Press Releases tend to be the least understood marketing tool, especially in the age of the small business. New business owners have a foggy idea at best on how to promote their services, and while concepts like traditional print advertising and Internet marketing have become mainstream, generating publicity from media contacts remains a secret art.
The current scenario? Business owners have to pay hundreds of dollars to get press releases written and distributed for them, while not grasping the fundamentals that go into the many steps of preparing, writing and distributing a press release. In fact, as advertising models evolve to include cost-benefits analysis, people are stymied by the fact that despite the promised success, very few people actually end up benefiting from a press release. And all this, as they say, for just one page of newspaper-style talk. Surely something is not right.
What is a press release?
A press release (or media release) is an exercise in public relations. In other words, it is a promotional tool. However, contrary to how traditional methods of marketing work, a press release would be considered ‘indirect promotion’. So, what is a press release?
It is an announcement made to the news media for the purpose of drawing attention to a specific event within your company. Simple enough. If this sounds new to you, pick up a newspaper (or log on to Google) and check for any news that involves a company. Remember when the launch of the new Xbox was announced? Through a press release. Check the financial section and read about the earnings / profits reports of different companies. Yep, press release. How does the news of company mergers come out to the public? Press releases again. How do the newspapers pick up information on new products and services every day? It is all because of press releases.
A press release is a powerful media communication tool. A little further on I will talk about how to determine whether an event in your company warrants a press release, but first let us look at how press releases work.
More about the process of writing a press release in the next post
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