The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

Bill Glazer was a top direct response marketer until his recent retirement. Before that he used to run a high-end men’s clothing store in the Baltimore area. One afternoon he had a sprinkler malfunction which ruined many of his fine suits. He received permission from his insurance company to have a sale on the damaged goods. Bill used this disaster to issue a press release that was picked up by several newspapers in his area. His sales soared. He did not have to invest in advertising.

People read the newspaper for news. “No kidding!” you may say. “Tell me something I don’t know.” Well, actually, most marketers and public relations folks don’t seem to quite get that. In fact, they continue to write press releases that are not newsworthy. No one is interested in the fact that company X released a new product. They are not even really interested in your philanthropic efforts: The fact that so and so company gave to cause Y. Products and philanthropy are not news in and of themselves unless they tie back to some human interest story or some benefit the average reader would derive.

Don’t believe me, ask a newspaper editor. They want something that will actually make people do a double take and that they can make a great headline out of. Something that strikes curiosity. And that is what you should think about when writing a press release. I have had hundreds of press releases used by newspapers both here and in the US. I suspect that many editors are tired of explaining to marketers why their release was not carried in the paper.

A key to getting your release run is to use what’s going on in the news as an attention getter. So, for example, we just had a hurricane pass through here. Everyone’s mind is on the hurricane. I’ll bet a lot of businesses lost money on those days due to not being able to open. Yet they still had to make payroll. So if you were a management consultant you might want to write a press release on how to recover your business quickly after a hurricane. These types of tips would be read by your clients.

Or if you were in retail you might have a hurricane sale on goods and donate some of the proceeds to your favourite charity. While having a sale in itself is not really newsworthy, the fact that it helps a charity may be. Remember that if you get some attention to your business, and you did not have to pay for it in advertising space, you are ahead with each sale.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly at darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com