Why most people fail at PR

Dear Lovely Business Owner,

Why most people do fail at PR, and here’s a few reasons why:

Not about them.. Suppose you have just written a book which your poured your heart out into, and which you know that your audience will totally love! Whilst this is wonderful, the media’s might not be that interested in it…

Truth be told, the media will only be interested in your book, if it appeals to their audience. It is not about you, it is about how you can help them. Think about it for a minute.

The fact is, that they have their media which can reach often thousands if not millions of people, and they have hundreds if not thousands of people wanting to be featured in their media.

What makes your book so special to them? The trick is to pull out one of your ideas, or your opinions and make it relevant to them and their audience.

2 No Tie-in to current events. Another secret is to tie your book, into what is happening currently. For example, January is known as the Personal Development month, say your book is about weight loss, you could easily link it into what is happening in January. Think about it.

For example: The tricks to life-long weight loss that no-one is talking about.How to lose the weight and keep it off Think about the value of this, compared to just blindly pitching your book.

They only care and are only interested in what you have to say if you can show it is relevant to them.

Another level of this is called ‘Newsjacking,’ and here’s a post which I have written about this, it is an advanced strategy so not for everyone, yet it will when done correctly supercharge your PR! http://www.theblondepreneur.com/2017/10/03/how-to-supercharge-your-pr/

3. Failure to follow up. Other blinds spots with PR are that people think that the media are just waiting around to receive their pitch or email.

In my experience the media as so busy they might not even acknowledge let alone respond to your email pitch, no matter how well researched .

Yes, as the bottom line is that they are very very busy and under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines doing the work often for several people, so whilst they might in an ideal world love an administrative assistant, the truth is they rarely have one.

So, keep in mind that it is up to you to do the chasing, and the following up, not them.

What this means is that when people are doing their own PR, they can forget to make the pitches about how you can help them media and then it means that even when their pitches are brilliant they fail to follow up!

4.Not relevant . Ok, I’m nearly done, but one more important point. A final reason why many people fail at PR is they fail to make their pitches current or even relevant for the publication.

For example: they pitch some story idea that is out of date or has already been used. This could happen because they have not done their research, so not read any back issues of a particular magazine, or not watched a particular television show that they want to appear on.

Not only that, the send a pitch that is not timely. For example: they send a pitch for the Summer, at Easter which if it is for television it might work, but for a monthly magazine they work on their summer issues, often as early as January, some even December!!

Or you could have a chat with me to join my monthly PR membership club, which is just £67 , and you get 45 minutes with me per month and for longer-term members you receive all of my courses too! More information, here: http://www.theblondepreneur.com/spiritualpr-heavenly-club/

Love Carrie x