Publicity Expert Reveals How to Generate Publicity by Exposing the Five Biggest Publicity Mistakes That Businesses Make

Understanding publicity and how to leverage its success can be a very powerful experience for businesses, and can potentially be much more beneficial and profitable than advertising. According to publicity expert, Kate Engler once business owners have a handle on how to get free publicity, the possibilities for personal and professional growth can be limitless.
 
“What many entrepreneurs don’t understand is that while publicity creates opportunities for brand recognition, status growth and an increase in profitability, there’s also a lot of space for personal growth through pitching to the journalists and the interviewing process. Becoming the industry leader in your field is huge, and can help build confidence, public speaking skills and leadership qualities,” says Kate. www.freemediafortune.com
 
“As a business owner, understanding how to generate publicity can be far more powerful than advertising and networking. It can put a business in the spotlight overnight, and create a brand awareness worldwide, which is incredible. But for all this to happen, there needs to be an understanding of how the media process works.”
 
Kate has witnessed many publicity mistakes that businesses who aren’t familiar with the media make, over her 27 year public relations career. The five most common small business mistakes in publicity she sees are:

1. Confusing publicity with advertising. “Journalists aren’t interested in hearing about the thing you’re selling or the service you’re offering; they want to hear your story. The biggest trap that most businesses fall into is that when they build a media release, it sounds very ‘ad-like’ and that’s because people are in the mindset of writing about the product or service that they have. But that’s not what publicity is about – it’s about your story. And if you don’t think you have a story, I’d invite you to come along and attend one of our workshops. Let us do it for you,” says Kate. “I’m not saying ditch all advertising, I’m just saying be smarter about how you promote your business; the majority of ads aren’t read because most people buy the newspaper to read the news and not the ads.” www.freemediafortune.com
2. Thinking publicity is all about selling a product. “Receiving publicity is a partnership between a business or cause and a journalist. There need to be benefits for both parties to ensure a successful outcome.”
3. Believing the journalist’s role is to promote the business that sent in the media release. “A journalist’s role is to report on the news or an interesting story. Be prepared for the journalist to interview other people so the article has more than one voice, and to do their own research. They’ve even been known to change angles from time to time that are different to the original media release,” says Kate.
4. Not spending enough time on the headline. “The headline is possibly the most important part of the media release. If your headline doesn’t capture the attention of the journalist, there’s a good chance it won’t be read at all, REGARDLESS of how incredible the content is.”
5. Not having a clear idea about who the story needs to be pitched to. “Business owners need to understand that each publication and station has an audience. If your story isn’t in line with what that audience would like to read about or listen to, your media release will be unsuccessful,” says Kate.

Contact Information

Kate Engler

Director

Kate Engler - Publicity Driven Business Growth

admin@thepublicityprincess.com