4 things about press releases you should already know

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New media blogger, Jon Ray, helps fulfill man’s dreams by helping him become more like a giant chicken. ;)

I was meeting with a client this morning who was wondering why she wasn’t getting any press off of the press releases she was sending out. She had spent a great deal of time writing up her release and followed the formatting that the book she purchased told her was best. She hired an administrative assistant, who sent this press release out to every major and minor publication they could find that had anything to do with her industry. Then, they waited.

After waiting and waiting, not much happened. They landed a couple of minor blog posts, but it wasn’t the media frenzy she was hoping for when she started out. Why didn’t more people write about her?

1. Build relationships with the press. It is never really a good idea to blind copy, unsolicited press releases to the press. It’s not generally a practice that they appreciate. Just like with creating a social media campaign, it is important to create REAL relationships. That’s why you hire a PR firm or publicist to send out press releases. Contrary to popular belief a good publicist DOES do something. They have intimate relationships with the press and know who to go to, when to go to them and with what kind of story. If you don’t have time to form relationships with the press…hire a publicist!
2. Paint us a picture and make us care. Just because you’re really excited about your new event, company or product, doesn’t mean anyone else is going to care about it. When you’re writing up your press release, find a way to make your company relatable to the mass public. Whether it’s TV, Newspaper or the blog-o-sphere, people enjoy visual images. Find a way to make your event stand out as a memorable image in people’s minds. (i.e. Snow Cone Stand - Get a snow machine and create a day where you invite kids to come and sled down a giant mountain of ice in the middle of the summer. Now, that’s visual! Here comes the press!) Think in photo ops and your press release will do well.
3. Is it the right time? One of the biggest reasons your press release gets passed over is because it simply wasn’t the right day. If it’s a busy news day, your story isn’t going to be covered no matter HOW amazing it might be. Be conscious of what else is going on in the news. You want to, ideally, identify which days are slow news days. On a slow news day, the press will praise you for bringing them any kind of story.
4. Give both sides. You know, if you’ve ever turned on a television, that the press LOVE controversy! They LOVE it! So, why not give them a little? Are there opposing opinions to whatever you’re trying to promote? Why not list them in your press release and give contacts for the press to reach the opposition for comment? A good reporter is going to list both sides of the story anyway. Make their job easier and your story stands a much better chance at getting picked up.

Of course, there are plenty of other things that can be done to give your press release a better chance of being picked up, but these four things are a good start. It’s amazing to me how many people spend the time, effort and money to promote a press release that is guaranteed to be looked over.

If you’d like to talk further about best practices for gaining press, then feel free to shoot an email to whoisjonray AT gmail DOT com. Otherwise, I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments section. What have you done in the past that garnered you a lot of press? What have you done that was a complete disaster? What would you add to this list?

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Tagged as: austin, how to, Marketing/PR, must know, press release, something, twenty, twenty-something, tx