Public Relations Agencies Tacoma WA

Daren Hornig was becoming increasingly frustrated in 2006 with the never-ending stream of articles warning of the coming real estate crash. As president and CEO of The Quest Group, a commercial brokerage firm in New York City, he didn’t agree that a reversal was looming. And he wanted to find a way to curb the negative press that was dampening the local market.

Although there were a number of marketing tactics he could have chosen, Hornig went with a little-known publicity tool called a tip sheet, a form of news release that looks like a bulleted article.

In his tip sheet, Hornig asserted that while real estate growth might be slowing, it certainly wasn’t plummeting. He followed that with 12 bullet points supporting the claim. His public relations firm then e-mailed the tip sheet to key real estate editors at consumer, trade and online publications.

Over the next few weeks the information from the tip sheet, quoting Hornig, was picked up by Real Estate Weekly and a half-dozen other media outlets. More importantly, the pessimists quieted down.

Publicity experts say such success isn’t at all unusual, and that media coverage is almost certain when a tip sheet is issued. “They are probably one of the most valuable publicity tools a small business can use,” says Sandra Beckwith, author of Streetwise Complete Publicity Plans: How to Create Publicity that Will Spark Media Exposure and Excitement (Adams Media, 2003, $19.95).

Author: Marcia Layton Turner

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