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The Six P's of Publicity: #s 4-6

So next, let's, talk about photos, so photos air really important, even though magazine editors want, um, products so that they can take their own photos, they also expect you to have photos on hand as well. So you want to make sure their professional looking, um, and something that you would could see you or you can see your products or that photo in that magazine. So I want to give you some examples here. So these are my soaps, and these are some of the photos that I had. So if you guys were to take a look at this, which photos would you think would be most appealing? Teo on editor one and no one wanted to? Yes, exactly, yes, so those are two photos that I have. The third one is what I started out with. So I emailed editors and send my pitch before my website was really ready, because I was just so excited to get it out there, and I neglected to take out the great background there, and I sent how this photo and I got nothing back. I was like, ok, it could either be my pitch or it cou...

ld be my photo, because I know the timing is right, I know they're working on holiday gift guide, so I and that's actually a photo that I took so then I decided to hire a professional photographer to take photos because I'm not a photographer if any of you are photographers or can take professional looking photos that's great you don't need to hire someone but I'm not so I ended up hiring a photographer who took the first photo and then I hired a designer to remove the white background from my other picture and I sent out this photo and guess what happened they replied so photos you might think they're not important especially if you're sending a product samples but they are so important because it's really the one way that editors have without actually reading your email to see what your product is about and if they see a bad photo and not to say that my third photo is a bad one because I still feel like it looks professional but it could be a lot better as you can see and in the first two so look at the product photos that you have on your site and think about can I see this actual photo in a magazine interestingly enough the first photo with the background and that are being published an organic spot magazine just like that they didn't take their own photos they published the whole entire page just with that photo and some text on it so good photos really go a long way when you're trying to get your products featured and besides having professional quality photos, you want to make sure that you offer a few different options that they can choose from, so you'll see here that I have a photo that's, a lifestyle photo that has a background if you had maybe a peril or a product that people can wear or use, you might want to show it on a person, but in addition to that, you also want photos that are flat on a white background and by white, I guess I mean no background, because I'm pretty sure that oprah magazine would never published the third photo that's there with a great background, it just does not look professional, and it couldn't pass for your website that's what I started with before I had my professional photos done, um, but it doesn't really go teo too far when you're pitching a top magazine, and yeah, the key here is to just have variety of photos. So what I do now, when editors request photos, I've set up a section on my website where I have a a whole bunch of different photos that they can choose from, and photos of each individual product with the lifestyle in the background, I have photos of each product on no background, I have photos of three or four soaps, I have photos of all of them. So just the more choices and options you give them and again the more value provide because you're saving them a lot of time the more the happier they're going to be with you and the more likely they are to work with you again on guy actually even got some emails back from editors who said oh my god thank you so much for putting this together I wish every person who pitched me would do this on their web site so just make sure if you have products and you're pitching editors have a section on your website where they can download high resolution good quality photos without you having to go back and forth and them saying you know I want that product can you send me that and it just saves everybody so much time and they're going to be a lot happier if you make their job easier yes is there anything you can do as a service company used other photos they would liketo share in those situations? Yes in that case I would definitely have photos of you because a lot of times they like to feature you s o have like a couple of different had shot ofyou whether like you know, just your head or full body or maybe both so they can choose from them sometimes you might want to offer black and white sometimes color photos and what I've done with some of my product is that I've actually created photos for them s o if you haven't informed product, maybe you can create like a cd or something like that and I think you know what I'm talking about like where you see even though it's it's an info product that they can access online maybe you can have it on a computer screen and just have the logo of the product on a computer screen so that way if someone's writing about your course and they want a photo, they might not necessarily want your photo but they might want a photo of of your logo on a computer screen or service or something like that yeah, and with this bill on a media page maybe on your site then just link it so you don't attach all these exactly yes, yes, yeah, yeah. And speaking of attachments I definitely don't recommend sending any attachments it automatically goes to spam unless they ask for it and even when they ask for it, it still goes to spam. So if you could not send attachments and just send people to your site somewhere where they have all of these photos, your email is probably gonna have a higher chance of getting through than if you send attachments yes in order to capture the attention of the editor though don't don't you need some sort of image so they can see right away yes, you do, and I that's one of the things that you'll see tomorrow when I pull the editors, they said that they really want to see images, but what you can do now, you can actually