The Clean and Green Club

1. The blah-blah press release is dead.

2. The story-behind-the-story press release is very much alive.

Example: When hired to write a press release for a new book about electronic privacy, I did *not* write “Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book” (snore). Instead, I wrote
“It’s 10 O’Clock–Do You Know where Your Credit History Is?”

3. It is dangerous to blow off non-traditional media (e.g., blogs, podcasts).

4. It is extremely useful to have some presence on at least a few of the social media networks, especially Twitter.

5. The best key to PR (and marketing in general) is relationships.  They enable coverage, testimonials, JVs, and much more–not to mention repeat and referral business.

6. Strong ethics helps build those relationships.

7. If you’re not on the web, in many people’s eyes, you simply don’t exist.

8. A web presence doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated–but it needs to be much more than a converted brochure.

9. Pitch letters answering reporter queries, while more labor-intensive than press releases, will have a much higher batting average (two sources: HARO (no charge, but with its huge circulation, reporters get inundated very quickly) and PRLeads ($99/month).

10. The faster you get your response in, the better your chance of appearing in the story.

There’s a lot more information on this in my books, especially Apex Award winner Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First. Remember–if you live in the US, this month you can get free shipping, even if you’re taking advantage of the discount you get when ordering more than one title–just put FREESHIP in the promo code on the order form at https://www.frugalmarketing.com/cart (All three of my current books, PrinProfit as well as Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World and Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, make fabulous gifts, too–especially if you ask me to autograph them.)