A
WORD OF ADVICE ABOUT CONSUMER TIPS
By Henry DeVries
Would you like to make more money? Have
a better sex life? Hang wallpaper without killing yourself?
If you have the answers, or at least a few helpful hints,
the media will be glad to share them with world.
Consumer tips are the easiest forms of
publicity to place in the media. Consider some of these examples.
- Confused about the nutritional
information of food labels? The American Diabetic Association
in Chicago offers the following tips on beating fat traps.
. . (Associated Press)
- The Shell Motorist Club and the National
Safety Association have put together a list of night-driving
tips. We thought these were good reminders for all of us
. . . (Redbook)
- Rub a candle on your window. Throw
salt in the fireplace. Pencil your door. Put kitty litter
under your car. A few simple tips can same homeowners thousands
of dollars. . . (San Francisco Examiner)
- A recent survey of 600 U.S. parents
conducted by the Independent Order of Foresters revealed
that their first concern is their children’s self-esteem.
We all want our children to lead happy and productive lives,
and a good self-image plays an important role. Here are
some well-tested approached, offered by experts in the
field of parent education . . . (Indiana City Press)
Here is a proven method for developing
the advice that you need.
- Pretend a reporter is interviewing
you for this story. What wisdom would you be sure to
include? Write it all down.
- After you have brainstormed the list,
cut it down to five to twelve best points.
- Write these up as your industry consumer
tips, adding a few words of analysis attributed to your
organization’s spokesperson.
Vagabond Inns, a chain of approximately
40 motels in the Western United States, used this strategy
to gain national publicity for its 25th anniversary.
Top executives were polled on what secrets
they would share with a relative or close friend about staying
in hotels. The answers were pulled together in a study called
the “Vagabond Inns Insider Report.” Several magazines
and a wire service columnist published the information and
quoted the hotel chain’s president as the information
source.
This exposure was then parlayed into radio
and television interviews. An attractive spokesperson purchased
several of the latest travel gadgets so she would have something
visual to talk about. A television interview show was so
impressed that they taped a series of 3 –5 minute travel
tip fillers, which they aired and credited to Vagabond Inns
for a whole year. Other than the travel gadget and a little
time, the cost of this publicity was minimal.
Want an excuse to go bananas around the
house? Diane Gage came up with several when she was researching
how to publicize a Caribbean restaurant that seemingly uses
them in everything from appetizers to entrees to desserts.
Several feature stories on the restaurant resulted from a
simple news release on different ways to use this appealing
fruit.
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Copyright© New Client Marketing Institute
2000 – 2003. You may reprint this article in any publication
or Web site as long as you credit Henry DeVries as the author
and include his Web site address, www.henrydevries.com.
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