Six Tips For Perfect Email Pitches

Your media pitches can go straight over the plate. With a little forethought, and a few tips, you can throw fewer balls and more media relations strikes.

Brevity is the soul of wit. Shakespeare could have been giving media relations tips when he penned this gem several hundred years ago. If you can't get to the point in your subject line in 10 words or less, you need to work on your message. Keep the subject line short and to the point, and include the time frame if it is important to the pitch. For instance: "Entrepreneurs Storming NC General Assembly Tuesday"

Surprise! If you have a startling or interesting fact, use it as a hook. I am developing a story idea about local home prices. My initial thought for a subject line is: "Average Lake Norman Home Listing Price Spikes To $413,000." Recently I used these subject lines to get coverage: "Interest Rates Hit Six Month Low" and "No Credit Score, No Problem".

Humor Me. Humor is not for everyone. It is best to use it only if you know the reporter has a sense of humor or appreciates quirky items. Maria Stainer, assistant managing editor of the Washington Times, was quoted recently about an email pitch that got her attention and coverage. "Teach Your Dog To Meditate" was the line that hooked her on a story about a new book on animal behavior.

Don't Get Too Attached. Don't ever attach word documents or photos files to an email pitch. Did I mention that you should not send attachments? To get past email filters and to avoid hacking off your media contacts, wait until they ask for additional information before sending photos and documents. And, if you make them mad, your next pitch may be deleted before it is ever read.

Be Cool. You're fired up to fire off that media pitch you have just written. Don't. Let it cool off a bit first. Ask for input from others before you send the pitch to the media, particularly if you are trying to use humor or be quirky. You don't want your pitch to fall flat.

Be Relevant. Friend David Mildenberg, a reporter at the Charlotte Business Journal, has the best tip of all. "I think email pitches can be effective for all the obvious reasons: If they contain news relevant to the publication and its readers, if the pitches are concise and if the pitches are understandable," he says.

Wind up and start pitching.

Relationship Management: Knowing and Communicating with Your Key Publics

Many organizations actively engage in 'Issues Management.' For most, this involves scanning the news, developing communications strategies around relevant issues and trends, and then communicating their messages back through the media.

However, effective communications is more than just managing issues through the media. Companies and organizations must also be aware of their external publics – the people and groups outside of an organization's sphere that affect, or are affected by, what that organization does.

This is known as 'Relationship Management.' It is the discipline of identifying key publics and establishing strategies for building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with those publics.

Identifying External Publics

Like most organizations, there is a good chance you are already using media monitoring to track the issues that affect your organization. This is Communications 101.

You may even be taking it one step further and conducting some kind of media analysis, including assigning tones like positive, negative or neutral to news stories. And if you're not, you should be. Without proper analysis and evaluation, your communications team is not doing its job properly.

But where it really gets interesting is when you take your existing monitoring and analysis and add another dimension to it. One of the best examples of this is tracking and analyzing quotes.

Tracking quotes helps you identify your key publics. You can see exactly what they are thinking, what they are saying, what they are doing.

And by taking further small steps, such as cross-referencing tone with quotes, you can easily identify the type of relationship that exists between your organization and its different key publics. You can get a picture of what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong, and, where necessary, develop a plan to change the relationship.

Obviously, the more positive the quote or article, the greater the chance that the person being quoted is an ally to issues favorable to your organization. Conversely, the more negative the quote or article, the greater the chance that the person being quoted is opposed to issues favorable to your organization.

Furthermore, the more times a person is quoted, the greater the chance he or she is an Opinion Leader – a person that knowingly or unknowingly influences opinion. It's important that your organization try to have an open and professional dialogue with Opinion Leaders no matter what their position is.

Dealing with Key Publics

A lot of people feel the media ultimately control public opinion. There's no denying they do have an enormous influence, but they are only one piece of the PR puzzle.

It's important that PR professionals not limit themselves to just the media. Sometimes it's best to communicate right to the source, if possible. Remember, as a professional communicator, your primary job is to disseminate information, not necessarily to deal with the media or write news releases. How you get the information to your publics is not what matters; what matters is that they get the information. Using the media and writing news releases are simply a means to an end.

According to Statistics Canada, 61 per cent of Canadians belong to a group or organization, including organizations unions, religious groups, professional associations, etc. Opinion Leaders are a very important component of these groups.

Once you have identified the groups and their Opinion Leaders, it's important to develop consistent messages that will clearly state your organization's position on key issues. Without that consistency, you run the risk of looking hypocritical or insincere. The last thing you want is to be communicating different messages regarding the same issue.

