Five Mistakes You Can Make in Executing Your PR Campaign

Hi all, for the next number of blog posts, I’m going to be publishing a series entitled “Five Mistakes You Can Make in Executing Your PR Campaign.”   It covers off many of the pitfalls companies make in crafting and executing a PR strategy, along with some advice on how to spot and avoid those mistakes along the way. 

Now on to the words of wisdom….

Five Mistakes You Can Make in Executing Your PR Campaign

Executing on a PR strategy is about understanding the art of relationship and in telling stories that compel journalists into action. It’s about crafting press releases and pitches that provide appropriate, relevant and comprehensive information to reporters and editors under pressure. And it’s about delivering over the top service when a story opportunity presents itself. Done right, a PR program can result in positive headlines and column inches worth of coverage. Handled with a heavy hand, however, a poorly executed PR program can turn off more people than it attracts. Below are five common mistakes companies make in their PR efforts coupled with some advice on how best to avoid them.



Mistake #1 - Fail to plan

o Invest time in building a sound PR strategy. Understand your objectives and goals. Spend time envisioning the headlines you’d like to see for your business. Be honest with yourself – you may be in love with your company’s strategy or products – but is it really news fodder for CNN?

o Research your media targets thoroughly and build a targeted media list. As I said in my opening to this post, PR is a relationship business, and you need to invest in understanding the reporters and editors you plan to target. This includes reading what they’ve written, and subscribe to any advice they offer about how best to contact them. Have they written on a competitor, or covered your field in prior articles? All of this information will help you craft a honed and personalized pitch that in turn will up the probability of your story being covered. As part of your research, also consider the social media participation of a particular journalist. Are they on Twitter? Facebook? Do they have a blog? Social media provides new and potentially more direct opportunities to personally engage.

o Don’t expect customers, partners to immediately jump on board. When working on a press release or story pitch, it is common, and indeed preferred to incorporate quotes from a customer or partner, and to provide journalists with contact information for these story sources. But realize that it is critical to seek out approval from these parties in advance. Quoting a customer in a press release without their permission can be fatal to your relationship and undermine any good work you have performed up to this point. You also need to know that customers and partners require lead time – approval cycles in a large company can be complex, involving executives, PR folk and legal, and be assured; they will work to their own timeline, not yours.

o Just because the phone rings, you don’t have to start talking. You pick up the phone and there’s a reporter on the end of the line! Of course you are excited, and in the heat of the moment might find yourself participating in an interview you are not yet ready to give. I typically advice clients to confirm the reporter’s deadline then ask if they can ring the reporter back in a few minutes. Even taking five minutes to prepare your thoughts and determine the key points you want to make can turn this opportunity into a more positive experience for all.

o Invest in media training. If you have the opportunity to invest in media training, it will never hurt and will always help. You’ll learn how to handle an aggressive line of questioning, how to remain on message and best practices for appearing on camera.

Stay tuned for PR Mistake #2 – “It’s all about me” coming to you soon…

Success! A Journalist Calls and Wants to Do a Story. So Now What?

This month’s PR and marketing communications tip is devoted to working with the media, with some practical advice for when the media calls. I’m working with quite a few clients who have been in the media spotlight of late, and thought this tip was a useful one for all to file away.

 

Your PR efforts have borne fruit. You’ve just picked up a voice mail from a business reporter with a National newspaper and they want an interview. Here are some tips I’ve collected from media training experts to help you best position your company, and give the reporter the story he/she needs.

 

When a journalist calls:

• Take down the reporter’s name, media affiliation and story deadline
• Don’t feel compelled to react right away – buy yourself some prep time (even if its a few minutes) to gather your thoughts and facts, and prepare your interview objectives. But do respect the reporter’s deadline & be as responsive as you can.
• Ask about the story – what is the angle? Who else are they talking to Are they talking to competitors? When will the story run? Will they be doing photography? Ask if the reporter will provide you with their line of questioning in advance (not always a request granted but worth asking)

Prior to the interview:

• Develop some key messages – what do you want to say? Don’t be afraid to seek out assistance from your PR advisor and if they are available, request that they participate in the interview – particularly if the subject matter is controversial or if it’s a National newspaper.
• When prepping your messages try to think in “soundbites” or “quotable quotes”.
• Understand the reporter/editor’s goals, and become an ally. Offer to supply additional industry data, research, images or photos for the story, or other story sources. This extra mile will go far in positioning you as a reliable story source for the future and cement your participation in this feature.

