You can make your advertising dollars go much further when you feed information to the many news reporters and bloggers hungry for news.

I recently saw a TV news story about a unique service that removes lice from people’s head. Although it dealt with a disgusting topic, it showed how for a premium price you could get the little buggers removed from your hair and out of your life.

How did the TV station get a hold of this story? Very likely with a public relations firm that simply called up the station. Thus, this news feature of about two minutes probably garnered the value of tens of thousands of paid advertising by simply calling a reporter.

How reporters get news

This happens more often that you might think. Some years ago, several months after leaving my job as a reporter for a suburban newspaper, my brother Dave asked me what I thought about his idea of calling the newspaper with a story idea. He was earning money during his college years as a lifeguard at the local pool. They were having a “Christmas in July” event, complete with Santa Claus dressed up in all red in the sweltering heat, talking to youngsters by the side of the pool.

“They will ask you to write a press release,” I objected, thinking that it was just not that simple.

“I don’t know much about press releases,” he countered. So Dave nevertheless called the newspaper. Now, I must explain that my brother has a good way to pitch a product. (When he was single, he was able to tactfully advise a girl that she needed to lose 15 or 20 pounds, and she would thank him for it.)

In the end, my brother called the paper, which thought it was a great idea, and the pool got a picture and story about it, at no cost.

Scoring with Email

Of course, with the internet today you can contact reporters with email as well. About a month ago, our publicity service at TreeFrogClick sent a press release to various news outlets throughout the country for a client, and we sent one email to the overall news editor and feature section editor of a newspaper in Texas. The news event was an upcoming post-abortion retreat offered by a religious community. I talked it up in my email, about what a great service they offered.

Less than two hours after sending the release, my client got an email from the reporter asking if she could attend one of the sessions.

A little hype sent to the right person goes a long way.

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Listen up

About journalists: “When they speak in print it is the newspaper that is talking … and then their utterances shake the community like the thunders of prophecy.”

- Mark Twain, 1873 speech