Online or offline, media attention can help our business in quite dramatic ways; below we look at a couple of personal examples of this and then suggest a few approaches that you can start looking at for your own business.
Example: Selling The MCG
My own example of selling the benches and carpets from the MCG is covered in more detail elsewhere but, suffice to say here, it was aided incredibly by the media attention I got following an initial press release and editorial ad.
When lastminute.com.au picked it up and promoted it the faxes hardly stopped for 2 whole days and sales went through the roof.
Obviously it helped that the MCG was part of Australia’s heritage and it was something of an interesting subject for most Australians, but the free media attention I received made me realise just how important it is to a growing business.
HARO Website
HARO is an abbreviation of “Help A Reporter Online” and is a worldwide site that reporters go to and list the information they need to complete the articles and pieces they are writing; it is a much-visited resource for all sorts of press people who are after expert knowledge on a huge array of subjects.
We submitted a NetRegistry article to help them out once and you too might be able to find a demand for what you know, helping to raise your level of authority and giving good coverage for your business.
SOURCEBOTTLE Website
This is a similar site for Australian reporters where you may find a demand for expert help on stories in your business niche. Check it out, if you’re wondering how to get media attention – it could be the start of a wonderful relationship!
Become Their Friend
If you actively nurture relationships with reporters and become their friends it can be a real breakthrough for your business. I found this when I befriended a stock market reporter back in the days when my main business was stock market trading systems.
He came to me for a quote one day and that developed into contributions to larger pieces in the Financial Review and Smart Investor, which was great exposure for my business; it helped position me as one of the experts in my niche – and the value of that cannot be over-stated.
As well as reporters, authors often need material for their articles and books, so they can be a great source of exposure for your business too.
Getting media attention is one of the things that, if it works, can be a real catapult for your business; it’s worth spending some time on it and you can find out more about how to do this in combination with other online marketing techniques in the Competition Crusher workshop when you click here.
What a great way to get free advertsing for your products. I’m definitely looking into Haro to see if I can strike up a relationship with a reporter. I also loved reading about how you used the press to get exposure for your MCG enterprise.