A killer headline for your book, sales letter or article can be the most important factor in the success of your product.
Here’s why..
A headline that I used in my first press release worked so well I still use it 12 years later.
Not only will a great headline garner attention, but good publicity can save you thousands of dollars in marketing expenses.
Here’s how I did it…
First I studied publicity. I learned a lot from a guy named Paul Hartunian. He probably has the best course on publicity out there.
Ted Nicholas was also one of my big influences. He was the space ad guy for a long time. That’s where I learned the majority of my space ad stuff.
So, I gave publicity a try with this crazy idea – a science fiction cookbook. Then I wrote a press release.
I followed Paul Hartunian’s format the tee, and I sent that press release out.
I was just inundated!
This was before email, so I mailed it out. I mailed it to radio stations, newspaper.
I still use it. Every year I send these things out. I’ve been doing it for 12 years.
The headline on my press release is, Kids Eat Their Own Faces; Mom’s Laugh Their Heads Off.
There’s a recipe in the book called the Eat Your Face gelatin mold. You can make an exact clone of your face in gelatin and serve it up for the salad course. That’s your Halloween party.
I mailed out about 100 on this first press release. The phone started ringing! It started ringing at five o’clock in the morning.
Just send your press release out first and then when an editor or disc jockey calls you, then you offer to send them your bio sheet and your question and answer sheet.
They think you’re very professional and you’ve done this before and actually you haven’t. You’re still blurry eyed in your pajamas.
I started to get calls, especially from these morning zoo shows on the FM stations. They just thought it was hilarious. They let me talk about my products for five or ten minutes.
Give my 800 number out and my website address and hang up the phone and go check and I got orders pouring in immediately.
A good thing about publicity is that it creates a lot of this marketing…word of mouth, which is the best kind that you can get.
A big upside to all of this is it’s free. You don’t have to pay a nickel. Of course you do want to continue to advertise so you’ve got that one-two punch, especially if you’re going to be on a radio show in Denver.
So, then you buy a little space ad in the Denver Post or something so that a lot of people will see that and say Hey I heard this guy on the radio!
This is how it worked for me.
They would call and say, “Hey, aren’t you the guy with these exploding cakes, or whatever? They called because they heard of me, and they had heard of me because of my publicity.
Remember: If you’re self publishing a book, maximize your investment by seeking out publicity.
Write a press release with an eye-catching headline and send out as many as you can.
If you land on a nationally syndicated radio show, your book may become an overnight success as the show is aired across the country!