Public Relations for Business 3
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There's nothing particularly newsworthy about what I do. Should I just forget about getting publicity?
Not necessarily. If there is nothing truly new or newsworthy about your product, consider making news happen. One or several of these "gimmicks" might work well for your business:
- Conduct a survey about something related to your product or service. Send out a release announcing the survey and a second one announcing the results.
- Hold a contest. Send a press release out to announce the contest and another to announce the winners.
- Write a booklet about something related to your business and give it away free. Send a press release out to announce the free booklet.
- Conduct a free seminar or training class related to what you do. Send out a release to announce the seminar.
- Donate your product or service to a nonprofit organization that can use it. Have the nonprofit organization send out the press release. (They may have more name recognition and clout with the press than you do.)
- Tie your product or service to a trend and publicize the trend, showing how people are jumping on the bandwagon by using what you sell. In addition, local publications or trade publications might also publish an article about you if you are doing something for the first time or have released a brand new product.
How do you write a press release?
Put whatever facts you think will most interest the editor (your hook) in the first sentence of the news release. The rest of the first paragraph should provide a little more detail, appealing directly to the editor's readers.
If the editor gets to the end of the first paragraph and doesn't know why the release is important, your information is not going to get used. Therefore, it is often not a good idea to start out your release with either your name or the name of your company. An opening paragraph like the following one is not going to do much to spark anyone's attention. George Anderson today announced the expansion of Anderson Widgets into the home gadget market. A leading seller of squeak-free garage door mechanisms, Anderson Widgets will begin selling automated stereo controls for home use this fall.
Even if George Anderson or Anderson's Widgets were well-known in the community or industry, the information sounds humdrum and unimportant. Who really cares what Anderson is going to add to his line this fall?
Change that ho-hum first paragraph to one that emphasizes customers' needs, and the release becomes interesting:
Relief is just around the corner for parents who are tired of screaming at their offspring to turn down the stereo volume. Thanks to a new remote control device that can be hooked up to any stereo system, parents soon will be able to turn down the boom-box volume from anywhere in the house.
The new gadget, introduced at a trade show today by Anderson Widgets, will . . . The paragraphs after the lead paragraph should give the editor any other important facts about your news. Be sure they include all the who, what, where, why, when, and how information that a news story normally contains. The release should be brief (about two to three double-spaced typed or typeset pages) but complete enough so the editor could write a paragraph or two without having to call you for additional information. The easier you make the editor's job, the more chance you have of getting publicized.
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