We cover the care and feeding of the press fairly exhaustively in The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, but there's always more to do and learn. In this spirit, we include some more useful tips on dealing with the press. Remember! Good and consistent PR is probably a marketing campaign's most cost efficient element, but putting together an effective program is a time consuming chore. These tips will help speed the process along.
Research what "beats" (areas of interests) the reporter or writer covers. Why waste time sending someone on the game industry information on your time and attendance product? Unless you have a lot of time to research this stuff, leave it to a good PR firm to create a PR contact database for you. Check out the PR section on the site for services and software that can help speed this process along.
DO NOT send anything to a reviewer other than FULL working versions of your product. No timebombs, crippleware, demo disks. Full product only!
Keep those press releases to NO MORE than one and half pages! No if, ands, or buts. If the CEO of your company insists on writing longer releases, get a new CEO.
Do not harass press members by calling them to find out if they received a press release after you E-mailed it. They received it. Now go away.
NEVER send unsolicited E-mail attachments. Never. Ask permission before attaching anything to your E-mail. European software publishers, particularly those from Eastern Europe, India, Spain and Italy seem to be the most egregious violators of this rule.
If you MUST call a reporter, never call on deadline day. If by some chance they do pick up, they will hate you after they put the phone down. Most deadline days are either Monday or Thursday. If you're not sure, find out.
If you send your release electronically, make sure you don't include the entire press list in the header. This makes you look like an amateur and can rankle some very touchy egos. Different magazines and organizations are very competitive with one another, and many members of the press like to maintain the fantasy you always contact them first. Do nothing to disturb this cherished belief!
DO NOT send OTHER reviews of a product to a reviewer! This will not make them want to review your product. It WILL make them angry (see above) and also give them less incentive to review a product that is clearly yesterday's news.
Always present your information as new. And if isn't, make it new. The most important commodity to the media is fresh (and exclusive) information. Just because another magazine reported on a development about your company six weeks ago and the one you've just contacted did not does change the reality that anything that happened six weeks ago is old news. How do you make it new? Read the point below carefully.
When sending out your press kit, always include a "pitch letter" on the outside of the kit. This letter suggests a story angle for the announcement covered in your kit. Remember, many reporters and editors are compensated on the number of new stories they "break" and they are constantly on the hunt for new ideas and angles.
This letter should be one page (and we mean it), make heavy use of bullet points, and be sharply and clearly written. Ditch the heavy propaganda. Follow up the press kit with "quick pitch" E-mail or possibly letter, which builds on your pitch proposal and provides a theme for the pitch, information and survey data for the reporter, and your contact info.
Makes sure you identify the stringers and freelancers who specialize in your market segment. Do not treat them as second class citizens. They can hurt you just as badly as an employee of a periodical if the article or review they write about your company or product is unfavorable.
Don't forget user groups! These organization are always looking for material to fill their newsletters and the local volunteers who review products are much easier to work with than members of the mainstream press.
Don't send electronic press releases via AOL, Hotmail, Juno or via any of the well-known free mail services. You mean, you can't afford a paid ISP? Are you planning to go out of business? Are you asking a reporter to write a story about a product that will soon be dead?
Think about the comfort (and age) of the people who you are sending releases to. In other words, releases should be set in no less than 12pt type.
If you have a web site (and who doesn't) set up a virtual press kit page. This page should contain links to PRINT READY art, not just web art, web gifs and jpgs, previous releases, your corporate backgrounder, and other relevant information (such as technical specs), names of company executive, pictures of company executives, complete contact information, etc.
Some companies require that press members register to use virtual web sites. This is a tricky area; most press people hate this. We suggest you not require registration in most cases.
Always provide complete contact information in all your press collaterals. This means phone numbers (and it may be a very good idea to include the product and a technical manager's home phone numbers in cases of dire need and a technical contact), web site, E-mail, fax, time zone, etc. Make it easy for any reporter to contact you at the last moment (and many of these moments occur).
Most members of the PC press use E-mail to communicate with companies. Thus, your E-mail should always include a signature block with complete contact information embedded in it. Some diehards still rely on fax or even snail mail, but do not make the assumption that faxes and letters are welcome. Ask the writer/editor their preferred method of contact. If they tell you they hate faxes, they are not kidding. And if you need to call a reporter and get voice mail, learn to leave short, succinct messages.
If you're trying to get your product reviewed, don't be cheap with the software. The more review copies you have out there, the more likely you are to be reviewed, and reviews can appear from unexpected places. Also, don't be surprised if a larger publication asks for more than one copy of a product. Different divisions of a magazine may cover different aspects of the market, i.e., product reviews, first looks, solutions stories, and will need their own copy of the product. One point we'd like to make that it is currently easier to get retail-class products reviewed than in previous years.
Avoid sales hype in your press release. Many reporters stop reading after they see the words "revolutionary," "unique," "cool," etc. Now, it may be that your product truly IS unique, and in that case, it is OK to say so. But when you do, you must support your statement with hard facts. And, again, as we point out in the "Positioning" section of the Handbook, being unique is not necessarily an advantage in the market. We suggest including a white paper in the press kit or sending it to a reporter to buttress any claim of new technology.
