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Article Check - How To Write More Powerfully For PR, Offline And Online
A friend who owns a dry cleaning store once said to me, "I have five key benefits for customers. How should I show them in an ad?"My reply: "Figure out the single biggest benefit or the one that appeals to most of your customers, and lead with that. Then, once you have the reader's attention, you can mention the other four benefits."What’s true for a dry cleaner’s ad is true for marketing communications in general. Every marcom piece -- whether it’s a brochure, web site, ad, case study, or e-mail blast -- must be written around a central theme. This theme is your top benefit or selling point. It’s how you differentiate yourself from your competitors.Your other benefits need to be brought up, too. It would be folly for my friend to only highlight one major benefit and ignore the other four. But a marketer has to be careful how he presents the subordinate benefits, or the reader will lose track of the main one.Everything Including the Kitchen SinkMany corporations write brochures and ads that take an "everything-including-the-kitchen-sink" approach. That is, they cram their ads full of all kinds of benefits in the hope that one of them will resonate with a reader. The result is that almost none of them do.Imagine yourself as the recipient of such a brochure. If the first benefit presented doesn't appeal to you, you would have no reason to read on.Picking one major benefit is sometimes seen as a ri
But the awful truth is the same document (paper or electronic) really does get sent out to the press. And quite rightly they ignore it, once again because it is of no interest to the readership of th
I recently became involved in a conversation with a researcher who belonged to the Performance Management Group of a leading business school.Being curious I had to ask exactly how it was that her group actually “managed” performance.She told me that the work of her group centred around finding a way to measure the performance of the workforce such that when the workforce strayed from norms or targets laid down by management, management could use the collected data to drag the workforce’s performance back to what they believed it should be.I was struck by the peculiar nature of the object of their research,The Holy Grail for her group appeared to be the discovery of the numerical tool that would allow “The Manager", the person with the least hands on experience, to have the ability to control the people with the most hands on experience, the workforce,This led me to ask the question, what advantage could we expect if we allowed the most experienced people to be guided by the least experienced people? It sounds like a recipe for disaster.For much of our industry it is.Since the days when business became a subject that could be taught in schools, students and staff alike have been looking for the strategy that could be taught to allow managers to control the workforce.The performance management group is the tip of that iceberg.Today’s management strategies are all grounded in the same philosophy and
We trashed them because all but the odd one or two were ill-considered, highly subjective, barely camouflaged advertising copy that had about as much editorial news value as last week's shopping list.
Why am I telling you all this? Because despite the fact that this happened many years ago, it's still happening today. Both offline and now online editors continue to laugh sardonically at the self-promoting garbage they receive from corporate sources exactly as my Dad and I laughed umpty-dump years ago. I salivate just thinking about how I could spend the fortunes wasted on those releases and photographs over so many years.
And why does this continue to happen? I believe it is because the organizations who send out this stuff - particularly their financial managers - just can't get their heads around the difference in culture between what they want to say, and what editors need to deliver to their audiences. Good PR advisers try hard to compensate, but ultimately it's the client who pays their fees, and if the client insists on issuing garbage there's not much a PR adviser can do other than resign the business.
Time after time after time I'm called into companies and asked to comment on why the PR coverage they get in the media is so poor. 99 times out of a 100 it's because they've issued press releases that are only of interest to themselves and their bosses. And yet when I point this out to them they can't understand it. "But our development team worked 14 hours a day for three years to win that contract!" they shout indignantly. "And the CEO had to cut short his vacation in Turks & Caicos just so he could sign the documents by the deadline! I mean, it's the most important thing to have happened to us in the history of the company!"
"I know," I croon soothingly, "but those points aren't of much interest to the readers of your regional business press, or your trade press for that matter."
"Well, maybe not," they reply. "But they are very relevant to us, and to our shareholders. That's why we made such an elaborate issue of those points in the press release."
Ah, I think to myself as I gaze out of the window to see if my creatively-parked car is going to attract the attention of passing traffic policepersons. Here is another problem we encounter with press releases. It's called "when is a press release not a press release?" The answer is, when a press release is to be used to impress all sorts of people who are not members of the press. Only we want them to think that this is what the press will write about us, so we put it in a press release. That would be okay as long as that's as far as it goes.
