The 'Secret Recipe' for PR Success

by Gail Z. Martin June 19, 2007

Successful public relations (PR) isn't really free. Although businesses don't pay for PR the same way they pay for advertising space, to get results PR requires time, expertise, and effort.
PR success isn't mysterious. It comes down to a mix of old-fashioned research, savvy trend-watching and good people skills. It is the age-old talent of telling a good story. That's really the essential difference between PR and advertising.
Advertising is about selling. PR is about storytelling. People don't like to be sold to; they're suspicious of salesmen. But human beings have been passing along their most precious stories since before recorded history. We hand down our most essential information—about our families, our beliefs and our history—through stories.
Here's the "secret recipe" for telling your business story through public relations.

Start with good research
Do your homework. Before you're ready to pitch, you need to know which media reaches your decision-makers and gatekeepers and whether they prefer online or traditional formats.
To find this out, think about your ultimate consumers' age, education, economic background, ethnicity, professional and social interests, self-image, and worldview. Then find the media outlets that match and deliver an audience similar to your ultimate consumer.
It's also important to know whether your target consumer gets information online or via TV, radio, or newspapers/magazines.

Tell a compelling story
Get to the heart and passion of why your company exists: Did the owner start the company because of a personal connection to the need that the product/service meets? Did the business overcome great adversity to get started or grow? Is there an interesting story about how the product came to be created? Does your company have a mission to change the world? Can you tell a memorable story about how you saved your clients?
Once you identify the Real Story of your business, you have a unique marketing tool no one else can copy.

Match the story to the reporter
Reporters cover certain subjects. They absolutely hate to be bombarded with pitches that have nothing to do with what they or their magazine/newspaper/show cover.
So don't send business news to the lifestyle editor. Don't send lifestyle news to the banking editor. Don't send anything to the editor-in-chief if you can possibly help it. Show them you've done your homework.
And while you're at it—read, watch, or listen to the reporter's column or show before you pitch and make a reference in your pitch to what you've seen/heard.

Follow up persistently
Reporters are busy. Silence is not the same as "no." Silence may mean that the pitch never reached them or that the first copy was discarded. It may mean that they're too busy to get back to you even if they're interested. It may mean that they've been reassigned and someone else is now covering that topic. Maybe the email address didn't work.
I've been told by hosts and reporters that it can take six follow-ups to get a story. Be polite but be persistent. And if the answer is "no," ask why. Was it wrong for them or their paper/show? Off season? Similar to something they've recently done?
You can learn a lot by asking why and listening. (Hint: Never call to follow up late in the afternoon, when reporters are usually on deadline.)

Match your pitch to what's in the news
Has there been a flood? If you sell disaster recovery services for small businesses, pitch stories about clients who have bounced back—with your help—after a flood. Is it spring? Now is a good time to pitch a story about professional organizing services or mobile shredding to help with office "Spring cleaning."
For best results, be at least a month or more in advance of predictable seasons and holidays. For breaking news tie-ins, try to be within 24 hours, or it may be old news. The 24/7 news cycle means there is a lot of time and space to fill—reporters are always looking for hot related items.

Answer, show up, deliver
Woody Allen said, "Half of life is showing up." Showing up is 100% of dealing with the media. Never cancel an interview unless you're in the hospital.
If you're booked to be on radio or TV, get there early. Be ready to deliver a personal, entertaining, reader-valuable, and benefit-rich story. Remember that the media isn't there to give you free publicity. The media exists—and gets to remain in business—only when they entertain and inform their listeners.
If you don't present information that entertains or that can be used immediately by listeners to solve a problem that matters to them, readers or listeners will walk away—and might not come back. Entertain and inform, and you'll be asked to return.

Build relationships
It's not over when the interview ends. Reporters are always looking for good information and good sources. You can become a subject-matter expert by letting reporters know you are available any time they need an expert opinion on your area of specialty.
When you come upon a good story idea, an interesting fact or a connection you can make for the reporter with another person, offer to help. You'll become a reliable source, and see yourself quoted again and again.
Combine the above elements, and let it simmer. You'll see your PR success begin to rise in no time.

Gail Z. Martin owns DreamSpinner Communications (www.DreamSpinnerCommunications.com) and has over 20 years of corporate and nonprofit experience at senior-exec levels. Reach her via "gail at dreamspinnercommunications dot com."

Ten Commandments of a Press Release

by Bill Stoller, PublisherPublicity Insider

In baseball, it's said that you know an umpire is top-notch when you never notice his presence. If he's doing his job, he won't call attention to himself in any way. It's much the same for the writer of a press release. When the recipient of a release focuses only on its content -- and not on its creation -- the writer has succeeded. With that in mind, here's The 10Commandments of Press Releases:

1. Thou Shalt Be Professional. No goofy fonts, rainbow paper or silly gimmicks. Even lighthearted press releases represent a communication between one professional and another.