If you want people to trust you and your organization, consistency is a must. Trust is the first step in developing a relationship with the Opinion Leaders and your key publics.

Honesty is Always the Best Policy

Remember, when it comes to any type of communications, honesty is always the best policy. Trying to manipulate the media or the public is a dangerous game. If you're honest, people might not always like what you have to say, but at least they'll believe you and have a greater respect for you in the long run.

Monitoring the Media Helps Ensure Honesty Prevails

Monitoring the media allows organizations to ensure everyone is on message, helping to prevent misunderstandings through inadvertent contradictions or an overly aggressive spokesperson. Also, proactive media analysis can gauge how well key publics and other influencers, such as the media, are accepting your organization's position on an issue.

Media Analysis is a Powerful Tool, but...

Media analysis can help identify miscommunication, and can also help identify the underlying reason for that miscommunication. It's also an effective way of identifying key publics and opinion leaders, gauging where they stand on an issue and finding out what they are saying.

However, it's important to remember ‘Relationship Management' is about dealing with people directly. Media analysis is just a tool to help ensure your organization is communicating honestly and effectively – the same way the media are just a vehicle for delivering your message.

But even if you have a top notch media analysis program in place, you should never stop communicating directly with your key publics to figure out where they stand on key issues and how they view your organization. After all, public relations and communications are all about communicating effectively, and nothing is more effective than getting your information straight from the source.

Why Do Public Relations People Frequently Wear Red?

A. So the blood doesn't show.

Many people think that once a company starts advertising, editors beat a path to your door. In some cases, that actually does happen, but it's not the norm. Public relations is a very important part of the marketing mix, but it's a tremendous amount of hard, detailed work.

Public relations is very different from advertising. One main difference is that you can't buy media placement. The story is either newsworthy, or it's not. Paid placement is called advertising. A successful PR campaign provides third-party endorsement of products or services which is something no other marketing element can deliver.

Both marketing elements are important, but public relations can sometimes be a slow build. Results don't happen in a few weeks or in a month, especially with the three month lead time needed for magazines print deadlines. When dealing with television, newspapers or radio, the three month lead time is not an issue, but competition is an issue. 

There have been situations where we've had an instant success story. We created a museum event in Philadelphia at a small children's museum that was an incredible media success story. Every newspaper, ethnic publication and television station showed up for this event. Over the years, we've also had a number of press conferences with tons of media coverage the next day. This is expecially true if the news is sensational or the product is very popular at retail.

In one case, we generated thousands of stories for a client, but we were trying to generate an article in a major business paper. Nothing worked. The editor was interested, but he didn't understand the point we were using as the "hook" for the story. When we finally drove home the point of differrence between mass market retailers and specialty retailers, he wrote the story and it was fantastic. Our story ended up on the front page of the business section minus one column, but it took months and months of work.

Many clients don't understand the PR process. For example, when I was handling the marketing for a major children's line of licensed apparel, the client had signed the advertising contract, but not the public relations contract. He just didn't understand the entire subject and finally asked for a meeting to discuss things. Shortly into the meeting, this charming, grandfatherly gentleman looked at me with a straight face and said, "Why do I have to pay for this, doesn't it just happen?" 

At first, I thought he was kidding, but then I could see that he simply didn't understand the process, or the discipline. After a rather lengthy discussion, he signed the contract. The campaign was a big success and so was the clothing line.

Some clients don't have the budget for the entire marketing mix of trade advertising, consumer advertising, sales promotion, web site development and PR. Many will start with PR and trade advertising and then increase their marketing budget over time.

How To Choose An Agency

When you are ready to consider an agency, what should you look for in a PR team? For starters, the chemistry has to be there. You also need experience and media connections. Don't hesitate to ask for client references. Once you have them, pick up the phone and make some calls.

Don't assume that the new business people will service your account. If there is one account person that you feel has the expertise you need, consider requesting that this individual be the point person on your account. The agency should be willing to agree to this request in your written contract. Beware of bait and switch, where you are courted by the new business people who will never be seen again after the contract is signed.

What You Can Expect

Some points to remember:

Nothing kills a bad product faster than excellent PR and advertising. Customers may purchase the product once and then, that's it.
When products are photographed, the samples must be in perfect condition. The camera picks up and magnifies very tiny flaws. Retouching is expensive, so be careful when you select product samples for photography.
PR is not a tool used to force retail distribution. If you try it, the move will come back to haunt you. When an editor asks for information about the retail distribution of a product and/or service, the PR agency had better have answers or the ability to obtain the answers quickly. Reporters and editors always manage to call for this information when they are on deadline so everything is a rush. A response such as we're planning to open outlets soon in your area is not the correct answer.

