Press releases and free publicity

USING AND ABUSING THE MEDIA.
by Phil Wiley

Online success doesn't just happen. You know that, I know that. We have to make it happen.

Getting your name out, becoming known, is essential to the survival of your business.

It doesn't matter whether you run a store, a restaurant, a mowing business, or operate purely online. If no-one knows about you you can't sell them anything

Most likely you'll probably get some walk in trade, even online (as long as you've registered with the main search engines), but relying on people dropping in is no way to do business.

So you've got three choices:

offer a great product or service, and wait for word of mouth to attract people.

advertise heavily

or use the media to get free publicity.

A combination of all three would be nice, but unless you've got an advertising budget bigger than Bill Clinton's libido you should be looking at giving your business a kick-start with free media publicity.

So how to you get the media to cover your business?

Earlier this week I put this question to two daily newspaper editors:

Phil: what do you look for in a press release?

John: how it impacts on people, our readers. Will the event or product being pushed have any interest to our readers?

Steve: is it something our readers would like to know about?

John: is it new or different? Tell people why it's better, why they need it. If it's a new outboard motor for a speedboat, say what's different about it. If it's 25% cheaper to run then say that in the release.

Steve: is it just more PR crap, or is there a story there?

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I think the last quote sums it up. Is there a "real story" there? The media (well most of them) are looking for "real stories".

So your job, with a press release aimed at promoting your service or product, is to convince the media that you have a "real story" to offer them. That it's something interesting and not more PR waffle.

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Phil: does including a freebie (a gift) with the press release help at all?

Steve: no

John: it depends what she looks like.

Steve: we get sent a lot of rubbish. We just laugh about most of it, about the waste of time and money some people put into zany packaging or gifts just to try and attract attention. Whatever they send it doesn't help make a non event into a story.

John: books, video's, and CD's might get reviewed, but nothing else.

Phil: does it make a difference if it's posted to you, faxed, or sent by email?

John: 80 percent come in the mail, the rest come by fax. Just a few emails, but we're getting more.

Steve: I'd say we get 90 percent by fax.

John: the emails are harder to read. We have a girl check the Internet a couple of times a day, and she has to print them out, then give them to the Chief of Staff, who then decides which journalist to give them to. So emails might not get read until after the others, which means they're less likely to get followed up because everyone's busy by then.

Steve: emails don't look as nice, do they? Just small type. Whereas, if they're on fax you can use big headlines and make them look better.

Phil: look, forget about press releases. You've both had too many beers to make any sense anyway. Tell me what makes a good story? what grabs you?

John: I wish that blond over there would.

Phil: like I said, too many beers. What makes a good story?

Steve: it's got to be about people. Get the human angle on it.

Phil: So do you read every press release sent to you?

Steve: well, someone reads them, but maybe only the first paragraph. If it's obviously a non event we bin it. We get a huge number of press releases every day and we just don't have the man hours to waste time reading everything.

Phil: so the headline and the first paragraph are the most important?

John: as that's often the only part that gets read of course it is. You need to attract our attention with your headline, then follow it up in the first couple of lines. MAKE us read on. Tell us the story you'd like to see in the paper.

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The media is always desperately looking for news. Just think about it. On daily publications they're building a new product from scratch every day. They have anything up to 100 empty pages to fill each day.

So they WANT your news.

But you can't just send out self-serving announcements and expect media coverage. You have to hunt for the news angle, and tailor your press release around this news you come up with. You MUST give them a news story... not
an ad, not just hype, but news.

Remember, in the media, content is king. Media people are constantly on the look out for new information and ideas of interest and importance to their readers.

Give the media what they want, and maybe they'll give you what you need.

Free publicity!