They see lots of work done in either releasing press releases which do not get read, or expensive advertising, and really wonder whether it is worth the investment.

We think that PR is brilliant, it interacts with thousands of people and lets them know about your products and services, and done properly its FREE!

Companies see their rivals spend Millions on fancy advertising campaigns and wish they could do that, then they come to us and discover that they get the same effective coverage –free of charge.

How do we get such great results with our PR? - Because we know journalists very well, many of them are our friends, and we understand how they think.

They are very busy, focussed people, often desperately trying to meet deadlines by finding a good story. Their problem is they get too much boring detail, resulting in information overload. One major newspaper Journalist we know gets 700 press releases in a day! How do they cope? They bin them! But there is a simple technique to get their attention, we will tell you how.

Important PR Tips

99.999% or more of Press releases get binned, most written by expensive PR Agencies who should know better.

There are a common qualities to those press releases which do result in a story or interview, here are some of them:-

Good Press Releases make it easy for the Journalist receiving them, they stand out because they are interesting, short and simple, to the point, and provide contact details IF the Journalist needs more.

In short the best Press Releases are written from the Journalist’s viewpoint. If you understand that then you are onto a winner. Some PR people we know are in the envious position where Journalists actually look forward to receiving a PR from them! They may even call to ask them if they have anything, all because they know the PR knows what to provide.

So what is the Key? – Understand who the audience is who the journalist is trying to reach. If they are a Homes Style Magazine audience then there is a specific niche of topics which will appeal. Think how your product or service could be of interest.

The reality is journalists do not care at all about your company, products or services, they just need to keep feeding the media machine with an interesting stories. The key issue is whether your Press Release will pass the “so what?” test judged from the perspective of the journalist and their audience.

For instance the headline “company launches new product” OR “XX company hires new Chairman” is a big So What!, and goes in the bin. However if the headline and story could be made interesting then there will be a positive response, i.e. emphasising how the new product will dramatically change the market, or some aspect of the Chairman’s personality which is colourful or different.

Typically a press release must contain 4 elements:-

A bold catchy interest gathering header, which will appeal to a wide audience. Avoiding so what? responses. It needs to stand out from other press releases.

A first paragraph with some basic facts about the products or service offered. Keep it short, a couple of sentences only. The idea is that the journalist can tell at a glance that this is within their domain of interest, rather than fully explain the product.

A second sentence, where you need to be imaginative, take the product or service you are announcing and twist into an interesting application or story, backing up the headline. This is the challenging bit, but also great fun!

And finally, a simple contacts paragraph, so that the journalist knows who to contact if they need more information.

Another approach is to make yourself available to Journalists as a expert on a subject which you can help them on. Timing is important, you need to work ahead and see a major event looming upon which they would be expected to write. For example, you may be a Training Consultant, and be aware that the government is going to introduce some new legislation on Training. Think up some interesting angles, identify the relevant journalists in TV, Radio, newspapers and trade press, and introduce yourself as an expert, and offer to help.

It all boils down to knowing your audience and giving them what they need.