How to Create Your Own Publicity
Independent jewelry stores and jewelry designers and small business owners are often wondering how to generate publicity for their jewelry brand without high cost or hiring an agency. The secret to creating publicity for your brand is to create news around your business. Publicity is the art of creating news, so in order to gain media coverage, the information you present must be newsworthy.
What is Newsworthy?
The information that is going to pique the interest of a fashion editor, a blogger, or your local community journalists will include a majority of five elements of a good news story:
- Consequence: It educates and informs, is important to lifestyle, has a moral or social importance.
- Interest: It is unusual, entertaining, has human interest, arouses emotions or would cause people to talk about it.
- Timeliness: It is current and relevant, is a new angle on events, or a new trend.
- Proximity: It pertains to local issues, trends or events.
- Prominence: It concerns famous people, famous events, or has received other media coverage.
When creating news for your jewelry company or brand, it is very important to be aware of what is going on around you. By staying abreast of new developments in your industry, as well as in the surrounding community, you will have better ideas to pitch to media, and more opportunities for news coverage of your business.
Ideas for Creating Publicity for your Business
Today media are overloaded – whether they are working at a regional magazine, high fashion publication or popular blog, and your press releases and pitches need to stand out. While it’s getting harder to cut through the clutter, it’s not impossible. Here are some ideas of how to generate organic, relevant publicity that will appeal to newsmakers:
Participate in Community Events: Associate your company with local schools and community events. For example, Jewelers of America offers the Tiara Program to its Retail Members to promote their jewelry stores. The Tiara Program, provides tiaras to JA Member stores that they donate to established community events like pageants, homecoming events and/or prom. Jewelry stores get a lot of free publicity through the promotion of the events where the tiaras are featured. Sponsor, organize or participate in a “block party” with local entertainment and pitch local news to cover the event. This is a great opportunity to get interviewed by TV and radio media.
Host events annually: These can be seasonal and connected to popular holidays, such as Fourth of July and President’s Day; or based on jewelry-related holidays like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas.
Fashion-focused events, such as trunk shows with designers or jewelry previews of new merchandise. If you have a designer visiting the store, be sure to pitch your local media in advance for interviews with the designer and invite them to the event to cover the jewelry trends.
Co-branded events with non-competing businesses (clothing retailers, florists, restaurants, bars or salons — the opportunities are endless). Together you can brainstorm unique, newsworthy events like fashion shows, makeover events, bridal-focused events and more.
Hold a contest or product giveaway. Jewelers of America produces annual jewelry contests, through its consumer education arm – Jewelry Information Center, that Retail Members can participate in and promote to their customers and local media.
Promote yourself as a “jewelry expert” to your local TV and radio media contacts. Pitch them prior to jewelry-related holidays — like Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day — with a trends update, jewelry gift ideas or shopping tips for customer’s most often asked questions. You can get ideas for this outreach in from Jewelers of America’s Jewelry Trend Reports.
Offer to write a regular gem or jewelry “column” for a newspaper, community website, online magazine or even popular blogs.
Source: Jewelers of America