But the awful truth is the same document (paper or electronic) really does get sent out to the press. And quite rightly they ignore it, once again because it is of no interest to the readership of the
If you have been considering entering into the healthcare industry as a professional nurse, here are some points to consider….Nursing careers encompass a wide range of activities related to the field of delivering healthcare. As pure healthcare professionals employed in hospitals and similar other healthcare units, people in nursing careers cater to treatment, safety and recovery of acutely or chronically ill or injured people, health maintenance of the healthy, and treatment of life-threatening emergencies in a wide range of health care settings.Additionally, nursing careers also span many non-clinical functions, such as medical and nursing research, forensic research, nursing education, medical insurance, serving medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and so on.In the United States, it is estimated that nursing careers of about 50 percent of nurses start at hospitals of all hues. Indeed, hospitals remain the largest employers of registered nurses. But there are other avenues for promising nursing careers, some of which are enumerated below:• Working in specialized healthcare units and long-term care facilities (hospice nursing, standalone nursing homes, patient rehabilitation, etc.).• Assisting medical specialists like surgeons, ophthalmologists, obstetricians and others.• Nursing-on-call on private duty for home patients (home health agencies).• Serving in outdoor community health clinics.• E
And why does this continue to happen? I believe it is because the organizations who send out this stuff - particularly their financial managers - just can't get their heads around the difference in culture between what they want to say, and what editors need to deliver to their audiences. Good PR advisers try hard to compensate, but ultimately it's the client who pays their fees, and if the client insists on issuing garbage there's not much a PR adviser can do other than resign the business.
Time after time after time I'm called into companies and asked to comment on why the PR coverage they get in the media is so poor. 99 times out of a 100 it's because they've issued press releases that are only of interest to themselves and their bosses. And yet when I point this out to them they can't understand it. "But our development team worked 14 hours a day for three years to win that contract!" they shout indignantly. "And the CEO had to cut short his vacation in Turks & Caicos just so he could sign the documents by the deadline! I mean, it's the most important thing to have happened to us in the history of the company!"
"I know," I croon soothingly, "but those points aren't of much interest to the readers of your regional business press, or your trade press for that matter."
"Well, maybe not," they reply. "But they are very relevant to us, and to our shareholders. That's why we made such an elaborate issue of those points in the press release."
Ah, I think to myself as I gaze out of the window to see if my creatively-parked car is going to attract the attention of passing traffic policepersons. Here is another problem we encounter with press releases. It's called "when is a press release not a press release?" The answer is, when a press release is to be used to impress all sorts of people who are not members of the press. Only we want them to think that this is what the press will write about us, so we put it in a press release. That would be okay as long as that's as far as it goes.
But the awful truth is the same document (paper or electronic) really does get sent out to the press. And quite rightly they ignore it, once again because it is of no interest to the readership of th
Each of us has three options for handling responsibilities. The choice we make is one of the most powerful determinants of the degree of career success we experience.One option is to avoid responsibility whenever possible. That is the G. I. Joe response. Recruits learn early that unless they want to make a career of the military, "don't volunteer."A second option is to accept responsibility when it is thrust upon us. The commonly accepted wisdom is that this is the road to success.But wise careerists understand that merely accepting responsibility is not enough. The real key to getting ahead of the competition in the world of organizations is to aggressively seek responsibilities.Each of these options produces its own predictable results.To just avoid responsibility means at best to stay in place and in time to drift downward into the routine of bureaucracy.To accept responsibility is to advance in lock steps with a lot of other people in the pack who believe that is enough to satisfy their ambitions.To seek responsibility is the way to move ahead of one's peers.The upwardly mobile person, however, also knows that the reach for responsibility must never exceed the grasp – the ability to handle it.BE SURE YOU CAN DELIVERPromise only what you can deliver and deliver what you promise is wise career advice.The irresistible urge to seek out and take on more and m
Time after time after time I'm called into companies and asked to comment on why the PR coverage they get in the media is so poor. 99 times out of a 100 it's because they've issued press releases that are only of interest to themselves and their bosses. And yet when I point this out to them they can't understand it. "But our development team worked 14 hours a day for three years to win that contract!" they shout indignantly. "And the CEO had to cut short his vacation in Turks & Caicos just so he could sign the documents by the deadline! I mean, it's the most important thing to have happened to us in the history of the company!"
"I know," I croon soothingly, "but those points aren't of much interest to the readers of your regional business press, or your trade press for that matter."
"Well, maybe not," they reply. "But they are very relevant to us, and to our shareholders. That's why we made such an elaborate issue of those points in the press release."
Ah, I think to myself as I gaze out of the window to see if my creatively-parked car is going to attract the attention of passing traffic policepersons. Here is another problem we encounter with press releases. It's called "when is a press release not a press release?" The answer is, when a press release is to be used to impress all sorts of people who are not members of the press. Only we want them to think that this is what the press will write about us, so we put it in a press release. That would be okay as long as that's as far as it goes.
