Five Steps For Creating a Fabulous Media Tour

If you want to raise awareness for your product or your service, think about hosting a media tour when you’re launching. Having a great media tour will help you establish credibility in the market.  The press you generate through public relations has more credibility than advertising, which makes this tactic all the more appealing to consider. Following are five steps to conducting a fabulous media tour.

Step 1: Establish Goals

Think about what you want to get out of the media tour itself.  Ask yourself the following questions.  What is it that you want to be known for? What is it that that you want to convey to the marketplace? How do you want to be perceived? Do you have a product, service, or solution that you need to introduce? Are you raising awareness for a cause? Are there specific interviews that you want to have? These are the things that you need to keep in mind when setting public relations goals.

Step 2: Determine The Right Media

The next step is to target the right media. Are there specific magazines, radio or television stations, newspapers, or online media that you want to be in?  For example if you’re a supplier to an industry target the industry-specific publications so that you get the greatest exposure within your market. Create a list of appropriate, targeted publications and media entities both electronic and print.

Step 3: Create Messaging

This step is all about developing the right messaging. Think about what you want to pitch. What do you need to focus on your interview? Form your hooks— interesting things that reporters love to hear.  An example is using statistics or facts from surveys. These always make things seem more newsworthy and give credibility to the story you are telling. Be creative with your message platform so as to make it memorable. Write your messaging out and develop the appropriate communications tools such as press releases and press kits for the media tour. Decide if you need to develop collateral to go along with the press kit that will be left with the media.

Step 4: Get On The Road!

The next step is to actually go and pitch the media. Contact the producers, reporters, editors, and publishers ahead of time to schedule appointments. Call and let them know you’re conducting a media tour and would like to meet with them. As a side note, get the right producer, etc. for the specific area you’re pitching to so as not to waste anyone’s time. For example, if you’re pitching a technology topic, talk to a technical editor. You may not always get them right away on the phone and may have to leave a message and/or follow up. Patience is key. Don’t be a pain in the neck. Once you set the appointment, send a thank you email with the agreed upon date and time.  And, send a reminder just before traveling to them.

Step 5: Deliver

Know your stuff and deliver great interviews. Have all of your notes in front of you or memorize your pitch. If you’re inexperienced, invest in training to help you keep on topic or rein questions back to your message platform in a positive way.  Finally, there is no substitute for good old-fashioned practice.  The more you practice, the more at ease you can be during the interview and focus on the conversation itself.

Follow these five steps and you can look back at the media tour as a wonderful experience that has gained a lot of attention for yourself, product, service, or cause.

DIY Marketing Executive, Lauren L. Darr, Featured in Making Waves Magazine

January 22, 2010–GREENS FORK, IN – Lauren L. Darr, CEO of Lauren Originals, Inc., which owns the brand DIY Marketing Communications, has been featured in the national publication, “Making Waves” as a part of being named to the “25 Women to Watch in Sales and Marketing” list by American Women in Radio & Television. The magazine was recently mailed to members of AWRT.  Copies are available from the organization.

The list is comprised of women from a broad background from all facets of electronic media including radio, television, cable, and web-based media.  Nominations and votes for the Top 25 were taken from the AWRT membership.

In the article, Lauren is quoted as saying that her dad is her personal hero because he, “helped me to understand that life is supposed to be fun— love what you do and have a good time doing it, or find something else.”

In a recent release about the list, AWRT Interim President Sylvia Strobel said, “AWRT is proud to showcase these exceptional women in our upcoming issue of Making Waves. Their impressive individual and collective accomplishments make them truly ‘women to watch’.”

“The women featured alongside me are absolutely amazing. I’m humbled by being included with such a fantastic group,” said Lauren.

Write A Bodacious Bio And Make Your Media Relations Come Alive

All professionals will need a bio at some point in their career. Make sure it’s a good one that gives your experience and achievements the attention and pizzazz they deserve.  Here are some things that you should include in a comprehensive bio, whether it’s a short or long bio. Keep in mind that any of these items can be shortened or expanded upon, depending on the length needed for the bio itself.

Current Position

List what your current position is along with the company.  Make sure you expand on the responsibilities of the position also.  List certain sales levels or budgets that you are accountable for.  Also, if it’s pertinent to the industry that you’re in, list the number of employees reporting to you.  Only include information that would bring credibility to the bio.

Highlights of Experience

You will need to include your experience so you might include your overall experience within a certain industry or your overall experience in a particular field and beyond that you want to include any results that you have achieved especially if you’re a person in sales and you need to include sales information, include some of the percentage increases that you’ve seen with companies that you worked with or even dollar figures of how much you’ve managed.

