Press Releases are a Colossal Waste of Time

For 20 years before I became a traffic builder for web sites, I was a publicist handling
household name consumer brands. I’m going to share a trade secret with you: press releases
are a colossal waste of time.

by B.L. Ochman -Marketing Profs.com

I haven’t sent out a traditional press release in the last 10 years. But I have placed stories
about my clients in The Wall St. Journal, New York Times, ABC News, The Today Show,
Good Morning America, and just about any other major media outlet on the planet.

Editors surely don’t need me or any other publicist to write their stories. They need me to
point them in the direction of a good story, succinctly give them the facts as I see them, the
sources I know and then get out of the way so they can write their own stories. I do those things
by writing pitch letters, damn good ones.

Here are some tips for writing letters that get read:

SAY WHY YOU ARE WRITING

Begin with your reason for writing, i.e. "I am writing to suggest a story about…" "I’d like to
recommend an interview with…" Too many times, the reason for the letter is hidden several
paragraphs into the letter. Editors are busy. If you don’t give them an immediate reason to
keep reading, your audience is over

EXPLAIN YOUR PREMISE IN NO MORE THAN TWO SENTENCES

Explain what makes your idea newsworthy. Why is this a good person to interview or a good
story to cover? Describe your idea’s relevance to current events… its connection to or
beginning of a trend… its likelihood to interest a broad cross section of the audience.

How would you explain the story pitch to your friend if you were in the elevator on the way
out? Would it take you a page and a half worth of words to make your point? Not if you
wanted your friend to keep listening. Be equally kind to journalists.

EXPLAIN YOUR STORY IDEA IN ONE OR TWO PARAGRAPHS

Explain how the story would work, what it involves, what role you will play in assisting the
reporter.

A journalist friend who told me he gets a three foot stack of snail mail and over 150 emails a
day shared this story with me the other day. "Let me tell you about a letter that typifies the
ones we journalists never finish reading. I got one the other day that started off by saying "I’ve
been on the Joe Franklin Show, this show, that show, been talked about by so and so, I’ve also
done this and that." The next line was "I’m not a status oriented person." There were about 8
more pages, but I didn’t bother to read them. I just laughed, showed the letter around and
threw it away."

TIMING CAN BE EVERYTHING

Timing is incredibly important. Your chances improve when you can say "This is a hot topic
and I have a great source." Let’s say you’re an ophthalmologist and the President is going to
have eye surgery. You stand a good chance of getting a phone call for your opinion if your
email just arrived while the reporter is thinking of whom to call. Your pitch only stands to
become a story if it is likely to make a lot of people stop and read or listen. I think of it as the
"Hey Martha" factor -editors look for stories that make one say, "hey Martha, look at this!"

WATCH YOUR SUPERLATIVES

Don’t make the company or person you are pitching sound hard to believe. S/he probably
didn’t do whatever you’re writing about single-handedly. Describe her actual role. Be very
careful with hype words like "first, only, greatest, biggest." Someone almost always did it
before, also, as well or as big. Reporters are trained to look for conflict, lies, exaggerations.

LIST TOPICS THE PERSON CAN ADDRESS

Give the top three or four areas of expertise your client can address. Do it in bullet form.

GET IN ALL INTO 350 WORDS OR LESS

Mark Twain said "If I had more time I would have written less." Edit. Edit again. When you are
done. Edit again.

Here’s another tip. Once you get a reporter interested they will ask you for more information.
And then you can give her mountains of background you’ve researched. Because another
thing my reporter friend shared with me is this: most reporters hate to do research.

If your letter is going via e-mail, include a URL where a company fact sheet, management
bios, relevant photos and other articles that have been written about the company can be
found.

Reporters may deny this but I have found that few of them want to be the first to write about a
subject. There’s a definite pack mentality in play. Understanding it will increase your
placements.

B.L. Ochman is a Marketing strategist, journalist, speaker and publishes the What’s Next
Online Newsletter (www.whatsnextonline.com). She can be reached at
[email protected]

http://www.marketingprofs.com/Perspect/ochman1.asp