Jeff Rutherford» public relations

PR 101 – press releases – do you even need one?

jeff — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:10:35 +0000

During the first dot com boom, press release strategies for PR exploded in popularity. Dot com companies desperate for press attention pumped out press releases once or twice a week (or even more). Press releases about new hires, new buttons added to a website, new office pet policies at the company… It was out of control.

Consequently, a generation of entrepreneurs formed their opinion about public relations based on the part of the process that was visible to them – press releases distributed digitally by a variety of press release distribution companies. What many entrepreneurs and CMOs never saw were the short, one-on-one, relevant emails sent to specific, targeted reporters. Nor did they hear the phone conversations between reporters and PR professionals, again rooted in specific, relevant information of interest to what the reporter writes about on a daily basis – not desperate cold calls with information in which the reporter would never be interested.

History of press releases

Do you know how the concept of press releases began? Here’s a brief except from a SearchEngineWatch.com story noting the 100th birthday of the press release:

“On October 28, 1906, at least 50 people lost their lives when a three-car train of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s newly equipped electric service jumped a trestle at Atlantic City, NJ, and plunged into the Thoroughfare creek.”

That afternoon, Ivy Lee, who some consider to be the father of modern PR, created the first press release. The Pennsylvania Railroad was one of his clients. Following the accident, Lee not only convinced the railroad to distribute a public statement, he also convinced them to provide a special train to get reporters to the scene of the accident.

The New York Times was so impressed with this innovative approach to corporate communications that it printed the first press release—verbatim—on Oct. 30, 1906 as a “Statement from the Road.” In the weeks that followed, both newspapers and public officials effusively praised Pennsylvania Railroad for its openness and honesty.

PR would certainly be easy if the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, etc., just printed your press release verbatim, but we all know that’s not the case.

SEO press release strategies?

Following the explosion of press releases during the dot com boom of the late 1990s, a new SEO press release strategy grew up. It started in the 2000s and continues today. Some SEO agencies and consultants followed press release tactics to boost a site’s natural search engine rankings by issuing lots of press releases with great anchor text links to a company’s website. As is typical with most SEO strategies, there are other SEO experts who disagree with press releases for SEO. I wanted to mention the concept of press releases for SEO purposes. However, using press releases for SEO is almost completely unrelated to using press releases with the intention of interesting a reporter, journalist or blogger to write about your company.

Reporters don’t care about press releases

Do reporters care about press releases? No. I have many friends who are reporters (and personal friends that I don’t approach about my clients). When discussing press releases, I often tell clients. I’ve never, ever heard a reporter say, “I can’t wait to open my email and read all the press releases that PR people sent me.” It just doesn’t happen. Why? Because 99.9% of press releases are written in a formal, stilted tone. They’re overwritten and often bury the importance of the announcement in formal language. Despite the pleas of numerous PR professionals and David Meerman Scott’s excellent and impassioned Gobbldeygook Manifesto, CMOs just can’t help including industry buzzwords like “best of breed,” “robust,” etc. Reporters don’t read those words. It’s that simple. If they read the release at all, they literally mentally block out those buzzwords, and they try to decipher the formal language, as they ask themselves, “Is there something here that I should care about?”

If reporters don’t care about press releases, what should you do? Relevant, targeted emails and phone calls. Relevant = news that is of direct interest to the types of stories that a reporter writes and what they care about. If a reporter doesn’t write a personnel column, don’t ever send them an email about new executive hires. If a reporter only writes about a vendor from the perspective of a company using that vendor, with specific success stats, then don’t send the reporter news strictly about a vendor. If you’re a vendor or a PR person working a vendor, don’t pick up the phone or send an email to the reporter until you’ve got a client who is using the product ready to talk – and with some stats to back up what you’re saying.

5 Sentence Email Rule

If you’re sending emails to a reporter, remember the 5 sentence email rule. Don’t send a reporter a multi-page press release. Keep your email to five sentences. You can learn more about the five sentence email rule here and here. Reporters, more than just about anyone else, are deluged, bombarded, and inundated with emails. If you follow the 5 sentence email rule with anyone, it should be in the emails that you send reporters.

On that note, don’t forget the importance of your email subject line. Yes, reporters often delete emails strictly based on subject lines. Write, revise, and re-revise your subject lines until you have a compelling subject line that piques a reporter’s interest.

