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Business Link recently pointed out that in recent research only 60% of small businesses actively seek media coverage, despite 86% of those who regularly produced news releases finding it beneficial to their business.
Securing coverage in your local press, magazines and regional titles can really help raise the profile of your company. Whether you and your employees have raised a couple of hundred pounds for the local hospital or you are expanding into new sectors it can all get coverage - if you don’t tell anyone, who’s going to know about it?
There is an age old debate whether press releases or adverts are more effective in raising awareness. The answer is inconclusive, although adverts secure coverage for a fee whereas press release coverage is free. However there are no guarantees of getting your articles published, often you need to find a ‘juicy’ angle to get coverage. This is often the time to get in a bit of help from the experts.
Coverage from a press release will tend to be in the form of editorial and may be accompanied by a photograph making your story stand out on the page and look more interesting and creating more of an impact. Try it for yourself, pick up your local paper and open a random page and see what you notice first.
It is argued that there is a better perception about editorial written in a magazine or newspaper, the idea that someone else has written about you and your company, rather than an advert which you have paid to say good things about what you do. A press release may also give you greater coverage, for example how you have helped another company.
5 Top Tips when sending a press release
- The first stage is to identify your audience, this will make you more focused when deciding which publications you want to target.
- Buy copies of the publications you have identified to check what type of stories they feature.
- Personalise your story – people like to read about what other people are doing and how they have achieved their goals. If you are having an event invite the press along to take a photograph, or take one yourself and send it to them. Most publications are always looking for an interesting photograph.
- Don’t send a blind press release – research your publications and find out the journalists name for your subject area (there’s no point sending a sports story to the gardening editor, it’s just not relevant to them!)
- Always follow up your press release with the relevant journalists it might just draw their attention to your press release as apposed to the hundreds more they receive every day.
Recently First Impression was looking for publicity about the services they provide. It would have been difficult to gain coverage just about their services and so they would look at issues that kept cropping up in the press to see if any of their circumstances related to these issues to raise awareness.
One area that was identified was flexible working. First Impression’s manager has set up a room for her children to play in after school whilst she is at work and the dog comes along too! The story was covered in three local papers as well as the regional newspaper the Manchester Evening News. It was successful in highlighting First Impression and its services. Subsequent articles have also been covered about a 10 year celebration and the B2B exhibition.
First Impression can help raise the profile of your company. Call us now on 01457 857111 if we can help write a press release for your company or manage your PR campaign.