Unless you’re Oprah, a former president or a major celebrity, there is one question you will likely never be asked by the media when promoting a book.

“So why did you write your book?”

They won’t ask it, not because they don’t know you’re an author nor because they’re being rude. They won’t ask because the media doesn’t exist to help authors sell books. The media exists to create content that informs and entertains its audience, so that their audience stays tuned in. The more audience they have, the more advertising dollars they can charge for their print space and air time. Audiences are what make them money.

This is one of the most common disconnects we usually see with those who are new to the game of PR. Authors expect they can use the media as a venue to talk about their books, while the media is only interested in them for their expertise and the information or entertainment they can offer their audiences.

But, there is a wide gulf between using an interview to wax philosophic about why you wrote a book and giving an information-packed or fun-filled interview aimed at holding the interest of the audience. So here are a few things to remember when preparing for media interviews:

1. “What’s In It For Me?” – The success of your interview, whether your audience stays tuned into you or tunes out, will depend largely on whether or not you tell them how your information will help them. No one knows this formula better than producers, hosts, editors and journalists whose livelihoods depend on keeping their audiences tuned in. They’re slaves to the audience – they know if they can’t hold them, they’ll lose them. And, if the audience goes, so does the advertising revenue and possibly their job.

2. Make it Fast – Today, the media has far less time and space than it ever has in its history. Ratings and readership figures are transmitted electronically, tracking not only what media you are consuming, but how much, for how long and when. They have it down to the minute. That doesn’t mean that we are reading less or have shorter attention spans. It means there is a lot more competition for our attention than ever before.

   We have radio and TV shows, movies, the Internet as well as content for our smartphones and PDAs. Media is delivered to us on plasma screens in the checkout line at Wal-Mart, in the airport as we wait for our flights and even at the pump as we gas up our cars. As a result of the competition for our attention, the media gives us much more information, in a variety of ways, faster than ever before. For the media, it’s as much about how much content as it is about how fast they can give it to us. Most TV interviews are in the 3-5 minute range, and radio interviews are in the 5-10 minute range. In print, a 500-word article is about the medium length most people will find. In USA Today, only a handful of stories ever break the 500 word mark. They want to give you more, faster. So when an author is offered an interview with the media, they better be able to provide helpful information that will leave an impression and be able to do it quickly, because their air time is so limited.

3. Walk the Tightrope – The media knows the dance. You are offering your time and expertise to their audience in exchange for exposure of your book. But if during the interview you say things like, “In my book, I wrote…,” it will be a short interview. However, if your interview fills the host’s need for delivering an entertaining and informative interview, they will do the promotion for you by mentioning your book and even your Web site on the air.

   But, even more important than the media’s perception of being overly promotional when interviewed on the air, is the consumer’s perception. It is a universal truth that consumers don’t like being sold. They don’t like commercials (which is why they fast forward past them on their DVRs), or shopping for cars at a dealership. They don’t like banner ads, spam, or a landscape cluttered with billboards. So the clue here is – don’t sell! Instead, inform, entertain and, in doing so, you’ll build the audience’s trust. And, one thing is for sure – no one puts their money on the counter without there being some level of trust that they are getting something of value in exchange for whatever it is they are purchasing.

The bottom line is that in order to get value from your media exposure, you have to offer value to the media first. Otherwise, you will forever be on the outside, looking in, as your competitors get the air time and media exposure you want for yourself.

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One of the most common dilemmas I encounter with many clients is the preconceived notions of what it takes to make sales. The problem with these preconceived notions is that they often misdirect people into thinking there is empirical evidence that lays out the sales cycle in absolutes. But, that just doesn’t exist.

So, what IS real? Exposure is a real tangible element in a marketing and sales cycle, because without it, you can’t sell a thing. Just as a candle under a bucket yields no light, a product or service that no one knows about will yield no sales. People have to know about you to do business with you.