embed your image in your email without attaching, so yeah, so that's one way to get around it, you can still send them an image, and I've tested this where I've sent you know, I put half of my list of magazine editors with a photo and half of them without a photo, and I got a ton more responses when I had a photo embedded, because what happens is they look at your email, their eyes automatically go to the photo, and if it's something they're interested in, they're going to click through to your site rather than them reading your email clicking to go through to your site so you're creating a lot more work for them. If you're not giving them the full it would just make sure not to attach it and to just embedded in your email as a as an alternative. So that's great, great point, great point. I'm quite curious about something, andrea and she said earlier, this is just personal, really at this point, you said that we should always remember that editors except by human beings and that's really good advice. But I'm christi, you see the future going in that we're going to get to the point where it's all automated by robots, because now one now you can't apply for a job to an individual anymore for every resume goes into aa system and key word to pick, do you have a projection of the future that one day editors are going to start doing the same thing and no one's gonna be able to communicate? Yeah, that's such an interesting question, I mean, I don't necessarily think that it's going to be automated, but I think what happens is that a lot of editors get so many e mails and they need some sort of way to screen through them. So now there are a lot of them are doing is that they're having their assistance look through it first instead of them looking through it first, so I think you'll see a lot, maybe less access directly to them just because they have a staff, and even if you think you might be e mailing them directly because it's their email address aa lot of times, they'll still have their assistant look through those email first or look for the e mails first and then for the ones that they think are relevant, so, um, I'm pretty sure we'll see some of that happening. Um yeah, but ah lot of them still do you read their their emails right now and we'll send a question I've apologized so I don't have the name of the person who asked this but they were basically saying two things like constant contact and chimp mail to those put people off we would much rather see a personal email from you rather than something that's quite clearly a mass email from a mean mail marketing service. Yes, I do think so for sure I think a lot well, first of all, if you are if someone has an opted into your list, which oftentimes if you're pitching an editor, chances are they didn't come to you first and said, here put me on your list so I can get product pitches next time you launch a product. So if someone didn't opt in to your list, you it's technically illegal to adam to a mailing list service and email them so that's one aspect of it the other one is yes, they do prefer personal emails a lot more than getting emails through a mass service, which is one of the disadvantages of working with the media database where you can send out thousands of emails at a time because they know it wasn't personal oh, and they know it's going out teo you know, one hundred or a thousand other people at the same time so the more personal you can keep it and if you can have it go directly from your email account the easier it's going to be and the more likely they are to connect with you as well because they're going to feel that it's personal and even though with media databases you can still use their name and sort of personalize it it's still not the same as sending an email from your own email account um and yeah, I find that those get the highest open rates for me when I'm sending directly for my for my own email are there any other questions about photos? There will be more I'm sure as we go along do you have one? Yeah, I have one here from indigo cosy they're saying in the pitch how do you let the receiver know that you have photos on your sights and he said don't attach anything is it okay to put a link to say a drop box him in or something like that? How should you alert them or should use direct them to your site? Yeah, you can just I think direct them to your site on dh you can have one photo that's embedded in your email and you can say if you'd like to see additional photos here's the link where you can go but a lot of times what I do is I'll say if you'd like more information, make sure to take a look at and I give them my website and a lot of times they just if they're interested, they go there directly, so you do want to always give them your website. Um and if you have a lot of photos on your home page than your home page is great, if you have all of your photos on a different section, then you can direct them to the section that's the most relevant to them. Great. Thank you. Okay, so let's, move on and talk about patients because patients is something that a lot of entrepreneurs don't have. I know me when I started business, I feel like, why am I not in a hundred stores right now? And why are my products and oprah magazine right when I'm launching right? I'm sure some of you can relate to this too, but patient patients really is the name of the game when it comes to publicity because publicity doesn't happen overnight and it's, you need a little less patients if you are pitching bloggers or an online media outlet, but if you're pitching magazines that are working three to six months in advance, even after they say yes, it could still be six months before your product actually make it in the magazine, so patients really you have to have it and it goes also though along the lines of if someone doesn't respond to you right now just be patient pitch them again on a month later or maybe six months later but you really have to think about this in the long term especially with publicity it's not something that's going to happen overnight and there's ah great study that says something like someone needs to see your product or come across your company on average of seven times before they actually take action and this is the same for media outlets is the same for people who come to your site I know we obviously we all want people to come to our site and by but