news releases media coverage marketing success productivity taking action publishing goals press releases persuasion writng news releases product publicity intelligence pitching pr success story publicity success paying attention new pr promotion publicity planning strategy Mistakes news release distribution

So much confusion over this simple question. Here’s my definition of a news release:

A written proposal:

- and/or an offer to provide media the content needed to achieve that end.

A news release is either sent directly to media decision makers directly (e.g., by fax, email, street mail, etc.) or placed where they can find it and use it (as when it is posted to a news search engine using a news release distribution service).

A news release is not an advertisement. You do not pay for coverage and do not control what the media says. It is a document that persuades media to give you media coverage. Your degree of success is often based on how much of what you give them to do their job is actually used.

You must provide media with information that matches what they are accustomed to publishing (or producing). Usually this means the content must be news, education or entertainment, or opinion or commentary.

If you have a different objective, then perhaps you should not be thinking what you are writing or need to write is a news release at all.

It’s OK to have a different objective. There are other types of marcom (marketing communications) you can choose to achieve a goal. It also means your target audience is not likely to be media people. You will need a different targeted list of people to match your objective.

But if publicity in media is what you want, you write a news release.

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This is one of my most popular articles turned into a Powerpoint presentation and an ebook pdf file.

Free Powerpoint Presentation here:

Why News Releases Fail Powerpoint Presentation“

Free ebook pdf file here:

Why News Releases Fail ebook pdf file

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I agree that marketing poetry can be an expensive and endeavor with low return on investment. That said, I see a lot of my poet clients embarking on personal branding campaigns that eventually produce significant fruit.

In fact, as a publicist I see the same problem occurring with all sorts of self published as well as mainstream published books.

I believe that it can be done. It is not hopeless. It is challenging and it does take skill, excellence, and devotion.

So here’s some ideas and a strategy about how to create an online presence that generates interest, and ultimately sales. Many of my clients do this as they work with me on the publicity. In fact, when this online strategy is coupled with targeted publicity, and judicious integrated marketing offline, the best results are always forthcoming.

Here’s my recommendations on what to do online.

You have to be willing to post some of your best poetry (or content no matter what you write or create) so that people see what you write, and enjoy it so much that they get interested in buying everything you have for sale.

This is the formula for professional branding that I also advocate with problem solving tips articles, humor, music and other creative works.

Offer a little of your very, very best work. Shine. Sparkle. Dazzle people. Amaze people. Make them sweat, make them cry, make them laugh.

But whatever you do, do it very quickly. You only have between 10 to 20 seconds to hook them and no more than 3 minutes to convince them totally.

It’s like people get to see the tip of the iceberg and it’s so good and intriguing, they develop a desire for more.

It’s like finding a diamond in the rough, or seeing a glint in the dirt and grabbing it and finding out it’s a gemstone.

The key is to post something so good and timely to the right needy people that you really trigger their interest.

The copy you select is crucial. One warning - don’t sell. Help or entertain or educate the people you can help, entertain or educate the most.

You have to engage them meaningfully and that is the only way this technique will work.

This means you have to select a truly remarkable piece of your writing and then you have to carefully select where you get it placed.

If you haven’t read my article on how to create these magic words, then you might want to read The Magic of Business sometime. Here’s a link to it: http://www.directcontactpr.com/free-articles/article.src?ID=105

Once you have some proven magic words, then you have to be strategic about where you place these little nuggets.

You can do this online using search engine tools. But you can’t just post them anywhere. You have to find the right places and opportunities.

What you need to do is think about targeting. What do people read, watch and listen to when they are in the right mood and are receptive to a suggestion?

I do this with prime media when we target media for news releases. We go through this same process only we target newspapers, magazines and trade press, news services and syndicates, radio and TV stations and shows, freelance writers, and the Internet media counterparts to all the above.

You do the same thing online with the different types of online publishing and search technologies that are available. Of course, you have to find them first.

This requires you to study, strategize and decide what to write and who to target very carefully.

I’ll illustrate with one simple example. Let’s say you write a poem about overcoming the challenges associated with breast cancer.

If you write a poem for breast cancer patients, then in front of breast cancer patients is where you want to be.

So think about your most important key words and select one:

For this example (I’m sending this to my breast cancer author clients of course), I’ll use the key words: breast cancer support.

You have to make use of the specialized search engines. So look for specialized search engines that will bring you to the right web sites and other online technologies and groups. What you are looking to make use of is:

Regular search engines: Web sites where cancer patients and their support networks hang out.

Photo search engines; the best photo sites about breast cancer

Audio search engines: the best audio sites about breast cancer

Video search engines: the best video sites about breast cancer

Blog search engines: Bloggers who write on breast cancer

Forum search engines: Forums that focus on and talk about breast cancer

Newsletter and ezine search engines: Health / cancer news letters and ezines about breast cancer

Association search engines: cancer and health associations about breast cancer

Podcast search engines: podcasts about dealing with breast cancer

Social networking search engines: sites from breast cancer

Yes there are specialized search engines that focus on just these technologies and you can access them and use them if you learn how.

