Get Your Press Release Out There
… and into the Right Hands
Distributing your press release is just as important as writing it if you want it to be seen, and more importantly, written up in the media.
Follow these tips and reach your goals quicker and with more success:
- Target your audience. Only contact editors who write about your industry or topic. If you send your story to the wrong editor the only file it will end up in, is the “round file.”
- Don’t send your press release to a “nameless editor with no interest in your topic. It too will get released to the “round file.”
- When you do discover which editors cover your topic area, find out the best way to send it to them. For some email is optimum, others prefer faxes and some still do prefer to receive “news” via pony express (snail mail).
- If you do send your releases via email, never send with an attachments – let me repeat that, never send an email to a journalist with an attachment (unless they ask for it that way). It will be deleted.
- Unless the editor specifically asks for follow up, don’t! With the hundreds of press releases they receive, it will only annoy them if you call and ask if they have received it. If you wrote your release well, sent it to the correct person in the way they expect it to be sent and you made it compelling enough to want more information, let your press release do its job.
- Check editorial calendars and deadlines. And adhere to them. If you send a release to a magazine about an event taking place after their deadline, you are wasting your time – and theirs. Ask the media how much lead time they need to properly research and cover a story.
- Post your release to your site so it can be found there by journalists “looking” for information on your topic.
- Be sure and update your website before sending your release especially if you are writing about information to be found there ~ journalists will often go there first for more information before contacting you.
Add comment September 8th, 2008