Above all, remember my Golden Tip regarding members of the media: They want good stories. They aren’t paid to say “no.” They’re paid to say “yes” to the right stories. The principal aim of this book is to get them to say “yes” to you.
* * *
FROM THE GUERRILLA P.R. FILE
In Woodland Hills, California, one enterprising businessman opened the area’s first combination chess club and exercise gym, so patrons might exercise both their bodies and their minds. Though the gym struggled financially for several months, the novelty of its appeal gained widespread attention, including a major spread in the Los Angeles Times. Not a bad way to checkmate the competition.
* * *
Making a List, Checking It Twice
Your first task as a Guerrilla P.R. recruit is to begin compiling a priceless possession without which you cannot function. It’s the heart, the soul, the cosmic center of your P.R. universe. It’s your mailing list.
A mailing list is far more than a mere collection of names and addresses. It’s your media homing device, your lifeline to the people who can give you the boost your business needs. Having determined your target audience, you must amass a comprehensive list of key names from media and other areas that allows you to mold your campaign.
Don’t narrow your names solely to your specific target of the moment. The bigger your list, the greater your options. That doesn’t mean you contact everyone on your list each time you send out a press release. You pick and choose who gets what, and block out long-term strategy as you go.
Your list should include not only media but also potentially helpful organization types like chamber of commerce members, colleagues in your industry, government officials, friends and family, and anyone who might be of some help to you. However, in this section I want to concentrate on ways to put together your media list, since the assembly itself may prove to be the most daunting aspect.
Start by dividing your media list into three broad categories—national, local, and specialty—then further break these down by medium: newspapers, magazines, Web sites, blogs, e-mail lists, radio programs, TV shows, etc.
Examples of what sort of outlets should make your list:
National. These include network news organizations like CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and their morning shows; national magazines like Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and People; national newspapers like USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times; wire services like AP and Reuters; key syndicated TV shows like Ellen, Oprah Winfrey, Entertainment Tonight.
Local. Includes daily newspapers; local TV news and talk shows; local all-news or talk-radio programs; weekly entertainment guides; local bureaus of the wire services; public access and other local cable TV stations; city magazines, business newsletters, ethnic publications.
Specialty. Magazines, trade publications, and other outlets that relate specifically to your field of interest. If you’re a musician, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Spin top your list; if you’re a chef or restaurateur, then Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and the food section of your local paper top yours. Anything that appeals to that narrower active audience you seek would come under this heading.
Compiling the list is like climbing a mountain. It starts out easily enough, but it may soon wear you out. Like most people, journalists don’t want to be bothered by unwelcome strangers, so finding comprehensive listings of media outlets isn’t simple, although they are available in one fashion or another for a price.
When the first edition of Guerrilla P.R. was published, most sources could be found in the local library. On paper. (Books—remember them?) Many compilations, such as Bacon’s Publicity Checker and Editor and Publisher Yearly, are still available in many libraries, perhaps including one near you. If you cannot find them there, you might obtain older outdated editions free of charge from established P.R. firms in your area. Most professionals subscribe and don’t need last year’s copy once the updated edition arrives, even though most of the info in the old volumes is current.
But today, compared with all other sources of information, the Internet is far more accessible, faster, and in most cases cheaper. Just Googling keywords that might be pertinent to your business and adding “publications” might get you more titles than you can handle the first day. But other online sources, like LexisNexis, can be expensive, if somewhat more comprehensive.
Check around. Of course, you could shell out the hefty asking price and buy subscriptions to online versions of the printed reference materials. It ain’t cheap, but it sure does provide every possible outlet you could possibly want to contact.
If you aren’t able to find or afford these directories, roll up your sleeves and get to work. Your first stop: the local newsstand. Peruse carefully, pen and paper in hand. Write down the names of every publication you think may be useful to you. Open the magazines and newspapers, turn to the masthead (the page that lists the staff), and jot down all key names, titles, snail mail and e-mail addresses, phone and fax numbers.
Next, head back to the library. Go through the Readers’ Guide and other resources that list names of newspapers and periodicals. If you can’t locate them, ask the librarian. Start collecting as many names as you can, and begin shaping your master list.
Assemble your list in a way that’s comfortable for you. I used to use a large alphabetized wheel Rolodex, but now I admit I rely mostly on the address books on my computer and my BlackBerry. One of my friends puts his information on 3 × 5 inch cards stored in a shoebox. Others keep three-ring notebooks with multiple listings on a page. The operative phrase is “whatever works.” As time goes on, you’ll want to update your list, so it’s a good idea to write in pencil.
Remember, your list is a living organism. Don’t write down merely the name, address, and phone number. If you list a TV station, make sure you include the names of pertinent news shows and segments, when they air, who hosts them, deadlines, area of coverage, and any other information that could help you comprehend the nature of the show.
