A properly executed PR campaign can be among the most valu able means of building an audience for your Web site. Positive press coverage is far more credible to potential customers than any amount of advertising, and getting your URL printed in USA Today will drive more traffic to your site than any banner campaign.
The Internet is not so much a mass medium as a massing of media and communities. When you want to reach people en masse, turn to PR. But only if you're going to do it right. It's what we prefer to think of as media savoir-faire.
Most of what's discussed in this chapter applies equally to journalists working in print, broadcast, and radio as it does to the new breed specializing in online publications. All journalists are driven by the same need to generate stories on deadline, and PR helps them meet that need. Journalists in all media have been quick to adopt the Internet for research and communication, which only benefits the PR specialists who are trying to reach them.
The relationship between the media and publicists is a delicate one. Some journalists have a flat-out allergic reaction to "flacks." Most reporters and editors accept that publicists play a significant role in the information food chain, however, and are willing to tolerate them and even occasionally befriend them.
PR is an inherently good idea. Journalists need information about companies. Companies want to give journalists information about themselves. So everybody's happy, right? Not always. The problem lies in the fact that most attempts at PR are so badly executed that journalists despair, setting trash cans under their fax machines and filtering their email to delete all messages from certain company addresses.
The favorite technique of clueless publicists is to send long, badly written press releases, bereft of any genuine news value, to every journalist in their database with no regard for each writer's particular focus. Then, for good measure, they top it off with a follow-up call just when the reporter is on deadline to ask if she's going to write about the announcement. You can guess the answer.
This hapless publicist has me on his bulk email list even though this release has nothing to do with what I cover for Advertising Age, which is ad management products. Notice that he's addressed the message to himself, while my address is hidden in the blind copy field along with probably hundreds of other journalists.
More than anything, good media relations requires time and planning. Marketing managers who decide on a Wednesday that "we have to get this release out by Friday" should just throw their press releases out the window for all the good it does them. Well-executed PR is among the most cost-effective marketing strategies available to any business. Bad PR, however, all too commonly accounts for a tremendous waste of marketing resources.
A publicist must empathize with the press. Press rooms are bustling, noisy, and chaotic places. The typical journalist has a phone receiver pinched in his neck while he types frantically into an arcane word processor as colleagues shout to each other across a crowded room above the sound of several ringing phones.
That's not to say that most publicists, or for that matter almost all workers in modern America, don't also work under tremendous stress. But in the special symbiotic relationship between journalism and PR, publicists get the short end of the stick. When a journalist calls wanting something, she wants it now. If you succeed in dropping everything and turning the information around immediately, you probably won't get extra points. But you'll definitely lose points if you don't.
The publicist's role is to be a problem-solver, not a problem.
The dynamic between reporters and their sources is essentially one of mutual manipulation. The source wants publicity and is willing to massage the facts and leave out the ugly parts to get coverage. The journalist wants a compelling story and won't regret upsetting some people to get one. When these two objectives overlap, everyone wins. The journalist always has the upper hand in this game, however. Don't think that just because you two were chummy yesterday that your latest misfortune won't look great tomorrow in 36-point type.
Becoming a journalist's trusted source can be your most powerful marketing advantage. Journalists rely far more on their Rolodexes than on press releases to generate stories. But never forget that "off the record" is entirely subjective. Absolutely never assume you're speaking off the record. Even if you've explicitly heard your reporter "buddy" agree to those terms, think three times before letting your words slip out if seeing them in print could cost you your job or sink your stock price.
Nor do you have a lot of recourse if you're unhappy about how you've been treated in print. Haranguing the reporter's boss, threatening lawsuits, citing advertiser privilege, or vowing allegiance to the publication's competition will certainly only make matters worse. At best, your company will be ignored forever after; at worst, it'll be subjected to vendetta journalism. As the old saying goes, don't pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. If absolutely necessary, politely seek a correction. Otherwise, you're probably better off not calling further attention to a damaging story with any follow-up.
The starting point for any successful PR strategy, as in all aspects of marketing, is to know your audience.
First, identify who will be using your site, which, if you haven't done by this stage in your marketing development, means you're in big trouble. Second, determine which media those customers pay attention to. Just because you're promoting a Web site doesn't necessarily mean that technology and Internet-oriented publications, both print and online, are the place to start (unless your core customers are technologists). Although you, as a site developer and Internet devotee, may live by Wired, News.com, and Web Week, are those the first media your readers turn to? If you run an animal services site, it's possible you may be able to get it covered in Web Review if you work hard enough at it. But you'd get better results by devoting the same energy to placing a story with Dog Fancier magazine.
Third, and most importantly, find the right journalist at the right publication who will be interested in the story you want to tell. For example, Walt Mossberg writes an influential technology column for the Wall Street Journal. But if you sent him a press release about your fantastic new site for Java developers, or your company's strategic partnership with another industry-leading firm, or your new software that's going to revolutionize corporate computing, count yourself lucky if all he does is ignore you. Mossberg's column is called "Personal Technology," and if your news announcement isn't targeted to personal computer users, he's not going to care about it.
Journalists' most common complaint about publicists, particularly since the advent of email, is being sent press releases that have nothing to do with the topics they cover. Spamming is bad enough when a company's trying to sell a product, but it's a hopeless strategy for gaining media exposure. Although recipients of sales spam have little real recourse, journalists who get annoyed by enough spam PR from the same company can always do a less-than-flattering write-up about that company.
