How to Get More Coverage for Your Press Release
Look at your email inbox, its filled with SPAM and more SPAM. Big journalists suffer the same problem, thousands of junk stories dumped on their desk everyday. But thats how people communicate now days? There is a better way to reach journalists that doesn’t involve expensive PR services, which can costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Large organisations, Fortune 500 companies, like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC, have professional staff who daily job is to wine and dine journalists. When they need a story in front page of The Times of London or far flung papers like Indian Express, they have a hundreds of journalists who they have diligently curried favour with.
Being a small company doesn’t mean you can’t get coverage in the most important papers. Small business has to be smarter than big companies, and its from the innovative spirit they become power players. Short of having Rupert Murdoch’s cell phone number, how can a small content producer break ground in the world of PR (public relations)?
The first mistake is cold emailing journalists that you don’t know. Emailing a general inbox at The New York Times is basically like emailing a trash can, no one will ever read it. The second mistake is phone journalists cold. You’ll get the brush off within five seconds, or they don’t even take your call. If you’ve ever worked in telemarketing, you’ll know how difficult it is to convince someone over the phone. Plus, journalists are busy people who are often away from their desks.
“Could I just send them my press release as a letter?” you might ask. Have you seen how slow the post is, and how quick the news cycle? A message that is current is one that is important. The only time it is appropriate to send a press release as a letter is when you have to send a demo product to journalists (they like getting things for free).
Dont’ give up; there is one way, often forgotten in a world of facebook and twitter, that is the backbone of communication in the newspaper industry. The fax machine. You’re grandpa may have used one and fax machines are used by every journalist at every newspaper in the world. For some newspapers, in countries like India and China, it is the only way international press releases can be reliably sent. Journalists might get thousands of emails a day, but only a few faxes. Faxing your messages makes it appear more important; it conveys and sense of urgency. Simply, the medium you messages comes in differentiates from others.
Faxing journalists is hard is admittedly hard. Newspapers don’t often publish their newsroom fax numbers, and it would take forever to find the hundreds of numbers one needs. Then there is cost of actually sending dozens or hundreds of faxes, plus the labour of feeding the same piece of paper over and over and hitting send.
Yet, there are services, like www.easypr.com which easily automates this process for you. You just upload your press release file, select which cities/countries you want to target and, like magic, you’ve faxed hundreds of newspapers. The newspapers will know the difference between a serious message faxed and junk email.
Learn more about cheap, fast and easy global press release distribution. Stop by EasyPR’s site where you can find out all about how faxing a press release can make all the difference for international coverage.