Freeze: they get nervous and freeze in their fear, stuttering, stammering.

Melt: they sloooowwwly drip through very long-winded sentences and explanation.

So, if the media called you about your business today, would you be ready?  What do you think media training is?  Some believe they can just stand in front of a mirror and practice what they want to say.  But the basic problem with do-it-yourself rehearsal (while effective in some ways), it doesn’t give you genuine feedback. Why? Because it’s YOU in the moment!  Of course you’re perfect, right?  Ya, okay, whatever you say….

The reality is rehearsing in the mirror is just really smoke and mirrors – okay, to the point: standing in front of a mirror is really just you creating a bunch of ‘smoke’. And what happens to smoke?  It dissipates over time.  Everything you say in the mirror will disappear from your memory fast – trust me on this.

Real media training with a real ‘interviewer’, using a real camera to really record you, allows you to benefit from objective feedback.  Yes, it’s still wonderful ‘you’ captured on video.   But now you can see you outside of you.  By recording a Q&A situation, you can replay those bad answers, boring intonations, and meaningless acronyms and see the “real” you.   More importantly, you can listen and observe yourself independently of the ‘recording’ moment and quickly see where you’ve deviated from a message, where you droned on needlessly, and where you bored the hell out of the viewer.

Most importantly, media training helps you prepare and ignites the process of telling your story clearly and consistently.  Media training also prepares you for potentially tough questions, it helps you understand how to relate to the media, how to paint a picture, how to convey a message in bite-sized chunks, how to control your voice and body language, and so much more.   It is a process, but an effective one.  If you don’t believe me, ask someone you know who has taken media training in the past.  Almost everyone will say it was a smart investment.

Sure you can DIY. But are you capable of walking a mile in shoes of the media at the end of the day?  You might think you’re AWESOME.  But an objective third party (and an objective camera) can make all the difference in truthful feedback and ultimately your preparedness.

Sadly we ran out of time… our topic could have consumed a whole day I’m sure. I know I’m hungry to do more!

Small-to-medium-sized businesses all over the world are struggling with how to integrate all the new tools into their marketing strategies:  Where to begin? How to reach their audience in effective ways? How to keep the audience?  The focus of our discussion a few days ago was really about the fact that businesses have to look at marketing from a cross-media perspective.  One stream of marketing is typically ineffective.  There are multiple customer touchpoints and each needs careful consideration in an overall strategy.

We also recognized (as we all should) that many SMB’s are stretched for resources (financial and human) and it’s tough to “do it all”.  But those who can’t afford to outsource their marketing strategy and tactics, can still do many activities themselves.  Marketing isn’t only for companies with money… there are many ways to build awareness on a shoestring.  It just requires dedication and effort – and more importantly an understanding of your audience/customer, what they want and what they expect.

I’m reminded of an infomercial with a very memorable slogan.  I’m not suggesting you go to this site, but here’s the link if you want to…. LOL!  Remember the Ronco Rotisserie?  Remember his slogan, “set it and forget it”?  This a classic marketing mistake.  We’ve seen it many times:

“…okay, I’ve distributed the flyers, I bought a week’s worth of radio advertising, and I bought one newspaper ad  and I have a Facebook Fan page.   There… done…”

A business that does this may see a blip in sales and activities, but often owners end up disappointed because nothing super-sustainable comes out of it.  Worse, owners then begin to blame the medium. Marketing is never finished… NEVER.  And here’s the usual response when their efforts don’t meet the expectations:

“…well newspaper and radio sure doesn’t work! And I only have two fans on my Facebook page…”

Back up here…

Yes, this scenario is somewhat of a “multi-touchpoint” approach.  But really?  Seriously? What, in that approach, is sustainable?  NUTHIN!

What was the message? What was the call to action?  Did you give them a reason to come back? Did you give them a reason to stay?  How are you building loyalty?  How are you telling your story?  Did you give the customer a voice? Did you leverage the medium in the right way?  Did you think about “what’s next”?  Chances are…. Not likely.

The adage is true – “out of sight, out of mind”.  One off’s DON’T work…. Ever!  And if they do, congratulations, you’re a phenomenon (or you’re Susan Boyle, from Britain’s Got Talent)!

Marketing, regardless of the tactics you choose (PR, Social Media, Email, Web site, Video, etc.), requires constant care and feeding.   It requires hitting the audience through multiple touchpoints – not once, but constantly.  It requires an iterative approach – review, review, review.  It requires flexibility.  It requires vigilance.

There… done! not really… but for this post… I’m done!

