Press Release ideas

[MattRumbelow]

Hi all,
I run the marketing at a lone worker safety company and we are going to be releasing a new product under a new sister company this year.

I am currently writing a press release for the new product's launch and wanted to know if anyone had some suggestions on who to send it to?

The product is a B2C direct to consumers safety-tech product, aimed at under-35s). We will be collating lists of tech companies, news publications (including nationals, locals and university publications. We also are hoping to get in younger-skewing magazines.

Anyone have any experience with this area? Sorry if some of my details are a bit sparse, I'm having to be a bit careful until we launch, but I'll try to answer any questions you have!

Thanks!

 

[fisicx]

A question for you: how many press releases have you read in the last year? Of those, how many do you respond to?

I suspect the answer is close to zero for both.

Adverts on relevant news sites, blogs and forums will be far more useful. Also promote on the places your target customers hang out. Is it the sort of product an Instagram user might be interested in?

 

[MattRumbelow]

It's an understandable comment, but I would say that most Press Releases do not advertise themselves as such. How many seemingly independent articles have I read talking about the release of a new product or service? –Quite a few. It may not be the most ringing endorsement of modern journalism, but a lot of content out there is just copied and pasted from press releases.

But yes, it's certainly not the main place we'd use for promotion and, as you rightly pointed out, our main focus will be social media, as well as cost per click advertising.

 

[The Byre]

I used to run a news agency so I have had the displeasure of having to read thousands of PR sheets in my earlier years and still a few later on if they were interesting.

Nearly all PR sheets go into file 13. They are not newsworthy. They start with fluff like "Sony looks to the future . . ." and it's downhill from there. Either that or they are for a product launch that nobody in their right mind would waste copy-inches on.

We reported for trade mags in the UK and the US and so we were always on the lookout for genuinely new stuff - but most things just are not new. A new camera tripod or a new badged Chinese food mixer is not of any interest to anyone ever.

A new marketing strategy by a major player is news. For example, The Grocer reported it when Aldi and Lidl started buying TV ads for the first time. But a new range of cordless drills for The Middle of Lidl is not news, though when they reached some bonkers level of turnover for The Middle of Lidl, it was news.

Here are some things that are also not news - A new app. A new training programme. A new website. Yet another SaaS bookkeeping package. In fact, anything online is not news.

So if you have a Health & Safety product for the consumer - that very fact all on its own would be enough to have any reporter file-13 the thing. You cannot put that anywhere in the title or the strap-line. To do so would be to guarantee 100% failure.

Remember that the reporter that gets to read your stuff has 100 PR sheets to get through and has five minutes to go through all 100 of them. That's a few seconds for each one. He/she is looking for a story they can file so that they get to earn something. Reporters are paid by the word, so you'd better give them something that is REALLY worth reporting!

 

[MattRumbelow]

I used to run a news agency so I have had the displeasure of having to read thousands of PR sheets in my earlier years and still a few later on if they were interesting.

Nearly all PR sheets go into file 13. They are not newsworthy. They start with fluff like "Sony looks to the future . . ." and it's downhill from there. Either that or they are for a product launch that nobody in their right mind would waste copy-inches on.

We reported for trade mags in the UK and the US and so we were always on the lookout for genuinely new stuff - but most things just are not new. A new camera tripod or a new badged Chinese food mixer is not of any interest to anyone ever.

A new marketing strategy by a major player is news. For example, The Grocer reported it when Aldi and Lidl started buying TV ads for the first time. But a new range of cordless drills for The Middle of Lidl is not news, though when they reached some bonkers level of turnover for The Middle of Lidl, it was news.

Here are some things that are also not news - A new app. A new training programme. A new website. Yet another SaaS bookkeeping package. In fact, anything online is not news.

So if you have a Health & Safety product for the consumer - that very fact all on its own would be enough to have any reporter file-13 the thing. You cannot put that anywhere in the title or the strap-line. To do so would be to guarantee 100% failure.

Remember that the reporter that gets to read your stuff has 100 PR sheets to get through and has five minutes to go through all 100 of them. That's a few seconds for each one. He/she is looking for a story they can file so that they get to earn something. Reporters are paid by the word, so you'd better give them something that is REALLY worth reporting!

That's genuinely helpful advice and a good insite. And certainly, when we have had press around our previous offerings, it's because there's some tie in to larger news stories.

