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Debunking the Public Relations Mythology: How to Generate PR an Editor Actually Reads
Having spent more than 20 years as the editor of eight different B2B trade magazines, ranging from meatpacking to medicine to commercial embroidery, I can testify to the following fact: Between corporate communicators, marketing managers and PR account execs, a mind-numbing overload of “news” arrives daily in the offices of virtually every media outlet in the country.
Too often it’s uninvited, unappreciated and worst of all, unread. For companies clamoring for the publicity, sending out news releases becomes a frustrating and frequently fruitless exercise that nets them exactly zero in terms of exposure and recognition.
This glut of seemingly worthless PR efforts has nurtured a culture of disdain among many senior managers and business owners. Why bother? they ask. We send out releases, but they don’t get picked up. The only alternative seems to be paid advertising – costly, unpredictable and poorly suited for many routine announcements.
There is another option: PR that works. But to develop a system that gets your company’s news items noticed, it’s necessary to debunk a few of the lingering myths that inhibit effective business communications.
Myth 1:Editors are too jaded by the endless stream of standard news releases and need something jazzy to stir up their interest in a company or its products.
Reality: True, the incoming flow from agencies and PR firms never ends. But do you want to know why so many editors and news directors develop terminal fatigue when they encounter the typical news release? It’s not just sheer volume; it’s the sheer irrelevancy of too many of them.
When I was editor-in-chief of a magazine called National Provisioner, we continually received news tips and product releases from medical supply companies and health-care product manufacturers. Hundreds of them annually. But the magazine was a specialized trade publication for brand-name manufacturers of meat, poultry and seafood products. None of us ever figured out why we kept receiving medical information, but apparently nobody at the originating agencies ever bothered to check out who we were. Had they done so, they would have discovered that our rather antiquated title (the magazine has been published continuously since 1892!) referred to food processors, not health-care providers.
The moral of the story is that relevance matters. When there is bona fide news of interest to the audience, any professional editor or news director welcomes legitimate news releases. Just make sure the right person is receiving it.
Myth 2:Phone calls are a waste of time.The last thing an editor wants is a phone call from some PR “flack” touting yet another product or promotion.
Reality: It’s true that useless phone calls are an aggravation we all could live without – on or off the job. But let me tell you a secret: Most editors, even at major consumer magazines or high-powered media outlets, love to talk. Chatting for a few minutes with somebody who has something to say is a welcome – dare I say, wonderful – change of pace from the hard work of filtering the flood of information that flows across the typical editor’s desk. As long as it’s a substantive conversation that’s leading somewhere, most editors are happy to spend a couple minutes discussing the relevance or even the background of your news event.
So where should your conversations with media sources be leading? Toward a potential story, of course. If the topic of your news release doesn’t spark your media source to consider further coverage, what you have isn’t news. It’s what we call infoglut, and it will be swiftly discarded, deleted or ignored.
Myth 3:In terms of gaining maximum publicity, the bigger your distribution list, the better.
Reality: Nothing could be further from the truth. Look – if the goal is to get the media outlets your customers or clients actually read to cover your company, a far better strategy is to pare your list down to those publications and news outlets that have a solid connection to the audience segments that matter. Then, take the time and energy to build a relationship with those editors and news directors, rather than just churning out yet another release. Reach out on occasion when you’re not selling a story and you’ll find that your ratio of hits to misses in terms of media placement changes dramatically.
Take it from someone who’s been on the receiving end of just about every type of marketing and publicity campaign you can imagine: a contact from someone who is not trying to get you to bite on a story but who actually listens to what matters to the editor’s audience, is like a cool drink on a hot afternoon – refreshing. And most appreciated.
Myth 4:Exciting promotional stunts and pricey giveaways – though expensive – are worth the price tag in terms of follow-up publicity and media coverage.
Reality: Having spent much of my career covering the food industry, I’ve probably received enough edible gift baskets or sample-sized cartons of new food products over the years to feed an entire city neighborhood. You know what happens to those goodies? The package gets opened up, placed next to the coffee machine and by the end of the day, the office wolves have devoured everything but the box they came in.
The exciting news event that accompanied your costly package may or may not get read. Or even noticed. The editor and their colleagues will appreciate your generosity, but whether you generate any media coverage still depends on the quality of your story – not the gift that accompanied it.
The bottom line is that proper public relations remains a cost-effective and efficient way to supplement your company’s formal marketing and advertising strategies. When done right, your PR initiatives can cut through – not add to – the clutter surrounding the media people you want to reach.
They’ll pay attention to your message.
And they’ll thank you later.
Dan Murphy, a Communications Integrator at Outsource Marketing’s Bellevue, Washington, office, now helps target communications from the other side of the media table – but he still misses those gift baskets!
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