We hope you got a nice stretch of relaxation during the last official weekend of summer (or winter for you lower hemisphere folks!).
Today’s tip will require you to get out an annual calendar that contains local and global holidays.
Getting print or online press from a mainstream publication is a key part of an effective marketing strategy for your coaching business.
But don’t sit back and wait for journalists to call you — know the stories that you would be a perfect reference for, and pitch stories to them.
One way to do this is to evaluate all the local and global holidays that relate to your coaching specialty.
- Career coaches can play off of Labor Day
- Weight loss coaches can play off of New Year
- Parent coaches can play off of June 21, the first day of summer, when many families struggle to adjust to a different schedule
- Relationship coaches can play off of February 14, Valentine’s Day
This is just a start — you could just as well do the “anti-calendar” approach, to do a story in mid-June about how to keep weight off when the New Year resolutions are long-gone, or November to talk about how to keep love alive during the holidays.
The key is to know the times when journalists are looking to fill pages with unique angles to common holidays.
Once you build your list of holidays that apply to your business:
- Make a list of publications you would like to be featured in, along with contact information for the reporters who cover the section you want coverage in.
- Get your press page together — look at Pam’s example here for the format. And remember when I started the page, I didn’t have any press mentions, just bio and interview questions!
- Pitch stories to magazines at least 3 months in advance, and newspapers a month in advance. Some may require a bit shorter or longer advance time — check it out for each publication. I like to start a pitch something like “I know you do a Valentine’s feature in your paper each year, and I had an idea for a unique angle …” Describe the idea succinctly, and include your cell phone and email for follow up.
- Make sure in your pitch that it is not all about you — find an angle that would be really useful to the readers, and make clear that you can share tips, get sources for quotes and research.
- Don’t worry if it doesn’t take — the important thing is to be a useful resource for the journalist. Once they know about you, they may call on you for other stories in your area of expertise.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and New Year are right around the corner — what’s your hook?