STAR POWER: Getting good coverage of your company is worth more than spending a lot on advertising and promotions. Ads, promos, and marketing materials are necessary of course, but building relationships with media decision makers is a great way to build your brand image and company recognition. So how do you get your photo and quotes posted into business magazines, local newspapers, and specialty publications? Try following a few steps:
- Open doors to local media sources looking for good stories to tell. It helps to have a favorable profile published and local newspapers, business pubs, and travel and entertainment magazines are always looking for businesses to profile if the story is worth telling. How you went from rags to riches... what you get out of being in business... how you serve the community... very good topics.
- Create positive working relationships with publication writers. This means reading through articles and finding out who writes about the subject you’re trying to pitch. “You can’t just blindly pitch it,” says Ben Bloch, managing partner of Econation in Los Angeles, “and it needs to be something the readers would find interesting.”
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Network with your industry partners. You may have a hotel, restaurant, special event, or business convention that you provide transportation to, and that will be putting out a press release or newsletter article that mentions your company. Everyone wants good media coverage, and this is an effective way to work with and help your existing clients. --J.L.
Print | posted on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 2:42 PM