4. Develop background information specific to reporter's needs. Don't hand reporter a brochure and an annual report, then expect reporter to dig out facts. The reporter is a generalist. He has neither time nor training. Identify pertinent facts and reduce them to a one-page fact sheet or a two-page backgrounder. Keep it simple. The reporter has no time for complexity.

5. Recommend a list of third party experts. The reporter will need someone outside your company to give a third-party analysis of situation. Why leave this to chance? Prepare a list of at least three third-party experts for reporter to call. Include phone numbers and email addresses. If possible, include a brief bio on each expert. Just make certain that each of these experts agrees with your position, at least in general. Don't hand over an expert who will lambast you.

6. Understand medium. Print is different from broadcast. TV is different from radio, and newspapers are different from magazines. And Web? That's something else entirely. The reporters working in these media are all journalists, but their needs vary wildly. A PR Rainmaker takes time to study those differences and to fulfill those needs.

7. Move quickly. Journalists don't have time to wait for you to clear your schedule. When media call, respond immediately. Make it a priority to satisfy reporter's needs. Remember, a PR Rainmaker considers reporter to be a customer. Do what you must to help reporter tell story you want told.

Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.

Next, create a distinctive image - brand yourself. This can be accomplished in so many ways: A catchy name, a unique product or service, a creative writing style that people enjoy, a logo. Whatever it is, it should make people remember you.

Repetition. Advertising to your market on a regular basis. Writing articles and submitting them frequently so that not only do new prospects get to know you but so that your regular readers or customers don't forget you. It is imperative, though, to know when enough turns to too much. The object is to get them to read/buy/recommend your products or whatever your offerings may be.

Create positive association in your prospects long term memory. Remember, when a prospect is ready to purchase, their decision is reached by information retrieved from memory (even impulse purchases at times are made by a positive association to that product and retrieved from their long term memory at time of their purchase).

Here's an excercize - see if you can finish following:

"I'd like to buy world a . . . . . . . " "Sometimes you feel like a nut; . . . . . . . . . . . " "Plop plop fizz fizz, . . . . . . . . . . . . "

I'm willing to bet you remembered them just fine. Ask yourself why. Effective advertising - sure. Repetition - you betcha. Name recognition? You remembered them, didn't you? Now we're conditioned to know exactly which product is referred to even if only part of jingles above are heard or read.

I'll bet even a few of you went to your fridge to get a Coke after reading them . . . ;-)

So what does all of this have to do with a ringing telephone? I don't know. But I know this . . . my wife has now been reconditioned to only answer phone when she WANTS to. Not because it's ringing.

So get busy. Condition your market. Make a name for yourself.

Michael Ambrosio is the owner and webmaster of Get Profits Now as well as a few other internet businesses.