Go to bookstores, libraries, and the Web, and find out for yourself which journalists are actually covering what your customers are reading about. Read their publications regularly, tune into their broadcasts, and bookmark their Web sites.
In most cases, all the contact information you need--phone numbers and email addresses--can be found in the publication's masthead or hotlinked to the author's byline on the Web site. Beginning an email message with, "I really enjoyed your recent story about..." will dramatically increase the chances that the writer will finish reading your message, first of all, and then decide to write about you.
In truth, press releases are among the least-effective ways to get a story written about your company. According to a 1996 MediaSource survey of more than 600 magazine and newspaper business editors, press releases accounted for only 14% of stories, compared to 59% that journalists generated based on their own sources.
Even Walt doesn't mind receiving email if you're telling him something he wants to hear.
MediaSource's third annual online press survey shows that journalists still like to get their stories the old-fashioned way: through their own contacts.
So how do you go about becoming a "source?" First of all, target a reasonable number of publications. Develop an "A" list of not more than 10 publications and a "B" list of another 10 or so. Journalists get their leads from sources they know by name. Unless you're a full-time publicist, you probably won't get to know more than 10 to 20 journalists personally. You may want to develop a "C" list as well, for those to whom you simply send announcements after they're public. But anticipate poorer results from reporters who will know your name primarily as a bulk-emailer of press releases.
The best way to find out whether a journalist would be interested in covering your company is to ask.
Plan well ahead of an announcement and simply drop a brief email to the journalist, explaining that your company is going to be making some announcements in the future. Say that you believe, based on your familiarity with the journalist's work, that she is the appropriate contact for your type of company, but you want to confirm that before sending her any unwanted press releases. Keep it to a couple of paragraphs in a friendly, professional tone. Almost without exception, the journalist will be grateful for your direct approach. If she isn't the appropriate contact, she'll likely refer you to whoever is. If she is the right one, chances are she'll take the opportunity to ask you a few questions about your company and pending announcements.
Finding email contacts for the press is no great challenge. The first place to look, as we've said earlier, is in the publication. In many cases, print publications will list email addresses for their principal editorial contacts. Online publications almost always do.
Computerworld, like many publications online, lists extensive editorial contact information.
You may sometimes find only one main editorial email address. Such a generic address is likely to be read only by a junior staffer. In that case, you're best off asking that your email be forwarded to the journalist you're trying to reach. If you simply email a full press release to such a generic address, your chances of it reaching the appropriate person are slim.
If you can't find a contact's email address through other means, try a name search directory on the Web, such as Four11 or WhoWhere. These services contain the email addresses only of those who have volunteered to be listed, but lots of Web-savvy journalists have done so.
Did the New York Times' technology reporter Peter Lewis list his email address with the Four11 directory?
Of course he did.
If all else fails, here's a novel idea: call the journalist on the telephone. Use a phone book if necessary, and simply ask to speak with the journalist. When you get her on the line, use the same frank approach, explaining that you want to verify that she's the right reporter to follow your company. And could she please tell you her email address for future reference?
If the front switchboard can't connect you because the writer is a freelancer, or for some other reason, ask to be transferred to the managing editor. Explain briefly why you're trying to contact the writer. If the editor won't give out the writer's personal email address, ask if you can have him forward a message to the writer. The editor will almost certainly oblige.
It's not in journalists' best interest to make themselves hard to reach. They depend on information, and if you're offering information that's useful to them, they and their editors will open the channels to receive it.
Although email is in most cases the best way to make initial contact with journalists, especially those writing for Web publications, judicious use of the telephone is still an important tool for a publicist even in the digital age.
Here's the golden rule for calling journalists: Begin every call by saying, "Hi, [whoever], am I catching you at a bad time?"
You have immediately made clear to the journalist that you respect her time. If she answers "Yes," follow through on that respect and say, "Can I call back tomorrow?" Quickly agree on a time and hang up. Don't try to squeeze in a fast pitch, unless she explicitly invites you to do so, or you will have blown that trust. Save it for the agreed-upon time. If the journalist really is on deadline, you're too late to pitch to her for the next edition anyway.
If you get a journalist's voice mail, leave a message only once. If it's really urgent, leave that one message and then play "Dialing for Dollars." Call and call and call until you actually catch her in, and then act casually like it's the first time you picked up the phone since leaving your message. (Pretend you're back in college, trying to get a date.)
Once your A-list journalists know your name, and aren't cursing it, it's important not to be a stranger if you want to be a good source. Don't wait until you have a press release to check in. Touch base once a month or so.
Whoever said "There's no such thing as a free lunch" definitely wasn't a journalist. Forget about sending trinkets along with press releases. No reporter every wrote a story because of a refrigerator magnet. If you really want to bond, get some face time.
If you're in separate cities, find out when (if ever) your A-list reporters are likely to be in town and recommend a get-together. Likewise, plan time to see them when you're in their neighborhood, and keep track of which conferences you're both attending. Although the top reporters at Business Week and The New York Times may be above the flattery of a classy meal, most hacks are not.
Another way to ingratiate yourself to your A-list press is to feed them hot industry tips. Dirt on a competitor is always a favorite. Don't cry wolf with any old grime. But when you know without a doubt that the CEO of a rival company is on the way out, for example, that's something your best reporter contact would like to have a scoop on. A scoop means an exclusive, of course, so don't mitigate your impact by shopping the same hot tip around to every reporter on your list.
Whenever you have a chance to speak with a journalist, ask what else she's working on to see if you can fit something into a story underway for next week or next month.
