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The Guaranteed Media Firm
We design PR campaigns around one simple fact: We Guarantee Media Coverage. As the Guaranteed Media PR Firm, we don’t promise clients our “best efforts,” instead, we GUARANTEE print coverage—online and off—as well as TV and radio interviews. In addition to guaranteeing traditional media coverage, we are a leading social media firm with top marketing and social media experts. Our clients take comfort in our 26 years of experience. For them, there’s no gamble – we take the guesswork out of PR. Ready to get started?
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Client Highlight
National Print Coverage
Today’s “print” publications include hard-copy newspapers and magazines and the burgeoning online news industry. This powerful combination has the potential to reach millions of loyal readers and to build your brand’s credibility as a trusted and respected news source.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is an essential and effective marketing tool, but most brands simply don’t have the expertise to capitalize on this newest communications tool. We make social media easy by professionally managing your campaign on a daily basis — growing your following and your revenue potential.
TV Appearances
Being a featured guest on a local or national TV show positions you as an authority to viewers. Television allows your personality to shine through, giving the audience a real taste of you and your brand. Pair this with the fact that video is so popular online and it’s easy to see why brands everywhere seek this medium.
Talk Radio Interviews
Talk radio is an excellent place to showcase your brand because the strong relationships hosts have with their audience fosters a strong third-party endorsement. This dynamic medium allows you to build brand recognition and trust with potential customers.
The PR Insider
In The News
Keep Your Media Coverage Working Long After The Interview Ends
- Create a prominent space on your website for media appearances. Your website is valuable real estate, so you always should share links to your media successes there. Put those links in a prominent location, too. Don’t bury the information at the bottom of the page or behind a random tab where visitors won’t see it unless they accidentally stumble across it. Create a media tab that’s visible at the top of your home page. Just recently we arranged for one of our clients to be interviewed on Fox News TV. A national television appearance like that is a big deal – and a big boost for his authority as an expert in his field. Yet, when I went to his website, I could find no mention of the interview!
- Make use of media logos. Incorporate logos of media outlets that interviewed you into all your sales and marketing materials and add words like “as featured in” or “as seen on.” Your credibility and the trust in you get a big boost when someone sees those logos and realizes you appeared on CNBC, were quoted in the Wall Street Journal, or were interviewed on a national talk radio show.
- Tell your clients and prospective clients. Yes, it’s good to be modest and humble, but in this case you need to learn to toot your own horn. When you’re quoted in a newspaper article or interviewed on radio, or TV, let your clients and prospective clients know about it. Send out an email or mention it in a newsletter Your clients will be excited to learn you have been quoted in, for example, the New York Times because it validates their decision to hire you! With prospects, it can turn the tide in getting them to sign on with you.
- Share your publicity on social media. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites are great platforms for letting the world know about your media appearances. For example, if you’re scheduled to be interviewed on a national radio show later this week, you can create a post mentioning you are looking forward to the interview and urging your followers to tune in. Afterward, you can post an MP3 so people can hear the interview. Similarly, post links to newspaper and magazine articles that quote you.
Landing A Media Interview During COVID-19 Is One Thing; But Then What?
In the last PR Insider, I shared with you some tips for reaching out to the media during the coronavirus crisis; tips that I had also discussed in a webinar I participated in titled “Authority Marketing in a COVID-19 World.”
That webinar was inspired, of course, by the many ways in which the coronavirus has impacted our daily lives, including how people are able to market their personal and business brands during these unsettling times.
I explained that there are many opportunities for getting in the media as journalists and hosts are looking for people who can provide quality advice; have strong credentials; and who can come through with a timely response to meet their deadlines.
Let’s look at the next step. What happens when you offer your expertise to the media and you get some takers?
As you prepare for, and then carry out, those media interviews, keep these things in mind:
- Be on time. As with so many important things in life, it’s bad form to be late for a media interview, whether it’s happening by phone or in person. Print reporters are on deadline and tardiness on your part can cause you to lose the opportunity. Meanwhile, radio hosts will have to scramble if they have you slotted for a live interview and you’re nowhere to be found. All around, being late is bad for your reputation and can also hurt your publicist’s relationship with their media contacts. Being on time is respectful and will increase your chances of being their “go-to” expert in the future.
- Be direct when answering a question. This is not the time to be sociable. Talk about the situation at hand. Yes, you want to be engaging, but you also need to be succinct. Print journalists especially, don’t have the time to listen to extraneous information; they’re on deadline to get their articles written. Providing straight answers in a way that makes it easy for them to quote you will enhance your chances of being included in their article.
- Be current on your information. Events can change rapidly, and that’s been especially true with the coronavirus. We see constant news updates on the latest government actions, business disruptions, and other interruptions to our normal way of life. If you aren’t current with your information, you will end up looking uninformed during the interview. Keep on top of the news and you will be able to provide much more insightful observations, which is good for you, for the interviewer, and for the audience.
- Get local whenever possible. When you are seeking national media coverage, you can end up being interviewed by media outlets in New York City, Detroit, Denver, Seattle or anywhere else in between. Before the interview, familiarize yourself with some of the particulars of what’s happening in that city or state so that you can better address what’s pertinent to those audiences. You will come off as more informed and they will appreciate the interest you show in their specific problems.
