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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Barbara Mednick
June - July 2006

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Top 10 PR tips to help build your small business

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Public sentiment is everything. With it nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed.”

These days the media play a much larger role in our lives than they did in Abraham Lincoln’s time. The need to gain public sentiment, however, has not changed — causing public relations to be more important than ever.

PR can be particularly powerful for small businesses because it offers low cost and high credibility, compared to other types of advertising and marketing. PR is a long-term strategy, however, that requires relationship-building, creativity, persistence and an understanding of how the news media works.

PR is a powerful, cost-effective way to:

• enhance a company’s reputation,• build and maintain a corporate brand, • increase visibility or create buzz in the marketplace,• drive a company’s sales and revenue, • position a company as a market leader • influence opinions and beliefs of key stakeholders, • launch a new product or service.

Remember, however, that the news media receive hundreds of news releases and media advisories a day from numerous businesses and organizations.  To avoid the circular file, your news release or story idea must have a news angle that grabs the attention or piques the interest of a specific reporter or editor.

To break through the media clutter and harness the power of PR, keep the following top 10 tips in mind:

1. News is not advertising and promotion and what is important for your business or organization may or may not be important or of interest to the media.  News value and relevance drive coverage; the media decide what is newsworthy by evaluating your story idea against news criteria.

2. Target the growing number of Internet and mainstream print and broadcast media outlets that reach your intended audience or market.  Use media directories to create a customized media list.

3. Once you have identified the right media channel, identify the person you need to contact.

For example, with a daily newspaper you would contact a reporter covering a specific beat such as business or health care, or an editor who would assign the story to a reporter.  If it is a weekly newspaper or a monthly magazine, you should contact the editor. If it is a TV station, contact the assignment desk.  If it is a radio station, you should contact either the news director or the producer of a specific talk show.

4. Remember that today’s journalists, producers and editors prefer to receive news via e-mail and to instantly access company or organization Web sites to secure the facts.  Put your media materials (such as news releases, fact sheets, etc.) on your company Web site and keep them updated and accurate.

5.  Consider news criteria.  Having one or more of these news criteria will help sell the story idea:

  • Timeliness: Did it happen recently? Is it connected with a current trend?
  • Proximity: Is it in the geographical area targeted by the media organization?
  • Impact: Will it affect a lot of people? Does it have consequences for the audience?
  • Prominence: Is someone famous involved? Is it important to the audience?
  • Conflict: Does it involve conflict, which captivates the attention of the audience?
  • Novelty: Is it unusual? Is the product/service the first of its kind?

6. Determine specific PR goals to produce the best results.  For example, are your PR goals to:

  • Establish your company as a leader in the industry?
  • Introduce your target audience to a new product or service?
  • Increase your visibility to increase sales?
  • Persuade people to buy your product or service?
  • Enhance the reputation of your company?
  • Counteract misconceptions about your company, industry or product/service?
  • Attract shareholders and support your stock price?
  • 7. Develop your news angle or hook to pique the media’s attention and increase the chances for media coverage.  Ask yourself who cares about this information beyond your company. Why is the story significant? How many people does it affect?

8. Avoid hyperbole. Editors and reporters can tell whether your news release or story idea is newsworthy.  They don’t need inflated prose or statements to convince them, so don’t even try.

9. Manage the message. Remember, you can’t control the media, but you can manage your message and help to shape media coverage and public perception of your business through effective PR efforts.

10. And last, but not least, remember what one of my favorite journalism professors used to say: “When dog bites man, that’s not news. But, when man bites dog, that’s news!”