Streetwise Complete Publicity Plans

by Sandra L. Beckwith

Identifies the publicity opportunities available to small businesses who want to aggressively promote their product or service, and offers advice on writing a press release, pitch letter, magazine... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580627714
• ISBN13: 9781580627719
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Worth Having as a Reference

I classify business books as follows: read and forget, take notes and dump, keep for reference. This book is definitely in the latter category. For small businesses, typically characterized by a tight budget, PR is often a mystery. How do so many businesses get into the media - sometimes repeatedly? This book demystifies PR in plain language. It also has formats, elements and numerous examples of the varius types of press releases. The book also makes the valid point that money is better spent on PR than advertising. Buy this book, save thousands of dollars for a consultant, and increase the probability to make thousands for your business.

Do-it-yourself PR

This excellent book goes into great detail about publicity and how to get it. Beckwith covers everything you need to know in order to put together a working PR plan and how to implement it. If you have the drive, you can turn her advice into business-generating PR that will put you ahead of the competition.

New to Public Relations? Just buy this book first.

I'm starting a new company and publicity is going to be a big part of our marketing and marketing communications activities. I'm kind of process and checklist driven -- and wanted a book that would refresh me on the basics so I could put together an effective publicity plan. Well, I just finished reading three books on the subject -- and must say Sandra's book is the best by far. What is so impressive is how complete it is. Seriously? I've been in the advertising business for 20 years. During this time, I worked with a number of VP level clients who oversaw all of their company's communications -- so I've been around some big PR firms and seen them in action. Believe me, there are public relations firms out there charging $20,000 a month retainers that don't provide the smart and insightful counsel Sandra does. She's that good -- and she can make YOU that good. So if you think PR is simply cranking out press release after press release after press release -- and either mailing or e-mailing it to editors everywhere with hopes that something will stick -- you will learn that is a sure-fire recipe for failure. Sandra explains the difference between working hard and working SMART -- and why the smart part of the equation separates the 1% of people who do publicity right from the 99% of people who crank out junk mail and spam. Bottom line? If you want to learn the difference between success and failure -- such as setting goals, determining strategies, tactics to employ, and create information that will gain attention from the press instead of being deleted or thrown in the garbage -- buy this book first. It's the only one you'll need.

A *real* step-by-step guide

In contrast to most books on getting media coverage, this one is a genuine step-by-step, how-to guide. It bypasses the chatty anecdotal style of many PR-professionals-turned-authors, and goes for the "dummies guide" approach. Personal taste of course, but I much prefer this approach. A flaw of the books by "experts" is that they focus on just one or two of their pet strategies (despite what the blurb claims), while leaving holes in vital areas you need. This book truly takes you from step 1 and covers everything you need thereafter. A particular strength is that it compares and contrasts your different choices available - a pitch letter vs. a press release; a staff-written story vs. by-lined. It really gets down to what's the right approach for a given situation. If you want a comprehensive (but plain) how-to guide, go for this. If you want the chatty advice of an expert (with some holes in it), go for Laermer.