November 23 2009

If you’re not seen, you won’t be heard

Publicity is a great way to promote your business, and email is the most popular means for getting your news in front of reporters to land precious coverage. But what if your news never gets to the journalists? The vast majority of emails sent to journalists never get read. It’s estimated that 82% of all emails are filtered out by spam filters, and this may include your news release!

To a spam filter, your email pitch may contain trigger words and suspicious phrases that automatically prevent your email from getting to its destination. Common trigger words and phrases, compiled by wordbiz.com, include a subject line that starts with “free,” certain words like “GUARANTEE” in all caps, even words like “unsubscribe,” “leave,” and other list removal phrases may block your email!

Learn how spam filters work and you can lessen the chances of your email getting blocked and improve your chance of getting a reporter’s attention.

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PR Briefs is a blog of tips, resources and case studies for the public relations professional and the PR novice. Feel free to comment, re-post or ask questions—I hope you enjoy your experience here.

PR and marketing have been the focus of my career for the past 30 years. As an ad agency client during the early years, I got to experience a birds-eye view of agencies and the experience wasn't always a good one. When Ideaworks opened in 1995, we were determined to break the mold, and after 15 years, more than 300 awards and hundreds of client referrals, I think we're starting to get there.
—Caron Sjoberg, APR, CPRC

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