Tom Antion: Joan Stewart’s Top 10 Tips

Here are Joan’s Top 10 tips for free publicity:

1. Send news releases about new products and services, contests, awards, open houses, speaking engagements to the media, and post them online where consumers can find them. The handy checklist “89 Reasons to Send a News Release” is yours free when you subscribe to my free ezine, “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week” at PublicityHound.com.

2. Write “how-to” articles for newspapers, magazines, trade publications and newsletters, and for online article directories, and offer lots of free advice. It helps establish you as an expert. See Special Report #6: How to Write How-to Articles That Position You as an Expert.

3. Get onto the speaking circuit. Speaking to community groups and trade associations is a wonderful way to “create the buzz” about your business.

4. Create a website chock full of free advice, articles by and about you, story ideas about your business, and an electronic media kit.

5. Write an ezine. A free electronic newsletter helps you sell your products and services to an international audience and costs almost nothing compared to expensive direct mail campaigns. With permission, you can send the ezine to reporters who cover your industry. See Special Report #38: How to Publish a Profitable Electronic Newsletter

6. Get to know reporters. Offer yourself as someone they can call on for background, commentary and story ideas. Call and ask, “How can I help you?”

7. Start your own TV show on your local cable TV company’s public access channel. Air time is free. You pay a minimal amount to rent the camera equipment.

8. Look for photo opportunities. Local newspapers, TV stations, weekly shoppers, trade publications and other media are always looking for interesting photos. Call the media with ideas, or submit your own photos.

9. Blog, and post comments at other blogs. Bloggers, unlike journalists, love to link to each other, and getting in front of one influential blogger can really create a buzz online.

10. Participate in online discussion groups and offer lots of helpful advice. Reporters lurk here, and if they’re impressed with your messages, they might contact you for a story. Use a signature file in your email that explains what you do and how you can help solve people’s problems. Link to your web site.

Above all, be patient and persistent. The key to savvy media relations is understanding how to dovetail your wants and needs with those of the media.

Publicity expert Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, publishes “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” a free ezine that shows you how to generate thousands of dollars in free online and offline publicity. Subscribe at PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy checklist “89 Reasons to Send a Press Release.” Contact her at 262-284-7451 or at JStewart@PublicityHound.com

Tom Antion: Blog Linking In Your Posts

When posting to your blog, don’t forget to put a clickable link towards the bottom of the post with a call to action. This call to action can be a text link saying for example:

* Change Your Life. Free Info!
* Get Your Free “Killer Website Designs” Ebook!
* Make $5000 Every Time You Speak!
* Learn The 7 Steps To Leadership Success!
* Find Love In 90 days Or Less!

or any call to action that relates to your business. The point is, your blog post is full of great content. Reward your reader with additional content such as a free white paper, report or special training that they will reward you back with by leaving their email or buying a product. You should at least get the visitors email to build your database, so that you can market to them throughout the year.

What happens if there is no call to action link? The reader may read a few of the posts, get reminded of something they read somewhere else and disappear. What about your opt-in box at the top of your blog? As they scroll down to read additional posts, that box disappears from their line of sight, and they may forget all about it. Those opt-in boxes at the top right corner of your blog are notoriously weak for sign ups. A link to a “freebie” or further training embedded in the post, while they are still engaged in the material they are reading, is far more effective.

Don’t let the reader get away without giving you their email address. It takes alot of work to get them to your blog in the first place. The blog is not the “end point” of your marketing, your opt-in or sales letter is. The blog creates interest in your business or service, and quality posts can entice the reader to make a further decision or conversion. Not only that, the search engines love “anchor text” or clickable links made of keywords. Don’t leave links that just have your URL or “click here.” Use a strong call to action and reward your reader with addtional quality info and they will give you something in return.

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Tom Antion: Professional Speaking Marketing Strategies

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Tom Antion Speaking: Closing A Speech

One of the worst mistakes you can make as a public speaker is talking too long. Not only will you send some folks to never, never land, you will make some of them downright mad. It doesn’t matter if your entire speech was brilliant and the audience came away with information that will change their lives. If you talk too long, they will leave saying, “That speaker just wouldn’t quit.” Don’t let this happen to you! Say what you have to say and sit down. Before you do, give them a well thought out closing.

The last thing you say may be the most remembered. You must put as much time into selecting and practicing your closing as you put into any other part of your presentation. Just like your opening, your closing does not have to be humorous. It could be motivational, challenging, thoughtful, respectful of the length of the presentation, or it could restate your point in a different way. This ending segment will have a strong influence on what the audience takes home with them when you are done. Please, at sometime during your talk ask the audience to do something. Many a great NO ZZZZZs talk went no further than the walls of the meeting room because the audience wasn’t moved to action. If you haven’t ask them to do something by now, the closing is your last chance.

If the subject is appropriate, I happen to be fond of humorous closings for several reasons. If you leave them laughing and applauding, you will exit, but an extremely positive impression about you will remain. Another good reason to leave them laughing is that the room will not be deadly silent as you are walking back to your seat. I hate when that happens. I do love laughter and feeling good; finishing a speech humorously gives me and the audience an opportunity to feel great.Speeches that are for entertainment purposes only should generally leave the audience laughing.

Finally, if the subject is not appropriate to end with laughter, you could end with a touching story or quotation that leaves the audience thoughtful and quiet. Even the most serious public speaking subjects can benefit from humor, but the humor should be sprinkled throughout the body of the presentation. Don’t put it at the end because closings are powerful and the audience will think your overall attitude toward the subject is flippant.

This same technique can be very effective in ending a mostly humorous speaking engagement. Have them laughing all along while you make your points. Then finish seriously. This contrast will create a great impact. It will convey the fact that you believe in a lighthearted approach to the subject, but the results are very serious to you.

Don’t be afraid to use humor when you speak in public. Just make sure you learn to do it right.

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Tom Antion: Making A Good Presentation

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Tom Antion: The Front Row

In the research I did on my recent public speaking trip to Thailand, I discovered that a meeting or seminar custom is to seat VIP attendees in the front row. No one of a lesser status either socially or in business would think of sitting closer to the front than their boss, or someone of a higher social ranking. This is a very loose and largely ignored custom in Western meetings, and carries a significantly higher decorum in Thailand and Asia. Since many meetings are rather westernized anyway, don’t fret if your speaking engagement is not run this way, but your knowledge and adherence to this custom can earn you some real points with the people that count.

Room Setup

I normally use a semi circular theatre style room setup whenever I can. In my Thailand talk, I found out approximately how many VIPs there would be and set the front row with plush chairs that were obviously nicer and different than the rest of the typical hotel chairs. I befriended one of the attendees who knew what the VIP attendees looked like. When a VIP was identified, either me or my assistant escorted them to a front row seat. I had some time to blow while awaiting the arrival of the Governor so, I went around the room allowing the attendees to name themselves and their affiliations. I started at the back of the room and ended with the most senior official in the front row. These gestures were very well received and paved the way for a very productive speaking engagement.

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