Put yourself in the editor's place. He/she is interested in writing about your product and the readers expect to be able to find the item in local stores, on respected web sites, or in catalogs. If they can't do any of the above, the editor will not write about the product.

I have had consumers track me down because they wanted a specific product and could not find it at the retail store mentioned in the article because the item had sold out. One Christmas, I was practically running a mail order operation out of the agency because frantic consumers were calling for one specific product that did not have wide retail distribution.

Trade books usually publish one month in advance. Consumer books publish three, yes three months in advance. If you're hoping for a December magazine story, you'd better start planning in July or August.
If your agency is creative, it will come up with innovative "hooks" for your products or services.

PR is a wonderful marketing tool, but you must understand the basics to understand how it can work for your company.

Public Relations Strategies For Manufacturers and Industrial Suppliers

By Conrad Bailey

What you are about to read here is not what you would expect to learn about marketing industrial products via public relations, or what you would normally find from other PR sources. The reason is because the majority of public relations articles you'll find online are nothing more than hidden sales pitches from PR firms that offer advice based on what's best for their agency - and not the client. You know the ones - that always end their article with an offer to purchase or learn more about their promotional services. In this article you'll get none of that.

Don't Outsource Your Public Relations

Writing and submitting press releases and stories to the media is one of the most cost effective ways to promote your industrial products. However, unless your company has deep pockets and money to throw away, writing and distributing press releases is much more cost-effective when you do it yourself. Forget traditional PR firms - they charge ridiculous fees just to write and submit your press release. You'll get much better results by using the services and tools of online companies like PR Web and PR Leap to distribute your press releases to your target media. In result you can generate some relevant and often permanent back links to your Web site. An additional benefit that can drive traffic to your site for months or even years.

Reaching A More Highly Targeted Audience

Services like PR Web are excellent for promoting your company and products to mass media. But remember, the biggest benefit comes not from the distribution of those press releases, but when editors or producers that see your press release contact you to follow-up on your story for their publication or station. That is where the most exposure will be generated.

In addition to using services like PR Web, you can and should submit your press release directly to the most relevant media sources you can find, such as trade publications that are read by your target audience. But do it yourself - don't waste your money on PR firms that claim to specialize in the trade press. All they are actually doing is snail mailing your press release to trade magazines or journals that you can easily find yourself using media directories like Gebbie Press. Besides, there are probably no more than 5 to 10 trade publications that are ideal for your press release. So don't pay some PR firm thousands of dollars to submit your press release to hundreds of magazines when only a handful may be interested in publishing it.

Writing A Good Press Release

Writing a good press release is not that difficult if you focus on what makes your story newsworthy. Just ignore the marketing hype and write about your product's features, user benefits and what makes it different (superior) than similar products in the marketplace. That is what makes a press release newsworthy and more likely to be published by the media you are targeting.

Some public relations companies will charge up to $250 or more to write a press release. You can find freelancers online or at local colleges that will do it for much less. Still, you'll always get better results by writing it yourself. After all, if you're the person responsible for public relations at your company, then you know more about your products and the benefits they offer than anyone else. So doesn't it make sense that you are the most qualified person to write a solid press release?

One of the best ways to learn how to write a powerful press release is to know everything there is to know about your product and the exact market you are targeting. Secondly, analyze the press releases your competitors are putting out on the Web. Make sure your release indicates unique benefits such as the technical edge your product has in the marketplace... since new technology is always a newsworthy topic. Lastly, make sure to include a good headline, such as one that might propose a solution, build curiosity or express some kind of benefit.

Distributing Your Press Releases

Distributing your press releases is not a matter of what delivery method you prefer, but rather which method the editor prefers. There are editors that want it sent by email, while others prefer it's delivered by fax or snail mail. If you're not sure, give them a call and find out which delivery method and format they prefer, if any. It makes a good impression and can also make a significant difference whether it gets published or not.

Whatever you do, you should never mass mail, fax blast or bulk email your press releases. I guarantee you'll be wasting serious money and a lot of time. For now on, focus on fewer but more relevant media sources. It's easier and much more productive to work with 10 to 50 solid media sources that serve your target market.

Some Final Words

If there is one tip in this article you remember and follow, make it this. The need to gain a competitive edge through public relations is greater now than in any other time in history. Due to the Internet, promoting your company and products has never been easier or faster than it is right now. The key is to remember that when it comes to public relations, people's needs will always change, so you must aim well ahead of the target to hit it.

