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Jasmine's Web
PR 103 - Effective press releases
All the press services in the world
won't do a bit of good if the editors on your list round-file your press
releases without reading them. As the former editor of a large online
magazine/portal, I used to get a lot of press releases that made my eyes glaze
over in the first sentence. I still to this day get releases that
convince me not only not to write about the company, but that it's a
pretty good idea not to patronize them either.
Companies and small businesses often
spend a lot of time and money tracking down a good distribution service
or mailing list, but they don't spend too much time thinking about the
releases themselves. You get a dentist, you don't fill your own teeth.
You sure can't perform surgery on yourself. Once you have settled on one
of the services, ask yourself if you should really be writing your own
press release?
Sure, no-one knows your product,
service or business like you do. But the truth is you are human, and you
do have blind spots. You could miss some of the obvious red flags that
make editors crazy. You may have guaranteed not only will that last
release not "make ink" as the PR people say - it may also
prejudice your business before an editor who has little time to form an
opinion about the stories he or she will cover.
Keep the
following list handy and run through it before you hit the
"send" button.
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Hard to do, I know - but try to keep
it to one page. Double-spaced. Especially if you are going to mail
or fax it. If you are at all tempted to go beyond that, then write a
follow up, put that on your web site, and include the URL in the
release.
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Maybe this is obvious, but spell
check your release, and triple-check it for punctuation and grammar!
It may not matter to some editors how compelling your story is - if
you can't write well they will assume you don't think or speak well,
and will pass you over for someone else who can represent the story
better. I have seen releases in ALL CAPS, with spelling and
grammatical problems that made my eyes burn.
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Make sure that you have at least
three kinds of contact information at the bottom of the release.
Phone, email, and fax are common, but postal information can be
included and a URL these days is VITAL. If you don't have a small
web site with the vitals on your business, for goodness sakes, put
one up before you send out that release. You look like an amateur if
you don't have a web presence these days. It does not have to be
fancy or slick. Accurate information including contact numbers,
addresses, a basic outline of what you do, and who you are is a good
start. You can build it up over time.
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AVOID industry "buzz
words". If you don't know what might or might not be a buzz
word, talk to your mom, your grandfather, your young kids. If they
don't know what "first generation productivity solutions"
means in real terms, snip it! Check out the Dack.Com
Web Economy Bullshit Generator if you want to see how silly this
can get. Industry reporters, especially in the technology sector,
HATE buzzwords with a passion.
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Don't claim to be the
"first", "best", or "leading"
ANYTHING, ever. It makes our eyes go up in our heads. That's a
common claim that immediately demands refuting. Reporters like to
refute obvious baloney. If your product is truly unique that's going
to be obvious to the writer. If you are the best, and you are
determined to make that claim, make sure you can back it up.
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If you have to struggle to come up
with a story for a release, then it's not going to be news.
Reporters look for stories that hit the reader between the eyes.
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Bad news can be good - good news is
usually bad. You'll get a lot more ink out of a juicy controversy or
a truly innovative product than you will with the breathtaking news
that you have reached a new milestone and sold 400,000 more of your
widgets. When the Palm I came out that was a huge news story. What
version are they onto now? Does anyone really care? If you feel that
kind of story is news, only send it through the Newswires, never to
your private press list. Sometimes these puff-pieces do result in a
media mention, but not often. I did a dozen press releases
for one company on the latest number of affiliates they'd acquired.
Not one story. They got themselves threatened with a malicious and
frivolous lawsuit by a big-name company - and we got over 60 media
mentions that month.
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Have at least two other people go
over your release before you send it out. I don't care how good a
writer you are - you are human, and there are such things as typos.
These don't impress writers and editors.
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Make sure you target your press
releases. Use the major distribution services like PR Newswire if
you can't afford the time to maintain a highly targeted list.
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Keep in mind the publication cycle.
If your target publication is monthly, give at least 6 weeks notice
for anything time-sensitive. If it is weekly, two weeks notice is
sufficient. If your target is daily, send your release first thing
in the morning, ideally on a Tuesday or Thursday, NEVER on a Friday
afternoon or Monday morning (think about it <g> ... are YOU in
the office first thing Monday or last thing Friday?). When pitching
to daily papers, give at least 3 days advance notice for
time-sensitive events.
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What is news at a local weekly paper
may be different from what is news at a big city daily. The smaller
papers may be more interested in you as a local business if
you also buy advertising. HOWEVER ... you cannot expect or
demand it. If you do, chances are very good you will end up being
blacklisted. At most small community papers the division between
editorial and advertising is an artificial one, there is a wink and
a nod going on, but get in their faces and make demands and they are
very likely to show you the door. And they would be right to do so.
There is an old saying ... "Never annoy someone who buys ink by
the barrel". I have seen papers "out" businesses who
try to extort them by threatening to pull advertising because their
advertorial press releases did not make the news.
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Keep any "salesy" rhetoric
out of your releases! "Only 14 Left! Only 9.95 Shipping!"
is going to turn off an editor, especially if you are sending the
release unsolicited. It looks like spam, smells like spam ... yes,
Virginia, it's spam, even if it has the words "For Immediate
Release" at the top.
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Remember! WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE,
HOW ... and sometimes "WHY".
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Some PR firms send out mail packages
with little doo-dads in them - buttons, pens, t-shirts etc. You
can't beat the ease and convenience of CafePress for this purpose. I
have a site there, and
highly recommend them. They have a 35% discount for orders of 15
items or more - which will likely be much cheaper than having many
silk-screeners do that small a print run.
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A good media relations consultant is
worth their weight in gold. You may spend a little more up front,
but your chances for getting in the papers are a lot better if you
have someone who knows what they are doing, someone with a good
relationship with the people in the media whose attention you are
seeking.
Where to send it?
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The newswires are good, but
expensive. I use www.prnewswire.com
when clients can afford it.
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PrWeb.com
is an excellent low-cost choice. There is a free version, they will
stop a really bad release from going out, and are incredibly
generous with editorial feedback. For a small fee you get onto
Yahoo!'s press release section. Well worth the investment.
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Your private list. Start collecting
names, fax numbers, email addresses, and postal addresses from
highly targeted and local media outlets. These are the folks you
want to treat with utmost consideration. Never send them the
"make-news" releases, only the cream of the crop.
Give them the release a day or two before you send it out on the
wire service. If you can, pick one really good target and give them
a few days "advance exclusive" in their area.
I used to approach each writer or editor individually to ask if it
was okay to send an email - these days if their address is on the
masthead (or elsewhere published in the paper or web site), and
I am certain they cover my target topic, then I just send a
release. If they ask me not to do that, I write back, apologize and
ask if there is another better email address at their publication -
most have been friendly and willing to help. I can only recall one
fellow who was rude about it - most understand they are putting
their names "out there" and value the input, especially
freelancers who are always on the lookout for a good story.
With radio or TV people or if I am approaching a large newspaper
rather than an individual writer, sometimes I do write first to ask
if it is okay to send releases. I ask who the assignment editor is
(this is an editor who decides what story is good and assigns it to
a staff writer), and where is the best place to send a release.
Always be extra-sensitive to these folks, they are the ones most
likely to report on you - for good or ill.
When to send it?
Never on a Friday or a Monday (or
Thursday/Tuesday or a long weekend). ALWAYS first thing in the
morning.
For a daily newspaper, radio or TV
show give at least 3-10 days leeway between the event and your
release. For monthlies, at least 4-6 months. Some monthlies publish
writer's guidelines and editorial calendars - aim your release for an
appropriate time of year.
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