Whether you are selling a book, a product or a service – exposure is the first and primary goal of marketing. While exposure doesn’t guarantee sales, any hope of generating sales can only result from getting in front of your potential consumer. But, when your product receives that coveted exposure to the masses, the X-factors in play become whether or not consumers will like what they see. Your product will either be exactly what the consumer is looking for, or it won’t.

I was talking to my senior strategist and he reminded me of the launch of New Coke back in the 1980s. Coca-Cola decided that Pepsi’s gains in the marketplace meant that consumers wanted a sweeter-tasting soda pop than Coke’s patented formula delivered. So, they scrapped their mainline product altogether and introduced New Coke with a multi-million dollar ad campaign featuring prime time darling Bill Cosby.

Their new product launch tanked. Consumers wanted their old Coke back. The moral of the story is that everyone in America had been exposed to New Coke. But, it also appeared that no one in America wanted to buy it. That’s the flip side of exposure, because great marketing doesn’t make something a quality product, nor can it fool people into wanting something they wouldn’t ordinarily buy. Your product must be able to stand on its own once it receives the exposure.

In the absence of empirical data, let’s take a look at some anecdotal data – specifically, your own. Ask yourself some simple questions. When was the last time you made a purchase of anything after being exposed to it only once? When was the last time an advertisement or an article about a product or service made SUCH an impression on you that you immediately made arrangements to buy it? If you’re like most consumers and business decision-makers, the answer to that question is either never, or rarely. The first step was that you were made aware of it, and perhaps after several exposures to that item, you then became interested in it.

Interest is what comes as a result of exposure, but interest doesn’t necessarily get you reaching for your check book. Interest usually spurs you to get information. You research it online, you ask friends about it, you ask business associates to weigh in on it – you collect your OWN data. And if you still want more information, you may decide to contact the company and ask them about it. My point here is that there are hundreds of ways to act on interest that does not involve making a purchase, and each of those actions represents a series of decision points, at which you may still decide not to buy.

Short of climbing inside our heads, which some researchers are doing these days under the category of “behavioral research” to track how consumers make buying decisions, there is no ironclad way to track what happens with the consumer from the point of exposure to the point of sale. In the advertising world, you’ll find a wide range of references about the frequency of advertising required to CAUSE a sale. But, my problem with those theories is they don’t take into account what actions the buyer took during the “interest” phase of their buying process that really caused the decision to buy.

And that is my point, and it’s why I know the value of PR and it’s how I’ve been able to sustain and grow a thriving PR agency over the course of 20+ years, through recessions and economic downturns and absolute market upheaval. It’s because of this one truth: You can’t sell anything without exposure that creates interest in the minds of the consumer. And PR is the most cost-effective and successful way of achieving that exposure and interest.

So, while good marketing and PR may not make record-breaking sales a mortal lock, you will never even be in the game without it.

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Usually, I like to dispense advice from the standpoint of having been in the media for 20 years, but this week’s advice is more in the land of common sense.

When you go to the store and you can’t find the exact product you’re looking for, what do you do? Do you just go home empty-handed? Or do you ask a manager? Most of the time, I ask a store or assistant manager if they carry the product, or if they can order it. And, most of the time retailers want to work with customers, so they’ll find a way to get what you want. After all, if they can service your needs, hopefully you’ll keep coming back.

Whether you know it or not, when you ask for something special, you are participating in a phenomenon one of my clients called, “reverse distribution.” Your request triggers a call to a manufacturer or distributor, specifically to get that product for you. On the other end, there is a business that is now going to fill an order they would not have received, had it not been for you asking for that specific product.

Now, reverse the roles. YOU’RE the business getting the unexpected order. That order is golden, because it’s gravy. It’s like finding money you didn’t know you had. Now wouldn’t it be great if you could get more customers asking retailers for what you manufacture?

You can actually make that happen. Public relations campaigns are frequently the spark that fires up reverse distribution, because effective media exposure educates consumers about your product, which motivates them to go into the store and ask for it by name.