Here’s a sample listing:
Bill Gonzo
Anytown News
4444 Main St.
Anytown, CA 90022
213–555–0000
Home improvement columnist
Column runs in Tempo section on Mondays
Deadline for information prior Tuesday
Prefers personal anecdotes from readers
For your list to work, you must find out which newspaper writers gravitate toward what subjects, since many tend to specialize. You do this simply by reading the publications. As I said above, you pick and choose whom to add to your list. Note that there aren’t many general field reporters left; most are assigned a beat (e.g., city desk [metro news], business, entertainment, medical, sports, science). If you know who are the reporters for each beat at the outlets you care about, you can then direct your information accordingly, thus saving time and money. That kind of research pays big dividends down the line.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Finally, be sure to keep your list as current as possible. This is the mobile society, remember? Nobody seems to stay put in any one place for long. You’ll save a lot of money, time, and paper if you weed out the defunct listings as you go. Your list is like a garden; tend it well.
Michael Levine’s Ten Commandments for Dealing with Media
1. Never be boring. Never!
2. Know your subject thoroughly.
3. Know the media you contact. Read the paper; watch the newscast.
4. Cover your bases.
5. Don’t just take “yes” for an answer. Follow up; follow through.
6. Never feel satisfied.
7. Always maintain your composure.
8. Think several moves ahead.
9. Be persistent, but move on when you’re convinced you’re getting nowhere.
10. Remember, this isn’t brain surgery. Don’t take yourself too seriously (like too many publicists I know). Have fun.
/>
The Art of the Pitch
Before you take on the media, you have to know something about The Pitch. The way you pitch your project can have more bearing on your long-term success or failure with the media than the project’s merit itself.
How many times have you gotten in an argument with someone in which you said in a huff, “It’s not what you said; it’s the way you said it.” The same principle applies when you are contemplating your pitch. With the right pitch, you’ll get no argument. This is where salesmanship comes in. The term is derived from the old “sales pitch” notion. It requires of you a substantial degree of self-confidence to pull off, but your belief in your own project will help you muster that. It also requires that you become the pursuer.
Remember, as I said, nobody else will care as much as you care. It’s your job to aggressively wake people up to the virtues of your project. That’s what the pitch is all about.
The information about your project is objective, but your presentation is subjective. When your own subjectivity collides with that of the media, there’s plenty of room for confusion, misinterpretation, and disinterest. That’s why you must know precisely how to pitch before you make that first phone call or mail a press release.
The Pitch is your selective oral mechanism for persuasion (by oral, I mean the words you use and the way you use them). Persuasion is the goal: you’re trying to convince someone of something, and they might initially be resistant. This isn’t a nice casual conversation; it’s the Guerrilla P.R. version of a first strike. And there are no second chances with The Pitch. You get it right the first time, or you don’t get it at all.
There are several styles of pitching, but all have two principles in common: they appeal personally to the individual being contacted, even if he or she is a stranger, and they rely on logic to make a case. How you pitch depends on what you’re pitching and whom you’re pitching to. Time and practice will teach you which style to use.
“Personally” doesn’t mean overly familiar or folksy. An overly ingratiating manner gets you nowhere fast. I don’t mean you can’t exhibit any personality or that you should be unfriendly. I’m saying that the slap-on-the-back, glad-handing “press agent” type of the past doesn’t work in today’s world. I’m talking about an undertone of humanity in your approach. As my friend Jane Kaplan, a former staff producer on Good Morning America, has told me, “It’s a big turnoff to encounter people who sound phony, or too cheery and bright. It’s like they’ve dropped out of Publicity 101.”
No matter how impersonal the media seem, they’re staffed by real people. Though they sift through hundreds of calls and pieces of mail every day, they invariably respond to what touches their emotions. Reach the person in the media, and bingo! you’ve reached the media.
It’s not as if “the media” is just one thing, anyway. Just as there are personality traits that differentiate one person from another and make each one a separate being, each member of the media is a human being. Each one will respond differently to a pitch, based on their needs, their readership, their budget, and their personality. And given the wide range of electronic and print media available—newspapers, magazines, blogs, e-mail alerts, TV, radio, cable outlets, Web sites, and things we haven’t thought of yet—each outlet has to be considered a separate personality, and each person working in the outlet must be catered to separately, as well.
The word “logic” has a cold and calculating connotation to it (blame Mr. Spock), but don’t let that prevent you from employing logic when you pitch. Media people need to understand the sense behind anything they’re asked to cover, so you have to be sensible. There must be reason along with your rhyme.
Say you own a video rental store (a beleaguered business in these days of Netflix and pay-per-view), and you’re cooking up a promotional campaign. Why is that worth a reporter’s time? Because surveys show that consumers prefer to rent movies rather than stand in line for them at theaters. And because “cocooning” is the social phenomenon du jour (meaning that people are paying attention to gas prices, movie prices, and, well, you name the price, and staying home for their entertainment), your store is the only one responding with free popcorn on Friday and Saturday nights. Something like that will likely cause a journalist to prick up his ears. There must always be a method to your madness. Your pitch simply spells it out.