Although hearing from a reporter firsthand what stories she's working on is the best way to keep abreast of her activities, many publications also maintain "editorial calendars," which they make available publicly. By perusing the feature stories the publication has committed to covering, you may find some topics that fit well with your company. Some publications post their editorial calendars on their Web pages, while others will fax them to you upon request (ask the editorial assistant to do so, not your key reporter).
Computerworld posts its editorial calendar on its Web page.
Although such calendars are often useful, they're not 100% reliable. They're usually designed months ahead of time to give advertisers notice of special editions. Often the editors are only dimly aware of the calendar commitments, and it might be challenging to figure out who's in charge of preparing a special feature. Such articles are usually prepared well in advance of the publication's normal deadlines, so concentrate on the opportunities several weeks or months in the future.
Having sufficiently emphasized some avenues for getting recognized in the press, we can now discuss how effectively to use that old PR staple, the news announcement (aka, press release). The point is to avoid overly relying on press releases to get your company exposure in the media. Nonetheless, a well-written, properly disseminated release announcing significant industry news can certainly build awareness.
The most important factor in a successful news announcement is to allow enough time to prepare properly. Calling a journalist after you've issued a press release to make sure she got it is not only the number one pet peeve of most reporters, but it's also too late to have much effect. If the publication has a strong news agenda, the chances of a reporter caring about a press release after it has been publicly issued are slim at best. This is especially true of weekly publications.
Consider it from their point of view. You release your announcement on PR Newswire or Businesswire (see the section "Disseminating Your Press Release" later in the chapter for more on these services), to which thousands of news organizations across the country subscribe. Then you send it by email specifically to the publication you'd most like to see print it. Reuters, Associated Press, and various news Web sites may indeed pick up the release off the wire, if it has genuine news value, and rewrite a story that same day. That means if a daily print newspaper picks up on it, they're already a day behind Reuters, AP, and the news sites. By the time a weekly publication has a chance to print it, the news is already a week old. Don't think that a weekly magazine doesn't view a daily newspaper as competition. They certainly do. And a newspaper feels the same way about a news Web site that can turn a story around in hours instead of a day.
By definition, it's only news while it's new.
The point is, you have to let everyone know to expect the release ahead of time. For weekly publications, this means you have to pre-brief the journalists around a week in advance. For dailies (including Web news sites), it's a day in advance. For monthlies, you might as well forget about briefing them on news. Few monthlies even attempt to cover news because they typically finish their editorial production of an issue anywhere from two to five months in advance of publication. Unless you're extremely well-organized and can brief them that far in advance, just send them the release when it's public and concentrate on getting feature and profile coverage from them, instead.
No weekly publication wants to cover next week what News.com just ran online today.
"But if I brief them in advance," you ask, "couldn't they go ahead and publish the news before we've put out our press release?" If what you're really interested in is publicity, that's the least of your worries. The straight answer, though, is yes they could, but they probably won't.
Every journalist is familiar with the concept of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), or embargo. This essentially means that the journalist promises not to release the information until an agreed-upon date, namely when your press release officially goes out on Businesswire or PR Newswire. Although we mentioned earlier that speaking off the record is subjective, most journalists are pretty clear about whether or not they'll honor an NDA. Generally, it's not necessary to have them sign an agreement to that effect, but most would be willing to sign one if you're really paranoid about it.
There are some publications and journalists that refuse to agree to NDAs as a matter of principle, but they're the minority. As long as you don't start giving them the news before you've agreed on an NDA, this shouldn't be a problem. They'll tell you up-front that they don't agree to NDAs, and you can decide at that point to pre-brief them or not accordingly.
Be prepared to share a draft copy of your press release with your A-level journalists when you pre-brief them. Even if the release hasn't completed its rounds of official approvals yet, the journalists will expect to use it as a reference. Clearly label the release as a draft that's subject to non-disclosure. The whole point of a non-disclosure agreement, however, is that it's an agreement. Simply writing "NDA" at the top of a draft release and sending it to a journalist who's not expecting it is not an agreement. They now have the news without having made a promise to honor your embargo deadline.
Although pre-briefing the press is a time-honored tradition among publicists, the Internet has complicated that process. In the pre-Web era, there wasn't much a weekly publication could do to scoop your story even if they wanted to, as long as you timed your briefing a week before your announcement date. Now, however, most publications are putting daily news on their Web sites in addition to their weekly print editions and are eager, therefore, for daily scoops.
In most cases, the risk is manageable. Mostly it comes down to being clear with the journalist that your NDA includes the Web site. If a journalist regularly goes around burning her sources, she'll soon have no leads for news, so you can usually count on her word on NDAs. In some cases, however, the journalist may not have ultimate control over that process. A different team of editors may produce the Web site and sneak peaks at the material in the production cycle for the weekly print edition. Ask your journalist contact ahead of time if that's likely to be the case.
Advertising Age prides itself on always respecting non-disclosure agreements, relying on companies to give it a heads-up on important announcements.
For some companies the risk of an early news break is too great, so they never pre-brief reporters. This is frequently the case with companies whose stock is publicly traded because they don't want to be accused of not sharing information equally with all investors. This is a viable position for companies prominent in their industries, such as Microsoft or Netscape. Journalists have no choice but to react to these companies' announcements, regardless of whether they were pre-briefed. For most smaller companies out there, however, this isn't a luxury they can afford.
