Most business owners that I speak with are consumed with lead generation. I hear this all the time: “I’ve got to get more leads!” “Why?” I ask. “Because I need more customers!” So by everyone’s definition “Leads” equals “Customers”. Okay great, but there are leads and then there are leads. As Jeffrey Gitomer points out, the Cold Call is dead, or certainly should be considered a means of last resort. With all the technological innovations available today – e-blasts, blogs, social marketing, etc., – why would anyone want to pick up the phone and call a stranger when you can work your contacts for references and burning hot leads?
Here’s another idea that most business owners seldom think about. I guess I do because I spent 25 years in Public Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility as well as in Crisis Management training and implementation: Have you thought about hiring a publicist?
Consider this: Earned media (eg when a reporter writes about you, or a business organization publishes information about you) is still 10X more powerful than paid media, (eg, when you are paying someone to place an ad on your business). Why is that? Because when you run an ad, it is always clear to the reader that you have a vested interest in the outcome. But when someone else writes about you, you obviously must be important enough, or doing something out of the ordinary to warrant someone’s time and efforts to tell your story. People take notice.
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I’m not saying that you should throw out all of your other marketing strategies. Advertising still does work, provided you create the right ad that is focused on your target market and you place it in a publication that your target reads… E-blasts are also good, although they are increasingly becoming overused. Blogs are good as well, so long as you can link them to other Social Media platforms that enable your targets to find them and read them.
But a professional publicist can do wonders for adding that extra level of awareness about your business that can result in greater visibility and ultimately more customers. When looking for a publicist consider the following things:
- How much publicity can you afford? Publicists are not free, so you need to develop a publicity plan just like you would develop a marketing plan. You have to know how many clients you will have to get in order to pay for a publicity campaign.
- What kind of experience do they have? Are they strictly used to working with big companies with big budgets, or are they geared to working with smaller concerns?
- Who do they know? A publicist is not going to be helpful if they can’t get articles about you placed, or get you speaking engagements.
There are specific codes of conduct related to the field of publicity and you should be able to ask any publicist how they operate. How much do they charge? Do you pay for pre-production or only for placement (old school publicists generally only charge you when the work is in print…)? So the next time you are thinking about how to generate BLAZING HOT LEADS, think about adding a publicist to your mix of marketing options.
Ad some earned media to your paid marketing activities. You’ll appreciate the results. If you’d like to learn more about how to work with a publicist to add an extra dimension to your business call me at 203-210-7003.
Josh Slavitt, Certified ActionCOACH Business Coach