Educational History

Use your judgment on whether to include your education or not.  When the institution was prestigious or specifically related to the field that you are currently in, it is always a good idea to include your education.  Some people feel uncomfortable listing their education if it isn’t from a specific type of institution or if it isn’t pertinent to their current position.  Again, use your intuition on whether to include your educational history or not.

Achievements

Include honors and awards that you’ve received and achieved during your career.  If you’re in a field like broadcast or advertising, this is important.  Some fields such as finance don’t have such an emphasis on these types of achievements.  If you’ve been named to a top list by a magazine or other publication, be sure to highlight the fact in your bio.

Add Some Pep!

Sometimes people like to have spiffy comments in their bio.  For example, some bios might say you’re the ‘queen’ or ‘king’ of something. Others may have pithy titles that they’ve created.  Explaining an achievement that you’ve accomplished with some sizzle is also a great idea.  Depending on the industry, you may want to include a personal tidbit or two.  For example if you’re in the pet fashion industry, you might want to include what pets you have, their breeds, and names.

Always write a bio that is the correct length for its purpose. A bio for a press kit can be up to a page while a bio for a book or website needs to be much shorter— especially if it’s included on the outside cover, for example.  To make things easier, start out with a lengthy bio and create shorter versions, as they are needed for other purposes.

Handing Out The Right Kind of Press Kit To Editors Can Make A Huge Difference On Whether You Get Coverage Or Not

When constructing press kits, it’s always a question of what form should your press kit take. This is one of the questions most debated when planning a press conference.  There are several options for press kits that you can choose from and determine what is the best fit for your audience.

Traditional:

Paper Press Kits

Should you have a paper press kit with a folder with all of the information, photos, annual reports, brochures, and anything else that you might put in it?  There has been a trend in recent years to move away from handing out traditional press kits that hold all of this information.  Editors want to carry less and less.  At the same time, there is the spirit of the green movement.  Having bulky paper press kits is considered a bit passé except in certain markets and situations.  If you’re in a market that is very traditional (academia, for example), there may still be an expectation that a traditional paper press kit is handed out.  If so, consider also offering the press kit in an electronic form for those that would prefer it.

Electronic:

The overwhelming response now by editors is that they prefer to have press kits in an electronic form. The time has passed where editors want to carry these big bulky folders back and bulk down their suitcases especially if they’re traveling for a press conference for a trade show and attending a lot of press conferences. They don’t want to take these on the airplanes anymore and that especially with baggage regulations; they really don’t want the extra bulk. So then the question arises, what form should the electronic press kit come in?

CDs

Some companies are opting for CD’s. They can easily be handed out with company branding on them.   There are a couple of different things that you can think about with CD press kits: size of the CD and packaging.  The regular size allows for a larger area for messaging. Companies are widely using the business card CD size because it’s a lot easier for reporters and editors to just stick it in a pocket. As far as packaging goes, there is a plethora of options from simple and plain that has the CD cover showing to very sophisticated packaging that can contain booklets and additional information.  The choice you make for a CD press kit depends heavily on budget.  There are plenty of companies that can produce CDs for you or there is always the option to create them in-house.

Flash Drives

Many businesses are now using flash drives for their press kits.  The predominant number of editors now wants to have flash drives. It’s the most universal form that can be used with practically any PC, Mac, or open source computer. A lot of laptops now are coming without CD drives so that they can be lighter weight, which is another reason many have transitioned from CD press kits to flash drives.   Practically every computer now has USB ports that can accommodate flash drives. A good thing about flash drives is that they can be re-used.  In the spirit of reduce, reuse, and recycle, flash drives are an excellent choice.  The one drawback for the drives is that there is little room for branding— enough room for a logo and phone number. They do come in various forms such as bracelets, lanyard, and custom mascot drives.  What you do with them also depends on your marketing budget.

Online

A new wave in public relations is simply referring people to a company website.  Doing this saves money and can provide you with the opportunity to be timelier with the information that is disseminated. The drawback with online only press kits is that it doesn’t give a material reminder to reporters about your company once they get back and settled in the office.  An online press kit is ideal for press conferences that are web cast only or for technology companies such as web developers.  You need consider whether you want it to be password protected or accessible to the general public.  This is the main concern with press kits that are online.

Electronic press kits are now the norm and definitely recommended. What form that electronic press kit takes is entirely up to you depending on your industry and your ultimate goal.  However, paper/ traditional press kits should be considered when you’re in a market that is very traditional.