Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, seminar, and workshop leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, and social trends.

She has published over 50 books, writes scripts and TV pilots, produces indy films, and helps clients write, publish, and promote their own books and films.

She has had extensive media and PR experience.

PROMOTING YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE

If you are promoting a product or service, you can use much the same approach as promoting a company or organization, though with some differences. One approach is to tie your product or service to a news event. Or if this product or service represents a breakthrough or is very unique, you might promote it as a news story. Otherwise, editors tend to think you should more appropriately advertise a product or service.

Some of the strategies to use include the following:

- Call your local media yourself or use an in-house assistant or professional PR person.

- Send a query letter or press release about how your product or service is especially newsworthy or ties in with something in the news.

- Target the editors who might be interested in your product or service, based on the beats they cover. Unless this is a topic in the news, target editors who cover your field, as well as general business and possibly feature and lifestyle editors.

- Put on a special event launching your product or service and invite the media to attend. Tying your event in with one or more charities can help you gain press interest.

If you are pitching yourself as an expert based on your products or services, take the following into consideration:

- Tie your products, services, or yourself as an expert to something in the news.

- Promote yourself as an expert who can comment on that topic because of the types of producers or services offered by your company.

You can send out a query letter or press release to thousands of contacts in the media yourself or work with a publicist who can do a more personal targeted campaign to selected media.

For more details, see Doing Your Own PR or Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Business or Yourself, or set up a consultation on creating a campaign for your company or organization.

To send out your query letter or press release to 1000s of contacts in the media, use our affiliate company, the PR and Networking Connection . If you want to find a PR person to make the initial contact or follow-up for you, we work with a few PR pros based in L.A. and we can refer you.

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