Direct relationships have always been important when it comes to working with Traditional Media, but with all the information overload these poor people experience every day, whipping a press release over a wire and expecting big results (especially if you don’t have a pre-existing relationship with the Media) is wasted, money, effort and brain cells.   Press releases still matter, when it’s really NEWS.  Media are not only seeking content, they are seeking CONTEXT.  He said so himself, “I’d rather deal with someone I know, with a dependable story (content) with a cool angle (context) than trying to rifle through press releases, which almost always amount to nothing new or interesting.”  I was pleased to hear from the horse’s mouth, the same thing I’ve been saying for a long time… if you have a good story, pick up the phone.   But issuing a random press release with no background, no lead up, no nothing, is tantamount to hopping on a busy highway, and depending at what point you get on,  either you get  into an accident or you avoid one.  It’s serendipitous, especially with smaller unknown companies.

Is he going to do the story?  Yes he is!

His point was classic.  It’s all about the direct relationship.  It’s not about spamming these people.  You don’t like to be spammed with useless information.  You want what you want when you want it.  And so does the media.

I once met with a company that had a natural desire to “put out a press release” upon the completion of a new product.  I asked them if they had let the media know ahead of time that they were even embarking on such efforts.  The answer was “no”…

There was a story to be told; it just wasn’t ‘breaking news’.  So we talked it through and decided the best plan was to target the media they really cared about, and who “MIGHT” care about the story.  And bing! bang! boom! – 24 hours later – we secured an article contribution in a magazine that fit their target audience perfectly.

But this is nothing new.  It’s something old, tried and true.  Give the media what they want, and they will respond accordingly – just like any customer.  The media, too, are customers of your story.  So give them something they want directly, something new(s).

The reality is, yes, a news release is a good way to communicate with the Traditional Media, but the chances of getting pick-up are pretty slim these days.  Why?  Traditional Media are getting shorter on resources, and journalists left behind in news organizations have had their beats expanded.  Many media are becoming generalists and consequently are sent between 400 – 1000 emails a day! So how does your company’s news release catch the eye of the journalist?  Odds are not in your favor.    Typically the news releases which receive pick-up from Traditional Media are generated by very large companies or via breaking news.  Do you have breaking news?  Are you a very large company?

Further, the problem with many news releases is the content really isn’t news.  Often it is feature material, or it is full of marketing-speak.   I’ve heard from many journalists how sick and tired they are of receiving “marketing” releases, which contain words like “total cost of ownership”, “the most scalable”, and “next generation”.  It’s all gobbledy-gook to them.  They want the facts and the “SO WHAT”, even more, they want WHY.

At a recent event, we discussed the idea of “packaging” a story.  It’s not a silver bullet, but it increases your odds of getting pick-up.  Look, if you can do the work a journalist would normally have to do, it goes without saying, you’ve made his/her job that much easier.  A “nice package” is:

• A timely angle or a new angle on a trend or issue
• Media sources like customers, partners: the people or companies affected by your product or service that the media can actually talk to

(side note: some companies send out news releases with quotes from CEOs and customers, but when the media call for an interview, these sources are not actually available to speak!!! BAD NEWS)

• Photos, images, video
• Research reports, statistics, data, references to other information

What is all this stuff?  It’s proof.  It’s why your story matters. 

Yes, admittedly packaging is more work for you, but isn’t it better to increase your odds, rather than crafting a bunch of news releases that ultimately get ignored? and not because your story stinks (although sometimes the story stinks), but because you’re making the journalist work too hard.    Make it easy for them.  You’ll be far more respected as a newsmaker – as you make your way to becoming a large company who can shoot out news releases and receive instant coverage.  :-)

But before you do any of this:

• Research the right media
• Read some of their material and get to know what they care about
• Choose carefully who you want to establish the relationship with – it might just be a handful of journalists
• Call them and establish a relationship based on what you think they care about, ask questions, and make it an informational discussion where you invite them to tell you what they need
• If you get voicemail, leave a quick message and say you were reading something they recently wrote about and you think you might have a good story topic they might find useful
• Then send the “nice package” in a nice email with no attachments
• DO NOT FOLLOW UP to ask if they got your email – they don’t like it
• They will contact you if they want to go further

And let it go.  If weeks pass by, then send a friendly email asking if they liked the angle and the “package”.  If they don’t respond, move on.   Think about how you want to be treated when someone is trying to sell you something.  You don’t like to be badgered right? 

Look we are all busy, but if getting into a publication or two means a lot to you, then make your story so appealing that it’s hard for journalists to turn it down – give them a “nice package”.