Suggested read on ecommerce:

https://jeffwalker.com/tag/product-launch-formula/

 

More useful you are to the members of the media, the more likely we can get into their brain.

 

Let’s think about what it’s like for them (empathize)

  • Time
  • Amount of incoming emails – stories
  • Lots of people in the team v’s very few
  • Freelance or full time part time employee? Mostly freelance.
  • Deadlines?
  • Serving the audience
  • Use the phone
  • ABC rated – journalist lists

 

Media thinks about Christmas now and finished it up in about Aug-Sep

Think in advance

 

Media website

Marketing / press pack

 

Avoid emails after Friday afternoon

 

What is the media and what are they looking for?

  • Purpose of the media
  • Job of a journalist / media outlet
  • Readership
  • Media outlet = bottom line, currency driven
  • Journalists = content / story driven
  • Editor – a bit of both

 

If PR projects provide value to journalists / editors, they welcome it because they don’t have the team, resources and they need quality content to publish.

 

How do you do PR on budget?

  • It’s all about blending
  • Clear strategy,creative approach
  • Creating and nurturing relationship
  • Measuring results
  • In short it’s all about story
  • Powerful storytelling will make you memorable relatable and visible
  • Build that relationship
  • Be relevant

 

Creating your story . including your backstory

  • Angles
  • Spin
  • What’s already news / whats out there .
  • How can we ride on its coat tails
  • Can we create a brand new story
  • And your backstory? It’s vital

 

Enrich your story

  • Do not necessarily focus on the product / process / manufacturing itself
  • Use backstory or focus on the effects, improvements in people’s lives with the product
  • Backstory selles your content

 

Idea: Start from a national story / issue (eg education / deprived of books)

https://www.ons.gov.uk/

 

Let’s think about

  • Organise your planned activities – creating a focussed calendar of planned activity
  • Be strategic – what is the purpose of your activity (what are your campaign objectives? )
  • What does success look like, be specific about campaign objectives

 

Task Months
Campaign objectives

1

2

3

 Increase brand awareness (Increase branded google searches by 20%)

Increase returning customers from 6% to 8%

Increase returning visitors from 21% to 25%
Website updates / blog
Press packs 1-2 pages

Half of it is about business, reason for being

These are the 3 things we’d like to talk about

Company, individual, 3 things

A press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organization or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for promotional use.
Press releases
Story angles
Forward features
Opinion pieces
Social media You can hunt journalists on social media and learn about what they are talking about. Twitter and Linkedin
Cost / time
Results

 

Do not send PDFs or hires photo directly. It should be easy to copy paste from the emali. They can ask for hires photo and you can use it to build the relationship. Consider most of the time they are checking on mobile.

 

Make it easy for them.

 

Do not send the story to everyone. Do not blanked email.  Target as much as possible to the editor / journalist level.

 

Twenty top tips for next year, etc

 

You can use google alerts to keep in track of published news.

 

How to

  • Develop a trustworthy and reliable relationship.
    • Treat them as your best clients who can refer best / most clients to you. How would you treat them?
  • Present information in a simple manner.
    • Put information right into the email / embed it. No PDF.
    • Always send an image. Not a stock image

 

Talking to the media

  • Formal v’s informal
  • The different types of interview
    • Face to face
    • Email webast video conference skype
    • On camera studio based remote feed
    • On the radio
    • Be mindful if you are going to be live
    • You can ask for questions to prepare. Not trying to look good, trying to look better.

 

Write a press release

  • Get it on paper … then shuffle it about
  • Just as at school… think beginning middle and end
  • If you need to write your headline first or last
  • Always write with your media’s audience firmly in mind
  • Make sure you include a “boilerplate” (editors notes) at the end which succinctly describes your company and clearly gives your contact details
  • Email it in a s part of the body of your email ie. not as an attachment that needs to be opened

 

Take the perfect press photo

  • Think about what story you’re trying to convey
  • Why would they use your photo
  • How is it different from the rest
  • Is it good enough quality wise to use
  • Tech specs
    • 300 dpi for a magazine
    • 150 dpi for newspapers
    • 72 dpi for online
  • What headline or byline would go with it?
    • Use filename as well