To explain how this works, I love sharing this story from one of our clients, Stephen Grubb, President of SoyNut Butter Company. It really illustrates this concept extremely well. He said:

“The media exposure you got for us resulted in kind of a reverse distribution process. In other words, instead of waiting for stores to carry our product, this publicity campaign created such demand that stores are calling us to order our products – just to satisfy their customers!”

I loved getting this feedback!

But, another reason to consider a publicity campaign for your products is because it can help open doors with store buyers. Retailers will be far more likely to order your products if they know you’re planning a publicity campaign that will drive consumers into their stores.

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Whether you’re promoting a company, book, product or service, the goal is to get your message out so people will decide to buy whatever it is you’re selling. Promotion often revolves around your key market differentiators – the things about you that make you different and better than your competition.

However, when it comes to your PR campaign, the press isn’t interested in your market differentiators or whatever it is you’re selling.

Their position is that they don’t exist to provide coverage to help you sell or to make money at all. The press corps in broadcast, online and print exists to inform and entertain their audiences so THEY can sell advertising and make money.

So, given that understanding, you might ask, “What is PR and how can it help me?”

PR is the art of helping the media do their jobs so that you can get exposure for yours. It’s really an exercise in helping the media supply their audience with informative and interesting stories to consume. And so the immediate question that may come to mind is, “How does that help ME?”

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To understand that, you have to understand one primary principle of sales – most people don’t like being “sold.” Most prefer to be “informed.” Think about it – when you go to a department store, do you seek out the salespeople, or do you carefully avoid them so you can shop independently? How about when you get home from work and sit down to watch some TV, do you sit through the commercials or do you hit your remote to see what else is playing on other channels?

Most people prefer to be educated before they make a buying decision. We look at prices and quality and compare, and if we’re REALLY hardcore, we hit the Internet before we hit the mall. We want information before we buy, not hype.

And, that’s what PR provides. By appearing as a guest on radio or TV, or quoted in newspapers and magazines, you get the opportunity to educate people about your expertise, commenting on news stories and providing information that you know best being an expert in your field. This positioning not only educates the audience about you, but it also portrays you as someone who knows a lot about your field. That engenders trust, and where there is trust, there is a potential for sales. If no trust between you and your potential customers exists, it’s highly doubtful much commerce will result from the relationship.

So, in approaching PR, don’t focus so much on whether your campaign is highlighting all your marketing messages and unique sales propositions. Give the media the benefit of your knowledge and experience, and provide information and commentary that will help their audience make better choices. In that sense, not only will you achieve more coverage, but you will be much better received by the media audience.

Use PR to help the media do their jobs and they will definitely be on board to help you do yours.

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You may have heard me say this over and over – but it’s a fact: Talk radio is a great avenue for getting your message in front of a wide audience. With such an abundance of shows airing on terrestrial stations, online stations and satellite radio, and covering such a wide range of topics, you’re sure to find many that will be a good match for your message.

So how do you get on the air? Here are six tips designed to get you talking:

