How to Get Publicity for Your Local Business – Part 2 of 3

Transcript

Hi, I’m Carmen Sognonvi.

This is part 2 of a 3-part video series on how to get publicity for your local business.

In this video, I’m going to share with you how to avoid the biggest mistake you could make when you first get a call from a journalist.

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1. Always pick up your phone

When a journalist is working on a story, speed is of the essence.

If they call you and you don’t pick up your phone, they may not leave you a message or try you again later.

They’ll just move onto the next source on their list.

So make every possible effort to pick up your phone every single time it rings.

Even if you’re in the middle of something, it’s better to pick up the phone, make contact, and arrange another time to talk, than to miss the opportunity in the first place.

2. Never do the interview right away

The biggest mistake you can make when you get a call from a journalist is to just delve right into the interview.

Never do this.

Why not? Because you should never do a media interview without first preparing your talking points.

So whenever you get a call from a journalist, find out what their story is about, let them know you’d love to speak to them but that you’re in the middle of something, and arrange a time later that day or the following day to talk.

You can use this technique even if the journalist is on a really tight deadline.

Just ask if you can call them back in 5 minutes.

That’s a perfectly reasonable request.

And trust me – even those 5 minutes of prep time can turn a mediocre interview into a great interview.

3. Know when you’re being pre-interviewed

Let’s say you get a call from a TV or radio producer who’s interested in booking you on the show, and they start chatting with you.

You may think, well, this is not the actual interview. We’re just chatting. So I don’t have to do the whole “find out what the story is about and call them back” thing.

You would be wrong.

Understand that this is not just a friendly conversation.

It’s called a pre-interview.

The producer wants to test you to see if you’d actually be an articulate and interesting guest for their show.

If you screw it up, they’re not going to book you, and you won’t even realize that you failed your audition.

That means you need to treat this kind of call the same way you would treat a call from any other journalist.

Find out what the segment is about and arrange a time to call them back later, after you’ve had a chance to prepare your talking points.

If you enjoyed this video, I’d like to encourage you to sign up to get free email updates from me!

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Make sure you check back for the last video in this 3-part series on how to get publicity for your local business.

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

Also, if you missed part 1, be sure to check it out!

In that video I 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.

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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