless as your imagination and may prompt a larger story. Working with the media is an absolute must for any size business.

An even more powerful publicity strategy is to write! Write articles that highlight problem your product or service will cure. In addition to submitting articles to local publications, professionals in any consultative selling field such as financial planners, insurance, real estate, construction, mortgages, banking and others, should write for industry specific magazines. There is a magazine for virtually every industry imaginable. (Actually they're are over 22,000 such publications and many accept article submissions) These publications are always on the lookout for new dynamic ideas from "experts" in the field.