Why do you want to be PR Famous? Bottom line, the media needs to create content and cover things that are valuable to their audience. If it’s not you or your product(s), it’s going to be someone else, in the media.
Getting media exposure means more people know about your product. Imagine what your business would be like if your product(s) were regularly featured in the media. Imagine if hundreds of thousands of potential customers knew about your product(s) because they read about it in a national newspaper or magazine or saw it on television.
Imagine what would happen if someone Googled your product(s), and there were several pages of articles, gift guides or television segments featuring it. The credibility this provides is tremendous!
Below is my proven, exact step-by-step formula I use every day in my own business to land media exposure. My product has been featured in thousands of media outlets, including winning Steve Harvey’s top inventor competition. That was an absolute game changer for me and why I get so excited to share this with you.
When you put my name into Google, you can scroll for pages and pages about me, my product, and my company. Together with my students, we’ve generated over 1 billion views from free publicity and over 8 figures in sales. I’d love for you to be part of this!
Use the Get PR Famous formula and become PR Famous too.
Using all three steps when you pitch the media will put you light years ahead of your competition and get you to a “Yes” much faster.
Step 1 – Be Newsworthy
The key to being newsworthy is to provide value to the specific audience you are pitching. Do your homework and know what that specific media outlet covers and HOW they cover the news. Pitch the way they tell their stories and make it easy for them to use you in a future segment or article.
Niche Your Pitch – What is unique about your invention? What makes it different, special, newsworthy?
- Use Statistics – Take industry statistics from a study or report as the backbone of your media pitch. Let someone else do the research, and then tie your invention to it. Show why it’s needed.
- Sign up for Help a Reporter Out – (HARO) is a free media query service that is made up of journalists looking for quotes, comments, and stories. Journalists using HARO are often from very high-ranking and even national television, newspapers and magazines. When you are quoted in these stories, they appear at the top of Google because these media outlets have a lot of “Google Juice.” I call it riding the media’s coattails. HARO is the predominant reason I have appeared in so many media outlets and it’s how I landed on the Steve Harvey Show.
- Use the Non-traditional Calendar to creatively pitch the media-Think of Dunkin’ Donuts on National Donut Day or I-Hop on National Pancake Day. What unique holidays can you pitch related to your product or invention? I was featured on FOX for National Healthy Foot Month in April for my invention of medical boot accessories. I hosted a television segment about products invented by kids for National Kid Inventor Day on January 17th. My client with a food product was on the Today Show for National Hotdog Day in July. The first time I ever went to Denver, I had a speaking gig there so I pitched the local FOX station to do a segment about products invented in Colorado and got the yes. The list is endless. Get creative in your pitches by using these holidays. A simple Google search can help you find holidays applicable to your invention. The media loves these and it’s an easy yes.
Step 2 – Create A Great Hook
A hook is your subject line. It’s what gets the journalist to open your email. A boring subject line could mean that your email never gets read. Get creative and excite them to read your media pitch.
- Look at magazine covers – Magazine copywriters get paid to convince you to make an impulse purchase in the grocery store line just by reading the cover of a magazine. Those are “hooks.” It makes you want to buy the magazine without even seeing what’s inside. Do the same thing about your products. Get them excited to learn more.
- Use the “Coming up next…” formula – You see “Coming up next” on television all the time. What could the news anchor say that would make you stay tuned-in through the commercials to hear that next segment about your invention? That’s a great hook. Think of these when you are writing your subject line and write a compelling hook that will make the journalist want to read the rest of the email and learn about your product.
Step 3 – Find the Right Journalist
Google is a question search engine. Ask it to help you find the right journalist. “Who writes about [industry/products/inventions/gift guides] for [publication name]” For local publications you will usually get their name, phone number, and email address.
Here’s a great tool to get 50 free email leads: https://www.voilanorbert.com.
Verify email addresses before you send by using MailTester. If it ends up green, the email is valid.
Bonus
If you like what you’ve read and want to really dig in, get my 3 Steps to PR Success which will dive in deeper and you’ll get a bonus video on how to nail your media interview. Follow me on Instagram for regular PR Tips.