1. Tie Your Message to Current Hot News. You’ve heard me say this before as well – but it’s the foundation for any good publicity campaign: First and foremost, you need to follow the news. What are people talking about? What is the media saying? What’s the buzz? Keeping up with the news is important because talk radio is all about current events. When you know what’s current, you can package your message to fit the news…making you an attractive guest for a talk show. Your job is to scan the network and cable news channels, the newspapers, look at news websites, and, most importantly, monitor the talk radio landscape. As you follow the hottest stories in the news, think of ways you can relate your product or service to them. Look for controversy or big names, big money or even relationship issues…these are always tantalizing topics for talk show hosts (and their listeners).
2. Never Pitch Yourself or Your Product. The pitch letter to radio hosts and producers should focus on the issue about which you are an expert, or the problem which your product addresses. Radio hosts are interested in what you can do to inform and entertain their listeners, not what the host can do for you. Your credibility and expertise in your field is important, but it’s secondary to the topic you’ll be discussing. Pitch the segment, not yourself, and you’ll be on the same page as the host.
3. Write a Kick-Ass Pitch. The quality of your pitch will have everything to do with your success in getting booked as a talk radio guest. You want to make sure your headline is enticing – it’s got to grab the media’s attention. The text of your release should elaborate on the subject matter and what the “on-air” conversation will be about. It’s always good to include 5 to 10 questions you’d like the host to ask you and a short, but impressive bio.
4. Find Contact Info for Shows. These days most stations have websites listing all their shows. Look for a “Contact Us” page – in many cases the email address and phone number for the show producers will be right on that page. If that doesn’t produce results, find the station’s phone number on their website and call them, explaining that you would like to contact the show’s producer to suggest a segment. Ask them for his email address and the best phone number for following up – they will give this to you since this is how producers find guests and content for shows.
5. Personalize and Send Your Pitch. Do not send your pitch as an attachment to your email message – copy the pitch right into the body of the email instead. At the top, add a very brief note to the producer or host (sometimes they are one and the same) to introduce your pitch. Your introduction should tell the producer why you think your topic would be a great fit for his show or why you think his audience would be interested in what you have to say. The producer is far more likely to respond favorably to your proposal when he can readily see that you’ve done your homework.
6. Follow Up After You Send Your Pitch. After you email your pitch, call the producer to ask if he received it, or has any questions. If you get him on the phone, this is your opportunity to expand on your pitch and really sell him on what a great show it would be and how much it would interest his audience.

I know I’ve given you a lot to chew on, but if you truly do each of these steps it will get you and your message on the air!

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Over the years, I’ve always advised my clients that if you want to get in the news, you have to watch and read the news. I know it sounds a little like “bumper sticker” advice, but it’s really not meant as a sound bite. In fact, we use a practical application of that advice every single morning at our agency.

It’s actually a very simple list of easy steps that anyone can do, and it can get blockbuster results.

• Read the Feed (or watch the news) – A daily routine of following breaking news and popular stories is the first and most essential step in my formula for how you can get interviewed by the media. If you are Internet savvy and prefer to get your news digitally, tracking news trends will be a breeze. There are many online news outlets, such as Yahoo, MSN, CNN and AOL, that prominently feature on their sites the most searched and significant news events each day. There are also other online services, such as Google Alerts, Digg, and others, that allow users to stay on top of the hot topics. If your preference – like me – is to watch the news on TV and/or read daily newspapers, those are also effective methods for keeping up with the news cycles. Whether you prefer traditional or digital news, the key thing is to establish a news-tracking routine and stick to it. It will orient you as to which news topics are getting the most attention, and will be a strong predictor of which stories are most likely to have a longer cycle on TV news outlets.
• Identify a Hook – As you follow the news each day, think creatively about how your company or your expertise could be applied to comment on news events of the day. I’ll relate something that happened this past month, and how we applied it. We have a client who is a world-class financial advisor. He is a former Wall Street player who made himself very comfortable through that life, but felt another calling for himself. Now he works as a financial planner for families in trouble, and he’s extremely passionate about it. We were looking for news hooks other than the typical “Tips for the Rough Times” pitch that has been making the rounds since 2008. As we were doing that, it hit the wire that the IRS was going to be taxing the claims being collected from BP Oil by the workers displaced by the disaster. At the same time, we had just finished watching a clip of Anderson Cooper of CNN on the ground in Louisiana, covering the crisis. At that point, it rang like a bell – we’d send our client to the Gulf Coast to help those hardest hit by the disaster. So, in a matter of minutes, our team went from, “This is a great hook,” to implementation.
• Develop your Angle – Taking my client example from above, we developed an angle for him using the BP oil story as a launching pad. We emailed him to see if he had any specific tips for the Gulf Coasters, and he came through beautifully. We cobbled his tips into the pitch, and it flowed like this: 
  

  A Guide for Gulf Coast Victims of the BP Oil Spill

  Financial Expert Offers Tips on Getting Through the Worst
  Gulf Coast workers displaced by the BP oil spill have had to deal with losing their jobs, losing their businesses and many are losing their homes. But there are ways that they can protect themselves right now from further damage. Money expert (name deleted, because we’re still pitching him and we don’t want to jinx anything!), has a slew of creative and practical tips for those affected by the disaster.

