Sending out a press release? Do it right!

Even though I'm in radio advertising now, I remain a member of a PR newsgroup, because "you never know" and because I remain entranced with Public Relations as part of the marketing process. As I was reading today, I came across a post that led to the blog to the editor of Wired Magazine.

The upshot is that the editor is ticked off at all the spam he is getting from so-called professional PR people who do not do their research and pitch inappropriately. He's published the email addresses of all those who have done so in a month. It's nuts how long that list is. I'm not saying he was right in publishing the list, but I do feel his frustration at getting unsolicited and unwanted emails from people who really ought to know better.

It's a valuable lesson for those in small business who are submitting their own press releases and hoping to get coverage. You must take the time to build a list of your own and develop relationships with the editors and reporters that you are pitching to.

I don't mean you have to personally go through and make contact with each person you are going to pitch to and make friends with each one before you can start your PR campaign. That would be nuts and would prevent anyone from ever getting to the part about sending it to the targeted publications that are most likely to net coverage.

However, you should at least go through any list that you have not personally compiled (whether it's been provided for you or come with software or you've bought a list) and check the websites to make sure the address is still legitimate. Poke around for a few moments and make sure they are the right target market for your news.

Yes, it's time consuming. There is no arguing that. It's why I gave up distribution long before I gave up writing press releases. I personally could not charge the prices it would have taken to cover the time it takes to create a good distribution list to my target market of small and home based business, so I stopped offering distribution. It's part of the reasons PR Firms charge big bucks, because of the time spent researching, cultivating and developing working contacts for their clients. (Technically, I have not stopped providing press release writing and tweaking - but I don't do it as a full time component of my business anymore...but I digress.)

However, no matter how time consuming it is to develop the distribution list initially. It's worth it's weight in gold to be communicating with people who actually want to read about your business news. You have a much better chance of getting featured when you follow the rules and take the time to do the job right.

Building your list can be done slowly. It doesn't have to be done all at once and suck up all of your available time prior to sending out your first release. Start small and add to your list with each subsequent release.