Every business person wants to tell the world
about his company’s fantastic product or service, but few people
possess the strategic skills needed to effectively spread the good word.
According to a value-packed new book, “Guerrila
Publicity” (Adams Media 2002),“Publicity is the most overlooked
marketing tool, but it can be the least expensive, least risky and most
effective and easiest to use—when you understand it and how to use
it.”
Subtitled, “Hundred of sure-fire tactics to get
maximum sales for minimum dollars,” the book, by Jay Conrad Levinson,
Rick Frishman and Jill Lublin, provides concrete publicity strategies
to owners of small businesses whose dreams are bigger than their budgets.
Chapter titles include “Introduce Yourself with a Sound Bite,”
“Fifteen Things the Media Hates” (and “Fifteen Things
the Media Loves”) and “Online Publicity Strategies.”
AMA’s Editorial Director Florence Stone recently
interviewed Rick Frishman, one of the authors of “Guerilla Publicity,”
to find out how anyone can become schooled in the art of promotion.
AMA: Your book is entitled “Guerrilla Publicity.”
Why “guerrilla?”
Rick Frishman: “Guerrilla” means high impact,
low cost publicity ideas that will make you stand out in today’s overcrowded
marketplace.
AMA: What role does Guerrilla Publicity play
in corporate marketing?
Frishman: In today’s economy with the downsizing of budgets, cuts
in personnel and multiple job sharing, companies have to be mean and lean
so they use these techniques to get their word out.
AMA: How do you apply Guerrilla Publicity to
yourself within an organization?
Frishman: Get noticed for who you are and what your work is. Guerrilla
Publicity applies to both external and internal communications.
AMA: You advocate building your marketing plan
around publicity. What is that?
Frishman: Publicity is free. You don’t pay to place it. Advertising
is costly and not effective on its own. Publicity gives you far more credibility
and visibility. It is the much more economical way to go.
AMA: How would you use publicity to support a
brand?
Frishman: Publicity encourages brand recognition, creates name visibility
and is actually more effective than advertising for creating this recognition.
AMA: Do you have to hire a professional publicist
to undertake an effective publicity campaign?
Frishman: It takes a trained publicist to help strategize and create
a plan that effectively communicates a message with strong impact. However,
I believe that most staff can be trained to create the desired results.
AMA: What are the key steps in the kind of Guerrilla
Publicity you recommend?
Frishman:
1. Identify your message
2. Create a one-page press release
3. Identify your target market
4. Create media lists specific to your message
5. Send it out.
6. Follow up, follow up, follow up.
AMA: You advocate that firms and individuals
find their uniqueness, then capitalize on it. How do you identify this
uniqueness?
Frishman: Look at a part of your story that makes you stand apart
from the crowd. Have you overcome an obstacle? Are you juggling career
and kids? Are you in a family business? What is it that makes you different
from your competition? What are your practical goals? What are you an
expert in?
For more information about “Guerilla Publicity”
contact Rick Frishman at www.PlannedTVArts.com orAdams Media Corporation
www.adamsmedia.com
Author Bio: Rick Frishman,
co-author of “Guerrilla Publicity” (Adams Media 2002), is
president of Planned Television Arts, a leading book publishing publicity
firm, and is executive vice president at Ruder*Finn.
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