  He says that uncertainty on when the spill will be stopped leads to the uncertainty about long-term economic activity and its effects on employment, consumer spending and housing prices. So, he is advising people to do the following things:

  • Be Prepared. Prepare for the worst case scenario. Build up a cash position equal to 3-6 months living expenses. Keep a significant amount of cash in your house in case you may be forced to evacuate due to a storm or adverse environmental conditions. Keep enough gasoline on hand to be able to fill your vehicle.
  • Stock Up. Build up a supply of food and water in case a sudden evacuation is ordered or if city water sources are deemed undrinkable.
  • Get Trained. If your livelihood is based on fishing or tourism, consider getting training in industries not dependent on the fishing or hospitality industries. If worse case scenarios develop, jobs lost in these areas will not come back for many years.
  • Fill Out the Forms. Apply for all aid and compensation available from both BP and state and Federal government. If income has stopped or decreased significantly, apply for food stamps and other social assistance.
  • Watch the Real Estate Market. Be prepared for lower real estate values for some time to come. Even if the spill stopped tomorrow, the ecological effects will be felt for years. Gulf Coast real estate, both commercial and residential, is falling dramatically and will not rebound anytime soon.
  • Stay Well. Monitor your family’s health as there have been reports of mysterious sicknesses in Gulf residents and cleanup workers.
  • Read the News. Stay informed as best you can. In addition to traditional news sources, read blogs, where you may find reports that are not widely available to the public. BP and the federal government have not been fully forthcoming in informing the public of the extent of the disaster.

  Thanks for your consideration – let me know if you’re interested.

• Blast it Out – Once you’ve read the news, identified a hook and written up your angle, it is time to launch your effort. When you pitch something that is hot in the news, you also need to call producers individually to follow up, ensuring they received and read your email. Many national producers won’t take phone calls, so at the very least, send your emails with a return receipt so you can track that they opened it.

To follow through with the effort we began earlier this month, we have booked two national TV interviews and six local TV interviews across the Gulf Coast, with the campaign continuing all through the month. So the bottom line here is that by doing this daily exercise, you will enable yourself to take advantage of these kinds of headlines. And who knows? You might even be able to fold yourself into the national news cycle.

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Back in 1962, Avis Rent A Car began using the advertising slogan that is still in use today – “We try harder.”

The slogan was a nod to the fact that Avis was the second largest rental car company behind Hertz, and that as a result, they would always make an extra effort in a desire to overcome the competition. It’s a reasonably universal sentiment, as small corporations around the world employ the same tactic to provide better service or more flexibility than the market leaders. And the same can be said of talk radio.

Typically, people engaging in talk radio-based PR campaigns will use market size and wattage of the stations they choose to pitch as a benchmark for a successful campaign. That’s usually a safe bet, but that being said, it’s important not to overlook some of the smaller market, smaller wattage stations. There are a lot of diamonds in that rough to be found.

While big market, big wattage stations offer you reach, many smaller stations offer better quality interviews. Many small market hosts want to be big market hosts, so they are always trying to play a better game. When I embarked on my own talk radio campaign to promote my book Celebritize Yourself – shameless plug acknowledged – I discovered that some of the more in-depth interviews I gave were in smaller markets. In some cases, the hosts actually read the book cover to cover, and were able to engage me in a more specific and thought-provoking discussion.

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Some took the time to truly research the material before putting me on the air, and as a result, I truly felt like I had the opportunity to get my message out in a substantial manner. And some of these stations, while small, have more loyal followings. Because the station may be in a smaller market, listeners may not have as many choices as they have in a big city market, so they listen more often and are more loyal. Moreover, the hosts tend to have more sway over their listeners because they are local celebrities themselves, or community leaders.