Finally, is there any use for press releases? Certainly. Press releases are very effective tools to convey information – not to reporters, but to potential clients and potential partners. When potential clients and partners reach your website and start exploring the “About Us” section, press releases can give them a very good idea of what your company is doing and what your products are capable of (in addition to your marketing/sales info).

How do you use press releases to market/publicize your company?

(The image for this blog post is from the Sweet Smell of Success from 1957. If you work in the PR industry and you haven’t seen this movie, stop what you’re doing and rent it now. From IMDB.com, “Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister’s romance with a jazz musician.”)

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Why Good PR is like Good, Smashmouth Football

jeff — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:25:05 +0000

Down, set, hut, hut!

The nights are getting colder. The leaves are falling. And more importantly, football season is in full swing again. (Let’s just hope the New York Jets, my team, can recover from their last two ugly losses).

What can PR consultants and PR agencies learn from football?

Strategic – if you’re a spray and pray PR firm, sending out tons of non-targeted emails, or sending the junior staff and interns running for the phones when a client is angry, you’re not going to be very successful. Sure, you may complete a few “passes,” and get an article written about your client every now and then. But, for the most part, you’re not going to succeed.

The same in football. If you walk out onto the field without a solid game plan, and your quarterback is just throwing the ball downfield, hoping that someone will catch it, you’re not going to win many football games.

Preparation – Research, plan, and prepare. It’s the same for football as it is with public relations.

When the Indianapolis Colts faced the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning watched every single Bears play for every game throughout the season – studying the small defense’s small details. When he hit the field, he knew exactly what to expect.

It’s been said a thousand – no, a million – times. Do your research before you pitch a reporter. Manning watched every single play for an entire season. How many articles do you read before you pick up the phone and call a reporter? One or two? How about six months worth of articles?

You should know exactly the types of stories a reporter routinely writes. If you read enough of a reporter’s stories, you’ll see obvious trends, interests, and you can probably figure out what the reporter is not writing.

Grind it out – It’s important to think about your client’s messaging, positioning, and branding. But, at the end of the day, PR doesn’t happen unless you pick up the phone or write a well-crafted email. Ultimately, good PR campaigns are won in the trenches – not giving up on a story, and making sure you pitch everyone who could possibly be interested in the story you’re telling.

The same can be said of football. Sure, you have explosive offenses that can score within 5 or 6 plays. But, many smart coaches know that one very successful key to winning games is in the trenches. Grind out long scoring drives on the ground to control the clock.

Have you done the hard work and preparation needed? Are you ready to pitch a story and succeed? Are you ready to hit the field and win?

Photo credit – Athens Banner-Herald (Online Athens)

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PR and Email Marketing: A Marriage Made In Heaven

jeff — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:00:50 +0000

The following story is real. None of the characters were made up. All names and events discussed are real. This post is a joint effort by DJ Waldow and Jeff Rutherford. You can find the same post on both http://socialbutterflyguy.com/ and http://jeffrutherford.com/. It’s the real life story of what happens when a PR guy and an email marketing guy connect. Enjoy.

Meet Jeff Rutherford: PR guy for Return Path (and other firms), and self-proclaimed “news junkie”, voracious reader, gadget enthusiast, and technology fan. @JeffRutherford Learn more about Jeff.

Meet DJ Waldow: Director of Community @BlueSkyFactory, U of Michigan alum, knowledge craver, sponge, lover of beer, coffee, and people and self-proclaimed Social Butterfly guy. Learn more about DJ.

Jeff and DJ first met over email. Jeff (PR) sent DJ (Blogger, Email Marketing guy) the following email:

This initial, seemingly innocuous, FYI-type message set off a series of email replies, forwards and general banter. Some of these exchanges were friendly; others a bit more animated. Saving you the (juicy) details, what it ultimately led to was the following:

DJ picked up the phone and called Jeff. They agreed that it was a series of misunderstandings on both sides. This is where the conversation could have (and often) ends. In this case, the “bad blood” turned into a positive.

The conversation turned to email marketing best practices and how they apply to anyone who sends out an email…

Talk to any reporter or blogger, and they’ll tell you the same thing – they’re bombarded with emails from PR people. Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief at Wired, routinely blacklists PR people who send him non-relevant press releases or announcements.

Unfortunately, many PR agencies get desperate when a client is complaining loudly about lack of press coverage, and they commit the same sin as desperate marketers – spray and pray (or “batch and blast” they say in email). They build lists of reporters, any reporters, load up a bulk email program and start hitting the send button.

