Reaching the Right Audience
A popular question that many people ask is, “Where is the best place to send my press release to get the kind of response I’m looking for?” Of course, sending a press release doesn’t guarantee a response at all, but evaluating the media you want to target can certainly aid in generating phone calls from reporters to follow up on your story. Too many times, the distribution of most releases boils down to nothing more than spam. To avoid this, decide whether or not the best media to receive your press release would be local, trade, or national to ensure that the right editors are receiving your press releases.
An easy way to judge if your release is best suited for local media is to look at what you’re saying in the release objectively and decide if a national audience is going to be affected by it. If your release is about the opening of a new company and how it’s going to spur the economy of the city or state, chances are your best bet is localized distribution. It’s not that the national media aren’t thrilled about the optimistic future of the area, but the reality is that it doesn’t affect the national populace. To narrow it down even further, what may be news in your city may not be news in two counties over. Also, if an event is going to be taking place in your area, people on the other side of the country aren’t going to benefit from knowing about it.
Distribution to trade publications, or specialized media, should be considered when your press release is going to have an impact on, or is in relation to, industry trends. Although the editor of a sports magazine may be interested in the discovery of a new cancer treatment, she probably won’t be able to use it. However, sending the same press release specifically to medical related publications can have a tremendous influence on the type of response and media coverage the release receives. You can also look at it from the other end. A press release that has to do with a shift in economic indicators can be of equal use and interest to a finance or investment publication. Combining distribution to different trade publications that are interested in what the release pertains to can broaden the reach and response the release receives without an editor feeling like her time was wasted.
There are some press releases that do deserve a national audience and national coverage beyond just local media and trade publications. While a press release pertaining to a promotion within a political action committee may be reserved for a political or government related publication, a person announcing their candidacy for President of the United States deserves national attention. The reason for this is because it effects, and will have an influence on, the decisions made by the national populace. Another example of this is a press release that covers consumer interests. If the news of a press release will change or alter the daily expenditures of consumers, it is definitely deserving of being sent to the national media.
Determining the proper distribution of your press release is one of the major keys to successful media coverage. Keeping in mind who your audience is, and formulating your distribution around the interests of that audience, will help keep your releases in the hands of editors who can use your release rather than those who put it in the circular filing cabinet. There are usually many sides and angles to one story, being able to put together separate press releases for local, trade publications, and national media will keep your company in the news, and editors with information they can use.
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