For example, in Los Angeles, you could stay extremely busy surfing all the talk shows on the AM dial because they have so many stations competing with each other. Conversely, in Gainesville, Florida (the number 83 market in terms of audience size), the same number of people may be listening to a top rated show there. But that’s not all – you’ll also find the listeners are loyal and dedicated fans of that talk show because they don’t have the variety of stations and shows to pick and choose from.

I chose Gainesville, Florida as an example for a reason. We work with one of the top shows in that market – it’s typically a 20 to 30 minute interview with a host and co-host who’ve been on the air for many years and have a dedicated following. The interesting thing that’s happened is that nearly every single one of our clients has contacted us after that interview to tell us how much they enjoyed it, how the hosts had done their homework and were so informed and interested about their topic – and how it was absolutely the best interview.

In that sense, some of these smaller stations can deliver more qualified listeners who are more receptive to your message and more likely to take action after the show – look you up on the Internet, go to your site, or even become a customer.

Now, not ALL smaller stations are like that, and not all hosts in small towns carry that kind of punch. That’s why it’s important to discriminate. There is such a thing as too small, or too insignificant.

One of the key things to look at is whether the show has been around a while. A show with a 10 or 20 year history is more likely to be hosted by a local celebrity who is able to drive consumer opinion in your favor.

To sum it all up, the most important thing you need to know is that when you’re launching a campaign on talk radio, market size isn’t everything. You’ll need to consider the other factors we’ve just discussed when evaluating what’s the best fit for you. Then you can find a PR firm to tailor a campaign that suits your needs.

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I have never really been a card-carrying feminist, nor has my gender been a barrier to my success in the public relations industry. But I’ve not been blind to the fact that a lot has changed in the last few decades, and I think Gloria Steinem was spot-on when she wrote years ago that we’d never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.

Well, I’d say we’re just about there, because women are controlling the use of more money than at any point in U.S. history.

I was fascinated by these statistics:

• Senior women age 50 and older control net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth. – MassMutual Financial Group, 2007
• Over the next decade, women will control two-thirds of consumer wealth in the United States and be the beneficiaries of the largest transference of wealth in our country’s history. Estimates range from $12 to $40 trillion. Many Boomer women will experience a double inheritance windfall, from both parents and husband. The Boomer woman is a consumer that luxury brands want to resonate with. – Claire Behar, Senior Partner and Director, New Business Development, Fleishman-Hillard New York

Marti Barletta, author of Marketing to Women, documented the following trends regarding women in the consumer marketplace:

• Women influence 95% of all purchases and control 80% of all household spending.
• Buying the “small stuff” has always been in the woman’s domain. Part of her domestic duties as wife and mother have been to keep the family healthy, warm, and well-nourished. From the family meal to the family doctor, from shirts for her husband to shoes for her kids, chances are those choices have always been hers. What many marketers haven’t caught onto yet, though, is that women’s spending power now extends far beyond shoelaces and shirts.
• In the past, the big-ticket items like cars, insurance policies, and major appliances were historically bought by – and therefore marketed to – men. Things have changed! Nowadays, women need their own cars, their own computers, their own cell phones, and their own investment accounts – among many other new big-ticket items – and so manufacturers are facing a whole new market.

So it’s clear that women are gaining ground in controlling consumer purchases, and savvy marketers are taking note. For instance, have you seen any Home Depot commercials lately? Ten years ago, it was all lumber, power tools and men moving large things. Today’s current campaign features a married couple looking for light bulbs who ultimately wind up getting advice from a Home Depot salesman on how to redecorate their patio. A little less testosterone, for sure.

