Sales Tip #5 - Spread the word ... printed!

The last three weeks we were talking about some tricks to improve the look of your web pages in Google search results (Sales Tips #2-#4). This time we want to give you some ideas on how to get your studio in the good old print media (e.g. newspapers & magazines).

First of all a question you might have asked yourself before and hopefully you had an answer: Who do you think your potential customers are, based on the products you offer? Since a lot of you offer wedding invitations we will stick to this example product (or because we will get married next year as well... ). However, check out your favorite book store and take a look at the trillions of wedding magazines. Now, we're not talking about paying big dollars for a tiny ad, you want to be featured in one of these magazines.

They will probably get tons of feature requests like yours, therefore you should think about something unique about you and your studio. Editors call that a "hook", something they can write a story about, a story the readers are interested in. This hook doesn't necessarily have to be about wedding invitations. What's special or interesting about you and your studio?

Found a hook? Contact the magazine. Don't be scared, they need content and you might do them a favor if you present them a neat little story about you. Check out their magazine and/or web page to find a promising contact. Send them a well written email, including your contact information, web page, blog, example photos of your work,... or call them! But in any case: Be prepared to tell about your hook! Nobody is responding to your mail? Follow up on your email after a few weeks or try to get in touch with someone else at the magazine. No answer doesn't necessarily mean "No!", but please don't spam them every day :-).

Finally an idea: We can't tell you the perfect hook for your specific studio, but maybe you can and want to share your hook ideas with other studios. Feel free to write about your hooks in the comment section below or on Facebook (there will be a post regarding this sales tip shortly ...).

For all of you who want to do deal with media in an even more strategic way, next time we will talk about press kits, how they should look like, and how to use them. So stayed tuned!