2. Thou Shalt Not Be Promotional. If you can't get enough objective distance from your company to write a press release that's not filled with hype and puffery, hire someone to write it for you.

3. Thou Shalt Not Be Boring. Even the driest subject matter allows for some sparks of creativity. Journalists like knowing that there's a human being communicating with them, not some corporate robot.

4. Thou Shalt Be Brief. Learn to cut out extraneous words. Keep your sentences short. Include only the points necessary to sell the story. The well-crafted one page press release is a thing of beauty.

5. Thou Shalt Know Thy Recipient. A features or lifestyle editor is a very different creature from a city desk editor. If you're promoting the opening of a new winery, the food and wine editor may be interested in all the details about what kind of aging process and wine press you're using. The city desk editor just wants to know when the grand opening is and what's going to happen there.

6. Thou Shalt Use The Proper Tense. When writing a hard news release -- a contract signing, a stock split, a major announcement, etc.) use the past tense (Acme Industries has changed its name to AcmeCo, the company announced today...) When writing a soft news release -- a trend story, a personal profile,etc. -- use the present tense (Jane Smith is one of the best marathon runners over 40. She's also blind. Thanks to new technology from AcmeCo, Jane is able to...).

7. Thou Shalt Think Visually. A press release is more than words -- it's a visual document that will first be assessed by how it looks.I'm referring to more than font size or letterhead. I'm talking about the actual layout of the words. Whether received by mail, fax or e-mail, a journalist -- often unconsciously -- will make decisions about whether to read the release based on how the release is laid out. Big blocks of text and long paragraphs are daunting and uninviting. Short paragraphs and sentences make for a much more visually inviting look.When writing a non-hard news release, I often use a simple formula -- the lead paragraph should be one or two sentences at most. The next paragraph should be very, very short.Like this.

8. Thou Shalt Tell A Story. How to arrange the facts of a hard news release is pretty much cut and dried. The old "who, what, when, where and how" lead and "inverted pyramid" concepts still hold. (Rather than engage you in a course in basic newswriting, I'll direct you to a really good discussion of what the invertedpyramid is.

Check out:http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=38693. So let's focus on a soft news release.

The trend story, the feel-good company story, the "gee-whiz, I didn't know anyone was doing that!" release. The difference between these releases and the hard news release is simply a mirror of the difference between a feature story in, say, the entertainment section of your newspaper and the breaking news report on page one. The hard newsstory is about cold, hard facts (A mudslide closed portions of Interstate 70 last night, causing massive delays). A feature article about the guy who spends all day looking at seismograph readouts trying to predict where the next mudslide will occur will be very different. It's likely to be in present tense, it won't load all the facts upfront and it will be designed to draw the reader deep into the text. It is, in short, all about storytelling.Here's the formula I use for these kinds of releases. I call it the 3S approach -- Situation/Surprise/Support.The first paragraph sets up the situation. The second paragraph reveals the surprise. The third paragraph supports the claim made in the second paragraph.One very typical 3S is discussing a common problem in the first paragraph (For centuries, people have accepted memory loss as an inevitable result of aging.) The "surprise" paragraph announces the solution to the problem (But one local man says he's ready to prove the medical establishment wrong.) The "support" paragraph then tells the story. (John Smith, an Anytown entrepreneur, sayshe's found the key to retaining a strong memory function far into old age. His "Memory Maker" software is based on ancient Chinese texts that were used more than 2000 years ago to...)Another 3S -- let's revisit our mudslide watching friend. How would you start his story using this method?While John Smith's colleagues at the National Atmospheric Center are watching the skies for signs of lightning and tornadoes, his attention is focused elsewhere.John Smith is listening to the mud.As the Chief Mudslide Analyst at the NAC, Smith spends his days glued to a seismograph, eyes and ears peeled for the telltale signs on an impending slide.Along with the 3S in action, I also followed the 7th Commandment. That really short second paragraph is a visual grabber, and will keep the journalist reading right into the meat of the release.

9. Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness. This may seem an obvious point, but it always bears repeating.Tell the truth.Don't inflate, don't confabulate, don't exaggerate. Don't twist facts, don't make up numbers, don't make unsubstantiated claims. Any decent journalist will be able to see right through this. If you're lucky, you're release will just get tossed out. If you're unlucky, you'll be exposed.It's a chance not at all worth taking. Make sure every release you write is honest and on the level.

10. Thou Shalt Know Thy Limitations. Not everyone can write a press release. A good feature release, in particular, isn't an easy thing to craft. If you just don't feel like you have the chops to get the job done, hire a professional.One last tip: right before you start writing your release, spend an hour or two reading your daily paper, paying special attention to stories similar in feel to yours. Immerse yourself in how the pros do it and you'll be in the right frame of mind to tackle the job! To view professional press releases updated daily, go to:http://www.publicityinsider.com and click on the "Press Release Gallery"