Reds Marketing Tips

Reds regularly creates Marketing Tips for users who would like to increase, and perfect their marketing campaigns.

Using press-releases for free advertising and publicity

Brief your staff - have a policy, especially for crisis situations. If you court press attention makes sure your staff are aware of your positions and policies. Ideally, make someone in charge of press contact, so that other staff are not forced to comment. All newspapers need press releases to help fill their pages. Local papers particularly need news submitted by the local community or they have to pay more for journalists to go out and get news. Look through your local papers and magazines to spot the PR material submitted by commercial organisations. This will encourage you as to how easy it is to provide 'news' stories for the press. Local TV and radio are also amenable to PR, but they're a bit more choosy. Nevertheless bear TV and, certainly radio, in mind for anything going on in your business of local interest or 'novelty value. Get the local editorial contact names and numbers. PR 'news' must be submitted to the news department (editorial department if it's a magazine) of the publication concerned. They like faxes in preference (it's more current) to post material that is notoriously unreliable, so don't be put off if your success rate in getting material published is a lot less than 100%. Be aware that the journalists will alter your copy, so don't agonize over the precise wording, but do enough to make it interesting and newsworthy. Generally, journalists prefer to deal directly with organisations rather than their PR agencies, so don't be shy. Remember...

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