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When starting a fruitful business venture or launching a new service, most entrepreneurs or business owners conduct some sort of marketing research to find out the extent of these new prospective customer base. And when getting the phrase out compared to that customer base, many entrepreneurs may turn to the media to greatly help generate a news for them. However, as detailed as their marketing research could have been, very few business owners are as meticulous at determining their proper "media market" - that is, dozens of media outlets whose editorial profiles certainly are a match to a product/business profile and could be appropriate for generating media exposure and publicity.

Among my personal favorite things to accomplish is educate my clients about their "media market." Consider this, in North America there are more than 75,000 media outlets and almost one million reporters, editors & producers in the whole media market. However, merely a small percentage of these might be appropriate and applicable to your business/product. But those that? Unfortunately, way too many well-intentioned entrepreneurs are either uninformed or misinformed regarding what it will take to attract media attention due to their business. I recently surveyed 100 business owners and entrepreneurs who contacted my business in regards to a publicity/media exposure campaign. Some tips about what I found:

• 11% - "Are Admittedly Media Market Clueless"
• 19% - "Have Unrealistic Media Market Perceptions"
• 29% - "Think Local & Large Media Are The ONLY Media"
• 41% - "Have A Good Grasp On Their Potential Media Market And Its Benefits"

Here are the descriptions of those categories and the lessons I attempt to teach those that fall under each category:

11% - "Are Admittedly Media Market Clueless"

They are the business enterprise owners who know their product and market inside and out, BUT they have never thought about launching a publicity/media exposure campaign before now. They know almost no about their potential media market or how exactly to generate publicity therein.

The Lesson: For these types of business owners I suggest requesting help from a smaller PR agency or publicity specialist who is ready to "hand hold" to have the client educated. Research to locate person who doesn't mind spending the time for you to educate you in what must certanly be contained in your specific media market and the pitch. Make certain the agency or publicist understands the product/business along with you do and can in turn educate you about your media market - one that will be able to benefit your organization for years to come.