What PR agencies don’t want you to know

Let’s begin with some home truths. Firstly, there’s no better way to promote your business services, raise your profile or build your reputation in the marketplace than through editorials. Unlike advertising, editorial is viewed by the public as ‘news’, and therefore carries with it a high level of credibility.

Secondly, getting published isn’t rocket science – it’s just time consuming. Anyone with an inclination and half a clue can do their own publicity.

However, if you want to promote your business through the media, simply writing a media release and distributing it won’t guarantee your story will make front page news, or page 50 for that matter. With media, there are no guarantees, but there are ways to increase your success rate.

It’s likely if you write a good general media release about your business and/or product/service and use an inexpensive distribution service, you will get your release into newsrooms – but not necessarily onto the editor or chief of staff’s desk, and ultimately not into the paper or magazine you wish it to appear in.

The fact is: a broad brush approach to media release writing and distribution doesn’t guarantee your brilliant story will be transformed into a feature news editorial.

If you want to ensure your media release ends up in black and white, by far the best means of achieving this end result is to make a tailored pitch.

Here are the ten most important things you need to do.

The top 10 things you can do to get in print

1. Develop a publication list

The first step is to develop a targeted media list. Determine the publications that will give you the best exposure to your target market – and which will be the most interested in your media releases.

If you wish to target only a limited number of media outlets, and thus have only a low volume of media releases, the best way by far to distribute them is by establishing and maintaining a press list internally.

As long as you have the internal resources to contact this list occasionally to ensure the contacts are kept up to date, and develop and maintain your relationship with them, it can be a highly cost effective and tailored approach to press release distribution.

When you develop your list, ensure the full contact details for each journalist are obtained to allow you to follow up with them when necessary. It’s important to update this list regularly, as journalists move around quite a lot.

Through internet research and/or a one-off payment to a PR firm, you can easily develop a list of relevant journalists to target and send the press releases direct to them via email.

2. Develop relationships

The next step is to start building relationships with reporters in your industry. While you can use a press release distribution service (and they have their place – read on), for most releases, a more personalised approach is often the best way to achieve success and allows you to establish a relationship with the media – which is impossible if you are using a wire service.

To do this, you need to identify who the right person is at each publication, so you can pitch your stories to them each time. Depending on the publication, this could be the chief of staff, editor in chief or journalist with the specific round your story falls under (for example, business, property or entertainment). You may need to talk to a few people before you get the right one.

When you do finally get through to the right person, introduce yourself and don’t be shy about why you are calling. Journalists are used to dealing with PR agencies – this is how they get the vast majority of their ‘news’.

It’s not always necessary to meet a journalist in person – but it doesn’t hurt. I try to personally meet my contacts, whether it’s at an interview or over a coffee for an informal chat.

3. Pitch your story personally

Once you’ve made a contact, make sure you pitch your story directly to them each time – don’t just send an email. Call up and find out what they want to write about this week or month – not what you want to tell them.

Remember, journalists need to fill the pages of magazines and newspapers day after day. Your job is to help make their job easier.

By serving them ‘news on a platter’, you save them the hard yards of searching for newsworthy fodder. In effect, you become their newsfeed. The sign of a successful relationship with a journalist is that, after some time, they call you for a story, not the other way around.

4. Tailor your media releases

By far the biggest thing you can do to give your story a shot at a run is tailoring the angle of the media release to the publication you are targeting, its readership (demographic) and its locale.

Take time to know their publication and what they write about before sending a release. Seize on issues you know are dear to their readers’ hearts. Pick a topical issue and use it as an angle from which to launch into what you really want to say to your target market.

Make sure you write a slightly different headline and lead paragraph for each publication – no publication likes to run exactly the same story as another. If you can, write three or four completely different stories, albeit they are the same story with different tops and tails.

5. Make it easy for them

After you’ve made a pitch and written your media release, email it together with any other information that will make the journalist’s job easy including links to relevant web sites, photos (very important) and backgrounders or fact sheets to save them doing their own desk research.

Most stories need pictures. Make it easy for your contact by sending them quality, high resolution digital images in convenient zip files so they don’t have to send a photographer or buy stock photos. If they do want to take their own shots (often journalists like their own images), arrange the photo shoot and offer to meet their photographer on site to help it run smoothly.

If interviews are integral to your article, coordinate the talent so your journalist doesn’t have to do anything but turn up or pick up the phone and ask the questions. Make sure the talent is well prepared and available at the time you say they will be.

6. Follow up

Don’t assume that just because you’ve sent a media release, the publication will be holding the front page for you. You need to call or email a few days after you’ve emailed your media release and other materials. Check the journalist doesn’t need anything else to write their story. Think of yourself as their personal assistant for this particular story.

It’s okay to ask a journalist or editor if the publication will be running your story. If they aren’t, ask if there’s something else you could do to make it more newsworthy. Perhaps you could arrange an interview with a high profile person in your business or industry or coordinate a photo opportunity?

Or if the editor claims that the next issue is full and they can’t squeeze your story in, ask if they can fit it into next week’s edition. Quite often, it’s the person who shouts the loudest who is finally heard.

7. Write industry articles

Another way to gain exposure for your business is to look for industry related magazines, web sites and blogs you can contribute to. Get in touch with the editors/publishers and ask if you can write an article for them about a topic of interest to their readers.

You will be helping them out and showcasing your expertise and your business at the same time. Achieving this sort of publicity is time consuming – but nothing beats this type of exposure as a way to boost your business profile and reputation.

8. Wire it

If you require a wider distribution for certain press releases, there are companies that offer one-off distribution services. Some wire services offer small distributions to targeted markets – so if you only want to target a particular region, you can save money and time.

Wire services send your release into newsrooms, so you'll get reasonable reach. However, to increase your chances of publication, you still need to develop relationships with editors and journalists.

If you are looking for national distribution, it’s also a good idea to send your media release to a national news distribution service such as AAP (Australian Associated Press). If they pick up the story, they will do the distribution for you.

9. Monitor your media

By having a targeted list of journalists/publications, it’s easier to monitor coverage of your business, as you have a clear idea of where press releases were sent and to which specific individual at any given publication.

Keep a copy of all your press clippings and magazine articles and measure your column centimetres to see where you are getting the best results for your efforts.

Like all marketing activities, your return on investment should be regularly quantified. If a particular publication is not interested in your media releases, don’t waste any more time pitching and sending stories to them. Instead, focus your efforts on those that are giving you the most column centimetres.

10. Bring in the professionals

The thing to keep in mind is whether doing your own PR is the best investment of your time. It may be better to use it to build your business in ways that only you personally can, for example, by visiting/calling clients, chasing down leads and pitching for new work – and letting a public relations professional who already has the skills and relationships take care of this aspect of your business.

Market Fresh offers a full publicity service. Not only will we help you get results faster, unlike some larger consultancies, we’re familiar with smaller budgets and project-based work, so we can work with the resources you have and still get results.

Or, if you would like to try doing some public relations activities yourself, let us assist by developing a targeted media contact list specifically for your business.

We wish you the best of luck with your endeavours.