“Tell the world”
Leila Henderson, CEO of Newsmaker,
a journalist and media communication specialist
Tell us a little about your business NewsMaker and your role?
NewsMaker offers today’s PR trifecta – we distribute your press releases to journalists, search engines and social media. I founded the service five years ago and gradually built up the technology to suit the changing needs of our customers.
What are the five words that people who know you would use to describe you & NewsMaker?
Dedicated, busy, effective, professional, persistent
Tell us aboutNewsMaker and what you can do to help creative community and business owners?
We can help creative people to really get their names and their offerings out there to people who want to hear about you. You just write up a press release – there are tonnes of examples on the website to follow as a guide. It must be third person, as if someone else was talking about you, and also write your own comments in quotation marks. This means when someone reads it they see it as a third party testimonial and not just a marketing blurb – it’s the most credible convincing way to market yourself and your business – and if you also send to a journalist who writes about you, the benefits are inestimable.
What was the purpose of starting NewsMaker and how has the concept come about?
Like a lot of ideas, Newsmaker came from my own need – I’ve been a journalist for many years and like many before me, I moved into PR when I had children. I found that there was a constant tussle between the media and PR trying to convince them to run their clients’ press releases. PR people aren’t always treated well by media. I decided there had to be a better way to reach out to news consumers – I’d been operating an online PR website since 2000 and I applied for a Commercialising Emerging Technology (COMET) grant, which helped finance what was then unique technology. We are now building a very sexy new PR platform so watch this space.
What are the most common issues that relate to business owners who come to see you?
The most common problem is that they are confused by all the options online and they feel their voice isn’t being heard. Advertising is just too expensive.
Tell us more about your service offer?
We provide more than 3,500 members with an easy way to distribute press releases direct to journalists and cut hours of time from the old way of selecting media lists.
We provide journalists with a source of quality original content that has been moderated. We reject a lot of press releases that are not suitable for professional media.
And we provide a way for our members to use social networks and search engines effectively without wasting their time. They can focus on what they’re going to say rather than how they’re going to distribute their content.
All that promotion is worth a fortune if you added it all up.
Tell us about your process for working with clients?
Clients simply register, write a press release, then step through the easy to use Press Release Wizard which guides you through the process. The user guide is here:
But we are also happy to give you a 1:1 demo so don’t hesitate to call Skype leilahenderson is preferred.
What advice can you offer to new business and existing business who would like to promote & market their businesses online?
Choose a range of online channels and then keep on doing it! Persistence is the only quality you can’t do without!
Do you have a book that you would like to recommend?
I recommend reading “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly” by David Meerman Scott, to find out why you would do this.
Where do we find your services?
Find us at www.newsmaker.com.au
Do you have a special offer to the ArtSHINE community?
Just let us know you belong to ArtShine and we’ll give you 50% of your first press release distribution.
