WHY MEDIA PUBLICITY IS WORTH YOUR TIME

Copyright 1995 by Marcia Yudkin. All rights reserved.

In getting started on my research for a new book, I wrote to a consultant who publishes a column in several business magazines. I described the topic of the book, requested a 45-minute phone interview and explained that all of his ideas would be attributed to him and that readers would be told how to get in touch with him. I also mentioned that previous books of mine had been offered by the Book of the Month Club and remained in print for more than five years. "Thanks for your interest," he wrote back, "but I'm afraid that my days are filled with business activity. Good luck with your book."

His confused logic took my breath away. It's as if an angel showed up on his doorstep and said, "I'd like to enhance your reputation and help you find new clients," and he said, "Go away. I'm busy doing business."

Obviously he didn't see it that way, however. In order to explain the enormity of the hole in his thinking, let me get down to some basics. Without customers or clients, you do not have a business. And unless you take some steps to replace customers who die, move, no longer need you or switch to your competitors, your business will eventually dwindle and fail. Advertising can fulfill this function. So can writing a column, especially when, as with the columnist in question, you include your address and a description of your services along with every column. But advertising costs money. To write a column takes creativity, time and effort. The opportunity I had offered this man would have cost him nothing but 45 minutes of easy talk, which could have been scheduled so that it would not interfere with his consulting. What are the chances of that tiny investment paying off in new clients? In my judgment and experience, very high.

Ask Jeff Slutsky, who was doing marketing consulting out of his home when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal contacted him. The day the long feature article about him appeared in print, his phone began to ring at 6 a.m. and didn't stop for three weeks, he says, including bookings from large, wealthy corporations. Ask artists' advocate Carroll Michels. Within an hour of the Village Voice running a piece about her, "I was swamped with phone calls from artists eager to set up appointments." Ask psychotherapist Ellen Ziskind, whom I interviewed for an article in Cosmopolitan. "I should be buying you dinner, not coffee," she told me when I met her after the article appeared. "I got a new client from that article." Or ask social worker Merle Bombardieri, who still gets calls from people who have read a book that is no longer for sale and available only in libraries.

Cooperating with media inquiries does take time and, sometimes, bother. Chocolate maker Kim Merritt told me that when photographers from Money Magazine descended on her factory, it took her away from her regular tasks for the better part of a day. But since she knew how valuable the imprimatur of national magazines can be, she cheerfully obliged. She started selling customized chocolates when she was in her teens, and early publicity in People, Seventeen and Family Computing proved instrumental in landing clients such as Apple Computer.

Of course, no journalist can guarantee that the time you spend speaking with him or her will pay off. Sometimes all that comes back to you is a big, resounding silence. But even so, you would have earned a new credential you can use in your marketing: "As featured on CNBC" or "As profiled in Human Resource News." You can't buy that kind of boost with any amount of money.

Perhaps the columnist who refused to be interviewed didn't trust that I would attribute his ideas to him, despite my promise. That's the only explanation of his attitude, aside from ignorance, that I can think of. I could only add hundreds more examples to those above to try to convince you that it's not worth it to be either shortsighted or mistrustful. When a journalist calls you, jump at the opportunity. Media publicity counts as a "business activity." I can't wait to find out how it pays off for you.

Marcia Yudkin coaches small business owners internationally on getting media publicity and effective marketing outreach. She also publishes the bimonthly newsletter, The Creative Glow: How to Be More Original, Inspired & Productive in Your Work. Get autographed copies of her books Marketing Online and Six Steps to Free Publicity (Plume Books) for $26.90 (combined, postpaid) by calling her 24-hour message line at 617-266-1613 or sending a check or money order to her at Creative Ways, P.O. Box 1310, Boston, MA 02117. You can receive her electronic brochure in a matter of minutes by sending any E-mail message to yudkinfo@world.std.com; for a personal reply contact marcia@yudkin.com.

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