If your A-list includes weekly magazines, officially release your announcements on Mondays. Most weeklies begin their reporting cycle on Fridays and continue collecting news on Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesdays and Thursdays are the deadline crunch and are the worst days to try to call them. By Friday the cycle starts over, with each edition hitting the streets on Monday. Some magazines come out on other days, such as Business Week, which is on newsstands by Friday (despite an official Monday cover date), but those are the exceptions.
When you make initial contact with your A-list reporters, ask them to clarify their deadline schedule and find out the best time to brief them. Again, you'll gain points for expressing consideration for their hectic jobs.
The biggest challenge for most PR people is understanding what reporters consider genuinely newsworthy and what they consider fluff. This is generally due to a lack of perspective. Being as close as they are to their firms' daily struggles, many marketing directors, product mangers, and CEOs think the whole world ought to care as much as they do about their company's every success. Save the self-congratulations for the weekly staff meeting. The press will see you as crying wolf if you issue fluff press releases too often.
All journalists are guided by what is called the "hype detector." With so many mediocre publicists trying to snow the press every day, this is a necessary defense mechanism. When you're evaluating whether or not to issue a release, give it a thorough testing with your own hype-o-meter first.
The following are some common topics that companies think the press should care about, and are then disappointed when they don't.
This one is a matter of spin. Of course, the launch of a new online service should be a significant news event for most companies. The point is that the novelty of simply launching a Web site hasn't been newsworthy in and of itself since early 1995.
"I tell my clients not to even use the phrase `Web site' anywhere in their press releases," says Marissa Verson Harrison, a principal at San Francisco-based InterActive Public Relations. "If you open a retail business, it's not news that you have a storefront. It's news that you have a business."
The customer benefit behind the HTML interface needs to be the compelling news story. Find a way to demonstrate that your venture satisfies an important market need, with the Web simply being the most efficient way to deliver it.
How compelling do you really find the words "new and improved" on a box of detergent or cereal? It's no more convincing as a news message than as an advertising pitch. Significant changes to your venture's business model might make interesting news, but cosmetic changes to your site design aren't even worth a media alert.
Similarly, if you're a software company, don't count on the general media getting excited about your upgrade from a 2.0 product to version 3.0. The computer press might take notice of this, but if your customers are in a non-technical industry segment, the publications that serve them aren't likely to care about the bells and whistles. Extolling theoretical benefits doesn't cut it. The press wants installed users who can talk about results, and not just about a few weeks of limited beta testing.
A new CEO is news, but may be a signal that there was something wrong with the old one. It might not be the best news to crow about without a well-considered spin. Unless they're major industry celebrities, your vice presidents, directors, financial officers, and the rest probably don't merit more than a brief in the local daily paper. Some publications do have a "Movers and Shakers" column that you can target, but your A-list reporters will probably value new-hire releases only as background.
In a capitalist society, companies are in business to win customers. Failing to win customers and going out of business is news. Winning customers is business as usual, not news. Unless the likes of Intel, General Motors, or the White House have standardized on your product, issuing a press release about a "customer win" is unlikely to spark the press's imagination.
A good news story needs a hook. It should contain some sense of drama, importance, or righteousness. It may appeal to human interest, local pride, or fascination with celebrity. Or it could click due to humor, surprise, or irony.
The following are some possible news hooks for Web ventures.
Stage an online event, or introduce a feature on your Web site focusing on something that's already prominent in the news or is destined to become so. For example, you could hold a forum on an important trial, congressional controversy, or foreign event. Or target an upcoming event, such as a holiday, an election, or Black History Month.
Find a topic related to your site's main theme, conduct a survey, and issue a report on the findings. Being the first to report which percentage of women executives are shopping online, for example, will certainly get you immediate press exposure. Plus your findings are likely to be cited repeatedly over time, and many other sites may link to your survey from their pages. Continue to update the research monthly, quarterly, or annually, and your report could become a perpetual source of exposure for your site. Paying an outside consulting group to actually conduct the research would be money well spent, considering its genuine publicity value.
It's a sad comment on our society, but almost anything to do with a well-known personality is newsworthy enough to guarantee you some press. Find some way to incorporate a big name into an event on your site, and it's worth a press release.
Unlike winning a customer, partnering with another company can be newsworthy if the union brings a new level of value to your mutual customers or puts you in a stronger competitive position against industry rivals.
HotWired's ad survey, which came to the not-so-surprising conclusion that advertising on its network is effective, is still cited as proof of online advertising's effectiveness more than a year later.
The press loves nothing more than controversy. If everyone in the industry is jumping on the same bandwagon, be the first to charge loudly in the opposite direction. The half-life of an online fad is normally a matter of weeks, so editors will tire of the latest overhyped trend quickly and be eager to give voice to someone who disagrees. Just be sure you can stand by your convictions, and don't set a corporate strategy based on a publicity opportunity that later turns out to go against the company's best interest.
Don't overdo this idea, but large round numbers are cause for attention. Celebrate your millionth customer, a million page views a month, $10 million in revenue a year, and so on.
Rise above being a mere player and become a judge of industry excellence.
Tenagra, an online marketing company, appointed itself the expert on who else deserves recognition.
Join a just cause, such as fighting a disease or raising money for a charity. Team up with organizations such as a mayor's office, a university, or, especially, other media outlets such as a newspaper or TV station, to champion a heart-warming cause. Your contribution could be no more than online promotion, but the event could provide you with substantial goodwill exposure.
Is there a legislative debate affecting your industry? Boldly declare a position. Become a leading proponent of one side.
