Gordon Kelly, Journalist
Contacting journalists can be a daunting prospect if you’re new to approaching the media. However, building up strong relationships with the media is critical to overall marketing success and is a must for any business. To help understand how small businesses and start-ups can best approach the media, RunMarketing spoke to freelance journalist and blogger Gordon Kelly.
For more on writing press releases and pitching to media, visit RunMarketing’s Resources page.
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You must know the story by now but to recap, yesterday a freelance journalist withdrew a blog which “named and shamed” a huge list of PR executives whom the journalist claimed bombarded him with irrelevant emails. A lot were from big name agencies which will have spent thousands of pounds training their execs to do the exact opposite!
This is probably the millionth “hack knocks flacks” blog I’ve read in the last year and the complaints are always the same: badly targeted pitches, poorly-written press releases, irrelevant “news”, and so it goes on. I’ve written about it before.
It does raise some serious questions, though, because the PR industry receives widespread training – often from the horse’s mouth (journalists) – yet nothing seems to change. Is PR training rather akin to protest songs? They make a lot of noise, generate some short term action and someone makes a lot of money, yet years on the same problems still linger.
I’m not saying that journalists should tolerate bad PR – I’m not going to make excuses for under-pressure, often inexperienced execs, although it’s most likely their superiors’ fault for not reigning in expectations at the client end – but badly directed emails are an occupational hazard that can easily be logged as spam if they persist.
I’ve decided to retire from commenting on the “hack knocks flacks” front from now on as it’s been going on since I entered the trade in 1998 and will still be here in years to come, because nobody’s perfect. As PROs we can but ensure that we follow best practice so we can stand out and do not end up on any future name-and-shame lists…
For more on this subject, listen to this podcast with freelance journalist Gordon Kelly on pitching to the media and this podcast with Phil Dwyer of Brand X PR on drafting and distributing press releases.
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Uday Radia, Cloudnine PR
‘Newsjacking’ – the practise of calling journalists as news breaks to offer expert comment – is a proven way to generate immediate and impactful press coverage. But you have to be quick to get your voice heard!
In this podcast, RunMarketing speaks to Uday Radia, director of UK tech PR firm Cloudnine PR, about ‘newsjacking’ best practice.
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The press release is the most common method for widespread distribution of news by organisations of all sizes. Whatever you want to announce – a product launch, appointments, research findings or opinion pieces – the press release is a great way to get that news in front of the media.
RunMarketing’s comprehensive guide to writing and distributing press releases includes best practice advice on drafting and pitching releases and includes a sample template for a suggested press release format.
For more on writing and distributing press releases, listen to our podcast with Phil Dwyer of PR firm Brand X. To learn about how journalists prefer to be pitched to, make sure you listen to RunMarketing’s podcast with freelance journalist Gordon Kelly.
]]>A media kit on your website tells journalists – and other site visitors, such as strategic partners and customers – what they need to know about your company. It lets you communicate your latest news as well as other key information such as who you are, where you are, what you do, how to find you and how to contact you.
To ensure journalists can access information about your company quickly and easily you should create a dedicated page on your website – usually called ‘Media Information’ or ‘About Us’ which will contain the media kit. This page should be clearly identified on your homepage.
What should a media kit include?
A media kit should be updated regularly and contain:
- Company summary: What do you do? Product overview, Where is your office? Who are your customers? Company history. Condense this information in a ‘non-salesy’, Web optimised format and keep it to under 200 words
- Biographies: Senior staff and key marketing contacts should have one paragraph biographies accompanied by good photography
- Press contacts: Make sure the press contact’s email and mobile number are displayed as journalists often complain that companies do not hold adequate press contacts on the website
- Press releases: Include links displaying your latest news
- Recent coverage: Display a few links to good coverage your company has received
- Contact information: Include relevant email addresses, phone numbers and a location map: You can do this simply by finding your location on Googlemaps, copying the HTML code and inserting that into your site.
- Customer case studies: Have you got any great customer case studies? Why not showcase them here to demonstrate how your company can add value?
- Other resources: Do you have other content that would be of interest to the media? What about links to Slideshare, YouTube or any podcasts you’ve created?