Publicists: It's Time to Embrace the Technology of Online Press Kits

So you have a cell phone, a Palm Pilot, an automated office complete with teleconferencing, remote-access, Web site and e-mail addresses. So what? Just because you’re always available to the media doesn’t mean the media has easy access to your clients. What will your high-tech office be able to do when a reporter wants a press kit at 7 p.m. on a Friday evening? Nothing – except hastily prepare the hard copy kit for a costly overnight shipment.

There is a simple way to eliminate the need for keeping a large inventory of hard copy press kits and reduce your dependency on the shipping company guy: publish your clients’ press kits online.

Making the move from hard copies to press kits published online that are always-accessible is essential in today’s age of e-mail. The corporate world lives by e-mail; reporters and other media professionals are no different. These people are busy and time is always of the essence when they’ve got deadlines breathing down their necks. The decision to use your client in a story instead of someone else is contingent on whose information is easiest to get. If it takes all night for your client’s press kit to reach their desk, you might get bumped.

I know what you’re saying right now. "But, Drew, I e-mail my clients’ press materials to the media." Well, that’s great, but just because reporters use e-mail doesn’t mean they open every stranger’s message that arrives in their inbox and it especially doesn’t mean that they even bother opening your attachments. Why? Because it’s too risky.

First of all, everyone knows not to open an e-mail from someone you don’t know; especially if there’s an attachment. This is e-mail safety 101. Strange e-mails with attachments usually mean one thing: virus. At least, that’s the take of most business’s firewalls and anti-virus protection systems. You may think you’re making waves by mass e-mailing your media lists with attached press releases, but how many calls are you getting back? Not many, since your important e-mail has been tossed out with the "wasser" worm and those annoying "enlargement" e-mails.

So what’s the solution? Reject technology and start snail-mailing and faxing again? No. Embrace technology and publish your press kits online.

Now, an online press kit is not a Web site. Don’t be confused by the term "online." Though an online press kit can be displayed online and present information like a Web site, it is really a virtual folder or briefcase that allows you to upload and store your press materials on the Internet. Once in your online press kit folder, these documents and images can be distributed as links – not attachments.

When you prepare your sharp, concise e-mail pitch to the media, you simply insert links to your clients’ press kits. When the reporter clicks the link, the document can be opened and saved on their computer. It opens like an attachment, but the documents themselves live online. Instead of piling them onto your e-mail, you’re simply providing directions (a link) to get to them. They become part of the e-mail message, so a media outlet’s virus protection system won’t automatically kick it out of the system.

Virtually anything can be uploaded to an online press kit: press releases, high-resolution images, video and audio clips, graphics and more. Plus, since you have control over your online press kits, you can always be sure they’re up to date.

Now you’re thinking "Wow, these things sound great, but I bet they are expensive." Not necessarily. Though there are online press kit programs available that cost into the thousands, they usually include extra features you don’t really need and will probably never use. Think of the online press kit market as the binder or folder aisle at your favorite office supply store. Sure there are binders with all kinds of extras, but you pass those by for what you need and the price you can live with.

Face it – technology is only going to get better and faster. Don’t be left in its dust trying to wave down that brown truck with your emergency overnight press kit. By going online with your clients’ press kits, you’re not only making them easy to access, but easy to cover by the media. The media loves that – and so will your clients.

PR's Only True Measure

Sure, you could measure the rather narrow results achieved by tactical subsets of your public relations program like special events, brochures, broadcast plugs or press releases. On the other hand, you as a business, non-profit or association manager might better measure the results of your strategic efforts to alter individual perception among your key outside audiences leading to changed behaviors, which then help you achieve your managerial objectives.

I mean, can we agree that managers MUST plan to do something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of theirs that most affect their operation?

And especially so when they persuade those key outside folks to their way of thinking by helping to move them to take actions that allow their department, division or subsidiary to succeed?

But it takes more than good intentions for any manager to alter individual, key-audience perception leading to changed behaviors, something of profound importance to ALL business, non-profit and association managers.

He or she needs a plan dedicated to getting every member of the public relations team working towards the same external audience behaviors which insures that the organization’s public relations effort stays sharply focused.

The plan could be based on a foundation that looks like this: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Results can materialize faster than you might suspect.For example, bounces in showroom visits; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; customers making repeat purchases; prospects starting to work with them;membership applications on the rise, and capital givers or specifying sources looking their way.

Watch the real performers at work. They find out whoamong their key external audiences is behaving in ways that help or hinder the achievement of their objectives. Then, they list them according to how severely their behaviors affect their organization.

Next they must determine how most members of that key outside audience perceive the organization. If the resources to pay for what could be costly professional survey counsel aren’t there, Ms. or Mr. manager and his or her PR colleagues will have to monitor those perceptions themselves. Actually, the PR folks should already be quite familiar with how to gather and assess perception and behavior data.

