get,free,publicity,amp,#34,Sel marketing To get free publicity, "Sell The Story -- Not the St
Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t
Imagine yourself sitting down in a meeting room tolisten to a presentation by a speaker.The speaker begins by saying. "Statistics show" andthen proceeds to prattle off a list of figures aimed atmaking a point. Before long, though, youll probably bethinking about all the other places youd rather be.Now imagine that the speaker begins by saying "Onceupon a time"You automatically start paying attention because youknow youre about to hear a story.People love stories. And theyll stop what theyredoing if they think theyre going to hear a good one.The greatest teachers of all time have taught their lessons through stories, anecdotes, examples. Even parables.And youll start getting loads of free publicity fromthe media if you understand that theyre really in the storytelling business.Joan Stewart is a former newspaper reporter and editor with more than 20 years experience. She says that during her career, she got hundreds of calls from people saying, in so many words, "Cover me, pay attention to me, give me publicity."Of course, what they really wanted was free advertisingfor some product they were selling. And when Joan wouldask, politely of course, why the public would want to know more about it, theyd launch into details about how wonderful their product was and all the features it offered.Among professional sales people, this is called"selling features instead of benefits."Among news decision-makers this is called, selling the store, not the story.In other words, people who want publicity often try tosell their product (the store), when they should betrying to sell a story connected to their product.Getting media coverage on any given day is something ofa crapshoot. But youll increase your chances enormously if you offer the media stories that containone or more of the following elements:Theyre controversial and/or timely.They raise eyebrows.They affect large numbers of people.They deal with pocketbook issues.They feature dogs and kids.They show David beating Goliath.They highlight milestones, records, and firsts.They introduce new ideas and technologies.When I worked as a TV anchor at KMSP TV in the TwinCities in the late 70s, one of our competitors, WCCO,ran a great promotion campaign that Ive never forgotten because it reduced the nature of news to itsessence.They boasted, "We tell you what you need to know, andwhat you like to know."When youre pitching an idea to someone in the media,ask yourself "Why is this something people need to know or would like to know?"If you have a good answer to that question, you'll findit easy to "sell the story, not the store" to news decision-makers. And when you accomplish that, they'llget that story on the air or in print--where thousandsof potential customers will see it.
get,free,publicity,amp,#34,Sel