Does your industry need to agree on common standards, or lack a body to represent its interests? Don't let someone else steal the thunder. Act first to get the ball rolling. If the association already exists, run for its top office. Show leadership.
The three most important guidelines for writing an effective press release are:
As any journalist can tell you, only one in 10 press releases actually manages to obey these three important rules. "Short" means a maximum of two double-spaced pages, including the "About Our Company" boilerplate. For an emailed press release, it means no more than one-and-a-half screens of text. That's about six or seven paragraphs, or 400-500 words.
If you can't say it in that few words, you're not being clear about what you're trying to say. Imagine the journalist who only has room to report the announcement in a two-sentence brief. Is it possible to reduce your news to two sentences, or would you rather not have a newsbrief at all?
If the announcement involves complexities that you feel need a detailed explanation, relegate it to a white paper or other supplemental material. Focus on the customer benefit in the news announcement.
There's no question that writing so concisely is difficult. Henry David Thoreau said in a letter to a friend, "Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short." All the more reason not to rush the press release process.
Consider that each journalist reading your release probably receives more than 100 email messages a day, the majority of which are other press releases. Every extra paragraph begs her to skip to the next email. If the release is short but compelling, she will call you with further questions as necessary.
"Robust," "scaleable," "next-generation," "industrial-strength," blah, blah, blah. These sorts of terms are the bane of the high-tech industry. Jargon just makes your announcement sound unoriginal. Decide what you really mean to say and say it.
Similarly, resist hyperbole and superlatives, such as "the first," "the leading," or "revolutionary." Even if they're true, they sound insincere and invite challenge. And don't promise emotions, such as "exciting," "wonderful," or "incredible." Let the press, and ultimately your customers, be the judge of their reactions. Just the facts, ma'am.
This company has a broad vision indeed. What the heck does the software actually do, do you suppose?
In general, press releases follow a predictable formula. Unlike poets, publicists don't get much creative license. It may seem stifling, but if you want to create art, you're in the wrong profession. If you get too clever with anecdotal, feature-like ledes, journalists may become confused and move on to the next release on the pile. Rules are made to be broken, of course, and we don't want to inhibit the next William Faulkner of PR, but venture forth so advised.
The goal of a release is to communicate the news clearly and directly enough that the journalist can rewrite a short item based entirely on it. Or at least pique his interest enough to call. Leave the details to interviews, white papers, corporate backgrounders, and other follow-up material.
In the headline, state the news in as few words as possible, focusing on the customer benefit. Be straightforward, and leave the clever puns to the editors. Follow the Associated Press style rules on grammar, tense, and so on.
A sub-headline is optional. If you opt for one, use it to express a secondary message, not simply to reiterate the same point as the main headline.
Don't forget to date the release. A reporter may reference it months from now to note when a certain company event occurred. The tradition of printing "For Immediate Release" at the top of a press release, on the other hand, is fairly redundant and can be ignored. Obviously it's for immediate release once it's made public.
A dateline--that is, the location from which the news was filed--indicates where the company is headquartered, although that same information should be contained at the bottom of the release in the contact information. Often, if a release is issued in conjunction with a conference, the dateline will reflect that location.
(Issuing press releases at industry conferences, however, is rarely a good idea. Many other companies will do the same, and therefore most announcements are lost in the noise. Better to jump the gun and make announcements the week prior to a conference, so the story appears in the publications while all of your competitors are gathered at the event.)
After the headline, the lede is the most important part of the release, perhaps the only paragraph the journalist will bother to read fully. Imitate news style. Be direct, immediately stating the news while emphasizing the customer benefit. Cover the news basics: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Quotes from the company's president, customers, or industry analysts are optional. Make quotes advance the story, not just reiterate what's already been said. Use them to express opinions. Avoid clichés and hollow claims such as, "Our service is a breakthrough that will revolutionize the industry."
Note
"Lede," by the way, is a peculiar spelling of the word "lead" that's traditionally favored by journalists in this context. The origin, like other strange journalistic spellings such as "graf," "hed," and "folo" (for "follow-up), come from shorthand instructions to typesetters that were intentionally misspelled so they wouldn't accidentally get set into print.
It's standard for a release to contain a brief description of the company and its positioning. This text remains the same for all the company's press releases. Keep it to one or two sentences.
If applicable, the last section of a release before the contact information should note the price and availability of the product or service. Don't avoid the question of price; journalists will want to know this and won't appreciate having to call just to find out.
Be sure to include contact information at the very bottom of the release. This should include the company's full address and URL, as well as a publicity contact. Include both email address and telephone number for the publicist. You may choose to include a sales department contact as well as a publicist, given that press releases that are broadly issued are likely to end up directly on the screens of potential customers via Web news sites.
Be sure to number each page on printed copies of the release, and print "- more -" at the bottom of each page. Remove these page markers when formatting the release for email, however.
If you're positively unable to limit the release to two pages, use an abstract at the top of the release. When alerting journalists by email, send only the abstract, with a URL where they can find the complete release if they desire.
When your company feels compelled to make some official announcement for the record, yet you believe it doesn't merit serious news coverage (such as a staff appointment), consider issuing a "media alert." This is a very short item of one to two paragraphs, sent out over PR Newswire or Businesswire, that you don't pitch to any individual press.
Here's a sample of an effective press release. The subject is genuinely newsworthy. The body of the release is under 500 words. The quotes advance the story and contain the only opinions in the release. The writing style is direct, newsy, and avoids hyperbole and jargon.
