P. R.

TIPS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS

By: Pam Perry, www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com

1. Self-Promote. Nominate yourself for awards, send releases, invite

media to your events. Get published! Go on cable talk shows and
create a video on your business.

2. Visibility. Build and maintain your network. Join major industry

associations (join committees) and become involved. This is good for
your reputation.

3. Publish a newsletter with useful information for clients and

prospective clients.

4. Ask clients to write reference letters or endorsements for media kit.

(include a GOOD photo, brochure, credentials and press clips, etc.)

5. Send out announcements stating ”now accepting new clients…” to

prospects.

6. Mail out announcements (build a database) with reply cards that

allow prospects to request additional information or an appointment.

7. Use outgoing message on your answering machine to promote your

firm. (Make it a: 60 spot and use it on the radio).
 8. NETWORK! Attend all conferences, seminars and club meetings to
build your database. Know the names and faces of media folks!

9. Invest in hiring a photographer to take photos of you “in action” and

send out to media or in an Eblast.

10.Hold a press conference with a community relations slant. Organize

a charitable event. Do good and good will come back to you!

TOP 10 PR SECRETS FOR CHRISTIAN AUTHORS

1. Pray. Ask God to show you WHO to contact and WHEN. If you are hiring a publicist, ask
God to lead you to the right person. Know in your “knower” that it is a divine connection.

2. Be a database collector. I have been known to go to my 30-year class reunion and add
folks from there to my database. Eblasts are great & blogs. It’s called viral marketing – it
spreads like virus. Have a system to stores and retrieve your names/contacts.

3. Join groups where media attend. I joined the National Association of Black Journalists as
an associate member. I go to their meetings and some have become friends and it’s a lot
easier to get things in the press if people know you. Go!

4. Read what the “best sellers” are doing. Go to their websites. Look at their previous hits.
See if you can get their galley and see what their marketing plan entailed and modify to fit
your book.

5. Ask your target market (you have defined one right) what they read, listen to and how
they get their news and information – and you read the publications too. Research.

6. Go to other author book signings. You reap what you sow and you will learn a lot in the
process. They may even share their “secrets” with you. Fellow Christian authors are never
competitors…. we are all in the business of spreading the Gospel.

7. Know what constitutes a best-seller. How many copies need to sell? What stores report?
How do they report?
8. Contact at least two media people a day. Building relationships is key. Use your
“signature” on everything. Never let something go out without your website on it!

9. Look at other author press kits. Go online and see other author’s “press rooms” on their
sites. Embellish your kit to add the “best” ideas of the best.

10. Apply at least ½ the information you know about PR and marketing from conferences,
books and articles you read. You’ll be ahead of the game for sure.

Pam Perry, www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com

Publicity Resources

Publicity Resources
 
There are many excellent ways to build a media list that is best targeted to a given book and author.
Here are some of the tools publishers, authors, and book publicists often use. All are available for sale,
and many are available in library reference rooms, but libraries don’t always have the current editions.
 
 
The Gale Database of Publications and Broadcast Media
www.gale.com
This premier media directory contains thousands of listings for radio and television stations and cable
companies. Print media entries provide address, phone, fax numbers, and email addresses; key
personnel, including feature editors; and much more. Broadcast media entries provide address, phone,
fax, and email addresses; key personnel; owner information; hours of operation; networks carried; and
more ($950).
 
All-in-One Media Directory
www.gebbiepress.com
Gebbie Press products include an annual All-in-One Media Directory, print version ($155) and an
annual All-in-One Media Directory, data-only CD versions: Daily and Weekly Newspaper CD, Radio
and Television CD, and Trade and Consumer Magazines CD ($155 each, $415.00 for all three). Gebbie
also sells an annual All-In-One Media Directory, PR Pro CD software ($565).
 

Harrison’s Guide to the Top National TV Talk and Interview Shows

www.freepublicity.com
Contains detailed profiles of over 600 key contacts at more than 280 top national cable and
TV shows that interview guests ($267–$497, depending on options). Contact Pam Perry for
details!
 
Dan Poynter’s Para-Publishing
www.parapublishing.com
Many reports, lists, and other products and services.
 
Book Marketing Update
www.bookmarket.com
This twice-monthly subscription newsletter is edited by John Kremer (author of 1001 Ways to Market
Your Book) and produced by Bradley Communications (Radio TV Interview Report; www.rtir.com). It
keeps you up to date on key media contacts where you can get free publicity for your book ($227 at the
one-year author/small press rate).
 
PartyLine
www.expertclick.com
This media placement newsletter is a weekly roundup of opportunities. It’s available by email only
($167.50 per year).
 
