Page 209 - Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing

unless their readers care about it. The media does not care about your
new product unless you can help them understand how their readers
are longing to know about the problems it solves.

Following is a list of tips that will help you get a reporter’s atten-
tion. If you can position your potential story ideas using one or more
of these tips, you will have a better chance of success.

Have Real News
There is nothing that gets the media’s attention like news. Now,

what you think is news may not actually be newsworthy, but if you
have won a significant contract or licensed a new technology, you may
indeed have a story that provides a reporter with a news angle.

Be First
Everyone seems fascinated with things that are first: the first com-

pany to feature a technology, the first company to do a certain type
of project, the first company in the area to win a national award. Of
course, there are ways to be a new kind of first: becoming the first
woman- or minority-owned business in your industry to do something
of note is newsworthy.

Be Unique
Sometimes you can receive positive publicity simply by doing or

offering something that is unique. An unheard-of guarantee, service
technicians in tuxedos, or balloon telegrams for marketing are all
examples of unique practices.

Offer Local Angles on National Stories
If some aspect of your business is making national headlines, you

may be able to weigh in with the local press on a local angle of the story.
Local news reporters often prefer to quote local sources even when
they are covering a national story. Has some legislation recently passed

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