NOTE:This press release is only a model. While it purports to announce the launch of this book, it was obviously written before the book's actual availability. If USWeb and I do, in fact, issue a press release along these lines, it may read somewhat differently.
New Book, "Net Results," Blends Strategies with Tactics for Internet Sales and Promotion.
Experts USWeb and Rick E. Bruner Write Definitive Web Marketing Text for Hayden Books.
Sausilito, CA, March 17, 1998--The Audience Development Group of Internet services giant USWeb Corporation (Nasdaq: USWB) and Internet strategist Rick E. Bruner announcedtheir new book today, "Net Results: Web Marketing That Works," published by Hayden Books.The nine-chapter guide brings together high-level marketing strategies with hands-on tactical methods. It aims to help companies improve sales through intense Web exposure to key audiences. The book goes behind the scenes with leading Net marketers to discuss successes and challenges in online marketing. It includes in-depth case studies with USWeb clients Macromedia, Women's Wire, and Netiva, as well as conversations with Amazon.com, Fingerhut Industries, Lipton, The Internet Shopping Network, Yahoo!, Federal Express, Excite, Tower Records, and many others.
Part I, "Get the Site Right: Web Marketing Fundamentals," focuses on strategic corporate goals, user benefits, and bottom-line return on investment on the Web. It offers important advice on design and choosing an effective domain name. Part II, "Audience Development," delves into the practical details of online promotion. It describes secrets for optimizing search engine results and tells how to leverage newsgroups and other forums without offending Internet norms. It recounts great contests, live events, and other promotions that leading online marketers have used to build site traffic. It also details how to survive in the fast-changing worlds of media relations and advertising in the cyber-age.
"Too many companies arrive to the Web with a `Field of Dreams' mentality: `Build it and they will come,'" said Bob Heyman, partner in charge of audience development at USWeb. "Then they're discouraged when visitors don't magically flock to their sites, and they think the Web is over-hyped. Our clients and many others, meanwhile, are benefiting hugely from the Web because they set realistic goals and strategies for getting there. That's what we hope this book communicates to readers, because the Web has a lot to offer marketers who get it right."
Hayden Books
Hayden Books is an imprint of Macmillan Computer Publishing (MCP), a unit of Macmillan Publishing, the world's largest reference book publisher. Macmillan Publishing is a division of Simon & Schuster. Find more information about MCP and its books at its Web site: http://www.mcp.com/.
Rick E. Bruner
Rick E. Bruner has an extensive background in journalism, publishing, and publicity. He is president of Bruner Communications, a strategic Web marketing consultancy, and writes regularly about the Internet for Advertising Age magazine and other media. Find more information about Bruner Communications at its Web site: http://www.bruner.net/.
USWeb Corporation and its Audience Development Group
USWeb Corporation is a leading, strategic Internet services firm helping clients nationwide develop Internet strategies and improve business processes by using Internet-based technologies. The Audience Development Group specializes in audience creation, cutting-edge research, and media placement to help clients raise Web site traffic, increase brand awareness online, and maximize their return on investment online. Find more information about USWeb and the Audience Development Group at the corporate Web site: http://www.usweb.com/.
Product InformationNet Results: Web Marketing That Works By USWeb and Rick E. Bruner Price: $29.99 ISBN: 1-56830-414-5
Sales Information Hayden Books 201 West 103rd Street Indianapolis, IN 46290-1097 1-800-428-5331
Press Information
Priti Choksi USWeb Audience Development Group (415) 339-1067 pchoksi@marin.usweb.com
Now that you've created a newsworthy event, written a short and to- the-point press release about it, and rigorously checked it for spelling, grammar, and writing style, you need to get it into the hands of some journalists.
When publicists speak of dropping a press release on the wire, they generally mean issuing it via PR Newswire and Businesswire, two subscription-based announcement services that have dominated the industry of disseminating press releases for decades. Issuing a press release on one of these two services is synonymous with making your announcement public. The average fee for a basic wire announcement is around $500, de-pending on the length of the release and the breadth of the distribution.
PR Newswire is one of the two leading press announcement services, with thousands of media outlets worldwide subscribing to its feed of press releases.
These services provide at least two important benefits. First of all, thousands of news media outlets around the country and the world subscribe to them, and many editors scan them attentively according to their various topics of interest. News services such as Reuters and the Associated Press routinely rewrite press releases with no further research and forward them to thousands more outlets. You're unlikely to find any other way to reach as many media outlets as quickly and efficiently.
Second, in the Internet age, releases from these wires are reissued directly for public consumption by many Web sites and other online services. Whereas it used to be that only editors were likely to read press releases and decide whether or not to rewrite them for their readers, the Internet has cut out the middleman. Putting a release on the wire has effectively become a direct publishing channel between companies and potential customers. Such online services also extend the life of a press release indefinitely through searchable databases.
Free online news services such as NewsPage present " stories" straight from Businesswire and PR Newswire to Internet
readers at large.
Another class of press release distribution services has emerged recently that automates the distribution of releases directly to editors' email addresses. The benefit of such a service is marginal, at best. For one thing, PR Newswire and Businesswire offer the same added service. They will customize distribution lists for individual clients, or use their in-house lists that are specially tailored for narrow industry topics, for the same prices as the new breed of specialized Internet news wires. The new services don't offer the traditional wires' breadth of distribution, however.
More to the point, mass distribution of press releases to individual editors is far less effective than sending personalized messages yourself.