Not surprisingly, the same best practices for email marketing also apply to PR people’s use of email.

Best Practices that apply to both PR and EM

1. Start with a good, clear subject line and from name. This will help get the email opened

Why this is important for PR
Reporters and bloggers are bombarded with email. High profile reporters for publications such as Fortune, Forbes, New York Times, routinely receive hundreds and hundreds of emails per day.

Amidst trading emails with sources, editors, and trusted PR contacts, reporters have to quickly scan numerous emails and mass delete. If a PR person doesn’t write a relevant, compelling subject line, their email will never be opened.

Why this is important for an email marketer
There are 3 main types of “email consumers” when it comes to open/delete/mark as spam decisions. The first group opens based on who the email is from (dont’ recognize, don’t open). The second bases their decision on the subject line (not interesting? delete.). The third are those that open every single email. There are also variations of all three depending on time of day, mood, etc. Bottom line is this. Take time to think about who the email is being sent from and what your subject line says.

2. Brevity rules. Keep your emails short and to the point. It’s 2009: Nobody reads anymore!

Why this is important for PR
Twitter and text message attention spans grow every year. If a reporter opens an email filled with dense verbiage, they’re simply not going to read whatever it is you’re trying to interest them in.

Figure out what you want to say and cut it to the bone, create succinct bullet points, and then edit it again, before hitting send.

Why this is important for an email marketer
I need to know “what’s in it for me” after a quick scan. If I’m getting bombarded with marketing offers, I don’t have time for them all. If you make me work to find what the email is all about, I’m gone. This is a similar concept to website design. If I can’t find what I’m looking for on a page, I’ll go somewhere else as I can be certain someone else offers it at the same, if not better price.

3. Relevancy – why should I care about this?

Why this is important for PR
As Chris Anderson noted in his blog post referenced above, he blacklisted PR people who emailed him press releases and information that were completely irrelevant to his interests. If a PR person can’t bother to research what a reporter is interested in (for example, Anderson has published two books The Long Tail and Free. It’s not too hard to figure out his specific interests.), they shouldn’t be sending emails.

Non-relevant emails sent by PR people are such a problem, the Bad Pitch blog has an endless supply of ill-conceived PR pitches to write about.

Again, PR people feel pressure from clients and start sending and hoping and praying some reporter “sees the light.” What they should be doing is pushing back with clients and brainstorming, rethinking whatever news they’re pitching in order to make it relevant for reporters to write about.

Why this is important for an email marketer
Again, it goes back to time and attention span. If you – the marketer – are not ensuring that this email is relevant to me, I’m not going to read it. Worse, I may even report it as spam. For example, if I am a University of Michigan alumni I don’t want to get emails about Ohio State (delete/spam). If you know that I’m a male, age 33 who has a history of buying downhill ski equipment and accessories, don’t send me an offer for a snowboard.

Use the data you have about me to personalize the message and the offers.

4. Frequency. Overmailing your list – or reporters – will reduce the effectiveness of your emails.

Why this is important for PR
The PR people who often get results for their clients may go months without emailing a key reporter. Yet, when the PR person finally has a good tip or story, the reporter opens their email within minutes. The reporter values that the PR person hasn’t wasted their time with routine announcements that the reporter will definitely not cover.

Inundating a reporter with emails isn’t going to increase the likelihood that they will respond.

Why this is important for an email marketer
This all depends on the individual consumer, but there are few examples of marketers who can effectively email at a high frequency. The general rule applies: If you don’t have anything good to say (email), don’t say (email) anything at all.

Subscribers who receive too much email from a marketer either ignore it (delete) or eventually mark the emails as spam. It’s not that they didn’t opt-in, they just no longer want to read your emails. Be sure to look at your metrics – open, click-through, convert – to learn how your subscribers are interacting with your emails over time. If you see downward trends, it’s time to take action!

Email Remains A Powerful Tool If Used Correctly

As we’ve outlined, there are many parallels between how PR people and email marketers use email. It seems odd to be writing yet another blog post/article about email best practices. Unfortunately, though, the ease of loading up an email is almost too easy. And the bottom line is the same – if you send a cookie-cutter mass email that has no relevancy, you won’t get results.

Ultimately, you won’t to succeed. Right? It may take longer for an email marketer to send a highly personalized, targeted email to a smaller list, but your results will likely be higher. For a PR person, you may have to fend off bosses and clients who want you to spray an email at any reporter/blogger/podcaster with an email. Yet, if you send 8-10 highly targeted, laser-focused, relevant emails relating to what the journalist has written about before, you may very likely see better results than sending hundreds and hundreds of form emails that end up marked as spam or unread.

