When you are planning to call a reporter for the first time, it can help to imagine that you are a phone solicitor (albeit one with terrific, useful ideas).When phone solicitors call you, you don't want to hear a long explanation of their product. You just want to know the...
Sometimes a phone call isn't intimate or long enough to convey all the information you have for a reporter.Two examples would be: if you have a dozen or so story ideas, or if you'd like to explain an extremely complex financial concept or strategy to a reporter.If this is the...
Always ask, "Is now a good time?"Deadlines in journalism are unrelenting and unforgiving. Using these as your first words after "hello" shows the reporter you're sympathetic to her needs. It also ensures your pitch gets heard when the reporter is devoting proper attention.Your goal: attractIn your first contact with a...
Everyone has something that drives them up a wall. You may be surprised at what aggravates reporters.They deal with horrors like jargon-filled press releases, poorly-written news advisories, and gimmicky pens and mousepads, but reporters consistently and overwhelmingly name one habit of publicity-seekers as their number one peeve.What is it? It's...
Relationships are based on trust-not just romantic relationships, or doctor/patient relationships, but practically any relationship, even the one with your auto mechanic.That's why the absolute worst thing a financial planner can do in their relationship with a reporter-especially a new relationship-is to give them false information.Remember, they think of you...
Let's say you've called a reporter with some ideas for stories about financial planning, and they seemed interested. Congratulations! First, pat yourself on the back. It takes intelligence and gumption to come up with ideas that reporters like.Next, consider how you are going to follow up. Reporters are usually working...
Unlike some professionals like lawyers and doctors, financial planners aren't required to be members of a professional association.However, if you want to take advantage of a great way to get free publicity, you marketing-minding financial professionals will join an association like the Financial Planning Association or the Society of Financial...
Ever wonder why papers devote a page or more to letters to the editor? Because subscribers life to read them!Letters to the editor are among a paper's most popular features, so getting your name underneath a letter can be even more valuable that being quoted in a news article.Letters to...
There's a dirty little secret about press releases that the media doesn't want you to know. The fact is, most of them travel directly from the sender's computer to the reporter's trash box. Or from out of the envelope into the "round file."That's part of the reason reporters don't like...
A term you'll hear in newsrooms, in editing meetings, in Journalism 101, but almost nowhere else, is "inverted pyramid."The "inverted pyramid" style is the goal of every newspaper reporter, and, if you want free publicity, it should be the goal of your press release as well.What is an inverted pyramid?...
Use journalistic styleReporters are busy. Just like you.So when you write anything for the media, be concise and tight.Short, simple, sentences. Lively. Ridiculously short. Even if they seem to violate those fourth-grade grammar rules about complete sentences.Save big, sophisticated words for impressing old English teachers at school reunions. To get...
Ideally, you will have two types of quotes in your press release. A quote from yourself is mandatory. To give your release extra impact, get a quote from a third-party.Quoting yourself may seem unnatural to you at first, but it's what every reporter expects. Your quote should be about the...
Big corporations like General Motors and Coca-Cola spend thousands of dollars on press kits with specially-designed folders, full-color stationery, digital photos and lots of other goodies. Does this make a reporter more likely to do their story? In my experience, the answer is no.Regardless of the appearance of the information,...
Press releases are a useful tool for announcing news and for keeping your name in the mind of the news media.But you can't build a successful publicity campaign on press releases alone, for the simple reason that very few press releases ever make it into the paper.You may think that...
You never want to inundate a reporter with information, but you don't want to be branded a one-trick pony either. That's why I recommend coming up with three key points for every interview you do.In advance of every media call or interview, think carefully about ? and write down ?...
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Always ask, "Is now a good time?"Deadlines in journalism are...
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