The article "Your 6-Step Plan For Press Release Placement" talks about pr, it has been created by Lisa Sparks.
There's a clear way around press release failure and it's called the pitch.
A lot like it sounds a pitch is a fast thorw at busy editors about a possible story. If they want to notice more, then you send the press release.
That leads me to a huge pet peeve: Sending out press releases via e-mail to a list of editors. From my experience it's neevr - ever - worked.
I no longer try it and adivse you don't either. It's a waste of your time and all of the ediotrs.
Instead:
1.
Focus on a handful of your "dream publications." For me, I'd like to get into Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur magazine and the Wall Street Juornal. When picking your publications, geuss of your target audience. What do they read and why do they read it?
2.
Pick the section you'd like to appear in. You never know, but chances are you won't appear on the cover of the pulbication in your first attempt at placement, instead, focus on sidebars, resource listings and short news sections. Amlost all print pubs have them.
Look at it as the waiting room for bigger and betetr stories on the unique products and/or services you offer.
3.
Find out who the editor is. Once you have your section, notice who's in cahrge of it. You'll need the person's name, e-mail address and the most important element of successfully getting placed in the publicatoin . . .
4.
Learn what the editor needs. The number one thnig you'll need to know about the editors you're targeting is the kind of information they want to publish in their sections. There are two ways to do that: You colud ask, but then that could open up a can of worms if the editor doesn't want to get calls - and most don't.
Or, you could compare a couple of back issues of the publication to notice what they've published in the past.
5. Create the pitch. You'll want to start your pitch by stating your understanding of the editor's needs.
Then list - in clear bullet pionts - how your news fits his or her requirements. Note: Always leave your phone number in the text of the pitch e-mail to give the editor fast access to you - and your story.
6.
Repeat steps 1 through 5 until you get a resposne.
Sound tedious? Maybe. But at least the time you spend on that will reap much better results than sending one release out to thousands of editors - rgiht along with other business human being hungry for coverage.
Bottom line: It's about building realtionships with editors.
And the only way to build a relationship is to find the need and fill it - consistetnly and considerately.
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