I hope you are well and feeling okay on today the 66th day of lockdown. Wow, we all deserve a massive pat on the back (and a bit fat Piña Colada - that is my Friday drink of choice to celebrate getting through another week of minimal human contact!).
Rounding off the month, we are super celebrating some incredible press wins that our Amanda FitzGerald PR clients past and present have been scooping over the past few weeks.
Sam Fairbrother who is the 'mad inventor' of a must-have phone accessory, The PhoneHug, was on the BBC's The Customer is Always Right in early May for and had literally 15 minutes of fame (well 13 minutes to be precise) and this netted her over £10,000 in sales.
OMG.
I will be writing up the full story next week so watch this space as it is a really amazing story - more so as she and her hubby were literally living off their credit cards just before the show aired, how her design had been copied, how she re-mortgaged her house to create the Phone Hug, how she came up with the idea in the first place, how the reviewers didn't 'get' the product on the show and that she was dreading it airing...and so much more.
So this was a vital piece of PR - a lifeline generating essential revenue in these difficult times.
BTW I use my PhoneHug every day when I am doing my dog walks or bike rides, it's such a brilliant accessory. Take a look here.
Our client The CPD Standards Office was recently featured in Daily Mail's This is Money. CEO Amanda Rosewarne, Thought Leader and industry expert, engaged our services at the start of lockdown as she is keen to go public on not only the benefits of having your online courses accredited but to also warn of the dangers of scammers who are being seen everywhere promoting online training that offer fake qualifications, or entice the buyer to purchase another more expensive programme... the list of the scams goes on.
See her feature here.
Have you come across hundreds of online courses during your daily scrolling? They are popping up everywhere. If you're in the middle of creating a new online programme you may wish to get it accredited and the CPD Standards Office offers a very thorough service.
The press feature came about as a result of her successful pitch to a guest journalist on my Pitch Clinic where you have 10 minutes of one on one pitching your business or story idea to a journalist I have hand picked.
Who would you LOVE to pitch to?
Alexandra Wood, known as Savile Row's first female tailor also came on board at the start of lockdown - she runs a bricks and mortar retail outlet doing beautiful made to measure suits for leaders, politicians and hot dads (hello Father's Day press release!) but instead of hiding and waiting the pandemic out, she decided to ROARRRR! and to keep very much front of mind.
She has now had 14 press features since we started working together in March. She has a fabulous brand, a can-do attitude and is hot to chase down any opportunities that arise, plus she is very willing to listen and learn from the advice we give her, in return giving her the best chance of attracting the attention of the busy journalists.
A big tip I gave her the other day was to pick up the phone to a journalist who was responding to the press release on Father's Day we sent out for her. There was a bit of email ping pong going on, so I recommended smiling and dialing and speaking to the editor in question with her own agenda. She immediately established a great rapport, he heard her passion on her topic and gave her a full page spread!
If you search her name in Forbes, the place where most clients tell me is on their wish list, she has been featured there twice in the space of 2 weeks (she too did a successful Pitch Clinic to the contributor who wrote a whole piece on her).
Other places she's been in over the past month include: Metro, Wedding Wire, Esquire, Luxury Chapter, Hitched, Daily Express, I-Magazine (the only magazine that goes to the Houses of Parliament) and more to come...
The press love an industry disruptor and also love her tag line, Savile Row's First Female Tailor.
Which industry are you disrupting? What is your current tagline?
If you'd like help refining your message, honing your tagline and targeting the press so that you are on the radar of your potential customers, get in touch and book a call, let's speak!
Book your call here: www.amandapr.com/apply
Oh and BTW! Tables were turned... I was featured this week in a brand new podcast called The Lovelda Show - Women of Power Podcast. It’s the show dedicated to showcasing, celebrating and revealing powerful women and the secrets of their success. Check it out here.