Not every site you discover will meet your needs in terms of quality and visibility, but you can identify the ones that are significant and valuable to you.

For each valuable site you discover, you take a one to one approach, study it carefully, find the contact in-road or access point to the owner or editors, and craft a pitch designed to offer your content for publication or use the way they are accustomed to publishing it.

If you embark on a plan that allows you to hit five per day, then at the end of thirty days you’ll have contacted 150 online media. If even half these take you up on your pitch, then you’ll be on 75 sites.

And if you maintain that for a year, then you’ll be on 900 hand selected relevant sites by the end of the year.

That’s just for one key word: breast cancer support.

Now do some key word rotation switch to breast cancer information, help, guidance, counseling, mentoring, and so on.

When you have a key word NOUN, couple it with keyword VERBS or ACTIONS. I call this the SOAP method, where S = subject words O = Object words A = action words and P = process words

Create powerful keyword combinations by using SOAP.

For each subject word think of the synonyms and related key words.

Now create a key word chart and launch your search for the right web sites.

Then you systematically rotate words one at a time.

You can even do this geographically using the same key words and Google maps.

Go to Google maps and enter the words breast cancer support plus a location like “breast cancer support Atlanta, GA”

The map that results yields businesses, names, addresses, phone numbers and even web sites.

Now rotate to a new location and search again.

Now you may ask where to you find all the specialized search engines.

I have a patent on a search engine tool which I’ve made available for many months now that’s free. It’s still there for you to use:

Search Word Pro
http://www.searchwordpro.com/quick.src?Action=&T=130&04908effad

Search Word Pro operates like a channel changer for search engines.. Enter a search word and then you can send it to over 60 different search engines in all the categories described above and more.

BTW, you can easily use this to design and deploy your own blog tour. There are PR firms out there that will do the same blog tour for you and charge $10,000 for getting you on to 100 top blog sites. No kidding.

So if you want to make use of this and do it yourself, I’ve just shared with you how to do it.

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I love it when clients are happy, especially when we produce publicity sucess for them. This week was incredibly busy, sending out news releases, responding to media requests for review copies, product samples and interviews.

Andy Andrews, author of the NY Times Best Seller The Traveler’s Gift, was in Salt Lake City doing an event on his new book The Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success, at Kingsbury Hall, at the University of Utah. The event was free, open to the public, 7 to 10 PM, Tuesday night. Our news release and phone campaign for this one time community event netted Andy a few radio talk show interviews, an invite to interview with utah Public radio, a daytime and evening interview on KSL TV and a feature in the Salt Lake City Herald on Monday before the event.

On Tuesday we sent out a news release for Cynthia Frank at Cypress House for author Todd Walton and his new book Buddha in a Teacup. The news releases triggered over 44 media requests for books to review and interviews with Mr. Walton, from newspapers, magazines and radio and tv shows from all over the country. Media requests included Family Circle, Gannett news Services, the Chicago Tribune, Scripps Howard, and dozens of other top media.

Also on Tuesday we sent out a news release and did a phone campaign for Jennifer Bahney at Longhair Lovers for her remarkable new hair product, a emu butter. We saw over three dozen media ask to have product review samples sent to them. We saw media requests from many of the top womens and beauty magazines in the country including: Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, In Style, Shape, Woman’s World, Self, Vanity Fair, More, and more and more.

On Wednesday we did a news release project for a new product. The news release headline says: Dazzling cool colors in bouncing reusable shopping bags. These amazing shopping bags are manufactured totally by Katrina survivors in New Orleans, Louisiana. We received over 20 media requests for product samples from major media within 24 hours.

Also on Wednesday, we sent out a news release for Carol and Phil White, authors of the book, Live Your Road trip Dream. Carol had written a problem solving tips article titled, Five Reasons Why Gas Prices Shouldn’t Cancel Your Summer Fun and i sent it out to outdoor recreation, travel and rv editors and media in the US and Canada. Late in the day, Carol wrote me an email describing what happened. She said: “We sent out the news release this morning… So far, it is already up on 4 websites, 2 major market booked radio interviews, 1 regional market (Indianapolis) using it in a story, and 5 review copy requests including Travel + Leisure.” Pretty cool.

The news release also generated a heated response from one not to be named media editor of a national rock climbing magazine who wrote, ” I cannot believe that you have sent this to me. These republican baby boomer ideas are repulsive and destructive. This is nothing more than dumb propaganda designed to put us at ease about our environmentally destructive bad habits, and rotten ideas such as these should not be spread around with such a straight face. Please consider sending a retraction to this e-mail and an apology to everyone on your list. I hope that the author spends good quality time explaining to her family telling them why grandma didn’t mind killing all of the polar bears and penguins.”

Whew! I guess he must ride his bicycle to work and doesn’t use cars or airplanes to get to his world class destination rock climbing locations and vacations.

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