Something else struck me, and although it’s minor, it’s very telling. About 15 years ago, most cars came with a courtesy mirror only on the passenger side, never on the driver’s side. The assumption was that the men drove, while the women sat in the passenger seat, freshening up their makeup. Today, most cars come with courtesy mirrors on both sides, standard. Since I can’t recall the last time I didn’t do my makeup in the car, that little mirror on the visor beats the heck out of juggling a compact mirror and mascara tube in one hand, and the mascara wand in the other. Clearly carmakers finally caught on that women drive as many car purchases as men, if not more.

At the end of the day, whether you market cars, power tools or anything in between, if you ignore women as you craft your message and go to market, you’re likely losing sales and steam. Some women are steering the boat independently, some are decision makers in navigating it, and regardless we need to be aware of their influence.

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Do you know what the media would consider newsworthy about you or your company?

Many new clients come to us with a strong opinion about what their “pitch” should be, but often miss the mark, in terms of knowing what will get the media to sit up and pay attention to their message. But it’s very understandable that this could occur, if you’re not working with the media the way we do, day in and day out, developing story angles intended to grab their interest.

For those who are new to PR, my message is this – think outside of the box! As normal as it is to be focused on your own company and industry or field of interest, there is a lot going on in the world, and your expertise might be news in ways that you’ve not previously envisioned.

I always recommend to my clients that they try to view their companies from the outside looking in, particularly, from the perspective of the media. The best way for you to garner the media’s interest is to understand what it is about you and your company that might be interesting to them. The process is actually quite simple.

1. Read the News – If you want to be featured in the news, you should read the news. Be general in your approach. Read the top headlines in all the categories, even if your company is in a niche industry, because you never know what is going to happen. For instance, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has focused a spotlight on oil rigs and the people who work on them. Journalists are looking at the companies who own oil rigs, drilling rights, and other oil company service firms. Analysts in that small business niche are being quoted in top tier media outlets, after existing for decades completely outside the reach of the media’s radar. So, go broad with the topics that you track, and don’t be afraid to become a little bit of a news geek. Being better informed about the world around you isn’t a bad thing, and the by-product is that you’ll be far more media savvy.
2. Track it Back – Now, as you absorb the headlines and the stories of the day, think about how one or more of them could track back to you, your company and your key messages. A good example comes from one of our clients, a maker of natural health supplements. Their primary product line uses a natural ingredient called Resveratrol. Clinical research has uncovered that Resveratrol can be helpful in reducing fatigue, restoring energy and safeguarding your immune system. Now, earlier this month, Reuters reported that doctors who performed an 11-year study of British civil servants discovered a direct link between heart disease and working 11 hours or more each day. Another story quoted U.S. Department of Labor statistics that more than 7 million Americans work at least two jobs. We combined those two pieces to demonstrate that millions of Americans are working way more than 11 hours, and are at risk for everything from chronic fatigue to heart disease. From there, it wasn’t too difficult to beat a path back to the client’s physician spokesperson who recommended a series of tips to prevent those outcomes, including a short tip about how some natural supplements can be helpful. At first blush, you wouldn’t imagine that labor stats and a medical study in Great Britain would have any relationship with a natural health supplement, but by thinking creatively, we were able to make the connection and develop a strong radio pitch for that client.
3. Be Opportunistic – The news happens fast, so be prepared to think just as fast. Recently we took on a client named Jane Heimlich, who has a dual claim to fame. She is the daughter of dance hall king Arthur Murray, who established the largest chain of dance instruction centers in the country. She is also the wife of chest surgeon Dr. Hank Heimlich, the creator of the life-saving, anti-choking first aid technique called the Heimlich Maneuver. She had just written her memoir, and was looking to promote it via media interviews. When we brought her on board, the new season for the network TV show Dancing with the Stars was about to begin. In reading her book, we discovered that her father’s TV show, The Arthur Murray Party, was the first network TV dance contest – and it involved the big stars of the day. So, we put together a radio pitch with the headline “Remembering the Original Dancing with the Stars.” We booked 15 radio interviews and a full print campaign with that angle, and we just refreshed the angle with the CBS announcement that they are giving Paula Abdul her own TV dance competition.

