When you should just go out and make a public announcement !

Make that announcement now..

Press release is one of the best marketing tools – because it lets you speak your version of the story, gets across your company’s news updates to your relevant audience (Stakeholders, potential investors and customers) and in the online space, helps you build credible backlinks.

If you search the term Press Release on Google – it throws up thousands of articles and posts which tell you how to write that perfect press release. I am sure on that front you will find a way out there – either yourself or with some hired help.

While most companies use press releases to announce their big moments, very few realize that press releases need not be restricted, to just the big moments but are more effective when used for all the significant moments in a company’s lifespan.

Let me put down some of these obvious and not so obvious moments for your future reference. You can always add to this list depending on the needs of your company.

Since the opportunities of going public with a news update vary in each company – this list cannot and should not be treated as the end of all thought and discussion – but more as the beginning of one…

So here you go – Occasions and reasons for you to go out with a Press release…

1. Launch – Any kind of launch, your company, product, service, new division etc.

2. Client Acquisitions

3. Partnerships

4. Mergers

5. Quarter and Annual results

6. New feature updates

7. New Appointments

8. Awards and accolades for the company and for those in the management team

9. Chartering new markets

10. Diversification

11. CSR initiatives

12. Green initiatives

13. Positive Industry Analyst reviews

14. Change in Location of your head office

15. Event/Webinar announcements – those you organize and those you are participating in

16. Published Reports / Whitepapers

17. Any offline or online conference your are hosting

18. If a company spokesperson is speaking at an event – you can have a post event release – focusing on the main points in his speech (provided they are significant)

19. Comment on a significant Industry development – in support or in opposition

20. Announcing your entry into the social media space – Opening your Company’s Twitter or Facebook account (It’s a great way of telling people where to find you on social mediaphere)

And before I close this post here are some must remember tips -

Tip #1 – If you are holding a press conference or an event – remember to have a pre – event and post-event press release.

Pre- Event press release – Should explain the reason for holding the event – (Launch, Partnership announcement etc.). Names of individuals, who would be addressing the event and their brief introductions, date of the event, details of your company.

Many companies and PR professionals today give pre-event releases a miss – but it is significant because it might give a journalist enough reason to write a heads-up report on the event, also it helps in getting your event listed under the upcoming events section by the various media publications – ensuring better attendance at your event.

Post – Event press release – Should elaborate on the announcement made at the event, significant quotes of those who address the gathering. Since, this is a more thought after release – PR professionals should think through the most significant development at the event which has news significance and build their release around that news peg or angle (use quotes that add to that point).  This will ensure your release has a better rate of coverage.

Tip #2 – We are aware that press releases are your company’s mouth piece – still it is best not to overplay (do not underplay either)  your achievements and appear very promotional when writing them. Those press release which appear balanced in their approach have a better chance of getting carried by the media

Tip # 3 – Remember to post a copy of the releases on your company website and on free Press Release submission sites.

If you can think of any more reasons or occasions for issuing a press release, write in and I will update this list further 

Press release is considered one of the best marketing tools – as it lets you publish your version of the story, gets across your company’s news updates to your relevant audience (Stakeholders, potential investors and customers) and in the online space, helps you build credible backlinks.

If you search the term Press Release on Google – it throws up thousands of articles and posts which tell you how to write that perfect press release. I am sure on that front you will find a way out there – either yourself or with some hired help.

While most companies use press releases to announce their big moments, very few realize that press releases need not be restricted, to just the big moments but are more effective when used for all the significant moments in a company’s lifespan.

Let me put down some of these obvious and not so obvious moments for your future reference. You can always add to this list depending on the needs of your company.

Since the opportunities of going public with a news update vary in each company – this list cannot and should not be treated as the end of all thought and discussion – but more as the beginning of one…

So here you go – Occasions and reasons for you to go out with a Press release…

1. Launch – Any kind of launch, your company, product, service, new division etc.

2. Client Acquisitions

3. Partnerships/tie-ups

4. Mergers

5. Quarterly and Annual results ( if your are profitable its good to let your stakeholders know)

6. New feature updates in your product or service

7. New Appointments at the senior management level

8. Awards and accolades for the company or for those in the management team

9. Launching in new markets

10. Diversification

11. CSR initiatives

12. Green initiatives

13. Positive Industry Analyst reviews

14. Change in Location of your head office /Website address

15. Event/Webinar announcements – those you organize and those you are participating in

16. Published Reports / Whitepapers

17. Any offline or online conference your are hosting

18. If a company spokesperson is speaking at an event – you can have a post event release – focusing on the main points in his speech (provided they are significant)

19. Comment on a significant Industry development – in support or in opposition

20. Announcing your entry into the social media space – Opening your Company’s Twitter or Facebook account (It’s a great way of telling people where to find you on social mediaphere)

And before I end this post here are some must remember tips -

Tip #1 – If you are holding a press conference or an event – remember to have a pre – event and post-event press release.

