The "press" release gets waaaaaaaaaaay too much time and attention in this industry.
This is in part because it's been used and abused more broadly in recent years. The biggest issue is the assumption that a press release has to be distributed broadly if at all. And don't even get me started on the other reasons, like search engine tactics, direct to consumer content or a blind self-focus incapable of taking third party counsel.
FOR IMMEDIATE
A company may want to acknowledge an important milestone that's not big news...like a record number of days without injury. It's fine to write about it and to publish it in your newsroom. It marks the accomplishment, gives someone that cares a permalink to the information and all without burning out your hard-earned lines of communication with the media.
The bad pitch below is NOT even one of those examples. Words in ALL CAPS & BOLD are us anonymizing this steamy pile of an email.
>>>
From: DUDEDate: Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 2:06 PM
Subject: COMPANY Revamps Its Website to Facilitate Mobile and Tablet Users
---COMPANY, one of the leading SERVICE companies, has just launched a new, completely responsive website for its users, a first for any THIS TYPE OF service. With responsive design technology, this investment in the new design recognizes the huge number of ORDERS that COMPANY receives from tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices.
From: DUDEDate: Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 2:06 PM
Subject: COMPANY Revamps Its Website to Facilitate Mobile and Tablet Users
---COMPANY, one of the leading SERVICE companies, has just launched a new, completely responsive website for its users, a first for any THIS TYPE OF service. With responsive design technology, this investment in the new design recognizes the huge number of ORDERS that COMPANY receives from tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices.
Use of mobiles and tablets to look for STUFF THEY SELL has gone up and nearly 35% of visits to OUR WEB SITE now come through handheld devices. “We want our cell phone and tablet users to have a user-friendly experience when using the website on smaller screens. As a result of months of development and hard work, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new responsive website. Our primary objective is to provide the best user experience for reading our content as well as allowing users to download OUR PRODUCT easily, ” said NAME, the head of IT department at COMPANY.
The responsive site offers a complete range of THEIR services supervised by PhD qualified PEOPLE. Users can now access OUR WEB SITE from any device and location to order their LIST OF STUFF. OUR STUFF can be accessed through the WEB SITE pages on any subject and custom PEOPLE can be hired with just one click.
About COMPANY:
COMPANY is the leading TYPE OF service provider that offers quality STUFF to all those RELEVANT PEOPLE. The company promises to assign relevant PhD PEOPLE who have DONE THIS LOTS OF TIMES. COMPANY has helped over a million PEOPLE worldwide, each of whom can avail premium quality TYPE OF services for their LIST OF STUFF requirements.
______________________
COMPANY is the leading TYPE OF service provider that offers quality STUFF to all those RELEVANT PEOPLE. The company promises to assign relevant PhD PEOPLE who have DONE THIS LOTS OF TIMES. COMPANY has helped over a million PEOPLE worldwide, each of whom can avail premium quality TYPE OF services for their LIST OF STUFF requirements.
______________________
If you would rather not receive future communications from FLACK, please go to URLFLACK NAMEFLACK ADDRESS
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#trending: Our Company Sucks!
PR people need the chutzpah and insight to know when clients should be silent. I know why this company is pumped it now has a responsive web site. It was probably an issue that was impacting sales. And it was a pain in the neck to revamp the site. But most importantly, I also know this accomplishment is even less in the "who cares" category than a company launching a new web site. This is a variation on that infamous non-news release.
The news above screams "we're catching up." Having a site that works for your customers is, at best, the cost of doing business. I'm not even going to get into the rest of the reasons this pitch, pushed out by an email marketing platform, sucks. It's not even a pitch really.
#protip: Ask Why vs. What
What if you're the PR person refusing to send out information and you're challenged? It always goes back to asking about why vs. what. If a client orders a tactic. Stop right there and learn more about why the person is requesting the news release. What goal are they trying to achieve with it? In this case, if they're trying to lure back lost customers, that's a job for email marketing. This is a message for a very specific audience.
Be Strategic
News efforts should be focused on topics that ultimately reinforce a client's point of difference and, as a result, indirectly reinforce its positioning. If the news releases isn't tied back to a broader business initiative, you're wasting your client's resources and slowly decreasing the value of your media relationships. Unless it's crisis communications, don't broaden the focus of your lens to include news that, in this example, is arguably negative.
:: Kevin Dugan, @prblog
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