At the end of the day, recognize that your expertise can be stretched beyond what you have in your marketing plan, and you’ll be able to make you and your company more relevant to the press in a lot of creative ways.

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Sometimes I feel bad for on-air TV personalities, because if you’re on television regularly for any length of time, you’re going to screw up. It’s inevitable. It’s the law of averages, and when you do, YouTube will be sure to archive it for future generations.

The Internet is stockpiled with videos of show hosts forgetting the camera was on, dropping four-letter words and losing it when heckled by onlookers off camera. The same is true with public relations, because we’re not immune to gaffs, and neither are our clients. One of my staff likes to tell the story of a New York politician who was caught not paying taxes in the middle of a re-election campaign, and so his PR rep wanted to shield him from too many questions. To combat that, he scheduled an outdoor press conference in the dead of the afternoon on the hottest day of the year, hoping the heat would shorten the length of the press conference and thin the crowd of reporters because they didn’t want to be outside. The press conference went off as planned in the sweltering afternoon sun, and 10 minutes into it, his candidate passed out from heat stroke.

So, when you’re thinking of doing TV interviews, here are some basic, and not so basic dos and don’ts to help you through the rough patches:

1. Don’t look at the monitor – If you’ve never done TV before, the first thing you’ll notice in a guest segment is that when you sit down at the set, there are tons of distractions – monitors showing all the camera angles, cameramen rolling the cameras to different positions, and producers who like to move around the set. Forget them. Look at the person interviewing you, as if you were just having a cup of coffee with them at the local Starbucks.
2. Don’t Let a Stumble Stop the Interview – Most interviews are either live, or what they call “live to tape,” meaning they are taped segments, but they are not edited. That means whatever happens during the segment, mistakes and all, is what they run. So, if you stumble over your words or cough or accidentally spit out the gum in your mouth (that you should have spit out before the interview), you just have to keep going. No matter what, in most cases you’ll have one take, and whatever happens, well, happens. Don’t stop and say “Cut, can we do this again please?” because that is what will air.
3. Don’t Do Your “Elevator Pitch” – When being interviewed, you should answer the host’s questions directly, and not go into your stock company pitch right off the bat. That will only annoy the host, and make them ask the question again (which will make you look foolish). If you are concerned, try to talk to the producer in advance about what questions you’ll be asked. If the producer is vague, or doesn’t give you the exact questions, then simply be ready for whatever they throw at you.
4. Don’t Move in a Distracting Way – A news segment is not “Dancing with the Stars,” so don’t move too much when you’re being interviewed. If you naturally gesture when you talk, then gesture, but don’t go overboard. Sweeping hand gestures are distracting. If you’re standing during the interview, try to stand still. Place your feet at shoulder width to maintain balance, and don’t bounce around. Bobbing, weaving, pacing or any other kind of nervous movement will be distracting. Moreover, if you are sitting, don’t do the nervous knee bounce that many people are used to doing under the table in the board room. There is no table, and the camera will pick it up. Remember, being stationary and relaxed will help you exude confidence on camera.

The main “don’t,” however, is don’t try to perform. Just be yourself, represent your company professionally and allow the expert in you to rise to the surface. That’s the reason they booked you, and that’s who they want to put on TV.

If you’ve landed a TV interview, congratulations, you’ve secured a few precious minutes on a platform which can be tremendously valuable to the promotion of your company and products. How else can you reach your target market as a captive audience who will see your product, hear you tell them about its benefits, and listen to their favorite TV personality apparently endorse it?

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Take it from me – you will receive few opportunities as valuable to your marketing as a TV appearance, so it’s so important to be a success. If you ace your TV interview, not only are you more likely to be invited back, but when other TV producers Google you, finding that clip of your informative and entertaining guest spot will leave them chomping at the bit to book you on their shows!

Here is a delightful sketch by the wonderful Martin Short, where he very humorously demonstrates how to be a really terrible guest on a TV interview – enjoy!