Bulldog Reporter
www.bulldogreporter.com
Bulldog issues Lifestyle Media and Business Media bimonthly newsletters ($449 each per year) and
National PR Pitch Books media directories. The directories include contact information on the 43,000
most influential journalists and 30,000 top media in the United States—plus Bulldog Reporter’s
exclusive PitchingTips, which give details on how these journalists want and don’t want to be pitched.
Its volumes cover Business and Consumer; Health, Fitness and Medicine; Investment, Banking and
Financial Services; Travel, Food and Hospitality; and Issues, Politics and Policy ($450–$499 each).
Bulldog also offers custom list-building. Prices vary from $195 base price plus $7/name for its Master
List of unusual subjects or when traditional beat definitions aren’t precise enough, to $195 base price
plus $3/name for its Express list, when your story topic or press release matches traditional beats.
 
ProfNet
info.prnewswire.com, information@prnewswire.com, or 888/776-0942
Links reporters quickly and conveniently with expert sources.
 
 
Gordon’s Radio List
www.radiopublicity.net, or 949/855-0640
This list provides contact information for more than 1,100 radio shows that interview authors and other
guests. It includes hosts' and producers' names, addresses, e-mails, and phone and fax numbers, plus
notes on what each show is about. Unlike other lists, it is updated daily. Results are also guaranteed;
William Gordon will investigate any listing that appears to be out of date and report back to you.
Available in Word or Excel for $329.
 
Joe Sabah’s Radio List
www.sabahradioshows.com
A Current Database of 953 Radio Talk Shows Who Interview Guests by Telephone includes call letters
of the station, name of the show, hosts’ and producers’ names, address, phone and fax numbers, Watts
(power of the station), email addresses, and Web sites. Available on PC or Mac CD in ASCII format,
which can be imported into any program with an import feature. Note: Joe updates this database every
six months, because the turnover in radio stations is so high ($99).
 
Web Resources
 The Web has a lot of media resources, of course. Some are free; some cost. Some give only a little
information—company name, address, and basic email address—while others are more detailed. Useful
Internet resources include a Media Directory of Local, Daily and Weekly Newspapers at
www.bizmove.com; and, for radio stations, www.radio-directory.com. A little searching will
lead you to many others.
 
FREEBIE: www.helpareporterout.com
 Recommended Reading List for Next Level PR 3.0!

1. Taking Your Business To the Next Level: An Essential Step-By-Step Success Plan for Small
Business by Frances McGuckin

2. How to Be an Entrepreneur and Keep Your Sanity: The African-American Handbook & Guide to
Owning, Building, and Maintaining Successfully Your Own Small Business by Paula McCoy
Pinderhughes

3. Complete Publicity Plans: Create Publicity That Will Spark Media Exposure and Excitement by
Sandra Beckwith

4. Branding for Dummies: Discover a Dynamic System for Brand-creation & Management by Bill
Chiaravelle and Barbara Findlay Schenck

5. The Brand YU Life: Re-Thinking Who You Are Through Personal Brand Management by Hajj E.
Flemings

6. The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media by Paul Gillin

7. The E Code: 34 Internet Superstars Reveal 44 Ways to Make Money Online Almost Instantly –
Using Only Email! By Joe Vitale and Jo Han Mok

8. Advanced Email Marketing: How to Deliver the Right Message to the Right Audience by Jim
Sterne

9. Blogs, Wikis, MySpace, and More: Everything You Want to Know About Using Web 2.0 but Are
Afraid to Ask by Terry Burrows

10. Permission-Based E-Mail Marketing That Works!: Everything You Need to Know by Kim
MacPherson

11. What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People
Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere by Ted Demopoulis

12. Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider’s Guide to Marketing Your Book on the Internet by Penny C.
Sansevieri

13. From Book to Bestseller: An Insider’s Guide to Publicizing and Marketing Your Book! by Penny C.
Sansevieri

14. Publish & Market Your Christian Book in 10 Easy Steps by Tamika Johnson-Hall

15. The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral
Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
16. Blogging for Dummies: Set up, publish and maintain a blog that draws readers by Brad Hill

17. Amp Your MySpace Page: Essential Tools for Giving your Profile an Extreme Makeover by Eric
Butow & Michael Bellomo

18. Be The Media: How to Create and Accelerate Your Message…Your Way by David Mathison

19. Sell Your Book on Amazon: Top Secrets Guaranteed to Increase Sales for Print-On-Demand and
Self-Publishing Writers by Brent Sampson

20. Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies by Ellen Finkelstein

21. Branding Faith: Why Some Church and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t by Phil Cooke

22. How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders: Boosting your Business & Buzz On the Web by Catherine
Seda

23. Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars by Mitch Meyerson

24. Start Your Own Blogging Business: Generate Income from Advertisers, Subscribers, Merchandising
and More by Entrepreneur Press and J. S. McDougall

25. iPod & iTunes for Dummies by Tony Bove and Cheryl Rhodes

26. YouTube for Dummies: Share Your Home Movies or Videoblog Online by Doug Sahlin and Christ
Botello

Prepared by: Pam Perry, www.MinistryMarketingSolutions.com, 248.426-2300

All available on Amazon.com & in fine bookstores

See the blog: http://www.ministrymarketingsolutionsblog.com

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