I have secured TV appearances, national newspaper articles, radio interviews and local media attention for my clients via SourceBottle call outs – and you can do the same.

Starting in Australia and now operating nationally, SourceBottle is an introduction service for journalists, bloggers, PR companies and businesses. By this, I mean journalists and bloggers post call outs for sources on a particular topic and business owners (or their PR agents) respond, offering their stories.

It really is that easy to use. Go to www.sourcebottle.com.au and sign up for an account, register the areas your business operates in that you are likely to be able to provide good comment on and then wait for the call outs to drop into your inbox. SourceBottle Drink Up alerts are sent out at around 10am and 2pm every week day, but you can also log on to the site, or check the SourceBottle Twitter feed and Facebook page and respond directly if you don’t want to wait.

Once you find a call out you think you’d be right for, use these tips for a great SourceBottle response:

• Read Drink Up and reply as soon as you can, as journalists and bloggers often don’t wait for other responses once they have what they need

• Ensure you read the call out carefully so you know what you are responding to. You don’t want to start your relationship with the journalist or blogger badly by wasting their time

• Address the journalist or blogger by name if they have included it in the call out

• Outline why you would be suitable, addressing each of the points mentioned in the call out. You don’t need to write a novel, dot points covering the topic are often preferred

• Respond even if you’re not exactly the right fit, because you still may be the best option, or the journalist or blogger might change their story idea if they like what you send. However, keep in mind if your response is not relevant in any way it will not help your bid for publicity

• Include your website in the body of your response so the journalist or blogger can find out more about your business if they need to

• Add contact details at the bottom of your response, making it easy to get back to you

• Attach a photo or media release if it adds to your response

• Check your spelling and facts before pressing send

• Remember if you get no response, there’s always tomorrow’s SourceBottle alerts

Good luck uncovering some great opportunities for yourself and your business. Let me know how you go.

Noah with his beloved Bruder DHL courier truck

I attended the first Bloggers Brunch organised by Kids Business in association with Room to View TV last month, and saw first hand how powerful contact with the blogging community can be for businesses.

In April’s Strawberry Communications newsletter I wrote about why blogging is good for business, but I wanted to touch on the topic again because there is a group of bloggers who have really come the fore as brand ambassadors. They are Mummy Bloggers.

Mummy Bloggers don’t just write about life with their kids, posting recipes and photos of playing at the park. Yes, those topics are sometimes covered and yes they blog about their lives – sometimes in such detail that readers squirm – but these posts are part of a much bigger written tapestry.

Each blogging mother has interests outside her children’s milestones, and these interests are woven into their blogs. She might cover developmental issues if the family is coping with those, or food allergies, but she might also cover books her children love, toys they can’t do without, products that make her life easier, or cafes that cater for children.

The potential for topics mummy bloggers can cover is infinite, but what makes them stand out from other bloggers is their passion for their chosen subject, their honesty and their ability to build a devoted community around that topic. Successful bloggers have readers waiting impatiently to see their posts – and some bloggers post daily or more. Just think of the content consumed by these communities.

Ethan with Mega Bloks and Little Tikes ferry

So, back to the Bloggers Brunch. Here I got to meet some savvy brand managers who were willing to devote their time and products in return for an audience with 50 influential members of the mummy blogging community. Each blogger left with a goodie bag filled with samples to try and blog about, if they chose, plus products from the sponsors to road test.

I brought home some excellent Kleenex products from Kleenex Mums, a bag of Mega Bloks from Mega Brands and a toy boat from Little Tikes for my youngest son and an amazing Bruder DHL delivery truck that had my eldest son beside himself with excitement. I blogged about these products and posted photos of the boys playing with the toys on Facebook and Twitter, so I’ve been helping their marketing efforts too. It’s clever marketing and something you should consider if your brand appeals to women, families or children (or dads if you want to target daddy bloggers!).

To find out more about Mummy Bloggers, what they blog about, how to contact them, or how to join them, have a look at these sites: Mummy Bloggers Blog, PR Friendly Aussie Blog Directory and Digital Parents.

Pitching a story to the media can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially if you hate making cold calls.

There are some techniques you can use to increase the chances of the media taking notice of what you have to say.

If you are sending a media release, let the journalist know it is a media release by putting the words “Media release: [insert title of release]” in the subject line. Address the journalist by name and then introduce yourself and the media release. Don’t forget to add they can contact you for more information, photos or samples (if you’re pitching a product). Then paste the media release underneath this paragraph in the body of the email.

If you don’t have a media release, but you are pitching your business to a journalist in the hope they will run with your story give them a few options. Put “Story idea: [insert main pitch topic]” in the subject line. Present three different angles and offer separate stories for each, so if the journalist isn’t interested in one you still have two more stories to pique their interest. Try to stick to a paragraph for each story.

Once you have sent your pitch, follow it up. Depending on the relationship you have with the journalist you can follow up by email or phone (their preference, not yours) and, again, depending on your relationship, you can follow up the same day, but if not try to make sure you have made contact within a week.

