| |
| |
|
PR Information |
|
|
|
Publicity - How to Write a Headline That Will Garner Free Publicity
Taking your ad and turning it into paragraph-style prose is not a press release - chances are it will only lead the publisher to call and invite you to run it as a paid ad. A press release is for news or for information about a topic the audience needs to know. Any press release that reads too much like an ad will likely lead a media person to forward it to the advertising department. For example, here's a headline that sounds too much like an ad: "Financial Planner Chet Thompson Saved Families $600,000 On Estate Taxes Last Year" This headline is attention-getting, but for the wrong reasons. It doesn't tell the media person anything other than that Chet Thompson is a good financial planner. This isn't news. But that same headline can easily be rewritten to sound more "newsy": "Estate Planning Tips Saved Local Families More Than $600,000 Last Year" This same information is now a headline that will grab a media person's attention. It suggests questions that their readers will be interested in: What tips? Remember-you are never the news. News is information. As much as possible, keep ego tripping out of a press release and focus on the information that will help improve the lives of readers/listeners/viewers. Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.
MORE RESOURCES:
PR - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Financial Planners, Make Sure Reporters Comprehend Your Topic Don't assume that a reporter understands financial planning. If anything, assume the opposite until proven wrong. How To Share Your Success Story Without Sounding Like You Are Bragging A great way to celebrate your achievements and capitalize on your successes is to share them with your clients, members, community leaders, and other influential decisionmakers. But how can you do that without sounding like you are bragging?Tell the story of your success using one of these five approaches, which will work for newsletter articles, website content, and press releases. 16 Publicity tips for Restaurants With a dismal failure rate of more than 75 percent among restaurants, you must be sure you do everything you possibly can do to promote your restaurant through free publicity. Here are 16 tips that will boost your publicity efforts and help you finally get noticed--even if you don't have a big advertising budget. Celebrities Cant Have It Both Ways Corporations are willing to pay substantial amounts of money to prominent personalities so that consumers will relate the brand with their favorite star, and thus will be more likely to buy the product. The buying public imparts credibility to the celebrity because of his or her charisma as well as the credibility that comes with prominence in the media. PR Failure Defined I define public relations failure this way:key audience perceptions are not monitoreda realistic, corrective goal is not setan improper, or no real strategy is selecteda persuasive, compelling message is not preparedcommunications tactics are selected mostly by hunchand no follow-through perception monitoring is done to determine progress.Failure insured! Similar, in fact, to the artillery commander who tells his gunners to point their cannons in any direction and fire them when they feel like it!No plan, no results!Why not deal this way with those external target audiences whose behaviors really have an impact on your organization?Who are they? List them in order of their impact on your operation. Can Your PR Game Plan be Salvaged? If, as is often the case, you are preoccupied with comm-unications tactics instead of working a plan to actively pursue those outside audience behaviors that stop you from achieving your objectives, the answer is yes.Fortunately, it's no big deal making the switch to a public relations problem-solving sequence that works. 10 Secrets to Free Publicity Public relations is popular because it is very cost-effective and it works. If you send out one press release, for example, and it gets into print, it could generate more interest in your product or service. PR: Lets Talk Fundamentals How much more fundamental can you get than this? As a business, non-profit or association manager, if you don't get your most important outside audiences on your side, you will fail.To me, failure means key target audiences that don't behave as you want them to. Writing a Press Release: The Design Basics Big corporations like General Motors and Coca-Cola spend thousands of dollars on press kits with specially-designed folders, full-color stationery, digital photos and lots of other goodies. Does this make a reporter more likely to do their story? In my experience, the answer is no. Get Outsiders on Your Side Especially good advice for business, non-profit and association managers whose job success depends in large part on the behaviors of their key external audiences.I refer to behaviors like inquiries on the increase, new waves of specialized employment applications, more and more followup purchases, new levels of membership queries, a substantial boost in capital donations, or more frequent component specifications by engineering firms. Media Training: Why Nobodys Listening to You SORRY?WERE YOU SAYING SOMETHING?Many spokespeople approach media interviews the same way they would a major speech. They think at length about what they want to say, jot down a few notes, and try to memorize a few key points. 6 Steps to Using Trade Magazines To Reach Customers When developing a publicity campaign for their business many owners overlook the importance of trade magazines and journals as vehicles for reaching new customers. While mass media publications have widespread readership, the targeted nature of trade publications make the information that appears within them even more powerful. 10 Tips for Tantalizing News Releases Want to get radio interviews and coverage in print publications to sell more books? Master the art of writing magnetic media releasesthat attract attention of editors and publishers. A media release (which also goes by its former name, the press release) is a one page, double spaced, single-sided document designed to transmit news about books, products, and people. What Kind of PR Makes Sense? For business, non-profit and association managers, is itpublicity that delivers newspaper and talk show mentions backed up by colorful brochures and videos, combined with special events that attract a lot of people?Or could your business, non-profit or association PR dollar be better spent on public relations activity that creates behavior change among your key outside audiences that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives? And does so by persuading your most important outside audiences to your way of thinking, then moves them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed?What we're talking about is the kind of PR that lets you do something positive about the behaviors of those external stakeholders of yours that MOST affect your organization.Which means the right PR really CAN alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors that help you win. Making Great Announcements When do you use the newspaper for publishing announcements for promotions or new partnerships?Adding an announcement to a newspaper will only bring further recognition to your business. You should always send items such as the hiring of a new employee, the announcement of a new contract, the change of location or any other item that you would like the world to know. Slow Day? Create News Sometimes there seems to be no client news worthy of coverage. That's when the savvy PR pro digs deep into the old bag of tricks and pulls out one of these ideas to perk things up:* The List* The Index* The Hall of Fame. Media Training - Essentials for ALL Office Professionals Often the first point of contact the media has with an organisation is with the front desk or receptionist. Although designated people within a company may have the training and skills needed to interact with the media, the first point of contact within an organisation can make or break a journalists perception of the company and may impact on how they report about your business. Financial Planners, Want Free Marketing and Publicity? The Key is Understanding the Media The media need you. Need the information and expertise you offer, that is. Asian Media Relations: Increase Your Profile and Image in China China's media is booming creating opportunities for marketing-savvy businesses. But many companies have little understanding of how to harness the power of the media in the world's most populous country. Just What Kind of PR Matters to You? Parties, videos, booklets and column plugs?Or public relations that does something positive anddirectly about those important outside audiences of yourswhose behaviors most affect your operation?How happy are you -- as a business, non-profit or associationmanager -- when you see your PR folks futzing around with special events, brochures, press releases and TV talk show mentions?Especially at a time when you probably need to create the kind of key stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives?What it comes down to is this: are you simply looking for publicity, or do you want public relations that really CAN change individual perception and lead to equally changed stakeholder behaviors that help you get your PR money's worth?If that sounds more like it, here's the roadmap for you: 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.
|
  |
| © 2007 |
