A couple of months I ago, I suggested to my girl friend, the lovely Jessica (a singer and vocal coach), that I wanted to redesign her website. “Why?” she asked, “People are finding me on the search engines. I’m getting clients. It’s working fine.”
I wanted to redevelop her Las Vegas Vocal Training site on a WordPress platform, integrating a website and a blog, as one. She wasn’t convinced that it was necessary.
Then, came the big idea. “I know you don’t see yourself as a blogger; however, you have a lot of good information and strong opinions. Watching American Idol alongside a singing coach is a very interesting experience. Your observations, comments and stinging criticisms of the judges is incredibly informative. I think that if you wrote on a regular basis, and were as outspoken as you are when we’re watching the show, it would attract traffic to the site.”
Now she was interested.
The revised site is based on the same WordPress template as this blog. Showing Jessica how to blog was not particularly challenging.
In the upper right hand corner of her website, I placed the following banner.
The big payoff came far more quickly than either of us could expect. Last week, Jessica took a phone call from a TV reporter at FOX 5 TV, the local affiliate. The reporter wanted to do an American Idol related story, with a local hook. Searching for a Las Vegas vocal coach, vocal training or singing lessons would find her website in the Top 5 results on Google or any major search engine.
Upon seeing the site, the American Idol blog category is immediately present. After a quick reading, Jessica got the call. After some discussion, they scheduled a visit to her vocal studio where FOX 5 will shoot portions of her lessons with two different students. And, Jessica will be interviewed, separately.
The piece will probably air next week, and should be advance-promoted during American Idol and the following program, as a lead in to the 10pm local news.
It is obvious that TV airing and video clip from this will be priceless for Jessica.
Ask yourself this question:
If local media (print, TV, radio, etc.) were researching a wedding industry story, in your category of business, would it be easy to find you? AND… would there be content on your site (such as bio, blog, photos) that would make it likely for you to ‘get the call?’
The taping at Jessica’s studio will take place on Thursday, January 28th. I’ll report back on how it goes.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog
Great job on Jessica’s blog and I loved the media payday she got relatively quickly that makes a powerful impact for her I am sure!
I should have some coast to coast Canadian Canadian PR from a Canada newspaper from a journalist who found my blog:)
A great post on the value of blogging Andy. (added by Mobile using Mippin)
The Fox 5 crew arrived for the shoot, yesterday, in timely fashion. The recorded footage of Jessica teaching a couple of her students and then interviewed her, at length.
Of course, the interesting thing will be what parts the elect to air. As the subject of this kind of coverage, one has no control, and can only hope for the best.
I will post more when there is a definitive airing date.
Andy