Say yes to you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nA small fraction of journalists may have a more complicated question for you, but the majority will either say yes or no.<\/p>\n
Instead of combing through your inbox every day, you should automate your basic responses.<\/p>\n
It works like this. First, write templates for your most basic and common interactions. For example, if a journalist says no, your template might look like this:<\/p>\n
No worries {{Name}}. I really appreciate you getting back to me anyways.<\/em><\/p>\nIf a journalist says yes and gives you an address, your response might look like this:<\/p>\n
Thank you {{Name}}!<\/em><\/p>\nYour copy has been shipped. In the meantime, I\u2019ve attached a digital copy and a scan of my media kit to this email.<\/em><\/p>\nLet me know if you have any questions!<\/em><\/p>\nBest,<\/em><\/p>\n{{Your Name}}<\/em><\/p>\nOnce you have templates in place, you can hire a VA for a low hourly rate to dedicate 1 hour a day to\u00a0clearing\u00a0your inbox, marking any emails that require a personal interaction from you, and updating a spreadsheet containing the books you need to mail.<\/p>\n
That way, you can spend all of your time focused on interactions with the press that require your personal touch, instead of wasting time and energy on routine emails.<\/p>\n
Pro tip:<\/em>\u00a0Keep one giant tracking spreadsheet that includes every media contact, their category, the date you pitched them, and their response. Have your VA update this as they run your inbox, so that you can tell at a glance how successful your campaign has been.<\/p>\n4. Your final email is where you win your coverage<\/h2>\n
At this point, you should have run an effective campaign that ended with dozens of media contacts and influencers receiving a copy of your book in the mail.<\/p>\n
This is where so many book marketing campaigns die. You research like a boss, you send great pitches, you mail out copies of your book, and\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
You know everyone received a copy of your book, but no one is covering it. Many authors take this as a sign that their book just wasn\u2019t that good, and give up here.<\/p>\n
That is the complete wrong instinct.<\/p>\n
What you need to do now is send a final email that spurs your contacts to action. Something like:<\/p>\n
Hey {{Name!}}<\/em><\/p>\nI just wanted to reach out and make sure you received your copy of {{Book Name}}.<\/em><\/p>\nIf you\u2019re interested in covering it, I\u2019d be happy to hop on a call and answer any questions you may have.<\/em><\/p>\nIf not, just let me know and I\u2019ll stop bothering you about it.<\/em><\/p>\nBest,<\/em><\/p>\n{{Your Name}}<\/em><\/p>\nAgain, nothing fancy or coy. Journalists see more pitches in a day than you will in a lifetime\u2014you\u2019re not going to pull anything too clever with them.<\/p>\n
But what this pitch does is prod them into action by giving them an easy next step.<\/p>\n
Pro Tip:\u00a0<\/em>You can get a list of all journalists who have responded by selecting your campaign in Mailshake, clicking \u201cRecipients,\u201d and filtering by those who have replied to you.<\/p>\nOnce that email is sent out, you will start to see the fruits of your labor. The journalists who want to cover you will get back you with a yes, and the ones who don\u2019t will get back to you with something nearly as valuable\u2014a \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which brings me to the final piece of effective book PR\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cNo\u201d Is The Second Best Thing You Can Hear<\/h2>\n
Hearing \u201cNo\u201d disheartens a lot of people, but if you want to succeed in PR, \u201cNo\u201d has to excite you.<\/p>\n
The worst thing that can happen with a pitch is that the other person simply doesn\u2019t respond. All your energy is spent for absolutely nothing in that case.<\/p>\n
But when someone says no, they\u2019ve opened the door to a further conversation. They may not cover your book directly, but now that they\u2019ve engaged you, you can say something like:<\/p>\n
Thanks for getting back to me! I completely understand\u2014no worries at all.<\/em><\/p>\nIf you don\u2019t mind me asking, what topics would be more interesting to you in the future? I want to make sure that I only ever reach out to you with ideas that are valuable to you.<\/em><\/p>\nAnd once they send back the topics they want to hear more about, you\u2019ve been given permission to pitch them in the future. Not a bad consolation prize.<\/p>\n
At its core, that\u2019s the secret to all good PR strategies. They\u2019re not about getting your message in front as many media people as possible, it\u2019s about identifying the people in the public sphere\u2014journalists, editors, broadcasters, influencers, etc\u2014who could create the most value for you, and\u00a0figuring out how you can create the most value for them<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Book marketing is a strange, undocumented world. There is a wealth of information on every other part of writing and publishing: There are roughly 1 billion services offering writing prompts and courses that will teach you how to write a business book. If the actual\u00a0writing\u00a0of your book is the issue, you can just\u00a0hire a ghostwriter\u00a0from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/mailshake-how-to-secure-PR-1-1.jpg?fit=1138%2C493&ssl=1","yoast_head":"\r\n
How to Secure PR Mentions For Your Book Launch via Cold Email<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/book-launch-pr\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Secure PR Mentions For Your Book Launch via Cold Email\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Book marketing is a strange, undocumented world. There is a wealth of information on every other part of writing and publishing: There are roughly 1 billion services offering writing prompts and courses that will teach you how to write a business book. 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He is the founder of Conjur Creative and Silvina Books. You can reach him at caleb@conjurcreative.com\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/conjurcreative.com\"]}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"http:\/\/wp.me\/p85zFH-k4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":618,"url":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/email-copy-lessons-copywriters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1244,"position":0},"title":"The Science of Email Copy: 5 Lessons from History's Best Direct Response Copywriters","date":"10\/17\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Direct response copywriters have a tough task. Not only do they need to write powerful and irresistible words, but they also have to elicit an actual response. Their job is to create a compulsion in readers to engage or take action or convert. To do something. Now, not later. 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What are the tactics they\u2019re talking about and adopting to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "sales"","img":{"alt_text":"best book on sales","src":"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Best-Sales-Books-to-Level-Up-Your-Skills-header-1.jpg?fit=1138%2C493&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3363,"url":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/b2b-lead-generation-content\/","url_meta":{"origin":1244,"position":3},"title":"5 B2B Lead-Generation Content You Need to Drive Sales in 2020","date":"12\/19\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"B2B sales reps have an endless number of responsibilities, but one takes precedence over them all: lead generation. 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