But the awful truth is the same document (paper or electronic) really does get sent out to the press. And quite rightly they ignore it, once again because it is of no interest to the readership of th
A recent study undertaken in the global market for accounting outsourcing operations has found out that accounting outsourcing is like to grow at more than 9% annually and is likely to exceed $47.6 billion by 2008. Are still in dilemma, whether you should undertake this business process or not? Well, one look at the statistics and I am sure this problem will be easily taken care of. If you have not undertaken accounting outsourcing till now for your business, you must do this now. Outsourcing in fact makes the entire process of handling your work easy, simple and hassle free. India accounting outsourcing is in fact the best way of doing any kind of outsourcing work and not only accounting outsourcing.India is one of the most favored destinations in the world for outsourcing work. There are many reasons for this and the primary reason is that India has an enormous pool of talented professionals in India. There is no dearth of technically qualified individuals and the best part about this is the cost of labor so also cheap. So a combination of talented professionals along with affordable cost of hiring these professionals surely makes this entire process of India outsourcing accounting beneficial for all types of businesses. However, you must be a little careful about the type of company that you hire to do your accounting outsourcing work.There are many firms operating in the field and you need to choose one company that provides the best services
"I know," I croon soothingly, "but those points aren't of much interest to the readers of your regional business press, or your trade press for that matter."
"Well, maybe not," they reply. "But they are very relevant to us, and to our shareholders. That's why we made such an elaborate issue of those points in the press release."
Ah, I think to myself as I gaze out of the window to see if my creatively-parked car is going to attract the attention of passing traffic policepersons. Here is another problem we encounter with press releases. It's called "when is a press release not a press release?" The answer is, when a press release is to be used to impress all sorts of people who are not members of the press. Only we want them to think that this is what the press will write about us, so we put it in a press release. That would be okay as long as that's as far as it goes.
But the awful truth is the same document (paper or electronic) really does get sent out to the press. And quite rightly they ignore it, once again because it is of no interest to the readership of th
With the technological and conceptual breakthrough that internet has offered, internet advertising has become a full time employment option not only for companies, but for persons like you and me alike. Because most companies choose to go online with their businesses, the immense market that online advertising offers is like a new gold rush.There are two primary ways to advertise on the Internet:1. Register your Web site with major search engines so Internet visitors can find you;2. Place an ad banner for your site on another Web site that has a lot of traffic (viewers).Ad banners allow viewers to link to your site when they click on the banner. Internet Advertising Advantages Relatively cost-effective. The costs can also be independent of the size of the audience. For example, a Web presence will cost the same regardless of how many viewers your site has. (You will, however, need to make sure your Internet Service Provider can handle the volume of viewers you anticipate having.)Advertisers can target specific types of viewers by positioning an ad banner on related Web sites. For example, if you're targeting people seeking information on a specific topic, you can purchase ad space on Web pages that are related to this category in the major search engines (Yahoo, Infoseek, Lycos, WONET - The Women's Online Network, etc.).So, an organic herb farmer selling through mail order might advertise through the organic foods or g
But the awful truth is the same document (paper or electronic) really does get sent out to the press. And quite rightly they ignore it, once again because it is of no interest to the readership of the publication concerned.
For Heaven's sake, you folks who do this sort of thing, please grow up and face reality. If you want to promote your achievements to your share/stockholders or staff or suppliers or whoever, then just go ahead and do it and dress it up in "press release" costume if you must, although I don't think that fools anybody.
But whatever you do, don't send it to the press - and don't kid yourself or anyone else that to use the same document for both purposes is a way to economize. It's a sure way to shoot yourself through the foot and indirectly could cost you a fortune.
If you want to get coverage in the media then you must forget all elements of self-congratulation. Whatever information you send out has to have something "in it for them" (the audience) - something new, interesting and relevant. It doesn't have to be earth-shattering, just worth reading.
If your organisation has done something brilliant and you're proud of it, by all means say so; just be sure to emphasise what's great about it for the audience and/or the rest of the world, not merely for yourselves. Let the facts tell the story. If your organisation genuinely deserves to be congratulated, it will be.
And you don't simply have the audience to consider in this case, because unlike the forms of communication you control, with media coverage the decision of whether or not to transmit your message rests with someone else - usually the editor. Editors and journalists are either very busy or very lazy or both (and don't chastise me for admitting that, guys. I've been there, done it, got the T shirt and drank too much in the brasserie at lunchtime too.)
If you supply them with material they can see is relevant to their readers and preferably is usable with the minimum of editing, they will warm to it a lot faster than something that may hold a grain of interest but will take someone a whole evening to rewrite and several phone calls or e-mails to check for accuracy.
Try to match the style and writing approach of the publication. If you're sending a release out to several publications that circulate among the same readership, then one release should be relevant to all. But if you're aiming at different press groups - say the trade journals and the business pages of the regional dailies - you will need to rework the approach of your press release according to the different audiences.
You'll usually find that the basic core of a press release can remain pretty well the same across all media groups, because it consi
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