I was recently on holiday and while in Budapest Ferenc Liszt airport waiting to board our flight to Paris, one of the most iconic and visited cities in the world, I started thinking: When you picture Paris, what comes to mind? Most likely the Eiffel Tower, the food, or Notre-Dame. Maybe the Louvre Museum or the Arc de Triomphe.

All these iconic things make Paris memorable, and when you’re branding yourself in the media, you need to do very similar work.

What Makes You Special?

If you want to be memorable, you need to identify at least three special, iconic, and unique things that distinguish your brand so that when the media think of you, those things come to their mind.

Now, the services, books, or products you offer may be unique, but I recommend identifying three special things about YOU to enable you to create your key media messages. Be as specific as possible! Because the more specific you get, the more you’re differentiated from everyone else in the marketplace. Your news and story angles may change, but when you’re reaching out to the media, keep repeating those three messages time and time again.

The Power of Rebranding

A few years ago we were hired by Don Goewey, author of “Mystic Cool: A Proven Approach to Transcend Stress, Achieve Optimal Brain Function, and Maximize Your Creative Intelligence.” Don had worked with another PR company for a year but they hadn’t scored him any PR coverage. Why? They were branding Don as a stress expert, which is fine, but the issue was there are a gazillion other stress experts out there.

We dug into Don’s work and his book to uncover what really makes him unique, and here’s what we found: Don is a stress-elimination expert. What’s the difference, you might ask? We got to work rebranding Don’s platform and key messaging and that seemingly little tweak in his campaign caused an explosion in results, including a one-page spread in Outside Magazine which turned him into a bestseller.

Keep Them Coming Back

What’s your Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, famous French dish? What makes you and your brand unique and distinguished so that it will not only capture the attention and hook the imagination of journalists, but also keep it?

If you’re in the process of branding or rebranding, visit PRYourWay.com for a free workbook that walks you step-by-step through the process of creating an online press kit. If you don’t have an online press kit, you need one before you start doing any PR or media outreach! It’s the one tool that consistently wins the day for our PR clients. Having an online press kit has landed top national media coverage for them, as well as business opportunities, speaking gigs, and spokesperson opportunities. One of our clients was even offered their own TV show!

So if you’re about to launch a PR campaign or you’re in the middle of a campaign and you’re not seeing the results you want to see, step back and work on branding yourself and creating your online press kit.

Au revoir.