Remember:

• Everything you say is “on the record”

After the interview:

• Trade publications may return to you for fact checking on an article – but typically will not provide the article for you to review
•  Mainstream media reporters will not grant you the opportunity to review and comment on the story prior to it being published. See above…re: everything is “on the record”

 

Getting Exposure for Your Company - PR Basics

• Exposure for your company and products in the media is a highly credible and lower cost form of marketing. A feature article referencing one of your customers, a product review, or a news coverage on your new product release help to build “buzz” about your brand name and can be transformed into highly effective tools for your sales force. In this blog posting, I’d like to impart some of the knowledge I’ve acquired over my 15+ years as a software marketing executive and closet PR pitchster.
  
  Press releases and news coverage
  
  Journalists receive a massive volume of press releases each day from companies seeking coverage for themselves or their products. There are some releases that will elicit coverage – the vast majority will fall on deaf ears – but still have value (more on this a bit later). Here are some general rule of thumb pieces of advice about press releases:

• If your press release is centered on a new product release, think hard about the news angle – what is fresh, different, a first for the market – this might be the release that catches a news editor’s attention. But even with a news angle, you need to package up your story to make it very easy for the editor – they are just too busy to chase down the details. Reach out and schedule briefings with key news editors at least a week in advance of issuing the release and offer them a draft version. Understand who you are targeting and what they are writing about and make sure you align. Have customers they can talk to (some product editors will insist on this before they will accept a briefing with you on your news), as well as industry analysts who will provide comment, screenshots of your product and if possible industry data points and research that can be wrapped into the story.
• If your release isn’t “picked up” by an editor, don’t despair. Inclusion of stock trading symbols if you are a public company will allow your release to be picked up by online vehicles such as Yahoo Finance so the ‘buzz’ reaches investors. Press release frequency also contributes to natural search engine optimization – helping your company to rise in the rankings on Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search engines. High rankings tend to put you at the top of a prospect’s search list so this is a very good thing.
• And finally, don't annoy editors by calling and asking them if they got the release. That'll guarantee you end up in Bin13.
  
  Feature article coverage
  
  Feature articles are lengthier stories that investigate a topic in depth, and may run multiple pages in a magazine or online. By monitoring editorial calendars of target publications you can get a general sense of topics the editor wishes to cover. The trick is then to develop a pitch for that story that offers the editor a fresh angle, or all the ingredients (customers, analyst research, access to an executive for an interview etc) to help figure you prominently in the story. Keep in mind this is not about you. Even the very best pitch and all the ingredients in the world do not guarantee you inclusion. You have to serve the editor better than any other contender. And feature stories – particularly in technology media will focus on the end user, not the vendor. So your customer will receive the exposure, and your technology hopefully is mentioned as the solution to a specific business challenge. R
  
  Submitted articles
  
  Technology and vertical industry publications are often very lean, have a small editorial staff, and depend freelancers for story writing, and even for conducting product reviews. By checking the editorial mast head online, you can often quickly determine if a publication is open to editorial submissions, and if this is the case, this offers you an opportunity to contribute a full article to that publication under a by-line of someone in your organization (CEO, VP Product Strategy etc). Once again, you develop a “pitch” to the editor for a story. The angle and subject matter must be topical, informative, and not a commercial for your company or technology. The exposure for you comes through the byline, and the thought leadership.
  
  Product reviews
  
  In the good old days (gee about ten years ago) most of the technology magazines employed a full staff, and maintained a large lab to perform testing on software products and hardware devices. They still do exist, but more often than not, your product review will be performed by a consultant outside of the publication who has offered to be a freelance ‘reviewer’. If you decide to pursue product reviews for your technology here are some words of advice. First, think about developing a reviewer’s guide, to help bring the reviewer up to speed quickly on your technology. This should outline the positioning for the product, list key features and functionality, offer installation and implementation instructions and contact points. I used to go one further step with my reviews as our product was quite technical and assign a dedicated support rep to the reviewer to assist with any necessary troubleshooting. Also if the reviewer is willing, coordinate a call with the product manager before the review begins to go through the reviewers guide and deal with questions up front.
  
  And a final word on targeting your message and plain old customer service
  
  Journalists are crazy busy people, with email in boxes bulging with press releases and phones ringing off the hook. First and foremost, invest in some serious targeting of your message. Do your homework. Has the journalist written on this subject before? How recently? How do they prefer to be contacted? Make sure your information is aligned to the and their publication’s focus. Think rifle shot, not carpet bombing. Next, invest in building a relationship. Not easy to do in a virtual world, but when given a opportunity for story participation over deliver on customer service. Have all the ingredients at hand before you reach out and be ready to stand and deliver. Go the extra mile, make the reporter’s life easy and you’ll become a valued source for future writing efforts.