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Q:
I want to generate publicity for my business, but I don’t really know where to start or how to go about it. Can you help?

A:
Here’s how to generate publicity for you and your business by spending just a little of each of the next seven days on PR:

Day 1: Determine your target.

Make a list of all the publications in your target market area. These will most likely be newspapers, such as weekly newspapers, daily newspapers, regional business journals, free about-town advertising fliers and chamber of commerce newsletters. I would shy away from national publications unless you have a dynamite national story or you have a connection at a national publication. Next, determine the radio and television stations in your target market area. This includes AM, FM, public radio, college radio stations and the like.

Day 2: Develop a database of contacts from day one.

From each of the publications, determine where your news or announcement would best fit. Once you have done this, find out who the primary editor or reporter is for this part of the publication. Sometimes this is a feature editor, a feature reporter, a pool reporter or the managing editor. Do not send your press release to anybody and everybody at a particular publication. Do the same thing for radio and TV producers: Find out who assigns the news to reporters. Find out who edits the on-air news.

Day 3: Determine what PR story you will communicate.

Brainstorm PR topics. Are you making an announcement, communicating a change, stating an opinion or revealing a finding? Do you have a local angle to a national story? Is your information newsworthy and not promotionally slanted? All you need is 12 topics to average one press release per month for one year. However, don’t let this schedule stop you from reporting news when it happens or making an announcement.