DIY is in the these days – home renovations, Christmas cards, and clothes. And PR is no exception. Especially when it comes to small businesses or start-ups who need press to build credibility and/or get the word out.
Here’s a tasty lesson from a citizen publicist: How to Get Killer PR.
It’s the story of Sarah Endline, founder and chief executive of Sweetriot, a small New York company that sells chocolate-covered cacao beans. She’s nabbed 20 + beefy media hits that would make most publicists’ mouth water.
Ms. Endline is clearly good at playing to her strengths and has concocted a media strategy that blends the help of Think PR with her own hard work to catapult Sweetroit into the media mix.
She dishes to WSJ’s Independent Street about key ingredients to her success:
1) Attend events. Many of her introductions with journalists are at trade shows and other events. Every January, for instance, Ms. Endline attends the Sundance Film Festival and hands out samples of her cacao beans and chats with celebrities, and often gets Sweetriot mentioned in celebrity-hounding zines.
2) Find compelling themes. Ms. Endline has identified two angles that reporters find intriguing about Sweetriot: its a fast-growth start-up with many entrepreneurial traits and marketing tactics and its unique product. She promotes those aspects when talking about the company and telling its story.
3) Take advantage of opportunities for publicity. Sweetriot applied for Fortune Small Business’s 2007 business-plan competition and ended up with a nice write up and big pic of herself.
4) Be accessible and open. Journalists often work on tight deadlines. So when one calls asking for an interview, call them back quickly. (I’ve never waited more than 30 minutes for Ms. Endline to return my call.) She happily talks about nearly any aspect of her business from fund-raising strategies to annual revenues and marketing tactics. Journalists love that.
5) Devote time. If you think PR will help your company, make time for it. It can’t be just something you try to squeeze into your free time between sales meetings. It takes time, persistence and strategy.
Her media magic is almost as sweet as the beans she’s known for!