In all cases, one central overarching guideline in pitching the media (or dealing with anyone in business) is to employ the five F’s—to be fast, fair, factual, frank, and friendly. These concepts speak for themselves, and they go a long way in gaining credibility for your project and in establishing a positive image for yourself as spokesperson.
Fast? I’ll remind you: fast, or dead.
Fair? You can’t expect journalists, editors, producers, or Web masters to be interested in your story all the time. You have to be able to see their point of view. If six other stores in the area are all offering free popcorn on Friday and Saturday nights, your story isn’t unique anymore, and you can’t expect even the local weekly to care. Be fair.
Factual? Lying is really, really a bad idea, mostly because they’ll find you out. And then you’ll never get another item in that outlet for as long as they remember you, which will be forever.
“Frank” goes along with “factual.” Reporters know when a story is all hype and no substance. Be honest with them. “My business is really in trouble, and this is what I’m trying to do to save it.” It might not work in the short term, but it’ll earn you points that will pay off in the future.
Friendly? Sure. But not so friendly that it’s creepy. You’re representing yourself and your business every time you contact a member of the media. It’s best that they think of you in positive terms.
This ties in to an idea I have that we are all ambassadors: when we talk, write, e-mail or in any way contact another person, particularly one with whom we are unacquainted, we are ambassadors. We represent various segments of the population: by gender, by race, or by appearance, in any number of ways. When you contact the media as a representative of your business or project, you are the face of that project; the only one the reporter or producer can use to identify it. If you consider yourself an ambassador, someone whose job description includes the idea of making a good impression so as to better represent the larger entity, you will be taking a very big step toward being a star of Guerrilla P.R.
Now, try your pitch with the ambassador concept in mind, and appeal to sentiment. Keep uppermost in your mind the underlying emotional component to give your pitch sharpness and direction. Equally essential, you must steer your appeal toward one central message and remain consistent, at least in your first volley of pitching. If you say too much, or mix in multiple pitches, you diffuse your goal. You must give the media a pitch they can hit. Otherwise, everybody strikes out.
You do not have to use the same pitch to all media. One size does not fit all. When contacting a consumer magazine, put a consumer-oriented spin on your pitch. If it’s a trade magazine, shape your appeal in a more technical fashion. But most important, always put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re pitching to. Ask yourself what she’s looking for, what he needs or wants. Generous empathy will take you far in Guerrilla P.R.
Some of the most common pitch styles are these:
Fastball. Direct, straight, factual. This is best used when you really have a unique and interesting story to tell, and can tell it with little embellishment (the Guerrilla P.R. idea of heaven). The fastball is most effective with national media. They’re usually so busy they have little time to sift through ancillary material. Remain polite and informative, but keep your focus on the basics of your message and the rationale for media coverage. Don’t offer extraneous details unless the person asks for them. What follows is a sample transcript. Don’t start out a cold call like this—I’m only trying to impart a general approach. The same “feeling” can be imparted in a letter as well.
“Hello, is this the news editor o
f the Daily Star? Hello, Mr. Smith, my name is John Jones. I hope you aren’t on deadline. Do you have a moment? Great, thank you. I’m calling regarding the upcoming carnival for the Mid-Valley Youth Center. Perhaps you saw the press release I sent a few days ago. I wanted to see if the Star would be interested in running a story on the carnival in advance of the event. Why should the paper do a story? Because our community’s youth would easily fall prey to the scourges of society were it not for places like the Center. Because we have top stars from the sports and entertainment worlds coming down to lend a hand. The Star is known for its supportive coverage of community events. As you know, the Center could be shut down if we don’t meet our financial goals. Perhaps you’d like to talk with some of our kids and learn firsthand how beneficial the center has been…”
Curveball. This approach appeals to the media’s innate curiosity. Whereas a fastball stresses logic over emotion, the curveball stresses emotion over logic. This works especially well when you know something about the journalist contacted and the kind of stories he or she tends to do. You tie in other elements and paint a broader picture with the curveball. A sample fictitious transcript:
“Jenny James of the Weekly? Hi, Jenny, this is John Jones, and I wanted to talk to you about the Mid-Valley Youth Center carnival next month. You know, I think it would make a sensational story if the Weekly ran a story on the carnival the week of the event. That piece you did on unwed mothers last week was very powerful, and our Center is geared directly at kids just like those you wrote about. Most of our kids come from tough backgrounds, broken homes, drugs. We’ve been able to give them a sense of purpose and direction. The Center has been a positive influence in the community, and I’d love to have the participation of you and the Weekly…”
Guerrilla PR 2.0 Page 7