Give your brand the oxygen of publicity

It’s a thoroughly postmodern conundrum. So much choice, so many flavours, so many combinations, so little time.  You know that what you offer is unique and you need the oxygen of publicity to give it that extra push. Yet how can you make your brand stand out, and come to life for the journalist who you receives hundreds of press releases every day?

It’s a busy market place out there. Everyone wants their product reviewed and blogged about. And journalists, (like me) receive lots of press releases with shouty headlines and wild claims. But what does it take for me to click open?

Firstly, give good headlines. There’s no point carefully crafting a release only to ignore the header. No one sends hard copies anymore, so make sure that you copy the header into the subject line of your email. Make it punchy, be playful and remember that this is the first thing your journalist will read. Whatever your key message is you need to sell it here.

Make sure that you are accurate too, journalists can sniff hyperbole from a mile away. There’s no point claiming that you are the best in the world if you’ve just launched a product. You need to earn recognition and receive feedback first, so start slowly and describe the things that make your product unique and relevant.

Images are great, but don’t make the mistake of sending large attachments, they will just clog up the in box and infuriate your journalist. Make sure that your pic is medium resolution and is one that you would be happy to see in print or online.

What you are aiming for is for the journalist to copy your press release verbatim. This is common place these days as journalists become more and more stretched and the 24 hour news agenda demands quick turnarounds.  So, have a great spokesperson. Include a snappy quote, preferably from the head honcho, explaining why they’ve launched said product and where they want to go in the future.

 And if you’re feeling really clever, get a third party endorsement. Someone in the field who is happy to support your brand. It helps the journalist to have a couple of really good quotes so they don’t have to search around for another opinion.

Make sure that you include contact details. You’d be surprised by the number of releases that forget to include a telephone number, or email. Journalists aren’t a telepathic bunch and unless it’s the scoop of a lifetime will just move on to the next release if you don’t make it easy for them to get in touch.

And finally, keep to a page and no longer. Hold off the urge to write War and Peace. That’s not the point. Brevity in this case is the sole of wit.

If you need an innovative PR campaign, submit a brief now!

Chloe

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