Getting Some Ink

I’m going to keep today’s post short. I’ve managed to break through my feeling unmotivated and stuck period, hurray!!! However now I’m feeling overwhelmed with the impending Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs, 200 Yards opening, and building an e-course. Hmmmmm, I wonder why?

Today I just want to wet your appetites and get your mind working. I haven’t talked much about PR, writing press releases, or reaching out to the press here and I’ve been amiss to do so. In my former life I was a publicist for restaurants, wineries, and spirits companies. It’s something I do quiet well. My husband commented last night when I showed him the latest mention for the 200 Yards opening, “I’ve never known someone who’s in the paper as often as you.” To which I replied, “It’s what I’m supposed to do. It’s the best way I know to market my business.”

That’s it in a nutshell. Getting a reporter, blogger or editor to cover your business not only spreads the word about what you’re doing, it gives you validity. People trust these sources to tell them about cool things they haven’t yet discovered. And the best part about publicity, it’s free. All it takes is a little effort and strategic thinking.

The story of the latest mention for a little context... About a month and a half ago I was reading the Chronicle when I saw an article about the Tenderloin being the new spot for hipster restaurants and coffee shops. My first reaction was, damn, I missed it. Not the Tenderloin trend, but reaching this reporter. (The upcoming 200 Yards show focuses on the Tenderloin and will open August 4^th at Café Royale.) But the writer had a voice I liked, a little snarky, and nothing about the piece was hard news, so I reached out anyway. I found his email on the Chronicle website and forwarded him my most recent press release with a personal note mentioning that I had seen his story and that we were also bringing some interesting new attention to the neighborhood. Earlier this week he gave me a call, we chatted for about 15 minutes, and a little blurb (it's the second item down) ran in the next day's paper.

I’m not going to overload you with tips, tricks and strategies right now. Instead I just want to get you thinking about the stories that could be told about your business, something newsworthy, human interest, or just play WOW! What trends have you been reading about that you fit into or even buck?

July is the month you should be reaching out to glossy magazines for holiday articles so I’m a little behind in coaching you on that, but we’ve still got time for newspapers and most importantly blogs.

Over the next few weeks I’ll lay out some lessons on getting your own publicity that will have you feeling confident enough to give it a go and savvy enough to get results. It will be fun I promise!

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I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve@lightboxsf.com

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!