The Bait Piece Strategy Works Again

[marciayudkin]

Hi all,

Three months ago I created a little report called "33 Keys to Thriving During a Recession," and set it up to be downloaded free from my site. Of course I let my list know about it, and a good number of my colleagues passed on the word about it to their lists, or offered it as a bonus gift during a book launch or Christmas giveaway.

In addition, I printed up a dozen nice 12-page 11 x 17 booklets of this report and sent it to editors of business magazines. I've just received word that Bottom Line/Personal is going to be running a blurb about my report in an upcoming issue and inviting their readers to download a copy.

In case you're not familiar with Bottom Line/Personal, it is a print newsletter with 500,000 subscribers. I understand that it's actually the largest-circulation newsletter in the country.

(By the way, if you didn't see the report, you can download it free at Recession-Proof Marketing | A Free Report from Creative Marketing Expert Marcia Yudkin )

This is a reprise of a strategy I first used in 1992. This was prior to the Internet, of course, and the way to give away stuff then was to tell people to send a self-addressed stamped envelope. I created a four-page booklet called "6 Steps to Free Publicity" and sent a copy to Bottom Line/Personal for their Freebie column. They liked it and printed a six-line notice. They told me to prepare for 500 SASEs, and I actually received 5,000! They said that as far as they knew, that was their most requested freebie ever.

I was able to parley that giveaway success into a book contract with Penguin USA, and my book "6 Steps to Free Publicity" is still in print, in a third edition from Career Press.

A few tips if you want to create a bait piece and seek media coverage for it:

1)Make sure your report is tightly written, thoroughly proofread and contains no more than 15% promotional information. In my recession marketing report, if you consider my author bio as promotional information, along with some paragraphs about related offerings at the end of the report, then my current report contains just 12.5% promotional material and all the rest is pure content.

2)Do not use a squeeze page. The media prefer recommending resources that are freely downloaded without any opt-in. Sure you sacrifice the ability to follow up, but the traffic from a major media hit will be more than worth the tradeoff. Make sure you include teasers for other information or services you have for sale at the end of your bait piece.

3)Mail it, don't email it. I know some of you will think that's crazy, but in my opinion, the chances of a busy reporter or editor putting something tangible aside on their desk for later use and actually getting back to it are far greater than the chances of them getting an email that seems promising and them getting back to that email, downloading the report and deciding to use it. Note that there was a three month lag from the time I mailed a hard-copy of the report to Bottom Line/Personal until they contacted me to use it. Be honest: how often do you go back to your email from three months earlier?

Anyway, I thought some members of this board would find the whole strategy useful. Let me know if you have questions. I have many other successful examples of doing this sort of thing, but this example gives you the keys to imitate it successfully.

Marcia Yudkin

[nick1123]

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

2)Do not use a squeeze page. The media prefer recommending resources that are freely downloaded without any opt-in. Sure you sacrifice the ability to follow up, but the traffic from a major media hit will be more than worth the tradeoff. Make sure you include teasers for other information or services you have for sale at the end of your bait piece.

3)Mail it, don't email it. I know some of you will think that's crazy, but in my opinion, the chances of a busy reporter or editor putting something tangible aside on their desk for later use and actually getting back to it are far greater than the chances of them getting an email that seems promising and them getting back to that email, downloading the report and deciding to use it. Note that there was a three month lag from the time I mailed a hard-copy of the report to Bottom Line/Personal until they contacted me to use it. Be honest: how often do you go back to your email from three months earlier?

Marcia- congrats on your success.

Your point #3 is an excellent one. Snail will be much more likely to get their attention.

However I am going to have to disagree with point #2. I think building a list is good thing instead of banking on some media source picking up the report.

[Gene Pimentel]

Marcia, it's great to see you here! I remember you well, from back in my mail-order days. Your work has always impressed me. Thanks for these strategy tips.

[marciayudkin]

Originally Posted by nick1123

I am going to have to disagree with point #2. I think building a list is good thing instead of banking on some media source picking up the report.

Nick,

You know what? It just occurred to me that you could do both.

You could use a squeeze page for list building, for example from Google Ads, but when it comes to seeking media attention, you have to refer the media to a page where the report can be freely downloaded.

If your efforts to interest the media don't bear fruit, the people going to the squeeze page wouldn't even know about the other option. And if the other page does get media play, I don't think those who opted in to get the report would get angry about the other page, if they found out about it.

What do you think?

Marcia

[Gene Pimentel]

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

Nick,

You know what? It just occurred to me that you could do both.

You could use a squeeze page for list building, for example from Google Ads, but when it comes to seeking media attention, you have to refer the media to a page where the report can be freely downloaded.

If your efforts to interest the media don't bear fruit, the people going to the squeeze page wouldn't even know about the other option. And if the other page does get media play, I don't think those who opted in to get the report would get angry about the other page, if they found out about it.

What do you think?

Marcia

To expand on this, you could allow the free download without squeeze page, but on the download page suggest (strongly) that they add themselves to your list to get the next update of this book free. Put the opt-in form just below the free download link.

[Traffic101]

Wow. Thanks for the great tips. Awesome way to get out there. I agree if it's a hardcopy they might come back to it more then if it was an email...so easy to delete. In this day and age sometimes it's better to step back and impress people with original ideas. congrats and thanks for sharing.

[briancollins]

Seriously good stuff !
@Marcia ( dang, this aint Twitter ) I have a few q's -
- Did you get the printed reports done professionally, or did you do them yourself ?
- Can you give us a rough guide as to how you outlined your cover letter to the editors of these magazines ?

Thanks again Marcia!

[marciayudkin]

Originally Posted by briancollins

- Did you get the printed reports done professionally, or did you do them yourself ?
- Can you give us a rough guide as to how you outlined your cover letter to the editors of these magazines ?

Hi Brian,

If you download the PDF report from the address in the first post, you can see how it is designed. I did that myself, using tips that I picked up from Roger Parker's report on how to design a white paper.

Then I gave the PDF to my local copy shop and they printed it out on 11 x 17 paper, doublesided and stapled in the middle, for me. It looked pretty spiffy. I don't remember the exact cost, maybe $1.50 each.

As for the cover letter, I have written so many of these in my life I probably didn't even save a copy on my computer. Basically you just say that enclosed is a free report available for download at www.xxx.com. Make a brief pitch on why it's relevant to X publication's readers. Then a paragraph on who you are. Then a nice business-like close. This goes on a business letterhead with a logo.

Hope this answers your questions!

Marcia Yudkin

[Dexx]

Thinking outside the box! Well done Marcia

What was the hardest part about dealing with the offline publications you found?

[marciayudkin]

What was the hardest part about dealing with the offline publications you found?

Dexx, I'm not sure why you assume it would be hard.

But on the other hand, I've been dealing with offline publications since way, way before the Internet, so I do know a lot more than the average person about how they work. My first career was as a freelance magazine writer and I regularly dealt with prominent magazines like Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Glamour, New Age, NY Times Magazine, USAirways, Natural Health and many, many more.

If you have a particular question about dealing with magazines, let me know.

Marcia Yudkin