Advice(s) on Pess Release distribtion

[TMProject]

Does anyone know the correct format be sending a Press Release by email?

Should I have to:

• Send Intro and Press Release in same email?
• Send short-lined intro and ATTACH the Press release as an attachment?

Also, does anyone no any free/low cost PR Distribution lists I can use which have worked before you?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Advisor1]

I have used www.kladirect.co.uk before with great effect

They have best PR data and will even undertake the e- mailing for you for around £100

 

[Bob]

Might be sensible to get someone to proof read it before it goes

 

[TMProject]

Thanks for the feedback.

What about how it's sent:

Should I have to:

• Send Intro and Press Release in same email?
• Send short-lined intro and ATTACH the Press release as an attachment?

 

[ethical PR]

I have used www.kladirect.co.uk before with great effect

They have best PR data and will even undertake the e- mailing for you for around £100

Hi Advisor1 I have never come across this company in terms of press release distribution and you have to register to find out information on their website so I can't find out what services they offer.

Can you tell us more about which sort of media they distribute media stories to and what sort of media coverage you have obtained as a result?

OP - don't send attachments most media will block them

What is important is that;

• you tailor your story to the media you are targeting
• you research and identify email addresses for the journalist/pages you want to target
• you provide them with stories relevant to their readers - they are unlikely to be interested in the latest widget you have developed, the fact you have a new business (unless you are doing something unusual) etc
• you can send them story ideas, photo invites, press invites, blog pitches, photo stories, product shots or news stories

So for example if you were targetting Stylist Magazine which does 'week in the life of' type pieces of young women who have interesting jobs you could say - 'a young female member of staff is a master cheese maker and has a quirky sense of fashion (embed photo) I think she would work really well for your 'week in the life of' page, is this something that might be of interest?

 

[The Byre]

Wot the ethical one said, plus -

Journalists and section editors WANT to run your story!

NEVER FORGET these people have to make a living. They have mortgages to pay and children to feed. They need good stories, so that they can meet next month's bills.

BUT

You MUST send them a story. i.e. the whole thing must have a 'hook'.

A hook is that key to a story on which the whole piece hangs. That is the ethical one's master cheese maker.

"Sony looks to the future." is the classic non-story.

"Champion cheese maker develops new video chip!" is a story.

"Studio buys new piano!" is never a story.

"Andre Previn's piano comes to Scunthorpe!" is a story.

Also, make life easy for them, throw these poor guys a bone! Proper hi-res pictures taken by a professional photographer. Full background info, full pics, all relevant links and key contacts with telephone numbers both within the email and on a website page.

AND NO DOC FILES (or any other strange formats)!!!

These guys are on Macs and they need to place the story within a page in Quark or InDesign, that means just unformatted text and hi-res pics in CMYK as either TIFs or very high quality JPGs.

Imagine, you are section editor for the Daily Blast - the paper that rips the lid off! You need a feel-good for page 17. Time is short. It's three and your pages go to bed at five. There are several stories in your in-tray. One requires a quick telephone call and a visit to a website. The others require a write-up and a drive out to a location with photographer (whose costs will be against your section and therefore endanger your end-of-year profit bonus) and what info you have needs Microsoft Word that leaves all sorts of strange hieroglyphics when you do a simple cut-n-paste into Quark or ID.

Which one will help pay the mortgage?

 

[TMProject]

Thank you for the advice everyone! I now have some clarity on what to do and how to approach.