10 Steps to Getting on National TV

SUMMARY: To secure a spot on national TV, follow these 10 steps: craft a concise bio for the host’s introduction, prepare your on-screen chyron with relevant credentials, gather B-roll footage for visual interest, utilize props to enhance your message, structure questions to guide the conversation, rehearse your script focusing on concise sound bites, undergo media training for timing and message delivery, pitch ideas for future segments immediately after, express gratitude with notes or gifts to the producer and host, and leverage your appearance by contacting other shows and embedding the video on your website promptly.

Hi everyone, Susan Harrow, media coach, marketing strategist, author of Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul®, CEO prsecrets.com. Here today to talk about the 10 steps to get on national TV. And I’m going to be peeking at my notes and it is okay to do this when you’re on national TV, particularly if you’re looking at cutting edge statistics and things like that. You can keep the notes under your bum.

Number 1: Create Your Bio.

So you want to create a bio that’s typically one line that the TV host is going to introduce you with.

Number 2: Set up Your Chyron.

That is what shows up on the screen. Most TV stations will not allow you to put your website, some do. So it’s just going to be your title and the name of your book, if you have a book and of course any degrees that are after your name. If you’re a Ph.D. or any of your credentials. So you want to craft that chyron ahead of time as well.

Number 3: Prepare B-roll.

Which is background footage. That is the footage that’s shown as you’re moving through your points. It could be movies, it can be still pictures that show up in the background. It can also be something that says like five points – I’m going to cover these five points. So that’s your b-roll or background footage.

Number 4: Bring Props.

Props are the visual things that you’re going to bring that help guide you through the segment and also shortcut your sound bites. So it’s a way to speak very quickly. You’re going to get your point across super quickly visually. Because TV is a visual medium.

Number 5: Craft Your Questions.

You want to craft your questions. You want to create your five questions and you want to create them in the progression that you want them to be asked. That builds on the kind of information that you want to get out to your audience. So essentially you’re reverse engineering. What do you want to say to your audience and then what questions are going to elicit those responses?

Number 6: Practice Your Script.

How are you going to answer those questions? What is the information that you want to convey to your audience that is going to entertain, enliven and also encouraged them to buy or buy into you. Or to shift an idea. Essentially, these are the five things that you’re going to craft, come back to: How do you want to grow your business? And in speaking about whatever your topic is, how does that lead people to be excited about what you’re offering?

Number 7: Get Media Training.

Media training or mock interviews. You either want to hire a media trainer to move you through your paces. Or practice with someone in mock interviews with a camera/web cam going like this. That way you can time out your sound bites because they all have to be between typically 10 and 20 seconds. You usually don’t even get 30 seconds on TV. Some of them are even 5 seconds. You want to be able to time it out because you’re either going to do typically a 4-minute interview or a 6-minute interview and realize that you just get half of that time.

Your time to talk is either maybe two or three minutes max, so very tight sound bites. This does take quite a lot of practice. That’s where I trained with my clients quite a bit, with a timer, so they get a sense of exactly how long their sound bites are going to take. And making sure that they say everything that they want to say or convey.

Number 8: Pitch Ideas for Your Next Segment

That are ready to pitch after the segment. Once a producer and a host is really excited about having you on, because you were so terrific, you want to have several ideas in tow to pitch that producer or the host on the spot so to get invited back to another segment.

And then you want to get that booked right there in studio so bring your calendar, because that’s when you’re hot and they’re excited about you. This is when they may book you again, so close that deal.

Number 9: Practice Gratitude

Which is to send a thank you note or gift to the both the producer and the host. A lot of people forget about the producer, but the producer has done all of the legwork. Don’t forget about the producer! Send the producer a beautiful gift and you can also bring one and present it at the end. You don’t have to send it, you can have it right there. Particularly if you are someone who is offering food or something delicious that you know they’ll like. Bring enough for the host.

Also, you might even consider the cameraman too, because they work really hard.

Number 10: Contact Other Shows.

Contact other shows while that segment is hot. Get the video embedded on your own website because you don’t want people to leave your website to go to the station’s website because they may not have it up there all the time.

So get permission to get that on your site and make sure that it pops up in a new window. That way they don’t leave your site and they’re still seeing that on your site for when you when you get booked other shows.

So those are my 10 tips for creating a TV segment. If you would like any help doing that, this is one of my very favorite things to do. I love creating segments. I do it every day for publicists who hire me for their clients. I would be delighted to help you with yours and I will look forward to talking to you soon.

You are welcome to jump onto my website because I have lots of free offers on there and one of them. Is a list for the top 50 media contacts for the top shows, shows magazines, print, Internet I’ve covered it all. It’s the top people who you want and their contact information and it’s free on my website prsecrets.com. So look forward to seeing you there.

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