The Power of Press Releases

They're produced (and thrown away) by the millions, but as low-tech and commonplace as they are, press releases can do the basic job of getting your ISP known in the community.

by Jason Zigmont HowToSell.net [September 24, 1999]

Time and time again I'm asked "How can I do effective marketing on a shoestring budget?" If we all had a cash cow tethered somewhere, we could have fun sending people free coasters (that is what you use your AOL CDs for, right?), but we need to be realistic.

For many ISPs, the marketing budget consists of whatever money is left over at the end of the month, and every penny of it must be spent wisely. (This, by the way, is not the way I'd recommend you determine your marketing budget, but that's a subject for a different discussion.)

Put that shoestring to work
So, assuming that your marketing budget is of a magnitude roughly equal to the change collected from under your car seats, what do you do first?

Send out a press release. No, not about how broke you are, but about something new or special about your company. Did you . . .

• Just open a new pop?
• Recently reach a milestone in number of customers?
• Hire someone who is well known in the community?
• Make a donation of time or service to a local charity?

Press releases are probably the cheapest single source of publicity, but they are overlooked by many ISPs. The basic rules are simple:

• Have a catchy headline—IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
• Be sure to include some information that has a reasonable chance of interesting the editor
• Include your contact information
• Mail or hand deliver it to the appropriate people at your local publications

E-mails are too easily deleted, and faxes are typically dumped without inspection. But hard copy—if hand delivered or mailed in a neat, respectable looking format—has a better chance of being read.

Expectations & techniques
Press releases will not always be picked up, and if picked up will often appear in fragmentary form—perhaps no more than a headline and a couple of sentences. The reason? Press releases are a convenience for editors: They fill empty space and are usually cut to fit that space—drastically if necessary.

Tip: Anatomy of a Press Release
Put your most important information, concisely written, at the beginning of your release. Editors tend to start cutting at the bottom, shortening as much as they need to to make the piece fit. You can become more expansive as you get past the first paragraph or two. But don't make the mistake of making releases longer than they need to be to tell your story. Keep it short and simple.

Strategies
If you get in the habit of sending releases frequently, you and your company will gradually become familiar to local editors. Then, when you finally do something truly newsworthy, you're more likely to get coverage.

When contacting the press, you should start with your local weekly paper, as it is most likely to publish your release. Regional papers often need to fill space, and your press releases may work for them as well. It's touch to get a release printed in a statewide or national newspaper or magazine, and TV is even harder, unless it is something truly newsworthy—or you know someone.

Insurance policy?
This brings me to point about the press on which good old Harvey Mackay and I agree: Friends in the press are worth their weight in gold. Going out of your way to gain friends in the press is smart business—even going as far as to 'bribe' them with free services.

Such friends can help you out—not only in getting press releases into print, but also when you are truly in a jam. For example, what happens when your competitor prints something slanderous about your company? Your press buddies may not stop the presses, but they will at least help you to get your opposing viewpoint out, and possibly save you a lot of headaches.

Yours in service,
Jason Zigmont

—End

Read other business and marketing articles by Jason Zigmont