Review of Deep Publicity Public Relations Course from Marcia Yudkin

By Karon Thackston

I've always had a healthy respect for Marcia Yudkin. She is one of the best-known publicity experts on the web today. I've bought a couple of her public relations (PR) books before and was pleased with the content they offered. But when I got the notice about her new course, Deep Publicity, I seriously wondered if this was going to be a rehash of everything else she's already published.

Honestly, I teeter-tottered a while before I caved in. I mean, I could buy the individual books included in the course for about $80. Could the information contained on the 10 CDs be *that* valuable? I decided that - like most other information products I buy - I'd put it to the test. If I could use what Marcia produced to get more response from my publicity efforts, I'd call it a worthwhile product.

What You Get

When my package arrived in the mail, I found a spiral-bound, soft-cover edition of Marcia's Makeovers: 24 Press Releases Transformed from So-So to Sizzling, the third edition of her book 6 Steps to Free Publicity, a case study booklet entitled Publicity for Profit: A Practical, Strategic Casebook. Also in the package was a case that contained 10 CDs with information on everything from basic PR techniques, sparking local coverage, press release writing tips, brainstorming sessions and more.

I dug in right away to see if I could learn anything new that would increase my exposure.

6 Steps to Free Publicity

I have to admit, at 287 pages, this paperback was very complete. I only made it to page 26 before I started dog-earring pages that offered information I was sure I'd want to refer back to later. Logical and well laid out, this book goes through the various steps including getting started, writing for publicity, speaking for publicity, polishing your PR skills and more. Along the way, Marcia is careful to give lots of ideas and examples. Because it's written in Marcia's classic, conversational style, it's easy to read and understand.

Deep Publicity CDs

Now I know why so many people love CDs. Listening in as Marcia goes over every detail of specifically how to write a press release, exactly what to include, what not to include, insider tricks she's learned and the things that really tick reporters off was a wealth of information. I have several pages of notes from the 10+ hours of audio training I received.

Marcia's Makeovers: 24 Press Releases Transformed from So-So to Sizzling

What I liked about this spiral-bound book was that Marcia didn't just give before and after shots of press releases, she gave commentary on why the original needed to be changed and what prompted her to make the changes she made. For me, knowing why is sometimes as important as know what needs to be done. This was very helpful.

Publicity for Profit: A Practical, Strategic Casebook

This little booklet contains 17 mini-case studies of real-world experiences with gaining publicity. It was a fairly good resource, but didn't do much for me personally.

How I Got Started

After listening to four of the CDs and reading 3/4 of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, I had a brainstorm. On one CD, Marcia mentioned using statistics as an idea for press releases. I remembered an article I'd written a couple of years ago about the fact that keyphrases keep getting longer and how that seriously impacts SEO copywriters. I found the source for the statistics, pulled out the old article and began to work on the transformation.

Using ideas from Marcia's CDs, samples and checklists from 6 Steps to Free Publicity and examples from the press release makeover book, I was able to come up with a powerful headline and turn the article into something I thought Internet- and advertising-related news people would find of value for their readers.

Distribution

I've always wondered about where to distribute my media releases. Marcia makes this a little easier by including a link to her resources page. While it does offer an extensive list of distribution options, she doesn't give any types of ratings or recommendations for the distribution outlets. I would like to have seen which she thought were the best and why. A list is great, but with no direction about which one(s) to choose, I found myself with the same questions about distribution that I had before.

Deep Publicity is not strictly about writing press releases. Marcia also covers being a guest author, speaking and a world of other PR opportunities. By listening to the CDs, you can learn precisely what to do/say and what not to do/say when creating certain press events, developing newsworthy ideas, promoting them to the press and much more.

Overall, my release written after finishing Marcia's Deep Publicity course turned out better than the ones I'd written before. I got approximately 24% more pickups than the releases I'd previously sent out. Not bad!

Would I recommend Deep Publicity? Yes! Whether you're a newbie or a copywriter with 20+ years of experience, like me, you'll find lots of worthwhile information in this product.

Karon Thackston is an SEO copywriting specialist and President of http://www.MarketingWords.com. To get Deep Publicity, the course Karon recommends, please visit http://www.copywritingcourse.com/deep-publicity.html. © 2009, All Rights Reserved