One Coach

This is the first of a series of posts excerpted from a conference call between OneCoach CEO John Assaraf and Jill Lublin, CEO of Promising Promotion and author of Guerrilla Publicity and Networking Magic.

P. T. Barnum once said, “A terrible thing happens without publicity — nothing.”

He was right. You can have the greatest product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, your business won’t last very long.

Despite the dire need for publicity, many small business owners shy away from it for two main reasons. They think, “I can’t afford it” or “I’m not ready.”

The reality is if you’re in business, you’re ready. If you have an idea, product, service, book, or anything you need to sell, you’d better be doing something to create credibility and visibility, which is what publicity is all about.

The good news is that once you’re ready, effective publicity doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. In fact, it actually costs very little, as long as you go about it in the correct manner.

To generate publicity:

• Just do it! Make a decision that you are going to do publicity, even if you don’t feel competent or experienced.
• Keep it simple. Don’t over-complicate your message because of a perceived need to look smart. To stand out in today’s media-cluttered world, communicate a simple message with laser-like precision.
• Be consistent. Think of publicity like a snowball rolling downhill — it builds momentum and keeps getting bigger as it goes along. Creating publicity requires a constant effort.
• Focus outward. Any news that focuses too much on you isn’t news.  Instead, talk about what helps the listener, viewer or reader and then relate it back to your product, service or business.
• Be the expert. When reporters and interviewers perceive you as having valuable information, they will actively seek you out. A large part of generating publicity involves establishing yourself as someone the media can go to for reliable information in our field.

If you don’t feel like an expert, “fake it ’til you make it.” In other words, start thinking and acting like the expert in your industry and you will soon become one.

If you believe in your product, your service, your business and yourself, then you have a story to tell. When you act like you have a story worth listening to, people will start looking to you as an expert in your field.

You may not feel like an expert at first, but don’t let that stop you from getting out there and telling your story with passion and confidence. If you want people to believe in you, you must first believe in your business and your ability to deliver the goods.

If you don’t believe in your story, your competitors will darn sure believe in theirs. They’ll be out in front of you telling their story. And once they become the expert in the public eye, it can be very difficult to take that position away from them.

For more about Jill Lublin, visit her site at www.jilllublin.com.

Members of the OneCoach Business Coaching program have unlimited access to hundreds of interviews like this one — see OneCoach.com to learn more about building your business fast.

Next in this series: Creating the “I’ve Heard of You” Syndrome.