If they say no, don’t lose heart. Keep trying. The point of pitching to the media is to keep building that relationship. Eventually either they will be interested in what you are pitching, or will come to you when they need an expert interviewee. It’s all about building your connection.

When I first started working in the media 15 years ago, the Internet was not a research tool and I wrote articles on a small computer monitor with green text on a black screen. Things have changed so much in that time – some publications, such as Brisbane Times, are now published online only.

When it comes to deciding which media outlets you want to target, research the media your customers consume. Do they watch morning TV, listen to talkback radio, read the travel section in the weekend papers, flick through magazines at the hairdresser, subscribe to blogs or YouTube videos?

Once you know which outlets to pitch your business to, find out how to contact them. Do they prefer email, phone calls, a pitch via Facebook or Twitter or can you find an opportunity via SourceBottle?

Find out how they want to be contacted and respect it to build a lasting relationship with this media outlet. If they know they can count on you for a good story, they will contact you when something comes up in the future.

The media outlets you approach will determine the style of your message. If you are using social media it will be short and to the point. If you are calling, have a pitch in mind explaining who you are, why you are calling and why they will be interested in your business.

Think about how you can craft your messages for each different media outlet before contacting them. When your message is prepared just do it; your business will never be promoted in the media if you don’t tell them about it.

The media is always on the look out for good news stories – so make it easy for them and provide a ready-made one.

It is the perfect opportunity to show your audience how much you know about the industry, and also a way to let them find out a bit about you through the examples you give, experiences you share and the jokes you tell.

Think about the speakers who appeal to you, and why, when working out how you will approach your speaking engagement. Do they move around a lot, do they stand still, do they make you laugh, do they have you holding your breath?

Here are some tips to wow your audience with your knowledge:

• Be confident – keep in mind you know more about your topic than the people in the audience, so forget about those nerves

• Make great eye contact – this shows your connection with the audience, but can also help to ground you when you need a boost

• Avoid acronyms – yes, you are the expert, but the audience wants to know more, so you won’t make any friends by speaking in letters they don’t yet understand

• Wear comfortable clothes – don’t distract the audience from what you are saying by fidgeting with what you are wearing

• Be entertaining – keep your audience interested and attentive with case studies, questions and smiles

• Use real examples – show you know your stuff with the right evidence. Talk about how you solved a problem or a win in your business

• Invite questions – the final piece in the jigsaw in establishing your credibility and trustworthiness is getting the audience to ask you questions and then answering openly and honestly.

While a speaking engagement is a good time to speak about your business and/or products and services you offer, don’t make that the main focus. Mention your experience at the beginning to show your credentials and then speak about any relevant products and services at the end, if appropriate.

The key is to leave your audience inspired and wanting to know more.

As it is a regular communication method, you can use a newsletter to build a relationship with your prospective and existing customers, letting them know what is happening in the business, special offers that are coming and offer advice. This contact allows you to become their expert on your subject matter.

So often we hear marketers say prospects need contact with your business, whether through hearing about it or seeing it, 5-9 times before they will buy from you. Consider your newsletter as the opportunity make contact 12 times a year (if you send a monthly newsletter). If you’re a betting person, the odds that you will convert some of your prospects into customers over that time are pretty good.

So what would you include in a newsletter?

• an update from you

• an article on a subject you’re the expert on

• hints and tips or advice

• an offer from your business

• contact details

If you keep the information interesting, concise and relevant your newsletter will be one of those that are opened within the first 24 hours of reaching your contact’s inbox.

Not only is marketing via newsletters a powerful way to keep in touch with your customers or clients and have your business in their thoughts regularly, it is also very cost effective because you are using the one to many marketing method (ie one newsletter is distributed to many at once).

Articles can be used to promote your business in any public relations activity, but can also be repurposed as blog posts, website copy, newsletter content, eBook chapters and much more.

This type of marketing is an altruistic way of sharing the useful information you have stored in your head with the people who will benefit from it. The payback for you is increased credibility and, maybe, new customers.

The media is always on the lookout for good content, especially industry media, so if you can provide a well-written article that covers an interesting topic, it is likely they will jump at the opportunity. A good example is an accountant offering their Top 7 Tax Tips at the end of financial year for the local newspaper.

Tips for article marketing:

• Create a headline that attracts attention

• Keep articles to between 300 and 500 words for maximum effect

• Offer some helpful tips or include an information box to draw reader’s attention to the important points

• Include an ‘About the Author’ box at the end of the article with your biography and contact information.

You can also upload your content to article directories like Ezine Articles to encourage others to use your material and expand your reach.

Any article posted in an online publication or directory should include a link to your website, giving readers an opportunity to find out more about you. Articles are usually keyword rich because you are writing about your industry, so posting them online will help with your search engine rankings as well.

Once your articles are published, use your social media platforms to promote them. This expands the reach of your article and shows your contacts how good you really are!