As discussed earlier, you should alert your key press contacts from your A- and B-lists before the actual release date of your announcement. You can send C-level contacts the release the same day it goes out over the wire.
In all cases, it's highly preferable to send the release to each journalist individually rather than placing all their names in the blind copy field. This conveys much more respect, indicating you recognize them as individual writers rather than a commodity. Write a sentence or two of introduction to the release, personalizing the message.
Of course, you can cut and paste the release and the introduction into individual messages, typing in just the name of the journalist separately and making minor modifications to each introductory note as required.
Be sure to get the journalist's name right. It's an axiom of journalism that if you can't get the names right, no one can trust the rest of the facts in the story. Don't assume a familiar name for the writer (such as "Kathy" for "Katherine") unless it's clear that's how she's known publicly. By default, use the same name the journalist does in her byline.
Any standard email program will allow you to keep an address book of contact addresses so that you don't need to retype the email addresses every time you send out a press release. The process of cutting and pasting and customizing each message will obviously take longer than copying a mass of addresses at once, but the extra half hour or so is time well spent. A good email program, such as Qualcomm's Eudora, makes creating form letters even easier with a "stationary" function (consult your software's Help or manual to see if it provides a similar feature).
If you insist on copying multiple journalists with the same message, never add a mass of names to the To: or CC: fields. The result is a long, extremely tacky list of names dominating the first screen or more of the message. Instead, place all the addresses in the BCC: field (short for "blind carbon copy," from the days of typewriters and carbon paper). Address the message to yourself or, in the case of Eudora, leave the To: field blank so the resulting message will automatically display "Recipient List Repressed" in the To: field.
Most journalists these days prefer to receive press releases via email, but you should try to determine individual preferences ahead of time. Some traditionalists would still rather receive them by fax or snail mail and may react unkindly to email submissions.
When sending a release by email, never send it as a binary attachment. Always cut and paste the text of the release into the body of the email message. Unsolicited email attachments are an online no-no. Attached files can contain viruses (Microsoft Word files are notorious for them), they frequently get garbled or deleted by corporate email gateways, they take a long time to download (the writer may be checking email on her laptop via a long-distance phone connection), and so on.
When copying text from a press release into an email message, make sure the message is neatly formatted. The most important consideration is to put a hard return at the end of each line, creating relatively wide margins. Between 60 and 65 characters per line (including spaces) is ideal. More than that and your recipients' email software may cut off the ends of each line and leave just a few words dangling at the beginning of the next line. Use fewer characters than 60 and the release starts to look like a column of newsprint.
Macintosh users have a rare occasion to gloat that a terrific application exists for their platform that makes text formatting a breeze, with no equivalent for Windows. Namely, it's Bare Bones Software's superb program, BBEdit.
In addition to line-wrapping, be sure to put a blank line between each paragraph to make the ASCII text much easier to read.
Ouch! What an eyesore. Most messages formatted like this get quickly deleted.
It's also important to eliminate all non-ASCII-standard characters, such as bullets, trademark symbols (replace with just "tm" in parentheses), em dashes (use two hyphens), and especially so-called "smart quotes," which are in reality dumb quotes. These insidious characters, which curl to the right at the beginning of a quote and to the left at the end, are supposed to be a clever enhancement to text. In the ASCII-based world of the Internet, however, smart quotes and all other non-ASCII-standard characters turn into accented "i"s, square blocks, or strings of gobbledygook.
Figuring out how to turn off smart quotes on your word processor can be a challenge. Consult your program's manual or online Help. On Microsoft Word 6.0, smart quotes can be found under the Tools menu, Option/AutoFormat.
With every announcement you send out, you want to have an up-to-date press kit available for those journalists who request it. Don't send press kits unsolicited because reporters who didn't ask for them are liable to throw them away. A professionally packaged press kit isn't cheap to assemble, so save yourself the expense and send them only when re- quested.
The dialog box where the smart quotes control is hidden in Micro-soft Word 6.0: Tools/Options/AutoFormat. Die, dumb quotes, die, die, die!!
In addition to a physical press kit, every Web site should have a virtual press kit as well. This includes more than just recent press releases, which is all most sites seem to bother with, but also most of the items noted below. This is a cost-effective alternative for smaller businesses for whom the production of professional physical press kits might be a prohibitive expense.
The corporate fact sheet is the chance to expand upon the standard boilerplate at the end of most press releases. It's a one-page summary of key company information for quick reference:
Marimba, Inc.'s Web site provides a good example of what should be contained in an online press kit.
Some companies also include in their press kits a several-page "corporate background" document, with more narrative extolling the company's vision and positioning. This is generally less useful to journalists. If you choose to include one, include a simple fact sheet as well.
Executive biographies should be limited to the top members of the executive team, the only people the press are likely to interview. Keep them as short as possible, one paragraph for each person if you can. More than one biography on a page is fine. Include hobbies as well to round out the character of the individuals.
Press kits typically include one or two recent press releases in addition to the current one being pitched. If the company has produced several press releases in recent months, it's useful to include a digest of one or two pages with a paragraph abstract for each press release. Refer to a URL where full copies of the releases are located.
Graphic images are extremely important in increasing the attractiveness of any story and can easily make the difference between a story being printed or not. They can include screenshots of your site or products, as well as portraits of executives. Try to avoid overly corporate headshots of executives. Opt instead for more relaxed images.
Be sure to make the images available on the press area of your Web site in several digital image formats, including GIF and TIFF. In addition, be prepared to accommodate technophobic reporters by mailing the images on a disk, as well as making them available on an FTP server for the technophiles. Some editors prefer printed copies or slides of images.