For instance, when we were featured in The Telegraph, it's because we spoke about how we help farmers and included the story of a farmer who was seriously injured at work and has since become something of an evangelist for what we do.

In another example, we got a rumbling of trade press due to partnering with a chain supermarket, with a significant amount of the story dedicated to the increase in abuse and violence that had emerged since the covid pandemic.

I imagine that these sort of stories go down a bit better to the editor who has to trawl these press releases?

 

[Deleted member 59730]

So if you have a Health & Safety product for the consumer -

People and people content make good PR. People having accidents are especially good.

 

[The Byre]

People having accidents are especially good.

Especially if they are really funny! In 2020, twelve people aged over 90 had to go to A&E because they'd fallen off playground equipment!

Then there's the couple who were injured whilst having sex on a water-slide - they slid off!

 

[fisicx]

People don’t want your product. They aren’t interested in you.

What gets people interested is benefits. If your product helps a 35 year old do something better, faster or more safely they might take a look. Sell the sizzle not the sausage. Don’t promote the product, show people the benefits. Which is why a press release is pointless.

 

[The Byre]

People don’t want your product. They aren’t interested in you.
What gets people interested is benefits. If your product helps a 35 year old do something better, faster or more safely they might take a look. Sell the sizzle not the sausage. Don’t promote the product, show people the benefits. Which is why a press release is pointless.

I agree with that, except the bit about PR being pointless. Without PR, the whole news pages of the trade press would collapse!

If it is a thing to stop farmers getting killed by cows, a PR sheet to a farming mag and websites is important. If it is to stop lumberjacks from cutting their legs off with the new Stihl 500i chainsaw, a forestry rag and/or website in the place to go. And so on!

 

[fisicx]

Indeed. But a 35 year old hipster won’t be reading the trade press. They are looking a YouTube, fb and so on. They won’t want to read a press release, they want to read how to do something they already do but better.

 

[MattRumbelow]

I think we actually have the possibility of being very high-interest. In fact, due to the recent (and very valid) conversations around public safety and violence against women, we're actually being very careful to avoid being sensational or disrespectful.

Perhaps calling this a 'press release' probably sent us down the wrong path, but I appreciate all of your comments on the validity of PR

 

[The Byre]

OK, now I get the idea. Mags and their websites for 18-yr-old girls (and boys BTW). YouTube video is very important! As @fisicx says - FB pages. Instagram and Telegram, Snapchat and all the others. Don't forget the dailies and the online dailies - Huffington, etc.

In all these things, you have to get it to the reporter that deals with teen issues, as well as the crime desk.

The product must be useable in a panic situation, so anything more than a one-button action is not going to fly.

 

[MattRumbelow]

OK, now I get the idea. Mags and their websites for 18-yr-old girls (and boys BTW). YouTube video is very important! As @fisicx says - FB pages. Instagram and Telegram, Snapchat and all the others. Don't forget the dailies and the online dailies - Huffington, etc.

In all these things, you have to get it to the reporter that deals with teen issues, as well as the crime desk.

The product must be useable in a panic situation, so anything more than a one-button action is not going to fly.

Very helpful advice, particularly around the desks that it's meant to go to thank you. And yeh, it's very usable in a panic situation.

 

[The Byre]

Very helpful advice, particularly around the desks that it's meant to go to thank you. And yeh, it's very usable in a panic situation.

I bit of a side issue, but I always tell people that security is like the joke about the two hunters who've lost their guns and are being stalked by a lion. One puts running shoes on. The other tells him that he'll never outrun a lion.
"No, but I can outrun you!"

The person, shop, whatever it is that you are protecting just has to be the harder target. Thieves and rapists don't like it when attention is drawn or the target is just a bit too difficult. There are always soft targets around for them to have a go at.

 

[ethical PR]

Hello Matt

You need to target media that are read by your target market - under 35's is much too broad. Are they male or female - high net worth individuals or is it a budget offering.

I would used your organisations media database to identify different media sectors that are relevant to your target market whether they by bloggers, HE media, youth media, influencers, trade, consumer, national and broadcast.

As you have sent out previous news stories I presume you must have media lists for your organisations media targets. As you have mentioned you are likely to have higher traction if you link your product launch into current news issues/trends which are of interest to your target market for your product. And to be able to send out products for testing to the media you want to target.