pr briefs

How to keep your pitch from getting deleted

Jeremy Porter recently blogged for Journalistics: “13 ways to keep your pitch from getting deleted”. One way, he writes, is to keep it personal.

“If you really want to keep your email from being deleted, make it personal. Demonstrate that you understand what the journalist writes about and that you’ve done your legwork. You should NEVER cut and paste a pitch or use mail merge software of any kind to switch out names and details in a pitch. Journalists can smell this tactic a mile away and will almost always click the ‘delete’ button.Write the pitch as though you were emailing a family member about the news. You should have that level of comfort and knowledge of the recipient before sending. If you tailor the pitch to an individual, you are much more likely to receive a response. If you do cut and paste, or you do try to mail merge, you will screw up. You will call him a “Mrs.” and you will call John “Sally”. Don’t do it.”

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Bigger media list not neccessarily better

If you’re like a lot of people who want to earn publicity from sending out a news release, you probably think that the more reporters and news media you have on your distribution list, the better. But that’s a serious mistake that might be keeping your release from getting the coverage it deserves.

One of the most common mistakes public relations professionals make is trying to pitch a story to the wrong person. Most reporters have a specialty, like “lifestyles,” “food” or “business.” If you pinpoint the reporter(s) whose “beat” matches your news, you’re much more likely to score coverage.

Tip: Create a master distribution list of reporters, separated by specialty, and then handpick the relevant reporters each time you send a news release. The reporters who get your news will appreciate that you took the time to personalize your pitch, instead of blasting your news to a generic, all-in-one list.

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Conventional marketing wisdom long held that a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But…in the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell ten million.

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the most crucial ingredient for PR is time.

Sometimes public relations is hard to explain to a new client. We can show them press clippings and news footage and magazine covers from our portfolio, and we can explain that our clients didn’t pay for any of it. We can also tell them that editorial is considered more credible—and therefore more valuable—than purchased advertising.

What is always hard to explain is that we can’t guarantee they’ll get any media coverage from our PR efforts. That they may not see an article or news coverage for weeks, months or ever. That it will take a good story, strategy, and most of all, time. But the payoff can be huge.

Do they want to see results right away? If so, they should pay for some advertising. With PR, they’ll have the potential of garnering the equivalent of thousands of dollars of advertising for little or no advertising money. But PR takes time. And it’s not guaranteed. If it’s immediate gratification they are looking for, it won’t usually come from a public relations campaign. The most visible and impactful coverage will almost always come from public relations and not advertising. But a combination of the two tactics will help you achieve both short-term visibility and long-term results.

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3 ways to make your story more newsworthy

Brad Phillips, founder and president of Phillips Media Relations outlines three ways to make a story more newsworthy to the press. Phillips was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and also headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.

Here are three ideas from Phillips that you can use for your story.

1. Announce Something New — Since the word “news” contains the word “new,” it’s always a good idea to announce something that’s never been announced before. Perhaps it’s a new product, a new piece of research, a new piece of legislation, etc.

2. Include an Extreme — Reporters love anything that represents the first, last, best, worst, biggest, smallest, greatest, etc. If you are releasing the first report of its kind, say so. If your new product is the smallest microwave oven ever produced, put it in the headline.

3. Counterintuitive is Good — Reporters love stories that make the reader do a double take and say, “What did that say?” If your story runs counter to everything we think we know, it’s going to get noticed. For example, if new research concludes that dumping toxic waste in a pond actually helps the fish population, the press will be on the phone with you almost instantly.

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Love this tip from Pro PR Tips: Advice from a jaded tech journalist

Tip #151: No clumping. At a working dinner (like an awards banquet or evening panel discussion), don’t seat all the journalists together. You’ll get more coverage if you actually put us in proximity to the people we get paid to talk to.

That said, the good journalists will ignore or hack the seating plans anyway. So, never mind.

Read more great tips here.

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If you create great content and no one knows about it to link to it, you’re spinning your wheels. A combination of content as well as social networking, link networking, public relations and gaining editorial visibility as well as viral and individual link solicitations will all work together synergistically.

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The potential reach of social media + email marketing

A single share of your e-blast can be very powerful because of the number of followers that one email recipient can reach. Facebook says that the average user has 130 friends, so every 1,000 email subscribers represents a potential audience of 130,000 people—not taking into consideration that shared content can and usually is shared further once it’s been shared the first time.

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SEO tip for Facebook

Did you know you can optimize your Facebook page for search engines, the same as you do for your Web site? One easy way is to use keywords in your “About” box.

Under your fan page profile image you’ll find your “About” text box. When you fill in the information for this section, use keywords that people would use when searching for a business like yours. Be sure to include your business name. Get even more mileage by adding your Web site’s URL; this will create a valuable inbound link for your site, which will improve your Web site’s SEO as well.

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