Pre- Event press release – Should explain the reason for holding the event – (Launch, Partnership announcement etc.). Names of individuals, who would be addressing the event and their brief introductions, date of the event, details of your company.

Many companies and PR professionals today give pre-event releases a miss – but it is significant because it might give a journalist enough reason to write a heads-up report on the event, also it helps in getting your event listed under the upcoming events section by the various media publications – ensuring better attendance at your event.

Post – Event press release – Should elaborate on the announcement made at the event, significant quotes of those who address the gathering. Since, this is a more thought after release – PR professionals should think through the most significant development at the event which has news significance and build their release around that news peg or angle (use quotes that add to that point).  This will ensure your release has a better rate of coverage.

Tip #2 – We are aware that press releases are your company’s mouth piece – still it is best not to overplay (do not underplay either)  your achievements and appear very promotional when writing them. Those press releases which appear balanced in their approach have a better chance of getting carried by the media

Tip # 3 – Remember to post a copy of the releases on your company website and on free Press Release submission sites.

If you can think of any more reasons or occasions for issuing a press release, write in and I will update this list further

Publicizing Truth – Stranger Than Fiction!!!

What I discuss in today’s post may seem insignificant and even repetitive– but it is important. Important because unless we look within and find faults with what we do and how we do, we will never improve. I hope my personal insight helps you find some relevant answers as well……

In the business of perception building – faking is often a given. From revolutionary products that promise to change the world to those who claim to reverse your aging process – we have seen and heard it all.

As consumers, we are wary of such claims but as professionals, we still find it difficult to stay away from making such world changing declarations. 

I guess exaggeration is a given when it comes to marketing, advertising or public relations, but today we all find the distinction between reality and perception getting lost in a web of words and images. 

Have you ever stopped to think, why is it that most PR professionals no matter which stream, nation or community they belong to suffer from this obsessive compulsive disorder? Use of baseless adjectives like – state-of –art, one-of- its- kind, revolutionary, life-changing etc. have become part and parcel of our common vocabulary to describe something as normal and common as a pen drive to a driving car. 

The reason could be many from the clients we work for, to the consumers we cater to or the media web we have created where only the tallest claim manages to draw attention and stand out…..

Whatever the reasons, the need of the hour is to reinvent ourselves into professionals who promote truth, build perceptions that are real and market stuff for what it is really worth. 

It could seem like a tough call, but in truth, it is the best policy to follow in the long run.

To start you can try some of these time tested methods, which might help in changing the way you do Public Relations..

• Be truthful and objective when analyzing your client and his competitors.

 

• Find what’s the unique selling point or the differentiating factor between your client and his competitors and see how best you can use it to market him. It could be anything from his offering, to the quality of his offering, to the market segment he wants to target or his approach. It is for you to find out, and to package it effectively without manipulating.

 

•  Be truthful to your client. He is passionate about his business and can often lose sight of reality, he has hired you to give him your expert advice – so don’t shy away from giving him a reality check and showing him the real value for his product/offering. This also helps in setting the expectations right at the beginning – for both parties.      The client understands his product is not going to replace Google overnight and you will know – it could take a lot more effort to create the buzz  than you were initially made to believe. Trust me, clients value such consultants, because only when you are passionate about something will you fight for its good in the long run.

 

• Be creative. There are many creative ways of saying the same thing without actually faking or promising things that don’t exist or your client’s product cannot deliver.

 

• Be truthful with your analysis and plan. If you know from experience that the client’s offering is not going to get him any regular PR initially – then tell him so – to start with he will have to do some paid PR and focus on other aspects of marketing to get some attention and brand recall, before he can expect some genuine media attention to come his way. It is fine! It does not show less on your capabilities as long as you provide him with good alternatives; in fact, it shows you believe in being honest. Every CEO dreams of giving an interview on BBC or CNN – well the fact is very few make the cut, even if they are backed by the best agency!   We all know marketing is a mix of using paid and non-paid channels – for each the ratio and budget of spends varies depending on what they are trying to market.

 

• Before you go out and talk about your client and his products in the media or to his customers – Study it well. ‘Believe in what you are trying to sell.’ If you don’t believe in the virtues of your client’s offering, there is no way you can convince another person on how great a product it is. In other words, when you are truthful about a product, your passion to drive the product is visible to the world. It is quite similar to what you do when you find this great place downtown – you make sure all your friends check it out too.

The benefits of being truthful in your PR campaigns are many, to start with you will spend less time convincing a journalist or a consumer that your product is really, really revolutionary!!

Journalists, bloggers and consumers all at some point or the other have stated, they are tired of this fad, which fails to die down.

For the change to set in, we as professionals need to realize that we are not miracle makers but mediators of information between a brand and its users. To be true to ourselves, our profession and our clients, all we require is to put forward the truthful information in the best possible manner.

The Beginning………

My journey as a Public Relation professional started some 5 year ago. As a journalist, I had watched and dealt scores of PR professionals from the sidelines, often detesting many for their inability to understand the news business and what works.

