Small Budget. Big Results. This is the Inspired Hustler's Ideal.
A friend asked me once for a DIY PR outreach To Do List. She aimed to get a few local pubs to cover her comedy troupe’s show, and thought it would be great to share some quick, really bare boned, steps to abide by. Without going into too much detail, because I’ve already spent too much time on WordPress today, here’s a breakdown:
- Write a press release: Formatting and tone changes how you go about this. I would sleuth the net, or popular news wires, for an example to follow.
- Have a target list of media (print, online, radio, tv): PR folks have tools for this stuff, both from $0 – $blasphemous. Check first the pubs that come to mind for you, but be realistic. Look for the low hanging fruit. PRLeads is $99 a month, but would only suggest that to business owners who can front the capital. Peter Shankman’s HARO is fun and free.
- Send it out 3wks – 4 wks in advance (since it’s Dec, it’s busy, so the earlier the better). In the media world, better to be early and persistent, than late and oh so sorry.
- Follow up via phone call n book some interviews or reviewers, whichever applies. Here’s a post on how to pitch even the BIG Shot reporter on your first try.
- Post Release on distribution wire on target date. There are a few free press release drop sites out there, but I’ve only tried one: PRLog. Not bad in helping increase SEO for your site and as well as web visibility for your comedy troupe’s or business name.
- Collect results for future marketing, and maintain relationships with the press you’ve worked with. If you haven’t already, set up a Google Alert now. Never know what someone might already be saying. Besides, everyone in the world may Google themselves, but we sophisticated Inspiration-Hustlers Google Alert. Why not automate your search querying?
That is a basic basic list of things to do with a basic basic announcement. Of course the key is in the first two: writing the release and figuring out the angle that would make it newsworthy (the Inspiration), and secondly making a fine tuned list of reporters/outlets who would love this story and have the most potential for writing it (the Hustle).
Good luck and tell me how it goes!
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