As necessary, you may want to go into further detail about products and services in separate documents.
You may want to provide customer and analyst quotes and contact information (with their permission, of course). Most journalists will prefer the contact information to the canned quotes. Be prepared to surrender control of these interviews because a journalist will not be comfortable interviewing a third party with a company publicist monitoring the call.
A Q&A or FAQ document for journalists is only useful if you truly anticipate the hard questions the press might ask or that past reporters have asked. Don't use this document as an opportunity to spoon-feed them marketing fluff. Keep in mind the BS-o-meter. Rather, use it as a chance to prepare the best spin for the difficult questions.
A reprinted news story as part of a press kit can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, a journalist might find a third-party report to be a more objective explanation of a company's positioning than the company's own marketing and PR material. On the other hand, the reporter may be turned off to see that the company has already been well-covered by her competition. Use no more than two or three of the best stories, if any.
Beyond print and the Web, there are still other ways to get the word out about your business and your site. Consider some of the following ideas.
Get your CEO or other top executives on the speaking circuit. Although maybe only a few hundred people will hear them speak on a given day, the caliber of audience you reach through public speaking is valuable in influencing the rest of your industry. The "trickle-down effect" may be dubious in economics, but it's certainly real in the world of publicity.
Christie Dames, director of the Speakers Bureau at Niehaus Ryan Group Public Relations, offers this advice to would-be speakers:
"Whatever you do, don't sell your company from the platform. The most important thing is to educate the audience. You might never even mention your company in your speech, but the next time anyone there thinks about the subject you spoke on, you and your company will come immediately to mind. If you try to sell yourself from the stage, they'll never ask you back again."
Keeping track of upcoming speaking opportunities can be difficult in this fast-paced industry. One of the better online resources is the Association for Interactive Media's Web site (see the "Resources" section at the end of this chapter for details). Speaking opportunities normally get booked months in advance, so look ahead.
The Association for Interactive Media has a comprehensive directory of high-tech conferences year-round.
Ms. Dames urges clients to stick to the requirements of the conference applications. "If it says to provide a 50-word description of your speech, stick to 50 words. Write 51, and that might make the difference of not getting it."
In your application, target industry trends for discussion. Downplay any mention of your own company in the abstract.
Newspapers, magazines, and Web publications are often eager to receive opinion pieces for their editorial pages. Have your CEO write such a piece (or commission a freelancer to ghostwrite it for you), again discussing an industry trend without putting your company in the middle of the discussion. Having your company name and URL printed at the bottom of the piece is effective enough. Many of those who are inspired by your opinions will check out your site on their own.
Similarly, writing letters to the editor is another option for publications that are more competitive in their opinion pages, such as the New York Times.
From a PR perspective, the larger Web publications are generally not much different from traditional media, other than their immediate turnaround time is closer to radio, TV, news wires (like Reuters), or even newspapers, which require a day to turn news around.
Smaller Web publications, sometimes called `zines, as well as email newsletters, are often more malleable, however. Although many offer reasonably high quality information, particularly in narrow niches, they are almost all run on shoestring budgets. As a result, they may welcome your CEO becoming a regular columnist (pro bono, of course).
If a regular column is too much work, consider tailoring your news releases to read like actual stories. Doug Moody, an account executive in USWeb's Audience Development Group, explains:
"We've found that if we take the time to rewrite press releases to make them read more like news stories, and we send them to the editors of smaller sites or newsletters, they will frequently reprint them verbatim. Even though they know we are working as publicists, if the news is good and the writing sounds reasonably objectives, it's too convenient for them to pass up," Mr. Moody said.
If you call in to a talk radio program, the host will generally let you tell the audience your URL if your comments are on-topic.
If you have the budget for it, video news releases (VNRs) and B-rolls are a great way to get coverage on television. A video production company will charge in the neighborhood of $10,000 to prepare a mock TV news story about your company's latest announcement, which you can submit to TV stations. Some smaller stations are likely to broadcast the VNR in its entirety if it has been professionally produced.
Either as a separate undertaking or as part of the process of making the VNR, you can produce B-roll. This is background footage of your company, showing employees at work, your executives answering general interview-style questions, a computer screen with someone navigating your site, and so forth. You can continue to submit B-roll material to TV stations long after any specific announcement, which the station's news team may edit together to make their own story. Most of the images could be used as background for the news reporter's original voice-over.
Small TV stations with limited resources for sending out their own crews are especially receptive to this technique, and are quite likely to follow through on a story once you've made it this easy for them.
One of the two leading services for disseminating press releases worldwide. The Web site explains the company's services in detail and contains links to several valuable PR resources.
Ditto.
An excellent newsletter produced by Ragan Communications. The corporate Web site has subscription information (including a free trial offer), as well as many good links and resources for publicists.
Another very good newsletter. Published on a small scale by Info Scavenger Communications, it meets a high standard of general online marketing advice. The Web site has a wealth of information for online marketing.
Formerly the Interactive Television Association, this organization offers a wide range of marketing and promotional services to members from all sectors of the Internet community. Their Web site's events listings, available for free, is one of the best calendar of industry conferences and events we've seen.
Available at any good bookstore, this is the bible of journalistic style and should be used for press releases as well.
By William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White
Every writer should own a copy and reread it annually. Also available in part on the Web at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/.
By William Zinsser
A better-than-average guide to good writing.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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