Some wag once said “I was so poor, I couldn’t pay attention”. While most emerging businesses suffer from tight cash problems, that should not prevent you from going after favorable press coverage, especially as you get ready to roll out a new product or service.
Obviously, there are many benefits to hiring professionals to help you develop effective PR and marketing campaigns; however, if you lack cash, you don’t have to choose between hiring an outside firm or doing nothing at all.


Instead, do some of the work yourself. By following a few useful tips, you can go a long way toward gaining the valuable visibility you’ll need to be successful.

The Right and Wrong Way to Contact an Editor
Every industry has it’s own set of publications and chances are, you’re already familiar with most of the ones in your marketplace. Start by checking publication web sites for reporters’ names and their responsibilities. Make sure you will be contacting the right person. By doing this simple, preliminary task, you avoid unnecessary phone calls, delays, and confusion. If you do call, DO NOT leave lengthy messages. Editors hate them. And NEVER have inexperienced or unknowledgeable personnel contact editors. There is no better way to alienate an editor than to waste his or her time with an earnest young employee reading from a prepared script about the company’s “revolutionary” new product or “leading edge” application. These hapless individuals – often marketing assistants or junior account executives with PR firms – are known in the trade press industry as “script kitties” and editors reserve a special scorn for them.

Choose a knowledgeable, well-spoken person (or persons) within your organization to be the contact point and then make sure they are available when editors need them. Most loss of coverage occurs when editors are unable to contact company personnel. You can make this easier by having current contact information, including names, numbers, and email addresses listed on your web site. It’s surprising how many companies overlook this simple, but critical feature.

Proper Preparation of Releases
A properly prepared press release can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Start with full contact information and a release date at the top, followed by a benefit-based, concise headline that conveys immediate value. Avoid self-congratulatory backslapping that serves only to pump up your company. It has no value to the reader. The same goes for the body text. Too often companies make the mistake of dwelling on how great their new product or service is without putting it in context for the marketplace. What problem does it solve for the reader? What does it compare to? Why should the reader be interested in it? Forego puffery for solid, strategic information about your product, service, and company.

If you are preparing a product release that contains specifications and other technical data, editors welcome the use of bullet points – those lists of short, punchy phrases, often with a black dot in front of them. Editors are generally overwhelmed with coverage requests, so they prefer a short, sweet, and to-the-point release that puts a product or service in context quickly and accurately, with little or no jargon.