The old cliche still applies – if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing it right. If an email’s worth sending, it’s worth sending it right.

Jeff Rutherford – PR Consultant, Jeff Rutherford Media Relations
DJ Waldow – Director of Community at Blue Sky Factory

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What would Edward Bernays be doing if he were alive today and working in PR?

jeff — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:54:59 +0000

What would Edward Bernays be doing if he were alive today and working in PR? Bernays is considered the father of modern PR. You can discover more about Bernays here, here, and here.

Bernays often indulged in PR “stunts,” a strategy that I’ve vociferously warned clients not to do. How hard is it to get a PR stunt on the Fox 5 Minute? What long-term value do you get out of that? How many people are going to think about your product or company from a 15-second blip on TV and radio, and maybe a photo online and in the next day’s newspaper.

Yet, like my recent post considering what Thomas Edison would be doing if he were alive and inventing today, I love playing “what if” and thinking about how various historical figures would act/react in modern situations.

Without further ado, here’s what I think Bernays would be doing.

1. Social media – Duh, you knew I was going to say that. Bernays would have loved Ashton Kucher’s race to 1 million followers. Because, regardless of what you think of Kutchner, he now has a media platform. An extremely valuable platform as detailed by Jason Calacanis.

I wager that Bernays would have cheered Moonfruit’s Macbook giveaway that made it to the top of Twitter trending topics.

2. Influencer marketing – whether it’s P&G pitching mommy blogs, or software companies targeting key vertical bloggers, Bernays would recognize the impact of influencer marketing on publicizing a product or shifting the conversation both online and off.

3. Politics – Unfortunately, Bernays used his skills at shifting public opinion for some questionable political causes, namely the United States – in conjunction with the United Fruit Company – overthrowing the democratically elected government of Guatemala. I think Bernays would be fascinated and a participant in today’s fast-paced political news cycle.

What do you think Edward Bernays would be doing if he were practicing PR now?

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Hello world

jeff — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:57:14 +0000

Why am I so late to the blogosphere?

Well, actually I’m late in actually writing a blog, but I’ve been actively involved with new media and blogs since they became widely known as blogs in 2002 or so. I work in the public relations industry, and in 2002 I was working at Trylon SMR. My team at Trylon SMR was at the forefront of pitching blogs. Yet, we prided ourselves on intelligent pitching – sending bloggers info that they would specifically care about.

As a result, we had a lot of success. Now, most of those co-workers at Trylon SMR have moved on to other PR firms in NYC. And, back in September 2006, I started my own PR consulting firm – Jeff Rutherford Media Relations. And, now I’m starting this blog.

What am I going to blog about? Well, I’m not 100% sure. But here are a few things. I’m passionate about the book publishing industry – and specifically the future of eBooks. I still have and use my old Gemstar Rocket eBook, and I have a Sony Reader as well. And, this past weekend, I downloaded Fictionwise’s eReader for my iPhone.

I haven’t bought an Amazon Kindle yet. The form factor of the Kindle still bothers me. Jeff Bezos is obviously in it to win it, so why would he turn his back on compelling design? Despite what any one may argue, Apple is still the undisputed leader in compelling design of consumer electronics and computers. Would Steve Jobs have approved the Kindle? We all know the answer to that one. He would have sent Bezos scurrying back to his cubicle following a horrible tongue lashing if he would have had the temerity to present the current Kindle design in a meeting.

So, this blog will probably spend some time exploring the future of eBooks, the future of book publishing as a whole. In my spare time, I’m a passionate reader – fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazines, and cereal boxes if nothing else is at hand.

What have I read lately? I just finished The Film Club by David Gilmour – a recent memoir about a Canadian journalist who spent several years watching movies with his son after the son dropped out of high school. I enjoyed this book, but I couldn’t stop thinking about and anticipating watching a lot of these classic movies with Zachary, my son who is 4 1/2 years old.

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block. Do you enjoy crime novels? If so, have you read Block’s three novels re: Keller, a hitman who is passionate about stamp collecting. If not, run, don’t walk to your nearest library or bookstore. Block is a master, and I guess that’s why he’s scheduled to receive a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America soon.

So, this initial post has gone on long enough. Stay tuned for more . . .

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