How to tell a client their ‘baby’ is ugly

In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here’s one of my fave 2009 posts – the last Friday of every month I’ll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it!

A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world – to its creator. But when an editor or producers says “pass” it’s the publicist who has to tell the client. Sometimes ZERO media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it’s couched. For me, it’s the equivalent of having to tell clients “your baby is ugly” 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible.

How to hire a celebrity spokesperson

The good news is that almost any celebrity can be booked if you have enough money. Here are a few tips for figuring out how to find someone, how much they cost and what the process might be like.

The easy way to measure your marketing results (Step 1)

I got so many questions about my last post “7 Steps to Bigger Marketing Muscle in 2010″ I thought I’d give you some detail on each one of the steps. Measurement seems to be really tricky for people – but it’s actually really simple.

7 steps to bigger marketing muscle in 2010

I tell my clients that marketing is a lot like working out – you have to be consistent or you won’t see results. No one expects to see muscles popping out all over after one visit to the gym. For the same reaons you can’t expect immediate, lasting results from one promotional campaign.

Tiger or Glambert – choosing your voice in a crisis

We’ve had some juicy celebrity crisis’ lately that make writing this post lots of fun. When your company, product or personal brand encounters a crisis it’s important to decide what ‘voice’ you’re going to use. Choosing the right approach is one of the reasons little-known (but uber-powerful) flacks like Marty Chalmers and Eliot Mintz make the heavy wood. Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics of voices being used most recently – as well as a few thrown in from the past.

How to know if you should fire your PR rep

Flacks get a lot of, well, FLACK. Some of it deserved and some of it not. If you’re a new product, new author, small business or otherwise lower profile brand it can take a long time to establish a media footprint, digital or otherwise. Getting placements right away isn’t always the best measurement as things can take a long time.
It’s time to give new buyers of public relations services a checklist for separating the rock stars from the ones with rocks in their head.

from Rachel with love

Sorry old school journalists, savvy advertising experts and prickly control-freak publicists but it’s time to realize something. To survive you can no longer be storytellers – you have to be information managers.

From the “other” Wax – Are you updating Facebook today?

Wax is an integrated marketing firm – the only other “Wax” I’ve found in the U.S. Of course they’re in Miami so I imagine it’s a little different corporate culture (if I actually have one) than here in Minnesota.

Are publicists a bunch of evil liars?

As a publicist, it is my job to present my clients in the best light possible to ALL their “publics” – whether it’s the media, the customer, the government, whomever. What strikes me as ridiculous is that most of the people who bash PR (like Ms. Brown) don’t seem to have any understanding of what it is exactly that we do.

Twitter closes the gap between professional and personal

My Twitter path consists of client promotion, Wax info, personal thoughts and conversations with friends.