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Publicity Headlines and Results are Two Different Things

Guest post by: Don Doman

Article Overview: Some people are publicity hogs. They just know that if the word gets out about them, their services, or their company, then they will magically have more sales than they can handle. It doesn't always work that way.

Publicity Headlines and Results are Two Different Things

Some people are publicity hogs. They submit press releases looking to grab some headlines. They just know that if the word gets out about them, their services, or their company, then they will magically have more sales than they can handle. It doesn't always work that way.

On Sunday when daylight savings time sprung ahead, there was an article in the local paper about an entrepreneur in Indiana. He was offering to change all of the clocks in a home for ten dollars. He would change wall clocks, VCR clocks, microwave clocks, and presumably even the clock in your car for a grand total of ten dollars. I read the article and nodded my head in recognition of his pluck.

Two days later while listening to a Seattle talk radio program, the host announced that his next interview was the Indiana entrepreneur. I thought to myself, "How interesting." The interview went well for the first few minutes and then the talk show host asked many customers the man had. He answer was, "Four." The talk show host was incredulous. I laughed.

Here this guy was with tons of publicity and he only had four customers. Of course his services were only good locally in Fort Wayne, but still . . . Both the talk show host and I were ready for some successful sounding figures, but four customers? What a joke. Later as my wife and I were driving across town, I told her about the conversation. She had read the same article, but we had never discussed it. We tried to come up with a moral for the story. We finally decided on: Customers must see a perceived value. Turning your clocks ahead just didn't seem to offer any value . . . even with VCRs constantly blinking.

Last year I read an article in USA Today about a new website that was offering downloadable videos on a wide variety of subjects. Since this was closely related to my business training products website I visited the site. The website didn't offer downloadable videos. They had links and buttons that said they did, but they didn't. They were looking for videos to offer as downloadable videos. After repeated visits I saw no headway in actual selections. In fact, they took weeks to answer a query from me on email.

Here were two different services being offered. Both caught the eye of the media and received free coverage. Neither were successful. One had no perceived value and one had no product. Free publicity is hard to come by, if you get it and the public responds, you have to be prepared to deliver.

When opportunity knocks you need to answer the door and welcome it in with open arms . . . and you need to have an actual product or service that has value.

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Re: Top Banner Help - The more popular ones that I've seen: Online Marketing and Publicity Search Engine Optimization Web Design and Programming Blogging Re: the poll, I think there was enough response to warrant the new category. These are very popular search terms. I agree that too many niche categories is not a good idea, maybe keep it to a minimum 2-3 internet related topics. Good job on the banners BennyBoy!
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Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - I rarely ever read the headlines of unsolicited email. I know when it's something I haven't signed up for and delete it right away. I get so much crap it's sickening. I may browse over the headlines as I delete them, but that's it. I haven't really noticed any that have caught my interest. As many have already suggested, I'm so calloused when it comes to headlines because I see them all the time and know what to expect. As a marketer, it makes it easy to sniff out the sales pitches. Headlines such as "can you help me?" usually get my attention, but in the end I know they want me to buy something. At least that's the case for most of the newsletters I get. Case in point, even if it isn't unsolicited, it better have a headline that's going to get me to click on it. Otherwise it'll never get read.
Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - In "The Copywriter's Handbook", author Robert W. Bly emphasizes that effective attention-getting words are ones that offer news. For instance, Bly says "Headlines that give news often use words such as new, discover, introducing, announcing, now, it's here, at last, and just arrived...Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter's vocabulary...Other powerful attention-getting words include how to, why, sale, quick, easy, bargain, last chance, guarantee, results, proven and save" (pg 17 & 18). However, I feel as if all of Bly's keywords are over-used and audiences have learned to ignore them in unsolicited email headlines.
Re: Seth Godin: Star Fish v Long Tail - Thanks for sharing, David. I always enjoy the interest it brings me when I read these types of things. Things that make you think to consider other possibilities, no matter how obvious they may seem. Cheers, Emma


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