- Avoid technical jargon. Nearly every profession has jargon and acronyms that are tossed about casually by those in the profession, but are a mysterious jumble of nothingness to everyone else. Avoid those at all costs because you will lose the host, and if you lose the host, you’ve lost that audience. Instead, use everyday language and common words that the average person can easily grasp. Your message becomes all the more powerful when it can be understood by a wider audience.
- Limit your use of numbers and statistics. I don’t know about you, but I zone out when I hear a bunch of numbers being rattled off. Provide me with good, practical advice that I can use, though, and you’ve got my attention. Yes, numbers do come into play with the coronavirus – and many other topics you might be interviewed about – but don’t overload the audience with non-stop statistics. Instead, sprinkle them in judiciously throughout your answers. That allows the audience and the host to digest them in smaller chunks.
If you would like to learn more about the topic of “Authority Marketing in a COVID-19 World,” the webinar is available at: https://advantagefamily.easywebinar.live/event-registration-7
One final point I would like to make about media interviews is this: It’s possible that you will be asked a question and you won’t know the answer. If that happens, whatever you do, don’t try to fake it!
Let’s face it. Most of us – even in our areas of expertise – aren’t walking, breathing versions of an online encyclopedia. Attorneys aren’t familiar with every legal decision ever rendered. Doctors haven’t encountered every ailment on the planet. So, when you don’t know the answer to a question, just acknowledge that. Interviewers on TV and radio will move on to the next question. If your interview is with a print journalist, you can offer to find the answer and get back to them quickly.
Your honesty will help you maintain your credibility as a go-to expert and the media will appreciate you all the more for doing that.
Stay healthy!
Marsha
P.S. If you want professional advice on getting the most out of your publicity efforts, give us a call at 727-443-7115 or simply reply to this email.
Is Global Recognition Important to Your PR & Marketing Strategy?
When economists and business people say the world is flat, they aren’t talking about concerns our ancestors had about sailing off the edge of the earth.
Instead, “the world is flat” in a business context means that, thanks to rapid advances in technology and communication, entrepreneurs and companies are now part of a global marketplace. For many of them competition isn’t just the business across town; it’s businesses a continent or two away.
At News & Experts, we know that this can apply to our clients’ PR and marketing needs as well. For example, we recently arranged interviews on a global scale for a client who discussed the protests happening in Hong Kong and how such demonstrations historically have been reflected in the stock market.
While he and his passport never left the U.S., his image and expert commentary did some serious globetrotting as Bloomberg conducted a live video interview with him from Hong Kong and Beijing. Then there was an added bonus as Yahoo Finance picked up that interview in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Singapore!
Meanwhile, he was also interviewed by a journalist writing for the South China Morning Post, giving his organization’s publicity campaign yet another dash of international flavor.
So, if your business has a global reach your publicity should have one, too. But Miguel Cassellas-Gil, our senior public relations manager (and resident international traveler), cautions that it’s not enough just to have a strong opinion about world affairs. To be taken seriously, you must have a global message that resonates with the different regions of the world you are targeting – and the credentials to show you know what you’re talking about.
With that in mind, I asked Miguel to share some tips that will give you an advantage if you want to go abroad with your publicity campaign.
- Knowledge of the world. For a true global presence you need knowledge of other countries and regions of the world and how world events affect them. For example, Miguel says, a doctor in the United States might have a good grasp of the Ebola virus from a medical standpoint, but the media are unlikely to be interested unless that doctor also has a working knowledge of the African countries where the virus is doing its damage. “When you go global you must have knowledge about the country or region of the world you’ll be discussing,” Miguel says. That’s why the pitch we did for our client on the Hong Kong angle worked so successfully. As an analyst who studies economic trends worldwide for a research organization, he had data on how the markets have reacted in the past to political unrest in Hong Kong, and he could extrapolate on what that might mean with today’s protests. He also had ready-made charts and graphs that he could provide to the media.
- A presence beyond your home country. If you are, for example, a businessman with no business interests beyond your own country, then you will struggle to get much traction pitching to the media in any country other than your home one. The media are unlikely to care what you have to say because there are plenty of more knowledgeable people they can find to answer their questions. But let’s say you do have business ties in foreign lands. That means you likely have a well-informed opinion of the happenings in those lands, and the media are more likely to give you a look.
- A PR representative with global knowledge. If you’ve hired a PR agency to represent you, they also need to have knowledge of and interest in the global market. Your agency needs to understand the news cycle in the region where they are pitching you and be able to grasp what the non-American media might want from you. Remember, you’ll also be working with time zones far out of synch with your own; 3 a.m. EST is 3 p.m. in Taiwan! So, you and your PR person should be prepared to respond to the media all hours of the day and night.
All of this is a good reminder that publicity and the media don’t end where the oceans begin! There’s a whole world out there where you can circulate word about your expertise and/or your company brand.
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What Our Clients Are Saying
Your team is great. They’ve been enthusiastic, committed, welcoming to all suggestions and responsive each and every time we connect. It’s a delight working with them!
Michael E. GerberThey got me featured in hundreds of print and online publications, including Glamour, Self and Prevention magazines. It was far more than I ever expected! For that I am forever thankful.
Dr. Jaime Kulaga