It’s Not Just a Press Release

Suzanne Tormollen of Atingo is a 13 year public relations veteran of the tech scene who has worked with many venture-backed companies in the Austin area as well as companies such as Dell. Suzanne is a new contributor to Startup Houston.

In my last posting, I wrote about how in a down economy companies should be executing focused and tactical PR campaigns to maintain industry awareness.  This time I am going to focus on one aspect of every PR campaign, the press release, and how companies can use this key PR activity to their fullest advantage.

The press release is one of the most used PR tools.  It’s a quick article written in the news style that promotes a recent accomplishment for a company such as a new customer, partnership or product, a new executive hire, or it can tout something as simple as a move to new office space.  While some companies look at advertising as way to promote some of these same accomplishments, a press release can be just as persuasive, and more cost-effective, if written and distributed in the correct way.

Unfortunately I see too many companies that view the press release as just that, a document with words to post to the company web site.  Many companies are missing a huge opportunity to leverage a simple, yet effective, means of communication.  Every press release should be viewed as a strategic announcement and a set of predefined objectives and strategies should be created to achieve your desired results.  The end game for all press releases is to increase industry awareness by having the news accepted and published in a variety of forms such as newspapers, magazines and Internet sites.  Frankly, this can only be accomplished if a clear strategy is created.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help create a strategy that will result in success for your next announcement:

• What are your goals for doing this press release?
  Maybe you want coverage in a vertical trade magazine for your new product, or a TV interview to raise awareness for an event you’re hosting or coverage in local newspapers to help with recruiting.  The purpose of most press releases is to connect with the media and gain some kind of coverage that will be viewed by your customer, investors and partners.  Determining what kind of coverage you want and from what media outlet will help create a focused announcement strategy with desired results.

• Who is the intended audience for this news?
  Most companies view the audience of a press release to be potential and current customers, investors and partners, for example.  But, there is also another primary recipient of a press release – the reporter.  When thinking about this question, it’s important to keep in mind what publications and news outlets you would like to influence with your news.  Which outlets would your customers, partners, investors be most likely to read.  And, which stake holder within your audience will be most influenced by the news.

• What message do you want to communicate?
  You may have an idea for a press release such as a new product or customer win but you also need to determine what key messages you want to communicate about that particular accomplishment.  For example, if you are announcing a new product, you’ll want to focus on the benefits that product brings to your customers as well as the features of the new product.  Remember to keep the messaging clean and concise and remember your audience.

• Is there anything unique about the news you want to communicate?
  With thousands of news releases being issued every day it’s important to think about what might be unique to your announcement. What will catch your audience’s eye when they see the headline of your release; what will make them read the copy; what message are you communicating that will make a reporter what to write about it.

• Is there a third party that can support your claims?
  It’s always a good idea to include supporting quotes in your news releases if you can.  If it’s a product release, find an industry analyst and/or a customer to validate your claims.  If it’s a customer release, see if that customer would be willing to be included in the announcement.

• What strategies do you want to utilize to communicate this news?
  Once your audience, goals and messages are defined you can begin to develop a distribution strategy.  This can include news wire distribution, posting to your web site, sending directly to key reporters and analysts including phone call follow ups, etc.  It may also be valuable to create a communications plan for distributing to your customers, partners, and investors if appropriate.  With each audience comes a new key message that you’ll want to highlight so they see the relevance to their business.

You may be thinking this seems like a lot of work for just a press release.  BUT, remember.  It’s not JUST a press release. To work through this process, you can create a “strategy document” that specifically outlines goals, audience, strategies and results.  I also recommend including a time-line to ensure everyone deadlines are made and the announcement is issued at the right time.

When you combine a well written press release with a focused distribution strategy, you will gain a tremendous amount of return.  Just posting your press release to your web site or distributing it over a news wire will only cost you money and leave your targeted audience untouched.