Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

 

Follow up, Follow up, Follow up

Author: Rick Frishman   |   September 8th, 2010

“What is promotion without the pro? Just motion. The pros follow up, follow up, follow up.”
—Rick Frishman

Guerrillas take the initiative! After they get things rolling, guerrillas strike quickly and often. They don’t take the attitude of “My work’s done” because they know it isn’t. They know much of their work has just begun. Guerrillas don’t sit around and wait for things to happen, they make things happen.

Georgia, a financial planner, took all the right steps to get her publicity campaign off to a flying start. She wrote a snappy sound bite that usually elicited positive responses; she identified thirty radio, follow upTV, and newspaper contacts and sent a photo and professional looking media kit to each.

When she was done, she sat back, concentrated on her planning business and waited. Three weeks later, her mailings produced just one response—and that response ended up being a dead end.

Meanwhile, a few weeks before the publication date of his book, Stan sent query letters to magazines asking if they were interested in publishing excerpts from it. A few days later, before he received any responses, Stan telephoned each magazine. He asked the editors if they received his letter and if they were interested in running an excerpt.

After a steady stream of rejections, Stan finally got through to an editor who said that the magazine was on deadline and was short one story. Stan immediately faxed an excerpt and Fed Exed a copy of his book, bio, and photo to the editor. The excerpt from Stan’s book ran two weeks later.

The only magic formula for getting publicity is the 3 Fs: follow up, follow up, follow up.

As I’ve previously said—and can’t stress enough—people in the media are swamped with work and have to juggle more publicity requests than imaginable. Plus, they surround themselves with electronic fences so they’re hard to reach.

Securing a booking or getting an article about your product or service published can take ages because when hot stories break, the media frequently drops what it’s working on. It’s simply how the business operates.

Rick

About Rick Frishman
Related Resources
More Posts by Rick Frishman

To discover the easy and inexpensive ways anyone can attract more clients and maximize their profits, sign up for your FREE Profit Now Report.


Join the Discussion!

What do you think? We value your input. Share your comments, advice or ask a question.