that's not what happens they come to your site they learn more about you they might subscribe to your email they might follow you on social media than when you send them that first email they'll probably remember you again then maybe they'll visiting on facebook so it's a lot of going back and forth and waiting before someone is ready now yes, sometimes someone will come to your site and buy right away because they know that's what they want but most of the time I would say ninety nine percent of the time they're going to come to your site browse around do other things before they actually buy so you're gonna have to have aa lot of patients here and be in it for for the long term so let's talk a little bit about patients because I know self doubt and fear are part of our journey as entrepreneurs and mostly everyone feels it. I know I feel it all the time whether I'm gay is launching a business or pitching an editor or speaking at a conference it's part of being human and it's part of who we are, but the secret here is that you're going to have to take action anyway and do it despite the fear and self doubt you're going toe feel like maybe you're afraid, but you have to say, I'm afraid that's okay, what's, the first step I can take and publicity is so or so much of that goes into publicity too, because there's always the no there's always what if they don't like my products? Does that mean they don't like me? Or they don't like my company that I've worked so hard to build? I've worked so hard on my products, I've spent so much money in time and I know could really if you take it personally, it could be the end of your business because you never want to put yourself out there again and be vulnerable the way you are when you put yourself out there, so I wanted to mention this because I know everyone feels this at some point or another or maybe all the time depending on on what it is that you d'oh but it doesn't matter you have to move forward despite all of this feelings that you have and oh no as I mentioned before is not always a no I know could mean not right now it can mean a no but until you hear no it's not a no and if you do get a no from someone if you pitch them and they say you know, thanks for sending I'm not interested which has happened to me quite a few times um that's ok, what you can do is you can pitch a different story at a later time so someone might say thanks so much for sending this but it's not a good fit for our holiday gift guide right now so that's totally fine you khun pichit for their mothers they give guide or I know I pitched a huge social media blawg and I thought I'd love to write for you or I'd love to write a story for you about pinterest and they said no things you already have someone who writes about penn trees you know, thanks, but no thanks. So I decided to put another story and write about publicity and dad got featured so it's just about thinking differently, pitching something different again without stalking people and without you know, saying I'm not going to leave you alone until I get a yes because that no one likes that, but just be strategic about it and think about different angles and a different time when you could maybe pitch the same editor a different story or pitch a different editor with the same story. Maybe sometimes the lifestyle editor might be interested, but the fashion editor, maybe they're not interested. So again, think outside the box here and all don't take a no personally and don't take a no as in it's never gonna happen. It just means not right now. Sometimes, yet it could mean a no forever but that's fine, because there's plenty of other media outlets there for you to be a part of and to put things into perspective on dh to share a little bit of my story. It took me over two years to get my t shirts into self magazine and into shape magazine. So when I first started, I had this a big dream that I wanted to have my t shirts featured in there, so I would email them with different story ideas and again never heard back on any of them until I heard back and I had to media mentions in the same month in this two different magazines and a ton of sales from it just because I was patient and I was persistent, so persistence is the last thing that I wanted to mentioned in terms of the six piece of publicity but following up and trying different angles is going to be key to your publicity strategy here so as I've shared before really I think the sale is in the follow up and most of my success most of my success is as an entrepreneur have been because I followed up from my initial email and that goes for stores that my products were in media and magazines that I was featured in it goes the same for affiliate partners and marketing partners that I partnered up with and again had I decided that no was definitely no and not pursue them and not followed up or just assumed that no response means and no I don't think I would be where I am standing today so keep that in mind and I've talked about stalking before but there is a difference between following up and stocking because if you are let's say pitching a huge magazine and they don't respond back and then you follow up again and they respond and they say no it's time to sort of let it go for them you're not going to write back and say well what about this or I have a different angle or can you consider this so that would be stalking but just accepting no for an answer and trying a different pitch at a later time or a different editor that's not stalking that's just being persistent which I'm a huge fan off. So if you follow up once and you don't hear anything back it's definitely time to move on to a different editor or a different story angle. So is that making signs the six p's off publicity? I know a lot of it is just an overview of what you need, but I think you really need all of these. If you want to move forward with your publicity efforts, so just once just fallen, just doing email, follow up after that and then then let it go. Yes, yeah, yeah, and, you know, sometimes I used to say that you have to follow up twice. Um, but then, once I started talking to editors and really seeing how it all worked, I realized that twice is over killing a lot of ways and just one follow up is enough. And sometimes no response is a response in itself. So you feel out of the editors tomorrow that I polled are going to say that you