Christmas is NOW

If you have a service or product to sell that could be used as a christmas gift, now is the time to get your public relations ready.

The consumer is starting to spend Christmas money in October and considering that a press campaign takes about 3-4 weeks, now is the time.

The money is not sitting as loose as it used to after recession and lay-offs and consumer are more informed and educated about what they plan to spend their money on.

Make sure you are getting into the game now - before your competitors are sending their press releases to the media.

Many magazines and newspaper are now collecting interesting articles about new products and services for their Holiday issues (and there is only so much space reserved for it).

If you are selling to businesses - many corporate departments projecting their budget needs now for 2012. If there is still money in the budget, they need to spend it by the year’s end.

Bottom line:
If you want to be mentioned, get your pr in place to be ready. Don't wait until November when the media is already filled with precious mentions and the dead-line has closed.
The same is valid for Radio or TV interviews, reserve time now in the media calendar.

We can help you with all your pr needs. React now to request our services.
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The right pitch to the press

Find a good subject line

A good subject line can often 'make or break' reading the rest of your press release or landing in the 'delete folder'. Try to be short and to the point as you can.

Opening Sentence

Another important point how to make sure your press release is getting some attention is the opening sentence. Make it as interesting and compelling as possible to readers who want to know more.
This is your chance to tell the reader why the subject is so interesting and why they want to read the rest.
Read more on our website if you need some help. http://www.pr-online.com/

Try to get peoples' attention and tell readers how they will be affected by what's in your press release.

Main body

The body of the email is your chance to explain in more detail what your company, service or product is doing and its benefits. Readers wnat to be educated by what you're offering.
Take your opening sentence and break it down the 5 'w-questions' Who, What, Where, When and Why.

The secrets to land a free media coverage

When submitting your press release to the media, you need to develop a number of different stories to pitch to a different media outlets because each media source has interests that are specific to it. That's the secret to a successful PR campaign.

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when launching a PR campaign is that they approach the media as one huge unified organization. 

Develop your primary story and modify the pitch to meet the needs of each magazine, newspaper, radio show and TV outlet. 

Is there a trend story connected to your product? How about testimonials? What is the story behind the product?

After you've developed your stories your next step is to create an appropriate, targeted media list.  Now combine the two, match the various pitches to the appropriate media outlets. Listen to what they need.  Do some research and gain insight into their stories. Create compelling stories, a targeted media list and a strong pitch.

6 right ways for initial contact to the press

You've got a story for your business - congratulations. Now it's time to contact the press about it. How do you do it?

1. Choose the right publication when distributing your press release. Pay attention to the tone (are they technical, casual, business oriented etc.)
2. Since you are sending a press release and not an ad, you need to talk to an editor, not an advertising manager. This is very important since the advertising department is eager to selling you ad space.
3. Find out who the right editor for your article is. Almost every magazine or newspaper has their specific editors (sport, business, culture etc.)
4. Editors often work with a tight deadline and are in a time crunch. Make sure you know what you want to say, be brief and convincing. It is important to build trust but be sensitive about the editor’s time. Offer to phone back if it’s an inconvenient time.
5. Give an editor enough time – max. two weeks to process your story or more for a special feature or monthly publication.
6. Start a database with the name of the publication and contact details of the editor,,phone number, email etc. Make sure you keep this information updated.

The preferred way of getting information to the editor is a press release. If you need help, check out our Do-it-yourself tool on our website http://www.pr-online.com/diy.pdf

 

To read more, check out our website

 

9 things you need for a great PR campaign

Every PR needs planning. You need to ask youself the question what do you want to accomplish. Here are the things you need:

Research
What should the public know, who do you send your message to, who do you want to influence and inform about your product and service?

In this first step you gather information in questionnaires, interviews, telephone interviews, surveys etc.
Do you know if your competition has been in the media with the very same subject. (product or service) lately? Where do your customers getting their information from? Magazines, newspapers, blogs, newsletter?

Analysis
After the research is completed, a better understanding of what your customers are interested in, where they get their information (and base their decsions on to purchase). You can conduct a SWOT analysis to examine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your company, product or service.

Objective
Now that you have a better understanding of the market and your goals you can define the objectives of the campaign. The objectives are what is hoped to be the end result of the PR activity. Each objective must be SMART.
Specific: Are they clearly defined and comprehensible?
Measurable: Can each objective be measured in the evaluation?
Achievable: Considering other factors (e.g. budget and timescale) are they achievable?
Realistic: Are you being realistic given the resources you have?
Time: When do you want to achieve the set objectives?
Depending on the situation, sometimes the objectives set can initially be before the research has been undertaken.

Targeted Media
Who do you want to talk to? Based on the pr research each public relevant to the campaign should be identified. This is important to ensure your key messages are communicated efficiently. Here are some of the groups that want to included into the target:

* Employees
* Identified publics
* Suppliers
* Investors

Key Messages
Once you know what information you want to release and to whom you can define your key messages that form the main thrust of the communication. These messages need to be clear, concise and readily understood.

Strategy and Tactic
A strategy is the theory of how you want to deliver your pr message and the tactic determines which media you are going to use for it such as events, interviews, blogger relations, presentations,  newsletters, podcasts, websites, conferences, news releases.

Schedule
A schedule allows co-ordinate your tactics and to keep deadlines. Your pr campaign could be scheduled for a specific event (e.g you release a heart rate monitor during Heart Smart Week.

Budget
I like to ask my clients what their pr budget is in order to determine the strategy, tactic and duration of a pr campaign. Running the pr in a medium is opposed to advertising free, the operating costs are not.
Here are some of the costs that are included in the budget:
Time spent for research, strategy, tactic, execution (writing press releases, creating media planners, contacting edtiors, distributing media material (press releases), follow up calls, fees for long-distance calls and travel.

Measurement
The end review will take place after all PR activity has finished and where the final results will be compared against the campaign objectives. To do this, the tactics for each objective will be analysed. Follow-up calls are important to

In today's market the flood of information each editor is getting sent is overwhelming. In order to build trust and recognition, we contact editors throughout the pr campaign process.

Our company does follow up calls for various reasons:

a) to check if and when a press release is going to be published
b) to thank the editor for the mention

Thanks for reading. Check out our website for more information: http://www.pr-online.com/

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