Insider Tip from Vito Glazers, who has helped more than 100 entrepreneurs use news, media, and celebrities to share their stories with the world.
Bill Gates famously said if he was down to his last dollar, he would spend it on PR. Having spent more than a decade working on the digital side of advertising, I have seen a few brands have tremendous success, but have seen many more fail. The issue that I have seen is that people spend thousands, sometimes even millions, on product development, technology, tracking, metrics, and many other variables, but the most commonly overlooked, is developing the story for their brand.
In today’s world, there are very few new products and ideas. People are exposed to ads for nearly everything they are interested in all day long. So how do you make your personal brand or your product stand out in a sea of advertising chaos? The biggest asset that I have seen in common with all successful brands, is that they invest in creating a story that really resonates with their target audience. These days, customers buy stories. They will pay more for the same product if the story makes them feel connected. A masterfully crafted story creates a loyal, recurring customer, who is eager to share your story and how it connects with them with people in real life and on social media.
Here are a few ways I help brands tell their stories. There is the traditional way; you write up a pitch and send it to a bunch of media outlets. This method is a bit tedious and ineffective. Three less traditional, but more effective ways that I advise those looking to create a story, are my methods called Newsjacking, Cause Based Marketing, and Celebrity By Association.
Newsjacking is the art of making a controversial public statement in your brand’s voice about a trending topic in the media. Cause Based Marketing is a safe way to generate publicity around your brand by focusing on a trending cause that aligns with your brand, getting publicity around the cause, and then incorporating a subtle plug for your brand into these feel-good stories. Lastly, Celebrity By Association is a method used since the conception of media, which is to associate and be endorsed with other celebrities or popular brands that are at the level you want to be operating at, until you are recognized by the public as equal to those famous people and brand.
If you believe in your work and your product, then it’s your obligation to share your story with as many people as you can so they can benefit from knowing you exist. Everyone has a story to tell, and an audience that needs to hear it. – www.vitoglazers.com