Often grateful, I was not in their shoes, sandwiched between the client and the media professionals, promising instant fame to one while begging for some attention and mercy from the other.

Despite my apprehensions about this profession, when I decided to quit journalism, Public Relations seemed like the most logical progression career wise. The moment I started tossing the idea in my mind, I started to observe my future colleagues and counterparts a bit more carefully.

What is that they did – if done differently would appeal to me. 5 + years as a journalist both in the print and television media, helped me  view the PR profession more objectively.

In this post I share with you three common practices associated with the PR industry and my personal findings or myth busters …………

Myth#1 – Most Public Relation professionals and agencies think – ONLY having a good relationship with a journalist will get them a story….

Finding – Media Relationships can help in getting a hearing or on a lucky day help you be a small part of a larger story – if you fall within the circle of a media person’s trusted contacts; but only a good news angle can get you a real PR story in any publication.

Also, if you think you have a great story to tell, don’t stop yourself from approaching the News Editor of a Publication – just because you do not share a rapport with him. He might just remember you for a long time for the wonderful story you gave him.

Relationships with journalists are not built overnight. It is a long drawn process of winning their trust which starts with giving them some good story ideas and leads to work on. Every journalist is on the lookout for a good news story.

The trick for the PR professional lies in answering some critical questions honestly at the onset – What is so newsworthy about your client? Why should he be written about in a publication or share airtime? What is it about your client or his product that will appeal to the masses, to the viewers at large? If you have some convincing answers for these questions then probably you do have something to talk about and should easily be able to convince a journalist to do a story or feature on your client in their publication. If not, then maybe some soul searching is required on how you can create something newsworthy around your client to draw media attention before you decide to go out and pester a journalist for ‘some coverage’.

Myth#2 - Public Relations can turn anyone into a celebrity or a brand overnight……

Finding – Most Companies and Individuals think that PR professionals are magicians or miracle workers who with a swish of their cell phones can turn them into overnight brands or celebrities. Never in the history of this World has a Company or a personality managed to become a brand overnight, just because they hired a PR person or agency.

I do not contest the fact that we have had overnight celebrities. A classic example being Susan Boyle of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ fame, however in her case the PR professionals only came in later to help her manage her instant popularity better.

Hence, it is essential for any PR professional to be realistic in their approach when analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their clients. Sometimes, a little education about the how the PR industry works, what it can and cannot do for a company or individual is essential to set the expectations right at the start and would go a long way in building and nurturing the client relationship.

The secret to success for any publicist lies in patience and meticulous planning for the future. While spreading the word today, is much easier and reach much wider when compared to yester years, public memory span is rapidly shrinking; it is important to be honest and understand that only Companies which offer real value to their users become larger than life brands in the long run.

Myth #3 – The results of Public Relations is directly proportional to the sales generated….

Finding - I don’t mind shouting my guts from the rooftops, if that helps in setting this perception right that the success of Public Relations is directly proportionate to the sales generated.

Somewhere, it is my own colleagues from this field who are to be blamed for letting clients live and harass them with these deliverables.

Often Clients see PR as a lead generation exercise and expect returns in terms of sales. It is a wrong assumption from the start, because Public Relations in its primary role is about building a brand and giving it a character. PR is about building public and investor confidence. It is about supporting the Marketing initiatives of a company. Some returns as a fall out of this brand awareness can be expected, but a PR person however good he is can never guarantee that an article he managed for a client in New York Times will increase the client’s sale by X %.

PR is more about the subtleties of building a brand and should be a definite part of any company’s long term goals. It is a sure shot method of ensuring you always enjoy the goodwill of your investors, consumers and masses in general. Public Relations is about building real brand loyalty over a period of time by informing people how great the company is. It is more about making an emotional impact, so that the consumers identify with a brand and remember what was written about it in a publication long after they read that piece. Public Relations is endorsing a product or services through a credible third party to ensure the consumers place their trust in that brand.

How can you ever measure these things in the sales you garnered the week the article was published. You might see a jump if lucky, but you can never be certain.

Looking within might help, do you go buy the very moment you read about a product in a publication or watch it on television? Or do you store it away in your memory, thinking ‘I will definitely give it a try  sometime since it comes highly recommended from a credible source’.

A publication might have a circulation of one million, but can anyone for sure guarantee that on that particular day how many of that one million readers would read or would have read your article? And how many of these actually decided to try the product or service that very day? If not then how can you measure the effects of a PR activity in numbers? For the results to show, any PR campaign has to be tested for a minimum of 3-4 months. In Public Relations what you do today, may actually reap you benefits months later.

I am sure unless and until we as PR professionals do not stand up and make our clients understand what we can achieve for them, there is no point in blaming them for not being understanding enough.

Moreover, we as publicists try to convince the whole world about how great our clients and their offerings are; And as publicists if we cannot convince those who hire our expertise on what best we can offer, then probably we ain’t good enough!