Black Belt Web Marketing.pdf - Costa del Sol

Using the Internet to Approach the Media
Getting free publicity from the media is an integral part of your Web Marketing Plan. The
difference from other techniques is that getting the media to respond isn’t like registration or
announcing. There’s no guarantee they will. It’s frequently hard to get noticed by the
media. The competition for their attention and page space is intense.
It used to be that just putting up a web site was news. Each day thousands of new sites join
the hundreds of thousands already on the web. Increasingly, your site or product promoted
at your site must be unique and that means newsworthy.
Benefits of Media Publicity
A successful media campaign requires hard work. Even after diligently putting together a
media campaign, you have no guarantee of success. Even if you do have some success, you
had to give up control over placement, message, and timing. So why bother? Because:
The media’s intervention gives your site or product more credibility. Readers don’t
view media content with the same skepticism that they do advertising.
The media can reach a huge market with your message.
It’s free. No advertising expense.
Potential customers give you a closer look.
Tremendous satisfaction. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing your story picked up
by the media and resulting spurt in web traffic. You can take pride that you won out
over stiff competition from other "budding publicists" trying to get free publicity for
their site.
Your expertise is assumed: Media coverage automatically confers on your "expert"
status. The public has a tendency to think that people in the news are successful.
It’s important to combine web marketing and public relations. They both build awareness
and relationship.
Using E-mail as Your Primary Tool
Just like the world population, each day more journalists are migrating to the Internet. As a
result reaching them has become easier than before. Like Net users in general though, most
editors and reporters aren’t receptive to long, rambling e-mail, whether it be a press release,
story pitch, or other request for publicity.
Lesson 9 Pg. 4