Americans have taken two major hits to their pocketbooks in the last month or so.
First, gasoline prices have hit all-time highs.
Second, milk has gone up more than 50 cents per gallon.
Have either of these affected your bottom line? Yes?
Then tell the media about it!
For Benny DeRango, owner of one of Racine's favorite pizza joints, the milk price increase have deeply affected his business. Mozzarella cheese is up $1 per pound. No big deal, right?
Except that he buys 700 pounds of mozzarella per week. That's $700 profit gone, per week.
On top of that, he pays 25% more for every pound of American Cheese and 20% more for every gallon of milk.
Not counting the costs to pay for the gas in his delivery vehicles...
So he's chosen to raise his prices.
But more importantly for us as PR people (not suggesting that the price of pizza, our industry's official source of nourishment, doesn't affect us), Benny turned this situation into a major feature story in our local newspaper.
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There he is, making a pizza under a headline "Got milk? You probably paid more for it" on the front page of the paper.
And here's the key - there are probably 100 other restaurants in this town...But only one got featured in this story.
Recently, I've spent some time trying to reverse-engineer the stories that have been appearing in our local paper, asking reporters and the people they wrote about questions like "who called whom?" etc.
What I've discovered is that virtually 100% of the time the newspaper initiated the story.
I certainly hope that none of you are letting that happen.
Depending on your company, there are dozens of news stories that happen every year that could have some logical tie-in to your business.
But most of us just let them pass by.
Which is exactly the opposite of what the media want. They want local tie-ins to national stories.
They want stories that personalize a news issue, showing a human-interest angle to the issue being discussed generically on the news.
That's why you get the profiles of local individuals returning home from Iraq.
And the stories where the victim of a crime is interviewed to show the impact on their life.
And yes, a front page story about DeRangos Pizza Palace (have you ever noticed that pizza and Chinese food can get away with lots of stuff other places can't - have you ever seen a Taco Palace?)
Here's several techniques that each of us should use regularly:
1. Watch and read everything with the question in your mind - "how can I personalize this to a story about my business?"
2. When you see one, ask yourself the question "if I was to only get two stories about my company per year, would this be one that I would want to use up that opportunity on?"
3a. If it is, then pick up the phone and pitch!
3b. If it isn't, then pick up the phone, talk to your favorite reporters and pitch the idea to them, suggesting that they write it about x company.
In other words, you're giving them a story idea, but not for you.
Why would you want to do that?
To develop a relationship, which is the most important part of any media program. That way they trust you, they see you as a source not only of good information, but also story ideas and leads.
In other words - you've got to take initiative if you want to get airtime and ink!
Looking for more information on how to create these tie-in ideas? Check out our special report How To Be the Local Angle For National Stories
Plus, remember that the key to actually getting featured is to make a great pitch. Our audio CD's Secrets of Perfect Pitching to Reporters and How to Create the Perfect 30-Second Pitch give the essential information you need to turn a pitch into a story.
Posted May 13, 2004
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