Networking for business is about building the connections you have and deepening those relationships – either at successive events, through ongoing communication or by meeting for coffee afterwards. Of course you should give the people you meet your business card, but not until you actually connect to them.

Don’t be that person who congratulates themselves on ‘talking’ to everyone by the end of the event (where talking translates as introducing themselves and stuffing a card into everyone’s hand). Instead, congratulate yourself on making meaningful contact with a few people, or even just one person. That is far more valuable to you – and them.

I like to find out the story behind someone and/or their business, so I ask lots of questions. It’s amazing what you find out when you ask and listen to the reply. Even if that person isn’t someone you could do business with, they may become a mentor, a good contact to bounce ideas off, a friend, or they might be a good connection for someone you know.

Here are my tips for successful networking:

• Don’t fear the networking event, instead see it as an opportunity to talk to one person about their business. As you connect they will ask about your business as well so then you can successfully promote your brand. If you connect with more than one person – fantastic.

• If you’re really nervous, bring a friend for moral support. Make it your mission to introduce each other to at least one person – then you will leave having met two new contacts.

• Be prepared with your elevator speech or, even better, sharewords (see Robin Dickinson’s Radsmarts blog). Have a sentence or two prepared about your business before you go and make sure it is interesting enough to prompt people to ask questions – this gives you the invitation to talk more about your business. To give you an idea, my sharewords are “I generate amazing publicity”.

• Enjoy yourself. If people can see you’re having fun (instead of gnawing at your fingernails in the corner) they will want to talk to you.

• Follow up the contacts you make with a call, email, LinkedIn request, invitation to talk further over coffee or all of the above within 2-3 days of the event.

These points work for me when I’m networking, but I’d love to know what works for you too. Comment below with your networking tips.

Have you made a New Year’s resolution to keep in contact with your customers better? Well I can certainly help by writing the first newsletter for you to kick-start your 2010 promotional efforts.

The New Year Newsletter deal includes a professionally-crafted newsletter (of up to three articles) researched and written for your business at the special discount price of $200, a $40 saving off the standard newsletter rate of $240.

Newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with and persuade customers and prospects to do business with you. An email newsletter sent to your database once a month or fortnight is a low-cost way to market to many people at once and it is one of the easiest forms of relationship marketing available. By continuing to build on the relationship with a regular newsletter over time you will soon be converting prospects to customers.

Content for newsletters can include an update on your business and personal message, how-to guides, hints and tips, product reviews, case studies and interviews.

Anyone who buys the New Year Newsletter will receive a voucher which entitles them to the following to make their business shine:

• Discussion regarding newsletter articles

• Research topics

• Write newsletter

• Up to two (2) edits to produce final newsletter

• Newsletter emailed in Microsoft Word format ready for you to add your logo, photos and distribute

Payment for the New Year Newsletter voucher must be made within 14 days, however the voucher will be valid for three months from the date of purchase. This gives you plenty of time to think about what you’d like your newsletter to cover. Strawberry Communications’ New Year offer is valid up until midnight January 31 (12am AEST).

Any writing or public relations services that go beyond the newsletter included in this voucher can be discussed and charged at the Strawberry Communications hourly rate of $60.

Strawberry Communications positions business owners as experts through writing and public relations strategies tailored to gain media attention and build their business. Our boutique consultancy tells business stories through media releases, promotes expertise in articles, outlines solutions in case studies and much more, through carefully crafted words and publicity.

To order your New Year Newsletter voucher send an email with “New Year Newsletter” in the subject line to johanna (at) strawberrycommunications (dot) com (dot) au

Media releases are a great way to tell your clients and customers about important news concerning your business, a new product or service, an award you’ve won or about your plans for 2010. For examples of media releases written by Strawberry Communications, please look at the Latest News section of this blog.

The Merry Media Release Voucher includes a professionally-crafted media release researched and written for your business at the special festive price of $120, a 20 per cent saving off the standard media release rate of $150.

This voucher entitles you to the following to make your business shine:
• Discussion regarding release topic
• Research topic
• Write release
• Up to two (2) edits to produce final release
• Media release emailed in Microsoft Word format ready for you to add your logo and distribute

Payment for the Merry Media Release Voucher must be made within 14 days, however the voucher will be valid for three months from the date of purchase. This gives you plenty of time to think about what you’d like your business media release to cover. Strawberry Communications’ festive offer is valid up until midnight Christmas Eve (12am December 24 AEST).

Any writing or public relations services that go beyond the media release included in this voucher (such as media list preparation, release distribution and media liaison) can be discussed and charged at the Strawberry Communications hourly rate of $60.

Strawberry Communications positions business owners as experts through writing and public relations strategies tailored to gain media attention and build their business. Our boutique consultancy tells business stories through media releases, promotes expertise in articles, outlines solutions in case studies and much more, through carefully crafted words and publicity.

To order your Merry Media Release Voucher send an email with “Merry Media Release Voucher” in the subject line to johanna (at) strawberrycommunications (dot) com (dot) au