Doing so means meeting with members of that outside audience and asking questions like "Are you familiar with our services or products?" "Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization? Was it a satisfactory experience?" And if you are that manager, you must be sensitive to negative statements, especially evasive or hesitant replies. Watch carefully for false assumptions, untruths, misconceptions, inaccuracies and potentially damaging rumors. When you find such, you will need to take steps to correct them, as they inevitably lead to negative behaviors.

Now comes the challenge of selecting the specific perception to be altered which then becomes your public relations goal. You obviously want to correct those untruths, inaccuracies, misconceptions or false assumptions.

The core reality of the whole drill is that a PR goal without a strategy to show you how to get there, is like corned beef and cabbage without the cabbage. It’s justnot the same. So, as you select one of three strategies (especially constructed to create perception or opinion where there may be none, or change or reinforce it,) what you must do is insure that the goal and its strategy match each other. You wouldn’t want to select "change existing perception" when current perception is just right suggesting a "reinforce" strategy.

Now the time has come when you must create a compelling message carefully constructed to alter your key target audience’s perception, as specified by your public relations goal.

Remember that you can always combine your corrective message with another news announcement or presentation which may give it more credibility by downplaying the apparent need for such a correction.

The content of the message must be compelling and quite clear about what perception needs clarification or correction, and why. Naturally you must be truthful and your position logically explained and believable if it is to hold the attention of members of that target audience, and actually move perception in your direction.

Occasionally, folks in the PR business will allude to the communications tactics necessary to move your message to the attention of that key external audience, as "beasts of burden" because they must carry your persuasive new thoughts to the eyes and ears of those important outside people.

Luckily, there is a wide choice because the list of tactics is lengthy. It includes letters-to-the-editor, brochures, press releases and speeches. Or, you might choose radio and newspaper interviews, personal contacts, facility tours or customer briefings. There are scores available and the only selection requirement is that the communications tactics you choose have a record of reaching people just like the members of your key target audience.

Of course, you can always move things along by adding more communications tactics, AND by increasing their frequencies.

Right about now, the subject of progress reports will arise,but you will already be hard at work remonitoring perceptions among your target audience members to test the effectiveness of your communications tactics. Using questions similar to those used during your earlier monitoring session, you’ll now be on sharp alert for signs that audience perceptions are beginning to move in your general direction.

Throughout, keep your eye on the core of this approach: persuade your most important outside audiences with the greatest impacts on your organization to your way of thinking. Then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary prevail.

Thus, instead of measuring the rather narrow results achieved by the tactical subsets of your public relations program like special events, brochures, broadcast plugs or press releases, you will have discovered the only true measure of public relations: the results of your strategic efforts to alter individual perception among your key outside audiences leading to changed behaviors, helping you achieve your managerial objectives.

Promoting Relationships With the Public

Public Relations or "PR" is one of the most important factors in how you are perceived by the public at large. It is the relationship between your business and your customers, past customers, community and potential customers.

There are two ways of obtaining PR. One way is through press releases, in which you share news about events or accomplishments within your company or organization. This form of PR gives you full control over how your company looks to the public. Your public, is anyone who has an interest of one type or another in your business such as your employees, customers, suppliers, competition and the press. How you are percieved by the public has a huge impact on the future of your business.

When issuing a press release make sure that the information provided is of interest to the readers or viewers of that particular publication. The heading of the press release should grab the readers attention and prompt them to continue reading. Make sure you are targeting publications which would be interested in your information. You wont have much success submitting a press release about christmas ornaments to a publication which targets outdoor life.

Testimonials and case histories are useful when overcoming objections, building credibility, and demonstrating customer satisfaction with your company and products. Generally, testimonials do not make up the bulk of a press release. Although it helps to add in a positive quote from a satisfied customer, make sure the comment is in direct relation to the focus of your press release.

Good PR from satisfied customers can bring you a whopping customer base, yet at the same time one shred of negative PR from an unhappy customer can cause your business considerable damage. When in a one-on-one meeting your customer should do most of the talking. Your customers are worth listening to and their feedback is valuable information! Take the time to listen to their questions and comments as it will help you to understand their needs and make sure they are satisfied with your service. If you are doing most of the talking, chances are, your customers are going to feel pressured or turned off and you run the risk of losing a sale as well as a customer.

Building a relationship with the public is an important aspect of promoting your business and building a solid customer base. Staying in touch with your customers will not only improve your customer relations, but will keep your name foremost in the minds of your customers and prospects and keep them coming back.