Public Relations: Briefs, Fillers and Quizzes: The Shortest, Easiest Articles You'll Ever Write
Pick up any national magazine from the news stand, flip through the pages, and count the number of short articles you see. They can be anything from those little 3-inch fillers, to short quizzes, 400-word “how-to” articles or resource boxes.
Editors love them. And you can generate some fabulous publicity for yourself by supplying them, either for a small freelance fee or for free.
Here are seven reasons why fillers are so valuable to your publicity effort:
- Because they are so short, editors often rely on them to “fill a hole” on the page. A 75-word brief stands a much better chance of being published than a 750-article.
- Briefs help portray you as an expert in your field.
- They appeal to readers with short attention spans and can be skimmed quickly.
- They’re easy to write. And you don’t need to submit a query letter to editors. Simply snail-mail, fax or e-mail the copy.
- Unlike a story idea pitch, or a longer article you are submitting, you can usually submit briefs to editors at a variety of non-competing publications at the same time. Editors don’t expect exclusivity on these items and don’t care if it appears in other publications.
- You can promote yourself, or your product, service, cause or issue much more in a brief than you can in an article you would write.
- Briefs are an excellent way to promote a new product, particularly if you are willing to give away free advice in the brief that ties into the product. You an include a web site URL or contact information where readers can buy from you.
You won’t find a more captive audience for your publicity campaign than inside an airplane, at 36,000 feet in the air. Bored and restless, passengers often pull the magazines out of the pockets in front of them, flip through the pages, then settle in for an hour of reading.
Sometimes they make notes in the margins. Sometimes they rip articles from the magazines for later use. Many passengers tuck the free magazines into their briefcases or carry-on bags, to be passed along to friends and relatives.
A quick look at the statistics that describe those who read  in-flight magazines should convince you that these publications, often with high circulations, can be vital to your publicity campaigns:
--Many are Frequent Flyers, among the most educated and affluent consumers.
--60 percent are men; 40 percent women
--74 percent are in the 25-54 age bracket
--86 percent are college-educated
--56 percent hold management positions
--57 percent have incomes of more than $75,000 a year.
There’s more. Almost three-quarters of the Frequent Flyers read an in-flight magazine during every flight. And the average pass-along rate for in-flight magazines is 5.5. This often overlooked media can be a goldmine to your publicity campaign if you can match your needs with what their editors want. Because the airlines serve very different geographic markets, those “wants” will differ from publication to publication if you’re pitching stories about travel and tourism. The good news, however, is that many of the in-flight publications concentrate on a wide variety of general-interest topics such as technology, business, entertainment, beauty and fashion.
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