How to Get Publicity for Your Local Business – Part 1 of 3

Transcript

Hi, I’m Carmen Sognonvi.

This is part 1 of a 3-part video series on how to get publicity for your local business.

In this first video, I’m going to show you how to get media coverage without having to pitch any journalists and how to position yourself as someone they absolutely must interview for their story.

Make sure to watch till the end because I’ve got a bonus power tip on how one small tweak to your website will double or even triple the number of media inquiries you get.

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But before I dive in, let me give you some quick background on my own experience with publicity.

Before I started running Urban Martial Arts, our karate school, full-time, the main focus of my career was on race and diversity.

When I started blogging and speaking about race in 2004, I was a complete unknown.

Fast-forward a couple years, and I was being quoted as an expert in the media by outlets like USA Today, The New York Times, NPR, Newsweek, the Associated Press, The Los Angeles Times, and randomly, even Glamour Magazine.

I also did a ton of TV interviews on networks like Al-Jazeera English, MSNBC, and CNN.

In this video I’m going to tell what I figured out along the way, and how you can get media coverage for your business using the same techniques I used.

1. Be discoverable

Most guides on how to get publicity tell you to issue press releases and find journalists who cover your industry and pitch stories to them.

If those methods work for you, then go for it!

But I’ve always had the best results by simply blogging about stories in the news, having journalists stumble across those blog posts while researching a story, and contacting me for a quote.

For example, one of the first big breaks I got was when I was quoted in USA Today.

The reporter came across a blog post I had written about racial stereotypes in the media, and thought I’d be a great person to add some analysis and context to her story about a new reality show.

2. Don’t use cutesy headlines

Let’s say you own a health food store and you want to write about childhood obesity.

You use this headline:

“Children Find Weight A Heavy Burden to Bear”

Guess what? No journalist is going to find that blog post because you’re not using the actual keyword phrases they’re typing in.

So instead, use a headline like this:

“Childhood Obesity’s Psychological Side-Effects: Obese Children Teased for Being Overweight.”

By packing the headline with relevant keywords, you’ve just multiplied the chances for a journalist to find your blog post and contact you.

3. Craft a powerful bio

If you want to get publicity, a journalist has to see you as someone worth their time to talk to.

In other words, you need to position yourself as an expert.

Quick sidenote: If the word “expert” makes you queasy, you need to get over it.

Go watch my video on how to embrace your expert status.

Click there or on the link below the video.

You need to write a powerful bio that showcases your credentials.

And when I talk about credentials, I don’t just mean academic ones.

I’m referring to anything that can convey to a journalist that what you have to say on a topic is worth listening to.

What media outlets have you been featured in?

Which publications have you written articles for?

What awards have you won?

Have you written any books?

How many years have you been in business?

How many customers have you served in your lifetime?

Make sure to put the most impressive credentials first in your bio.

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BONUS POWER TIP

I’ve got one more bonus power tip for you but before I get to that, I’d like to encourage you to sign up to get free email updates from me!

You’ll get more great tips on how to run a successful local business, along with occasional special offers from me.

If you’re already on my blog, just fill out the form below.

Or if you’re watching this video elsewhere, go to www.carmensognonvi.com/newsletter and sign up there.

Now as promised, here’s your bonus power tip.

Add bio to your sidebar

If you want to maximize the number of media inquiries you get, add a brief bio and your contact info to your blog’s sidebar.

That way it’ll show up on every single blog post, no matter which one a journalist first lands on.

Once I started doing this with my race blog, the number of media inquiries I got went through the roof.

Why? Because it makes the journalist’s job as easy as possible.

They don’t have to hunt around for your About page, or your Contact page, or your Media Room.

At a single glance they can see who you are, what you’re about, and how to get in touch with you.

For an even bigger impact, include a headshot of yourself.

It not only helps humanize you, but it draws the eye over so makes it more likely that a journalist will see your bio.

Makes sure you check back for the next two videos in this 3-part series on how to get publicity for your local business.

In part 2 I’ll share with you how to avoid the biggest mistake you could make when you first get a call from a journalist.

And in part 3, I’ll show you how to ensure that the journalist always picks a quote that makes you sound smart, interesting, and compelling.

Thanks for watching, and I’d love to hear your tips for how to get publicity for your local business, so please share them below!

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