Our PR Services   You're an expert in your field, but how can you take your success to the next level, to become a household name? The Ictus Initiative's staff of PR professionals knows the secret to "celebrity." Our media relations campaigns generate buzz around you and your area of expertise, drive traffic to your website, and increase the public's interest in you and your products and services. Our innovative media strategies have a proven track record of getting our clients into the local, national, and international spotlight. The results not only enhance your reputation, they ensure your face is recognized and your name is trusted. Here's how we do it.   Press Releases: Generating Newspaper and Magazine Placements and Getting You Quoted as an Expert Source   We specifically tailor each of our clients' media relations campaigns, proactively targeting relevant media and editorial personnel in print, radio, and television mediums. We subscribe to online client visibility and media contact information services, both of which guarantee we reach the right media representatives across America who will be interested in quoting you as an expert source in their story. We write and distribute timely, news-related press releases both on the internet and to a national database of contacts, and we respond to the resulting media inquiries. When a reporter wants to talk with you we set up the interview, coordinate schedules, and provide follow-up.   We start the initial process by building a list of media outlets of our most preferred targets. Using our media database we develop a custom list of ideal publications working within your areas of expertise. We may, for example, build you a list around: Business, Sales, Sports, Finance, Luxury, or niche professional services markets such as financial planners, bankers, investment brokers, CPA's, sales professionals, communications professionals, management consultants, doctors, and lawyers.   After we build the targeted list, we create a top-five group of magazines and newspapers to whom we plan to offer an exclusive. Depending on your material, these publications could include The New York Times, Forbes, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. We will then develop exclusive story ideas for each publication, changing the angle and tweaking the content to generate the most effective pitch.   Pitching Feature Stories   We have enjoyed tremendous success pitching newsworthy ideas and exclusive interviews to print and radio journalists linking your expertise to stories in the breaking news. These story offerings have inspired journalists to write feature stories about our clients as well as articles that rely primarily on the commentary or featured expertise of our client.   In the case of a news-related pitch, the idea has to offer a creative, edgy new angle to a familiar story or issue, be about some hot and up-coming trend, or connect with a breaking news story or local/national issue in some way. We create a compelling query letter outlining our story and send it (with permission) as an email to the journalist or editor we are targeting. Typically, we follow-up by phone. If the journalist turns down the story, we take it elsewhere. To maintain our credibility, we don't believe in pitching the idea to more than one media outlet simultaneously.   Newspaper and Magazine Article Placement   Getting bylined articles placed is a great way to draw attention to your expertise and traffic to your website. In order to secure article placements we must look for publications that accept stories from contributing authors (all national magazines do not). Because article placement is a great way to increase your visibility, we primarily target publications whose readers are in the socioeconomic demographic of your specific market. Within our database of reporters and publications, we also have access to a database of editorial calendars that allow us to monitor and search for magazines that plan on doing a topical issue that is appropriate for your area of content.   Our editorial team, who come to us with backgrounds in journalism, will pitch your article and story concepts in query letters to appropriate publications, newspapers, online magazines, and other information-based sources. Usually, when a concept for an article is accepted by the editor of the publication, a reporter will write it. Sometimes, however, the editor will ask that you, the expert, provide the content. In this instance, we will partner with you to perform the necessary background research and to write, edit, and revise a well-informed, engaging story that follows the editorial specifications of the publisher.   Book Reviews and Coordinating Book Launches   If you have authored a book like many of our clients, you know how important book reviews and a book launch are to generate buzz, encourage bookstores to carry your title, and, above all, to increase sales. We actively pursue book review opportunities by sending review copies to the major book reviewers, including online reviewers, both before and after the book has been published. We send out press releases focused primarily on the book with the call to action for the reporter to contact us for either a stock review or a review copy. We have had tremendous success in the past getting book reviews. Recently, we obtained reviews and book features in The Financial Times, TheStreet.com, the New York Post, and BusinessWeek. We have also been successful in obtaining reviews in specialty publications, trade journals, and industry newsletters.   Our PR staff will also schedule book signings at bookstores, taking care of all the details that go into this endeavor, including the design and production of accompanying signage and promotional materials. We send press releases to local media to get the public excited about your appearance. In addition, our company exhibits at BookExpo America (BEA), the largest showcase of English titles in the world. BEA offers the authors we represent an unparalleled opportunity for book promotion, networking, and relationship building in a dynamic environment that fuels the passion for books and sparks new ideas for booksellers, librarians, publishers, and educators from every corner of the world.   The Design and Development of Media Kits   Ictus will work with you to create the content for a media kit that will serve as an information source for journalists and others seeking details about you and your practice. Once we have created copy for the various sections of the media kit our graphic design staff will lay it out in the format commonly used for this purpose. These are customarily presented in folders and contain your marketing materials, copies of recent press releases, copies of articles that have been written by or about you, and press mentions. The media kit also contains photos, a biographical fact sheet, a list of your speaking topics and recent venues, descriptive information about your publications, testimonials, audio and video material, sample interview questions, promotional products, and anything else that will inform the media and other interested parties about you and your practice.   Once the media kit is fully designed we will manage the production process so that we have an adequate quantity on-hand for distribution to appropriate sources. A media kit requires frequent updating to reflect and include new media activity, product development, testimonials, and speaking engagements. As such, we generally print these in limited quantities so that we can freshen the content appropriately. We also have the option of creating a pdf version of the media kit that can be downloaded from your web site.   Success Story   The Ictus Initiative recently launched an international breaking news story for one of our clients, Marsha Egan, an email productivity expert. After spotting an article in the Wall Street Journal on email addiction, and noticing recent headlines covering the spread of the after-hours use of BlackBerrys and other portable email devices, our PR team blasted a press release about Marsha's 12-Step Program for Email E-ddiction. From this single press release, picked up by Reuters, Marsha was featured in more than 100 print and radio news feeds all over the world—including Fox and Friends Morning Show with Geraldo, the NBC-10 morning show, the front page of the International Daily Telegraph, and the BBC radio—all in just three days. The story appeared on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company), the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company), and the homepages of CNN.com, Yahoo.com, and MSNBC.com. This unprecedented media buzz subsequently garnered Marsha a contract with a New York literary agent and has added priceless credibility to her name and company. Marsha has appeared in so many television newscasts and features that she is now considered the source on this subject. She's a household name and a recognized face. Marsha is a celebrity.   More Success Stories   Bob Kustka: Numerous placements including the New York Times   Briddge Art Strategies: Keeping Your Collection Off eBay, Business Week, 6/4/2007 The passion of a collector, Financial Times, 3/2/2007   Keith Ayers: Employers look closely at what workers do on job, USA TODAY, 11/7/2006 © 2003-2007 Ictus Initiative, All rights reserved. This site designed and developed by Ictus Development