Online and offline publicity helps your business rise above the noise level on the Net, but it takes planning and preparation to get it. Publicity is an ongoing part of your marketing program, not a one-shot effort you make when you launch your business. With a proper publicity plan, you have goals for how you want your company portrayed in the media over the long haul, and some tactics, weapons, and targets that will help you achieve those goals. With a good plan, you'll generate important coverage of your business at exactly the right time and in exactly the right place.

Here are the key elements of a good publicity plan.

• A competitive analysis. The art of publicity is creating published articles or TV and radio coverage that casts your company in a favorable light. To begin, you'll want to know how your company and its competition are perceived by and presented in the media now. Study newspapers, magazines, and online publications related to your business for news of your competition and your own company to find out how each of you are being presented in the press. List every company that has been covered in one article or another (along with the name of each article's author), and then list some key messages that are being conveyed by the publicity that's been done so far. This analysis will give you a good sense of the current publicity climate, so you'll know what has to be done to change it.

• Key messages. List some of the main qualities or advantages you want reflected in media stories about your company. Think in terms of competing with other firms. Cast your key messages in terms of your adversaries, such as "Higher quality than Acme Widgets." Your goal is to have these key messages reported or implied in any news story that's done about your company.

• Press materials. Make a list of materials you'll distribute to members of the press, and then prepare them. You will probably send out a press kit, which includes some background about your company, products, and key personnel, one or more press releases about the specific events you're publicizing, and perhaps some product photos or slides. Use black and white, 4" x 5" photos of people, and color slides of products.

• Publicity targets. List all the magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and TV or radio stations you want to target as outlets for publicity about your company. Don't limit yourself to the obvious targets or major national publications. Go to a large library and research all the magazines that might cover your area of business. Phone or write each publication and get a copy of their editorial calendar: it tells you the deadlines for each section of the magazine or newspaper, and it also alerts you when there's a special editorial focus of upcoming issues. And don't just target a publication, target a specific department and editor at each publication.

• Story ideas. For each one of your publicity targets, create a specific story idea, or pitch. Your publicity plan should list story ideas that fit the editorial focus of each publication or department you target. Use the editorial calendars to tailor your pitches for specific issues of specific publications.

• A media calendar. This is your timetable for preparing publicity pitches and directing them at specific targets. You'll use the media calendar to make sure you have prepared press materials and story ideas for any particular media target and have sent them off in time to have an article actually written before the publication's deadline.

A proper publicity plan lets you map out a strategy for your publicity efforts several months or even a year in advance. Once you've identified your goals and targets, you can use the plan as a set of marching orders for carrying out your attack. A good and steady stream of publicity is a powerful advantage for your company in cyberspace, and a good plan is the key.