Define your unique "Point B" and move beyond it.

Every product launch has a Point A and Point B. While it is usually easy to define Point A, figuring out what Point B should look like in PR can vary from business to business, and even from product to product within a business. I have seen many CEOs and entrepreneurs turn entire product campaigns into dumpster fires because they didn’t know how to define the right Point B, had delusional expectations about it, or sometimes didn’t know they had already reached it. If I had a dollar for every business decision-maker who told me Point B was Oprah or The Today Show, well, I wouldn’t need to be blogging as a business development tool. Don’t get locked into a Point B that is unrealistic, takes too long to acquire, or isn’t the right fit for your product. While it’s exciting to think that Point B can include nailing a placement in a major national media outlet, it can also be a series of product reviews on small blogs with readers who will buy what you are selling. And occasionally, it can be an innocent-looking article that sets up something special. Point B should, however, have some kind of measurable metric or specific future use. For example, after spending months pitching a start-up fitness client to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the published article was Point B for the following reasons: 1. The client’s monthly unique visits to his website tripled from 100,000 to 300,000. 2. Other reporters and editors complimented the feature in response to my pitches. 3. It helped him recruit more contributors to his blog, which led to more guest columns in other outlets. 4. He acquired clients who mentioned it as a reason for contacting him. Point B took time, but not too much time, and helped my client move beyond it. Here’s what “beyond” looks like: his tips are now being featured in Shape Magazine. My favorite Point B story of all time is CitiKitty. I worked on a shoestring budget project for an inventor who created a toilet seat cats could use instead of stinking up the house or apartment with a litter box. The seat included a training manual, and the inventor’s site featured videos of cats using the product. I landed a small article in the New York Times City Room blog that didn’t immediately help sales, and soon afterward, my client was out of money for PR. But the article was still Point B because she used it to apply as a “contestant” for the ABC show “Shark Tank”. She made it on the air, nailed $100,000 in investment capital from one of the sharks, and if you walk through the pet section at WalMart, you’ll know she is doing quite well. Getting from Point A to Point B and beyond is within anyone’s reach if it is intelligently defined.