Marketing for Success - Mike Vilimek

How to Get the Media to Write About You

The first thing you need to realize is, all high profile journalists, editors and bloggers (yes, don’t forget about bloggers, they can have as much and often more influence over your publicity than main stream media) receive dozens or even hundreds of news releases, announcements and story pitches every day. So how do you get noticed?

A common tactic by some is to send out generic story pitches to as many influential people as you can. This “PR spam” is as annoying as the spam in your personal email inbox, and just as ineffective.  Not only is it ineffective, it can brand your company in a negative manner.

The best place to start is by doing some basic research. Find the most influential people writing about you, your competitors, your industry or a complimentary industry. Read their pieces and get an understanding of what interests them and who they’re audience is. Then, create a unique pitch that explains why you feel their readers would be interested in your story. Include references to some of their previous work and show how your story relates.  

Remember, all journalists/bloggers are looking for great story leads. Help them find yours by contacting them with a personalized, smart pitch that they will actually want to write.

 

Writing for Your Buyers

When writing press releases, blogs, or website content, it seems too many companies use words and phrases that mean nothing to their most important audience, their buyers. Have you used the following terms in your recent communications? Flexible, robust, world class, cutting-edge, groundbreaking, turnkey, the list goes on and on. Do you think these terms mean anything to your customers? Well they don’t. They are so overused and meaningless; they don’t provide any value in your communications.

Every time your company communicates with the outside world, regardless of the medium, use it as an opportunity to connect with your buyers. Think of the problems that your customers face and the language in which they would use. Communicate less about the features of your product and more about solving your buyers’ problems. This will also improve your visibility in search engines, as potential buyers will search for solutions to their problems using their own language. Can you image someone searching for a turnkey, flexible, robust solution? I don’t think so.

Before releasing any content, always ask yourself, “Am I writing for my buyers?”